Remiss

So much of September went unreported. I didn't even tell you about the Common Ground Fair!

There was some hooping.

Some tintype-taking.

Piecone eating.

This is a picture of a beautiful cane chair. I'm going to learn how to do this myself.

There were also herding dogs and bunnies and fancy chickens, great food, blue skies, bunches of people, honeycomb and native crafts and  elderberry tinctures. It was David M's first fair ever, and it took us so long to get there that it was a short one for him, but Mark and Isaac and I stayed on. We may have eaten our weight in potato chip fries.

And then there was a week when Isaac went off on a kayaking adventure with the Learning Shack, and Mark and I took a one-day field trip to our favorite peninsula with our favorite dog.*

Gus, King of the Blue Hill Peninsula.

I'm not even kidding when I say this is my current fantasy dream house.

We discovered this place, a trail that goes through this field and into the woods, much of it with breathtaking views over Eggemoggin Reach, the bay, and islands. And in season, you can pick blueberries here!

I love it up there. The air smells different, the rocks and water and hills are different. And when I say "different," I mean, not like around here, and here is already pretty damn gorgeous. I just like to fuel my rural/seaside dreams by imagining a little house (or a renovated former Oddfellows Hall, perhaps) way the hell up in Brooklin or Sargentville or Blue Hill. A big field for Gus to run in, a patch of sunshine to plant some vegetables in. Blueberries!




*I was going to say "favorite living dog," but that sounds weird. You must know we didn't bring the ashes of former dogs with us, and you may also know that Minnow was the dog of my heart, and that Gus really truly doesn't mind when I tell him he's my second favorite dog in the whole world.

All the Things

September, slow down! It's speeding past, full of new schoolish things and medical-related things and heaps of library books, plus my victory in getting Mark hooked on Friday Night Lights (everyone thinks he or she is immune, due to his or her disinterest in the subjects of football and Texas, until it's too late to turn back and they're staying up til midnight watching just one more episode), and not to mention our weekly dark double-feature nights of watching the very last few episodes of Breaking Bad along with the first two seasons of the excellent British series Black Mirror with Jason and David. The dark night of the TV soul is lightened by the fact that we also eat pie--so far, blueberry, apple, pecan, and tonight...pumpkin.

Isaac cracked his head open one night and had to get it stapled up. And yet, he claimed it only "hurts little bit."

Note blood stains on pillow. We spent three hours in this room.

Completely unrelated: he also got his wisdom teeth out. When this photo was taken, he was feeling groovy.

We took this picture because we thought the name "Illuminati" was funny. It was only later that it dawned on me that "maxillofacial" surgery includes Botox injections, and I became very creeped out by the whole place.

50+ hours of intractible hiccups, to be specific. Mark checked out fine in the end, as you can see by his diagnosis. And no, he's not hiccuping any more.

Completely unrelated cat torture. No, actually no cats were harmed in the taking of this photograph. Theo loves any attention Isaac gives him, and Isaac is gentle with his cat puppet. That cat is ENORMOUS, right?

So there you have it, most of our medical adventures this month. Meanwhile, in Madurai India, Zoë rode her bike into a manhole, but she escaped with only bruises. And I undertook a very dull elimination diet to try and figure out what my stomach doesn't enjoy digesting. I've given up in confusion after a week of no caffeine (not to mention no dairy, soy, wheat, or pretty much anything else), but we'll continue to work on it, my stomach and I. In the meantime, I will eat a slice of pumpkin pie tonight.

Sprinkles

I forgot to show you why I'm still finding sprinkles/jimmies all over my house, weeks later.

 
Frontier Ruckus - Careening Catalog Immemorial [Official Music Video] from Budget Fabulous Films on Vimeo.

Okay, then.

Bad blogger. Bad blogger! I actually thought for a minute that I might do that NaBloPoMo thing again this year, and then we immediately got a huge Close Buy Catalog order, lost a few days due to our scarf shipment's Sandy-related delay and a temporarily broken sewing machine, and then spent five solid days doing nothing* but stitching scarves and sewing Milo in Maine labels on them.

I like this photo of Gus and a new pal splashing in the ocean, because I think it looks like it could've been taken in Iceland or someplace exotic like that.

*Well, not literally nothing. Also, I walked Gus, took him to the beach with Mark (I am nervous about taking him by myself because he isn't totally reliable, as far as "come." Or as far as knowing his name at all when he's surrounded by dogs, people, and great smells), drank coffee, and ate food. A couple of times I drove Isaac places or picked him up from places or even chatted with him or watched Homeland together (while folding scarves).

