Fun With Catalog Card Generator

You can make your own card here!

Winners, Claim Your Prizes

1. four official Dogbark coasters
2. four greeting cards (1 love card; 3 birthday cards) by the magnificent Marti McGinnis
3. Stained Glass coloring book including 12 markers & two windows by Linda Davick, famous artist
4. Sink strainer

There were 2 lucky prize winners instead of one. Congratuations! Marie chimed in first with "PURPLE." But Christer was a little more astute in his observation of the color, which he proclaimed to be "lilac."

So whoever gets here first gets first choice (leave a comment and let me know which prize to send you); whoever gets here second gets second choice.

Fishy Contest

Look at what I learned in skool today, and win a prize.

Robust

Tom is right. This might look a little funny to his clients who slink through my studio on the way to the bathroom.

I was getting behind on my Under-$10-a-Bottle Wine Reviews and had resorted to scribbling notes directly on the labels. Then setting the bottles next to my computer so I would remember to write about them. But after a while I stopped seeing the bottles altogether.

When Tom and Spots (and Scott) set out on another wine shopping expedition yesterday, I knew the time had come to finish up reviewing the first case. Below are four mini-reviews:


1. Calderona Tinto Roble 04: Smooth
2. Dow Vale Do Bonfim 04: Gulped it down w/out tasting
3. Black Wing Shiraz 04: a favorite
4. Lyeth Sonoma Cabernet 04: Robust*

*I've noticed that successful people use this word often. Try it out today and notice the effect it has on your career.

for example, you might say:
• "The logo you chose is robust."
• "Your new campaign has legs, but in order for it to succeed, its rollout has got to be robust."
• "Not only does your boss have legs, but she is very robust." (don't really try this one.)

Weirdo Disorder: A Remedy

Linda Davick (as if I really care)
Why are some days so weird in every single conceivable way? And then suddenly you find yourself–a perfectly normal person–turning into a gelatinous mass of weirdness?
Going for a walk helped, and running into Anne. And then practically plowing into Scott and Spots as it got dark.
But it was rediscovering Quasi at the Quackadero on YouTube that saved the day. Thank you, Katy. Watching it will make anyone feel healthy and well-adjusted.

What I Learned In School Today

"What did you learn in school today?"
How many times did I hear that when I was a kid?
And how many thousands of times did I answer (absolutely flat tone of voice):
"Nothing."
Today when I was driving to class, I was crazed with excitement. I never felt this way about school before. Maybe you should be required to wait til you're 50–or at least 40–to be allowed to go to college.

Did I just hear you ask me what I learned in school today?
"The beginnings of a drop down menu!!!!!!!!!"
Here it is, in case you want to see it. Did you see it? Do you want to see it again? Go ahead. If you want to come back later and look at it again, it's OK. You can look at it again tomorrow, too.

Bridge

Linda Davick
From the Coastal Trail this evening. It was getting dark and my flash went off.

Blustery Evening

Linda Davick
It was the most beautiful day in history. After lunch I joined Tom on the back deck. He eats lunch outside. I can't bear to eat outside. But I actually fell asleep out there–I experienced siesta.

Late this afternoon when we went for a walk, it was clear and sunny. The beach was crowded. When we turned around to head back home, the weather turned too. The fog came in on the wind and the temperature dropped. Everyone fled to the hills except for a few hardcore beach bums. (You know who you are.)

Photo Booth

photo by Lawrence's
MacBook Pro

From: Lawrence
Subject: macbook
Date: February 15, 2007 11:47:33 AM PST

hi linda

well, the department finally got the macbook pro recently so this weekend i was going to borrow it to familiarize myself with the operating system. are you going to be around on friday anytime so i can show it to you and maybe you could give some direction?

From: linda
Subject: macbook
Date: February 15, 2007 11:53:42 AM PST

Sure! I should be here after 2:00--I'd love to see it!
Linda

From: lawrence
Subject: macbook
Date: February 15, 2007 12:02:03 PM PST

linda

i will call in advance of coming over.
it really looks elegant and from what i hear, very powerful.
i really want to be able to utilize its capability.

thanks again and regards,
lawrence

After today, Lawrence will be able to utilize its capability to the fullest. I was able to show him not only how to use the power cord, but how to turn the computer off. Also, how to set it up so that the fortune cookie was the symbol for his account instead of the dog.

On the other hand, he introduced me to Google Earth. (God in heaven. Download it immediately.) SketchUp, too. Both are free. Also, we discovered Photo Booth as evidenced above.

I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!

Guest Writer

From: Sal
Subject: pipeline
Date: February 11, 2007 7:36:41 AM PST


Ceci n'est pas une pipe. C'est mon pal, Sal.

A story about Dad.

The techs at Dad’s nursing home would come and go. At first we tried to get to know all of them and remember their names, but then we realized that the three shifts of constantly overturning staff were simply too overwhelming. Some stayed for months, and we actually grew to love them, but many others just sort of blurred and overlapped in our minds.

There was one tech with whom I bonded early on (but who moved to another wing so that I seldom if ever saw her) and whose name I never remember (something vaguely like “Letitia” but without the L; she said no one ever remembered it correctly and so she would answer to whatever people called her). She told me the following story.














