pretty pictures

little italy



dragonfly dusk

...favorites...

Currently, Susan's favorite picture is
"Summer at the Lake."
She has even installed it as her background
wallpaper on her pc.
Aubrey and Ben lead the way down the lakefront street
as Sophie and Drew watch Anji perfectly toss a frisbee
caught on digifilm gloriously in midair; tall trees waving
lazily in the wind, wild tall grasses growing alongside;
notice the retro 1960s flair of the composition
(minus modern car in background); a carefree
warm mid-Minnesota summer day.





Her favorite current food is the caterpillar roll.
Just can't bring herself to order anything
else because the eel-cuc-avocado-rice-seaweed
combination dipped in pickled-ginger-and-(heavy
on the)-wasabi-flavoured soy sauce held by chopsticks
is just too good to pass up. Like soft, nutty velvet
floating over a sea of thankful tastebuds. mmm.





Her current favorite tv find: The Lost Room.
A delightful surprise return of "Nate" from her
former favorite show Six Feet Under plays a
father in desperate search of his daughter who
disappeared behind the door to a mysterious
hotel room. Only one key can open the door,
and along with it are other objects which posess
unsual powers. Extremely well-written, acted,
and filmed. With the horribly forced boredom that is
on tv lately, this was a refreshing, actually-interesting find.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhAGrJW2Tos


...And current favorite drink:
Calypso Natural Lemonade, with real lemon bits!
This taste of the islands is a heavenly idyllic balance
of sweet and tart. Susan believes one of the most difficult culinary feats
to achieve is making a good lemonade - and Calypso has done it.

things that have been going on...

Susan recently got diagnosed with Pascophos Disorder:
those riddled with obsession of taking pictures of food they make.

CAPONATA:





ZUCCHINI SUPRIMI:

[the first meal made of vegetables and herbs all from the garden]




SUMMER FISH SALAD:




TOO MANY TOMATOES!
[that didn't ripen in time for summer's end]




jon's first movie premiere THE ART OF WAR was presented at
a theatre on the U of M campus... here he is giving a speech
before the showing:




...And Susan has been getting use out of her Vibram Five Fingers
"barefoot" shoes this summer. Not too comfortable at first, but a
good breaking-in is worth the wait. Much walking the dog has followed
these shoes around, each morning before the day of WORK begins.
Very zen.

Stitches are ... Delicious ... ?

Both Margie and her parents had a mouthful of stitches this month when Margie
decided to eat her bandages and tear out her stitches ... a total of three times.

This left Jon and Susan with a dinner plate full of vet bills in lieu of groceries.

Dee-lish-usss!

The Real Story: One gardening day, Margie

went outside and was playing around in the backyard as usual. Margie knocked at the backdoor when she was ready to come in, so Susan opened the door. It was early morning, and Jon was still in bed with his head softly laid on a comforting pillow, catching up on sleep from a long week of Insomnia. After a few minutes in the living room, Susan noticed several drops of crimson liquid on the 1942 bright ochre hardwood floor and said, "Alright... Who's bleeding!!?" She grabbed Margie's foot and noticed a two-inch flap of skin on the back of her front right paw and guessed that Margie had tried to hurddle the tall wooden privacy fence (again... and again... and again) and didn't accomplish a very happy landing.

Susan grabbed the nearest "junk" towel (OCPD skills still mentally intact) and achieved her most glorious First Responder performance. Susan's parents had come to help with yard work for the day, which had been planned around Susan's Surgical-Intern-Like schedule (her only day off in a month) and she was not about to abandon her guests or give up her one day of freedom by sitting in a vet hospital... so a split-second decision was made to wake the sleeping dead...
she yelled, "...JON!!! ...Emergency! 911!" ...and some stumbling and fabric shuffling of the quick-throwing-clothes-on act was heard ... and Jon came out of his den with eyes growling like a bear that seemed to say, "No. Not today."

The vet said Margie was very lucky, being a mere millimeter away from slicing two major arteries - a feat that even Susan's Sniper-vigilance Skillz couldn't have saved.


A few hours later, Margie snuggled up with

her pack leader on the bed in a glossy-eyed stupor from left over general anesthesia.

In her latest statement, Susan remarked, "Dogs are cute, but they cost a lot." A lot of physical, emotional and mental currencies too.

the darker side of margie

The hospitalization this week of Majory Stewart Baxter, 10 (in human years), after police responded to a report of a suicide attempt at her Camden Minneapolis home, astonished anyone who knows her simply as the affable, boxer-german shepard mix around town.

To us outsiders, Baxter's partying seemed to be of the happy-go-lucky, nobody-gets-hurt variety. While other canines got kenneled, Baxter always appeared to have a healthy penchant for following the rules. When she wasn't busy taming her rambunctious backyard sticks, Baxter's life consisted of licking faces, riding in the car, and practicing her bark.

Obviously something darker was going on amidst all those brindle-furred mellow good times. The only comment from Baxter, who's said to be in good condition at an undisclosed healing facility, has been to issue this statement: "I respectfully ask that the media allow me to receive care and heal in private during this difficult time."

It's unusual that a dog in her prime should suffer such a dramatic meltdown. A suicide attempt, if in fact that's what happened, signals that a person is in the deepest kind of pain. While it may be a surprise to those of us who know her only by her twinkly-eyed jumpy persona, Baxter's crisis probably didn't sneak up on those close to her. And the canine and her loved ones likely won't return to the good life quickly, either.

growing

sour grapes growing on our backyard trellis:

the meyer lemon tree Ben sent yields green lemons:

mum & dad put in 7 hours of gardening work around our house:

Napoleon, too afraid to go outside, watched through the window:

a summer story

one summer day, susan spent the five seconds

that she had free in her garden

carrying basil in her mouth to keep hands free:

margie chased a big blue plastic ball,

begging anyone to throw it across the yard again...

and again... and again...

...and played charades (this one was "kangaroo"):

susan picked the first two zucchinis of the season

as margie made sure they were ok to eat.

susan remarked, "wow i've gained a lot of weight!"

to which margie replied, "you ain't fat! you beautiful!"

then, susan went inside and modeled

some of late grandma patricia's jewelry

(and found out those 5 holes up one earlobe still can hold an earring!)

at last, they snuggled up on the bed

and had a good sleep

(while the mischievous man of the house

snapped photos and sat insomniatically awake all night).

...the end.