Gotcha

The Chopping Block

What? Did you say...

you wanted me to cleave YOUR head off with this hatchet?

Après Execution

And Then There Were Six

Who knew?! From dinners at Boom in NYC to family-friendly events in WI...

Funny world.

Summer Pics of Our Home

Our lovely long driveway leading to our abode.

La voila!

View back up the driveway... all the trees you see in these photos are ours. I think we've got something like 250 of them. The Gerkes, the previous owners, did a fantastic job with their landscaping.

360 Degree style

One of the views off our front porch

To the Right of Our House

Backyard 1

Backyard 2

All of us LOVE the trampoline! :)

Backyard 3

I've always ADORED willow trees, and am thrilled to get to look at this every day.

Registering Max for School

I know a lot of you will be surprised to see this post, knowing how pro-homeschooling Robert and I are, but after a lot of deliberation between the three of us, we decided that for now it's in Max's best interests to go to one of the local elementary schools.

Robert and I have a lot on our plates with getting our video production company going, and Max, after going back and forth on his own preferences, decided he wanted to try it for the year.

We went to the open house last night, and I'm absolutely delighted with our decision. The school was bright and cheery and very welcoming. I'd learned that the teacher to whom he'd assigned has been teaching K for four years and JUST got married this summer.

I hazarded to guess she'd have just about the perfect mind-set for teaching this year... all happy cause she just got married and just enough years of teaching kindergartners to be seasoned but not burnt-out... and when we met her, my guess proved even truer than I'd hoped.

Within a minute of meeting her, she just burst out with this exuberant laugh saying, "My whole goal for this year is to help these kids wake up every morning and be just as excited to go to school every morning as I am!"

And she did indeed seem VERY EXCITED! lol

Just perfect. : )

The school library was very sweet, every kid gets to go twice a week during the school day to work on their own Mac notebooks (nice!) and the librarian was very warm and knowledgeable.

The music room was SPECTACULAR! For class, each kid has their own synthesizers, and the words to the songs that were printed up on posterboards around the room made me very happy as they all centered around inclusiveness and celebration of self and others.

I really loved the little lunchroom, too. I do not know what it is, but the thought of all those little beings standing in line and getting their lunches served up by all the little lunch ladies just warms the cockles of my heart... they have a cute, little milk fridge the kids get their own milk from, and it's just so durn adorable!!!

One last gush of sugary sweetness, Max says he already loves Mrs. Natz because she's so pretty! lol lol lol

Lordy, let the fun begin.

P.S. Yes, Max's hair IS all fucked-up in the back... not through negligence on his parents' part, but again, I just find that SO FREAKING CUTE!!! There's something so absurd and heart-breaking that makes me well up with love for him when I see him like that... but don't worry... I will brush his hair from now on before school. : )

Pony Rides at a Party

Garden Bounty

We'll feed you well.

These're all from our garden.

We're very proud!

Our Layin' Chickens

With thirty laying hens we're gonna have a butt-load of eggs.

When y'all comin' out to visit?

Shelli, Aaron, and Rory've been here.

Tom, Kira, and Dante're coming next week.

Who's next?

County Fair Fun

Part Deux

It's a Whole Different World Here

Can you believe this was at kid eye-level at our local 4-H fair?!?

At the Rock County Sheriff's booth?!?!

WTF?!?!

Enjoying the Fruits of His Labor

Pasta Pesto Bambino

My Very Own Stinky McGillicuddy

How many times in my life is my heart going overflow with unbearable love for this little guy with the huge spirit?

Raspberries from Our Garden

Yum-a-licious.

I'm freezing all of these so I can make my famous 'Tracy Loves You'
jam.

So when you get a jar, you'll know how I feel about you! (As long
as we don't eat it all first, and I can't promise we won't!) : )

We Loved this Sculpture

At the Milwaukee Museum of Art

The boys LOVED this place!

Another spectacular day. We started off our morning with exquisite
strawberry doughnuts at the Janesville Farmer's Market and the got
into the car for a scenic drive to Milwaukee.

