Getting the travel bug...

I can feel it in my bones, the longing to travel someplace different, someplace new, someplace not here.

Might be the time of year, the serious rut I'm in at work, or maybe just the day... but I really feel the need to get out of here!

One way I know I'm in serious travel/fun deficit: My work trip to Charlotte scheduled for later this week was just postponed, and I feel a little disappointed! Normally, I would have gladly taken the extra time back on my calendar, and enjoyed the fact that I get to spend more time with my family.

Instead, I reacted with more than a little sadness that I'm not getting on a plane on Thursday evening...

A good sign that I need to book a vacation soon.

Lunching with Lila is Divine

Lila took us to lunch today
She doesn't get out much anyway

Over four score this lady has seen
and some moments she's just like my teen!

She tells us, and those nearby,
she has wishes for when she does die

"Don't put me out for reviewal
I find that quite abysmal

Don't see me when I'm dead
Remember me smiling instead"

"That spot next to Don should be vacant,
Though you should check, it might be taken."

"I'm not sure, but you might as well cremate me,
Who gives a damn, it's not something I'll see"

You see, Lila is a precious soul,
To heaven, it's not her goal

Just repect and great care
and all of us there

Are what she requires
as she sets to expire.

So one day, (I hope it's not soon)
I'll just see her smile as I gaze at the moon

Spring Break, not at the beach

I know that my reality has completely shifted when instead of booking a vacation in a warm clime for spring break, I find myself looking forward to cleaning closets, catching up on chores, and letting my teenage boys spend all day playing Rockband and posting youtube videos to their hearts content.

Call it hunkering down, or slowing down to smell the roses, or just simply knocking things off my to do list, this has been to date, a very stress free vacation! While I love traveling with my children and husband, it seems that this has been the best choice we could have made. Waking each day to a (more or less) emplty slate, deciding how to be productive, or simply waste the day away watching movies or playing wordtwist on Facebook until my eyes cross!

I guess this is a sign that I am living in a high stress reality at work. No suprise, working for one of those evil TARP recipient companies. I never thought I'd live "in fear of the pitchfork", but each day I seem to apologize more and more for working for this company.

So, while we are not at the beach, I am enjoying the lovely 10,000 thread count sheets on my own bed, actually using the whirlpool tub, reading, napping and cooking a fabulous breakfast each day for my kids... It's like a B&B without ever leaving home! And aside from the fact that there's no maid service, I'm thankful to have a home, and that it is a home that I enjoy spending time in. I'm also thankful I don't have to figure out how to dry out the swimsuits overnight, and get rid of the sand on the bathroom floor!

We mourn the passing of Mama D, and continue her tradition of showing love through food.

Last Tuesday Mama D, a local restaurant legend, died. In the 70’s she was famous in the local and national food scene because of her personality and her generosity. Every year on St. Joeseph’s Day, she opened her restaurants in town to the needy and hungry, so they could enjoy a free meal. One of her restaurants was located in Dinkytown, adjacent to the University of MN campus. While I never attended on St Joseph’s day, I did go there occasionally while in school to enjoy some home made Italian food. If Mama D was there, you could feel the love throughout the room.

I have no ambitions of opening a restaurant, but I am drawn to expressing my affection and admiration for those I care about through food. If someone calls and says they are feeling down, I invite them for dinner. If I come across a friend who was just promoted, I offer a celebratory meal. The first time Scott and I spent any time together at his house, we had a competition over who could make the best omelet for the other! We extended that competition to a close group of friends in the great “alfredo-off” of 1998!

My 14 year old boys are regular players in the kitchen, it’s amazing what they are interested in doing if you just invite them in. My 23 year old stepdaughter spends many of her limited hours in MN in this kitchen, experimenting. My husband is a master in his own right. In fact, when we remodeled the house a few years ago, the first thing we focused on was the kitchen, everything else was secondary to it. My few vices are centered around food and the preparation of it – from gardening to spending way too much money on a toaster and tea kettle!

