Ode to lush green fields

I finally made my first farm share run this season, which felt like a sigh of relief. Our new place is way more convenient to the farm, so it seemed like a really quick ride. Once we got there, we hooked up with Baby Kid and his mamas to retrieve our loot veggies.

Incidentally, Baby Kid has his own blog now! Kids grow up way too fast in these modern times, seriously. I've been hesitant to post a link, since the blog uses some people's real names, but if I know you and you want a peek at the cuteness that is Baby Kid, let me know and I'll pass along the URL. But I digress.

For the second week of distribution, there was a decent variety available, including some of our favorites - romaine, bok choy, radishes, and summer squash, just to name a few. The weekly newsletter had hinted at kohlrabi and salad turnips, yum, but so far none have materialized.

Since I didn't go last week, this was my first pick-your-own week, and even though it was a lot of bending over, believe me, the strawberries and sugar snap peas were worth the effort. Not that they lasted long. Between the two of us and our friend Ebi-chan who was in town for the night, all of the above were demolished by morning. Which is cool with me, because eating the whole share is vastly preferable to not using it.

Best of all was just wandering through the fields without anything more serious on my mind than what John would be cooking for dinner. I can't wait for next Sunday. :-)

Meetings and partings

Here I am, blogging in style from my new living room at my new apartment. The furniture is all in (though not necessarily all in the right places), the surfaces are still mostly clean, the finches have a cozy little niche with plenty of afternoon sunshine, the PS3 is already set up (go figure), and most of the rest of our belongings are absolutely everywhere in goodness knows which boxes. The movers were great - we experienced relatively few casualties, and they were really nice and super speedy. Tonight is our first night sleeping over in our new surroundings. Cross your fingers that I remember where the bathroom is in relation to the bedroom. :-p

I was relieved that our currently landlady was not home this morning when the movers came. On top of paying the housing costs for her son, his girlfriend, and her kid, and losing her tenants to provide more free living space for them, she's been covering at least some of their expenses (out of her fixed income - she's retired, for goodness' sake), and now she also provides child care for the kid during the day.

In the middle of all of the preparation yesterday, I got a text message from Ear letting me know that Smack's gran had passed away. I was never fortunately enough to meet her, alas, but from Smack's stories I know what a character she was, and what an incredible, adventuresome life she led. Smack takes after her (maybe too much so, heh) and I know he will miss her terribly.

On a happier note, we're still celebrating the historic triumph of the Celtics, which we enjoyed last night in our then-still-put-together living room at our old place with R and her new Special Someone. Just how special he will end up being remains to be seen, of course, but he meets with our approval so far. For one thing, he complements the overall quirkiness of our group of friends with endearing idiosynchrises of his own, and for another (way more important), he seems to be making R really happy.

Quite the week of ups and downs, all-in-all. I'm hoping things will settle down a bit...but then, you never know what will happen next.

Small blessings

Don't look now, folks, but I may be pulling out of my slump. To wit:

1. My sense of smell might actually be back, just in time for Comrade J's arrival next week and the ensuing gourmet food-fest.

2. Despite the dire message on my voicemail from John early today, the problem with the car turned out to be easily fixable, and was, in fact, so minor that the local chain auto shop fixed it for free.

3. Moving is underway at last!

4. One of my coworkers, known to this blog as Hatchet Man, lives in a big fancy town and offered to shuttle any of my unwanted but free-to-a-good-home goods to his local transfer station.

5. R officially becomes a PhD in a hooding ceremony tomorrow, and I get to be there.

6. The Presidential primary season is OVER.

7. I made progress this week on a bunch of things that I was procrastinating. Okay, that sounds small, but for me, this is enormous. I am a champion procrastinator. It would have been an achievement to get one of those things on my list completed, but I knocked off a half a dozen or so. It feels good.

Rocks in my head*

I've been living in my head a lot lately. It's not particularly good for me - instead of getting introspective, I tend to self-criticize. I become repetitive, I rehearse, I obsess about details. I feel things more acutely, whether they directly affect me or not. I have strange dreams and when I'm awake, I never feel fully present.

Breathing helps. Talking to people helps, even though I'm completely disinclined to do so when I'm like this. Actually making positive progress instead of procrastinating helps.

What it doesn't make for is interesting blogging, but luckily memes (see below for the long book meme that I lifted from Grace) can keep something relatively current up here while I process through the In pile in my head and wait for what output comes.

