Happy New Year

Peas, man. 

Cat Documentary

Narrated in a field documentary whisper: Here we have a not so rare view of the domestic feline inhabiting the heater vent. Observe the corner of the vent cover sticking out from under his massive coat of fur. After hunting down and devouring a can of food, (or, more accurately, begging for it unmercifully) he must sleep while his digestive system processes the overload of protein.  

Brain Bursts of Semi Related Topicals

Anamnesiac says: "Blanch the broccoli for 60-90 seconds in boiling water, then plunge into ice water. Dry thoroughly. This is the second most important step."

wait -- no, that was Braisin Hussy. (Cut and paste is great, isn't it!? I just thought I'd leave that little mistake in there for giggles!)

What if they had writing bloopers? Like, what the author wrote before the editor got to it. It could be at the end of the novel. What the writer accidentally said in the rough draft, what they misspelled, etc... the hilarity of the typos could be very entertaining.

Somehow I don't think this is going to catch on, ever.

I went with a friend to a movie yesterday, during which the woman next to us 2 seats down, came by herself but apparently wanted to hide, even in a dark movie theater. She slid way down in her seat and pulled her collar up around her. It kept falling down and she kept looking around and pulling it up. I found that very intriguing and I really wanted to ask her about it but decided if she was hiding she probably meant not to talk to anyone either. I suppose there could have been all kinds of explanations for that.

But I digress......

Anamnesiac really said: "you have done nothing to offend me. i have been recalibrated by a small revelation. about the nature of the setup of the structure of the current construction, if you will, of my life."

Sounds like a break up line, but I really, really like it. I think it meant she's not going to write in her blog for a while; maybe not ever. She wrote this Sept. 16, 2004 and nothing since, so that evidence would go far to make my theory more solid.

I really wanted to quote that.

Emerging Sideways quoted a verse recently about "living wide open".
I'm not so hot at that sometimes. Lately I've been living "closed tight shut, clamped down hard".

A recalibration of the nature of the setup of the structure of the current construction, if you will, of certain patterns of thinking -- of relating -- of ways I react to life -- would be nice right now.

OH NO! I'm speaking in RHYME!

Pome I
by Captainwow

in which:
Rapunzel Discovers Jack Handy and Morphs Into Little Red Riding Hood

dedicated to Fragile Heroine with love and tongue in cheek dark humor

dark have been her dreams of late
of bleeding white kittens, black demon snakes
none can plumb, if truth be told
the deepest secrets may never unfold

weeping in the tower there
no way of escape by long golden hair
or white horse or chariot or magic carpet ride
from that stark truth she cannot hide

she opens a book called Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy
and thinks to herself well now isn't that dandy
she's reminded at last of a quote so very timely
"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and by golly - people like me!"

she flips out her cell phone to call her best friends
the ones she knows most there's no need to pretend
leave message we're busy was all she did hear
not one was around, that soon was clear

to one knee she did fall on that cold damp stone floor
she startled a rat who did run under the door
her cell phone it clattered, slid under the chair
her heart was so broken she did not care

she went to the window to ask of the sky
who am I where am I what again why?
she looked down below expecting to see
expanses and woods and the tops of the trees

instead what she saw was a shock to be sure
the scene out the window was quite different to her
the grass and the trees were not far below
if she wanted to she could just climb out the window

she grunted and struggled and climbed and quite soon
she tumbled out on her butt with a great big huge boom
the fall was so hard that stars she did see
and it took her a while to be able to breathe

she straightened her dress and fussed with her hair
she gathered her thoughts and finally remembered where
she was going to go before all of this started
before she got captured, her hair cut, called retarded

she put up her hood and tidied her basket
that was loaded up full with tiskets and taskets
now I remember now I know
where it was I intended to go

further down this path you see
lives someone so very special to me
my grandmother lives out here and beseeched
that I come and observe her brand new false teeth

The Cat's Eating Canned Food With a Stainless Steel Spoon

The Mocha weirdness is fixed from a few posts ago. Hello was randomly grabbing the wrong photo for that entry.
Mocha is a cute black cat, not a hopelessly deformed Jack 'o' Lantern!

The base cabinet is up in the kitchen - yee ha. So now the silverware and untensils can reside IN the kitchen instead of in the living room where they've been for a while now.
I need a spoon. Oh, wait. They're in the living room. Oh well, I'll just use my hands.

