The Definition of Mensch...

...A Person having admirable characteristics, such as fortitude and firmness of purpose.

Rest In Peace Grandpa Abe

NEW DAY!!!

Beautiful

Hello...2009

Before my classes start and after my trip home, in which I logged 1,000 miles on my car, I say:

"Hey Happy 2009 to you all."

I'm starting another online Web development class...we shall see if I can hang with it. Another Djembe class: mid-week, thank you for that new schedule ...and I have an opportunity that could be hecka exciting and a bit scary and if it works, ultimately, incredibly gratifying. I'm at the very beginning stages and keeping it very quiet. More as it develops...

Drove to the Bay Area with Bella, the kitteh, who I now know prefers not to travel by car. She bonded with MMmom and MMniece instantly. The Christmas festivities where lovely and yummy and fun. I tried my hand at both RockBand and Guitar Hero...my synopsis...not easy...no matter how musically inclined you might be...takes practice! Traveled to many theatres around the Bay Area with the Comedy Band of Merrymen...hence the excessive mileage, visited with close friends who I miss daily. Inhaled the scent of rain in SF, browsed Green Apple Books on Clement, had yummy Peruvian food on Fillmore, ate too many cookies, got caught in an awful traffic mess in downtown SF, saw my stylist who cut my hair the way I like, drank lots of Peet's coffee, put Bella back in the car and drove home to Nevada, apologizing to my kitteh the whole way to Placerville, where she finally settled down and slept in my lap. Happy for the visit, Happy to be home, happy for a new year!

Sunday Sundown

For those of you who celebrate the Festival of Lights, I wish you a Happy Hanukkah!

Thankful

There's always the usual list of things to be thankful for. There is the daily gratitude I practice that doesn't require a holiday. This year I am grateful for a new four legged family member.
Bella is 9 months old. She is soft as a mink. Petite and slightly clumsy. She is sweet and affectionate. I'm thankful to my vet, Leslie, who entrusted her care to me. I'm thankful for Bella's youthful exuberance. I'm thankful that she makes me laugh everyday. I'm thankful that
she believes in waking up slowly and that after coffee it is time to play. I believe that Zeke would have loved her.

Meet Bella

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

xoxo

MountainMoxie

Umm...November?

It is Fall here in the Carson Valley and the weather has been lovely and clear the last few days.

I haven't been here for quite sometime and it seems today is a fluke as I probably won't be back for a few weeks. "What is she doing?" you ask. Well, I got a wild hair to take a web design class online this quarter. It is a two unit class and still somehow manages to suck up all my extra time. It could be because I don't know what the hell I am doing...sort of a frying pan into the fire, trial by error, seat of my pants learning experience. I am liking it though. I think I will pursue more classes in this area. I just didn't expect it to eat up so much free time. Is that it? Well...No...

I still have my drum class on Monday nights and last week I started a 5 week djembe workshop on Tuesday evenings. I have cleared my wednesdays of all commitments as there will be serious sleeping in on those days for the next month. Meanwhile, the yard is calling: hey, look at all the leaves...crap when did that happen?

Still I miss being here, I miss writing if only for myself. I haven't been able to share all the fun I had in SF in September, though I am so glad I went cuz I sure wouldn't have been able to go now. I'm looking forward to the holiday season somewhat...good food and family. I'll be back around then...homework allowing.

YES WE CAN

January 14, 2008: Carson City, NV

AND WE DID!

Happy Treats to You!

REST IN PEACE GOOD BUDDY

ZEKE

1991-2008

VP Debate

Just a comment, and then we shall return to our regularly scheduled programming or lack of such...really I'll be back here soon....meanwhile....

Please, for the love of language and all that is sacred, someone tell Sarah Palin how to pronounce NUCLEAR!! It is not Nucular....I can't take it anymore.

Week Two

Three weeks of fun and frovility and family. I’m still trying to catch up on sleep.
There was the kiddles and pool fun of my previous post. Then the return of the sister from her outpost in Flagstaff, AZ. Followed by a much needed trip to SF for me that included museums and wandering favorites haunts in the city and time spent with girlfriends who I miss daily. Topped off by the big celebration of birthdays for all the Virgo’s as well as recognition for the 40,50,60,80 decade birthdays that occurred this year.

It has been years since we’ve seen my middle sister so it was quite a treat to have her and my mom in Carson City for the long Labor Day weekend. Nothing, besides her great-grandchildren, makes my mom happier than having her three girls in one place.

We are each 5 years apart, we are each very different and that can be entertaining in and of itself. We took a trip up to Virginia City for lunch and a saunter through the old town where candy shops were where we dropped our money. This is a family trait: forget ktochkes, bring on the chocolate. One cannot go to Virginia City without the requisite old time photo. Annie Oakley’s got nothin’ on us.