Holidays and vacation days are spent with my feet firmly planted in the kitchen, and I couldn’t be happier when I’m in that zone. It’s not a chore for me, rather a joy to share something of my own creation with those I care about. While I don’t imagine myself as a Mama D, I hope to pass the legacy on to my children – to teach them the craft, so that they may one day pass it on to their families, and bring the joy of food to their dining room table.

It's here! It's here! It's finally here!

Happy Vernal Equinox Everyone! I can't believe it's finally here. This winter has certainly been the "winter of our discontent" at the Zenith Household... and on certain days, the promise of springtime has been the only thing pushing us through to the next day.



Springtime is my favorite time of year my whole life, and as I've gotten older, that connection has only gotten stronger. My earliest recollection of springtime addiction is being a little girl, maybe 4 or 5, searching the garden on the south side of the house for the first blooms of spring - usually around this time of March. Lovely blue scilla that would come up every year, no matter how well they were cared for the previuos year. When we finally sold the home after my mother died, and it had been vacant for about a year, the day that we closed was a day like today, and as we visited the house for the last time, I found the cheery little blue flowers, in the same place as they had alsways been. I imagine they still come up every spring, and hope the new children living there have the same experience.



Spring means shedding the tired mantle of the winter, readying ourselves for the sun to shine, and Mother nature to show herself anew. I have those little blue flowers in my gardne as well, and while this year the purple crocus beat them to the punch for first bloomers, I know they day that the scilla bloom will be the first real day of spring!

I admit it... I love Bluegrass music and it's Clint Eastwood's fault!

That's right, banjo pickin, fiddle strings, Mandolin strummin.... good ol' bluegrass music. It's toe tapping, jig inspiring, and I can barely keep my butt in the chair when I listen to it.

I like it the same way I like Jazz - improvisational, each musician building on each other's performance. I like how Bluegrass has multiple vocalists... melody, harmony and other complementary tones, working together as a team... each bringing their own special sauce to the party.

I like how it makes me feel - happy and optimistic.... while some have said it's an off shoot of country music (and I'm not talkin' bout Shania Twain type of country)... I find it much more upbeat and inspiring than the old country standbys. And it removes me from our current drag of a relaity - the work, the economy, the weather. It's always a warm summer evening when I hear bluegrass.

I also like cowboy music - yodeling and all.... I've even thought of taking yodeling lessons. I admire the agility of these vocalist's chords. I have little ability to carry a real tune, maybe yodeling provides some margin for error on the tone?

I blame my hippie parents for both of these attractions. After all, My mother did ride around on horseback in Northern California with Clint Eastwood as a college student. Playing cowboy tunes on her old Patrician guitar, singing by the campfire.

Clearly, she passed something along in the DNA she provided for me..... and I still think it's Cousin Clint's fault!

That Fuzzy Feeling

I feel fuzzy today.
Not in the warm, pink slipper way
But in the blurry, out of focus picture way
Fuzzy like a dust bunny you can’t quite reach

I’m told my antennae are high def compatible
But today I receive only in analog
What we called “the bug races” in our youth
Are playing on the screen of my mind

It’s not from the wine at the party last night
I’ve had my injection of caffeine today
The bright sun should burn the haze away
I’m searching under the sink for Windex made specifically for souls

Rather, my malaise is caused by an unseen source.
Always there, reminding me of betrayal
Of pain and anger
And destroying things both tangible and not.

The wounds have been slowly healing,
The scars on the surface are less startling these days.
You barely notice them, in fact
They have become just part of the landscape.

The reparation I seek lies deep,
Within an unreachable corner of my heart.
I need time for it to mend
Rather than a razorblade to scrape it away .

And so I may be fuzzy tomorrow and the next day
Eventually fading to an imperceptible buzz.
As the nerve endings find each other again
And finally connect so I can see clearly once more

Stewart Vs. Cramer: Reconciliation?

