Type Dancing

Post Holiday Muse

[Note: All pics taken with the Canon Power Shot Digital Elf or the Logitech digital pocket camera, except for the picture of Miles.]
Hope all of you out there had a hale and healthy 2004. Dave and I had a very good year. In April we managed to visit Ellen’s brother Paul and his wife, Julie, in Annapolis, Maryland.

We hiked in the park near their house, visited the docks at the end of their street, and went to the Baltimore Aquarium where we saw a wonderful dolphin show.

In May, Ellen sojourned to New York for over 2 weeks to continue her research on the Mary Chase biography. She read through the entire Mary Chase files at Brandt and Brandt. She discovered some important letters describing legal issues surrounding Harvey as well as some ancient 78s labeled “Harvey” that she hopes she can get permission to play and record.

After returning home, Ellen received a phone call from the agent telling her about a 5-page, single-spaced, typed letter from Mary to his father, her agent at the time. It was very provocative and lent credibility to the idea that Mary was drinking heavily during that time, and was quite depressed. Ellen is looking forward to getting back to the project.

Dave continues to work at Emulex, a job which he still enjoys enormously. In his spare time, Dave discovered Alton Brown of the Good Eats program on the Food Network. Alton has inspired him to try new things such as cooking steak and baby-back ribs as well as baking “chewy” chocolate chip cookies every time (which are now famous among both his coworkers and mine, as well as my family because they were smash hits as Christmas presents). Alton explains the science behind the whys of cooking, and it has given Dave confidence to try more complicated things.

Ellen still works at Sybase, keeping busy. In November, Ellen participated in the National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo) again, this time completing the plot of her novel. She hopes to be able to rewrite it over the next couple of years and perhaps publish it some day.

In April, Ellen hosted a Diva Party. She bought a karaoke disc player fairly cheaply, and some special karaoke discs, also pretty cheaply (www.karaoke.com-- pretty good sales), and dressed up as Liza Minnelli. She had a blast singing “Cabaret.” Other Divas were there: Grace Slick, Debby Harry, Placido Domingo, Dale Evans, and k.d. lang, among others. Ellen had a blast. Dave played computer games with another geek upstairs, but he eventually joined in the fun on The Banana Boat song (you kno, Day-oh!). Ellen plans to do it again in 2005. Clear your calendars!

On December 14th, my sister-in-law, Julie, and brother, Paul, gave birth to their first child, Miles Benjamin Wilkin, who was 8lbs, 10 oz, and 19.6 inches long. What a wonderful Christmas present to the entire family!

For Christmas, Ellen flew to Upstate to stay with sister, Wendy, and her husband, John, and two tiny creative forces of life: niece and nephew, Kate and James. She also visited her parents and spent time with two brothers, Chris and Kevin, who also flew in. Paul was, of course, busy with his tiny infant son. One highlight was when Kate, James, and Wendy got on the merry-go-round at Strong Museum.

Another highlight was hiking along the canal, then deciding to abandon the car and hike all the way home on telegraph road, past Carpy’s junkyard. It turns out it was about the same distance as going back to the car. John and Kev, after hiking all the way home, drove back to the car and fetched it.

It was a good family time, but Ellen felt bad that Dave had to stay back to take care of the aging felines (or maybe they were taking care of him?). But Dave did all right. He practiced his cooking, and treated Ellen to soufflé, braised pork, and salmon lasagna. Not to mention yummy oatmeal bread.

The cats are still going strong and are quite active, affectionate, and happy. Cocoa is 20 this winter. Eva and Zsa Zsa are 16, turning 17 this summer. Cocoa is still eating well, playing and soaking up oodles of lap. She is also still on three medications twice-a-day. Zsa Zsa continues to do well on prednisone, although she was diagnosed 13 months ago with mast cell cancer! She eats a ton, sleeps a ton, and still wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning whether I want to get up or not. The vet was not expecting her to show up for her annual exam in October with Eva. But she did, and she had gained weight since her last visit! All the vet can figure is that we caught the cancer early. We are just enjoying her while she appears to be healthy enough and happy! Eva continues on as the biggest grouch in the house. She talks constantly until you pick her up or give her a really good scratch, and then sometimes she doesn’t even stop then. She has a bit of arthritis, but otherwise, she is our healthiest cat.

On December 29, we celebrated the purchase of our mortgage. Because this was our Christmas present to each other, Ellen was going to put a huge bow on the house, but she couldn’t find one big enough. In celebration, we went out to eat at a local restaurant and had champagne. We look forward to many prosperous years together.

Best to you all. Thank you for your cards, letters, and other little surprises this holiday season.

So, Sydney. What’s with the Cell Phone?

