MUSEUM DAY is tomorrow

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Just a quick heads up for any interested readers – tomorrow is the annual Smithsonian Museum Day, during which you can visit local museums for free.

Visit this site for details: http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/.

If tomorrow is a bad day for you, and you’re a Bank of America customer, you should know that BofA sponsors free museum days for credit and debit card holders on the first weekend of each month.

Details can be found here: http://promotions.bankofamerica.com/museums/.

Cafe Writing: Feels Like Fall

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No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
– Samuel Johnson


In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

So, give me seven tastes or scents that define autumn for you.

  1. Ozone. Autumn rain smells sharper than the rain we get in summer.
  2. Smoke. It’s not quite time yet, here in Texas, but once the evening temperatures dip lower than 63 on a routine basis, fireplaces are put to use once more.
  3. Squash. Fall brings pumpkins into vogue, of course, but it also means a return to hardier squashes: acorn, butternut, spaghetti, instead of crookneck and zucchini. I love both the scent and the flavor of harvest squashes.
  4. Apple cider. Sure, it’s available all year round, but it’s only in autumn that you can visit a fair or festival for freshly pressed cider. Sweetened or not, hard or not, with or without cinnamon, chilled or steamed, cider is the one thing that really means that summer is waning, at least for me.
  5. Soup. I love soup. Once the weather begins to turn, it becomes my habit to make soups and stews on the weekend. There’s nothing like something warm and spicy bubbling on the stove or in the crockput, available whenever either of us takes a break from whatever project we’re puttering with.
  6. Heat. I know heaters and furnaces aren’t supposed to have scents, but after a summer of disuse, there’s still a dusty musty smell the first few times we have the heat on in the mornings. It should trigger allergies, but somehow it smells comforting, instead.
  7. Caramel corn. I don’t eat it very often, but there’s something really warming about the buttery/sweet/salty scent and flavor of caramel corn, especially when it’s combined with a rainy day and a great movie.


Written for the Anniversary Project at CafeWriting.com.

Thematic Photographic: Close-Up

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Carmi meant for this week’s theme to be macro photography, I’m certain, but I think he’ll cut me a little slack for the picture I’m submitting. You see, it was 3:30 in the morning, and I’d finally found batteries for the camera, and had gone outside to shoot the red ring encircling the moon, when I heard a splash.

At first, I thought one of the dogs had fallen into the pool, but that wasn’t the case. It also wasn’t a skunk, or one of the raccoons that thinks my swimming pool is it’s personal bathtub. It was frog. I watched him swim the circumference of the pool, pausing now and then, and finally I realized that he couldn’t get out.

Of course, I snapped a few pictures before reaching for the skimmer – he backed right into it, and didn’t jump out until I’d set it gently on the ground.

I think it’s the best shot I could have taken without actually getting in the water.
Anyway, meet Froggy:

When I say "jump" you say...

Bulb-ous

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Yesterday in the grocery store, I hesitated in the lightbulb aisle, trying to remember what size bulbs go in the light bridge of our bed. This is a purchase that usually falls to Fuzzy to make and I’m not certain why it occurred to me to look, except that I was also trying to find a replacement bulb for one of the lamps on my dresser. I wish compact fluorescent bulbs came in soft pink. I like soft pink, especially in the bedroom.

My idyll in the aisle of illumination must have been mildly precognitive, though my powers of perception failed where it mattered. I couldn’t remember the correct size so didn’t buy bulbs. This morning around one AM, I startled myself awake from a disturbing dream, turned the switch on the over-the-bed light, and was greeted with a cold, dead spark-poof sound.

In this space, it seems, I am now completely in the dark.

I Want a New Drug

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Or actually, I have a new drug. After consulting with my doctor today (or rather, her colleague, a gregarious gentleman with bright red hair, whom I quite like) we determined that Imitrex was actually over-medicating me, causing headaches to linger.

He’s got me on a milder drug, Midrin, which seems to have knocked the pain in my head back to zero, though I am a bit sleepy.

Tomorrow, I have a hair appointment. Just a wash/cut/blow dry. I’m stripping the pink out on 9/27 and replacing it with Aveda’s new “blackberry” (a deep, deep brown with violet undertones) and either Special Effects’ Blue Velvet or Deep Purple stranded through it. I’m not ready for normal yet, but I’m ready for something darker, and I’m bored with pink.

I am jam-packed with work-type things for the next two days, but should have time to update CafeWriting on Saturday, if I feel better.

Meanwhile, head over to this post at the ATG blog, and tell us what your preference is with regard to medical professionals.

Also, remember that this giveaway will remain open until October 31st. Comment there for a chance to win an advance copy of Colleen Gleason’s latest work.

Still Blechy

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I slept and tried to write all day to day, and got nothing much done, except half an interview for work, that sucks because when my head hurts I can’t string together words that are coherent, never mind pretty.

Outside, there is a slow rainfall of cool, fat drops, with room enough to walk between them, if one wanted to. I want to want to, but I just feel glum. Even Milo and his toy car couldn’t get me out of doldrums in which I find myself, I don’t think.

I should work, but my vision feels tunnel-ish, and instead, I’m going to turn out the light, and let the BBC overnight service on NPR lull me to sleep.

Media Monday: Ben Bailey at the DC Improv

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I’ve been working on (well, actually, they’re done now, I’m waiting for the response) interview questions for Ben Bailey (host of the Discovery Channel’s Cash Cab), for the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of All Things Girl, and as a part of my research, I’ve been watching videos of his stand-up act.

I’m sharing a video of him (ganked from YouTube, of course), for this week’s Media Monday, because it made me laugh. He does go a bit blue, though, so it’s definitely NSFW (not safe for work), or children.