durga puja

This morning we're having a breakfast dish previously unbeknownst to man: soy chorizo and eggs with cauliflour. It's tasty. Necessity has been the mother of invention since we have no tortillas or bread for toast, so the veggie is being the carbohydrate for us. Thanks, veggie.

Yesterday morning we weeded at Vedanta with P, which I thought was really fun, in the way it's so good to be outside doing work with the earth in the chilly morning, but Erik didn't enjoy it as much as I did. He's been a little bit cranky. I remember how dirt can smell.

Last night was Durga Puja, and it was beautiful. The choir was strong. I carried the ungainly lamp to and from the library, and afterwards was hungry for my samosa and snacks.

information wants to be free

Today I downloaded Firefox, and it's working perfecty so far, and I couldn't be happier. So now I can use my gmail accounts because I'm not getting that evil activeX error!

delivery

Today Erik is very happy because the two CDs he ordered from Asmatic Kitty arrived: Michigan and Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens. They sent us a sampler CD and a button too--how sweet.

We went to the park this morning, and Erik memorized a Wallace Stevens poem while I wrote a letter to a new friend. It's getting very cool at night, so it was chilly at 10 though it's supposed to hit 90 still today--strange extremes in the weather daily. The grass was covered with dew.

super-awesome clouds

http://valuca.funtigo.com/?preview=y&g=25544746&cr=1&rfm=y?cool

Lots of lenticular like we used to see over the Sierras when we lived in Bishop, photo theirs.

wonderful susperstitous rumor

Erik told me the most wonderful Chinese rumor.

Rabbits can call their owner's name, and when the owner's name is called he will die.

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/111.2/smith.html

we're still here

Yesterday my old friend S was in town, so we talked and went to Indian food and he bought us ice cream at the Dairy Queen and we talked and we talked. We were so happy to see him and hear about his interesting problems, like trying to figure out the best way to ship to China.

It was almost 90 today, it's supposed to be 92 tomorrow, and it's supposed to be 90 the next day. Summer lasts into October here, but I feel fall right around the corner. I didn't think we'd make it, but here we still are--I thought we would have moved--but somehow, it doesn't happen, and I think that's for the best.

starlings

Lots of starlings in the mornings, making their cute little sounds like, "Pveee?" and "Tweereeee!" right outside the bedroom window, in the tree and hovering near the window--we're trying to figure out if there's a nest, or what's attracting them to the spot.

But Kitty meowed at them and seemed angry with us like, "There are birds--why do you never give me any birds?"

momentous

Yesterday I said, "Boo ya," for the first time. It was spoken to Erik in reference to buying creamy peanut butter for my own apple-based purposes as opposed to the crunchy peanut butter he prefers. At the co-op.

I'm working hard on Erik and Laura-Marie Magazine #39 and just about going crazy. I waited way too long, and I don't know what to do because it's going to be huge unless I postpone a bunch of stuff to #40.

religious

lactation upon a sacred object

times they are a-changin'

This evening I went to a wonderful party in mid-town and played croquet with a friend I like very much and a new friend too, who seems to be Aristotelian and who advised me.

Also, I sat in a camping chair and watched little boys whack things with mallets. And a cute little gray cat named Mouse peeking her head over the fence.

The shocking thing is that I drove. But I didn't think I could drive myself home in the dark, so I left at dusk.

Earlier I went to choir practice.

refreshingly unprofessional

Today's so windy that dirt kept blowing in my eyes. There are leaves all over the ground and small tree branches. The leaves are crunchy even though they're green.

In the mail I got an unexpected letter and a strange mailart thing that I have to send back for mailart purposes.

So it's back to regular life now that CSET is over, so we'll catch up on sleep and conversation.

after a lecture

We just got home from a lecture on feminism and Marxism that was really brilliant and stimulating. I'm thinking about the way patriarchy becomes invisible when women's oppression is hidden within ideas of love and family. The oppression of women is special because we aren't segregated, and our culture's ideas of what women are like have been formed by patriarchy itself.

The situation is intensified by ideas of nature, that women are the ones with breasts and a uterus and therefore it's only natural that we should make less money than men, since we can get pregnant at any time and quit our jobs to raise the children. Our childbearing equipment makes us a liability, so of course we don't deserve equal status, equal pay, equal respect, and really it would be easier if we just made the coffee.

In actuality, the whole idea of women being different, as in differeing from the norm--that men are the standard people and women are the child-bearing people--is based on an incorrect way of seeing humanity, that childbearing is inferior to wage-earning, and that what happens inside the home is unimportant compared to what happens in the workplace.

