AliThinks

Reason #487 Why I Love Lexington

This weekend was Oktoberfest, a fundraiser organized by Christ the King Catholic Church. Some genius at Christ the King arranged to have GREAT music at this two-day event. Allan and I went to see Erin McKeown and Alejandro Escovedo on Friday evening. The cool part? We live about two blocks from the church.

The other cool part? I was able to speak with both artists after their shows. Both were very gracious and down to earth, and I scored us some autographed CDs.

I took nearly two hundred photos, and this is the only one I've processed so far. When I get more of them up on Flickr, I'll include a link to the photosets.

UPDATE: Here are a few photos of Erin McKeown and Alejandro Escovedo.

On A Mission

Fustercluck
Video sent by AliThinks

We were heading for Trader Joe's, but decided to stop in at The Party Store in Newport. The place was closed because their power was out. And then all hell broke loose.

Edit:   I'm going to reiterate a comment I made: The rain wasn't the problem! We were glad to see it after so many weeks of drought.

No, it was the traffic and the blown out stoplights and the other people not knowing how to drive...

Mould

Mould, originally uploaded by Alison.

This geeky-cool piece of plastic now keeps me from clenching my teeth into oblivion, as well as from pushing my front teeth out with my tongue.

Yeah, remember that? From before?

So now I get to wear this 24/7 for at least a week, then we'll see. The root canal verdict will fall on Monday, when I see the dentist again.

This afternoon I had another trigger point massage. I don't know what she did to me, but it's not even 8 pm and I am falling asl

Today Is National Punctuation Day!

Hooray!

Yellow Bike — Now With Map!

Yellow Bike -- Now With Map!, originally uploaded by Alison.

The city of Lexington has had some problems with its fleet of yellow bikes, namely that the things were being ridden and left outside the downtown perimeter. (By the way, the author of that article, Rich Copley of the Lexington Herald-Leader, and reader of this blog, was kind enough to introduce himself to Allan and me yesterday at the Festival Latino de Lexington — Thanks, Rich! It was very cool to meet you!)

I don't know if the maps have always been a part of the bikes, but I like to imagine that they haven't been. In any case, the bikes are still being taken outside of the downtown area. Allan and I saw one near the corner of S. Ashland and Euclid, which made us chuckle.

That corner is not downtown, but it's not New Circle Road, either.

I'll See You Your Chocolate, And I'll Raise You A Fish Lady.

Well, the debate on chocolate rages on. Some of you are with me, some of you are against me. There are one or two abstentionists. (I think I may have just made up a word.)

While we all think of Chocolate, our cat FHJones (see Sofa King below) is thinking of fish. This evening, he started groveling while I deveined the shrimp I planned to grill. He continued as I prepared the walleye pike.

After dinner (I had washed my hands several times, mind you) he "loved on me" as they say here in Kentucky. And I filmed him doing it with a tiny digital camcorder that we found at Jo Ann's house.

If you're interested in watching 2 minutes and 13 seconds of kitty love, here's the video.

The Fish Lady
Uploaded by AliThinks

Sofa King Cute

Sofa King..., originally uploaded by Alison.

I love FH Jones. Also, he matches the couch.

Who Is Right?

Allan says there's no such thing as too much chocolate.

I say there is. And I love chocolate, as long is it as dark and high-quality.

Our proverbial bone of contention is Ben & Jerry's Lighten Up Chocolate Fudge Brownie frozen "yogurt."

The first time I tasted it, it overwhelmed me. Allan is eating it now, and offered me some. I declined at first, citing the "too much chocolate" argument. And I said I was going to blog about it. However, I just ate a spoonful of the Ben & Jerry's, and it didn't have the same effect.

So maybe my theory is bunk. But I will maintain that sometimes there's just too much chocolate.

Well, Whatever.

When I first started videoblogging back in early 2005, there was no YouTube. Audioblog (now Hipcast) started offering a video service, and I adopted it.

You recorded directly from your webcam and Audioblog put it on Typepad for you. At the time, I was too stupid (or lazy) to record from my webcam to my hard drive, so all my early videos are on Hipcast (and only Hipcast) now.

And I didn't pay the bill this past month. It was only 4.95, but YouTube and Dailymotion are free. And you know what? Who cares? So part of this blog will be lost. Whatever.

One of these days I'll do another videoblog post. One of these days.

There's No Way I Can Make This Funny

Remember the tooth I was all worried about?

