Dispatches

5 things:

1.  "Crafting something is a long, uncertain process.  A maker should show her work."Austin Kleon

2. The "work" in which I am in the long, uncertain process of making, is a painting.  The subject is one of three photos a friend has taken on various trips:  Two in Ecuador, and one in Scotland.  This is the one in Ecuador we picked for me to paint. 

3.  On my own visit to the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria, VA, I saw some paintings done on board panels with 2' deep wood cradles, and I got the idea of extending the painting itself not only across the front surface but also across the cradle surfaces. 

4.  Easier said than done, eh? This is a small 6"x6"x1.5" painting board with the preliminary design sketched on the front and extending to the cradle.  I loved this, and the woman who wanted the painting done liked it, too. It's kinda hard to see here, and the final painting will be much bigger: 2'x2'x2".  You can get the idea that a painting board is different from a canvas in that a) it's a board and b) it has a "cradle" or big "edge."

5.  Next dispatch will talk about the COLORs in this painting.  Unfortunately, one of MY favorite underpainting colors, cadmium orange, is NOT what the commissioner of this painting liked when she saw the first draft.

"ORANGE!  I don't want ORANGE...our living room has soft blues and pink"....well, it won't wind up orange.  It just has it underneath.  and so on....to be continued....

TGIF

5 things:

1.  If you want ideas for excellent reading, I am happy to share Louise Erdrich's suggestions from her latest post:  http://birchbarkbooks.com/blog/circular-thinking

2.  This is to appease Stuart Savory, who is not happy with the short posts here on XEXpress.com.

3.   For other possibly disenchanted Xtreme English readers who are interested in economics and the nation's current status (or lack thereof), here's a recent post from another of XE's favorite resources:  Juan Cole's "Informed Comment":  http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/questions-unemployed-produces.html

4.  And remember, you got this tip from XEXpress.com!!

5.  As an old woman, XE has no plans for lots of fun over the weekend.  Where once the youthful XE might have gone dancing in a number of small bars/nightclubs Northern Wisconsin, now she sits at home typing on her laptop and looking forward to climbing into her bed with a good book and a challenging crossword puzzle.  I'm sure Mr. Savory has cut back on his exciting social life, too.  It
happens to the best of us, eh?

A day in the life of a procrastinator....June 5, 2014

5 Things:

1.  Instead of doing my 3 pages of writing, taking a walk, and finding a recipe for what I want to cook and serve to my dinner guest tonight, I've been reading "Poets & Writers" May/June 2014 edition.  The front cover says "Your Complete Guide to Free WRITING CONTESTS"--"Big Opportunities, Zero Cost."

2.  Leafing through the magazine, I've noticed many ads for Writers Conferences, Creative Writing Programs, et al. 

3.  And I can't find the one where Sarah Schulman teaches.  She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the College of Staten Island, but CSI is not a writing program per se.

4.  I've landed on the "Agents & Editors" article about Susan Golumb, who found Jonathan Franzen's first novel The Twenty-Seventh City (FSG, 1988) in the slush pile.  The first agent I contacted about my oeuvre wrote back and told me he didn't like my life and wanted more about deafness.  I don't like my life, either, and I especially don't like deafness. My life comprises deafness in great measure.

5.  All of which brings my unfinished oeuvre to mind. I just need to find the damn thing and print it out so I can revise it.

Wensday, June 4, 2014

5 things:

1.  143/66 BP, 73 pulse.  Better than it was two weeks ago!

2.  favorite sandwich for lunch today:  cold baked chicken, lettuce, mayonnaise on Pita bread.  YUM!

3.  Porch door open!  can hear the birds singing!!

4.  More car insurance savings in the junk mail today.  Hello, insurers....I don't have a car!

5.  When people call and can't pronounce either of my names--first or last--I try my best
response:  "Please don't call back again."  And surprisingly, many of them don't.

June 2, 2014....Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Mom & Dad's wedding day, 1921

5 items:

1.   Today would be my mother's 117th birthday, were she alive.  She was born in Altengeseke, Westphalen, Germany, on June 2, 1897, and she was the last of her parents' 7 children.  Her siblings were Josef, Anna, Anton, Teresia, Heinrich, and Adam.  Her dad was Josef Redder-Piek, and her mother's maiden name was Maria Anna (or Anna Maria) Groblinghof, who died in 1899.  In 1903, the rest of the family all moved to Iowa. Grandpa was a farmer and also a baker while in Germany.  In the U.S., he was a farmer only. He never remarried.  He died before I was born--when my brother
Paul was a baby.  

2.  I bought a bottle of Lambrusco tonight and raised my glass to mom.  The (first and) last time we
shared a bottle of wine at the lake, it was lambrusco.  We sat in the kitchen and talked, mostly about
her life in Harlingen, Texas, in the winters.  She had a lot of fun in Harlingen--singing in a choir, travelling with her friends and neighbors into Mexico, eating cabrito and other Mexican delicacies. Two guys, both retirees from Canada, wanted to marry her, but she turned them down.  One of them owned a chain of movie theaters and claimed to be a relative of Henry VIII. 

3.  Mom was a great cook, though our meals were simple.  One thing I loved was her potato pancakes, which she cooked when dad was out of town and we could bypass the meat that he loved. 

4.  Mom loved the flowers she planted around the outside of the house.  On the north side of the house, she always planted lilies of the valley.  she said they grew wild in the valleys near her home
in Germany, and she loved the fragrance.  I did, too.  She'd make a bouquet and place them in a glass vase or bowl on the dining room table. 

5.  Mom had been a teacher before she married Dad, and she taught me how to read when I was just a sprout--maybe 3 or so
.  Maybe that was a way for her to get a little free time to herself in the afternoons. I loved to read--and still do. 

Bonus!!

CC in training!!

http://offtheedgehumorpics.blogspot.com/2013/04/orange-county-police-car-chase-hilarious.html#.U4UTM-Mo6Hs

Think It's Easy??

5 things:

1.  I can do most things online with Firefox, and I love it.  Mostly.

2.  Some sites, however, work best if I use Google Chrome.  Not all.

3.  So....what would my Bright Line rule be here?  This bright concept is from the 5th paragraph down of a post on Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project blog--for which, many thanks to Ms. Rubin.   Here's what Rubin says about a "bright line rule": 

“bright-line rule,” a useful concept I learned in law school. A bright-line rule is a clearly defined rule or standard that eliminates any need for interpretation or decision-making; for example, observing the Sabbath, or using the New York Times’s Manual of Style and Usage to decide grammar questions, or never buying bottled water,  or making purchases only from a prepared list.

 4.  I confess that I have never used the NYTimes Style Guide.  The only ones for me have been the Sixth Edition (second printing--there's mistakes in the first printing) of the APA Style Manual (because I was an APA editor), or the beloved Chicago Manual of Style, or Words into Print if all else fails.  My bright line is not quite so linear. Thus, the bright line for using Firefox vs. Chrome for me is Use what works where & when. Simple, eh?  Pain in the butt, yes. 

5.  Some of the best recipes for vegetable dishes can be found in the Food & Wine Annual Cookbooks, 2013 and 2014.  Especially the 2013!!  This volume is blessed by many recipes from Grace Parisi and Tamar Adler. Soooo wonderful!!