Color circuit

Tucked away

in a little nook between two buildings

Manhattan skylines of a different sort

Dreams

I love New York

because you just never know what quirky thing you're going to see...

Turns out this is a men's clothing store, but I love the sign anyway.

I've walked past this gate many times, but I still don't get it--or at least why you'd want it on your front gate.



What is it with the flowers on the cabs?

Golden domes

This building is on Sixth Avenue and was built in the late 1800s. At some point, the goldturrets were removed; when I lived here they were gone, but right before I moved, there was an article about the building in the NY Times announcing that the turrets would be rebuilt (as the building was converted into condos, but that's a different story...). At any rate, I think it's an interesting building.

For B*

In the city..

I arrived in the city midafternoon--about an hour ago. It is a beautiful day here, warm and sunny. In a few minutes I'm going to walk to the greenmarket. And after that who knows? I have no agenda for the next four days except enjoy the city.

Blogiversary!

Two years ago today I posted my first blog entry. At that point I didn't know if anyone would ever read my blog, or if I would find anything to write about. What I've learned over the last two years is that people do stop by, and sometimes even leave comments! They (you all really) read my most trivial musings and my occasional attempts to be serious.

What I really had no idea of when I started, however, was how much the blogging world would become another community for me. Despite the pseudonymity that many of us maintain, I feel like I know many of you. And a few of you I've met face to face, or in other forums as well. Blogging has allowed me to become acquainted with a whole lot of smart, funny, interesting people I wouldn't have known otherwise, and I'm grateful for that.

Friday Five for Foodies

1. If you were a food, what would you be?

~Dark chocolate


2. What is one of the most memorable meals you ever had? And where?

~Mr. LS's uncle is executive chef for a pretty swanky group of restaurants in NYC. About the time I graduated from seminary, NSLS and Mr. LS came to the city and we went to one of those restaurants in what has become one of the new hot areas for night life, not far from where I lived. And we were given the royal treatment. We didn't order anything....food just kept appearing on the table. Really I think we sampled most of what was on the menu. And of course, it was all delicious. Amazing, really.

~I've never been treated so royally. Or had so much food. It was wonderful, but honestly I started to feel a bit guilty about the excess by the time we were finished.


3. What is your favorite comfort food from childhood?

~A tomato sandwich--must be a very fresh garden tomato, with lots of real mayonnaise and a bit of salt and pepper. When I was a kid it would've been on squishy white bread.

~Or chunky peanut butter on saltine crackers with a class of real iced tea (lemon and sugar of course) or a coke. My bf and I used to have that for a snack and I still do.


4. When going to a church potluck, what one recipe from your kitchen is sure to be a hit?

~ Baked pineapple and cheese casserole


5. What’s the strangest thing you ever willingly ate?

~When I was in 10th grade I went on a Girl Scout trip to Atlantic City (before it was transformed into its current state). We stayed at a big hotel and one day there was a buffet for lunch. Nothing was very appetizing, honestly, but there was a large tray of cold meat, so we made sandwiches. About half way through the meal, someone told us what we were eating was tongue. EWWWWWW!

~I've mostly avoided things like that, because even when I ate meat, I eschewed organs and game animals and the like. But in Iceland I COULD have eaten sheep's head or birds that were hung out to dry--literally (I forget what they were called). And my grandfather used to eat calf brains with his scrambled eggs. Makes me queasy just to remember it.

This thread make me remember again how much the way I eat has changed since I was a kid, and what different food memories my kids will have compared to mine--that may be worth its own post.

In which I expose my un-hipness

(and ignorance?)

I have been known to announce publicly that I will not let technology age me....I text, I blog, I'm on Facebook, I can't imagine life without my computer and cell phone, whatever. I am very impatient with people my age (and I'm NOT that old) who throw up their hands and say, "I'm just too old for that..."--that being email, or blogs, or just using a computer for more than word processing.

But I have to admit that when it comes to popular culture I am out of it. I haven't had a TV in ten years, I don't go to the movies much, I get my news from those bastions of liberal-ness (ha!) NPR and the NY Times. I know there is probably a lot out there I miss.

So when the Kid showed me a Youtube video of Ann Coulter I was a bit flabbergasted. I mean, I 've heard of her. I know she's wicked conservative and inflammatory. But I'd never seen her. But now that I have, I'm left to wonder--how can anyone take her seriously? Seriously?

