odd size baggage

Cheapskate

2009-11-10T21:53:00.003-06:00

I have been advised that I was the only person who could see the photos in some of my recent posts; this is probably because AT&T finally figured out that I hadn't paid for Flickr Pro for some time and cut me off. I, in turn, was in denial of this situation.

It should be rectified by tomorrow at the latest. Apologies, gentle readers.

Yes, I gave in and paid. I feel sort of defeated. Oh well.

The State of California gets Veteran's Day off. They also (by and large) get furloughs and pay cuts. So I guess I'm happy to work tomorrow given the circumstances.

Other mood-dampeners:
I have boatloads of clean laundry to be put away and I just remembered I stripped the bed before leaving on Saturday morning, so it has to be made before I go to bed tonight.
There have been no groceries procured, either.

Probably I should have managed all this Right After Work.

On the upside, I had a lovely weekend at home hanging out with the fam. I should also mention that the better part of two bottles of wine were consumed this evening in a good cause. Huzzah! Huzzah!

This qualifies as a post Written Too Late In The Evening, I fear. Sorry readers. I'll try and be more insightful later in the week.

a different Monday

2009-11-09T19:12:00.004-06:00

This photo was taken on a Monday a couple of weeks ago; I was in Monterey for a conference. I should restate that.

A couple of weeks ago there was a conference in Monterey, a place I really like to visit. Ergo, I registered and travelled there, and even went obediently to sessions. On Monday night, I took this photo.

We were walking from our hotel along the pedestrian path toward Cannery Row ... I wish this was a better representation of what we saw. Truly, truly stunning.

A few observations:

Conferences in beautiful or interesting places. I'm for it. I believe the medical professionals are all over this idea, I feel like I am always reading about doctors gathering in Hawaii or on some beachside resort with a golf course in winter.

It might not be for everyone, but I am finding it quite convenient that my boyfriend and I share the same profession. Conferences - much more enjoyable. We don't do this a lot, but occasional shop talk, rather helpful. Advice given is always within the context. Networking sucks so much less; and if you want to get technical about it, we are ALWAYS networking. So there.

Sunsets involving the ocean are approximately 4000% more beautiful than those that don't. This is the result of a very scientific study on my part.

Nature

2009-11-08T16:59:00.003-06:00

So my boyfriend went out to a state park this weekend to commune with nature and apparently froze his ass off in a 'cold wood shack.' That's a direct quote. All this in Southern California, just a few miles from Mexico.

(Now my bulleted list from yesterday makes more sense, eh?)

In related news, I've been hanging out with my parents in Southern Indiana where it got up to nearly 70 today. They live in the country on about 100 wooded acres; their house is situated a good deal back from the road so once you're here, you hear nothing, you see nobody else, and at night it's really freaking dark so the stars shine extra bright.

We also have HVAC, insulation, many blankets, running water (ie hot showers), and electricity (for which I am extra thankful this morning). I'd just like to go on record and say that this is my preferred way to interact with nature. Don't get me wrong: I love a good hike, and I love the woods, and I'm not even opposed to the idea of a tent and a day hike in the warmer seasons. However now having had the experience of a real house in the woods ...

Evidence. Here's a couple views from our back deck.

I'll finish with an autumn scene. No, this wasn't taken from the deck; actually along the ridge, maybe a 10 minute walk. But it's the same idea.

Hello?

2009-11-07T22:04:00.002-06:00

Yeah, sorry. Phoning this one in.

Note to self (and all readers): don't wait to post until right before you go to bed, cg. At least on days where you spend a full working day's worth of hours in a car... not unpleasant, but not exactly the perfect cocktail for Fascinating Posts.

Random facts:

I like Chinese food.
You can get a lot more laundry done if you split it between two houses, but the logistics are challenging.
I really love being out in the country. I also really love plumbing and warm beds and no bugs. I think that implies an emphasis on day trips.
Fireplaces are awesome.
I need to know what this weird, freaky thing is and I'm not sure where to find out. Found on a beach in central CA. Help?

This is a post

2009-11-06T22:57:00.002-06:00

I get a couple technicalities, I figure.

As it happens my desk is so buried in articles (you guessed it, TDB) that I covered up my wallet with them and didn't notice until I was an hour into the suburbs, ordering a beer. Cue sad trombone.

The good news is the wallet has been recovered from the office. I guess anyone who is so tired and not aware as to leave their wallet on their desk and not notice until two hours and 50 miles later probably didn't need a beer anyway.