We can see it easily as we look at how much a preschool teacher makes as opposed to how much a lawyer makes. When someone asks why we still need a women's movement in the US, I guess I could just point to that.

Scoring CSET is going just fine. I survived the day smashingly and expect to do the same tomorrow.

  

I'm 30 today

I have received so many good wishes and happy birthdays that my desk is crowded with flowers, and I'm getting conceited. I haven't felt so special since I was about 7. So thank you very much for all the kindness you've given to me, friends and family.

me elsewhere

I made it onto Postcard Manifesto!

http://postcardmanifesto.blogspot.com/


If I were queen of the world, the world would become more just. I'm qualified in that I truly care about people and would set a good example of how to live. Passive entertainment would fall out of fashion--everyone would enjoy creative pursuits, like making art and zines, sex, singing. The workday would go from 8 to 4 hours a day. No one would be super-busy, and everyone would have time to play with their kids, write a novel, make soup. Gardens would flourish, there would be no more traffic jams, and adults would play frisbee.

  

  

namazu-e

I didn't think your day would be complete without seeing those earthquake catfish pictures.

These metaphoric catfish did not necessarily correspond to an actual species of fish, and I refer to them here by their Japanese name, namazu. The general name of catfish prints, which included visual elements and text, is namazu-e, with "e" meaning picture.

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jsh/39.4/smits.html

har har har

I don't think I ever posted this picture of when Wendy's had Laura-Marie Appreciation Day.

return

Today we slept a lot and took a dusk walk. The weekend was rich and emotional, filled with intimacy and love. I got to help take care of my nieces a lot. My mom gave me a beautiful brown skirt.

I got good mail today--zines, a letter, three postcards.

we're off

We're going out of town for the weekend! It will involve hugs, kisses, Sri Lankan food, Indian food, and carrot cake. Seeing the ocean, pizza, and Mexican food probably too.

For that which we are about to receive, may we be truly grateful.

an old joke

We were stopped at a red light, watching crows. One hobbled across the street, the crow with the scruffy head.

"Why did the crow cross the street?" I asked Erik.

"Limping," he said.

stilts

pretty envelope I made from a calendar page

welcome season

I love that fall is coming and it's getting dark earlier--I feel so much more comfortable with less sun.

Today I caught up on some correspondence and goofed off a lot. Remembering how hard it is to play piano by trying to play some Bach I found on the internet. You people who can play piano are amazing.

animal behavior

Something interesting and moving about a grouse.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2006/09/10.html#a1639

beautiful art

Here is the promised art to show you. Inside the card is this lovely stamp impression.



This is the first ATC I have ever seen in real life! And it's mine! I love everything about it: the colors, the bats, the church building background, the incorperation of text.



And here is the voodoo doll card, original art. I feel blessed and lucky. Thank you, ElizaDeath. You're a treasure, and I wish you eternal success.

best mail day

Today was the best mail day ever. I got four packages.

* A letter from a dear friend--long and detailed with two essays and many photos.

* A letter from a dear little family-member, for my birthday.

* A package from a new friend, which was actually three letters from her, with CDs!

* And a packet from my mailart friend ElizaDeath, with art I'm so excited about that I said "eeeeee!" which I had not said in a long time. I will post scans tomorrow.

agaves

Isn't this the prettiest Economist cover you ever did see? I love it.

persuasion

I would like to specify that the deliciousness of Snapea Crisps is non-controversial and requires no bravery! Even a baby would love them!

love,
the Snack Proselytizer

bothersome

I'm seeing this ad today for Egg McMuffin saying "We use real farm-fresh eggs to make your Egg McMuffin sandwich," and I'm thinking how sad it is that they're bragging about the fact that they use real eggs.

Of course farm-fresh means nothing. If I were queen of the world, farm-fresh would mean something, like companies would be required by law to use the ingredient no longer than two hours after it had been delivered from the farm.

Speaking of these ads, I want to change over to google mail, but I can't get my computer to comply with its activeX requirement. Can anyone help me? Internet Explorer is giving me grief. Maybe I should just switch over to Firefox?

moon names

I looked up moon names, and some places said the full moon in September was the corn moon, but there were other assertions as well. Some said barley moon. And some gave a formula for determining the harvest moon based on the fall equinox.

All I knew was a blue moon: when two full moons are in the same month.

Anyway, there are different systems, and who knows how authentic these lists are, but this site has the most.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonnames.htm

Here's the Farmer's Almanac one.

http://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moonnames.php

conflict in search of a resolution

Tonight I went to the local women's Vedanta group and had a great time. I liked the party afterwards. I drove myself home in the dark, which is very rare.

