Richard Ford

Well I've thought more about it, and I'm going to go see Richard Ford, I decided. Yes. I didn't know he was going to write a sequel to Independence Day, which was a sequel to the Sportswriter. I think he would be good to see again.

I got an email from Janine, hooray.

We played poker tonight, the kids and Michael and I. Michael won.

I"m going to try to go running BEFORE work this week. Wish me luck. And get some poems written so that Daneen and I will have poems to talk about next weekend.

I want to see the new movie, THE QUEEN. And Laura and I want to see FLICKA.

Max has his costume. He's not Elvis, he's scary mask person with a black robe. I will take pictures.

SUNDAY

Nine days until Halloween! I'm taking Max to find a costume today. He wants to be Elvis this year.

Tuesday I think Daneen and I are going to see Barbara Ras read at PSU. But the Poetry Bus is in town, and Richard Ford is reading at Powell's. I like Richard Ford, and I'm looking forward to reading his new novel. I did see him read once many years ago, with Tobias Wolff. But I think I will probably go see Barbara Ras. Although I'd like to hear Joshua Beckman and Christian Hawkey. It's a tough call.

I am grading Marylhurst papers this weekend. I still have those bulbs to plant.

The Decemberists

We went to see the Decemberists last night. It was fun but I wanted to hear more songs off their new album, and more of my favorites, like Oceanside, or July July or Red Right Ankle. But they didn't play any of those songs. We still had fun though.

I haven't been doing much stamping or collage-making lately, although I have been getting caught up with the kids' scrapbooks. Last November I was writing sonnets on demand. One of them grew up to be a poem that was accepted for publication. Maybe I should think of something like that again. I was trying to start a sonnet crown. With a twelve line sonnet.

I have tulip, daffodil and crocus bulbs in my garage that I need to plant.

Fun Phone Times

Well I was going to call my mom to thank her for being a conference call phone participant today, but I believe it's too late now.

I was practicing making a conference call today at work. I called my mother, and my sister Amy and my brother-in-law Scott. Fun times! We laughed and sang. Well, Scott sang. I wonder if the real one will be as mirthful. I'm not sure.

Well it's my Friday! Max has two games this weekend and Laura is in the Grand Canyon.

Daneen and I saw Laurel Snyder read last night. She was good and Henry Carlile was there so that was cool. I always still expect to see Nico at PSU readings. I have come to accept that I won't see Zanni or Janine anymore when I go to a PSU reading, but somehow I still expect to see Nico, walking in late, or standing in the back, or just being there. Ah well! In spirit, etc.

Nico has new poems on Shampoo.

Calvin Trillin was fun.

Colin Powell

Max is going to meet Colin Powell on Monday! He's excited. He's going with a group of students from his class.

Max has been writing a play. I've been typing up his scenes for him as he finishes them.

Laura leaves for the Grand Canyon next week, and her first plane ride!

I had a good Friday off. It's nearly 4:30 and I have yet to brush my hair! Wrote some poetry, swept my kitchen floor. That's a good day at home for me!

I"m going to read some Calvin Trillin this weekend. We're going to McMinnville to watch the Duck game tomorrow.

We need a new furnace and a new air conditioner, but I"m trying not to get too excited about it. We're getting quotes.

Here's a quote from Calvin Trillin: “The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

New Issue Online

Dan Beachy-Quick • Kristy Bowen • Christian Hawkey • Shane McCrae • Simone Muench • Karen Neuberg • Camille Norton • Donald Revell • Emily Rosko • Larissa Szporluk • Joshua Marie Wilkinson •

Essay: Mozart and the Music of Intrigue
by C.S. Stone

We Asked Him, He Answered: Steve Almond

Check it out

Friday

Well it's been a busy and weird week, but it's Friday.

The Oregon Book Awards finalists will be announced Monday.

I started Pastoralia by George Saunders the other night and I've been enjoying it.

Tomorrow Laura has a soccer game in Sandy. I think Max and Michael might go to the PSU football game tomorrow night. It's the last weekend of September - hard to believe.

Here's a Stafford poem for all of us tonight:

For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid

There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot—air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That's the world, and we all live there.

—William Stafford

Football

Last night we had a little adventure and drove out to Estacada, which we had never driven to before. Michael, Laura, Max and I watched the Estacada football team get stomped on by the Gladstone Gladiators. One of Laura's counselors from Outdoor School is a cheerleader, and Laura wanted to see her cheer. High school football is fun to watch, especially on a crisp fall night. Finding our way back to Portland in the dark was a little confusing, but we made it! I was thinking it would be fun to drive to a different small Oregon town every Friday night to watch football. Or maybe just once a year, pick a different Oregon town. Or maybe just go once to Estacada and then not go anywhere else, but remember how much fun high school football games were when you were in high school, and how they still are fun to watch. And then go to the high school that is actually in your neighborhood, three blocks away, and watch games there.

