flying high, now

Sunday, dec. 31, 2006   |   0 comments

This new year is off to a spectacular start, what with last night’s champagned countdown amidst so many of my well-dressed friends at Adam and Julia’s, and then too many homemade blueberry pancakes this morning, followed by Sandra‘s good luck soup this afternoon, with a comfortable viewing of one of my all-time favorite movies in between. And then Marco, Jill, and I finished off this lazy first day of the new year with ten rounds of Rocky, yow.

Welcome 2007, I greet you with open arms and a deep, sloppy, chin-chaffing french-style kiss, the kind that barrel-rolls all the way down your throat and doesn’t stop until tickles your littlest toes. This is our year, I can feel it! Especially since both Marco and I managed to burn through a bunch of last-minute misfortune in the final days of 2006: he erroneously washed his cellphone on the sturdy cotton cycle while we were in San Diego, and then he bought an emergency replacement phone only to discover that it’s actually a knock-off and thus unable to sanely mesh with T-Mobile’s voicemail system (instead of a chime and a sensible little icon, now each voicemail is heralded with three text messages, each announced with ultra-loud, vibrating fanfare) and full of interface typos (“dialling”?); meanwhile, I paid to have my favorite boots fixed — the hard plastic form at the heel had worked itself through the lining of one boot and was cutting holes in my stockings and also foot — only to discover that I’d sicced the bootmaker on wrong boot. And then I left my favorite new jacket in Los Angeles! Luckily nice Sophia is mailing it back to me, so that’s not officially bad news (even though there have been at least three occasions in the past week that I’ve bitterly wished I could wear it, BITTERLY), but still it speaks to a general spazziness that I am very much hoping is done and gone now that Double-Oh-Seven is here, a year that I’m relying on to be more witty, sharper of mind, and far better dressed than klutzy (but still lovable! last year was very good to me!) 2006.

writing rutting season ends (temporarily)

Monday, dec. 18, 2006   |   0 comments

I did it! I said I was going to post every single day for three months, and look at me, I posted every single day for three months, including weekends! And really, if I can do that, I can do ANYTHING. Except remember to bring my keys with me (yes I locked myself out of the house last week, yes again). Also it appears that no matter how much I squint and quadruple-check, I will never, ever give up my habit of mistakenly buying horrible, non-fat versions of things that very much need to be fattened, such as chocolate pudding and half and half. Non-fat half and half? That should be covered in radioactive orange scull-and-crossbones warnings. In fact, they need to store it in an entirely different section, somewhere far, far away from the dairy aisle. And it needs a new name, like Sad and Sad. Or The Lesser Half.

It wasn’t super easy, this daily posting schedule — I found myself staring at a blank, blank screen at more than one 3am — but I did fall into a pleasant kind of rut, one that I’m very much planning to continue into the new year. Only not this week. And not next week. Because I am taking the rest of December off to focus 130% on some hard-core holiday extended remix family time (wish Marco luck!). I might manage to get to a typing machine here and there, so you could see a few surprise posts (that ought to keep them clicking!), but I won’t return with any earnestness until Baby New Year is well spanked and diapered.

Until then: thanks so much for reading my site! Happy Christmas! Merry New Year! And a glorious Boxing Day to you all!

barbapapa can you hear me?

Sunday, dec. 17, 2006   |   0 comments

When I was five, my mom and I moved to Sweden for a year, and one of my most distinct memories of the Scandinavian experience — other than the manly nun who yanked out one of my loose tooths with a pair of pliers, and other than the swan that bit my tender girl bottom — is of the small collection of Barbapapa books that I acquired while I was there. As I hazily remember it, the Barbapapas were a friendly family of multi-colored amoebic alien things who could blob their bodies into shapes of letters…and tents? I actually thought I’d made them up until I met this little kid on the plane to Seattle in September. He and his mother started talking about his Barbapapa books and I interrupted, all excited, to ask if they were talking about the hippie blob things? Who used their own bodies as a mold for their concrete pod home? The mother, looking more than a little startled, nodded. Yes, yes, that’s exactly right. How did I know about these things? Clearly not many people they knew had heard of this race of problem-solving environmentalist amoeba things.

But we’re not alone, it turns out! I just looked up the Barbapapas on the internet, and they’re totally real (if French, not Swedish as I’d rememberagined):

Oh Barbapapas, how I’ve missed you! There’s red Barbabravo (“He usually likes to be the leader! And he is overly fond of eating! With his tools of Sherlock Holms [sic] (the hat and the magnifying glass) and with the help of his faithful hound Lolita, he tries to act like a great detective”) and yellow Barbazoo (“He knows all about the various animals and plants, the climate and the bad effects of pollution. In one word, he is a distinguished ecologist”) and furry Barbabeau (“He is an artist. Still within the torments of his creativeness, he has not yet found his way through cubism, hyperrealism, surrealism, expressionism or conceptualism!”), and many more. Yes, “thanks to a few adequate shape changes and their brilliant imagination, they can bring to an end even the most difficult of problems, and always in the gentlest manner!”

The Barbapapas are even available on eBay; I’m now the happy re-owner of both Barbapapa and Barbapapa’s Ark. And really, isn’t that just the internet at its finest: helping me prove my freakiest childhood memories to be absolutely true?

Edited to add: Reader Nancy writes in to report that “barbapapa” is French for “cotton candy,” which strikes me as ultra-good news. And according to reader Jennifer, Barbapapas are huge in Canada?!

ho, ho, noooo

Sunday, dec. 17, 2006   |   0 comments

Last Thursday it was champagne for Ivan’s birthday, Friday was Sandra’s company party at Bucco di Beppo, Saturday was the crazy drunk-fest at Stephen’s, Sunday and Monday was the worst ever adult hangover in captivity, Tuesday night was the Adaptive Path holiday party, Friday night it was Borat at the Parkway (beer + Sheik sandwiches + naked, hairy ass-smothering!), yesterday it was Christmas shopping, football (for Marco), and more tree-crocheting (for me), then off to the city for a party with the spry McSweeners. Today more, more, more shopping, followed by a zombifying nap, and now we’re heading to another fun party in the city. Next week, we race down to San Diego for a full-throttle family extravaganza (at which both Marco and I will be expected to wear Christmas-themed head ornaments). And then the second we return to town, it’s off to a rager on New Year’s Eve. Merry! Merry! Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

Oh how I love attending parties, and bonding it up with family, and eating! But I do wish there was some recovery time built into this schedule, a few down days between events that I could use to repair my drinking organs and work up a thirst for more. Which is why I’m thinking that next year, rather than pack all the joy into December like some kind of endurance test, we should distribute the holiday partying throughout the year. A tree-trimming party in January, an eggnog sip in February, a sleigh ride in July… finally each event gets the enthusiasm and gusto it deserves. The most wonderful time of the year, All Year Long! Do you hear what I hear?

marbles kills a tree

Saturday, dec. 16, 2006   |   0 comments

Marbles that cat has suddenly discovered the ever-expanding forest of crochet trees.