My cold is gone except for a little cough that wakes us in the night.

Today we sorted a year's worth of recycling and took it to the place, but it was closed. Isn't the full moon beautiful? Ishiya said it's the corn moon.

fish order

This is a notecard that a Seattle zinester sent me in which she ordered zines.



Sometime when you throw a fish, you just feel normal. But sometimes when you throw a fish, you feel happy and make others feel happy too.

great reviews

The latest Zine World has great reviews of Erik and Laura-Marie Magazine #30 and #35. I put them on the magazine website.

http://erikandlauramarie.blogspot.com/2006/09/great-reviews.html

let's go down to the beach

Yesterday we went to Stinson Beach, where Erik swam and I tried to rest and recover from this cold. There was a shark sighting on Monday two and a half miles north, so we were a little nervous. Again seals came very near Erik and looked at him. When Erik swam, he didn't go as deep as last time.

He's still not sick, and it would be so great if he didn't get. We would hold in high regard the magical properties of all the matcha he's been drinking.

Yesterday I got a letter and some zine orders in the mail. This morning I woke up from sad dreams about loss.

In Berkeley last night, Erik bought me some brown sugar-scented lotion from Elephant pharmacy, and it's lovely.

answer

Moomins are Scandanavian trolls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin

funny band names

This is my favorite, for many reasons:

Temporary Darkening of the Stool.

http://bandnames.tk/

we propose this product

I recently fell in love with Snapea Crisps, which are kind of like Cheetos but made from peas. We get them at Trader Joe's.

On the back is some text that sounds like poorly-translated Japanese, which is our favorite. Like much ESL, it's charmingly accurate. The Snapea Crisps are delicate, which is part of their excellence.



I have never tried the Caesar flavor and would love to, someday.

okay

We're listening to Bach and cleaning up. Before, Erik was reading me a really good part of The Years (Sara and North when North comes back from Africa and they're eating the under-done mutton--Sara's just about my favorite character in all of literature right now). I'm sick, but it's not a terrible flu, just a regular cold.

We're been having insomnia for a couple hours in the middle of the night, which is throwing off all our schedules, like eating schedules. I'm moody but officially okay.

hilarious

Something funny over at Defective Yeti--I think it's Washington Mutual he's making fun of, which is totally apt.

http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/001753.html

testing

http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/facetests/myabilities.php

Face recognition test--I got 88% on test two, which is shocking because I thought I was really bad at face recognition. But I was telling my special someone, real life isn't much like this test. I think I'm too shy for direct eye contact with anyone I just met.

photos

It would behoove you to look at Erik's photo website http://www.erikspicturepicture.blogspot.com/ because he put up some new pictures and they're just gorgeous. Here's one I asked him to take--I love ferns.



And here's me yesterday. I was having a hard time smiling because I was feeling anxious and crazy about the crowdedness of the place.

happy September

I think September is my favorite month. I love it when summer ends--I love fall because life seems possible again. Also, it's my birthday month, and I'm turning 30 this year, which is really exciting and a little scary. I've been thinking about it all year and preparing myself emotionally.

Yesterday Erik and I went to the Bay area and had a perfect day. We went swimming in the ocean and played like kids in the waves. Some seals were swimming a little further out, and we got excited when we saw their heads above the water. It was a beach day much like the beach days I had every summer when I was a kid at Avila. But this was at Stinson Beach.



We went to Muir Woods, where we took a walk. The redwoods and ferns and creeks are beautiful, but it was very crowded there. Erik hiked while I wrote a long, healing letter to my friend C. I bought some gorgeous postcards, which I will scan for your viewing pleasure.



Then we went to Indian food at our usual place in Berkeley, where the worker flirted with me, which I found embarassing as well as a little flattering. I told Erik that he's paying next time, because I can't take the heat.

"How are you?" I asked.
"Much better," he said, looking down.
"Were you sick?" I asked.
"Much better now that I see you," he said and made eyes at me.

What a player! This is unusual for me, so pardon my marvelling. The food was great, never better: creamy banghan bartha, creamy paneer tikka masala. The rotis were thicker than usual and so wonderful to eat, doughy, sink my teeth into.

Today I sent my first postcard to Iran, which was special, and we got some good groceries at Trader Joe's--we went at 2 in the afternoon, which was the perfect time because it wasn't rushed and crowded yet there was a delicious sample--mango soy ice cream with superfluous berries. I received a letter from a new penpal in Guatamala.

Life is good, and we're planning to go back to Berkeley next week.