Haikuesday 3/30/2010

Another Haikuesday is here and there is another reason to celebrate! Today is my Mom's Birthday! I won't say how old she is, but one of the haikus might give you a hint. :-)

Glad She's Here (by Me)

Three Thirty Five Eight

Deanna Mae Harp arrived

I love my mama

Current Events 3/30/2010 (by Me)

Ricky Martin's Gay

CERN blew the atoms away

Quite a busy day

From Hipster Haiku (by Siobhan Adcock)

After my 5th year

"Philosophy Ph.D."

Didn't sound punk rock

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom & Dad getting ready to board the boat for Catie's Wedding last year! :-)

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Haikuesday

Inspired by Beth at 990 Square with her Wordless Wednesdays and Jeanne at Necromancy Never Pays, and her Book Trivial Pursuit on Fridays, I've decided I need something to motivate myself to blog weekly.

So, based on my complete lazyness for uploading pictures and my absolute horribleness at Book Trivia, I've decided to put my fondness for tiny, lovely poems to work.

From now on Tuesday shall be known as:

Haikuesday

I'll mix in some of my own haikus with some that I've read and want to share. Enjoy!

As Brenda (by me)

Who is Brandy Farr?

Does she really exist, or

is she me spelled wrong?

Zoo (by me)

The zoo is no fun

Since Mr. Rhinocerous

Rained on my parade

From Zombie Haiku (By Ryan Mecum)

I can remember

good food that mom used to make

I bet mom tastes good

Everything I thought

tasted a lot like chicken

really tastes like man

I really have enjoyed the Zombie Haiku book, actually. It's pretty inventive and if you are alone at home reading it, you can get pretty freaked out. Have a lovely Haikuesday everyone! :-)

Critical Monkey Contest Entry #3 - The Red Tent

My next entry in the Critical Monkey Challenge was thrown at me.

Okay, I've never actually had a book hurled at my head, pages flapping wildly in the wind. What I mean by "thrown" is more a particular friend telling me I "HAVE" to read a particular book, at which time she puts the book in my hands and runs away before I can sneak it into her purse. Sigh.

My friend, Carolyn, declared to me over a year ago that "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant was her favorite book, so she left it with me to read. I generally enjoy reading new books, and I said I'd read it as soon as I had time, but a year later I found the book on my bookcase covered in dust. Whoops!

I hadn't really been too busy to pick the book up though. Every time I looked at the cover, I only saw one thing: "God Book." "Bible Story" seemed to flash in neon letters when I picked it up. Granted, all I knew about the novel was that it revolved around a bible story, but that was enough to keep me away. Just about the last thing I wanted to read was another preachy God book (lets think about Left Behind here, shudder), so I gradually pushed the book aside, then forgot about it.

But the other day, Carolyn asked if I still had her book; her FAVORITE book. As the guilt sat in, I made up my mind to suffer through it, no matter how bad, just to be able to return the darn thing to her. So I did double duty between Critical Monkey and trying not to be a crappy friend.

Plot: The book tells the story of Dinah from the Bible. You may say "Who the heck was Dinah??" I also said this. Turns out, she was Joseph's (of the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat's Fame) sister. Luckily, the plot doesn't really dwell on Joseph's story and sticks more to the women in the book, namely Dinah and her four mothers and the time they spend in the Red Tent, the place where they have babies and spend "their time of the month."

My reaction: I prepared myself for the worst and the worst never came. I couldn't have been more surprised and pleased with the novel! Although this book takes a minor story from the Bible, Diamant makes the characters extremely engaging. She fleshes out the the day to day lives of the women of the Tribe. The rituals they perform for their gods and very vivid descriptions of midwifery and childbirth always keep things interesting. The time the women spend in the Red Tent seems to organize the first half of the book and hold the stories together, and eventually the Red Tent serves as a symbol of the power of the women when they are united and a tribute to their history and their customs/beliefs.

I needn't have worried about the book being a "God book" either. Diamant doesn't preach on how great the God of Abraham is in her story. In fact, I got the impression that she thought that God was kind of a dick, and honestly, I did too.

What It Might Remind You Of: The Mists of Avalon. (Every man in the room just ran away screaming). Whoa There! Okay, when I say it's similar I just mean it has all the Women Power and Ritualistic stuff that Mists had. Luckily it does not have crappy Old Gwenhwyfar who screws entire stories for no reason. Needless to say, I might have some issues with Gwenhwyfar (last time I read the book I threw it across the room and swore I'd never read it again because she sucks so bad). Happily enough though, Dinah is nothing like Gwenhwyfar and the only ones who come close are the brothers and Jacob.

Hilarious moments: My Bible knowledge is WAY rusty, but after listening to the "Dreamcoat" soundtrack about a million times in high school, I kept thinking of the songs when something would happen. They mention Potiphar at one point and I kept chanting "Potiphar had very few cares...he was one of Egypt's millionaires." Too bad there weren't any songs about Dinah, or I would have been singing a lot more.

What I've Learned:

1. Just because a book takes place in Biblical times and uses characters from a Bible story, doesn't mean it's a preachy book.

2.Trust my friend Carolyn's taste in books.

Random Dream

So I was going back through my blogs I've started writing and never finished and came across this one and although I barely remember this dream, it made me laugh and I'm happy that I dreamed it. And since baseball season is finally getting closer, it makes since to bring it out now.

So here you go:

I am in an old fashioned movie theatre from the 1930s. No stadium seating here. Just a slight slope upwards and a unviewable balcony from my vantage point. I am seated near the back of the theatre and the screen has already started showing movie trailers. After finishing a preview for a generic romantic comedy, complete with guy, girl, and pizza place (probably), a special announcement comes on the screen.

