My paternal grandfather was a Sea Bee in the War. They were unique in the US Armed Forces for being the only construction corps that also carried weapons and were trained to fight. 65 years ago they not only did prep work for the invasion at Normandy, but the "clean up" as well. My grandfather spent 36 hours pulling dead and wounded soldiers out of the water that day. The work the Sea Bees did that day help preserve the lives of numerous servicemen, and granted the fallen a chance to be buried and their families sure knowledge of their fates.

This was also the second time my grandfather got busted. Apparently sitting on the beach after 36 hours of rescue work without your hat still counts as being out of uniform. Saluting sarcastically doesn't help either.

He was also at Okinawa, but refused to ever discuss it with anyone. It was too bad to remember.

He died in January of 1986 of pneumonia and complications of black lung acquired after 30 plus years of working as a coal miner. I will always think this a shabby death for a man as talented and insightful as he. I miss him. And I regret he was never able to meet my daughter.

Dear Anyone Writing a Show/Book/Movie/etc. with dead, yet animate, charaters:

For the love of all that's holy, please stop having those characters use "I don' breathe" or "I don't have breath" as a reason not to give CPR, or blow up birthday balloons, or whatever else they need an excuse for. If they really didn't breathe, then they could not talk to give that excuse.

I have a healthy suspension of disbelief, but this has gone too far.

Sincerely,

colliemommie

If any? Who doesn't know songs by heart? I feel sorry for them if they really do exist.

I know many, many songs by heart. I know entire operas by heart. I could do one-woman performances of The Merry Widow in German and two different English translations. There are musicals where I could not only sing the whole thing, but also recite all of the lines. I've never actually considered this unusual...aren't most people able to do this sort of thing?

Anyway, extremely silly question. But I love the phrase "by heart". It's very evocative, as though these sorts of things are stored in our blood. The idea that something we've learned can become so integrated that it's pumped through us with every heart beat is very comforting somehow. And that's how I feel about some of the things I have memorized. There are some peices that are so connected to where and when and who I was when I learned them that they've in some way really informed who I am now.

Geez oh man. It's late. I'm bringing the dogs in and going to bed.

I have had one gin and tonic. This has made me very tipsy. That's what I get for not having any alcohol for over a year...I am offically a cheap date.

Catching up on baby pictures, one month at a time.


January 6. About two minutes old, and not a happy camper. Born at 5:11pm, 7lbs., 3oz. and 19 1/2 inches.



A little later, washed and giftwrapped.


January 11. Finally at home. Notice how nicely the jaundiced complexion coordinates with the yellow bunny rabbit outfit ;-)


January 13. Kitkat and me, both very tired.


Looking at thesenow, it's amazing how different she is. She's just more interesting every day, and I'm enjoying her a lot more now that she interacts and responds so much. It also helps that she's sleeping more than 2 hours at a time! I do miss those tiny, skinny little newborn hands, though. They pudged out awfully quick.

My lilac starting blooming yesterday. At least, what's left of it after Bruce's well-intentioned but poorly-timed pruning is blooming. When I had to move down to Virginia, I spent the first spring chasing down purple wisteria when I saw them, always being disappointed when I got close enough to see they weren't lilacs. Traditional English lilacs don't grow here; they get fungus and die. Even the hybrids don't survive, though they don't smell right so who would want them anyway.

Bruce found me a Korean lilac two years ago, and that's what I have outside. It's shrubby instead of whippy, but the smell is right, and that's what really counts. Lilacs make me think of my mother, like lillies of the valley make me think of my grandmother. In May we'd always have a set of hedge clippers in the car, so we could stop and cut lilacs wherever we saw them. There was a huge hedge on the edge of the woods across from our neighborhood (it was bulldozed and turned into apartments about 15 years ago), a big clump behind the high school (about half of it is still there), and random other patches we'd find and help ourselves to.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy First Sunday After the First Full Moon After The Vernal Equinox, and Happy Spring.

And, to quote John Chrysostrom, best wishes to everyone "for seasonable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times."

Katrina was three months yesterday! ( Details and pics... )x-posted to breastfeeding 

My mother-in-law, who is great, offered to have her cleaning lady come by today and spend a few hours on the house. I've been doing reasonably well with keeping things neat, but you can't really clean while holding or wearing a baby, and I was getting tired of starting to mop the floor and then having to stop a third of the way through. So much happiness, and I accepted her offer.

Cleaning lady calls me last night to make sure 8am isn't too early. She needs to pick her daughter up at noon, and wants to have time to finish everything before then. I say 8 is fine.

So this morning I am up at 7. Baby is sleeping. It is now 920, no cleaning lady, and baby is still sleeping. I COULD HAVE GOTTEN AN EXTRA 2 HOURS OF SLEEP!!!!!!!!!

When people say that babies change from day to day, they aren't lying. I put a newborn to sleep last night at 930. At 630 this morning (!!!!!!!) I woke up to a baby who apparently decided that she's 12 weeks old and it's time to start acting her age. It's like I have a different kid! We have kick-ass head control, partial hand control, the ability to tell where sounds are coming from and to look for what's making them, and an understanding of basic conversation. She's got the "I talk, then you talk, then I talk" down, and is very pleased with herself.

She also no longer fits in newborn size clothes at all, is starting to outgrow some 0-3 month things, smiles like a mad critter, and has huge hands. At least compared to 12 weeks ago. To quote Bruce, she gets "more like a real person" everyday.

There would be pictures, but I managed to misplace the camera while cleaning last week. Then I cried about it. A lot. *sigh*

Hooray for nice weather! Today was in the low 70s and sunny for the first time in what seems like forever. And Chelyse, who really is a better friend than I deserve (she's pretty much better than anyone deserves, really), picked me and Kitkat up with her boys and an extra car seat and we went out this afternoon.

Lunch a Doumar's (yum), which was completely packed. It took way too long to get our food, but everyone was surprisingly patient. Joseph had his bottle and Joshua had a snack, and I nursed while we were waiting. I had a Limeaid for the first time since the Williamsburg Drug Store closed, about seven years ago. It was less fizzy than the ones Miss Patty used to get me when we worked at the quilt store on weekends, but still a very nice treat.

Then off to the botanical gardens, where we got this picture of me wearing a very sleepy Katrina in the Japanese garden.





We walked around for almost three hours, which isn't quite as impressive as it sounds since we were at toddler speed for some of it, and I had to stop and nurse twice. But great exercise, great company, and great weather!

I'm thinking about getting a membership for the Botanical Gardens. We only live about ten minutes away, and there's all sorts of walking paths and things to see. If you go five times in a year it pays for itself, so it might be a good move.

Mr. Hudson, evil kitten extraordinaire, has reached new heights of protectiveness. Since the baby came his quality time has been drastically reduced, but he's taken it pretty well. No temper tantrums or peeing in inappropriate places or anything. But if there isn't a human baby on my lap, there is a kitten baby there, and sometimes (if I'm very lucky) I get to have both of them on my lap while I nurse.

This afternoon Baby was napping in her bassinet, and Hudson was sitting with me on the couch. We have a double parlor, so he could see out the picture window onto the front yard. While we were sitting, the mail truck stopped out front.

The cat growled. At the mail truck. Which was about 40 feet away and outside.

While I understand he doesn't like to share me, I don't think the mail truck was trying to take away his snuggles.

So, Bruce is holding Baby and having deep conversation of the "Who's my baby? That's right! You're the baby!" variety, with lots of kisses. He then, in a case of epic wish-fulfillment, interprets his 6 week-old daughter making fishy lips as her trying to give kisses back.

The rest I remember in slow-mo, like a bad horror film. His face gets closer and closer to hers, all the while saying "Who gives kisses? Does the baby give kisses?" Suddenly she gets this crazy light in her eyes that I know all too well, and latches on to his nose.

...

It got even better when he tried to pull her off and couldn't because of Baby Super-Latch (tm). I had to break the suction and get her off for him. Baby was, needless to say, very confused.

And I was irresistably reminded of the neighbor kid when I was about ten who got a garter snake clamped to his nose in much the same way. At least we didn't need to cut the baby in half with a pair of pliers to get her off.

Just realized I have this pictures from way back in March. This is another Jeannette Douglas band sampler. I used the thread pack from JD designs as well (got a very good deal on eBay). It uses Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Arts Sampler Threads, and some Caron Watercolors. This sampler was stitched for my dad, and it's now framed and hanging in his workshop.

Full sampler (click for bigger view):



Fabric is 28-count R&R Reproductions linen. Afraid I don't know what color; I bought it last January as part of a remnants sale bag at the Super Bowl Sale. It's a slightly yellow/creamy khaki.

Sampler top:

 I love the cross-stitch picture at the very top. The trees are actually only two colors of green, but they're both Weeks' Dye Works verigated flosses, and I think the variation of color is great. I also like the native stone chimney on the cabin.  The multi-colored band is a Caron Watercolors floss, so again, much simpler than it looks.

The legend is "A Home in the Woods", which I thought was perfectly suitable for my father. The pinecones are actually in the pattern with points up, but I think they looked a bit silly like that, so I flipped them. They have lazy daisy points and wheat stitch above, and might be my favorite part of this sampler.

 Another picture with pinecones, because they are awful cute! The "stick figure" trees I don't think are very successful, but they help break up all the little motif rows.

The row underneath is hard to see because of the color, but there tends to be a row like that in Douglas' band samplers (The East Coast Sampler I did last winter had two rows of shell stitch that matched the fabric. Subtle, but lovely.). One of the things that really doesn't translate well in photos is the gorgeous texture of her designs, and the extra interest that brings. The "mountain lakes" blue band in this picture also has a lot of dimension to it.

 Bottom of sampler. The text reads "NFK to JNF March '08". This was one of those happy mistakes. I was working this from the bottom up on a trip to Charlottesville. I counted single threads instead of over two threads, and ended up stitching the "lakes" band twice as far above the squirrell as it should have been. But that left the ideal amount of space for another row of the banded long-arm cross in the coral verigated (which I love) and a dedication line. Yay for serendipity!

