Further Circusification

I've been super stoked about our half bath, upstairs. When I found and framed the circus posters they really made me happy. But when I'm seated on the throne, the wall that I face is blank. It has the door, of course, but it has about 8 feet above it that could somehow join the theme.

One day I saw an auction of circus posters. I bought two lots, not really thinking about how big they'd be. And now I have several dozen circus posters, carefully selected for their lack of people and animals. It's really about my love of lettering, silk screen, words on the page. I intended to collage them on the wall of the bathroom above the door, in a similar approach to the one in the auction that lured me in:

But that's not what ended up happening. 

First there was the matter of getting a tall enough ladder into our tiny bathroom, and then seeing if we could stand on its tallest rung and pin a poster to the wall.

I'm not quite the monkey I used to be, and neither is mrguy. Abort mission. Instead of collage, I will frame some of the cooler posters and put them on that wall.

But the Lady Bathroom downstairs has been a work in progress for 10 years, and it has really low ceilings. I set my sights there (and we pinned one of the posters on the wall in the living room while we were doing triage).

So many posters to choose from. One of these is from Carson and Barnes, which is the circus that set up its tents on the vacant lot outside of town the week of our wedding.

This one has the delicious tag-line "See it now or miss it forever". 

But this one really takes the cake: "Complete in all its vast immensity".  A fb friend says that should be the title of my autobiography. 

Anyhoo, here's where I left my current project (still underway). 

Still working on how to adhere to the wall and protect from cats, but I kinda love it. It looks like a really cool rock club bathroom (but it smells lots better).

Adieu!

A Sweet Goodbye and a Cool Beginning

My friend and Pilates instructor, Miss T, is a powerful woman. We've been working out together since January of 2015 and that means that we have seen a lot of each others' major life transitions. When we met my mom was still living at home and T's son was in middle school. Mom has progressed into memory care, and T's son has graduated from architecture school, has his first professional gig as a junior architect, and is living in his first apartment.

She's flying off into a new future as well. Over the past 8 years she has set and met all of her goals -- without a partner, I might add. When we first got together she was a corporate trainer for the forklift company. And we started working together in the gym. Then she decided to get certified in Pilates. I hated Pilates but was devoted to her. She's sooo observant and smart and this is exactly what she should be doing. She made me like Pilates again.

Three years or so she decided to branch off and start her own business. She has developed and nurtured a whole group of people, the Strong Squad, who are devoted to her practice. I stayed a private client, so I'd say I'm Strong Squad adjacent. As Covid approached, she was the first person I knew to really take it seriously. She brought her clients onto Zoom without a hitch. She took masking and all protocols seriously, too, which is important to me even if we were not going to be seeing each other. I love her.

Her next goal was to buy a house. Home ownership was not possible here, and she worked with some real estate agents who probably didn't take her seriously, given her price point. She was briefly boo-ed up with someone in the Las Vegas area, and that expanded her view of what was possible. Her new agent there was not successful, so she moved on from him. One week after engaging her new agent she was in escrow in Henderson, NV. A perfect little flip with an out building where she can teach her clients. Room for her flock of tiny dogs and baby grand piano. She is moving pronto.

By way of goodbye she invited her people to ride the merry-go-round where a friend of hers works, but it rained. I would have missed out, being a cruise ship captive that week. But I had offered to help her pack, and she decided that I should help her pack her art. We were able to use most of the packing materials from a shipment that came to the archives before we left for the cruise, which was great reuse of materials that would have been otherwise discarded. And I suggested that she get some bedsheets (which were super helpful for some of her more substantial pieces). Those came from Buy Nothing. I bought us some of that stretchy cling wrap that movers use (which I felt bad about but was essential), and we were in business.

Our day was fantastic. I made her a plate of deviled eggs. And we picked 70's Soul music as our soundtrack, which is a place of overlap for us (I'm her mom's age). Then she turned me on to the only podcast she listens to, which is about music. We learned that "Got To Get You Into My Life" is a song about drugs. But more importantly, we howled with laughter and outrage that a) she had never realized that The Beatles wrote and performed it first and b) I had never realized that Earth Wind & Fire also made it a huge hit. Each of us had never heard the other. Then anyone coming through the door of her studio was quizzed about whether they knew that the song was by The Beatles. And we *both* wanted to tell people immediately -- just not the same people.

