Unwelcome Visitors

We woke up to a kitchen full of these little bastards this morning. I saw a few of them running around yesterday and feared they'd multiply overnight when I couldn't be there to keep an eye on them, and I was right. We dispatched them after a half hour's hard labor, but they'll probably be back again tomorrow morning. They always seem to "test" us for a couple of days before they move on. Fortunately, once they're gone they tend to stay gone for months. I think this invasion is retaliation for my drowning out one of their colonies a couple of days ago when I revived an old planter that hadn't seen any water for a long time. Actually, I rather enjoy drowning ants - I get a kick out of watching them run around like their little asses are on fire - probably very much like I'd behave if some giant six-legged creature with a multi-sectioned body smelling like formalin burst into my house with a fire hose. My mother used to pour boiling water on them whenever she found an invasion, but I've discovered plain old hose water is just as effective, and you don't waste electricity boiling up the water.

One time, an old woman at a church where I worked, put a question to me; If I could ask God any question, what would it be? I told her I'd like to know how many ants are alive and well on this planet at any given moment. The good woman was scandalized. She, it appeared, had a whole list of lofty questions to ask The Maker, most of which I thought were absolute balderdash. I'm sure God's answers to all of her nosey questions would invariably be, "Because that's the way it is, Sister." Now, the answer to my question would be one you could sink your teeth into... a number with a million billion gazillion digits. Sort of like Pi.

No, as a matter of fact, I DON'T have anything better to do this afternoon...

The Garden - five weeks later...

What a change from the pics on May 21! Most of the plants are covered with hard, little green veggies. I'm getting impatient! Another couple weeks of weather like we've had for the past two days, and we'll have veggies up the wazoo. (ACK! What am I saying... please, NO!!!)

Picked the first strawberry today...
A half for each of us tonight with a bottle of champagne to celebrate First Harvest!! (That's reason enough for champagne, isn't it???)

Hey! Some excitement...!

It F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. arrived!! I've been waiting for this magazine for what seems like forever. It was announced last fall and the Premier Issue finally fell into my hot little hands yesterday. It's an absolute masterpiece, and (though I didn't think so while I was waiting) it was absolutely worth waiting for! It's nearly 150 pages, with a gorgeous color photo (or two) on nearly every page - even the ads are beautiful - printed on wonderful, heavy paper, and filled with so many exciting ideas my head is spinning. I've barely been able to put it down! It just screams at me to dive into my studio and GET BUSY!

So that's where I'm headed, like, RIGHT NOW!!!!

No excitement here...

As my header says... Excitement??? Not here! This has been a month of taking care of sick cats and little else. It's sent us into some terrible habits that we're now working our butts off to break; staying up too late, getting up too late, drinking too much, eating too much take-'n'-bake pizza, wasting too much time in front of the computer, lumping around doing nothing... UGH. June has been an almost total waste. By the time we give three cats six doses of sub-q fluids, four pills, and five syringes of liquid meds (all of which they hate and fight like tigers to avoid), then deal with feeding the sick ones (who are fussy as hell), then feed the twenty healthy ones and worry about who's eating enough, who's not eating enough, who's trying to steal food from another, who's punching who out because they sense our anxiety, et cetera and et cetera; all of this on a daily basis just wears us out.

Even though my acceptance of the B.W.O. pledge (Blogging Without Obligation) exempts me from apologizing for lapses in blog entries, I feel bad about missing so many days. I really enjoy blogging, both doing my own and reading the ones I follow, and sometimes wish I had a more exciting life so I'd have more to post. But then I sit down and take a few deep breaths and let the feeling pass over me. I like my slow, sometimes humdrum, life very much. I had enough excitement to last a lifetime during my years in St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco - the memories are wonderful, but I wouldn't get myself back into that life style for anything, thank you!

Re the cats, Dmitri is much better - the only thing remaining from his terrible ordeal of eight weeks ago is loss of stability in his right hind leg. He gets around fine, and recently has been quite active. He tires easily due to the congestive heart failure, but his blood work looks good, and he's eating well. Right now, we couldn't ask for more. Jenny is regaining weight and energy, eating much better, and becoming more feisty and active. Diana isn't doing as well - continues to lose weight, isn't eating very well, and is drinking a lot of water - all of which probably indicate her lab values are going back up. She's going to the vet this weekend, so we'll know soon.

Life goes on...

