miller's crossing

A dear, old friend of mine, Petr, is doing groundbreaking work in the field of neuroscience, studying music perception. Here's a nice profile about him. I remember being an early test subject of his with electrodes on my head, listening to tones. He gave out delicious monster cookies to his test subjects afterwards.

One of the glorious things about the Pacific Northwest is the blossoms in the spring. The rhododendrons are going full-tilt boogie. I'll have some photos of them soon. And I've already planted my nose square in a delicate orange blooming rose. Did it smell sweet!

An email arrived in my inbox last night with the subject line: "Carmen is finally free." It was meant to be uplifting. But I was sad. It's hard for me to accept a death to cancer when it strikes someone otherwise healthy and vibrant.

I only knew Carmen in passing. She was active at my Dharma center. She had a glowing smile and a warm personality. She was stylish and a little bit sexy. I'm not sure how old she was, but she couldn't have been over 50. She got sick last fall and threw herself a huge party before she went into treatment. How awesome is that?

I've been playing hooky. Added more photos to Flickr.

Bob keeps a beekeeping blog. But you have to ask him for an invite to see it. Very exclusive.

Run, don't walk, to your nearest TV and watch Word Girl on PBS. Srsly, this show rocks. Superhero Word Girl's got a bountiful vocabulary and a sidekick monkey named Captain Huggy Face. How fabulous is that?

Babble.com recently spoke to the show's creator:

Babble.com: How did you come up with the idea for Word Girl?

Dorthea Gillim: I trace the origins back to my love of language, which started when I was in ninth grade and asked for a dictionary for Christmas. Not just any dictionary; it had to be the Random House Unabridged Dictionary. I was the kid who marked all the words I looked up. I've always aspired to be eloquent and articulate, because I come from a family of great orators and I never felt like I measured up. I thought it would be cool if eloquence was a super power. I knew I wanted to create a new character for kids. I wanted it to be a girl and I wanted her to be ethnically ambiguous so all kids could identify with her. She has all the powers of Superman, but then she's got eloquence too.

Perhaps all hope is not lost for the rhetorical capacity of the Twitter generation.

This is where I spent Friday afternoon. I read Louise Erdrich's "Birchbark House." A good read for a bright 8-year-old or a 38-year-old on a slow day.

It felt verrry good to lounge in the sun. Yes, yes, I should've been blogging and sending emails and working on a new article, but sometimes you just need to read. I picked up a couple children's books at Powell's recently for a young friend's birthday. And if my trend for the past year says anything, I'm very resistant to the idea of presenting a young friends with books I've never read. It's just too enjoyable to reading something easy and fun. And then you can ask about the book later.

On Wednesday, I read Ida B. . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan. Ida B is a great character—she talks to brooks and trees and runs all over her parents orchard in Western Wisconsin. Life doesn't remain perfect, however, for Ida B. Her mom gets cancer and, after several years of homeschooling, she has to go to school.

As her life feels like it is spinning out of control, Ida B decides she is going to be miserable—no enjoying new friends, no laughter, no sharing with her parents anything good about school. How long can she stay miserable? Read it and find out.

My boyfriend Bob's dad Ernie died last night. He was 80. I met him for the first time earlier this month. Then saw him on Sunday. Now, he's gone.

Ernie was diagnosed with cancer a year ago or so. He had ups and downs with it, but nine days ago, no longer able to handle food or water through a stomach shunt, he refused IV feeding and set his heart towards death. He had made his decision. His children and wife all were able to say goodbye. He had last rites. Now, his life as Ernie has ended.

Bob's bees are buzzing. I got to help with them for the first time over the weekend. "I've got no problem with bees," I rather blithely proclaimed before suiting up in veil, gloves and jumpsuit. But as we opened the hive and pulled out frames to look for larva, a lot of bees started flying around me. I noticed I felt some fear—what if they get angry? what if one gets in my veil?

Nothing more for today.