I haven't written about it much since then, but I saw the dentist the morning Jo Ann died (and that was weird, because I had a feeling things weren't right. And they weren't.), and then a week later. So on August 15th, I had a temporary crown put on the tooth I've been blogging about for what, four months?

Last week I had an appointment to have the porcelain crown put on what's left of my tooth. I told the dentist that I was still having some sensitivity, and she took a look.

Guess what?

I'd ground a hole in the temporary crown!

Alrighty then! I don't know if I grind my teeth in my sleep, but I now realize that I clench them pretty much all day, every day. If I had a crown put on now, I'd just end up needing a root canal (which may be the case, but my dentist is being very conservative. I lurve her.).

The verdict? I need a bite guard. Once it's made, I will have to wear it as much as possible for at least a month. In the meantime, I need trigger point massage. As the dentist said, "this isn't feel-good massage." When I clench my teeth, the muscles in my head, neck, and upper back react. And the more those muscles are stressed, the more I clench my teeth.

I had my first massage on Tuesday morning. It didn't hurt, but it did wear me out, both physically and emotionally.

I took this photo after lunch that day, right before I crashed for a 20-minute power nap.

Please click on the photo; there are lots of notes on Flickr that don't show up here. And no, that's not a mole on my arm. Anyway, ever since my dentist appointment last week, I've been more aware of my jaws, teeth, and tongue. And wow, the stuff I am doing with all of that can't be good.

In a couple of months, we'll know if my tooth needs a root canal before putting the porcelain crown on it.

Either way, I'm okay with it. I feel like I'm being cared for by my dentist*.

*No, Allan is not my dentist.

I Might Be 12

I've mentioned the KISS toothbrush.

Now I am using grape (grape!) toothpaste.

The other day I started laughing because of those two things. But the grape toothpaste was an accident.

You see, Allan and I like Colgate's Luminous line of toothpastes. We had tried the mint, and we both liked the flavor and the way our teeth felt after brushing. Well, I did. I imagine Allan did, too. Let's pretend he did.

A week or two ago, we were at the grocery store, and I remembered that we needed toothpaste. We stared at the array in front of us, and I said, "Well, I like that Colgate stuff." I couldn't remember the name, but then I recognized the logo. The flavor we'd previously bought wasn't there. So I said "Let's try the 'Paradise Fresh'."

I really need to be in marketing. I would LOVE to make up names for colors and toothpastes and soaps and wines and beers and...

PARADISE FRESH, people. You think, okay, Fresh means it will be minty, and it it does have a tiny "zing!" to it.

It wasn't until the second or third time I used it that I realized that Paradise Fresh was grape-flavored toothpaste.

So when I realized that I was brushing my teeth with fruity toothpaste AND a kid's toothbrush, I started laughing.

It's not like the color of the tube should have been a raging clue or anything.

The Cursor Blinks

Insomnia stinks.

Heh, I'm a poet.

It's still blinking, as are my eyes. Besides the insomnia, I have heartburn. And I sit here, awake, wanting to write yet not knowing what to say, or how to tell the tales I have been meaning to share here.

It's 6:55; I've been awake an hour. That wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't gone to bed at 1.

Aw heck, never mind.

Nine Eleven

Just a reprint, today.

Nous étions tous des New-Yorkais

Whaaaat?

I just realized that I'm sitting here glancing at the muted TV (Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money" is on VH1 Classic) and I'm listening to something completely different (Split Enz's "Six Months In A Leaky Boat" on Radio Paradise).

TV. Goes. Off.

Update

I've removed the staples from three (THREE!) iterations of wall-to-wall carpet from the steps. I think Allan enjoyed my dirty talk, especially that one thing I said that's physically impossible to do to a woman. The tiny staples that were embedded in the risers were EXTREMELY difficult to pull out, and I loudly cursed each one of them.

Before I can go after the tack strips, I need to find the crowbar.

(It's always good to know where your crowbar is.)

                                               *****

The other day I made a bulleted list of things I'd done. One of the things I accomplished was the prep for crème fraîche. This was a staple in my French refrigerator, and I have never used it here because it costs about 5 dollars for 8 ounces. I made the stuff for a terrine de poisson, (which I actually put together and baked tonight), because I needed 12 ounces of crème fraîche, and there was no way I was going to pay out the wazoo for it ($14/pound for wild-caught sockeye salmon, though? No problem!).

So I made crème fraîche. And it is goooood. It's just like what I used to buy in France. And it's really easy; the hardest part is the wait. Here is the recipe I used. (FYI: the photo on that site is misleading; it appears to be crème fraîche that's been whipped, something I've never done.)

