George & Slothrop's Excellent Adventures

Correction

2006-03-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

For anyone interested in seeing my sis's cautionary tale, the real address is:

web.mac.com/carrollc

OK, so we're slow

2006-03-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's been an adventure around here lately. Cindy the cat-scratch victim is staying here, and I get to play nurse again after all these years and give her the IV meds each p.m. She's such a weenie, she won't let me experiment with tequila. But, hey, if you've got a PICC line, use it, I say. (Especially if it isn't in my vein). Wish we'd had a camera to record the great hair-washing adventure. To see Cindy's artistic web parable of her adventure, try (no www) mac.com.carrollc
It's pretty cool, but she made it at work to demonstrate creating one of these little logs for teachers. It will scare them! (It might be mac.com/carrollc; I can't remember).

I opened a can of whup-ass on Slothrop in our Oscar picks (thanks to Wallace and Grommit and the penguins), so I have a big old pay-up coming my way. We rented Crash on Saturday and both thought it just might pull an upset, and lo and behold it did. I was disturbed by the "coincidences" in the plot, but then we discussed the fact that it is set in a 24-hr. period, as Aristotle demands, and is merely following Shakespeare's lead in all the unlikely scenarios. We both really liked the film and didn't begrudge it its win over Brokeback.

It's going to be quite a thrilling gubernatorial election here in TX. Kinky promises that as the first Jewish governor, he will lower the speed limit to 54.95. How can you argue with that? My money's on Carole Keeton Rylander McClellan Strayhorn; she was no fool to go indy at the last minute.

OK, that's the blogging obligation over with. We're waiting anxiously for the time when we can get a couple of Beltway insiders down here to where it's all happening. Yee Haw! (Not that we're cowboys or anything).

Peace.

Blog or Albatross?

2006-02-24T13:47:00.000-08:00

I knew this would be hard to keep up with! One of our many, many fans says we've been saiiiiling for 3 weeks. I WISH! This transition business is crazy crazy crazy, doing my old job(s) until they get moved up to Dallas (end of MARCH, NOOOOOO!) and doing my new job of hiring new writers and stuff. We got some amazing applications. One of our new guys wrote a novel that was an LA Times Notable Book of the year, and was positively reviewed in NY Times Book Review. And he wants to write test prep questions for the likes of us! He's moving to Austin in May, so hopefully Slothrop will have a fiction-writing buddy to bounce things off of. He's doing his best to bury himself in the writing room each day, but it will be so much easier when transition time is over.

Lots of emotional goings-on this week. Slothrop can fill in via telephone, I guess.

We saw Bonnie Raitt Tuesday night and she was rocking. She's going touring in Europe with Keb Mo, who Slothrop discovered shares his real name with our new owner.

Watching Olympics, looking out at the drizzly days . . . that's about it.

Interesting discussion last night about why guys, even BROTHERS, for crying out loud, will NOT share a bed. One will sleep on the floor if need be, even if there's a kingsize bed in the room. Too weird. We girls say there's always room for one more. What's up with that? One of those profound questions of the universe.

Anybody out there read any Peter de Vries? I've ordered "The Blood of the Lamb," which recently was highly recommended to me.

Oh, no, just found out my sister has to go into hospital tomorrow for surgery on her hand. Her cat bit her and now it's very infected (no, not the cat). Cindy, when you call me back, I'll find out all about it. So sorry!

Maybe when Slothrop arises from his nap (can't have him cranky, you know), he'll add something. Maybe people with boring lives just aren't supposed to have blogs.

I'm SAIIIIILING!

2006-01-31T12:18:00.000-08:00

We went sailing on Lake Travis on Sunday, a glorious, cloudless, mildly windy day. It was so much fun! We went with a couple who owns, along with a couple of other families, the boat. I warned them it would be like sailing with Woody Allen, and Slothrop did not disappoint. We were out on the water for about 4 hours and had a blast. Our friend Marilyn's friend had just been to a dinner at Liz Carpenter's house at which La Liz asked each guest to say what his/her bumper sticker would be. So Marilyn wanted to know what ours would be. Slothrop said, "Miracles Happen." I replied, "It's been done." He said, "I don't care, that's what it would be." Bob said, "There used to be one that said something else happens." Slothrop replied, "I know, I used to have that on my car. But now I have "Magic Happens." Marilyn said hers would be simply "Learn," because she thinks that's the most important thing in the world. Bob's would say "Believe." I said, "I don't know what mine is, but it's gotta be a lot more twisted than those," to which Marilyn replied she agreed. About 10 minutes later, I yelled, "I've got my bumper sticker! It's 'I don't know!'" Probably a more eloquent way to put it would be "Embrace uncertainty (or ambiguity)," but my favorite saying of the Kinkster is "Read my lips. I don't know." That's enough for him to get my vote right there. Certainty of one's rightness is the scariest thing in the world, to me.

