One More Cat Shout Out!

I only put out one lonely gingerbread man Christmas pillow as my entire Christmas decorating here. I refrained from my annual Cat in the Hat imitation. Go ahead. Take a puck shot at me; I deserve it. I feel lower than bug spit. Every iota of whimsy I ever claimed to harbor...ignored and repressed. I will rise phoenix-like yet another year. For now, I'm basking in rumors of celebrations back Maryland way.

Up Early in the Morning to Become...

Oh, how this book makes me giggle, snort, guffaw, titter, snicker, and squeek with pure delight. This guy inspires me to want to tackle a set of encyclopedias too! Letter by letter, subject by subject, he's hacking away at the vast labyrinthian mountain of human knowledge and history. Fortunately for me the reader, he synthesizes it down into page bites of some pretty funny funny stuff. Did you know a dragonfly can eat its own weight in 30 minutes? Or a Pueblo woman need only leave her husband's moccasin in the doorstep and she's immediately divorced?? Or Disney's FIRST animated character was a rabbit?? Now, THAT alone would have been a cultural showstopper...the world without Mickey Mouse and left, instead, with rabbits--everywhere--propagating like...well, rabbits!
And on the political front, here's my frater ego posing with the current presidential wannabe whose Big Big day is just dawning. I shall not prepare to meet voting hopefuls today. However, I have a standing Tuesday with 80 plus amygdala-challenged 12 year olds. Eat your heart out, Mitt. Oh, did you know that Mitt and I BOTH have sons named Tag? And that alone ought to warrant me a humble seat in his cabinet...

"I Left My Brain In San Francisco..."

and actually came home with a new one!!!
An opportunity afforded itself (HECK YEAH!) to attend a 3 day Learning and the Brain Conference at the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill in the city by the bay! Leading experts on the latest brain research from all over the world presented, and IT WAS OVER THE TOP PHENOMENOL!!!!!! I have a 3 inch thick manual into which I also crammed pages and pages of notes. I'll be digesting it for some time and then hope to synthesize it if anyone's interested in reading. I bought 4 books as well and am going to begin teaching my students all about their brains!! Go figure. Nobody ever taught me about MY brain before!!! You??? I know!!! The whole thing smacked of eternal progression! And we thought we had a corner on that...These guys in Chinatown certainly redefined Happy Pants for me!! I was traveling alone, so all my adventures involved whatever I could cook up myself. One day at lunch I hopped on a cable car and did some exploring. Chinatown yielded a fist-sized bean-filled sweet bun and a bit of a parade featuring these guys. .When I wasn't embracing my "inner mountain goat"--huff puff huff--I leaped onto cable cars to get to and fro. That Bay Bridge off in the distance was closed for a few days while I was there. They've been building a parallel bridge which will replace the part of the old bridge that the most recent earthquake damagedI passed this little neighborhood garden squeezed between two buildings on one of my trips UP Nob Hill one morning. What's not to love about a little urban oasis?
A hearty Shout Out THANK YOU to my nephew Nathan and his wife Nikole who along with their 5 kids are spending a year as San Franciscans as part of his responsibilities as a pediatric cardiologist at the Mayo. This photo is their deck view on their south San Fran house where I stayed! I kept the wrong hours to see much of the kiddoes. Dang...I opted for the train. 36 hours coming and going on the AMTRAK was a beautiful thing and costs about the same as a flight. I loved the little old men volunteers that hopped on in Sacramento and gave a running historical commentary all the the way through the Sierras to Reno!!! I befriended 4 Amish boys out on a bit of what appeared to be a walkabout. I can't imagine their moms' cooking resembled the Sunny Delight and cheese in a can they were subsisting on. I didn't come right out and ask them, but I think they were wife hunting in Amish communities between Canada and their home in upstate NY. Encounted many other sorts of folks as well with LOTS of time to chat. The only one I Wasn't ennamored with was the Arkansas dude across from me coming home who spent the entire trip calling every human he'd ever encountered in his LIFE on his cell phone. In the middle of the night his cell kept ringing UNSUCCESSFULY awakening him! I had to raise myself out of my sleeping stupor and poke him in the ribs. "COULD YOU TURN OFF YOUR PHONE?????" And I did it without the least little bit of remorse. Sheesh... Oh, and one night I ventured on the BART over to Berkeley to hear the guru of "mindfulness" (google it) speak. That was an adventure in navigating. Groovy trip. Traveling shakes you up--rattles your chains--shines up your perspective. A treat indeed...

