All right all right all right all right

But just because you asked.

(Just give the Parker girl a day or two to reorient.)

Jeanne d'Arctique

Temperature: a sunny -15/5 (we had some 20 sunny hrs in December. In Dec 2012? 24 minutes.)

Eating: as long as it's heated, anything goes

Drinking: as long as it's heated, anything goes

Watching: travel dreams, like every other night

Listening: to Hubby using power tools. It's the new season of our personal Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Oh, I'll do my share.

Reading: what needs to be read

Writing: what needs to be written

Feeling: Of winter's lifeless world each tree

Now seems a perfect part; 

Yet each one holds summer's secret

Deep down within its heart. 

~Charles G. Stater

I dreamed of Africa

Temperature: a bleak 0/32 degrees

Eating: is it too early to start baking Christmas cookies? Just for refresher training purposes, of course. And maybe just a little for that sweet and spicy dough.

Drinking: årets glöggar sont arrivés! (Wittgenstein said the limits of our language are the limits of our world. I've found that to be true, so, sweetie darlings: To broaden your horizons, learn a foreign language. If you want to delve deeper into a country and its culture, learn the language.)

Watching: Frances Ha and L'écume des jours, as should you, dearest denizens, if you want to laugh cry cringe sigh

Listening: to the Treme soundtracks

Reading: Chuck Norris has browsed the entire Internet. Twice. Ha! I'm on my third round. (If you don't know where to look, you won't find it. Finally reached for the phone. As I should have done two rounds ago.)

Writing: translating

Feeling: Always be yourself. Unless you can be Kira Salak. Then always be Kira Salak.

Written on the wind

Temperature: a sunny 20/68 degrees

Eating: trying to perfect the art of smushi, aprés le Royal Café of Copenhagen

Drinking: hmm, what's the perfect smushi companion? Aquavit? Hate it. Beer? This ain't your average smørrebrød. I'm going with C, champagne. There's a champagne for every food and occasion. Yes. I have smushi and champagne for lunch all the time. Not. Just messing around making a mess in the kitchen planning a tasty weekend treat. Shh. It's a surprise.

Watching: in the mood for something massive, dramatic, melodramatic, painting-with-picturish. Luhrmann or Malick. Sirk?

Listening: like I said, in the mood for something massive, dramatic, melodramatic, wall-of-soundesque. 30 Seconds to Mars? “Honest to God, I will break your heart / Tear you to pieces and rip you apart.”  

And dancing to Jessie J! It's all in the hips, sweetie darlings. Press yours to mine, look me in the eye, lemme take the lead, and let go. “If this is a dream, won't open my eyes / Am I asleep? No, I'm alive.”

Reading: something so good, it almost made me stop writing. You know, “This is it. Nothing to add, nothing to subtract. This is perfection.” (Not available in English. Sorry. Ooh, would looove to translate it. Would the mastery somehow magically rub off on me by association, do you think?)

Writing: just tossed I won't say how many Ks worth of words for obstruction of story.

Feeling: energized by the summer. No living thing thrives without warmth and light. OK, maybe some deep-sea creature. Ocean's daughters? Not so much.

In the eye of the storm

Temperature: a gusty 15/59 degrees

Eating: berries from the garden. Such a dry summer it ain't much of a crop. Sure, it's raining now.

Drinking: more coffee in a minute, that thunder and lightning kept me up half the night!

Watching: Before Midnight, ASAP

Listening: to Concha Buika

Reading: Sarah McCarry's All Our Pretty Songs as soon as my copy arrives

Writing: something I hope will make a difference

Feeling: raw about leaves fallen off the family tree. Still. Always?

Another year

Temperature: a sunny and rainy 20/68 degrees

Eating: a death by chocolate kind of ice-cream

Drinking: some coffee in a minute

Watching: over the kids as they run in, "It's raining!", and right back out, "It stopped raining!"

Listening: to The Black Keys' El Camino

Reading: through my favorite Latam recipes

Writing: a menu for my birthday next Friday, a Friday!, now doesn't that just beg and bleed for a party?

Feeling: like the ringmaster of a three-ring circus. That's summer for ya. Or me, to be precise.

Far from the madding crowd

Happy Midsummer, dearest denizens!

Long time no see (My apologies)

The war of the words

Temperature: 12.5/54.5

Eating: at some point, sure

Drinking: Why do you keep asking that? I do not have a drinking problem. I have no problem whatsoever having a drink on occasion.

Watching: Rock the Ballet later today!!

Listening: Eels: Wonderful,Glorious

Reading: Graeme Thomson: Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush

Writing: I can't tell you. I'm sorry. (But I miss you. More than I thought I would.)

Feeling: professional pride

Hale

Temperature: 5/41 degrees, on the fifteenth of frickin' April

Eating: lost my appetite, my will to live! see above (just kidding)

Drinking: might as well get juiced; see above (didn't mean that either)

Watching: Searching for Sugar Man (If you only watch one documentary this year...)

Listening: to Tortured Soul by Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators

Reading: Joshua Foer's Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Writing: a thank you note

Feeling: uplifted