Saturday, July 30, 2005

groovy chair

So John and I are eating breakfast at Al's--Fresno's hands down best breakfast joint--and I mention that I need to get a new office chair: something simple, made of wood. Over his plate of incomparable pancakes, John suggests we hit a thrift store on the way home, and over my plate of exquisite chicken fried steak and eggs, I concur.

We hit a new spot on Cedar--across from the Cedar Lanes bowling alley. I can't remember the name, but I think that the word "Veterans" is part of it. The place is cavernous, crowded, and a little unkempt. The furniture corner is sparsely populated, but then I spy it: the groovy chair. It's modern with a curved, oval shaped back and a woven textile seat. It has a sad sack companion--missing a rail, and sporting some ill-conceived drilled holes in the legs--so I take just the better-preserved specimen and part with a paltry $4.27

Back at home, I hammer some easily-applied, felt-covered gliders into the legs (gotta protect the hardwood floors), and give it a test sit. Lovely. Groovy. I'm grooving in its groove right now.

Friday, July 29, 2005

pickles


My friend Kathryn and I spent the day canning bread and butter pickles using Kathryn's grandmother's secret recipe. And apparently it is a secret--Kathryn's forebears are less than forthcoming about the quantities and kinds of ingredients necessary to making these bad boys. K. was dead set on using alum--something I've not used--so we'll see. Alum straight out of the container is the nastiest thing I've had in my mouth for a long time. I felt as though my tongue were covered in hair. Supposedly the alum makes the pickles crunchier. We'll see...

In any case, they look beautiful (those in the above picture are not ours; ours are even more dashing), and we plan to enter them into the Big Fresno Fair. So watch for out names in the papers as we rake in the big SEVEN DOLLAR first prize in the bread and butter pickle category!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

I'm Goofy

So I'm reading some back posts on airplanejayne's blog, and I discovered that she is Peter Pan. I take the test and discover that I am...


You scored as Goofy.



Your alter ego is Goofy! You are fun and great to be around, and you are always willing to help others. You arn't worried about embarrassing yourself, so you are one who is more willing to try new things.


Goofy


88%

The Beast


81%

Peter Pan


69%

Ariel


63%

Donald Duck


63%

Sleeping Beauty


63%

Cinderella


63%

Snow White


63%

Pinocchio


56%

Cruella De Ville


25%
I've always identified most with Piglet, but, hey, I'll take Goofy. At least I'm not Bambi's mother.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

pumice

Sooo, does anyone else find pumice to be addictive? Recently I picked up a pumice stone from Orchard Supply Hardware, because our tub has some pretty reisty stains: rust, paint, hard water/mineral, soap scum, etc. And our toilet has this perennial ring around the bowl thing going on. Anyway, so I got this brand that touts itself as "Lady's Little Helper" (or something to that effect), and started to do some scourin'. Well let me tell you what: this shit is the shit. I can't stop scrubbing. It's like crack. I'm in the shower, and there's my pumice stone in the soap holder, and I see a new bit o' scum that needs disappearing, and I'm down on my buck-ass naked hands and knees scrubbing away. The toilet is now presentable. Like females could actually go in there and relieve themselves now. Everytime I head into the bathroom, I eye that stone through the corner of my eye, and I thnk, I could scrub just a little more...

I effused over the new Lemon Jelly in the last post, and now that I heard the entire album, I just want to reiterate: '64-'95 is dope. My favorite tracks include "Come Down on Me," "the Shouty Track," "Slow Train," and the crazy-assed William Shatner-infused "Go." I've read that people find it kin to the Chemical Brothers, but I find it more trance-like. I want to say Play-era Moby, but that's not quite it either. Anyway, it's a wall o' sound that you won't mind closing in on you.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Summertime

Am trapped at home today because John had a job in Sacramento, and his car is still in the shop. I shouldn't really say "trapped," because, in fact, I've been having a great time grooving to my tunes. I just downloaded the new Lemon Jelly album, '64-'95, off of eMusic, and it's phenomenal. Ok, I'm only three tracks in, but I'm already feeling it hard.

I've also been diving into eMusic even more deeply, especially by exploring the message boards that I just recently discovered. When I first signed up for this subscription service back in January, I was dubious, and at one point I even elected to cancel my subscription. I don't really know why I felt I had exhausted what eMusic had to offer, because it's my new smack. The site is run by music critics and musicians, and on a monthly basis, they offer up some of the most interesting writing on a variety of genres. I would never have given a second thought to music collected under the Inspirational umbrella, but after reading Mike McGonigal's pieces on Sacred Harp Music and gospel-era Sam Cooke, I downloaded some of his suggestions, and was just blown away. This is what discovering music should be like: epiphanic and thrilling.

Anyway, this is how I'm doing my summer. I'm allowing myself to soak in a temperate bath of great tunes. It's almost making me forget that the temperature in our home on most afternoons hovers around 90 degrees.