Status: Wordy. So Normal. (UPDATED)

Shout out to my Oxford-bound homey. What up, Hans?

Hubster spent most of the weekend on the couch. Fine, he moved around but he was "taking it easy" as exhorted. That made it rather tough to do all the home-improvementy things we intended to do. We've decided to schedule things out on Sundays and trying to accomplish chunks of the projects every day. Last week was our first shot. PHEW, I'm so glad we got organized in time for a cold!

Friday night, I headed out for Girl's Night with Betty and her peeps. We saw The Last Kiss. We swooned over the music and Braff, but were somewhat stymied by the plot and some dialogue. It is NOT Garden State. The movie focuses on relationships in crisis, so it's not a feel-good like GS. Honestly, there were some lovely moments in the movie, and there were some ugly moments in the movie, and there were some overly melodramatic moments courtesy of too many storylines and the writer who brought us Crash, so no big shock there. Worth seeing if you like a serious drama about human relationship. Otherwise, meh. Verdict: I'm glad I went, but that might also be due to the street sign I snapped whilst there (picture above). Glad Betty and crew were so lovely. Oh, and we had Blue Moons afterward at a local Irish pub where a real, live Irishman lead us all in Irish bar songs. Can't beat that with a stick.

UPDATE: I just read lvs' take on the movie, and I can totally see where she's coming from, so if you're considering seeing it, you should read hers, too. Carry on . . .

And yesterday, I finally finished these:



FINE! That's only one. I KNOW. The light was streaming in, making it tough to get a good shot of the windowed doors toward the backyard. There are two doors and these valences hang on the curtain rods attached to the doors. The previous owners left us exactly TWO curtain rods in the entire house, and those were the ones. It was interested to experiment with such wide ones, and I think the curtains look pretty good on them. Yet another interesting print in the living room. Fortunately, I have some left over and I'm eyeing an IKEA lampshade to cover. We'll see how soon I'm feeling brave.

As to how the rest of us are feeling? Hubster and Persephone are feeling camera-shy (but better):



Loki is feeling adventurous and loving the tight spaces in the Propel case. (It should be noted that the compartment she's in is only half of the case, oh and Kashi owes me some product placement payout. I'll take it in GoLean Crunch, please.)



And I'm feeling a weeeee bit proud of myself for continuing to love my haircut despite the fact that I haven't radically altered it in several weeks. Ooo, it's probably been well over a month now! Now I just need a cookie. Excuse me.

Ode to My Favorite Body, Now Beseiged

My Love, whose days are now so dark,
Whose body is laid low by plague,
I mourn anew your future stark
Of raw, red nose and shivers vague.

One moment to next you know not which
Will fever decide to depart or abide?
Within you strong concoctions pitch
In hopes of stemming microbial tide.

In vain now do you blow your nose,
Congestion's armies are so vast,
But soldier on against the blows
Of the virus onslaught's mighty blast.

Oh heaven forfend a lengthy conclusion
Let this pass soon to seem mere illusion.

Poor Hubster's a sicky, and blogging makes for bad nursing back to health. Let's just hope I don't get rewarded for my trouble by coming down with the same ague. (Okay, so I just wanted to use that word and couldn't work it into the crappy poem, so what?)

Linking Wednesday

Today's links are RANDOM with a capital R, A, N, etc. But they're great so whatever.

1. I won't say about September 11th. It's been done better by others, including this McSweeney's piece by John Hodgman. It's called Welcoming Remarks Made At A Literary Reading, 9/25/01, and it's quite illuminating. Here's a long quote, but a good one:

I have heard a lot recently about the role of writing, song, music, painting, in the tragic blank space in our souls that this event has left behind. Of course, this preoccupation is largely a result of an unconscious bias of the media. If pig farmers had as much currency with NPR as literary novelists, we would be hearing just as much about the healing power of bacon. And knowing that power well, I can say that it is certainly comparable to the reading of a sensitive short story as far as comfort goes; and yet both fall far below the direct aid that is being passed from person to person, below Chambers Street, in our homes, on the phone with strangers, with an actual touch, in the actual, nonsymbolic, unannotated world of grief in which we live. The great temptation is to be silent, forever, in sympathy.

2. My mom reminded me about this site. If you're looking for Christian theological and devotional material, you might want to check out the extensive and free Christian Classic Library. You've got everything from Early Church Fathers to Kierkegaard (I checked 'cause I'm a groupie like that).

