Just never got around to seeing it. And now everyone else has seen it. It's still embarrassing to admit around the water cooler.

Ever since Maggie came out with her life list, I've been mulling over what would be on mine. I thought now would be as good a time as any to start writing some of these down.

1. Establish a scholarship.
2. Be listed as a patron to a museum.
3. Go on safari in Africa.
4. Visit the town of Berlingo in Italy.
5. Take each of my brother's kids on a special vacation trip with just them.
6. Knit a sweater for E.
7. Visit every continent.
8. Visit Glacier National Park.
9. See the polar bears in Churchill, Canada.
10. Write a book.
11. Be asked to keynote a conference.
12. Spend at least a couple of months living in Europe.
13. Scuba dive at the Great Barrier Reef.
14. Road trip across the USA.
15. Go skinny dipping.
16. Sleep outside, not in a tent.
17. Host an annual party that folks look forward to.
18. Read all 100 novels on the Modern Library's best list.
19. March on Washington (again).
20. Be a Girl Scout leader or Boy Scout Den Mother.
21. Meditate on a regular basis.
22. Cultivate a flower garden.
23. Pick berries and make jam.
24. Take a cake decorating class.
25. Visit every state in the Union.

I had this sticker back in high school.

From Futility Closet:

bablatrice

n. a female babbler

I don't think I've done this one before. From CleverGirl, back in Feb.

Where is your cell phone.... I hope in my purse, or I have no idea where it is

Your hair.... desperately needs a cut and color. Where did all that gray come from?

Your father.... has been missed more than usual lately.

Your favorite thing.... cuddling with my sweetie and the cats.

Your dream last night.... freaked me out and has me worried about a friend.

Your favorite drink.... something sweet and fruity.

Your dream/goal.... to only have to work if I want to and to establish a scholarship

The room you are in.... dining room

Your fear.... losing the ones I love

Where do you want to be in 6 years.... a mommy

Muffins.... I agree with CleverGirl: No. Cake!

One of your wish list items.... a pony

Where you grew up.... VA, CT, CO, then CT again

The last thing you did....got tipsy with the in-laws-to-be

What are you wearing.... comfy pants & knit top

Your TV.... isn't working at the moment. It's actually quite refreshing.

Your pets.... Freesia (yes, she's still alive) and Smudge, both cats

Your computer.... MacBook Pro

Your life.... is crazy and busy

Your mood.... is mostly up

Missing someone.... my dad

Your car.... Ford Focus station wagon

Favorite store.... a big bookstore or knitting store

Favorite color.... green

Last time you laughed.... tonight

Last time you cried.... Monday

People who e-mail you.... coworkers

One of your favorite foods.... mousse

Place you'd rather be right now.... on vacation

Classic Hepburn and Grant screwball comedy. The dialog is brilliant, the timing perfect, the house in Connecticut is to die for. I grew up wishing that I could be more like Susan Vance. She's smart, clever, funny, beautiful, has an amazing sense of adventure and certainly doesn't live a normal life.

This weekend I picked up a bunch of pale pink peonies from Trader Joe's.

They are just starting to open up. I have them in the kitchen, so I get to pass them fairly often. I can't help but stick my nose into the blooms and breathe deeply. They smell like June is suppose to smell.

My mother's house used to have 5-6 peony plants along the driveway. They'd topple over, their blooms were so big and heavy. Their scent takes me right back to soft, warm June evenings. The kind of evening where everything feels green and lush. The grass is baby soft under your feet. You can hear the crickets and frogs chirping at each other. It's the time of day where twilight seems to last forever. And you hate to go back inside.

I miss those Connecticut June nights.

While I was Stumbling along the internet today, I came across a little blurb that I used to have on a postcard when I was in college. I was going to just link to the image, but I thought I'd repost the text here.

Because woman's work is never done
and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or
repetitious and we're the first to get fired
and what we look like is more important
than what we do and if we get raped it's
our fault and if we get beaten we must have
provoked it and if we raise our voices we're
nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're
nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if
we love women it's because we can't get a
"real" man and if we ask our doctor too many
questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and
if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we
stand up for our rights we're aggressive and
"unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical
weak females and if we want to get married
we're out to trap a map and if we don't we're
unnatural and because we still can't get an
adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk
on the moon and if we can't cope or don't
want a pregnancy we're made to feel
guilty about abortion and... for lots and lots
of other reasons we are part of the
women's liberation movement.

This has always made me smile. At one time I could recite it from memory. From the NOW site.

2008.11.12 - The letter

It really depends upon what it is I am writing. I am certainly faster typing than writing longhand. And my thoughts start flowing so quickly that it's easier to keep up on a keyboard. I also love the feel of the keys under my fingertips and the clickclick noise the keys make.

But there is also something magical about a really good pen and fine quality paper. My handwriting has gotten more sloppy over the years, as I type more. But there are moments when it brings me great happiness to see the words and letters forming perfectly on the page.

