Friday Random Ten

The real reason I went to that GMD concert that I talked about last week was to see Rich Mullins. He was there with his Ragamuffin Band, and I have to tell you I was completely entranced. He came out on stage in a very unassuming demeanor with bare feet (which I especially noticed because I tended to walk similarly on campus -- it was actually how GB noticed me at first), and talked about the importance of living in peace and humility. It was obvious that was how he lived, clearly more at home in a small acoustic set where he could interact with the people that had come, than in a large, heavily-produced show.

I remember being so impressed with the wide variety of musical instruments that he played, especially when he sat down, cross-legged, on the stage and played the lap dulcimer. I would still love to learn how to play one. Stores that sell dulcimers should probably pay royalties to his charity, in recognition of his contribution to interest in the instrument. As such, I really wanted to give you a video of Rich playing one of these, and this is just such a video. Enjoy Rich Mullins on the hammered dulcimer in his take on the Apostle's Creed.



I found, however, that I couldn't give you just the one song. With the beautiful poetic metaphors he set to music and the additional instrumental mastery of the guitar and piano, I had to also give you my long-time favorite of his songs. Plus, I can't do a reprise of this feature -- I won't be seeing him in concert again, as he was killed in a car accident about eighteen months after I saw him in college. So, I hope you'll also listen to this one -- it gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.



Oh, and it appears I've found the reason for my previously unexplainable love of Kevin Spacey. Hmmm.

When I asked Pandora to make a station for me that captured the essence of the Rich Mullins sound, they did alright.

"Heaven In His Eyes" by Rich Mullins and a Ragamuffin Band* on The Jesus Record
"Kiss The Cheek Of The Moon" by Wayne Kirkpatrick on The Maple Room
"Captured" by Chris Tomlin* on The Early Years
"I'll Be Free" by Kent Bottenfield on Back In The Game
"God Of Wonders" by Caedmon's Call on In The Company Of Angels - A Call To Worship
"Stand Up" by Everyday Sunday on Stand Up
"Kindness" by Chris Tomlin* on The Early Years
"I Am" by Bebo Norman on Big Blue Sky
"I Wanna Be Clean" by Nick Gonzales Of Salvador on Acquire The Fire: Unshakeable
"A Place On The Earth" by Fernando Ortega on Storm

I generally think of Rich Mullins a little more folksy than this list turned out, but it was an interesting set of songs, anyway.

* Acts I've seen live

Beginnings of the Fun

There is a whole team of guys working on my house while I work. It's rather surreal, sitting in my office while the noise below make the house shake like a minor earthquake is in the area.

Our first project has kicked off today. We are starting with a new foundation, since, well, that's seems like the base of all of it. And as part of that kickoff, I wanted to show you the "before" pictures of what it looks like now.

This is a very nice specimen of how the foundation was designed to be when it was originally done. On the dirt, we have this layer of stones from the site, cemented together. On top of that is a nice 2x4 that the wood planks of the walls come out of. This little section of the foundation is in very good condition. We will still be replacing it, as a partial foundation repair would not really do any good.

Here you can see some of the worst of the foundation. The 2x4 that is supposed to be on the rock base is no longer there, and the plants from the outside are growing into the remaining space. As such, the walls that the whole house is supported on are water-damaged and rotting away. Yikes! In other parts of the foundation, the 2x4 board is warped or rotted or otherwise not structurally sound.

Here you can see how the outside wall of the kitchen is just balanced precariously on some rocks that were set there. No cement holding the stones together, no 2x4 board that the walls are nailed into for support. Nice stuff.

Today is the day that all the permits are in place for the "Earthquake Retrofit" work that we're having done. I don't know why they call it a retrofit -- they will be completely replacing the foundation all the way around the house. But, whatever. I'll take it if it means that the house is ready for its next 100 years when it's all over. Regardless, today the 5-man crew is working to support the house on these 4x4 posts -- shoring up the perimeter, they say. What I understand is that this is the first step towards demolishing the existing foundation. It's sort of exciting, not because I like the idea of having a temporary foundation for a couple of week, but because I know what the next projects are once this is done, and those are the fun and exciting ones.

I'll have to publish posts chronicling the progress through our construction/remodeling phase of life. Any lessons you learned that you would like to share would be of great interest to me.

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Echeveria setosa (Hens and Chicks)

This groundcover exists in several places throughout the yard.

It's fuzzy and has these clumps of reddish-orange flowers. The flower stems are about 6-8 inches long, but the flowers are quite small. I had asked my mom when I last visited her if she knew what that was, and she said it looked like Chicken and Hen, but it turns out she had the name backward.


This is a closeup of some of the flowers. Echeveria setosa is a succulent, so I don't have to water it a lot -- just a bit if it starts to get really warm. It's really nice that this plant flowers for a long time -- just adds to the general appeal of the latest entry in the HIAHS yard.

The primary distinguishing feature I've noticed on this plant is that the leaves are all fuzzy, like it's trying to be your favorite stuffed animal plant. Most of the other succulents in the yard have smooth, almost plastic-like leaves.

Friday Random Ten

My next concert in the pile was one at the Texas A&M campus, where Geoff Moore & The Distance were the opening act. These guys had a couple of good songs and a bunch of embarrassingly bad ones. I've decided to give you the video of a cover of The Who's "I'm Free" which they released just about when I saw them.



My mother-in-law comes later this afternoon for a long-weekend visit, so rather than go into too much detail about this part of the concert, which wasn't that great, I'll just tell you what Pandora gave me when I gave them this band's name.

"Change" by Waking Ashland on The Well
"Cry Me A River" by Pride & Glory on Pride & Glory
"Everybody Is Easy" by Burden Brothers on Mercy
"Please Take Her" by The Rave-Ups on Book of Your Regrets
"Ten Pins" by The Connells on Fun & Games
"Let's Go" by Tim Miller on Adelaide
"Down" by Austin Collins on Something Better
"Roses" by Woody Lissauer on Woody Lissauer
"Fun And Games" by The Connells on Fun & Games
"Drought of 2001" by Waking Ashlandon The Well

I got two duplicate groups, and no GMD (I think that means Pandora doesn't have an agreement with them to play their music and subsequently pay the royalties). As a result, I have an entire Random Ten without a song I've ever heard from from groups I've never heard of. These songs mostly sounded better than GMD, too, so I'm not sure what that means, but I generally approve of the items provided.

* Acts I've seen live

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Tropical Hibiscus)

This showy bush is currently covered with big fluffy blooms. It has clearly been in the yard a while, and is large and established -- just like I like my plants -- harder to kill that way.


It's a large bush, about eight feet tall, and I've seen up to 15 of these six-inch blooms on it, and that is a glorious sight. There are several types of hibiscus, but this one falls in the tropical group, which is good because it turns out to be in a south-facing part of the yard, where it gets as much sun as it wants, and more.


I do like this one. For a tropical plant, it needs very little extra water in our part of the desert, which is surprising. There are other tropical plants in the yard that need a decent amount of extra water, so it's nice that this one doesn't have that requirement. Woohoo! Go hibiscus!

What Was That?

If some well-intentioned person says to you, "If you have to evacuate because of the fires, you're welcome to come stay with us," and then follows it up with "We know you won't, but you're welcome to," does that officially negate the invitation?

Friday Random Ten

In honor of today's holiday, I decided to skip a week in my concert reviews to put together a suite of songs suitable to such a patriotic day. Instead, I decided to go with a Christmas in July theme. Have you got any idea how lame most of the available patriotic songs really are? On the other hand, I love a good pile of odd Christmas songs, so that's what you'll be getting instead for this week.

