wine blog madness.

i'll let you in on a little secret, i don't edit my wine blog before i post it.

i just write and post and generally edit it the next day. in the late morning.

so, if you want to get fresh from the factory floor posts, check the wine blog at night and in the morning.

the reason for this is because i'm writing the wine blog at night. and i'm tired at night. and i'm having some wine at night. and i'm trying to unwind at night.

so it's all i can do to get the words on the page. making sense of them just isn't in the cards.

and sure, in the morning when i get a chance to edit i'm usually hit with "what the fuck was THAT?" some word or turn of phrase that sounded FABULOUS at 8:53 pm and a glass in that makes no sense in the cold harsh light of day.

so, if you want the unfiltered goodness try the evening and early morning. otherwise, wait a bit and you'll get the edit.

because there are those of you, and you know who you are, who may just not want to know what i get up to in my head before the other voices have a chance to weigh in.

x.

day at the museum.

so we went to see the roman art exhibit for the duke's birthday and it was FABULOUS!

it is simply amazing that these statues and objects not only made it from that time period, but that they made it packed and shipped from overseas and then back again. it's an exhibit on loan from the louvre and i think it only has two spots it's stopping in america.

we are so fortunate to have been able to see it.

but, you know i can't be in public without there being an 'incident.'

i swear to you if i didn't have witnesses it wouldn't be believable. i should have been a character in seinfeld.

it seems wherever i go lately in the past few years, and i may have shared this with you before, i just get treated weirdly or worse than everyone else around me. like the checker will be nice to my husband,or the person in front of me or whoever, but not me. or somebody at a store will offer assistance to everyone around me, but then act put upon when i need help.

so, we're at the museum. and the lighting is meant to highlight the art, not the descriptions of the art. and i'm old and my eyes are going bad and my contacts suck. soooo, if i wanted to actually read the teeny tiny unlit descriptions i had to get close to where they were mounted on the wall.

everyone did. and there were no signs saying anything about getting too close to anything and nobody was. nobody was touching or anything like that. everyone in my family and those around us were all on our best museum behavior.

then we saw the statues of the children. and the descriptions were mounted next to the statues. and wingman was interested. and so like i had been doing and like everyone else was doing i stepped closer to the description and quietly read about the statues of the children to wingman.

and quicker than you can say toga there was a museum security guard right at my elbow! he looked all nervous and frantic, his eyes darting about and back on me,

"um, ma'am? you are waaayyy too close. you need to step back. now."

"oh, okay."

so did step back. and noticed everyone else as close as i was OR CLOSER to all the descriptions around me! AND even the statues and art!

and then i noticed where the security guard had been standing clear. across. the. room. filled with art and statues and people and how he must have BOOKED it over to where i was being too close to the art.

good lord you should have seen the huge ass 3000 year old marble arch he had to get around to get to me being too close to the art!

the lord of the ring just had his mouth hanging open. the boybarians were looking around in wonder as everyone else around us was being too close to the art!

and i wasn't even being too close to the art! i was being too close to the description of the art that was mounted a few feet from the art!

i should just call jerry seinfeld right now and tell him that he needs to follow me around with a camera because i am material galore. seriously, jer, hop on a plane and get out here. if not a whole series, i am at least an HBO special in the making.

we were all stunned. the lord of the ring couldn't believe what he saw.

and i was vindicated. because so often i'm by myself or just with the boybarians when people treat me weirdly or worse than everyone else around me and it just sounds like i'm bitter.

but i'm not BITTER! i am just treated weirdly or worse than everyone else around me! that is some karmic shit right there, right?

and just in case you were wondering, NO i am not overtly rude or demanding. i'm pleasant and deferential in public. oh quit snickering. it's true. i am actually a very polite person.

i can hear you snickering still. snicker away, it's true!

regardless, it was a good trip and we'll go back for the impressionism exhibit coming soon. where i will try to be on my best behavior and for reasons known only to the universe, i will fail.

be sure to check the news that day.

and now, now the jewish holiday that is the duke's birthday has come to a close. whew.

in other news, you may have noticed i never got to do a special wine blog with sis in the city this past weekend. it wasn't in the cards.

BUT, there's a new wine blog up and it's good and it's cheap!!!!

enjoy!

and if you'll notice i use the term Y2K2.0. i'm coining that and charging everyone who uses it in the future. and you know they will.

i'm not getting screwed over like that happy face guy who never collected on people using the black happy face on the yellow circle! no sireee bob!

x.

howdy! howdy!

good lord but i am busy.

the duke's birthday is this weekend and it's like a jewish holiday with the multiple days of celebration!

plus, school, baseball, new art class, piano, trying to whip the yard into shape now that the weather is better, the list is endless.

one bright note is the duke wants to see the roman art exhibit in the big city as part of his birthday fun! i am very much looking forward to that and to traipsing around the big city pretending that i live there and not in the middle of nowhere where there is no escape unless you fill up the gas guzzling beast. and then escape to where? dairy queen? the mall?

and the weather is actually supposed to be nice this weekend so that just makes all of it just a bit more bearable.

in other news the boys are both LOVING their new art class and i couldn't be more pleased. they are really applying themselves and learning a lot about technique, materials, etc. but if you ask them about it they'll say

"yeah. i like it"

roll. eyes.

it's funny what i see and what we talk about and then when asked directly by another adult they've suddenly got nothing to say.