That's all I got for today folks.

Books and such

2009-11-05T20:35:00.004-06:00

This afternoon we had a brown bag lunch to talk about our favorite books. I know, I know, librarians talking about reading. Whatever.

Anyway, a group of people got together and collected a list of people's favorite books, then did an exhibit on it in the first floor lobby, together with quotes and such from people about 'why your favorite' and 'importance of reading in your life' and such. I must say, one of our better exhibits, and very interesting.

By now you're wondering, what book did I list? It was hard, I'll admit. Picking "My Favorite Book" ... it's like what I imagine it's like to say, 'Choose your favorite child.' How is that possible? You love them all for different reasons, because they're, well, them. Here was my rationale. List my most loved books, then eliminate. They were:

Pride & Prejudice (too obvious. most listed favorite at last yr's holiday party)
Jane Eyre (more Victorian literature. too obvious)
Gaudy Night (literary mystery, a little unexpected)
Ex Libris (delightful essays, but too bookish?)
Lord of the Rings (nerd alert)

OK, so there are more than that, but I eliminated them even from the preliminary list for various reasons (Narnia - a whole series? um, no).

I went with Gaudy Night. There. Now you know.

It was really interesting listening to my colleagues talk about their favorite books, and why they like them; and even more so, how books are part of their inner life.

So it was nice. Yeah, that's all I got today.

Lazy lazy lazy

2009-11-04T15:57:00.005-06:00

I have come to the conclusion that I am inherently lazy when it comes to physical activity. In July of 2008 I started working with a personal trainer, the idea being, I'll feel better (desk job, too much sitting, blergh) and also if I pay for something, it means I am assigning it value, a priority, if that makes sense. Somewhere around last November I got Wii Fit and somewhere around January I decided to get serious about the whole business - not via the Fit, actually; I mostly just use that as a reliable scale. So far, so good. Positive forward movement. Feeling better, more physically fit, increased energy, all new pants, blah blah blah. I even started running (well jogging, but - SERIOUSLY). This is a shocking development.

Having more or less made it to the place I want to stay, I find my motivation has disappeared. Pfft. Why is this? I enjoy going once I get there. I feel better. In related news, my excellent vitamin taking habits from over the summer - also bit the dust. I started feeling like I had to do it, sort of like the laundry. And I have nothing more loathsome to avoid on a regular basis (school was really handy for making the gym seem awesome.)

Rather than delve any deeper psychologically, I'm going to blame it all on TDB, which is sapping my will to live right now; and also on an extremely irregular schedule lately. I'm finding it hard to get into a rhythm, distracted by all these pesky trips to lovely California to see my awesome boyfriend. I know, man. What am I thinking?! Although if I want to keep drinking fancy beers in these same new pants I better find some solution, I think.

So I'm going to the gym now and think about why I don't go.

Short attention spa...

2009-11-03T18:05:00.003-06:00

I'm sure we've all read some news item (probably brief! ha!) about how twitter and multitasking and email and social networking is eroding our attention spans, as well as quite possibly our ability to think. I'd say something about that but I forget what I was talking about.

Where was I ... OH! Right. Short attention spans.

Today at work I finally attacked That Damn Book, hereafter, TDB (or possibly, That Damn Chapter - TDC of course). Not quite 800 words in and I'm spent. I've still got probably half to two-thirds of TDC to finish before I start TODC (that's right, The Other Damn Chapter) later this week. So I'm conserving my brainpower here today.

I think I'll go home and clean something; I was gonna say something kinda fancy about how I can do that mostly without involving the parts of the brain that take care of higher functions, but I can't seem to make enough sense out of the relevant wikipedia articles to casually drop the right noun (cerebral cortex? hippocampus? basal ganglia?), probably because each one is nearly 140 characters just on its own.

Tune in tomorrow for another riveting episode ...

French Onion Soup: Death Match

2009-11-02T18:26:00.004-06:00

Day Two and I'm already on to food. This shouldn't be surprising, I suppose, being that I come from a long line of people on my mother's side for whom an important topic of conversation at any meal typically includes the plans for the next meal, or even a reminiscence of a particularly cherished repast-past. (Wait, what?)