"Bob and Bob" by Trout Fishing in America* -- A song about the unlikely identical snowflake brothers.
"The Night Santa Went Crazy" by Weird Al Yankovic* -- A ballad chronicling Santa destruction of the North Pole.
"Santa Brought Me Clothes" by Trout Fishing in America* -- The kid just wanted one toy. But, "it's better than nothin', I suppose."
"I Want a Hippopatamus for Christmas" by Gayla Peevey -- There's just nothing like the desire for the odd gift.
"The Eleven Cats of Christmas" by Trout Fishing in America* -- This is what happens when people think you like cats. All I can say is that I'm glad there weren't twelve.
"You Gotta Get Up" by Rich Mullins* -- Don't you dare sleep in and miss all the fun!
"My Birthday Comes On Christmas" by Trout Fishing in America* -- What a gyp.
"A Christmas Carol" by Tom Lehrer -- There's so much you have to do on Christmas, there's no time for any normal daily stuff.
"It's Christmas Time Pretty Baby" by Elvis Presley -- Ooh! Ooh! I'm pretty! Where's my present?
"Christmas At Ground Zero" by Weird Al Yankovic* -- This is what happens when an atomic blast is crossed with the big December holiday. I can't even tell you how much I love this song. How can you dislike a song that contains the line "we can dodge debris while we trim the tree"?

Bonus Christmas in July pick -- "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood

Okay, so I cheated and threw in a single patriotic song. That's all I could manage, but it seemed an appropriate token. Happy birthday, United States of America! Here's to a better year for the next one.

* Acts I've seen live

Fire in the Hole

Well, not exactly in the hole, but relatively nearby. So far, the biggest problem we've seen in our part of Santa Barbara from the Gap Fire is intermittent power issues. While that makes it particularly difficult to blog, it is otherwise just a nuissance in our current power-crazed lives. You like power, I like power. It's normal American stuff.

Last night, power went out about 7:15 and was out at our house until 11:30, according to the clocks that kicked in somewhere in the night. The problem was all linked to a big power line that was brought down by the fire. To restore power to all of us crazy light-loving fools, they switched us to a smaller power line. They are describing the current situation to be similar to having 12 strings of Christmas lights plugged into the same outlet. AKA, we're in for more electricity fun....sans electricity. Tonight, power was only out for about 2 hours, so here I am posting.

In case any of you are worried about me, don't be -- we're fine. We're not in the path of the Big Sur fire that you've seen in the news -- that's quite a ways north from us. We're looking out our backdoor at a fire that just started Tuesday night, and has grown quickly, but no structures have been damaged as a result yet, and there are no casualties so far. GB got back from a work conference in France last night...during the power outage...and is currently sleeping off his jet lag. We're still probably 7-10 miles from the fire, so while we can see it, with little-to-no wind, that's a long way away.

This is a picture of the smoke line as seen from our house near sunset this evening. The smoke is so thick that it makes the whole sky look gray. The sun was been bright red during sunset the last two nights. It's stunningly beautiful, until you remember why the colors are so fierce.

We'll definitely continue to watch this one. I'll keep you posted on what we see from here.

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Aeonium davidbramwellii

The larger aeoniums in the yard were harder to identify, for some reason. I'm starting to think that most of the time that's because it's a hybrid. Here's one of the mature rosettes in the yard:

While this one is on a 2-foot-tall stem, many of them in the yard stay at ground level. It has also been blooming in some of the plants, and that's been a treat. While there is no smell, here is a close-up of one of the flowers (they are quite small):

Even though I didn't completely settle into a species, I picked davidbramwellii (anyone think that might have been named after the guy who first classified them??), mostly because as the leaves age, the edges turn reddish, which seems to be a distiguishing characteristic of this one.

This plant, unlike other succulents, does like extra water. Without it, some of the bottom leaves start to die, so it gives you a signal that it's ready for water. As an idiot gardener, I'm all for a plant with a big, flashing, WATER ME! sign.

Friday Random Ten

I had a relationship in college that is a little difficult to characterize. I enjoyed his company, and he enjoyed mine, but we never dated. We went on a lot of "dates", however, including the TFIA concert and this week's concert featuring John Michael Montgomery in College Station. See, I was his back-up girl when he got stood up. I would say we were friends, but, um, we were more than that. Ahem. Towering over the dysnfunctional relationship we had, was this particular concert, though. JMM showed up drunk and performed much too long and poorly, as a result. I wasn't much of a fan beforehand, and that experience didn't really motivate a change there. I remember little of the actual concert except that as he finished the applause was half-hearted, and yet he came back and did a 20-minute instrumental encore that got even less applause, partly because people left during it. I also recall that he mentioned -- several times -- what a great place The Dixie Chicken was. Clearly, he had spent a lot of time there that day.

Anyway, here's what Pandora gave me for Mr. Drunk Performer.

"Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)" by John Michael Montgomery* on The Very Best of John Michael Montgomery
"Neon Moon" by Brooks & Dunn on Brand New Man
"Friends In Low Places" by Garth Brooks on No Fences
"The Chair" by George Strait on Fifty Number Ones
"Cover You In Kisses" by John Michael Montgomery* on The Very Best of John Michael Montgomery
"Best of Intentions" by Travis Tritt on Down The Road I Go
"If You See Him/If You See Her (featuring Reba McEntire)" by Brooks & Dunn on The Greatest Hits Collection II
"Me Too" by Toby Keith on Greatest Hits Volume 1
"You Won't Ever Be Lonely" by Andy Griggs on You Won't Ever Be Lonely
"I Swear" by John Michael Montgomery* on Kickin' It Up

I have to say I was surprised at how many of these songs I knew. And if I didn't know the specific song seleted, I knew other songs by that artist. I have very little country music in my collection, I don't listen to it on the radio, and I don't have any friends that are country music fans. However, I've enjoyed dancing to country music ever since my time at Texas A&M. It's easy dancing at its, but can be flared up nicely, depending on the abilities of the dancers involved, especially the lead in my case, since I'm not a particularly good dancer. Now I'm itchin' to go dig out my Rockies and my Justins and two-step the evening away. As such, my video for this week is of the Aggie Wranglers, a performing group that makes jitterbug look like it should, and not like I'd do it (though I can do some of the simpler moves).



* Acts I've seen live

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Bougainvillea

This is a bougainvillea that we have in the front yard.
I did a lot of digging to try to figure out what kind it is, but have run into a bunch of dead ends on that front. Let's look at the data we have on the three pure species that exist, and how my plant relates to them:

Leaves -- The leaves most resemble the peruviana species, with oblate, hairless, evergreen characteristics.

Brachts -- These are the colorful leaves that most people would assume are the flowers, but the flowers are actually at the center of these colorful paperlike brachts. The plant in our yard is closest to the spectablis species, with the bright magenta color and the triangular shape.

Thorns -- Yes, there are thorns, but they are deep inside the plant, and generally blunt, so I haven't maimed myself yet. Here, again, we match up to spectablis.

Flowers -- The little parts at the center of the bracht (at least before they fall off) are white, aligning best with glabra.

Habit -- This characteristic is primarily around what the plant likes to do and how it grows. Since this one blooms multiple times and grows very densely, we have another checkmark for spectablis.

