We’re in the red zone right now, pollen count-wise, and it’s pure hell (according to the map Vermont is the place to be, stateside - otherwise Iceland would do nicely). The little man and I have been feeling both crappy and crabby, so we skipped yesterday’s Craftstravaganza and didn’t make it out to the roller derby either. So sad. But it hasn’t been all bad.

• Friday we ate pizza for dinner on Punch’s patio as Critical Mass rolled by.
• I’ve found myself liking Lily Allen.
• Hot Fuzz was hot! Absolutely LOVED it and can’t want to see it again. Some discussion afterwards brought up a BBC show called Green Wing that I need to check out.
• Saturday morning we made it to the Oak Street for Flights of Fancy. The animated shorts were delightful.
• The little man has been pausing after his anecdotes…then tacking “for real” on to the end of them. So cute.
• Even more fond of Roger Ebert after reading this: “we spend too much time hiding illness“
• Borrowed The Last Witchfinder from J. It was written by “scientific humanist” and all-around interesting author James Morrow. Alas, we are not related.
• Planning to check out This Mango is Now an iPod at the Soap Factory.
• “The Right Number is a projected three part online graphic novella about math, sex, obsession and phone numbers presented in an unusual zooming format.” See for yourself.
• Mark Jenkins is an American artist who creates sculptures and street installations using clear packing tape. Amazing stuff.
• This is a book title I would’ve come up with: I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the Kitchen with Your Favorite Bands. Maybe I should make a Minneapolis-specific edition.

Tomorrow it’s back to school for the little man (he just had all of last week off - wacky year-round schedule) and back to the vet for Olive, to be spayed and have a tooth removed. Then next weekend will be another doozy. Celebrating a grown-up friend’s birthday and a neighbor kid’s birthday. Naked Raygun at the Triple Rock. Cinco de Mayo in my ‘hood. Free First Saturday at the Walker. The Heart of the Beast May Day Parade, and more. And right now? I feel like I could sleep for a week. Hopefully I’ll be feeling better before then.

Feeling a little adrift. A response to too many daunting tasks and an inability to focus on any one of them. Instead my attention is splintered. Same old, same old I guess. Speaking of, how about some shiny sparkly things?

• Friday night I will finally get to see Hot Fuzz. Squeee! Until then I’ve been watching some behind-the-scenes tour diary footage. Also Simon Pegg-related, he’s going to be in a film called How To Lose Friends And Alienate People - co-starring Kirsten Dunst. Kiki is a very lucky girl (even if her boyfriend wears man-leggings).
• Last night I watched the latest episode of Heroes. I am so hooked on that show.
• Last night I also caught up with Mimi and was very glad I did, on so many levels. But especially as it led to the great Superman vs. Aquaman debate. Color me convinced!
• I posted this CSS-related photo and within minutes Eric Meyer had faved it. That made my nerdy-grrrl self giddy.
• Really getting into Grinderman. Don’t know if they’ll tour anywhere near here, but I’d love to see Nick Cave again. He’s quite the showman.
• Prepare yourself for the impending summer with this handy Summer ‘07 Movie Mayhem guide.

Now I’m off to see Ted Leo. Ta!

Way too much going on. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Interntational Film Festival kicked off the other night (see Al Milgrom’s filmfest picks). I plan to take the lad to see the animated shorts next weekend, and I’d like to see The Seagull Diner, but who knows if that’ll happen. We’ve seen two movies in the last week, but instead of high-falutin’ films we went a little low brow with TMNT and Meet the Robinsons, in 3-D! I enjoyed the latter much more than expected. The former? So bad it was good. But why oh why were the females lacking rib cages? There’s no way women with ten-inch waists could live, let alone support such generous bosoms. Yeah.

Now for the random:

• I love our little Olive, but when it comes to this mouse problem she’s almost as bad as this useless cat.
• What is it with me and books about vampires? The Historian is next on my list, thanks to Michael.
• I’m totally intrigued by Opus and his All New Year (via The Fabulist).
• I blame Radio K…for getting me on a Big Audio Dynamite kick. I can’t help it. I’ve always loved them.

