One of my coworkers answered my call (well, email) to come and get some roses. Papa Seed only does native plants in the garden, and he wants to donate those foreigners to more appreciative soil. Since roses make my eyes water and my throat scratchy and my skin itch, I'm more than glad to have them gone. S~ didn't just take the roses, he offered her any of the other non-natives and she got a carful.
Ended up getting a jar of green "dirty" olives and olive spread for the televison that no one wanted on craigslist. I think I was asking sixty five bucks for it, but the coworker who ended up taking it in exchange for the delicious items did us a favor, just as the rose transplanter did. This weekend two more coworkers are picking up the dining room table and chairs. I exchanged those for some homedid huckleberry jam. Tried to get $150 for 'em on craigslist, but just ended up being hooked into that scam. So while we haven't exactly gotten rich off our belongings, we have gone some tasty treats and I don't have to wake up to allergies during blooming season. You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find...
Bought one of those newfangled stick in the iPod AM/FM systems and spent most of Super Nanny, a show I love and haven't seen in at least three weeks and I was really, really looking forward to watching last night, trying to program the alarm clock. With the help of Mancub and Papa Seed and some choice phrases borrowed from the French (non-native), got the alarm clock set so I could start my early to rise pattern to give me enough time to walk the pups before showering in the morning.
Ended up waking up about five minutes before the "alarm" (carefully preset to NPR) was set to go off. Watched those digital numbers (how I hate digital numbers) change and no alarm went off. Waited another five minutes in case there was a time difference between the bed and the dresser next to the bed, but nope. No alarm. I feel so old. I guess I'll have to ask a 12 year old to program it for me.
I did manage to go for a short walk. I really don't have any excuses since there is a FOREST behind the house now. Baby Boy has been leaving us surprises almost daily. A mix of anxiety and not getting out for exercise and a complete change in his routine and house. The Wise One needs his exercise too, as does their Daddy. Baby Boy did his usual watering of plants every five feet. The Wise One did his numerous poops. All was good and right again, and today there were no surprises when we got home.
Since this will be the first day we can all watch Survivor on the new big screen, we are going to order pizza. Alas, my comrades of West Seattle at work have let me know that it is pretty difficult to find a pizza delivery place in this area. I think we found one - but no idea what we will be getting.
Papa Seed is repainting the Utility Room. We need to get some of these rooms finished so we can stop walking around boxes. I've been putting books on shelves, a rather dusty chore that involves creating both genre sections and visual excitement with my televison home improvement learned skill of putting the large books at the ends of each shelf and the smallest in the center. It is simple pleasures like this that busy my mind and hands.
I found an online station yesterday that I've been enjoying - DEEPINSIDE - Souful House Station. It has been a nice break from podcasts and experimental or folk music. Makes me feel about 25 years younger, and about 200 pounds lighter and the ghosts of the beautiful ones are all around. Thump thump thump. Not that the music is old, although a few of the songs are. I suspect most of this is rather new, but I haven't followed this kind of music since I had a waist line. The only times I even hear this kind of stuff is when I rent Queer As Folk. WOW, just as I'm singing the praises of the station, they start to play a version of Ashford and Simpson's "It Seems To Hang On", one of my all time favorite songs. This is certainly not the original. Faster, yet smoother. Something called "Full Intention Presents Deep Down". Is that a Producer, an album, a group? Really beautiful, whatever it is. I'm swaying, I'm singing, I'm back with my friends. Let's go backwards when forward fails.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Taco Trucks & Libraries
This evening we had dinner at a Taco Truck. A very simple sentence that can not quite convey how exciting that experience is to me. Five years ago, you couldn't find a taco truck in this town to save your life. Ten years ago you couldn't find a taco. Now there are Taco Trucks sprouting up like Teriyaki Joints and we are all the better for it. And now there is a real one, an authentic Taco Truck, less than a mile from our house.
Life doesn't get any better than that. You keep heading south and the word is there are even more. I think I'm gonna like it here.
