Best Boy & friends

For my birthday earlier this month, Ben made me a carrot cake and put violets on it, just the cakes my mom used to make me. Also, Tara made the yummiest pizzas that day.


This is Ben at work. This is what he does every day. It's Greek to me.

Heavy Load?

My dear friend and Rakadu compatriot, Melissa, sent this Rumi poem to me. She said she was reminded of me--how my fire experience has lead me to be more selective with collecting/accepting things only if I love them. I hope you find this persian loveliness as delivering and helpful (and less ruinous than a fire).


If you're lugging a heavy bag,
don't fail to look inside it
to see whether what is inside is bitter or sweet.
If it's really worth bringing along, bring it;
otherwise, empty your sack
and redeem yourself from fruitless effort and disgrace.
Only put into your sack
that which is worth bringing to a righteous sovereign.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chon javâli bas gerân mi bari
zân na-bâyad kam keh dar vay be-negari
Keh cheh dâri dar javâl az talkh o khvosh
gar hami arzad kashidan-râ be-kash
Var nah khâli kon javâlet-râ ze sang
bâz khar khvod-râ azin bigâr o nang
Dar javâl ân kon keh mi bâyad kashid
su-ye soltânân o shâhân-e rashid

-- Mathnawi IV: 1574-1577
Version by Camille and Kabir Helminski
"Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance"
Threshold Books, 1996
Persian transliteration courtesy of Yahyá Monastra

Winespeak

This is for Mick, who is more of a cocktail snob than a wine buff, but I still think he'd love this. Also for Tiffanie and Travis/Katie who ARE proper wine buffs.

I found this great little book that describes how to understand wine descriptions. I like this one:

"full bodied, with great character."

Black Victorian Shrug

I recently saw this picture (by Robert Clyde Anderson)

Which reminded me of a shrug I made last year.


I just took a shirt that I liked the collar and sleeves of, cut off the bottom, added lace around the bottom w/ a hem and Voila!

Happy Belated Easter

I'm sure you were all wondering how eggs came from the easter bunny. Here is a dissected specimen for you to have a look for yourselves. Clearly, this is scientifically conclusive.

Something to be glad about

It's been over a year since I came back from Tufts. I am really really really glad that I don't have to memorize charts like this anymore.

I'm sad that I'm not a vet, but Tufts was clearly a bad fit for me. I think I've come a long way in a year, emotionally. This time last year, I was scared to leave my house, I dreaded seeing anyone for any reason because of the dreaded inevitable "how are you?" or "what's going on in your life?" or "so, you're a vet now?" questions. I'm glad that I've passed through that miserable place. I enjoy seeing friends again. Things may not be 'figured out' at all, and there are still enormous stresses associated with my present situation. But I'm glad that I'm not as bad off as I was last year.

Filing Conundrum

Just before my house burned down, I found a beautiful cherry filing cabinet in the dumpster. It didn't have any hardware to put it together, so I called the company and they sent some to me. On a visit north, Ben put the thing together, and I felt very grown-up moving my files from portable plastic containers into a nice, real filing cabinet.

Then, of course, my house burned and that was that.
I was really lucky to find a desk on the side of the road, the bottom drawers of which fit several file folders at a diagonal. That's been great for me for almost 2 years now. However, now that I live with Ben again, and my folders have begun to fill out again, my folders are getting squished and they're jammed so tight
* that it is difficult to put them in/take them out. In addition, Ben has one of the portable filing plastic things like I used to have, and there are piles of files here and there all over our place.
It's time for a new filing method. But we're constrained by no cash-flow.

I found this great solution on Apartment Therapy= buy a hollow ottoman and put a hanging folder frame inside

...but we don't have an ottoman lying around unused. We have these cute boxes at my work, that I can get for cheap,

but I don't have a good shelf for them, and am not sure I want something that is not covered. I also like the idea of wallpapering an otherwise ugly utilitarian type filing cabinet.


I might be able to find one of those on freecycle or craigslist...

thinking....
What would you do?

***********
Update: I never posted this when I first wrote it b/c I was waiting for my new computer to get fully in the swing of things. But in the meantime, I have emptied my crammed drawers and have used this filing drawer that was just laying around with random other things in it. It's not covered or pretty, but it does the job better than what we were using. Yay for looking around and using what we have, and yay for free!


(and my new FIRA drawers from our little trip to Ikea on my birthday)

This may possibly be the most boring post I've ever posted...I think I obsessed over this conundrum.

Unexpected Surprises

Wouldn't it be awesome if someone came to your home and hid little surprises like this bit of flora peeking out the cupboard all over your house instead of playing April Fools' pranks?