Fly Like An Egyptian Goddess (Isis)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072700724.html

The Weather Report

After teasing us for a few days by sporadic raining in fits and starts, we seem to have finally gotten some good long soaking rains, which we really need and which promise to contine for another day or so. Jim and I walked in it part way to Lia's for half price burgers and a giant mug of beer for dinner last night.

The Capital Fringe Festival and Basso Moderno

Yesterday Kathleen and I visited the Warehouse to see the final Fringe Festival (www.capfringe.org) performance of Basso Moderno (www.solobass.org) in "69 Ways to Fall in Love."

I had met half of the Basso Moderno duo, Kristen, at the Coffeehouse at Politics and Prose the other day and after listening to some of their online music, was interested in hearing and seeing them in person. They do benefits for social welfare organizations, and so we talked about the possibilities of working together for "the girls." I like their music very much and the performance, which also included dance and drama, was very interesting. Kathleen really liked the dance. I liked the touch of 1960's retro pagan, hippie love sensibilities thrown in. The other half of Basso Moderno, Allan, says it's probably because he's from Northern California.

From Today's Washington Post

Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling

Click on here to read:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072900827_pf.html

Accidentally Joined Oprah's Book Club

Jim and I stopped into a used bookstore in Wheaton after finishing up window shopping, actually shopping for new windows...a couple Saturdays ago and I picked up a cheap copy of Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Started reading it a couple of days ago and happened to catch Oprah, briefly, on Thursday or Friday when she was hyping her present book selection...Middlesex. I have to say, it is worth all the hype and probably deserved its Pulitzer Prize even though occasionally it sounds like one of my old human sexuality lectures. How often does the term "Wolfian ducts" get into...even fit into...a novel, do you suppose?

Didn't Even Make it to New York!

Didn't even make it out of the house...!

My friend Kathleen just brought over her Croc photos for the Phoenix exhibit and while she was here I showed her the recently framed "Waiting for Shoes" and the "Please Help the Girls" triptych, which she hadn't seen yet. She said she really liked them both, and I could tell immediately she was really tempted to buy one of them. After looking and thinking and looking and thinking, she realized she really loved this one the best...so she bought it! It will be very cool to have it hanging in her house, next door. And I have to say I think it fits in very nicely with the rest of her collection.

I Have Such a Big Heart

I just got an email from one of my former students, Gina, a young woman who I met in the First Year Core course at Mount Vernon...oh so many years ago now. She and Stephanie, who I believe was the first and only young woman I ever met as a first year student who proclaimed herself a feminist (already), were the best and brightest students in the course. Subsequently, they both took several other courses from me and Stephanie graduated from Mount Vernon with a major in Human Development. Gina transferred after two years to a school closer to her family's home in New Jersey. I guess I was a mentor to/for both of them and along the way they also began to feel a lot like younger sisters...welcome to the family. Of course that meant I had to forgive Gina for leaving Mount Vernon and then Stephanie for also eventually leaving the City. Like the other "kids," they do insist on leading their own lives in places other than here. But if I could people Jocelyn Street myself, they would be included among those who would have houses right here.

Kaaterskill Falls

A novel by Allegra Goodman. Just finished it. Very interesting, well written...takes place in an area of the Catskills not far from the cabin, so that was an added bit for me. I think she has a new book out which I will definitely peruse....as well as her older ones. This was the first one of hers that I've read.

Today's Report

The Goofy One rides his bike or walks to work a few times a week. Sometimes when he rides, he goes through Rock Creek Park, as he did today. He always calls or emails to let me know he has arrived safely and to report on his trip. Today's was by email:

Fascisti; here is my report.

7:35 Honda Ridgeline sighting in first parking place of w/end parking lot where we walk

7:44 Pol n Prose jogger sighting along bike path behind zoo

8:05 arrive here

Ok bye

Waiting for Shoes

New painting for GGRF: "Waiting for Shoes."

5" by 7", 8' by 10" framed

I'm going to put this in the NYC exhibit.

A Visit to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

this afternoon with my neighbor Katherine... I saw this beautiful lotus blossom!

Missing Siblings

I walked Jim part way to work this morning and on the way we passed the Brandywine apartment building, where Kaye (aka, Moohead, aka, Moodley) lived for a year or so when she lived out here oh, so long ago...we noticed there was an apartment to rent so thought we would let her know....just in case....

