What a drag it is...



getting old.

PS I will really try to post something of substance one of these days.

Vacation

Just a note ... I'll be away for the next week, up at the flat where the internet access is slim to none. The Max, The Big G and all 3 kittehs are coming so I'm not sure if it's really a vacation from anything but the interwebs, but even that's a good thing sometimes. I'll leave you with some 80's girlband goodness.

Astronomical


photo courtesy of mjkjr on Flicker

Today – March 19 – features the closest full moon of 2011. Some are calling it a supermoon.
Ooo oo ooo what a little moonlight can do!

Kid Charlemagne
Owsley Stanley, LSD pioneer, RIP

Augustus Owsley Stanley III, AKA the "Bear," died in a car crash in his adopted home of Queensland, Australia today. He was 76. Between 1965 and 1967, Stanley homebrewed more than one million doses of LSD in the San Francisco Bay Area fueling a revolution in consciousness, music, art, and the counterculture.


Here is a rare interview with "Bear" from 2007. "For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area"

L'Image du Jour

I found this at thisisnotporn.net, a most wonderful collection of celebrity candid photos ( and no, not THAT kind).
For me, this pretty much sums up everything I love about Freddy Mercury.

Oh and this too:

Obit

R.I.P. George Shearing
August 13, 1919 – February 14, 2011

Hand Jive - Basel Style

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I must confess, when I was a little girl I had such a crush on Dean Martin. I don't know which I wanted more, to be grown up so I could marry him, or have him be my daddy and sing me to sleep every night.

L'Image du Jour

I found this fantastic French blog, Le Divan Fumoir Bohémien, and spent most of yesterday drooling over the pictures and finding all kinds of nifty little museums to check out next time we're in Paris.

And to keep you in that French state of mind, here's a little Georges Brassens:

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They play this a lot on Option Musique these days and I'm trying to convince The Max to learn the piano bit. I think this video is tres charmant ... kitties and claymation together, yeah!

Press Leak

Best Headline of 2010 (or possibly ever):

'Female squirrels never turn down sex'

Seriously, this is on the CBC News website today!

Also, my apologies for being absent for the last while, this song pretty much sums it up for me:

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Because it's almost Halloween and it's Bryan Ferry...
I'll be in my bunk for the next little while.

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Bien sùr...there is no place quite like Paris.

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This is for one of my favorite bloggers, idleprimate, an ape with more sense than most and the wherewithall to show us.(reallly, go check out his blog).
For Ape, because 1000 years is just the blink of an eye.

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It's all too beautiful..

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It's been awhile since I've posted one of these...



I don't think I've ever seen people singing so happily about 'troubles'. *snark*

Honestly...

The delightful Dani Dragonfly has bestowed yet another award and honestly, I am again flattered and grateful (grateful because I was wondering what the hell I was going to blog about) and so thank you ma petit lilubelle! Although I am going to play loose and whacky with the rules, because I'm like that.

So, seven tidbits about me that:

a) I am willing to reveal

b)Won't bore you all to tears

c)Will not incriminate me in any court of law

d)Will not embarrass, shock or awe my family and friends

Hmmmm...not as easy as it seemed at first. Did you know that quickly repeating the phrase 'Honest Scrap' sounds like 'Honest Crap'? So here's some honest crap:

1. I have big ears. They don't stick out (thank heavens!) but they are large and flat and have not been seen in public for some decades now, thanks to having long hair that covers their pancake-like placement on my skull.Despite the fact that they are not beautiful little shell shaped pink orbs, the lobes are pierced and I wear the same pair of earrings for years on end, because why bother with all that frippery if no one ever sees them?

