Cool links I’ve been sent/discovered:

From CJ: Kliban…the original lolcat:  http://www.eatmousies.com/home.html

From OSG(not sure this’ll work outside of FaceBook: Phenomenal climber/dancers: (http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=7885500&id=215494935292&ref=share)

Discovered from a pic in an email: Amazing paper sculpture (http://www.bnr-art.com/eckman/)

Have fun, everyone!

If I go “missing” for the next while.  I absolutely must buckle down and come up with some covers. I need to get my unpublished work up so that I can start working on new stuff. And after our mini-flood, Mom’s archives have achieved a real priority status on the round tuit list, which means all spare time is going to be spent scanning and cleaning images.

I will try to post something regularly, so please keep checking back, or put me on RSS or something. Carolyn’s great company, but we know all each other’s jokes by now. You guys help this business be a bit less isolated.

Ja ne!

I offer a new slide show.

Brother Chip and I had a great day together. We started with the problem of salvage of the super8mm family films. We think we’re onto a good local company, and they made a special effort to take in those damaged by the water and run them through the first salvage process rather than have them set over the weekend. I don’t hold out much hope for those six, but the other, um, 40 s/b cool.

Then we headed down for the suspension bridge over the Spokane Falls. Incredible weather, great lighting, a lovely breeze…we couldn’t ask for more.

Spokane has this lovely Riverfront Park which was created for the 1974 World Expo. It showcases the beautiful natural waterfall, and has some glorious extra features. I haven’t really had a chance since our visit here in 2000 to really take the time to take some snapshots and fortunately Chip was testing a lovely new camera, so he indulged my rather leisurely stroll along the bridge.

If you ever come to Spokane, park near the big blue bridge near the Flour Mill (you’ll know when you get here). Head for the blue bridge and just before you get there, go right and work your way along a beautiful path edged with totem poles and a small amphitheater. You’ll come out of the woodsy shade to a point between two suspension bridges over the two halves of the upper Spokane Falls.

This time of year, this side of the river is low as all the water is being diverted over to the other “tame” half of the river that goes past the historic Louff Carousel. The tame side is substantially higher and drops through the a hydroelectric plant in the middle of town and at the far end of the bridge to the left (south).

Part of the water was diverted to form what is now the Thomas R. Adkinson Theme Stream. It’s a beautifully zen waterfall that cuts across the island in a series of fall constructed around native basalt columns, river-rounded rock and wonderfully smooth flat central tiers. The columns offer a delicious temptation to crawl over them, and people of all ages do. I understand why they do, but I wish they wouldn’t. Kinda spoils the ambiance, y’know? I have once or twice, but only to remove detritus.

If you ever have the chance to visit, I really recommend you take your time, let your eyes roll over the textures, colors and let the sound of the falls permeate your pores. It’s…magical.

Anyway, pictures and words and all that, here’s the slide show.

Take the expletive-deleted vitamin supplements!

Woke up yesterday with a bang…and a very loud whimper.

Normal morning. Warm kitteh on arm. Pale light and sound of the waterfall coming in through the window. A good stretch, clear down to the toes…

And BANG! the worst pain I’ve ever suffered consumed my left calf.

With thoughts of Alex and snapped Achilles tendons foremost in my sleep-hazed mind, all I could do was lie there and gasp while I tried to figure whether I could move the foot at all, and which direction it was pointed. I finally dared move enough to curl up to massage the afflicted area and it was the strangest knot of muscle I’ve ever encountered.

Finally, I decided it wasn’t going to relax any time soon, and I was as close to fainting from pain as I’ve ever been in my life. Besides, it being early morning…I really, really, really had to piddle!!!!! Only one thing left to do. I screamed for Carolyn. Talk about a rude awakening! I felt guilty, but didn’t see any choice. So I yelled. Many, many times. Fortunately, we both sleep with our doors open, so Carolyn, at the far end of the house and hallway, finally heard…or maybe Efanor went and jumped on her, I’m not sure, but she arrived and somehow, I made it to the necessary, before really miserable transformed into really embarrassing! Besides, my bro was coming and he gets my bed when he visits. Ahem…’nuf said.

Anyway, since the foot worked and wasn’t cramped upward, we decided it was just (JUST! HAH!) a muscle cramp. Likely induced by potassium shortage. You need to be really careful about vitamins and minerals on Atkins, and I’d let that slip. I walked (gimped) about for a while and, thank goodness, it was soon reduced to a dull ache. Didn’t stop me from getting the house cleaned up for Chip, and actually did pretty well all day…as long as I was moving.

