Christmas Vacation!

I made risotto tonight from my Ruth Reichl cookbook. One of the things I love about vacation is having time to cook!

I finished Amy and Isabelle and now I'm reading Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro. I ordered Great House by Nicolle Kraus today - because I had a credit! Don't hate me local booksellers!

So far I've seen Black Swan, True Grit, and How Will You Know this vacation. I'm going to see The Tourist in Corvallis with my mom on Friday. Hoping to see The Fighter with Max, if I can tear him away from his playstation.

I like watching the Dick Van Dyke show on Netflix at night in bed on my laptop sometimes.  Vacations are good!

Just another word for nothing left to lose

That's right, I finished Freedom. The unfortunate side effect is that the stupid "Me and Bobby McGee" song lyrics keep going through my head.

I am glad I read Freedom. I haven't decided what I think of it, overall, and how I would assess it, but I have read some good reviews of it and some stupid reviews of it (one reviewer seems not to like it because Franzen uses words like "sucks" and because time spent reading Freedom is time that could be spent reading the classics, which seems like stupid things to point out in a review - okay I'm summarizing it poorly and unfairly, but still.)

Making five pies for Thanksgiving!

I finished my Deer story last month and now I am writing another story.

Back From Sunriver!

We had a great time in Sunriver! Michael won the Moore Cup this year!

The weather was great. Rode bikes a lot and went to the pool. Played Pictionairy last night with everyone. Alex and Max won. Laura and Natalie saw a porcupine.

One thing I love about vacation is being able to read a book in four days. I read America America by Ethan Canin this weekend.  I started it Thursday night before we left and finished it this afternoon in the car on the way home. It's so great to be able to read a book that fast. 

She's Back!

Laura returned last night from Illinois! Michael and I  sat in the backyard and watched her plane fly in. Then we hopped in the car and drove to the airport to pick her up - that's how close we live to the airport!

I dreamt last night we had Christopher Hitchens over for dinner.

Max's team lost yesterday, so baseball is over.

We are going camping at Timothy Lake this weekend.

I am going to clean my office this week and maybe make some jam. It's supposed to get hot!

I ran the Sauvie Island Half Marathon on the 4th of July. I set a PR. Yay me.

I have a prose poem is in the new issue of Quick Fiction.

I watched Thelma and Louise yesterday.  We also watched Invictus last night, which had lots and lots of rugby.

I finished Raven Stole the Moon (it was okay) and I'm reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog now - I started it a few months ago.

Monday Monday

I am reading Raven Stole the Moon: A Novel by Garth Stein, but - it is not his new novel! It's a re-release of a novel he published 12 years ago! Sneaky writers. But he cops to it in the preface so I am not too mad. I won it from Mead Hunter's blog (where Mead refers to it as "Garth's latest opus" ha!) a few months ago and I'm finally reading it. I like the Pacific Northwest aspect of it. And the Native American myths woven in.

I dropped off a bunch of Portland Arts and Lectures brochures at the library today and then checked out some books on Picasso, including Conversations with Picasso. After seeing all the Picassos in New York I am enjoying reading about him. Some. Or I WILL.

Sent Zanni a bunch of my prose poems from last week.

I have an Amazon affiliate account for Caffeine Destiny magazine and they have FOUND MY BLOG and so now whenever I post to my blog this other Amazon window comes up right next to the window I post in so I can find the titles of books and post links to Amazon in my posting. It's a little creepy - how did they find me?

The sun is out today. My desk at work is a disaster! It's the time of year when people send a lot of stuff my way..

Laura and I are going to watch the rest of IT'S COMPLICATED tonight, and I could do a search on Amazon and post the link to the DVD here but I'M NOT GOING TO.

Lee Montgomery has a cool column in the New York Times this week and there's a link on the Literary Arts Facebook page. I would look it up again and post it here but I have too much other stuff to do. It's worth looking up though!

Donna Stonecipher

“I wanted to avoid the line break. Line breaks are seductive, but for the time being neither they nor the silences at the ends of line breaks feel right. Line breaks feel like cliffs leading to a kind of dangerous euphoria.” - Donna Stonecipher

I finished Tinkers and actually read most of the most recent New Yorker, a feat I only accomplish when on vacation or while camping. Tinkers was good but it didn't blow my mind or anything. Jeffrey Eugenides story was kind of okay! I think I liked it.

Have been reading Donna Stonecipher's  The Cosmopolitan and I love it. Stu Wilson gave it to me when I was in Minnesota, so thanks Stu!

Wrote all around my vacation. Mostly prose poems and I'm digging that form.

There won't be any more issues of Caffeine Destiny. I know I said that once before, but I'm saying it again and I mean it.  I have loss the will to code and solicit, two things that needed to be done intensely before each issue went up. Some day I'd like to publish chapbooks, the hold-in-your-hand kind, but that's a project for later on.

It's raining again. It is June. Laura is singing for Portland Teen Idol this morning and we are leaving soon.

