Lizardek

23
Mar
2019

SWEEPING THE CLOUDS AWAY

It’s rarely my own birthdays that give me pause, although some of them can’t just be ignored or glossed over. It’s the birthdays of those younger than me that instill a little frisson of horror about how time is flowing in only one direction. Today marks the 50th birthday of my little brother. My baby brother. Even my sister’s birthdays, though she is also younger than me, don’t have quite the same effect as my little brother’s or my children’s. At the same time that you want to celebrate their passing into a new year, you want to just stop...

20
Mar
2019

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Martin is nearly done with his Sophomore year at college. He’s learned a lot in the last two years and he’s done a lot of beautiful work. I’ve been meaning to write a post about his art for ages, and finally, I’m getting around to it. The catalyst was the fact that last week I dropped off three of his prints that I absolutely LOVE, at a new frame workshop that I found in the next village over and I picked the framed pieces up today, and they are BEAUTIFUL. The triptych was the result of an assignment Martin had...

19
Mar
2019

FIXED, FIXES, FIXING

We caved and bought a new PC this week. The constant crashing was driving me insane and that fact that our friend Russell who helps us out as our fantastic IT support from Texas, tried everything he could think of to fix it and even after wiping the entire hard drive and reinstalling, it was STILL crashing, it definitely seemed time for a new machine. It’s very space-agey, matte black with a neon-green light line down the front of the face. I’ve reinstalled all my programs and can now be expected to post regularly. Hahahahaha! Well, semi-regularly. It’s such a...

13
Mar
2019

BOOKS I’LL NEVER READ

Have you heard of The Future Library? It’s an art project of sorts, started by a Scottish artist near Oslo, Norway. She is growing a forest that, in 100 years, will be used to print 100 books which are being donated by authors from around the world and kept, unread, in safekeeping until then. The first author to provide a manuscript was Margaret Atwood. There are 4 books so far. None of them can be read until 2114, when the 1000 trees planted in Nordmarka (assuming they are still around after 100 years of climate change and global warming) will...

10
Mar
2019

A GOOD ONE

We hosted Pie Night last night. There were 14 of us including a toddler and a couple of young kids. We had taco paj, shepherds pie, cottage pie and a tuna bake. Shepherds pie and cottage pie are basically the same thing (meat with mashed potatoes on top) and not very pie-y but they were all yummy, especially our taco paj (which I’m glad there are leftovers of) and the tuna bake. Carys, one of our British members, brought the tuna bake the very first time we had Pie Night, and I was thrilled to see it again. We discussed...

04
Mar
2019

THE WEEK THAT WAS, IS, AND WILL BE INSANE

Where does the time go? It’s been over a week since my last confession. Er, post, I mean. In that time, I have cleaned house like a machine cleaned up the front garden beds finalized the AWC newsletter and website updates before the monthly meeting called and talked to and activated two new AWC members ran the AWC board meeting as our President is still away won trivia night with my team, The Know-It-Alls, at the monthly AWC meeting (prizes: tulips and Reese’s) gotten a raise and praise cleaned and sorted and purged and packed things in my mother-in-law’s apartment...

24
Feb
2019

LIZ IN LISBON

We were supposed to be three friends going to Lisbon but Camilla was super sick the whole week before and on Friday, 2 days before we were to leave, she called Debbie and I and told us she was probably not going to go since she was still so poorly. WAAH! What a bummer. She was able to get her airline ticket refunded but it ended up being just Debbie and I headng to to Portugal last Sunday. Despite our disappointment about Camillla’s absence, we managed to have a good time. I had so many people tell me how great...

12
Feb
2019

GROWNUP GAMES

What are you playing at? I just asked myself this question and it made me laugh a little. I’m playing at keeping my cool (especially at work where I was on a short fuse today) and playing house (which I sometimes still feel like I’m doing despite living independently, even when it was with roommates or my husband, since I graduated college) and playing at being an adult. Aren’t we all playing at that? Do you feel like you’re making it up as you go along, too? Do we all feel that way secretly and some of us are just...

10
Feb
2019

FEBRUWEARY

I’ve been so busy. February is short but at least being busy all the time makes it feel shorter, but it’s also annoyingly awful weather-wise, so even though it’s early in the month, I am already tired of it, and longing for spring. One of my college roommates, after she moved to Chicago, used to throw a F*ck February party every year, complete with palm trees and sand and a beach-themed clothing requirement. If I wasn’t already so busy, I might have planned one of those. I could certainly use it. Party of the busy has been cleaning and sorting...

06
Feb
2019

JUMPING THE GUN

Well, I got a little over excited about where we were with our PC…still not fixed and still in the middle of trying to get it working correctly, running a bazillion diagnostics with the help of my friend Russell who is tech supporting us from Texas and thank god for his help or I would have slung the stupid thing through the window by now. I am typing this on a bluetooth keyboard attached to my iPad which I thought would make typing faster and easier than the pain of typing on the iPad’s keyboard and it does…sort of. But...