Miscellany

So it snowed yesterday. HEY, folks, it's late March...we had dinner at the Curtz's last nigh, and it was snowing and hailing and all that. Break out the fur coat in late March?!? whatever. It didn't get all that cold, though, e.g., not a hard freeze, so the daffodils, etc., didn't get killed. And the wood is dry, so I've had a fire going in the den all day. Yesterday, too.

And it's March Madness time. AND, the UK basketball team wasn't supposed to do very well, and now they are in the Final Four. It's been all basketball all the time, and I gotta admit, I'm a bit tired of it, although I AM happy the UK team is doing well..

I am optimistic that my bronchitis will go away this week; I am well and truly tired of being sick. I've basically gotten NOTHING constructive done in the past two weeks.

The big question at our house right now is: is Lillie going to get taxes done ON TIME this year, for the first time in how many years?!?

stay tuned...cheers, lillie

spring in Kentucky

So I didn't go anywhere today, what with being sick and sleeping until noon. I did venture out to check on the birds, which have started laying LOTS of eggs, as chickens, quail, partridge, etc are wont to do in the spring. I suppose I could sell them, but that's such a hassle for so little money, I think I'll give them away.

I also looked around the farm (part of it, at least). It's always interesting seeing what has died over the winter, and what hasn't. Daffodils are in full bloom; trees are budding. Weather is typically crazy for spring. It got up to 80 degrees today, but now a front is blowing through (accompanied by tornadoes, etc. of course), and the temperature has dropped a Texas-style 20 degrees. Supposed to be in the 30's by morning. The shittake mushrooms are growing on the logs again (thanks to the rain). Those logs are about 6 or 7 years old, and it is surprising that they are still producing. I got several pounds of them; not clear what I'm going to do with all of them. Will dry some, of course.

On other fronts, the herbs I have been trying to start indoors haven't died yet. Neither have the herbs I bought from Smit's (lemon thyme, rosemary, aloe vera, and sage) and re-potted. I've decided that since the back porch is sort of a built-in greenhouse, I should make an actual effort to use it as such.

Evidently the line of hail and tornadoes is going south of us, for a change...

And Elizabeth Taylor has died. I still remember once when she visited London while we were in England, and Sybil Burton, Richard Burton's first wife, left town (he was already dead) saying that London wasn't large enough for TWO Mrs. Richard Burton's at the same time...

Cheers, Lillie

San Francisco and other things

Evidently I have a bang-up case of bronchitis, but I do NOT (at least, not yet) have pneumonia. Which means I couldn't have my Orencia infusion today (they won't let you have the stuff if you have an infection, and it seems to be actually helping my RA). I am on an antibiotic now, and, theoretically at least, all my problems are over. Or will be soon.

Rand Paul has evidently decided to run for President in 2012. Yippee. A Republican ticket with him, and either Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann, does give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

We spent nearly a week in San Francisco. Aside from our initial experience at the airport, and the weather, it was a LOT of fun.

To the experience at the airport, we (I) had checked two suitcases, mine and Martin's. Mine arrived, and Martin's for some obscure reason didn't. It evidently went to Minneapolis instead of Detroit. Go figure. So we had to go discuss this with some woman about my age, who looked like a San Francisco style 1960's 70's style hippie who never got over it. So she found the suitcase in her computer. She then asked whether we wanted to come collect it (NO!) or whether we wanted it delivered...so where to? We gave her Sarah's address and our phone numbers. It then emerges that since it will be after 8:00 p.m. when the suitcase arrives, they can't (!) deliver it that evening, have to do it tomorrow, and it will be sometime between 10:00 and 4:00. Right, which means we have to hang around the apartment until it arrives. Sarah (on the phone) tells us to get it delivered to her office, we tell the bimbo this and she sorta can't cope with the address. I try to give her the phone with Sarah on the other end, and she says she can't use a cell phone because of the radiation(!). I would suggest that her brain has already been well and truly fried by all the drugs she took in the 60's.

The good news is that we eventually did get the suitcase.

Phil, Martin and I went to the Natural History Museum in Golden Gate Park (a HUGE park) to see Claude, the albino alligator. We did have some quality time with Claude, and I would suggest that he waved to us when we were about to leave. People might argue about that, though, although Claude (who evidently spends virtually all his time lounging on this rock in the "swamp") did raise his left claw and move it down to his side, with a movement reminiscent of the British royal wave. We took some photos. We also visited the rain forest, a multi-level thing that was really interesting, although it was hell on my sinuses (too much humidity, too much mold, etc.).