3. And now to practical matters: are you as terrified as I am that you'll lose your cellphone contacts thereby losing touch with a million and one acquaintances? Check this out: Zyb is a service that backs up your contacts and will sync them with computer contact programs for FREE. Apparently, you can also share those contacts with others. Sounds sweet to me. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for we few Nextel subscribers, but it covers 200 different models, so it might work for you. I'll be sitting, envying, and manually entering over here.

4. Ladies, for a good skincare, cosmetics, and haircare site, you can't beat Delush with stick. Real women give reviews on all manner of products from L'Oreal to Chanel in price range. If I'm considering a purchase, particularly if it's because of marketing or in a fashion magazine, I usually check out their site and see if it stacks up. Love it!

Enjoy!

The Idyll of Erica

We managed to hit some traffic on the way into C-ville, including a HUGE accident that totally blocked 29 South. Mair and J Morgan were laughing because if it's not massive traffic from a Coldplay concert or some such, there's always SOMETHING that gets in our way when we visit. They don't usually encounter more than a slowdown. Ha, ha, the Urban Gods hate us!



Anyhow, it all got a lot better when we arrived in time to go out for dinner at Downtown Thai (they don't have their own website, but this link gives their address and price range). The food was scrumptious, and we wandered around the Downtown Mall for a while before heading home, enjoying the mild weather.

The next morning we had out usual breakfast: coffee, cinnamon rolls (!), and scrambled eggs. We took it easy, and in the afternoon, we meandered over to the Barboursville Vineyards for a tour and some winetasting. We discovered why Virginia wine, despite Thomas Jefferson's dearest hopes, didn't take off until the 20th century. Apparently our soil has more microbes that kill European vines than one can legitimately shake a stick at. We've now discovered that by either hybridization or by grafting, we can grow European varieties of grapes on American soil. Now THAT is some delicious American ingenuity right there.


The aging room for their award-winning blended, Octagon.

The estate is notable, too, because Señor Jefferson designed a manor house for the Barbours back in the day, but it burned down in a fire on Christmas Day in 1884, and the ruins were never rebuilt. The picture I posted yesterday is from the ruins, as is the next one. There's a tiny image of the way the estate once looked on this page, but it's rather unimpressive compared to the ruins themselves.



We bought the requisite $4 goblets for the tasting, and we got to try almost everything they make. We had a lot of fun comparing impressions of the wines, and most of them were quite good, honestly, so it was a delight to just hang out and sample for a while. We ended up going in together to get 5% off our order, and Hubster and I are proud owners of their Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay Reserve, and Philéo, a fabulous dessert wine. Mair and J Morgan had already given us their Reisling a while ago, so we have that to drink, too.

That evening we ate my birthday dinner at The Shebeen Pub. I knew I wasn't going to cook something fancy the next day after our drive back and all, so it was nice to celebrate that night. We had the Baked Brie appetizer. Hubster had the Steak Pie entree, and I had the Sadza Cakes entree which was amazing! J Morgan's entree was the Sosatie, lamb and pork marinated in tamarind and tumeric and served with mango chutney and a yogurt dipping sauce. Food so good, it makes me want to cry. And eat, duh.

Somehow we managed to wedge our stuffed persons through the car doors and get home where Mair suggested playing Phase10, a card game with many rounds, and many opportunities for Erica to lose. Big time. Still, we tibbled a Barboursville Merlot all evening and by the time I lost, it was midnight and everyone said "Happy Birthday," and all was well with the world. And then we all crashed because it was a long, winey day.

After church the next morning, we came back to the casa and made pizzas. We made one vegetable-heavy one with zucchini, summer squash, onions, green pepper, and tomato topped with cheese. Delish. Then we decided to hit up the King Family Vineyards to spend the afternoon sipping their estate Chardonnay (theme?) and watching a polo match. Check this sweet action (click to enlarge or the horse will kick you):



It's an entry and a half to think about this region of the country that has SUCH a different culture from most other areas. But that's not this entry.

It was a perfect day for sitting out and watching, though, so we spent some time after the game just talking and enjoying the sun and the breeze. It was a great birthday.


It's the peeps that get you through year 24.

Checking In

Sorry, kids, I'm having too much fun with Futurama on [adultswim]. I'll post all about my weekend and my birthday tomorrow. With pictures! ooooOOOoooo.

And just to whet your appetite: