whatever happened to kabbalah?

the ancient religion, passed down through thousands of years of religious scholarship?

adopted by madonna, and her family by proxy, it was trendily passed along to the likes of britney spears, lindsay lohan and paris hilton who were all, at one time or other, seen sporting the red string around their wrist as a sign of their true learning of the mysticism.

ashton kutcher and rocco ritchie followed the rites, possibly only as followers to their wife and mother, respectively. we all remember the photos of ashton in white, rocco with long hair.

what the heck happened? have celebrities turned even an ancient religion trendy? has kabbalah HAD it's 15 minutes of fame? after being in existence for thousands of years? the shallow celebrities have turned it into a mockery, amongst outdated fashions like bubble skirts and zip-ankle jeans.

for shame, for shame.

whatever happened to kabbalah?

curl experiment

do any of you remember those little pink sponge hair rollers from when you were a kid?

you'd wash your hair at night, then your mom would wind sections of your hair onto a zillion rollers which snapped securely at the top. then, you'd feebly attempt to sleep on a pillow of pink plastic and crackly-sounding sponge, tossing and turning, and pulling your hairs out by the scalp in the process.

in the morning, mom would carefully unroll the curls, one at a time, and you'd have a headful of curls that would make shirley temple blush.

well, my girl wanted to test this theory. so we went to target, bought a pack of old-fashioned rollers and a pack of newfangled "spiral" rollers. we washed, conditioned, gelled, and rolled. she slept, but when i asked her in the morning HOW she slept, she said, "OK." when i asked if she'd do it again for curls, she said, "sure." we unwrapped the curls, and here is the result.




hey, susan, if you're reading this you can see the tomato plants peeking into the corner of the top photo. they are hugely insane and out-of-control. more later on them...

7 things...

ML at zee's space tagged me to write about 7 things that happened to me as a teen. reliving even a moment of those years makes me want to choke, but i'll give it a shot.

1. my friend jill was housesitting our senior year and asked me to stay with her so she wouldn't be alone in a strange place. she and her boyfriend were having a fight, so i went to bed. when she finally came up to bed (we were sharing the same one) i was half-asleep, but heard her clearly and distictly say, "keep your tongue and your lips AWAY from my body." "were you worried?" i replied. turns out she was talking to the dog. it's been a running joke ever since.

2. i took a trip across the country with my friend leslie (shout out to les-o-lee!) and her mom and dad when i was 13. we traveled in their naugahyde-upholstered station wagon hauling a camper. it was the first time i had traveled ANYWHERE, and these folks have no idea how badly i was bitten by the travel bug after that. we saw mt rushmore and yellowstone, as well as countless gorgeous campgrounds. check out the extreme hair on my head. leslie and i reconnected a few years ago after i google-stalked her, and have had fun getting to know eachother again.

3. i met my husband. i moved from suburban indianapolis to suburban detroit between my sophomore and junior years. we were 16. here's photographic evidence from the yearbook... we were in a play together. he was my father in the play (the guy holding the plant on the left) and i was a bride (in the middle). so i've known him more than half my life. jill, from #1 was also in the play, and it's where i met her, too.

4. tommy and i were voted class artists our senior year. hoo boy! more extreme hair.

5. i spent the summer after i graduated from high school out west with a geology program through the university of michigan's camp davis. it was based near jackson, wyoming, but during the program we travelled to montana, utah, nevada and idaho. i'll never forget the incredible time i had or the stunning sights i saw. oh, and it was a great way to kill 8 credit hours of science... not my best subject. i have many, many photos, but don't feel like scanning at the moment.

6. after i got back from that trip i had both of my jaws cracked open, replaced, and screwed back together. it was supposed to correct my bite. it was interesting.

