feast and famine, rock and roll

I received several pieces of email from my Picture Show with the pig roast action.

Several people said "Ewww. That's disgusting."

To whit I say, yes it was, but it was also good. But, you were forewarned that there were grossy outty pictures in there. I think it is funny that so many Americans think roasting a pig whole is disgusting but they have no problem eating what is cleanly presented to them in yellow or green styrofoam containers with shrink wrap. We just cut out the middle man and had Aaron carve the oinker.

My sister said the same thing -- she thought it was disgusting and she readily admits to her hypocrisy when it comes to food, and I applaud her for that honesty.

Anthony Bourdian, chef at Les Halles and author of two of my favorite books "A Cook's Tour" and "Kitchen Confidential" states that anyone who eats meat should at one time or another participate in the full process of getting the meat to the table. In one of his books, he goes to Spain or Portugal, and slits the throat of that night's dinner himself, as the family and guests all participate in the cleaning and preparation of the feast.

We're all too removed and protected from the reality of the dinner plate here in America.

I did something I never do, and I know that the same people who said "Ewww, that's gross" never do when they eat a steak or a burger (if they eat meat, I cannot tell from whence their opinions rise) -- I leaned over and thanked the pig before he was put on the spit and wired up. Lest you think I don't care and was just there to take pictures of my husband and friends as they committed "barbaric" acts.

I appreciated the sacrifice of his life so we could eat. And I suggest that each time each of you eat, you do the same. You don't get to look the animal in the eye, but you can still give thanks -- to your deity, to the beast itself.

We don't give thanks enough for anything in this nation.

I also got two "Dude, why didn't you invite me!" emails.

Dude -- You live in Texas and Virginia. Were you going to drive up? Let it be known, if we do this next year and you want to come, email me. Dude. You're invited. Just let me know you're interest so I can give you directions.

Geoff was invited to three birthday parties in the span of a week. One he won't be able to make it to, due to our heading down to NY on Friday so I can go see BNL (for the last time, I promise) with Jessie, LeeLee and my future BIL. Geoff will hang out with Grandma. The show is Friday night, and seeing as Doug is working on Friday Geoff needs to come with. I'm sure he won't have a problem with us going without him. He'll have the Game Cube to pacify and keep him happy.

I'm so stoked to see BNL again. I'm not too keen on Alanis, they're splitting the bill with her and overall I'm "meh" about her. I'm interested in seeing who the crowd is more "for" in this, and I'm hoping I am surrounded by rowdy BNLers and not rowdy Alanisers.

And it had better not rain.

I think on Saturday I'm driving Linda back up here with me, possibly Ronnie too. She's got to get up to Maine to get her car back. I smell another road trip! Maybe?

I had forgotten to mention something in my entry about July 4th and before I forget again I'm throwing it in here (while I'm thinking of Maine and good memories...)

My sister had posted this entry in her journal towards the start of her relationship with Ronnie (code name at the time was "Powder." I'm not sure how it happens, but every guy Linda has dated has had a "code name" at some point or another. Her ex-boyfriend is Assbucket. How funny is that?).

We were on top of Cadillac Mountain watching the sunset when I see Linda trying to grab my attention as she's pointing to Ronnie.

He's bent over, and picking up a pebble.

Why? Well, if you didn't go over to visit her entry, I'll quote her. He says:

"Every time I have a good memory I pick up a pebble and put them into a jar. So when I have a bad day I can look at the jar and know that there are good days."



I started laughing and crying at the same time. I couldn't believe that I got to witness the act itself and, be part of the day and the memory. I got all warm and fuzzy and shit. Damn.

It's such a funny and cute little thing, and I hope to hell that he'll have dozens of jars someday, lining the shelves of their home together. Dozens of jars filled with thousands of pebbles.

We had a hugely busy weekend. Saturday both kids were invited to friend's houses for the day, Geoff to a birthday party and Jessica to her friend K's house. K ended up sleeping over after I made Jessica clean her room in order to have a place for K to walk.