Ketchup

A trail shot from our autumnal jaunt through the Ozarks in Arkansas mid October
This little doll baby is Clara. She talks in sentences now, and I'm sure makes as much or more sense than the presidential debaters on TV. Nicht wahr???? We met in Park City and celebrated Christmas a little early. Clara's BIG NEWS is that she's going to be a sister this summer!!
Rosie came west for a few days as well and poses here with Clara and Aunt Season.and her mom.

I'm on a random roll here. I'll try and post a healthy mix of pictures and just a few bullet points to cover a few things and answer any questions about me and mine's whereabouts as of late. Consider this pretty stream of counsciousness which may or may not bore you to Nancy Drew novels. Picture you and me sitting down to steaming hot chocolate whereupon YOU say, "So, Mad. What have you been up to?" Actually that should be rephrased "Up to what have you been?" because only the truly barbaric end sentences with a preposition...
--Paco is home! All the bad habits I picked up during his 8 month absence are being slowly weeded out. Among those I miss (even though I'm quivery happy he's home) are watching an old movie on TV at 5 A.M. before I went to school every day, knitting entire days away in bed, eating Chinese in bed, doing the dishes semi-annually, and languishing long winter nights away in my classroom. I may blog about Paco's adventures; or I may not. Here's proof that he's home. Doesn't Mugsy look dapper? We snowshoed in the Tetons this morning--Snake River in background

And a moose at Moose, WY. I wanted to straddle him but thought better of it. I think he's new there at the visitor's center.
My friend Virtue (whatever happened to THOSE good old names????) celebrated her 96th birthday! Anything I could ever report doing pales in comparison to that, but I DID take the AMTRAK to San Francisco for THIS It was sehr interessant indeed!!!! I will give it its own post manana.
Every man and his ratcatcher must be downloading pictures on blogger because this is taking way too much time. Chew on this, and I'll post again tomorrow.--

Hey Howdy Happy Birthday!

Just dropping in like a negligent relative to give a shout out to my favorite non doctor on his special day--even though he's decomposing underground in La Jolla, CA. I have sooooooo much to write about and soooooooo many pictures to post, but that's not going to happen today. This is the first March 2nd in several decades that I haven't slithered into my Cat in the Hat suit. Our 4 day school week ended before the birthday rolled around today. I'm half sad about it--I do so enjoy a tail every now and then. But I also may be reaching the point where nonacceptability reigns for aging women in cat suits. Perhaps I've sold out. Or worse still, grown up.

Houseguests

Even after I fed our houseguests this,


they refused to leave. I had noticed one out of the corner of my eye a few weeks back. Proper hostess that I am, I fed them more bait! Then yesterday, I found these three guys hunkered down in a bucket of birdseed in the garage. What to do? More bait? Invite a cat over as well? A quick call to Paco. He suggested a relocation plan which involved slapping a lid on, picking up the "hotel", and dumping meeces, seeds, and all outside FAR FAR away. Ewww. I took their picture. The flash woke them up, and they looked like they wanted to scurry. I scurried instead. Perhaps I can muster Project Relocation tomorrow. Dumping guests has never been an option. We enjoy most guests, and those which we WOULD like to dump have usually cleared out sooner or late. But THESE guys??? Perhaps if I threaten them with the guestbook..

"Just call me Love-Love"

Contrary to popular opinion, I am NOT dead. I may look grayish, my breath may be undetectable even on a mirror, and my life appear unattended. Nevertheless, I live on. I have a plethora of things to blog about, and I even admit that sometimes I write blogs subconsciously. Good good stuff too! Stay tuned. But I AM interrupting my silence with a snippet from ordinary life. Yesterday I was sitting in the temple when I overheard an elderly man addressing his wife as she sat down beside him: "Ah, you made it, Love-Love." I want a name like that! When Paco and I got married we just began calling each other by our given Christian names. The "Paco" had seeds in our engagement, so it stuck. But no endearing terms emerged. Nary a one. If I could turn the clock back, I think I would have stuck in a few "Honey's" or "Darling's" or maybe a stray "Dear" or two. Now they just sound sort of awkward and embarrassing to use. Do you know what I mean? We also got into the habit of using "J" and "M" because we signed emails that way for 14 months while we conducted our transcontinental China to Idaho courtship. I don't know. Maybe we've passed the point of no return. I have good friends in NJ who refer to each other as "Lovey". Other than that, I think most people reserve their exchange of terms of endearment for private times. Any thoughts out there on this? Oooh, I had a wrestle with a bug yesterday! It was nasty! Even hearing someone on TV mention "spoon" made me gag! I slept an extra 6 hours too! That train wreck arrived at exactly 11:14 A.M. On the button. Weird.