because I am just a little too quirky

this was my Sunday morning too. "Serious" by Richard Hawley

Wild Eyed and Foot Loose

I think I have mentioned I am just a little neurotic about taking pictures of me. So here are more. I got ready for a night out with the girls. I had a new outfit and a new bra. I felt pretty damned snazzy. Too bad I go out with the prettiest girls in Livingston and am chopped liver next to them. I like the lighting which looks industrial and the poses which look boudoir. Classy juxtaposition. See my zippy red hair?

Seriously Good Advice.

Livingston MT. Where it just doesn't go unnoticed.

In a Pickle

We are collecting the ingredients for the pickling party! We are using the method below but upping the salt to 1 cup. Can pickles be too salty? This is the Grandma Tiny recipe we used last year and they were delicious! Remember last year?


#41 "Sabra" DILL PICKLES Wash 4-5 in. slim thin kirby cucumbers (about 50). Slice in half lengthwise.Sterilize pint jars and lids.Prepare BRINE: Boil 2 qts. water, 1 qt. vinegar, 3/4c salt. Bring to boil and keep hot.Pack jars with halved cucumbers along with one dill blossom and one large clove garlic per jar. Keep brine hot!Fill each jar with brine (tilt/rotate to remove air) to 1/4in. Seal. Invert 5min. Stand away from drafts. [Do not process.] Makes 12 pints.

update on me

I got a new job at the company. In the IS department. I am really excited. I will be a system analyst and work 4 tens. Wish me luck! It will be a big change.

Also I got most of my hair chopped off. I donated 10 inches to Locks of Love. So I officially announce the return of WHO HAIR!

For all the fallen Mamas!

Past and present I want to thank my Mamas. I honor the lineage of hard working hard playing women that brought me and mine into the world. I have always loved the heritage of women's work like canning and cooking and knitting. I think the world would be a better place if we all honored our ancestors and honored our descendants with good stewardship of the earth. Mamas like a clean house for our children and a clean world too.

Little Stalker by Jennifer Belle: Review

I finished Jennifer Belle's Little Stalker and I have a toddler-- I think that is quite an endorsement in itself. I will be reading High Maintenance soon. When I was in high school I love Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen this has a similar feel - except put broken mirrors all over it and make it absolutely heartbreakingly hilarious then you will get Little Stalker.


We meet Rebekah Kettle in her 33rd year of life in which she explores her interior and her exterior world. She is a successful first time novelist, but she is procrastinating writing the follow-up novel. Rebekah becomes obsessed with many things in her 33rd year including her time line. The time line already includes a trip to Disney world where she looses her virginity, a trip to the doctor for an abortion, many counseling sessions, failed relationships with self absorbed men, and her parents divorcing. She decides it is important to improve her time line. The character of Rebekah is juxtaposed to her favorite writer and director Arthur Weeman. He inspires intense admiration from Rebekah which increases as she feels her world shift. She collects objects from his movie sets for her undecorated flat including a gondola as well as used tissues. She watches his movie and cries at the perfection of the writing. After she meets an eccentric old lady that has an apartment with a great view into the great author Mr. Weeman's kitchen R. starts writing him letters as if she is a 13 year old girl. Mr. Weeman has a preference for very young girls. The book explores the dynamic between the Humbert Humbert type characters and the Lolitas in the world. I felt very uncomfortable watching her probe and entice a perv into action. I was a voyeur right along with R.K. and I could not look away. Through the book I never stopped caring for Rebekah even though her actions made me intensely uncomfortable. Jennifer Belle takes the reader through taboo subjects to come out in the end feeling that we are all human and in our voyeuristic society a little H.H. probably resides in most of us just like we have some Lolita in our psyche.

Political Center

I found this over at Jamie's blog. She lives in Livingston (where I get to spend most my days) and blogs about her beautiful family and adventures therein. I took this political quiz. I scored pretty low which I think means that it is a Right biased test. I scored a 17 out of 40 just about dead center. I fall between Bill Clinton and Colin Powell. I am a conservative democrat. Meaning I wish we could all get stuff done and stop bickering about partisan bullshit. Even though I am curbing my swearing I cannot bring myself to put a star where the i goes in shit. I may mellow politically and as an ass kicking strident feminist, but I am not sure my love of cussing will go away. I will just secretly say them in my head.

Revisiting the Book Shoppe!

I want to draw your attention to a little crazy coincidence which happened here. I commented upon my unlikely acquisition of a few good books. Jennifer Belle's Little Stalker among them and it is a coincidence maker. Ms. Belle has commented on my entry about her Little Stalker see my entry Used Book Shoppe to read it. He comments got me thinking so, if you are ready for goose pimples here are some strange and coincidental items:

• I bought the book for $0.25 and the main character of the book gets mad when a person buys to book for a quarter. Luckily the author did not let on she was offended that I bought this book for two bits.
• My online pseudonym is bellemanda and the author's last name is Belle
• The fact that my lovable old blog was noticed by a New York author

I am reading the book and I will keep you posted. I also wanted to share a little in this post that is not all superstition and supposition. Jennifer Belle is a beauty. I won't linger on this because I have a feeling she is a bad ass feminist who likes to be recognized for her pen not her hair (which is beautiful but if you read this blog you know I love gypsies). She wrote Animal Stackers which I will pay more than a quarter for because it looks really charming and educational.

Aside from my uncharacteristic gushing I recommend this link: the ABC game. It is close to the English alphabet but not quite exactly. This is a visually pleasing game made in Denmark and it is not Jennifer Belle related but when I saw the cover of Animal Stackers I was reminded of it and I have been wanting to share it for a long time.

shhh, it is a rare sighting

My little man can grow up to be anything. I hope it isn't a cat burglar, but he looks the part here! We had a day of hardcore whining and these were the first semi-smiles all day. Thank goodness for Infant Tylenol! We found 2 pair of good shoes today at Target. 13$ a pair. ACK. They were the ONLY boys Size four. Everything else that size was very girly! Perhaps some gender neutrality would be nice. A pair of brown shoes can be worn by girls or boys. Why does everything have to have eyelets or pink flowers? Considering that women and girls can wear men's clothing and not vica versa I would hope for shelf space they would stock some in-betweens. (which I understand as a statment that it is okay to be male and not female in the feminist dialogue.) I don't think even if I lived in Portland again that I would put pink flowery shit on a boy. There were THREE ailse of girls shoes. I am not looking to make my son super macho, however I am not willing to use him as a social experiment which may force feminintiy by default. I want him to have the right to choose later in life after I get to dress him up as a preppy fashion plate for a few more years. I don't know the answers I am just trying to do right by him and I know that trucks, I mean big trucks, take his breath away.