Right. So back to the soup. Earlier this year, several circumstances collided in a kind of perfect storm for French onion soupmaking:

a particularly wearing Tuesday at work
the accidental purchase of a second, and entirely superfluous, 3lb bag of onions
I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty certain simply Being Done with School had a lot to do with it as well. All that time in the evenings, whoopee! &c

This led to a rummage on my cookbook shelf and a happy meeting with Ina Garten's recipe, which can be found in her first cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. [Side note - I love Ina Garten. She is delightful, and so is her food. If I had cable I'd totally watch her show on the Food Network.]

Do you love French Onion soup? Do you find it wonderfully soothing and comforting, and after you've had some, you just feel like it takes the edge right off? If you answered yes, you should not be surprised to hear, as I was, that it contains booze. YES. BOOZE. Mais, bien sûr!, je me pense, il faut que such delicious soup is simply swimming in alcohol - three kinds, according to Ina's recipe plus beef and veal stock (Je suis desolée, but budgets and simplicity were the saving grace for all those little veals, at least for this household; I went for beef stock only). Far be it from me to quibble with the French when they say alcohol is called for. After all, they can charge so much for their wines! AND they are responsible for Veuve. Thus off I went to procure brandy, sherry, and white wine.

And there was much chopping of onions, and many tears (I amused myself, as I always do, by imagining the many sad sad stories that would end in my chopping onions with slow, decorous tears running down my face); and there was much carmelizing and after that a lot of deglazing, and there was drinking, because after all I opened up the white wine and I didn't need all of it.

Delicious. And it freezes like a treat.

You've been wondering, I'm sure, about the Death Match so coyly alluded to in the title. It was not a reference to the onions which bravely gave their lives so I could get a little loaded and make some soup, although I do honor their sacrifice and I assure you it was not in vain.

No, it seems that Trader Joe, with whom I have enjoyed a largely monogamous grocery relationship for the last five-odd years (I never cheated because I WANTED to, just for the record; and it meant nothing to me. I never enjoyed it.), has French Onion Soup in the frozen aisle. So I gave it a run last night.

First of all, they should call it Quebeçois Onion Soup, because it's made in the Great Blanc Nord. It did not appear to want to secede and went quietly to its fate in the oven, however. Facts:

Vegetable stock. This will be happy news for some. I refrain from comment.
No word on booze. Again, happy news for some. Mum here.
Comes with croutons and cheese all ready to go. A definite plus.
Pop into oven for 40 min and voila. So, another +1 for ease of prep.

My verdict on their soup: pretty tasty. I hadn't actually perused the ingredient list at the time and I was a little surprised about the veg stock, so that's got to be good for taste, right?

However this is a death match, in which ... TWO SOUPS ENTER, ONE SOUP - right. Well. Under those circumstances, of course I'm going with Ina. It's meat, it's booze, it's homemade, and it's not those upstart French-Canadians (kidding!). But I will observe a moment of silence for the TJ's variety; it was good, and also I don't want him getting all huffy and screening my calls.

Now I'm going to eat my soup.

NaBloPoMo, or, once more into the fray

2009-11-01T21:22:00.003-06:00

So. November, we meet again.

I didn't actually realize I'd abandoned this blog for so long - May 2008! Wowza. Things are a bit different now. I'm not going to be tiresome and try and rehash it all, so let me say this:

I've been thinking about blogging again lately, but haven't been sure what to say or where to begin. Perhaps posting every day for a month might be a good start, I thought to myself. And so, here I am.

That's a lame beginning, but it's still a post. And I have to come up with 29 more, so ... that's all for now.

Happy November. Let me leave you with Smashing Magazine's Desktop Wallpapers for November 2009.

the ugly duckling

2008-05-20T07:23:00.002-05:00

the ugly duckling
Originally uploaded by crgreene

I really should have posted the shot I took with a duck in it, to give size perspective on the swan here. He's huge compared to the other birds.

I love the story of the Ugly Duckling - who hasn't identified with it? It's such a good lesson to remember that if you don't fit in, you might be measuring yourself with the wrong stick. Forget about all those other ducks - what are you supposed to be?

Though I hated the episode it came from, this phrase stayed with me:

'He walks among us, but he is not one of us.'