One of the folks who came by brought us masking tape for taping the glass on her artwork so it doesn't shatter in transit. And she brought the best garden burger I have had in a very long time.

Oh my gosh. We had a great afternoon. I got Private Playtime with T (and her flock) for most of the day. And then I went home and got into bed, cause that was a lot of work. Can't wait for her to get settled and put that art up on the walls of her new home. In just a few weeks we'll be doing the Pilates in a new setting, in the home that she owns and can do anything she wants in. 

Hoo-ray.

No Place Like Home

It took a few days, but mrguy finally made it home. He described his stay in the hotel as being designed specifically to torture him. I'm guessing that this was happening at the pool right outside his window: loud teenagers, screaming children, older ladies with small yappy dogs, "Mr. and Mrs. Kid Rock"...

He was glad to get home but since he's still Covid pos, we aren't really communing. The one thing I wanted, more concentrated time with my man, turned into a subtraction of the same. Oh well, at least he's getting incrementally better. He's found the World Baseball Classic on tv and that has been a source of comfort for him.

Meanwhile, back at the fun factory, my mom is torturing everyone. While we were away she threw her phone three times and broke it. One wonders why they let her throw her phone at all, but that is a question that cannot be answered. Now the service seems to not be working, and that's for mrguy and I to figure out. 

While looking for a phone to buy I realized that someone might have one to give me. So I quickly sent this screen grab (for reference) to a Slack channel, asking. We recently replaced our desk phones with the Zoom app, so some wiseacre responded that my phone would not hover or do Zoom. Everybody was high fiving him on the app, which pissed me off because I was asking for help (also it was mostly dudes who were laughing).

My response.

Argh. Trying to work while living is complicated.

2023 Cruise -- Day 5 Plus

Here's where it all went downhill. On the morning that we were to go to the birthplace of Bob Marley, in Jamaica, I asked mrguy "How did you sleep?" 

He replied "I just tested positive for Covid".

I did not. Bummer. 

Days 5, 6 and 7 were pretty bleak. Separated from my boo and having a cold -- I wanted to do nothing. Morning -- room service. Lunch, forage for my man, get a plate for myself, eat, read, watch HGTV. The will to do anything else left. I went to dinner because the waiters were so nice and I thought they'd worry or lose income. I noticed that the people we spent the day with in Cozumel with had coughs. So did our waiter. He was testing negative, and I also continued to test negative. Nobody on the cruise with the exception of old ladies and myself were wearing masks. Ever.

I am now cribbing from my entry in another forum:

"I am writing this response in a dimly lit “Irish” bar on a cruise ship during TV quote trivia. Trying to find the happy in the Angry Orchard. My husband has been quarantined with Covid since Day 3.

I have decamped to less pestilential quarters on a different deck. I got a cold and don’t feel like doing anything so I am bobbing about in the Caribbean in my stateroom with...celebrity chef David Chang. I take his “Eat a Peach” everywhere I go (dinner, mostly), and sing “Me and David Chang” to the tune of “Me and Mrs Jones”. I check in with the Mister from time to time and tell him what David Chang and I are doing.

My photos are of Falmouth Port, Jamaica and David Chang, marinated shrimp and David Chang, turn down service and...celebrity chef David Chang. Saddest cruise ever, but thank you David Chang. We got a thing goin on. Tomorrow David and I fly back to the West Coast and my poor husband has to keep quarantining in a hotel in Florida for another few days."

Yep. They kept mrguy in his stateroom, and then in a hotel in Florida, where he is miserable. The cruise line is paying for it, but whatever. I had to travel home by myself, which I did not like, but the planes were amazing. It took from 9am Florida time (on the bus to airport) til 2am Florida time to get home.

Now I'm home. Still feeling marginal from the cold, but testing negative. I rallied enough to buy a sculpture this morning that I want to mount to the outside of the house. This will be news to mrguy.

Over there in Florida the alibrijes are keeping him company. Can't wait until we're all back together tomorrow.

The Short Sweet Life of Croissie

Croissie the Croissant appeared outside the veranda of our stateroom yesterday jettisoned, presumably, from an upper deck of the cruise ship. You can see the original point of impact on the right. 

From there Croissie traveled aft, coming to rest in front of our seating area.