The other part of this confession, for which I may get booted from teh blogosphere for my lack of .....whatever, is that I've never seen either Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, either. Yes, I've heard of them, but I've never seen them. So when the Kid tells me that Stephen Colbert is running for President I have to google him to see what he looks like, and you know, read up.

Slinking off in embarrassment....

ETA...I likened Colbert for President to Pat Paulsen for President....of course the Kid didn't know who I was talking about...and I guess I was about the Kid's age when he first ran.

Sitting in the sun is good

~especially when your house is still cold.

~my house has stayed about 60 degrees all weekend. In the grand scheme of things, that's not awful, but it is a bit chilly when you're sitting at the computer.

~I'm waiting for the furnace repair person right now; I don't know what is going on with the furnace because it is running, and a little while go I realized that it is producing a tiny bit of heat, because some of the radiators are warm. But not enough to raise the temperature appreciably.

~this is one of those times I'm glad NOT to be a home owner, 'cause I won't have to be the one who pays this bill.

~on a different note, I've been on a roll recently of really strong sermons. Until yesterday. Blah. I don't think it was awful, but it was definitely lackluster. IMHO anyway.

~I'm thrilled that Al Gore won a Nobel prize. And it tickles me that some have remarked on how this is a slap in the face to GWB and his notable failure to take global warming seriously.

~I'm feeling less and less enthusiastic about Hilary Clinton these days. I'd love to have a woman as president, and there would be something sweetly ironic about having Bill Clinton as the "First Man" but really, she's getting more and more conservative, isn't she? (and LD#1 would not forgive me if I voted for her, I expect!)

~which leaves me with Obama I guess, or John Edwards--but I don't think he really has a chance. I'm not sure why I don't feel more enthusiastic about Obama.

~vacation at the end of this week--woo-hoo! And I'm going to the city for a few days.

~is it a sign of my control issues that I'm taking my time off from Thursday-Thursday so I can attend two meetings at work? Here's my reasoning: If my boss is away, no decisions will be made. But if I'm away no one will think about the absence of my voice, and communications being what they are, I'll be lucky to know what happened at those meetings. But when I am here, people do listen to me (thank goodness) and it just seems in my best interest to be here.

~leaves are falling here, but they're not turning bright colors. I miss Vermont this time of year.

~furnace guy is here! Yay!

Chilly

The furnace is running like mad, but there is no heat. Argh. Or should I say brrrrrrr.

Why do these things always happen on Saturdays, worse yet on Saturdays when I am preaching and have no time to attend to them?

Playing with the camera...

Yesterday I played with manual settings, and I had an "aha" moment where something that I sort of knew really clicked for me. But I still have soooooo much to learn.

This angel is on top of a gazebo in the church garden. I think it is kind of grotesque, actually, but yesterday for some reason looking it from behind amused me.... and I liked the way the colors came out.




These roses are really quite amazing--yellow tinged with bright pink on the edges of the petals.




I think this is some kind of thistle...there is only one of them growing in the flowerbed with some roses and other things. I couldn't decide which of these I liked more and the Kid thought I should put up both of them.

Taking time out to be thankful

The last few weeks I've tottered on the edge of....what? Existential angst? Despair at the state of the world? There's been so much to despair of...the veto of the SCHIP bill and the concomitant rhetoric from the president and certain senators who are totally out of touch with the reality of real people's lives, the never-ending war and loss of life, the $600 million fortified embassy just built in Baghdad (yeah, I just heard about that one on NPR yesterday), the brouhaha in the Anglican communion. So today's RGBP Friday 5 comes at a good time for me, reminding me as it does to think about those things for which I am thankful rather than focusing on those things which cause me disquietude.

Today I am thankful for:

1. The sunlight that pours in through my kitchen window.

2. My friends, especially one who seems always to give me a call just when I need to hear a friendly voice.

3. My children who are all smart, funny, savvy individuals who make the world a better place.

4. The opportunities I've had to reinvent myself, not once but twice, and to live and work in interesting and exciting places.

5. The moments of grace that do break into my life on a regular basis even (or especially) when I'm feeling frustrated or anxious.

Give me your tired, your hungry, your poor...

or not...

These stories break my heart--families who are working hard and contributing to society being ripped apart because of often unreasonable immigration policies.

I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of immigration rules; nor do I know what sort of immigration reform we should enact. But what I do know is that the system we have now lacks compassion. Perhaps it is too much to expect our government to have compassion--but really, what greater good is served by policies that wreak havoc on families, on people who just want to make better lives for themselves and their families, who just want a taste of the American dream?

