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Monday, September 28th, 2009
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11:46 pm - Remember me?
I haven't updated my journal in exactly one year. Weird. I used to post many times a day. I still come here a few times a day and read my friends page, participate in some communities, keep up with people. I've moved over to keeping track of my life in my blog mostly, but I guess I just don't have much to say. I've noticed many of my friends posting less and less. I guess LJ is on its way out.
Just wanted to say hi, and that I do read all of your posts :)
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Sunday, September 28th, 2008
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1:32 pm - Book meme (from Jenskot)
List ten books you have which you think nobody else on your friends list might have. Comment if you do have any of the following in your house:
1) Bess of Hardwick, by Mary Lovell. A biography of Bess of Hardwick, an amazingly fascinating Tudor woman who married 4 times and amassed one of the greatest fortunes (in both land and money) of the period, which was passed down through her descendants who became the Dukes of Devonshire. She and her husband were the captors of Mary, Queen of Scots, whose care and keeping pretty much drove him mad, bankrupted them both, and almost destroyed their marriage. A very interesting, readable book.
2) Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, by Winifred Watson. The BEST BOOK EVER. It was made into a movie last year that I never got around to seeing, but the book is so, so, so good. A funny, touching Cinderella fairytale about a down on her luck governess (who is scared of kids and can't control them) who accidentally gets sent to the home of a kept woman/nightclub singer, who welcomes her with open arms. Hijinx ensue. This book is truly wonderful, and guaranteed to cheer you up.
3) The Kindergarten Building Gifts, With Hints on Program Making, by Elizabeth Harrison and Belle Woodson. Have I told you about my Froebel obsession? Well, I have one. I'm even writing a book. So I've been buying every book I can find about Friedrich Froebel and early kindergarten theories and activities. It is so incredibly fascinating. My new dream is to open a bilingual Froebel preschool. Sometime in the next 2 years, so that Bibs can take advantage of it...
4) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, by James Scott. I had to read this book in college for my junior honors seminar, the theme of which was "peasant rebellions". I wasn't pretty sick of Marxist interpretations of history after high school, and avoided those professors as best I could... but this was a required class. And I LOVED it. I learned so much. This book is about the ways that peasants, slaves, serfs, and other members of the underclass can exert control over their social and economic betters. He combines history with a whole lot of field work. It's kind of thick, but absolutely one of the most interesting history books I've read.
5) Cherokee Renascence in the New Republic, by William G. McLoughlin. It may come as quite a surprise to you, but I'm quite the expert on the Cherokee Supreme Court Cases of the 1830's. Yup. I won 1st place in Massachusetts in National History Day for my slide show in 8th grade, and continued to be obsessed with it for years, until I wrote my honors thesis in college about it. And it was damned good. My greatest accomplishment. Kind of sad that it's all been downhill from there. Anyway, this is a really interesting book on the subject. It covers the concerted, planned efforts the Cherokee Nation made in the 1820's and 30's to "civilize" themselves as a means to remaining on their land. White people, for the record, suck.
6) Few Eggs and No Oranges: The Wartime Diaries of Vere Hodgson, by Vere Hodgson. I could probably fill this whole list with books published by Persephone, and I absolutely have to recommend them all, but this one happens to be in front of me so I figured I'd add it. It's long, and it's kind of not very interesting... but at the same time hugely fascinating because it's about a young woman (early 20's) going about her daily business in London during World War II. And of course her daily business is pretty far divorced from my reality: gas masks, rationing, air raids, spending the night in Tube stations while the streets above are being bombed. She tells some very funny anecdotes, but she is obviously keeping this record for herself so overall it's very not self-conscious.
7) Magic for Marigold, by L.M. Montgomery. I have to admit, I wasn't crazy about Anne of Green Gables when I was a kid (though I did read them as an adult and loved them). But this one I absolutely loved. It's about a little girl named Marigold and her slightly crazy family: her father dies before she is born, so she and her mother live with his mother and grandmother on a farm and there are tons of extended family around. The stories about Marigold are funny but not too twee or creepy like in some of the Montgomery books.
8) An Armful of Warm Girl, by W.M. Spackman. A very lyrical novella, taking place in the 1950's, about a Philadelphia blueblood who travels to New York after his wife ups and leaves him. He decides to search out one of his old lovers (who he hasn't seen in years), and perhaps be comforted by his married high-society daughter. Things get complicated in an intergenerational way as a young girl, connected to both his children and his old lover's children, becomes obsessed with him.