A croissant's life for me, we thought. While people above us complained about him within earshot, mrguy and I celebrated and documented his existence. Look at Croissie's expression of joy when he arrived at Grand Cayman! Proud, proud Croissie basking in the warm breeze.

We assumed he'd journey on overnight, as travel between Grand Cayman and Jamaica was rough. But mid-morning we opened the blinds and found him resting comfortably near the ship's edge, taking in the sights of Falmouth.

I did the same, drinking tea and comparing the other ships at port to our own. A breeze enveloped me and our mutual sense of relaxation was deepening when a sound approached, then a spray of water. It was a ship employee, cleaning the outside of the ship. Without so much as asking "Is this your croissant?" he power-washed Croissie into the drink.

Farewell, Croissie. 

We will miss you.

2023 Cruise -- Day 4

We went for an onshore adventure on Grand Cayman. This time we did a non-cruise tour company cave tour. The landforms were interesting, and it was pretty hot, and it was nice to tool around in a van being told how expensive real estate is here. I was getting the hint that our guide did not want us to move there. But he was very nice.

Our destination was Crystal Caves, homestead of one of the 7 founding families of Grand Cayman. Our host, Mr. Archie, was a descendant of two of those families. The caves had been the source of the water for much of the area for quite some time. Once we got into the caves they showed us some small apertures used to lower children holding buckets into the aquifer to get the water.

The tour reminded me of how much I loved my geology class in college (except for the math, and the tests, which were often fill in the blank but in CROSSWORD form, so you could have a totally valid answer but be wrong and screw up your other answers. Am I traumatized by this? Apparently so because my palms are sweating). 

As you were, Reader! On to the coolness that is Karst geology. Which includes dolomite, not to be confused with the film starring Rudy Ray Moore.

Here is some of what we saw:

Rock that looks like ramen! I think this is my favorite.

Hot tip: when in the port at Grand Cayman, if you can't find your tour company look for people who look organized. There are the people greeting you with signs made of photos faux laminated on cardboard, and those might be your tour folks -- or they might not. So take whatever info you have and find the people with spreadsheets and clipboards. That's what we eventually did, and they were folks from the Grand Cayman who phoned a person who phoned a person who found our people in a parking lot under a tent. We would have never found them without the other people.

After we got back we availed ourselves of room service. Best thing ever.

2023 Cruise -- Day 3

For a good time, go on a cocoa and alebrije painting excursion with Carlos. It was completely delightful and relaxing.

We met Carlos and he took us to a van, which ushered us to a location that teaches about the origins and development of cocoa. We also got to learn about the Aztec numbering system. Did I mention that our tour was small (6 of us) and all adults? They'd left their kids with their parents. Oh good.

I like to learn about plants, and there was some plant and bee knowledge laid on us. We got to eat some fresh-ground cocoa, which I'd never had. And then we went to a place called Barriocito, which was a cluster of cement buildings converted into and some purpose-built for outdoor tequila tasting and alebrije painting opportunities for tourists. 

Mrguy and I picked out some figures to paint that we thought were cats but turned out to be dogs. Photos of both together later, but here's mine in progress:

I don't know what it was, but painting little figurines for an hour and a half in a cement box in Mexico was the best relaxation I've had in many many months. And mrguy's alebrije is completely darling. He really snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat on this one, because he started painting the eye holes and ear interiors using a paintbrush whose hairs were clearly having a disagreement. It got all brushy and wild, and then he started to work with it further, and I found it so adorable that I just wanted to cry. It has personality for days. Mine is a little more uptight, as one could imagine.

I came back with cocoa bars, and our little figures, and some lotion made from cacao and a pink nativity scene and some tamarind liqueur which was delicious.

I could do that every day.

2023 Cruise -- Day 2

I'm here on the boat as a presenter, talking about what my department and I do. On Day 2 I fulfilled my prime directive, giving two presentations. I had a lot of competition from other activities on ship. The presentations went off smoothly, with feedback from mrguy helping me slow my pace and not rehearse so much. These were the best presentations I've given. Too bad not that many people saw them. But those who did were engaged and enthusiastic. They gave me great questions, they oohed and ahhed at the stories I told. They approached me later to tell me how much they enjoyed what I shared, and told me what a great storyteller I am. That means a lot.

