I absolutely have to update because it has been almost a year since I last posted anything. Like most folks, I think I am putting this bloggy thing behind me. I am quite certain no one even remembers this thing. But, it entertains me.

There are no celebrity sightings to report. I could have seen Ursula Le Guin last Wednesday for the Oregon Council of the Humanities Think and Drink program-she was giving a talk on ethics at a local bar-but I thought it was Thursday and missed it.

Our garden is going great guns. Some stinky neighbor felt that we had too much lavender and kindly removed some for us. Balls! And the timber bamboo that we bought a little over a month ago has a new shoot which is over 4 feet tall now. Kyle says it grows 6 inches (!) every day.

The picture posted here is from the Rhododendron Garden down the street. Rhodies have stopped blooming for now. Jasmine and honeysuckle are up making the neighborhood smell good, and the tomatoes, grown old-school and not hanging upside down (alas! I am not cutting edge), are all in. Soon I will have tiny, tasty Sungolds and stripey Zebras.

OK, that's it for now. I have a summer internship w/ Underland Press and I had better do some work on my projects tonite. Go check them out. The wovel will suck you in. And the Best American Fantasy 3 comes out in January and you know you will be on pins and needles until then.

High School

Well, I have gotten to a point on Facebook where I am contacting and being contacted by friends from high school and even jr. high. One gal from high school is a GRANDMOTHER now. I have been so excited to peep into the adult lives of these friends from long ago. I was so lucky to find them then and pretty much everybody is still kicking ass.

Rene Trevino, old high school friend and drama buddy, was in Portland w/ his sweetie, visiting folks he knows out here. We got to have beers on the patio at Vendetta this past Sunday. He has always been so expressive, and I was so happy to get to see him! All his friends (cuz ya know he brought an entourage) were so nice, too. I promised them I would post pix of him and his wild hair days, but I need some alone time w/ my scanner first. Needless to say, he looks dashing now, even if he doesn't have his signature high school tease and swoop.

There was also some excitement a couple of weeks ago. A bat got in the house. I don't know how, but we do leave the doors open alot in the early evening and night. But this damn thing was cruising around in the laundry room when I went to change clothes out and scared the pee outta me. At first, since it was so outta context, I couldn't even get my head around what I was seeing. Hooded mouse frog???? Then it clicked and I rushed upstairs to call Kyle at work at 11:30pm, and he was less excited than I was. When he got home we hung out in the basement for an hour, but the damn thing wasn't gonna give us an encore. Next morning, when Kyle took the dogs out to eat, our cat Wampus was sitting in front of the liquor cabinet, staring up longingly. Since Wampus usually doesn't imbibe until later in the day Kyle followed his gaze to the twinkle lights hanging above the liquor cabinet and found Mr. Batty McBattenstein. Kyle threw a towel over the tiny squeaker and released him outside, much to Wampus' disappointment. Later this same week a goldfinch got in the house and perched in the same corner of the livingroom. Gotta study up on some Feng Shui and see what corner that is and why we're attracting all the wing'ed beasties.

Mental Illness Is a Failure to Misinterpret the World.

Well, here it is almost 2 weeks later and I am finally posting the Texas pix. It's not even that it was that hard to get them from our new, crappy camera to this website. I just hate learning technical stuff (she says, in her crabby old lady voice.) It's just never ending and will become superfluous when I gotta learn the new way in a few weeks. And also. . . (insert any creepy old pissing and moaning you've every heard from anyone.) And all this techno crap is crap.

Not really. It's very useful and, why, just today I installed InDesign on my computer and will soon be slogging my way thru it in the joyous weeks to come (Thanks Kenny!)

We had our 4th of July Get Together here at Hogwash Junction. It was fun. Kyle made fajitas. Turns out Wishbone italian dressing and some worschester sauce make a kick ass marinade. People also made amazing ice cream-Elizabeth, proprietrix of Sahagun Chocolates, made a dark, rich chocolate ice cream. Wendy and Joseph made butter pecan and a raspberry sorbet. SO GOOD! Ethan helped me make my White Trash banana puddin'. Instead of layers there was lots of mixing, but, ya know, it all ends up in the same place anyhow, so it was awright. We had a bubble machine. Best $10 Target purchase ever. It's like Lawrence Welk on crack. It was so amazing and SO bubbly and Wyatt just ran around screaming "Bubbles!" (and most of the rest of us wanted to.)

