chinese water torture

today J2 gives me notice that round 2 is coming up.

new friends

ipad

pages

ibook

dropbox

myditto

and the bff:

google

this is my time, i tell HOM. all these years of waiting and finally they have good-looking applications for a sexy device in reasonably coherent english created specially to seduce technophobes like me. and for all my questions that HOM cannot answer, there's always the bff.

=_=

HOM suspects that the instant coffee is lying through its label and is actually decaf, so today we have coffee bean coffee instead. i suspect they musta had some shenanigan at the coffee plantation to strip the beans of the caf there too.

perspectives

J1 calls home from camp. he's enjoying the jungle; it's gorgeous. HOM is all paternal pride. that's my son, he says. i knew he would like it! nothing like the beauty of untrammeled nature!

now HOM wants me to go hiking with him on some trail. perhaps he thinks i take after him too.

me, i'm not too particular about untrammeled nature, and i rather like it unfettered by considerations of bugs and perspiration.

back to earth

J2 returns from her away camp.

my zealously organized table top transmogrifies into a crawling morass of anarchy. the laundry magically and horrifyingly multiplies. my dinner plans get questioned and summarily altered. Dog works himself into a delighted frenzy. HOM returns home long before the sun sets.

my baby is home. you could say my honeymoon is over. but it's also rather nice.

sytycd

i watch an absolutely beautiful routine* on the dance competition on tv. it's an unadorned stage and an effortlessly gorgeous swirl of bodies all over in two minutes flat. there is a standing ovation at the end and the judges weep.

i would stand too. it is a stunning number in a night of stunning numbers. 

but why tears? or precisely, why do i not weep? words make me weep. or stories. and memories. but dance is like a plane removed. i appreciate the fluid tangle of limbs and delight in the superb unity and think that it goes really well with the song but i do not enter into that deep emotional response.

perhaps one has to be of a certain age and time. or personality type. or training. or perhaps it is simply plebeian me, although HOM is also bewildered and asks me why they weep.

*sytycd july 27th, marko & allison, i know it's over by jeff buckley, contemporary choreography by sonya tayeh.

menu dilemma 2

in actual fact, dinner shall be:

       4. guilt-driven pasta. 

you could call it the puttanesca variant, as in spaghetti alla poltrone, which google translate will tell you is spaghetti in the style of the sluggard.

menu dilemma

tonight's dinner options:

1. buy from the chinese place
2. buy from the chinese place
3. buy from the thai place

ugh.

really?

my rickety toyota acquires a brand new set of shock absorbers.

psychologically this makes us feel safer. the main problem is if you didn't look at the bank balance you wouldn't be any the wiser.

auction hunter

HOM bids for a USB cable on ebay. should it be $0.70 or $0.80? he asks of his maximum bid. make it a dollar, i say, it's more efficient. he declines. if he wants to pay a dollar that would be buy-it-now price and he wouldn't need to bid.

there is the thrill of the chase and there is getting carried away, is what i say.

weather forecast (yay)

the high for today is in the low nineties, which sounds almost deliciously cool.

the fact is, put us in a sauna for a few days and paradigms swiftly shift.

sands of time

an old entry in a diary says, J1 on bike without training wheels today.
today my entry says, J1 @ jungle training.

if one thinks too much one might well weep.

hard truths

1. the major challenge with e-reading is the length of the battery life.
2. a reserve battery pack detracts from a cool streamlined slinky look.
3. the ultimate limiting factor is the size of the electricity bill.

blue moon cafe 2

HOM

this place was on food network!

does that make HOM and me foodies?

blue moon cafe

it's a hole in the wall. we drive an hour and wait an hour to eat.
AND we end up on a couple of stools at the bar.
but it is strangely acceptable, because:

• it feels like a date, just the two of us,
• the wait staff look like they like working there, and
• they give us macho metal flatware instead of wimpy plastic.

i tell HOM that you've got to love a place that respects the incidentals of dining.

HOT

the woods are lovely dark and deep

and i bet if robert frost had had a summer like this one

he would have written a somewhat different poem.

far beyond

our neighborhood bed bath & beyond has upped and moved. today i invest a good half hour in a futile search for their new store which is just left of the lights; you can't miss it. 

i could care less, except i have a 30% off coupon and exuberant mildew on the shower curtain and i am a skinflint. so, in conclusion, the mildew prevails.

the finishing touches - h browne (2009)

this is a delightfully delicious confection with a little bit of everything but not too much of anything: romance intrigue scandal manipulativeness bereavement and plenty of girl advice. what i love about hester browne is that her heroines are smart and pretty and capable and polished and not at all catty and thoroughly deserve the gooey-warm feel-good endings that she gives them.

not exactly deep stuff, but i bet you couldn't stomach anna karenina in this heat either.

HOT DOG

we have an excessive heat warning with 97 degrees going on a hundred. Dog returns from every walk rattling away instead of panting. and yet, do you know, when you just fiddle with his leash he goes completely and gloriously excited in anticipation of another w-a-l-k.

what i say is, pavlov certainly chose the correct animal.

new vs. old 3

there is something painfully amusing 

to the sight of a technophile valiantly trying 

to touch-type on the ipad screen.

i call it the revenge of the inept.

asset accrual

read this.

