The Burrow

I spent the morning considering Julius Caesar. Was Cicero being snarky as he praised the dictator for life for his victories and his clemency and his poetry? Did Caesar err by allowing his enemies to live? Since one of those who survived was Brutus (of Et tu?  Shakespearean fame) perhaps it wasn't the best decision he ever made. Would the proposed Caesarean reforms have preserved the Republic had Caesar not been assasinated before they could be implemented? Did he really have a sexual relationship with King Nicodeme, as Suetonius's epigrams suggest? My brain was afire as I hobbled from the classroom at noon. Three hours of sitting and listening is more than my recovering hip can handle happily. Sometimes I bring a footrest, sometimes I sit straight upright with my feet planted firmly on the ground, sometimes I cross my legs, one over the other, switching the over to the under every 15 minutes. I'm still looking for the appropriate solution. The result of sti...

When he was younger, his curls were golden brown.  When asked to identify the parts of his head, he'd point to "my eyes, my nose, my ears, and my beautiful" as he got to his hair. Now, he's sitting on Douglas, twirling a few strands over and over just above his left ear. My dad did the same thing.  I'd sit in the back seat behind my father, watching as his hands gesticulated and pointed and twirled and did everything but guide the car.  It drove me crazy. Now my son, my nearly-a-lawyer, grins his fiendish grin as his father dodges the mister fan the kid has unearthed from beneath my bathroom sink. It must be generational.  We are bred to make one another nutty. He will sit beside his sister, his finger a millimeter away from her arm, declaring with that fiendish grin that he's not touching her.  Think about it - is it possible not to flinch when someone is telling you that he is not touching you?  I don't think so. Yet his joy is so pure, his del...

There's a lovely aura in our home right now.  Little Cuter and SIR have landed safely, picked up the dog, and decorated their apartment for the holiday season. Big Cuter and TBG are on the couch, snuggled under blankets, watching football and sharing esoterica.  I've baked the first batch of holiday brownies and am listening to the printer creating the labels as I type to you.  Life is good. We were quiet and peaceful for the holiday this year.  Usually, I am the home for the otherwise uninvited; my turkey is always big enough and we've yet to finish a side dish.  But this year we kept it simple.  I picked up G'ma at the pod-castle at 2-ish.  When she asked if she had to wear fancy clothes I just laughed; sweats were the order of the day.  There's nothing I like more in the kitchen than to watch my daughter work her magic.  Pepper Jack cheese is cut into many, equally sized squares.  Potatoes are cut into cubes, also equally sized....

I want to go to each and every one of these places with each and every one of you.  Just look at all the fun we can have in Bloomington, Indiana  buying books at Howard's Bookstore  ( 111 W. Kirkwood)  and used ones at Caveat Emptor ( 112 N. Walnut) . They have no web presence; we'll have to drive 45 miles south of Indianapolis and visit in person  We could buy Little Cuter something wonderful at Goods for Cooks before we stopped for dessert at BluBoy Chocolates Cafe and Cakery .  The name alone has me drooling, and then I saw the pictures of the cakes made with locally sourced ingredients.  Thanks, Little Cheese, for these ideas. Traveling further south, just outside of Dallas we'll come to Flower Mound, Texas and Sole Groove Dance  Fitness.   So many great names, so much fun and excercise.  SEL suggests a class pass for someone who hates traditional exercise classes .  This is so totally within the spirit of the adventures po...

For my happy, healthy family For my friends, near and far, old and new and old-and-found-again For the abundance of goodness I see every day For the richness of the world I inhabit For the fact that I am here at all,  I am truly grateful. Happy Thanksgiving to you all !!

My favorite parts of the holidays hearken back to the past.  Sometimes I reach to my childhood and sometimes I go back to last year.  This is the post I wrote in 2009 as I was waiting for the kids to arrive.  Life was simple and my worries revolved around keeping G'ma safe and secure as she recovered from bi-lateral broken ankles.  This year is a bit more complex, with emotional issues taking center stage at a once-again-family-only Thanksgiving dinner.  I'll be busy prepping and shopping and wedding planning.... I'm going to be recycling posts and hugging my children. Here's how I felt back then: I've been thinking about family and friends, as The Cuters make their way to the desert southwest for a family-only Thanksgiving. They're at their respective airports hours early, as befits a TBG-spawned human, and if the weather holds out they'll arrive in Tucson within an hour of each other. The Little Cuter will be arriving first and promises to be hungry; I...

