Mental Meatloaf

Marcheline's Midnight Fright

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:45:00 +0000

It was last night. I was dead asleep. Until I wasn't. There was something huge and hairy crawling up the back of my left hand. My hand reacted before my brain could form the thought "SPIDER!!!" and tried to fling whatever it was as far away from me as possible.

As you might imagine, one's fine motor skills are somewhat hampered by being asleep. I reached for the bedroom lamp and flipped it on, to find a huge wooly-bear caterpillar taking a stroll on the sheets right next to me.

While being relieved that it was not, in fact, a huge spider, I was still less than thrilled to be woken by a huge furry thing crawling on me, so I woke Bear up and asked him to open the window. Out went Mr. Wooly-Bear Caterpillar into the night.

As we lay back down, I made the mistake of wondering aloud where it could have come from. Bear said, "Maybe there's a nest of them in the wall.", and turned over to go back to sleep.

My eyes flew open, and I sat back up, turned the light back on, and peered over the edge of the bed to see if the floor by the wall was crawling with invaders. It was not. I turned the light back off, squidged as far over towards Bear's side of the bed as I could, and said, "WAAAAAAH!" in my best whiny baby voice, until Bear turned back over and wrapped his arms around me.

Believe it or not, I did get back to sleep. Now, in the light of day, the whole thing seems kind of funny. Bear made the picture at the top of this post, and it is now the wallpaper on my computer. Gotta love that man's sense of humor!

Daylife Savings Time. I has it.

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:49:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the first day of December. Which means in sixteen days, both Beethoven and I will share yet another celebration of our birth. He's just a little older than I am, but since he's so much better on the piano I try not to rub it in.

For the past year, I have been telling everyone that I am 43. Because I fully believed that to be the truth. However, as I sat here looking at my calendar and counting the years from 1966 to 2009, I realized that I am going to be 43 this coming birthday.

If I was a pessimist, I would kick and scream about how I completely missed the joy of being 42.

If I was vain, I would just claim to be 42 this year, since I missed a whole year of being able to say that I was 42. It really is amazing how much younger 42 sounds.

Since I am an optimist, I will say I am on Daylife Savings Time, and it was time to roll the calendar back a year and be 43 again this year.

Sadly, whether I am an optimist or a pessimist doesn't change the fact that I am a complete dork. I'm finally coming to understand how math skills might be an advantage in life. An advantage I obviously don't have.

Oh Tannenbaum, Oh Tannenbaum - or not

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:36:00 +0000

Yesterday was great. A good friend of ours came over around noon, and we kicked off the festivities by eating, drinking, and cooking. Later, we ate, drank, and cooked some more. While we watched a movie, we ate, drank, and cooked. Then we ate what we cooked, and drank. Then we watched another two movies while eating and drinking. The whole thing wrapped up around midnight. So basically you're talking about twelve solid hours of ... well, you know.

Since I have been mocked for posting my recipes for cranberry chutney and pumpkin soup EVERY Thanksgiving, I am now going to post a new recipe. So new, in fact, that the first time I ever made it was yesterday. OH YE GODS, is this stuff great! Best stuffing in the history of stuffing.

Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage & Mozz Stuffing

List of Ingredients

10 cups 1/2-inch cubes day-old
French or Italian bread
-1/3 cup olive oil
-1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage,
remove from the casings
-2 minced large onions
-3 cloves minced garlic
-5 stalks celery
-1/2 pound mushrooms
-1/3 cup cream sherry
-3 ounces thinly sliced Genoa salami
-3/4 pound fresh mozzarella
-1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken broth or
your own prepared stock defatted
-1 1/2 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
blend
-1 1/2 cups minced fresh parsley
-salt & pepper freshly ground to taste

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread the bread cubes in a roasting pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Drizzle them with the 1/3 cup olive oil, tossing to coat the bread evenly. Toast the cubes in the oven, stirring occasionally until lightly browned all over, about 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, cook the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, crumbling into small pieces with the back of a wooden spoon until it is lightly browned all over. Transfer the sausage to a large mixing bowl and combine it with the toasted bread cubes.

3. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil to the sausage drippings in the skillet and return to medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and celery and saute until quite soft, about 10 minutes. Stir in the sliced mushrooms and sherry and continue to saute until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 7 minutes more. Add the vegetables to the bread and sausage mixture, stirring thoroughly to combine.

4. Add the salami and mozzarella to the stuffing. Pour in enough chicken stock to make the stuffing begin to bind together. Season the mixture with the Italian seasoning, parsley and saalt and pepper.

5. Stuff the turkey cavities immediately before roasting. Place any remaining stuffing in a buttered casserole and bake at 325 degrees until browned and crispy, about 45 minutes. Makes enough stuffing for a 20 to 24 pound turkey. .................................

Okay. That being said, I decided to "get things done" today. Bear chipped in and helped me bring the completely devastated, bombshelled kitchen back to its clean, shiny glory. We ate some of the leftovers (*burp*), and I addressed and stamped my holiday cards.

I needed to run out to the local craft store to pick up some gift-making items, and while we were out, I suggested to Bear that we breeze by our favorite Christmas tree nursery to see if they had anything interesting on the lot.

We arrived to find the lot full of trees, but they weren't quite the same as the ones we were expecting to see. These trees had all the branches trimmed off to make the shape "perfect", they were overpriced, and there were no Fralsams in sight. (Fralsam is a hybrid tree that has the ornament-bearing strength of the Fraser Fir and the great smell of the Balsam Fir.)

Come to find out, the folks that owned our favorite tree nursery had gone out of business and the place was under new ownership! It's sad to see the sinking economy taking down all of our favorite local businesses with it, and to see what poor quality stock the replacement businesses carry.

Now to find a place to get our tree... I'm thinking of trying our Fire Department, which has a sign up saying tree sales begin Dec. 5, or maybe the church down the street which has a tree lot every year. I'd much rather get a tree from a local venue than from a major store chain, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy Turkey Day 2009!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:37:00 +0000

Things I am thankful for:

* My wonderful husband, without whom the rollercoaster of life would be more like a webinar on the origin of rust.

* My kitties, who bring joy and love and surprises into every day. Even if those surprises sometimes involve vomit.

* My family, especially since they live far away enough that I really miss them a lot.

* My friends, both in real-time and on the Blogiverse. I would say "you guys keep me sane", but we both know what a crock of horse hockey THAT would be...

* My job, which I really love. Especially since my name got picked in tonight's holiday lottery to go home two hours early. WOOHOO! And especially since I got to learn what GRAUPEL is.

Graupel? What's that, you ask? Graupel? Was he a comic in the 1930's?

Nope. Listen and learn. According to Wikipedia:

Graupel (also called soft hail) refers to precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm ball of rime; the snowflake acts as a nucleus of condensation in this process. Graupel is the German word for this meteorological phenomenon.^[1] The METAR code for graupel is GS.

And, best of all .... this is a PICTURE of graupel! I could sit and look at this for hours. For those of you at home, the thing that looks like a 1963 end table laid over on its side is a SNOWFLAKE. The hairy stuff on either end that vaguely resembles shag carpeting is called RIME. No, not LeAnne - this stuff is like slimy ice coating. Anyway, together - they make GRAUPEL!!!

Behold, graupel (I just love saying that word):

Click on that picture to get the full-sized glory. I dare you. I'll eat my hat if you're not completely mesmerized by GRAUPEL!

I need to get something off my chest.

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:23:00 +0000

Unlike Paul Stanley, it's not a badger in heat.

Warning: If you are allergic to capital letters and italics, I suggest you get a shot first.

For the past several weeks, I have been trying to get my grubby little mitts on a copy of the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Bear and I spent the last few months watching the entire (AWARD-WINNING, I MIGHT ADD) television series on DVDs we took out at the library, and now all we want to do is see how the dingity-dang story ends.

Is that so much to ask? The cosmos says, "Why yes, Marcheline, I think it is."

The main-line arse-wipe video rental store, by which I mean BLOCKBUSTER, who right this very minute has every single previous episode in the entire series sitting on their shelves, are telling me that they are "most likely not going to get the last season".