Prayer

I've often said I'm not a prayin' woman, and the concept of intercessionary prayer (as in, "Oh dear Jesus, send me a new Cadillac or a new refrigerator or a new husband or a million dollars, etc...") really turns me off. Prayer in the form of meditation, on the other hand, really does something for me - it calms me down, tunes me in, fills the hole in my soul, and just plain feels good. This prayer is shared by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley and is hanging in their beautiful lobby atrium. I see it every time I go there for my organ lesson, and it never fails to have an effect on me - especially the part about taming that which rages within me. Click on the picture below so you can read it, and relax... breathe... have a beautiful day!

Progressing one pot at a time...

I'm slowly getting all of the planters on the front patio "repaired". I was an absolute do-nothing over the winter and practically everything croaked. And, no, I didn't do it deliberately so I could run out and buy a bunch of new stuff this spring. Here's the two latest...

This is an Oragami Aquilegia, a species of columbine. Did you know there are 70 species of columbines? Neither did I. They're all so delicately beautiful... I love them. I saw my first columbine when I was about 7 or 8, and wanted to move to Colorado because my aunt told me they were Colorado's state flower, and, as such, were growing wild all over the place there. At the time I was dull enough to think the California Poppy was boring. (Stupid kid...)


Someone's having a lot of fun with Calla Lilies this year. I've seen so many new colors it's made my head spin. I already have them in yellow and hot pink, and, of course, the requisite white, and I just found this purple and white beauty last week. I also saw one in pumpkin orange with a delicate outline of darker orange around the edges; and others in light green, red, and dark purple. I think it's time to just buy them all and get my bulb garden going...

Hooray for Hostas!

I love Hostas, but I live in a sunny, windy place, and, ultimately, Hostas don't love me. I wasn't really planning to try growing them again, but I found these two at the supermarket nursery last week. They were inexpensive, and looked pretty good, so I decided to try one more time. So far, they seem to like it here... one is already sending up flowers, and the other has shot out an entire new set of leaves. Maybe this time we'll get lucky!

More Zoe...

Grand-niece Zoe is 9 days old today. Here she is with Einstein, one of the world's coolest dogs!

Zoe revisited...

Here's a more flattering picture of Zoe - all cleaned up and awake. Such a doll!

PIQF 2009

I'm all signed up for this year's PIQF (Pacific International Quilt Festival), have my hotel reservations made, and am already plowing through my stash, looking for fabric to take! I'll be taking three classes with Barbara Olson, and can hardly wait. I can't legally post any pictures of her quilts here (damn!), but go here to view her gallery. Her work is eye-popping and just knocks my socks off! Her classes are described as, "techniques for quilters who are ready to break out of the box and experience a playful way of quilting, by getting their brains out of the way and jump-starting their creativity". Sounds good to me! I've had her book for a couple of years, and never get tired of looking at it...


I always thought work like hers was beyond me, but I should know better than to think like that! It's time to get fearless!!

2009 Garden up and running...

Yay!! The back yard containers are finally planted... well, most of them, at least. This year we're looking forward to potatoes, lemon cucumbers, six different kinds of Heirloom tomatoes, green peppers, strawberries, green beans, chives, parsley, basil, lemon thyme, sage and oregano, plus a bunch of flowers I chunked into the pots to add a dash of color. Lettuce is yet to come, as soon as I get a couple more barrels ready. As usual, the rest of the yard looks like hell... especially that bloody, damned hill, but John, my trusty gardner, is working to eliminate that problem.

Welcome, Zoe!

Zoe Alana Proctor, born this day at 6:05 a.m.
It's a hellofa messed up world you've found yourself in, little girl, but you're your mama's child. That, along with that crazy set of initials they gave you, means you're gonna do just fine.
May you live long and prosper!

Faces only a mother could love...?

Gettin' loose and having fun with the camera on my new iPhone...

The Love of My Life
My "Sistah"
One very cool Old Fart
Yoda... a thug among cats
Lucia (Chi-Chi) The most adorable cat on the planet

Meditation

Today, in an attempt to give Dmitri a break from the cage in which he's been confined since he experienced his "stroke" two weeks ago, I let him sit on a window sill in the sunlight for half an hour. At the same time, I pulled up a chair and sat next to him so I could keep an eye (and a restraining hand) on him. He quickly dozed off while I zoned in the sun. This industrious little guy was just outside the window, and I watched in pure delight while he chomped his way through a couple of inches of an enormous fennel plant. I was reminded of a song Frank Sinatra recorded back in 1959, called "High Hopes", with a verse about an ant bringing down a rubber tree plant. Even if this caterpillar can't bring down this fennel bush, he'll have the freshest breath in all caterpillar-dom, and that's gotta be worth something... right??