I've been counting down since January, although I realized recently that I don't know what I'm counting down to. When I left the hospital, someone said "In a year you won't even know this happened to you."  He or she -I remember the words, not the speaker- was referring to my physical condition, not my emotional response, but it doesn't matter. The reality is that, as the anniversary of January 8th inches closer, I am more and more focused on thinking about what happened to me.  The Happy Ladies Club has been hiking together for months now, without me.  The paths will be there when I am ready, I know, but I'm feeling the loss as the weather turns cooler and my polar fleece vest stares at me from the closet.  There's no need for it down here, but up on the mountain it comes in quite handy.  Were it animate, it would have grabbed my hand and asked why it was still relegated to the closet.  The answer is simple - walking is hard work.  I...

A jigsaw puzzle and Fiddler on the Roof made for a lovely afternoon.  The fact that I was sitting next to my mother while all this was going on lit up my heart.  It's been a long time since we played a game on a Sunday.... a very long time. I've been avoiding her of late.  As the numbness in my thigh wears off, my brain becomes aware of the sensations that are coming in from my adductors and my abductors and my knee and my psoas and my glutes.  The muscles have atrophied after 10 months of disuse.  There is clicking and crunching and tension as my femur moves around in the socket.  I'm nervous and I'm walking stiffly. G'ma notices and asks kindly and intensely "Why are you limping?"   There's such love in her voice and concern in her eyes and I know I'm going to make her sad once again when I say "I was shot,"  and that's hard to do.  I love her.  It's hard to watch her face fall and then light up as she replies "In the a...

Yes, denizens, if you have been compliant shoppers/deciders/list makers your holiday gift giving needs should be well on track to completion.  This is the last post before Thanksgiving; our original plan was to be finishing up odds and ends by next weekend.  In that spirit, this post will be an eclectic mix. If you're uninterested in the tips skip on down to the last paragraph - I have a favor to ask. Before we get to that, let's talk about Brad's Deals.  I met them at BlogHer'11 and they offered me an Amazon gift card if I'd run their badge on The Burrow for a while.  Selling ad space on my blog was sorta cool, and sure enough they were right on time with the code for the gift card.  A company which pays its bills on time is a company with which I will do business.  There are all sorts of positive blurbs on the website, but I like their own description of what they do.   Every day, we sort through thousands of coupons, sales and promotions but on...

Sea Change was sent to me by Penguin.  BlogHer is paying me for this review.  My thoughts are my own. Sea Change is an odd book.  A novel within a novel, printed in a different font and an almost-but-not-quite-dissimilar-enough authorial voice, Jeremy Page's tirbute to the loving memory of Kate Jones never quite caught my attention.  I finished it and I never thought of it again until I sat to write this review.  That rarely happens to me.  I'm still carrying Theodora   with me, nestled up next to Dr. Faust and Cicero.  If I'm more attached to school work than I am to a novel.... well, denizens, I think it's a sign that I didn't care about the book. Granted, coping with the death of a little girl is probably not the best theme for me right now .   Jeremy Page's best writing is the telling of the story of that afternoon, with the shining drop of dew and the frightened and then running for safety little girl, a...

I'm going along just fine, having an ordinary day.  Suddenly I'm flipping out, stomach aching and armpits sweating, as I tool along 2 miles under the speed limit behind the idiot in the car in front of me. Does he not see that there are 100 yards of empty road between him and the car in front of him?  Does he not see that the light is changing and we'll sit at the corner forever until we get the green? I get past him, not really cutting off the bus in the right hand lane, and I'm first at the intersection. NPR is giving the traffic report instead of telling me a story and I'm furious.  I'm only going to be in the car for 13 more minutes; don't waste my time with useless drivel.  The reporter returns and tells me that Zuccotti Park has been power-washed and the tents can't go back up and some fool is screaming about changing something but I'm not sure what it is because the blood is rushing to my ears and I can barely hear. Such is life after trau...

The woman is a force of nature.  Her persona grows and grows. She is present although she is absent. Gabrielle Giffords was elected to Congress by District #8 here in Southern Arizona and as far as we are concerned she's still our Representative.  When we needed her in Washington she interrupted her therapies and flew in to cast her vote.   No Democrat can declare until Gabby decides not to run in 2012: I am operating under the presumption that Gabby's going to be well enough to run," said Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers. "I don't think she'll have to run a terribly vigorous campaign. If voters are convinced that she's mentally capable of doing the job, she can run a less vibrant campaign than she has in the past." (Arizona Star,11/13/11) I'm sure that last sentence infuriates the Congresswoman.  I'm sure she's grinding her teeth with those strong facial muscles which she's developed over months of grueling, pain...