Um, sorry...... WHAT?!?!??! You have an amazing, fantastic, AWARD WINNING series - all the episodes, from one to one hundred and one (literary liberties taken) - but somehow you've decided that people are going to rent all of those, but nah, they won't want to watch the SERIES FINALE - where everything ties together and we find out what the hell has been going on the entire time????? What kind of crack are they smoking, anyway?

Okay, see, that's just "Part One" of the story. That's where things start out.

Today, Bear has a couple of hours off in the middle of the day, so he comes home to have lunch with me (as it's my regular day off). He goes to the computer and looks up our library system's website. As it turns out, our local library does not have the last season of Battlestar, but another local library DOES! Whoopie!

Just to be on the safe side, he puts the DVDs on hold via the website, and he says to me hey, why don't we just hop in the car and drive over there and pick them up - that way we don't have to wait for them to be transferred to our library, and we can watch the first new episode when I get home tonight. I say that's a great idea, and we hop in and toodle off to Library #2.

When we arrive at Library #2, we split up. Bear goes to the DVD shelves to see if he can locate the item directly, and I head up to the main desk to ask them for the exact location. The lady at the desk is approximately four hundred years old, and she points to a cobwebby corner of the library and says I can look it up myself on the computer. Well, thank you very much, Ancient Library Lady. Didn't mean to disturb your nap.

Arriving at the computer, I find - of course - that it is not working. I head back over to the main desk to inform them. This time, the mummy points to another far-off room of the library and says I should ask at the desk in there. By the time I get to the other desk, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be asking them about the DVD I need or telling them that the computer is not working. So I tell them the whole story.

Bear has, by this time, realized he's not going to find the DVD on the shelf, and has joined me in Room #2. We stand for a considerable time in limbo, while Library Lady #2 stares at her computer screen and mumbles to herself. Then she suddenly gets up and leaves the room. We stand there, not sure if we should follow her or remain where we are.

In a few minutes, she comes back - with the final series of Battlestar Galactica in her hand! We are overjoyed. We take the DVD to the front desk to check it out. A woman with a face like a barrel of rotten prunes says, "May I help you?". Her mouth says those words, but the expression on her face says, "I would prefer if you could just go away and let me get back to my glass of Metamucil."

We present the DVD, and Bear gets out his library card. After scanning both, Library Lady #3 says, "Oh. This is a new DVD. It's not our policy to sign out new DVDs to members of other libraries." Bear and I look at each other with expressions that fairly scream "you've gotta be frakkin' KIDDING ME". Library Lady #3 senses a situation developing, and quickly grabs hold of Library Lady #4, dumps the whole situation in her lap, then trundles off in search of her laxatives.

Library Lady #4 does not have a withering expression on her face, however she repeats the "policy" of not renting out new DVDs to people from other libraries.

Note: Whenever you hear the word "policy" spoken, you know it's not good news. There has never been a "policy" to give you something good or something extra. Policies are created to keep you from getting things.

Then we inquire politely, teeth gritted, why the library system website allowed us to put THEIR DVD on hold if they had no intention of letting us check it out.

That's when the phone calls started. Library Lady #4 got on the phone with some drone who didn't know where the DVD Checkout Goddess was, or even if she was in the building. Then a call was placed to someone else, who provided a cock-and-bull story about how the website only puts the DVD on hold but doesn't specify which library it will come from.

So basically we wasted nearly the entirety of Bear's lunch break driving around and getting the run-around, and we still don't have a copy of the final season of Battlestar Galactica to show for it. And the video stores don't have any plans of ever getting it in. And if you think I'm going to BUY one season of a show... you may be right. I may have no other choice. But only after the prices on ebay go way down, or the used ones on Amazon finally drop.

The cherry on top:

Just before we left the library in defeat, I asked Library Lady #4 how long it would be before said DVD was no longer considered "new" and was able to be checked out by lepers and worthless people who didn't belong to their library. Her answer?

"Oh, a year or so."

Bastards!

