big salad time!

Ah, it must be summertime!!!
Today, for lunch, I am having my first Big Salad!!!
Elaine Benes would be so very jealous...

let the sun shine in! the SUN shine IN!

Let the sun shine! Let the sun shine in! The SUN shine IN!!!
At last! The sunroom is open again!
I kept waiting for the temperatures outside to stabilize, to cease dropping into "too low" and not rising into "high enough".
It has taken this long. I don't recall spring being so tardy, but maybe it has been and I had not been paying close enough attention.
That is probably the case.
So, I know you're wondering: did it make a difference in the heating bill? (Remember, I had closed off the guest room as well).
You know what? It did.
Given the ugly, brutal, extended cold weather, my highest gas bill was still just under $171. That was for the heat used in February, which is typically the coldest month at this latitude. In the past, I've had bills well over $200 for that same month.
So, I guess I will save my sheet and tack pins for when the cold returns.
Meanwhile, I am going to enjoy having my cheery sunroom back in my view and ready for use!
And, yes, it's good to be able to have the guest room available, too.

i'm just mad about saffron

Don't it make my blue car yellow?
(Hey, I'm paraphrasing a song, okay?)
Plant sperm!
All over my car!!!
You know what I'm talking about.

Yes, I realize that for three years running, around this time of year,
or sometimes earlier,
I am compelled
to comment
on this natural occurrence.
Compelled to comment,
I say!

I think the presence of the yellow bits in my sinuses and in my eyes clouds not only my respiration and sight, but also the flow of oxygen to my poor, beleaguered brain.
In much the same way in which the swallows return to Capistrano and loggerhead turtles return to the beaches of their birth, my senses carry the same data to the same locale in my gray matter.
That information triggers the same conclusions drawn by previous data-gathering forays.
Plant sperm is in the air!
Nowhere to hide!
Certainly no sense in washing the car until the onslaught has ceased, n'est-ce pas?

she's a beauty

Spring has sprung!
I saw my first gnats last night, struggling to break through the glass on the second floor of the Science Center.
(shiver)
They looked hungry, too.
And my Japanese magnolia is in full-TILT boogie mode, blooming like there's no tomorrow, like the only time is NOW, live for the moment and celebrate the WARMTH!

That's a good attitude!

closed until spring

Yesterday, I closed off the sunroom. No more cold air streaming from that corner of the house and permeating every other space.
I also closed the door to the guest room. The peace Guy is gone, away in ATL with a new love, and I doubt he will return anytime soon. I closed off the vent in that room, too. No sense in paying to heat that area when no one will be in there.
Closing off the guest room didn't bother me, though. I simply shut the door. That was much as Joe had done, when he thought the room was too messy for view. That was not anything new to me.
But closing off the sunroom... that is another story all together.
No more bright and cheery sun-yellow walls to look at while I wait for the coffee to percolate.
No more enjoyment of that space for morning breakfasts.
No more artificial enhancement of the size of my kitchen.
I shall miss this room.
I missed it this morning. Even though the sheet is a light blue-green and has pretty flowers on it and allows much of the light through, it is a reminder that winter is here.
But spring will come... and I will anticpate that delight.

Tuesday with the Gnats

Nothing like a ball game to set things wrong a-right. Or perhaps it was the company, too. Yesterday had been a bit hard on me, so I needed a distraction, preferably with folks who didn't know I was job-hunting. Why? So no one would ask me and remind me that my days doing what I love were drawing to a close in another few weeks.
Willie and Arthur would welcome me with open arms, I knew. And they did, both being present on that spring evening. And we sat and talked baseball and gardening and the past winter. Neither of them said a word about this coming year and the possibility of me not teaching. Not one word about that. Life was good again.
The mother and daughter duo showed up for the last few innings, just in time to do their thing with Gnat. Cool! I bopped on down and caught up with them, admiring some of the players' fine tushes, too. Oh, yeah! We even made plans to see a play on Friday together, down at the beach, directed by a friend of mine I haven't seen for a while. Very nice!
Then the game was over, my boys of summer winning this game for me. Woohoo! That was especially nice as it was the first home game I'd been able to attend. The other three games passed by without me, as I had too many other events drawing me away.
I wasn't able to attend tonight's game, either, though I could have caught the last hour after class. Instead, I sped downtown for the French super-hero film, "Judex". Totally worth the trip! Not only was the protagonist a fighter of evil, he was also a magician, able to free white doves from any scarves or pockets at hand. Very nice - I do so enjoy magic! Thanks, Jim!