Random bits of a week gone by

~Last week went by in a fog, sort of. My days off weren't really off, and my shortest day at work was 10 hours. Ten full hours. And the longest was 14. I know, I probably shouldn't be counting.... it's just part of the job. Someone asked me why my week was so busy and my answer was because my boss is away. But after thinking about it some more I realized that there is really only one thing I had to do extra because he was gone, so it would have been busy anyway. It's been like that ever since I came back from vacation.

~And I was a bit out of sorts, too. Especially Wednesday. I felt like I was just going through the motions. Blah. But Thursday was much better; I had lots of affirming moments which really helped my state of mind.

~All the goings-on in the Anglican Communion didn't help my mood too much either. I am so weary of all the turmoil. Of being told by others what I don't believe--as if they have any way of knowing--because I take a liberal/progressive stand on the issue in question (sexuality).

~The weather was just beautiful last week, warm and sunny. Today it has been much much cooler. Feels like it might really be autumn after all. The Kid has a long weekend coming up and it would be a really nice time to go to Vermont, except that I have to work on Sunday.

~But I am taking a week off later this month. And hopefully going to NYC for a few days. I need to get outta here for a while.

~I've been futzing with my computer off and on all afternoon. I have Windoze installed in Parallels so that I can run some work-related software that isn't made for Macs and in July my Windoze crashed (The Kid's comment: even on a Mac Windoze sucks...) I'm only just now getting around to reinstalling it, but the first three times I tried, the computer couldn't/wouldn't read the Windoze disk. Argh. I finally wiped it off good, and voila, it began to work. Too bad I didn't think of that sooner!

~The leaves are just beginning to change here. Here's the Japanese maple in my side yard:


And I seem to be taking a lot of moon shots recently; here's the moon about 7:15 this morning.

Sunset

We've had a stretch of beautiful days lately, but I've been too busy to take advantage of them. Even though I worked much of the afternoon, I vowed that I would go out with my camera, so just before sunset I went up a hill that overlooks water.

Stuff

A RGBP Friday 5

1. Are you a hoarder or a minimalist?
~I am a bit of both. I am sentimental and save lots of stuff with memories attached. I still have a whole box full of papers and projects from my own K-12 years, as well as my kids'. But I'm not organized enough to have it in scrapbooks--just stuffed in boxes. And I have baby clothes that all four of my kids wore. And old Fisher-Price toys. And a couple of my own old baby dolls.

~On the other hand I don't have a lot of furniture or big things. I vowed years ago not to move things that I don't really like, so when I moved to Vermont I left most of my furniture, and replaced it bit by bit. And I've never had a really big house to fill up (until now, and I've promised myself not to fill this one up, and so far I really haven't).

~I don't have a lot of 'bric-brac' either; all of the things hanging on my walls or sitting on shelves are things that have meaning to me, that have some sort of story.

~I do have a lot of books. I know people with more, but I do have quite a few.

2. Name one important object (could be an heirloom) that you will never part with.
~It's hard to narrow it down to one--see above.

3. What is the oldest item in your closet? Does it still fit???
I have an Icelandic wool jacket I bought in 1975. It doesn't fit and it needs to be relined and cleaned, but I hate to part with it because it reminds me of living in Iceland.

4.Yard sales- love 'em or hate 'em ?
Not a fan. I neither go to yard sales nor have them. When I get rid of stuff, and I do, it goes to Goodwill or someplace like that.

5. Name a recycling habit you really want to get into.
I was really good about recycling when I lived in Vermont and NYC, but where I live now, recycling is a lot of work. So I need to just reestablish the habit--even if it means putting the stuff in the car and driving it to the dump--gah.

So tired...

This has been one of those weeks that just goes on and ooonnnnnn....lots of meetings--deanery, vestry, stewardship, lots of work in between meetings. It hasn't been a bad week, just a busy one. And I have to work again tomorrow (another meeting) and then I have an all day workshop on Saturday, a meeting before church on Sunday and one after...so I'm tired.

Tiredness and blogging don't go well together--note the lack of posts all week. Maybe I'll do better next week. Or not. We'll see.

A lovely retreat

We returned home late this afternoon from our parish retreat. Despite many of us getting stuck in awful traffic on Friday and a rainy Saturday morning, the retreat went well, and I think a good time was had by all. I personally came home exhausted, however. Running a retreat is not so relaxing, but I did get some down time Saturday afternoon and evening.

