Obiter Dictum

My chocolate just told me to share a chocolate moment with a friend (damn those delectable little Dove's).

So... I'm sharing the moment with you.

But not the chocolate.


Okay,  so really now -  k_sada suggests that instead of just being a smart ass and flaunting the fact that I have chocolate and she doesn't I should make this a meme.   I hate memes.  Almost never participate in them.  But this could be interesting, I suppose.

I'm not going to apply any fancy parameters.  I'm not going to insist that this is a creative writing exercise and that you have to come up with new and interesting ways to convey your love of chocolate.  I just want every one to share SOMETHING about chocolate.

For me - my contribution - is to point you at this recipe.  It's my favorite cake recipe.  It's gluten-free and yet stil the most decadent chocolate cake that you can put before your guests (or yourself - nothing wrong with that - no not at all), it's easy to make (or it certainly wouldn't be part of my repetoire), and quite frankly, it's been saving my birthday experiences for several years now.  (If you love me you'll learn how to make it.  No pressure though, right?)

Here you have it:

Flourless Chocolate Torte ala gluten-free girl

NOW - your mission should you choose to accept (queue music) - is to post something chocolate related - and then post a comment here with a link to your post. (Hopefully I haven't made this too complicated).  This will work better if you leave your post public.  Then ask everyone reading YOUR post to do the same.  Or don't.  I don't really care.  Insisting that you follow rules just isn't my style. 

(Maybe Dr. V is right.  Yesterday he was trying to determine my political affiliation.  I claim none, and have told him so many times, but after answering a few of his questions yesterday he has firmly decided that I am an anarchist.  I just keep wondering how I can possibly be an anarchist if I vote, but that is a question for another day.)

...this song came on the radio. it brought back a memory of my fey crystal ky and made me want to dance that way again. unfettered. uninhibited. now.

These are the words I choose to surround myself with and look at every day.  All of these quotes hang on the walls of my office at work:

there are some voices linked with events in my life. this one brings me home. this one puts the earth between my toes and the moonlight swirling in my hair. this one brings me home to my mother.

Frank Zappa - I'm The Slime

[backing vocals Tina Turner & The Ikettes]

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks . . .
Don't touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go

I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video
Can't stop the slime, people, lookit me go

"Puppy wants a monkey pickle."

~Houston

"Most people are so busy knocking themselves out trying to do everything they think they should do, they never get around to do what they want to do."

– Kathleen Winsor

Every day at lunch I come home to let Kimber out.  She is in the kennel 6 to 8 hours every night, and another 8 or 9 during the day seems horrible.  She has her little puppy bed, and her toys, and her chewie (store-bought not yard-found), and her food and water - so it isn't like a gulag, but still.  So, every day I make the 15 minute drive home and let her out for a bit before making my way back for a full afternoon at work.

Normally, she is sitting quietly in her kennel when I walk through the door.  When I approach the door she goes crazy and turns into a ping pong ball.   This behavior continues when I open the door and she jumps straight up in the air, when I am lucky, catching height above my head.  This leads to the loving nicknames Kimberoo, Pogo, and occasionally Tigger.  I occasionally can't resist the urge to sing to her - "Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy!  Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!"  But then, of course, there are the less lucky times she takes a flying leap straight at me and lands all four feet in my stomach.  There are less than loving expletives and "nicknames" that come flying out of my mouth in those moments.  Especially if I am trying to come up the stairs.  Death by Kimberoo isn't the way I'm planning on going when I go.

Back to today though.  I come home for lunch and there she is sitting quietly in her kennel, but in the middle of what I can only assume was caused by some sort of puppy typhoon - or Kimbernado, if you will.  Oh hell, even if YOU won't , I will.  It looks as if a bomb went off inside her kennel, throwing food and water EVERYWHERE.  Not just inside the kennel, although that was surely ground zero, but for several feet around the kennel, behind the kennel, spreading all the way across the kitchen was a rain of puppy food confetti.  I just can't rationalize how it made it as far as it did.

To top if off, the puppy food is full of gluten.  Thank goodness the explosion doesn't seem to have had any upward momentum.  I haven't found any on the sink or the stove.  Still... ugh.  And I have to wonder what in the world set that bomb off.  She must have just simply HAD IT.  And I can't really blame her.  I wouldn't want to be in that damned kennel either!  