So, Rocket alerted me to the fact that Jim Cramer was going to be on the Daily Show last night.... and it was a good spot.... The vid is posted below... but I still agree with Stewart in that someone who is called not just a commentator, but a reporter, has the obligation to "Check his sources", instead of believing everything that he heard from the CEO's of the companies he was recommending. Now, this is not all that different than the Great Rating Agency Debacle of 2005-2008, but I still believe in the role of the fourth estate... that someone who has a show on a news channel has an obligation to dig deeper before making statements, especially recommendations...

If you are interested in a tangential idea about the current demise of journalism .. here's another Link to an interesting Bill Moyers article from last summer.

Here's the vid if you have a few minutes to spare:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Interview Outtake Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

One of my least favorite words: Pantyhose….

Ack, it gives me the shivers just typing it! I don’t know why, but it might have something to do with how I feel about wearing them…. When I do refer to them, I call them nylons, thank you very much!

I am attending a charitable function this evening (part of my day job). So, I have donned my suit (hosiery and all), paid more attention to my hair than usual, and brought my sparse makeup kit with me to work so that I may morph into a socially acceptable attendee of the event. Well, I could probably go without the makeup, but I’ll take one for the team on that item!

Just as I’ve asked myself the question about neckties, I ask myself on every occasion that I am required to wear them… what could the origin of stockings be? Fundamentally, I am an evolutionist, and so therefore, I believe that everything that has existed more than 10 or 20 years must have started with a purpose. Otherwise, an item (physical or otherwise) is simply a mutation, or in the case of clothes, a fad.

What functional purpose did leggings serve when they were first created? Warmth?

Does that purpose become immaterial at some point? Advancements in Central heating?

I’ve noted that men also wore tights or leggings, but not so much anymore? When were trousers officially invented? And what is the real story behind why women didn’t start wearing trousers until recent history?

Why have women maintained nylons as a vestigial garment? They seem to be like an appendix…. There, with no real purpose other than to be bothersome at some point. Maybe a reader of the male persuasion can help convince me otherwise, feel free!

So today, on a sub zero March day, I am having the hosiery version of appendicitis…. These obsolete vestments have got to go! (and they probably will as soon as I get into my car after the event this evening… so, if you happen to be in the parking garage at the Depot in Minneapolis, and you see a blonde in a dirty red Saab wiggling around in the front seat…it’s just nature winning the battle of form over function!

I love Jon Stewart...

and his writing team. As someone who has worked in the Financial Services Sector for my entire life, his humor has given me great comfort as I've watched it collapse in front of me... There are many anaolgies - a train wreck in slow motion, Rome burning, the Titanic sinking.

This segment clearly outlines the debacle... and has the added bonus of challenging a CNBC Analyst... the second vid is Part Deux to the battle...

A good watch if you have a few minutes to burn!

Part One:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

Part Deux:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Economic Crisis

A television-free weekend

Can you imagine? Three full days of no television. No CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, News, cooking shows, or anything. This is the second weekend that Scott and I have followed this practice.

The only media we have is music (usually real jazz) playing from the radio or CD player, (well, and the computer - but no moving pictures!).

We play cribbage tournaments that last for hours, sleep late, eat our meals at the table (or out). We drink, cook, talk and laugh. Scott plays his jazz guitar, I try to remember how to play piano.

But here's the catch - we also don't get any work done. No laundry, a few dishes, the usual weekend chores. No runs to Target, only grocery shopping that serves more as a culinary adventure than an errand.

It seems we can operate in two modes: Stress-free and stress-full. Isn't it interesting that the stress-full weekend involves television? What does that say about the role of media in our lives and culture. What was the movie where people would explode from watching ads? I swear it was BRazil, but I dont' think that's right.

Television is the set of manacles of modern culture... we use it, advertisers abuse us.... we are hooked, and we need an intervention.

What do you think?

I let the stone slip…Sisyphus meets Jenny

As I was easing the stone up the hill,
I let it slip.

I ran ahead,
and tried to stop it.

Alas, how could I,
It’s bigger than me.

No wonder I am injured,
Not fatally, but I ache.

It was folly to think I could stop it,
or attempt to control it.

The stone is not part of me,
It’s something else.

Something I love and cherish
Yet has a will of it’s own.