We had to stop at the Department of Licensing on the way home so we could register Mancub's vehicle. That was an experience. Papa Seed wanted to go to the one in our old neighborhood, but I didn't want to go there. I wanted to head towards home this evening. Things are different in the new neck of the woods. I'll just say it was full of fascinating characters.
We headed out to buy a few more toys this evening - a new laptop for Papa Seed and a new monitor for Mancub. I think this will end the toy portion of our month long shopping spree. I think we have to stop now. All of us boys have our playthings now and we can start collecting coke cans for change.
I marched out of the library yesterday with a fresh stack of books and DVDs. Libraries in this city are awesome. I just had my home branch changed, and now it is two blocks from the Creek House. I simply get on line, find the books and DVDs I want, place a hold on them, wait for notification, and go to my closest branch to pick them up. And it is two blocks away. That is two blocks shy of a mile, which is where the Taco Truck is. Library. Taco Truck. Creek. Pinch me somebody.
In less refreshing news, I fear that the latest on line community I joined is full of hard headed Christians and Libertarians. I guess I could simply stop checking it out, but it is that traffic accident compulsion at this point. I almost feel a need to have some kind of blood pressure rising influence in my life. It can't all be Taco Trucks and Libraries.
Life doesn't get any better than that. You keep heading south and the word is there are even more. I think I'm gonna like it here.
We had to stop at the Department of Licensing on the way home so we could register Mancub's vehicle. That was an experience. Papa Seed wanted to go to the one in our old neighborhood, but I didn't want to go there. I wanted to head towards home this evening. Things are different in the new neck of the woods. I'll just say it was full of fascinating characters.
We headed out to buy a few more toys this evening - a new laptop for Papa Seed and a new monitor for Mancub. I think this will end the toy portion of our month long shopping spree. I think we have to stop now. All of us boys have our playthings now and we can start collecting coke cans for change.
I marched out of the library yesterday with a fresh stack of books and DVDs. Libraries in this city are awesome. I just had my home branch changed, and now it is two blocks from the Creek House. I simply get on line, find the books and DVDs I want, place a hold on them, wait for notification, and go to my closest branch to pick them up. And it is two blocks away. That is two blocks shy of a mile, which is where the Taco Truck is. Library. Taco Truck. Creek. Pinch me somebody.
In less refreshing news, I fear that the latest on line community I joined is full of hard headed Christians and Libertarians. I guess I could simply stop checking it out, but it is that traffic accident compulsion at this point. I almost feel a need to have some kind of blood pressure rising influence in my life. It can't all be Taco Trucks and Libraries.
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Amazing Finally Final Finale
Papa Seed promised to buy me coffee after he picked me up from work if I would let him make one last trip to the old house. He said he had left the rent check and the keys there earlier in the day, after fixing one of the holes in the wall one of our furry boys made when greeting the mailperson each day. He wanted to grab a few more plants from the garden. I agreed, in part because I'll do anything for a cup of coffee, in part because he was driving.
He dug up his native species to add to the Creek House while a couple of neighbors swung by. Someone had cut out a heart and placed it on the door earlier, saying that "the best neighbors in the world had moved on to spread their love." I sat in the backyard one last time and remembered moments of the last eight years, a lot of them featuring the kids who are no longer the little kids they were. One of the neighbors who came by had her three month old baby whom we met for the first time this evening. There is now a whole new crew of young 'uns that will be growing up on that street, somehow managing to do it without us watching. And life goes on.
Got in the car and the waterworks started. Thanks to being raised male in a repressive society, and with the addition of medication, I don't cry easily or often. But I couldn't stop. I thought I had gotten past this - I thought I had already said good-bye and didn't expect to be going back. It all hit me at once - the GreatNeffs growing up, the death of my Mama, the painful days of moving in that house and the hard work of making it work, the amazing neighbors who became our family, the addition of a son in our world.
I hate that I wear contacts at a time like that. Especially since I was now the one behind the wheel of the car. I pulled over, unlike someone who might be talking on their cell phone while driving. I let it go.
And now that chapter really is over. Done. We now live in the most amazing home with the most amazing creek with the most amazing son in a really amazing part of the city that we have yet to fully explore. Life is amazing right now. Amazing.
