A friend posted her LJ 10-things list, asked (I think ...) for responsive lists. SO here's mine. Add yours below for the win!

1. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday ever. Very little pressure, other than to make a pie. Or buy a pie. And make cranberry/apple sauce, with Cointreau for the win. And then show up with our SUV packed so tightly with 3 adults, two kids, and our assorted belongings for a single night's stay that jokes about needing a can opener to get us all out on arrival are only ... sort of ... jokes ... That said, it was lovely, low-key, exactly how it should have been.

2. News flash: Teenagers are nothing like when I was a teen (yes, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the world was actually black and white [just like the TV shows ...]). Mine is 13, and both taller and faster than I am. Luckily, I'm older and meaner. Heh. Honey, do you remember where I put the machete?

3. Oh good gravy, teenagers are nothing like when I was a teen, help!

4. Have become enough of an addict to Walking Dead that when I ran out of back episodes on Netflix last week, and AMC somehow, amazingly, doesn't have all the episodes from the beginning of Season 5, up for free ... for me ... Right Now, this became a matter causing some distress. Boo.

5. In other interesting news of the day, Delphina the Cat has begun to lick Puck the Dog's face. Sadly, my Google habit has become enough of an addiction that I immediately typed in "what does it mean when the cat licks to dog," only to have Google respond, "Duh, stupid, the cat likes the dog. Or she's taste testing him." Thank you Google. And Abby, who helped with that last bit of research.

6. Abby is the bees knees. As much as I love our teen, it really is lovely to have a kid who still running tackle hugs on sight, and cuddles with me on the couch.

7. Wow. Nothing like a Major Spousal Fight to inspire us to get the holiday decorations out. Really. No, really. I swear. (In fact, as an apology, my poor beleaguered husband went out as the skies threatened rain, and put all the holiday lights up. The same ones, I note, that went up 2 days before Christmas last year. Poor guy... )

8. Tis the season for casseroles! Ooooh, green bean casserole, chicken and rice casserole, tuna noodle casserole, yummo!!!! That said, Abby is moaning and weeping at the prospect of same. Poor husband diplomatically silent on subject. Anyone else out there love casseroles, want to share one with me? I'll supply the cream of mushroom soup, Corningware ...

9. Ok, running out of things to list. (Right, how sad is that?!) Abby suggests more pets talk. Ok, so we have four pets: Maui and Puck the dogs, Delphina the cat, and Shelby the guinea pig. Oops, Abby reminds me we also have King, the creepy sea snail she found at the beach last summer, that liiiiiiives oooooon foreeeeveeerrrrrrrrr. Anyone want a sea snail? It's "almost" old enough to vote, and occasionally makes a break for it up the side of the tank.

10. And finally ... ! Am loving re-reading Parasite by Mira Grant, aka Seanan McGuire, in advance of taking in Symbiont. Tapeworms, yum! Hey great idea here: next one: sea snails! Veeeeerrrrry sloooooow ... but damn DETERMINED!

Alright, my darlings, would love to hear your lists as well! List on, McDuff!

xoxo !

Denisen

Thanks to any and all who passed along the love to Karen and her neighbor Lloyd. Here's her follow up post.

Originally posted by ladycelia at I haven't tallied it all up yet, but it looks like a bit over $600 was donated

Hey all -

I'm not one to ask for money. Nor is my longtime friend Karen. She's been through thick and thin, ups and downs, without ever coming to us for cash, no matter how bare her cupboards. (Although once I did trade our family stati...on wagon to her for a fur coat, but that's a different story ...)

Now, however, Karen has issued a plea for funds. The money isn't for her, though. Instead, it's to help her neighbor Lloyd.

Lloyd, like so many of the rest of us, is just getting by. But just a few weeks ago, he couldn't stop the car in time on his way to a day at the lake, and hit a stray puppy running across the road. Although some might have kept driving, praying the dog would limp off to find help elsewhere, Lloyd stopped his car and took the dog to the vet.

Josie, as he named the brown-eyed pup, is now better (though minus a tail and with weak back legs) and has found a loving home with Lloyd.

Here's where Karen stepped in. Unbeknownst to Lloyd, who's too proud to accept charity, she posted on her blog a request for funds to cover the not insubstantial vet bills for Josie's care. She's going to give him the money anonymously (maybe an envelope slid under the door?) to thank him for his kindness. Because that's the kind of person she is. Now Karen's friends are upping the signal on our own blogs and Facebook pages as well.

Here's a link to her blog page (complete with pictures of the VERY cute Josie). If you're so inclined, please click on the Donate button, and send her whatever you can spare. $1, $10, $100, anything is appreciated.

Just in case you're wondering, by the way (because questioning is a natural response to requests like this), Karen is a personal friend of mine. I've known her for decades, and can personally vouch for her.

