Woolverine

I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here

woolverine — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:06:07 +0000

Hello Darlings.

I apologize for my prolonged absence – I had some personal and professional business to attend to at the end of 2011, and was too busy and too boring to blog. But today is my first day of a new job, which I believe will provide lots of room for me to be healthy and happy and whole.

I’m expecting a return to twice weekly post schedule, and to my usual assortment of observations of the world around me. Knitting, gardening, and queer happenings are likely to be overrepresented, with a smattering of strange scientific facts, music and film reviews, and political thoughts. So bear with me and we’ll see how it goes!

Turkish Eggplant

woolverine — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:18:29 +0000

Spent the weekend celebrating Ellison’s many accomplishments in Pittsburgh, where I discovered Turkish eggplants. I’ve never seen these orange beauties before but I’m smitten. This one was a lovely companion at a dinner party. She always looks good and never monopolizes conversation. And when I’m done with her I’m going to open her up and save her seeds to plant next year. I wonder if I can try the same thing with Ellison whose body is prematurely failing.

Stacks

woolverine — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:02:43 +0000

I love to read, and I adore browsing library stacks. Online lists of similar titles are good, and so are bookstore shelves, but nothing compares with the experience of browsing by Dewey decimal system without the need for commercial success. Treasures untold lurk within their dusty shelves.

Backyard Habitat with your hostess, Patty O’Furniture

woolverine — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:00:05 +0000

Finally done with my patio project. Here’s the story in pictures since I’m so sore it hurts to type.

The finished product, just an umbrella left to add. And maybe grass…. Below is the rest of the project as it went along.

This is my crummy yard before I started the project. I rented a rototiller back in May to start the transformation process.

After rototilling, a field of dust. The plan: reduce the area of grass by building stone raised beds, a patio, and finally (and still to be completed) increase the area of raised vegetable beds.

The walls are completed in June, and plants are growing in all of them.

Excavation and leveling of the patio area.

The vibratory plate compactor, which helps level and compact the area….until it stops working all together. It was a headache to get it back and forth but hopefully I got enough compacted before it failed that it won’t get too tippy.

Patio complete!

A Relevant Message

woolverine — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:05:51 +0000

I came across this grafitti last night and thought I’d pass it along. Sometimes we all need a reminder, and there are a few folks in my life right now facing extra special trials and tribulations right now. <3.

Tech Separation

woolverine — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:56:14 +0000

Ellison and I have a running conflict about the role of technology in our daily lives, and our relative tolerance for the checking of email, Facebook, etc. during an intensive conversation. This video sums up how I feel about a real face-to-face interaction being interrupted by “just checking” to see if anything interesting is happening out there.

My feelings are well summarized by this video, and particularly this quote: “And when you’re standing with someone and you’re on your mobile device, effectively what you’re saying to them is, ‘You are not as important as literally almost ANYTHING that could come to me through this device.’”

Available Cheap

woolverine — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:00:00 +0000

When I see this sign I hear Billie Holiday singing. Somehow I don’t think Jew for Sale would have been the same kind of hit for her.

Beets and Carrots

woolverine — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Merica

woolverine — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:00:00 +0000

It’s one of my favorite holidays, and I’m at the beach, so here’s another photo of my lilies. These remind me of fireworks.

Stuffy, Archaic, and Outdated

woolverine — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:30:44 +0000

I got some very disappointing news yesterday. No, not that whole civil unions debacle. Worse. The Oxford Style Guide no long requires the Oxford, or serial, comma. As they say, “As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’. But when a comma would assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity, it can be used – especially where one of the items in the list is already joined by ‘and’ [for example]: They had a choice between croissants, bacon and eggs, and muesli.”

Well, phooey, I say. I am a big fan of serial commas, and if that makes me a holdover, so be it. I also double space after a period. But since I’m running for post-apocalyptic class president, I think outdated and archaic style suits me.

In other happier news, I grew these: