(This is Not a) Love Song

Yesterday at 11:26pm via Facebook Mobile Luaineach says: Chillin' in the club at the airport, waiting for our red eye. Ah the stress of holiday travel! ;)

Happy 50th anniversary Mom and Dad! See you soon!



11 hours ago via Facebook Mobile Luaineach says: Pizza at 0430 (our time)

( cut for pic )

7 hours ago via Facebook Mobile Luaineach says: Made it safely to my sister's. Nap soon.

( cut for pic )

6 hours ago via Facebook Mobile Luaineach says: Flowers for me were waiting in the guest house bedroom. From jim via my sister. Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. He is still in Tucson, will be here after midnight tomorrow night.

Unpacked now getting ready to nap.

( cut for pic )

***
Had a good nap. My parents are here now, arrived safely. Jim gets here tomorrow late and my brother and his family tomorrow even later than that (or, if you will, Wednesday even earlier). This is the first time we will be together as a family all in one place since Jet was ~2 years old. We've seen each family unit individually here and there in that time, but never all at once. We are doing it this year in honor of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary which was in September. Figured it would be nice to have their grandkids in one place again.

I haven't traveled (or, for that matter, haven't not cooked for our tribe of waifs and orphans) on Thanksgiving (or any other holiday) since I moved out of state at 18. So far, so good.

My sister sent this wishing link to Jet, to help him with his desire for a massive blizzard while we are in upstate NY** (he's thinking snow forts and snow wars). After you make your wish you can hover over all the floating seed pods and see other people's wishes. Jet was doing that when I left the room and then I heard him yell "Hey! Was that YOU who wished for bacon?!?"

It wasn't, but it could have been!!

**Yes, f you swine flu! We WILL get on a plane full of holiday travelers!

And in re: swine flu I never did comment re: our feelings on getting the vaccine, so ( for those who wanted to know )

10 hours ago via Facebook Mobile Out for the Leonid meteor shower



10 hours ago via Facebook Mobile It's 1 a.m., do you know where your meteor showers are?

We are pooped pups but took ourselves out to the freezing dark desert because that's what we do. Spectacular with the moon dark this year. Home soon to heated mattress pad and 4-5 hours sleep.

(i like how the flash in night mode makes us look like those creepy faceless things in Jacob's Ladder!)

( cut for another photo )

***
My favorite thing about facebook is the ease of mobile updating, both text and photos. Maybe LJ has a similar simple feature and I'm just not aware of it.

LiveJournal won't let you post a playlist, but you can launch it as a stand alone player, if you ever want to listen to what I am listening to (more or less; sometimes I'm not listening to this playlist at all, but frequently I am.). I update it fairly frequently and am adjusting the date of this entry so that it stays at the lead of my page -- that way you can update right along with me!

ETA: I'm just linking to my last.fm which I am now using since they broke playlist. :(

3 hours ago via Facebook Mobile:

( Preparing for Neighborhood Kids Movie Night in our front yard. )

2 hours ago via Facebook Mobile:

( Test of electronics is A-ok. Need to make the popcorn and then good to go. )

***
Chilly out tonight, and cozy, and the clouds were gorgeous.

Life is good.

Yoinked from adammaker:

This Time is Different: A Panoramic View of Eight Centuries of
Financial Crises

Carmen M. Reinhart, University of Maryland and NBER
Kenneth S. Rogoff, Harvard University and NBER

Abstract
This paper offers a “panoramic” analysis of the history of financial crises dating from England’s fourteenth-century default to the current United States sub-prime financial crisis. Our study is based on a new dataset that spans all regions. It incorporates a number of important credit episodes seldom covered in the literature, including for example, defaults and restructurings in India and China. As the first paper employing this data, our aim is to illustrate some of the broad insights that can be gleaned from such a sweeping historical database. We find that serial default is a nearly universal phenomenon as countries struggle to transform themselves from emerging markets to advanced economies. Major default episodes are typically spaced some years (or decades) apart, creating an illusion that “this time is different” among policymakers and investors. A recent example of the “this time is different” syndrome is the false belief that domestic debt is a novel feature of the modern financial landscape. We also confirm that crises frequently emanate from the financial centers with transmission through interest rate shocks and commodity price collapses. Thus, the recent US sub-prime financial crisis is hardly unique. Our data also documents other crises that often accompany default: including inflation, exchange rate crashes, banking crises, and currency debasements.

