author intrusion

four skirts, four sweaters . . .

$23 bucks and some change.

So, while I have all the great intentions of refashioning clothing, I'm in a crunch right now with writing, and some weekend jaunts for publicity. That's going to have to wait.

I had some extra time inbetween errands yesterday, so I clipped on over to the Goodwill and man-O-man, got some great finds for Ty and myself. The above outfit (sans shirt underneat) cost me a whopping five bucks. The sweater is Lauren, the skirt American Eagle.

The other skirts are Talbots, MaryKate and Ashley (I know, what a hoot! It's a children's half-size skirt. But it fits and it's cute) and Ty's isn't a "brand" but is adorable. (Not shown.) Other sweaters were J. Crew, Gap, and some business woman's line I recognized the name of but can't recall right now to save my life. (And I don't feel like running upstairs.

Pretty great, eh? Four outfits for roughly five dollars a piece. Great finds!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends! Catch you back here next week!

lisa

all life is precious

TRADE: opening this weekend

A movie on human sex trafficking opens this weekend. Please go! It's opening in a limited number of cities. You can find out at their website whether or not you're close by. Unfortunately, we are not. Here's the synopsis:

When 13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is kidnapped by sex traffickers in Mexico City, her 17-year-old brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets off on a desperate mission to save her.

Trapped by an underground network of international thugs who earn millions exploiting their human cargo, Adriana's only friend throughout her ordeal is Veronica (Alicja Bachleda), a young Polish woman captured by the same criminal gang. As Jorge dodges overwhelming obstacles to track the girl's abductors, he meets Ray (Kevin Kline), a Texas cop whose own family loss leads him to become an ally.

From the barrios of Mexico City and the treacherous Rio Grande border, to a secret internet sex slave auction and a tense confrontation at a stash house in suburban New Jersey, Ray and Jorge forge a close bond as they frantically pursue Adriana's kidnappers before she is sold and disappears into a brutal underworld from which few victims ever return.

Inspired by Peter Landesman's chilling NY Times Magazine story on the U.S. sex trade, "The Girls Next Door," TRADE is a thrilling story of courage and a devastating expose of one of the world's most heinous crimes.
The American debut of Marco Kreuzpaintner, one of Germany's leading young directors, TRADE is produced by Roland Emmerich and Rosilyn Heller from a screenplay by Academy Award(R) nominee Jose Rivera (THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES).

Thanks to Danica for making me aware of this.

we have a name

It took a while to name Ty's bass. Mostly because the original bass turned out to be in bad shape, so we returned it to the shop it came from and ended up driving to Cinci to pick one up from Antonio Violins. So, seeing as there was a trade-off here, it took awhile Well, folks, you came up with some great names for Ty's bass fiddle. The top ones in the running were: Beauregard, the Judge, and Ray Brown (an obvious plant seeing as from whom the suggestion came).

So we've lived with this new bad boy for a while and one day the name just popped out of Ty. Chesterton. Kind of a classic, but a little sassy and prone to humor. We like the guy. And maybe G.K. was more of a jazzy apologist than some.

from Chesterton's Orthodoxy

Interesting insight into fiction writing too.

Link: .

It is true that some speak lightly and loosely of insanity as in itself attractive. But a moment's thought will show that if disease is beautiful, it is generally some one else's disease. A blind man may be picturesque; but it requires two eyes to see the picture. And similarly even the wildest poetry of insanity can only be enjoyed by the sane. To the insane man his insanity is quite prosaic, because it is quite true. A man who thinks himself a chicken is to himself as ordinary as a chicken. A man who thinks he is a bit of glass is to himself as dull as a bit of glass. It is the homogeneity of his mind which makes him dull, and which makes him mad. It is only because we see the irony of his idea that we think him even amusing; it is only because he does not see the irony of his idea that he is put in Hanwell at all. In short, oddities only strike ordinary people. Oddities do not strike odd people. This is why ordinary people have a much more exciting time; while odd people are always complaining of the dulness of life. This is also why the new novels die so quickly, and why the old fairy tales endure for ever. The old fairy tale makes the hero a normal human boy; it is his adventures that are startling; they startle him because he is normal. But in the modern psychological novel the hero is abnormal; the centre is not central. Hence the fiercest adventures fail to affect him adequately, and the book is monotonous. You can make a story out of a hero among dragons; but not out of a dragon among dragons. The fairy tale discusses what a sane man will do in a mad world. The sober realistic novel of to-day discusses what an essential lunatic will do in a dull world.

happy autumn or . . . why kids in the kitchen is a great idea

Yesterday was the first official day of autumn, not that the temps indicated any such thing, but shoot, I'll take it! Autumn is by far my favorite season. Perhaps it is the warmth of nature at this time of year, and hallelujah, the leaves are starting to change. Perhaps it's being tucked inside the predictable schedule of the school year. Most certainly, when the temps begin to chill a bit, I feel revived.

To celebrate the coming of the season, Ty baked her wonderful pumpkin bread. Our old housemate Jared gave her the pumpkin-shaped baking pan for her birthday a couple of years ago and it's stood us in good stead. Ty's our resident baker. She's got the gift and this mama is thankful. So if you were in Lexington today, you could come by, I'd put on a pot of tea or coffee (your choice) and we could sit and chat over a slice of this treat.

Hope the changing of the season is bringing renewal to your heart.

two down, one to go . . . don't die Richard Dawson!

Well, the passing of Charles Nelson Reilly this past May made me sad, to be sure. But I just found out that Brett Somers passed last week at the age of 83. I'm a huge fan of Match Game. I watched it growing up, and still watch it if I'm somewhere there's cable TV. The interplay between Richard Dawson, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly was more than entertaining, and let's face it, those three were intelligent, and never just went for the laugh at the expense of the contestant. They knew how to play that game.

Brett Somers died of stomach and colon cancer at her home in Westport last week. She changed her name from Audrey to Brett, after Hemingway's heroine in The Sun Also Rises. While she and Jack Klugman separated in 1974, they never actually divorced.

So . . . for the match:

Brett Somers, Richard Dawson and Charles Nelson Reilly, will forever be known as The Three _________________.

Leave your answer in the comments!

honey from my honey

You gotta love a man who stops by the co-op after a long day at school so you'll have honey for your tea the next morning.

tip your cup to St. Matthew!

Today is the feast day of St. Matthew. As in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Of course there are a lot of feasts and a lot of saints but I had to mention Matthew today because there's just something I've always appreciated about him. Imagine if the IRS agent demanded your taxes and made you pay more so he could get a Hummer. See what I'm sayin'? That's Matthew.

But Jesus said "Follow me," and Matthew went. Jesus threw a party for him and his friends and the Pharisees got all out of whack, fortunately for us, giving Jesus the opportunity to say, "I don't come to call the righteous to repent. I come to call the sinners."  A very handy verse to be sure!

He wrote his gospel (my favorite one, btw, if how much I turn to it over the others is any indication) in such a vivid way, so we could listen to the Sermon on the Mount and practically hear our Lord's voice. I think that's what I love about Matthew's gospel, he knew how to use dialogue! Matthew was definitely a writer.

Where and when he died is a mystery. He seems to get mixed up with St. Matthias (yes, the Judas replacement), but tradition says he was martyred in Ethiopia.

It's good to remember those men who carried the baton in the first leg of the relay race of faith. That baton was pretty heavy back then. A lot heavier than mine is now, and I'm thankful.

okay, this is amazingly cool

Link: Acirfa Bike Project.