He dug up his native species to add to the Creek House while a couple of neighbors swung by. Someone had cut out a heart and placed it on the door earlier, saying that "the best neighbors in the world had moved on to spread their love." I sat in the backyard one last time and remembered moments of the last eight years, a lot of them featuring the kids who are no longer the little kids they were. One of the neighbors who came by had her three month old baby whom we met for the first time this evening. There is now a whole new crew of young 'uns that will be growing up on that street, somehow managing to do it without us watching. And life goes on.
Got in the car and the waterworks started. Thanks to being raised male in a repressive society, and with the addition of medication, I don't cry easily or often. But I couldn't stop. I thought I had gotten past this - I thought I had already said good-bye and didn't expect to be going back. It all hit me at once - the GreatNeffs growing up, the death of my Mama, the painful days of moving in that house and the hard work of making it work, the amazing neighbors who became our family, the addition of a son in our world.
I hate that I wear contacts at a time like that. Especially since I was now the one behind the wheel of the car. I pulled over, unlike someone who might be talking on their cell phone while driving. I let it go.
And now that chapter really is over. Done. We now live in the most amazing home with the most amazing creek with the most amazing son in a really amazing part of the city that we have yet to fully explore. Life is amazing right now. Amazing.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Combos Sutra
Best Housewarming Gift EVER arrived in the mail yesterday, tucked in with two CDs of Reiko Kudo, photos of quite possibly the two cutest little girls on the face of the planet and one of the sweetest letters I've ever gotten misty eyed reading. All from my friends - S&S - who live clear on the other side of the country. It was the nicest surprise.
SugarNeff spent the weekend with us and helped us with the final stages of emptying the old home. Then he and Mancub played on the Xbox 360 until they crashed long after Papa Seed and I had gone to bed. Papa Seed and Mancub are doing the FINAL clean-up at the old house. I decided to stay home since I have a dust-induced headache and we actually have plenty to do at the Creek House to keep me busy. I can't make another trip over there. I've been pretty emotionally distant from the whole process until the last two trips. We spent eight years in that place. The neighbors started dropping by and a lot of tears started to flow, and I looked out of windows I won't look out of anymore.
Snow fell on Friday. The sun was out an hour ago. Clouds started to move in. Now I'm watching bees going after the blossoms on the tree outside the window.
I joined yet another on line community that I'll probably lose interest in within two days. I join those things and get excited doing the profile, then I become disillusioned quickly and move on. This one is geared towards folks who are a bit older - people of "my generation" I suppose. That seemed like a great idea, except wandering around on line I realize I don't really relate to "my generation" anymore than I do the younger ones. Those people seem old.
I'll get back to organizing books on shelves. Except for the dust and bending over, it is a nice little task to do. A place for everything and all. Listening to Harold Budd's Avalon Sutra, one of the most beautiful pieces of sound I've ever heard.
SugarNeff spent the weekend with us and helped us with the final stages of emptying the old home. Then he and Mancub played on the Xbox 360 until they crashed long after Papa Seed and I had gone to bed. Papa Seed and Mancub are doing the FINAL clean-up at the old house. I decided to stay home since I have a dust-induced headache and we actually have plenty to do at the Creek House to keep me busy. I can't make another trip over there. I've been pretty emotionally distant from the whole process until the last two trips. We spent eight years in that place. The neighbors started dropping by and a lot of tears started to flow, and I looked out of windows I won't look out of anymore.
Snow fell on Friday. The sun was out an hour ago. Clouds started to move in. Now I'm watching bees going after the blossoms on the tree outside the window.
I joined yet another on line community that I'll probably lose interest in within two days. I join those things and get excited doing the profile, then I become disillusioned quickly and move on. This one is geared towards folks who are a bit older - people of "my generation" I suppose. That seemed like a great idea, except wandering around on line I realize I don't really relate to "my generation" anymore than I do the younger ones. Those people seem old.
