up home

1. green beans
   
2. turkey
   
3. lemon pie
4. basketball games
5. napping
6. bead bracelets
7. miniature japanese irises
8. lovely flowing guitar music
9. cardinals, nuthatches, flickers, doves, goldfinches by the dozen
10. family time
    

noisier

Correction: volume boost to 16.

noisy

Fact: The return of spouse and dog to the house typically requires boosting tv volume from "5" to "12".

guess who

Guess who this is.

"Academically successful, he attended Dartford Grammar School, where he passed 3 Advanced Levels (A-levels) before entering the London School of Economics on a scholarship. He studied for a degree in accounting and finance, but attended for less than a year and did not graduate, leaving to pursue a musical career."

a. Mick Jagger
b. Peter Gabriel
c. Howard Jones
d. Crispin Glover

London School of Economics?! Mercy.

tumbleweed

the wind is doing its best to make a bigger impression than wednesday's rain. reminds me of:

1. taking a trolley ride over the Golden Gate bridge with my parents; between the fog and the wind, it was a miracle we made it across in one piece
   
2. zipping down the hill on a hand-me-down blue bike with bad brakes, on my way to Karen's house
3. the spring day Grace and I drove two hours to the beach, where we huddled in blankets and tried to nap as wind roared and rain sprinkled; anything to get away from grad school pressure for a few hours
   
4. The Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy landing on a witch
   
5. the wind tunnel that exists only at the western exit of our office building
6. trying to walk up a very icy hill to the metro station one windy winter day... it took three tries to get there
7. riding behind my dad on the snowmobile, ducking my head to avoid windburned cheeks
8. watching people parasailing from a cliff in Lima
9. standing at the top of the St. Louis Gateway Arch and feeling sure it was swaying
10. i nearly forgot! sitting at the cafe del mar on the old wall in Cartagena, thinking we could get blown over the side at any moment
    

cats and dogs

it is raining in SHEETS. reminds me of:

1. the rain barrels at Grandma's house, and how soft her hair is from washing it with rain water
2. playing in puddles with my best friend Karen
3. after a huge rainstorm, finding a tiny baby rabbit behind a downspout at my university dormitory, and raising it for a month with the help of a kind-hearted Resident Assistant (we released it in my sister's backyard out in the country) (also remembering how it pooped all over a double-page ad of Madonna that we used to line its box - one of my favorite photos ever)
   
4. how everyone in Tokyo seems to have an umbrella and can even ride their bikes and smoke cigarettes while holding them
5. rain hammering on the tin roof at a cottage in Point Reyes
6. rinsing mud spatters from newly sprouted miniature iris and chionodoxia
7. the leak in the basement
8. going for midnight swims in summer, even in the rain as long as there wasn't any lightning
9. the smell of the forest after a spring shower, when we'd go mushroom hunting in the early morning and the mountains were still full of mist
   
10. getting drenched at a baseball game, waiting it out for two hours (hooray for ponchos!), and then cheering the home team on to a big win

i do love the rain.