No more of THAT, I tell ya.

Bloggity Scroogity Blabbity Blab (and a little prayer too)

Can you believe we're this close to Christmas?
This close to the end of the year?
It's hard for me to wrap my mind around that.

Further than ever from most of the Christmas Yee Haw, it's easy for me to forget that it's that time of year unless I need to go to the Mall for some reason. I realize I'm most likely preaching to the choir, but I doubt the Baby Jesus or even Saint Nicholas would give half of a nickel for half of the nutso stuff we do this time of year. Which, I realize most people in the rest of the world really aren't doing. There are other meanings for Christmas for some and there is Hanukkah and there is Kwanzaa and there are many other holidays celebrated around us this time of year. Still, the frenzy... And what for? What is that phrase again? Dog the Wail.... Wag the Dog??? Tail the Barking Wag.....Jingle the Hail on the Tonky? Who told us we had to worship at the cathedral of consumerism in order to make this time of year complete? Let's just get real here. WHO are we doing this for?

Don't get me wrong... I'm not a complete scrooge. I'll be sending out the Christmas cards and giving reasonable and/or home made gifts and getting them and wrapping and singing and doing all of that but on a much less grand scale than I used to. But I'm no longer sitting around fooling myself that I'm doing it to celebrate Jesus and his birth. I'm doing it for me. And for family and friends and for tradition. Because I like to. Because I find meaning in it. This just happens to happen in a more concentrated amount during the month of December. (and in my circle of family and friends, that's because of Christmas mostly) There's nothing wrong with that. I'm all for a grand celebration of the extravagant Gift of Jesus which is what I believe the Birth of Christ is really about... I also think that Jesus was a little more down to earth than what we give Him credit for. I think he asks Who's this really about? It's not a judgment, not a condemnation. It's about Truth. And about being honest with ourselves. I think He'd ask that question and when he got the honest answer from us he'd throw an arm over our shoulder and say Great! Now, let's go get some of your friends/family, some fine wine and cheese, our favorite food, our favorite stories and our favorite games. Let's CELEBRATE!!

Jesus, I'm so glad you were born.
And I'm so glad you let us be who we are.
Help us Be Real, help us Do Good.

Making Progress

before 


after 

Still a bit more to do but here's the progress... I'm so geeked.

Unexpected Breakfast Company

Mocha decided to join me for breakfast this morning. We discussed the United Nations system and the participation of Non Governmental Organizations in that community. We also reflected on global spirituality and how that affects particular interest groups these days.

In addition, we explored her rejection issues arising from her halitosis condition, and the possibility of me trimming her toenails today.


Breakfast With Mocha2


closeup 

Settling for Flying

Last night with friends I told a story about how once someone told me if I ate enough chicken wings I'd be able to fly. I believed that of course since I was only about 4. So I ate the wings of chickens and tried flying. Tried and tried and tried. Jumping off of things and flapping my arms and trying to soar. It makes for a pretty funny visual - little Captainwow flapping away and crashing to the ground over and over. Pathetic, but funny in an "Aren't little kids so cute and precious?" kind of way.

This morning I got to thinking about that and how I don't really remember figuring it out. Seemed like the failure to fly didn't really affect me. There was no disillusionment or depression over it, I just must have stopped trying at some point. But I did try. And I think that is kind of cool. When's the last time I tried anything that impossible? When did I last try and try and try?

You thought I was going to get all metaphorical on you , didn't you? Go somewhere deep and thoughtful. No... Actually I'm about to confess something. You see I have an addiction - well, ANOTHER addiction that maybe you didn't know about yet. Amazing Man and I got a great wedding gift a little while back and it was a game called Settlers of Catan. Maybe you've heard of it. It's way fun and very addicting. We love it so much we found a way to play it ON LINE! TOGETHER! Oh yes, it's really that bad. So, the last time I tried and tried and kept on trying to do the impossible is in Settlers of Catan Online. I lose. All. The. Time. It's so pathetic, and not in a cute and funny way. But I love to play, and I get so hopeful, and I just never win! See, I know how to play the game. I know how to play it quite well. It's like Black Jack or the Lottery. I keep thinking "This time, THIS time I will WIN! I just have to do BETTER and try HARDER!" But no. I believe my title might now be "Uncapable". Seriously. (the programmer can't spell, but he's a genius, so we let it slide)

Oh, it's so very sad. But fun.