The confusing cosmic rule of the Blogiverse

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:57:00 +0000

I've noticed an odd tendency here in the Blogiverse that I can't quite explain. A few months back, I pared down my blogroll list. It had gotten cluttered with sites that I no longer frequented, blogs whose authors had decided to hang up the keyboard in favor of underwater basketweaving, and so I went in and cleaned out the detritus.

What that left me with was a very short list of blogs I really do enjoy reading. The problem with a very short blogroll is a nice long Saturday morning and unlimited coffee. I hadn't even finished my first cuppa, and I was already done reading the blogs on my list. And for some reason, it seemed as though all five blog authors on my list would stop posting all at the same time. Sometimes weeks would go by with nothing new to read, and then suddenly they would all post at the same time.

Even so, during these creative bursts, I couldn't get through one cup of coffee before they were all read, digested, and commented on.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and go a-searchin' for some new blog fodder. Something to build my blogroll back up into a formidable library, where I could meander and linger and fill myself full of quaint, well-written, educated, quirky, entertaining, and exciting bits of other people's lives.

I really struck gold when I found Cait O'Connor's blog. From there, I linked and linked and linked my way through oodles of way cool blogs... all of which you now see added to my blogroll over there on the left side. I more than doubled the length of my blogroll, and now my list is full of artists, writers, mothers, and creative soul-sisters with whom I instantly felt a connection. Hooray!

But. However. Still. I am amazed this morning as I sit with my first cup of coffee... again, the same thing! For weeks now, almost ALL of my blogroll favorites have been busy elsewhere. Only one or two of my blogsistahs have posted new goodies!

Honestly, I have never been good at even the most rudimentary math, so I am not even going to try to figure out percentages of likelihoods of things happening... but wouldn't you think that the following factors:

* a more-than-doubled-in-length blogroll

* authors live all over the world

* authors are, as far as I know, not fitted with remote sensor brain chips (controlled by an alien warlord) which tell them all when to blog and when not to

... when added together, would equal a pretty stable reading base? Wouldn't you think that at least some people would be posting some of the time, while others would post at other times when the first bunch was weeding the garden or taking in the garbage cans? Wouldn't you think that the people living on this side of the world would be inside posting because it's cold out, while the authors on the other side of the world enjoying summer now were out in the sun drinking lemonade?

Well, I'm here to tell you it's not true. It doesn't work that way. And I have no explanation for it.

Just a half-drunk cup of coffee.

Door #2 - a clarification

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:50:00 +0000
Door #2 is really too wonderful to leave it with naught but a sideways glance. Here are two photos that show the gorgeous details:

The door itself is the chapel door of La Sacra di San Michele, Torino, Italy.

Doors of Italy. And maybe a window or two.

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0000

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a collection of doors, doorways, (and the occasional window) from my recent trip to Torino, Italy.

Enjoy!

Muddles, mistakes, and mumblings

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:25:00 +0000

Due to weather and tardy relief personnel at work, I got home well after midnight last night. Wasn't in the least sleepy, so I watched old movies until after 2AM. Slept until eleven this morning, and woke to find a message from Bear (who had gone to work hours before) saying he would bring home half-n-half for coffee. Which meant that there wasn't any in the house.

Being the culinarily adventurous person that I am, I had purchased, some days ago, a carton of the above-pictured "almond milk". Because I am on a diet, I purchased the unsweetened variety. Which, as it turns out, tastes like beaver spit (powdered wood with water added). Which I then tried to remedy with some Truvia - a no calorie sweetener made from the Stevia plant. Which made the stuff taste like very thick, fakely sweet beaver spit.

But, as there was no half-n-half in the house, I decided to make a single cup of drip coffee and use the almond milk as creamer. Huge mistake. Not only did it not "cream up" the color of the coffee, it also made the coffee taste like... you guessed it... hot, caffeinated, fakely sweet beaver spit.

The next thing I did after pouring the noxious potion down the drain was to wander over to my cell phone and find a voicemail notification from work blinking up at me happily. My adrenaline dropped completely... I had agreed to trade shifts with a co-worker on Sunday, and suddenly I couldn't remember what day it was. Was today Sunday? Had I slept through the shift I'd traded for? Was work calling me to ask where the hell I was?