We're taking our brokers and their wives to dinner at the Four Seasons tonight--the least we could do for all they gave to us during this year. Marilyn and Bob own a very fancy schmantzy event-planning company, have won international awards, plan the TX gubernatorial shindig, etc., so I had about 20 etiquette questions for Marilyn about hosting this dinner, especially given that I was the client, and sometimes men might feel strange about being hosted by a woman, and I wanted everyone to be comfy. After about question 5, Marilyn said, "For God's sake George (I don't use my real name on this blog--just try to find me, Google!), just relax and enjoy yourself!" Good advice, huh?

We're continuing to enjoy the beautiful, sunny, 75-degree days. Yum!

It's fun to be employed!

2006-01-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a feeling to be an employee again. I love it. And I love my employer, and I'm not just saying that in case he ever finds this blog (Hi, Kevin!). Seriously, he's so young and enthusiastic and determined to make this business really, really big and successful, it'll be a delight to help him do it. And he's made clear how much he values me and my abilities and even my weird sense of humor. YES! Right now I'm hiring writers/editors/proofreaders, while still doing the day to day UPS, invoicing, phone-answering, etc., but all that stuff is supposed to be over by Feb. 15, when the office in Dallas opens up. Man, that was a hard process, but the broker kept comforting me by saying, "Don't worry, Doni; it only gets harder as it goes along." He was dead right. Hope anyone who reads this is having a good day. Heck, I feel like Tim, playing on the web during worktime!

George on Brokeback

2006-01-17T11:16:00.000-08:00

I have to say I was very happy that P.S. Hoffmann won the Golden Globe last night. I think Heath Ledger was excellent, as was the movie, but, to me, Hoffmann showed incredible range--from funny to flamboyant to moody to . . . "sinister" isn't the word, but his moral floundering was fascinating to me. Heck, if two guys being executed will really help your book be better, what's a writer to think (or do or neglect to do?), and I thought Hoffmann played that dilemma brilliantly. It's enough evidence for me that Brokeback isn't a "gay movie" that Slothrop and I saw elements of ourselves in the respective main male characters. Who reflects whom I will leave to the imagination.

Onward and upward. Looks like the sale will close today or tomorrow. If anyone hears a loud, scary noise in the next 24 hours, it's just a champagne cork.

Brokeback

2006-01-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

Well, Lauren says it's the saddest movie she's ever seen, but it's definitely an amazing, moving film with two incredible performances. I've already backtracked on Straithairn in Hoffman's favor, but I'd have a hard time not voting for Heath Ledger--and Jake Guyllenall should probably win going away for supporting actor. Gets my vote for best film as well. Until I see Munich tomorrow. It is indeed a heart-wrenching movie. Trying to think of the saddest movie I've ever seen. Right now all I'm coming up with is Frances. Hearts and Minds is up there, but it was a documentary. Maybe I 'll be able to think of more. Brian's Song was pretty weepy, but made for TV probably doesn't count.

No new pix this time.

Feel like a Bush voter

2006-01-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

Reggie, not that other asshole. After seeing Capote, gotta give the Oscar to P.S. Hoffman. Straithairn is Reggie Bush to Vince's Capote. And the film itself is wonderful; I went and bought a copy of In Cold Blood to read again (was a long time ago). Here's a few pix of Lauren and the Jewels (if I can remember how to do that).