I will know I am at work tomorrow because there will be no labrador sleeping nearby. And my hair will be brushed.

Sawyer at the Beach, Laura's off to Outdoor School

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A great weekend at the coast and Sawyer got to see the beach for the first time. He loved the opportunities for digging that the sand provides! And he met a nice Doberman who wanted to be his friend.

Laura is off to Outdoor School to be a counselor this week.

I read the thriller Dark Places this weekend while I was at the beach.

Weekend Weekend!

Here's a photo of me and Laura last night at the Love And Theft meet and greet that Laura got us passes for! They were good. Lady Antebellum was good... and Tim McGraw was amazing! Truly one of the greats.

I have to grade some papers and then I'm going to watch the GREY'S ANATOMY season finale with Laura although she has seen it before. Max doesn't want to see McGrabur today because he saw IRON MAN 2 yesterday with Michael.

How many pop culture references can I fit into one posting?  Michael is watching the series finale of LOST tonight. There! I watched season 3 I think, but I'm not going to watch the finale. Maybe the last five minutes or something.



I love Tim McGraw.

I'm supposed to run 7 miles today but I think it will be more like 6.

I have been working on a story but I just don't know about me and fiction. I'm trying not to think about that though, and just write it. Like it is a non-negotiable task. Like getting dressed in the morning. We'll see! I don't get very far writing fiction and sometimes I think fiction is just the backstory for my poetry.

However! My story has a deer head in it.

Happy Mother's Day

Michael made me breakfast, the kids gave me chocolate and a card (with Michael's help I'm pretty sure), and my dresser now has a vaseful of roses on it.

Laura and I went to see Letters to Juliet this afternoon - for free! Free passes to a preview screening.My favorite part was Vanessa Redgrave and all the Italian scenery.

I framed some postcards I got in New York - including "The Woman In White" by Picasso, and a picture of Audrey Hepburn I bought on the street.

I planted flowers, ran 5 miles, and got some writing done.  There was a great profile of Gina Ochsner in the Oregonian today. She inspires me.

Steaks for dinner! A good Mother's Day!

Acceptance!

I had a piece accepted at QUICK FICTION hooray. I am reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Sawyer is one years old. Going to Corvallis tomorrow.

Minnesota!

Thanks to Literary Arts I am in Minnesota this weekend. You can read about the book awards on the Paper Fort blog.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, and yesterday I took some pictures of the house he was born in. He lived in quite a few different houses in St. Paul - when he was growing up and after he married Zelda.

I also took a picture of the Mary Tyler Moore statue downtown. Tonight I'm going to a play at the Guthrie Theater.

I like the Midwest!

Some Stuff I Did this Weekend

Laura and I saw THE BOUNTY HUNTER, an okay Jennifer Aniston movie. We also saw a preview for EAT PRAY LOVE, and - guilty pleasure - I want to see it!

Watched part of a documentary on Patti Smith. There were video clips of her from the 1970's, talking about why she moved to New York. And her and Sam Shephard playing guitar. Michael and I will see her in New York as part of the PEN WORLD VOICES festival.

Read the new issue of Vogue magazine which seemed more vapid than usual and made me not want to buy it ever again. I used to love me some Vogue!.

Watched an episode of Project Runway, which I still love!

Finished my grading for winter term.

Tried to clean my office (still in progress!)

Read some of A Little Middle of the Night by Molly Brodak, the 2009 Iowa Poetry Prize winner. Has the Univ. of Iowa press adopted a sans serif font for poetry permanently? I like the poems, but I prefer my fonts serif-ed when it is poetry.

Put sheets on Max's new bed.

Took Sawyer for several walks with his new easy-walk harness. It helps considerably with the tugging on the leash. Walks are no longer a tug of war!

Michael and I are going to watch Breaking Bad tonight - season premiere!

Listening to Jim Croce on Pandora on my Gordon Lightfoot station.

Hey! I won something!

Garth Stein's latest book! (It has nothing to do with Raven the Disney star, but my kids used to watch that show and I've never had a reason to post a photo of her.)

Until now.

Thank you Mead Hunter!

Once More to the Lake

I knew Michael Quigley. Many years ago, in Eugene. I found out this week that he died in September, in Sacramento.

He was a big fan of this man, and this essay.

I think maybe he liked E.B. White because White possessed a certain sophistication and embodied a type of civilized discourse that Michael Quigley aspired to but never quite achieved.

Michael Quigley was rough around the edges. He introduced me to Apocalypse Now, The Return of the Seacaucus 7, Deer Hunter, BEER Hunter, and SPAM.

I knew what SPAM was before I met him, but I think he's the only person I have ever witnessed actually cooking SPAM. And eating it.

He was never really at peace, so I doubt he's resting in peace, and I doubt, really, that resting in peace would really appeal to him.

So I guess what I hope for him is he's found a place where he can keep fighting.

In peace.