The highlight of my trip to visit my 87-year old uncle was taking him out to his granddaughter's farm, which is near Red Boiling Springs (love that name - it's about 70 miles NE of Nashville).  I didn't know that sweet corn could be eaten raw right off the stalk.  It was the best corn I've ever had. Thought it had to be boiled or steamed.  Apparently it loses its flavor if it's not eaten w/i an hour of being picked.  During the tour of their organic farm, her husband pointed out boneset & perilla.  I said I only knew the words from Scrabble, & think of PERILLA as the anagram of PALLIER.

I've got a new neighbor.  He's a friendly white-haired geezer named Jim.  Almost every time I leave the building he's in his old sedan, with the engine running, smoking cigarets.   He's always there when I leave at 6:30 a.m.   He's there in the evening, & was there when I left at 7:30 this morning.  He's told me he doesn't want to smoke in his apartment, but  there are chairs outside the building where he could sit too.  I had thought maybe he was listening to the radio, or wanted the A/C running, but this morning his car windows were open, didn't sound like the radio was on, & he was sitting in there reading the paper & drinking coffee... with the engine idling.

Eventually I'll ask him why he burns up gas by running his engine unnecessarily.  For now I'll just think him eccentric & environmentally oblivious.

"No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions."

I have no clue what this means.

I have a fondness for words that can go either way like AWING or AWEING, TOTABLE or TOTEABLE,  HURLY or HURLEY, ENMESH or INMESH.  This list is inspired by daltonic playing BRAWLIE last night.  I challenged, & learned a new word.  Definitions might vary, & one might be a noun while the other's an adjective, or a verb.  Flossy & flossie, e.g., have nothing to do with each other.  Pardon the font, didn't bother with good formatting. 

I called my mother yesterday morning.  I call her every few weeks & 70% of the time I feel worse after I hang up.  This time she chided me, with gusto, for not sending a thank you note to my Uncle Sam when I was 18.  I was mortified that I'd been such a rude kid: I'd dropped in on him with no notice in Florida & he'd let me stay a week & then drove me to Georgia to introduce me to relatives.  This was a trip where I'd hitchhiked to Miami w/ a guy who left me in the airport when his "ex-girlfriend" paged him & told him she'd kill herself if he didn't fly to Pittsburgh to see her,  whereupon I flew to the Cayman Islands with only $120 & no credit cards, but that's another story.

With questionable taste, since it's wrong to turn other's pain into entertainment, I offer an ancient tale of a divorce.  Has been told many times by the ex-husband, a guy I used to kayak with.  By the time I met him he was laughing about it, but he's a jolly sort who laughs about everything.  Change "Salmon River" to "CAN-AM" or "Nationals", & it could be a Scrabble player's sad story.  Or the story of anyone whose spouse selfishly cannot support his/her partner's hobby/obsession.  Or the story of someone who can't pick spouses very well.

The tip jar was missing this morning. The new edict for Einsteins is to not accept tips.  I'm used to getting immediate service presumably based on my tipping, not because they like me.  What now?  Will I have to stand in line with the proletarians?

I fatuously challenged AWEING last night.  My opponent's comment was that he didn't know it could be spelled w/o the E.   Which led me to do some quick checking on Zyzzyva.  Here's a list of others of that ilk.  In some cases the definitions vary.  Some, like DEKEING, completely surprised me.

First I must emphatically say that everything said about Ira's tournaments is TRUE!  Unreal that he gave everyone a board (gorgeous green apple designed byskin_it_mahatma ), tiles & bag, dinner, drinks, & even a chair massage!!!  Very great to finally meet several people I've only known in cyberspace.

Second: why can't airplanes have segregated seating for rug rats?  A whiny girl, around 3 years old, sat behind me on the plane trip home which made it a very long 3 hours. 

When we deplaned the flight attendants were miffed to see a woman walk off the plane w/ a dog on leash.  They shrieked, "You must put that dog in a carrier!" but she acted like she didn't speak English (a convenient approach) & ignored them as the dog wagged its tail & trotted out of the plane.

What impresses me most about New Yorkers is their ability to parallel park & find free parking spaces.  (Yeah, jigsawn, I mean you!) What fascinates me the most on the street are all the cute dogs.  I'm really a cat person, but I've been noticing dogs more lately.  If I were taking pictures, which I'm not, & if they would stand still, which they won't, & if I weren't self-conscious about photographing strangers, which I am, I'd take photos of nothing but things like an old lady who passed me in an electric wheelchair w/ a perfectly coiffed westhighland terrier in a little metal cage that rides on the wheelchair.  Or dogwalkers w/ 5 dogs on leashes.  Austin, where I live, is full of big outdoorsy dogs like retrievers.  Most the dogs here are apartment sized toys, & they're pretty darn cute.

Played w/ the club last night.  Wish I could teleport myself here every Thursday.  