Yesterday was one of the harder ones of my life. After four weeks of aggressively fighting Feline Chronic Renal Failure, we had Horus put down. It was the right decision on many levels. The most important one being that he wasn't going to get better and the life he was living was no life for a cat.

The house is so empty without him. The hole in my heart is bigger.

This is mostly an inventory for myself, to try to keep (who am I kidding, trying to get) some perspective on things. The feeling that I'm trying to keep a lot of plates spinning all at the same time is increasing. Here's what's on those plates.

Horus is sick. Really sick. He has chronic renal failure. He's spent the past 3 days at the vet. We just brought him home last night. He has less than 20% of kidney function left. We have to give him sub-cutaneous fluids everyday, as well as a couple of pills. I finally was able to get him to eat some baby food this morning. We take him back to get his blood levels checked in 10 days. Hopefully they will have gone down, or then we start to talk about Hospice for him.

My patellofemoral pain syndrome has come back with a vengeance. It hurts to walk, to stand, to straighten or bend it. Because of the nosebleeds I'm not suppose to take Advil or Aleve, but the regular Tylenol isn't cutting it. And I can't function during the day with the Tylenol + Codeine. But man am I sleeping well at night!

Last week Nana got moved to a nursing home. She really has no idea where she is anymore, so my aunt figured it was time. But she isn't eating and doesn't talk much.

My mom is cycling again. I so wish they could get her stable.

We need to move. The landlady is most likely going to need to sell the house, and we can't, and don't really want, to buy it. She's having work done to pretty it up (like painting and fixing the porch). I'd rather give her notice than the other way around. Not sure when we will have time to actually do more than scan listings on CraigsList.

The IA Summit is next week. I'm still working on my presentation, but it is very slow going. I also need to touch base with folks about the flex track. I'm quickly running out of time.

This week is my big push week for a project a work. But my next project keeps creeping into this week. Plus there's extra sales calls. My days keep getting cut into chunks and I need long spans of time to focus.

I'm worried about the wedding planning again. I keep flipping between feeling everything is set and that we are completely behind and there's no way we are going to get everything done. It's down to mostly little things, but there are a ton of little things.

The general "state of the economy." Things are a bit more up in the air on the home front than I'm really comfortable with. We should know how the chips are going to fall in a few weeks, but until then it's rather nerve-racking. I need to stop listening to the news -- it just adds to the fear.

*sigh* I'm tired just listing all this stuff. If only the "ignore it and it will go away" approached actually worked.

From Paul Sadowski's Birthday Calculator:

Happy Birthday!
4 March 1974

Your date of conception was on or about 11 June 1973 which was a Monday.

You were born on a Monday
under the astrological sign Pisces.
Your Life path number is 1.

Your fortune cookie reads:
You have a deep appreciation of the arts and music.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 3 & 9.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 8.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 6, 11 & 22.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2442110.5.
The golden number for 1974 is 18.
The epact number for 1974 is 6.
The year 1974 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/23/1974 and ending 2/10/1975.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Tiger.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Wolf; your plant is Plantain.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Pachons, the first month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 10 AdarI 5734.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 11 AdarI 5734.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.18.0.11.6 which is
12 baktun 18 katun 0 tun 11 uinal 6 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Monday, 9 Safar 1394 (1394-2-9).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 14 April 1974.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 14 April 1974.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 27 February 1974.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 2 June 1974.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 9 June 1974.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 17 September 1974.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Sunday, 7 April 1974.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 26 February 1974.

As of 3/4/2009 2:40:17 PM EST
You are 35 years old.
You are 420 months old.
You are 1,826 weeks old.
You are 12,784 days old.
You are 306,830 hours old.
You are 18,409,840 minutes old.
You are 1,104,590,417 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Margo Harshman (1986) Landon Donovan (1982) Chastity Bono (1969)
Patsy Kensit (1968) Jason Curtis Newsted (1963) Patricia Heaton (1958)
Chris Squire (1948) Paula Prentiss (1938) Miriam Makeba (1932)
Knute Rockne (1888) Antonio Vivaldi (1678)

Top songs of 1974
The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand
Seasons In the Sun by Terry Jacks
The Streak by Ray Stevens
Having My Baby by Paul Anka
Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas
Billy, Don't Be a Hero by Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods
Annie's Song by John Denver
The Loco-Motion by Grand Funk
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) by MFSB with the Three Degrees
I Can Help by Billy Swan

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.00352250489237 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

Your lucky day is Thursday.
Your lucky number is 3 & 7.
Your ruling planet(s) is Jupiter & Neptune.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Virgo.
Your opposition number(s) is 5.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

There are 365 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 36 candles.

