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Thursday, January 05, 2006

of roma and etruria and michelangelo

Finally, at long last, we launched a website for Martha Wakeman, a pastel artist, and her husband Robert Proctor, a professor of Italian at Connecticut College. It’s here: http://www.marthawakeman.com and I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s turning out. We have some more photos of venues and topics to add in, maybe a map or two, in the Art & Study Retreats in Italy sections.

From the hills above Settignano, by Martha Wakeman. (click image to enlarge)We created the site using ExpressionEngine so it would be easy to maintain and update, particularly the Gallery. We plan to add in a payment system for those who want to make reservation deposits or pay for a retreat online—that will go up in a few days or so.

The planning challenge was for it to handle Martha’s artwork and the Art & Study Retreats in Italy on the same site. Placing the content for the Retreats section was fun since I did most of it while watching it snow—prompted dreams of Italy. Rome is near the top of my list for places I want to go within the next ten years. Take a look at the Retreats descriptions and see if they don’t make you want to get or update your passport and start packing.

posted by lee on 01/05/06 at 04:13 PM
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Saturday, December 31, 2005

the best list of the year 2006 edition

Here it is, the Lake Superior State University 2006 List of Banished Words. With abbreviated descriptions; read the whole thing in Sault Ste. Marie.

SURREAL – One part opiate of the masses, 13 parts overuse.

HUNKER DOWN – To brace oneself, in anticipation of media onslaught.

PERSON OF INTEREST – Found within the context of legal commentary, but seldom encountered at cocktail parties.

COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS – A five-dollar phrase on a nickel-errand. Not to be confused with ‘school.’

UP OR DOWN VOTE – A casualty of today’s partisanship.

BREAKING NEWS – Once it stopped presses. Now it’s a lower-intestinal condition brought about by eating dinner during newscasts.

DESIGNER BREED – “When you mate a miniature schnauzer to a toy poodle, it’s not a ‘Schnoodle,’ it’s a mongrel.”

FEMA – Dedicated to the memory of a great federal agency consigned to the ash heap of parody.

FIRST-TIME CALLER – “I am serious in asking: who in any universe gives a care?”

PASS THE SAVINGS ON TO YOU! – Marketing catch phrase that became a lost-leader long ago.

97% FAT FREE – Adventures in delusion.

AN ACCIDENT THAT DIDN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN – Best-laid mayhem.

JUNK SCIENCE – Banished from the Marketplace of Ideas.

GIT-ER-DONE – (Any of its variations) It’s overdone. [I never heard this one. Ever. Can’t say that I’m sorry.]

DAWG – No designer breed here.

TALKING POINTS – Created after PR staffers stopped attending seminars on how to put a positive ‘spin’ on their press releases.

HOLIDAY TREE – a silly name for what most folks hold as a Christmas tree, no matter your preference of religion.

They’re now accepting submissions for the 2007 list!

posted by lee on 12/31/05 at 10:00 PM
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

well now, that’s a relief

Christmas was fun—besides a burr grinder, Stanley gave me a Kodak Duaflex III camera and I managed to find film for it (am waiting for it to arrive) and Maureen, Jeff, Kate, and Ben gave us a dvd recorder. Everybody seemed pleased with what they received.

Maureen was getting dinner ready when Dad called. Dad and Mom are down in Panama City Beach for the winter. Dad said he had to take Mom to hospital because she woke him up Christmas morning and told him she was having chest pains. So he bundled her into the car immediately and got her to Bay Medical, their local hospital which, fortunately, is a very good one. Her electrocardiogram was a bit abnormal and her blood pressure was off the charts, so they admitted her. Since it was a holiday on Sunday and on Monday, nothing was done until Tuesday, where they gave her a chemical stress test since she couldn’t handle the treadmill stress test (her hip hurts too much).

She got the results this morning, which showed no heart damage, and they discharged her. I’m relieved there was no heart damage, but would really like to know the diagnosis for the chest pain, which lasted more than two days. I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t the heart, but suspect the extraordinary stress she’s been under the last month or so triggered something. Dad’s carotid artery roto-rootering and then the packing up and driving down to Florida from Michigan after his docs gave him the all-clear didn’t give Mom much of a chance to de-stress. I know with me the stress creeps up on me and knocks me on the ass after the crisis has passed—I would imagine it’s probably the same deal for Mom.

