Secular Caroling

Secular Caroling, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

My lovely girls drag me into such interesting things.
Eden and Aja decided they wanted to go caroling and somehow got Meredith to agree. Of course India wanted in. Somehow Thalia and I got roped into it and her son Tyjal drug along.
We never practiced and were pretty bad. At one house we sang White Christmas--that was our most horrible attempt and we didn't try it again!
Our best was a paganized version of Silent Night.
Our song list was sans Jesus and leaned heavily on Irving Berlin. I quickly realized that if I didn't start the song, I was hopelessly lost! The girls would sing way to high for me to join in.
As bad as we were, people were delighted to be caroled. And we scored some fresh baked cookies at one house. At another we hit a party of enthusiastic 20 somethings. They passed plates of treats out to us.

Routine Maintenance

Our toaster stopped working a few days ago. It just sort of jammed up (no pun intended). You could hold the lever down and it would turn on, but you had to just stand there holding it and guess when the toast was ready. How inconvenient!
So this morning I had some time and decided to take it apart.
Turned out that no one had ever emptied out the crumb tray (okay, I admit I didn't realize there was a crumb tray). It's been three years since we set it down on the kitchen counter. How embarrassing!
So the toaster was totally full of bread crumbs. Like about a pound and a half! I should have taken a picture. It was also full of moth webbies. We never could figure out where those suckers were coming from. After dumping all that crap out, I took it apart and cleaned it up inside and out. Now we can toast again and our lovely toaster stayed out of the landfill.
There's a moral here somewhere. I'm sure of it.

My Little Bay Nut Project

Fresh Off the Neighbor's Lawn - Bay Nuts, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

At the Goddess Festival I saw a little bowl of roasted bay laurel nuts on one of the tables. Three for a quarter. I tried them and liked them--they are slightly bitter and are a mild stimulant. The woman who roasted them, Tamara Wilder, an amazing naturalist, told me about her website with instructions.
So a few days ago I was out for a walk with Eden and Zoe and just down the street a big bay tree had dropped all these nuts on the lawn. I got permission to pick them up and took home this bag full. I popped the nuts out of their mushy outer coating and let them dry overnight.
Turned out that really wasn't enough drying time, because some of them exploded in the oven! BANG!!
The website said to roast them in the shell, but didn't mention explosions. Or the thick cloud of acrid smoke that would set our smoke detector shrieking. Ugh.
I had to open doors and windows and fan the air with a towel. And the nuts still weren't roasted! I decided to shell them and try roasting them again the next morning.

Shelled Bay Nuts

Shelled Bay Nuts, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

It was very easy to shell the nuts after roasting them whole. Except that it was just too tempting to use my thumbnail to pop them open and today I have that awful tender feeling you get when the nail has been pulled away from the skin underneath. Ugh.
Eventually I got out the nutcracker.

Roasting Bay Laurel Nuts

Roasting Bay Laurel Nuts, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Here they are before I put them in the oven. Unlike the first go, with the nuts in the shells, this batch actually smelled good roasting, and it was pretty easy to see the change in color.

The Finished Product

Dark Roast, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Here they are, after another 25 minutes of roasting at 350 degrees. They are definitely bitter tasting, but not in a bad way--if that makes sense. I ate at least 15 today and didn't think they were all that strong a stimulant. I never felt a distinct buzz.
All in all, it was a very satisfying project. I'd do it again.

Goddess Fair

Ugh. We're super busy tonight, about to leave for Sebastopol to set up for this weekend's Goddess Fair. It's been four years since we did it. Krista will have a very nice set up and has actually painted four or five new little paintings.
They ask for a $5 donation to come in, which I think is absurd. It's not that big an event. But you can always just walk in the back door!
We'd love to see y'all. Eden has a dance performance at 3:00 on Sunday with her Bollywood class.
It's hard work doing fairs. It takes a lot of set up. When we used to do ten or more a year (back in the old Honey Moon days) we'd get in the swing of it. I don't feel very swingy right now.
Anyway, off we go.....