You know, I realize you have a really tough job ‘n all, working at the CIA as a field agent with your Dad (how weird is that?), and then having a mother who was a double agent and betrayed the CIA and your father and you – it just exhausts me to even write this. So, I respect your position, I really do. But why on God’s green earth do you keep your cell phone on ring? And not just any ring. This baby blasts out a tuneless set of notes at high volume. What if you were, like, undercover when the darn phone rang?

I can just see it. You are Kashka, a beautiful Arab heiress. Your father is a sheik and quite powerful in your region of the Sudan. And he really is your father, Jack, dressed in a long beard and turban. You are there to stop an exchange of a secret weapon between a fringe Palestinian organization and you’re number one enemy, the man who betrayed his country and you and your father and the CIA, Arvin Sloane.

Your father and you attend a party at the American Embassy where the exchange is to take place. You are dressed in beautiful layers of shimmering green and orange silk, your hair pulled up on the top of your head and tied with more silk that comes cascading down over one eye and wraps itself around the lower half of your face. Many men’s eyes are upon you. You spot the contact from the fringe organization and you make eyes at him. You sashay over towards him. He leans toward you and breathes, “You are magnificent!” You smile and look down at the floor. Then you extend one long, slender arm, with a long slender hand at the end of it, with a long slender finger at the end of it, and you beckon him seductively. Then you sashay out of the room and down the hall. He follows. Your plan is working. He is about to wrap you in his arms, which puts you in direct contact with the key he wears around a chain on his neck. This key will give you access to the vault where the weapon is being kept.

Suddenly, there is a loud duh sound. “Duhuhuh-duh-duh-duh-duh- duhuh, duh duh duh duh duhuhuhuh…” It’s your cell phone. Do you answer it? Do you let it keep ringing until your voice mail picks up? If so, what do you and the bad guy do in the mean time? Do you start to file your nails? Does he comb his hair? And when the cell phone stops ringing, do you pick up where you left off?

NO.

Come on, Sydney. Be real. You’ve blown your cover. You’ve lost the key. Face it. This is your one flaw as a secret agent. (Ahem!) But, don’t worry. I’ll keep your secret….

Visions of Jack Black Dancing in My Head

I sleep lightly these days, so that means I dream most of the night. At least, I remember much of what I dream, as opposed to nights when I am sleeping soundly. Like most people, I dream about what is uppermost in my mind. That’s why it’s embarrassing to admit that last night I dreamt about Jack Black in the movie Shallow Hal. Ok. That’s not as embarrassing as dreaming about Charmed, a tv show with busty, sleek, young witches who vanquish demons in high heels and tube tops, which I also have done, but I only watch Charmed while working out on the stationary bike. It still raises the question, however, that if I hadn’t watched Shallow Hal, would I have dreamt about something else more important? I am not sure I want my nocturnal subconscious spending time on this stuff.

Don’t get me wrong. Shallow Hal is not a bad movie. It promotes inner beauty in more ways than briefly putting Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. It introduces you to a guy with spina bifida (Rene Kirby) who doesn’t use a wheel chair or crutches (unless he is dancing the night away), but walks around on all fours, downhill skies, dates women, and has a lust for life which is quite exciting and beautiful. I just wonder if, without the image of the grinning coo-coo-clock-eyed Black dancing in my head, would I have relied on my own imagination for my dreams? I used to get ideas for poems and novels from my dreams. Of course, by the time I woke up, I would only remember a snippet of the actual words, plot, or characters, yet be left with a strong feeling that it was wonderful. But at least it was my mind that was creating the pictures and the words. At least, I think it was all my mind. Perhaps it was a more subtle influence like a book, magazine article, radio show, or, could it be possible? A conversation with a live person? I mean, what is an original thought or idea, anyway?

I won’t kid myself. I love my movie- and TV-watching, especially when eating a yummy Dave-cooked meal and sharing a bottle of wine. And I do have some standards, always looking for excellent writing, acting, direction, and certainly entertainment. I guess the best I can hope for would be to even the score and dream half the time about ideas that come from other places besides movies and television – you know, other than the predigested media. The other half of my dreams would then be influenced by literature or magazine articles or radio shows. But, how to increase my exposure to those media? Given a choice between watching Charmed as I sweat on the bike after a long workday and reading a chapter from Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (a wonderful novel), Charmed almost always wins out. Sometimes escapism is exactly what you want.

This Thing just showed up in my kitchen

I was just minding my own business, walking into the kitchen, and this thing showed up on the counter. It is silver and black, and shiny. It’s about as big as a breadbox. It says “KRUPS” across the front. It has lots of levers on the front. And it has four metal mouths with weird gridded teeth. The metal tongues in each mouth raise and lower. It smelled like a small motor burning throughout the house when Dave first turned it on for a test run. I am a bit scared of it. It is a Presence. When I first walk into the kitchen tomorrow morning will it pounce on me?

I thought there was something strange about the huge cardboard box from Cooks….