Sarah and Aaron have a legitimate French bistro called Chez Papa down on the corner, about half a block away. And across the street from that there's a serious independent bookstore. Good thing I don't live there (it's on Portrero Hill), as I'd spend buckets of money at that bookstore.

The next day (we actually had TWO days of reasonably good weather) the three of us went down to Fisherman's Wharf and took a boat tour around the bay, which was a lot more fun than I expected, what with the birds (don't know what they are) following the boat, the difference in the water when you went under the Golden Gate Bridge and out of the bay into the ocean...Alcatraz. It was all really neat.

We had some great meals, one in the Mission district called Delfina's or something, serious Italian food. On Friday we went up to Point Reyes (villages that look like they are straight out of a Western, something or other Dairy, where they have lots of GREAT cheese), up to some wide place in the road called Marshall with a really great oyster shack. We had lunch there. We ended up in Sonoma, which is picturesque with an old mission, court house square, and a restaurant called "A Girl and a Fig". Lots of fun. Saturday we didn't do much except watch basketball (UK) and sorta hang out and be tired.

On Sunday Joan and David had a brunch for us at their house, which was LOTS of fun, and then we met up with Andy Sih, Loric and Andy's new wife Cait at her (what do you call it?) job site which is like an old-fashioned fun fair...pin ball machines, a miniature circus, magic shows, and a serious reconstruction in miniature of the Dickens books. Topped off by a Mexican dinner at Juan's, evidently a Berkeley institution, very good, although no margaritas (only beer and wine). ALSO there was this old geezer sitting in the back watching everything; turned out it's Juan, almost certainly in his late 80's or 90's. We took photos with him...

Trip back was (thankfully) uneventful...all of us are tired. And I'm sick, and Martin is having trouble with one of his wretched teeth...

So there...

Cheers, Lillie

things

Cooked some of the bacon I made recently. Good, very lean, didn't manage to wash it off and dry it before I sliced and cooked it, though. It was a bit salty.

Re: the article in today's Week in Review by the guy who decided to check himself out in Wikipedia and it turned out that it claimed he had died. He had an interesting time rectifying this. So I checked out myself; turns out Wikipedia hasn't discovered me yet. Good. Googled myself, and it turns out that I either died in 1977 or am still a math professor with a kctcs email account, and office in the Moloney Building, etc. I feel a bit better, though.

We're off to San Francisco on Tuesday. Sarah says they haven't had a tsunami there and that the weather is supposed to be bad. Among other things we plan to go to Frontera Grill, Rick Bayless's taqueria in Macy's on Union Square. Should be fun.

Tom and AJ (Tom being Aaron's friend who read the Rilke piece at their wedding) have both been looking for academic jobs. Trouble is (one of the troubles) they are not in the same actual field but in what would be at most colleges the Comparative Literature Dept. They keep getting just one offer at every department. U. Chicago REALLY wants her but has an Anti-nepotism policy. The must really want her, too as they recently upped the ante to an ENDOWED CHAIR they created for her; she's a new, untenured faculty person! She keeps telling them that all she wants is a position for Tom, too. Looks like they may go to Cornell, which has made offers to both of them. Clearly those two are hot properties...

cheers, lillie

snow and earthquakes

So we had > 2" of wet, gloppy snow overnight. Lovely this morning, but I was so annoyed by the whole idea, I didn't exactly take any photos...And indeed, by the time I left to drive in to town (Lex.) at noon-ish, most of it had not surprisingly melted, on account of the temperature and the earlier grount temp, etc....

And then there's the gigando earthquake in Japan, with its accompanying tsunami, after-effects all over the place, etc., etc...gotta comment here. I remember (YES, I do indeed) reading about plate tectonics in the Readers' Digest which we got at home every month, while I was in h.s. I thought this stuff called plate tectonics was the best thing since sliced bread...got out maps, etc., and started fitting together these continents and sub-continents. And this has all been in my lifetime. I think it's serious, VERY cool. The earthquake in Japan isn't, but the whole concept is, folks. In the early 60's, it was seriously revolutionary. And all you had to do was put together edges of continents on a couple of maps, and ta-da! hey it's obvious...

on other fronts, it's Lent (albeit very late), and the first official day of spring is very soon. It has been a rather tiresome winter, though. Maybe spring, summer and fall this year will cooperate, and be GORGEOUS. Have actually planted some herbs; maybe I'll manage to actually do something other than kill them...

cheers, lillie

mid march

It is FINALLY Lent; yesterday was Ash Wednesday. Everybody has been running around Lex the last week sporting all those Mardi Gras beads; everybody except me, that is. What am I giving up for Lent? the obvious is Scotch, which would have the added bonus that I would probably lose some weight. May be a bit drastic, though. Evidently Stephen Colbert gave up Catholicism for Lent, something I can relate to.