I must let it roll,
For I can not stop it.

My only choice
Is to watch it slow

And prepare
to ease it up the hill once more

In another’s footsteps… now and then

While at work today, I decided to buy my husband a present at the local Border’s Bookstore. Since it’s a reasonably warm day today (all of 38 degrees), I decided to walk. For those of you that know the building that I work in, it’s not a long walk, in fact hard to measure as it’s all commercial space between my desk and the store. I’d guess it’s about 2-4 residential blocks.

Being the basically lazy person that I am, I enjoy traveling the shortest distance between point A and point B – as close to a straight line as I can get. In this case, during the winter, that means that I invariably traverse a plowed snow bank as part of the journey. Otherwise, I would have to travel about twice the distance, and in all honestly, It’s not that warm, and, again, I am lazy.

As I approached the snow bank, I saw that other (fools) have made the same journey. I carefully placed my inappropriately shod feet in the pre-trodden footprints that were established. Clearly, the last fellow to make the trek had size 12-13 shoes, which made me think that the distance my short little legs (I’m 5’2”) would need to span would be too great, and I’d likely end up falling on my butt. I concentrated, and tried my best to balance, and made it without issue.

After successfully procuring the gift, I found myself in need of making the decision – A) go that way again and potentially fall on my face (or rear) in front of the office building, where my colleagues could enjoy the show from the comfort of their desks, or B) double the length of my journey and take the safe way around. Did I mention I am lazy? I chose Option A. Once again, I concentrated and made it through with only one small arm waving incident.

Here’s the point to the story: why do you only think about following someone else’s footsteps when there is physical evidence they were there? Aren’t you always repeating someone’s foot steps, whether it be on the sidewalk, in your yard, at the office, or out in the woods. Our history and land use patterns indicate that almost anywhere you go in a semi-urban area, you are assured that someone else has stepped there before, made the same journey. Perhaps thousands of times. Why don’t we think of those people the same way that I thought of the guy with size 12 shoes today? From your neighbor on the sidewalk, to the hippie at the garden, to the farmer at the well, to the pioneer staking his claim, to the moccasin-clad American Indian whose ancestor tred that piece of land. Aren’t they as important as the guy with the size 12 shoes, or the 5’2” blond chick that almost fell on her face?

Monte Carlo part two: It’s time for a haiku!

Once again, the Monte served us well last night. Divine drink, stellar service, fabulous friends, great gabbery in general. Alas, the other patrons may have thought our volume was excessive.... Oh well, what did they expect?



Here's the haiku:

Rounded edges, haze
Morning arrives too early
Strong friendship, always

A Sonnet: The Monte Carlo

A roughly hewn attempt at a Sonnet, honoring one of the best bars in the Twin Cities area. One that has seen me through thick and thin… I think it deserves the tribute.

The Monte Carlo
Shall I compare you to a comfy chair?
You are much more thrilling and exotic.
Many hours pass, with little to bear,
Yet, when I leave, I feel quite Quixotic.

Your aged copper bar, your wall of good drink,
Leaves me thinking of a bright friendly face.
When I find my life is just on the brink,
Your barstool surrounds me, forms an embrace.

But even better, when good times come ‘round,
Your bright flashing sign will welcome me too.
The crack of the ice is a lovely sound
I say to Mark, “Might as well, pour me two”

So while I am alive and feeling anew
I’ll visit you often and bring Scott too!

I broke my own rule...

About eating food bigger than my head! On Saturday, my husband and I made the quarterly pilgrimage to Isles Bun and Coffee for Cinnamon rolls and latte's for the family. These rolls weigh about a pound each, and, while one may not really be bigger than the size of my skull, it's close enough. The best part about this shop is that they have an extra tub of creamcheese frosting by the coffee supplies, so you can add all the extra that you want. I did not make it through the whole thing, but I gave it the old Robbinsdale Robin try! I'm eating the remnants of yesterday's roll as I type this post... I think I'll need to hose down the keyboard when I'm finished... no wonder they are called sticky buns!