This is a good read.

Wow. This is an entirely creepy and beautiful stop-motion video made using dirt, flowers, charcoal, found objects, and cardboard. Go watch:

Luis

I'll give this warning in case you have children looking over your shoulder: swearing at the end.

(Thanks to elaine4queen for posting)

Posting this again because I wanted to add an "undecided" option. So, if you voted in the last poll (I'm deleting that post), please vote again here! If you are "undecided", if you want please comment with what the swaying factors would be, in causing you to make a decision either way.

Poll #1480398
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

Are you planning to get (or have already gotten) the H1N1 vaccine?

Finally getting around to uploading these. Here's a start to posting a few more of them.

Here is a series of Jet starting with this:



( and then a lot of sequential pictures here )

Oh, and chernobylred, in answer to your question about what kind of camera (which I think you asked when I last posted the couple of surf shots) the answer is: I don't know. This is our babysitter taking pictures and she has numerous fancy schmancy cameras. I will ask her, though.

In case any of you were wondering why you didn't have to help me with costume ideas this year, it's because L&H are not having their party. They've been building a mega addition to their house this year and it's not done yet so they decided it was too much upheaval to throw the party on top of that.

With working out of the house one place or another pretty much seven days a week every week this month, I'm actually glad I don't have to put something extraordinary together.

Jet is going as a minotaur yet again because, really, who wouldn't? It's an ab fab costume. He wore it to school today for the costume parade and will wear it down to the farm tonight when we work, to frighten children in the hay bale maze, and he'll wear it if he decides to trick or treat or to give out candy if he decides not to. (Jet has never been a big trick or treater.)

I will probably throw something together tonight for at the farm, but it won't be a a big production. I'm thinking maybe the fabulous black sausage curl wig I received from chernobylred, something rather slinky to wear, one of my many long capes and some fake canines and mouth-dripping-blood and I'll be a vampire. Serves the purpose and is easy to put together, being just things I'd wear out at some point anyway (minus the teeth and fake blood).

The maniacal winds of a few days ago completely flattened our modified graveyard path of dooooooooooooooom in the front yard and so at some point I have to fix that. We didn't have a lot of enthusiasm to put that together this year, what with the heat and the lack of time. We started very ambitiously -- making it a continuous walk-through path with treat stop in the middle instead of a turn-around-and-go-back-the-same-way path -- but we never prioritized it enough to get that really going so we deconstructed all that and just made a modified sweeping graveyard, flowing off either side away from the walk to our door. All of that is now flattened and needs to be stood up again.

Mostly I feel ready to nap for about five hours in the middle of the day, which I will probably do Sunday.

10 years old today!

I like how all the pictures I take on the cell phone of me and Jet with our heads together end up with him looking pale and demented and me looking robust, like I'm sucking the life out of his head with my own!

And we had his parent-teacher conference today -- birthday treat! -- which took all of 12 or so minutes because we didn't have any questions and they didn't have anything to say other than Best. Kid. Ever. Which of course, he is! ;)

Academically he is an A+ student (as in literally; finished last year with A+'s in everything, including the 'specials' like Art, Music, etc. and he is A+ in everything the first quarter this year), he's two years ahead of grade level in Science, Language Art and Social Studies and three ahead in Math (they started the 7th grade book this week; at Jet's school the 'standard' is one grade level ahead and the 'advanced' is two grades ahead), he's kind and compassionate and intimidated by nothing and no one, he has no trouble completing his school work or his homework, he gets along with everyone in class - even the people he doesn't like -- and they all get along with him, he's respectful without being passive and demands respect without being bossy. (these were all statements written on his eval)

Parent-teacher conferences are short when all three teachers say "nope, I can't think of a single thing you need to work on."

The school is going to cry to lose him next year (remember the holiday of standardized testing? Jet got max possible points on all sections of the test -- so 100% -- and schools cry to see those stats ripped from their totals) but we're going to switch him to an even harder school, where two years of latin are compulsory starting in the 5th grade and two years of economics (as it's own dedicated class) are compulsory starting in 8th. I approve.