We had decided to celebrate the presentations with a fancy dinner with a tasting menu. I have paid only slightly more for a car than that meal, but it was one of the best I have ever had. Each dish was filled with surprises in flavor or texture. And I sprung for the black truffle service. This could have ruined the whole meal for me, because I think I hate truffles, but I had visions of our server shaving this thing dramatically over my entree and I wanted that experience. Good news, bad news. Bad news is that my truffle was pre-shaved. Good news is that I learned that I like black truffle. It was subtle, not like the palate-obliterating flavor that I've come to identify with truffle and (urp) shiitake.

The downside of a tasting menu is that the structure set forth with restaurants like French Laundry is to add so many unexpected courses that by the end of the meal you feel like Mr. Creosote. And they send you home with more treats to remind you of your experience. Your very very filling experience. I slept on the sofa, propped up with many pillows so that my reflux didn't make me want to die. In order:

They showed us some fancy wines on the way into the dining room.

Our amuse bouche was one whisper-thin wafer containing a fois gras mousse / foam. The other contained Comte cheese. I didn't know that a medium bodied cheese could have that much flavor. 

A plate with a little indentation containing a layer of pureed spinach with lemongrass and a layer of parsnip foam, topped by a crisp wafer. You're supposed to use the back of your spoon to crack the cracker, (as you would the sugar on a creme brulee) but what actually happened was I gave it a tap and it squirted the purees out the side. But it was beyond delicious.

And some fish which was...not toothfish. There were two tasting menus that night. One was American, and had lamb, beef and some other ungulate courses. And from the sea there was toothfish. Our waiter very much wanted us to try the toothfish, but we don't eat most of the things on the American menu, so we we went for the toothless French menu.

We had a mix of cooked and uncooked beets, grown in the French chef's garden in Ohio. On top of some delicious schmoo. Which begs the question -- how did the French chef's beets from the Buckeye State get onto my plate in the middle of the Caribbean? Another of life's culinary mysteries, I guess.

Then, tasty foam with thinly sliced carrots, baby onions and cooked carrots that were teensy, like for a mouse. I kept picking up these cute vegetables with my fork and showing them to mrguy, like they were adorable baby animals, which I then ate. I can't recall. Were they on the sous-vide chicken dish? The one that was one of the best pieces of chicken I ever ate? Perhaps. But by then I was getting so full. For me, this is where the fun ended. Were there four dessert courses? Amazing and beautiful tiny chocolates, bursting with flavored gooey insides. Wine gums. And when we were asked if we were celebrating (and we said we were celebrating my presentation) they brought out a giant chrome egg whose top was lifted to reveal "Felicitations!!" written in gold chocolate on a gold chocolate wafer. So beautiful. They whisked it away and returned with a mini chrome egg which contained more sweet delights, alongside a cake that was only an inch or so high but contained many layers of delicious wonderment underneath a delicate layer of chocolate.

They sent us home with more chocolates and some lollipops (cassis and passionfruit?). Like I said -- sleeping on the sofa helped. And it was worth it.

2023 Cruise -- Travel and Day 1

On our travel day to Orlando, I asked two different Lyft drivers to stop their cars so we could figure out the seatbelt situation. The flight over was fine but I was kinda disappointed that we were going first class and it seemed more like Economy Plus (especially since we were using miles for mrguy's part of it). Yes, I am spoiled. I slept amazingly well, due to the effects of a glass of wine and salty tomato juice.

At our hotel we were treated to a themed forklift suite that had a gigantic kitchenette, two seating areas, a dining table that seated six and THREE BATHROOMS. Super posh. Every element was subtly themed to reflect the majesty of the forklift. Dang! Super cool.

In the morning we joined the people of the van that goes to the cruise ship. So nice! We got on the ship, tooled around, found lunch (shrimps galore!), checked out our stateroom, and did a runthru and technical sound check for my presentation the following day. 

We slept between activities. Dinner is at 8:15. We have the same service team every day, which is so nice. They are fabulous. Everyone who works on the boat is gracious, outgoing, nice. Without fail. The food is delicious. So far so good.

One of the best parts of the day was pushing off from the port and watching the world go by with mrguy. Me, mrguy, water, birds (lots of pelicans) -- what more could you want?