violetismycolor

done and done...

Two things were on Bonnie's to-do list...get a good summer job (which she did...she will be doing research for a stock analyst) and get into the 2 programs of study abroad that she had applied for.  She has known for some time that she had been accepted to the Colgate French Study Abroad Program in Dijon, but she has been waiting for her 'official' admission to St. Andrew's in Scotland, where she was hoping to join her brother for Fall Term (actually they call it Michaelmas Term).  Finally, this morning, it came through.  Suffice to say, she is very happy this week!

IF...monster...

            *click on image to make it larger*

I really have gone on a sea jag, haven't I? 

I thought of a sea monster.  For inspiration, I used ancient Phoenician ships, which are cool and were sort of scary, monster-y looking.  I added in some cute fishies and, voila...

In a positive family note:  Ross took the dreaded driving test and passed with flying colors!  Yay, Ross!

the day is coming...

The day that Ross seems to dread, above all others, is almost upon us.  Well...tomorrow it will be upon us, er him...whatever...

I called the DMV (not wishing to wait for the late morning hour when Ross would deem it appropriate to finally get out of bed...) to schedule his driving test.  Lo and behold, they were all booked until April 26th...except for the just-then-phoned-in cancellation for tomorrow at 2:30.  Could we do it then?  Why yes, we could.

When I informed Ross, who normally appears to be unable to comprehend human conversation for at least an hour after he gets up, he was aghast, stupefied, appalled...well let's just say unhappy, to make the best of it. 

And yes, he HAD immediately understood what I had told him.  (I hope he knows that from now on, I will not fall for that old I'm too tired to understand what you are talking about routine.)

I did tell him that we could go out to lunch, then spend copious amounts of time just driving around the area, before the test.  I think this made him feel just a little bit better.  A little...

So, tomorrow, when his big brother should be happily touring Poland or Hungary or Slovenia or even the Dalmatian Coast (he gave us no itinerary), Ross will be grimacing-but-bearing-it through his driver's test.  We have always told our kids, "Life isn't fair."  And this proves it.

spring break...

Ah, the first day of spring break. 

On the agenda: 

Assisting Ross in trying to find a summer job.
Helping Ross try for his driver's license.
Working hard on my garden.
Picking a paint color for my laundry room; doing prep work for painting.

Ross is not so sure he likes the agenda at all.  Doesn't really want a summer job.  Doesn't really want a driver's license.  Have you ever tried herding cats?  I'm not sure that would be any easier.  But I persevere. 

I got some gardening in...and the day was gorgeous, warm, and sunny.  Ah, bliss...

We got good news:   Bonnie has been offered a job doing research for a stock analyst.  She is thrilled, since she thinks it sounds interesting.  The alternative is waitressing or working in retail. Much better alternative.

Side note:  I love this picture of Bonnie (in the banner), especially that the flash of the camera made highlights that look like hearts. 

IF...feet...

*click the pic to make it larger*

The prompt, 'feet', made me think of footprints on a birth announcement or baby photo collage.  I used Painter and Photoshop to come up with this.

I decided to use a favorite picture of my daughter, Bonnie, who is now in college.  Oh my, how time flies.

spring?

Yesterday, it was gorgeous and sunny and in the low 60's.  I spent FIVE hours working in my back garden, which was fun while I was doing it but...man, am I old!  I was so sore and tired when I was done that I had to take 2 Aleve and pretty much rest the rest of the afternoon and evening.  I had my 19 yr-old niece, Nicole, come for dinner and I stayed with a really simple supper...spagetti and salad.  Hope she was not too disappointed, but I was too tired to manage anything more complicated. 

Today was rainy and back to the low 50's and pretty blah, in general.  Of course, that gave me the excuse NOT to go out and work in the garden again, saving me from having my body show me, once again, how I am not as young as I wish I was. 

23 wonderful years...

