Friday, June 20, 2008
Posted at 4:56:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Aaaagh. I love LOVE the new Eames stamps, especially this one. But there's only one of each design per sheet!
I went to Rocky today, and Matt (not Matt the Devil Beard Guy, but the new Matt) came over and talked to me while I was sitting around reading the Advocate. (He was waiting for a friend to pick him up.) We had a very interesting chat and he told me tons of behind the scenes dirt, which I won't repeat here. The bottom line is that he thinks the new regime is a big improvement (he came in at the tail end of the old regime) and that, even though there are some problems, Rocky is by far the best store around. I agree 100% with the best store part, even though I hardly ever go to SBUX anymore. I could certainly see his point of view re the new manager, even though the changes weren't improvements from my perspective. He also told me he was 24, and he thought I was 27 or 29 Ha! I did not ask him to guess, but I'm pleased that I look young even to someone who is young. Oh, and I asked him how come everyone remembers my drink even though I don't come in very often, and he said it's probably because not that many people get cappuccinos or talls, and hardly anyone gets for-here cups. (But what about the dry part??)
Uptown Consignment had the best finds today. I got an orange-flowered skirt that fits me perfectly with no mods (!!) for $3, and a pair of very bizarre pink bike shoes that also fit perfectly, for $4. I've been looking for hounding shoes, since my sneakers live in my locker now, so I was pretty shocked to stumble across them. They are so weird looking. They actually match the bike basket bag I made. I guess this means I'll have to start using the bag more.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Ha! There's a website about our blimp pal.
Posted at 11:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
This is happening right now, in my kitchen. And yes, that is a gigantic lobster-sized pot. One of the artichokes was really thorny this time. But I managed to de-claw each bract without any mishaps.
Posted at 5:43:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Our pal the airship (aka blimp) that's been hanging out at Brainard since Friday is up in the air over Cromwell now! I can see it from East Berlin. Every time we go to the airport, there's a special NOTAM about the turf runway being closed except to airships. Like, if a couple of other blimps wanted to show up and have a party that would be okay, but no planes are allowed. When it's not flying over the GHO (or whatever that PGA tournament is called now), the blimp hovers suspended on a low tether above the grass strip, accompanied by its own little posse of trailers, kind of like Bob's tour buses when he's on the road. At night, it's lit up and we see it glowing like a giant paper lantern.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Wow, finally something worth using my Amazon.com credit on!! I had no idea this was coming out...
Posted at 7:55:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Beautiful dramatic sky, driving on the Arrigoni Bridge between Middletown and Portland, to Draghi Farm store in South Glastonbury. No local blueberries yet, but the lady said they'd be starting around the 4th of July. I got funny-looking local strawberries instead. And good coffee. Then the back way to Whole Foods, and I drove right by Whapley Road! Saw so many sycamores. At least seven, probably more.
Posted at 7:03:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
New unbelievably insanely dangerously good food I tried at Whole: Berkshire Bark, midnight harvest flav. Aaaagh. It has dark chocolate, big chompy roasted almonds and hazelnuts, huge dried cranberries and fresh orange zest. I also got black apricots to try, and two more of those lovely round artichokes. So beautiful driving in Glastonbury, but I was listening to my Don't Look Back CD-R (aka Dump Day) and it's really good but melancholy and introspective. Love LOVED "World Gone Wrong" and the crazy delicate brittle "Farewell Angelina" at the end. And "Abandoned Love," which is so powerful in context with the other songs.
Last night at Parl, they played "Stuck Inside of Mobile." Bob's emphases are so great. And I thought, isn't it fantastic how long this song is? We had Parl all to ourselves. I wanted everything to last. My tongue loved the salt and my eyes loved the watermelon color of the cranberry margarita. I kept thinking about Hawaii yesterday. Read an article about Hawaii at NEAC and when the traveller visited Honaunau and South Kona Fruit Stand and Pahu I`a on their last day, I felt sad. Then in the car, the radio played "The Night Chicago Died" and I was flashing back to that parking lot, almost feeling the Hawaiian air on my skin. I shouldn't think about Hawaii when I'm not there!
I'm not a sports person at all, but I used to be an obsessive Celtics fan (in a weird Laura fandom kind of way) about twenty years ago (it's really strange to think that it was twenty years ago) so I watched the end of the game last night so I could see the Celtics win the championship. I don't know any of the current players, and I didn't feel a thing watching, but I guess I had just enough remaining Celtic pride to want to see it. I liked when they mentioned that, somewhere, somehow, Red Auerbach was lighting his victory cigar. :-) And when they showed a closeup of the leprechaun in the center of the court. And I liked it when they showed Danny Ainge, on the court in his General Manager's suit and tie. Good old Danny Ainge. NBA Executive of the Year! He looked almost the same...
Posted at 1:40:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We tried to tune in the game on the radio in the hangar, to hear what was happening, but the reception was really bad. It came in just well enough to tell they were ahead by about 30 points. (Ha!!) I kept saying, "Where's Johnny Most? I want Johnny Most!" I know Johnny Most is dead. And Red Auerbach. I didn't know DJ had died, until a couple weeks ago. :-( :-( :-(
Monday, June 16, 2008
My dead Little Skate was a girl skate. She was heavy! I saw her washing around in the waves at Pots & Kettles and went in to grab her. Carried her all the way back along the beach, over rocks and rocks, shoes full of seaweed and sand, to show Dean. She was almost completely intact, with just a few small holes in her underside. I found two other, smaller, Little Skates first--washed up, much farther gone. She was so pretty, with a soft soft smooth white belly shaded with mauve on the edges and a glossy spiky prickly back and tail. Cute rough-edged mouth that grabbed at my fingers when I put them inside. The shape was like an upsidedown human mouth. She was like a tiny version of our big eat-from-your-hands ray friend from the shark tank in Maui.
Posted at 10:51:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
It was the best Pots-ing. Nice and hazy, so it wasn't bright and glary, and the tide had washed and was washing up 1,000 interesting everythings. Myriad kinds of seaweed--greens and greens, bleached white, mauvy purple, pink grapefruit, tomato-carrot--so many different textures, shapes, shades, transparencies, positions. There were creature parts, too--tiny black mussel shells, lobster tails and claws, crab legs and carapaces and intact crabs too--orange ones, red ones, white, and purple. Also sea star legs and whole stars, faded mauve, pale orange, nearly white. I walked and walked and stopped and touched and stared at details every two seconds. I took a million pictures just for fun and because everything was interesting and beautiful and I loved it all.
It was such a perfect hounding, too. Just, so nice to be pedaling along. Perfect speed, temperature, air. Quiet. Just so... summer. I love LOVE Block Island. It still seems like magic that we can go there so easily now.
Cat report: distance = 9.20 miles; average speed = 10.2 mph; max speed = 27.2 mph (fun!!); total time = 53'57.
We expedited our departure to avoid lightning, and landed safely on the mainland in Groton to refuel, then flew the rest of the way home in the rain, giving Tango a nice big microfiber rubdown back in the hanger. It was fun!
I've been really sleepy for the past two days, until 11 PM-ish. Then I wake up.
