Ursula the Octopus!

Hello!
Thanks go an unfortunate car accident, I get a snow day! I'm not actually happy about it at All, but do feel remarkably grown-up after filling out a police report, contacting insurance agencies, calling AAA, and a body shop, all by meself. It wasn't my fault, so, you all can pray that insurance things go smoothly because, although i am completely uninjured, my poor car is looking pretty bad. I'm car-free right now, so stuck at home. Which is pretty nice on a frigid day, i'm not gonna lie.
In other news, Izzy has spent the ENTIRE morning staring out the window at birds--i'm trying to keep them well-fed throughout the winter, the little pigs! Just buy a $3 bag of wild bird food at the grocery store and sprinkle some around--it'll be gone in hours, and they're so cute! The enjoyment I get out of watching them is different from miss Izzy's, i believe. :)
Haven't posted in about a week! So i included a picture of my christmas tree, Berl, who is rapidly becoming more decked-out than he ever was around christmas time. Thanks to Fa-La-La Felties, my new Christmas felt book, i've been making ornament and gingerbread/sugar cookie people, even a stocking (too small to put an orange into, though :( It's been fun!
And finally, before the poem, two reading recommendations!: The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace, which follows friends Betsy and Tacy (and blonde-haired, practical Tib--short for Thelma) through their lives from the time when they were five years old till when they're all getting married! They live in a small town in Minnesota in the earliest of 1900s--in the final book, World War 1 has started. The books are fairly autobiographical, with names changed though (Betsy is essentially the author). Anyway, they're just really happy and it's interesting to read about family life back in the day, how people lived before television, cars, etc. (The picture with the 3 felt finger-puppets are Betsy, Tacy, and Tib.)And secondly, the Hyperbole and a Half blog, which is hilarious. Thanks to Christi for introducing me to both of these classics! :)

Ursula the Octopus
Is nothing like you'd think:
She's shy and sweet and only squirts
Rose-scented, purple ink.
The mermaids all adore her--
She perfumes and dyes their hair,
For free, no less! She's That kind-hearted,
Simply glad to share!

Lolliduke and the Last of the Zombies

Good morning! And happy birthday Christi! :)
I haven't been spending much time on blogging lately :( schedules change and i guess it takes some time to adjust. Anyway, the first picture today is of a Mojito Cake that daniel made (recipe from Warren Brown's Cake Love)! It was de-li-cious! (or de-lic-ious?) his first cake Ever, and it was fairly complicated--involved drying fresh mint in an oven. Which, if you ever have to do, it takes a Ton of fresh mint to equal 1/3 c dried mint, stems-removed. We may have miscalculated. Still scrumptious though! Next, we have zombie baby and zombie fairy--the last of the zombie clan, besides Pumpkin Head zombie, whose picture apparently didn't get taken :( Anyway, zombie felties were a blast to make, but it's the end of an era. And finally, orange peel art! I had to draw something happy to get me through the last few minutes of my 3rd-Buffy-episode-in-a-row, before Christi came home :) it kind of worked. i didn't go hide underneath the covers or anything. Later today: Stout Pound Cake with Roasted Pecans! yumyumyum!

Lolliduke is small and sweet,
But oh! has such enormous feet
You might think feet is All he is
(Which isn't true, you crazy kids!)
He has a tongue that's one yard long
With which he sings amusing songs
That sound like garbled jibberish
Sung by a sneezing, toothless fish.
He also has two pin-striped eyes,
And one is brown, while one--surprise!--
Glows either pink or green or blue,
Depending on his present mood.
And then, he has such soft, lush, fur
That those who pet it start to purr
Like any pampered kitty-cat,
It's true! Now what d'you say to that?

Kind of Sonnet?

Zombie Bride! So cute! what follows is a fairly problematic poem, written yesterday. and....that's all for now. hope you are enjoying 2011!

Every day congruent, as the sun
Comes up, arcs steady, blinding, sinks below,
Leads purple twilight, Moon, Orion, stars--
Each day as ev'ry other--but this one.
Today the sun arose, but didn't shine,
Spark diamonds on the water, or give warmth.
So Friend becomes a thing we fear to know,
And in response we clamor for a sign

That all is not all pain or brokeness,
Or drear, mundane, and merely passionless--

For what we feel now is so much more
Than resignation, We've been called to mourn.
We fear the tears will pain us as they fall,
Or fall in shame.
Worse, never fall at all.

I'm not bitter... :)

Good evening! I am becoming a gluten-free baker extraoridnaire (sp?), so if anyone needs some delicious gluten-free recipes, i can pass some along! today's experiments included: citrus-coconut muffins, from Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts; Wheat-Free Toffee Bars, Wheat-Free Pecan-Spice cookies, both from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich who is amazing. And of course, the ever-popular extra-mooshy Puppy Chow! (if you use the recipe on the box, add more chocolate chips and peanut butter, otherwise it just doesn't cut it :( anyway, it's fun and different! this is all work-related, incidentally. Thanks to one of my friends whose family has recently gone gluten-free, i now have a tower of flour in my kitchen that reaches up to my waist! Yay baking!
Anyway, now that i have applauded my G-F baking efforts, here is a nastily moralistic poem that speaks against bragging about what a hard worker you are, when what you've done is not actually all that impressive, and you are actually fairly lazy. it's probably just annoying :)

Idle until little tasks
Come crawling to be done,
Completing each with mammoth effort
(Sweat plus Pride are one).
"Behold my works! (And praise me, please!)"
"But, children could do such!
I'm sorry, you've built up a boast
That isn't made of much.
A trash took out (how loud you groaned!)
That was but half-way full,
A picture hung--no hammer swung,
The nail was in its hole.
And for these tasks half-heartedly
Completed, you'd take praise?
I've never heard such silliness
In all my years and days!"
"But, I Could have left All undone.
I Did do Something, no?"
"But not for duty, right, nor love.
You did it all for show."

