No Shirt Tuesdays

Well, in the midst of a very stressful, headache filled week, I just stumbled across this, and it made me smile:

I think Improv Everywhere, which “causes scenes of chaos and joy” is one of my favorite things…http://improveverywhere.com/

Have Cellphone, Will Travel into Borg-dom

Not much time to blog just right now. Busy writing, landscaping, and grading (the three activities that seem to rule my days of late). But I came across Voltaire’s great blog post about technology. He makes some excellent points about, alas, the growing laziness in our reliance on technology.

Do tell me what you think. As a writer and teacher, I have a very uneasy relationship with technology–paradoxically a luddite (Wikipedia is stealing out souls! Facebook only creates more isolation! Melt your cellphone!) and enthusiastic supporter (viva la revolucion–via Twitter! Microsoft Word and a USB flash drive saved my drafts, and my life). Sigh.

In Which Your Humble Narrator Speaks of Many Things

My apologies for not blogging for two weeks (which must equal years in blog time). I had only a few weeks from the time grades were due from spring semester to when my summer class would start.  And during that time, I weeded, raked, shoveled, planted, sodded, grappled with thorns, hacked away at killer trees, cleared branch after dead branch, and mulched till my back went out. But here is the result of all that hard labor:

Pup is still not sure what to do with all the new grass, which is just fine since it still needs to knit to the soil. Some super great friends came over and laid down the sod for me, since my back was still hurting so bad I could barely lift a rake (note to self, don’t land- scape for 8 solid hours at a time). I still have to plants flowers or some kind of shrubbery along the fence, and I’m going to fill in the path with sand and flagstone. Still, it’s on its way, no?  (and look at this perfect example of how to use it’s and its). The brick building you see from my backyard is a cool performing arts theatre here in northwest Denver. There are four art galleries on that street too. It’s unnerving being so close to one’s neighbors (and you can see just how close I am), but I’m right around the corner from really funky art (which I dig) and only a few minutes from downtown Denver (which is even better).

For those of you who have visited my blog and only seen pics of my crappy yard and cracked phone (and by now are wondering just what kind of freak would be wasting time blogging while her home was obviously in shambles)–here is my new and improved technology:

Sad to say, it took one week for me to understand that the cool blue film on the side of the phone was actually protective tape. Over the next week, I came to understand the shiny film on the screen was also tape. It took a few more days to discover the rest (because yes, I am that slow).

 

 

 

 

I’m actually learning how to text faster now that I have an elvish-sized keyboard to use (instead of only a number pad).

You can also conveniently see that I’ve been reading the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Hayden’s Ferry, which a CU colleague lent me. Special theme: The Grotesque.  Favorite stories: “Don’t Look Away” by Urban Waite, “Amanuensis” by Stephen Tuttle, and “Blue Sky White” by Tessa Mellas.

Also read “The Other Miller” and “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff, then ”The Evening and the Morning and The Night” by Octavia Butler. Groovy surreal stories.  The story by Mellas reminded me of H.G. Wells “Country of the Blind,” (which, if you haven’t read, you really really should).

The Yard of Death

My apologies for not blogging this week, but I have killer trees in my back yard. No joke. They’re called the Trees of Heaven (trees from hell, really), and were imported from China back in the 1700’s. Whatever. They’re demon trees, sending out a toxin to any surrounding bushes, flowers, or other trees. So all the dogwoods that I planted three years ago have died. My grass has all died (this has nothing to do with the alien trees; that was my fault). But, it does create a dilemma for me.

I’m a gardener, not a big-yard, mowing or a planting sod kind of gal. I hate  to water (hence my xeriscape rock garden in the front yard). But now I need help brainstorming what to do with this:

I don’t want to put in all grass–the very thought depresses me (so much mowing). I would like a small patch of grass for the pup to run in, and then the rest…. Any thoughts here? I am looking for a cheap, environmentally friendly, and aesthetically pleasing solution.

Oh and the nasty white shed back there is not my house :)