THE DAY
My mother-in-law is here for the weekend, so I made sure to get cracking early today. Did just fine, and would’ve done more but there were other things to attend to (dinner, challah, cocktails: the bare necessities of life, you understand).
Say “mother-in-law” and you get all the jokes, right? Like the one about why a groom breaks a glass at a Jewish wedding? To get rid of evil spirits? Only he looks up and his mother-in-law is still there?
Those kind of jokes.
I happen to have a terrific mother-in-law. She and I haven’t ALWAYS gotten along great, but she’s a generous, sweet woman who desperately wanted to see where we lived now. We’ll do all the standard tourista things with her: the Rocket Center, the Art Museum, the mountain, the Botanical Gardens. If I could get the husband to take her on the Twickenham walk, I would, but he’s balking. You can’t have everything. She’ll enjoy it all, and if she doesn’t, she’s of a generation that knows manners ;-).
She also appreciates a good martini. Sometimes you just have to go with the basics on a Friday night.
One of the biggest dangers of hanging with my mother-in-law, though, is when we get started talking about art. She knows a lot about it, and although our tastes are quite disparate, she’s got a great eye. So I let her in on a secret. A while back, I bought a wall sculpture for the husband’s birthday (coming up in May) that’s still hanging out in Wisconsin for the time being. I like what I got: a lovely, very interesting piece by the artist, Ron Isaacs, called “Greetings.”
27” x 15 1/2” x 1 1/4”
It’s got the right amount of whimsy and yet traditional enough that I think the husband will go for it. If he doesn’t, too bad; it’s ours, and I like it.
But I didn’t get what I *really* loved by the same artist because I a) couldn’t afford it and b) was worried because we’ve never really done much sculptural art. So I kind of balked at coughing up the cash, even though the piece, “I Dreamed I Saw You,” is JUST fabulous and I have the PERFECT place for it.
37″ x 59″ x 4 1/2″
But I didn’t. Too expensive, and kind of a gamble. But I do love it, and of course, my mother-in-law was stunned that I hadn’t gone for it. OTOH, her sense of scale is a little different.
Still, it was fun to ooh and aah over art.
Oh, and yeah: I wrote. I gotta think of a title for this sucka, though.
WRITING OUT LOUD
UNTITLED HORROR/SF BOOK
(Previously had 1500 in outline)
Day 1: 2400 (outline) Day 11: 500
Day 2: 2400 (outline) Day 12: 1600
Day 3: 2000 (outline) Day 13: 1860
Day 4: 2000 (outline) Day 14: 1800
Day 5: 0 (Nu, I was busy) Day 15: 1750
Day 6: 2400 Day 16: 1400 (dang)
Day 7: 1500 Day 17: 1690
Day 8: 0 (but a lot of good
plotting and reading done)
Day 9: 1500
Day 10: 1600
Blog Post: 560
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What I’m Watching:
Not a thing. Swam.
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What I’m Reading:
Did I read last night? I’m not sure. I think I mainly noodled around. I’m sure something substantive happened, but I don’t remember what.
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What I’m Listening to:
The cats, complaining that I’m not nearly as nice to them as I am to my mother-in-law, and when am I going to open a can?