Completely forgetting that the day and date was also available on my cell phone, I stumbled up the stairs to my computer and dragged the cursor across the time display on the lower right corner of the screen. A little tag popped up - "Saturday".....

I should have felt relieved, but instead I just felt wobbly and vaguely nauseated. I think the almond milk disaster in combination with the fear of sleeping through a shift might have been too much for me this morning.

Now Bear is home from work, I've had two great cups of proper coffee, properly creamered, and some breakfast. And I feel about as much like going to work as I do shoving bamboo slivers under my fingernails.

But off I go.

O Autumn!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:31:00 +0000

O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain'd
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.

'The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust'ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather'd clouds strew flowers round her head.

'The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.'
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o'er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.

- William Blake

Hey!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Wanna see?

UPDATE:

I woke up this morning to find I had another SALE! The Steampunk Mother and Child sold.... can I get a WOOOOOOOOT?!?!??! I must get back to the dungeon and create some more! Thanks to Celebrate Odd Etsy for the exposure boost!

These are a few of my favorite things

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:06:00 +0000

Spent all day yesterday in a complete funk. Descended into the domain of the doldrums. No particular reason that I could pinpoint, other than that the redcoats were stomping around unnecessarily on my womb (as I don't plan to use it), and the weather was dreary. The most I could bring myself to do was get the grocery shopping done, wash the dishes, and take a few pictures before throwing myself down on the couch, to cry, "Turner Classic Movies - take me away!!"

However, one of the pictures I took yesterday happened to capture several things that make me smile And I need to smile. So here it is. And here they are.

* Our cat, Widdershins. He was the first cat that Bear and I invited to live with us. His sense of humor, his unabashed affection, and his ability to know when you're feeling bad and help make you feel better are only a few of his amazing traits.

* Our silly Samhain tablecloth. Found this swatch of cloth one day while we were shopping at a local fabric store - all the witches' hats, black cats, and punkins have these funny little whiskers sticking off the edges, and it made me laugh.

* Our kitchen - the heart of the home, where Bear and I share the adventures of trying new recipes, making old favorites, and sit with friends to enjoy everything from eating and drinking to playing board games to making mead.

* The coffee maker. 'Nuff said!

* The red cyclamen that I just bought at the local nursery. Not because I went to the nursery to buy a red cyclamen, but because it was sending subatomic messages to the cyclamenoptic-aquirensis node in my brain and I had no choice but to obey. The fury with which it is blooming, the fiery color of the blossoms, the profusion of thick greenery... all of it flies in the face of dreariness, of dullery, of disheartenment. I can't help but smile when I look at it.

Droman Thugshot

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:53:00 +0000

(random thoughts)

This is my handsome, twenty-some-odd pounds lighter hubby working on his mook jong. What's a mook jong? It's that black tube-shaped thing suspended on wooden slats just behind where he's squatting. It has holes in it where "legs and arms" are inserted, and it's used to practise angles and strikes in martial arts training.

See, Bear spent a good part of his life studying martial arts, both in the USA and in Korea, where he was stationed while in the Army. As part of his getting back into good health and a healthy weight, he decided to put up the mook jong and build a proper patio on which to stand and put it to use.

It's now nearly finished, with only a little sweeping of sand and trimming of landscaping cloth around the edges left to go. Way to go, Bear!!! My happiness at the completion of this project has different facets. It means that a) Bear is getting inspired, and b) that previously awful corner of our yard is finally going to be neat AND useful!

***

I just came back inside from a wonderful garden visit. The morning is incredibly warm and sunny. Steam rises from the damp leaves, blue jays scream overhead. A murder of crows visited while I watched, fighting over the feeder and causing a ruckus. Our Samhain jack o'lanterns are collapsing happily at the edge of the circle garden, showing evidence of being the main dish at recent squirrel and raccoon midnight feasts. Leaves fall steadily now, making a sound like skittering mouse feet. All of my garden beauties are turning golden and brown, drifting off to sleep for the winter. The air smells like heaven, the blue of the sky is nonchalant, as if it is too busy thinking about something else.

