Media Meltdown

Gainesville

Great progress, Mom. Flylady (and I) are so proud of you.

Very interesting stuff about Maud Humphrey and her illustrations. I didn't know any of that stuff. I do know that many women cartoonists of that era also did commercial art and illustrated childrens' books. I'll have to check our Baldwin Collection and see if we have any of her work.

I look forward to having Lala's baby book transcribed. It will make a fine addition to the Graham/Soares family archive we're building here.

I had another laid-back day-- up at 11:00 again. Finally figured out that this later hour is a hangover from the time change-- still waking up at what feels to the bod like 10:00, my preferred weekend wakeup.

Several times in the night I woke up in a panic, not knowing where I was, unable to remember where I was living or with whom, or... what my living room looked like! (When I joke that I begin each morning asking "What planet am I on," etc., this is not all that far from the truth.) It got me to thinking how many different places I've lived. This house is the seventh in Gainesville alone. There were three in Berkeley, two in Wisconsin and four in Maryland. We've now lived in this house in Malore Gardens for over 10 years-- longer than I've lived in ANY dwelling other than Berry Avenue. Strange that I have trouble remembering that!

Got the Big Three Blessings done. But most of the day was absorbed by finishing Swing. I had to put it down for awhile because there was something so upsetting in the middle of it, but once past that, it continued to be fascinating, especially all the lovely local details. Very clever and convoluted plot, though, and I never saw any of it coming.

Tonight's dinner, skirt steak marinated in an orange juice/ sherry/ soy/ garlic mixture then broiled, was excellent. The cat, in particular, was enraptured by it; her squeeks of pleasure were more in the grunt range as she scarfed up anything offered her. With it, cauli-rice (still learning the new mike, so it was a bit crispy in spots) and bok choy sauteed with some browned coarsely chopped onion, invented on the spot when it became obvious I didn't have enough viable bok choy to make a decent-sized side. Worked out very well.

Another of our machines suddenly died today: our "Black Box," the vital center of our media setup. It was fabulously expensive, worth more than all the rest of the stuff put together, and to have it fail is very traumatic. It's what allows all the other things to talk to each other and do stuff in the background. We will try to get it fixed. Meanwhile, we're back to plain ole TV and low-level cable: no TiVo, no Satellite, no DVD, no CD, no VCRs... ah the angst!

Not really. It's sad how little attention we pay to any of it these days. The only thing I'll really miss is baseball-on-demand, which I've been doing a lot of since the season started. We can always watch DVD's on our computers, and I have all the music I need on my iPod. I think we'll survive.