the dream life

Daily bookmarks

• BlueGrassRoots:: Nothing 'local' about CentrePointe

  A successful future for Lexington, especially in the wake of the 2010 Equestrian Games, cannot be based on homogeneity and corporate ownership of downtown. Lexington is special not just because our buildings are old or because we had a bar that attracted national musicians that wouldn’t even venture to Louisville or Cincinnati, but because Lexington as we know it has been built by Lexingtonians for Lexingtonians. The Dame, Buster’s, Mia’s and the rest of the thriving businesses in our downtown have become popular because they are here for us, and we use them. CentrePointe has nothing to do with Lexington, nor you, nor I, except for the fact that it will be in Lexington.

  tags: local

• BlueGrassRoots:: Welcome to LexWebbington

  Progress is not made in building up, but in building intelligently. There was finally, finally the kernel of a downtown worthy of its citizens. But developers bought it up for yet another vacant hotel.

  tags: local

Things I am into right now

• I can’t stop listening to Jacob's Ladder by the Staples Singers. It’s completely stuck in my head and I even caught myself singing it at my desk at work today. (And Mavis Staples, I am not.) The whole album is great, but this particular song, I’m digging down in my soul.
• Because of the commercials for that new show The Cleaner, I’ve also been listening to Tears for Fears Mad World quite a bit. I’d completely forgotten about that song and how it makes me feel all weird until it showed up on that commercial with Benjamin Bratt carrying around collapsed people and I thought, wait a minute, I need to know more about this Cleaner show right away. In the meantime, I downloaded the song from iTunes and commenced to transporting myself back in time.
• Elsewhere on television, I’m all about Psychic Kids: Children of the Paranormal. I love it so much that I plan on going to a crazy thing called Scarefest in September so that I can get my picture made with Chip Coffey. I first heard about Chip through Lexington’s premier ghost hunter Patti Starr. I loved it when he started showing up on Paranormal State and now he has his own show and it is so good. I’d really like to go on a ghost hunt with Chip and Patti or just sit down with both of them for coffee and conversation (during which, I’m pretty sure, something paranormal would happen).
• We’re also watching an episode of Barney Miller every night before we go to sleep as a sort of 70’s nightcap. Just the theme song to Barney Miller moves me to this complicated magical place in my history that I don’t know how to describe. It almost makes me weep. What ever happened to Hal Linden, by the way? I love him dearly.
• I wear these shoes everyday. I love these shoes. They are the most comfortable shoes ever made on the planet. I was a little concerned when I bought them that they looked dowdy but when I asked Tracy about it he said, “No, those are hip shoes. The shoes you have been wearing every day are the old lady shoes.” I had no idea.
• I splurged and got some of this when we were grocery shopping over the weekend, because it was 50 percent off. It feels so good and smells nice but the best part is the packaging. I’m a sucker for great packaging. The jar is sort of heavy and I just love a heavy jar.
• I’m currently reading Potatoes not Prozac. I’m still on step one of the program which is to eat a breakfast within one hour of waking that includes protein and a complex carbohydrate. Sounds simple but for the likes of me, it really isn’t. I’m not hungry when I first wake up and I have to force myself to eat, especially the protein. I’m thinking this approach is going to transform my life, though.
• Despite this tricky situation with sugar, I must confess that I’ve been sneaking slices of the Whole Foods cinnamon babka that is currently in our kitchen. That stuff is the smack. They make a chocolate babka, too, which I’d probably devour in one sitting.
• I can’t seem to get enough Pad Thai lately. Tracy and I disagree about the best place to eat Pad Thai in Lexington (he prefers Mai Thai, I prefer Planet Thai. We agree that Bangkok House is a little iffy). Does anyone know if Siam is still open, because they used to be my go-to Pad Thai place in college. We’ve never tried Thai Orchid Café, but I’ve even been known to buy those boxes of Pad Thai fixins that you fry up with your own tofu and bean sprouts. Not sure what it is about the peanuts and the noodles and the heat, but it’s doing me right.
• As is this tea. It’s helping me get gorgeous.
• And this is helping me smell gorgeous.
• I’m also really into this necklace that I bought at Lucia’s on the summer solstice. (Gorgeous.)

