Thanksgiving at Brenda & Kathy's


Prep / Presentation


Brenda's magnificent table setting. (Nice curtains!)


Maggie visits "grandma" / Biscotti at nose-level


Sam helps herself to an appetizer / Nosing around the table


I was there too. These self-portraits are not working. Could I look any happier?


Footwear change and it's off to Popscene[inlink]twisted,63[/inlink]. There's that thrilled expression again.

Sorry, that was a lot of pictures.

When I walked into Popscene and they were playing "Bizarre Love Triangle" (New Order) I knew I was where I'm supposed to be. My calves are killing me today.

The Avengers at Cafe du Nord tonight. I'd better start making some money. Anybody want to buy a PJ Harvey[inlink]twisted,63[/inlink] poster?

p.s. - we have a turkey trot here too. Who knew?
How'd the (e:trotters) do yesterday?

After my estrip binge yesterday, I'm now on a restricted diet. Probably not a bad idea anyway going into the holidays, since I'm already late opening Santa's little workshop this year. Not good at time management.

I took this four day class that I don't want to talk about, and everybody in it wants to stay in touch with each other except me. I mean, they want to keep in touch with me, but I don't want to stay in touch with them. I am turning into my father. He went on an elderhostel group trip to India and travelled with a small group of people for 2 weeks. They all wanted to exchange information to stay in touch, and he flat-out told them he had enjoyed spending time with them, but he had no interest in ever hearing from any of them again. My dad is not known for his tact.

So far today I've received over 15MB of digital pictures of people's kids, dogs and cats. None of them was scaled-down to email-appropriate size. And that's not counting the digital double prints of Mittens, HotDog and CoCo because she didn't think the first set went through.



This is about as much as fit in my email display window. Now, why on earth would I want to open that?

So, am I supposed to send something in return? I have no kids, dogs, cats, gerbils, fish, turtles, parakeets, or tadpoles. Although I've had all of those (except kids) in the past. Maybe I could russle up some stock footage.

No wonder I'm alone.

Something weird is happening with my phones. Just thought it was a random fluke last night when I hit some key combination that locked my cell phone. Which was a pain because I had no clue what the unlock code was (hint: try 9999 or the last four digits of your phone number if it ever happens to you). Anyway, didn't think much of it until a cop showed up at my door this morning. Asks me how I'm doing. I say fine. He says, you called 911? I say, noooo...(!) Turns out my landline called 911 w/o me. That's the number they traced it to.

That's weird, right?

The good news is I figured out how to turn the shutter sound off on my cell phone camera. Now I don't have to pretend to sneeze when I take a stealth close-up.

Last post today, I swear. Guess I had some pent-up journaling after my four-day hiatus.

Phone pix reminded me - I forgot to tell you about my Rave experience last Saturday. I was in this all-day class 10am-midnight Thurs-Sun (I don't want to talk about it), and ended up getting invited to a Rave party by this guy in the class.Totally out of the blue. Sensing some weird [inlink]terry,361[/inlink]karma, naturally I said yes.

Planet Sol


Fire hoola-hooping


Painting as performance art


The scene


Space lounge

I got in for free since my newfound Rave buddy was scheduled to start manning the door. That also meant I was cruising solo again. It was fun, but I only stayed for an hour and a half. I'm no spring chicken you know.

Stopped at the local hardware store on my way back from the farmers' market. They have everything.







Let me know if you need anything for the float.

The right mix tape [inlink]drchlorine,59[/inlink] could surely drill a link to my reclusive heart. For what that's worth. ;-)

I've been a mix-tape giver and receiver since way back when the needle met the vinyl. I wasn't as prolific as I should have been, considering the profound impact the medium has had on my life. But I sure put a lot into the ones I made, and played the hell out of the ones I received. I have to digitize those for posterity before they wear out.

Probably the biggest mix tape project I ever did was for my college roommate's wedding reception. We lived together, went to classes together (both journalism majors), and worked the 4pm-1am shift at a typesetting shop together. Oh yeah, we also both worked on the school newspaper five days a week. No wonder I didn't graduate.

She asked me to handle the music for her wedding reception in Rhode Island, including schlepping my stereo and speakers down there and wiring the place up. I was a nervous wreck. It all went great, except her twin brother thought it would be funny to play a practical joke on her 10 minutes before she was scheduled to walk down the aisle. He told her I called to say I got a flat tire and wouldn't be able to make it. Brothers suck. Luckily I walked through the door of the church not long after that.