I'm happy to report Dmitri is doing pretty well... he's eating okay, though he insists on being "finger fed", he can walk a little, though his right hind leg doesn't work very well, and he's tolerating his daily regimen of four different meds and two doses of subcutaneous fluids very well. He's alert and responsive and definitely seems to enjoy all the attention he's getting, and, I have to admit, I'm enjoying showering him with said attention. I'm just so grateful I have the time to supply it. So what if I don't have time to do a whole lot else in my life? In the end, pampering a sick companion animal is, to me, more worthwhile than just about anything else I can do.

Tax Break

I'm trying so hard to get our taxes done before the extension runs out... and with my track record with taxes, the August 15 extension running out is a real possibility. I was making some decent progress, until I took a potty break and came back to find Nikolai had jumped in to help me out. Oh well, I needed a break anyway. I hate doing taxes as much as I hate doing housework. If Nikky wants to help, I'll back off and let him help! Tomorrow is always another day. Maybe tomorrow will be the day the taxes get done.
Maybe not.

More orchid-children

I recently added two new orchids to my Greenhouse in the Loo. Now that the warmer weather is finally here, I've noticed some of the older plants sprouting new leaves and shoots, so I hope to have more blooms before too long. As usual, I don't know the names of these beauties, but that never stops me from buying them!

Life and Time march on...

While we're waiting for Dmitri to choose his path of recovery, life goes on around us. Last week, our niece, Kristen, was feted with a baby shower by her grandmother in Diablo. We're definitely not baby shower enthusiasts, in fact we're not even baby enthusiasts, but we went to this shower because the family has all moved away, and we never see them any more. We had a good time - it was fun to see everyone, including some old family friends we hadn't seen in ages. Zoe, the newcomer, received a ton of goods - she's definitely going to be the best dressed baby in Carson City. It was a beautiful day, Grandma Betty's drop-dead gawgeous house (high on a hill overlooking the Diablo Valley golf course) was, as always, a delicious place to hang out, the yummy food and wine kept coming, and there was only one baby shower game, which actually turned out to be rather fun! Kristen says Zoe has to "marinate" for another 6-8 weeks before making her appearance, so we'll officially be grand-uncle and aunt pretty soon. Such an honour!


Kristen and Einstein admire one of Zoe's new outfits. That's Kristen's sister, Tracy, and her husband, Eric, in the wedding picture in the background. Maybe they're next in the baby game...???


Einstein, obviously bored with the whole baby shower thing, decides his pig foot is muuuuuch more interesting!

One M.F. of a week...

This week has been a bitch. I mean, a total, fucking bust. Dmitri, one of our beautiful boys, suffered the kitty equivalent of a stroke a few days ago, and we've spent hours at one veterinarian or cat emergency clinic or another, and hours more worrying about him and wondering if he's going to get through this. About a decade ago, Josef suffered a similar problem, and the only advice we got at that time was euthanasia. Times have changed and medical technology has progressed, and this time around we've been cautiously advised to "wait and see", as all of the vets we've seen claim they've known a cat or two who survived this kind of crisis. We're waiting, and going bonkers in the process. One day he looks like he's better, the next day things look totally bleak. His hind legs were paralyzed the first day or two, but now he can maneuver them enough to move about a little. The biggest problem is that he isn't eating, and cats know best about that kind of stuff. I think he knows he's going to die, so he's allowing himself to shut down. The entire episode revolves around a quality of life issue, and he's definitely not experiencing any huge amount of quality in his life as it is right now. Martin and I are totally committed to caring for him, no matter what his condition, but we're trusting him to write the script. In the meantime, were discovering waiting is one of the most difficult things to do in life.

