Anyone ever made a video for YouTube?

I'm thinking of making a video to promote the latest awards over on the other blog--anyone ever done that before? I've been kind of inspired by all the Obama videos floating around. The latest one I've seen is this one:



Over on Facebook I posted this and that insane Weather Girls-inspired one for McCain--I'm still in a state of shock about that one.

Alright, haven't posted in a while, what have we been up to? Last weekend we watched all of Season One of "Top Chef" (thank you, Mr. Tivo). I had missed the first couple of episodes and MAH had not seen it at all. I hadn't realized how early and clearly people's personalities were apparent. Watched again made me appreciate all the more that Harold won.

It's really been a slow week, I think. I was going to take a break from writing the other blog--after the big anniversary party, but then there seemed to be things to write about, so I kept going. I put together some "guidelines" to improve cataloging over the historical society, to bring them more in line with archival practice. I had a meeting today to discuss them and it went well.

We learned in the middle of the week that my ex-husband's mother had passed away (as I wrote) and so I will be going to DC on Friday for the funeral. That will be a difficult day, and not just because it's a long drive. (Which reminds me, must download some new podcasts for the drive.)

We also learned in the middle of the week that Bill Clinton would be speaking here in the Boro, on campus, today. There was a time, not long ago, when I would have been really excited about that, but I have lost a great deal of respect for him. But it is a huge deal around here, as you can imagine. He's probably still speaking as I type this, so I'm clearly not there. I did go and hear a representative of the Obama campaign, who was speaking earlier in the afternoon in a much smaller space. There were as many people crammed into the tiny space as would fit. I sat on the floor in the overflow room. He was not an outstanding speaker, but his message was still uplifting.

Tonight is a dinner and lecture associated with MAH's work. He picked the speaker up at the airport and he found out quickly that she's an Obama fan too. Just like me--never really gotten excited about any candidate before, not really politically active, but something about this campaign really felt different.

Tomorrow I'll be on the road and at the funeral, as I said. I expect to come home and have a big drink and maybe some unhealthy food because I'll probably be an emotional wreck. But then on Saturday we are expecting a visitor from the big city. ADR is coming up so that we can start to get ready for the workshop we're co-teaching in early May. He'll also be showing off his new laptop and making me want to buy one for myself.

I think that's about all the news. I'm just about finished reading the Andy Warhol diaries, but not quite. Dog still great. My weight is still creeping down, but these next few days should put a temporary stop to that. Doing the video for the other blog could be fun. Would probably take forever, but I might give it a try anyway. Good experience. What's new with you guys?

Brief update

I know I owe you a longer post, but I thought I should pass along that Peter's mother died on Friday. That's my ex-husband, for those you who don't know him. When his father died last fall, Peter suggested it would be very awkward for me to go the funeral since his mother . . . well, let's say she didn't have warmest feelings for me after the divorce. It seems like Peter is ok with me going to this service so I'll be doing that on Friday. Other stuff going on, of course, but wanted to pass that along.

In which there is some sad news, MAH expresses his fashion sense, and we consider some plans

Today was a gloomy day in the Boro, friends. But I should start by saying that on Sunday evening we watched "About A Boy," which I had never seen, and I adored it. It is now on my Amazon wish list and the soundtrack too. I've been meaning to include in a post that MAH thinks when I put on my "archivist" baseball cap to walk that dog that it's "stylish." Isn't that endearing? And misguided?

This morning was gloomy, weatherwise, and not improved for me by the news that Anthony Minghella has died. For reasons that I'll go into someday in a book, he was a kind of a hero of mine, and his death was quite unexpected. He was a lovely person, and if you haven't seen his first feature film, "Truly Madly Deeply," you should Netflix it right now. If it doesn't make you cry, you have no heart.

I was uplifted, as anyone would be, by reading the speech that Obama gave on race in Philadelphia today, but saddened by the thought that someone so brilliant and
inspirational and full of promise for this country will probably not get the nomination because that monstrous ball of ambition will find a way to stop him. It was a great speech. I know, I know, I should keep hope alive.