So, what do we have here -- three nods to spectablis, with one each to peruviana and glabra. This would normally tip me to the leading species, except spectablis "is noted for its hairy leaves and stems" which my plant clearly does not have. As such, it is likely some sort of hybrid of these. Now there are 300 hybrids of this showy flowering plant, so my technical term for it is a big pink bougainvillea bush. How's that for fancy? Regardless, it's pretty hardy and just blooms whenever I water it as much as I can manage. Conveniently it's in an unshaded south-facing spot, which is good, since as a tropical plant, it prefers tons of sun, too. I like it when I find another plant I probably can't kill, but with a bit of care will bloom like it's 1999.

Craving Gone Awry

I've been wanting something sweet all week, which is odd in Heather-land, because I just don't have much of a sweet tooth. So, when I was at the grocery store today, I reached into the freezer and pulled out a carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream, my favorite. When I got home and got out a spoon to dive in, I noticed I'd actually gotten cookies and cream. Still sweet, but not what I wanted.

Now it will probably just stay in the freezer until the GB with the massive sweet tooth comes home next week and finishes it off. What a shame.

Friday Random Ten

My next entry in the "concert on memory lane" process is Michael W. Smith. I had gone to see Jars of Clay, but MWS was surprisingly impressive with his musicianship. It was sort of funny -- I asked my highschool DCE (Director of Christian Education) directions to the concert, and he told me not to worry -- there were two opening bands to MWS. I told him I was in town to see one of those "opening bands", and he was completely dumbfounded. I guess he didn't get that I was willing to pay MWS prices to see my little JoC folks play in a big venue. Even though I didn't go to the concert specifically to see him, I was impressed with his show. He's a great performer, and can play the piano beautifully, and all by ear -- did you know he can't even read music?

While I was impressed with his piano-by-ear ability, his lyric writing always frustrated me. I always most disliked the songs he wrote on his own without any lyrical help. He is an amazing musician, but he is not a lyricist. As such, it was important to me to find a song to share that he played piano (not guitar) in, but not that he'd written the words for. In the end, I settled on this tune, with words written by Diane Warren. This was from a concert back in 1993, which is sort of when I stopped listening to him, and therefore his 1980s-ish-persona is preserved in my brain as who he is, even though he keeps making albums and putting on concerts. Meanwhile, I sort of laughed at the little part at the beginning talking about how he composes and plays his music, so I thought you might also enjoy that little laugh. And so, without further ado, I give you "Smitty".



And now to see what Pandora gave me for my Michael W. Smith station.

"Here I Am" by Michael W. Smith* on Healing Rain
"Holy Is The Lord" by Chris Tomlin* on Arriving
"Holy Holy Holy" by Stephen Curtis Chapman on Amazing Grace
"You Are So Good To Me" by Third Day on Chronology Volume Two
"Let It Rain" by Michael W. Smith* on Worship (Live)
"My Redeemer Lives" by Reuben Morgan on World Through Your Eyes
"Shout To The Lord" by Lincoln Brewster on Let The Praises Ring
"Cannot Say Enough" by MercyMe on Almost There
"You Are A Child Of Mine" by Mark Schultz on Stories & Songs
"Freedom" by Michael W. Smith on The Second Decade (1993-2003)

It's a pretty blah group of songs, but I didn't really expect anything different with the key I gave it. There are couple of good praise songs that I like to sing in church, and that I will consider a success for this round.

* Acts I've seen live

Ode To the Eye

The eye is a phenomenal organ. "Organ" doesn't even feel like a good enough word to describe all that the eye does. The stomach is an organ, churning our food and sending it on to the next part of the assembly line. But the eye does so much more than a single, optimized function.

The eye protects itself in ways the other organs of the body never do. Sure, the stomach has part of a rib cage and abdominal muscles and skin keeping it from the nefarious outside world, but these hardly seem the work of the stomach, itself. The eyelids, however, are part of the eye -- its gatekeepers, if you will. The eyelids close on an instinct if any sand or dust or bright light attempts to damage the tender eye behind them. The open wider to allow more images and light in, and shrink to slits when the light is too much for the eye to handle. The eyelashes are there to help with anything the eyelids can't react to quickly enough. Primarily, though, they are there to filter out the particles in the air, so the eyelids can stay open longer to let the eye do more of its thing.

Why all the protection for these amazing machines that make up such a tiny fraction of the mass of the human body? The eyes are important for many reasons, and this is seen in the ways our poets write about them. They are "windows to the soul." The eyes are where you see death overcome a person -- almost as if they are the defining part of life. They indicate if someone is telling the truth or embellishing, such as noting that a person who looks up and to the left while speaking is lying. The eyes can show a range of emotions from surprise to shame to fury to love, and a whole lot more. A simple change in the eyebrow shape can indicate someone in deep thought who would be best undisturbed or the thoughtful look of someone who is shocked at learning something new. Clearly, a major amount of communication occurs through these complex pieces of our face.

Speaking of the face, there are lots of beaty products for the eyes. There is eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, and eyebrow pencils, but there are also eyelash curlers, and our eyebrows must be tweezed to keep them in shape. Uncared for, the eyes can make a person look old or dumb or indicate a social outcast.

As a powerful part of a person's exchange with the world around it, it's tough to think about not having eyes. More than the eye itself, though, my fears revolve around the loss of vision. With one eye already gone and the other declining, it's a real possibility. All I can do is continue to look for good opthamologists and hope the technology beats me to blindness. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my eyes.

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Aeonium haworthii

I recently became a very lucky girl on my quest to understand my garden. The previous owner of the house, we'll call her Misty, had lived in this house a long time, and appears to know everyone in town. About 25 years ago, she commissioned the garden for this house from a local landscape artist she knew. Well, he still lives in SB, and came by last week to give us some pointers on the garden. He gave me all kinds of information about what some of these plants are, what I was doing wrong with some of them, and ideas about where to place some additional plants I'd really like to add to the yard. I now have a cornucopia of information, and weeks and weeks of details that I can use in this little feature on HIAHS.

But enough about my dumb luck as I was approaching some lean identification weeks.
This is Aeonium haworthii. It's a very small aeonium, with the succulent rosettes only measuring two to four inches across. While it appears to be rare hardy and nearly invasive, it grows easily in moderate conditions without much watering or other assistance. Here is a closeup of some of the smaller rosettes:
While the leaves end up looking like a flower, there is actually a flower that can grow on this guy. I haven't seen that happen, and am not certain that my exact version will flower, so I'll just stick with the leaves-arranged-like-a-flower state that I have now.

Friday Random Ten

I'm continuing my series on using the discovery of Pandora as a reason to go down memory lane on some concerts I've attended. Next up is Trout Fishing In America. They are an interesting pair of guys. First is the fact that they are odd to look at -- Keith is short and plays the bass while Ezra is very tall and plays guitar, so neither really looks like he fits his instrument. Then, they have very different musical backgrounds, with Keith studying music in college and starting out with jazz groups while Ezra's background is in basketball-turned-rock'n'roll. I would primarily classify them as folk, but it's their kid's music with smart enough lyrics for adults that really drew me to them. I have several of their "adult" albums, but the most fun are the crazy kid songs -- tongue twisters and odes to imaginary friends with inconvenient names and recipes for pico de gallo that are just downright catchy (you know Ohio rhymes really nicely with pico de gallo, don't you?).

The time I saw them live was in College Station, and they had arrived in a summarily low key way in their old crimson truck, Robert RedFord. They proceeded to spend the next 2+ hours making me laugh until my sides hurt. Similarly to last week, as a relatively low-key band, there aren't a lot of videos that I had to pull from in the YouTube annals, I refer you to their MySpace page and demand you to listen to "Proper Cup of Coffee". You should also listen to "Baby's Got the Car Keys", but I won't demand that one. Meanwhile, I give you this energetic rendition of "Eleanor Rigby" with poor video quality, but that's not their fault. Enjoy!