7. when i got my driver's license, my folks gave me my dad's old company car to drive. it was a late 80's model 4-door black cutlass. i named him slick elliot. i loved that car. senior year, my friends and i painted poster-paint on our cars before graduation, and the paint baked into the finish, permanently etching the inane crap we had written into the paint of the car. my parents sold him after i graduated and went to college, and he was shortly thereafter wrecked. boo-hoo!

don't get used to it!

two posts in two days... i'm not sure i can live up to it for long! let's take things s-l-o-w-l-y, ok kids? mama can only do so much in a day (if i had a penny for every time my kids had to hear that!).

last day of school for my babies! and, with CAMERA IN HAND (wahoo!) i walked them to the end of the driveway to meet their fate. the bus, that is.


they haven't seen a camera in weeks... probably the longest they've gone in their lives without me in their faces, snapping shots of them. i'm shameless with a camera in hand! we have archives in the thousands. well backed-up, of course.

they were adequately corny on this muggy, doomed-to-be-hot morning.


where have i seen this face before?! i don't know where she gets it.


the dog got in on the action... poor jane is inexplicably scared of the camera, so i have very few shots of her looking anything other than terrified. she gets this sheepish, pathetic "don't kill me" look. what a funny girl.

i'm a mess

well, now that i actually visited my own blog, there's hope that i may be able to read all of YOUR blogs soon, too.

sorry it's been a while, folks.

the last remaining camera broke, so i couldn't post photos. of anything. seeing as how i'm visually oriented, that was a big blow.

the dog rolled in poop the other day and when i told her to stay outside while i got a bath ready, she disappeared, only to come back "bathed." i think she went to a pond or ditch and washed herself. is that weird?

if we have to go to another rehearsal, recital, holiday party, birthday party, end-of-year party or party to celebrate all the parties i'm going to fall apart. at the school today i started crying. what a dork! it was just so sweet and emotional.

there's so much more, but at least i put up something.

tomorrow, summer officially starts at 12;30 pm.

ilex vomitoria

i just love the name of the holly i got the other day. the english name is lovely as well... weeping yaupon. isn't that poetic? i now invite you to write a poem on the name of your choice... ilex vomitoria or weeping yaupon. you choose.

my friend jen, our neighbor angie, and 2 of jen's kids piled up in her big red truck (i kinda felt like the wiggles... "toot toot chugga chugga big red car") and drove the distance to broadwell's. what is broadwells, you ask? why nothing less than landscape mecca. it is a huge landscape supply company, which means that it sells plants to garden centers and nurseries wholesale. and to 3 women and 2 kids in a big red truck. wholesale.

now, broadwell's is not for the wimpy woman, the squeamish or the faint of heart. what you do is drive your truck down the rutted and dusty trails between the acres of potted plants, carefully avoiding the sprinkler poles, and load up the truck with whatever you want. it's a little tricky as there are NO PRICES and NO LABELS. it's your guess as to what a plant is and how much it might cost when you get to the guy at the front.

huge, heavy, dripping buckets of cherry treees, messily heaved in to the bed of the truck. dwarf junipers by the dozen. big manly woman arms hoisting hollies upon hollies. we easily packed that truck chock-full of more plants than we could possibly have time to dig holes for. no matter. this was broadwell's! and it inspired all of us to bite off more than we could chew.

strutting through a barn were two peacocks and a peahen. we breathed the dusty, hot air. we bumped down the road. we carefully navigated the turns until at last, we were sated. tired, thirsty, hungry and dirty, we approached the man in the cowboy hat for our grand total. he contemplated with his calculator our bed full of greenery. "$221.50," he said. it's criminal how much we got for just a bit over $200. he helped us wrap the branches in a tarp for wind protection, and we were off to chick-fil-a and dunkin donuts for some much-needed reparations.

i got home and the golden glow abated. i was stuck with a bunch of plants, rock-hard clay soil, and no one to dig me a hole. my back ached just THINKING about planting all this stuff. when i awoke this morning, i found that jane (2 year old border collie) had taken care of at least 2 of my little problems by decimating some dwarf barberry shrubs. no bother! they were only $3 each! and 2 less holes to dig!

at about 5:45, tommy was leaving to go on a motorcycle ride with his pals, and hollered in to me, "lance and his friend are here to dig holes!"