Maybe the swan felt that way too. Being a leader, taking a stand, setting off for parts unknown: sometimes exciting, but mostly lonely. Being (or thinking) different is often much riskier & more difficult, but it can be more rewarding (see, Apple advertising campaign 1997). I'm hoping this swan photo helps me keep this all in mind.

street art, new york

2008-05-19T08:27:00.002-05:00

street art, new york
Originally uploaded by crgreene

Monday morning needed some inspiration / aspiration.

the moment of flight

2008-05-18T14:49:00.001-05:00

the moment of flight
Originally uploaded by crgreene

yes, i know, it's been a while. i didn't have internet at home for 37 days.

my sister came to visit this weekend and we took a lot of photos ... including this one from the Lincoln Park Zoo.

more regular postings anon.

Kittens & schnitzel

2008-04-04T22:42:00.006-05:00

Not together, certainly.

Favorite things, in case you haven't guessed, is what I'm getting at here. Since I appear to be doing just crap at posting without some kind of reason, and because posting every day for some set reason kind of wears me out, and because after not posting in a while and having nothing pressing to say makes it hard to ever post, this seemed reasonable enough.

Right now, I can't get enough arugula, fresh basil and pine nuts. Sometimes together, as in the farfalle with a little olive oil, salt & pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, portabella mushrooms, onions, olives, roughly chopped basil, pine nuts, just a dash of cream, and the arugula tossed in at the last minute, throw on a lid, let it steam a little, serve with some more fresh basil and feta cheese. Delicious. Or, the best lunch I had this week, arugula with warm bacon vinaigrette, toss on a little feta and some pine nuts. Apparently I'm in a bit of a rut, but it's a tasty one.

Sort of along the lines of spring cleaning, I've been getting rid of things - cleaning out closets, recycling massive amounts of paper from my desk, sorting out the chaff in my music library. I thought I'd pick out a couple long-time fave albums or artists and mention them here. Right now my choices are largely driven by alphabetical order.

Fiona Apple. Yes, she's a kook. I saw her live in college, opening for Counting Crows (yes, it was a great show, and thanks to good old Union Board I had sweet seats too); wearing angel wings, doing the Lloyd Dobler nervous patter thing although it wasn't quite as charming as he (John Cusack isn't anymore, either, but that's another matter - his recent spate of roles is pretty grim)... but what a voice. And the lyrics. I am a lyrics person... dude, I was an English major! I am quite possibly verbally oriented to a fault. Girl can write some good ones, and then deliver them with the torchiest voice and the piano ... it's the Diane Court effect, if I may be permitted to refer to Say Anything twice in one paragraph. I prefer Tidal and When the Pawn ... -- Extraordinary Machine didn't really do it for me. Too much whimsy, perhaps? Two favorite tracks, just to not list the entire albums:

Pale September. 'I wore the time like a dress that year' [nice image] '... All my armor falling down in a pile at my feet, and my winter giving way to warm as I'm singing him to sleep' I blush to admit, but in high school I wrote a poem which also employed a waterlily metaphor (which features prominently in the song, in case you haven't listened to it). Maybe that's why I like this song?
So as not to choose any of the more bitter, angry songs (tho there are some gems) off When the Pawn, how about Paper Bag, or actually The Way Things Are - I love the relentless forward motion of the latter.

Aimee Mann, Bachelor No 2 (or, The Last Remains of the Dodo) I have Lost in Space, and it's good, but I like Bachelor better. Last week a colleague/friend and I had a little road trip downstate (the palatial Chateau) to present at a conference and this is one of the albums we were able to rustle up in my car (don't have so much on the physical media anymore, and no iPod right now... very limiting). Just a delight, from the first to the last song. I particularly enjoy Red Vines, and Deathly.

Well, lookee there, apparently it was Jon Brion night and I didn't even know it.

Quagmire

2008-02-20T22:38:00.004-06:00

It's not just a great Scrabble word anymore ...

According to the Oxford dictionary (the version on my Mac anyway), a quagmire is:

1) a soft, boggy area of land that gives way underfoot;
2) an awkward, complex or hazardous situation.

These both sound an awful lot like committee work to me. :)

Search and ye shall find...

2008-02-13T08:09:00.003-06:00

I'm taking a page from thefiftyfootblogger and sharing with you some recent searches that led folks to my blog ...

tig coili (2, one from Galway, one from Dublin ... not surprising; if it was my bartender buddy Jason, please holla back, I'd like to know how your trip to America went)

+"enneagram number" +"theme song" (what an idea. I only mentioned enneagram once, I think, in a quiz)

bump to bump motivation (No idea. Really - maybe it made more sense in South Africa)

city wise high tide timing (from India)

cute baggages
gloriana frangipana (words from the IU fight song)
irons that turn off
james mcevoy shirtless

What an amalgam. If James McAvoy ever shows up shirtless, with an auto shut-off iron, at the Tig Coili, humming his enneagram theme-song, I hope I hear about it. I'm sorry I wasn't able to work in the bumping.