Come to think of it, my copy of tape 1 from that series got stolen along with my car stereo. Cripes - take the stereo already, but have the decency to eject the tape first!

One of the advantages of working the night shift at that type house was being able to print out fancy labels for my tapes. Little did they know that's why I wormed my way into being the night systems manager - so I could run off my own type. You guys have no idea what I'm talking about. This was an era before PCs and personal printers. (gasp!) Ok, I'm scaring the kiddies now. Sorry.

I know - a fat lot of help I am chiming in from the sunshine state (or is that Florida?), but just the thought of estrip going away makes me abandon all hope for my world. Maybe there's some perverse reason we let ourselves sink to the depths of despair before we'll attempt to turn it around. If so, I hope we're there (e:peeps) - I don't want to go much deeper than this.

I'm totally inspired by (e:DrChlorine) and (e:Ajay) 's posts. Seems like one recurring theme is loneliness, especially this time of year (I'm with you on that one). Again in the fat-lotta-help-I-am category, maybe think about making some peep2peep face2face encounters happen. Throw a party, and don't forget to invite the (e:peeps2B) . Or set up a coffee drop-in date at a local hang-out. Put it on the (e:EventCalendar) and make sure you've got those estrip flyers with you to pass out.

Everybody now -

::DOWNLOAD MEDIA::

"Don't you know that it's time to get on board...and let this train keep on riding, riding on through?"

Thanksgiving at B&K's this year. Last year we went to Kathy's parent's house, and her grandmother hosted the year before. Now that was a spread! I've never seen so much food.

We usually stay overnight at Kathy's parent's house when Thanksgiving is in that neck of the woods. This year B&K and Maggie (their golden retriever) will crash with me Thanksgiving night so Mom & Dad & Grandma can have the run of their house. Since B&K are in charge, all their singleton friends are invited (they collect us). 12 total at the table this year. Brenda bought a piece of masonite at Home Depot to extend the table. And as you know, table setting prep[inlink]twisted,62[/inlink] started over a week ago. They're pretty serious about this.

I'm in charge of sweet potatoes. Every year Kathy tells me to bring whatever it is that "means Thanksgiving" to me. She's an only child and only grandchild. Maybe because of that, and since she and Brenda are unlikely to have kids, she's super-conscientious about nurturing a sense of family with her extended family. I'm definitely part of that.

So I'm making sweet potatoes like my Mom used to make, with the marshmallows on top. Don't see marshmallows in recipes much these days. Why is that?

I'll never forget the first year I had Thanksgiving with my ex's family. They brought out all the fixings and a lovely rib roast. I thought to myself, 'wow! two main entrees.' How naive. When it became apparent a turkey was not materializing I finally asked what I thought was an obvious question. "No turkey?" The ensuing response still rings in my ear. "Nobody likes turkey anyway." Say WHAT?!!!

Ok. Fine. Serve whatever you want at Thanksgiving, but if you invite someone for Thanksgiving dinner you've got to at least consider the possibility she may have SET HER STOMACH FOR TURKEY!!! For God's Sake!

I don't think I'll ever get over that.

p.s. - crap, I just realized B&K are staying at my house and I'll be going to popscene for Meat Is Murder[inlink]twisted,63[/inlink] night. Is that bad hostessing? Now I'll wake the dog up when I get home. And I have to clean the house.

I've got to figure out a gift for my ex's bday Saturday. I got off easy the last few years because he requested some custom-sewn thing. A tea cozy one year (whatever impression you get of him from that is totally accurate), and a replica of a scarf I made him to replace the original he lost.

One year he floored me by sending me my favoritest gift ever - a lamp he made out of a toaster. He's always salvaged old toasters, but now it's turned into a full-fledged obsession. He's bought over 70 of them on eBay. Yep - that's seven-oh.


(wow, I'm a slob)

You push down the lever like you're making toast to turn it on. I bought the lampshade so it could hold it's own next to the hat ladies painting.

I hope he finally gets me the replacement glow-in-the-dark koosh ball earrings I've asked for 3 years in a row. Bought the originals at a cool store in Cambridge MA, but they got dehydrated and brittle languishing in storage for 8 months while I was looking for a permanent place to live.