The chinese citron tree is coming into full vigor now, with its ornamental, odd-smelling fruit turning bright yellow and its huge thorns hard and sharp as razors.

Plans for the day:

* Trim the ivy crawling up the side of the cottage and remove it before it invades the attic.

* Get out the electric hedge clippers and cut back the giant euonymus shrub, which used to be so pretty and now looks like Lyle Lovett's head on a Saturday morning.

* Disposition the pile of brush that I cut down and left in the side yard to "thin out".

* Cut the former dish television cable that has been hanging off the roof like a rat tail and annoying the crap out of me for the past year.

* Get to the library and see if Battlestar Galactica 4.5 is waiting for me.

* Switch my summer and winter clothes out. Probably won't do this until after dark, since I can't stand to do anything inside when it's this pretty outside!

****

In other news, I got a pretty little pair of silver "endless hoop" earrings on ebay for ten bucks. I wear headsets 8 hours a day, and they dig regular earrings into the sides of my head, causing more swearing than usual. I didn't want to leave earrings out altogether, because then the holes would grow closed, so these little hoop earrings give me a bit of bling without any of the accompanying pain. I love an easy fix!

****

Marcheline's Movie Review of the Week:

Awesome. An action movie that fed my fascination with ancient Celtic / Norse stories, handsome men, and women warriors that KICK ARSE... with a little tiny bit of sci-fi thrown in, but only very peripherally. The action sequences are grip-the-armrests great, and while the emotional content of the story didn't have me swooning (this is no "Titanic"), it's definitely a movie I could pop in and watch on any given weekend. I would rate it right alongside the recently released "Beowulf". Rollicking good fun.

****

Last but not least, we made a batch of eggplant lasagna the other day. Bear made the meat sauce, using ground turkey, tomato sauce, squash, onions, garlic, and baby portobello mushrooms. All I did was slice up a couple of eggplants, olive oil and onion salt them, and bake them in a 425 degree oven for fifteen minutes. Then I used the eggplant slices as if they were lasagna noodles - layering them with ricotta cheese, meat sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese in a Corningware covered dish. Baked the whole shebang in a 350 degree oven until bubbly, broiled it a few minutes to brown the cheese on top, and .... YUMMMMY! It's a South Beach Diet friendly recipe, but I would eat this even if I wasn't on the diet. Eggplant rocks.

This is not where I thought I was going

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:19:00 +0000

This post was going to be all about how excited I was to have finally "wrapped up" (pun alert) my Faux Greenhouse de Herb Garden project. Which is actually my first real effort in attempting to make a rosemary plant live through the winter. Most of our herbs are not perennials, and our sage, mint, and thyme have lived through every winter since we planted them without any help at all, so really this is all about the rosemary.

I was going to detail the war between myself and the coiled chicken wire, in which I attempted to straighten it out, and it attempted to poke me full of ragged holes. I planned to re-enact the painstaking process (a pun! a pun! my kingdom for a pun!) of threading tiny bamboo poles through said chicken wire in order to hammer them into the ground for support. I had visions of chuntering on happily about the plastic and how soft and easy it was to work with, as the day was blessedly still - not a breath of wind while I worked.

Yes, that is what this post was going to be about, folks. And now, after seeing the picture I took of the finished product, I have only one thing to say.

Welcome to the morgue.

Meet Jean and Lionel!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Today was one of the most perfectly sunny, chilly fall days that ever fell off the tip of an artist's paint brush. Bear and I had decided to "bump" the weight-loss plateau we'd both been struggling with by going off the diet for one day, so we bundled into his vehicle and went to breakfast at Country Kitchen. We chowed down happily on biscuits, sausage, and gravy, eggs, hashbrowns, and coffee. It was bliss!

As we had to go down to the movie rental store to return a video, I suggested we swing by the little local nursery on the way home, just to see if they had any "winter's coming" sales, or any plants left at all. Happily, they did - both - and we got these two gorgeous beauty berry bushes for half price!