I'll get back to organizing books on shelves. Except for the dust and bending over, it is a nice little task to do. A place for everything and all. Listening to Harold Budd's Avalon Sutra, one of the most beautiful pieces of sound I've ever heard.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Pretty Cowboys
Yet another day of "vacation" so that we can once and for all be done with the other house. It is almost eleven and we haven't made it over there. Papa Seed is doing some much delayed work on his laptop, and I'm moving things from the living room to the "Guest Room". The "Guest Room" being the last room on the list to put together, so for now it will be the storage closet.
I'm running into a few problems with swapping, selling and giving away via the internet and I've also played both sides of that and have been a slacker on following up when I've been the interested party. I got caught up in the oldest scam in the book on craigslist when I tried to sell my wonderful Rustic Mexican Pine Dining Table, but caught on before I had lost any money. Still, at that point it was too much to try to find another buyer so I am giving it to two coworkers who are moving into a new home. The problem is that they haven't moved yet, and it is a CHUNK of table and so now we get to move it here and find a place for it until they can take it. Then there is the freecyle person who wanted moving boxes but must not want them enough to come and get them. And I lost the email address of the magazine dealer who took my last printed booty.
I ordered some movie posters to go in the TV room. Two large ones of Brokeback Mountain and a small Dead Man, Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, and Jeremiah Johnson. Aside from all being perfect movies, and personal favorites, there is a theme there although for some reason I can't quite name it as obvious as it seems to be. Homoerotic Anti-Western Westerns about Loners and Masculinity and the Meaning of Life or something like that. Or maybe Men in Hats.
Papa Seed hooked up the DVD and I watched a couple of minutes of Eno's 14 Video Paintings just so I could see what the new TV did. There wasn't enough time to actually sit and watch. Also have my eyetv hooked up now but also only did a quick playtime with it. Once we get settled in, these will be my toys. The cable guy is coming back out on Thursday to hook us up. Long story, the short of which is he had to come back out to hook us up after the first two visits.
This morning I just pulled out a drawer of our new Ikea dresser and took out some underwear with amazing ease. I'm starting to understand how the rich get spoiled. I've always had furniture that required a stern jiggling of the drawer, holding down on the right corner, pulling the left side out a 1/4 inch, standing on one foot, giving it a tug while on the other foot giving it three hard taps to the base and then reaching in the 6 inch opening to find some shoved in garment that you can't really see and hope has the fewest holes of the options. At some point we stop with all the new and the toys and the shiny and we start to really, really buck up and become hunters and gatherers, but I'm certainly seeing a certain appeal to having pretty things.
I'm running into a few problems with swapping, selling and giving away via the internet and I've also played both sides of that and have been a slacker on following up when I've been the interested party. I got caught up in the oldest scam in the book on craigslist when I tried to sell my wonderful Rustic Mexican Pine Dining Table, but caught on before I had lost any money. Still, at that point it was too much to try to find another buyer so I am giving it to two coworkers who are moving into a new home. The problem is that they haven't moved yet, and it is a CHUNK of table and so now we get to move it here and find a place for it until they can take it. Then there is the freecyle person who wanted moving boxes but must not want them enough to come and get them. And I lost the email address of the magazine dealer who took my last printed booty.
I ordered some movie posters to go in the TV room. Two large ones of Brokeback Mountain and a small Dead Man, Midnight Cowboy, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, and Jeremiah Johnson. Aside from all being perfect movies, and personal favorites, there is a theme there although for some reason I can't quite name it as obvious as it seems to be. Homoerotic Anti-Western Westerns about Loners and Masculinity and the Meaning of Life or something like that. Or maybe Men in Hats.
Papa Seed hooked up the DVD and I watched a couple of minutes of Eno's 14 Video Paintings just so I could see what the new TV did. There wasn't enough time to actually sit and watch. Also have my eyetv hooked up now but also only did a quick playtime with it. Once we get settled in, these will be my toys. The cable guy is coming back out on Thursday to hook us up. Long story, the short of which is he had to come back out to hook us up after the first two visits.