Once there we stopped at the Public Market for a lunchie snack. Lovely
atmosphere and wide variety of foods. Reminded me of the Essex Street
market in NYC.

After being serenaded by a guitarist, we went to this museum. Very
nice collections and the building was GORGEOUS!!!

When we finished there, we strolled over to the Betty Brin Children's
Museum so the boys could get their ya-yas out. Which they did in
raucous style.

For dinner, we went to a Thai restaurant that Aaron used to frequent
twenty years ago. I couldn't stop sneaking bites of the panang!

To finish it all off, as we drove home the boys watched "Lilo and
Stitch" while we talked about Taiwanese culture.

Just perfect.

Today we're off to the Dells for an overnight adventure.

My New Favorite Spot in Janesville

The Rotary Gardens here are INCREDIBLE!!!

They're truly the equal of some of the best gardens in NY and LA. And
I adore the accessible, yet very comprehensive size. I can't wait to
come here and daydream!

Swingin' at Lola's

Picture's more innocent than the title post might suggest...

Whew!

It's been a very busy, very fun time for us. Farmer's markets, outdoor
concerts, berry pickin', gardenin', playdates, drinkin', nappin',
readin', chicken orderin'

Eeets beeen beddy pun, as my late filipina grandma would say, bless
her heart.

I'm hangin' ( don't ask why all the "-in's", jest feelin' like it!) at
O'Hare waiting for Shelli to arrive. It'll be so wonderful to get to
be with her. I wish it were for longer, but I'll enjoy this visit with
all my might and am deeply grateful for ANY time we get to be with them!

Plane's in. Toodle-loo!

Mischief Monkeys

At Madison's Concert in the Square.

Delightful summer's evening!

Sophia Fish

Loyal, protective, intelligent, loving, funny, a pain in our asses.

Like a lot of our friends.

We put Sophia down today. We held her and cried as it happened.

Max believes we sent her to a farm to live with a new family. While you know we play it very straight with Max, we didn't think now was the time to process euthanasia with him.

She would have laid down her life to protect us. I am so, so sad we had to take hers.

Good girl, Sophia. We will miss you.

Awwwww! Last One, Scout's Honor

Couldn't Resist Another One

Best Friend Reunion

Yay!

Aaron and Rory are here! We're thrilled to bits and are having a
lovely time,

It'll be perfect once Shelli joins us!

Saturday Was a Bad, Bad Day

I don't know how to say this.

I guess l'll start by telling what happened.

Sophia bit one of our new neighbors. Hard. Hard enough to break skin on the back of her thigh and on her right hand.

It scared the shit out of her. And us.

Becky, this new neighbor, has been amazingly understanding and gracious. Thankfully she's a dog lover. But she did have to report the dog bite to the local authorities, and rightly so.

The upshot of all of this is that the sheriff's office and the veterinarian who we had to take Sophia to be examined by both recommended that we put Sophia to sleep.

The ASPCA won't take her because of her age and this biting incident.

We can't place her with anyone else because, honestly, most of you know her history, if she wasn't going to be able to make it with us, she is not going to be able to make it with anyone else.

And to be perfectly honest? She's getting old, she's getting edgier, and while we believe in our hearts that she would never inflict severe damage on anyone, we don't KNOW that for sure.

We are going to be having too many children in this house. People and kids walk through our property on a regular basis to get from one subdivision to the next. We can't take any more chances.

We have to put her down.

This is very hard. Looking her in her eyes makes me weep. I try to console myself by saying that we're freeing her to go on to the next good thing in her existence.

After all we've been through together, I hate that it's come to this.

Please send our Sophia Fish good wishes

Friends in the City

Went to see 'Sex in the City' tonight with the hilarious woman, Amy, I
met at one of the business mixers and some of her neighbor friends.

They were all very nice, I really like Amy a lot, but they just
weren't you guys. Tonight was the first time I asked myself if we've
made some huge mistake by moving out here. The feeling of missing you
all is very visceral right this moment.

