Category: Ramblings

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Goals for 2012

One of my goals for the next few months is to write more. Back in January I made an editorial calendar for this blog to help stay on track. It has been a struggle.

On April 1st I started freewriting by hand for 15 minutes each morning. My journal seems to be mostly made up of “yesterday I did this…” and “today I plan to…” but it seems to help me to stay a little focused for the day. It’s all about me, though! Something else might be way more interesting.

Wednesday is supposed to be my day to blog about my goals and my progress towards them. In January it seemed like a good idea to share my private life with the world. Now I’m not so sure.

Well, my word for 2012 is Freedom. It was my word for 2010 and 2011. It might have also been my word for 2007, 2008 and 2009, but I can’t remember that far back.

Things that get in my way are debt, clutter, and cravings. Sometimes it seems like midway between paradise and utopia is dystopia! But progress is the only thing you can really accomplish, and I do have to give myself a pat on the back for making a lot of progress in the last few years.

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Bees outside my front door

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When I let my student in the front door at 12:30, I thought there was a large pinecone in the myrtle bush. When he left at 1:00 we realized that it was a beehive!

It was about 18″ long and about 8″ across by the time I took this photo at 2:00. The bee removal guy said it was a small hive and that the bees probably only started building it that morning.

It took me awhile to find a bee removal service. I called Terminex and finally found a person who told me that they contract out for the service, and that it would be better for me to deal directly with a specialist. I found The Beekeeper. They arrived 15 minutes after I called and it cost $165. Great service from a local company!

I felt pretty bad about killing all those bees, but well, you know…

 

  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Caption: Bees outside my front door
  • Focal length: 135mm
  • ISO: 200
  • Keywords: Array
  • Shutter speed: 1/80s
  • Title: Bees outside my front door
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Arabesque (1966)

Wednesday we watched Arabesque (1966) with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. I thought the music was overdone: it was too romantic when they were kissing, too lighthearted when Gregory Peck punned (which was often) and too terrifying during chase scenes. But it was pretty cool music, and having missed the opening credits, I looked up the composer. It was Henry Mancini. I highly recommend this movie! If you’re knitting, it’s even better, because if you try to pay attention to the plot you’ll get really confused.

  • Gregory Peck is so lovely to look at.
  • Sophia Loren is so lovely to look at, in definitely 1960’s Christian Dior.
  • Fantastic use of heavy machinery as weapons.
  • Lots of puns and witty banter.

IMDB says it’s showing next on New Year’s Eve on Turner Classic Movies.

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Bad Luck in Threes at the Opera

On Sunday, October 8, I fell and sprained my foot pretty badly during the first intermission. Before the opera started that Sunday, a violinist fell and broke her foot in the parking lot. And on Saturday night, another violinist fell down some stairs and got pretty bruised up. The opera on stage was Verdi’s MacBeth. If you want to see how full of bad luck this opera is, watch the horror movie Opera (but only if you have a strong stomach). The music is truly beautiful.