we like this one.

"I am about to play 'Beethoven's Fish Symphony'."

(emmett)

This is The Tree.

We have played here many, many times.
This is a great tree.
It's low and spread out so it feels like it's
more than one tree, but it isn't.
Kind of like a pepper tree, but no pepper berries!?
There are cars around and you can see houses so it's not as isolated as we would like
but inside or underneath it, the world disappears.

And now we know that if we bring blankets it has a number of spots to make hammocks. Next time we will bring more rope for sure.

Tomorrow we are off to Idyllwild for a few days.
It's supposed to rain/snow so...that will be different.
After all this gardening and sunshine we will be doing some
snuggling and cocoa drinking. Sounds good too.
I love vacation.


Just look at that little face peeking out.
<------------------------------

Love Him.

I know I have passed this name on many times before...but we just love Odds Bodkin. <-------
Our family has started listening to his stories again and again.
Our favorites are "The Evergreens" "The Little Sheppard" "The Three Little Pigs" (in a way you have never heard before) and really every other story he's ever told. Mac and Emmett are into "The Odyssey" but for the whole family, the shorter stories are better. Silas is just starting to enjoy them.
At the online store you can download individual stories.
He's just amazing. He plays all the music and does all the sound effects in one take and performs all over the country at schools and festivals.
I think this guy has been a big influence on Mac...she loves to tell stories. His especially.

a poem

Natural History
(a letter to Katherine, from the King Edward Hotel, Toronto)

The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unwinds a thread of her devising:
A thin, premeditated rig
To use in rising.

And all the journey down through space,
In cool descent, and loyal-hearted,
She builds a ladder to the place
From which she started.

Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do,
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken strand to you
For my returning.

E.B.White

(Annie here: Walked into a spiders web tonight on the way home from the studio. I am sure this web will reappear every day across the porch all spring long, so I will do the crazy lady arm dance to get in the house from now on. One of the things I love and don't so much love about spring. But this poem will forever be one of my favorites.)

A little Park trip and some sass...

I bought some cookies. We played soccer and frisbee.




Mac gave me some sass and then we went home.

Papa

just a bit of April Fool's Day Torture.

forest pansy redbud

The banner photo is our tree with the best name. Forest Pansy Redbud.
It's small still and not that noticable in our garden but I like to watch how it changes from day to day.
Starts as magenta buds, turns to orchid petals, then to maroon hearts and then dark purplish green leaves. Just crazy beautiful to me.
And I love this tree completely. So does Silas. We talk about it everyday. Here is the progression.
March is just the best month for this tree. I love March. In my next life I would like to be named Forest Pansy Redbud. Or Leaping Waters. Ok, not really but kinda.

garden blog from school...

check it out! HERE

lots of spring garden loveliness and deliciousness.

Sunday Morning with Nana

emmett New Yorker submission #2

"Oh citizens of America! Honor the God from Beijing...or read my grad school report!"

TODAY is Pop's Birthday!

Happy Birthday. We All Love You.
(We can see the kid in this face! Great smile!)

this lawn is your lawn

thanks Amy for this awesome video...and thanks Obama's for listening!!

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Emmett and The New Yorker

Emmett's caption#1: "let the land be with you. so let it kill you quickly or you will get sold to the sushi guy down the street and die a more horrible death."

Emmett's caption #2: "I hope Poseidon doesn't find out about this."

He's been doing this for a while now. It is interesting and entertaining to watch the development of wit. (Shawn, this one's for you!)

two more good ones...

the new Madeleine Peyroux, her own songs, very good...



and My Morning Jacket (I just don't like the name...) many of the songs remind me of Fleet Foxes...though some a bit rowdier...

My last day at the unit

I didn't know it then but these are the last pics from the last day I served with my old outfit. I have "parted ways" and am returning to my original station. 4 years of fun in the mountains and on helicopters! Made some great friends and have awesome memories.
All things must pass.

calm moment...



NOT a calm moment...

lidded jars.

experimenting with jars like chess pieces on black
clay. trying to come up with new glaze combos.
...about 15 more in the kiln.

I like this CD.

super mellow. good for pottery.
kinda pastoral and melodic.
definitely folky.

I like it.

Fleet Foxes.

Ready?.....Wheeeeeeeee!

very interesting article!

from SALON of course...
about Obama's timid liberalism.

