Time to find out what song I am playing OVER & OVER & OVER again on the CD player in my 2001 Mercury Sable LS Premium as I drive all over town with all four windows down, the breeze blowing in like crazy because I have no AC in my car….
You are certifiably CRAZY if you are not listening to the same song, gang!!
I regale you with this amazing song here. Have a great day, wherever you are and with whatever you’re driving around listening to (if you’re foolish enough to not be listening to this, that is)! Thanks for visiting! See ya!
First and foremost, I have made a chore chart for everyone who lives here and I’ve posted it prominently in the kitchen! I’m trying to get everyone to take on their fair share of the cleaning duties around here because I do not have enough time to do everything. So I’ve made the kind of chart where you give each person a little colored foil sticky star that indicates how they are doing as far as accomplishing their chores goes. You know, sort of like this:
Chore Chart
Then I stick a little star in the “day of the week” column. Gold, of course, means “excellent”. Silver means “showing improvement”. Green means “needs improvement”. Blue means “lacking initiative”. Red means “poor”.
YES, I do realize that everyone who lives here, besides me, is a cat! But that shouldn’t be an excuse for getting a free ride! So far, Fluffy, who, albeit is dying from cancer, has the difficult chore of “sleeping at all times” and she, even in her poor, fragile condition, is the ONLY ONE who consistently gets a gold star. EVERYONE ELSE hovers in the “lacking initiative” and “needs improvement” zones…
When I try to point this out to them, they insist on regarding me blankly. Some even have the audacity to look at me and then glance at the fridge, as if treats might be coming! (Have you ever known “lacking initiative” or “needs improvement” to equal treats?? I have not.)
I am NOT KIDDING about the chore chart, however, it is only an art project I made for myself in order to remember to laugh when I look around at the regrettable state of the house. No one (me) is dusting. No one (me) has washed the kitchen floor in several weeks. No one (me, again, as it turns out) has vacuumed in about 10 days. I’m actually up to my eyeballs in writing projects, so that is a really happy thing. Still, I stress when the housework doesn’t get done.
But, on that merry note — the actress in NYC (the one I’ve been working with on the original one-woman musical) came back from the pitch in Toronto with excellent news. The response to the project was incredibly great, so we are almost to the final draft that will be shopped to theatrical producers, etc. It is so exciting. She’s been working on this musical (she wrote the play and all the songs — it is about her staggeringly unexpected life) for about 5 or 6 years. And I’ve been working with her (editing, advising, tweaking) (not implying any use of meth amphetamines when I say “tweaking”) for about 3 years now. But it is a really great show, gang, and I know it is going to get funded.
Anyway, so that is getting ready to go into high gear, while I am also in the throes of writing The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder at Parsons Ridge, the novel.
Remember how — many, many posts ago — I proposed the idea of writing 5 pages a day on the novel in order to have it done by Labor Day? Yeah, well….
I’m trying. It’s now looking more like late September. (Assuming that on your calendar, “late September” actually means October… hahaha.)
It has been a rough summer, gang. An expensive summer. An “every time I turn around, a week has disappeared, where is the time flying to?” summer. Hence, the chore chart, to remember to keep my sense of humor.
All right. Well, it’s a lovely, sunny, ungodly humid, hot Saturday here, gang! Luckily, the central AC is kicking butt this year!! Yay!! My house stays at an always-comfortable 72 degrees!! I’m going to get crackin’ on the novel. (Okay, I’m going to go down to the kitchen and get another cup of coffee, then get crackin’ on the novel.)
Have a great day, wherever you are and whatever you get crackin’ on in your neck of the woods!! Thanks for visiting. See ya!
Me, getting crackin’ on the novel! I know, it looks suspiciously like me “tinkering” in the previous post. Trust me, there are shades of nuance when I’m getting crackin’ and when I’m tinkering.
In my obsession with cats, both hither and yon, I neglected to post here that the much anticipated meeting in L.A. to pitch my TV script/series, The Tea Cozy Murder Club: A Murder At Parsons Ridge, had been re-scheduled for this past Thursday (7/28) and the meeting went SPLENDIDLY!
You may recall that the producer (who is agenting the script for me) (you’ll note that the word “agent” is not only a lowly noun, but also becomes a highly active action verb, simply by adding “ing”) had injured himself pretty badly while working out in the gym a while back, and so the first meeting had to be postponed.
However, as I just said, the meeting was re-scheduled and it went great and so I am sending the script off in the mail on Monday!!
Yippee ki yi yay! (part 1 — the” part 2″ part comes when the production company gets the script, reads it, and swoons, “WE LOVE IT!!”) (“swoon” being not only an action verb, but also a type of speech when used incorrectly in a sentence!)
Okay, gang! I’m off to tinker with my show bible, before sending it along with the script on Monday morning. Have a wonderful Saturday! Thanks for visiting, see ya!
The SCPA International sent out an urgent request last night for donations to help rescue 70 homeless cats living around the Rio airport in Brazil.
In preparation for the upcoming Olympics, authorities in Rio are putting out poisoned food for these cats, in an effort to kill them. Two are already confirmed dead from the poisoning.
The SPCA is trying to stop this cruelty and to rescue the remaining cats.
You can donate here. I donated through the link to Paypal at the top of the page, because I couldn’t get the form to work last night. But it might be working now. Either way, you can easily donate online.
Loyal readers of this lofty-though-sporadic blog will no doubt recall that I acquired a new used car recently. It was supposed to be an interim car, pending the settlement of a car accident, however, I wound up falling in love with my interim car and now I am hoping to keep it for all time!
Yes, it’s that 2001 sparkling silver Mercury Sable LS Premium sedan! I paid $950 cash for it. The first — though somewhat lowly — miracle was that in the car’s ashtray, I found $1 in loose change. I guess that was a rebate of sorts, so I really only paid $949 for it!