This morning the little man crawled into my bed to cuddle, but he brought an earworm with him. He was sort of whisper-chanting something. I came to the groggy realization that it was We Will, We Will Rock You. That was a seriously strange way to start the day. Other items of note:

• An unreasonable man, Ralph Nader, is in town and will be speaking tonight at the Plymouth Congregational Church.
• The St. Paul Art Crawl is on again this weekend.
• Another Twin Cities Flickr Photowalk is slated for Saturday.
• Also Saturday, more Brother and Sister video filming shenanigans. This time in my old hometown. But do I have WBL pride? Eh, not so much.
• Why can’t Wheat Free Chaos be vegan? I totally want to try it. Oh well. I guess I have enough chaos in my life.
• Hot Fuzz opens Friday! I’ve been looking forward to this for far too long.
• I’m in need of volunteers…to go see TMNT with the little man and I. Step up! But this weekend is looking pretty packed, so I’m thinking a weeknight next week.
• Sunday is Earth Day and there’s this interesting looking Wishes for the Sky thingie happening practically in our backyard. The little man and I will be walking down for that.

Don’t worry, I won’t let the blog wither and die. It was merely…napping. I blame twitter, and my perpetual busy-ness. Been pre-occupied with:

1. The little man’s return from The Magic Kingdom;
2. Getting our new cat, Olive, settled in;
3. Trying to get the mice out;
4. Signing papers at the tax lady’s office;
5. Wrapping up the Spring cleaning/Great Purge of ‘07;
6. Seething about the jerks in my neighborhood who started dumping their own trash into my rented dumpsters (I’ll be charged an extra $25 for a TV that’s not mine). Thankfully they’ll be hauled away tomorrow. The dumpsters, not the neighbors. Alas.

Amid all the chaos of the week, I made time for one magical evening. The opening night of Edward Scissorhands, where rrazor, surlygrrrl and myself were allowed to snap off photos, sans flash, during the first thirty minutes of the performance. It was beautiful. The sets, the costumes, the dancers, the music. Absolutely perfect.

Friday night I went out for a different sort of evening, one where I crammed in too much activity, and pushed myself to the very edge of exhaustion. Kicked it off with Irish Girl at a Spring Social at, of all places, my eye doctor’s office. Then it was off to Namaste for dinner (yum) and to finally see Pan’s Labyrinth, which I have mixed feelings about. There were aspects I enjoyed but I have always had a phobia of dangerously sharp implements, so maybe it isn’t the film for me. I then forged ahead to Big V’s for Nils and Dave’s 30th Birthday Extravaganza. I missed the first two bands, but arrived in time for Tornavalanche, a brief Rollins Band tribute, Total Fucking Blood and Vampire Hands. All were excellent. And then, when I should have been heading home to crawl into bed, I went to one of the after parties. Needless to say, I was pretty spent yesterday. But I still managed to get the little man to his swimming lesson, and out to a leisurely dinner at Midori’s.

Today? Keywords include gym, Caffetto, chess, playground and laundry.

Bonus: The incomparable Empress Eve is now involved in a new venture. I bring you (or she does, rather) Geeks of Doom.
Plus: Some distractions I’ve been saving up…

• Wreck & Salvage
• Ming & Ping
• Beautiful Agony (Not Really SFW)
• UFOs at the Zoo
• Will Ferrell in The Landlord

And: A few folks have sent me this article about the link between austism and testosterone.

The little man returns tonight. I’m excited, but these last days went by far more quickly than I thought they would…even though I haven’t been having the most relaxing vacation. But that’s not what I signed up for. I knew this would be my time to bust ass trying to get the house in shape. And it’s getting there. There’s a ton more to do but visible progress has been made. Folks in the neighborhood have quickly snatched up everything I set out on the boulevard with a “FREE” sign. A beat up old ladder, two little chairs, a toddler bed, a couple of the little man’s old car seats, a pair of giant broken speakers, a crappy vacuum cleaner. Saves me another trip to Goodwill (already dumped a carload of stuff there) and it saves space in the dumpsters. Speaking of which, they were nearly full until some strange folks stopped by yesterday for some special Easter Sunday dumpster diving. They pulled their truck into the neighbor’s driveway and filled the bed with completely useless crap. A broken microwave, an ancient crib (that was here when I moved in), an old computer tower and more. Very weird, but I kinda hope they come back for more.

I’ve also managed to squeeze in two birthday parties, two movies, been treated to four restaurant meals, and seen two shows (in the same night). Not too shabby.

But in the midst of all this busy-ness and chaos, what did I go and do? Why, take in a stray cat of course! Taking her in for an exam this afternoon. Meet Olive. She is a total sweetheart.

Bonus: The Blonde Redhead video for 23 is beautiful.
Plus: Apple design isn’t always all that. I knew my powerbook adapter was dying. But yesterday the damned thing burst into flames. Thankfully I was in the room at the time. My bedding was singed and the room reeked of burning plastic. The funny thing, I bought a spare one for the office, a generic for half the price, and it is way more solid. Still, I’m going to take my scary firestarting one to the Apple store to see if they’ll do anything about it. Sheesh.
And: Yesterday marked the 7th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel race down Lombard Street in SF. Some photos here.

