A Mess O' Random Things

Things I Bought at the Grocery Store Today

Wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese. We always have a large thop of Tillamook medium cheddar around the house but ever since Legal Alien sent me his electoral debt I've been jonesing for some nice sharp cheddar with my evening apple. I'm sure it won't be as good as the stuff LA sent but it will make me happy.

Stuff for pizza. The Child has taken to making dinner on Friday night. Trader Joe's was out of pepperoni so we'll have proscuitto. Pizza and a movie. Is there much better than that? Well, yes...having a night off from cooking myself.

A "1" candle and a "3" candle. Someone in this house has a very important birthday next Friday. And may I just say, for the record, she is feeling every inch of that impending birthday, alternately embracing it and freaking out. Which is to say that she has been a wicked pain in the ass most of the time. When she's not pulling faces, yelling at us or pushing boundaries like she's getting paid for it, she is a cuddly booface. Last night, for example, after entirely too much stürm und dräng, she wanted me to sing her a lullaby. And that's why they invented boarding school.


A tin of cookies. But not just any tin. I'm a sucker for packaging. Sad but true. Trader Joe's had tins of French butter biscuits from Brittany. More to the point, they were in a charming faïence (also known as Quimper) tin. With a rooster on it, no less. And you now how I am about French stuff. And chickens. Hello? It was calling my name. See how cute?
















I don't know if the cookies are any good and I don't even care. They've already been transferred to the cookie jar and the tin is now on my desk holding unattractive but necessary desk items. And all for $2.




When we were in Nantes for Nicole's wedding I mentioned wanting to get a piece of Quimper before I left. One of her French friends was disgusted. "Oh, that crap!" he exclaimed, "Why would you want something so tacky?" He likened it to visiting Seattle and coming away with a Space Needle snowglobe. I politely begged to differ but I think from that moment on he assumed I must live in a trailer park.


Undeterred, I bought a sweet vase for something like 75 francs.




















It especially nice when filled with daffodils or tulips.


































Other stuff:


During the snow we put down cat litter on some icy spots and now whenever anyone comes into the house they track these ghosty white footprints through the living room. I really need to sweep that stuff up because this mopping every day thing is so not my style. Although my floors haven't been this clean since we moved in.


The Child has a speech tournament tomorrow. This is of no consequence to me as we established last time that she doesn't want me around. I'll drop her in the morning and pick her up in the evening. Thus there will be no interference with my VJ duties over at "Here's the 80s", which is all I care about on Saturdays. I'm excited about this weekend's theme, mostly because I'm going to get to play a bunch of artists that I really like. Plus it's going to be fun to see how long it takes anyone to figure out the theme, which must be stated in the correct phrase in order to win the big prize. "You should definitely come over and play", she said, jumping quickly onto the Shameless Self-promotion bandwagon.

Good News/Potentially Bad News
In talking with our principal yesterday it turns out that we probably won't have to make up any snow days, partly because we have a longer school day than many of the other Catholic schools plus have the equivalent of 2 emergency days built into the schedule. So we haven't cut that much into our required hours for the year. She has proposed to the archdiocese that we have full sessions on the first Friday of the remaining months of the school year (usually the kids get out at noon on First Friday) and if they approve then we won't have to change the last day of school. The bad news? The Farmer's Almanac predicted that this would be a hard winter here. It correctly predicted all the rain and snow in November, the Big Blow in December and the snow we just had. Guess what it has to say about February? And I quote, "The heaviest snow will fall in mid- to late February". Out of the woods yet, not so much.

I'm Not an Expert

I've been thinking a lot lately about experts. It started with (cue the shameless self-promotion) "Here's the 80s" . JP and I started that blog for one reason and one reason only: we love the 80s. We don't consider ourselves experts. We both have favorite bands that we know a lot about and could, in those cases, be considered experts on some level. But we don't know tons of stuff about who produced who and where groups got their names. We do not have all sorts of information about the time that Biff McBifferson, lead guitarist for Smarty and the Pants, got into a bar fight with bassist Chuck Chuckerson over his dalliance Lola, the 3rd backup singer from the left, and so he left to form ChaCha and the Dogs and how their first big hit "Scratch This" is really all about what a lout Chuck was. Most of the time, if we have factoids like that, it's because we read it on Wikipedia right before publishing the post.

But we have a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable fan base, who seem to be full of such information, and while I can't speak for JP on this, it sometimes makes me feel a little intimidated...like I should spend the next several months immersing myself in the history of the 80s so I can do a better job of pontificating about the details of the era. But then I think, "Hey, this isn't public radio". I don't think people are going to come to our site and stay there because we're founts of information. I think they'll come because it's fun. It's eclectic. It's a place to spend an average of 12:51 listening to great music from a great era. Period. And frankly, I think if we got too heavy on the information it would be a lot less fun for the people just looking for a good song.

There are some things I know a lot about: cooking and entertaining, for example. But I'm not Martha Stewart. I know how to save a broken sauce, which herbs compliment which kinds of cuisine and am a fair hand at pairing wine with food. I still think red Hawaiian sea salt tastes exactly like kosher salt. I just use it sometimes because it's super pretty. I love giving people cooking tips, but I try to do it only when they ask. Because while sharing information is fun I don't want to seem like an insufferable know-it all.

I am not an expert on gardening. I go to my friend, Lorene, for that. I certainly can tell when someone has a lovely garden but I can't identify every plant and I don't know any of the Latin names for any of them. (Except sage, which in Latin is salvia). But Lorene tells me that it doesn't matter if I know the Latin name for plants because even if I did they wouldn't come when I call them.

I know quite a lot about Henry VIII and his 6 wives but couldn't have a meaningful conversation about the economic forces at play in the Tudor period. Idaho is the Gem State. Deciduous trees are the ones that lose their leaves. White vinegar makes a good non-toxic cleaner. You can power a clock with a potato. Gerald Ford was our 38th president. Lincoln was the 16th. 3+5=8

I know things. But there are a lot of things in which I am constantly engaged about which I know virtually nothing. Parenting, for example. Totally making that up as I go along. I can give good advice to friends who are pregnant or have small children, owing to the "been there, done that" principle. That still doesn't make me an expert. I couldn't sell out seminars to people clamoring for my wisdom. I'm still learning how to write. I spell well and know enough not to split infinitives. But every day I realize how much is left to learn.

So what is it about experts? Why do some of them seem so interesting and others are just plain insufferable? Why do we rely so much upon experts in lieu of figuring things out for ourselves? This is not to say that having experts is a bad thing. It's not. We need experts to fix our computers, help us address the problem of global warming and guide us over the rocky shoals of raising a teenager. Experts have the ability to inform, empower and challenge. They can also bore you to death.

I've been listening to a lot of experts lately and here's what I've figured out. I love the ones who are so passionate about their topic that they just can't help sharing. People like that make even the most obsure subject fascinating. That's a good thing. I just don't like it when people share their knowledge because they want you to be impressed with their "depth". It's sad when someone needs you to be impressed with how much they know. People should have a more profound definition of themselves than that. I don't want to be known for knowing things. I want to be known for loving them.