Couldn't you just slurp 'em up?
*************
Heat is not my favourite medium.†
But the little yard outside the Baptist church I can see from my window currently sports a crew‡ of landscape maintenance technicians§ and one of them has his shirt off.
Let's just say this boy should ALWAYS go shirtless.
Hey, you have your boys of summer, I have mine.¶
*************
Sunday night at family dinner, I mentioned the crane in Houston that broke free and killed its oppressors.#
Brother gave me that... Brother... look.
Dad began to wax eloquent on cranes, and Brother said, "You have a crane thing? Is that where she gets it?"
"No, this is years of observation."
Heredity. Cranes are in the blood.††
*************
Speaking of nature vs. nurture. Sort of:
A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Doom said, "AntiM, I wish I was a girl."
So, y'know, partly worried that one of my favourite nephews was experiencing gender identity pains and partly worried about what this would do to his childhood, I said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Why do you wish you were a girl?"
"Because girls get to like princesses and I love the princesses only boys aren't supposed to like princesses."
Caught halfway between laughing and crying, I said, "Boys can like princesses if they like. There's not a thing in the world wrong with liking princesses no matter who you are."
So I was at Target Sunday and, on a whim,‡‡ I checked on the pink aisle to see what they had in a Disney Princess. Lo and behold, they had a set of Disney princess action figures. There was only one set left. I bought it and decided to give it to him right away.§§
It should be noted for those of you who may think the Dr. Doom appelation is inappropriate for such a sensitive little boy that there was a princess death match at dinner and Ariel kicked some major ballgowned ass.¶¶
*************
Soldier Boy called yesterday.
If you cast your mind back, the last time he called, I called back to say, "I need time to shave my legs. Please give me notice next time."
So the message, "I'm in Denver for a couple of days and thought maybe we could get together for a beer. I know the last time I talked to you, you said you need time to buff and polish, so I'm callin' to see if we can get together tomorrow or Wednesday. Maybe get some munchies."
I think it's heartening to know he listened. I think it's even more heartening that he remembered something from that long ago.###
*************
I gave in.
At lunch, I bought this:
The fact that there are vampires and scent## surely make up for the fact that when I couldn't find it in Fiction and Literature or Sci-Fi/Fantasy and asked at the information desk, I had to be led to the teen section.†††
*************
I also bought this:
I believe knitting is waning fast as a fad.
I looked at my local grocery store.‡‡‡ I looked at Borders. I found one lone copy of Knitscene at Barnes & Noble.
While I was at B&N, I checked the knitting section to see if there's anything I need.§§§
The knitting section is less than half what it was a month ago.
When I was looking for a picture of the cover to post here, I found that neither B&N online nor Amazon.com is carrying Knitscene anymore.
I suspect there are a lot of that particular type of snob¶¶¶ who will purport to be thrilled not to have to cope with amateur hour at the local yarn store anymore, but if knitting is no longer the It hobby, I think we'll see less books, less yarn, less patterns.
More isn't always bad. Popularity isn't always a curse.
*************
Finally, let's take a sniff at today's perfume: Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Angelique - Lilas.
This is my *ahem* Danielle Steele scent.%
And it smells like lilacs. For a long time, it smells like lilacs. It smells like lilacs right out of the bottle and keeps on smelling like lilacs. I thought for fleeting moments I got a whiff of grass, but it always went back to lilacs...
...until about 3:03 this afternoon, when it softened into a cedar-tinged light musk, which I really rather like.
Huh.
I love the smell of lilacs when it arrives in the spring. Around day three of lilac season, I'm done. That first whiff is a harbinger, a soft, sweet sign of the season. The fifty-first whiff is a blanket of sweet I can't get away from.
I feel the same way about orange blossoms in Scottsdale.
Damn, I'm picky.
The Perfumed Court says: "Lilas creates a sensual blend of soft floral notes, bright green notes,* and subtle musk$ notes. With notes of pink peppercorn, jasmine, Seville orange,^ angelica,= lilac,@ ylang ylang,& cedar$ and heliotrope."
Hans says: *sniff* *eyeroll* *pause*
"I rather like that."
He cocked his head, beckoned with his fingers for me to hold my wrist up again, took a deep whiff and said, "Fruity!"
I guess Hans could smell the orange.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): At least when it comes to weather.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Three guys. I could mow this lawn, trim it and blow the lawn schrapnel off in less than an hour. Three guys? I am, of course, mostly bitching because I only got to watch the Young and the Shirtless for about ten minutes.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I made that up. It sounds really PC, doesn't it?
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Let's not talk about the Rockies just now, shall we? Concentrate on the pretty boy with the pretty chest.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I'm developing my own theory on the Mass Crane Collapse of 2008.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Wouldn't it make a fantastic nature vs. nurture study?
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Much surrounding princesses is whimsical.
§§FOOTNOTE (turn around when you're two, turn around when you're four...): Justifying my psycho-auntdom, who knows if he'll still be into princesses at Christmas?
¶¶FOOTNOTE (and the winner is...): I like to think this is because Ariel is a redhead.
##FOOTNOTE (pounded like the ego of a 41-year-old in the teen section): Thank you, Secret Pal.
†††FOOTNOTE (three times a vampire): I really thought the guy said the books were in "thirteenth century." Wishful thinking.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (railroad tracks to nowhere): Which not only didn't have Knitscene, but isn't carrying knitting magazines at all anymore.
§§§FOOTNOTE (yarn over): Read: anything I don't already have.
¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (three needle bind-off): You know the type -- the ones who get sputtering mad over the phrase, "Not your grandmother's knitting" or the designation "hip."
###FOOTNOTE (oh, the pounding I could have had!): Though disheartening that he apparently got booked up for the couple of days he's here. We talked for a bit and he kinda said, "Nobody ever comes to visit me in Vail. I try to touch base every time I'm in Denver. Talk to you later." Does *anyone* know the Boy-to-Girl translation of this? Other than, "Marin is not getting laid any time this week"?
%FOOTNOTE (percented, because four of anything is anathema): From "Zoya," the first Danielle Steele book I ever read, about a Russian noble who was friends with the royal family and had to flee in the face of the Revolution. Zoya and the royal daughters wore Lilas and it was used to denote a trip down memory lane for the post-Revolution portion of the book. For the record, I checked another Danielle Steele novel out of the library, hated it and never read Danielle Steele again. I re-read Zoya every couple of years just 'cause it's a good yarn.
*FOOTNOTE (asterisked, ibid): Where? WHERE ARE THE GREEN NOTES? I'm pretty sure I like green notes.
$FOOTNOTE (moneyed, ibid): Ha! Got one!
^FOOTNOTE (careted, ibid): Lookie there. Hans was right. I knew he'd redeem himself for the very flippant "diaper" comment.
=FOOTNOTE (equaled): I wouldn't know an angelica if it bit me in the ass. Isn't angelica that stuff that makes yarn sparkly?
@FOOTNOTE (atted, ibid): Duh
&FOOTNOTE (ampersanded, ibid): There's ylang-ylang in this? Wow. Maybe ylang-ylang isn't the spew of the devil I thought it was. Out of fairness to ylang-ylang, most of my experience with it is in the form of bubble baths from Whole Foods that are supposed to be sexy. Oh, yeah. I'm that girl.
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