Because in these times when all of our email boxes are full of pleas from politicians for funds, sometimes one arrives to encourage what's really important - selfless acts of kindness to our fellows, without expecting anything in return save for the knowledge that we did a Good Thing.

Thank you very much (and feel free to re-post if you're so inclined).

With love -

Denisen

http://ladycelia.livejournal.com/1799650.html

New blog posting, going out on a limb:

http://movingmom.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/parenting-dilemmas/

Latest blog entry - comments encouraged!

http://movingmom.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/the-stephanie-meyer-snark-fest/

Hi all!

Haven't posted to LiveJournal lately, haven't even read it regularly. Oh well. Sort of got bored with length of my own posts, and since didn't get a lot of comments on same, figured LJ friends were too. (No, by the way, that isn't really a shot over your bows, dear readers ... just an observation, but feel free to write "fuck you too" in comments, and will note same, leave creatively snarky comments in yours too).

But just briefly, an update on what's happened in last few months. Going to try to do good news/bad news sort of thing here ...

1. Went on trip to Chicago. Uncle John died, which was a total bummer, so grabbed a last minute flight and spent 3 1/2 days there. Hotel bad, food worse. Reminded me again why California is all that. But got to ride in some big airplanes, and some airplanes where I wondered if I might be asked to stick my arm out a window and flap real hard should we run low on fuel. Trip was pretty dreadful, as was return to work to find cranky bosses stewing over nerve of taking 3 days off for funeral. Feh. Best part, Jay and the girls meeting me at gate on return. Seriously. That was worth the entire trip right there.

2. Writing coming along quite well, thanks. Writing regularly for local Clayton Pioneer newspaper (www.claytonpioneer.com), and got to meet State Senator DeSaulnier recently, who turned out to be surprisingly normal, kind of likeable guy. Go figure. Imho, he's genuinely interested in representing his constituents, as opposed to one of these dogmatic nutjobs who seem to populate politics these days (or is it just my co-writers in the press making it look that way). Working on writing article tonight.

Better yet, though, got bite on a query, and may, just may, have an article in a national publication coming out in a few months. Submitted to editor Saturday, and am waiting for feedback from same. Pls, please, pretty-please readers, say prayer, sacrifice chicken, drink the worm, whatever works, that they like it! It could be the start of my trip down the yellow brick road, so am hoping REALLY REALLY REALLY HARD here ...

3. Fred died. Poor Bad Cat Fred. 17 years old, one eye, 4.5 pounds of feline fury passed two weeks and one day ago. Wish I could say it was peaceful and painless, but suffice that she knew I was there, and that she was loved, when she went. Rest in peace, Fred, you will not be forgotten. Try as we might.

4. Adopted a new dog (two eyes, 20 pound hairy package of canine joy). (I know - you barely had time to grieve. Sorry.) Family in high-level negotiations over name. Rafael Marquez/Tucker/Puck/Murphy/Inkstain/Floyd all in running. Feel free to add input. Bribes happily accepted. Also adopted two hamsters named (hopefully not presciently) Meatball and Nugget. (Maui approves of all, btw.)

Now with two dogs, two hamsters, am thinking two mountain gorillas next. They can answer the door to traveling salesmen, mind the girls while we go on date nights, feed the dogs. What do mountain gorillas eat, though? Anyone ... anyone ... ... hello??

So la, that's about all, so signing off. Meanwhile, hope life treats you better than you dare hope, and that the hits just keep on coming! Thanks in advance for anycommentsanddontforgettotipthewaitress!

So Twilight 2000 - how the hell do we list other LJ users so there's a link ... hang on, I'll check in a minute - here we go! twilight2000 - has this meme (btw, Twilight, where are your ten white things, btw?) where we respond to the posting (like this one). The poster then replies back to you with a color, and you post to your own page with ten things you like in that color.

So my color is black. Gack! Still and all, am desperately in need of writing practice (took a few weeks off as was feeling, alternately, blue, black, bored, blah, fat, slow, slothful, lazy, and just generally not in the mood), so here we go. Ten things I like that are black, in no particular order.

(Note to future commenters, btw, the first few are easy-peasy. But see how many things you can think of after the first four or five ... remember, you don't get to choose the color ...)

1. My computer keyboard is black. Black keys with white letters printed on them. That's the desktop computer, btw, not the laptop. But I love writing more than any other activity I can undertake alone (note the qualifier). It makes me happy. It's a great opportunity for self-reflection (or navel gazing, which is the same thing, but doesn't sound as nice), and better yet is when other people then read it and like it - huge ego boo there. No joke. So la.