Nalina and Kaytea

Monumental

VIdeo projection Monumentale 2009
by uruk

Abandoned Places

Eden and I just spent an enjoyable and kind of creepy hour looking at abandoned places around the world on this great site Web Urbanist.
You can explore Asia, The former USSR, the US, EU and more.
The photos come with stories and often have onward links for more information.
Enjoy

Thanksgiving

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
---Albert Schweitzer

Thank you for reading my blog. And thank you for all the things you do each day, big and small, to make the World more coherent and beautiful, peaceful and just, homey and fun. Even if you don't think you do anything all that special.

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all.

Off to New Orleans

Krista is stomping around the French Quarter today. She's visiting NOLA with her friend Amy the poet who was runner up in the Faulkner Award for poetry.
They're staying with a friend of Amy's and attending posh receptions and readings in swanky hotels. Actually, Krista is attending some of them but also touring solo.
We spoke early this morning and she said it's bitter cold there today, balmy yesterday. She's been to several voodoo shops--some cheesy tourist traps and then the real authentic one (which had a beautiful altar to Erzulie).
Krista said the city reminds her of a cross between Chiang Mai and Haight Ashbury. Sort of gritty and crumbling and funky, but way cool. And way different from your average US town. Which made me happy. If you're going to the trouble to visit someplace, it should be a little exotic, don't you think?
As a reward for winning runner up, Amy gets to sit down with a major book publisher and pitch a book. She's chosen to pitch The Painted Tongue Flowers, her collaboration with Krista.
I'm not a huge poetry fan (sorry to admit that) but when I read Amy's poems--each one inspired by one of Krista's paintings, they knocked my socks off. I still can't find my socks and I'd love to see that book get picked up for national distribution.
But even if it doesn't, Krista is in the final stages of self-publishing it on Lulu.com and it should be available to purchase on-line very soon.
Meanwhile, Krista is off on another adventure. Send her some warm thoughts for a cold cold day.

Gobekli Tepe - Check This Out!

A German archaeologist by the name of Klaus Schmidt has claimed discovery in Turkey of the world's oldest temple. Called Gobekli Tepe, it predates Stonehenge by six thousand years, and Smithsonian magazine writes that "the find upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization:"
Here's a quick read on Huffington Post with some photos, or click the link above for the Smithsonian article.
The columns and carvings were made when humans supposedly had no metal tools. Hmmmm.

The Bike Tree - forget the personal helicopters and jet packs, this is the future.

Feeling Blue

Blue Cat, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

Our dear old cat Chili is gone. We had her put down this morning. She was pretty old--19 plus years and was getting more and more uncomfortable. It was really the only humane thing to do. And yet...I've been crying all day, off and on. The grief has hit me really hard.
Chili was with us when India was born. She climbed up on the birthing bed! She was much more interested and tuned into our family than anything else, much more than any other cat I've known. And she was a strong presence in our home. She would always be waiting for us when we walked through the door.
I was expecting her to be there on the couch, as always, when we got back from Crane Creek Park, where we buried her this morning.
Maybe she was. Maybe she was.

The burial couldn't have been more perfect. Krista and I were married in that park, under an arched oak tree way out in the middle of a field of oaks. It was sunny and warm and the ground was just soft enough to dig a grave, but hard enough to really make it real.
We unwrapped Chili from the cloth she was in and that's when the girls really felt it. They weren't there for the vet.
We all were crying when we laid her in her grave--she was still soft enough to curl her up. We covered her with marigolds that Joyce and Jerry bought for us at the farmers market. And then with our hands we carefully covered her again with the coarse dry earth.
India had found a big stone not far away and I was just able to pick it up and carry it over for a marker.
It had been years since we'd visited that tree, but now I'm sure we'll go again soon.
I'm going to go back to vacuuming up all the cat hair she left behind all over the house. Except for one little bit I combed off of her this morning, before the vet came. I'm keeping that.
I know that some of this grief I'm feeling is connected up with my folks dying, thirteen years ago. It's all connected and it comes in waves.
I'm grateful I have enough time and space in my life to feel this, even though it's hard. Thanks for reading this and take a minute today to let someone know you love them.
rob

Beneath the Veil - TODAY!!!