We almost always name our trees and shrubbery, and I dubbed this pair Jean and Lionel, after the two main characters in one of our all-time favorite British television series. Like the beauty berry bushes, Jean (played by Judi Dench) and Lionel (played by Geoffrey Palmer) are a little scratchy on the outside, but have a lovely and long-lasting relationship. Welcome to Thistlebright Gardens, Jean and Lionel! I hope you will enjoy living with us more and more, as time goes by...

The original Lionel and Jean

** Side note: I had to look up the word "series", as I wasn't sure what the plural was. Serieses? Surely not! As it turns out, it's one of those "irregular plural nouns", like fish and headquarters, which is used identically for singular or plural cases. You learn something new every day.

For Cait O'Connor

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:51:00 +0000

Silver Ravenwolf, the author of some of my favorite pagan books, had a contest on her blog last year. She posted this picture (above) and asked people to submit poems, stories, or graphic art involving the two girls in the picture. My entry was picked as the winner of the poems, and I was pleased as punch!

I am reprinting it in case my friend Cait O'Connor stops by for a keek, and also because it's a fitting poem for this Samhain season.

The Silver Chain

The sisters lived down in the glen
Beyond the grassy plain
Fair Ellen wore an angel’s face
Her twin, a silver chain

Ellen loved the wildling Hugh
All others she disdained
Her twin was left alone to sigh
And twist her silver chain

Her fingers worked a midnight spell
Fair Ellen to restrain
She wove a silken Samhain web
With threads of silver chain

But love, the strongest magick,
Sighed out its sweet refrain
Fair Ellen wore a wedding gown
Her twin, a silver chain

Genius or insanity? You decide.

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:39:00 +0000

The unbelievable art of Kris Kuksi.

Feelin' a bit peaked

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I woke up with... well, let's just say it felt like buffaloes were running around trampling my lower intestines flat. I got to know the back of my bathroom door much better than I ever wanted to, as I spent much of the day staring at it. 'Nuff said.

Strangely enough, the malady didn't take my appetite, and I didn't notice any particular effects for better or worse after eating the delicious breakfast that Bear cooked up for us. But neither did the problem go away.

Last night, when I laid down to sleep, the rumbling started. My guts started howling and hooting and rumbling audibly, and they're still doing it this morning. I think whatever this is has moved on to "stage 2", wherein everything is trying to reinflate itself after the buffalo run, and perhaps doing the job a little too well.

I feel a bit peaked, like I just want to drape myself over the furniture and sigh a lot.

Halloween brunch recap

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:42:00 +0000

We had our friends/tenants over for Halloween brunch, since I had to work the evening shift. Hot coffee, scrambled eggs with chorizo, and fresh ripe avocados were the tasty start to the festivities. Above, Jinx ghosts around and inspects the punkins, as usual refusing to sit still while I take her picture.

Then we got down to the business of punkin carving! We kept our punkins carefully hidden from each other until the unveiling. All the lights were turned off, the shades pulled down, and candles were set inside each punkin. And then...

After the harvesting, salting, and toasting of myriad punkin seeds (a treat I look forward to each year almost more than the jack-o-lanterns themselves), we settled down for a showing of Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

A good time was had by all!

Happy Samhain!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:11:00 +0000

A new steampunk creation from yours truly!

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:16:00 +0000

Since my first "steampunk treasure trunk" actually sold on Steampunk Saints (my Etsy.com store), I was motivated to create another one. And here it is, for your viewing pleasure!

This time I got a little wild and added jewels to the clockworks and clock hands on the outside of the trunk... each of the four clock hands has a different colored jewel. The miniature brass padlock is functional and comes with three tiny brass skeleton keys. How steamy!

But best of all, I actually included TREASURE INSIDE this time! The phrase "tempus fugit" hovers meaningfully over a vintage pocket watch, affixed inside as a visual reminder of times gone by. I don't think it would be too self-congratulatory to admit that I really love this little box, and if anyone buys it I might just be a teensy-weensy bit heartbroken to let it go.

That being said, if you really like it - CLICK HERE.