We had lunch at the Nugget in Carson City the next day and indulged in some video poker which we failed at miserably. There was gut-busting laughter (which is a given when we are all together, you just don’t know what will set it off...but it will happen...always!) While my mother tangled with a determined guy with a walker and oxygen tank headed for his favorite machine. There is a joke (MMspouse is a jokester by trade) about the proliferation of oxygen tanks in casinos where smoking is the norm and those things could go off like a torpedo...which I shared with the girls minutes earlier, so being chased by one set us off and then to make matters worse we encountered several more within minutes which kept the uncontrollable laughter going at a fever pitch....from then on "oxygen tank" was all it took. There was lots of catching up and lounging around and I was happy to see my Arizona sister looking healthy. The last time I had seen her she still had the shadow effects of a year of Interferon therapy on her and it was distressing.
Once my mom and sis departed for the airport I collected my stuff, packed and hit the road the following day for my own escape to my beloved SF/Bay Area.

That’s my next post.

This week I start a new djembe class which will include Dununs, a drum you play with sticks. West African rhythms are designed for these two drums to be played together and it adds such a wonderful deep melody with the djembe that I can’t resist trying my hand at it. I’m starting a beginning web publishing class to see if I have any interest or aptitude for the genre. Since I spent most of today tweaking my new MySpace page it seems there is a little interest or curiosity there for me...onward I say!

Meanwhile....

I am in the process of writing a post about my last three weeks of fun and frivolity BUT
in the meantime I will give you the beauty that is the "Mystery Pansy" in my backyard.
Not quite as abundant as last year...still thriving though.

And if you are feeling energetic click on this link for a great article on Sarah Palin that was in the Nevada Appeal, Carson City's local newspaper. I must say, while grinding my teeth at all the McCain/Palin signs proliferating in my area, that this was refreshing to see in a local paper. Can't imagine the hate mail Marilee Swirczek will receive this week.

I've Been....

BUSY

Weekend Wonders

Who knew that a pool 3 feet deep and 6 feet wide could provide a waterfall of fun. My sis has such a pool in her yard. This is a handy recreational perk when your grandchildren come to visit.
It was the site of two days of ridiculous, watery fun.

The Water Octagon

Count: One Mother, One Sister, One grown Niece,

one small nephew, one small niece

My 80 year old mother instigated a water fight from outside the pool that lasted at least an hour, losing, easily, 3 inches of water...wearing out 3 squirt guns and only succeeding in getting my mother into the pool, in all her clothes plus sneakers, after the hour and only after my sister and niece got out of the pool and manhandled her into it. Hilarious. Our YaYa is hecka strong, sneaky, and stubborn. She wasn't going in and was a complete exasperation to all in the pool.

The Next Phelps

Both my little niece and nephew are fish. They love the water and are great swimmers. Their goggles made me laugh and make their eyes look kinda goofy. My favorite thing is tipping them over off of whatever floatee they have claimed. You wouldn't know that you can get up to three floatees in this space but you can and it makes things pretty interesting. I was so proud of their skills, holding their breath, swimming under water...going, going, going.....

HotWheelin'

There is also ample concrete track around the patio for some serious racing. This little guy is a major speed demon who doesn't much mind crashing one bit!

Nature Girl

This little one will try anything her older brother does. She's gonna grow up tough, however, she is every bit the princess who likes pretty dresses and finding a quiet spot to spin a tale and rest a bit.

Two days of total Auntie-dom: Awesome!

Fun Stuff

license plate generator

Just wastin' time on a Saturday. Click on the link to make your own.

Blue Sky

Now that the smoke has cleared out and it looks like beautiful clear, clean mountain air is back for awhile I have to admit I am feeling hazy. This is what the sky looked like for most of July due to wind patterns and too many scary fires in California:

With the return of blue sky I find myself spending mindless hours on the deck. Seems after a swell burst of creative endeavors I need to refill the well. For the first time my wildflowers are actually attracting butterflies. I had a huge yellow and black guy buzz the yard every morning around 10:30 for a couple weeks. Now, I have a lovely little white and blue one that actually comes and bops around the flowers for a bit each day. This makes me happy in the simplest of ways. A friend of mine sent me an e-mail friday that told of big astrological changes with the eclipse that occurred friday. I am taking time to realign myself with that...I say as a way of explaining my complete lack of motivation. Then again it could be just a lack of hiking, my partner seems to have disappeared into the ether this weekend. It could be my current disillusionment with work. It could be I need a vacation. Change of scene. I just seem to be baffled of late. Thank goodness I find my own neurosis humorous.

I did execute a rather bold sewing project. My Djembe needed a cover and I don't feel like shelling out the cash for a fancy full body carryall however, I do want the head protected when I am hauling it around to class and what not. So, with no pattern, some cool material and a bit of quilt batting I assembled what can only be described as a muffin top for my drum. It looks a little funny but serves the purpose just fine:

Last weekend I did hike back to Skunk Harbor. The hike that is two miles down to the Lake and then a rather wicked hike back up. After the smoke, haze of July it was evident there are still some stamina issues to overcome on the steep inclines. Ha! It is still one of my favorite hikes, a quiet beach, swimming, a little lunch...all good.