99 bottles of beer on the wall

2008-02-12T21:35:00.004-06:00

Sort of like (not) going to the gym, I have been feeling like so much time has passed since my last post here that I'm frozen and need something of Great Moment to report. The gym parallel to this, to expand- it's been a while, and I feel I need a plan or resolution, or a Fresh New Start, when really what I need to do is take my ass over there and just put it on the treadmill, even once. One time would be a great start. Does this happen to anyone else, the feeling that you need to have some commitment, some great commitment, to start or re-start something, that if you can't do X [some amount currently impossible] then why even start... Voltaire said, The perfect is the enemy of the good. I'm not sure what he was referring to, specifically, when that was written/uttered (confession: never read a word of Voltaire. Well, except for that quote), but I have to agree, at least in my personal experience.

I have in more than one situation spent so much time building up what I should do that in the end, I did nothing, because I knew that - at that moment - I couldn't reach the lofty, forbidding height of my imagination. That can't be the right thing. Marathoners don't go from zero to 26 miles in a day - somewhere, sometime, they had to start with a mile. Now, most of the marathoners I know left their single mile days in the distant, dusty past... but still. The principle remains.

Blogging, at least for me, is not a ivory tower of the soul to summit; I'd like to be effortlessly pithy, or frankly, to even be pithy with some effort on this channel, but right now my effort is mostly reserved for other intellectual tasks, like my job, and my degree, and my in-person encounters. In lieu of pith, I'd settle for witty. Witty and pithy - that, my friend, is my holy grail of the brain. In my most flattering daydreams, I am witty, pithy, have a great singing voice, and am impossibly fresh-looking.

But, asides aside, I guess it's been sort of a busy month. School, work, etc ... a week's blessed escape to the Dominican Republic (maybe I'll post on that eventually)... and a crap load of snow, for Chicago anyway. I read that as of last week we are 171% over our usual snowfall for the year, at something near 40 inches. Poor Madison Wisconsin is well over 200% up from last year, at a staggering 70-some-odd inches. I'm tired of shoveling; I think accumulation on that scale would merit a snow blower for sure.

Today I went out to Geneva, to the DuPage Library System, and did a workshop. Google Maps says it's just on 45 miles each way; we've had lots of "weather" predicted, so I took the train, and I'm glad I did. The train was late, both ways, but still better than sitting on a highway somewhere. The only downside to walking to work is that it really cuts in on your reading time - when I get home I usually feel like there is something else that I ought to be doing.

Finally saw Juno on Sunday - sadly, I think it's another victim of the over-hype for me. I'm not saying I didn't like it (I did), or find it funny (it was), but I did feel just a bit let down. Had the same reaction to Sideways (only more-so; I liked Juno better than that) -- that, 'Really? This is it?' feeling.

Oh, and if you were wondering about the title, this is my 99th post.

P.S.

2008-01-06T21:04:00.000-06:00

Two new things for 2007, which I am still feeling pretty jazzed about in 2008, are:

Scrabulous, via Facebook. I'm convinced this is improving the functioning of my brain (or maybe resulting in neutrality as it combats the brain-rot Facebook wreaks, though I love it still), and if not, at least it makes the three-minute downtime break at work feel more intellectual. Are you on Facebook? Are we friends? If the answers to a) and b) are yes, then are we playing Scrabulous together yet? We should be. I've bingoed three times (yes I know, not much to some perhaps, but doesn't ORATORIO just feel like a word that deserves 74 points?).
Twitter. Yes, I was a bit of a hate-ah at first. But I'm digging it now, and I find it less creepy and more interesting to follow and be followed by folks I actually know. So get on the bandwagon, kids.

2007: My Year in Review

2008-01-06T20:10:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, folks. I went on a sort of internet detox the last couple of weeks of December ... if you can believe it, I just wasn't in the mood for checking email, blogging, etc. It occurred to me after a few days of such that perhaps it was a good idea to ride with it while the opportunity lasted -- my employer shuts up shop for a week or two around Christmas, and so there was no work, or work email to drag me back in.