Twenty-three years ago, I got married.  It was a beautiful March day in Santa Rosa, California.  It just happened to be the only sunny day in the entire month of March that year.  John and I got married at my Uncle Pete and Aunt Sarah's house, on a hilltop with a view of hills in the background.

We flew to Tahiti the next day for our honeymoon.  Tahiti was fabulous: warm and exotic and beautiful.  And I'd love to go back some time.  But how different I will be from that 26-year-old, bikini-clad, bride.  I think I will probably appreciate it more.

So, how did I spend my anniversary? 

Bonnie had to leave for the airport at 6:15 a.m.  So, we were up EARLY!  John and I took her out there and had a last cup of coffee with her before she left.  We won't see her again till May 14.

At 8 a.m., as we usually do, we called Adam in Scotland.  He was pretty chatty this morning, talking about his upcoming spring break trip to Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and the Dalmatian Coast.  He's booked into some hostel that used to be a prison.  He is taking the GRE in London next Monday.  He is looking for an apartment in St. Andrew's since his university housing fell through. 

After church and our usual after-church lunch at Grand Central Bakery with Ross, John and I went to the Portland Art Museum to see the exhibit about the House of Hesse and their art collection.  The day was gorgeous today, and we enjoyed the sunshine as we walked downtown.

We went out for dinner with my MIL last night, so we didn't feel the need to go out again, and we ordered pizza.  Not exactly special occasion food but we like it and it means that no one had to cook.  That was a gift, indeed.

We got to spend the day with all of our kids (Adam by phone, if not in person). The sun shone. We spent time alone together.  What else did we need?

We have had 23 wonderful years...

what's up???

Bonnie is home and we are busy with all sorts of 'stuff'.  She has been invited to a fraternity house dance and we had to go shopping for a dress and shoes.  She found a darling dress at Bebe...black and drapey...that she looks wonderful in.  The shoes were cute but practical...not too tall a heel, with a strap, and comfortable enough to wear for a whole night (though my solution to THAT was always just taking the shoes off and dancing barefoot).

Adam's away message on the IM is 'Where will Adam live next year?  No one knows...'

Why?

Well, St Andrew's, in their wisdom, has denied him and his 5 room-mates housing for next year.  No reasons given.  No alternatives.  He wrote, "my three female housemates are going to go and cry and see if that helps".  Hope it does, but that's a trick that's probably been used once or twice, over the years. 

Ross is finally feeling better, though coughing a lot.  He was out of school for 3 days.  John has been sick all week.  I am crossing my finger that neither Bonnie nor I succumb...

illustration friday...Tattoo....

  *click on pic=larger image*

I thought the prompt, tattoo, was a little limiting, so I thought that I would go for something a little different...The Edinburgh Military Tattoo.  I am not sure why they call it that, but that's what it is. 

John and I attended this event about 22 years ago, and it was inspiring.  Lots of bagpipes and marching and the gorgeous setting of Edinburgh Castle.

Our tartaned fellow here is wearing the Colquhoun tartan, which is John's family (Americanized to Calhoun) tartan.  Quite charming, no?

it's a big day...

I'm glad to see the snow melted almost completely away because today is the day Bonnie comes home.  Her first flight segment is in the air and she should be in Portland at around 2 p.m.  Hooray!  She is spending the week in job-hunt mode, but I am sure that we will get alot more fun things done, too.

Unfortunately, Ross has come down with a killer cold (stayed home from school yesterday, and slept) and we are working to avoid getting it, too.  And Bonnie certainly won't want to pick it up.

This morning is my book group.  We are discussing Tales of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz.  This is a memoir and was not my favorite book, I have to say.  (I thought his writing quite long-winded and dull.) But I LOVE my book group...a bunch of smart, fun ladies (including my MIL) who are such fun to spend time with.

Then, tonight, is the Neighborhood House auction, supporting social services for SW Portland.  My friend, Sandy, was hired to do the video and she is really good at this sort of thing.  She said that when she finished it, and brought it to Mari at NH to watch, that Mari cried!  She was so touched.  Sandy does all sorts of work for non-profits and is fabulous at bringing their messages across.  I can't wait to see it.