I miss our shorthand, I miss swearing like a truck driver, I miss our
culture of closeness and laughter. I miss us meeting for Thai,
Japanese, Italian, Korean, French, Vegan, Southern food.

I miss drinking in our backyard. I miss watching Max run away from all
of you when I wanted him to hug you ( ok, he does that here, too), I
miss him having the opportunity to see you all so often, all of you,
the best representations of what I know good people to be.

I really miss you my friends in the city.

Lordy. This blows.

A Night Without McNulty

It's actually two, and I'm like one of the addicts on the show jonesing for more.

It's official. I'm hooked on The Wire.

Robert and I decided to forego getting satellite or cable out here and decided to go with Netflix so we watch what we actually really want to watch instead of remote surfing endlessly.

The Wire was one of the first shows we wanted to see because we'd heard so much about it... and we're really enjoying it.

My goodness, that Dominic West is some kind of HOT! I didn't used to think so, when I saw him in 28 Days and then that Julianne Moore movie that was so completely stupid and forgettable that I can't even remember the name of it, nor be bothered to look it up, he was just kind of scuzzy. But he's delicious in The Wire. Sigh. More McNulty tomorrow night.

Okay, back to reality... this is for Tobes especially since she asked for more frequent posts. : )

This week has been a lot of going to Chicago, which makes me feel slightly ill every time I get in the car what with the cost of gasoline. I want to take the train more often, but since time is so much of the essence for me, I've got to try to make my trips as quickly as I can. Thus the driving. Blech.

On the brighter side. At least I've got stuff to audition for... I just need to book one of these bad boys... gotta keep the insurance comin' in!

Our house is almost done. And I swear, when it is, I'm going to post a lovely video tour so everyone can see it. Robert's almost finished the floor trim and then we have to do the kitchen backsplash, and then we're finito!

Max spent his first night over at his cousins' home in Madison last night. Little booger. He is getting so dang big... As soon as I download the pictures from my phone I'll post some... he wants to grow his hair long like a girl's he says.

I told him to go for it. I warned him that some people might mistake him for a girl, and that a few ignorant people might even go so far as to make fun of him for it, and he was cool with that. I don't worry about him caring about what other people think. That kid's got a mind of his own and he is not afraid of letting everyone know how he feels... wonder where he got that from?

Robert just pulled into the garage with the monkeys, gonna jump before they start flinging poo. Love you guys!

My Favorite Book

... is usually the one I'm reading right now. Although I should say, more accurately since this is the case, the one I just finished reading.

Let me just say this. Holy Christ. Cormac McCarthy is a fucking genius.

I got The Road from the library yesterday... I'd forgotten my list of books to read at home, so I got on the net to find Pulitzer Prize-winning books (it's a goal of mine to read everything winning that prize for fiction), and the first novel the library actually had was that one.

Lucky me.

A lot of the time lately I've been wondering if I've become too jaded with reading or desensitized to fiction somehow, like people say can happen if you are exposed to too much violence. I thought perhaps I've been expecting too much from my books. For example, a lot of what I've read lately starts out amazingly, but then peters out towards the end. Or, I find a book is good, but ultimately I want MORE.

Well, I got MORE with The Road.

This book is an amazing exploration of love, living, and dying. McCarthy's language is perfectly concise, not one single extraneous word, and he manages to jam-pack this brevity with breath-taking suspense, aching existentialism, and ultimately, unquenchable hope.

If you're a parent and you pick up this book, give yourself time and space to process it. It will break your heart. If you're not a parent and you pick up this book, give yourself time and space to process it. It will break your heart.

The Road is spectacular.

"F" the Tornado

Yup. Got another one for the annals of the Douglas/ Jarzen quest for sweet slumber.

Many of you already know about what happened when we experienced the Northridge earthquake in '94. (God, I feel like a toothless gramma talking about way back when) Anyways, for those of you less familiar, basically after the really big one hit, Robert and I figured that it couldn't have been that bad, so we unplugged our phone in anticipation of all the calls we expected to get, and concluded that all those concerned about us would see on the news that it was no big deal. And then we promptly went back to bed and slept through all the subsequent after-shocks, our unplugged phone causing no end of consternation to our loved ones who worried about our stupid asses.

