READIN

Friday, March 26th, 2004

It's hard working out what to do at the end of the week, to make the transition to weekend smooth and pleasant. This evening we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- Ellen and Sylvia went up there in the afternoon and spent some time in the playground near there, and I walked up to meet them after work. This was sort of an experiment, to see if we could do something as a family Friday evening outside of the house. It went pretty well, I think; we didn't really spend that much time at the museum because by the time I got there, Sylvia was hungry, so we had an early dinner (early and bad! I need to figure out where one can eat well on the upper east side before we go there again), and then went back to the museum, and we only got about a half hour's worth of looking around before Sylvia was tired out and ready to go.

But all the moving around felt good -- like I was giving energy to the world in a way that I don't most of the time on a Friday night at home. One thing I would be really glad to do as the weather warms up, is meet them in Sheep Meadow or thereabouts and enjoy the park.

Sylvia is riding her scooter real well now, Ellen said she rode it nearly a half mile from where they parked the car to the playground. I watched her riding it a little bit later in the evening but not so much since as stated, she was getting tired.

posted evening of March 26th, 2004: Respond
➳ More posts about Sylvia

Apologies to anyone comming here from Ralph Luker's Invisibe Adjunct farewell roundup. -- My farewell to Ms. IA was an ephemeral thing, which passed away the day after it was posted and will not be seen anymore. I do still miss her though.

posted afternoon of March 26th, 2004: Respond

Thursday, March 25th, 2004

🦋 Yard work

What fun! this evening Sylvia and I planted some forsythias, she with her trowel and I with my spade. When I came home I asked if she would like to help me do it and she quickly said, "No." Then a few more "no"s while I was putting on jeans and work shoes and walking downstairs, followed by a sudden "I want to help!" as I opened the door. So we went outside (very warm today, I think in the 60's) and dug up some holes, and filled them with plants and soil.

This weekend I will be acquiring my next big power tool; it is a 6" jointer, which I am buying from Matt Prusik (a former president of CJWA). The weekend is busy -- on Saturday morning we are going to the nursery to get bushes and trees, and in the afternoon getting a start on cleaning the garage; on Sunday morning I will drive down to South Amboy where Matt lives and back, and in the afternoon I'll be trying to set it up. The jointer may not be usable immediately as I think the power supply to the garage might be too small and need rewiring.

posted evening of March 25th, 2004: Respond
➳ More posts about Toolbox

🦋 Vocabulary question

Anyone know of a verb to describe the way of speaking where someone can't contain his hilarity and the words come out mixed with laughter? I am thinking one could use a laughing verb -- like "'that taught her a lesson,' he sniggered" or something of the sort -- I am wondering if there is a verb to do it that does not also mean "to laugh".

posted afternoon of March 25th, 2004: Respond

Monday, March 22nd, 2004

I finished Tender is the Night this afternoon. I was amused to see Dick ordering Black & White and water when he is with Nicole and Michael -- this is what Kurt Vonnegut ordered when he made his cameo appearance in Breakfast of Champions. And it is -- for that reason -- what I ordered the first time I was ever drinking in a bar, in Montréal, in January of 1988. I got the same response from the bartender that Dick gets -- I'm sorry, we don't have that Scotch, maybe I could fix you up with a Johnny Walker? To this day I have never drunk Black & White, after years of thinking based on one scene from one book that it was what the cool guys drink. I believe this evening marks the second reference to it that I have ever seen.

posted evening of March 22nd, 2004: Respond
➳ More posts about Tender is the Night

Sunday, March 21st, 2004

Today the garden started erupting. The crocuses have been up for a week or so -- some of them were crushed a bit by the snowstorm but others are in good shape. We did not really plant enough crocus bulbs for them to make a real impression of bloom. Tulip and daffodil greenery has been visible through the snow for a few days and after the rain yesterday that is the dominant thing in the garden. But many other bits of greenery are visible!

We spent this morning doing yard work -- raked up remaining leaves from the fall -- aerated the lawn and put some new seed on it and some fertilizer -- turned the compost which I have not touched since the fall, there is some stuff in there we will be able to use immediately. The idea was to start cleaning the garage out, which I want to convert to a work space (from a storage space), but that did not happen. (The plan for the garage is to put a long table against both side walls, and to put a door in the yard side. And possibly to insulate and sheet rock the walls.)

posted evening of March 21st, 2004: Respond
➳ More posts about The garden

Saturday, March 20th, 2004

Ellen has written a new entry in Lola's Diary; go check it out!

posted evening of March 20th, 2004: Respond

Friday, March 19th, 2004

I'm really liking Tender is the Night. The story of Dick's night in Rome (chapter xxii of part 2) just hit me really hard -- it's like Fitzgerald had identified and dissected all of my pretensions to originality, 40 years before I was born.

posted evening of March 19th, 2004: Respond
➳ More posts about F. Scott Fitzgerald

Truth may be stretched thin and not break, but float upon the surface of the lie, like oil on water

Cervantes
Don Quixote, Part II, Chapter X

For some reason, this quote out of context reminds me strongly of neocon arguments in support of the Iraq war.

posted evening of March 19th, 2004: Respond
➳ More posts about Don Quixote

Tomorrow we will go to the Museum of Natural History for Sylvia's dinosaur fix. Aunt Miriam is coming along! Before the museum we will eat lunch at Barney Greengrass, the sturgeon king.

posted afternoon of March 19th, 2004: Respond

Previous posts
Archives