Anyway, I've been rolling this post around in my mind for the last few days (not that you should expect a higher quality for a' that) ... it seems like this is as good a place as any to take stock of xocg's 2007, even if it is a bit self-indulgent.

It turned into a busy year for travel, starting with Seattle, and Vancouver BC (January); Bahamas (February); Baltimore (March); Washington DC (June); St Louis (Sept); Denver (Oct); and finishing off with a bang, a week in Ireland (Nov/Dec); leaving out of course the many trips back and forth to the hometown. Highlights that jump to mind are the appetizer course & the ice cream sandwiches (plus that lovely Bonny Doon Framboise) at Purple Cafe in Seattle; mugging on the beach in Vancouver with the boys; the very high quality and quantity of collegial beer drinking with colleagues in Baltimore; four-part harmonies in the car drivin back from St Louis; that crazy Mexican place in Denver; and a long afternoon listing to traditional Irish music in the snug Tig Coili, Galway. There's lots of photographic evidence at flickr, both of trips within these borders, abroad, or just rambles at home.

I don't like to talk about work specifics on this blog, so I won't. It's been a good year there; towards the end of the year, I felt a real sense of re-confirmation and contentment to be where I am, and I am not unaware of what a great blessing that is.

I finished a third of my degree in 2007 (so why do I still have so much to go, since I've already been going for what feels like aeons...); that's something. According to US News & World Report, usability is a good place to be headed in 2008. Certainly I wouldn't quarrel with that median pay for Chicago -- $100K is a good chunk of change. I'd even average that with my current pay and feel grateful. Still, it engages me, it challenges me, and it jives with my current career direction. And, one day, the days of homework will be behind me.

Domestically, another year passed at the same address -- reducing my average to four addresses in seven years, getting quite respectable -- though not without change at casa cg, what with the bedroom/closet rehab in March (precipitated by a still-mysterious, and quite-unnervingly-large leak hanging pendulously over my bed... lemonade from lemons I guess) and the new living room arrangements. I am so grateful for this apartment also; every day I walk to work and I am so relieved to be doing so, not just because it saves me commuting money and time (though that rocks, and fresh air is a much preferable substitute to stuffy subway air or the effluvia of other passengers). Yes, there are things about Lincoln Park that suck. But there are also lots of other nice things too.

I don't keep track of how many books I read, though I would like to know, but during 2007, Netflix shipped me 76 movies. I watched most of them; maybe two or three I gave up on and shipped back. I wish I had blogged slightly more, as I posted 95 times during the year; surely I could have hit 100 with a bit more effort, and made it into syndication?

And, of course, many of the delights of 2007 I owe to the care, the company, the counsel, and the companionship of my beloved family and friends. Really, that's the only thing I like about New Year's Eve, the impetus it gives us to stop and take stock of the people, things, and experiences we are grateful for; and New Year's Day gives us hope for a new start despite those things & experiences we might not find so inspiring (I'll just leave out people, eh?).

On that note, I don't really do resolutions as such, but I've whinged on a bit here already about 2008: The Year of No (actually more of a plan to streamline & prioritize for someone who chronically overcommits). One unexpected "No" for 2008 is my recently having been decaffeinated. I'm liking it so far; sleeping better, and no headaches, so I think I'll continue on and see where it goes. As for resolutions, a colleague of mine described to me her personal method of goal-setting and -tracking, and I think I'm going to try it, though probably not in this public forum.

I wish you all happiness, prosperity, peace, contentment, and joy in 2008, and less rambling self-referential posts from me.

Good-time, party-time weather?

2007-12-31T16:19:00.001-06:00

New Years Eve, Chicago Style
Originally uploaded by crgreene

No, I don't think so either. So I have opted to stay in and watch all three LOTR flicks (extended editions) as my NYE07. I am well supplied with starch, chocolate, and wine. I think I will be OK. :)

More in the new year, folks, I know I've been falling down on the blog lately, but I've been on vacation from pretty much everything but my new sofa.

Happy New Year! Be safe, have fun, drink one for auld lang syne in my stead ...

Bathtime

2007-12-17T17:17:00.000-06:00

Check this out. Pretty cool. Thanks for the tip, HJ.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2007-12-15T17:52:00.000-06:00

Well, folks, it's an historic evening here in the cg household. No, not because I'm at home on a Saturday night; no, I didn't cook anything special; and, unfortunately I didn't win buckets of money or wake up to discover that eight pounds had magically melted away (but wouldn't that be swell!).