Meanwhile, I still love Chicken Wings. BW3 will always have a special place in my heart. I don't try to fly anymore, I just play Settlers.

Link Alert

You must go see Nativities That Maybe Don't Need to Exist. Sara at Going Jesus is posting a new one of these every day for advent. Scroll down to begin at December 5.

And God Bless the Rest of the World, Too

Is it just me, or is Blogger incredibly slow these days? Half the time I can't hit the pages I want and if I try to post, it takes for EVER. I had half a notion to post yesterday but it took so long for the thing to come up I finally said screw it and went back to painting.

Painting. That's what I've been up to all week. And I do mean ALL week. I'm doing one of those projects I would usually not bother with. Painting the kitchen with not one, not two, but THREE DIFFERENT COLORS!

This time, I'm not doing my usual thing of just throw myself into it and see how it all comes out in the end. I, for a change, have done some prepping and preparing and planning and dreaming. I actually WASHED and then PRIMED the walls. Really, I do believe that is a first.

The other first is that I imagined these colors, I found them, and when I put them on the walls, it actually comes out looking like I thought it might. So yummy. Here are the paint colors, just to make you drool: Swiss Chocolate. Vanilla Steam, and then the boring one: Lyndhurst Gallery Beige. It goes on looking like silly putty then dries to a very nice coffee with cream color. That's what I was going for, coffee and cream. The Swiss Chocolate reminds me of the movie Chocolat - the swirling, rich chocolate, I feel like a child smearing chocolate all over the walls, I can even smell it. It makes me feel warm and yummy.

So ya, that is that part of the Kitchen Project. Also in the works are a dishwasher for which no plumbing or electrical for such things exists yet... But may before the end of next week... A new vinyl floor that will beat the pants off the ancient peel and stick that has been there so long it's become peel and shift and UNstick. Sitting in our living room in the flat IKEA boxes are a wonderful BASE CABINET, Folding Wall Mounted Table, Matching Shelves, and a pot rack. They sit and stare at me, begging to be assembled and put to use. I tell them soon, very soon, precioussssses.

So, as you can gather from all that, instead of blogging, I've been working on that project. And not going to work. Not driving 53 miles to work and back every day. Yay! Not getting up early. Yay! Not thinking about work, not missing it, not longing for it, feeling pretty darn happy about my decision to quit. Yay, and Amen and Praze JAYzuz!

Alleluia.
Selah.

Did I mention that I don't regret not working? grin

So the what's next question still hangs in the air but I'm less anxious about it. It's becoming OK to take some time to figure that one out, which also includes figuring out what I really want, which includes figuring out who I really am underneath this amazing persona I've created to keep the paparazzi interested but not so interested they snap pictures of us sunbathing nude on our back deck.
Of interest to me lately in this leg of my journey:

The Enneagram
Ignatius of Loyola
Spiritual Direction

Tonight we're going to a party. Kevin's work party. At the BOB. Don't worry about me if I say this but I love that they serve Bombay Sapphire Gin and other Top Shelf delights. I really really want to wear the black afro wig and the black feather boa. If I only had nine lives.

In other news. I'm getting some serious dental work done. I may as well say this out loud. This scares the crap out of me. Having gone my whole life with only one filling... I'm about to get TEN of them. TEN EFFING FILLINGS! Five at a time, two sessions! Can you buhLEEVE THAT!? I'm having myself a mini crisis over this. Apparently I've got some serious Acid Reflux that is eroding my teeth away and I really wasn't aware that it was that serious. So there's that too, to go get checked out. Did I believe I'd stay young forever? Yes, I think I must have. Yesterday I smiled in the mirror and saw my smile wrinkles are deeper and wrinkly-er. THAT doesn't bother me. I like that. I've got a good relationship with those wrinkles, and any gray hair that sprouts - and I'll wear them proudly. Wrinkles and Gray hair are Sexy. Fillings are not. It could be much worse, you don't need to tell me that, because I know.
But for now, I don't like it - not one bit.
So there.
I'll get over it....

On a funny note, Amazing Man bent over to pick up something off the floor and PLOOP! His glasses slid out of his pocket and RIGHT into the toilet! We got a laugh out of it and they got a sterilizing Rubbing Alcohol Bath Pronto.

Hope you're having a groovy day!