Max has a football game today, and Laura has a soccer game starting in 40 minutes. Which means I'd better get moving!

Michele mentioned yesterday that Marianne Boruch is coming to PSU for a reading, and maybe even a craft lecture. So last night I ordered In the Blue Pharmacy: Essays on Poetry and Other Transformations by Boruch.

Sunday Daneen and I are getting together to talk about poems. Yes.

It's Official

I'm old.

How do I know this, you ask? Well. I was in a store today and I saw the latest issue of Grand, a magazine about being a grandparent. Donny Osmond was on the cover, with his new grandson.

Donny Osmond is a grandparent!

He was a teen idol when I was Laura's age. I used to buy Tiger Beat so I could get pictures of him. Holly and I used to watch the Donny and Marie show on Saturdays.

And now he's a grandparent.

It's official.

Wicked

We saw WICKED last night at the Keller auditorium. It was great, and we all enjoyed it! It's interesting to take a story that everyone knows and then imagine some other stuff about it (okay so that's not super insightful critical commentary, but it's Monday!) The sets and costumes were really amazing and very green. I like how they made up words. Dancing Through Life!

I saw Daneen and Zanni today (hey look, Zanni, I blogged about it first! But you can give the fashion report). It was great to see them and I hope Zanni returns to the Pacific NW soon. Yes! I think Zanni would make a good Professional Urban Cowgirl. We'd call her P.U.C for short! Then we'd just start calling her Pucky, and about ten years from now we'd forget why, but it wouldn't matter because she would always be our Pucky.

Max's team lost their first football game, but it was close.

Ploughshares has a blog, I discovered today.

Today is September 11.

We Recall 7th Grade

Anyone remember seventh grade? Did you like it? I can't remember if I liked seventh grade. I do remember when our Social Studies teacher read us all of Longfellow's Evangeline, and warned us he might cry at the end and then he kind of did cry.

Thanks to Josh Corey's blog, I found this - she talks to poets about what it was like to have their first book out. The Andrea Baker one was interesting. And Tony Tost didn't know what his book cover would look like until he saw it on Amazon!

Nico emailed me about the poetry bus. It's coming to Portland!

It is too hot I wish it were cooler.

Laura started seventh grade today. Our thoughts are with her.

Michael and I watched Elizabeth last night, the Helen Mirren one. I wonder if they would mind at my new job if I began to speak in the royal we all the time. Or at home; what would my family think?

We believe they would think we were freakin' weird.

September

Max starts fifth grade today! Laura begins seventh grade tomorrow.

Very sad about Steve Irwin. Laura and Max used to watch Crocodile Hunter all the time.

Last night I couldn't sleep so I started Veronica by Mary Gaitskill. I haven't read her in a while; I'm liking this book. I also read the new Poetry, which had an interesting article by John Barr on the state of poetry in America.

The only first day of school outfit I can remember very well is a dress I wore in Palo Alto - I think it was sixth grade? And the knee socks that went with it.

Summer went fast.

Camping! (Part Two)

Camping at Timothy Lake was fun! Here is the lake!

It's late, and I want to do something besides sit in front of a computer screen. So this is brief, but the lake looks pretty, doesn't it? I had fast food for lunch AND dinner. That kind of a day!

But it was decidedly cooler today, and I loved that.

Okay Zanni, continued ... Book that changed my life? Collected poems of Jorie Graham, Portrait of A Lady (though I'm not sure how), Sometimes a Great Notion, Ashbery's Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror.

Book that made me laugh? Marc Acito's How I Paid for College. Yes indeed.

More soon.

Camping!

We are leaving for our family camping trip to Timothy Lake tomorrow! We are sort of packed! I can't wait.

Max is on two football teams; the 4th and 5th grade team and the 5th and 6th grade team. He will be playing twice a week, and he is excited. He looks so cute in his football helmet and uniform.

I nominated Janine Oshiro, Laton Carter, and Cecelia Hagen for Best of the Net for their poems in the Spring 2006 Caffeine Destiny.

Laura gets home tonight from a visit to Sisters.

Zanni - on a desert island I think I would want Portrait of a Lady and Gerald Stern and William Stafford and Jorie Graham and Sometimes a Great Notion and YOGA journal, since I'd have lots of time to do Yoga. Am I allowed to say more than one? If I had to pick just one I'd choose some huge anthology. I will respond to the other ones soon.

Ricky Bobby

Talladega Nights was funny, sort of. It was funny in many places, and then just kind of slow in other parts. But it was fun to go to a movie with Max, and Saturday morning we kept mentioning lines from the movie and that was fun as well. Shake and Bake! Help Me Tom Cruise!