2. My laptop computer bag is black. I actually dislike the bag itself - it's ugly and serviceable at best. But it lets me haul around my need-to-write baggage wherever I go (with the added benefit of having a good excuse to have a friend knead my shoulders afterwards). Note, yes I understand I can write on a pad with a pencil, but I don't. Do you clip your toenails with a rock and chisel? Didn't think so. Point made. Anyways, when I was working for that asshat in Oakland (Steven B. Piser - feel free to give him a call and tell him I said so), I got a ton of writing done on the BART trains courtesy of that bag and its contents. Note to other writers, btw: Never, ever tell strangers on a train that you're a writer, unless you want to her their great idea for screenplay or memoir. Just trust me on this one. Also never tell them you majored in psychology, unless you want to hear about their cousin's diagnosis of schitzophrenia, their own dance with depression as a teenager, and their take on the whole mental-illness-is-really-just-evidence-of-our-insular-and-judgmental-culture theory. Really. It only takes once, and the same people tend to ride the same train, every day ...

3. My big fluffy fox fur is black. I'll write on it later on (I wrote it for a writing class, but it was too long, rambling (not that that's ever a problem, right? Right? Hello ... ?) so clearly needs work before being shown to friends. But it's fabulous - the fur that is, not the blog entry, and when I wear it I feel all the glamour I dreamed of having when I was a friendless 11th grader hiding out in the library reading Danielle Steele novels and dreaming of living the life ... Love it a LOT!

4. My little evening bag. I like it because it's silly enough that it makes me laugh. I think I paid $10 for it before some evening out. It's small enough to not be a bother to hang onto, but big enough to hold the necessities. Best part, though, it's covered in long ostrich feathers. Cracks me up carrying it around - it's like I've got a miniature ostrich following me from hither to yon. And it's good, at some of these formal evening events where everyone is Very Serious and Showing They're Adults to have something to put it all into perspective.

See, now it's getting harder ... Ok, here's one.

5. Black is the color of a theater right. before. the film reel starts up and we're carried away on a new story. I've always been a sucker for a good, well told story, from the time my mother was reading me The Hobbit to settling down beside Abby to see How to Train Your Dragon. And that moment right before it starts is like seeing a birthday cake meant for me coming out of the kitchen - all wonderful anticipation.

6. My camera is black. More than once - okay, many times - I've seen an image of our girls doing something sweet - walking down the street, curled up on the couch together, Katie concentrating over a drawing, and thought to myself, that's the picture I want to be remembering when I die. Oftentimes I don't have the camera handy, but when I do and can grab a quick image, makes it easier to not have to reconstruct the image (it's burned into my brain somewhere I know, but still working on access codes). We now have a zillion pictures in the computer thanks to same, to go along with the zillion happy memories.

7. Black is the color of the room right before I fall asleep. Okay, I'm stretching here, I know, but I never appreciated sleep for the luxury it is until I had kids. Sleep is a wonderful thing. Nothing against our friends without kids - seriously, but I'm convinced sleep is God's gift to moms to keep their sanity intact. Sometimes nothing is better than a cat nap in the middle of a crazy day, and if the CHP wasn't so testy things I'd do it more often - hahaha ...

8. Oooh - black tie mandatory! My favorite line on any invitation (besides open bar, that is), nothing makes a potentially bleh event into a really fun excuse to go out and party than requiring evening dress. Wheeee!

9. Which reminds me - my favorite evening skirt is black sequins. Feel evah so glamourous, dahlink, in same. And now that I'm old(er), fat(ter), drive an SUV and regularly carry a pretty decent variety of crayons in my purse, having some occasional glam in my life is a Good Thing.

10. Being in the black. Hm, I think this list is veering towards being all about ego and parties and glamour and money. But note, these things are infrequent in our lives right now, so all the more fun. Tra la. And being in the black is something we occasionally (ok, maybe more than occasionally, but hey, we're working onit) veer off of, then have to scramble to reattain. But practice makes perfect.

Oooh, so now I'm on a mini roll. Other things that are black that I like, that make me happy:
Type on my computer screen is black
My favorite CD is Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, and the cover is black
My fancy designer purse is black (and gigantic - crayons, socks, barrettes, Amelia Erhardt's other shoe, etc. in same - don't let anyone tell you a bigger purse is better. It's just heavier. But then again, keeps me from floating away in a breeze, natch!).
Katie's favorite color there for a while was black. Sue me, I worried. Now it's turquoise blue. Nice. But it was a reason to love black.
The first car Jay and I bought together was black, with gold specks. Granted it lasted about a month until we realized why power steering was important for a car in San Francisco, and traded it back for a gold version (with power steering), but still, it was the start of our marvelous life together.
And that's it. Now time to go back and edit my first draft of an article for the paper I write for - the Clayton Pioneer (here's a plug: www.claytonpioneer.com). Thanks for listening, all! Would love any comemnts you feel like sending, and will think of fascinating colors for you to think about if any when you do.