back in the saddle again

I feel like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. There, he lifted an arm and a huge wave rose to the occasion. Then he lifted the other arm, and another wave rushed to do his bidding. Suddenly, he was conducting an orchestral maneuver of crashing waters!!!
Then he went back to his regularly scheduled life as the sorcerer's apprentice, sweeping the floor and washing up.
I know just how he felt.
Yesterday was the final day of my Spring Break this year. It was also the final day of the inaugural Georgia Elvis Festival, held in the low country in the little town of Brunswick.
Say what?
I kid you not. Brunswick.
All of the events were in the downtown area, a couple of blocks of eateries and squares near a waterside park. It was all quite pretty, made even more so with bouquets of Presleys everywhere you looked!

Events were scheduled nonstop from mid-morn to late night - and you know me, I just HAD to BE at as many events as I could! Whew! Fabulously entertaining, a treat for the eyes and the ears, too! Songs I loved, songs I never knew, songs I had forgotten... songs from movies, songs from church, songs from the Vegas years! And the clothes - oh my! The many jumpsuits - white, black, blue! The capes, the spats, the blue suede shoes! Well, I lie - I didn't ever spot any blue suede shoes, but I certainly looked for them to be dancin' about!
But the shows ended and I returned home for my first niece's third decade celebration at the mini-golf on the island. Then I sped from that to pick up the bfe at the airport from his Canadian workshop.
And finally I was home again, to prepare for my regularly scheduled week as the waves subsided and rolled off in the distance.
Back in the saddle again. Giddy up!
Translation: Go to bed. NOW!

hey diddle, diddle

Spring has sprung locally and the air is full of sperm. Sure, some persist in calling the floating, ubiquitous yellow bits "pollen", but it's sperm, nonetheless.
After all, consider the source, shall we? Pollen is a fine powdery substance which contains the male gametes of a seed-bearing plant - that is, pollen is the fertilizing material released by the anthers of a plant. The anthers, a two-lobed structure at the tip of a thin, stem-like appendage, rupture when the pollen sacs within the lobes mature, releasing hundreds and thousands of egg-fertilizing cells. Sure sounds like SPERM to me!
It smells like sperm to me, too, and leads to a non-specific, near-constant horniness on my part. I've recognized this same effect of pollen in others as well; folks have an increased proclivity toward coupling during this part of the year (and again in the fall, when other flowering species are prolific).
As I am an analytical chemist, my specialty is pattern recognition, a type of puzzle solving. Sometimes there are so many variables at play that the true problem is isolating the key factor responsible for a pervasive behavior or response. I do believe the pollen is the dominant factor in the increase of sexual activity which coincides with the blooming of so much local flora.
My response is NOT to rush over to the nearest guy with a pulse to get a bit of action, a bit of the old in-out, so to speak. I'm not inclined toward one-nighters these days, not am I in search of a long-term mate, so what's a warm-bodied gal to do with herself?
Well, as my BFF would say, "a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!" But what to CALL it? "Diddling" seems utterly ineffectual and implies that one has all day to spend on the act. No. Climax should be accomplished within about twenty minutes or less, so a girl can get on with other important matters.
I have a personal fondness for the phrase "jerking off", though that seems to be regarded as a male-only expression. "Jacking off" and "whacking off" are also viewed as not quite appropriate for females. I have three brothers and have worked alongside men my entire life, so perhaps that explains my attraction to the term.
"Masturbate" is hard and clinical and I don't like it; it contains neither joy nor humor. ANY act of sex should include both joy and humor for maximum enjoyment by any, and all, parties present.
When I was a sailor, I found out about "Rosie Palmer and her five talented dancing sisters" and, I must admit, that expression ALWAYS brings a smile! True, a lesbian friend is the one who shared the phrase, so some might say those who are "strictly dickly" should abstain from its usage. I say those folk need to lighten up ... and maybe get diddled!