And now on to what happened when I typed "Trout Fishing In America" into the Pandora musical engine.

"Something Sweet" by Trout Fishing In America* on inFINity
"Orangedale Whistle" by The Rankins on Collection
"Slip Away" by David Leask on Tightrope of Dreams
"Common-Law Love" by Sonny Landreth on Outward Bound
"Murrell's" by Trout Fishing In America* on Reel Life
"Hard Luck Woman" by Kiss on Rock and Roll Over
"California" by Creede Williams on Something Borrowed
"Wishing Well" by Monte Montgomery on Live at the Caravan of Dreams
"That's the Smoke They're Blowin'" by DAn Hicks & The Hot Licks on Selected Shorts
"The Number of That Truck" by Trout Fishing in America* on Reel Life

I hadn't heard of many of the other acts that Pandora dished me (wait -- who put Kiss in any sort of relation with TFIA?? Oh well, it worked...somehow), but they definitely focused on the folk side of things, and less on the fun-kid-song side, even with the songs they played from TFIA, directly. I'm still not sure how country ended up in the mix, but I guess other people have different ways of classifying TFIA's sound than I do. Regardless, it was a fun and relaxing little mix that I got served up, and I enjoyed most of it (Dan Hicks couldn't get off the Pandora stage fast enough for me). I can't wait for these guys to come to someplace near SB, so I can see them in person again.

* Acts I've seen live

Parading with the Big Dogs

This weekend, we went to the Big Dog Parade. Odd phenomenon, that one. The concept is simple enough: dress up your dog and walk through the streets as part of the procession. However, that little synopsis hardly does this even justice, and that would be because there are some incredibly creative people in the world. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites.

Here, a Spuds Mackensie lookalike rides a bike in a most uncomfortable-looking position. Regardless of how uncomfortable it looks, I can attest he hung out there for at least the five minutes we could see him.

I loved the giant dog dressed up like a clydesdale, and accessorily, I loved the mini-kegs in the back of his wagon. Hee hee!

The retired greyhound group was too cute dressed as busses and RVs. Winnegreygo is a surprisingly funny word to say out loud. Go ahead and try it.

Apparently, if you don't want to dress up your dog, you can just paint him. It was a good paint job, too, since I had to do a double-take to be sure what I was seeing.

Token hot dog costume. Someone had to do it, and I'm glad they did.

One group emphasizing the need for environmental awareness wore shirts saying "Reduce your carbon paw print", and hooked up a passal of dogs to this makeshift car they named the Hounda (there were several other puns around this one, but now I don't remember them). I put more info here, because I know my picture didn't turn out that well.

Anyway, the point was that it was fun. There were a lot of zany costumes, and some where the people looked funnier than the dogs, but most of them made me laugh in one way or the other. I don't think I would be one of those people that dresses up her pets, but for something like this I could make an exception. How about you -- would you dress up your dog or cat? Any fun ideas for funny pet costumes?

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri (Easter Cactus)

I decided I better figure out what this one was, because I appears to be trying to kill it, despite the massive numbers of blooms. Here you can see the base stems that look like they are all dying with green sections and tons of blooms at the end, despite it all.

Meanwhile, to give you an idea of scale, here are the blooms in their detail on the edges of my fingertips -- about an inch across, but very bright and happy.

While the common name of Easter Cactus is well agreed on by the various sites I looked at, no one can seem to decide which Cacti genus it belongs in. Some put it in Schlumbergera, some in the Epiphyllum group, like our orchid cactus friend, and it was previously referred to as a Zygocactus, but most seem to put it in the Rhipsalidopsis genus now, so that's where I decided to keep it. Even though they can't agree on a genus, they all have it in the species gaertneri -- backwards, I tell you! How am I supposed to figure out what they are if everyone else doesn't agree?

Anyway, I was supposed to be watering this guy up until it bloomed, and then let it get dry between waterings. I kinda did that backwards, and is likely why this guy is in such a bad state at this point, even though it is healthy enough to flower. I'm trying to do better now that I know what it is. We'll see. Man, am I glad I lucked into an established garden that I can't probably damage too badly.

Celebrating 3653 Days

Friday was the 3653rd day-iversary of our wedding (that's ten years for those of you that are math-limited, either by infant-induced lack of sleep, or more general math aversion). Our day was fubared because of flight delays the night before that meant we were in LA late Thursday night instead of SB, but we can make the most of messed up plans.

We spent the night in a hotel. Not a fancy one, but it was fun to be somewhere different in an unplanned trip. Friday morning, we got up and researched bike shops in the area, and went to look. Looking led to a really good deal we couldn't pass up, and now we are the proud owners of this little number:



It's a fun way to ride, and it's a way for us both to work hard and end up at the same place at the same time. We'd tried one that some friends lent us in Austin, so we knew we can actually do the whole bicyle-built-for two without crashing and burning. The difficulty, then, was to find one that would be fit right for us and be sturdy enough for touring gear to be attached to it. We had talked about a custom tandem (mostly because GB really likes to think he is unique, even though I'm the oddly shaped one -- long legs, no torso), but those buggers are seriously expensive. We also had talked about one that could come apart for traveling tandem trips, but then we found that it's possible to retrofit that functionality into a bike, so that seemed less important to have in the initial purchase. Mostly, we have been trying to greenify our lives (the high-falutin' phrase is "reduce our carbon footprint", but there is no high-falutin' here at HIAHS). This bike is one way to do that. We have big plans for biking-to-camp trips and long bike trips together, both based from here and places that are plane rides away. I'm looking forward to that. Plus, it's a true togethering present to ourselves, and crossing into the double-digits is a big deal.

Our next plan on the bike is to upgrade some of the components (derailleurs and shifters, primarily) and add carrying capacity. In the meantime, we'll be practicing our synchronous power output as captain (the one in the front who steers and shifts) and stoker (the one in the back who pedals her heart out). It's sort of an interesting metaphor for marriage, but I'm too tired from our ride yesterday to flesh it out.

The rest of the celebratory day included chili fries at Tommy's for lunch, and a nice Italian dinner down on the waterfront at Emilio's. With all the first name possessive eateries out there, we were bound to hit two in one day. Overall, it was great to take the day off work and just enjoy the life of a couple who's only just now hitting our stride. And here's to many more of those!

Friday Random Ten

I am continuing my proces of seeing what kinds of music Pandora might be able to introduce me to. As I mentioned last week, I am working through my list of concerts as a starting point. The headliners at my first Jars of Clay concert were a group called PFR. I had a crush on the drummer for nearly a year, but whatever. Great Lengths was their third album, and that was the tour I saw. They were not the best pick for the small venue where I saw them -- they were too loud and rocked too hard for that space, and I remember thinking they were going to blow speakers or something. They were fun, but were vastly overshadowed in my mind, at least, by the acoustic set of JoC, and while I bought PFR's next album, they were pretty well on their way out of the scene already then. It was sad, and I ecstatically bought their 2001 reunion album, only never to really be sucked into it. Great Lengths, however, was a phenomenal album, even though I'm sure you've never heard anything on it. Also, it's surprisingly difficult to find videos on YouTube from a defunct band that didn't have massively wide appeal. Go figure. So, while I had grand plans of spending time figuring out my favorite PFR song and posting the video, instead, you'll get the only one I found out there. It's a pretty good song off GL called "Wonder Why."



