I discovered yesterday that Zoboomofoo has been taken off of my local PBS sheculde and replaced by Boohbah! it's an outrage. not that I have something against Boohbah per se, I haven't even seen it, but surely Boohbah could have had one of the numerous slots given to Arthur or Clifford or the accursed Dragon Tales...




You are Galadriel's Mirrorball. A gift to her from
Sauron in the days when he masked his evil, you
wreak havoc among the weak-minded. The elven
queen herself has been seen sneaking away to
her secret glade to dance the night away to
wicked music. You may be the downfall of
Middle-Earth.


Which completely non-existant Lord of the Rings object are you?
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ah, one of my all time favorites...

Obituary Note: Joan Aiken, Author of 92 Novels

Adult and children's book author Joan Aiken passed away on January 4
at the age of 79. Popular in both the U.K. and U.S., Aiken wrote in a
variety of genres, including fantasy for adults and children as well
as poetry, plays, horror and short stories. She is perhaps best-known
for her Wolves Chronicles series for children, which began with the
novel The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. The third title in the series,
The Whispering Mountain, won the Guardian's Children's Book Prize in
1968. She also won an Edgar Award in 1972 for Night Fall, a children's
mystery.

Aiken wrote a total of 92 novels in her lifetime, 65 of them for
children. She was published in the U.S. by Delacorte and Houghton
Mifflin, among others. Her most recent book, Midwinter Nightingale,
was published by Delacorte in June 2003. Her final book, The Witch of
Clattering Shaws, will appear in spring 2005.

I don't want the clean sweep people to come to my house. I like my stuff. today, I went through a lot of it - mostly the paper part. and I threw away a large bag full of papers. but I'm glad I did it by myself. I am not interested in anyone else's assessment of my stuff.
one thing I saved, for example, is a note from my friend aram, detailing a list of things he wanted me to pick up from the store in case I went into town. I love it. it's so him.
I am throwing some stuff out but mainly I need to look at what this stuff IS and move it around. I have two small filing cabinets, two drawers each, metal, one black one blue-grey. the bottom drawers of each had not been emptied out since before Nash was born. we have moved five times since then. FIVE. yes. and so I found a plastic tub of markers and crayons which had long since been crushed under the weight of other things, all of my politcal buttons from the late eighties & early nineties (my favorite of which is the one proclaiming, "half gay"), a copy of every newsletter I put together back in the 80s and early nineties, every conference flyer I ever made, every camp yearbook & mugbook I ever got, and so on and so on.
now the drawers are as such: blue top - misc. things that I am saving for pure sentimentality; blue bottom - rowe camp things; black top - files, with things like all things calendar, all things zine, all my issues of the EVI, etc.; black bottom - all camp & conference newsletters, yearbooks, mugbooks & flyers, PLUS all of my papers & exams and things from the mid to late nineties at georgia state, AND the negatives to my wedding pictures.
I was able to get rid of the HUGE box of miscellany on top of the black filing cabinet and replace it with two small boxes, one of sentimental things and one of active stuff. at least half of my sentimental keepings are photos. next stop, putting things into albums! yikes.

oh good, I can get a job!


Good. You know your music. You should be able to
work at Championship Vinyl with Rob, Dick and
Barry


Do You Know Your Music (Sorry MTV Generation I Doubt You Can Handle This One)
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In the interest of producing something coherent about my travels of last summer, I am trying hard to bring last june into focus. the trip to providence and boston. I remember everything about being in providence and boston, it's the drive I've lost. I remember eating "steak-out" take-out food in a hotel room. I remember listening to 8 accursed magic treehouse books on tape and loathing them all. I remember the construction back-up in NYC that cost us hours and earned me my mother's deep, burning resentment for acting like miss know it all with the map. I remember liam having to pee all through NYC and there being no place to stop. we stopped at that first exit that feels like you're out of the city, but you're not, you're still in the bronx, but it has a big shopping center with all of these chain stores and fast food and stuff and we went to pee at this little deli wherein some dude was screaming and going off when we first came in, and as I was paying for our snacks (I distinctly recall buying yogurt smoothies for the kids) the proprietress was telling someone, "it's the heat. everybody's goin crazy" and lordy, she wasn't half wrong.
I may have to ask my mother where we spent our nights - in hotels, yes,but to be more specific.
the drive back down I remember pretty clearly.

free will astrology, frighteningly appropriate as ever:

One of your most wonderful qualities is your aptitude for helping people. It's also the part of your nature that is most likely to be abused by charming narcissists and charismatic manipulators. But in 2004, you will have a knack for freeing yourself from these oppressors. You'll be able to spot potential new ones from a mile away, and you'll know how to break the hold that the old ones have on you. Take this pledge now: "I will serve only the smart, effective people who also serve me."

we bought nash a keyboard for winter solstice. $13.88 and he loves it .
lots of playing and singing and songwriting going on. he wants a mic. he wants to record his songs. he said, "when I record my songs on tape, the name of the tape will be The Nasherator 2004."

he is over "fuck" and into "poop."

sadder than that, he and liam are both mostly over the pixies, and into the beastie boys, primus and this song called "oh bondage, up yours!" by the x-ray specs. not that I don't enjoy their current favorites, it's just that I hate to think of them being over the pixies...

thing one & thing two

thing one:
last night, Nash was talking to his grandmother in NH on the phone, and I guess she asked or said something about bedtime (it was 9:30). he said,
"you know coleen isn't really like, (in crazy british sort of accent)'the children must go to bed propahly at bed time!' you know she doesn't beleive in sending us to bed until we're tired, she's like, (in crazy new york-new orleans sort of accent)'whaddaya wanna send'em to bed fah when dey not tiiyid - if dey not tiiyid dat doesn't make any sense!' because you know, I should tell you, if people send kids to bed when they're not tired, they'll never be able to get to sleep, it's just ridiculous!"

thing two:
Liam woke up around 6, crying and sat up to tell me, "don't you EVER take me to the hospital again, not NEVER ever NEVER." I said, OK, I'll try my best not to, and he went back to sleep after a few minutes.
at 8, the phone rang, and he woke up and said, "my dream was all about ANTS, and I was in mississippi and it was a giant ant pile and they were building their house but I thought they were just doing regular ant things so I went right in."