In all seriousness, though, gang, I really, really, REALLY love this car.
It has a 3.0 L DOHC Duratec 30 V6 engine — 200 horsepower. The same engine used in the Jaguar S series that year. The car is fast, gang. I can get to Kroger, to Sur La Table, and to the ATM in nanoseconds!
And yesterday, I discovered that the strange plastic thing attached to the inside of my (really, really spacious) trunk, the plastic thing that has a Compact Disk logo on it that befuddled me because, as far as I could tell, I could only play the radio or cassette tapes in my car, even though it had all the indications that it could play CDs…
Anyway, I finally discovered that the plastic attached thingie in the spacious trunk is, in fact, a 6-CD changer! OMG!! I immediately ran into the house, grabbed 6 CDs, loaded the thing, got into my car and hit the CD button, cranked the volume and, WOW, the car has an awesome sound system, gang! I was so overjoyed!!
I sat in my car, in the garage, all the windows up, the doors closed, and I punched the “shuffle” button, and what to my wondering ears should explode into the speakers, but Tom Jones, singing the Green, Green Grass of Home.
I was overwhelmed by the surround-sound-ness of it!
I was instantly transported to a better time, a better place! Think: Cleveland, 1960s, gang. When I was just a wee bonny lass, unaware that life was going to go on and on and mostly suck!
If you have never heard Tom Jones’ original version of this song, I regale you with it here! Maybe listen to it with headphones on, with the volume cranked so that you can sort of experience what life is now like in my amazing car! Oh, and, while listening, imagine you are a wee bonny lass in Cleveland, Ohio, that it’s still the 1960s, and you are unaware that life is going to go on and on and mostly suck!
Fluffy surprised me yesterday evening by getting out of bed all by herself, walking across the room and sitting happily by Lucy’s food bowl! I came in from the kitchen and found her, unexpectedly sitting there, very alert. I was so thrilled.
Fluffy, out of bed by herself!
PS, gang: She also got back up onto the bed, by herself. And that is usually the harder part for her. She’s been having a few good days & nights in row.
Here’s a rough idea of what it looks like in and around my house this summer. (See post below, where I said that everything imaginable was in bloom.)
I’m not a very good photographer. However. These photos should give you an idea of how it looks from inside my house — every window looks out on something blooming!
If you click on the photos, you can see larger photographs.
First, my favorite view looking out one of my kitchen windows:
Kitchen window view
My two office windows:
View from my office2nd office window
Here’s what you see when you go into my upstairs bathroom (try to overlook the screen):
View from the upstairs bathroom
And lastly –for now– a shot of the front of my house, the view is from the driveway:
front of house, in the morning
Even though these are not very good photos, you can maybe guess that it is a little overwhelming on a sunny day. Everywhere I look, I see all these flowers, and so many colors. But it overwhems in the best way.
Okay, gang. I leave you with an additional good vibration! Have a great Monday, wherever you are and thanks for visiting. See ya!
Yes, pretty much everything in my life these days would benefit from a miracle, however, the current needed miracle involves an incredible invitation I’ve been extended from the folks at SomethingDark in the UK.
I am the North American editor for that lofty publication. They are preparing an awesome gallery exhibition and official relaunch arts extravaganza in Berlin in early September, to which I am invited to attend. However, a truckload of money would have to fall on me before I could afford a trip like that right now.
Or, in short, it would take a miracle… But you never know. Perhaps I should start an ongoing Kickstarter campaign to raise constant Miracle Funds so that I can, once again, have a life? We shall see!
In other news… I made homemade cherry-vanilla ice cream in my Cuisinart Fruit Scoop (see a post below somewhere re: this awesome appliance) and it was unbelievable, gang! Just 1 cup of fresh cherries, some milk, cream, sugar, vanilla bean paste, a pinch of kosher salt, and then 15 minutes later — voila!— ice cream to die for!
[Editor’sNote: I have a long list of incredible things I am planning to die for; sadly, ice cream is way at the bottom of that list. ] But all kidding aside, you should buy a Cuisinart Fruit Scoop post-haste, if you haven’t done so already. The summer is still young!
Speaking of summer…and, by default, of 90-degree temperatures and ridiculously high humidity: This past Wednesday evening, a friend and I did one of those Summer Literary Picnic thingies at Thurber House and we had a truly terrific time. In spite of the high heat and almost unbearable humidity, we sat out in the grass, had a picnic supper, and were highly entertained by author Robin Yocum, reading from his new novel, A Brilliant Death.
I really enjoyed the book — I read it a couple months ago. And I loved his presentation. He was very entertaining and it made the summer heat much more bearable.
Here are some official photos of Thurber House, of the dining room with the “haunted clock” and of James Thurber‘s bedroom — he grew up in this house, which is now a museum and a literary gathering place of sorts. Followed by an unofficial photo of Robin Yocum giving his presentation that I took with my iphone!
Thurber HouseThurber Family Dining Room with haunted clock on mantel.James Thurber’s bedroom, although it is much more charming than it looks here. It has 2 closets, windows, and a fireplace.Robin Yocum speaking (Luke Feck behind him)
I will leave you with one more note about Summer… My yard is bursting with flowers this year. You would simply not believe it, gang. Everything imaginable is in bloom. I will try to get some decent photos to post here soon, but I am not the best photographer. But I’ll see what I can do!
Meanwhile, enjoy this wonderfully sunny, mild, flower-filled Saturday wherever you are and whatever you end up doing!! I’m going to spend most of the day hanging out here at the laptop, writing, for a change. and partaking of homemade cherry-vanilla ice cream. I am happy!
Marilyn's Room 