---

* See this link for full text of the Zen story I'm referring to - second indented quote on the page, starting with, "Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher..."

Bookish meme

And now, a super lit-geeky meme, which I have lifted from Grace.

Below is a list of the top 106 books tagged "unread" on LibraryThing.

The rules:
bold = books you've read
italics = books you started but didn't or couldn't finish
crossed out = books you hated
asterix (*) = books you've read more than once
underline = books you own (or, I'm adding here, have borrowed) but haven't read yourself

My snarky comments are preceeded with a text arrow, like this --> one.

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
6. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
7. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien*
--> Yes, I'm that guy. I adore The Silmarillion.
8. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
9. The Odyssey by Homer
10. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
11. Ulysses by James Joyce
12. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
13. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
14. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte*
--> School almost ruined this book for me, but The Eyre Affair brought all of the magic back.
15. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
16. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
17. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
--> I totally read Ahab's Wife, though.
18. The Iliad by Homer
19. Emma by Jane Austen
20. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
21. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
22. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
--> I might actually own this one, can't remember.
23. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer*
24. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
25. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
26. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
27. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
28. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger*
29. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
--> I loathed this book with every fiber of my being.
30. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
31. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
32. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
33. Dracula by Bram Stoker*
34. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
35. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
36. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
37. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
38. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
39. Middlemarch by George Eliot
40. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
41. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
--> But, I love Queen Margot by Dumas, which I have read and reread.
42. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
43. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
44. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*
45. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
46. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
47. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
48. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver*
49. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
50. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
51. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
--> I'm 95% sure that I had to read Dorian Gray for school, but I can't remember any of the significant details.
52. Dune by Frank Herbert
53. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
54. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
55. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
56. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
57. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
58. The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
59. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
60. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
61. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
--> High school strikes again, ruining another book for me.
62. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess*
63. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
64. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
65. Persuasion by Jane Austen
66. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
67. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne*
68. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
69. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
70. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
--> I might have liked this book if I had read it before I found Mary Stewart's Merlin novels, but afterward? Not a chance.
71. Atonement by Ian McEwan
--> *mumble* Stupid book club. *mumble mumble*
72. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
73. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
74. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
75. Dubliners by James Joyce
76. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
77. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
78. Beloved by Toni Morrison
79. Collapse by Jared Diamond
80. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
--> At this point, I felt compelled to stress that I have read and enjoyed Corneille, Ronsard, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Molière. In French.
81. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
82. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
83. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
84. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
--> More Hugo. Bah.
85. Watership Down by Richard Adams*
86. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
87. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman*
88. Beowulf by Anonymous
89. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
90. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
91. The Aeneid by Virgil
92. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
93. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
94. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
95. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
96. Possession by A.S. Byatt
97. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
98. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
99. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
100. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
101. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
102. Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire
103. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
104. The Plague by Albert Camus*
--> Finally. This is more my era. Camus is one of my all-time favorite authors.
105. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
106. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Moving on...

I really want to get to this meme I'm stealing from Frog, but first, this news.

Many thanks to Nella for her kind comment. All of us are missing our little friend, but the birds have blessedly resilient natures and the people are too preoccupied with other cares to spend too much time wallowing. Which is probably a good thing.

In better news, John and I signed our lease on a new apartment yesterday. It's a big relief to know where we're going, even though moving will undoubtedly suck.

And now, back to your erratically scheduled meme.

TECHNOLOGY
Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
Home computer 1: Photo, the interior of the Chicago Theatre (taken by me.)
Home computer 2: Photo, miscellaneous art stuffs in our spare room (taken by me.)
Work computer: Fractal background by Tina.

Q. How many televisions you have in your house?
One. But I make up for that by having some dozen or so video game consoles. :-p

BIOLOGY
Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Right-handed.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
Nope.

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
Probably an old-style CRT monitor.

Q. Have you ever been knocked out?
With a punch, no, but I've been put sort-of under a couple of time for medical reasons.

BULLSHITOLOGY
Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
Yes.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
I actually love my name, so I don't think that I would ever change it.

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
Rust orange.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item?
Not that I recall.

DAREOLOGY
Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
I would definitely do it for free. Taking money would be...icky.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
No.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000
Let's see...get paid to *not* do something...I think I could handle it. :)

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
No.