Krista (and I) are doing a little show today at Ace in the Hole, a cider pub in the little town of Graton, from 3 to 6pm. Afterwards there will be dancing with the band The Thugz (my friend David's favorite local band--"cosmic Americana, psychedelic, jam).
The show is a four woman show and I'm thinking it will be awesome, if for no other reason than Krista has two big new originals--including one I absolutely love! Erzulie Dreams The Devil. She also has several brand new little paintings. She finished them yesterday afternoon.
Sorry for the late notice here. But if you live anywhere nearby, c'mon down and see us!
rob

Silver Wings

One of the wonders at the Handcar Regatta.

October Fourteenth - Here Come the UFOs

Have you heard the news? Apparently we're going to witness world wide visitations by UFOs, including at least one really big one--two thousand miles long!
I've been a bit pre-occupied lately, watching the end of the financial world as we know it, but a friend sent me a link to a 'channeled' youtube video that got me up to speed. If you type in October 14 in the youtube search bar you'll be rewarded with an astonishing number of videos predicting and explaining the upcoming visitation.
Not all of the channels agree, apparently, on the exact date. Mid October for sure. Talk about an October surprise! I can almost hear John McSame screeching 'nuke "em, nuke 'em!". I hope Obama has prepared a more inclusive response. God knows what the markets will do. They seem to panic at the drop of a pin these days.
Supposedly there will be no direct communtication from the UFO(s). They'll just show themselves in a big way for about three days. No landings. No death ray beams.
Cheers,
rob

Summer Days

Our House, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

I've been enjoying the heat, but I was glad when it started cooling off this evening.
My office has been very warm. No, it's been hot. My poor clients have had to sweat while they tap. Sort of like that Bikram yoga! I could start a whole new 'hot therapy' trend!
Actually, business has been picking up. I've got lots of new clients and it feels great. Especially since the EFT really works.
I mean, it would be so depressing, sitting in a (hot) room listening to people's terrible problems--if I couldn't help them. The thing I used to love about giving massage was the instant gratification. My clients were always very happy. They knew they'd been helped and were just glad.
It's much the same with my EFT practice. Only with grief and loss and anger and fear and cancer and divorce and so on. And without having to change all those sheets. Not so much laundry.
***
Last night Krista, Eden and I went to see The Taming of the Shrew--an outdoor performance at Ive's Park in Sebastopol. We went early and got pizza and the best seats (er, blanket spot) in the house (uh, park).
The play had been adapted to have a pirate theme. The set was a big pirate ship, in fact. And the acting was incredible.
I hadn't been to a real play, with real adult actors, for way too long. Not that I hate kids or anything. It's just nice when the actors actually remember their lines say them with appropriate feeling and don't sing off key.
Anyhow, it was great. Except for the horrible misogynistic message of the play. Jeezus. What was Shakespeare thinking anyway?
***
Yesterday we also hung four of Krista's originals in Milk & Honey, a super groovy store/gallery in Sebastopol. They look great and totally fit there. It's a very witchy goddessy womany kind of place.
I think we're actually going to hang a few more on Monday. If you're in town check 'em out.

Katie and Sean Came to Visit

Katie and Sean Came to Visit, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

The day after India left, my niece Katie and her husband came to visit. We had a fun visit full of laughter. Katie had only recently found out she was 5 months pregnant. She skipped all that first trimester nausea and such. Woo hoo!
They're both just so happy and excited to be expecting. I remember that feeling.
They were on a road trip--Boise to Redding to Livermore to pick up Sean's sons and bring them back to Boise. They drove way the hell out of their way too, which was so nice of them.
We got to spend some awesome weeks in New Zealand with Katie three years back. It was so good to see her, and Sean, again.