2006-01-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, well, it's Lt. Slothrop here looking for some banans. What clever web handles y'all have; "webster slaughter"--now there's a name that goes back almost as far as Gordon Cobbledick. Does that administration secret spy operation search weblogs for references to "Dubya" and "Dick" so they can fatten their little files? Yep, we're back to life on the mainland yet trying to hold on to that aloha spirit. As for the loud family next door, Mr. Loud is presently at wor (apparently) on building a fence of some kind right next to the fence right next to our bedroom. He's beenpost-holing for two days now and I think he has maybe two holes dug--makes plenty of noise, though, which I'm sure is the whole point. A couple days ago I was in the kitchen and heard this loud "pop-pop-pop" coming from next door. Lauren was in the pool room and I asked her if she knew what that sound was. She said it sounded like they were shooting off firecrackers, which I doubted since there's a fireworks ban across Texas due to the drought (I don't think it's rained here in 3 months). So I look out the window and the two boys are on the porch jumping up and down on sheets of bubble wrap. These people are nothing if not creative. If the soundproof windows work I'll nominate the company for a Nobel Prize. Anyone else seen Good Night and Good Luck? Fascinating history lesson as well as a strong contemporary civics lesson. Haven't seen Capote yet, but at this point I've gotta think David Straithairn is a good bet to take home the best actor Oscar. A real masterstroke to portray McCarthy through newsreel footage and let him hang himself; any actor playing the role would've drawn cries of "Foul!" from legions of right-wingers.

The pic above is another moonlight shot, with the bird in the foreground. But if you look just to the left of the land point in the distance (and just to the left of the moon), you'll see a speck. If you can enlarge it it any way, it might look to you what it looks like to me--the dorsal fin of a large creature. I do believe it might have been our first whale sighting; the couple who had been staying below us said they did indeed see a few whales the week before.

Well, that's Slothrop's first foray into blogging. Hook 'em, eh?

You gotta do it every day????

2006-01-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

I think Linky created a monster. I've been informed by a seasoned blogger, who will not reveal the address of his blogs (as Moki said when she saw an old 35-year-old geezer putting gas in his hot red convertible, "What's the point????") that THIS IS NOT A TOY. IT'S A COMMITMENT. No kidding? I thought we only had to post when we went to Hawaii or something. I'm definitely taking Worldwideweber's advice and passing the baton to Slothrop, as soon as he learns how to log on. We got a comment from some guy named Webster Slaughter. I didn't know just anyone could access these things!

Tomorrow we get our soundproof windows for our bedroom. We live next door to the Loud Family. They have more creative ways of making noise than anyone we've ever encountered (the six dogs help quite a bit). They tore down their little house and built a McMansion that now virtually sits atop our bedroom. Jacqui and Brian can attest to the joys of being awakened at 6:30 a.m. to the sound of NPR on their huge outdoor speakers. We've really tried to be neighborly about it, but there's a mega sense of entitlement going on there. See, this is our interesting life on the mainland. Jim says he's still practicing aloha in his driving habits in Austin. I'm amazed he's still alive.

The biz sale is fast approaching (I HOPE). The buyer is a USC grad, so he's in CA this week, so maybe next week. I'll be singing freedom songs for a long time after that happens. Don't anybody ever go into a business partnership with someone you hardly know. (DUH!) I was lamenting about it one day and Lauren said, "It's like being in a bad marriage." I said, "It's worse. It's much harder to get out of than a bad marriage is." She replied, "It's like being in a bad marriage and Catholic!"

I wish someone with blogging knowledge would explain how to post pictures from the web (without getting into copyright trouble). OK. It's Slothrop's turn.

A few pix

2005-12-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

For anyone who hasn't seen them, here are a few more Hawaii pix. You have to look closely to see the turtle in the second from bottom.

Random ramblings from Hawaii

2005-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

Today is Day 18 of Doni's Cold from Hell. Pretty soon Ted Koppel will need to start announcing the days. It was very interesting being pitifully ill in Paradise. My journal entries are half about Maui and half about Poor Moi! I did learn that one can cough while snorkeling with no harm done.

Snippets from said journal:

Today, Jim's 55th b'day, we flew to Maui--long day, but we're here. We arrived at 4:15 and wanted to get to our condo to watch the sunset, so planned to go grocery shopping afterwards. Turns out the Good Fairies, aka Jacqui and Brian, had a basket full of goodies waiting for us, so no need for shopping until tomorrow. Our lanai is only about 40 feet from the ocean--a small lawn slopes down to the beach. And the lanai faces directly west, so we have a beautiful, front-row seat for the gorgeous sunset over the ocean. (I'll try to insert picture here). I see it posted at the top. Hmmm.

