7 quick takes friday (vol. 16)

Early again with my Friday “Quick Takes” because if I don’t post now, I’ll be too bleary-eyed after working later. Plus, it takes a while to download photos and I’ve got quite a few this time.

–1–

‘I DIDN’T DO IT,’ he was saying, just as I rounded the corner to find him with the menacing liquid in hand and the tell-tale stain with streaks on the whitish carpet (it’s bigger than it looks here, and never mind the popcorn kernels and tiny paw sticker).

Amazing how those little ones can be caught red, er, uh, pink-handed and still point-blank lie to their mother’s face! I suppose the ghost did it, huh? Or the gnome or…yeah.

And yet, could these eyes lie? I mean, c’mon!

–2–

‘OOPS!’ CLEANING SOLVENT TO THE RESCUE! I was about to give up hope that the stain would come out when I remembered the cleaning solvent in our cupboard — that horrid-smelling stuff (though it claims otherwise) I keep in the back of the cleaning-product cupboard. Right there on the outside label, my hopes were instantly restored.

Stain-removal progress update: So far, I think it’s actually making it worse. Guess it takes out nail-polish remover, just not on carpets. Too bad we don’t have a budget for new carpeting right now. I think the stain will join its place alongside the Sharpie marks on our furniture, the wallpaper that’s been torn from the laundry-room wall, and the boogers on another wall next to the toddler bed. Ah, the glamour of it all!

–3–

I’VE GOT SOME REALLY GREAT NEWS TO SHARE… But I can’t just yet. I know. Not fair. But I’ve been sworn to secrecy. I just had to say this much because I’m bursting with the knowledge of it. All in good time!

–4–

HELP, THE MEN ARE TAKING OVER! I’m officially going to be drowning in testosterone this week. The female quota around here has decreased significantly in the last couple hours as our daughters have exited to have their turn with their Salonen grandparents. They’ll now have a chance to soak up life in a lake town, as two of their brothers did a few weeks back, and offer their grandmother a little feminine flair for a while (they are the only granddaughters on that side of the family, so it’s a treat for her). Thankfully, she’s great about sending updates and photo collages, so I’m sure I’ll be duly informed about their adventures.

–5–

AN EDIFYING EXCERPT: I am really enjoying my latest library find, the creative memoir, Floor Sample, by Julia Cameron of The Artist’s Way fame. I’ve been a fan of Cameron’s for a number of years now, but obviously knew very little about her personal life; such as the fact that she struggled for years with alcoholism and drug addiction, and was once married to Martin Scorsese (first marriage for them both).

I came across a section today that caused a second glance. It’s one in which she’s describing the moment she reached her dream of being offered an office on the coveted Paramount lot in Hollywood, only to realize the new digs were stunting her creative output (p. 94):

“With that, I handed over my office keys and with them a great deal of prestige and glamour. Am I crazy? I wondered. Until I had one, I always thought I would kill for an office on the lot.

“‘You’re a writer and writers write and it is the writing that makes you a writer,’ my sober mentors assured me. It wasn’t lunch in the commissary. It wasn’t my own parking space. It wasn’t even the office itself and my name on the door.

“‘Writing makes me a writer,’ I tried out the simple truth. I was relieved to be back home. I was delighted to be writing one more time with Domenica underfoot. Although I didn’t put it that way, I was betting on the idea that God ran the movie business after all. Maybe I didn’t need to hang out at the studio and play politics. Maybe I just needed to write. It was possible that God had made me both a writer and a mother and I didn’t need to choose between the two roles.”

–6–

SOUTHBOUND: The answer to last week’s post that hinted at an upcoming adventure (in September):

–7–

LILTING LILIES! Thought I’d leave you with an especially pleasing view — an up-close “garden tour” of sorts straight from my back yard. I took these after the nail-polish incident (see #s 1 & 2). For a moment, anyway, they brought me back to a place of sanity. Amazing how many different varieties are out there.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

For more “quick takes,” visit Conversion Diary.