9) Niccolo Rising, by Dorothy Dunnett. Now THIS is how historical fiction SHOULD be. One of my very favorite books (counting the whole series as one), the House of Niccolo series charts the rise of a merchant banking house in 15th century Europe. Claes, the apprentice boy at a dye-house in Bruges, has a knack for numbers, codes, and languages. This catches the eye of the local Medici branch, which decides it can use his talents. But who is using who? This series is a hell of a lot more historically accurate AND informative than most history books you'll read, as Niccolo and his friends travel the known world (including Iceland, Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Russia) in search of wealth and adventure while dodging all sorts of wars and political turmoil. I can't recommend these books enough.
10) The Baby's Catalog, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. I loved this picture book as a kid, and I still do. It's a wordless "catalog" for a toddler or young child... she can go through each page and select a mother, a father, a breakfast, a pet, an accident, a toy, and everything else. It's just so simple and sweet, and I'm so glad that it was still in print so I could buy it for my daughter.
Seriously, I have like ten zillion books, and I bet nine zillion point nine nine nine repeating of them are so bizarre and esoteric that no one else on my friends list has them.
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Friday, July 4th, 2008
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2:48 am - Best Day Ever
Today (yesterday, technically) was Bibble's Best Day Ever.
When she woke up we had to go to Whole Foods to get diapers. Which meant she was cooed at by lots of little old ladies. She loves that.
Then back home for a nap (while I started my Zucchini Lime Marmalade, from an old edition of this book, which is one of my many, many preserving cookbooks... so useful with the coming crash of the world food supply... anyway my CSA keeps sending us that zucchini and I gotta do something with is!).
Then we went to the Child's Play Museum which isn't really so much a "museum" as a giant room in a random office park in Weymouth full of big toys. Bibs was the youngest kid there, but she really enjoyed watching the bigger kids run around, and she crawled right over to the big keyboard and pounded away like a pro. She can apparently climb steps, too: and quite well. Who knew? She was playing with a ball, and it bounced into this little bin thing that was maybe 8" off the ground, and she climbed right in. Then she climbed up and down the big wooden train thing they had. Basically, we're screwed. She even walked a bit: holding onto the little toy shopping cart they had.
Then we had an unsuccessful afternoon nap, and after that we went to the toy store. She crawled around and played with all of the toys and had a grand old time. The woman working at the store attacked her with puppets which Bibs LOVED. Bibs got a push wagon thingie, which she already loves. She can push that thing all around the house already! She's gonna be walking soon.
After that the fabric store, where she saw another baby just her age, and then we went next door to Border's where the same baby was. So Bibs and the other baby crawled around eachother and and attacked eachother's eyes and fought over my car keys for like an hour while the other mother and I chatted.
Then we came home, where Daddy was waiting (yay! Bibs never gets to see Daddy at night, because he comes home after she goes to bed), and Bibs got to climb all over him while he built her wagon. Then she wandered around the house with her wagon, and then it was dinner and bedtime.
All around, it was probably the best day she's ever had in her short little life! So much to see, so much to do, so many babies to play with! Life is good.
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Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
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6:28 pm - Prediction.
My prediction: the Dow will fall to 4 figures this month
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Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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11:24 pm
I feel like a not-great mother today. I think I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and Bibs was in an impish mood today (Mama's glasses! No!) which made me frustrated and sort of gave me a window into the toddler years. Then I watched Nanny 911 which was supposed to make me feel better about my parenting skills, but instead it was a perfectly nice couple with a lot of kids that they just never disciplined even though it seemed like they had only good intentions and it made me worried about my parenting skills and what I would do when Bibs gets older and is actually naughty (now she's just a baby and there's not much I can do) and whether I'd have the heart to punish her.
Just sort of a blah day.
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Sunday, May 25th, 2008
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9:03 am
Yesterday: I planted 18 tomato plants, 6 basil plants, 1 begonia, and 1 rosebush. All in the super sandy soil in front of the doctor's office, and I didn't use any fertilizer or anything because I forgot to buy it. And I think I thought the area was a lot sunnier than it actually is. Also made some more baby food, and watched 2 movies (1 excellent, 1 not) and started the embroidery on Bibs' new dress (not using that fabric, but some that I already had with yellow flowers: the cherries on that sample are not embroidered (I'm not THAT crazy) so the only embroidery is on the collar and the bonnet).
Today: I mulched my little garden (hopefully sun at midday?) and embroidered some more. Later, playground and Bertucci's with friends. Then maybe another movie while I embroider and Bibs naps? I've decided to get through all 1001 movies you must see before you die, as well as the rejects. I've mentioned 3 movies in this post, can you guess which 2 are NOT on the list?