Well, today, after a yummy thai lunch and a fruitless quest to find tomato cages at Menard's, we came home, and surprise, surprise, decided it was an excellent time to take a nap. (The kids are at my parents' place for the night) After I put in my earplugs (still haven't gotten used to sleeping without them after all of Max's nighttime noisiness) I registered some sound and looked over at Robert who'd sat up to listen more closely. He looked like the Victrola dog. (I realize that I have dated myself yet again)

On the verge of embracing blessed sleep, I told him it was just trucks across the way doing construction at our neighbor's house. Robert said something, but I ignored him completely, figuring if it was important, he'd tell me after I'd woken up.

About a half hour later, I woke up refreshed when Robert got out of bed. As I pulled out my ear stoppers, the sound started up again, and I realized the air raid sirens were sounding. I turned to Robert, and said, "Holy shit! Those are tornado warnings!!!" He said, "I thought so, but you seemed so sure, I thought you knew what you were talking about."

Allow me to take a moment and say that NEVER in the 16 years that I grew up in Wisconsin were the warning sirens EVER activated in this area. I really never expected to hear them.

Needless to say we high-tailed it down to the basement where I called my parents to make sure that they were okay and that they and the kids were downstairs, where, of course, they were.

We're listening to the news in the background and roofs are being torn off of buildings and they're telling a town about 20 miles north of us to get the hell out of Dodge. Winds are at 80 mph and there have been tornado touch-downs.

Let this stand as a warning. Don't try to get between me and my sleep. I've defied earthquakes and tornadoes, and I'll ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Grampa!

I just want to post a picture of my grampie.

He's not doing very well these days. He doesn't light up the way he
used to when he sees the kids, and he sleeps a lot. But, Max made him
belly laugh like he used to and it made all of us feel good.

I think he's going to follow my grandma pretty soon. I like to think
they'll be together again out there.

First Blood

Although it doesn't really look that bad here, Max gave us our first
'Oh Holy Hell Let's Get This Kid to the Hospital NOW!!!!' moment.

He was running into the house to show me something when he slipped and
face-planted right into a cement stair. Robert was right behind him
and scooped him up on his arms and called for me.

Robert had him on a cradle hold and when I came running in, he tipped
Max up. As he did, a gush of blood poured out of Max's mouth.

Lor-dee!!!

I grabbed a washcloth and blotted away as much of the blood as gently
as I could and was surprised to see only a small gash. The bleeding
there stopped after maybe a minute, although the area continued to
swell.

We figured the mouthful of blood must've accumulated cause Max was
lying in Robert's arms.

The next day the swelling was worse, so I convinced Max to let me
investigate further. Sure enough, I discovered another bigger cut
inside. Apparently his tooth punctured all the way from inside his
mouth through to his face and the edge of his upper lip.

My little guy!!!

We waited a day to see if the swelling'd go down and it did, so...
all's well that ends well.

We're actually shocked we've not had to take Max to the hospital yet,
the crazy, little gremlin.

A Memory: Indelibly Etched Forever

The other day I was pulling weeds in our pea patch. To take a break and stretch my legs, I followed Max when he told me he wanted to show me something.

He took me to a ladder my Dad had fastened to a maple tree, and asked if I wanted to watch him climb up to a little platform that was about twenty feet up.

With a touch of trepidation, naturally, I said, "Of course!" And I watched as he proudly scampered up like the monkey that he is.

After gazing around at his new view and reveling in being taller than me, he called down, "I wish you were a little girl so you could come up here and sit with me." I called back, "Well, I can't be a little girl, but that doesn't mean I can't come up there and sit with you! Do you want me to still come on up? " Ecstatic he yelled, "Yes!!!"

So, up the ladder I went.

When I got to the top Max was over the moon that I'd come to be with him. He grabbed my face with both of his warm, sweet little hands and gave me a big kiss. Then he snuggled down, put his head in my lap, and just laid still looking up at the peridot spring leaves dancing against the backdrop of the robin's egg blue sky. And yes, there were fluffy, perfectly-shaped, pure-white clouds sailing by.