It has been SNOWING all (ALL) afternoon. Big wet globby stuff, won't stick, but it's still insulting. It is the middle of March, right?

Worked up the nerve to try to contact/phone our Aunt Katherine (Daddy's baby sister, the one who sorta hasn't talked to anybody in the family for ten years...sounds like one of the Martin clan). Her phone has been disconnected. I'm still working on it. Can't find record of her death or anything. Wish (sort of) that I'd made more of an effort to get to know Tommy's children (Tommy being her second husband, had two sons, I did meet them once or twice, but that was it).

Phil's cousin Jeannette's son became a daddy on Tuesday. Everybody is evidently trying to decide who the little guy looks like. (1) he has a biggish nose, but (2) otherwise looks a great deal like a newborn whose face isn't exactly squashed. He is a good size, though, and looks nice and healthy, which should be the goal!

cheers, lillie

march

Two days of decent weather, ALMOST 60. Phil points out that I will soon be bitching about how hot it is here...probably...rain the next three days. And I haven't been feeling well, joints, etc., ...got some new meds, though, and doc thinks it might help the fibromyalgia. We'll see.

I do hate the 21st century. EVERYTHING has to be done online, which is fine if you're seriously computer literate (which I AM), AND you have excellent internet connectivity (which we most CERTAINLY DO NOT! what with living out here in the boonies, etc., too far from the road for cable, etc., etc., and dependent on this wretched satellite...). However, generally, I cope. There are however, certain issues. Made the mistake today of buying a bottle of multivitamins for old women (50+) as I had run out of same. Got the stupid thing home, and couldn't get the plastic wrap off the lid. After I managed that (with the help of not just a letter opener but also scissors), I was able to easily unscrew the lid (!), but then there was this protective covering over the contents. That was yet another issue. These things are no longer "kid proof"; they are "arthritis proof". It is seriously boring.

On other fronts, things are turning green; the daffodils are growing, always a treat, no blooms yet, but there will soon be buckets of them; was watching a cardinal and a blue bird (probably not actually a blue bird, but it's blue) in the tree outside the window of the den this afternoon. Lots of bird noises, and I heard this morning a mourning dove, the first one this year.

Gas prices through the roof. Am not going to tell you how much it costs to fill up that BMW of Chauncey's I bought a couple of months ago, but it's obscene, and will seriously reduce my trips into Lexington. Lovely car, though, unbelievably quiet, comfortable, etc., etc.

Spring is sprung; the grass is riz; I wonder where the flowers is...Ogden Nash, whom I read much of when I was in h.s., down there in south Texas where we had ZERO SPRING.

Cheers, Lillie

It's a (near) MIRACLE

So it turns out that the lightning tripped the outlet thing with the reset buttons on it, and although I had punched that in quite a few times, I HAD NOT PUNCHED IT FAR ENOUGH.

Thank you, thank you, Timmy (he's our wonderful electrician). The outlets now work, AND the ice maker is on. And the good news (I guess) is that the entire incident tricked me into cleaning out the ice maker. No clue where they came from, but there were a couple of bird feathers down in the bottom.

YIPPEE!

More weather problems

It's finally stopped raining; now it's just cold. HOWEVER, we seem to have been struck by lightning the other night (notwithstanding all the lightning rods on the house). There's no breaker thrown, but two of the outlets just above the ice maker in the kitchen AND the ice maker seem to be deader than a hammer. There's still water standing everywhere, but it'll go away today.

Michael's comment about Houston is apt. Houston, however, is flatter than a pancake and has monsoons. Also, they have turned the entire metropolitan area into a giant paved parking lot (except for the freeways) so there is no place for water to go. We used to refer to William Marsh Rice University as Will Rice's marsh. Here in Kentucky we seem to get big, heavy rains and then flash floods. North Broadway in Lexington just inside New Circle Road (the loop) ALWAYS is impassable after a big rain. But it runs off quickly.

We wouldn't actually BUTCHER a cow ourselves; we would pay Critchfield's to do it.

On other fronts, the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader (the local rag) once again has essentially nothing on it but basketball, although the head of the Fire Department is about to get fired. Seems all 25 recruits last year were white males, and also seems that this was not unusual. Evidently there are other problems, too. Also the UK hospital system (the Med center being the only part of the university that actually has MONEY...Top Twenty my eye) is losing its "magnet" status because the quality of nursing care has dropped.

I really should quit reading the newspapers.

CHeers, Lillie