suziebeezieland

litany

Here is Billy Collins (featured in an earlier post today) reading his poem "Litany". I thought that if you dislike reading poetry, maybe you'd like to hear somebody else read it to you. Or maybe you would like to read along. :) Some people have that preference.

He's delightful, I think. Kind of like Bob Newhart as a poet rather than a psychiatrist, but with much better enunciation.

whites & creams

billy collins

I love Billy Collins, who writes poems like this:

**********

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

**********

Or this:

**********

Fishing on the Susquehanna in June

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia

when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna

sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

cinquecento

Bob draws coloring pages for Claire. (He's the artist.)

Then Claire colors them in. (She's the artist's assistant.)

And then I hang them on the fridge. (I'm the patron of the arts.)

We figure if this system was good enough for the Italian Renaissance, it's good enough for us. :)

"which one of you is bugs meany?" asked encyclopedia.

"Me," said the biggest and dirtiest boy. "What's it to you?" . . . Bugs closed his hands into fists. His chin sprang out like the drawer of a cash register.  "Are you calling me a liar?"

:)

the bunny hutch

Our little bunny Hugo has turned into our big bunny Hugo! He was getting squished in his little cage, so we ordered a hutch for him online, and yesterday Claire and I built it.

This funny concrete slab is where the previous homeowners had their washer and dryer. It's in a little covered area between our driveway and backyard.

Funnily enough, I didn't feel comfortable washing clothes outside.  When it rained, I would be standing in a puddle of water throwing clothes into bazillion-volt appliances.

So we moved the washer and dryer into the kitchen when we remodeled several years ago.  I had a potting table here until we got Hugo, and then he lived in a cage on top of the table.  And now this.

I'm not sure how one gauges bunny emotions. Bunnies are fairly inscrutable.  But I like to think that Hugo's happy with the new hutch.  He seems happy with it.  He has the run of the backyard when I'm home (we blocked off all the bunny escape routes the first week we had him) and I can leave the little door open so he can hop out . . .

. . . or back in.

The concrete slab stays cool when it's hot. He also always has a frozen water bottle or two to keep him cool.

He explores a bit when he's out, but mostly he like to sleep in the cool dirt under the hydrangeas.

Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen, I feel something watching me.  His stare is persistent and unblinking.

"Let me in, mom!"

(He likes to come in the kitchen to take a nap behind the washer and dryer.)

september garden

I mostly water-and-ignore the garden in August and September, when it is so hot. But the garden stays busy without me, and surprises me every year with its end-of-official-season burst of energy.

There are cosmos and salvia. I usually kill salvia, somehow, but it has taken off this year.  I suspect it likes the leaky faucet.

The little yellow-hearted feverfew are still going.  I have chopped all the feverfew down to the ground a couple times since I planted it, whenever it starts looking quite dead, and it comes right back.

The roses are having their last big flush.  I quit fertilizing them this month so that they can go dormant and build up energy for spring, but because our weather is so mild, we'll have straggler blooms all winter.

The scabiosa just keeps on blooming. Have I recommended this plant to you enough times this year already?

The phlox look so funny and shaggy when they start dropping petals, but there are new buds there ready to go.

And here's a sweet little pink vinca ready to go, too.

learn something every day

I like the new British website Learn Something Every Day, where you learn something every day. :) And it's all in little scribbled poster form. And you can submit your lesser-known facts to them, and they might use it.

{all images from learn something every day}

i do not recall making this particular decor decision in my house

oceans two

I don't want to name any names, but two suziebeezieland ladies (let's call them "Danielle" and "Tash") recently planned and then executed a scathingly brilliant heist at an undisclosed location and, yesterday, presented me with the awesome present you see above.  

Taking their place amongst some of the most audacious art thieves in history, "Danielle" (The Mastermind) and "Tash" (The Lookout) are said to have gone underground and are not available for comment at this time.

the granny squares afghanon the back of the parks and recreation sofa

I love Rashida Jones's little sofa in Parks and Recreation. That afghan is so adorable. I've been trying to find something similar on etsy. Actually, not similar. Exactly like. So of course I've had no luck whatsoever.

Alicia Paulson had a bunch of interesting (and funny) posts about granny squares back in the spring of 2007 when she was making an afghan, which is how I knew to Google "granny squares," rather than "blocky-looking afghan."  Whilst looking, I discovered the granny squares pool over at flickr. Wowzers!  These are not your granny's granny squares. Look at this hexagonal beauty.

Then I found out from looking at the granny squares pool that there is something called a "babette blanket," with different sizes of granny squares, and those are super cool.  And there is a pool for that, too!  You can watch a babette blanket in progress here . . . it looks to be very pretty.  The pattern for these babettes is here in case you are reading this and actually know what you're doing with a crochet hook.

There's a tutorial over at ohdeedoh for making granny squares.  I might have to learn to crochet.  Then I'll make a pattern and call it "The Rashida Jones Blanky." :)

"hark! which way are they going? for i am their leader," said coach bob

The Super Tough Pink Puffs had their first game today. They played the Kickin' Rockstars, who wore light pink jerseys and light blue shorts. 

With all that pink on the field, the Kickin' Rockstars were called "the blues" to reduce confusion.