"Trials Turned To Gold" by PFR* on Great Lengths
"Wait For Love" by Not The Joneses on Not The Joneses
"Waiting for the Summer" by Delirious? on Touch
"I Will Boast" by Phillips, Craig & Dean on Top Of My Lungs
"Spinnin' Round" by PFR* on The Late Great PFR
"The Sweetest Sound" by Stereo Motion on Stereo Motion
"Love's Cry" by Roads To Rome on Love Rain Down
"Restrained" by Seven Day Jesus on The Hunger
"Faithful" by Fee on We Shine
"Pray For Rain" by PFR on The Late Great PFR

So this was an interesting foray into Pandora-land. I actually hadn't even heard of a lot of these groups, but it was generally interesting listening. Some of it was campy, but most of it was pretty good. I haven't yet been motivated to go out and purchase anything as a result of this experiment, but I can see how that could happen.

* Acts I've seen live

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Jasminum Polyanthum (Pink Jasmine)

This lovely vine doesn't technically grow in our yard. The root system is based in the neighbor's yard, but the vines come up over the fence and we get to enjoy them, so I figure they count as being plants I should know about.


Based on the lovely light fragrance, I knew it was a jasmine. Armed with pictures, I found it is called a Pink Jasmine, because of the pink bloom clusters that turn into pristine white flowers. Apparently, in some climates it can be a deciduous vine, but here it stays green all year with the flowers starting now and covering the plant in June (if I remember correctly from last year -- it hasn't happened this year, yet).

The big plus for this plant is that it's not mine to take care of. Periodically I rinse the dust and cobwebs off the leaves, but mostly it's the neighbor's plant. I like easy, and I like pretty, so this vine really does the trick.

The Post That Shouldn't Be

This is a phantom post. I set it up to post while I couldn't physically be posting, because I'm on a plane to Texas to see the baby sister graduate from high school. Just thought it would be fun to throw that out there for you.

Lost Speculation Revisited

NOTICE: Contains spoilers from last night's season finale. Come back and read this later if you haven't see it yet. If you don't intend to watch it, then you can read or not, but mostly I would expect that you wouldn't want to.

After finishing watching season 4's finale last night, I decided to go back to the post I did before the season started, and see how I did on all this guesswork.

1. Richard -- I had decided this character was special in some way, due to his lack of aging over the decades. He is still an enigma, but we know he's more important now that this season is complete. He has been recruiting John Locke, basically since birth, and he definitely seems to be the non-figurehead leader. It's like the opposite of the Queen of England who's all for look and has little to no real power. I look for him to be very important as the last two seasons progress.

2. Mikhail -- After surviving the sonic fence and a gunshot in the back, it appeared Mikhail was invincible on the island. After his hand-grenade-in-the-underwater-station trick, though, he hasn't returned this season. Is it possible that being just off the coast of the island was enough to lose the island's protection, and he finally died? Or is he just lurking out of view for a season with a return to the show still in his future?

3. Ben -- I opined that Ben was a poser, and had never been special. However, now it seems likely that he was special at some point, and has since lost favor with the island for something. Perhaps it was as simple as the island getting John Locke, and therefore being done with Ben, or it might be that Ben did something to make the island mad, and he is now being punished. I may have to go dig for more details on this one to see what I may have missed on that front.

4. John -- He was, indeed, the man in the coffin. I was so excited when I saw that I'd gotten that right -- like maybe I've developed some kind of intuition on this story along the way. Regardless, now we have a new name for him -- Jeremy Bentham. This appears to be some sort of code name so that other people in the regular world don't get wind of the fact that this is another of the Oceanic survivors. We know he becomes the leader of the others in place of Ben, but we'll have to wait to see what made him leave the island to try to return the Oceanic 6 to the island.

5. Christian -- I had thought that maybe there was an alternate time stream where Jack's dad was still alive. That seems clear not to be the case. However, he'd had all these weird red-herring-style appearances before, and now he seems to be more and more of a player in this saga. And how is Claire now becoming a similar enigma to her dad. It makes me wonder if she died?

So, on these predictions, I turned out to be a big 2-3. Not so bad, but there are still so many questions remaining. For example:

We know there is a time differential, and not really a split. However, we we don't really know how that time differential plays into things, completely, so that will continue to be in the mix of stuff to be elaborated further.

We still don't know why Ben became the leader of the Others. His extinction of the Dharma Initiative folks was more of his proof that he was committed to the group, but it doesn't give us any idea as to why they gave him the chance. Just because his dead mama talked to him as a boy? That seems a stretch.

Are there any Dharma folks left? On this, I would say a hearty...well, mostly no. However, if Charlotte was actually born on the island, is that because she was part of the DI? Or did I misunderstand, and she's looking for some other mysterious place that she came from? Hard to say, but it's clear that will be more story, and she may be part of that Dharma thing.

That crazy specialness is also still a mystery. Now we have this idea that Hurley is "special", too, because he saw Jacob's cabin. That's certainly a different kind of special than I had identified at the beginning of the season, but maybe that's just because he didn't have a physical calamity to be healed from. Maybe the island made him mentally better, and that's why he's back in the institution after returning from the island.

Plus, the new characters are just questions for the future seasons. All very interesting, and keeping me ready for that next season, and wondering why I'll have to wait so long for that.

Friday Random Ten

I mentioned last week that I would use the Pandora website to come up with some different music to list on this site. You start with the name of a song or artist, and it generates a radio playlist for you based on stuff that is considered to be related. I thought I'd start this little game off with the groups I've seen live over time.

This first week, I thought I'd use the first concert I went to. The opening band was a new band in the music scene, one called Jars of Clay. You may have heard me mention them before. I was one of those obssessed fans who read everything I could find about them. When I heard they were doing a concert for about 300 people just 3 hours away, I suckered three of my friends into road-tripping with me. They were a small-time band, back then, with just one album, so it wasn't too tough to know all their songs. That tour, they traveled with most of a string section, and it was a great show, the best even. A year or two later, I saw them again at a much bigger venue, and a few years back at Stubbs in Austin. I'm a big fan of these guys, in case you couldn't tell. Here's the gratuitous YouTube video of their well-known mainstream song, to remind you how you do actually know who these guys are (and to remind you that 1995 was a really long time ago -- just look at those haircuts and outfits!):



And now, without further ado, here is what Pandora gave me to go with these guys.

"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"My Savior My God" by Aaron Shust on Anything Worth Saying
"Indescribable (Live)" by Chris Tomlin* on Live From Austin Music Hall
"Love Heals Your Heart" by Third Day on Whereever You Are
"Love Song For A Savior" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot on The Beautiful Letdown
"In Christ Alone (My Hope Is Found)" by Promise Keepers on The Awakening Worship
"Stillness" by Aaron Shust on Anything Worth Saying
"The Day Before You" by Matthew West on History
"Disappear" by Jars of Clay* on The Eleventh Hour (which I somehow don't own....hmmmmm)

Well, the randomness left something to be desired, but I suppose that's the point of the site. I'd never heard the Third Day or the Matthew West song (though I've heard others by them), and I did like them, so I think that counts for something positive learned today. Every day should be so lucky. Plus, with a visual to go with each song, I feel like I have a chance of remembering songs that go with a particular artist (I'm terrible at that particular skill -- I think it stayed in the untappable back of my brain with the audio learning that I never got either. I still wonder how I got a degree in a lecture-styled education system.).