Dec. 15--Today was such a perfect day, and the weird thing about that is that I'm fairly ill with a bad cold (omitting whiney details here). I woke up at 5:30, wide awake, still on Austin time, and made coffee and came out on the lanai in the pitch dark. Above the ocean to the north was a bright full moon illuminating a brilliant swath in the water. I went in and told Jim I hated to wake him up but that I didn't want him to miss this. He got up and we both enjoyed the beauty as the moon set. At one point, we could see nothing at all outside the lighted swath, and suddenly an outrigger canoe entered the light (8 people paddling). Clearly they'd been out canoeing in the dark predawn hours, but we only glimpsed them as they crossed through the moonlit strip of ocean before disappearing into darkness again. Wow! Worth the price of admission right there. (More whiney details). We walked the quarter mile to "Kam 1," one of the three Kamaole beaches nearby. I swam a bit and Jim did some snorkeling. Later, he snorkeled some more right outside our condo, where he had an up close and personal encounter with a sea turtle! (Wow, more whiney details! I guess writing about it helped me not despair).

Dec. 16--It's 7:49 p.m., so in 11 minutes, I'm technically 50 going by Austin time. I prefer going by Hawaii time, so I'm still 4 hours and 11 minutes away, but who's counting? We took the 30-minute boat trip out to Molokini Crater, where we snorkeled for a glorious hour, seeing dozens if not hundreds of varieties of fish, and beautiful corals, sea urchins, and anemones. Snorkeling is so peaceful, just the sound of your own breath and the miracle of all that undersea life. It occurred to me that no one could possibly see what I was witnessing and doubt there is a God. What can you say while snorkeling except "Thank you"? We left Molokini and went to "Turtle Arches," where we saw 6 different Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles. They swim like angels, moving their flippers slowly and gracefully. It was a rare privilege to see them. We also saw two dolphins while on the boat, a spinner dolphin and a spotted dolphin. The second actually flipped onto his back, revealing his pink belly, and forcefully whacked his tail on the water. The captain said the dolphin wanted to communicate with us and told us to make noise. We beat on the side of the boat, and the dolphin whacked his tail up and down about 4 more times. Even the captain was impressed! Tonight I am (despite being ill, an interesting twist to this whole thing) filled with gratitude, joy, and hope--ready to be 50.

Dec. 17--I'm 50 all right (whiney sickness details). Jim ran out to the store to get a few things this morning, and as soon as he left, Tess called to wish me happy birthday. My voice was barely there. I felt so bad because I sounded very much worse than I felt! Jim gave me a lovely card, and I basically spent the morning lying in bed reading my stupid novel (mindless pulp I found in the condo, but that's all I was up for. Katharine Graham's memoir was just too heavy for my sniffling, moaning self). . . . This afternoon I took a helicopter tour all around Maui. It was a beautiful trip, and we will have a DVD of it in a couple of weeks. I loved soaring 10,000 feet above Haleakala Crater. Jim stayed aground, and I have to admit he probably would not have enjoyed it at all. As Oprah said after hiking the Grand Canyon, "You know, those postcards are really good." I think Jim will feel the same about the DVD. As our helicopter took off, the theme from Hawaii 5-0 was playing in our headsets. How did they know???

Dec. 20--Today we went on the Pacific Whale Watch Foundation whale-watching tour (2 hours) and were fortunate enough to see 7 whales. Four of them were involved in a competitive situation in which three males were trying to outdo each other to win the female. We watched them for well over an hour. They surfaced probably every five minutes for 2-3 minutes at a time. The crew said this was the kind of cruise they hope for in Feb., which is peak whale season. . . . Tonight we've been listening to the three CDs of Hawaiian music Jim bought. The one by Iz is delightful. We watched our final, beautiful Maui sunset and certainly hope for the opportunity to be back here one day. Oh yeah, on the whale tour, they put a hydrophone down into the water and we could hear the three male whales singing. We learned that each year, the song changes, including its length, number of phrases, and different themes. This year's song lasts 13 minutes; last year's was 17 minutes long--and the song is the same for all humpbacks, wherever they are found throughout the world. Now that's a miracle. In fact, being on this planet is a miracle; it's easy to remember that in Hawaii.