I have been doing a lot of reading. Thanks to a tip from No More Commas Period, I picked up a book called Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I'm not generally a big sci-fi/fantasy reader.
This book is way out there in topic: cyberpunk futuristic technology driven society. However, it is set on Earth and not in some other galaxy which is what kept me interested in it, that and all the really cool vocabulary that I wish there was a dictionary for. I've read another of his and I am on my third...so we can see that this is heading for a summer reading series since I can't seem to stop.

Ruth has her blog up and running, go say hi and welcome her to the blogosphere. I'm heading over there next.

Handy Dandy

Yup, that's me! I am giving myself the gold star of handiness. I am thinking: I earned my tool belt. I now know words like chain coupling, canopy, downrod ball, blade bracket. The project that has elicited this happy dance?


I went from this:

TO THIS:

I am pleased and proud of myself. When I moved into this house I had fans installed in three rooms that held the most heat. I paid someone to install them. Then, I watched him do it for future reference. Granted he did it in under 2 hours. I took a bit longer than that just to install one but still....I did it! Now, the Master Bedroom is airy and cool at the flip of a switch.

I have completed a few projects in the past weeks, mostly because there is no hiking in the smoky heat we are experiencing here and also, I grew impatient with myself thinking about my projects but not actually doing them. Sort of like my blogging habits of late.

There's the mirror:

Amazing what a little paint from the craft store can turn into. Lots of colors and a spray-on glaze.

There's the nice pillows from a garage sale that were a very boring beige (that color is just haunting me lately) which I recovered with something a little more colorful.

There's the vast array of thrift store frames I am painting and glazing black for a photo gallery on a wall. There's finishing a dress I started making (when I lived in LA) that needs to be finished. There's, of course, more painting to do...specifically a hallway, an office, a guest bed and bath. Good news is I think I have figured out colors...why this takes so long I do not know...but I spent alot of time mulling over colors and my living room came out so cool. I really like it. Here's the corner into the hallway that I was so excited about doing:

I am feeling accomplished! So I rewarded myself with a trip over to the newest addition in Carson City fine dining:
Gotta love the crazy chicken!

Partial Post

I'm thinking about blogging...
I'm still here, thinking about a blog post...
Did I mention the heat?
Or how the smoke from California fires sweeps into the valley
every afternoon rendering the sun an afterthought?
I'm thinking about blogging...
maybe this weekend.

Word Up!

If I am lucky in the course of my day, whilst working with the public, I will encounter someone who makes me smile, makes me laugh, tells a good tale, or prompts me to tell one myself. These moments exist outside the realm of "work" for the connection forged lingers long after the work is done. One person who has entered my life, via my work here in Carson City, is Ruth. She is funny, goofy, whip-smart, and just an effervescent whirl of silliness. She’s a redhead. We bonded instantly. Ruth has written a book, along with her son who provided the illustrations. You might say it is a children’s book but really it transcends that...it is an everybody book. Lush with words and drawings and photographs, all in black and white, it is a feast for the mind, the eye, and the intellect.
I was able to attend a book fair in Minden last week to which Ruth had been invited. I am always supportive of artistic acquaintances and if there are books involved I will show up. The fair provided a forum for authors in the Reno/Tahoe/Carson Valley area and I am mightily impressed with the talent this area contains. My prime directive, however, was to get a gander at Ruth’s book. Whee. Mine. Proud owner of Ruth’s book. I might gift it, more likely I will keep my copy all to myself. I do want to share the details with you and perhaps you, too, will want to own a copy of this wonderful book.


One of the great tidbits about Ruth’s book is that her son, young at the time, did many of the illustrations and definitions and Ruth paid him for each drawing. I love that! Truly an equal opportunity collaboration. One of the things that tickles Ruth currently is a recommendation from Ray Bradbury calling it "an edible feast" and "a delicious book". Ruth visibly vibrates when mentioning Mr. Bradbury’s quotes, the wondrousness of his interest and I applaud the phenomenal accomplishment of the book itself.

Wonderful Ruth



Abecedarium anomalous by Ruth Keil Posselt and Jason Posselt
(or if you prefer)
alphabet book irregular


It is a wordy title, a hint of what is to come. This is not you’re A is for apple standard fare. This is glorious, read out loud alliteration. I have many favorites, I will share one:


- P-
"my patterned plumes are peerless," prates the peacock pompously
replies the patient panther, "you perform precariously"



If you have a love of language and reading and wish to share it with another, be it child or peer, this is a wonderful book. There is silliness to be found in reading it aloud. Great fun.


You can e-mail Ruth at roothbooks@earthlink.net.


I am trying to talk her into building a blog around the book...I'll keep you informed.