Because I am so sick of hearing pregnant women bitch about stretch marks, I am going to inflict my thoughts on people.

Mine entertain me to no end. It's like finding pictures in clouds. If I get bored, creative, and twisty enough, I can make it look like they're talking. (Perhaps I should not be sharing this with the world at large, but powers such as mine should not go unheralded. Plus it's really funny. Seriously, if you are in whelp as well, give it a try. It's like prenatal yoga, but with a more immediate pay-off.) Granted, I'm not sure why I have stretch marks on the front of my thighs, but then I'm about 23-24 weeks along and only since the beginning of the month do I look like there might possibly be a baby in my abdomen instead of my legs and backside.

My favorites are the ones on the outside of my hips. They have this variegated colors thing going, from bright red at the tops fading down to whitish. It's like the flames people paint on the sides of cars.

I am a human hot-rod. My stretch marks just make me look like I'm going faster.

When you see a Pratchett quote, post another PTerry quote in your LJ, and see how long we can keep it going.

"A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read."

Can someone please explain to me why a change of rite from Roman to Byzantine Catholic takes three years? Better yet, can someone explain to me why I have to submit to a change of rite when my paternal grandfather was baptized/chrismated Ukrainian Catholic and the only reason my father was baptized in a Roman church is that there wasn't a Byzantine Catholic Church available?? If we actually were following this much vaunted canonical law that everyone likes to invoke, I should just be declared Byzantine Catholic because the Eastern Rites follow the father's line.

grrrr...

And if one more person asks "Why do you care...it's all Catholic", I'm going to beat them with a Ruthenian hymnal. Maybe I care because I want to officially be a member of the rite in which I really feel I belong. Maybe I want to be a registered member of the parish to which I've been going for the past 18 months (even since I realize they existed here). Maybe because the Byzantine Catholic rite and this parish here are what have kept me in the Catholic Church at all. Maybe because this is part of my cultural identity as well as my personal preference. Maybe I want my children to officially be members of the faith in which they will be raised.

I can't imagine baptizing them RC, going to my Byzantine Church every week and having to send them to RC classes for Communion and Confirmation (and let me tell you, Roman Mass makes little sense to someone used to the Divine Liturgy). Plus, what about if they get married? They would get to be told "Sorry, you can't get married in the church you've attended since you were born because of the paperwork". So yes, that "piece of paper" does matter.

Thankfully Father Reader is being so helpful, because Father really doesn't seem to be very interested. He's very much a letter of the law person, and if the paperwork says I'm Roman, I'm Roman. Nevermind that the paper only says that because the priest who married my parents lied to save himself more paperwork. And if I have to do the three years, I'll do the three years. Bruce will have to submit a change of rite anyway, since he came to the Roman church by way of being a non-practicing Pesbyterian. But Fr. Reader, in between teaching full-time and attending seminary classes in DC twice a week, is researching what can be done, with help from his friends at Chancery. Hopefully we'll have resolution by the time this baby comes up for baptism. sigh

The main reason I'm so frustrated is that I just want to be part of the Church I belong in. If I was Protestant of some sort, this would be a lot simpler. I could start classes now and be happily and uncomplicatedly Byzantine by Easter. I feel like this process is made unnecessarily complicated to deter people from changing rites, despite all the lipservice given to "preserving the Eastern rites". Hey, I'll help preserve one! I'll even reproduce and make more little Byzantines to help preserve the rite!! Me and my husband both...fricking sign us up!!!

I'm watching Kind Hearts and Coronets, as part of my project to copy my VHSs to DVD. This is one of those movies that doesn't get any less funny the more you watch, unlike most things. Actually I think it gets more entertaining the better one knows it, like the Albert Finney Tom Jones or that sketch of Peter Sellers as Olivier as Richard III reciting the lyrics to "A Hard Day's Night". The movie manages to hit exactly the right note of combining silly humor with black humor, and plus there are 8 Alec Guinesses and one purring Joan Greenwood. In short, yay!

Apparently they've released Kind Hearts on DVD as part of the Criteria Collection, with all the interviews and background info that generally implies. I might see if the library has that version...the Criteria editions are just too expensive for me to rationalize purchasing, especially when I can make a legal backup copy of my VHS.

Unfortunately, not all my attempts at making backups have gone so well. Poldark is my big problem, and I'd appreciate any suggestions. I spent a fortune on the VHSs, both series, back in the day, and the tapes are starting to lose quality from being watched so often. So I attempted to copy them to DVD, but kept getting a message from the DVD recorder that "This program cannot be recorded." Does anyone know any way to make this work? I'm extremely frustrated because 1. I love this show, 2. I own it, and it is perfectly legal to make a copy for me, and 3. they are not available on DVD in the US, only in the UK etc. in type 2 DVD. Even if I could afford both series with current exchange rates (which I can't), I'd then have to buy a new DVD player in order to play them, and that's a bit too extreme, even for Robin Ellis.