She’s home (at their condo) now—I hope she can de-stress. Maybe sit in the Florida sunshine and just let the worries slip away.

posted by lee on 12/28/05 at 10:28 AM
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Sunday, December 18, 2005

expression engine

Every time I start to catch up with all the ExpressionEngine installations we maintain, pMachine goes and announces an upgrade. Yay! Damn them! Yay! Shit I have work to do ...

This time, though, they offer a FREE core installation, which is making me really happy as I can use that instead of the old pMachine installations on the couple of sites where folks just want a nice, easy to use, and very simple blog. pMachine is a little on the complicated side and doesn’t work very well for this purpose, really; you can tell the company applies what they learn about what works and what doesn’t.

And I was going to spend most of Monday finishing the xmas shopping. Hmm.

posted by lee on 12/18/05 at 09:28 PM
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Saturday, December 03, 2005

second fooey this week

I’m glad coffee is good for you because I refuse to give it up. At least, today it’s good for you, sharpens your memory, has more anti-oxidents than tea, blah blah blah. I drink it daily, at least two big cups per day, sometimes an entire pot. I love Kona and Blue Mountain when I can afford the real stuff. I love Green Mountain’s Nantucket Blend, Harvard Blend, and Heifer Hope. I like Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, the regular stuff, a lot (I won’t touch the sweet stuff—if there is even one grain of sugar in my coffee, I can’t drink it. I don’t like coffee ice cream even.)

But my favorite coffee is French Vanilla from Coffee and Tea Warehouse. It’s the best vanilla coffee I’ve ever had, even better than the Melitta French vanilla, which is also very good (though I haven’t been able to find it in whole bean form). I like it so much that I joined their coffee club, where it’s shipped automatically every ten weeks or so. I never get tired of it.

So imagine my shock when the owner, Russ Lundgren, sent out a newsletter telling everyone he’s dropping flavored coffee. Damn. Doesn’t pay to be loyal. I have one more shipment that went out on November 23 (which I haven’t received yet ... wonder where it is?) and that’s it forever. I aksed if there was another source for this flavor, and didn’t get an answer. I know my $150 or so a year is but a drop in their bucket, but there must have been a lot of other customers who like it since Russ told me it was their most popular coffee. I guess that was then.

Hell hell hell. Since Melitta Vanilla is hard to get when I want it, I decided to try the stuff at The Coffee Fool, which I’ve been curious about. So I ordered a bag of their vanilla, along with a bag of their pumpkin spice and one of Panama Boquete (the pure stuff, no flavor added to it). They claim their coffee is so fresh that after I try it, any coffee but theirs will taste like swill to me. I’ll report back when I’ve tried it.

If anyone knows of a good brand of excellent vanilla flavored coffee beans, I’d love to hear about it.

posted by lee on 12/03/05 at 04:38 PM
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

good news, and an interesting phone call

First, the best news (which, for Stanley and me, was not unexpected): Gordon Joseloff won the race for First Selectman in Westport and his running mate, Shelly Kassen, won as Second Selectwoman. Gordon is founder, editor, and publisher of WestportNow.com. Congratulations Gordon!

Next, here in Norwalk, incumbent Alex Knopp was defeated. Dick Moccia is our new mayor. The race was very close, but it looks like not close enough for Connecticut’s automatic recount mechanism to kick in. Knopp conceded. I’m relieved—I really think Knopp is doing damage to Norwalk. I have no idea who else won here in Norwalk—maybe we’ll find out in the paper tomorrow thought it probably won’t be until Thursday. Other than a couple of incumbents, I voted against the status quo. I did vote to re-elect Kevin Poruban, but voted again Bondi.

There was a proposition on the Norwalk ballot having to do with the mayor appointing the town clerk rather than having it be an elective position. The proposition was so badly worded that they were supposed to post signs explaining what the hell it meant, and what, exactly, one was voting up or down. I saw the sign—on the way out, after I’d voted. I firmly believe town clerk should be an elective position so I voted against the proposition and I hope it fails. Stanley voted against it as well. Town clerks have too much power and too much responsibility not to be accountable to voters every two years.