WHAT?!

jen had sent her 13 year old son and his friend robbie to dig my holes for me. they spent 2 dutiful hours digging and planting ALL of my shrubs and plants. i'm so relieved i could cry! and of course i spent my last scraped-together dime to get my wolfman son a $12 (cash only) haircut earlier today. so i couldn't even slip the kids a twenty. no matter, i'll get to the atm asap in the morning and show my gratitude in monetary form. that IS what 13 year old boys want, right?

i called jen, and we have plans to return to broadwell's next wednesday for more. gluttons for punishment, aren't we?

there's a stormtrooper on my driveway!

you always have to stay tuned at our house, 'cause you NEVER know what might happen next.

when we got home from dance class, there was a stormtrooper and some imperial officers in our driveway!
they came into our home and invaded our kitchen...

they proceeded to seize control of our children!


they blasted their way out to the studio...

where they presented tommy with the almost-unheard-of honorary membership into the 501st legion. he is now an official plaque-toting, card-carrying member, and will soon even have his own collector's trading card. why? for his contributions to star wars through his art.

ain't it cool? what a fun day for us all.

once were babies

each school day, i walk down to the end of the driveway and wait for the big yellow school bus to pull up and spit my babies out and back into my arms.

you'd think it would stop being shocking to me when the babies that get off the bus are tall, with long, thin legs. they are laughing at friends' jokes, they are toothy and a little gawky. they ARE NOT BABIES. they are KIDS. they hug and kiss me as they always have, even though their friends are watching, and i'm wondering when this, too, will stop. hopefully never!

i still see them as my babies, and there's a good possibility that i always will see them as my babies, even though they are no longer babies.

the above photo sits on our mantel and reminds me of those funny and difficult days when they were very small. h was a total nutcase... into everything, never sleeping, and very dynamically creative. a shy in public mama's boy. s was bright, sunny, easygoing, and sweet. the photo has their personalities... from both then AND now... intact.

ride for kids

please check out tommy's post on his weekend charity motorcycle ride for kids with brain tumors. i can't say it any better than he can... other than to say how proud i am of him and how grateful to all the bikers for raising funds that help these kids' families afford to care for their sick children, and for the surviving kids to be able to attend college. how cool is that?

all these QUESTIONS!

recently j from thinking about... had a different kind of question meme on her blog. she answered the personal interview questions another blogger had asked her, and she in turn offered to interview anyone else that asked.

here are the questions that she asked me....

Is there any food you could eat every day without getting sick of it?

absolutely! i could eat chocolate in it's many and varied forms day in and day out without fail. and i do.

Are there brands you are loyal to? Anything, car, computer, food products, whatever.

hmmm... i suppose we are (now) loyal mac users. as far as clothing & food go, i go for the cheapest brand.

Salty or sweet? What’s your favorite craving?

salty then sweet then salty then sweet. i alternate. right now i love "take 5" candy bars which combine salty and sweet and it's deadly.

TP….over or under?

over! of course! is there any other way??

Could you give up your cell phone for a month?

without even batting an eye. i hardly ever even use the thing. i hate being bothered/interrupted by it. i have no idea how to text message.

Here are the rules, if you would like to be interviewed:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

a big thank you to j for the questions, and if you'd like to be interviewed, let me know.

i got nothin'.

well, i got somethin'. but it ain't much today.

seems there's a million and one posts stuck in my head, and i think... "after i feed the cat. after i walk the dog. after i work for an hour. after i make dinner." then it somehow never happens.

blake is singing "you give love a bad name" on bon jovi night on american idol in the background, and somehow beatboxing just doesn't mix with 80's big hair rock.

anyhow, i'll offer you a piece of s art. she's budding into quite the little designer these days! here's the process on this one:

she's OBSESSED with pets. dogs and cats particularly, and ads or catalog photos of these pets make her screech at a decibel only HEARD by most pets. she cuts out these photos and usually adds them to her animal collage, which i will need to feature in another post as i don't have a photo of it and the camera's dead.

this particular kitty pic must have struck her fancy for she chose to make a puppet of it instead. first we tried a paper bag puppet, but it just wasn't happenin'. then we decided a stick puppet would be better, so we stuck the kitty head on a popsicle stick. it wasn't quite enough detail for my kindergartener, so she broke apart other sticks to make arms and legs. the stick-tail inexplicably got stuck to the FRONT of the cat, making it look a bit more like another kind of appendage, but i'll let that go. she added the cute little a-line dress and a picture drawn by the kitty herself in the hand and VOILA! instant stick puppet.