But, on happier subjects, we have a celebration to plan for. Well, I do. This Friday is the one-year anniversary of the other blog, and we are trying to figure out what to do to celebrate. The idea of going to a sort-of fancy restaurant has been floated, as has just getting a good bottle of champagne and a big ole pizza and staying home. We don't have a huge number of options up here in the Boro (and even fewer now that some of our favorite places have closed up). I don't know if ADR is going to be able to handle it when he comes up next weekend for his visit. I'm thinking we're just going to take him out for cheesesteaks, because there really isn't anything here that's up to his standards. But, we'll keep you posted on the plans for the celebration.

As for tonight, there are pockets in the oven:



and who could ask for anything more?

In which MAH does the right thing, we take a significant trip to Walmart, and we buy some string

As some of you may have seen from my Facebook page, the Obama campaign headquarters for our county was opening on Saturday, and of course, I wanted to stop by. The campaign gave me a call on Friday afternoon to make sure I knew about it (good for them!). Saturday morning was warmish, and while MAH was outside trying to figure out how to maximize using his spare lumber to create raised beds for our vegetable garden, I called my parents. I wanted to tell my mother that I had just seen the first Easter egg tree in our neighborhood. This means nothing to you, but when I was little and we used to come down to the Boro to see my grandmother at Easter, we always knew we were getting close when we started to see trees outside people's houses decorated with colored plastic eggs. I've never seen people do that anywhere else but around here. Anyway, I told my mother about that and about my plan to go down and help make sure the Obama people had a good turnout on their first day. Her reaction was . . . lukewarm. She has more confidence in Hillary--she isn't sure Obama can handle the intricacies of Washington politics. I let her have it. But when my father got on the phone and I told him, he exclaimed "Good for you!" He says he's already given some money to the campaign but he hasn't made any calls for them . . . yet.

We didn't have any food in the house (well, actually we did but) so we went out to lunch and MAH had a double cheeseburger with bacon. (But he did get coleslaw instead of fries.) I had something a lot less scary. I thought about taking a picture of his burger for all of you to witness, but it was just too terrifying. You can use your imaginations.

We then walked over to Obama headquarters--they didn't have enough of a street presence. Needed balloons or people out on the sidewalk or something. But there was a cameraman there filming:




(More on him later.) Things were pretty chaotic--they needed better coordination, but we picked up stickers (see image at top). Well, I picked up a sticker, MAH did not. Spread out on a table were clipboards with neighborhood assignments--maps and lists of voters. We looked for the one for our neighborhood, but it wasn't there. I told MAH that they'd be coming for him soon. You see, readers, MAH has a secret. He's not a Democrat. I know, I know, but before you get all worked up about it, he's an Independent. Because he has issues with the Democratic party. [HAH's Correction: I have issues with all political parties, of every type, and of every country. I believe in being able to vote for whomsoever one chooses because you believe he or she is the best person for the job.] So, because of the screwed up state we live in, he can't vote in the Democratic primary. I've tried to convince him that this time around there are more important things at stake and that he should register as a Democrat, but he has declined. You know how difficult he can be.

Fortified by lunch and an O'bama sticker (ahem, on one of us), we set out to buy some string. I thought this was worth mentioning, because, really, how often do you need to buy string? Never. Have you ever bought string? Isn't it always just there, like rubber bands, in your junk drawer? But, nevertheless, we had run out of string and MAH needed it to lay out the vegetable beds in the backyard. So, we went to Lowe's where we also looked at plants (why are they selling fig plants this far north? figs in Pennsylvania?) and kitchen cabinets, but managed to come out with string.

At home, I had to look up what vegetables we are going to be getting from the Community-Supported Agriculture share we just purchased. (It's a great idea--find your local CSA here.) Turns out they will be growing almost everything except asparagus and rhubarb, so we still have to figure out what to plant for ourselves. MAH figured out where the beds will be and Sadie ran around the backyard chasing her ball.