Kyle goes to see his school advisor on Friday, checking into an Environmental Science degree. Our neighbor has one and has been talking to Kyle about options. It's funny that Jonas, our neighbor, researches weeds and I think he could do a lot of research just from his own yard! It's some impressive cultivating of crazy, invasive species.

My memoir group meets on Thursday and I have actually done some writing before hand, not waiting til the day of to toss something off. Not that it's any better than stuff I haven't put much time into. I can fuss too much w/ stuff and it starts to wilt and sigh and then it's just awful. Better I just write it and leave it alone and edit later, when it's not trying to be born.

Tuco is over the pink eye, Melissa thinks Trudy has ring worm (she DOESN'T!) and Wampus is getting old (he's ELEVEN) and sleeps alot this summer. Or maybe he's just hot? At any rate, I think every one is doing pretty good. Oh! And I finally mailed off Anita and my mom's Christmas presents! I just hope the gift certificates are still good. This is the year, ok, actually, all the years are the year, that I suck as a gift sender. I do love you, and I do think about you, and chances are I have even bought you things. But, I just ain't dragging my ass to the post office for you. Now I just need to mail their bday and wedding presents!

Surprised To See Me?

Well, school and work and trying to fit in things like friends and drinking and eating at Podnah's and walking the dogs and, and, and, ya know, something had to give, and sad to say it was this here blog. BUT, I am trying to make time, at least during the summer when I am out of classes, to write here more, so we'll see how good I make on this promise.

Just got back from a tour of Texas and seeing my darling baby sister get married, so I will post pix in the next couple of days, maybe. We had to get a crappy stand-in camera for the trip because our good camera decided to go belly-up and be all blurry and awful. The new camera is not much better and I dunno about all this memory card bidness and how to load stuff. I mean, damn, I just got the hang of connecting the old camera cable to the computer. But, everyone light a candle for me and maybe you'll get to see our pix of Kyle's mom's farm, and sausage kolaches, and Derrick, and stuff.

I am also gonna post pix of Taurus Fest-which was the party we have in May for Kyle, Clay, and Arley's bday. This year the piñata went down w/ the first blow. We got to see folks we hardly ever see, like Jarvis and his son Bird, Trappey of the Big Fists, Kirk and Wendy, Rebecca and Kate, and Ukiah and Stephani and Mark, and Joseph, Wendy, Bini, and bebe Wyatt, who is so damn CUTE! I mean, yeah, babies are cute and all, but Wyatt, he's like CRACK, you just can't shake his cuteness. Becky showed up and made us watch the "Shoes" video on Youtube twelvetythousand times. Kyle had folks Scott and Jill from work stop by and Kylie and Kenny and Aimee and Lucien from SALP stopped by, too. Joe and Stephen and their little weenie dog, One-Eyed Pickle, came from their new digs in Seattle. And our neighbors, Lincoln and Jason came over. They are SO NICE and it breaks my heart that they just moved back to NYC, especially because they just had a baby girl-Ellis-who is also a dang cute bebe.

OK, I gotta quit this for now so I can save up some brain power for loading pix tomorrow. If anyone still stops by this site, thanks!

The Annual Christmas Party

Oh, well, I must say, I am still hungover. The booze flowed freely and gift-wrapping was tossed in the air w/ glee. Saturday, December 15th, is a day which shall live in infamy.

First off, so many new PSU friends showed up and I was so glad that they did. Everyone seemed to mix well. Everyone thought Shannon was a hoot and a half, especially when she was frantically digging thru the coolers in search of Lone Star Beer. Marie made Mark so happy by speaking German w/ him, and Kylie charmed the whole lot. Rachel and her beau Derek win for Nicest Couple Ever. I was so happy to finally get a chance to have Aimee and Roll over. And Tana got in a wreck the night before, totaled her car, and still showed up to kick some Gift Exchange Ass.

It was also the first appearance at the Party by my new friend Lorna, who brought a Wandering Jew baby plant for me, and I was so touched! If only I can keep it alive it'll start feeling more and more like Texas around here.

