your opinion, please

if merriam-webster wants me to read the the economist so much that every time, every day, when i open the word games link, i receive a popup offering me a great deal, don't you think i should definitely click yes?

two, make that three bits of interest perhaps

Jack and I are in DC this week. Well, actually we're staying across the river from DC. But let me just say that the weather is lovely, the class I'm attending is informative and interesting (not lively, but hey, it's a contracts class), and Jack and I have had a delightful time together.

When I realized (on the way to the airport) that I'd left my makeup bag at home, I thought about telling Jack we needed to turn around and go get it, but instead told him I'd just buy new makeup when we got here. But then, after we got here, I decided that since I was never going to see my classmates again, I'd wear just the new hot coral shade of lipstick I purchased recently (and my clothes of course) and call it good. No one has looked terrified or concerned so far, and I think I like wearing grownup girl lipstick. Especially with my cool shades. I may try this at home.

Also, on the school front, I think I've figured out my humanities class journal assignments. So far, I've received scores of 15 out of 15, followed by 13.5, 12.5, and just today (prepare for fanfare) another 15! Probably doesn't sound all that tremendous to you dear readers, but believe me, I've been putting my whole self into these little bits of writing, and noticed a disconcerting trend by entry number three. So, I looked back on all of the comments from my teacher, both on my entries and in her emails to the whole online class, and apparently, I've got it? (That's it? She wants us to question everything? So I am? Are you? Can you? I love question marks?)

that nightmare

Did you ever have that nightmare where you are in a hole and you keep trying to climb out but you're really digging the hole deeper and deeper and the more you try to climb out the deeper you dig yourself in?

And then you realize that you're not dreaming at all, you're wide awake?

i'm telling you, chivalry is not dead

Tonight Jack and I stopped at the Costco to pick up a few things--lettuce and enough toothpaste, soap, and tissue paper to last for a year (or so we like to think), and a couple of loaves of the best eight-grain bread I've ever tasted (Innkeeper's bed and breakfast 8-grain, in case you'd like to try some and need to go to Costco and can't stop in at the gardens for some tea and yummy bread with me).

On the way out, I noticed those big posters that entice shoppers to come eat a hotdog or a jumbo slice of pizza or a frozen nonfat yogurt in a cup...and I was hungry, and after all, it is nonfat yogurt and chocolate, right? So we bought one to share.

Of course, it was pouring down rain as we walked out of Costco. And well, I'm just not one to carry an umbrella. First, because I kind of like feeling the rain on me, and second, because I can't keep an umbrella with Jr around. He has always loved umbrellas.

As we walked to the truck, me trying to cover the yogurt with my hand so it didn't get rain in it and Jack pushing the cart, a man came toward us, staying dry under his umbrella. He looked at me and my hand and my cup of frozen yogurt and then stopped beside me and started walking with me to our truck, with the umbrella over my head and my yogurt, saying that he simply couldn't stand to see me get rain in my ice cream.

Such a small thing but such a thoughtful gesture.

It takes so little effort to be kind, you know?

more from mr. webster

I meant to post this the other day, but thinking about it now, it seems somehow more appropriate to post today:

kibitzer • \KIB-it-ser\ • noun : one who looks on and often offers unwanted advice or comment; broadly : one who offers opinions

data you may need

I think you may need the following updates and bits of this and that. Or, at least, I'm going to share with you.

1. Hockey is in the final round of the playoffs--aka, The Stanley Cup. Detroit Red Wings (the team that beat Khabibulan's team) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins. Presently Detroit is leading the series 3-2, so Tuesday night's game could end it for this season. Which is why we all have to root for the Penguins--so we'll get more hockey. Right, eh?

2. Jr and Brandie have called off the wedding. Quite simply, they decided they are not a good couple but they are best friends, so if you have to choose one, the best friends option is good. But can I just say that I think they would have made adorable grandbabies?

3. JoJo has become addicted to playing fetch. Well, not really fetch. More like keep away. Only she doesn't like to be the keepee, she likes to be the keeper. Check out the intense focus. I think I snapped this photo just before she made the ball rise up to meet her open, drooling mouth.

Isn't she beautiful?

4. I have finished my Astronomy [read: PHYSICS] class. All but the last two tests and submitting my last eight assignments online. However, the school removed the class from the online classes site on the last official day of class, even though the professor gave us until Tuesday to submit work. His email to the class said he was on it. And you may all tell me good job for getting through the last three weeks of class and for the A I should receive. And by the way, it was really an interesting class. I learned a lot of stuff I didn't know before and I realized that I learn visually, which is a valuable thing to know, it appears. (get it? visually, it appears?) My professor was close to my age and wore all black and had dyed black hair and black fingernails and was a very good and entertaining teacher.

5. Last weekend, for the first time at this house, and for the first time in over ten years, I planted vegetables. Not a lot--three tomatoes, two squashes, and two pumpkins--and I don't know if they will get enough sunshine to actually produce any produce--what do you think?

til the cows come home

i see them in the spring--
a bit slower than their usual plodding pace
and then, when it can't possibly be warm enough,
i see them, birthing, red, squishy, steam rising off little calves.

after the first few hours of much licking and nuzzling and hesitant steps
they begin to feel more sure on their feet and before too many days
they are frolicking, running, kicking up their heels like kindergartners.

when next i see them they have become teenagers, some still entranced
with the newness of life, but mostly they huddle, hang around each other but not one
too far from its mother's side in case it needs her warmth or milk.

always though, i see them headed together in the same direction, and i wonder
is it time now? are they coming home?