I also heard some interesting stuff on NPR
today about the economy, about nationalizing
banks. One point made, of many, was that if any other country
came to us and asked what should be done with their
failing banks we would recommend that country's
government should immediatly take over, clean up,
root out and overhaul...then turn it back over to the
private sector as soon as possible.
But when that country is the USA no one wants to say
that for political reasons. Hmmm.

Really, Borscht! I am not kidding!

Got this recipe when I worked at the Olive Tree on MacDougal...well, I didn't actually get the recipe...I sneaked peeks and guessed...and I didn't actually work at Olive Tree, I was more like a slave for tips. But it was well worth it. That place introduced me to some of my favorite parts of NYC and, weirdly, the place is located right around the corner from where Cami lived for years and where they will be living again on Minetta Lane in Serpico's actual apartment. (You gotta blog some pics of your new place for me Cam.) Did we live there at the same time? 1991-1993?

Anyway. The Borscht. Hot, not the cold weird pink stuff served with sourcream.

a bunch of meat cut up, stew beef whatever etc

4 cut up beets (or more if you want)

beef broth (or 5 cups salted water)

maybe more water if you like it brothier

1/2 a cabbage cut up

1/2 an onion cut up

1 tsp of dill

1 clove garlic whole

3 cut up carrots

1 stalk celery
1 tsp red wine vinegar
sourcream or greek yogurt dollup (sp?) optional

crock pot, 4-6 hours low

EASY.

Really, only Matt likes it around here as we are trying out being vegetarians

which has opened my eyes to just how many good things my kids actually do like to eat.

But beets are not one of them.

Look what Annie made for me!

BORSCHT

At 0600 I came home from 13 hours of running over the mountain (literally) to find that my beloved wife made me the best soup ever in the history of the world. Before I ate it I was lonely, sad, depressed, hungry, tired and dehydrated. After I ate it I was happy, content, snuggly with myself, hydrated and convinced that my wife is the greatest person in the entire world. BORSCHT are you kidding me? I love it. Annie rocks the casbah! Have you had a bowl of hot borscht lately? I suggest you do, you may have forgotten how good it can be. It helps to eat it from one of Annie's bowls if you have one....

Thank you Annie! I love you.

Matt

on my mind.

1. Dreyer Family Band stuff...
2. the incredibly awesome quilt that Mac
and Emmett are making piece by colorful piece
3. how much Mac has grown and how she is changing every day
4. Silas
5. the light...
6. and we miss you BEBE!

babysitting night

try this experiment...

1.pick a number between 1 and 10

2. multiply it by 9

3. if there are two numbers in your number now, add them together (for instance, if your number was 17, add 1+7=8. 8 is now your number)

4. subtract 5 from your number

5. find the letter of the alphabet that goes with your number (for instance, A=1 B=2 C=3 D=4 E=5 etc...)

6. Pick a country that begins with that letter

7. the last letter of your country, pick an animal that starts with that letter.

8. the last letter of your animal, pick a color that starts with that letter.

9. now, check the 3rd "comment" from ma and pa otter (below).

turns out bob ross has lots of fans...and parodies...

some simple...



some twisted...

could it be true that we may get chickens at the school?

bob ross forever

the first video I posted was of an actual episode but was taken off youtube for copyright infringements...so here's a wiggy 70's tribute.

bit of Bebe!

a good one... (thanks mom)

from a Salon article by Gary Kimya <-----click here for the whole article.
"The economic crisis has finally revealed the fundamental contradiction in the right's worship of unfettered capitalism, a fealty neatly summed up by the phrase "greed is good." Conservatives believe that the market is not only the greatest generator of profit but is also morally superior to any other system. It is morally superior to "do-gooder" liberalism because it encourages individual responsibility and hard work. By contrast, liberal redistributionist programs result in moral hazard and encourage malingering and irresponsibility.

But this happy vision in which the hardest, most responsible workers are also the wealthiest has now been shown to be a chimera. In the age of post-industrial, globalized, virtual capitalism, the biggest profits do not accrue to those who work the hardest, but to those who best know how to game the system. We all now know that we have been living in a world of Magic Money, a world of hedge fund managers and derivatives traders who made billions of dollars on arcane transactions they themselves did not understand. Until it all went south, these Masters of the Universe were the gods of the right. As in Calvinist theology, their worldly success proved their moral rectitude.

The problem for conservatives is that the world of Magic Money has now been shown to be utterly amoral. Money for nothing! That was the GOP's theme song. So the GOP can't suddenly attack the poor slobs who signed mortgages that were too good to be true without dethroning its golden idol of greed. You can't argue that Magic Money is good when you win and bad when you lose."

ps I love the word chimera.

trying to watch the Academy Awards with Silas...

