Maybe a bit odd, but it’s hard to be away from New York today.

I’m thinking I need to find a morning ritual again. I seem to have slid away from anything not resembling gulping down coffee, throwing on whatever clothes and then immediately starting work.  I do wash the dishes every morning while listening to NPR.  Which I love.  But maybe if I woke up a little earlier and I’d actually have some time to wake up.  Figure out what I’m doing that day.  Just be quiet before it all starts.  

When we first moved to Providence, I had breakfast in the nook by our living room bay windows.  I guess because it was so cold in there during the winter I stopped doing it.   But now the leaves are out on the trees and sun comes pouring in.  I think its time to enjoy sitting there again.  

I also miss crocheting.  Its getting hot though (or was– this week is chilly and wet,) and big projects aren’t so fun in the heat.  But maybe a little square a day?  Sitting in the window, with coffee and a cat, watching the leaves?  Seems like that would be a nice way for my brain to wake up.  

Do you have a morning “ritual”?

I have to say, I really didn’t think it would happen.  I kind of hate to admit that, but its true.

My sister, my mother and I watched the inauguration at The Providence Performing Art Center.  

It was wonderful to be in that huge ornate building, packed with people.  I cried through the whole thing. 

And now I’m back home watching all the marching bands in the parade.  They’re pretty incredible.  

This whole day is incredible.

Happy New Year everyone!  I’ve been away, but now I’m back home, all snugly amidst the surprise (well, it was a surprise to me,) snow.

I was in Vermont with my family for Christmas– which meant more snow, good food and good cheer.  My parents and I took a walk on Christmas day:

Oh Vermont, you are so pretty…

Is everyone ready for the new year?  I’m up to my eyebrows in lists, which means I’m lookin’ forward to it.

This weeks Cricket is from 1989.  And almost every page looks familiar!

Cricket Magazine, January 1989, Volume 16 number 5.  The cover is by Margot Zemach:

I remember thinking this cartoon was funny.  

My siblings and cousins and I, spent many a rainy day sliding down the stairs in various ways. Inevitably, one of us would end in tears. 

General MacTiger, who is always “dignified and stately:” 

“By George, what a remarkable case of stripelessness! I must get to the bottom of it.”

From “Gran’s Fabulous Kitchen,” by Ruskin Bond. Illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith:

Her illustrations are so familiar and comfy to me.  Growing up I read so many books illustrated by her. And looking at these, I get such a nice warm feeling.

My favorite illustrations from this one are from “Bear Watch,” and are illustrated by Ted Lewin.  When Gita’s father becomes sick she takes over in the bear-watch hut, guarding their corn-field from the black Himalayan bears all night.  

“Then she picked up the gun, pointed it toward the corn-field, and practiced sighting down the long barrel.  She sighed a little, wondering if she’d know how to shoot.”

When a bear appears, her gun doesn’t work.  Gita is terrified until she spies the lids from her supper. Banging and yelling she frightens the bear away and the corn is saved.  

What a great spread, right?  That pink is the third color throughout the magazine. Man, good choice.  

Also looks gorgeous here in the illustrations by Hillary Knight:

Funny how I would never think of Hillary Knight if I saw these before.  I just think Hillary Knight= “Eloise.” Of which I am a long time, huge fan of.  But now that I know, they seem so similar.  And so obviously his.

I remember making these sari’s:  

I’m also pretty sure I remember wanting to be that cute blond girl, second from the right.  She was so cute and cool and it seemed so easy. Probably because she had pierced ears. And an anklet.

More images at Flickr!

This victory alone is not the change we seek; it is only the chance for us to make that change.

Yes we can.

I haven’t mentioned it, but we have a newcomer in our house.  Due to circumstances involving exgirlfriends and pounds, we now have a new kitty to add to our ever growing feline family.  

So now there are three.  

It has occurred to me that this now means we’re crazy cat people.  But after complaining about this, The Mister assured me that once we get a dog, we’ll just be crazy animal people.  Which sounds better to both of us.  Needless to say welcoming a new dog will have to be put off until our current growing pains simmer down.  This might take a while.  Our new little lady is the prickly type.  

In related crazy cat people news, we put up cat shelves!

What else were we going to do with those high ceilings?  Its almost like a kitty habitrail…

You may have noticed that we put up the shelves before any other decorating.  And its true– it looks a little sparse.  But we’re working on it.

This is an experiment. Since the beginning of this little blog, I’ve had to wrestle with the photographs in every post. Which makes it hard to put up anything on a regular basis. Which is annoying to me as I like to do this. Anyhow, I’m trying out flickr’s “Blog this photo” function. Does anyone else use that?
I’ve noticed that lots of blogs I like just post one photo at the top, as opposed to sprinkled throughout. Of course, I would prefer the sprinkling, but I don’t think I can do that with flickr.
So we’ll try this out and see how it goes.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was in Boston last weekend with our film We Are Wizards at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.  We were there for four days and had so much fun.  Not only did the screenings go really well:

But we had fun traipsing around Boston as well, which was a bit surprising as I don’t remember liking Boston all that much.  ( No offense Beantown-ers.)  I went shopping with my mom, got various kinds delicious sushi with my cousins, went bowling and had yummy brunches, but if I had to choose, the tourist highlight was visiting the home of  many happy childhood memories: The Museum of Science, Boston.

I remember going a lot when I was little. It was always a treat to take the train from Providence, or even brave the hour drive, and then be released into this awesome space where we would go tearing about.   (The Boston Children’s Museum was a close second favorite.) Admittedly, its definitely seen better days and is not as impressive as I remember, probably do to my current height, (everything seemed a lot smaller,) as well as a lack of funding.  

But still!:  The omni theater! The stairs that play music when you walk on them! The space shuttle you can go in! 

The Sequoia Tree I fainted in front of on a 7th grade ( 8th grade?) field trip!

 The electric/lightening show!– well we unfortunately missed that, but we did get to play with this:

Plus there was a show on squamates — “the order of legged and legless lizards.” ahem.  That includes snakes by the way.  It was alternately a bit sad, ( those glass terrariums always seem really small, especially accompanied by a placard saying something about how these specifics lizards love to “travel great distances in a day,” ) and then just so cool I mostly forgot about being sad.  Sorry little guys. 

I tried to take photos that captured the cool patterns and texture of their skin.  It mostly didn’t work.  But a few of them did.  

Aren’t they pretty? And look at this cool little guy!