This morning I just pulled out a drawer of our new Ikea dresser and took out some underwear with amazing ease. I'm starting to understand how the rich get spoiled. I've always had furniture that required a stern jiggling of the drawer, holding down on the right corner, pulling the left side out a 1/4 inch, standing on one foot, giving it a tug while on the other foot giving it three hard taps to the base and then reaching in the 6 inch opening to find some shoved in garment that you can't really see and hope has the fewest holes of the options. At some point we stop with all the new and the toys and the shiny and we start to really, really buck up and become hunters and gatherers, but I'm certainly seeing a certain appeal to having pretty things.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Making Home
Finally got back on line last night after a week plus of only catching a few minutes on the rare days when I made it into work. Still between houses, although finally the end is in sight. Cleaned out almost all of the kitchen at the old house this evening - at least Papa Seed did. I was upstairs going through stacks of dust and art supplies, mixed in with plastic cowboys, stale Japanese candy, nude centerfolds, and music magazines.
The last two weeks are a blur of Ikea, boxes, CD shelves, back aches, fast food and endless pitstops at Uptown and other like fine purveyors of legal liquid drugs. My twitching eye stopped for a few days, but is back now to join the last three weeks of fun facial movements.
Creek House however is beautiful. Beautiful with boxes and boxes and boxes and large garbage bags taking up space on the floor. But at least one room, the "library", is well on the way to being functional and quite nice. My new Mac has a 24" screen which is ridiculous and makes me shiver like a little rich girl at a pony party. Instead of "speakers", I bought "sound sticks" which give the desk a "Young Frankenstein" kind of feel - not unpleasant at all. I am modern. Hear my subwoofers roar.
Mancub's room came out the color of Mountain Dew. The Cottage TV Lounge is earthy and warm, and also without cable at this point. Although far from complete, in anticipation I purchased The Films Of Alejandro Jodorowsky Box Set this afternoon for a later Christening, or Pandering as I'd prefer.
Papa Seed has been making his way through the cardboard towers each night to strum a bit on the guitar before crawling in bed. The furry boys are confused, but I think are realizing that this is now home. A duck couple do a daily walk in front of the house, by the creek. A Steller Jay has been gathering nest material for our viewing pleasure. Slowly we are making progress in putting things away.
The last two weeks are a blur of Ikea, boxes, CD shelves, back aches, fast food and endless pitstops at Uptown and other like fine purveyors of legal liquid drugs. My twitching eye stopped for a few days, but is back now to join the last three weeks of fun facial movements.
Creek House however is beautiful. Beautiful with boxes and boxes and boxes and large garbage bags taking up space on the floor. But at least one room, the "library", is well on the way to being functional and quite nice. My new Mac has a 24" screen which is ridiculous and makes me shiver like a little rich girl at a pony party. Instead of "speakers", I bought "sound sticks" which give the desk a "Young Frankenstein" kind of feel - not unpleasant at all. I am modern. Hear my subwoofers roar.
Mancub's room came out the color of Mountain Dew. The Cottage TV Lounge is earthy and warm, and also without cable at this point. Although far from complete, in anticipation I purchased The Films Of Alejandro Jodorowsky Box Set this afternoon for a later Christening, or Pandering as I'd prefer.
Papa Seed has been making his way through the cardboard towers each night to strum a bit on the guitar before crawling in bed. The furry boys are confused, but I think are realizing that this is now home. A duck couple do a daily walk in front of the house, by the creek. A Steller Jay has been gathering nest material for our viewing pleasure. Slowly we are making progress in putting things away.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Snow
We got the keys on Friday, and with all the boys including the furry ones, headed over to see our home. The furry boys loved it, ran around excited and introduced themselves to the neighbor's dogs. It is ours.
David from the record store came over yesterday morning, right after Papa Seed and his friend took off to do the asbestos removal. I ended up getting $700 for my vinyl. I was hoping it would be $800, but then again I pulled a couple hundred more out of the stack in a moment of panic before he came over, so it felt like a fair deal. He was a really nice guy too, and I really like that it was an independent store that is going to attract hard core music folks. It was more liberating than I expected, although this morning I woke up with a Gloria Gaynor song (not that Gloria Gaynor song, but one called "For the First Time In My Life") running over and over and over again through my head. I haven't heard that song in probably 20 years. Yesterday I got about a quarter for the album it is on.