Last week I was really really close to graduating her to sleeping on the floor in the bedroom, but with her potty behavior over the weekend I just can't see doing that yet.  Soon, I hope.  Before she loses her little puppy mind and I have to pad the walls of her kennel. 

It snowed today.  Kimber was less than happy this morning but seems to be adjusting nicely.  She will run around and play in it, and eat it, but she will NOT pee in it.  She seems to prefer the cold cement floor in the basement.  I guess I should be thankful that it's easy enough to clean up.

I just took her out for her evening romp and she found herself a new toy.  Evidently when the weather turns this cold the mice don't give a crap where they drop dead.  Getting Kimber to drop the damn thing was ANOTHER story.  Couldn't bring myself to pick it up.  Guess that section of the yard is just off limits til I can get someone else to do it.

Yuck. 

"Don't stand too close to the pedestals you put people on.
When they fall off they just might crush you."

~me

Say hello to my little friend.

I'm a honey lover. Love, love, love my honey. Because of this, a few months ago I started reading more about bees. That's when I started learning how essential they are to pollenating our food crops world wide. That is also when I discovered that they are currently having what could quickly become a crisis if unresolved. What they have now named Colony Collapse Disorder is a growing problem of the honey bee population worldwide. It's been in and out of the news for several months now.

news.google.com/news

Just yesterday I read this article:

blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/

The article states, "Researchers at Landau University, a German university, have found evidence that wireless phone radiation can interfere with bees' navigational abilities. According to WirelessWeek, "up to 70% of bees exposed to radiation from a cordless phone docking unit placed in their hive later failed to find their way back to the hive.""

I've been following this story since I first heard about it in February. This is the first article I've seen where anyone has put forth any thoughts on a potential CAUSE of the problem. The research is new and as the author of the article states he isn't here to "put the stamp of accuracy on these researches." It just brings up some interesting questions as to the true cost of technology and what we are willing to forfeit for the sake of convenience.

It was suggested to me, and I don't want to discount the possibility, that this could be a way to panic the world populace in order to justify spiking the cost of food on a global scale. That could be true. I just don't think it hurts to be aware of it either way. I just plan on keeping an open mind to the possibility that this could be a very real problem.

Sharing time over now.

As my kids used to say before dinner every night,
"Blessed Bee,
and all the other bugs, too."

Incredibly witty. I was very surprised. For years I've been disappointed in SNL and MadTV. This restores some of my faith in them. It IS possible for them to say something intelligent and meaningful in a funny way.

Look what those assholes have gone and done now.

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Now check out this blog entry from a woman who KNOWS how important this is.

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I'm very sad. Evidently there will be a rally today at the Supreme Court. Planned Parenthood is asking for donations to help fight this.

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Thanks to Sarah for bringing my attention to this today.

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Fuck. Pass it on.

I had no idea that it would feel this good.  I remember the way that the music used to soothe my spirit, but after all these years I had thought that there would be some... discomfort?  I don't know what I thought.  I was nervous.  I received this piano as a gift for my birthday.  A tremendous and deeply meaningful gift.  It took me until Wednesday to finally get it tuned playing phone tag with the tuner.  Last night I sat down and began with some exercises to warm up.  My fingers aren't as nimble as I remember and my hands don't remember as easily where the keys are, but they DO remember.  I sat down on the bench and before I knew it two hour had gone by.  I felt light and alive and calm and peaceful and present.  I can't describe all of it.  It was amazing.  I've missed this so much.

Thank you, Mindy.

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I just had to share this shot. I think it's officially one of my favorites now...

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1. NEVER!!!
2. Hmmm... I don't think it should be played with.
3. That's an expensive one... I think there are better ways to spend money. How about I watch one movie everymonth. At home. With friends.
4. DONE!!! Since they're already lost and all.
5. PREPOSTEROUS!
6. If they'd ever send me a bill. DAMN!

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There is a tiny blackbird that I place on a branch of the tree each year. Perhaps if I am very very quiet, he will whisper to me in his tiny blackbird voice what the new year is going to bring.

Shhhh, I'm listening...