spring is for love

And, since spring is also for baby animals, I'm posting on Dog in Progress the pictures of Lila (back when she was still Maggie) that melted my heart and caused me to waver for a week (because was two weeks before Christmas really the appropriate time to get a puppy?!?) until Raphael got tired of the wavering and said one sunny Saturday, "Oh, just get in the car. We're driving to Phoenix." We were just going to "look" at her, of course, but when she put her ears back and peed on the carpet as soon as Raphael laid eyes on her, and almost wagged her little white-tipped tail clean off, he was smitten. The rest, as they say, is history compounded with massive amounts of shedding.

why i'm slacking

One hundred tissues in less than 24 hours, that's why. I think I picked up something on the plane last weekend. Ugh.

spring break

Reggaeton apparently has no place in West Bridgewater, Mass, but you will find plenty of clam chowdah, mom-and-pop places touting all-day breakfast on Sundays, and Marshmallow Fluff. Damn but those people love their Marshmallow Fluff.

In another strange twist of events, I found six boxes of baking soda in the back of Nana's cabinet (next to the Marshmallow Fluff). What she's planning, I don't know. What one can accomplish by mixing baking soda with Marshmallow Fluff might well be the really important question here.

We spent our time having coffee and hot chocolate in Plymouth and enjoying fish chowder and grilled sandwiches at places called The Milk Bottle, My Sister and I, Good Days, and Yo Biatch My Chowdah's Better Than Yours. Also visiting with The Captain (my grandpa) in the nursing home. Raphael helped around the house - took the trash down to the dump and fixed the bathroom sink and whatnot, and I made a lot of coffee and sorted through a lot of old family photos.

We also heard tons of good stories and heard my grandma call someone a bitch over coffee. See? Toldja it'd be crazy times.

We took the train into Boston on Tuesday. It was cold, this is true, oh, but what a relief from the desert! My ears were numb, and when I went into stores and caught myself in a mirror, I was all pink-cheeked and rosy. When you look like that in the desert, people tend to ask you if you're okay and if maybe you need to sit down and have some water.

On the way to dinner that night, in Boston, while deciding on which Irish pub to eat in, we met a tourist...well, actually it gets complicated. But mainly what I want to convey is that this drunk guy passed us and asked us for some money and when we (strictly speaking, the tourist) asked what he was going to do with it, he told us he was going to buy a nip. A nip! I didn't know people really used that word anymore, and that, if they did, other people would know what they meant, and quite frankly, I was thrilled. Thrilled, I tell you -- and also kind of tipsy from the Something Something Redcoat Martini I'd just imbibed while in the presence of a man wearing a tri-corner hat. Yes!

Ohmigod, and you wonder why I love Boston.










Nana's the one on the left. Note that this was published in 1940. Nana and Aunt Jean were 16 and adorable as all get-out!







My extremely hot mother wearing a scanty skirt even by today's standards -- and that's my dad copping a feel.







Nana and Jean are the second and fourth. Which is which? Who knows? Who cares! Twins!







Nana and Taffy. They match!








Mom and The Captain - when she graduated from Wheaton College. You can't see it, but this dress is another one of those that she'd never let me out of the house in. Mom!

dawg's in the kennel

Raphael and I are heading out to Massachusetts tomorrow morning for a crazy Spring Break in a place where there ain't no internet (did I say "internet"? I meant "computer"), the appliance repair guy lives around the corner and works on Saturdays, and water falls from the sky on a regular basis. Yeah. Crazy. Lock up your daughters, Boston-area residents. Yo.

setback

Auugh! Devil, thy name is White American Cheese!

communicating with dog

Chomp-chorrromp chachomp chomp is the crunchy sound of 4 A.M. snacking, always followed by sluurrpslup slurrupslurup slupslupslupslupslup, various collary jangling sounds that have to do with scratching and stretching, excessively loud yawning, and the clikclikclikclikclikclik of paws on hardwood coming back to bed.