Oh, good, looks like the Dems are kicking Republican butts in the governor’s office in New Jersey and Virginia. The NJ race was one of the nastiest races I’ve ever witnessed (I TRIED not to watch the NYC market TV stations, but People’s Court is on at the right time on a NYC station, so ... )

DALE AND THOMAS POPCORN UPDATE
Well, today the VP of whatever from Dale and Thomas Popcorn called, apologizing for the screw-up with Dad’s birthday present (which Dad says is the strangest birthday present he ever got). Said it was a fluke that my order got messed up. Then he had a customer service person call me and assure me that they are refunding my shipping fees. The VP offered to send me a tin of popcorn, which was nice but not necessary. I might’ve forgiven them and might’ve been willing to give them another shot, but one of the bags of popcorn I got (the peanut butter popcorn) was mostly crumbs and very little of the good stuff so I ended up giving most of it to the dog. Too damned expensive to get crumbs like that. I have two more sample bags of the stuff that I hope are edible (though Ginger is probably hoping they’re crumbs; I’ll probably catch her stomping on the box)—it IS good stuff ... maybe one more chance ...

Dad emailed me that he and Mom liked what they tried of the popcorn. Took it to bingo to test it out (I hope they won!)

posted by lee on 11/08/05 at 08:36 PM
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Saturday, October 29, 2005

finally, i redesigned my home page

Since the copyright was showing 2002, I figured my home page was overdue for a spiffing up. Got a bee in my bonnet and just spent five hours making it. Will do the resource page one of these days, and eventually re-do my resume. Neither are quite so urgent. The home page was embarrassing, though.

It validates as xhtml 1.0 strict, believe it or not. I have a couple of things to twitch in the CSS and that will validate as well, though I’m not going to worry about declaring background colors and all that when I don’t really need to. It’s a simple page, not something that’s a template for many others.

I built it on the fly, using Firefox to check it as I went along. Naturally, when it was perfect in Firefox, it sure wasn’t it IE. So I spent some more time twitching it to get it looking good in IE. It looks slightly less good in Foxfire now, but the overwhelming majority of people who visit my site use IE, so I’m more concerned that it looks ok in that. Or at least, I THINK it does—too tired to test on other machines. If you notice anything weird or broken or just want to comment, please do!

By jove, I think I’ll see the sun rise in a little while—I’m going to bed. It’s warmer there, anyway. We tried not to turn on the furnace until November, but it’s just gotten too damned cold and, more than anything else, damp. I’m thinking about it because my feet are cold and I’m looking forward to my nice warm bed—will have to unroll the blankets from Stanley and the cat when I get up there ... I hope it’s pleasant enough tomorrow to work on planting tulip bulbs. Or later today, I mean.

posted by lee on 10/29/05 at 01:46 AM
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Saturday, October 22, 2005

natick redmen vs. framingham, uh, frappacinos?

At long last, we managed to get up to Massachusetts to watch nephew Ben play football. He plays for his middle school here. I am happy to report that his team won, a resounding 8-0 victory. Pretty good team. The quarterback is Doug Flutie’s nephew—sports talent must be in the Flutie genetic code. Team Natick actually plays defense quite well: there were two downs in the last quarter where the Framingham ball was just ten yards from their goal line—but Natick held them off.

The Framingham field, though well-lighted, has a goal post only at one end. Very strange, like goalposts cost too much money or something. Oh, and a tiny section of bleachers, but only on one side of the field.

I wanted to take some photos of Ben, #65, in action. However, it was raining so hard I didn’t want to risk my camera. And man oh man was it raining! I was blowing sideways at times. I was so glad Stanley remembered to bring the rain ponchos we got at the Smithsonian. Ponchos is being generous—they are big garbage bags with hoods and logos. But no matter—they did the trick again and I only got soaked and muddy up to my knees.

It rained steadily throughout the entire game. It’s still raining. The coaches decided Friday to move the game from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night in order to avoid the rain. Now watch—it will probably be dry on Sunday afternoon! It’s been more years than I care to divulge since I spent and evening getting soaked watching football. But it was a lot of fun getting a chance to see Ben play—and he did a good job of it to boot.

