Dorothy Whipple love

I must read everything she has ever written. Someone at a Distance was really enjoyable. It was funny and light and the characters, though over the top sometimes, where believable. I even liked the lame-ish happy ending, because it was not entirely too happy. The list of her books is from Wikipedia. The picture, from Persephone Books.

Young Anne (1927)
Greenbanks (1932)
High Wages (1932)
They Knew Mr.Knight (1934)
The Priory (1939)
They Were Sisters (1943)
Because Of The Lockwoods (1949)
Every Good Deed (1950)
The Other Day: An Autobiography (1950)
Someone at a Distance (1953)
Wednesday and Other Stories (1961)
Tale of Very Little Tortoise (1962)
The Smallest Tortoise of All (1964)
Little Hedgehog (1965)
Random Commentary: Books And Journals Kept from 1925 Onwards (1966)
Mrs.Puss and That Kitten (1967)
On Approval
After Tea

Republished by Persephone Books
Someone at a Distance (1999)
They Knew Mr. Knight (2000)
The Priory (2003)
They Were Sisters (2005)
The Closed Door and other stories (2007)

It is spring.

I made my daughter walk to CVS today. She HATED it. She said, "I would rather die than be walking right now to CVS." I ignored her, and we walked. We smelled the flowers.

www.burkedecor.com

I want these floor mats. They come in great colors and they are affordable.

I am dying at my desk. I ordered these books on Friday and the arrived today..MONDAY. What started off being a rainy, blah day (dont' get me wrong, I love a good rainy day) has become really special. What to read first? I think it will be "Someone at a Distance" by Dorothy Whipple. "Good Evening, Mrs. Craven" by Mollie Panter-Downes will patiently wait.

I need this bag right now

I would like a big one in blue, please and thank you.

http://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/products/red-tote-shopping-bag

apres mammogram

Why are we never told exactly what to expect...EVER? I always try to give a detailed and accurate recollection of my experiences when asked. For example, a past student employee and his wife are expecting a baby. He asks and I tell without embellishment and not shying from truths...well not all the truths need to be shared, but I don't lie about it. I share the good and the ugly.

Why have I never been told of the after affects of mammograms? About an hour after the procedure...which was not bad AT ALL, I started having that "OMG. I am going to throw up in my car" feeling. As it progressed I began feeling less happy about having done a great thing. Having made it to my favorite grocery (Hmart) I was relieved the episode did not begin there. Fortunately, I was in my car and the weather was awesome so I could keep my window down. As the sickness moving through me and felt relief in the fact that I wasn't going to throw up in y car while driving. But, that was not the end of it. I barely made it into the house fast enough to put the bags down and run to the bathroom. All day I laid around, unable to do much of anything. My oldest kid entertained herself and came and went as she pleased, but the younger planted herself right there beside me, poor thing.

I eventually got it together and googled "mammogram nausea" and found some descriptions of what I was feeling. Seriously. How about if someone said, "Go straight home after the procedure" or "Expect some gastro-intestinal discomfort"? Either would have been helpful and appreciated.

mammogram

I go in for my first mammogram today. The anticipation is making me nauseated. I am not sure why. The horror stories of boobs flattened to pancakes are fleeting in and out of my head when I KNOW that it can't be that bad. I also have no money which adds to the anxiety..it always does. Shouldn't I be used to that, too.

The weather should be nice and it is Saturday after all. There is enough money to put some gas in the car and get some bean leaves from my favorite grocery, Hmart on Georgia Avenue. There is a level of rudeness in the clientele and I can't help but be a little turned off by the seafood department, but the produce is lovely and the staff members cooking in the store is also nice. Often, you have to wait for their delicious samples, but it is usually worth it.

Maybe my kids will want to go to a park or something...free.

Today I am going to make another pot of the lovely red lentil soup and a stir fry with the bean leaves and some kind of seafood.

Barack

I just received a ticket to see the president tomorrow. My day is shot. This level excitement is tantamount to any excitement I have felt before, ever. Well, maybe not..giving birth was pretty exciting. I am having a real hard time thinking about work right now.

I hearby swear.......

to not put frivolities on my charge cards, to cancel my cell phone contract and to not sign a contract with another cell phone company, to shop at Aldi for just about every damn thing I need, to shop at the thrift store instead of Target and Walmart, to walk to the train instead of taking the bus, to stop buying movies through on demand and use the Netflix subscription like its my job, to save money to fix my car, to not go on vacation this summer, to SAVE SOME MONEY SO I DON'T HAVE TO LIVE LIKE I MAKE HALF OF WHAT I ACTUALLY MAKE. btw, Sprint and JMS.com are some you know whats.

portrait of a youth

He is hanging on a wall, downtown, right now. What I would give to see this painting in the middle of the night. A private tour of the NGA. Oh my.

http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=22

Iron Beds

I love iron furniture and have two of the Meldal day beds from Ikea. That is the Meldal bed above. One day I will have a house full of them. One in every room. These lovelies below, I found them on http://www.antiqueironbeds.com/.

www.cathousebeds.com has fabulous beds, too.

something interesting to think about

Black Bashi Bazouk by Jean-Léon Gérôme, French. 1869

A bashi-bazouk or bashibazouk (Turkish başıbozuk, "damaged head", meaning "leaderless", "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army. They were noted for their lack of discipline. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashi-bazouk)

Hall at Shinnecock. William Merritt Chase - 1892

A hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, so that today the hall of a house is the space inside the front door from which the rooms are reached.

Deriving from the above, a hall is often the term used to designate a British or Irish country house.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_house