cute, huh?

going on safari with a firefox

doesn't that sound EXOTIC? it's really just the silly names of web browsers. what was wrong with something self-explanatory like, say... internet explorer? told us EXACTLY what we were to do with it.

when we got the imac, it came with the browser safari, and i noticed that blogger lost many of it's posting abilities, such as spell check (horror) and links. i could probably do this in html, but you remember how inept i am, right? someone told t that firefox is a better mac-based web browser, and will show many things on the internet that safari will not. lo and behold, they were right! so here i am on firefox, and i'm able to check spelling, link, italicize, and change colors again.. ain't life grand?

poo day

it's just one of those days.

i read this in the paper this morning. i'm SURE it's really a great learning tool for a very treatable and curable cancer, but all i could think was... LET'S GO FIND OUT WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE A POO! call me crazy, but after waking up at 4 am from insomnia, i was a little slap-happy by 8 am.

especially after last night. t had just gotten done saying goodnight to the kids when he came down to the living room where i was raptly focused on american idol. thank goodness for tivo and being able to pause live tv, because it took me awhile to recover from what he said.

"you'll never believe what s said to me."

apparently, she had told t that something stank in her bedroom. she put her fingers up to either side of her nose (smell meter) and took a big whiff. "it smells like old coins," she said. "i think it's your breath, daddy. it smells like old coins and poop."

when he told me this, i was laughing so hard that i literally could NOT catch my breath, and tears were streaming down my face. old coins? poop?! where does she come up with this stuff? it just hit me in a really strange way, and i've been laughing ever since.

by the way, he told her that he'd go brush his teeth immediately, and would never again eat old coins and poop for dinner. i have a funny feeling that this one will live on as a family legend. any of you have similar family legends?

hairy

here's a photo of my hair for all those who requested. i know it's hard to see the color, but i used the camera on the imac and the "photo booth" program that the kids have gone gaga over!

it's my first professional color job in awhile, usually i go with drugstore color as i'm a) not wealthy enough to change my color as frequently as i like and b) i'm extremely fickle with haircolor. actually, i'm extremely fickle with hair styles as well.

off to school to be with my kids! i've got some great art done by s that i need to share soon.

random

i'm feeling a bit crabby this morning (imagine that) but i have no coffee coursing through my veins as of yet, so i should just wait and see if that is the cure. been taking flonase for my Seasonal Nasal Allergies and it's really helping the sinus pressure, drainage, and general misery. maybe i just need to get some more exercise (t and i are taking the bike to the gym today and endorphins always perk anyone up. jane wants a walk this morning too but mama hates cold so mama's waiting until it's warmer outside. seeing as how it's supposed to be 84 degrees today, we won't have to wait long.

i got my hair done last week and it looks really cool. she cut it higher in the back, then chin-length in the front. luckily she had a cancellation and was able to do some fun colors in it as well, highlights and lowlights and it's kinda blonde for the first time in a long time. andrea (pronounced ON-dreea), my genius hairdresser of oh, seven years or so, agreed to sell some of my bags at her salon. since i enjoy making the bags for the time being (i'm sure i'll get sick of it soon enough) it may keep our family in "free" haircuts for awhile. the barter system... it works!

a fan of t's artwork in japan sent us a big, wonderful package chock-full of harry potter products featuring t's art from the first movie. coooool! exclusive stuff that it not available here. waaaaay cool! she also sent japanese hair accessories for s and me. she's restored even more of my faith in the kindness of humanity throughout the globe. i asked what i could send in return for her kindness, and she chose an american nasal allergy spray since they are supposedly not as strong in japan. wish i could pack her up some flonase since the stuff works so well, but i don't think i can transfer a presciption, especially across the pacific.

speaking of t, he (YAY!) started a blog. and because he's so ultra cool and stuff, he's already getting more comments than i am! what a bum. but he has an official fan club and all, so they're checking it out. he has raised over $1700 (i think) for his ride for kids. isn't that phenomenal?

the coffee pot beeped a few minutes ago, so must drink. happy week, everybody!