Today I have mucho work to finish because I took a rush case that I intended to do today while nannying while the baby napped but then when the baby fell asleep in my arms in the rocker for her long nap, I couldn't bear to put her down so just held her and read for two hours instead (it's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it!) and so now I'm behind schedule.

Off to do birthday fun and then work until late.

Tomorrow: sleeping in!

EDITED TO ADD briefly the ( backstory on Jet )

I thought I was accidentally reading The Onion this morning.

Although, I quite enjoy the sort of madcap larkiness of having Real Life all full of "wait, er, what?"iness!

Back from the beach, sleepy and sunburnt. Here are two three pictures to start; I'll likely upload more next week.

( Jet was a natural )

RIP Jim Carroll.

( cut for video )

This is interesting:

The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?

We had an an ab fab viewing of the peak of the Perseids Tuesday night until the moon cut us off too early for our tastes (it rose around 11pm and so our viewable area of sky got smaller and smaller after that). It didn't seem to me that we saw as many *small* ones as we have in the past (while still seeing at least one every few minutes) but we saw some jaw-droppingly immense ones that scanned the sky almost horizon to horizon. The clouds cooperated perfectly (remaining in force just enough to add Ambiance but not enough to obstruct the view) & the weather was tent-perfect: cool & a constantly fluttering wind that rustled everything.

There wasn't a drop of rain.

I got up at 0500 and sat in the wind, smelling green and growing things, and watching the sun come up ( like this )

We haven't missed being out for the peak of the perseids in almost 20 years (was going to write "haven't missed the peak of the perseids" but that implies *seeing* the peak, which we don't always do, no matter *where* we are camped, due to monsoons).

Since the shower itself runs from end of July through end of August, we often take littler just-a-few-hours-at-night viewing excursions earlier or later in the month (we saw a fair amount this year, when we were out on the 5th and have plans to get out again next week, since the moon will be dark on the 20th) but we ALWAYS make a trip out of the peak itself (Jet has always had to miss parts of the first week of school because of it).

The last two years have been local (camping on the property of friends or on the side of the road off a dark and deserted desert exit on the I10, and being able to get up and drive to school/work in the a.m.) but I would say this year's viewing experience rivals our trip to Greer a few years ago, which was one of our best viewings.

And then last night -- when it no longer would interfere with anything in my world -- it stormed and rained and thundered like whoa. Hooray! The Naga and I expect the monsoon storms to start again daily, now that my perseid viewing pleasure has been achieved!

So, I was VERY happy to read, back in the beginning of July, that our monsoon season was not going to be heavy until the *second* half of it. Namely, the late August through September part. Namely, (in my world), "late August" meaning AFTER the 11th.

Which is what I've been rooting for, since every year we fight our battle with the monsoon clouds over our viewing of the Perseids. I was very happy that there would likely be no battle this year and every day have been primarily glad to see it clear and sunny (and I love the monsoons; I just no longer hate the heat) pretty much every single day.

EXCEPT TODAY! PERSEID DAY!

Woke up this morning and it's an entire blanket of clouds as far as the eye can see. Not big towering stormy clouds, just a flat constant blanket of fucking clouds.

The other day we were doing 10 minute (or so) drawing (which is our old "5 minute drawing" which we've upped in the last year) and I ( drew a naga )

Let the flooding commence.

***
Otherwise, all is well!

Global Change Multi-Media, a non-profit organization which puts on concerts and educational films almost every weekend down in Tubac, will be showing ""All Jacked Up" on Friday, August 14th at 7:30 p.m.

"All Jacked Up" is described as "an angst-driven portrait of four teenagers who discover the truth about their obsessive, addictive, and emotion-fueled eating habits. This informative portrayal of four typical teenagers exposes a systematic pattern of negligence and exploitation by government, big business, schools and parents concerning the food they eat" and the recommended viewing age is 12+.

Admission is 5$ and the proceeds benefit teen & young adult rehabilitation programs and Avalon Gardens internships of Global Community Communications Alliance.

For information and directions on how to get to the Tubac Plaza Main Stage, click the "Upcoming Concerts, ..." link on the Global Change page linked to above.

x-posted tucson

RIP John Hughes, thanks for the 80's!

Boost your happiness by taking part in this unique experiment.

Everyone play along!

(and, when they say "short video" -- that you watch when you sign up -- they mean short. Mine was only 40 seconds)

I was just ( shakin' my bon bon )

over to the fridge to get some iced tea and I slipped in some mysterious puddle of water in front of it and wrenched myself.

Carry on!

( (oh, and here's a pic from The 108 Degree Day Of Learning To Ride A Bike, just because I am uploading it elsewhere and so it is handy.) )

Made it home from Chicago. Had a great trip. Since then, have taught the child to ride a bike, on the hottest (so far, for me) day of the year. Yes, I think I might have had the only almost-ten-year-old who couldn't ride a bike -- he has a long story about why, involving back when he *could* ride a bike (with training wheels) when he was three and we were cruising around the neighborhood and on a somewhat hilly street, on the way down, the training wheel popped out of position and he went careening out of control and had to leap off into gravel before his bike took out a mailbox. And that story is actually mostly true, though his version is a bit more dramatic than *I* remember it. At any rate, we've never pushed the bike thing because, really, who cares? He's a top rate scooterer and so uses that method of getting around if we are walking somewhere he doesn't wish to actually walk to; I mean, it's not as if -- at 9 -- he's going off biking on his own somewhere. I figured he'd learn whenever he felt a reason.

The reason now? Tour de France. Again. (And, btw, just finished TIVOed stage five last night so am VERY BEHIND so don't tell me what is happening.) So, Sunday we went out and got a bike because he had an urge and we were already in the car, having been disappointed in our attempt to go bowling by the waiting list for free lanes and our lack of desire to wait. We figured we'd head back after the leagues were done (which we did) and on the drive home Jet mentioned a bike, and so we went and got one.

15 minutes in the 108 degree heat and he was riding it solo. The "teaching" involved a lot of swearing (me, not him), a little bit of jogging along holding the handle bar and *mostly* a bunch of letting go and letting him tip over every 15 seconds until he decided not to tip over any more. Now he tears up and down the street with his friend, having mastered -- in an additional 10 minute session Sunday night and then 15 minutes last night -- starting on his own, braking and turning on his own.

Scratch another thing off the list of things they told me he may never be able to do due to his brain damage.

(And then we did, in fact, go back and go bowling because 15 minutes of swearing in the 108 degree heat and a couple of various inches of road rash (him, not me) is no bar to bowling fun. I mean, all of us own our own bowls and shoes so puleeze.)

TODAY we are heading up mountainous for some nights of being trapped in the tent in some thunder storms. And when I say "IN" some thunder storms, I mean it -- at 8000 feet, the thunder usually shakes the ground.

It's awesome.

Jet recently (as in this year) learned to play Texas Hold 'Em (what? poker is a strategy game and you know I'm all about strategy strategy strategy) so we plan to play a bunch of that in the tent while the dog tries to get in our laps because he doesn't like thunder. I taught Jet Rummy last night, so probably that, too. I'm planning to teach him to play Spit while we are up there, but he might not be fast enough for that yet. That game was one of the card game mainstays of my youth. And, of course, Go and Mancala are camping standards.

We also plan to read.

And nap.

And mostly, you know, dig on the rain.

Bye for now!

Saturday, July 18th at Agua Linda Farm, just south of Tucson.

Info straight from the farm:

***

Come pick a peck of pickles! (Cucumbers, actually).

Then, watch as we demonstrate how to can them and share a sample! We will have some recipes to share and would love to hear about yours!

It's hot in July, so an early start is important. We will meet in the garden at 9 am (which is a little late, but many of you will be coming from Tucson). Pick a peck (or more/less) if you like (while supplies last). You-pick cucumbers cost $1 pound, we-pick $1.75 pound. Ice tea will be provided.

Wear sun hats and shoes that can get dirty! (Fields can even be muddy in July).

No admission charge

Picnics welcome

RSVP preferred.

***
You can RSVP via the contact info on Agua Linda's website. If anyone is interested in going and would want to carpool, email me and maybe we can work something out since I will be driving down for sure and can fit some extra people.

