Speaking of Mister Rogers – you know Mr. McFeely, the postman? “Speedy Delivery” ? I know him. Well, I’ve met him. You all know I work in public television. He was here ~15 years ago when we completed our new building and had a big open house event. I was in charge of getting the PBS celebrities! So David Newell came, and was an absolute love to the children all day long, and then he and I went out for dinner. He had one cocktail, a Manhattan, I believe, and then a big plate of seafood.
I do have quite a bit of spare time right now, but making stuff is what I do for relaxation. It roughly equates to tv-watching. I spend maybe half an hour to an hour a day fiddling with whatever I’m working on at the moment. I recommed chainmail- portable, easy, and you can pick it up or put it down at any point. Breadmaking is a little less flexible.
One more plea for the return of winter. Is is supposed to cool down today, but not until later. I may phone my mother and ask her to go someplace airconditioned with me until work tonight.
Ah, Drae is a NaNo participant? I’ve toyed with the idea of doing that, but several factors have conspired to prevent me from participating:
November is a horribly busy month for students. It’s the end of semester crunch.
While I can write, and write well, I don’t have good story ideas. The problem I encounter has been that anything I could write that would be realistic enough would just be shadowing my own life. I do have one idea that gets around this, and also as I write these down it occurs to me that the new style of puns (leading into the webcomic) is another solution to this problem. Nevertheless, when it comes to something on the length of a NaNo novel, I think I’ll stick to nonfiction.
Hi, scout!
Speaking of puns, here’s today’s.
Short and sweet. Today I’m going to the local Solomon Smith Barney office with my grandfather so we can straighten out the joint trust or stock or something account that we have. Not sure exactly what he has in mind, but I trust him.
oh yeah? well, my SIL went to college with Carroll Spiney (aka Big Bird and others)
and my brother was at Emerson the same time as Henry Winkler
and my sister was at Brandeis with Abbey Hoffman
and have I mentioned lately that I went to college with John Turturro?
nyah
I’ve done it for the last two years, and been a winner both times. I don’t always have good story ideas, either. My first year, what I think of as my Magnum Opus, was a barely-disguised year in the life of myself and my friends, only with a subplot. Which is, I believe, why my friends enjoy my writing so much, even when the plot can be considered bottom of the barrel–they’re narcissistic enough to enjoy reading about themselves.
And, um, my dad once sat next to Weezy Jefferson on a plane.
Well, looky who’s here in the middle of the day!! My wheel is to be delivered today. And I came home to a message to call the trucking company - I thought they goofed, but it turns out that my kiln will be delivered Monday! Woohoo! Happy Dance all over the place!!
Which I need, because I had such a crappy night. I was up coughing every hour or so, and my poor throat is so raw now. Poor, sick me…
Gotta go down to the basement and get the cart and the hand truck - not sure which one I’ll need to get the crate up to the garage. The delivery truck is a semi and it’ll stop at the end of the drive. The rest is up to me. I’m hoping it’ll come later - after FCD gets home. We shall see. But in case it doesn’t, I need to be prepared.
Ice cream is really soothing on a sore throat - wish I had some… <sigh>
Oh, YEAH? well, I once stood in a corridor at the art museum (building) and saw Robert Redford and his daughter looking at the exhibits–second week into school.
I am far sighted, so I didn’t intrude on their privacy.
AND my husband once sat a bar and talked to Bill Kurtis* (whom I adore)–he was at some conference and Bill was staying at the hotel. (now, if it had been Walter Jacobson*, I would not have been impressed–hate that lil man).
*local OLD, OLD news anchors here in Chi-town from my childhood. They used to anchor together–Walter was like a seriously wound minitiature Pekingnese, and Bill more like a Lab.
Oh yeah, well I once peed next to Bart Conner, the gymnast. Little bitty guy.