Sweeties.

Did I mention that I drank a lot of coffee? A few nights we sewed really late (me in the dining room, Mark in the living room) and got up really early, and I am like a seven year old child as far as needing my eight (or nine) hours of sleep. Or less, plus a nap. I'm a lightweight, cranky and puffy-eyed when I don't get enough, and I often think about my friends who seem to thrive on very few hours of sleep (I am thinking of the lovely Holly right now, who always seems to stay up the latest and get up the earliest, who sails off to work at, like, six o' clock every morning with such grace I can't even fathom it). Not me, I'm a big baby.

The guy on the right borrowed our car and then brought us a whole bunch of donuts.

Anyway, I also watched seven seasons of Prime Suspect while I completed this project. I love Helen Mirren, and I love British police shows. It was great, and ultimately very sad too.

We sent off our many boxes of hundreds of scarves, yay! The floor is covered in thread, animal hair, sand, and leaves. Windows are dusty, the toilet needs to be cleaned, my hair is greasy. And next week is Thanksgiving! I plan on using this weekend to prepare myself, start shopping and planning and tidying.

the world fallen under this falling

the first snow day of the school year was actually unwelcome to isaac, who is midway through intensives week at the shack. he is having a great time making a short post-apocalyptic film with a small group, assisted by chaperons extraordinaire, mark and david m. check out mark's photos from the shoot here. also, thursdays are ski club day. so despite the lovely snow outside, my boy can't slide down a mountain in/on it. he did outfit himself in winter gear and hike a mile to a friend's house. and mark and i outfitted ourselves as well and shoveled the driveway. our neighbor across-two-streets was singing something, and i could've sworn it was crazy train. it seems a little early in the season for that, n'est-ce pas?


snow day by billy collins

do you see what i see?

happy sunday to you. last night i made a batch of chocolate-peppermint bars, to add to the almond toffee bars already in the freezer. yesterday i also attended a meeting of the very tiny book group,* listened to christmas music, hung around with isaac, and ate what may have been a pound of kale with tahini dressing for dinner (it was so good).

meanwhile, mark is in new york this weekend, where he is visiting zoë, doing some christmas shopping, and enjoying new york at the holidays, when it is so festive. for example, dozens (hundreds?) of santas walking down the sidewalk, suddenly. he thought it was a santa pub crawl, but it turns out to have been santacon. of course.

 

*the group is tiny, but the book is endless.

twenty

the latest music video from the team that brought you this and this. it is so much fun to watch and listen to, a belated birthday present to my girl (starring my girl, featuring her on voice and ukulele) from her pal.

back when wildflowers would come right up to your hand as if they were tame

apparently, while in some kind of fugue state, i requested a ridiculous number of books from the library (twelve? fifteen? something like that). now i've got a pile beside my bed as tall as a toddler and a reality show inside my head in which i have to read each and every one before they're due back at the 'brary. most challenging will be 2666, which i'm reading with my tiny book group, and which is 900 pages long, and which i've already renewed twice.

this morning i watched a bunch of little kids watching a worker who was standing in a deep hole wielding a shovel. i love how fascinating that kind of thing is to kids. i miss reading you can name 100 trucks!, even.

i love this dog, even though he barfed very quietly on a pile of my clothes the other night.

(above, his tiny serving of kefir, intended to stop the horrible gurgling sounds emanating from his stomach. it worked!) 

today is picture day at the learning shack. i think i've finally shaken off the parental guilt that comes with not buying the resulting photos. i used to order the very cheapest package every year, even though nine times out of ten the picture is just bad, one way or another (an awkward pose, a defiant refusal to "show some teeth" resulting in a weird grimace. etcetera).

i made my mom laugh recently by referring to the white satin-uniformed women in a feminine hygiene commercial during project runway as "menstrual scientists."

i moved some plants around and drew pictures so next year i (maybe) won't make the mistake of pulling up perennials and allowing weeds to flourish, fooled into thinking they're legitimate.

 























we have such nice dirt in our yard. it was pretty great to dig in it all weekend. also, i finally turned the compost!



October, by Don Thompson

I used to think the land
had something to say to us,
back when wildflowers
would come right up to your hand
as if they were tame.

Sooner or later, I thought,
the wind would begin to make sense
if I listened hard
and took notes religiously.
That was spring.