in other other news wingman was dragged along to book club yesterday in the interest of not wanting to drive all the way home to drop him off after art class and he's decided it's not so bad and he's going to join. i like this because i think he has a complete and solid disinterest in joining anything organized or any group.

gee, i wonder where he gets that.

and by slightly nudging him he can actually experience something before making a decision. i don't want to force him into anything, but he has a LOT of interests at his age and i'd like him to have the opportunity to explore them. and he just doesn't want to. because he doesn't want to join anything. so, this book club thing is positive in that he sees it's not what he thought it was and is actually kinda fun.

we'll see. the kid plans on living with us the rest of his life and collecting allowance so maybe it doesn't matter if he learns to be in a group or not.

special wine blog tomorrow night!!!!

my little sister is coming for a visit and she wants to "review" a wine with me. so stay tuned it should be a good time!!

x.

woo woo on a tuesday.

my house needs spring. the energy is sucking me dry, i can't shake the virus that keeps going around. i feel stuck. i feel tired. i am not sleeping well.

i'd like to throw open the doors and the windows and let spring in!

but, it's freezing here and if i leave any entrance open i'll have a plethora of tasty rodent snacks to choose from lovingly brought to me by the kitties. (who are now full grown cats! eeek!)

so with the boybarians off to the dentist with the lord of the ring, i found an old unburnt smudge stick, dusted it off and smudged my house.

it's funny how it all comes back. the smells the chants the pulling out of seemingly nowhere some hope for cleansing. for renewal.

i thought of the desert where i once lived and where this very smudge stick came from.

i fanned the smoke to each corner and twirled it around each room. filling the house with love and light and blessings and a hell of a lot of really good smelling smoke.

i wondered briefly what the watchers who prowl the military base frontage road in my backyard would see should they care to focus their binoculars close enough.

today is tuesday, milk day. would the milk man come while i was chanting and burning and fanning?

the neighbor?

with a ton of windows and virtually no curtains, anyone could have quite a show. it's a good thing i was never into going skyclad.

i'm just glad the cats weren't in the house. i don't need them watching me.

the thing about spirituality is that it's so personal. and as such, an audience is the last thing many of us want. to be witnessed at your most engaged and perhaps vulnerable? not for me.

in a mood such as this i prefer my spirituality like i prefer my whiskey, straight up and alone. i like to have my thoughts and voice them without a greek chorus wondering or commenting or watching.

what? don't tell me you've never drunk whiskey straight up and talked to yourself out loud on occasion? try it, it's better than therapy. (i'd close the curtains first for that, though. tack up a sheet, or something)

so i don't know if the military or the milk man or the neighbor saw anything.

but i do know my house smells an awful lot like something good and sweet. and that if you dropped by and didn't know better, well you'd think there was a party going on at 9:43 on a tuesday morning.

x.

communication 101

yesterday the duke was being disagreeable and snarky about some tasks i was after him to finish.

so i said jokingly

"you better watch it, bub. i'm working on your curriculum for next year. with the attitude you're giving me, well it'd be shame for it to reflect on curriculum planning"

he paused and then said all sadly

"you mean you won't buy me any?"

and there you have it. i'm joking about piling it on and he's worried i won't purchase any.

if only all of our future mother/son arguments would pan out so "well."

while i know they won't, it's a perfect example of communication between family members. how it can be misinterpreted, however charmingly. because generally misinterpretation is not terribly charming in its outcome.

and a good reminder to keep the snarky joking to a minimum or at least dialogue about it lest the boybarians take things the wrong way and totally to heart.

words are so important, as is intent. and the ability to joke and be lighthearted is important too, i just need to remember what it feels like to be little and to be able to explain and tone it down when necessary.

though, i retain my right to verbally threaten to sell them to the gypsies whenever the need arises.

and mean it.

x.

i could say something in valley girl speak but that would be trite.

valley girl, one of the greatest movies of all time and anyone who says different either hasn't seen it or is just dead inside, turns 25 this week.

I SAW THAT MOVIE 25 YEARS AGO?!?

how is that possible?

crap.

that makes me like what, 137 in mom years?

in other news, the first baseball game of the season is tomorrow, the boybarians start a fabulous art class on thursday, and it's the homeschool science fair thursday as well.

busy week.

but what i really wanna know is, can a citrus fruit generate electricity? can you build a working flashlight out of an altoids tin?

totally.

i'll keep you posted.


x.

two birds, one vote.

i don't know why this didn't occur to me before.

the whole conflict (however waning as the contest wears on) for the liberals of do we go with the woman or the african-american may just be moot.

if mc cain chooses condoleezza as a running mate and gets elected then all we have to do is wait.

i mean, really, the dude is old. i'm not saying that renders him incompetent, but he is OLD. things happen when you're old. especially so if you're not in top health.

then there you have it! problem solved!

of course there's the teeny tiny issue of the white house still being controlled by warmongering wannabe fascists, but hey, you can't have it all now CAN YOU!

x.

i say, with such a fine suit of clothes where is this draft coming from?

bernanke just used the word recession.

not stagflation.

not downturn in the economy.

not economic challenges.

yes, the r word.

i wonder how the authorization happened? was it an e-mail? a phone call? did a shapely gal jump out of a cake and toss confetti and shout "go for it ben!"?

what a fuckin' farce.

i resent the fact that this country is being run by someone who thinks we're all stupid. that we would fall for the song and dance like a buncha village idiots. ooh shiny!

oh. wait. we did.

okay okay the first one was stolen. but what's the excuse for the the second time?

01.20.09

x.