Those 36 candles produce 36 BTUs,
or 9,072 calories of heat (that's only 9.0720 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.11 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1974 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1974 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1974 in the US there were approximately 2,158,802 marriages (10.6%) and 708,000 divorces (3.5%)
In 1974 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1974 the population of Australia was approximately 13,831,978.
In 1974 there were approximately 245,177 births in Australia.
In 1974 in Australia there were approximately 110,673 marriages and 17,688 divorces.
In 1974 in Australia there were approximately 115,833 deaths.

Your birthstone is Aquamarine

The Mystical properties of Aquamarine

Aquamarine is often used to experience love and mercy. It is said to help ease depression and grief.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Jade, Rock Crystal, Bloodstone

Your birth tree is

Weeping Willow, the Melancholy

Beautiful but full of melancholy, attractive, very empathic, loves anything beautiful and tasteful, loves to travel, dreamer, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with, demanding, good intuition, suffers in love but finds sometimes an anchoring partner.

There are 296 days till Christmas 2009!
There are 309 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were born was waxing gibbous.

"Bon Appetit"
Swanky foodie articles & recipes. Gift subscription from E's mom (the caterer). Like to look at the pretty pictures.

"Vegetarian Times"
All veggie recipes all the time.

"Sierra"
The magazine that comes with the membership to Sierra Club. They recently changed the whole format, layout and types of articles. Not sure I like it.

"National Geographic"
Gift subscription from my mother. Love to look at the pictures. Have piles of them because I can't throw out the old issues.

"P.E.O. Record"
Magazine that I get for being a member. Always flip through it.

"British Heritage"
Another gift subscription from my mother. Reads like a giant travel advertisement.

"The Hill"
Alumni magazine from Western Maryland College a.k.a. McDaniel College. I have every issue since I graduated.

"Journal of the American Society of Information Science & Technology"
Get for being a member of ASIS&T. Don't know that I have ever read a complete article from it. I donate all issues to the Adaptive Path library.

Modern life moves so fast. When you had to travel by horse, you were forced to slow down and really experience the journey. You couldn't rush from one place to another. I'd love to remove the 'hurry up and get there already' mentality that seems to permeate my life.

Plus then I would also get to fulfill my childhood dream of owning a horse.

Horus hasn't been feeling well lately. Earlier this week he started losing more and more interest in food. Any of you who know Horus will know that this is just not normal for him. Horus usually eats all of his food, Smudge's food, and Freesia's food. And then goes looking for more. But at the end of the night, he'd still have his 1/2 cup from breakfast in the bowl. So yesterday I took him to the vet.

I just got the results of his blood panel. It looks like the little guy has degenerative kidney disease. Turns out his obsession with the shower and licking the walls dry was a symptom, not him just being quirky. We need to take him in and get his blood pressure checked. He also has a heart murmur that he didn't have 3 years ago.

The plan is to put him on a low protein diet, which means the whole household goes on a low protein diet. This should be fine for Freesia. We'll have to make sure that Smudge gets some extra protein. Hopefully the change in diet will be enough to keep him from getting worse.

Keep your paws crossed. I'm worried for the little guy. It's clear that he doesn't feel well. I hope we can get him feeling better soon.

In July 1982, my family moved from Milford, CT to Evergreen, CO. My father, mother, brother and our family Beagle, Benji, piled into a Ford Fairmont and drove cross-country. The car had no air-conditioning and all vinyl seats. We actually went via MI to see my uncle and down through South Dakota and Wyoming. We went to the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands and even saw the giant green dinosaur with glowing red eyes.

Two years later we drove from Evergreen to CT for vacation, this time via Kansas and Washington DC. Minus the dog, but still in a car with no air conditioning and vinyl seats. I clearly remember going from Dairy Queen to Dairy Queen in Kansas, it was so hot. That trip we got chased by tornadoes on our way East. My brother had nightmares for years.

Beryl Harrison, the reference librarian at the CH Booth Library in Newtown, CT, told me this when I was marrying Chris. But it works for anyone who is thinking about moving in with someone.

"Never do anything (specifically chores-wise) that you don't want to be doing for the rest of your life."

The habits and patterns you start when you first start living together will be with you for a long time and are very hard to change once established. If you don't want to be picking up his dirty laundry from here on out, don't start now.

From the Courage Campaign Website:

Opportunities to change the hearts and minds of Americans on same-sex marriage don't come along very often. Based on this unprecedented reaction, we think "Fidelity" is one of them. Fuel the phenomenon of "Fidelity". Watch the video. Sign the letter. Spread the word.

photo by Erik Ogan

by

My favorite room in our home is the kitchen. Some might think it's because of the views of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge from the windows in that room, but that's not why. Sure, the view is amazing, and I often find myself gazing at the skyline.

But what I love about the room is that it is so open. There's TONS of counter space which make cooking and baking so easy. The island is big enough and tall enough to be the perfect height when I'm using the rotary cutter and cutting fabric for quilting.

The dining room table fits in this room, with the extended leaves. We can fit a bunch of people around the table at once. This really makes the room feel like the heart of the house, since it's where everyone gravitates to.