Last details:

Jim and I bought new luggage and we packed a HUGE joint suitcase ("Cool, only 1 bag!). But, duh! It was over the weight limit so we had to pay extra. What will we ever do with that thing once we get home???

"Aloha" means "hello," "goodbye," "love," and "compassion." I saw a bumper sticker in Austin a few weeks ago that said "Live Aloha." They do, here.

On Sunday afternoon when the waves were so fierce, several outriggers took off from the beach beside our condo. They all capsized fairly quickly, and it took some time for the rowers to get the boats back to shore. I was kind of afraid for them. Numerous spectators amassed on the shore. But they finally all battled back to the beach, and then a helicopter came and hovered for probably 10 minutes. I thought maybe it was Coast Guard and was looking through my binoculars at it when I saw that thousands of "things" were being thrown from the helicopter. In the binoculars, they looked like bits of paper. The returned rowers began cheering and waving, and the "drop" continued for probably 5 minutes. What they were dropping was thousands of beautiful orchids--the magenta and white ones used to make leis. Very cool, but what was it all about?

Today on the whale tour, the naturalist asked what we thought the male whales were singing about. I said "sex," and Jim said "love." When I rolled my eyes, Jim said, "I think it's a very sweet song of love." I said, "Come on! Three guys are competing for one woman. The naturalist herself surmised they're singing the whale version of Barry White." Jim: "No, they're all singing the same song. It's a love song." Me: "But it's about who sings it the sexiest. Didn't you hear Kate [naturalist] say the males swallow tons of ocean water (later spitting it out) just to make themselves look big and buff--their whole bodies and heads looking bigger than they are? These guys are saying, 'Look at me, Babe.' The woman whale wants "Ahhhnold" so she can have big, strapping, strong calves (babies, not legs). She doesn't want some New Age Sensitive Whale who will be sweet when she asks 'Do I look bloated? Do I look like a fat human tourist?'"

Headline on front page of Maui News: "Maui leads state, perhaps nation, in seat belt use." Besides the fact that this is the day's top news story, it is funny that this is probably the one place in the nation where seat belt use is least needed. People drive slowly, let people merge, smile, and signal as if to say, "After you, friend." The article quoted a Maui cop saying that mainlanders east of the Mississippi aren't used to laws requiring seat belt use, so they are surprised when pulled over. I guess so. I imagine a driver thinking, "I don't use a seat belt in Manhattan, and it's ok, but I have to buckle up here where people drive 30 mph and signal to each other to please go ahead, they're in no hurry." I love this place.

Testing, Testing

2005-12-29T14:25:00.000-08:00

Lauren is showing me how to post pictures. This whole thing is pretty darned hard. Obviously, she also showed me how to do italics, change colors, center text. Watch, I'll un-center it.

Ta da! The fishies in this picture were in Molokini Crater, where 90-plus species that are ONLY No--make that ONLY, endemic to that location are found. We snorkeled there for about an hour. Most of our snorkeling pictures featured other people's butts because there were quite a few of us out there. Or, maybe Jim was just chasing butt shots, I don't know. OK, today's lesson is finished, I think. Austin is having its first ever First Night on New Year's Eve, been in the works for 10 years. Lauren is playing with the Djembabes in a major venue. She thinks we're fogies for staying home, but who wants to go out on New Year's Eve? Lauren insists I reveal that their performance is at 7:30 p.m. Shooo-eee.

Hello, Hello . . . Is this on???

2005-12-28T14:17:00.000-08:00

Well, thanks Linky for creating this, but why on earth would anyone want to read our blog. Isn't even having one a little "precious"?
I did keep a journal during our HI adventure that I thought I'd e-mail to people I thought would be interested, but maybe we can figure out how to do it here, and even add pix, and then let those who are interested WORK for it by figuring out how to log on to this site.
Hi, Tim and Lauren (probably the only two who will ever venture onto this blog thing).

Doni and Jim on The Web!

2005-12-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my parents' very first blog. Sniff sniff...I'm so proud. Stay tuned for posts from TX and pictures from their adventures. They'll be changing their password pronto, so this is the last time you'll be hearing from me. ;)

Blog Fairy