Carmina Burana

The Vallejo Symphony scored again last night with a blockbuster production of one of my favorite symphonic choral works - Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. This incredible work came into my life during my first year of college. It totally blew me away at that time, and it totally blew me away last night. The work is scored for an enormous orchestra with percussion instruments up the wazoo, and features a large chorus and three soloists. Wildly syncopated rhythms, almost frantic tempos, and near-manic percussion passages, interspersed with soft, gently lyrical sections, make this work one of the most sensual and visceral in the entire concert repertoire. The lyrics... which originate in a manuscript of 12th century poetry, and written primarily in medieval Latin, with a smattering of medieval French and German, present a distinct challenge to an amateur chorus, but the combined members of the Solano and Vallejo Choral Societies, the Solano College Chamber Choir, and the St. Vincent's Children's choir covered themselves with glory, executing the strange, tongue-tying text with obviously well-trained dexterity. I'm sure some of the audience got more than they'd bargained for as Maestro Ramadannof explained the text of the poems; which were written by an itinerate, but well-educated, band of former clerics and rowdy students whose minds were clearly occupied by more worldly and carnal pleasures than the church had to offer. Many of the songs concern drinking, love, gambling, and sexual exploits, expressed in some pretty explicit language, all tied together by an unsentimental acceptance of the vagaries of fortune and the inevitability of man’s submission to his fate. Heady stuff! Overall, it was a stupendous experience - the only unfortunate aspect being that a shitload of work was involved in its preparation for only one performance. It deserved to be heard by more than just one audience.

Extraction excitement

One of my teeth had been looking like this for quite a while - wasn't hurting, so, with my usual procrastinating self, I chose to ignore it. However, I still have another $999K of dental work to be done, and my dentist said he couldn't continue until the holey tooth came out. Not that I'm dying to go into further debt to the good DDS, but he made the right side of my mouth look so good after the first $999K job last year, I decided I might as well give in, so out came the bad guy. I now have a bathtub -sided hole in the upper left quadrant of my mouth, and a shitload of pain to go with it. I am, however, beginning to feel less and less pain as the day wears on...when I got home from the oral surgeon's factory this afternoon, I slept until the anesthetic wore off, then had to make an executive decision between the Rx for pain meds and brandy. I'm happy to say the brandy won. I'll probably exchange tooth pain for a hangover tomorrow, but at this point I don't give a shit.

Love Your Mother - Earth Day 2009

April 22 marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Those were the "bad old days". At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans; industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press; air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity, and environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. Earth Day 1970 turned all that around. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.
Much has been achieved since that first Earth Day, but so much more needs to be done. Go here to find out what you can do... whether it's a lot or a little, every effort helps.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Internet sources say it's 94 right here, right now. UGH! It's bloody awful! Those same sources say it's going to be 61 by Friday. How in hell does that work???

Well, it's better than being in Michigan with Michele, where it's currently 36 with snow flurries. Not my cup of bourbon either.

Worse yet, I could be with Rekha in Kanpur, India, where they're headed for 105 later today (probably coupled with 105% humidity, to sweeten the deal.)

I guess I'll just shut up.

Bitch, bitch, bitch... never happy... that's me, as my January 29 post will attest. Did I REALLY want it to be April? What was I thinking...????

One down, four to go...

Here's Virginia's round robin block with my border added. Thank goodness for cheater cloth, and for that small "emergency" stash of fabrics I'll never use - they were a perfect match! I'll exchange Virginia's piece for someone else's at tomorrow's meeting and start all over again. Not stressing so far...

New Round Robin

My quilt guild, Vallejo Piecemakers, started another Round Robin last month.

This is my center block, and, after visiting five other quilters, I'll get it back in July or August with five fabulous, exciting, creative, inspired and, hopefully, flamboyant, new borders. I got so uptight the last time I participated in a round robin (my first), I could hardly enjoy the process, but this time I'm very laid back about it. So laid back, in fact, that I haven't even started working on Virginia's center block yet, and it's due back in her hands on Saturday. Guess I'd better get busy. First, though, I need to fix myself a Jack 'n Coke and stare at it a bit longer.

Here's Virginia's block:


Adorable, eh? About as far away from my style as it's possible to get, but then... that's part of the challenge, isn't it?!

The Joy of Rescuing

As most of my friends know, I'm an inveterate rescuer... I'm a schlump for anyone or anything in need. When I was a kid, I drove my parents wacko by bringing home injured birds, lizards, cats, half-dead flowers, broken toys, battered books, etc. As a teenager and young adult, I marched and protested for or against every just cause or unjust social issue out there. I adopted houseplants my friends had all but killed and nursed them back to health; the same with sick fish from their aquariums. Later, my rescue efforts even extended to a couple of good-for-nothing-low-down-dirty-rotten-scumbag men, with the completely predictable, disastrous results. Fortunately, I gave up that vein quickly, but the desire to rescue still burns hot in my soul! I adopt damaged cats, rescue dying plants from supermarket nurseries, save spiders in the bath tub, and throw a few bucks at every animal rights cause that hits my mailbox.