Mancub and I took off to do some hardcore shopping after that, entering the Seventh Circle of Hell and leaving with stories about really sweet techgeek boys who helped us, along with that much coveted Xbox 360 and four, count 'em, four Rated M games (he had asked if he could get one - I did some research and found four that were supposed to be good but the last game like that I played was Ms. PacMan in the lobby of a theater in Sacramento back in the early 80's, so I'm going by the fansites). Got a deal on the special edition of Halo III that comes with some kind of helmet for decorative purposes only. Made sure he had the Gold Card so he can play live with his friends on line. Or something. Not sure I got it, but my intention was to totally spoil him, and I did. For ONE day. Before the move. Before the adoption. I bought myself (meaning, the family) a 40" HD TV, and my first iPod.
His "Mom" called him to say he could pick up her widescreen TV, which is probably even bigger than our new one. He is going to hook that up to the Xbox. She also asked how things were going in Driver's Training, and when he told her great she offered him her old car, since she had just bought a new one. This was something she had arranged with us a few weeks ago, but we kept it from him. All of this left him in kind of a dazed state of glory. "This is a really good day!" he said several times. Pressing his luck, he asked if we could go get ramen at his favorite restaurant. Continuing the Spoil Mancub Day, I agreed. Besides, they do have delicious noodles.
We picked up some more paint for a few rooms, and headed over to Creek House. Papa Seed and friend were just finishing up what had been a much more difficult and exhausting job than they expected. Walking in the house, I love it more than I did the last time, when I loved it more than I did the last time. Now with it empty, I get to really see it. And then it started to snow. First a little, then a lot. Snow on Creek House - you can't get more Laura Ingalls Wilder than that. It was beautiful.
David from the record store came over yesterday morning, right after Papa Seed and his friend took off to do the asbestos removal. I ended up getting $700 for my vinyl. I was hoping it would be $800, but then again I pulled a couple hundred more out of the stack in a moment of panic before he came over, so it felt like a fair deal. He was a really nice guy too, and I really like that it was an independent store that is going to attract hard core music folks. It was more liberating than I expected, although this morning I woke up with a Gloria Gaynor song (not that Gloria Gaynor song, but one called "For the First Time In My Life") running over and over and over again through my head. I haven't heard that song in probably 20 years. Yesterday I got about a quarter for the album it is on.
Mancub and I took off to do some hardcore shopping after that, entering the Seventh Circle of Hell and leaving with stories about really sweet techgeek boys who helped us, along with that much coveted Xbox 360 and four, count 'em, four Rated M games (he had asked if he could get one - I did some research and found four that were supposed to be good but the last game like that I played was Ms. PacMan in the lobby of a theater in Sacramento back in the early 80's, so I'm going by the fansites). Got a deal on the special edition of Halo III that comes with some kind of helmet for decorative purposes only. Made sure he had the Gold Card so he can play live with his friends on line. Or something. Not sure I got it, but my intention was to totally spoil him, and I did. For ONE day. Before the move. Before the adoption. I bought myself (meaning, the family) a 40" HD TV, and my first iPod.
His "Mom" called him to say he could pick up her widescreen TV, which is probably even bigger than our new one. He is going to hook that up to the Xbox. She also asked how things were going in Driver's Training, and when he told her great she offered him her old car, since she had just bought a new one. This was something she had arranged with us a few weeks ago, but we kept it from him. All of this left him in kind of a dazed state of glory. "This is a really good day!" he said several times. Pressing his luck, he asked if we could go get ramen at his favorite restaurant. Continuing the Spoil Mancub Day, I agreed. Besides, they do have delicious noodles.
We picked up some more paint for a few rooms, and headed over to Creek House. Papa Seed and friend were just finishing up what had been a much more difficult and exhausting job than they expected. Walking in the house, I love it more than I did the last time, when I loved it more than I did the last time. Now with it empty, I get to really see it. And then it started to snow. First a little, then a lot. Snow on Creek House - you can't get more Laura Ingalls Wilder than that. It was beautiful.
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