To continue with my frivolous things that I would love to own. The Smart Playhouse.
An incredible place for play and solitude that is not only super groovy looking but ecologically sound. Not for the budget conscious, it is about 85 million euros, which I am not sure what that works out into dollars. Once I, I mean, Mimi outgrows it, Terry can use it as a tool shed.
In all of the isolation of flu, my time has escaped me.
A lot had transpired over the weeks of JieJie being home. There were birthdays celebrated, loved ones lost , friends and family gathered and there was sister time.
Mimi and JieJie, spent a great deal of quality time together. There really is nothing like having a sister, who teaches you the fine ancient arts of pizza dough and feather bowling.
With yet another week off of school, I have done the best I could to keep her comfortable, rested, hydrated and somewhat entertained.
Yesterday was really the first day she felt like climbing out of bed, so we decided to plant our vegetable garden seeds.
With Jiej being home in mid May, we decided to expand our vegetable garden, knowing that she will help with the sowing and the reaping and the using of delicious vegetables.
Mimi and I planted our tiny seeds with the anticipation that someday, we will have a bounty of fresh produce.
We also made springtime paper lanterns for the sun porch. After those two endeavors Mimi was back in bed and off to sleep.
I guess I am very late in posting my respects for Ms. Taylor. I noticed all of my fellow bloggers were on the ball in paying homage.
I was too distraught yesterday.
My beautiful Spring weather had turned to freezing rain, it was so dreary and of course the magnificent Ms. Taylor passed away.
My sisters and I were raised on old Hollywood and I in turn have my giant library of film that I have immersed my children with.
Just the day before last, my mother, sat at the dining table sipping her tea and eating her morning toast. " I don't think Elizabeth will be with us much longer", she said. I gasped, mainly because my mother has made these statements before and within 24 hours, the poor soul was gone.
I remember when she killed Lucille Ball, Elvis and Ernie Harwell.
I asked why she thought Elizabeth was about to go. She said,"No one is in the hospital for a month with heart problems like hers".
Twelve hours later, the Great Elizabeth was dead. As I said earlier, my sisters and I attended the school of Liz. We can recite the husbands, the affairs, the feuds, the illness,the fattiness, the skinniness,the drugs, the alcohol, the rehab, the kids, the jewelry , the friendships and of course the films.
I think one of the first films I remember seeing starring Elizabeth was" National Velvet." Little Ms Taylor was so beautiful. An early casting director had compared her to a "sport" on an orchid plant. A genetic combination of qualities that separates a single bloom from the others on the stem.
She was not only a beautiful little girl, but she had such an authenticity in her performances.
I am also enclosing a brief scene from "Jane Eyre", she had a small part, but it kind of traumatized me as a kid, very sad. Mom always said that her young movie going days were spent being traumatized. In turn, she would have us watch Prize Movie with Rita Bell and "At the Movies with Bill Kennedy" "Lassie Come Home" with Liz and Roddy McDowell, and "Little Women" with June Alyson and Margaret Obrien, were viewed with ongoing wailing and sadness. Those were the days.
So now it is time for me to bring out my Liz DVD's, starting from "National Velvet" to "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof." My sisters and I may even watch some old reruns of General Hospital for kitsch times sake.
If anyone comes to call at the house, they must be prepared to watch "Butterfield 8"(super kitschy) .We shall raise a glass to a great dame and her full life. We will also wallow in the sadness of the end of Silver Screen royalty.
Hooray, You know Spring is here when it is time for the Annual Peep Show courtesy of the Washington Post.
This a a diorama building competition where the main focus is Peeps. You know the Peeps that adorn convenience store shelves and Easter baskets at this time of year.
Mimi and I delight in seeing the entries and choosing our favorites. The subjects can be historical, newsworthy and highlights of pop culture.
Here are a some of Mimi's favorites from years past. The 2011 entries are being submitted now, what are the chances that Charlie Sheen will be immortalized as a peep?
The other evening I was talking to Jiejie on the phone. We were discussing the close to her University of Wisconsin experience and how she felt about education.
I also have Mimi, who is six, and absolutely hates school. A black pall hangs over our home during the school week. Mimi had midwinter break, and then she was kept home for a school week with the virus.
Mimi went back to school yesterday threw up at the end of the day,and was back at home today, back to low fever and junk.
Despite all of her high fevers and malady, she has been the happiest I have seen her since she started first grade.
Her teacher sent home a folder of the weeks work for her to complete at her own pace, and she completed it happily, in two days, including a diorama of the sea. Mimi is a cricket on the hearth. I have heard of the film http://">"Race To Nowhere" and I have read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother "my path as a parent becomes curiouser and curiouser
