all the news, including PUPPY DOGG, in reverse order, w/ pix
Bar prep. Bar prep bar prep bar prep.
Bar prep.
In Baltimore.
That means WHY NO, ALL MY DC FRIENDS, I UNFORTUNATELY CANNOT COME HANG OUT WITH YOU IN DC NOW. Too late, you lose, sorry, should've come to Nanny's one of those 6208 Monday nights, see you in August. Or come up to Baltimore and we'll eat crabs and go to roller derby! :D In the two hours a day when I'm not outlining or doing practice tests, that is.
M and I and M's fam went down to WV for the long weekend and Vandalia. Highlights of Vandalia included hearing small kids wail on fiddle rags or, at the very least, take a bow with fiddle in arm, and exchanges like the following, at one handcrafted-wooden-toy vendor:
Woman (holding aloft big puzzle piece shaped like WV): Oh look! You know what shape this is!
Small girl (looking up from running around): A chicken!!!
Woman: No, come on, it's a state you know...
Girl: No, it's a chicken!
Also, I met the elderly son of Bill Blizzard, the hero who fought the army and coal bosses at the Battle of Blair Mountain. The son and another dude - a zealous historian - were hawking a book about Blizzard in print and audio form. I bought the soundtrack CD for the music (Hazel Dickens, Mike Morningstar, a family acquaintance, and the obligatory "West Virginia Hills") and disappointed the junior Blizzard by clarifying that I was not, in fact, kin to Sid Hatfield.
Apart from Vandalia, the weekend was filled with homey delights: eating, reading (only some of which pertained to Real Property), seeing Frank & Jude, playing Irish music with M and her dad for Frank & Jude, teaching M new tunes, taking a dip in the pond, snickering at road signs, and Just Being With both of our families at once. (M would include the ALLIGATOR ICE WTF, but as the owner of the car and the mopper-upper of sticky drops, I would dispute that.) But by far the greatest pleasure for everybody concerned was THE NEW PUPPY, DAISY MAE!!!
Daisy is like night and day to Lucy. She's extraordinarily mellow and retiring, she doesn't insist on being All Up-Ons, and her mouthiness knows its place. Mom and Dad have decided to "do it right this time," although I can't help thinking their newfound indulgence with indoor time betrays a measure of guilt about Lucy. Even so, Daisy seems to appreciate that it's a privilege: she stays on one's lap or else lies down close to the door. She goes on walks with Mom already. She loves everybody. The only downside is that she is so attached, in fact: at night, she scampers about the roof and whines under my folks' window. But the endearing outweighs the annoying, and the difference seems to be attributable to temperament as much as to puppydom. She's a keeper!
I'm all moved in with M in Baltimore. The spice jars are consolidated, the kitchen tools have found shelves (or closet space), and the instruments have found a nook. This is the beginning for which the last year and a half was preparation. But as beginnings go, it's an abortive one, since it looks like we'll be moving again come July. Much is up in the air -- old tenants have to move out, landlord needs to do some tune-ups, landlord's a bit dilatory with the communication -- but suffice it to say for now that the place is excellent. It's beautiful, spacious, and convenient to public transit, in an awesome neighborhood, and the landlord seems to be a really conscientious guy (dilatoriness notwithstanding). More soon, when bird resting more firmly in hand.
Speaking of domesticity, M made such delicious things yesterday but I am too lazy to bore you with more than a link.
Oh, yeah, and I graduated!
The whole family was in town: 4 generations, from K to my grandparents and NYC uncle. M and her fam came to the ceremony. Nina Totenberg talked, but her speech paled in comparison to the awarding of an honorary degree to Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy lawyer who stood up for principle and the rule of law in the face of the Bush Administration. Prof K, who successfully argued for Swift's client Hamdan at the Supreme Court, read the inscription, and over half the audience leapt to their feet to applaud (myself and Dad included).
I sweltered, but I was glad I'd opted to wear a suit instead of the ($100 non-refundable) heavy, velvet cap/gown rental.
K beamed to see me walk past, and I could've left right then, my day was so made. Eventually, she got bored, but the chocolate fountains left her with something of a favorable memory, I think. (Can't get those at Mama's, can you now?)
What with all the family eating-outing, K got to have an amazing lemon sorbet that came in a frozen etrog lemon:
The day before, we all went to Cheverly Day to watch two of M's 4 concerts that weekend. (Some of us caught Teh Pollen there and are still hacking and sneezing it out.) First came the gendèr wayang ensemble of her Balinese gamelan, which is like a chamber ensemble that accompanies shadow-puppet plays:
Look at them concentrate!
Then she played with the Greentop Ramblers, her family's Irish band (with whom I sometimes play guitar as a stringer). That's her dad in front and her mom in back:
And this was K for just about the entire hour and a half:
She was totally transfixed. We ran into her pal Aliya, and the girls ran around like mad, but K always found a way to end up standing immediately in front of (or behind) the stage, staring. Her summation: "I love both your groups!"
I leave you with a joke as told by K a few months ago, which I've been forgetting to post:
Q: What's the difference between a piano and a fish?
A: A piano you can tune, but a fish you can't tune!
The joke thing is on the cusp of happening. Here's a more recent K masterpiece:
Knock knock!