This is the last night for the orange sofa.

I have a long history with the orange sofa: my friend Rachel bought it secondhand at a furniture store in Bloomington during graduate school (so I sat on it there too), and brought it up here to Chicago with her. When she got new furniture, she gave it to me. Dickson and his brother Mwai hauled it out of her house and up two flights of stairs into my Logan apartment, and that was pretty freaking awful; it is a for-reals Hide-A-Bed and weighs about a ton. So I've had it almost four years. Lots of my friends and family have slept on it; it's logged a lot of hours in front of my TV. I now pass it along to Lil Bit; maybe she can take it to graduate school with her and it can be the sofa that travels the US. If you're the praying sort, say a little prayer for us tomorrow at 2pm; Lil Bit's b-f and a friend of his are going to be moving it out of here and, well, here's hoping it all goes smoothly. I think I mentioned how heavy it is... yeah.

I ordered a new sofa today, Exhibit A:Yeah, it would be nice if there was a photo sort of in situ, but what can you do. It's quite comfortable. Anyway, said sofa was a special order, and will have to be delivered ... so I don't know when it will be here, but you can expect a photographic update when it's all set, especially because I will have essentially an entirely new living room at that point. We had a big swap-o-rama in the family, and I now am the possessor of a chair & ottoman from my parents' house, along with their former TV (with surround sound! rock on!). I told you, it's kind of an exciting day here.

I think I'm going to go spend some time with my old orange friend before I send it along tomorrow.

A Country Lane

2007-12-10T11:22:00.001-06:00

A Country Lane
Originally uploaded by crgreene

What with all the snow and ice we are getting in the Midwest this week, I thought I bit o' green might not be out of order. I'll try and post more later on about the weekend ...

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

2007-12-07T09:00:00.001-06:00

And [Samwise Gamgee] went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor on his lap.

He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said.

--Chapter the last (The Grey Havens), Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien

No fire, and no evening meal laid out (sadly enough), but there was yellow light, and fresh pajamas, and sushi delivery, and my own home waiting for me when I arrived last night, and glad I was to see it (though if Rosie Cotton had been there with some nice stew and a little hobbit child, I'd have been glad enough for their company as well). I was thinking of this snippet quite a lot my last day or so; in fact, Middle Earth didn't seem so far away in Ireland, and anyway it's getting to be about the time of year where I feel an urge to re-read - Lord of the Rings is a winter story to me, a good tale for long nights and warm clothes and foul weather outside; and its ending fits in well with Christmas for me.

So here I am, There and Back Again, and I'm glad I went, and I'm glad to be home. Today, I'll tell you the tale of my tyre and the puncture (an Irish car and an Irish mishap deserve their native words, I deem).

On Monday, I got up and packed the car and took off for points west and north. After about a half-hour of roundabouts and neat little housing developments in the suburbs, the road narrowed (of course!) and the country changed pretty quickly. First, more pines and a greater sense of what I can only describe as wildness. Then, mountains in the distance, fewer trees and great wide fields of rolling hills and long grass, all brown and ochre, many rivers and lakes, with blue-black waters rushing fast. And the sheep! Sheep everywhere, just rambling around and eating; scattered across the hills, climbing craggy hillsides, popping up in the bushes along the edge of the road. I missed what would have been the best sheep photo ever because I was too slow - a group of three, one of which stood with back legs all akimbo and looking over its shoulder as if it had been interrupted doing something about which it was slightly ashamed. It was so funny.

I don't know if it was the time of year, the road itself, maybe just a blessing ... but there was nearly no traffic going my way which was a huge relief, as I could drive like a holiday-maker - that is to say, slowly, and pulling over when there was a place to pull off onto, and take photos. I came along through Clifden which was a cute little down worthy of a stop in future, I'd say, though I didn't (one disadvantage of a driving trip in winter, the early dark; and I believe I've already covered how I feel about driving after dark). The roads were full of hairpin curves, and as I was pointed eastward, back along the coastline and past the Twelve Bens, rains began to roll through again. In a clear patch, I stopped briefly at Connemara National Park, to which I'd dearly love to return with others (the other disadvantage of traveling alone: some things seem a bit imprudent for a woman, alone, in a place she doesn't know; hiking back along a deserted trail seems one of them). Simply gorgeous. Shortly after I passed Kylemore Abbey, which sits picture perfect on Lough Kylemore ... and about which the guidebooks say, skip the interior, nothing to see there. Being that it was too late for their gardens as well, I did take the advice though I sheltered from a bit of a pour in the gift shop, which was having a sale, so that worked out well. They had some nice items which some of you will be seeing presently.