And one day I might be compelled to share my Mary Ann Childers* story.(in the 80’s when she was younger and hotter, though FTR, she looks pretty good now…)
brushing elbows with celebs ain’t the same thing as actually having spent lots of time with 'em (as in attended the same school as, were neighbors (who actually knew each other) with, dated, etc)
I mean, c’mon! I was a theatre major and Broadway and Soap types were always coming to campus to talk to us and give workshops, and I took a course in which we bussed down to NYC once a week for a show (which we had to critique in weekly 3 page papers - hence the justification for the course) so I collected a lot of autographs, handshakes, and cheek kisses.
I had my picture taken with Cliff Robertson some time in the mid 70s. I’ve got it stored in a box somewhere. I wasn’t impressed - he’s all smiley and congenial in the photo, but he was a bit of a jerk IRL.
I also ran into Harry Chapin - maybe 6 feet away - he stared at me, then turned and walked away. This was after he did a concert at Purdue where I was an usher.
Such is my brush with celebrities.
Cart and hand truck are at the ready. I should probably toss some laundry into the machine. I’ve got the sprinkler set up in the front garden - it’s been too dry and my dahlias were looking wilty. We may not get rain till the weekend. Maybe. So I’m watering.
Yep, we both attended this fine institution. I didn’t really know him more than to say hi but my roomie and her boyfriend were buds with him. He always wore the same cordoroy sports jacket with torn pockets…every day. Alas, poor Grahm is no more but I tells ya Kenmore Square in 1969 was a trip.
Now, as for brushes with celebs…I waited on Tennessee Williams when I worked at the Pier House in Key West. Got flirted with by Warren Oates in a bar near Saratoga oncet, too.
Hmm. I’ve just been rereading A Breath of Snow and Ashes (not our Ashes) (ivylass, are you reading this?), the latest Diana Gabaldon novel, and I’ve come to the conclusion that too many bad things happen to the main characters in this one.
I have never met anyone famous. At least I don’t think so. welby’s been in a movie, and I’ve met him, does that count?
Pfft. When it comes to famous people, I have you all beat. I’ve know a good solid 7 or 8 really awesome, really famous people. In fact, I speak with them online regularly. You’ll never guess who they are.
Give up? Okay. I know none other than the illustrious Fairy Chat Mom, swampbear, Mr Bus Guy, anyrose, Tupug Anachi, gotpasswords, chaoticbear, Lissla Lissar, Dolores Reborn, Ellen Cherry, SnakesCatLady, Surrender Dorothy, welby, Least Original User Name Ever, and even eleanorigby and Rue DeDay. And I’ve met in person and had lunch with Draelin, taxi78cab, and Anaamika!!
Now, I know you’re jealous. Fortunately, I thought ahead and got autographs for all of you. The line forms on the left and it’s $20 – no, for you guys, it’s just $15 a piece. Because I love you all so much.
Dang, in all the excitement about my ceramics stuff, I forgot the Big News!! On Saturday, FCD and I are going, live and in person, to a Demolition Derby!!! Oh yes, we are! Don’t you wish you had such cool plans?!?
When we bought the house, the front yard had been “xeriscaped” rather than normal landscaping. Not a single blade of grass, other than ugly pampas grass bushes and other things that resembled tumbleweeds. Plus two sickly trees and rocks. Lots of brazil-nut sized rocks and an avalanche of boulders generally larger than basketballs.
Our assumption is that the original owner found some sort of tax credit for setting up this ugliness in the middle of a block where every other house had a normal green grass lawn. Or she had a pathological hate for the neighbors. The second owner couldn’t be bothered to do anything with it, so it was in really bad condition. Over the course of a few weekends, we cut down the trees, dug out the pampas grass, unraveled ivy, rolled away the rocks and ground out the roots.
Strangely, there was a semblance of a sprinkler system amid the tumbleweeds, but the heads were placed in no semblance of usability for a lawn, so all of the pipes were pulled up and the whole thing laboriously rototilled. New sprinklers were plotted out and piped in, and sod was rolled out.
The neighborhood is very happy with us now. We’re no longer “that house with the desert out front” or “that house with nothing but rocks and dirt in the front yard” I lost track of all the people that stopped by to compliment us as we were rolling out the grass.