(xposted tucson)

YOU'RE INVITED to a free public showing of:

The World According to Monsanto


A quote (not mine) about the film:

"MONSANTO'S controversial past combines some of the most toxic products ever sold (PCBs and Agent Orange) with misleading reports, pressure tactics, collusion, and attempted corruption. They now race to genetically engineer (and patent) the world's food supply, which profoundly threatens our health, environment, and economy. Combining secret documents with first-hand accounts by victims, scientists, and politicians, this widely praised film exposes why Monsanto has become the world's poster child for malignant corporate influence in government and technology."


WHERE: Grand Cinemas Crossroads 6, Grant and Swan

WHEN: Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 7pm.

PLEASE BRING A CAN OF ORGANIC OR NON-GMO FOOD TO BE DONATED TO THE COMMUNITY FOOD BANK.


Presented by GMO Free Project of Tucson, a project of NEST, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization, in conjunction with their sponsors: Food Conspiracy Co-op and New Life Health Centers.

(xposted tucson)

Yesterday pulling out to go get Jet, there was a coyote standing perfectly posed at the end of the street, ( which you can't see because I forgot to zoom )

And then when we got home there was hockey in the street with the kid who lives almost right across the street because hockey is a favorite ( even for kids who have never seen ice on the ground )

And then today all those clouds have been producing rain, not in a monsoon-ish way but in a winter-ish way, with total cloud cover and a steady even downpour. I'm not sure where it came from, but I'm happy to see it. I've already collected a few hundred gallons of water today alone and that will feed all of my vegetables until monsoons actually get here.

School is out as of today at noon.

Next week Jet and I are going to the beach for a few days just because, on a spur of the moment trip just decided upon on Sunday evening. Next Friday we all 3 go to Flagstaff for the weekend.

Life is good.

The med views are a little off IMO, but otherwise this is lovely!

April 6 at 10:09am Luaineach says "87 degrees at 830 in the morning! Phew!"

April 8 at 6:23pm Luaineach is on day 2 of a 5-day liquids-only fast, about to go for a motorcycle ride with Jim to the CSA for this week's produce, followed by riding straight to the rillito river walk the for our full moon 'hike' (it will be more "look at the moon" than "by the light of the moon" but I'm not feeling up to a late night walk). The kid is in our pool with the babysitter and I can hear their laughter from here. Life is so good.

April 9 at 3:57pm Luaineach posted the link:

10 Awesome Ads (For Traumatizing Children)

[This was stolen from 9thmoon]

14 minutes ago Luaineach says For my fellow hippy-dippy localvores (I'm looking at YOU, Tina), HoofsNHorns is finally doing a "herd share" for milk. Let me know if you are interested because then maybe we can coordinate alternating picking it up every week. (from the link, click on "cow share" on the left sidebar, for info)

HoofsNHorns

***
Things are super well here. Just booked our trip to the beach for the week of the equinox and Jim's birthday (the end of September) and also just booked surf lessons since that is Jim's birthday present - what more do you need for your 45th bday than surf lessons and a 40 year old wife still fit enough to take them with you?

So, I've got to get focusing more on the fit part, which should be easier now that I have a clear deadline for my head to wrap around. I've been poking away at it since I cleared the 2 year mark of smoke-free but I'm ready to go full-tilt now; I'm using this fast as a springboard back into alternate-day CR. I know some of you already *do* alternate-day CR (or up day/down day, however you yourself name it) so who's with me?!

The Horror Photography of Joshua Hoffine

I think I already know who of you on my Flist are moving to Dreamwidth (or, if not moving outright, then creating a journal there for purposes other than your LJs serve) but I have invite codes if anyone who I might not know is interested wants one.

You can comment here with the email address you'd like me to send it to (comments screened).

ETA: All invites now sent out. You can still comment, in case I happen to get more. Also, I know at least one other dreamwidth user has spare invites because he posted this morning that that info could be passed along to anyone interested. So, if anyone additional is interested, comment away!

From adammaker, this is srsly cool in my world. It's like the future!

Launching in London today, the Espresso Book Machine can print any of 500,000 titles while you wait.