Recently, World Vision found me and now, Goddess help me, I'm even rescuing kids. The number of kids in need of food, health care, clean water, clothes, shoes, love, attention, and other kinds of help, both in our own country and abroad, is staggering and heartbreaking beyond measure. Thanks to World Vision, I'm now making a difference in the lives of two children. Two out of approximately 236 gazillion kids in need ain't much, but it's a start.

AMY lives in Senegal, and is twelve years old.


REKHA lives in India, and is eight years old.


For a small monthly sponsorship fee (auto-deducted from my checking account so I don't even miss it), I, along with other sponsors, can help children with things like health care, education, clothing, better food and clean water, and, in the process, help their entire community become more self-sufficient. It's almost impossible to believe a mere $30 can go so far. I get the pleasure of writing to them and sending them silly little gifts like colored pencils, drawing paper, hair ribbons, balloons and stickers. They write back to me and keep me apprised of how they're doing in school and life in general. All of this I do from the comfort of my own way-too-comfortable lifestyle. Oy... it makes me feel like such a mentsh.

I can't recommend this happy, painless process enough, and urge everyone to adopt a kid and start gathering your own very rewarding warm fuzzies!

Viva, Bach!

Johann Sebastian Bach
b: 21 March 1685 - Eisenach
d: 28 July 1750 - Leipzig

Bach is the absolute hero of my life. His music feeds my soul, and if I were unable to hear another note of music by any other composer for the rest of my life, I wouldn't feel I was missing a thing. His compositional output was staggering, the quality of his music is unparalleled, and the variety of styles is unbelievable. His music is as mathematically complex as it is beautiful, and is the most enjoyable to play of any I've studied (and that's a lot of music, folks!) I was blessed with a piano teacher who started me out on the music of Bach, instead of scales and other boring crap that drives most kids away from piano lessons before they even get a chance to appreciate what music is all about. Sincere thanks, Mrs. Durham - you worked my four-year-old ass off that first year, and for the next twenty years, but it was worth every keystroke! You and Herr Bach gave me a musical foundation upon which I built a wonderful career as a pianist, harpsichordist, organist and singer, and I'm very grateful to both of you.

Elvis revisited

Elvis was really torqued when he saw the picture I posted of him on January 28, so here's one that's a little more "refined". With him is his inseparable companion, Dmitri, who was featured on December 4.

Another dose of high impact entertainment...Cat watching

Our beautiful little ebony daughters, Patty, Maxene and LaVerne, enjoy a bug watching session from the music room window. Alessandro, Frederick, and an unknown cat under the blanket, watch from a respectful distance. Scheesh... it looks like a window washing session is waaaaay overdue! Or not. Maybe I'll just stay true to my "I hate housework" lifestyle and wait until it rains again.

Today's Hero: Beth

As Elizabeth Vandervennet - Principal cellist for the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra.

As Gingerbread Candy Monahan, in the fabulous Rosin Coven, the World's Premiere Pagan Lounge Ensemble.

I've loved the cello since infancy, when my father first introduced me to the instrument. For reasons known only to him, he stopped playing when I was very young, and his cello lived on the top shelf in his closet for many years until, one day, it disappeared. I was told it had "been sold", but was never told why. Alas, somewhat typical behavior for someone in my strange family. I've been a devoted cello "follower" for years, with Julian Lloyd Webber being at the top of the heap of my favorite artists of this wonderful instrument.
My far-and-away favorite work for the cello is Josef Haydn's fiendish First Cello Concerto, so I was delighted when the Vallejo Symphony programmed it this season. Last night, it was excellently executed by the orchestra's principal cellist, in a performance that had the audience spellbound, and then out of their seats and on their feet, roaring and screaming, at the conclusion. Kudos to Beth!!

A Zen sunset for a cold Winter's day...

So much fire in the sky for it to be so cold on the ground! Again, I have to qualify my use of the word "cold"... meaning, it's cold to ME, but not necessarily to my friend Michele, who's enduring life in the sub-zeroes in Michigan, or friend Heidi in Germany who's experiencing the same. "California cold" is a concept only a native Californian can grasp. Whatever... I'll be glad when it isn't so "cold", like as in April or so!