Chip arrived (Hi, Chip!) and he looks great. Has lost 30lbs since retiring, and is still going. (Go, Chip!) We had a nice chat, a nice dinner, showed him the pond, then settled in to watch the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which he hadn’t seen. As the evening wore on, rest proved the worst thing for the calf. I put heat on it. I put ice on it. I kept it elevated. I took advil…and it just got worse. By the time I went to bed, it was a bad enough ache that every time I shifted around, I’d flash on the morning pain, and tired as I was, I just couldn’t go to sleep.

Tres annoying!

This morning it’s a bit tight, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. But it was definitely an early morning wakeup call in every sense of the word!

Moral of the story: Children…take your vitamins like your mommy says!!!!

I’m on pins and needles. I’ve spared you all my weekly reactions to the show, but, yeah, I’m a fan. Big time. For those not familiar with this particular string of letters, this is the program So You Think You Can Dance. I love it. Dancers…from classically trained ballet dancers to street-trained hip-hoppers…are challenged to dance…and dance well…in other styles. It’s American Idol for dancers, and a hell of a lot more challenging and interesting. It’s a showcase for all forms of dance, from ballet (tho that only once so far) to bollywood. They even had tahitian this year! (Go, Lauren!) The hands down best choreography I’ve ever seen is coming out of this show, as well as some of the most amazingly well-rounded dancers I think the world has ever seen. It’s exciting and an absolute tribute to artistic dedication and what the human body is capable of.

General comments: Love the new format with the all-stars for partners…until the final few rounds. This means no single competitor’s performance is held back by the limitations of a partner dancing outside his/her comfort zone. It means the choreographers have way more options, and we’ve seen jaw dropping routines since week one.

Was very sad when Alex Wong was injured and had to step down for tendon surgery. I was quite upset in season 5 (actually only a year ago, cuz they did two rounds last year) when he made it all the way to the top 20, then had to step down because he couldn’t get a release from his Miami Ballet contract. Having seen him dance now, it’s clear why Edward Vilella  was reluctant to let him go. He was my favorite hands down from day one. Hope he comes back next season and isn’t snatched up by a company in between. He’s very, very special. Just go google him on You Tube, if you don’t believe me.

But there’s another extremely special dancer, and she (yes, for those who know me too well, she) is utterly a-ma-zing. Lauren Froderman. Suffice to say, she’s now on my favorite dancers short list…and the only female on the list. Again…search on YouTube for some breathtaking footage. She’s the only woman left standing, and for a reason. She’s the only dancer period who stood out for me during the audition stage. (Alex had a buy into the finals, so he doesn’t count.) She’s a gymnast and a dancer and she feels the music, whatever the style, to her very core…not something you can say for anyone else I’ve ever seen on the show…and that includes my beloved Travis. He faltered in some styles…but that’ s another post. There’s never a time where she’s just counting and performing the steps. The music goes in her ears and comes out her pores.

She’s tough when she needs to be tough, sexy when that’s called for (a difficult task for an 18 year old with a sweet baby-face and blond curls), vulnerable at call, “filthy” when necessary…in short, she’s everything I want in a dancer and has a versatility I’ve never seen in a female dancer.

The other two finalists, both guys (the other four girls were out in the first half of the season…deservedly so IMO) were great, but IMO there’s no contest.

Kent, the squee patrol darling, is cute. That’s his problem. Amazing technique, but the visual attitude of a child. His body language and facial expressions generally give me the creeps.There’s real hope for him…the last two weeks have shown real growth on the maturity front…but it’s an attitude he’s got to shed. He’s an Iowa farm boy and I read him as someone who’s used this tactic unconsciously and a lot to protect himself against local  manly men attitudes. It’s safe to be what he is, do what he does, as long as he exudes infantile behavior. As I say, there have been marvelous strides on his part toward owning his maturity in the last couple of weeks, and he’s going to be a very exciting dancer…once he’s tamed the deer in the headlights expressions. But he’s weak in the upper body and some styles completely elude him.

Robert has really surprised us (CJ and me) in the past few weeks. He actually had the same problem…way too overexcited and “on” for the cameras…and he’s got several years on Kent, who is only 18. But Robert has settled extremely well the last few weeks and his dancing last night was top notch, beginning to end. He’s one who might well have been out earlier if it hadn’t been for Alex’s forced withdrawal, and I think, for all I hate Alex being injured, that that gave Robert a bit of a wakeup call. He’s been much more focused since then. He’s got the upper body strength Kent lacks, but I don’t find his “pretty” lines to be very pretty…yet. His contortionist moved are great, but when he needs to exude grace, it’s still a bit forced.

