dual personalities

My mother’s post got me all excited for Planes, Trains, and Automobiles tomorrow night. I’m also excited for all the starches and carbs including, but not limited to, cheesy potatoes. And wine. We’ll be socially distanced, of course, and socially isolated.

Anyway, over here in my neck of the woods, I did NOT travel to St. Louis this weekend and instead spent approximately 48 hours in my craft room working on finishing some Christmas projects. I can’t show most of them because they are gifts, but this one is for me:

Also, can you tell it is online shopping season? Would you believe that despite ordering two of the same thing at the same time, they came in separate boxes on different days? And, they took over a week to arrive so I must have mistakenly selected the option that took longer to reduce boxes. [insert the shrug emoji]

In other news, I’ve entered the Hallmark sweepstakes (from last week’s blog post) three times. Speaking of Hallmark, I managed to catch A Nashville Christmas Carol starring several notable country singers including Sara Evans, Kix Brooks, and Wynonna, playing the role of Jacob Marley without the whole being tortured in hell aspect..

This was a, shall we say, loose interpretation of A Christmas Carol. They didn’t even have a ghost of Christmas Yet to Come! I would love to know who at Hallmark was like ‘I’m just spit-balling here, but you know who would be GREAT as the dead producer who took her job producing the Nashville Christmas Live special so seriously that she forgot to enjoy her life and fall in love? Wynonna!” [I guess insert another shrug emoji]

Anyway, imagine my surprise today while walking home in the pouring rain when I spotted GRASS at the Capitol!

The Capitol has been under construction basically since I started working in Jefferson City. All of that grass was, until today, a dust pit, that sent dirt into my office (very old windows that clearly don’t seal) on especially windy days. It looks like they will be done in time for the inauguration we can’t have. For once, a construction project finishes on time and the event gets cancelled!

Well, that’s enough from me. Hope you all have wonderful Thanksgiving, however they look. There’s plenty to be thankful for, even if things are weird. xo.

I had a fairly eventful week, which is to say that one or two things happened to break the mind-numbing monotony. For starters, the furnace died and we spent two cold days huddled around space heaters while we waited for the new one to be installed.

We didn’t quite achieve Ron Swanson’s level of cold, but we were chilly. The hardest part was trying to look occupied while big men traipsed through the house and made ferocious noises in the basement. It all worked out in the end, and we are now both toasty warm and ready for winter. There’s nothing like losing something and then getting it back to make one feel grateful — and we do.

While sitting around at home basking in the warmth, I bid on a couple of dressers at an online antique auction.

I’ve never attempted to bid at an online auction before, but since I know and trust the local auction company, I figured I would try.

Unfortunately, the pieces I wanted went for more than I was prepared to pay (especially considering the 13% buyer’s premium), so I controlled myself and ended up with nothing. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that bidding restraint is essential! It is possible to find the right piece at the right price if one is patient.

Having failed at the auction, I got in the car and drove to the Market Barn (“antique mall”) in Malone, NY.

Actual antiques were in short supply but I did have a good time poking around, and I bought a nice little ceramic lamp for $10. It now sits on my parents’ desk in Tim’s room.

Thanksgiving is upon us, and for many of us it will be odd one. Although the DH and I will be alone on the day, we hope that sons 1 and 3 (and possibly 3’s plus one) will drive up for a meal on Saturday. Arrangements are pending. Maybe we should break with tradition and eat curry for Thanksgiving. Why not? It would be easier than cooking a turkey and fixings. Nowadays, people seem to want to recreate or overturn traditions, rewrite history, and generally blow conventions to hell. What’s the harm? Discuss among yourselves, but consider — as if you were at an auction — what price you are willing to pay.

However you decide to celebrate Thanksgiving, do so with a heart full of gratitude!

*“Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.” Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

We take one week off from the blog and all of a sudden there are multiple milestones to discuss! It’s been a big couple of weeks for our 5 month old.

First of all, Katie ROLLED OVER for the first time on Tuesday. Because it is 2020, I had to “bring her” to a 90-minute staff meeting that overlapped precisely with her wake window while DN ran his institute’s annual conference from our living room, and she was not having it. Katie finds Zoom entertaining for precisely 3 minutes before she loses her cool, so, you know, like mother like daughter. At one point I put her on her playmat and attempted to focus on the call, which is when she chose to roll over. Katie does not exactly stand for multi-tasking when it comes to her mother’s attention!

The not-so-wee babe also tried out her high chair for the first time. As you’d expect, she loves to be high up and have a new, upgraded vantage point on the apartment activity. We tested this seat out earlier in the week in the service of…

…baby’s first solids. Katie’s favorite activity is watching us eat, so we knew she’d be thrilled. We were right! She might have been disappointed that we fed her organic baby cereal instead of potato chips, but she has to wait for some of life’s pleasures, right?

Well, we love her dearly. She is growing up and it’s wild. What’s next?!?

Well, this line made me LOL during my lunchtime viewing of Frasier yesterday and my mother suggested it would make a good blog title. DIBS, I declared.

Anyway, Daughter #1 here. Back on Wednesday with jokes at my own expense, probably related to relating to overweight men who joke about donuts and french fries.

Yesterday, I needed to run to Target to get some essentials (makeup remover, candy) and I thought I’d better get some toilet paper since apparently we are doing that again.