* Acts I've seen live

Weekly 5Ks

I signed up for an event that runs every Wednesday night from March to August. There is a 1K ocean swim and a 5k run each week, and you can do one or the other or both. I am still not brave enough to enter the frigid waters of the Pacific (currently around 55 degrees Fahrenheit), so I haven't done the ocean swim, but I have now done 4 weeks worth of 5k runs. Last night was a personal best time.

It's a really easy course, uphill for about 2k and then downhill 3k. It's so nice to have that net downhill (finishing a ways below the starting point), and that makes it easy, in my book. Plus, it's in the early evening with the calm ocean breezes and lots of people out with their dogs and kids making it busy and animated.

The first week, I ran it cold, with no training runs for a good several months prior (can you tell I was suckered in at the last minute?), and was shocked to still finish under 35 minutes. I know, 7 minute kilometers (11:30ish minute miles) is nothing to be impressed by, but I derive my happiness from small accomplishments -- I jogged the whole thing and didn't have to walk, and that counts for something in my little brain. The second week, I cratered (it was either the lack of water all day, or starting out the run too fast, or the poached egg I'd eaten that afternoon -- all of these things are strict no-nos!!!), and took almost 41 minutes to finish the little run. The third week I was back on a bit better track, but still took around 36 minutes to finish.

And then there was last night. I started out slow, forcing myself not to keep up with people around me, not to allow the speed of the group to push me faster than my little legs and heart can handle. At the 1-mile marker, I was surprised how good I really felt, so I sped up. As the downhill started, I really lengthened my stride to allow gravity to just pull me down to the finish. I know that my legs are pretty long for my height, but I don't have them trained for the right length stride for serious speed, yet. But this was a measure of what might be possible, as I careened in for a 32:18 finish. That would be my best 5K yet, and I now see the possibility of breaking the 30-minute mark before the end of the summer.

I know I'm still not fast (the fastest time last night was still twice my speed, and the fastest woman was sub-19 minutes), but I'm still proud of what I did. And now we'll see what happens from here.

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Epidendrums (Star Orchids)

This one suprised me by turning out to be in the orchid family. The flowers are so small, they reminded me of the lantana bushes from Texas. I guess that's why I was so sure they had to be nearly a weed, only pretty. Our versions are purple and orange, and you can see the long-stemmed growth in this picture.


The side view of one of the purple clusters can be seen here. The picture ended up being fuzzy, but I really tried a lot of times (darn macro setting on a tiny flower that keeps moving in the wind), and this was the best I got. Meanwhile, I'll close out with a pretty top view of an orange cluster that sat nicely for its portrait to be taken:

So, as I mentioned before, I was surprised that while investigating the boat orchids of last week, I came across a picture of these guys. Wasn't expecting to find them there. However, on closer review, the petals with the central showy beak that is common in orchids, not sure why I didn't make that connection. Oh, right, I'm a plant idiot trying to change her ways. Regardless, these are definitely Epidendrums, also known as Star Orchids, and these are nice and hardy (which should be read as Heather will likely not kill them). However, the fact that they are long and gangly in my backyard means that I'm not fertilizing them with a low-nitrogen fertilizer (no duh -- not fertilizing them at all, yet), and I'm not watering them enough. At least I know how to keep these guys going stronger in the future!

Friday Random Ten

"We Are The Dinosaurs" by Trout Fishing In America* on Big Trouble
"What's In A Name" by Petra on Beyond Belief
"The Me Nobody Knows" by Marilyn McCoo on The Me Nobody Knows
"No Holly For Miss Quinn" by Enya on Shepherd Moons
"Rock 'N Me" by Steve Miller Band on Greatest Hits
"Sweet Little Loving" by White Lion on Pride
"The Joker" by Steve Miller Band on Greatest Hits
"War Child" by The Cranberries on To The Faithful Departed
"Dying Man" by PFR* on Goldie's Last Day
"Famous Last Words" by Jars of Clay* on If I Left The Zoo

This week appears to be an identity week -- we're everything from dinosaurs to unknown to a joker to a child of war to an adult at the end of life. We like rock and loving (okay, I'm stretching here to keep to the theme), but overall we may not be ready for our last words, depending on who we know. Interesting stuff, that iTunes.

Next week, I'm planning on employing Pandora for this space to see what it gives me based on my seed group or song. Should make for some interesting collections of stuff, and some discoveries, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of that. Plus, I need to add some new stuff to my iTunes library for future listening.

* Acts I've seen live

Where Ye Be Going?

In a recent perusal of the keywords that have brought unsuspecting people to HIAHS, I found some special selections. These are generally phrases that really make me wonder how search engines work. In the "Go Figure" category, we have:

court martial for heather post -- Currently, I'm wondering if Heather Post is being court martialed, or if someone was looking for a post on the court martial of a more generic Heather. Regardless, there is no past, present or future court martial for this Heather, so you may want to move along.

green jelly -- Apparently, once upon a time, I had a Friday Random Ten that included a song by a group of this name. Never even knew I had such a band reflected in my collection. Clearly from a mish-mash CD of random stuff. Meanwhile, if you are hoping to find out about jelly made from pears or granny smith apples or grapes or jalepenos, you should look elsewhere. At least until I post the recipe for such things.

french bread varieties -- I'm no expert, but I thought there was just the one variety. You know, French bread. For more options, find someone who knows stuff.

derailleur? i hardly knew her! -- People actually put these kinds of things in search engines?

chicken marsala when you are pregnant -- I can vouch for chicken marsala being tasty, but I have no insight into how that might taste when you're pregnant.

Also, in the "Maybe I should Collegify My Vocabulary" category, apparently "um yeah" and "eh" also brought people to my blog. Of course, if that's how they are searching, I assume their expectations of the content here should be similarly low, and that could be a good thing...

Recipes are Good Blog Fodder

Last week I was in North Carolina visiting my sister. I was there to go to her graduation and her commissioning as a Naval officer, and stuck around the whole week, because traveling from one coast to another and back just for a weekend seems silly. I worked from her apartment for the week while she went to work, and then we hung out at night doing various things -- chilling in bars where a guy tried to pick up yours truly, doing karaoke where another guy tried to do the same, sucking at trivia, and just generally drinking too much and being out too late. It was a good week.

Anyway, by Friday night, I was pretty tired. My sister informed me it was my job to plan our evening's festivities, and I was really itching to cook. So I did. And I even had access to recipes from home, just via an internet connection.

Isn't the internet grand?

Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Cymbidium (Boat Orchids)

This homely plant looks remarkably like an iris with its long straight leaves and its clustered appearance.
It just sits in the back against the fence, quietly enjoying life, until the day comes along that it POOF blooms all over the place. That day was recently here at the HIAHS household. Here you can see one of the stems with several flowers on it.

You can also see a closeup of the flowers here:

Gorgeous little orchids that they are, my identification journey took me to find that they are most likely in the Cymbidium genus, and are also known as boat orchids. While I'm likely going to kill this plant with its watering needs (don't let it get dry, but don't let it be too soggy), it appears to thrive with the cool nights we have here. Plus, it is definitely an established plant, so I'm hopeful that with that on my side I won't do so badly. Meanwhile, it's good to know what I should be doing with that little guy.

More to Learn, Eh?

I stole this meme from Niobe. The rules aren't too hard:

1. Click on this link. The title of the page is the name of your band.

2. Click on this link. The last four words of the final quotation on the page are the title of your album.

3. Click on this link this link. The third picture is your album cover.

4. Take the pic, add your band name and album title.

I'm not particularly artistic, but I do like the result I came to:

It's pretty basic, so I'm not too sure why I like the end product so much. I think I like how the album title is almost nestled in the safest part of the flower, just waiting to be pushed out into the crazy world. I feel that way, sometimes, in my more depressed and sentimental moments. And I can imagine that I have enough of those to make a whole album from them, were I able to write music.