After that, the road goes east in earnest and along to the village of Leenane (emphasis on nane), where I had a lovely bowl of vegetable soup and brown bread in a little pub, near the fireplace. I never liked what they called Irish soda bread here in the states, it was always rather hard and unpleasant; but I believe it's striving for the brown bread I experienced while there, and that is just so good. Kind of a crunchy crust, and a nice medium between soft bread and having a bit of body ... tastes like real food, like it came from the earth, and just lovely with butter. I miss it already.

It was after that, in my possibly too-complacent state brought on by a full stomach and a warm car, that my troubles struck. Coming along the Westport road, the number of curves increased a bit, if that was even possible, and rain blew in again, but in earnest this time. I was taken a bit by surprise by a sharpish turn - there may have been someone coming the other way, I don't recall, but that would explain me getting a bit too close on the left side - and in any case, we had a bit of slippage on the back passenger side, followed by a loud and distinct thumping. Yeah. Shit. Remember, I'm still on a longish curve on an extremely narrow road which is, to me, essentially in the middle of nowhere. No village, no people, just fields and mountains and sheep and a lot of rain. And absolutely no manuals at all in the car despite the fact that the jack directed one to look for instructions. Well, my dad showed me how to change a tire when I started driving, but that was about 15 years ago, and not in a foreign country on the other side of the road all by myself. After a moment or two I pulled myself together and pulled round to a driveway - dark house, closed gate. No joy there. Ignoring the ominous thumping, and trying not to think about the effect on the sporty, low profile rims of my Fiesta (yes, that's right - does a Fiesta need to be sporty? is it even possible?! why bother then? especially in a country which is mostly two lane tracks with no shoulder to speak of?), I pulled up and along a bit of a hill to another cottage I saw, which had a car in front of it. Hope cautiously revived.

Bless them, they answered the door. Middle aged Patsy was there to check on her very elderly mother (who certainly wouldn't have been able to get up to answer my knock, nor to be of help with a punctured tyre) and had been just about to leave. Thank God I caught her. She too felt useless with a jack and tyre change, so she got out her mother's black address book and took to calling the neighbors: first Pat (not at home), then Michael. Ten minutes later, here came Michael along the road on his (bi-)cycle, in knee high wellies, a picture-perfect Irish farmer. We diagnosed the problem and he changed my tyre for me. He was a man of few words but we had a laugh over silly American girls who drive about in the country and then can't change their own tyres - I did do a bit of thinking about how independence is all relative. I thanked him profusely, and he waved me off, and went in to have a bit of tea and a visit with the old lady while I went on my way.

Happily the rental company provided the car with an actual tire as a spare, and not one of those temporary, 'donut' spares. Another 45 minutes saw me into Westport and the nicest hotel of this trip - actually, perhaps of a good many of my trips. I've never been so pleased to see a jacuzzi bath and king size bed.

Thank you Michael, and thank you Patsy, for your kindness to a stranger; I don't know your last names, or your addresses, so this thank you card is the best I can do. God bless you! I can only hope to be in the right place at the right time, with a willing heart to help someone else in future.

Words to the wise

2007-12-06T01:08:00.001-06:00

A few lessons learned on this trip to Ireland while they're fresh in my mind, as I sit here enjoying the free wireless in the Shannon Airport departures area ...

Do not on any account forget your travel clock or a watch. No room I stayed in had an actual clock - only at the Westport Plaza was there a display of the time, and that was part of the flat screen TV.
Consider GPS if you are going to do a lot of driving, or at least spend some time mapping out the routes and be sure to note town names along the way; several times I came upon an unexpected junction and just had to work out by process of elimination what to do.
Which brings me to ...
Signage. Sometimes, there's so much and yet it tells you nothing. Other times (more frequently) there's none. At all. Until the instant you are supposed to turn/merge/yield/etc and then it's the size of a postage stamp. I did quite a bit of looping around.
This probably goes without saying, but the importance of rain gear (at least during the time of year I have been here) cannot be overestimated.

I sat here and calculated how long I will be in transit today, what with one thing and another ... That was probably a bad move on my part. I put it somewhere near 15 hours, maybe more depending on how long it takes me to get home once I get in.

Time to go. Later taters.