Most-Played Tracks On My iPod

I'm not sure how some of these came to be the most-played, but here they are:

1. Frog Chorus, Echoes of Nature (used to play it while falling asleep)
2. Little Red Riding Hood, Sam the Sham
3. I Melt With You, Modern English
4. Barely Legal, The Strokes
5. Please Play This Song on the Radio, NOFX (there are many NOFX songs I like more)
6. Don't Be Cruel, Elvis
7. Carol Brown, Flight of the Conchords
8. I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Artic Monkeys
9. Song Against Sex, Neutral Milk Hotel
10. Supermassive Black Hole, Muse
12. Mack the Knife, Bobby Darin
12. The Hardest Button to Button, The White Stripes (Surpriesd this beat Ice Cream Soda)
13. Do What You Want, Bad Religion
14. Three Point One Four, The Bloodhound Gang (surprised other BHG didn't make the list too)
15. Judy Is A Punk, The Ramones (one of the rare songs that I wish was longer)
16. Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen (like this song, but have no idea how it made this list)
17. The Government Totally Sucks, Tenacious D
18. Move It On Over, George Thorogood
19. I'm Like Yeah, But She's All No, Mr. T Experience
20. A Boy Named Sue, Johnny Cash

Message Rock #5

Autumn in New England

Sorry, New Jersey. You may have the bagels and the pizza, but New England has the edge on Autumn.

Witch hats in the library courtyard

Blackbirds, baked in a pie

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas when my mom makes a pie, she puts a hollow, porcelain blackbird in the center of the pan before adding the filling around it. The blackbird acts as a vent: When the pie comes out of the oven, the blackbird is spitting steam.

I've never seen these pie blackbirds in stores. Until yesterday, when I happened upon a shelf of them while shopping for a belt.

I refrained from buying them all - one for everyone I know - and instead just bought one for myself and one to replace my mom's, should it ever break. Come to think of it, in the 27 years that she's been making apple pies for the holidays, it's amazing that little bird hasn't dropped or broken yet. He must be blessed.

Copley Square Farmer's Market

Something about sun-dappled berries and veggies makes me happy. Or maybe it's just all of the colors at every booth.

Southwest Corridor

For more than two years, I have worked near the east entrance to the Southwest Corridor that runs parallel to Boylston Street. I guess I always thought it was just another sidewalk.

Today I learned how wrong I was - I took the passageway to Mass Ave to get to Whole Foods. It's beautiful! Parks and flowers and a tennis court and lots of dogs walking and playing!

Driving My First Car Again

While visiting my parents in NJ last week, I got to drive around my first car, a Volvo from the 80s. I love that car. Funny to listen to the iPod in such an old car.

Local Art Show

I went to an art show opening reception tonight. The theme was animals - how could I resist?

There were a lot of cat or dog photos, paintings and drawings. An oil-paint snake, a close-up hummingbird, a beautiful pencil drawing of an ape. Only a few had the red dot symbolizing that they'd been sold. Most were more than $300. The snake was $8,000. It was large and in an ornate frame.

My favorite by far was a slightly blurry photo of a dog baring it's teeth, possibly lunging. (Am I reading into that? Perhaps the dog is just hanging its mouth open? But I see attack when I look at it.) It is $200. If I can sell enough of my books on Amazon, I may buy it.

It hadn't won anything. The first prize was an unimpressive painting of a metallic gold sheep. Second prize was a dog painting that I liked more. I wonder what the prizewinners get. I wonder what People's Choice winner gets.

The First Warm Day of the Year

Trees in my development.

Bushes in the woods.

We walked through the woods to this dog park to sit and watch the dogs play. I need to get a dog. I'm looking into fostering.

Cross-species friendship

Moss Graffiti

I'm so doing this.





Stand by for pictures of my own moss graffiti creation. (I have to find a place first.)

Vermont, even in the winter

Snowmobiling is the best. Last time we went, I drove and crashed us. This time, Mike drove the whole way up Rt 108, through the notch and back.

My Grandparents

This is my grandparents on their wedding day.

Shoes on a Wire

One of my favorite things of all time is seeing shoes hanging from a wire. Sneakers or boots, phone or cable wires, it makes me happy. I saw a different pair of shoes slung over power lines every day for the last four days. Maybe the universe was wishing me Happy Valentine's Day.

I've heard that shoes on a wire can relate to gang activity. And that in some regions it is what you do with your old shoes when you get a new pair. Maybe some people do it for the artistic effect. Not necessarily because it's that artistic, but it is kinda of romantic.

Much to my delight, the movie Big Fish featured a magical village that you could not escape from unless you threw your shoes over the wires.

Etsy

Etsy, the DIYer's response to eBay, is one of my favorite online places to browse. So many things that I wish I could afford, like handmade dresses.








So many beautiful stained glass pieces of mermaids and dragons, or dancing skeletons.




So many funky, whimsical items like this glass-and-charms crown.

Valentines from Dad

Just got a delivery at work: one bouquet for the office, one bouquet to take home with me. And a box of chocolates. In Dad's family, one never forgets the chocolates.

The map that comes with a box of chocolates is another one of my favorite things in the world. I hate when there isn't a map. It's almost as good as the chocolates.

Cupcakes

Cupcakes: pirate, monkey, Jaws, veggies, ninja, alien, dog.

Big Fat Goalie

Old Journal Entries

It hurts her that the boys she spent summers with are now men. Although it makes them stronger, it doesn't make her feel any more protected. In her youth, when she threw glass bottles or hexes, they would close around her, shielding the world until her wind died down.

Then they'd cocoon her in grass clippings and cotton and keep her dress from blowing up past her knees as they carried her home to the house she shared with frogs and fireflies. They let her walk on bare feet over the cold stones to her door.

Sometimes she was radiant and they couldn't help but relax. Other times, she was dull and not really there, like the discarded skin of a lizard. But they'd feed her salt and gin that reminds her of wearing silk on dates in pool halls. But the best thing to do, which none of them knew, was to submerge her in cold vinegar water.

She pushed her tongue against the back of her teeth until they jutted out at grotesque angles. She cannot kiss anymore.