Pick-n-Mix
May. 14th, 2006 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
constanceI'd wish you a happy weekend, but I think it's a little late for that. So instead, a wish for a good rest-of-weekend, and a potluck of other stuff:
eta: One of the great secrets of my life is that I am always absurdly touched by e-cards sent me. Thanks for yours, Veni--love it! :D:D:D:D:D:D
- I took Miss B, whose scooter is still down for the count, for more groceries on Friday, and while much more sugar was bought, I did discover two more things thanks to some extremely subtle questioning, firstly that she has Meals on Wheels delivered to her, and secondly that she does occasionally eat vegetables and savory foods.
- This weekend I'm wistfully remembering a favorite book from my childhood, a discarded library book donated to our cause by our librarian grandmother. This grandmother introduced us to books that we still think and talk about fondly decades later; she's responsible for the indelible impressions that Frances the Badger and Amelia Bedelia and the Funny Little Woman and Sara Crewe made on me, among many others. But today's trip down memory lane was about Santa: specifically Father Christmas, a Cockney Father Christmas, a Cockney Father Christmas who is so exhausted by his labors that he runs away from the North Pole for a beach holiday, told in comic-book form. I so wish I could remember the name or the author of this one, but I can't. Does anyone besides me remember it?
- Are you one of those people who'd go camping if only electricity and, like, artful candle arrangements were included with the tent, and if only the campsite rates were as expensive as a big-city luxury hotel room? Well, if you are, then you may be interested in the Tent City at The Encampment at Bull Creek at the Resort at Paws Up. I myself cannot decide whether I'm down with this or not, but those candle arrangements are artful, are they not?
- Mmmm, watermelon owl.
- Sadly, this article in the onion might just as well be serious journalism. In fact, I remember reading stories like this all the goddamned time when I lived in Louisiana. (In a related story, I remember a time when a drunk LSU frat boy -- the fucker -- attempted to drag one of the university's ostriches over a fence by the neck and killed it.) Therefore, this story really only pissed me off, or at least made me glad that the alligators can defend their turf pretty well. Better than ostriches.
- My mother boycotted Mother's Day this year; she hasn't quite recovered from my grandmother's death last summer, and she and my father disappeared into the NC mountains for the weekend. And so I spent today eyeing her present of frivolous gardening implements, if you can call them implements, and wondering if I'm going to be allowed to give them to her, or if I should send them back. I am holding on and waiting a few days before making my final decision.
- There are better days ahead, though, I think, because in a sort of circle-of-life literary moment, my brother and his wife will be providing my parents with a grandchild come Christmas. This is the first in our little, late-blooming family, and we are all very excited.
eta: One of the great secrets of my life is that I am always absurdly touched by e-cards sent me. Thanks for yours, Veni--love it! :D:D:D:D:D:D
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Date: 2006-05-15 02:38 am (UTC)I'm glad to hear that Miss B. has Meals on Wheels. The delivery people tend to keep an eye on things overall, and it's also nice to know that she's getting some basic nutrition to go with her numerous dessert opportunities.
I wish I'd heard of your Cockney Santa story. It's frustrating losing crucial information about childhood favorites. It's funny you should mention your librarian grandmother introducing you to things you still remember fondly, because I recently had a little re-readathon of the books my Sunday school teacher gave me over the years. It's kind of been a lifelong joke between my cousin Steve and me, because Mrs. Moltzen would always give him books that did little more than inspire a "WTF?" response, whereas she'd always give me these absolute GEMS that became all-time favorites. Ooh! This could be a Taking the Fifth list!
I understand the mom boycotting Mother's Day. My mom was tempted to do the same thing when my grandmother died. Can you save your lovely frivolous gardening implements for Flag Day?
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Date: 2006-05-15 02:56 am (UTC)And I like your idea about Flag Day! Or maybe Memorial Day! I was going to save them for a just-for-the-heck-of-it no-occasion occasion, but this is better, I think.
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Date: 2006-05-15 01:27 pm (UTC)I'm a little bemused by that resort, though. For one thing, it seemed like you were supposed to do all these exhausting activities involving horses or fishing or something, instead of lolling in your luxurious tent. You could just as well bring your own candles to the tent cabins at Yosemite, though my personal favorite for roughing it in elegant decadence is Harbin Hot Springs (http://harbin.org/). You sleep in a real room, but you can float in the hot pool under the stars all night long.
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Date: 2006-05-15 07:19 pm (UTC)I'm not too much for sleeping in the rough, I have to admit; I generally prefer a comfy room and save my natural settings for exploring, or reading if conditions are right. The thing that gets to me is not the activities, out of which I'm sure you can opt (thank you, Winston Churchill, for that useful construction)--it's the $600 per night. For a tent. I don't know. I wouldn't pay $600 per night for a room with pretty slaveboys to gently sing me to sleep--which is how you can tell I'm hopelessly middle-class, and will never be part of the Conde Nast Travel universe.
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Date: 2006-05-15 10:32 pm (UTC)tortureactivities involve fish and horses and whatnot, and perhaps even a visit to the old chuck wagon for some beans and biscuits, but maybe that is just my own middle-class bias.I have actually been to some hotels that were featured in Conde Nast Traveler (mostly in Italy in the off season) and found them quite pleasant. For instance, La Sirenetta (http://www.lasirenetta.it), on the black volcanic beaches of Stromboli, or the Gatto Bianco (http://www.gattobianco-capri.com/), reputedly Jackie O.'s favorite hotel on the isle of Capri, where
I'd just insist on a more traditional definition of luxury.
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Date: 2006-05-16 12:51 am (UTC)I've mostly stayed in middlingly-nice anonymous hotels or condos--never anything startlingly fine, though. One day I'd like to stay someplace nice, but that day isn't coming anytime soon, so for now I just have to resign myself to budget living and skip the luxury hols.
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Date: 2006-05-15 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-15 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-16 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-15 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-15 07:09 pm (UTC)Resonant! I am so excited it is taking me about ten minutes to type this! THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH. :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
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Date: 2006-05-17 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-18 01:22 am (UTC)(And! HI IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU!)
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Date: 2006-05-18 06:53 pm (UTC)