A few years ago I watched all the seasons of  "Sex and the City" on DVD.  Since I loved the series I felt impelled to see the movie, & I purposely avoided reading any reviews b/c I didn't want spoilers, but if I had read any I probably would have stayed far away.

Why not turn ancient mini-disasters into entertainment?  Anyone have "bad date" stories they'd like to share?   I'd rather write about one than write about the game I blew at club last night.  Ok, lost by 2 to Chad Hopper, accepted the phony ECOGENeS*, & blew the end game which wasn' t helped by being down to a  few seconds on the clock.

I'm always raving about how much I love Austin. Have been here since 1989 & never regretted moving here for even a second. I took this photo, & and a few others, from my kayak this morning on the lake formed by damming (not damning, which is what I typed initially) the river that flows through downtown. This isn't out in the boonies somewhere: it's almost downtown. I'm on the lake almost every other weekend year round. The weather's always good for it. What varies most are the birds. More Scrabble-worthy species in the winter: scaups, widgeons/wigeons, coots, shovelers, ospreys, & longer words like buffleheads, & cormorants.

( more photos )

This article broke my heart:  http://www.slate.com/id/2192178 . It's about an 82-year old woman & a 95-year old man being forcibly separated by the man's son b/c he was aghast that they were having sex.  If it had been my father I would've been immensely happy that he'd found some romance & pleasure.  Don't read it if you don't want to get angry at the selfishness & priggishness of the son, & saddened that these two were separated.

An Austin school with which I'm well acquainted just got screwed by standardized testing.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24974829/ .  The students are all poor & Hispanic, & b/c their drop-out rate has been too high & their test scores too low 75% of the teachers will be reassigned to other schools.  They're also going to change the name of the school in the fall:  like that will change anything.    So if a teacher is idealistic & wants to teach this demographic their careers are at risk b/c kids who speak Spanish at home won't  do as well on the tests, & many will drop out to work in construction or to take care of their kids (very high pregnancy rate).  There's another high school here whose students score some of the highest SATs in the area, but it's usually on the low performing list b/c it has an ESL program & the ESL students frequently drop out of school.   The analysis of the standardized tests & this legislation is absurd.
 

If you have a desire to send a contribution to a Burmese organization which isn't going to spend 1/3 on overheard or pocket it all, here's the site: http://www.sitagu.org/home/ . They have a Buddhist monastery in Austin which serves the Burmese community in Texas & the surrounding states (funerals, weddings, celebration of holidays, etc.).  I've been visiting the monks here for about 7 years, used to attend weekly meditation sessions with them, & I completely trust  that all donations will be used to assist cyclone victims.

Commenting on chubbychipmunk's blog entry about lowlifes who throw bottles from dorm rooms reminded me of someone who threw a bottle at me when I was bicycling.  We concurred that such vermin deserve to die, & this reminded me of the story of a friend who shot & killed a guy who'd been peeping in her window.

Never had seen it on the board before. 

Got back from Chicago last night.  Another mediocre finish.  Loved the tournament though: great group of people, very smoothly run, & liked Skokie more than anticipated.  Might be back every year.

Got to sleep every night w/o taking Ambien.  Never take it at home but usually have insomnia at tournaments.  First game was against my fellow Austinite, Keith Smith, & I lost it by going over by 2+ minutes.  Heart started racing & head was pounding indicating an oncoming migraine.  Took Maxalt for the migraine & felt fine the rest of the tournament.   I've made a lot of improvement over earlier tournaments where I'd have insomnia, nausea & persistent headaches.  I'm the opposite of an anxious person: "nerves of steel" or "Vulcan" are the ways I've been described in other endeavors, but tournament Scrabble is the one thing in my life that has made me feel like I'm having  a panic attack.  But I'm almost over it & have started relaxing.

I believe the big Scrabble news of the w/e was Becky Dyer, from Austin, coming in 3rd in division 1 in Mid-Cities (Dallas).  She was the bottom seed & her rating shot from 1525  to 1700.  I know she's been studying hard & it obviously paid off.

Photos of myself have left me nauseated, am one of the least photogenic people I know.  However, just took some of my favorite photos to date by just holding the digital camera in front of me & clicking.  Amazing!  Who'd've thunk it?  Or does everyone except me already know this?  Just sat on the floor & took a bunch.  Worked best w/ the camera held high & looking up into it.

Gotta pack for Chicago, taking a 7 a.m. flight in.  See some of you tomorrow or Saturday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24753683/?GT1=43001

What perplexes me is that the owners spent two years teaching the parrot their address.  How many times did they have to repeat it?  Could anything be more tedious?  Or did they just record it once & let the parrot listen to the recording all day?  Did they teach it anything else during those two years?  Some songs I guess, unless it learned them from the radio.  I don't know how much about parrots.  Could a parrot learn to recite the OWL2?