...is completely insane. What were we thinking.











Really loved the show though tonight. Thankfully, Matt put Silas to sleep (to the Who) after many hours of the above...hurling himself off the couch and running all over the place. Though I saw only "Benjamin Button" I still love to watch this every year. Mac and Emmett sat through it all, which I think is a first. We all liked the tribute to musicals and Queen Latifah singing "I'll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places" completely straight and clear!
We will also remember this night as a very wiggly tooth night for Emmett
and the night before Mac goes to a week of 6th Grade Sea Camp on Fiesta
Island. And, not to forget the night before Nana gets her crown. (by the time
you read this, it will all be over!)

Here's some Indika, Isabel and Jesse too. "HONK!

... don't watch this if you are going to see the
show tomorrow. (promised I would say that!
no spoilers here!)

here's some Mama Mac for you...but if you are going to the play tomorrow I have been instructed to tell you not to watch this video!!

I'll tell you a joy of motherhood. Watching this babygirl find
the thing that makes her so happyhappyhappy and
being able to do it in such a nurturing environment!!



I wish I could actually SEE the play....I need windshield
wipers for my eyeballs.

(more full cast video to come!)

Pop's here

Pop and Lisa came for a visit.  We went to Mac's play and lunch.  Im sure Annie will post Mac's play soon, but my friend Emil sent a pic of me and Pop and I had to put it up.

Matt

I LOVE THE RAIN.

There's a song called "look at what the light did now" by little wings that I always think of when we have any kind of weather.
It's kind of a kooky song but I love it loud on a long and misty walk.
Because for me the best part of a rainy day is the light and how the world I am used to
looks so different.
I have heard that to SEE the artwork, paintings and knick-knacks in your house, you have to change them around every now and then.
I like the idea that we need the rain so we can really see what has become invisible.
Look at what the light did now.
The sound of rain is pretty perfect, too. And I don't mind the wet either.

And then the sun comes out and it's like a gift.

..............................................................................................

mac's hair

This is the approved hair-do for Mac's character, Ida, in the school play.
I love it.

It reminds me of when she was in
Miss Vernetta's dance class at 3.

"Little Green Men from Mars"

Pumpkin Obama!

happy birthday mr. lincoln

...how would he vote today?
the question in asked
in this article??

it was really bad

See this....I got Tasered for 5 seconds in training.  The worst five seconds ever.  I repeat, the worst five seconds I have ever experienced. Ever. and I have seen some s&%*%.

I'm glad I did it. Especially since I will never have to do it again.

Try to avoid doing this

Matt

what got cut from the stimulus bill...

check out this list of what was partially and completely cut...
then go tell some law enforcement agents how the republican small government
plan works for them and "the average Joe"...

just a few of the cuts: constructions projects for primary and higher education schools, money for law enforcement(=jobs), money for homeland security(=jobs), energy efficient federal buildings construction(=jobs), money for law enforcement wireless(again, jobs), school nutrition (heard a great interview about this subject where the idea was that this section of the bill alone could keep 2 major food companies afloat (thats lots of jobs) while finally giving them money necessary to switch over to healthier food processing where organic farming can be employed...and another snow ball of goodness keeps people working WHILE getting many of the companies out of the ruts they are in...)
anyway, read the list for yourselves and ask yourself if these are unnecessary, non-ecomony-stimulating projects...just more crazy socialist wasteful spending...

It just kills me. The crazy spending was war spending... and bailing out everybody but the american people. AND now, calling the funding of No Child Left Behind (finally) and Energy Loan Guarantees PORK ...very weird priorities, our Republican "brothers" have.
It's looking obstructionist and very much like they refuse to have success under a democrat...they'd rather have the whole country suffer than the possibility of it looking like Obama's administration could do a good job. Right now, spending big to save jobs is good.

A republican worrying about the deficit now is...hardly credible.

But then, after all that...read this article to put it in a positive light... it says we should be celebrating this Obama stimulus plan victory. Hmm, I don't know...but, as it also says in this article, liberals are worriers and a bit skeptical of this new Obama optimism and it's time to let go our constant worrying ways. I am not yet convinced...but I am trying...

and for die-hards who love Paul Krugman...another good article from today if you haven't already read it...and I say, YIKES!

Free Range Kids