During my free time I played with my camera a bit, and learned two things, first that I need to learn a great deal more, and second, that I need a tripod. Saturday night we had a bonfire by the lake and as we arrived at the fire pit we were greeted by a beautiful crescent moon that was, as it turns out, setting, not rising. I tried very hard to get a decent picture; here are the best ones.






These are in chronological order. When the moon reached just barely tree level it cast the most beautiful reflection on the water, but it was dark enough that my picture came out quite blurry. My bonfire pictures didn't turn out very well, either, but here's one.


The Kid was one of the musicians for the retreat. We had people of all ages--from toddlers to octogenarians--in attendance, but they all seemed to enjoy the music.


I love the rocking chairs on the porch of the dining hall. I spent some wonderful quiet moments there on Saturday afternoon. There is nothing like a porch rocker for relaxation!

I'm glad tomorrow is my day off. I need to rest up from my retreat!

Retreating..

Off to the woods in nearby New England state for our second annual parish retreat...I'm more or less in charge, so it's a less relaxing prospect that it might be otherwise. But it will still be fun.

Back Sunday.

I wish I could blog a smell...

because the wild grapes outside smell soooo good. The Kid says it smells like W@lch's Gr*pe Juice, but I think it smells much better.

Is this me?

As seen at Chichimama's and Dani's ...

You have 12 days to modify my daemon....what do you think? Click on the image to modify my daemon if you think this one doesn't fit.




And you can go here to make your own.

Traditional blog photos

In the tradition of jo(e)...


the back-of-the-head shot: the Kid and two friends (names under development)



and the hair-covers-his-face-so-you-can't-see-him-anyway shot.

RIP Madeleine L'Engle

According to the New York Times Madeleine L'Engle died yesterday (Thursday) in Connecticut. Those of you who've read here for a while know that L'Engle's writing was very important to me and that I collect her books.

Although I was the right age to read Wrinkle in Time when it was published, I didn't encounter it until I was in my 20s. I loved it, and its sequels, as did my children later on. A little over 20 years ago I attended a retreat led by L'Engle, and began reading her non-fiction as well, but it was only about 10 years ago that I began collecting her books. I have over 40 of them (some are duplicates) and many of them are books that I will go back and read over and over.

A few years ago while reading some biographical information on L'Engle I figured out that one of NSLS's best childhood friends was related to her through L'Engle's mother's family. I don't know if NSLS's friend even knew it, but the connection was really clear to me from the details in the family history.

L'Engle's characters overlapped her books (and occasionally her real life, to the chagrin of her children) and when you read enough of them you could feel like you were part of the family somehow. Readers knew what happened to Meg Murry when she grew up, and some of the Austin characters surfaced in adult fiction (Suzy Austin in Severed Wasp for example). But we never heard more about Charles Wallace. Reportedly when asked if she would write about him again, L'Engle answered that she would if she found out what happened to him when he grew up.

I guess now we'll never know.

Comfort food

When I was sick in June, and my friends were here, they bought B0st0n M@rket mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner. It was soooooo good that I had to have it two more times while I was sick. Ever since then I've craved mashed potatoes (which I've always loved but rarely cook) as comfort food, but I hadn't actually succumbed.

Until last night, when I had a wicked headache, and the Kid went out to dinner with his friends. As soon as I dropped him off I went to St0p and Sh0p and got some mashed potatoes and gravy -- yum. I hesitate to say this, but they were almost better than chocolate.

This whole "Grandma" thing...

Yankee T asked me in a comment if I was going to change my name to "Rev. Dr. Grandma." I don't know if she was serious or not, but no matter: The short answer to that question is no. The long answer is something I've been thinking about--actually I thought about it before I found out that I'm going to become a grandmother. And that is this: I don't want to be called "Grandma" or "Granny" or "Nana" or any of the usual grandmotherly names, for lots of reasons, but mainly because they don't feel like they fit.

"Grandma" in my mind is my mother. We've never actually had a "Granny" in our family, but what I called my grandmother ("Ninnie") was a corruption of Granny; my older sister said "Ninnie" and it stuck. My other grandmother, who died when I was in kindergarten, was called Mama (a as in acid, not Mama with an ah sound, if that makes in sense.) But my kids, including NSLS, called their paternal grandmother by her first name, Iris, because she didn't want to be called by any grandmotherly name either. And that seemed to work just fine.