Revery/reverie

Happy 2011! I have greeted the New Year with a head cold and a good deal of general grumpiness. So i skipped church this morning for some quiet time and finished reading The Cross and the Switchblade...which was both encouraging and brought up some questions. Like, the author (Reverend David Wilkerson) would pray things like, "Dear Lord, if you want _______, then please make it evident by making _______ happen." And the signs he asked for quite often came to pass. which is not how i pray at all...because i think at some point i got the idea that such prayers were a way of 'testing' God in a sinful way, or something. or maybe more, i'm just afraid that the things i ask will never come to pass because they're the wrong things and i'll Still not know what He wants of me. of i'm afraid to give up control of my life by being more evidently Led. hm...book recommended.
Next, today's poem has something to do with--or at least it brought to mind--this poem of Emily Dickinson:

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee.
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

Which was, incidentally, the last poem Mr. Estes had us memorize in 9th grade, a year of a great deal of magnificent poem-memorization. At the end of that year, alot of things changed so it is a poem charged with memory and wistfulness. Although, truth be told, the things that I long for most are things that occurred after that year i believe. (I don't know if you can tell, but in the closer version of the illustration above, there is a wilted flower and a bee flying away from it and out of the brain space.) Finally, one last bit of trivia: i cannot, after growing up in Kansas, the land of the prairie, spell the word "prairie." i mean, i can now that i've been corrected several times by spell check ('prarie' always underlined in red). Weird.

Once upon a time--to wit,
But One bright second spun--
Two eyelids dropped in reverie,
Yet, as the act was done,
Their universe tipped dizzily,
Met Dark and Light and Why?
Thus fragile reverie lost out
To doubting you and I.

Feltie Tree Topper Angels!

After a hectic morning at work which can only be the sign of the fact that it's a few days before Christmas, an afternoon and evening of relaxation (a little cleaning): baking muffins, watching Terry Pratchett movies (and an episode of Buffy which was probably a ba-a-a-d idea, considering that Christi's away for the weekend), and crafting angel felties for our 3 mini Christmas trees! :) It's been nice. One more day of work, and then...Christmas Eve! and then...Christmas! Merry Christmas, everyone! Here is a random poem, composed on the spot. Not very Christmas-y, i'm afraid...but...enjoy your holiday!!

Time's run out when
Words are thin
When Meaning's weak
And Chatter wins
When all you've dreamed of's
Coming true
But leaves you wanting
What you knew
When debts are owed
And unrepented
Grace held back
Grace unrelented
What to keep and
What to lose
Is neither yours nor mine
To choose.

Besty-Bonnie Bitty-Bat

Argh! I was trying to get over fretting about the sideways pictures...but that's two in a row! Why??? alas and alack. Anyway. It's almost Christmas! And even closer to being Daniel's and my 3-month anniversary! (Our first quarter-annually :) so we will be going to get PEAR GORGONZOLA ETC PIZZA at hey, mambo! downtown then driving to see the be-yoo-ti-ful christmas lights at rhema. Hooray! and tonight is Christmas with Christi--there will be stockings exchanged and baby christmas trees lit up and it will be lovely. :)

in other news: i need a haircut.

Here is a poem, composed while drinking an extra-special coffee from Doubleshot. their columbian holiday offering. (i think the name is Maduro, but i could have that wrong) You should get some while it's still available!:

Besty-Bonnie Bitty-Bat
Was flitting through the sky
When something shiny down below
Caught Betsy's soft brown eye.
She flitted closer--found a lake,
Serene and full of stars,
And one fat fish who greeted her:
"Ahoy! Friend from afar!"
"How Could you know that I'm your friend?
I might be fierce and mean!
I Could swoop down and gobble you--
I Could be in-between:
A sometimes-friend, a sometimes-not,
A whimsy-driven beast...
Who jokes with you quite harmlessly,
Until it's time to feast!"
The fish--a trout--just chuckled,
"Oh, I'm sure I've not to fear!
I'm twice as large as little you,
And you can't catch me here!
If you should try, I'd dive beneath
These gently lapping waves,
And you could never follow me,
However fierce or brave!"
"Well, fine. I'll be your friend," she sniffed,
"But don't assume I'm weak!
I may be cute and furry, but
That doesn't mean I'm meek!"
She bared her teeth; the trout bared his
(That is, he grinned) and said
"If I assume as much again,
A curse upon my head!"
She shook his fin, he shook her wing--
They reconciled at last,
And spent the nighttime chatting of
The future and the past.