tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52987492007-05-17T21:19:39.009-04:00AnneBlogger500125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-34959544054466520812007-05-17T21:07:00.000-04:002007-05-17T21:19:39.044-04:00

My dear beloved readers (those of you who are still out there): I'm shutting the blog down. The writing exercise that was Creating Text(iles) was useful to me, and I enjoyed it greatly, especially since it allowed me to meet so many lovely internet friends, but it's served its purpose. I'm keeping the blog online for now, in case I decide to start up again in another persona. I love the title

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1170273646630126882007-01-31T14:51:00.000-05:002007-01-31T15:00:46.650-05:00

Last year, Reya put out a call for a silent poetry reading across the blogs, in honor of Brigid. She got WAY more than she counted for. This year, Oak has taken on the job of calling out. So here's the deal: WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2007 WHERE: Your blog WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Bridgid, aka Groundhog Day HOW: Select a poem you like - by a

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1169686927363360312007-01-24T19:39:00.000-05:002007-01-24T20:02:07.403-05:00

The fireplaces at Bear's Retreat are all working now, and so we have fires in the kitchen fireplace, which bore the female cats but entrance the male. While the other cats are sleeping elsewhere, Dara comes into the kitchen to watch fires whenever they're set. He watches the whole thing, from crackling kindling to glowing coals, probably cause he's waiting for it to escape so he can hunt it:

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1169129378023197242007-01-18T08:55:00.000-05:002007-01-18T09:11:06.093-05:00

One of the most lovely things about being a medievalist is that occasionally, because one is teaching a class such as, in my case, Medieval Literature, or maybe Medieval Women Writers, one gets to put Margery Kempe on the syllabus and watch students' eyes bleed. Margery. The girl you love to hate. She makes my students nuts, but I need her in the syllabus, because 1) she wrote the first

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1166017621322523112006-12-13T08:00:00.000-05:002006-12-13T08:47:01.443-05:00

Quick recap of Bear's Retreat, for those of you arriving recently: historical landmark; log house built in 1790 by Jacob Bare, of Lancaster, PA, who named the house Bear's Retreat cause apparently he was Good With Puns; brick addition built in 1840 by later owners; now situated at the edge of a development in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, which has been built on what was the original farmland.

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1165880198140006112006-12-11T18:18:00.000-05:002006-12-11T18:39:34.056-05:00

Sunday the child, who had been listening to Dar Williams CD's, wanted to know about Daniel Berrigan, cause he likes the song "I Had No Right," and he wanted the lyrics explained. So I talked about the Berrigans, and the draft, and napalm, and we googled the Berrigans so that we could find pictures and find out what Daniel's up to these days, and he spent the rest of the day upstairs singing the

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1165546416154513902006-12-07T21:30:00.000-05:002006-12-07T21:53:45.136-05:00

At some point recently I promised to discuss the production of Romeo and Juliet: The Opera which I went to recently. I learned a lot. I learned that if you are producing a version of Romeo and Juliet, whether it's been transformed into an opera or not, and it occurs to you that making the Capulets into modern-day Mafia owners of a funeral home would add a lot to the deeper meanings of the plot,

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1164213304558329362006-11-22T11:21:00.000-05:002006-11-22T11:35:04.710-05:00

I'm in Albuquerque, all on my own, visiting the folks, and having lots of time to wander around Old Town and look at art, and since it's also the week of American Thanksgiving, and we're in America, plans had to be made, concerning the celebration of the Day When Everything But The Restaurants And The Bars Is Shut Down.* So here's the plan: tomorrow, sometime around 2:30, some of us are going

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1163962955019228912006-11-19T13:57:00.000-05:002006-11-19T14:05:13.843-05:00

When I checked out of the lovely Hotel Allegro, I mentioned the lack of either closet or hook in my room and asked whether they knew these things were missing. I wasn't complaining, I said, I just wanted to know. Cause I thought it was hilarious, that I had no place to hang my coat in the Very Fancy Hotel Room, and also I blogged them. Ha ha. The clerk at the desk told me that because it is such

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1163789339655669482006-11-17T13:26:00.000-05:002006-11-17T13:53:23.760-05:00

So, I'm in Chicago, staying at the lovely Hotel Allegro, and I'm hanging out with the theatre scholars, cause I'm a medievalist, really I am, no kidding, but more and more my ponderings about medieval drama have caused me to think about the spiritual dimensions of performance space, so I'm hanging out with the theatre scholars so as to acquaint myself with the field, hear what people are talking

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1162175246476021212006-10-29T21:14:00.000-05:002006-10-29T21:29:36.920-05:00

Since he's fairly well disguised, I offer a rare blog picture of the child: He's pleased. He went to a party last night, and was quite the hit. Nobody knew who he was, of course, but for him, that's part of the entertainment. They had no idea who he was when he was Perseus; they thought that he was some headless Roman soldier, though he was a) Greek and b) bearing his own head on his own neck,

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1161268380881837902006-10-19T10:06:00.000-04:002006-10-19T12:33:29.636-04:00

The Beloved Students miss cat photos, so y'all get to see them too: Cute, aren't they?Do enjoy, as long as you can, the sweet and meaningful darlingness of their sibling interpretation of zen yin-yang bliss, cause they are Dead Meat the next time I see them.When Dara discovered that I had hung a kitty toy next to the toilet, in the form of the toilet paper roll, joyfully pulled all the toilet

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1160855641164145302006-10-14T15:36:00.000-04:002006-10-14T15:54:01.206-04:00

The Really Beloved Students, the other day, were nagging me some more about the updating of the blog. They were polite about this, naturally -- it was right before they took the midterm, if I remember this right -- but they were nagging. That's what it was. I'm just saying. However, they are, as mentioned afore, Really Beloved, so here I am. I'll tell you what the hell's been going on. It's

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1158671896930856702006-09-19T09:09:00.000-04:002006-09-19T09:22:15.563-04:00

I have a nice long history of buying stuff on eBay, including QUITE a little history involving discontinued Alice Starmore yarns and books, but now I am a Seller. This is a higher-anxiety activity, but much less expensive. And what am I selling off? Well, a lot of the Starmore stuff I bought a few years ago, for one thing. As all of the knitters have noticed, there aren't a lot of textiles on

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1157942272645899562006-09-10T22:12:00.000-04:002006-09-10T22:45:03.090-04:00

Well, it was fun while it lasted, but the Beckettfest is over. Whilst it was going on -- from August 17 to September 10 (tonight) -- you could, if you lived in or around Pittsburgh, actually see every single one of Beckett's plays. No, really, you could. Except for Waiting for Godot, which is coming in a few weeks. Really, I'm not kidding. Every single damn play. Even that one where the three

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1157077592420093452006-08-31T22:06:00.000-04:002006-08-31T22:31:35.116-04:00

It's been a pretty cheery week. We had a birthday, first; the child's 10 now, which impresses his 6 year old niece no end (her uncle is in double digits!). Celebrated with a quiet dinner of macaroni and cheese, green beans, and goldfish bowl cake: It impressed the hell out of the child, but it doesn't really look much like the photo I was following on the cover of Woman's Day. The alien, for

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1156118010198795192006-08-20T19:41:00.000-04:002006-08-20T19:53:30.216-04:00

The child, who's turning 10 next week, has had a triumphant end of summer. He has found himself. He has discovered his talents. This is great for a 10 year old, cause he has LOTS of time to perfect them, too. Like maybe 90 years. First was the week of theater. For a birthday present, he was given a week at the Gemini children's theater summer camp, at which he collaborated with other children in

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1156117141019511002006-08-20T19:31:00.000-04:002006-08-20T19:41:10.776-04:00

Once again, Pittsburgh Bloggers and Friends of Pittsburgh Bloggers, an opportunity to hang out with charming people and eat excellent french fries made out of sweet potatoes: WHAT: Pittsburgh BlogFest 7 WHEN: Wednesday, August 30th, 2006, 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM and beyond! WHERE: Finnegan's Wake (near PNC Park, 20 General Robinson St., North Shore, 412-325-2601), in the Pub Room WHO: All of you

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1155167692828840402006-08-09T19:38:00.000-04:002006-08-09T20:01:44.333-04:00

During the continent-wide heat wave, we were pretty much all hot. (Here, "all" means "humans living on the North American continent." ) In the places like South Carolina, where every place we went had air conditioning if it was enclosed, it was hot outside but cool inside. (Exception: sailing on the Schooner Pride; it was cool on the water. That was two hours of tolerable weather, outside.) When

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1154352873149279522006-07-31T09:19:00.000-04:002006-07-31T13:30:37.613-04:00

Many thanks to June for pointing me to the extremely helpful essay posted by The Little Professor, who, having noticed that the first-person essays in the Chronicle of Higher Education sometimes sound Much Alike, has created a helpful guide for those of use who want to write a first-person essay for that important academic journal, but are sort of pressed for time. It's multiple choice, so it's

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1154217576623679212006-07-29T19:53:00.000-04:002006-07-31T09:19:14.240-04:00

While we've been down here at Edisto this year, we've been hearing a LOT about the Beach Nourishment Project which was going on this past year. Actually, even if we didn't have relatives down here who had lots to say on the subject, we'd have noticed, I expect, cause the beach was way bigger than it was last year. This would be on account of some entire sandbar which got dredged up and pumped

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1153782809415917142006-07-24T18:55:00.000-04:002006-07-29T20:00:18.290-04:00

I decided today I'd be having a real vacation. An actual vacation, wherein I did nothing. Haven't had any of that yet this summer, and now that I'm at the beach, I figure it's appropriate. So here's what doing nothing looks like, so far today: 1) Got up, late. This is An Issue, at the beach in South Carolina, because if one is going to get one's exercise in, one wants to do it before the day

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1153151364049268042006-07-17T11:22:00.000-04:002006-07-17T12:44:46.120-04:00

We're having a heat wave here in Western Pennsylvania, but that didn't stop the residents of Bear's Retreat to going on over, yesterday, to Whiskey Rebellion Day at our more well-funded counterpart, the Oliver Miller Homestead. I've wanted to go check out the competition anyway, and since there was going to be a skit performed by volunteer historical reconstructionists, called "Serving the Writ,

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1152757383474891962006-07-12T22:13:00.000-04:002006-07-12T22:23:03.476-04:00

Over at Geoffrey Chaucer's, Katherine Swynford has been guest-blogging, which a delight in itself, and she tells us of a Horrible Incident which happened while she and the kids were out picking strawberries: Everybody knows, she says, that you must NEVER pick all the berries off a plant, cause if you do, the elves will get you;* before she could stop him, little Henry had taken all the berries

Annetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5298749.post-1152756615935977462006-07-12T21:39:00.000-04:002006-07-12T22:10:16.030-04:00

You would have gotten this entry on July 5th, but, alas, I was having a little disagreement with the Hosts of My Website -- all has been straightened out now, and it wasn't anybody's fault -- and so there were no entries till I got back from Albuquerque and was able to actually talk to a representative of the Hosts, which was much better than all that bouncing email, which wasn't going anywhere.

Anne