Lobster spotting

Here’s a lobster in an unusual location — right outside Baltimore’s Penn station.

No, not the one in NYC. And sometimes people refer to all the stations on the Pennsylvania line as being Pennsylvania station, so I’m always in a perpetual state of confusion about which station is which. (NYC or Philadelphia or Baltimore or Wilmington, Delaware or even D.C.)

Seen during ArtScape. This was one of the art cars. Hopefully this red lobster (who was animated enough to drive over, even though it’s evidently been cooked) will head off to Massachusetts, where it will fit in better than in the blue crab state.

The fiberglass claw on the door was a great touch.

Happy Spring

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter.

Or a happy Passover, fertility festival, or just general walk in the park to celebrate there being a wee bit more sun in the skies.

Me, I hope to be together enough to go on a little tiny road trip with the Gardener to hear good music (hopefully) and sing along with some hymns. Barring that, I’m going to go on a 1 mile trip to a public garden and sit out on a park bench for a while and pretend it’s warm enough not to wear a coat.

The Present Really Is Presence

Last week, I didn’t finish the deadline driven knitting I was working on for the wrap party. However, I did get two little ornaments finished, wrapped, and under the tree. In the large scale of things, not a huge accomplishment.

For the holidays, I was given the opportunity to be present in the homes of my family and the Gardener’s family. In retrospect, being in the presence of loved ones is the best present of all. No matter how irritating it is to be suddenly treated like you’re 3 years old and you’re also an expert on computers, it’s still great to be able to pull up a seat at the family table. Not everyone has that opportunity, or wants it. We did lots of mileage on the eastern seaboard of the States to celebrate Christmas. Maybe next year it’ll be at our house?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. If you’re getting ready for 3 Kings day, you celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January, or you are still celebrating Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, have fun!

Christmas and Hanukkah Wishes

Oh Tannenbaum

To everyone who reads this: I hope your holidays are happy, festive, healthy, and safe.

I’m checking my list and getting ready for annual Christmastime events. This will probably be the start of blog silence for a bit. You can’t blog while you’re eating at your parent’s dinner table (at least not politely).  If we follow last year’s pattern — there will be Christmas Eve services, possible mad dashes into gift shops, and hoped-for meetings with far-flung relatives who have all gathered to effectively transmit colds across the eastern seaboard.

Drama is added to the season by friends inconvenienced by storms in Oregon (one can only hope they get to safely continue their travels). I also know people in the Northeast who are still without power…hopefully they get service started again soon.

Here’s hoping that everyone gets where they’re supposed to be. That the lights of the menorah stir feelings of hope. And that everyone who is celebrating Christmas gets to spend some time thinking about the phrase, “All is calm, all is bright…” in between all the hectic minutes leading up to 6 AM (or 5 AM if the children are like those I know) on Christmas day.

The construction crew down the block is listening to “All I Want for Christmas (is You)” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and other music that sounds tinny from this distance. (I kind of wish they’d do Adam Sandler’s song instead.)

PS: If you’re looking for some crafty ideas for wrapping gifts — people who sew enjoy getting some extra fabric wrapped around their presents; brown paper bags cut up and put “wrong side” out, with stamped designs on the outside can be festive; and if you have used wrapping paper, it can be used again.

Gifts for Artists and Musicians

One of the things that get cut in a bad economy are the Arts — schools cut art and music classes rather than sports. One way to counteract this economic Grinch effect is to provide kids and kids at heart with the tools they need to practice their craft of choice. Luckily, it doesn’t have to break the bank.

• If there’s a kid in your life who loves trombone, clarinet, violin, and you know the family can’t afford lessons, see if you can get other family members to help you cover the cost — maybe split it up so each person covers one day’s lesson.
• Match sheet music to the musical taste of budding performers — sheet music from Wicked or Pirates of the Caribbean may fill a young musician with joy.
• Paintbrushes, sheets of disposable palette paper, and refills of paint colors that get used up quickly (for instance, titanium white) are welcome additions to any painter’s studio. Ditto for pastels, kneaded rubber erasers, and tortillions for other artists.
• If they’re learning to draw, provide them with art pencils, colored pencils, and paper.
• Little artists need refills of paper for painting easels, child safe paints, inexpensive brushes, glitter glue, crayons, and modeling clay.
• Teens might enjoy a book on drawing cartoons and caricatures, along with some of the tools mentioned in the book.