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Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
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8:04 pm
1. Do you like blue cheese? It's okay. Not my favorite, but not awful.
2. Have you ever fallen asleep in class/ at work? Probably, but I really don't remember.
3. Do you own a gun? Hells to the no
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at sonic? Ah, regionalisms. I've never been to Sonic and have no idea what this question is about.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Not really, no.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I miss tofu pups. Haven't had a hot dog since going veggie 10 years ago.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th Street is one of the all-time best movies.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Orange juice
9. Can you do push ups? I honestly have no idea. I haven't tried to do one probably since junior high. I used to be able to do them. I can't do sit-ups.
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I don't think I really have one. I don't have much jewelry, but that which I have is all special to me for one reason or another.
11. What's your favorite hobby? Sewing
12. Do you have A.D.D.? No, just a short attention span.
13. What's one trait you hate about yourself? Speaking before thinking.
14. Middle name?My grandmother's maiden name
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I wonder if the lentils are done yet, I need two more thoughts, oh now only one more, hey cool! Wait, that's four thoughts. Five now. Ack.
16. Name 3 things you bought yesterday?17. Name 4 drinks you regularly drink? Grapefruit juice, orange juice, lemonaide, water
18. Current worry? Money, as always
19. What do you hate right now? Separation anxiety
20. Favorite place to be? Curled up on my parents' couch reading
21. How did you bring in the New Year? I honestly can't remember. Oh, we had a party that no one came to.
22. Where would you like to go? Antarctica
23. Name two people who will complete this? Can't even name one.
24. Do you own slippers? I own the coolest slippers in the world. They're down duvets for your feet. They look ridiculous (like giant marshmallows) but they're so warm, but also so breathable that your feet never get sweaty.
25. What shirt are you wearing? A green Old Navy Polo
26. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I've never done it, but it sounds creepy.
27. Can you whistle? No
28. Favorite colors? Green and blue
29 Would you be a pirate? I don't know. Would I get caught?
30. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't sing.
31. Favorite girl's name? Lavinia, Matilda, India, Elizabeth
32. Favorite boy's name? Joshua
33. What's in your pocket right now? I'm wearing a skirt with no pockets
34. Last thing that made you laugh? The 16 month old that came over to play today.
35. Best bed sheets as a child? I only had white sheets. My parents weren't into polyester.
36. Worst injury you've ever had? My arm was pulled in 10th grade. Permanent nerve damage. It only bothers me on really humid days, though.
37. Do you love where you live? Yes, but I wish we had an endless supply of money to realize its full potential.
38. How many TV's do you have in your house? One
39. Who is your loudest friend? Emily, probably.
40. How many dogs do you have? None, thank god.
41. Does someone have a crush on you? My husband, I hope.
42. What is your favorite book?A Wrinkle in Time.
43. What is your favorite candy? Skybars
44. What song do you want played at your funeral? I can honestly tell you this is not a question that has ever crossed my mind.
45. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Snoring loudly
46. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Baby crying. Ugh. Go get baby.
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Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
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12:21 am - Froebel Texts
I bought three books about implementing a Froebel kindergarten curriculum today.
- Royal gifts for the kindergarten;: A manual for self instruction in Friedrich Froebel's principles of education. Together with a collection of songs, games and poems, by Frances Post Van Norstrand (1891)
- Kindergarten culture in the family and kindergarten: A complete sketch of Froebel's system of early education, adapted to American institutions. For the use of mothers and teachers, by W. N Hailmann (1873)
- Mother Play and Nursery Songs With Finger Play, by Freidrich Froebel, edited by Elizabeth Peabody (1878)
Yes, I'm starting early. But I need to learn how to do this before I actually do it! I have yet to buy Paradise of Childhood a Practical Guide to Kindergartners by Edward Wiebe (1906), which has been reprinted so it won't be hard to find.
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
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11:00 pm - Town Meeting
Another town meeting, come and gone.
No one came. Not even last night. We didn't have a quorum until 7:30 last night, and closer to 8 tonight. Tonight they went down to some adult ed aerobics class being held at the high school and made all the class members go sign in. The sad part? A quorum is 300 people. Out of 15,427 registered voters. Yes, that's right... out of the more than FIFTEEN THOUSAND REGISTERED VOTERS, NOT EVEN 300 OF THEM COULD BE BOTHERED TO GET THEIR ASSES OUT OF THE HOUSE TWO NIGHTS A YEAR TO GOVERN THEIR OWN TOWN.
This makes me angry, and it makes me sad. A friend leaned over tonight and said "what are we going to do when all these people die? They won't ever have a quorum again." I said that as the only person in town under the age of 50 who seems to give two shits about the town, I plan on taking over and running the place as my own little empire.
It's not really THAT bad. There's a group of women who are in their 30's and early 40's who are active. They're very active in the League of Women Voters, and are really trying to get involved. But there aren't 300 of them.