I would love to see the results of anyone that does this -- include the link in the comments, or if you just can't add two lines of text to a JPG, include your resulting band and album names in the comments, instead. I hope most of you that read this will participate. What if I say, "Please"? Please?

Friday Random Ten

"We Live" by Superchick on Beauty From Pain
"Overweight" by Blue October on Foiled
"Three Little Pigs" by Green Jelly on Dr. Dememto 25th Anniversary
"You Lord" by PFR* on Pray For Rain
"Sara" by Fleetwood Mac on Greatest Hits
"Pat A Pan" by Mannheim Steamroller on Christmas Live
"Solid As The Rock" by Michael English on Michael English
"The River" by Rich Mullins* on The World As Best As I Remember It, Vol. 1
"Lullaby" by Trout Fishing in America* on Big Trouble
"My Home Town" by Tom Lehrer on Songs & More Songs

This was a nice Friday afternoon mix of stuff that makes me wonder if my iTunes pick different stuff when I'm not at home. It wasn't a particularly Carolina-esque grouping, but it was mellow and very enjoyable.

* Acts I've seen live

Lo5tr0c%$

I recently changed my main password at work, so I can now share what my last one was. The title of my post is the password I used to get into my computer, several tools I use frequently, to get to about 3 other computers that I use regularly, and to get my email over the web. Not surprisingly, I typed it a lot. And every time, it made me smile. I know that's not a password's job. It's supposed to be secure, and I darn well think it succeeded. However, this password is a morphed version of:

LOST ROCKS!!!!!

So that's what I thought everytime I typed it, and that made me happy to think about. That password almost lasted me the full season, and I appreciate that happy spring pick-me-up that I've had.

Season 3 started to drag a bit, but season 4 has made up for it with a vengeance! There is a whole lotta story left, and just two more seasons. Can you tell I'm going to be in Lost withdrawal when I have to wait until the next season starts? Well, I will. Check in on me periodically -- I may have to write some of my posts from the Santa Rosa Mental Hospital if things get too bad!

New Name for the Crazy Sister

I definitely know people that know my family well, and for those people, I refer to my sisters by their names. However, for the many people with whom I speak that do not know my sisters, I have descriptive monikers for them instead -- they are my crazy sister and my baby sister. For a long time, it was just "my sister" and "my baby sister", but then the middle child embarked on a set of life experiences that deemed a new adjective appropriate for her.

The crazy sister has been through some drama in her life. She's testified at felony court martial proceedings, had a nine-month marriage involving restraining orders, spent time in nearly all Austin-area medical hospitals, gone to four different colleges, went missing from jobs and apartments, etc., etc., etc. I can't even begin to try to count the number of wallets/sets of keys/cell phones she's lost to have people throwing irresponsible in with the crazy. She's the kind of girl that, while not being the cause of all the drama around her, is certainly a magnet for cases of the crazies.

However, as she's grown up and matured in the last seven years since she enlisted in the Navy, she has really not had a crazy moment that I can point to in the last several years. They decided she'd make a good officer, and this weekend I was in North Carolina to celebrate with her as she graduated cum laude with a Nuclear Engineering degree and was commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy with orders to report to her ship in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in June. We had a wonderful weekend, including a graduation party she threw for all of the NE graduates, a spa day to celebrate our mother, and absolutely no scheduling snafus. Nice stuff. I'm proud of her, and all that she's come through to get to this major milestone this weekend.

So, it feels like I need to come up with a new name for her than "Crazy Sister". I could call her the "Navy Sister", but crazy was just so colorful that it was fun. I think that's why I kept using it while she was getting less and less crazy all the time. I'm sure it would help me remember that she's not so crazy if I quit calling her that, though, so I guess I should change it in my personal vocabulary.

If any of you hear me refer to her as the crazy sister in the future, please remind me she's no longer crazy.

(Not) Recommended: The Corrections

Kyle, previously/currently of Eight Parts and newly of The Letter Eleven regarding his new twin girls (hey, Kyle, what's up with the numbers in your blog names??), recommended that I read The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

I completed reading it several months ago, but I've had a lot of trouble writing about it. At its most basic, the storyline is about a older midwestern couple that are trying to figure out how best to interact with their three children and the life choices they've made, choices that mostly go against everything that a midwestern family would have considered valuable. On the other side of things, the book is long enough to explore each character's complicated motivations for the way they interact with their family. There's the dad, who had been the breadwinner as an engineer and now is in failing health. He isn't sure how to connect with the family that he provided for, but was otherwise mostly uninvolved with for his whole life. There is the overinvolved mom, whose entire life is in the memories she built with her family in their midwestern house that is falling apart. If she gives in to the failing house, her life must be a failure, too, and you can see the struggle as her ailing husband has more and more trouble in that house. There's the oldest son who is fighting depression in a relationship that hasn't been supportive for years. His own kids have been largely turned against him during this time. He wants to support his parents, but only in the way that he deems best. The middle child, a daughter, ran to the big city to become a famous chef, married a much older man and had a closeted (to her family, at least) lesbian affair. She seems to be the only of the kids that actually sees her parents as people with real feelings, and wants to help them where they are and with whatever makes them most comfortable. Finally, there's the youngest son whose near addiction to sex got him in some trouble in his last job, making him reckless with new opportunities that come his way. After enough badgering, he puts on a show of caring about his parents, but almost in a my-life-is-such-a-mess-and-you've-got-a-place-I-can-sleep sort of way.

I can't say I really liked this story. It was so bleak (some may say realistic), and depressingly sad, not cathartic-emotional-outbreak-sad, that I can't really recommend it. Originally my title had been meant to indicate that the book had been recommended to me, but I realized it could also be taken to mean that I recommended it, so that's why you have what you have instead. The characters were incredibly realistic, the individual stories were each heartbreaking in their own way, but I just came away with this overall sad feeling for the way that we move on and ignore the people we came from that I can't say it was enjoyable. I just keep coming back to "bleak". If you've forgotten what that feeling feels like, please, by all means, use this book to remind yourself. Otherwise, just try to respect your elders and continue on with your life.

Friday Random Ten

In the spirit of getting back into the mode of posting regularly, I'm bringing back the random ten. You know, in case you're wondering what's in my iTunes these days.

"It's the End of the World As We Know It" by R.E.M. on Eponymous
"Alleluja from Exultate, Jubilate" by Mozart on Lutheran Summer Music Camp
"Almost September" by Trout Fishing in America* on Closer to the Truth
"Take It Easy" by The Eagles on Their Greatest Hits
"How Blue Can You Get" by B.B. King on B.B. King Anthology
"Stay" by PFR* on Pray For Rain
"I Wonder As I Wander" by Wayne Watson on One Christmas Eve
"This Blood" by Carman on The Absolute Best
"How To Grow Up Big and Strong" by Rich Mullins* on A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band
"I'm Coming Home" by C.J. Chenier on Zydeco Essentials

I've recently moved all my digital life to a new computer, so that lost all my records of which songs I've played in the iTunes library (I'm sure I could have transferred that, too, but I was too lazy to figure out how). Now, though, I'm thinking this resulted in an extra-crazy mix of music for the random ten today. Ah well -- nice start to a schizophrenic travel day.

* Acts I've seen live

Stolen Meme

I've gone to stealing memes from other people. I took this one from George. Here are the nitty gritty details of this meme that I stole.