Growing pains

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:04:00 +0000

Recently and somewhat randomly, I looked up someone who used to be my best friend from sixth grade almost through high-school.

The reason I remember the borders of that friendship so well is that what brought us together was her mother's death. My mother started a school library fund in memory of her mother, and I invited her to my church youth group. We became extremely close friends.

Then, in our junior year in high-school, her taste in friends took a swing toward the rich and snobby. She basically dumped me in favor of her new buddies, who drove to school in the brand new BMWs their parents bought them. One of my clearest memories of that time is her literally kicking my shin under the table at lunch for telling a story about a vacation trip she took with my family. She didn't want her new friends to know she hung around with me outside of school.

That's all water under the bridge, of course, and I guess I looked her up to see what thirty years going by had made of her. As it turns out, she is now an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church, as is her husband. She has three children, the oldest is 17, and she has been married for 20 years. She replied to my inquiry in a very friendly way, and we have exchanged a few emails so far.

I feel once again the faith barrier problem that so often happens, especially with people who knew me as the raucously zealous Born-Again Christian that I was when I was growing up. They fully expect me to be the same person I was then (only moreso), and I find myself trying to decide whether to just avoid the topic of spirituality altogether or to go ahead and get it over with, and watch the not-so-gentle decline into non-communication begin.

When I try to explain that I embrace their choices and support them in their faith just as much as I do everyone in their own spiritual path, I always feel as though I'm fighting an uphill battle. Because I came from a Christian background, I know the narrow minded viewpoint, the party line, the "there is only One Right Way and it's This Way" belief system, and I know that hoping for an equal measure of respect for the spiritual path I have chosen is basically pointless.

I think that my life, my personality, my relationships, hobbies, and viewpoints have merit all on their own, without having to be validated by the filter of religion. I have respect for and friendships with people of many differing faiths, Christianity included. But I seem to find reciprocal respect lacking from Christians in general, and Christians that I grew up with in particular. Which has always seemed odd considering some of the main tenets of the faith, such as "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

And so I continue writing to my old friend, waiting to see how long it takes before the old religion axe falls. She certainly seems to have come a long way from the girl I knew in high-school. Perhaps she'll surprise me.

Annnnnnnd guess what I did yesterday?

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:03:00 +0000

I was wearing my new jeans while I was out doing errands. When I came home, I decided to put on sweats for hanging around the house in. I walked to my closet, and I TOOK OFF THE PANTS WITHOUT UNBUTTONING OR UNZIPPING THEM!

First I did a happy dance, and then I realized that I just bought two new pairs of jeans that are now too big for me. Bear is losing so much weight lately that maybe I can give the jeans to him.

I just gave the jeans to him... AND THEY FIT! We are two weight-losing machines, yes we are.

Marketing FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:36:00 +0000

While cruising through my nonexistent emails this morning, I decided to visit my junk mailbox just to see what incoming emails would look like.

Amid the oilslick of spam emails was one whose subject line was "Viagra with a twist".

Great marketing, no? In addition to an uncontrollable woody, you now have the option to have your junk facing the wrong way! All alone? Screw yourself!

Something I forgot

noreply@blogger.com (Marcheline) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:10:00 +0000

In my excitement to get back into yoga-fit shape, I completely forgot about the pain barrier that comes with starting from square one again. Ow. My arms are weak and my body weight is higher than it should be, which makes "pushup position" agony. My neck and shoulders are in serious need of a masseuse. My inner thighs are tight as piano wire, and the stretches hurt like someone is running a razorblade up and down the muscles.

And, much like life, the only answer is to push ahead, keep on doing it, get through and past the pain, until my arms muscle up again and lift me fluidly from pushup position to upward facing dog to downward facing dog. Keep pushing until my torso folds forward over my outstretched legs with ease. Keep unrolling that mat, keep breathing through my nose, keep going until the mental and physical blockages are cleared and my body starts working like a well-oiled machine once more.

Oh, yeah... I got on the scale this morning and I'VE LOST FIVE MORE POUNDS!!! FOR A TOTAL OF 15 POUNDS LOST!!!

Excuse me while I do the happy dance and pat myself on the back.