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
No. And...eeeewwww.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
No.

DUMBOLOGY
Q: What is in your left pocket?
My cell phone.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
Not good-good. It was good for sleeping to, though.

Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
Hardwood.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
Normally, stand. Although since the cold tap broke, I've been sitting to avoid the most scalding of the waters closest to the tap.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
None. I hate flip flops, actually - can't stand to have stuff between my toes like that.

LASTOLOGY
Q: Last person who texted you?
John.

Q: Last person who called you?
One of the new people I trained this week, looking for help with a problem.

Q: Person you hugged?
John.

FAVORITOLOGY
Q: Number?
I love lots of different numbers, but 7 is one of my favorites.

Q: Season?
Spring.

Q: Color?
I haven't really had one since I broke up with pink, but I really love forest green.

CURRENTOLOGY
Q: Missing someone?
Many people.

Q: Mood?
More upbeat than I have been/Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Q: Listening to?
The noisy clacking of my own typing.

Q: Watching?
Ticket queue.

Q: Worrying about?
Moving, money,

Q: Wearing?
Knit shirt with t-shirt under it, cords, shark shoes.

RANDOMOLOGY
Q: First place you went this morning?
To the curb to put the garbage out before the truck came.

Q: What can you not wait to do?
Get home and put on some pajamas.

Q: Do you smile often?
Yes. My laughing is rather infamous, too.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
When I have to be. :p

In memoriam

When John and I first adopted three finches raised by our friend M, there was fighting and constant chaos as they struggled to create a pecking order. Various sources suggested that increasing our flock by one might help calm things down. Finches form pair bonds, and if there were enough of them to couple up, things would become calmer.

So we headed to a small pet store near our house that specializes in birds and fish, and there, we discovered Squeaky.

Finches learn their song from other finches, and our other three birds, all raised together in a large extended family, sound alike, although they each put their individual spin on their song. Squeaky, having been brought up among canaries, was as identifiable by his sweet, high-pitched tune as he was by his brilliant coloring. As changes were made to items in the cage, Squeaky was frequently the most intrepid, carefully studying a new object and landing on it, reporting his findings back to the other birds in his unique, high-pitched voice.

As we had hoped, adopting Squeaky brought a measure of peace and contentment to our little flock. He partnered up with Bowser, formerly our biggest bully, and they ate, slept, and worked on their nest-building together.

About six months ago, Squeaky had a bout of illness. Finches are notoriously difficult to treat, because they rarely show signs of problems until their disease is too far advanced for any kind of human intervention to be useful. John carefully warmed him in his hands, waking him and encouraging him to eat. Miraculously, he managed to recover, and appeared to be back to normal for some time, though we were watching him carefully.

On Saturday, Squeaky was struggling with another unknown illness. We weren't able to help him this time, and Squeaky died.

This may seem like a lot of attention to devote to a pet that I couldn't cuddle with, couldn't even come close to under normal circumstances, and who probably thought right until the end that I was about to eat him, any day now. But we're in a time of very crowded events at the moment, and it would be very easy to skip over this loss and bury it under other worries, like my parents' visit which overlapped with the Seder, or the ongoing upheavals at work, or the stress of finding an apartment that we liked only to be rejected by the extremely paranoid landlord, and having to go back to the drawing board and find a new apartment as the clock ticks down on needing to leave our current place.

He will be missed by all of us, human and avian alike, and it would be wrong to fail to acknowledge that.

I hope that we gave him a good life, with good food, good nests, and good companions. I hope that he was happy. I hope that wherever he is, he knows that while he was with us, he made our dark, chaotic times a little sweeter and brighter. (And that we never, never planned to eat him.)

The open road

After my long absence, here I am coming to you live from the Berlin Turnpike in Connecticut, almost like a real blogger.

Our final destination is the annual Southern Graphics Print Council conference in Richmond, VA, but we're going to take our sweet time getting there. Our destination tonight is Philadelphia, where we'll be staying for a couple of days, fulfilling the terms of a trip that I promised John a long time ago. Then, we'll be moving on to DC for a few days until we reach Richmond on Wednesday or so.

Though we planned this trip for months, it couldn't have come at a better time. We received notice that we're losing our apartment this week, so my stress level, already hopped up on work crapulence, really went through the roof. So we're rolling into the not-quite-known in more ways than one.