Amaryllis sillyramA

Lately I’ve been reading through the seemingly endless archives of Sarah Bunting’s advice column, The Vine, and I’m enjoying it very much. I heart Sars. Apparently, though, this new pastime is having a, hmm, shall we say, a reducing effect on my writing and posting here. What with the giant time sink it’s turning out to be. And that just won’t do, now, will it? Seriously, though, if you have a lot of time on your hands, have a look at her stuff. It’s good stuff. And I love the head-shaving video. Ah, memories…

This is but one of the four bouquets of flowers that M. surprised me with the other day. Flowers all over the house!

Yay for flower surprises.

A while ago I was watching an old Simpsons episode in which we meet Homer’s mother. At one point she and Lisa have a bonding moment on the front stoop:

Grandma: I saw all your awards, Lisa. They’re mighty impressive.
Lisa: Aw, I just keep them out to bug Bart, heh.
Grandma: [reproachful] Don’t be bashful. When I was your age, kids made fun of me because I read at the ninth-grade level.
Lisa: Me too!
Homer: [walking on his hands] Hey, Mom! Look at me! Look at what I can do!
Grandma: I see you, Homer. That’s very nice.
[to Lisa] Although I hardly consider “A Separate Peace” the ninth-grade level.
Lisa: Shyeah, more like preschool.
Grandma: I hate John Knowles.
Lisa: Me too.
[they both laugh, then sigh]
Homer: Mom! You’re not looking!
Grandma: You know, Lisa, I feel like I have an instant rapport with you.
Lisa: [gasps] You didn’t dumb it down! You said “rapport”.

The funny thing is, I was partway through a re-reading of A Separate Peace at the time. I read it when I was a kid, I think because my friend Colleen said it was good. I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it that time. Then recently, I picked it up from the bargain table at the bookstore a few weeks — or maybe months — before that Simpsons aired. Finally, later, got around to re-reading it to see what I thought of it as a grownup, and to gauge my powers of recollection. And that’s when we watched that episode. Funny coincidence. Any case, it was a strange read. I kept expecting something horrible to happen. I remembered it as a book about a kid’s friend dying, but reading it I started to think I had it mixed up with some other book. I didn’t enjoy the read all that much. Who knows, though? I’m somewhat impressionable at times, and if Lisa Simpson didn’t like it, maybe my brain decided I couldn’t either. Hm.

By Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
(1749-1803)

She made wonderful paintings of people doing everyday things in their very best outfits. Giant hats and such. One of her paintings — not this one — was of a member of the monarchy who was particularly repellent to the artist’s revolutionary associates, and she was made to destroy it before it was finished. Luckily she herself survived the revolution.