"The following is brought to you by the National Baseball Appreication Association"

My interest has been piqued, and I begin to watch more intently.

The screen flashes to light blue, and the announcer's voice (very much like the guy in the Smucker's commercials) fills the room. "269,799," he says. He says it a couple of more times for emphasis, and the screen does some pretty neat graphics with the number and turning it around and upside down.

He continues:

"Throughout history, 269,799 persons have excelled at the sport we now know as baseball." (dramatic pause for effect) "Since our earliest times as a species, there have been those whose existence has been defined by their accomplishments in relation to it."

The screen flashes to a scene with three "cave people;" two brothers and their sister. They have made an impromtu baseball field out of rocks and dirt, and at the moment the sister is up to bat. The younger brother catcalls at her and says she won't be able to hit anything because she is a girl. The older brother looks calmly from first base and calls out to her, "You can do this, sister! Believe in yourself!" The younger brother pitches the rock towards her in slow motion. Inspirational music, most likely composed by John Williams, beings to swarm the theatre and the camera pans from the rock to the girl. As the music swells to a finish, she slams the ball out of the cave park, into the sky.

The screen pans out and begins to show a montage of the greatest baseball players in history. Babe Ruth, George Brett, the girls from A League of Their Own, and others. The announcer starts listing the names of the greats, and as he says each name, he places them on the list of 269,799 names.

The promotion is drawing to an end, more John William's music is swelling and the screen is filled with home runs, great catches, and spectacular plays. Then it's just the number again on the screen.

269,799

He says "Will you be one of these names one day?"

I am crying now, awed by the immense importance of my dream.

Then I wake up and say "What the hell??"

Strangely enough, after I examined the mysterious number more closely I realized that all those numbers, when added together, came to 42. And anyone who has ever read Douglas Adam's work, knows that 42 is the meaning of life. Thus, I see this as proof that my dream means that Baseball is actually the true meaning of life.

So lets play ball!!

January - A Trip to the Big Easy

I woke up the other day, looked at my calendar and was pretty surprised to see that it was February. Surely, I thought, I mus have accidentally turned the calendar page too soon, but it was no mistake on my part. January was over, and the second month of the year had begun.

But what about January? What happened? How did I fail to write even one tiny entry for the month?

Well...the answer to the latter question is "I'm lazy." And the answer to the first query is:

We went to New Orleans!

I did not take this picture, but it was the first image that popped up in my Google search for New Orleans, and I think it's a good way to start off this picture ridden post.

We started off our journey on the coldest day of the year, January 7. Seriously...it was daaarn cold. This airplane thinks so too.

We did, after a few delays, make it to NOLA, and first thing we headed here:

No, it's not a crack house. This fine establishment is actually Vaughn's Lounge, home to the famous trumpeter Kermit Ruffins...who plays a pretty mean horn. :-)

What made it even better though, were the complimentary Red Beans and Rice that came with the show. Delicious!

Really....it was really really good. So good in fact, I made the same dish the weekend after we got back...and I'm thinking about making it again right now. Mmmm.

The next morning we walked around the French Quarter and saw the sights. This place is famous, but I'm too lazy too look up what the heck it is right now. ;-)

What's better than that though, are the SUPER YUMMY Beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Here is Daniel (a.k.a. White Beard) eating one.

They taste like a bit like funnel cakes minus the funnel part.

From there, we did some more sight seeing.

Daniel with a canon. Cool.

The Pirate Cafe! The bartender made me a wonderful Irish Coffee. She was very cool and chatted us up quite a bit.

Some more fooling around with historical statues.

For lunch, we stopped at the Central Grocery and had THE WORLD'S GREATEST SANDWICH. I do not say this lightly. It was so good my mouth waters thinking about it right now.

The Muffaletta:

Really...so good.

This was taken at a convent...but that didn't stop the Mustache from it's hijinks!

Nuns on the run to see this stache!

We saw this very cool street band as we were heading back to the hotel for the afternoon.

The dogs add to the band, I think. :-)

That night we headed over the Emeril's restaurant for our anniversary dinner. The highlight of the evening came with the Monster piece of Banana Cream Pie.

I like pie. :-)

Then we headed over to Tommy's Wine Bar for some fun live music and some delicious wine!

For lunch the next day we stopped at the Palace Cafe and had Banana's Foster. Holy Yum, it was good.

Fire!

Then we headed out to the streetcar to head up to the Art Museum. Don't let those palm trees fool you. It was freezing!

As we were waiting on the Streetcar though, we happened to notice this guy:

Yes...he is a hobo, with an umbrella hat, shouting into a bullhorn to "Repent! Repent and Be Saved!" Daniel sneakily took this picture, which made us feel a bit guilty...but the hilarity overcame our guilt and we giggled about it later. :-)

The next day we headed to the Garden District to have the famous Sunday Brunch at Commander's Palace. The food was amazing and the staff was amazingly nice, plus we got the Jazz Band to play "Kansas City" for us.

Then, after our delicious brunch, they brought out our desserts and they had totally outdone themselves.

My Strawberry Shortcake.

Daniel's Bread Pudding.

With full bellies, we headed out to explore the Garden District. We didn't get to go into the Graveyard because it was closed on Sundays, but I did get a couple of good pics from the fence.

And just a reminder....it was cold!

That night we decided to go out and party it up for real. We started out at Patty O'Brien's and had the famous Hurricane, then we went up and down Bourbon Street, which...was not the best idea I've ever had.

But I'm ending this post on a positive note and not with memories of vomiting.

So thanks New Orleans, for a great trip, awesome food, and sweet music.*

*Daniel took a ton of video, so I'll upload some of that eventually to give you a taste of it all.