I thought LibraryThing was a fantastic idea for about 3 minutes.

LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth.

Now it just sounds like another way to waste time on the computer.

Can you think of a reason I would ever need to access my “book catalog” from my mobile phone? (Assuming I could even figure out how to do that.)

Do I need suggestions what to read next? I just got another stack of books from Mom and a stack from Kathy. My “to read” shelf is one ethnically exotic and/or thematically heavy book club tome away from collapsing into splinters of simulated wood product as it is.

When am I going to input the collection I have now? I can barely keep up my list of 06 books read.

This is a fantastic idea that’s not for me.

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The Reader’s Digest Version
Mom and Dad arrived on Thursday and we had an excellent meal at Priscilla’s. On Friday I did my first class at Clark College while Mom and Dad went into Portland on their own. We all met up again in the afternoon for beer and food at Salmoncreek Brewery. I ate the Oktoberfest special and woke up in the night with mild unhappiness in my digestive region. It was still good. After dinner we went for a walk around the Fort (oof, not a spectacular webpage) and it was magic hour on a perfectly beautiful night.

Saturday we were off to the Market where we ate everything that wasn’t nailed down including: pelmini, German potato pancake with carmelized onion, sour cream and applesauce, German sausages, little tiny donuts in cinnamon and powdered sugar flavors, eggrolls, crab omelette. I think that’s it.

We decided to do the riverwalk and by the time we got to McMenamin’s it was hot and we were thirsty so we had to stop and sit by the river and have a tasty beer. A shout out to the nice lady on the cellphone sitting next to us who thoughtfully spoke loud enough for us to participate. Sorry Uncle Joe died, diabetes complications, too bad. Good luck on that real estate deal and we’ll keep our fingers crossed on the biopsy results.

After the market we went to Kathy and Steve’s to see the baby and have a visit and then back home for dinner with Priscilla.

They left yesterday morning and I had another computer headache which I will not go into right now but I decided the best thing for me would be to work outside and get some sun. And Mom had brought me bushels of fresh vegetables from Orleans so I spent the rest of the afternoon processing: roasted greenbeans and chiles.

That’s the update for now.

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I’m Back!
My home computer came back from the shop last night and we fired it up and it works like a dream. I have so many things to fill you in on.

Crafts. Orleans trip photos. I did something I haven’t done in 20 years and read an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. (It was free.) Wow – inane is too kind a word. You’ll get the review here. Also, commentary on Sunset magazine – has it gone downhill? More discussion on things from the food section of the paper. My troubles finding yoga clothes. My mind at work: gathering vs. throwing away – what does it mean? I finished the Sabriel trilogy by Garth Nix. Short review: AWESOME! PLUS: I start my (Adobe) Illustrator class this week. Lots of new content, coming soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a big day today and Mom and Dad arrive tomorrow so not sure when I’m going to get to all this.

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Home Computer: Still Out
Bob has scolded me for saying I don’t have a computer. The laptop has moved into my room which is fine except it doesn’t have my bookmarks, my address book, my programs or my files (recipes, help!). It also has a murkier screen and I have to do my email through my webhost’s web-based program, which sucks titty. Also I find myself much less accurate with the keyboard and constantly going back to fix errors.

On the bright side: it is amazing how much time you have when you aren’t farting around on the computer. I read a 500 page book this week, skimmed the daily papers, did tons of yoga practice. Today I was the queen of all things domestic and made a peach pie, potato salad and tomato soup. Tomorrow is apple sauce and pumpkin cake.

And I’ve been doing crafts which I will photograph and show you as soon as I can.

Bob needs the laptop back so tomorrow I will have nothing. I want my computer back but this is making lemonade from lemons if I’ve ever seen it.

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Application Unexpectedly Quit
Yesterday was going to be a computer day where I practiced with my new software but my “application unexpectedly quit” problem escalated as problems of that sort always do. I tried some online forums to see if others had this problem and found that yes, others have. But no one seemed to have a solution. One person talked about memory being unseated which didn’t sound promising.

I won’t go through the whole bloody story but, among other things, I tried to use the repair disk that comes with Applecare then spent the next 2 hours desperately force-restarting my machine: just to get the stupid disk back out.

By the time I got my desktop back and could actually use my computer again, unexpected quits and all, I was short-fused and a danger to myself and others.

Meanwhile, I had a kitchen with rapidly ripening produce and other cooking things that could not be ignored. I put the last two squishy peaches in the blender with yogurt and made a smoothie for work. I had bought a bucket of plums to make a fresh fruit galette and when I re-read the recipe I thought: I am in no condition to mess with the food processor or pastry dough right now. But then I had all these ripe plums and I had to do something so I pitted and quartered them and sprinkled a bit of lemon juice and sugar on and put them in the fridge. Ignored the pears. Put away the potatoes. Roasted the beets for a quick salad.

The fresh stuff is fun. I know I’m going to be crying about missing it in a few weeks here. But it is a lot of work. I’m kinda over it by now.

On Saturday afternoon Bob and I went downtown to the Salmon Nation Block Party. It was a semi-spontaneous outing that we almost blew off and we were so glad we went. I have some photos but they are trapped in unexpectedly quit land. Perhaps I can add them in later.