In our region, each game is comprised of four, ten-minute quarters. Each girl plays a different position for three quarters, and sits out for one quarter. In this age division, they don't keep score. But if you're dying of curiosity, we scored one goal, and the other team scored three goals.  :)

The coaches are allowed to be on the field for the first few games.

They shout out helpful things such as "Goalie! Stay by the goal!"

Also popular is "Our goal is the other way! Run the other way!"

They are also available to remind the girls what their positions are. The defensive responsibilites of playing full back seem counter-intuitive when there is a ball to be chased.

The coaches are also available to help with equipment failure, such as untied shoelaces or ponytail holder breakages.

You just don't get this kind of excitement in the pros.

bulletin board calendar

I had a great surprise recently. A sweet friend gave me the calendar I'd been looking at online.  I like it so much that I want to see the whole thing all the time, so I put it on my bulletin board.

I'm ready for 2010. :)

your hearts on friday

♥ some goodness for your physical heart ♥

Here's an article on CNN regarding a study that links high and borderline-high cholesterol levels to increased risks of dementia and Alzheimer's disease later in life.  It details some lifestyle modifications you can make now to help lower cholesterol levels.

♥ some goodness for your spiritual heart ♥

Here is a link to a free online version of Charles Spurgeon's classic daily devotional "Morning & Evening" that uses the KJV (King James Version) of the Bible. You can download it as a PDF file, or click on the links in the left sidebar that correspond to the day and time of day you're reading. If you prefer a more readable style, you can order a new edition of the book (Alistair Begg did the revision) from Amazon, which uses the ESV (English Standard Version) of the Bible. 

Remember to read with a Scottish accent! :D

comfy

key dish

Here is a little craft I thought up yesterday when my sister and I were at Ikea. I told her, "I thought of a CRAFT!" and then I thought, maybe I should say "I thought of a 'craft'" and use air quotes, because there is not much to it. :D

You'll need a little white ceramic dish (I bought that little plate above at Ikea for $3) and some scrapbook rub-on letters.  (If you didn't want to do the word "key," you could use a picture of a key, like these rub-ons here.  I think lots of keys lined up next to each other would be really cute.)

Rub the letters onto the plate.  Make sure you push down hard on top of each letter as you're rubbing it on, so that it doesn't slip.  (Bigger letters are easier to rub on.)  If you make a mistake, use your fingernail to scrape the letter off, and start over.

Now you have a place to throw your keys when you walk in the front door. :) In my house, storage that is open (no lid) and labeled seems to get used.

Eventually, the scraping of your keys against the rub-ons might wear it off, but I've put rub-ons through the dishwasher before, and they didn't come off. So they're actually pretty tough.

classic volturi roast

A very thoughtful friend brought me back a very cool souvenir of her vacation up north recently.

applesauce

Claire and I made applesauce yesterday afternoon. (We're pretending it's autumn even though it's still hot here.) I used to make it all the time, but had somehow never made it with Claire.  She was excited.

She had to push down with her entire weight to get the apple corer to work.  Meanwhile, I peeled and cut the apples into little chunks and threw them in the pot.

We used Gala apples (we just filled up a plastic bag with them at the store . . . my grocery store receipt says we bought 3.51 pounds) and some sugar (about half a cup) and some water (about 2/3 cup).  Then we cooked it on the stove until it got mushy.  It's not a real precise kind of thing. :) Just eyeball and taste.

We left it pretty chunky because I can't find my potato masher, or maybe I don't own one. (Much like the bundt pan I can never find at Christmastime because I don't actually own a bundt pan.  My sister does.)

It was SO GOOD, which was refreshing, because while the cooking duo of Suzanne and Claire always have fun, the actually edibility of the items produced is hit-or-miss.

It made three very generous bowls, which we gobbled up.  (Bob got in from work just in time to have some, too.)(We sprinkled it with cinnamon first.)

the perfect blue

Inspiration comes from strange places sometimes. Off an alley behind our local McDonald's, there is a big, kind of tumbly-down house that is the perfect (to me) shade of ocean-y blue.  I've had my eye on it for several years now.  (I'm not good at taking photos while driving.)

I've been wanting to walk up to it and get a paint chip off it so that I could get the color matched at Home Depot. I've been thinking about doing this for years, but never have.  I just don't want people waiting in the drive-thru to see me and wonder what I'm doing.

Although in an alley just a couple yards to the right of this alley (they are perpendicular alleys), I did find a pretty but slightly scratched-up maple twin bed frame set out as trash a couple years ago.  It had acorn finials and would be beautiful if painted. It's in our garage waiting for me to do something with it. (We have a lot of would . . . ifs sitting in the garage waiting for me. Bob thinks I'm insane.)

I shoved it into the car and Claire was squashed right next to it for the drive home. (Claire also thinks I'm insane.)

And surely, the drive thru people also think I'm insane.

opening ceremonies

This morning were the Opening Ceremonies for Region 40 AYSO.  That's us! Region 40.

Can you spot the Super Tough Pink Puffs yonder? (Hint: They're in pink.)

They are marching onto the field in a casual yet somewhat orderly fashion with Coach Bob, who does not (yet) own a pink shirt.

The crowd listens to a few important words from some community officials.  I believe one of these people is our mayor, but you know, I'm not really sure.

We pledge and we sing.

The ceremony ends with a reluctant yet exciting balloon release.

Yay!