Who's there?
Banana!
Banana who?
Banana... banana!
Bar prep.
In Baltimore.
That means WHY NO, ALL MY DC FRIENDS, I UNFORTUNATELY CANNOT COME HANG OUT WITH YOU IN DC NOW. Too late, you lose, sorry, should've come to Nanny's one of those 6208 Monday nights, see you in August. Or come up to Baltimore and we'll eat crabs and go to roller derby! :D In the two hours a day when I'm not outlining or doing practice tests, that is.
M and I and M's fam went down to WV for the long weekend and Vandalia. Highlights of Vandalia included hearing small kids wail on fiddle rags or, at the very least, take a bow with fiddle in arm, and exchanges like the following, at one handcrafted-wooden-toy vendor:
Woman (holding aloft big puzzle piece shaped like WV): Oh look! You know what shape this is!
Small girl (looking up from running around): A chicken!!!
Woman: No, come on, it's a state you know...
Girl: No, it's a chicken!
Also, I met the elderly son of Bill Blizzard, the hero who fought the army and coal bosses at the Battle of Blair Mountain. The son and another dude - a zealous historian - were hawking a book about Blizzard in print and audio form. I bought the soundtrack CD for the music (Hazel Dickens, Mike Morningstar, a family acquaintance, and the obligatory "West Virginia Hills") and disappointed the junior Blizzard by clarifying that I was not, in fact, kin to Sid Hatfield.
Apart from Vandalia, the weekend was filled with homey delights: eating, reading (only some of which pertained to Real Property), seeing Frank & Jude, playing Irish music with M and her dad for Frank & Jude, teaching M new tunes, taking a dip in the pond, snickering at road signs, and Just Being With both of our families at once. (M would include the ALLIGATOR ICE WTF, but as the owner of the car and the mopper-upper of sticky drops, I would dispute that.) But by far the greatest pleasure for everybody concerned was THE NEW PUPPY, DAISY MAE!!!
Daisy is like night and day to Lucy. She's extraordinarily mellow and retiring, she doesn't insist on being All Up-Ons, and her mouthiness knows its place. Mom and Dad have decided to "do it right this time," although I can't help thinking their newfound indulgence with indoor time betrays a measure of guilt about Lucy. Even so, Daisy seems to appreciate that it's a privilege: she stays on one's lap or else lies down close to the door. She goes on walks with Mom already. She loves everybody. The only downside is that she is so attached, in fact: at night, she scampers about the roof and whines under my folks' window. But the endearing outweighs the annoying, and the difference seems to be attributable to temperament as much as to puppydom. She's a keeper!
I'm all moved in with M in Baltimore. The spice jars are consolidated, the kitchen tools have found shelves (or closet space), and the instruments have found a nook. This is the beginning for which the last year and a half was preparation. But as beginnings go, it's an abortive one, since it looks like we'll be moving again come July. Much is up in the air -- old tenants have to move out, landlord needs to do some tune-ups, landlord's a bit dilatory with the communication -- but suffice it to say for now that the place is excellent. It's beautiful, spacious, and convenient to public transit, in an awesome neighborhood, and the landlord seems to be a really conscientious guy (dilatoriness notwithstanding). More soon, when bird resting more firmly in hand.
Speaking of domesticity, M made such delicious things yesterday but I am too lazy to bore you with more than a link.
Oh, yeah, and I graduated!
The whole family was in town: 4 generations, from K to my grandparents and NYC uncle. M and her fam came to the ceremony. Nina Totenberg talked, but her speech paled in comparison to the awarding of an honorary degree to Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy lawyer who stood up for principle and the rule of law in the face of the Bush Administration. Prof K, who successfully argued for Swift's client Hamdan at the Supreme Court, read the inscription, and over half the audience leapt to their feet to applaud (myself and Dad included).
I sweltered, but I was glad I'd opted to wear a suit instead of the ($100 non-refundable) heavy, velvet cap/gown rental.
K beamed to see me walk past, and I could've left right then, my day was so made. Eventually, she got bored, but the chocolate fountains left her with something of a favorable memory, I think. (Can't get those at Mama's, can you now?)
What with all the family eating-outing, K got to have an amazing lemon sorbet that came in a frozen etrog lemon:
The day before, we all went to Cheverly Day to watch two of M's 4 concerts that weekend. (Some of us caught Teh Pollen there and are still hacking and sneezing it out.) First came the gendèr wayang ensemble of her Balinese gamelan, which is like a chamber ensemble that accompanies shadow-puppet plays:
Look at them concentrate!
Then she played with the Greentop Ramblers, her family's Irish band (with whom I sometimes play guitar as a stringer). That's her dad in front and her mom in back:
And this was K for just about the entire hour and a half:
She was totally transfixed. We ran into her pal Aliya, and the girls ran around like mad, but K always found a way to end up standing immediately in front of (or behind) the stage, staring. Her summation: "I love both your groups!"
I leave you with a joke as told by K a few months ago, which I've been forgetting to post:
Q: What's the difference between a piano and a fish?
A: A piano you can tune, but a fish you can't tune!
The joke thing is on the cusp of happening. Here's a more recent K masterpiece:
Knock knock!
Who's there?
Banana!
Banana who?
Banana... banana!