All-Time Record Revenue and Earnings
iPhone Sales Grow 142 Percent; iPad Sales Grow 183 Percent 

you can say we heartily contributed.

heritage

i want to do this and that, the young man says, so that i can have great things to tell my son.

you are a blessed man, i tell his father, that your son would leave a legacy for his son.

miss manners

time was when i engaged the telemarketers in humor or cold courtesy to mitigate the unavoidable nay. these days i am ashamed to say i have discovered a much more efficient and most effective strategy.

i harden my heart and quietly hang up mid-sentence.

women's lib

is your mom a lawyer? i hear J2's friend ask. because she knows stuff?
i'm a flower of the field, i explain, i neither toil nor spin. 
oh i'd like to be one too!

are girls allowed to say, when i grow up i mainly want to be a wife and a mother?

invictus

i am proud 

that you would choose the hardest way

although it would be easier

if you did not.

and i hope 

in time

your head will be bloody, but unbowed.

one purchases honor with honor.

photo by my little friend B.

word of the day

scatology /skəˈtɒlədʒi/ n. the study of poop.

eschatology /ˌɛskəˈtɒlədʒi/ n. the study of the end of the world.

i smell a conspiracy, don't you?

new vs. old 2

this is actually a no brainer. i need the paper copy.

the reason is

procedural memory,

by which alone i can find certain chapters and verses.

there's a concordance, and 

there is hard-core memorization, and then

there is the verse on the top right of the left page.

new vs. old

ipad - neatly contained self-illuminating and fashionable.

broadsheet - space-guzzling odoriferous and messy.

but i fancy there is an abiding authenticity to 

spreading your morning paper 

over half the table 

whilst sipping your coffee.

and, i've grown fond of the advertisements.

besides, there is also the matter of fly-swatting.

the secret of chimneys - a christie (1925)

a delightfully cheerful bizarrely extravagant political thriller with murder thrown in, all bundled up in a swath of ruritanian style Romance, with the added bonus that the hero gets the girl this time. 

i love agatha christie. she hearkens to another age of cleaner language and perforce a wider vocabulary. her plots are intricate but the good guy always wins. and of course nobody does dry wit as drily as the brits.

this must be my favorite of her non-poirot non-marple books. 

ode to Dog

he ain't no alpha
he ain't no beta
he might be gamma
but more likely omega

that's our geriatric defender

reality

Dog and i embark on our nice afternoon stroll which quickly devolves into a frantic race against the impending storm, from which several conclusions can be drawn:

• i may be out of shape, but the dog's an absolute disgrace.
• housework, it appears, is not aerobic exercise.
• there was a time. it all went wrong.

anatomy of a weekend

getaway

comeback

vegetate

watch pickers/pawn/polish on tv

vegetate

watch pickers/pawn/polish on tv

vegetate

gimme another one quick.

adult time

the nice thing about this, i tell HOM, is that 

J1 is away and J2 is away 

so we don't even need to feel guilty about having a blast.

really, that's having our cake and eating it.

romantic getaway

this is what we pack:

what we actually eat is

a large domino's pizza.

priorities

HOM and i plan an overnight getaway. 

here's what we pack, in decreasing volume:

food - electronics - clothes

here's the food, for one dinner and one breakfast, for two. 

if you say this is overpacking i'm not going to argue. blame the man.

new toy

we acquire an iPad 2. it's a dinky sub-compact technological marvel that responds like a magic wand. there are only two problems with it:

1. the books i want to read are not public domain free books and there are no electronic equivalents of thrift store used books going for a dime each.
2. getting the screen protector on, in alignment and flush, is only possible on youtube. us lesser mortals all carry iPads garnished with bubbles.

soft focus

sunday's storm puts paid to our hi def tv channels. the trouble is, the regular channels just don't cut it. the people look pixelated. the scenery looks watered down. the food looks wrong.

how did we tolerate tv in the days before HDTV?

4th of july

my first live, on the spot pyrotechnics show, 

if you discount the lunar new year limb-busting crackers in K.L. before they were banned.

ummm. pretty.

independence day

with J1 off serving his country and J2 gone to the beach, HOM and i find ourselves just by ourselves. we have a slow morning with a chat and a coffee and then a lunch date and then a marathon jamming session and then a dinner date.

i shouldn't say this, but one could get used to the empty nest.

brave new world

these days J1 isn't around to go with HOM to guitar center so he pulls me along instead.

but these days i don't mind, thanks to technological advance, viz. the letris game on my ipod. take your time, i tell HOM. if my battery runs out i'll start on your iPhone.

beach trip

J2 goes to the beach today.

i grill her, of course. who's she going with? whose car? when? what? but the questions run out pretty quickly, unlike when i put J1 through it last year.

what i say is, parents grow up, or they grow tired. why, if Dog wanted to go to the beach now, he could probably slope off and i wouldn't half care.

grist for the mill

it thunders and lightnings in the night. Dog, chicken that he is, seeks refuge in J1's old room and under the table and in every nook he can insinuate himself. fortunately for him, HOM is awake before the crack of dawn and keeps him company. 

Dog loves jet-lag.

and the winner is...

my friend Ai runs a 10 km race.

she faithfully reports it on facebook:

before she begins.

at the midway mark.

with 2 km to go.

on the way home.

with a photograph of the action.

clearly, a smartphone is the latest running accessory.

revenge of the nerds

3G - 4G - iPhone3 - iPhone4 - 4GB - 16GB - GSM - GPRS 

as bridget jones would say,

gah.