Not for Nothin', Muffin!

Yee Haw!!!!!! We're goin' a thousand miles an hour and my eight-year-old kid is drivin' the boat!

(It's summer 1966 at Portage Lake in Maine and Phil has given the steering wheel to Scott and thrown caution to the winds - have a Happy Special Magical Birthday Weekend, Daddy!)

got her!

See You in the Spring, Bing!

A Patch of Blue just started on TCM. I love love love this movie! In other news, today I made lentil soup and it's wonderfully good. It's snowing again..the third time in the last 24 hours, AND Mama Cat is back and hanging out in the barn. I haven't seen her since the first week of August. Maybe she left because of this guy :


I used to call him Sailor's Daddy. I call him Uncle Daddy now. Jeff calls him Elvis. I trapped him late in the summer and my sainted vet said that he had already been neutered. The fiend. Notice the tip of his right ear. The vet clipped it so that any future cat trappers will know that he's already "done." He still comes around late at night and walks along the railing on the back deck, taunting poor Sailor who makes wierd wuffling noises and throws himself against the window trying to get out.

Or maybe she left because of Auntie Cat (looking very pathetic here):


I'm pretty sure that Auntie Cat is Mama Cat's sister. She had her hysterectomy and disappeared upon being released, but not before causing much mayhem. My neighbor said that he used to see Auntie and Mama sleeping all curled up together in the sun, but in my experience they have a less than cordial relationship. Lot's of hissing and suspicion. Mama Cat was cuddling on my lap and purring one day and then, after a surprise encounter with Auntie, she was gone. For five and a half months!

Here's pretty Mama Cat in our halcyon days of summer (you can see why we mourned her and thought that she had been eaten by coyotes):



Meanwhile inside, we have much napping on comfy pillows and snuggly afghans (with the snow and everything, it's no wonder that I don't want to go anywhere...I've been reading books by sleeping cats!):



Here's a link to my other child, our darling Baby Boo, who lives far away and looks disturbingly like (and yet not like) her (ragged and desperate) Auntie Boo.

So-that's the whole family, brought all up to date. And now, after almost six months, Mama Cat has started coming to my back deck and telling me that she's home. Today she crouched in her old spot with snow falling softly on her beautiful self. It's a Martin Luther King Day miracle!

Listen Hear, My Dear

Isn't she pretty? This is Beryl playing a piano somewhere, sometime. Is it the 1950's? And where is this piano? Maybe she can provide me with more information to post here. Meanwhile, let's all wish her a Happy Birthday today with Many Happy Returns!

Have a Banana, Hannah!

Have any of you received Christmas cards from me yet? No? That's because I'm wasting my time futzing around here. I know I'm becoming the video queen, and I apologize for my lack of creativity. I know that this stuff is basically the equivalent of junk mail (or empty calories) but I can't help myself!

For my birthday, Jeff gave me a second visit to the land of Slava's Snowshow. We saw it a couple years ago at the Union Square Theater and again last night at the Helen Hayes Theater. As a result, this morning I became fired with the ambition to use Slava himself to exemplify and share some essence of clowndom. Most videos of the Snowshow focus on the special effects, the mayhem and the wild blizzardy finale, but I was able to find one clip from the show that is both touching and funny and conveys some of its quieter charm:



I thought I gave up clowning long ago in favor of pursuing storytelling (from totally nonverbal to totally verbal!) When I've revisited clowning in recent years, I've enjoyed myself, but I've had a hard time reconciling my old makeup to my new face. When I first became a clown, my makeup was based on a face without glasses. And yes, I know that I could get clownish frames with my prescription (contact lenses won't work, trust me), but that's kind of a big commitment for the occasional festival appearance or classroom demonstration, don't you think? Also (and this is really weird) - I have wrinkles now. That old white greasepaint just doesn't spread as smoothly as it used to...

Plus - are you aware of how many people are afraid of clowns? When they say that they are "freaked out", it really means they are afraid. And who wants to go around scaring people? It can be very isolating.

However, here's something from Slava's earlier career that makes me think maybe clowning is not so much in my past as I thought:



Finally, I'd like to leave you with a little ditty called Blue Canary. The song has been a signature of Slava's and his compatriots for years. This is an older clip. Slava is not one of the trio. He's the one in yellow blowing bubbles with a red pipe (and I suspect he's also a guy in the audience.) I LOVE the way the tall clown in the middle is just oodles of thrilled with his singing friends:

In a Zoo, Kangaroo!

Back in the summer of 2007, BooBoo used to be called Smokey and SissyCat used to be called T.C. They lived in isolation in a cage in the back of the pickup truck while they had shots and got tested for ferocious diseases. BooBoo now lives with Jeff and SissyCat lives with Sailor and me.

Don't Be So Bashful, Nashville

This is the first digital video that I ever took. It's at least a couple years old. I uploaded it to YouTube only minutes ago--my first time! The floodgates are open (now you're really in for it.) Sorry for the off-key singing.

You're Really Cute, Monkey Suit....

I'm watching Channel of the Apes (All Apes! All Weekend! All the Time!!!!!) and cleaning out my bookmarks. (Isn't tomorrow the last day of the month? Aren't we all supposed to be paying bills right now or something?) Some of you know that I'm a walk-a-holic. I walk during my lunch hour as often as I can. Here's a little film I found that shows some of the haunts from my jaunts (please stop me from doing that.) Anyway...the film maker captured a lot of my favorite nooks and crannies: purple Russian sage, tidal river wind on American flags, river water sparkles, tossing rustling grasses...

What's the Word, Bird?

SOME people might be interested in the fact that the infamous children's picture book, Walter the Farting Dog, is being made into a movie starring the even more famous Jonas Brothers. SOME people who might be interested can read all about it here.

You're Such a Tease, Socrates!

It's a COLD day and the birds are going crazy at the feeders. The sun is streaming in the windows, the cats are napping, the Thanksgiving cactuses (I refuse to say "cacti") are in bloom and all's right with the world. I took the day off from work!

Today's funny picture is brought to you by my beautiful sister Sandy, and I'd also like to add this little tidbit from a fortune cookie that Jeff opened last week (and ate, of course--you have to eat the cookie for the fortune to be true):

"Simplicity of character is the natural result of profound thought."

Now let's just all think about that for a minute......

OK - we're done.