When we drove into Natick early this afternoon, we were amazed at how high the Charles River was. I wonder how much higher it’s going to get. I hope the shored up damn in Taunton, MA holds: there is a LOT of rain coming down and no place for it to go because the ground is so saturated. The guys playing football were hydroplaning!

posted by lee on 10/22/05 at 08:59 PM
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Sunday, October 16, 2005

now it’s the wind

Very frustrating day. It’s pretty out, mixed sun and clouds, in the low 60s—would be a perfect day to work outside. However, the wind is really bad today. It’s sustained between 10 and 20 mph, gusting to 40 mph. And by gusting, I don’t mean every once in a while—I mean it’s more like a rapid cycle. Which turns the ripe butternuts into deadly projectiles, not to mention various branches and the occasional Lil Tyke slide. (Are butternuts good for anything? Are they edible? I mean other than for squirrels.)

But what’s even worse is out power is going in and out. It was supposed to be fixed during the last windstorm, but was not—they called and Stanley answered the phone telling them that yes, the power was on (the wind had died down), so they didn’t bother to fix the problem which, they said, is a loose connection. Which made me mad—I yelled at Stanley and told him you never tell the utility company a problem is fixed until you’ve seen them fix it with your own eyes. (I don’t yell at anyone very much, so you can tell how frustrated I was. It’s so hard to work with everything flickering.) So now we have to deal with this nonsense again and, since there are so many power outages here in Connecticut, I’m sure we’ll have to wait and wait.

It’s impossible to do anything—I don’t have the light so I can’t work on my books (taxes are due tomorrow and this year I pushed it to the limit—I’m about two hours from being done with them). We can’t figure out why we still have an internet connection—other than there must be a power supply built into the power strips. Don’t know how long it will last. And I’m using the laptop—don’t know how long it will be before I have to turn it off.

A tree blew down today (click to enlarge):

This is at the corner of Strawberry Hill Avenue and Walter, right in front of Nathan Hale Middle School, about a block away from our house. It’s mostly gone now—they worked pretty fast to get it taken care of since SHA is so busy.

I’m nervous about losing one of our trees—the ground is just so saturated I’ll be surprised and grateful if we don’t. Maybe we can plant my irises and the new rosebush tomorrow.

posted by lee on 10/16/05 at 12:23 PM
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Saturday, October 15, 2005

sun - it really is sunshine!

It rained here for eight days and eight nights straight. But today, at long soggy last, a break in the rain. Sunshine—that’s sunshine I see!

The grand total for the eight-day storm’s worth of rain here is 9.6 inches.

Now it’s windy, really windy, and the lights are flickering once in a while. If it gets worse, we’ll call CL&P again to have them fix the loose connection. They were supposed to during the last windstorm, which occurred right before the deluge, but they didn’t.

We had out usual assortment of old-house leaks, and Stanley spent a good amount of time bailing out the cellar, but we emerged relatively unscathed from the downpours. We live at the top of Sunset Hill, so I wasn’t worried about floods. There is a lot of flooding in other areas of Connecticut, and it will probably take a few days before things are back to normal and there can be some total damage assessment. I don’t think any houses floated down any rivers, but a lot of houses were flooded.

What’s really strange is this rainstorm occurred almost 50 years to the day as the storm of 1955 where the torrential rains caused flooding that tore up a good many towns in Connecticut. There is a very interesting article in the Norwalk Advocate today about what the flood of 1955 did to Norwalk—which, truth be told, never really recovered. And the Norwalk River has been so straight-jacketed that it wasn’t even mentioned this week as a potential problem.

Seems like the planet is becoming a much more dangerous place to live.

Tomorrow, maybe it will be dry enough to finish planting my irises and our new rosebush and, maybe, we can put some more grass seed down. It’s too wet today.

We were supposed to go to Natick this weekend to watch Ben play football, but his game was bumped by the high school’s make-up game. So we will go next weekend instead. Next Friday, we are going to the other side of the state—maybe by then the leaves will have finally turned and it will be a pretty drive.

Damn, it’s clouding up again.

posted by lee on 10/15/05 at 12:32 PM
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