Now I’m not so sure:
the cloudless sky has a flat affect
and the fields plowed down after harvest
seem so expressionless,
keeping their own counsel.

This afternoon, nut tree leaves
blow across them
as if autumn had written us a long letter,
changed its mind,
and tore it into little scraps.

each glistening minute

reader, she came home!

we greeted the travelers in boston with bottles of moxie, and a bag of peach rings for max.

after feasting on american-style indian food in central square, we sent max and his mom on their way home to maine. zoë wanted to spend a little time with her mana and pop in cambridge, and it was a gorgeous summery day of strolling and iced tea from peet's and listening to tales from india and china and japan, and a few tears too.

when she got home, zoë reunited with her beloved miss gliss right away. not only that, but there was a papier-mâché project undertaken almost immediately. more on that later.

below, isaac's belated birthday present -- a mahjong set purchased at a chinese "dirt market," one of zoë's most successful haggling experiences. max and zoë taught us the basic rules.

what else? since she's been home, we've artwalked, met up with some old friends, eaten korean tacos, observed some congress street eccentricity (and no, i don't mean david meiklejohn), shopped for college bed-length sheets, sipped iced coffee, made paninis and pan bagna and tibetan momos, and spent some quality time on the beach.

it is wonderful to have her home. being able to reach over and touch her is kind of unbelievable after six months of seeing her only via skype, or her words on google chat, of finding her location on the map thirteen hours and so many miles away. there are so many things to fit into this whirlwind summer. she is my scrabble buddy, my walking-downtown companion, the only one who finds certain things as funny as i do. i have plans to try and slow this fleeting summer down, to enjoy every minute. meanwhile, zoë is still easing out of jetlag, sleeping fitfully and feeling overcome by a wave of exhaustion every day around four o'clock. also, she misses the adventure desperately, is deeply nostalgic for all of it, even as she eases back into sweet everyday life at home. it's a complicated time, to tell you the truth, for all of us.

every flower enjoys the air it breathes

such a lovely weekend, and i'm kicking myself for my lack of documentation. i.e. i have been bad lately about taking pictures with my picture-ma-phone* (i also made somewhat of a resolution to learn how to use mark's actual camera, but as usual i am all about planning things out in my head and not doing them in real life). anyway, on friday night we took the freshly fifteen year-old boy out for indian food at tandoor, where we met up with m. meiklejohn. we then had a bit of a poker party, complete with isaaccash, bills printed out with isaac's face where the president should be.

anthony and jason and leander also joined us, and we had a great time and ate cake, vegan devil's food with creme filling and a thick ganache to be specific.

we also skyped with zoë and max and got some glimpses of their generous host in tokyo, josh. zoë was happy to get to chat with her pals jason and david (pictured below in the rabbit costume, for zoë's amusement).

there's been rain and rain and rain, but there was some sunshine this weekend, and digging in the dirt and grilling pizza outside on the actual grill and open windows. saturday our great friend heather was in town, staying at eva's house, and we attended a fun party there, with (again) grilled foods and little kids running around and party tricks (specifically, the chair trick, which mystified everyone and was performed a dozen times as we tried to uncover its mystery, unsuccessfully). and once again, i took no photos (except for a couple of strange unflattering ones of party guests standing with their heads against the wall, their bodies bent into a ninety degree angle, and holding a small chair...never mind, it's a long story). mark and isaac played tennis with leander and megan, bowled with anthony and karen, and then played tennis again (i pulled something in my neck, so i stayed home working on my pile of library books and enjoying the breezes through the open windows. oh, and i gave minnow a haircut).

so many words, to make up for the lack of (my own) photographs! i filled up the ice cube trays. a sure sign that warm weather's on its way.

zoë and max's adventures continue, only in japanese!

*two-thirds of these photos were stolen from mark

portlandtown adventures

i love sun market. zoë got a beautiful little package of delicious mochi there.

and the next time i fry up some papadum, this is the papadum i'm going to buy. because it has an evil pink rabbit on it.

i was victorious at scrabble club. i feel i can brag about it because i almost never win!

the inexorable sadness of pencils

there are many pairs of scissors in my life. i have been spending some quality time with them lately.

the dancer and i meditated with the buddhists last night and then visited zoë at work. i was so impressed: she looks just like a real barista! and she made me something very delicious (off the menu) to drink.

i've been "playing tennis" a little bit lately, with zoë and david m. and my leaping boy.

he could've been a ballet dancer if he wanted to.

my heart is an idiot

if the director
were not a friend of mine, i'd
still love this movie.