Daily bookmarks

• 'World's oldest blogger' dies in Australia - Yahoo! News

  tags: blogging

Looking for summer

This is one of those summers that just isn't clicking for me. People keep reminding me that we've had good weather, and we have. We've had really good weather. Still, I just haven't hooked in to that summer feeling. I haven't served a dinner of salad and fruit on the porch. I haven't spent an afternoon reading outside. The garden is...well...the garden is a mess. It's completely overtaken by vines and weeds. I've yet to see a hummingbird; I've barely kept the other birds in seed. The chairs out back are constantly filled with water because I haven't been vigilant about putting them up when it rains. We haven't gone on any big trips or even any drives. The Bluegrass Fair is going on right this very minute and we haven't even considered paying it a visit. 

I don't know what it is. I just haven't clicked in to that flip-flopped flowy skirted sun on the skin feeling. I haven't peddled a paddle boat. I haven't even taken out my new bike in a very long time.

I'm not sure why, but that's okay. I'm accepting of the non-summer summer. I'm sure there's a reason that it needs to be this way right now.

And today I did show slight signs of getting summery. I put a towel in one of the damp chairs and read for a bit. I also experienced an intense craving for one of these. 

(Chocolate dipped, naturally.) 

I had these instead.

 

We took Woody out to the park tonight for magic hour and it does feel pretty summery to watch him kicking up his back legs and running in the grass. And in that messy garden, there are currently four small watermelons growing. Any minute now I'm going to hear there's something good playing at the drive-in and we'll pile in the car in get our giant bucket of popcorn. Or maybe we'll go for a hike.

There's still summer left. There's still time for it to flow.

One good thing

The best thing that I did today was go to a bookstore grand opening.

If you live around these parts, you really should check out the Morris book shop on Southland Drive. For one thing, the people who own it are exactly the kind of people you want to be around and for another thing, you know what they sell there? Books. Actual books. Not all that other stuff that the big chain book stores sell. All that other stuff is great, but I love going into a book store and looking at books and let me tell you, the selection in there was delightful.

Other than that, my day was sort of strange. I bought strawberries and whole wheat bread at Whole Foods as if those two things were somehow going to comprise a meal; I started organizing clothes then stopped; I went on a long hot walk; I discovered Hulu and watched episodes of One Day at a Time and Fantasy Island. (Which reminds me, what's the deal with all the other people on Fantasy Island? I mean the people other than the people who arrive to have their fantasies fulfilled. Are they all just actors hired to make the fantasies come true, or do they actually live on the island and know nothing about the whole fantasy thing?)

Some days just don't get off the ground exactly like I'd planned. 

Oh well. 

At least there's stuff to read.

Daily bookmarks

• Laura to return to 'General Hospital' - Yahoo! News

  tags: no_tag

Daily bookmarks

• The Happiness Project: Do you hoard your new underwear?

  by spending out, I mean to stop hoarding, to trust in abundance.

  tags: happiness

Daily bookmarks

• Celebrities, companies bank on her intuition - CNN.com

  She refuses to think of herself as special. We all have the power of intuition, she says, some of us just know how to use it better.

  (but what's wrong with wheatgrass and talking to dead people?)

  tags: intuition

• Commentary: Don't sanitize Helms' racist past - CNN.com

  tags: no_tag

Daily bookmarks

• What You Should & Shouldn't Buy Organic

  tags: food, organic, naturalliving

• Unusual Kentucky

  tags: local, blogs

• Unusual Kentucky: Bybee Pottery

  tags: local, pottery

• Chocolate-chip cookies inspire singer's tour - CNN.com

  Hopefully they come to have a good time because I don't think that I represent a bad time

  tags: music

Bon voyage and little mugs

Last night, my brother and sister-in-law and nieces threw a bon voyage party for my mom, who is on her way to England (the homeland of her soul.) Ava presented my mom with a really cool sign  

and we all sat around and ate delicious pie and drank coffee.

Tracy and I received our coffee (yes, we just sat around in a giant soft chair while Ava and Chloe brought us things) in the most fabulous mugs. The mugs were a gift from Chloe's sister-in-law, and I just fell in love with their charms.

 

After doing some quick research, I believe them to be the children's mugs from Bybee Pottery.

I would imagine there are few people who grew up in the exact region where I grew up who don't own at least one piece of Bybee.

We went there on school trips and Sunday drives. It's just one of those Kentucky places that you honor. 

I'm not spending much money these days, but I feel I must acquire a set of these mugs, not only for those small coffee moments, but also for when the girls come over for dinner or snacks.