Rong thumump (pause) rooonnng thumump is the sound of the insertion of a paw into the food bowl and a firm pull against the side in order to tip the bowl (often requiring several tries) thereby scattering bits of kibble across the kitchen floor for no apparent reason other than to irritate roommates.

Barroorooaroo aroooaroorooorooooo grrrrrr! grrraarrr! garrrrrr! is the joyous sound of coming home after a long day at work. You didn't forget me! Again! You guys are the awesomist!

Chingding ching ching ring ding is the sound of a nose in the bathroom garbage can Blasted tags on metal! I nearly got away with it this time too!

Roofooffoofwooofwooofffoowarughwarooroarwarooguh is the sound of that guy walking down the street obviously having thoughts about trying to break in even though he's trying to appear singularly uninterested in our house. He doesn't fool us. Jerk.

Arf! (pause) arf! (pause) ARF! (pause) followed by a long-drawn out sad whine and accompanied by staring and wagging in attempt to entice lost ball to spontaneously roll out into mouth are the high-pitched sounds of aforementioned ball having gotten itself wedged under the couch/futon/kitchen cabinets/kitchen table/small stool (in the kitchen)/desk/desk chair/heater/toilet/palo verde/workbench/various cactuses, behind any of five different doors, in a perfectly accessible corner, or next to the scary wooden buddha statue by the bathroom. Oh, no! My old nemesis, the wooden buddha statue, has my ball again! Help! HELP!

chingching (pause) chingching is the sound of dog wanting to go outside, using Christmas jingle bell with red Christmas ribbon hanging on back door knob since December 2006 because dog is smarter than roommates and taught self to ring bell.

(Silence) is the sound of trouble.

saturday morning

in regards to gluttony

Who says gluttony is a bad thing?

Me, that's who.

You learn things when you stop at Safeway on the way home from work and purchase, among other things, a quarter-pound of white American cheese and then eat it all before you even hit Campbell Ave. Yes. Because now you have no cheese for your sandwich tomorrow and also you feel a little sick. Serves you right, though, when it comes right down to it.

we are but hobbits

Everybody get your tickets and COME TO TUCSON NOW!

Right now is why people live here. The weather is fantabulousness all over the frickin' place and the trees are just starting to leaf out and the sun has not yet morphed into the Eye of Mordor which is inevitable as March progresses.

I'd guess we've got about a week-and-a-half.

and two more: lunchtime haiku

Mexican Rice Bowl
I don't know what is under
that stuff you call cheese.


Do the Mexican
People really eat rice bowls?
Yes, I am confused.

monday morning haiku

Monday I do not
like you half so much as a
big punch in the mouth.


I rise from my bed
oh, ill-advised night shower
hair like a mouse nest.


Argh! ARGH! Why do I
always measure the coffee wrong
on Monday morning?

Soon I will be there
at my desk, a prisoner
of Monday's dark chains.


Lovely sunlight, in
ten minutes I head for a
place with no windows.

summer marching in

And since we're approaching summer here in Tucson at the speed of a rattlesnake strike, hitting 80! degrees! the last couple of days, I've begun cooking fruity things again. Leaning away from the cream and the heavy meaty pastas and the non-leafy stews of Yesteryore. Just last night, for example, I did this Raspberry Jam Almond Thing (I think Gourmet calls it something different) that almost killed us this morning when we sliced into it for breakfast. Killed us in a really good sugary jammy almondy kind of way, I mean. Not, like, in a crazy farmer way, with a nicely sharpened pitchfork or a thresher or anything.

Also, it's about time to start thinking about the 2008 Summer Beverage of Choice. As you may recall, 2006 was the year of the Mojito. We introduced the Lime Vodka Freeze in 2007. Now, as Summer 2008 winds up for the pitch, I'd like to submit for consideration the Desert Sunrise: tequila, chile-blackberry syrup, orange juice, and lime juice.

We will, of course, keep you informed.