My daughter is as organizationally challenged as I am. So for her to clean her entire room in less than 2 hours is an amazing feat. I checked the walk-in closet, the cubby under the stairs, and under her couch and bed and she didn't cram everything into hidey holes like Sherry Bobbins makes the kids do on "The Simpsons" so I must say I'm proud of her.

The girls played Alaska Monopoly with Geoff (how nice of them to include him) and he lost but wasn't insane about it. I don't know that he even understood really what was going on so losing was a relief... it got him out of the room.

Then the girls and I stayed up until 1am watching Metallica Icon on MTV2. We're such losers. We had a good laugh mocking Avril Levigne's horrid rendition of "Fuel" which she sang as a bored, uninspired lump of meh upon the stage. If I had the opportunity to be the only female performing in such an extravaganza, I'd give James Hetfield a far more raw and violent rendition of his lyrics. I wouldn't stand there and sing "Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire" with the same conviction and energy level as ordering a Big Kids Meal at Burger King.

Sunday we went to Dan's birthday party. It was great to see Baby Ben again, and Brian and his wife & kids were there. They really mocked Dan wholeheartedly, and Dan's wife took his Yankee Uno playing cards and stood them up in the cake (Danny hates the Yankees). I'm not sure if Dan was mad or entertained by the use of his Uno cards in this manner, but I sure thought it was some funny stuff.

We then went geocaching. We intended on hitting five, but got a late start in getting out, and then the first one was a lot harder than we thought it would be.

Number one of the day was in the Salem Woods. I knew it existed, but had no idea it was as extensive as it is. The cache was on the totally far end of the property, and walking there and back was a two mile trek. The cache was very well hidden, and when Doug went down the slope to approach it he spooked a large deer (buck) and a fisher cat. Eeep.

We went up to Manchester/Essex Conservation area next to do our 200th cache. I feel like we go out all the time and cache all day, but we only have 200 finds to our name. I think some of it is because the kids slow us down -- if it were just Doug and myself, we'd be hitting 7 or 8 a day instead of three a weekend.

I can't blame the kids though. Geoff is all about the hiking and rarely gets whiney or complains about going. He keeps up with us, often walking in the front. Jessica is slow as hell, and she does it on purpose. "I'm hot, I'm tired. I have bug bites. My new sandals are digging into the top of my foot... meh meh meh."

I'm clearly not whipping her enough.

Anyway -- the second one was a much easier walk but a much harder find. We were there for over 1/2 hour scouring this boulder wall, and the cache was 39 feet away from where our GPS said it should be. Grrrr.

On the one hand, cache coordinates that aren't "spot on" make it more of a challenge, but 39 feet and 10,000 possible hiding spots made this one piss me off. We found it and decided to skip the next one at Agazziz Rock, which was only a quarter of a mile away, but it was already after 7pm and Doug wanted to be home to see the Simpsons.

I wanted to have a camp fire this weekend, but no one else did. Meh.

Well, this week is shaping up to be a busy one. Initially it was to be the week the kids would be in NY, but they'll go down with my mom and dad after they visit in August instead. I wanted to paint Geoff's room (it needs some drywall patching and some ceiling tiles before I can do that) and hit the ceiling in the living room with primer. I have four web projects to work on, so I may call on some of Geoff's friends parents and ask if he can come play for the day. I have the two templates done for the temp agency, have feedback on the two templates I did for the Salem In History folks, and my friend Gretchen just gave me a project for her company that she doesn't have time to finish, so they need me to step up and help out. Add to that the last few final finishing touches on the Dart People, and I'm a bizzay gal.

But first, there is coffee, and Geoff wants to visit Pokemon.com for a little while. So I'll turn the PC over to him and go do the dishes. I need to knuckle down this week and churn out the webpages. Wish me luck. You may not hear much from me over the next few, but I'll try and slap up little snippets in J-space if I need to share with the world, so check in there.

On that note. Happy Monday. Cheers darling.