Why does no one care? Why are people so lazy? I honestly don't understand how you can be so ambivalent about the laws in the community that you're in.
On a bright note, Russel Reeves didn't show. You could feel the tension in the air last night as people waited to see if he'd jump up.
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9:14 am - Scatergories meme
SCATTERGORIES. It's harder than it looks! Copy and paste into a new bulletin. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.
You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question:
What is your name....................... Megan
4 Letter Word........................... Main
Vehicle............................. Megane
City..................................... Maimi
Boy Name.............................. Matthew
Girl Name............................... Margaret
Alcoholic Drink............... Mohitto
Something you Wear........... Monokini
Celebrity............... Mike Myers
Something found in a bathroom.......... Mold
Reason for Being Late.......... Midgets
Character (cartoon)................ Maggie
Something You Shout................... Mommeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
Animal................................. Muskrat
Body part........................... Mouth
Word to describe you............ Magnificent
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Sunday, April 20th, 2008
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1:12 pm - Two thoughts, not necessarily related
I'm really glad that ABC is getting raked over the coals for their ridiculous debate.
Salon.com used to be one of my favorite news sources for their amusing commentary. Now they're just shilling for Hilary and they've barely even mentioned the debates. Meanwhile, their site is covered in Obama ads.
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
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10:57 pm
I am eating my first meal cooked in our new stove.
Seriously, I had no idea just how awful our old stove was. I thought it was perfectly normal that 1/2 of a crab cake would be black and the other half just barely thawed. I don't think I've ever made evenly-cooked food before.
This is amazing.
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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
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10:14 pm - Ebay
I just posted my first item for sale on ebay! I hope it sells.
We went to the zoo today. Very, very cute.
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Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
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7:16 pm
Alternative Names Meme
1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Mother and Father's middle name)
Drake Dieter
2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Jack Robert
3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of
your first name)
Buhmeg
4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal!
Green Hedgehog
5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Mais San Diego
6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Turquoise Grapefruit
7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 3 letters of your last name)
Mebuh
8. GANGSTA NAME: ( fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Peppermint Stick Snickerdoodle (this is probably the least gangsterish name ever)
9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pets name, current street name).
Myrtle Main
10. STRIPPER NAME: ( name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
I don't really know any perfume names
11. PORN NAME: (1st pets name, street you grew up on)
Belle Magnolia
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Thursday, March 13th, 2008
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7:19 am - Shakespeare Meme
The idea is merely that you bold the ones you've seen on stage, italicize the ones you've seen as movies, underline the ones you've read, and *asterisk* the ones you've been in.
All's Well That Ends Well
Antony and Cleopatra
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Henry IV, Part I
Henry IV, Part II
Henry V
Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III
Henry VIII
Julius Caesar
King John
King Lear
Love's Labour's Lost
Macbeth
Measure for Measure
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado about Nothing
Othello
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Richard II
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Winter's Tale
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Friday, February 29th, 2008
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7:39 pm - People who comment
( Who comments the most on this journal? )
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Monday, February 25th, 2008
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9:29 am - iTunes Meme
( Because I have better things to be doing, but the sick Bibblins just fell asleep )
My iTunes is a weird place. First of all, I don't really have any of my music on here. This is because I used to have like 20 thousand songs and in trying to organize them I managed to really screw up iTunes. So I wiped everything. Then I visited my parents, and my father is a music fiend, so I copied all 10k or so songs he had (I wiped some that I really don't like, and am still going through them getting rid of some). Then I started putting my music back on, but I really only got so far as the famous ALPS album and a few of the A albums (About a boy is mine, for example).
(The ALPS story: I had a party the last night of college. Lots of random people came. The next morning there was a giant CD case will about 500 CDs leftover. Each one had the initials ALPS on it. This was someone's entire music history, ranging from Disney movie soundtracks to some really hard-core rap. We honestly went to great lengths to find out who this CD case belonged to, but no luck. So I still have it, and still feel guilty about it).
So that's the story of how I have a ridiculous number of songs, but not really any of my favorite music.
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Monday, February 18th, 2008
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3:06 am
I have a sore throat :(
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Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
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3:22 pm - Blockbuster v. Netflix
I'm thinking of signing up for a DVD-by-mail service, now that I have a baby and my husband and I won't be seeing any new releases anytime in the foreseeable future. I know that Netflix is the classic, but I've heard that Blockbuster is really working to one-up them. If you're a member of one or the other, do you recommend it? Is it worth the price?
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Thursday, February 7th, 2008
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10:17 pm
Bob Hedlund reads my livejournal.
Hi Bob!
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