Who knew cleaning house could be such an emotional rollercoaster. The dumpsters I ordered arrived this afternoon, but in the morning I began The Great Purge of ‘07 by attacking the buffet. For years now I’ve just been cramming papers and art projects and whatnot into the drawers, willy-nilly. They were full to bursting. So with great determination I started pulling everything out, to sort like so:

• Junk to be thrown in the trash.
• Junk to be given away.
• Papers to be recycled.
• Papers that should be shredded (J has a shredder now, so I have to haul that all over there).
• The best examples of the little man’s artwork, to be stored more neatly in a rubbermaid bin.

Some of it was easy to blow through but I’m such a sentimental sap. I felt the need to too closely inspect particular artifacts. The worst? Coming across sympathy cards, from the pregnancies we lost. Finding each one and pausing to process it slowed me down the most. But I am not keeping those (no need of a repeat a year or two down the line). Then there were all the random letters and postcards from friends in faraway places. I used to hang on to all of those, but look where that’s gotten me. I don’t want to end up a crazy cat lady living in a garbage house. So I re-read some before gingerly placing them in the recycling bin. Which I have to get out of the house before I change my mind.

Bonus: The great purge is not a one woman job. Soon I’m going to break for dinner and a movie with J (likely The Namesake, though he’s lobbying heavily for Blades of Glory). Then I’m going to rope him into helping me. A lot of this detritus is his anyhow. Like the multiple computer towers and monitors languishing in the basement.
Plus: I’m glad Pop Astronaut is back.
And: Missing the kid already.

Who wants to see the Edward Scissorhands ballet at the Ordway? I do, I do! And I get to go opening night, thanks to Julie Giles. But if you want to attend as well you have a couple of options. One, be my partner in crime for the evening (sadly Zophia has finals to contend with, and Iseult lives too far away). I’ll be taking photos like this fine fellow did in St. Louis. Or two, get in on this deal:

ORDWAY CENTER PROMO DETAILS
Get 25% off tickets for “Edward Scissorhands” at the Ordway Center.
Three shows only! Tuesday, April 10 through Thursday, April 12 at 8 PM. Visit the Ordway Center Box Office or phone 651-224-4222 with the promotional code TOPIARY to receive your discount. Click here for show details.

Based on the motion picture classic by Tim Burton. Devised/directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne (”Swan Lake”, “Mary Poppins”)

I love all things Tim Burton. Also cool, the music is adapted from Danny Elfman’s original score. Speaking of…I plan to take the little man to another piece of work scored by Mr. Elfman, Meet the Robinsons. It’s not Pixar but it’s garnering decent reviews.

:

Bonus: Guilty pleasure time. I’m hooked on the Charlaine Harris series about a telepathic waitress who dates vampires. Just picked up the third installment, Club Dead, and I’m having trouble putting it down.
Plus: I’m officially on the Amy Winehouse bandwagon. But I also want more Grinderman (mmmm, Nick Cave). Thankfully the full length will be released on Tuesday.
And: I could go out and see STNNNG tonight at the Turf, but I have a helluvalot of work to do while the little man is gone. I don’t want to start things off in sleep-deprived zombie mode. Tomorrow morning I’m hoping to sleep in, just a little, and maybe kick back to watch the What About Bob episode before I roll up my sleeves and get started for the day.

I’ve given up coffee before. For years at a time even. But now? Now is definitely not the time. I’ve reduced my intake significantly, which has helped me sleep a little better at night. But Sunday I inadvertently went cold turkey, and that turned out to be a supremely bad idea. I was useless all day. And I’m still recovering. I can hardly string these words together. So here’s some random, umm, you know, stuff:

• Saturday night I went to the 7th Street Entry with friends, to see the incomparable crooner Sondre Lerche. Another charming Norwegian, by the name of Thomas Dybdahl, was the first act. He noted a woman up front wearing a “Kiss Me, I’m Norwegian!” t-shirt, but managed to mention it without mocking her.
• Middle West, Meet Middle East - an article about my old peeps at Mizna.
• Folly Day looks like such fun.
• Intrigued by Barrett’s idea…of reading one book, published in chronological order, from the year he was born up to the present year.
• I’m all a-twitter. This is probably the last thing I need.
• I want to see Urban Explorers: Into the Darkness movie, but personally? I’m way too claustrophobic to engage in any urban spelunking expeditions.
• So sad that I’ve finished watching all 26 of the Samurai Champloo episodes. And as Maria laments, there isn’t another episode of Heroes until April 23rd. What’s a girl to do?
• I drive by one of these R2-D2 mailboxes every day.