So I don't know what I do want to be called--not necessarily by my first name, especially since the Kid and I have first names that sound just alike (even though we spell them differently). I guess I have plenty of time to come up with something appropriate. Any suggestions?

A quiet Labor Day

~Except for one service and one meeting yesterday, I've had a very quiet four day weekend. Friday and Mondays are my days off anyway, and this week I had the unusual occurrence of not having to preach and not having any Saturday meetings or duties. And I've been really lazy all weekend--I did some laundry and straightening up, but otherwise I read, took pictures and just hung out.

~I started reading Harry Potter 7 again, more slowly this time to take in all the finer points. And I had missed or forgotten some things. I'm about half way through--when I'm finished I'll see if I feel differently about any of it.

~I have avoided going to the grocery store all four days, even though I really need to get some food in the house. I really dread going--it's not the shopping per se, but the deciding what to buy and what to cook that I really hate. So I put it off....and off and off.

~Unlike me, the Kid has worked every day this weekend, all day. He washes dishes at a local restaurant, and this weekend was the last hurrah for the season. They'll be open until October, but this was probably the last really busy time. And he has homework and he agreed to do some lawn work for someone at church, so he's been a bit overloaded. His allergies are acting up, too, so right now he's trying to finish his chemistry between sneezes.

~I walked down to the Village today to feed my diet Coke addiction, and every other car that passed me was a convertible with the top down. It was a beautiful day for it, for sure.

~When I was on vacation I went days without diet Coke, but now that I'm back I want it every day. Context is everything I guess.

The new camera

As you can tell, I have been having lots of fun with the new camera. I still have LOTS to learn to use it to its full potential. I tried to learn more about using different settings while I was on vacation--I bought a book about the Canon XT that is really helpful, along with the manual that came with it and experimented with taking the same picture with different settings and so on. But mostly I've used the auto setting and the setting for action--most of the fair pictures were taken with that as were the butterfly pictures.

The one thing that has frustrated me is not being able to zoom in. The only reason I was able to get the butterfly pix is because I was standing only about 2 feet from the butterfly, and even so, they are cropped--as are most of the others (which is fine, really). My old camera had 10x optical zoom, though, and I was used to being able to zoom in on things farther away. I could still use the old camera for that, but honestly now when I use it , it seems so SLOW that it makes me crazy. Am I a bit spoiled here? No doubt.

At any rate, I had a little cash I'd been saving for a while, so today I order a telephoto lens. I was going to wait a bit longer, but delayed gratification only works so long for me. Our parish retreat in nearby state is in two weeks, and it will be a good opportunity to work with the camera again. I do feel a bit guilty for spending so much money on myself, but it's done. At any rate, stay tuned for more pictures.

Here are a couple more from Maine:

Butterflies and bumblebees

From a late afternoon walk in the church garden...

The end of summer

It's Labor Day weekend, and in New England that definitely marks the end of summer. In honor of that, here's a RGBP Friday 5 on season's change.

1. Share a highlight from this summer.

This may seem like a weird choice, but preaching this summer has been very satisfying. As has being on my own for a month while my boss was on vacation.

And I was able to visit three of my favorite places--New York City, Vermont, and Maine.

2. Are you glad to see this summer end? Why or why not?

Summer's end is bittersweet, I think. Summer isn't really my favorite season, but I've enjoyed the more relaxed pace at work and my time off. Summer is so short here, though, that it feels sort of unrealized-but that may be the result of my own slowness.

It hasn't been all that hot here this summer, but I won't miss the humidity--or the tourist traffic!

3. Name one or two things you're looking forward to this fall.

Fall is one of my favorite seasons--I love the weather and the way things feel subtly different as we move into a fall rhythm and get ready for winter. But this year, honestly, my thoughts are already moving to spring--specifically to March when my first grandchild will be born and (I hope, hope, hope) LD#1 will come home from Korea.

4. Do you have any special preparations or activities to mark the transition from one season to another? (Cleaning of house, putting away summer clothes, one last trip to the beach)

I've never packed up clothes for different seasons, but now I have two closets in my bedroom, so I have one that is mostly for warm weather clothes and the other mostly for colder weather clothes. I do need to make sure all my sweaters are clean (yeah, I should've done it already!) and send coats to the dry cleaners. And check and see what mildewed over the summer, despite my best efforts to prevent it (ugh!).

5. I'll know that fall is really here when the leaves change and the air gets nippy enough that I have to close the windows.