I watched the breeze playing with his beautiful hair and my heart just overflowed with love and the absolute wonder I feel sometimes that this amazing child should be mine.

God, I love that kid.

Doin' Our Bit

 ...to stay lifelong learners... the first picture's of our local library. They've got a spectacular kid's section. We're still reading to Max for AT LEAST half an hour a day. I estimate he must have read over 1500 books by now. I do get a couple of re-reads for him and it's amazing that every single time he says, "Oh yeah! We've read this book before!"

...to eat food that is more responsible and ecologically sustainable. I made up four pounds of asparagus from my parents' garden (pic 2) into dee-licious cream of asparagus soup. I got to freeze three meal-sized portions in addition to the one we ate to cut down on energy consumption through cooking. And in pic 4, Robert's tossing compost made up of old sileage onto our garden here. We're going to let it lie fallow this year because we planted so much at my parents' and also because our soil is almost pure clay. We need to condition it for a bounteous harvest for next year. 

...to again cut down on energy consumption by hangin' our clo'es on the lines outside. If you'd have told my eight year old self that hated going to hang clothes outside that my grown-up self would be tickled pink to be able to hang my clothes outside, I'd have given you a look of such withering scorn that you'd smarting yet. Although now you'd be laughing your ass off. Rightly so.

... to support the local economy by eating at Michael's Custard. Really, it is so lusciously tasty!

Country Roads

I just had to post this right away for Kikirinikikibeanie because she asked if I was serious when I said only two cars passed me on the forty minute walk to my parents' place.

This is what it looks like! : )

Snuggled in Our Happy Hollow

Tonight is the third night of being in our new home.

I have to say... it is absolutely lovely. When I walk through the house I breathe deeply and just admire all that I see. It's just like the picture I created in my head when we decided to put an offer in on it. And it's profoundly tranquil here. No noise. No lights. No neighbors in sight. Just delightful.

The one picture I posted above is of our living room... it's the only room that's close to being done. See that blank space of the room on the right, where there's no furniture? Robert got the brilliant idea of putting a floor to ceiling bookcase there. So once we get some extra dough, he's going to see if he can engineer a plan to put it in. 

He really did a magnificent job pulling all of this together. Plastering practically the whole house, laying down the floor, organizing everything... of course, I did my share of work, too, but he really kicked ass, and it has SO paid off. My handy guy.

Once we get the other rooms ship-shape I'll post more pictures of them.

And, hey, thanks so much to everyone who called to wish us a happy first night in our new home. That really meant a lot to us. I know we've been so busy we haven't been the greatest at keeping in touch, but... thus the blog! We'll be better now that we're here. Hopefully.

Gotta hit the hay, getting up early to go to Chicago for an audition. G'night.

Buttercups and Violets

(cue big sigh) I remember running around as a little girl collecting
these. I was SURE there were fairies and they lived near these sweet
flowers.

Happy Spring, everyone!

Tadpoles

Here're the kids dashing off the the pond adjacent to my parents' property. We're starting to go regularly to check on the toads' growth progress. We haven't seen any eggs yet, but with as fast as everything's coming up around here, it should be any day.

As you can see, Sophia Fish is in her element out here! She adores splashing around the pond and then tearing off after the ten thousand rabbits out here. Crazy, shameless, toothless whore.

We are in the final stages of readying the house. It has been some hard work... plastering those ceilings tested our patience and determination, but really, it looks very wonderful.

All we've got left are the final second coats on the ceilings in the kitchen and living room, and the final second coat in the living room. As far as plaster goes anyways.

For everything else, we have to lay down the laminate in the kitchen, hallway, and living room. We've gotta put in the kitchen sink, and rebuild the bathroom i.e. put in the toilet, vanity,  faucets, mirror, and lights. Oh yeah, we've also gotta do the kitchen backsplash, but I think that's going to get done once we move in.

I really can't wait. It's been six months of being at other people's places and we're ready to have our own space. 