While working as a tech at the nursing home, she was studying nursing in Gallatin, and she was required to take a humanities elective, so she chose art appreciation. She was reading the textbook one night and became very frustrated over an image by Magritte, a painting of a pipe with the words below it “Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe.).” It was a sort of joke by Magritte about people wanting a picture to be an exact replication of an object when it was in fact only a representation of one and therefore was simply what it was, a painting, and not the object itself. She became quite disgusted and discouraged by this and thought, why do I have to take this stupid class?

Soon after this while at work at the nursing home she walked into Dad’s room and saw the pictures I had taped to his wall.

I had tried to find pictures that would remind him of his life and his former life; all family members and houses and cars and coworkers and friends and his pipe and his violin. In my frenzied Internet search for images of a pipe, the only good one I could find was this Magritte painting. (Dad had always smoked a pipe, and it seemed odd for him not to have one. We’d finally had to take them away from him when Mom discovered him one day trying to set his empty hand on fire with a lighter, thinking he was actually holding his pipe.) Dad seemed to enjoy looking at the pictures, and the pictures helped the employees learn all the family members’ names and gave them something to talk to him about.

So this tech walked into Dad’s room and saw this Magritte painting of the pipe on the wall, and thought it was divine revelation telling her that she was in fact in the very class she needed to be in.

I ran into her yesterday, two and a half weeks after Dad died, when I dropped something off at the nursing home. She reminded me of the story about seeing the pipe picture and said that she had decided right then that she must visit Dad often because he must have a direct pipeline to God. (I didn’t realize till I wrote this how funny her choice of words was.)

She told me what a sweetie he had been. “He was always such a sweetie,” she said. Then we both thought of those terrible sundowning moments of late-afternoon and early evening agitation, hallucinations, and combativeness that dementia patients can be so prone to. And she added, “Well, he had his moments, but always after dinner, before he fell asleep, he quieted down. I would talk to him and ask him questions about the pictures on his wall. When I got to the pictures of you and your mom, I would say to him, ‘I’ll bet you really miss them, don’t you?’ And then he would make the oddest sound, as if he were trying to say something. I always said, “I know for a fact that one of them will be coming to visit you tomorrow.” And then he would just peacefully go to sleep.”

I told her that I, too, thought he must have had a direct pipeline to God, because he took his last breaths just as the “Ave Maria” on the CD player came to its final “Amen.”

What Not To Do On Valentine's Day

When I ask Tom what he wants for Valentine's Day there is no hesitation: Cherry pie.

Remember that old saying that carpenters use: Measure twice, cut once? It applies to pies too.

Say you're supposed to double the crust recipe so you can create a delicate basket weave on top of the pie. You'll need 3 cups of flour instead of 1 1/2. You look over your client's e-mail to make sure you didn't miss anything. She's really going to try to make the toy awards deadline? Oh God! The cup won't fit into the bag of flour, so you decide to use the smaller 1/2-cup cup to measure out the flour. You wonder why your application wouldn't work in class, and you prop your notebook on top of the cookbook. Maybe you simply forgot the save the file before you started? For some reason the crust mixture turns out a lot gummier than it should. You realize that you've measured out 3 scoops instead of 6. You still have 20 minutes before you have to leave for class.

You start over with the crust. There isn't enough butter. The dough is a bit dry. But you mold it into 2 balls and put it in the fridge, certain that it will congeal by the time you get back from class.

After class you're back in the kitchen reading the instructions that your sister e-mailed for the filling. Suddenly you get to a line that says: I felt miffed when Mom told me after years of making this pie that the original recipe was for a 8" pie. Nowadays I often use two cans of cherries but I don't really double the sugar or anything. (I haven't quite hit on how exactly how I want to handle the doubling.)

She felt miffed! What about me! I'm in the middle of this pie, and it's 9:45 on Valentine's night! I run into the studio and find a ruler. Is my pie pan 8" or 9"? I double the amount of cherries and decide that if the filling starts to overflow when I'm pouring it in, I'll simply stop pouring and eat the rest with a spoon while the pie is baking. I boil and stir the juice and sugar and cornstarch and then add lemon juice and almond flavoring. Luci's box of spices arrived today and it's so mysterious. I glance at her note. She insists that Sayur Asam was her childhood favorite food and that she had it at least every other day, and no wonder she was such a skinny kid. What the heck is Sayur Asam? And if I eat it will it have the same effect on me? I wipe off my hands and Google Sayur Asam. Oh wait! Did I remember to double the cornstarch?


Valentine's Day:
the aftermath













After leaving her sweet comment, Luci can't resist firing off a stern e-mail: I am zealous regarding flour measurement. Everyone in the house knows that they cannot haphazardly scoop flours with the measuring cup itself. It is absolutely forbidden! They must first fluff the flour in the container, and then lightly spoon it into the measuring cup. When the cup is full, they can either use the back side of a knife or a chopstick to level off the excess flour.

Heaven Revisited

Linda Davick

This evening we visited heaven again. (That's twice in one week.) The wind was blowing like crazy on the beach, so we hit the Coastal Trail. Here, we're walking down the steps halfway between Eagle's Point Overlook and the Merrie Way parking lot, right above Louis' restaurant.