Hey all -

We're working on making space in the garage! Getting rid of a bunch of our unused, too small vintage stuff and costumes, childrens' clothes (sizes 3T-4T), car seats, high chair, and last, but not least (and probably biggest), the lawn mower.

So ... If there was an outfit you saw one of us wear and loved so much you made a mental note, give us a ring - it might be for sale!

If you know someone needy who could use some gently used childrens stuff, give us a ring - it's FREE!

And if you have a lawn that could use some mowing (or want to stealth mow your neighbor's "fields of glory"), come get our only very slightly used lawn mower - it's cheap!

xo -

D!

P.S. - Am happy to send pictures of anything you think of. May post regular pictures later in the weekend, but camera currently on walkabout, so may be a day or so ...

Bizarre moment tonight ...

Got home from work after picking up Abby, to find the usual round of bills, reminders and junk mail in the (actual) mail box. One was a beautifully put together black envelope, advising the recipient that they'd been approved for an AmEx "black card." Except it wasn't addressed to me, or anyone else at our address.

Now, just about everyone who knows us knows that I had my purse stolen about 11 years ago, and went through an identity theft nightmare for the following two years or so (yes, yes, I know - now - about fraud alerts, police reports, etc.). And my office is handling a matter right now involving identity theft and a shady collections company as well, so I'm sort of primed to watch for that sort of thing.

So ... I figured I'd track down whoever's name was on the envelope, make a friendly call, and either warn off any potential identity theft planners (unlikely), or maybe meet one of the previous owners of our circa 1964 house (also unlikely, but whatever). It only took a couple of calls to find the woman thanks to Whitepages.com and 411, and so it was that a mere ten minutes later, with our cat howling in the background, I found myself having a friendly chat with Jay's ex-wife.

How embarrassing. I die. I didn't realize it was her at first. Sure, the woman's first name is Aimee, but so what, so are 8 zillion other women whose mothers were tired of the "Amy" spelling in the 1950s and 60s. As a matter of fact, another case at my office ... anyways, you get the idea. First I got her (current - obviously) husband on the phone, told him I was calling to follow up on misdelivered mail, and he put her on. I apologized for taking her time, explained the situation, we chatted for a good couple of minutes before I finally thought to identify myself by anything other than our address. The exchange went something like this:

...
Aimee: Well, I don't know how mail addressed to me could end up in your mailbox. There's a lot of junk mail flying around, but we've never lived in Concord ...
Denisen: I know, and it's really not a big deal, but you know, we've gotten a few things misdelivered - well, I'm Denisen Hartlove, and I thought maybe you'd lived in our house before we bought it, but you know, we've been here for about 14 years or so, so it's been a a while.
Aimee: (Silence for a moment ...) Denisen? Denisen Hartlove? Well, I used to be married to Jay -
Denisen: AIMEE????? Oh my god!

It was bizarre. We both laughed about it, chatted for another couple of minutes. She apparently had at one point an 11-year old stepson who, like Abby (who was providing us with musical accompaniment for the conversation by "helping" the cat, which resulted in the usual chorus of irate howls from BCF), liked to play with their less than enthusiastic cat. I told her briefly about our happy life in the burbs, then apologized profusely for the bother (about 17 times), apologized again for taking her time, and got the heck off the phone.

Bizarre. I'm telling you. And kind of a bummer - she sounded like someone who'd be fun to have coffee with. But that's not likely, although if another AmEx ad came around, I could - nevermind ...

2009 cannot die fast enough, as far as I'm concerned. There were high points surely - Katie's birthday, writing assignments, a shiny new job, and innumerable kisses and sweet moments with people I love who love me back.

But overall, it's a year I'm looking forward to looking back at ever so briefly in a few months and marveling at how much better 2010 is already. Tax time is here, and we're suffering again through the last few months of 2009 and some financial decisions made in more of a panic than it turns out was warranted. As an unfortunate result, we now have a tax bill in the high four figures. Holey-moley, frijole!!! Must remember to count my blessings, but some days, have to admit, it's tougher than others.

Am rambling semi-sensibly (better than insensibly, a word that sounds like one I'd come across in a Jane Austen novel), but still. A good friend's bday party is coming up this weekend, and I'm finding myself thrilled to be going in a manner that gives a hint into our unsurprisingly for the burbs but still uneventful social schedule (that's one term, btw - I just couldn't be bothered to add hyphens between each word, hahaha). We'll see friends we haven't seen in way too long, hang around, drink and dance, and generally make merry. Wheeee!

Counting blessings here ... obsessive-compulsively ... 17,482 ... 17,483, 17,484 ... ....