 2. I smoke. And I'm mostly unrepentant about it.I willingly tolerate being a modern day leper and go stand out in the weather to get my fix and don't smoke in my home either. Nor do I smoke a lot...I have been smoking cigarettes for 35 years now, never more than half a pack a day and in the last few years I've made an effort to 'smoke healthy' which means only smoking the first half of a cigarette and being picky about the kind of tobacco and additives that I consume. That said, I would rip The Max's arms off and beat him with the bloody stumps if I ever caught him with a cigarette in his mouth.Would I like all the health benefits that could be mine if I quit? Yeah sure. Am I going to quit? No, not likely. I did quit for a year once, but in all honesty, I like my nicotine...a lot.
(As for smoking any other...uh...substances, I refer you to disclaimer c) above)

3. I'm related to famous dead people. Although I was born in Canada, my parents didn't become Canadian citizens until I was 8 or so and I grew up listening to my grandmother regal me with our 'illustrious' ancestry. Not only am I related to Martin Van Buren, the eighth POTUS but am also eligible to be a Colonial Dame of America because I can trace my ancestry back to the Mayflower. Woo hoo!

(I also grew up never knowing my aunts,uncles, cousins and other relatives because they were in the States and we were...on the Prairie). I learned to sing the American National Anthem before Oh Canada, I still say zee instead of zed and am always mistaken for an American wherever I go...thanks Mom and Dad for that midwestern twang.

4. I am spatially challenged.I have no feel for linear measure, cannot comprehend what it means when someone says a room is 30 x 20 meters and am forever trying to fit large things into small spaces. This is a constant source of amusement for the Big G. Remember on those IQ tests they used to make you take in school there would be a whole section that was devoted to figuring out what shape a flat piece of paper with some lines on it would fold up and form? (actually, does anyone remember IQ tests? Anyone?) I would sit there with my 2B pencil clenched in my sweaty hand, feeling like the village idiot because I wasn't an afficionado of origami, eventually defaulting to randomly guessing at a, b, c or d. Fuck you Mensa, I never wanted to join your little club anyways.

 5. I have a lisp...after some years of speech therapy as a teen it is slight, but I can fall into full-on Thylvethster thpeak after a few glasses of wine. Needless to say, Sylvester is my favorite WB character, despite his unrelenting quest to eat the Tweety Bird.

6. The Max was born at home. This is one of the things I am most proud of and most grateful for. I had been involved with midwifery and had attended a half dozen births or so before I got pregnant and there was never any doubt that I wanted to give birth at home attended by a midwife. Giving birth is a profound experience in any location, but it was wonderful to be in the comfort of my own home, with friends and a truly dedicated, professional and compassionate midwife, Noreen Walker, to support me during labour and celebrate with me after The Max was born. Even if you would never choose to have your baby at home, please support your local midwives, they are caregivers in the most literal sense of the word and can be an asset at any birth, at any location.

7. I love ironing. Shut Up! I love ironing so much I iron the sheets, the tea towels and even t-shirts ( I must add that the nature of clothes dryers here in Switzerland requires that you iron just about everything that falls out of them in a wrinkled, twisted mass).But I find ironing soothing, tranquil and meditative.There's little else when I'm in a crappy mood that can calm me as much as watching all those nasty wrinkles smooth into fresh, warm, flat cloth. Now if only I could achieve this with my skin.



Phew...that was more difficult than I thought it would be, I feel....naked! Now instead of handing this award out to 10 bloggers I'm simply going to list a few blogs and sites that I visit everyday because of their honesty and candour.

Deus Ex Malcontent
Amalah
Common Dreams
Rants from the Pants
Hobocamp
Rainbows! Puppies! Leukemia!

And to wrap it all up, here's Billy Joel:

Requiem for a Squidge

She came to us one year ago, stubbornly refusing to return to her original owner.

I will miss her 'stretchy legs'.

I will miss her 'sitting pretty'.

I will miss her licking my nose in bed.

I will miss how soft and totally 'squidgy' she was.

I am grateful for the year we had.

I am grateful for the vet, who tried to discover what had happened to her and treated her with gentle, intelligent care.

Mostly, I am sad. Bye Squidge, my squidgy little squidglette.

Break Free

So it seems despite the Olympics and all that festivity, the February fuckwithyourhead furies are still messing with many people out in the big old bloggosphere...so I think it's time for us to follow Freddy's suit and let loose with some silly. This is for all of you out there fighting off the blahs, the grumps,the wtf?, and especially for one delicate and beautiful little dragonfly...


Perfection! 

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Well, not really in the morning...noon to be exact!