It doesn’t really matter who wins tonight…they’re all great dancers, and I’m quite certain there are great careers ahead for all ten finalists…and likely some who didn’t make it into the finals, but if Lauren doesn’t get the crown tonight…it’ll be an even bigger mistake than Adam losing AI.

Good Luck, Lauren!!!!!

I’m trying to get my blog posts to automatically appear on FB. I’ve put a thing called Wordbooker on, and am hoping it does the trick the way it says it will. Keep you fingers crossed!

This morning, I went down to the basement to find a picture of my buddy Maelen to post on FB. When I got there, I noticed a smell I very much never want to smell in my house: mildew. Mildew leads to Mold. And Mold leads to Crazy Jane. (I’m very allergic and certain molds make me homicidal.

I went in search of the source and discovered the rug at one end of the as yet unorganized craft room was soaked…Oh, dear. Searching for the source, I finally looked up…and saw a spot in the ceiling which had obviously been leaking…a spot right over a pile of boxes holding photos and memorabilia. The topmost of a box of my mother’s papers…diaries, school notes, irreplaceable items, including many hours of 8mm movies and reel to real tapes…some of which, I hope, have her singing on them. Things my sibs had entrusted to me on the understanding that I’d be scanning and in other ways protecting them.

I opened the box and right on top were Carolyn’s commercial slides of the shuttle in a plastic sheet. They were ruined, but their presence, right on top, had actually sheltered most of the papers below from the worst of the flood. I felt horrible and went in search of Carolyn to break the bad news, but she, bless her heart, took it in stride, just came down and began helping me to salvage.

I began going through a box I just hadn’t been able to bring myself to look at for eight years (Mom passed away in September, 2002) and found real treasures. Diaries, both hers and her mother’s. School notes. Pix of my Uncle Howard in historically Significant places of WWI. And the script for a play, for which my mother played the lead.

Mom never talked much about herself. She lived very much in the moment and for the people around her. She was always more concerned with learning about them and making them comfortable than she was with extolling her own virtues or lamenting her own problems.

I always envied that in her, but realize now just how little I really know about the Jane Maxine MacPhail or even the Jane Maxine Fancher who lived before I came along. She was an exceedingly accomplished woman, despite the fact she came from a tiny Nebraska town.  College educated, a school teacher, a music teacher… She had the voice of an angel. She cultivated that voice all her life, at one point with hopes of making singing her career…something else I only learned in the last year of her life when she and brother Chip put together a lovely memoir. Motherhood intervened, but she continued to bless those around her at church and weddings and just singing around the piano with us kids. Never dwelling on might have beens, but making Now the best it could be.

I never knew about a play in which she played the lead. I never knew about the valentine given her by one of her schoolkids in the years before she was married, a valentine she kept all her life. I don’t know why. I don’t know who that student was, only that he/she was very young, by the drawings. I never knew about the essays she wrote. I never read the short story she wrote. I can’t read them yet, they’re currently drying out with paper towels carefully placed between the pages.

But I can hardly wait for them to dry and for this new insight into a mother I loved so dearly.

Heck…for all I know, she was tired of waiting for me to find her treasures and directed that water into the basement to wake me up. Afterall, Brother Chip is going to come spend a few days and when better to start scanning?

Okay, Mom! I’m onto it!

I’m trying to get stuff up on facebook…mostly some book covers and photos that have been lying around waiting to be scanned. I don’t know if I should put them up here as well or what. Maybe I’ll make a page for the blog that is nothing but photo galleries. I’d do it on Flickr, but that costs money for anything other than a handful of images.  I dunno. I’m confused. I’m going to go check out the mantis tiller manual and go change its sparkplug.

A lovely, replenishing, soaking rain. Normally, I’d be ecstatic to get such a rain in August.

This year, I just look out the window and sigh. We’ve just cleared the front to the point where I could get the tiller out and make a final attack on the nice, dry ground. Ain’t gonna happen.

Ah, well. I’ve really got to weed and clean up the pond area anyway. The rain will make that easier. So…once it stops, I’ll get out there before the sun comes out and turns it into a steambath.

I admit it. I’ve bitten off a mighty unchewable piece of round tuit this year. Any other year, any normal year, the front would have been done, or at least the prep would have been done, months ago. Instead, we’ve been endlessly fighting weeds and grass. It’s beginning to get me seriously down.

Or maybe it’s just my thyroid. Time for a blood test!

And a kitteh-emo…or three: