an open letter to Barak Obama

While I feel I should be offering you my congratulations on the recent announcement that you are to be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize,

I find I can't.

I would like you to understand that yours was the first campaign that I have found compelling.  I was profoundly relieved and delighted when you were elected President of the United States. 

As the European Union elections swung further to the right, I was relieved and delighted to see the United States swing away from the route they had been on for too long.

I am honestly filled with hope concerning what you aim to do, both on the international and the domestic level.

You ran a brilliant campaign. 

You filled a nation, and beyond that, a world with hope.

That is a mighty thing to accomplish and I DO congratulate you for that.

I urge you, President Obama, to use the stage of the Nobel Prize to speak to the world.  To speak to the world with the same astonishing bravery and forthrightness you displayed in Cairo.  To speak to the world with the same inspiring brilliance you offerd when you spoke for change.

Move the world.

Remind us all, as you did in your acceptance speech that you cannot do it alone. 

That it takes us all.

That we can.

Yes we can.




Once we have,

we can all accept the prize.

only then.


When we have,

with your help;

because we can.


if the prize is accepted before that, it will be awarded based on a campaign, not an accomplishment.


We can do so much more.

You can do so much more.


President Obama,


please.






You have offered hope.  That is powerful.  I am deeply grateful that you are in office.  I am deeply hopeful.


Do the honourable thing and decline the award until we have changed the world.


because,

you know

that indeed,


Yes.


We


can.

Crazy expensive light fixtures....

I went into BCN the other day to look at light fixtures.

I have rarely seen a light I liked.  Honestly.  Somehow most of them are at best tolerable.

True to form, I found some lovely ones.

Look here and here and here to see some of them....

True to form, they start at 650 Euros.

Who would pay nearly a thousand bucks for a light fixture?

I figured out a new plan....

And it makes me very happy.

I was struggling to find time to paint, and simultaneously going to the mountains most days...

SO..

(what a stroke of genius...honestly, pathetic how long it took me to think of this, like NO ONE else has ever done this....duh)

On the days when I am walking the dog alone in the hills, which is once or twice a week, I am going to take this specially pre-packed bag of art stuff with me...walk a little faster for the majority of the route, and find a half hour, or even a quarter hour when I can do a little painting of what I see out there....


Here's what I take....

Pencil case with art pencils, decent pencil sharpener and decent erasers.
Tin box with chalk pencils, blessedly cased in wood so I don't get filthy.
Two different sketch books,
Small water colour kit (Windsor Newton no less!!!)
Travel size contact fluid container filled with water....

and other weird accumulations at the bottom of the bag, like a French brand knife I adore, a hair tie, bandaids, allergy meds...etc etc etc....

Should be good for taking to BCN and keeping kids happy in museums!

My latest pastime.....

I went over to the house the other day to knock some of the plaster off the ceiling and see what we have under there as far as the vaulted ceilings go.

Not as pretty as I had hoped they might be, but nice and we will expose it all in the end. 

This is the sort of work that requires no skill, rather, persistence and shoulder muscles.

Expensive to pay someone else to do, a pain to do yourself...

Good for working out aggressions though.

I may be over there periodically knocking plaster off....kind of like beating on a punching bag and peeling a sunburn all at the same time.

Why I love where I live.

That's my back yard.

Alias Grace

Alright!!


I am no longer an Atwood virgin, I have officially finished my first Atwood book.


Let's see.


I liked the historical background.


The woman can write a story...frankly it went on a little long....and she is given to, shall I really say what I think? Yes, I think I shall.


She shows off.


(so shoot me, it's what I think)


There are sections of the book where she gets intolerably writerly....and I do have to admire them, but I fall right out of the story.


With a thud.


To my mind that is a touch of hubris at the expense of a good story, and if you are writing fiction, writing a good story seems an important component.



I have officially read an Atwood and a half, and I am full now.



thankyouverymuch.

Jeans

I had just about given up on ever wearing jeans again.

I have one pair I adore, but they are so old and worn that I truly can only wear them in public on the most extremely casual of occasions, and only when facing forward as there is a huge rip across the bum I haven't gotten around the mending.

I paint in them mostly.

When they reached this stage of decrepitude, we were at 'low tide man'...a little broke, so I started wearing the man's jeans...we are nearly the same size, but the cut didn't really work on me all that well.  Loose and tight in all the wrong places.  I wore them for a while, even put a rip in the knee, but they really weren't comfy for either of us.

They are going out to goodwill today.

I looked in BCN...OMG are jeans ever expensive here.

I looked in TO, not SO pricey, but I am too old to use neat on my p*bic hair just to go out in public....no go.

I found a pair last spring at my favorite used clothing store, they were OK.  Not great, no hallelujah chorus or anything, but fine.

Then they went into the dryer.  You see, the friends we were staying with this summer their dryer sort of broke.  Well, it works fine, on high heat, full throttle...with no timer.

I believer the jeans were in the dryer for about 16 hours straight.

They are a mite uncomfortable.

I have been trying to stretch them out by short wearings, you know, half an hour here, an hour there.

Life is too short for that sh*t.

I've been wearing skirts a lot lately.  Comfy, and easier to find with a reasonable fit at the funky used clothing place.

I was in there on Friday looking for longer and warmer skirts for the winter and for teaching (it seems that I feel I need to wear longer skirts here than I do in TO, even walking around on the street.  I am fascinated by this difference.)

ANYwhooo,

There was this pair of jeans, hanging on the overcrowded rack, sticking out a little and looking OH so cool.

Not my usual look, greyer rather than blue which I favour, but....

I tried them on...

Heaven.

Weirdly they are very long in the leg and kind of bell bottom-y which I haven't worn since the 70's,

but

but

but that feel of comfort....

just right.

Let's hope they still feel that way when they come in off the line!

PROGRESS!!!!!

OK....

Youngest had a game today, they won, she got a basket. Good stuff.

The man and I met with the architect, and IT'S A GO!!!!!!

He got the man's seal of approval as well. They had a preliminary sketch of what we had in mind, and had made no suggestions themselves, we'll see what happens next. They took lots of measurements and will have drawings ready in half a week.

They is the architect and his daughter (who is lovely pretty and seems lovely in and of herself as well). She has done the first stage of the schooling to become an architect and is onto the second!

They took us over to see their front door and told youngest who was with us that sometime they can show us a secret tunnel that comes out in their house!

Youngest was also charmed.

The also took us over to have a look at a house in the neighbourhood that he had worked on. It was lovely, not at all the style we have in mind, far too modern...I want it to be like it was, but comfortable.....you know, warm with an indoor bathroom, electric lights that don't scare me, hot water, more than one electrical outlet per floor, and with functioning drains.

Other than that, just the way it was!

He want's to submit for permission with the ajuntament in two stages, the first for the basic work that doesn't need permission so we can get things underway, and then again for the changes that require a little more thought...

Fingers crossed, it is up the ajuntament if I get my painting room and terrace or not, I would be most disappointed if I don't. Hope hope hope.

Nice to take another step forward anyway.

remember these???

I am delighted to report that I have a cold. That seems like maybe I am being ironic or sarcastic or something, but honestly I felt so dreadful for two days I am simply thrilled to have your basic down home common cold!

Eldest was madly studying for a test that involved recognizing parts of speech, when I remembered these! When I was a kid these came on TV periodically. Were they part of TVO? I have no idea...but here you go:

For adjectives there is

this

and here is another video just for the fun of it. In fact this conjunction video was my favorite.

Loved those when I was a kid!

Tomorrow morning we meet the architect (again) and youngest has a game....

I have no good ideas for a title.

Witty exciting post was planned,

Derailed by a throat that is apparently lined with glass shards.

Hope this downgrades to a common cold.

I am, masochistically, tackling Alias Grace as my recreational reading.  This is of course written by my all time favorite author Maggie Atwood.  Any regular readers are aware that I am LYING like the proverbial rug.

Not sure this is what I need on a weakened constitution.

*gasp*

If it still feels like this tomorrow, I'll head for a Dr....

Can you get strep throat without a fever?  Don't think I've had that yet.