After the depressing realization that I almost had to buy generic toilet paper, I immediately high-tailed it to the dessert aisle where for a moment I considered purchasing these:

In the chip aisle, I spotted this:

Well, enough about my hopes and dreams.

Last week, Aunt Mary’s School for Misbehaving Tots opened its doors, meaning I got to watch the Bud for two days. It was great fun. And my co-workers enjoyed hearing him being noisy in the background during the staff meeting.

This weekend, while going through my Christmas stuff to find the cards I purchased last year, I found this gift my father gave me:

We all know I’m so fun! But did you know I am decorative gnome wine bottle topper on a DANNY KAYE THEMED WINE BOTTLE fun? I have four.

Speaking of lushes, this came in the mail for me yesterday:

Jane and Dagobert are my second-favorite borderline alcoholic, mystery-solving couple (with Nick and Nora being first) and it is absurd that they are not all in print. I got this on eBay.

Life is weird. But I’m not really complaining.

My DP and I have been thinking a lot about the blog lately and whether to continue after 9 years. We never had a lot to say really, but we enjoyed sharing our small thoughts and random joys. We amuse ourselves and I, for one, like to spit in the devil’s eye occasionally.

So if you want to hear about our latest estate sale rescues and old movies watched, see pictures of the darling babes and sing along with Chris Stapleton and Bob Dylan, tune in. We’ll still be here.

And here’s a good poem:

Nearing the start of that mysterious last season
Which brings us to the close of the other four,
I’m somewhat afraid and don’t know how to prepare
So I will praise you.

I will praise you for the glaze on buttercups
And for the pearly scent of wild fresh water
And the great crossbow shapes of swans flying over
With that strong silken threshing sound of wings
Which you gave them when you made them without voices.

And I will praise you for crickets.
On starry autumn nights
When the earth is cooling
Their rusty diminutive music
Repeated over and over
Is the very marrow of peace.

And I praise you for crows calling from treetops
The speech of my first village,
And for the sparrow’s flash of song
Flinging me in an instant
The joy of a child who woke
Each morning to the freedom
Of her mother’s unclouded love
And lived in it like a country.

And I praise you that from vacant lots
From only broken glass and candy wrappers
You raise up the blue chicory flowers.

I thank you for that secret praise
Which burns in every creature,
And I ask you to bring us to life
Out of every sort of death

And teach us mercy.

Leavetaking by Anne Porter

*Chris Stapleton, Hillbilly Blood

Having made it through the last week of classes and several exceedingly tedious Zoom meetings,* I rewarded myself by watching a Yul Brynner movie that I had never seen before called Invitation to a Gunfighter.

Yul is definitely the headliner of this 1964 B movie, although you will recognize many of the supporting cast, including a young George Segal, Brad Dexter, Janice Rule and Pat Hingle. Strother Martin even has a cameo, although I can’t say I ever noticed him.

After the conclusion of the Civil War, former Rebel Matt Weaver (George Segal) returns home to his farm in New Mexico Territory only to discover that his mother’s grave has become overgrown with weeds, and the local bigwig Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle) has sold the property illegally to someone else.

Matt is both heartbroken and incensed. After running off the new settlers (who never get mentioned again), Matt gets himself shot in the arm and holes up in his house while Brewster sends for a professional gunfighter to kill Matt. Before accepting the job, the newly arrived killer gives a tutorial on how to pronounce his Creole name, which he helpfully writes for them on the Stage chalkboard.

The locals have never met anyone as suave, exotic and manly as Jules, and they find him rather disturbing.

Meanwhile, Brewster forces Crane Adams, a disabled Union veteran, and his wife Ruth to give Jules a room in their house. Jules is drawn to this lady with the prodigious hair extensions, and she cannot resist his animal magnetism.

She is amazed to discover that this icy killer can also play the pianoforte — and in the middle of the night, too. What hidden depths!

Poor Ruth. She is trapped in a loveless marriage and torn between her old love, Matt Weaver, and this exotic, mysterious gunman.

However, Jules realizes that he cannot have Ruth, because she belongs with sweet (but kind of stupid) Matt and also because — drum roll — Jules doesn’t have a tan; his mother was a slave! The film tries to highlight the ill effects of prejudice, both political (between Union and Rebel) and racial (downtrodden Hispanic locals and mixed-race Jules), but doesn’t quite pull it off.

In true heroic fashion Jules decides to take matters into his own hands. First, he gets drunk, wrecks the town, and kills Crane Adams, thereby freeing Ruth and forcing Brewster to ask Matt Weaver, the only other man in town capable of using a gun, to kill Jules. It would be so wrong to spoil the finale for you, so I’ll leave you with this tantalizing picture.

I must say that finding a new (to me) Yul Brynner movie really made my week! He’s such a pro that he can even make a bad western watchable.

*Thanks to my niece Susie for emailing an adorable photo of Katiebelle! Her sweet face got me through more than one awful Zoom meeting (I have two computer monitors). To give you an idea of the annoyance level of said meetings, during one I became so irritated that I muted my video and walked away from my desk loudly declaring “this is such B&*@ S^%#”, only to discover that I had not muted the sound. Mea culpa!

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to check your settings when you Zoom!