The Block Party is an eclectic street fair/farmer's market extravaganza presented by, and in honor of, Salmon Nation citizens. It brings us together to inspire and educate, bridge urban-rural divides, and celebrate the people, lands and waters of the Northwest temperate rainforest.

Meaning, typical Portland event. Lots of people with kids and/or dogs. Lots of hippie types. Costumes. Excellent food. Tasty beer. Live music. At the end they had the Everyone Orchestra or something like that which means a bunch of musicians that Bob knew about. When they announced who they were Bob started doing back-flips. We went to the front and did a few rounds of the hippie jig. I told Bob I came perilously close to an entire summer without dancing with hippies.

Another thing I did this weekend was watch most of About Last Night a 1986 movie with Rob Lowe and Demi Moore that I’m sure I loved in 1986. I don’t think I’ve seen it again since. David Mamet wrote the play that the movie was based on and he must have slunk into a dark corner with the check in his hand when he saw the finished product. Some of the cheesiest montages ever with awful, awful music. I’m about 75 minutes into the movie and there have been three montages already. A fair amount of nudity. Excellent opportunity to see Demi’s real boobs.

The story holds up. Young people hooking up and everything happening so fast and the friends on the sidelines with their mild sabatoge.

One of the best things about the movie is the sweaters. Remember huge bulky sweaters that hung down to mid-thigh? This style was a boon for me at the height of my “full figured” epoch. I can see my sweaters right now. I got them at Xpress. One was bright blue and one was bright pink.

Another treat is Elizabeth Perkins who we now know and love as Celia on Weeds, playing frumpy best friend Joan. I love the women character names: Debbie and Joan. Nowadays the girls would have to be named Stevie and Tommy because in movies the girl always has to have a boy’s name. (Start paying attention to girl names: Alex, Joey or Jo, Sam, Freddie, Mel, Max, Jo, Dani etc.) Can’t wait to see how it ends.

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Pirates!
I finished my project.
Pirate Pillowcase Pirate Pillowcase Pirate Pillowcase
Pirate Pillowcase
I think I like sewing. I made mistakes but found the problem solving fun. I’m going to try an apron next.

For the third time in 2 days I’ve had an application randomly quit while I’m in the middle of doing something. I don’t like the sound of that.

I’m not going to recreate my post since it wasn’t too exciting to begin with. Lots of stuff going on.

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Be More Funny
Bob told me he had a new entry on his blog he wanted me to check out. I dutifully clicked on it and saw the title.

“I don’t want to read about Lee Morgan and Woody Shaw,” I said. “Why don’t you write about something funny. Like when you spill something.”

I don’t even know who Lee Morgan and Woody Shaw are. I suppose I could read the entry or even ask, but you have to be careful about showing too much interest in my house. Next thing you know you’re sitting down to dinner and there’s some epic musicography queued up on the tube and stack of cds on the counter and maybe even some vinyl propped up on the stereo and giant book with a few pages marked sitting on the nightstand.

In other news, from checking my logs I can see that people searching for wampa (see also: wampa: ice creature) are ending up here. My dream come true.

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Today’s Lunch of Too Much
Today I brought a thermos with freshly made tomato soup, a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, a little container with sliced cucumbers and a dollop of roasted onion and gruyere dip, a little container with leftover green bean salad with toasted walnuts and feta, a little container with a diced fresh pear, a baggie with celery, carrot, turnip and red pepper sticks and a half box of animal crackers that I never ate last week.

Also in my office I have a stash of pita chips, wheat thins (big) and two breakfast cookies. Also a bottle of wine.

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Beaten By Shelves
I don’t want to talk about installing the shelves.

Let’s just say if I ever meet the person who invented HangTrak ™ shelving I will skin him alive, draw and quarter him, light him on fire, pee on his ashes and then rinse them down the garbage disposal with sour milk and slimy greens.

On the con side I hated everything about installing them.

On the pro side I have tons of experience with the drill and have completely gotten over my fear of putting multiple holes in anything including my beautiful smooth and painted wall that I busted ass on in May.

At least they haven’t fallen down yet.

I had to take a break in the middle of the fiasco to make tomato soup so I could at least feel competent at something.

I didn’t even have time for the pirate pillowcase.

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Dahlias Dahlias Dahlias Dahlias
Something New Every Day
I’m still getting new dahlias. Might even be one or two new varieties before summer is over.

I can’t wait to update you on all my projects this weekend. If doing projects means learning from your mistakes: I’ll be a gold medal winner soon.

The pirate pillowcase is a winner. The first instruction is: “remove selvage from each fabric.” WTF is selvage? Right there I had a 20 minute research project. Then I folded my insert strip and layered it with the right side of the pirates and wrong side of the cuff and carefully sewed my first seam with my the sewing machine. Success!

Except I had the folded insert seam upside down. Bob came in from downstairs and I announced, “Honey, I’m ripping out my first seam.” I very carefully pressed everything out and repinned. And did the exact same thing again! A natural.

Bob came in from an errand and I said, “Honey, I’m ripping out my second seam.”

We went to see Little Miss Sunshine (fantastic! hilarious!) that afternoon so I had to put my pillowcase aside. Who would have thought a pillowcase is a several day project?

This morning I picked up the stuff for my closet shelves. I bought a stud finder. And all kinds of brackets and anchors and supports.

Pirates and shelves. We’ll see how I do.

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