Monthly Archives: November 2004

Last week I was reading some cultural stuff about the Karuk tribe and I commented to Bob how interesting it is that the culture was primitive but very complex. He said, “Yeah, didn’t they take the acorn about as far as it could go?”

I fixed the stuff on Billy’s page today. I had gotten duplicate photos in there somehow and it took forever to figure out the correct dates where I screwed up. I asked him if he could possibly wear red pants or shave his head on photo days to help make a more dramatic difference. You have to spot the changing foilage out his window or his moving furniture to note the changes. Bob saw what I was doing and said he had no idea I had such “conceptual” projects going on.

Other things I did today:

I got up early and went to Fred Meyer and bought a few more bags of bark dust. I have put tons of bark dust on my major backyard plant bed in the hopes of making my life easier come spring. For some reason the grass loves to grow in the plant beds but only weeds grow in the actual lawn area. Also some sort of “fairie” (Bob’s word) weeds have taken over most of the rest of the backyard. I don’t know. If I spent another half day per week on the yard I bet I could make it look a lot better … there just seem to always be more interesting things to do.

In addition to yardwork I cleaned about 20 lbs of cat shit out of the front yard. Since the two cute cats across the street moved in the shit has multiplied dramatically. I sprinkled the area with a generous layer of pepper flakes which actually works although you have to re-apply often. Too bad cute little kitties. Shit elsewhere!

I also did a D- (D minus) job of cleaning out the shop. I broke down some boxes for recycling and re-stacked various boxes of crap so that we have lots of space for more junk. (Bring it on, Priscilla!) And I swept.

Then I watched the very last special feature on my last Angel disk (the best show ever!) which was the director’s commentary on the season 4 finale. It was completely awesome. Good thing I only have one more season to re-watch and then I can get on with my life b/c my obsession with this show is unhealthy. I think season 5 will be out in February. You can bet I’ll let you know when that happens.

This afternoon I went to the Clark College library and finished some research I’m working on and read a bunch of stuff. Now I’m roasting an “Amber Cup” squash and reheating leftover pizza for dinner. Yum.

There are only two seasons up here: hot and cold. The in-between parts are hardly worth mentioning except that they are generally less cold. Now that it’s cold again there’s a whole bunch of stuff I need to keep handy: umbrella, coat, lip stuff is critical. As soon as the air cooled my lips started chapping. I just bought a whole bunch of new lip supplies and Agatha Ruiz De La Prada is godhead. Also tissues, especially in the purse or on walks. I don’t like a runny nose with no tissues. I also always have a hat on outside. Head warmth means more to me than how my hair looks. Finally, hand salve. My hands get so dry and my skin so rough — I have some primo salve that Mom got me in Orleans and I slather that on before bed, put on some cotton gloves and voila! Soft hands in the morning. I take the gloves off in my sleep. In the morning I find them on the floor or under the pillow or kicked to the bottom of the bed. My sleeping self doesn’t like them.

I thought I once wrote a post about pairing wine with cookie dough. You know when you’re depressed and feeling sorry for yourself, you curl up in front of the TV with a bucket of cookie dough and a bottle of wine? I had suggested chocolate chip and Chardonney or snickerdoodles with a nice Merlot … or something like that. I just tried the search thing that was added to my blog and it came up with nothing. I don’t think it works.

The reason I bring this up is because there was a hilarious article by Frank Bruni, the NY Times restaurant critic, about going to Alaska and being game to try the local cuisine. It was published Nov 3, 04 and titled Chewing the Fat While Its Still Fresh. I’d give you a link but the NYT is notoriously stingy with its articles. I think you can get it free the first week if you register for their site, otherwise they’ll probably ask you for $3 (as if). If you have a library card your library might have access.

While preparing for his Alaska feast Bruni realizes “the difficulty of matching wine to whale.” He and his friend go to the local general store and ask “What goes best with sea mammal?” The cashier shrugs and suggests white wine. Then they ask about bear and he says: beer!

The highlight of the article is Bruni’s heroic sampling of blubber: “I did as told: grabbed the hide and bit into the blubber. It tasted like a wedge of solid rubber that had spent several months marinating in rancid fish oil.” His host takes away his wine and says, “You’ll be needing Jack Daniels.”

I paid $6.50 so I could see the trailer for Revenge of the Sith. It was TOTALLY WORTH IT.

While I was at the theater, I watched the movie: The Incredibles. It’s very good. I liked it way more than I expected to. It’s hilarious. Sorry I can’t write a better review at the moment but I don’t want to sit here any more.

Tonight I got home late and as I was pulling the garbage can into the garage, I vaguely heard a pitiful mewl but I didn’t pay too much attention to it until the garage door was closing and I could still hear it. I realized I should make sure that some poor kitty wasn’t hurt or something so I turned on the porchlight and opened the front door and sure enough a cute little grey kitty ran up on the porch and began frantically brushing against me and reached for my front door. It had no collar and it’s chilly and windy outside. What to do?

I knew my husband would flay me alive if he found a cat in the house so I told the kitty to go home (hopefully) and barely kept it out as I closed the door. If you’re thinking me heartless, believe me: I felt HORRIBLE. About 15 minutes later I looked out the window and it was still sitting on the porch and it saw me and started meowing again. aiee. I don’t want a pet and we have no pet supplies here and even if I brought it in the house temporarily … where is it going to do its thing and how bad will my house smell?

Half hour later I check the porch again and the cat is still there! It spots me and meows again. This is terrible. I’m now majorly anxious about my cruelty to poor little friendly cats and imagining finding its poor frozen body in the gutter tomorrow and crying over it.

Finally, Bob came home and I ran out to see if the kitty was there and what do you know? It comes over from across the street. I start telling Bob about it with moist eyes and he reminds me that our new across the street neighbors warned us about this cat and how it would have no problem trying to sneak into a perfect strangers house. I avoided looking at the cat as I went back in the house, but he is right.

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In other news, I have finally (now, at 11pm) gone though my voters pamphlet and made my best decisions, then did online research on the issues I wasn’t sure about then read the endorsements in the Seattle Times, the Columbian and I tried the Olympian but WTF — I couldn’t figure out where it was so I read the endorsements in the Seattle Weekly. I am now ready for tomorrow. Wish them all (meaning the people I want to win) luck.