I was listening to Podcasts today - because looking for interesting podcasts is more amusing than grading papers (and - see above paragraph - I'm all about the fun!) I didn't know Nora Ephron's parents wrote the Desk Set. I learned that from the New York Times Book Review podcast. There is The Billy Collins Animated Poetry Series, with poems read by him with a video to go along with it. I watched "Forgetfullness", which was cool. I found these on I-tunes.

Tonight we are going to make sushi and watch Cache.

Laura left for Sisters today, with her two cousins. The house will be quieter this week.

I found out last night a poem of mine will be in the second print anthology of the Notell Motel people, The Bedside Guide to Notell Motel, due out in January 2007. The link takes you to info about their first one. My poem doesn't mention sex, or motels. No one even kisses in it! I guess that wasn't a requirement, though, and for that I'm most appreciative.

Donuts

Today there were donuts in the kitchen at work. I know I know - thrilling subject, right? But there's just something so sweet about half of a donut on a plate of donuts. You can just imagine the internal struggle the person went through - I want a donut no I shouldn't have a donut. Okay half. I'll have half. Of course, it's possible the people who cut the donuts in half (by the end of the day there were quite a few of them) have no donut issues at all, and just weren't hungry enough for a whole one, but I doubt it.

I had one. And a little more than a half of another one.

Max is reading Pride and Prejudice. I thought he might not quite get it, but I asked him about it and he seems to be understanding the plot. Mr. Darcy is arrogant, he told me. I read a little of it with him last night.

But just so he doesn't become too high-brow, I'm taking him to see Will Farrell's new movie tomorrow night.

Last night Michael and I watched The Squid and the Whale, with Jeff Daniels. It was good and really sad. It reminded me a bit of The Ice Storm, although it was set in a later time. But there was something about the tone of both movies that seemed similar.

I have many papers to grade, but I'm going to pace myself.

Now He is Ten

Max had a good birthday! His presents included a guitar tuner and tickets to the Who in October - he and Michael are going. His birthday party was Friday and four of his friends spent the night. I think they went to bed by 3:00 a.m.; I know they were up by 7:00.

Christian Hawkey sent me poems for the new Caffeine Destiny, and I'm looking forward to having the new issue online!

Laura bought fake fingernails yesterday at Claire's. She told me it's hard to type with them.

I start my new job tomorrow. I have been trying to organize my office and my closets these past few days.

Last night I started reading "I'll Take You There", a novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

The light has shifted some, and it seems like fall is on its way. But not quite yet!

My sunflowers have all bloomed and are now falling over. I am thinking of trying to dry some of my tomatos - in the oven. Or maybe I'll just freeze them.

Seattle!

Okay, this is not the perfect Seattle collage, but it's a start ...

Seattle was fun! We went to the Seattle Zoo, and Volunteer Park, and to the Space Needle! We all went to the top of the Space Needle. It was a clear day and the view was fabulous. I have always had a very distinct memory of being four or five and having an Orange Julius at the top of the Space Needle with my mom.

Except, as it turns out, that never happened. I don't know where the memory came from .

While in Seattle I also went to Open Books, a bookstore devoted exclusively to poetry. I bought Joshua Beckman's new book, a book by Matthew Zapruder, and a book by Barbara Guest.

Max turns 10 on Friday. He is excited and that is an understatement.

Rice-a-Roni

The summer is going by fast now. I have been reading Marc Acito's How I Paid for College and enjoying it. I was a bit of a "theater person" in high school myself, so as they say, I can relate to it.

I talked to my mom on the phone today, and told her about my new job. Those of you who know me, know what it is. If you don't know, email me and I'll tell you!

Max has guitar lessons today and Laura is at the middle school painting a mural with her Girl Scout troop. She was great at the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls Showcase at the Baghdad Theater last Saturday. My daughter the rock star!

I need to weed in sections of the back yard. The sections where my flowers live. However, I have managed to avoid that for the past two days by making jam, taking advantage of Albertson's killer "going out of business sale" (I now have enough boxes of Rice-a-Roni and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese to make it through at least a few weeks of a terrorist attack or other unforeseen "can't leave the house to buy food" event), and grading papers. And sort of folding laundry. But just sort of.

The Beach!

Yes, as promised, it's the "I went to the beach this weekend!" blog entry. Because ... I did! Stayed at Amy and Scott's new house in Neskowin. It was lots of fun and I saw sea anemones. The weather was great.

This coming Saturday we are going to Seattle. We're going to the Space Needle and the Zoo, and Open Books. Our hotel has a pool, so I hope it's nice weather.

I haven't been writing much poetry - I never get much writing done in the summer. But Daneen and I are going to start meeting regulary to talk about poems, starting next week. That should be good incentive!

This summer has gone by fast, but it's still summer! It's only August. A new Caffeine Destiny should be up by the end of this month - that's the plan!

I have been reading short stories by William Trevor - and Rolling Stone Magazine!