I wasn't going to read it.  I wasn't going to bring it into my home.  I could imagine the worst and that was enough... for a while. I watched drunken college kids who couldn't see further than Saturday's Big Game overturn a truck and give student protests  a bad name.  I wondered where the University's official reaction was hiding, and whether the Student Government was there, too.  Mark May was furious I found myself agreeing with something about which I had no firsthand knowledge.  It's one thing to be told that the Grand Jury's report was disturbing , it's another to make that determination myself.   So, I read the report .   Disturbing doesn't begin to describe it.  Sickening.  Horrifying.  They come closer.  Mostly, though, it's very very sad. There are eight Victims' stories recounted, and they are appallingly similar.  The gifts were the same - golf clubs, clothes, tailgate parties with the Sandusky f...

It's Veteran's Day.  I have a nice post I like to share, and I'll do that after we talk about what to send and how to send it. I'm starting backwards, with how to send it.   After lots of practice, I realized that it was easier to start with the box and fill it as I collected the items.  My house stayed neater, I had a sense of what else might fit, and it forced me to mail it when it was full.  I never had a spare bedroom filled with potential goodies.... at least that was the plan, So, to enable you to learn from my mistakes, let me suggest a trip to the post office (or USPS.com and does anyone else wonder why it's not dot gov? ).  A   Priority Mail APO/FPO Flat Rate Box stacks neatly and travels safely to all parts of the globe, and the USPS gives it to you for free.  If you order on-line you get a package of 10.... free.... no charge for shipping.   Take it home, tape the bottom securely, and open your mind to the opportunities.  ...

FAMB knows that this story is true. As a junior in high school, I could have gone to the Senior Prom.  The boy who wanted to take me was nice enough, but he liked me much more than I liked him, and I didn't want to lead him on.  I certainly wanted to go to the prom.  I just didn't want him to think I was his girlfriend.  I told the intermediaries that he shouldn't ask me (it was a long long time ago, children, and the rules were different) and that was that.  I was sad on Prom Night, but my heart knew that I'd done the right thing.  I'd missed an event, but I'd been true to what was right.   It's as real to me this afternoon as it was in 1968.  As Aaron Sorkin put it, the memory helped to bring  a murky problem into specific relief. After ignoring their calls for more than a polite period of time, I agreed to a friend's plea that I speak to the group's representative.  This was not a chore - he was young and charming and ...

I was at a planning meeting today.  Many agencies and constituencies were represented.  Some of the representatives were wearing impressive uniforms with shiny badges.  Some of the representatives could have used a shave.   Some participants spoke in answer to every statement, every comment, every question.  Some said nothing at all.  No one dozed off, although I noted several smart-phone-checks.  Only one person left mid-stream to take a call; I'm finding that to be quite less than the norm these days.   Those with the most power never said a word.  Those representing entities which report to Boards were the most invested in the minutiae.  That's where the parking lots come in.   Parking will be an issue.  Whether dignitaries show up and complicate matters, or whether it's 12 people and 2 dogs, the preparations are the same.  No one wants to be caught off guard.  We all agree that planning for more is...

I'm really confused by Herman Cain.  Is it possible that he is as clueless as he appears?  It can't all be a case of Gotcha!  by left wing media stooges, can it?  Ann Coulter adds to my perplexity.  As a fellow Cornellian, I know that she received a top-notch college education.  If you start at the beginning of the clip you can try to make sense of it yourself.  For me, it's another example of Republican tone-deafness, right up there with the Glock raffle earlier this year here in Tucson. Oh, Ann.   Our blacks are so much better than their blacks?   I don't even know where to begin..... so I'm leaving. ***** Joe Paterno hears that one of his coaches was seen in the shower room with a 10 year old boy and he sends a note to the principal?  That's the least I'd like to think .... and that's just for the presence of the kid in the space, let alone what the graduate assistant saw that upset him so much.  Of course, no one told anyon...

I was a very busy person on Sunday.  I don't think that I could have been busier.  I was productive and purposeful and tended to myself and my home and my family.  I did what needed to be done and I finished each task before I began another.  I have a few new cuts and scrapes which make me very happy - I haven't done anything which could have cut or scraped me until Sunday.  The tiny scratches are a physical manifestation of the progress I've made. I have to keep thinking of these things.  I need a distraction.  My leg hurts.  Bending brings more than a twinge to my glute and my quads and my soul.   The weed in the basket below? I wanted to pull it out by the root but I was too weary to maneuver myself down to the ground and poke around in the hesperaloe.  It was that kind of a day - fun mixed with discomfort.  I was busy balancing the paradox  .   I got the petunias into the pots. I moved the irrigation tubing into th...