This was also Melissa's first Party and she made the Best Snack Ever, Pigs in da Blanket. Those things were like crack. Nom nom nom. We also got to see Susan, after a 2-year hiatus. Yay Susan! And Mickey showed up for the first leg of the party. And Barb was totally rocking this extravagant ethnic outfit. Not only is she smart and funny and a joy to be around, she is always so visually captivating as well.

Camille and Jarvis are such good folks and I feel like I never ever never get to talk to them long enough. Of course, I was drunk off my ass, and maybe I did talk to them and sadly don't remember, but maybe one day we can talk and I'll be sober.

Clay had the most fabulous jacket, made out of 1940's couch fabric. If you rubbed it, it sounded like "Wick wick wickey, wickey wick wickey." Plus, cool Shriner's tie pin. Dan was urbane as usual, and left at midnight for another party. Hmmm. . . I am intrigued. . .

And Stephani looked fantastic. She's letting her hair grow out and it's all wavy. Lovely. We were gonna go to Crafty Wonderland the next day and load up on local-made artsy stuff like t-shirts and wallets and stuffed animals, but we were so hung over. We suck!

Wilber and Becky finally showed up. Man, I have been wanting Becks to come over forever and I hope she will come over more, now that she knows where we are. And Kyle and Wilber work together on Mondays now, so maybe we will get to see more of Wilber, too.

Gina and Arley were so funny. Aimee said later that, even though she used to live down the street from us, Party night was the first time she'd ever heard Arley talk. And he was funny! Gina made the AMAZING sign at the front door. I wanna keep it forever. She's so damn talented and she just hides her light under a bush. She also rocked her patent leather pumps.

And Wendy looked absolutely amazing, too. Look at the picture, because she had this beautiful coat on. And she had a cute lil' haircut and she's just so damn sweet. Love her! And Joseph was celebrating on Saturday. He will soon have a new job at Intel, so congrats! Beanie and tiny bebe Wyatt were w/ Grandma Della on Saturday. Beanie is a giant, almost taller than me, which ain't saying much, but still. . .she's only 8.

The best gifts were: Life-sized cutout of Bobafett, giant Beefeater gin, fun papier-maché doll, Penis Man drum, electronic keyboard, GIANT post-it notes, battery eater monster, magnet board, and that's all I remember, cuz I was way drunk. If I offend by not naming yer gift cool, it's only becuz I have diminished facilities. Please post a comment and tell what kick-ass thing you brought and I will be duly chided.

Thanks everyone! I love my friends so much and it was so fun getting to see ya all in one place!

DOGFEST 2007

These are my stinky doglings.

Trudy is the blonde at the top. She currently suffers from a Urinary Tract Infection, which is what ya get when you are low to the ground like she is. We get to spend millions of dollars at the vet tomorrow, when she goes to get x-rays to make sure she indeed does have her 2nd UTI in a month, and not something more horrible, like kidney stones.

Tuco is the short, dark and handsome boy. He is shy and doesn't like to be photographed. He's really much cuter in person. When it's time to go for a walk and I are getting ready, he'll run and get one of his gross, slobbery, matted stuffed animals and SHAKE IT. He gets so excited he just has to GET SOMETHING! Then I spin around Tuco, shaking the plastic (not yet filled with) doo doo bags and Trudy runs in circles around me, hopping every now and again. Tuco drops his filthy toy and begins to bark and pretend-snap at the doo doo bags. It's really fun.

PITFEST 2007

This is my Kyle, who is probably appalled at the revelation of my Walking Ritual with the dogs (see above.) He will be mad that I posted this picture because of his underarm hair showing, because he is modest. Look how cute he is! He is on the phone with Patrick Sheehy, an old high school buddy from Waco. Patrick used to date a girl we secretly called "Too Much Candy For a Nickel." Because she was really slutty. But, that's the way Patrick likes 'em, and you can't convince him otherwise, sadly. Aside from recent poor taste in "ladies" Patrick really is a great guy. He's tall, and tan, with dark hair and blue eyes. He's easy-going and slow to rile. He is hilarious and a talented sculptor.