And, of course, give the gift that’s free — encouragement. If your niece or nephew want to play their violin, drum, or clarinet after dinner on Christmas Day, sit and really listen. If they want to show you their latest artworks, smile and look for things you can identify and talk about (like color choice, if the art is abstract). Remember — even really great performers like Wynton Marsalis, Yo-Yo Ma, and Marian Anderson and famous artists like Mary Cassatt probably needed encouragement when they were young.

Still Knitting On

The dream swatch continues to grow, as does the beautiful rose-colored silk thing. The swatch is at 5-1/2″ and needs to be 48″. The other one has reached 12″. BBC7 needs to pick up the slack and provide more mysteries for me to listen to. It’s their fault and not mine.

This weekend I also worked on some socks while watching House. (The socks are a fairly ill-kept secret project, sitting out on the coffee table all the time, right under the nose of the recipient). I think the surprise will be if I manage to actually finish them before the end of the year.

On my list are some other little crafty projects that may or may not get punted in the interests of sanity. And, of course, I’m hoping to get over my cold so the holiday baking can commence. I’ll be talking about cookies on Tuesday, I think. If anyone knows a really good chocolate fudge cake recipe, do tell. I have to make one for a potluck.

To Mr. Lucas

No, not that Mr. Lucas. I mean George. You know, the guy who writes about outerspace all the time and also seems to be in a race with Ron Howard for directing and/or executive producing (although he does keep getting distracted by acting opportunities).

Mr. Lucas,

You’ll be pleased to know that 3 boys I know* (age 12 and under) have reenacted many, many different death scenes and horrible dismemberments from Star Wars. I’m unclear on how closely these reenactments stuck to your canon, and I apologize if I’ve missed a few of your newer prequels. It sounds as if the sword fights are more popular with this age group than the podrace (honestly, I get the kids’ point here — you totally lost me at that race on Tatooine).

Have you considered the possibility of adding a trampoline and other accoutrements from Cirque du Soleil? The boys had a trampoline, and it added to the drama and enthusiasm** they could throw at the death scenes. They also had a magic regeneration chamber, and if you don’t have one of those, it could come in handy. I think scenes from the Magic Schoolhouse were thrown in too. Perhaps you want to cross market?

So, if you’re going for boys, ages 7 through 12, your marketing and movies are doing really well. We’re not clear on how much the kindergartner knows about Star Wars, but he is enthusiastic about bouncing on his brother (and waling on people with a lit-up plastic sword). As for girls — I remember age 7 being exactly the right time for that first movie, even though we wished there were more women and girls in it.

Sincerely,

me

*Yes, all children were on loan for the holidays. They’ve been given back unscathed. No knitting was harmed (or even knit on) during the weekend.

**Yes, there was devastating cuteness, but I took no photos. No one stood still long enough. And yes, I did try the trampoline. Nothing more pathetic than a full-grown adult trying not to bounce a 4 yo into orbit (while trying to keep a huge dinner of turkey down).

Thanksgiving

No matter the weather, no matter the traffic, no matter how dinner turns out on T-Day — we will be thankful. No matter that I need to work today, no matter how many stitches get dropped, no matter how many familial bombshells are dropped — we will be thankful.

Thanksgiving was moved by common family agreement to the weekend so we can see more people, although some of the family can’t attend due to geographical challenges. This means the Gardener and I will eat Thursday’s Thanksgiving dinner in peace, quiet, and on fancy dinner plates.  Proposed menu: chicken breasts with stuffing, date walnut bread, acorn squash with maple syrup, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, cranberry relish with lime zest and pecans, and cake or chocolate chip cookies storebought pecan pie for dessert. If you celebrate T-Day this time of year, what are you planning? Happy Day to everyone, no matter if you’re in the USA overeating or not.

Happy Labor Day

Insert your favorite corny remark

It’s the last blast before school begins in the USA (your mileage may vary if you’re in a town that starts school in August; no air conditioning = cranky kids). This long weekend is also a welcome respite from the work week.

I’m torn between wanting to go to the shore and wanting to do something related to Labor Day. For info from the Department of Labor about Labor Day, click here. I’m not sure whether or not there will be a Labor Day parade near me, but I might be able to go somewhere for a picnic.

I wish I could go to the shore, but the bridge is under construction after a ghastly accident (and alternate routes will be jammed as well). I may just punt everything, and head out to do battle with the overgrown lawn instead.

Hope your plans are great, the weather is beautiful, and remember the folks who built the cars, trains, roads and bridges you’re using. Without the laborers, we would all be stuck in the mud. And unclothed. Anyone else remember the ad campaign to look for the Union Label?

Edited to add: the fence is from a trip to New Orleans. It’s the landmark Cornstalk Fence from a historic building that is now a hotel. Gustav has almost the whole country holding its breath…