This morning was cold and dreary, and we couldn't even justify going out for breakfast because we had gone out for lunch the previous day. After a slow start we headed out for (drumroll, please) the local Walmart. We almost never go there but I had gotten an email from the foster dog people saying that since they knew I would be keeping Sadie (even though I haven't officially said so), they would be needing their crate back to give to other foster homes. So, yes, heading out to buy a crate means that we're keeping this dog. MAH doesn't understand why I'm hemming and hawing about this, but having a dog is a huge commitment. It changes your life, and I had a dog I loved with all my heart who I had to say goodbye to. Adopting a new dog is a big deal for me, but this one is so perfect I can't say no. So, we bought a crate. A really big one. Just so she doesn't jump up on the sofa to look out the front window when we're not home.

After getting back, the door bell rang, which is unusual. MAH answered it and as soon as the people started to talk, he started to laugh and point to the O'bama sticker which I had put on the front door. Yup, they were there with the clipboard, with the sheet of paper with his name on it and the forms needed to switch his voter registration. The deadline for switching is the end of this week, so they were trying to get people to fill out the forms and give them back so that they could all be dropped off together. So the three of us all worked to twist MAH's arm--he was resisting, but I took one of the forms and said I'd work on him. After the nice people left, it took about five minutes. He said if I filled out the form he'd sign it, but only if I would also fill out the the form to change his status back after the primary. So, of course, I filled it out immediately, he signed it, and Sadie and I went out to find the nice Obama people to give them the form. I thought they'd like to actually know that they'd been successful in converting one person, at least. We did find them, and they were happy. He was the only person they'd actually gotten a form back from. A few other people had taken them to think about, but you know how that goes. They had been down at the headquarters too and we talked about that. They had actually made friends with the cameraman, who is from French television and has been covering the Obama campaign since Iowa. According to them, he has been in the country for twelve years and covered a lot of elections but he says the Obama campaign is different. He's never seen this kind of energy and diversity of people coming together. He also thinks that Obama is the only hope for better relations between his country and the U.S.

So, MAH did the right thing by switching so that he can vote for Obama, and I did the right thing by making sure the volunteers knew they'd accomplished something that afternoon. I will have to go back down when the campaign is more organized and see what kind of help they need as election day gets nearer. Some of you Obama supporters in Maryland might have to come up and volunteer too. And, as an added incentive:



That's right. They're not joking. Christoper Cross. Who can forget "Ride Like the Wind"? (Or his amazing sweep of the 1981 Grammy awards?) As if you don't have enough reasons to come visit us in the Boro, now you have this one.

Eat your vegetables!

When we were at the Brave Astronaut house for taco night, we mentioned that one of our new favorite things to eat are these super yummy Spinach and Kale Turnovers, which taste similar to spanakopita. This recipe comes to you from the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of our Bible, Cooking Light magazine. Here it is:



You can't taste the kale, I promise. Having made these many times now, I recommend that you have one person do the rolling of the dough--it takes longer than you think--and another person work on making the filling and stuffing them. They go great with soup (and you can use even more kale that way).

If you're concerned with the state of the planet, the welfare of the majority of the world's people, and your own health, please read this article from the New York Times and try to adjust your meat-eating habits accordingly. Excerpt:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

[. . .]

Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States.

The environmental impact of growing so much grain for animal feed is profound. Agriculture in the United States — much of which now serves the demand for meat — contributes to nearly three-quarters of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

I love a good burger as much as the next person, but when you look at it in these terms, I'm happy to substitute a veggie burger (and eat fewer calories too).

Crazy weekend

Where to start? Well, yes, we got a call on Thursday morning from MAH's mother informing us that MAH's grandmother had passed away. She had been ill for some time and not on the best of terms with MAH's immediate family, so the emotional impact was not as great for us as the logistical one. The logistical impact being that MAH's parents would be coming up from Florida for the funeral, and so we would probably not be driving down to Florida on Saturday to stay with them as planned. When we found out the funeral was scheduled for Monday in Allentown, we knew we would not be doing spring break in Florida.