Here are the rules:
A) The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
B) Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
C) At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1) Ten years ago I was...

Stressing about my Complex Variables class, wondering whether I would get to graduate. To add to that stress, I was also finalizing the craziness on my fast-approaching wedding. Why I ever think I'm stressed now, I just don't know.

2) Five things on today's to-do list:

Get a customer's import working once and for all (it's been marginally working for several years)
Clean both bathrooms in preparation for being out of town next week
Change the utilities over to our names from the previous owner
Clean up the kitchen
Run a 5k

3) Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:

Reduce my job to part-time (I still have to do something with my brain to keep from going insane!)
Pay the house down significantly
Buy a Tesla Roadster
Find groups that are doing good alternative energy research, and donate time and money
Go back to school for a completely different career

4) Three bad habits:

Only three?!?!?!?

Biting my nails
Getting down on myself
Leaving the dirty dishes for the next morning

5) Five places I've lived:

Only five?!?!?!?!?

Hong Kong; Barrio Magsaysay, The Philippines; Ames, Iowa; Austin, Texas; Fort Wayne, Indiana

(I have quite a few more, but these are the ones you get.)

6) Six jobs I've had in my life:

Nursery worker, waitperson, summer camp counselor, tech support manager, math department grader, customer service representative.

I have more of those, like the one I have now, but hey, the meme only asks for six. Meanwhile, I tag James, Monica, Stephanie. I also think Cat and Rosa should do this, and even though I don't have a blog to link to, y'all can do this in the comments. Shouldn't take too long!

Blind Date #2

Yesterday I went on my second blind date with a girl from my Craigslist experiment. You can read the result of the first, here.

This second date wasn't quite as great as the first one. We met for happy hour, and she drank water, which immediately made me uncomfortable with my margarita order. However, the conversation flowed smoothly, and I'm sure we'll get together again. So, while I say it wasn't as great as the first, it still was great in its own more-subdued way. I'm hoping this is just one of those relationships that starts out more slowly, but builds to something deeper over time.

So far, I'm two for two. There will be second dates in both cases. Woohoo!

Tiptoe Through the Tulips: Epiphyllum (Orchid Cactus)

Several things collided at once to lead to this new feature on HIAHS. One is that I seem to need a motivating reason to post periodically, or we'll end up with no new posts here. Another is that we have a bunch of plants in our yard (!It's really ours now, so I better get a handle on it!) that I really need to identify -- who knew that California plants would be so different from the Texas plants I already know? As a result, I'll be taking a picture (or multiple pictures) each week of plants in the yard here, and then working on identifying them. And you'll get to be witness to all the botanical mistakes that I'll make along the way. Lucky for you!

Our first entrant for TTTT is this lovely hanging cactusy thing in the yard:








It hangs in the trees, and the blooms are 4-5 inches across. It appears to be one of the many epiphyllum hybrids (not sure which one, but it might also be a type of disocactus, but that seems less likely). Sometimes referred to as Orchid Cacti (though those bloom strictly at night, and ours is more of a day-time bloomer), they shouldn't be watered more than once a week, as they get grumpy if too moist. Mostly, though, they just pick up moisture from the air, so they do fine on their own. Usually they will flower in the couple of days after being watered, so if you're coming for a visit, remind me to water it, so you can enjoy all the pretty flowers on it in person.

I hope my tentativity (sounded better than tentativeness in my head, grammar be darned) with plant identification gets better. I think we all will be able to see pretty clearly why I didn't become a botanist.

Future Dating will Save Me

I clearly suck at posting. When I do post, I find myself wanting to write 3-4 posts and then if I post them all, people will be back the next day expecting more. And then I just imagine all their depressed faces when they notice it's been 6 weeks since my last entry. I hate the idea that I am adding so much sadness to the world (can you all detect the sarcasm dripping off my fingers?), and now Blogger has come to my rescue. I will now be able to put together all my crazy posts, and then space them out to keep you coming back for more. Because that's what I'm all about. Type-written whoring of my self for your consumption.

I hope you're all a little happier.

* This post future-dated, just for fun.

In the Not-Sure-How-That-Happened Camp

The six-month offer process on our hours came to a close about a week ago. I haven't written about it, mostly, because of a whole host of reasons. Let me try to go into them here.

1. I'm not completely convinced it was real. Besides the fact that in this state you sign documents and then wait a couple of days for the really anti-climactic "closing" to happen, maybe, it really feels like the second shoe is waiting to drop.

2. I'm not sure that buying a house in an expensive market in an economy that is approaching depression (or at least recession) during a mortgage crisis is the smartest financial move we've made. More likely the worst one.

3. Until the owner removes her belongings from the house (circa 2030 at the current rate of things), it's pretty hard for us to start doing the remodeling that I know will get me all excited about owning a house again.

4. The first mortgage bill hasn't come, and until that happens, I can't really be sure the loan went through (see item #1).

5. I don't have another reason, but five reasons just seemed more symmetrical than four.

So, we have a house. And I'm a little freaked out. But I expect that to pass as we start doing more and more crazy things to it. Fast-forward to the nifty idea we just discussed about a secret passageway to the basement from the stairs in the living room for an idea of the direction we're planning to head. Expect pictures to chronicle the craziness that will be our improvements.

Blind Date

I know I've been MIA for a while, but traveling and house-buying and general craziness has been going on. I'll be filling you in on all those things that have already passed, but in the meantime, I wanted to tell you about my blind date from yesterday.

Yes, I went on a blind lunch date yesterday. It was in response to a Craigslist personal ad. It is as sad and pathetic as it sounds. And it went loverly.

I've decided that this whole trying-to-make-friends thing is WAY harder than I expected it to be. I knew I worked from home and I knew I wouldn't have a lot of ways to meet people, but I really expected everyone in this town not to be so, well, old. There are college kids over by campus, but I've been out of college a long time now. I've met some people watching basketball at sports bars, but they are all widowed men over 70. Not, precisely, my type for the casual friendship. Now, if I wanted a sugar daddy, I'm sure I'd have no trouble. But, see, I don't want a sugar daddy. I've met some wonderful ladies at my church, but I'm younger than the group I know by a good 20 years. At least. Lovely ladies, but not likely to join me for a cocktail on a Friday night. My neighbors avoid me like the plague. I'm assuming that's just carryover from the previous owner who everyone seems to have hated, rather than something aimed at me for all the wild parties we host here. Even the people standing next to me in lines look at me like a mental assylum escapee when I try to strike up conversations with them. It's like I violate every known rule of polite society when I go to the grocery store.

So, I responded to a few personal ads from other desperate women, like me, looking for that elusive friendship in this town. The first face-to-face meeting was lunch, yesterday. I really felt like I was prepping for a date. I referred to it as my blind date with GB, which made him just laugh at me. I was nervous, and prepped a few conversation re-starting questions, should they be necessary. Would she like me? Would she think I'm a dork? Would we have anything to talk about? Would she be fake? Will I hope to get that hour of my life back?

It turns out I had nothing to fear. Heather and I hit it off immediately. How couldn't we? -- we have the same name! After the two-hour lunch, with margaritas, we wandered over to the rose garden, which is just exploding with smells and beauty this spring. After a few more hours, we headed to our respective homes with vehement statements about how we must do this again, real soon.

I have my next blind date from this experience on Monday for Happy Hour. Be sure to check back to see how that went. Already, though, I feel better. My meeting on Monday is likely to have so many less nerves than yesterday did. Maybe I should have done a practice blind date to prepare for it....