Which reminded me/us that tomorrow was the day Carey and Sarah and John were supposed to be getting in for their annual summer visit...which had to be canceled due to ongoing health problems. Boo hoo! We are mightily annoyed and disappointed with them both for not just living here as they should.

Which brings me to the baby bro, Charles, who insisted on going back to Ashland after he retired from the Air Force...leaving us just when we were starting to finally have some fun with him and his kids...not to mention his girlfriend of the time, Annie.

It's just a darn good thing for them that we love them all so much.

Spring Weather in July

Ann and Jack Maier came over to dinner last night and it was so lovely that, with a little light bug spray, we could sit outside on the front porch for desert; this morning we walked, as we often do, in Rock Creek Park....felt like spring in July! It's been hovering around 80 for the last few days and if the predictions are correct, it will continue for a few more. Just perfectly perfect. I wish I had taken my camera this a.m. We saw a beaver in the Creek...knew they were there, but had never seen one before.

National Women's History Project Fundraiser

Attended a lovely gathering of people at the fabulous Wisconsin Avenue apartment of a Board member of NWHP (http://www.nwhp.org/) to help raise funds for the organization. (I told them ahead of time that money wasn't my strong suit, but they wanted me anyhow. Lucky me!) They served us a delicious light supper and showed us the documentary "Sisters of '77," (http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/sistersof77/) the pbs documentary about the 1977 first National Women's Conference in Houston, TX. One of the major players was present to give us more info....it felt like old times!

The Araboolies of Liberty Street

Dawn had an extra ticket to yesterday's performance of "The Araboolies of Liberty Street" at Imagination Stage (http://www.imaginationstage.org/) so she and Emily invited me and the three of us enjoyed the 10:30 a.m. performance, followed by delicious middle Eastern lunch at Bacchus. Hadn't seen either of them for a long time so it was good to catch up with two lunches in two weeks - last week we met in Bethesda - and a very fun outing.

Hannah: Some Girls Gotta Skate

New painting for "the girls." Not framed yet. 5" by 7" oil on canvasboard. Hannah is our nephew's 8-year-old daughter who loves playing ice hockey.

Of Some Minor Local Historical Interest

Apparently Lady Bird and LBJ lived in our neighborhood for awhile, n this rather modest home less than a mile from us. Someone on our listserv said that tour buses occasionally still stop by there. Who knew!?

The Invitation to the GGRF Exhibit in NYC

http://girlsgottarun.aeomaia.com/

The Winner!

I just found out that the person who won the painting I did for this year's Northland reunion, "Homage to Albrecht's Superior View," was none other than Don Albrecht himself, the photographer upon whose work it was based. I also just found out that he had apparently purchased the very first raffle ticket.

A Chevy Chase-Lady Bird Johnson Connection

According to this morning's W. Post, she even planted/beautified my beloved Chevy Chase Circle. I wonder if she's responsible for the fabulous ring of rose bushes.

I'm Not Saying My Husband's Crazy

but last night he came home from work with a copy of a book he had convinced the owners of Yenching Palace, which is closing, to sell to him as a souvenir: The Private Life of Chairman Mao.

And later he insisted I take a picture of his dessert.

Shoe Stories

http://www.girlsgottarun.org/artist.php?id=484

Add This to Your Reading List!

"Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/)....

Takes place in Nigeria/Biafra during the 60's.....just before and during the attempt by part of Nigeria to secede from that country and form Biafra. People my age may remember the occasional photos in the news about the starving children in Biafra, which in the end only existed for three years. The hype on the young author is that she is the modern day Chinua Achebe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe). Yes. I believe it. Her first book, Purple Hibiscus, which I haven't read (yet) won all kinds of prizes, and so did this one.

Side Yard Hostas in Bloom

Shiny Blue Shutters

Watching Paint Dry...

We repainted the front door and upstairs shutters yesterday. We didn't do the door until late afternoon as Jim took a mid-day break to go mounain biking with Gordon while I ran over to Whole Foods to get some groceries. It takes 24 hours to dry and we can't completely shut...and thus, obviously, lock... the front door until it does. So instead of going to Curves and then doing errands I had planned for today, I have to be in the house until the paint dries. Which is probably okay because it's going to rain later anyhow. Good thing we did the shutters early in the day...they basically dried overnight.

Work in Progress, Ella and Owen

Making progress, still a lot to do.