However, the wheels were already in motion for a get-together at the Brave Astronaut house on Friday night and we didn't want to miss it. Besides, they were counting on us to bring pie, and we had a dog-sitter already lined up. So we headed down to the Big City on Friday, stopping for pie on the way (blueberry and sugar-free apple) (we saw the nice Mennonite lady unloading them from her minivan when we pulled up). You can read BA's summary of the extravaganza known as Taco Night here. I should have taken a picture of the taco bar, and I did think about it, but honestly, I just wanted to dive into the fabulous spread. Needless to say, the diet was out the window for the weekend. It was wonderful to see everyone, including the new addition to the BA family and little OSG, who just gets cuter every time we see him. We must go down more often now that we have experienced the luxury accommodations at chez BA. After being fed bagels (and doughnuts from Rawlins, which was MAH's doing) and watching some crazy kid show which involved changing the story lines of classic tales in order to learn some kind of a lesson (which, as an archivist, kind of worries me--are kids being taught that it's ok to re-write history to suit their current needs?), we set out. Here is BA himself bidding us so long, farewell:


We headed downtown to meet up with Mr. P for lunch at Teaism, and had a lovely time catching up with his hectic life. He has a had a spell of bad luck lately, including having to buy a new DVD player, having misbehaving friends, and, to add insult to injury, getting a snag in his favorite sweater. I told him having lunch with us would change his luck. The fish nodded in agreement:



(By the way, I had decided I needed a new black trench coat, so when I saw Mr. P was wearing one that was just divine, I looked to see who made it. Sigh. Hugo Boss, of course. A little out of my price range these days.) (And later that day his tailor fixed his favorite sweater and he told us that one of his friends has redeemed himself, so I think I was right about his luck changing.)

We kissed Mr. P goodbye and headed off to Trader Joe's to stock up on things we can't live without and can't get easily up in the Boro. (Although Mr. P had advised us to buy our orchids at Wegman's not Trader Joe's. And who would know better than him?). As we were coming out of the store and loading up the trusty Saturn, it was looking gorgeous and sunny. But we were soon surrounded by nasty clouds, precipitation and big big winds. We drove out of it after a while, but that must have been the storm that knocked out the power to the BA house. (Good thing they had some leftover pie to eat up.)

We arrived home to find Sadie (that's her name) doing just fine thanks to our trusty dog sitter. Sunday was a bright sunny day and we welcomed MAH's parents for lunch (on their way over to Allentown). MAH insisted we get take-out cheesesteaks and fries and onion rings, so you can see he was taking advantage of this whole "off the diet for the weekend" thing. MAH's parents liked Sadie very much and told us we had to keep her. After they left we grocery shopped and made dinner (more on that in future post), picked out our outfits for the funeral, and then turned in early.

The alarm went off even earlier than usual (thank you, Daylight Savings Time) and we tried to tire Sadie out romping in the dark cold fenced-in yard. Dressed in our sombre colors, we headed out to Allentown. On the way, MAH tried to brief me on all the people on this side of the family. (For those of you who were at the wedding, this is a whole different crew. I think only a few people from MAH's mother side were there. That huge rowdy bunch you met was from his father's side.) The funeral was nice and the weather was cold but sunny, so the thankfully short part at the graveside was not too bad. Aunt Tootie and Aunt Theresa (who you did meet, from MAH's father's side) were also there, and it was nice to see them. There was a small lunch at the firehall afterwards and that didn't do the diet any good either. Really terrible, cheap food and lots of baked goods that people had brought. Not as good as the cookies at the wedding, but lots of sweets. Including homemade candy--peanut butter eggs covered in chocolate.

After four days of forbidden food, I was feeling kind of ill and ready to return to our normal routine. We got home and found Sadie, of course, just fine. A library friend had come over and played with her at lunch time. We later got an email from her saying that Sadie is adorable and that we have to keep her.