Tomorrow we will taste the terrine. It's my first attempt at such a dish, but I think it will be okay. It smells really good.

If you're not up to making a terrine de poisson, try making some crème fraîche. You won't be sorry.

Well. I Guess I'm Committed Now.

Things I Have Accomplished Today

Bullets:

• Emptied my two squares in our coffee table. (There are four square compartments underneath the glass; they're hard to see in that photo.)
• Filed papers (albeit somewhat haphazardly) so that they are no longer in the coffee table
• Moved a lot of my crap to the basement.
• Cleaned up the mess my kids left on the table down there.
• Yeah, it's only been a month since they left.
• Hung my kids' art on some walls.
• Made crème fraîche in anticipation of making a terrine. I found the recipe in this article, which was very interesting since the author traveled to the Ile de Ré, and that's just off the coast of La Rochelle, where I lived for ten years. Here's an article about Ré in the NYT Archives. I do love La Rochelle and its environs.
• Made Alton Brown's macaroni and cheese. Holy. Crap.
• Cleaned off the sideboard in the dining room.
• Got a care package ready to mail to my kiddos.
• There might be more, but I can't remember it.
• Point is, I got a lot done today, and it's a good thing.
• Oh yeah. I avoided answering e-mails. Like, all weekend.

Dear Mom,

When our cable company started offering MTV in 1982, I was 12 years old and in 8th grade. You had successfully gotten me to watch 3-2-1-Contact two years before, and I loved it (I had a crush on Trini, but you didn't know that), but then 7th grade happened. And then MTV was there.

You hated when I watched it. "Turn that off! You're going to be corrupted!"

It makes me laugh to think of this now, since I'd been watching things I shouldn't have since the day Dad brought home the new TV and we got cable. And I don't remember actually turning off the TV when you told me to, although I must have. I was a good kid.

I'm reminded of all this because I'm watching 120 Minutes. This show used to be on MTV. Now it's on VH1 Classic, but apparently it's not the same show. Anyway, I'm watching music videos once again.

Some of these remind me of times past, and I am enjoying the imagery. Music videos sparked a fire in me: the music touched me and the images did, too. As a result, I was "into" music, mostly alternative. I wanted to become a sound engineer for a while, then I wanted to be a DJ. I loved seeing the succession of images in videos, and as I got older, my desire to be a part of the music was supplanted by a desire to make the images.

I was a DJ in college, and I got good grades in my video classes. I thought I wanted to go to LA and get into the business out there. Then I met the young Frenchman, and my priorities changed.

My love of music and images was a bit stifled in France. My lack of a French degree meant I couldn't get a job in either field. Some years later I bought a computer, then a digital camera.

Now I take photos almost every day. In the four years since I bought that first camera, my photography has improved. My love of music has come back as well, but that's a different story.

I don't watch TV very often, but when I stumble upon music videos, I like to look. Same with commercials: some are veritable cinematographic mini-masterpieces.

Anyway, Mom, you needn't have worried that MTV would corrupt me. It gave me an appreciation for two important branches of art: music and image. And while I no longer make music (you were right that I'd regret quitting piano lessons), I do listen to it during all my waking hours. And I make images. Look.

That last one? It's your son's hand. Once a basketball player, now he uses those hands to give the sacrament. I could go on and on, Mom. But I'll stop here. I just had to let you know that MTV had a different kind of influence than you imagined. I think if you were here now, you'd be proud of my images. We might even watch VH1 Classic together. ☺

I love you and miss you, Mom.

AliBeth.

No Photos Yet

This morning (or yesterday morning, because it's already tomorrow as I write this) Allan and I brought home a 2007 Honda Civic.
 

Well, I brought it home. Allan drove the Jetta home.

We've had one car ever since I moved here 18 months ago. Now we'll have two; we'll soon trade the Jetta in for a vehicle that has lots of cargo space. The Civic will be our "small car"; I'll consider it our "fun car" with its 5-speed transmission and zippy engine.

Anyway, this afternoon Allan drove us (in the new car, natch) to Natural Bridge. We climbed the half mile to the "summit." Hello Knees! And Calves! And Quads, oh dear Quads! I love how you Quiver As I Descend!

And we took photos. Mine are still in my camera. Allan's are not.

I drove us back. We're being very civil about sharing the new car. Neither of us is sure how long that will last. I predict a serious rumble in the near future.

Allan? I can totally take him.