Odds and Ends, and Just Plain Odd

We met one of our neighbors today. His name is Goat and he has a hunting dog named Buford.

I shit you not.

The good thing about him is he's a very friendly fireman with the local department and he's offered to till our garden for us and help us put in our floors. The odd thing about him? His name is Goat and he has a hunting dog named Buford.

We put peas in at my parents' garden, so the great garden experience has begun. I've gotta sit down and plot out planting times and where to plant things. My parents have these little garden beds dotted all over their property, nice to have that space. Now we gotta make sure the damn rabbits don't reap what I've sown.

An end... got a letter from Epic Systems. May I say that they made a mistake of epic proportions (sorry, that was just irresistible for me) by not deigning to grant me even a first interview. Durn it.

Another odd... all of you weirdos out there who don't like posting on my blog! How is it that every single one of my friends doesn't like posting?! That's okay though, I really like all your e-mails and phone calls anyways. : ) Love you guys.

A Shout-out to Collette!

Gotta give Collette mad props! 

Not only did she respond back, but she responded via tokbox, which rocks!!!

You can send video messages, and you can have video calls, and video conference calls, too!

I'm already on skype, but this program seems superior already. It's at www.tokbox.com. Go get hooked up!

Anyways, in the video message she sent (which I was so delighted to receive) Collette looks very, very happy, and the house they are living in overlooks this lovely, large, placid lake. She mentioned having tea over at the neighbor's house, so it sounds as if other people might be appreciating our Marquise as much as they should!

Thanks so much, Collette. Where's your blog? : )

Prometheus Prodigy

What payback do I get for making fun of Robert's worrying over our
little fire?

My dad asking me to help him burn back two acres of their prairie.

That was some mighty scary shit.

I tried to look cool and capable and not like some big city pussy, but
I admit, I was alarmed. For good reason as it turned out.

After giving me a glance over, he said, "Good. Looks like you're
wearing cotton. If you had rayon on and caught on fire, you'd go up like a human torch. I don't think you'd be able to do acting anymore."

Confidence-inspiring. Thanks, dad.

I, ultimately, was fine. My dad, on the other hand, singed off his
eyebrows and the tongue of hair he has over his forehead when a huge
blaze flared up at a particularly strong gust of wind.

Sweet Christ in heaven.

He's planning on doing this every year from here on out now that I'm
nearby to help.

Pray for me.

Drill master

That's right, American Clay!!!

Who's your mamma?!?!!!

This stuff looks AMAZING. But this shit is seriously hard work. We
had a big learning curve since neither of us have plastered before,
but now the clay bows down before us.

We're going to try and post a video soon, so stay tuned!

We're in!

So last Monday we closed on the house, and we've been so busy since then that I haven't been able to post. Robert wields the whip harshly! 

There he is in the top picture trying not to look nervous about burning back the mini-prairie we've got along our driveway.

I'm next with my safety goggles, working on priming the ceiling with this sanded primer stuff that is hell on an eyeball if it gets stuck there.

And that's the scaffolding we're using tomorrow to start applying the clay. In the next picture, our master bedroom, you can kind of see the primer on the walls. That's the first room we're going to plaster. It'll be an experience I'm sure!

The next picture's of our future girl's room, however she shows up... once we're settled Robert and I are going to be getting certified to be foster parents and we're going to see if we can find our little girl. : )

And the next room is Max's room. He wanted a red room, so we compromised and I used the red on an accent wall. It looks really good in person. You'll have to come check it out for yourself.

Finally, a red-crested woodpecker, flew smack into one of my parents' windows and stunned itself for a little while. My mom rescued it and let the kids hold it while it was till in a dazed state. They let it go very shortly after getting to look at it up close.

We're aiming to get completely moved into the house by April 21st. I think we just may be able to make it. We've just got to plaster the walls, rebuild the bathroom, and lay down the floors.

Robert laid the floor down in our little office, and he did a great job. I'll try to get a picture of that, too, my phone just ran out of juice today.

Okay, my lats are killing me from running that roller over my head all day.

It's a good sore.