Busy but wonderful day...

a small addition...

An addition to the last post.

I found this little snowman (approx 6 inches tall) out on the back deck. Ross had made it after school.  It charmed me.

let it snow, let it snow...

So, I woke up this morning, looked out the window and saw this.  Yes, winter has returned to the Willamette Valley.  Those flowers that I bought weeks ago, only to be put off my planting by dry but FREEZING temperatures followed by the thawing out of the hard, hard dirt are now resting (still in their plastic temporary homes) under a blanket of snow.

Oh yah, and we were awakened at 6 a.m. by John's clock chirping at us (one of those 'nature wake-up' clocks) as the power flickered off and then on.  That was followed by the sound of my computer restarting and my printer doing a little dance.

Ross was delighted to have a 2-hour delay in school starting.  Then, after I had gone and gotten some coffee and girltalk time, I arrived back at my house only to have the lights blink on and off and then finally off for good...this time a 3-hour power outage.  My house finally fell to 58 degrees before the power snapped back on again.

Bonnie was not at all pleased to hear that, with her imminent arrival home for spring break (on Saturday), Oregon had slid into the weather that she is trying to escape at Colgate.  The good news is that the forecast is for our topsy turvy, global warming induced weather madness to flip over once again into sunshine and warmish temperatures at the weekend.

I think Oregon is going through menopause...hot flashes and all.

Ross's secret weapon...

Ross has a t-shirt that reads "+20 Shirt of Smiting".  (It's a D&D reference...hey, he loves being a geek.) He wanted me to make sure that I washed it over the weekend, but I wasn't sure why.  Turns out that it's his 'lucky shirt', according to him. 

Why, I ask...

Well, he was wearing it last Wednesday when the Calculus teacher announced that she was postponing their test from that day to Monday.  It was also the shirt he was wearing when he took his Chemistry test and felt he did really well on it.  So, it feels lucky to him and he wanted to wear it on Monday (yesterday) when he finally took the evil Calculus test.

This afternoon, when I asked him if he thought the luckiness of the shirt 'worked' for him on the Calculus test, he said that he thought it had on Monday.  They had taken the first half of the test and thought he'd done pretty well.  But today was the second half of the test and it hadn't gone as well, in his estimation.  And, of course, he hadn't been wearing The Shirt. 

I hope that if this becomes a real talisman for him that, when he's in college next year, he will wash it between times when he's in need of some luck.  I suggest studying as an alternative...

Illustration Friday...insect...

*click for a closer look*

I am cheating this time... I have actually used this illo before but I all I could think of when I heard the prompt was this illustration/photo combo of the ladybug and the daffodil.  And I love it, so why shouldn't I use it again?

academy awards...

One name...George Clooney...

He was awesome tonight.  And he had to compete with the ever-awesome Jon Stewart.  But George Clooney showed himself to be funny, smart, a great actor,a comedian, and a brilliant director.  I have more respect for him now than I ever did.  So, he's not just a pretty face.

My favorite moments:

On the red carpet, talking to some reporter, he deadpanned, "I don't like anyone else here.  Not at all.  You know that Ang Lee guy?  I don't like him.  I think he's a Communist!"  The reporter sort of did a double-take and then finally realized that he was kidding. 

I loved the skit at the beginning of the Oscars where Jon Stewart wakes up with (first) Halle Barry there and realizes he's just dreaming. Then, wakes up again and sees George Clooney.  When he asks Clooney if he is dreaming and Clooney says no, Jon Stewart does a little victory dance.  It was funny to see the sex symbol make a little fun of himself. 

And then when Jon Stewart says, "Good Night and Good Luck is not only the name of a movie.  It's what George Clooney says at the end of every date."  Clooney looks abashed.  He's a great straight man.