This morning the foster dog coordinator stopped by to take out Sadie's stitches and give her a couple of booster shots. After seeing how completely perfect Sadie is, she basically told me that we have to adopt her. We are never going to find another dog this good for us. She said she wouldn't put the paperwork in yet, but she considers this a done deal. And in two minutes she got Sadie to get over her fear of the stairs down to the basement, so now Sadie loves going down there to hang out on the sofa.



So, looks like she's a keeper, doesn't it? Anyway, we had a wonderful time seeing everybody over the weekend and if we didn't get to see you, we're hoping to make more regular trips down this spring. I'm trying to catch up with the mountains of stuff that has been piling up and MAH is facing a week at work that he didn't think he was going to have. As usual when we spend a lot of time in the car on long drives, MAH and I have all kinds of ideas for exciting new projects, but first we have to corral all of our existing ones. Lots of good stuff for the blog. The February doldrums are officially over.

Sadie? And news from Mr. P

She might be Sadie. We're trying that one out, thanks BA! And Sadie loves chasing her tennis ball in the back yard. We might just have to keep this one. Maybe. Too early to say.

In other news, you may remember that it was my friend Mr. P who got us to try the infamous "Fat Flush diet" and then promptly went off it himself when things got too crazy at work for him to keep up. I just got a message from his Blackberry that he's thinking of trying the "Ph Factor diet" -- "Guy who cuts my hair is doing it." Well, how can you argue with evidence like that?

I tried to find out more about this new wacky diet, but a Google search turned up nothing. I wonder if they're talking about this book which is published by the same sketchy operation that publishes the Fat Flush diet book? Anyone know anything about this, hmmm?

Season Four of "Project Runway" came to a close last night, so our television watching will decrease a bit -- oh, no, wait a minute, they're starting "Top Chef" right away and we watch that too. I was not surprised by the winner--the judges had been salivating over Princess Puffysleeves all season. I thought his collection was repetitive and derivative and too "costumey." Plus he annoyed the hell out of me all season. Having him act like a grown up for a few minutes in the finale is not enough to win me over. I think Rami should have won, but then, I've liked him from the beginning. He's a grown-up, and I think he makes clothes many women would want to wear (not just Posh Spice). But Rami will do just fine and I think PPS will probably crash and burn out; he's not mature enough to know what to do with $100,000.

Our travel plans are up in the air at the moment, so you may not get to see pics of our baby pine trees after all. I've got to get over to the historical society to find more atrocious legacy cataloging and try to figure out how to fix it. Ciao!

Chloe?

I don't know. Is she Chloe? Time is running out. I think she has to have name before we leave her with a sitter.

And, this news story might explain why some of us choose to blog:

Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face, new Australian research has found.

The research, from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, found after two months of regular blogging, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who did not blog.

The DTBNL and other weekend news

Well, that's her. That's the Dog To Be Named Later (with her ball). She arrived Saturday night from Kentucky, and so far, she's a sweet girl. A slight tendency to want to get up on sofas, but compared with the Dog From Hell, that's nothing to complain about. (I just looked at that post summarizing the issues with the DFH, and I'm not sure that I ever mentioned that he bit both of us at least once, maybe more than once.) Most of yesterday she just wanted to be petted, but I think she was just trying to make sure we knew she was really happy to be with us. We'll see if she ends up being a keeper for us, or whether we put her up for adoption and bring another Kentucky dog up here via the canine "underground railroad" to freedom. But I think we're going to have to get her a name before we leave her with a dogsitter, don't you?

In other news . . .



I don't need to spell it out for you, do I? Fine, I finally saw "Caddyshack." Yup, all of it. MAH of course had seen it many, many, many, many, many, many, many times. I can see how if you were a teen or pre-teen boy at the time, this would have been great. As for me, as an adult woman watching it for the first time--I liked the gopher. And I liked Chevy Chase, who might have been at the height of his attractiveness (for what that's worth). There were some funny moments--many involving Bill Murray. Ok, BA, bring on the lecture about how it's brilliant. At least I can now cross it off my list of movies to see. I'm going to have to go back to that whole discussion and see what else I need to put on the queue.