I did think it very bizarre that a rap song called "It's Hard for a Pimp" could win an Academy Award.  Of course, I hate rap and I don't really think that most movie audiences are big fans either.  And I thought it was totally disincongruous that the movie that won for Best Director also didn't win Best Picture.  Yes, I was disappointed that Crash won the Best Picture.  I didn't really like Crash.  I thought that the picture had an important theme, racial prejudice.  But I found the movie irritating because everyone in the movie was so horrible to everyone else, even those who were supposed to love each other...like husbands and wives.  There was no character at all that was a shining light in the movie...they were all terribly tarnished.  I thought it was sad and depressing and didn't reflect the world as I see it. 

All in all, I was entertained by the AA but not satisfied with many of the outcomes.  I was really pleased to see Reese Witherspoon win for Best Actress, though.  She was great in Walk the Line and I just really like her in general. 

How did you see it?

events...

Wednesday night I went with several members of my book group to hear Azar Nafisi speak.  She wrote Reading Lolita in Tehran. 

First off, I should say that I loved this book.  Her book group (who we follow in her book) read and discussed Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Daisy Miller, and Pride and Prejudice. I enjoyed her dissection of these novels, some of which I have read and some that I have not.  I wish that I could take an English Lit class from her, because she certainly brought out aspects of these books that I would never have seen. 

In her book, Dr. Nafisi also brought to vivid life the way things must have changed so dramatically for the people of Iran in 1979 with the fall of the Shah.  The way life disintegrated for women, who had the highest standard of education and freedom in any Muslim country, was so swift and so tragic.  She expounded on these themes in her lecture.  She spoke with passion about the dangers of totalitarian political regimes and fundamentalist religions. Her sentences tumbled out of her mouth in a fury, seemingly almost bounding over each other without much of a pause.  She was smart and emotional and illuminating.  Just wonderful.  I am so glad that I went.

On Thursday night, John and I went to the 11th Portland Roast Festival, which is a fundraiser for the Portland Public Schools Foundation.  They have 3 members of the media on one side and 3 politicians on the others (known as the Hacks versus the Flacks).  In the audience, every member of the City Council was there, probably every member of the Multnomah County Commission, candidates for governor, a real who's who.  It's a wonderful cause but also premium entertainment.  These folks have great writers and most of them are pretty decent at delivering a line (and they SHOULD be in their lines of work), some better than others.  Good event.

Also, our friend, Clyde Prestowitz, came into town last night.  He spoke today as a guest of the World Affairs Council at Portland State.  His latest book is Three Billion New Capitalists, about India, China, and the former Soviet Union entering the global economy and what that means for us.  Though this sounds like it could be boring, Clyde is a fabulous speaker.  He takes facts and statistics and incorporates them into his talk by using stories and anecdotes that we all can relate to...you don't even realize how much you're learning since you're so entertained. 

We are having my MIL and  John's boss and his wife here for dinner, so they can enjoy more time with Clyde.  I'm making salmon pasta and strawberries on angel food cake for dinner.  Well, there's salad and rolls, too, of course.  Not JUST pasta and dessert. It should be a very fun and interesting night.   

flowers...

I think my allergies are trying to kill me.  I am so stuffed up that I am having a very hard time sleeping, or rather getting a GOOD night's sleep.  I felt totally exhausted all day today.  Fooling with the filters in Illustrator and making these flowers were pretty much all I accomplished today.

I went to my water aerobics class this morning and, about 15 minutes into it, I was feeling so low energy that for the rest of the class, the teacher kept asking me, "Are you all right?"

I would smile each time she asked and say, "Yes, of course."  But I was wilting.  By the time the class was over, I felt like a wet, tired noodle. 

I didn't get much on my to-do list done because every time I would start something, like laundry or sweeping, I would hardly be able to finish.  And tonight, I am going to a lecture with my book group (the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran is here at Portland Arts and Lectures), which I signed up for weeks ago.  I am as excited as one can be when one just wants to crawl under the covers and spend the next 3 days in bed.  IF one could sleep with one's horrible, snivelly, stuffed sinuses.