suz's muses

bermuda here i come!
as soon as i finish this cup of coffee, feed ponies, take a shower and do the last-second packing, we're outa here!
i'm leaving home to GO home.
it's really really all good.
:) khairete
suz

well, i've been waiting to update til i got pics uploaded and my mac figured out and my internet working right and the stars and the moon aligned correctly, but that hasn't worked out so well. the mac is awesome, but it wants to update all the time which kicks our awful hughesnet service into Fair Access Violation so for the last 2 weeks i've only been able to get on the internet at the few odd moments hughesnet isn't punishing us.
i fucking hate hughesnet. cable might be out here by the end of the year. i am praying hard.
been doing lots of riding lately, which i haven't been able to say in years! today i took jasmine out. she was a bit antsy but not too bad, and even flirted with the pelham bridle i rode her in and dropped sweetly onto the bit from time to time, pretty snazzy for a lame half-blind overweight blue pony. on tuesday i set up the dressage arena and a leetle jump and rode nik, who rocked my world. it's been 10 years since that mare has been in anything like regular training, but she slid right back in like a polished sword to a sheath. she's not in good enough shape to stay on the bit (nor am i!) but she nailed the transitions on the letter, BAM, every time, picked up the right leads, came softly back to my seat, reached out into the contact, and jumped with a surprised eagerness that had us both giggling. i wish one of the boys had been awake to take a picture of us. we're old, but by the gods, we're still spiffy, that old mare and i!
i finally wrote the long-overdue hymn to Euterpe i promised Her if brian made it into the music program. i recited it and erl_queen's 'the queen' at poetry night at palettie on tuesday. it was fun cuz HCC's english department showed up and most of them read original stuff too, so it was a great turnout. lettie read one for me called 'eve's design' and gave everyone amazing soup on the house. 'the queen' was received with some indrawn breaths and quiet 'wow's. i was tickled when the HCC classics prof came up to me afterwards and expressed surprise and delight at hearing an original homeric-based work in boonsboro MD. we compared sources, agreed that we both love fagles' translations and athanassakis and robert graves (sorry, sannion!) and ovid, and were generally happy to find fellow geeks.
here's my hymn.....
( To Euterpe )
also dedicated the long-overdue windchimes to Aeolus. and started working out again. EEP! must go run or do the eliptical or something before getting ready for work tonight!
we've got our Bigass Fourth of July party on the 5th (just to be confusing) and then we leave on tuesday for our Bigass Family Reunion in bermuda. there's so much to do i just can't think about it. i'll think about it tomorrow, when poor david will probably come unglued because i haven't done enough thinking about it yet.
:) khairete
suz

people keep posting about the aphrodisia, which i have on my ultra-nifty neokoroi calendar as this coming friday!
of course, hellenic calendars are not all about the sameness.
but my aging brain gets disoriented easily, and my relationship with the glorious kallipugos is uncertain a lot of the time.
flowers and chocolate shall be offered!!! really!!!!
khairete
suz

the guys got me a mac mini!!
i'm posting from MY MAC!!!!
:O
khairete
suz (who thinks turning 50 is so wonderful she might have to do it every year from now on)

finally got around to uploading, so here they be.
( breakfast was oatmeal pancakes with strawberries and bananas, butter and maple syrup, OJ, creamy sweet yummy cardamom coffee, and eggs )
( oh, and milk and bacon )
( kitchen garden )
( from a different angle with ponies behind )
it's a lot more grown-in now and could use a good weeding. here's a pile o' lettuce i brought in yesterday. best dang salad lettuc i've ever grown, red and green butter with a little ruby red chard and spinach. all getting ready to bolt, though.
( lettuce, dude )
this morning i spent two hours learning how to milk a very patient cow. sandi can get a full bucket in about 20 minutes, but in all the time i sat there laboriously squeezing this poor cow's tits i barely got a gallon, and that was with sandi taking pity on me occasionally and taking over. it's HARD! i have a whole new respect for milkmaids.
now i seriously need a nap.
khairete
suz

i'm so disgusted with just about all the news media i can get via direct tv that i almost never watch it any more, and i've been in summer laze mode about keeping up through newspapers. after my news gorge during the presidential election i've been in abstinence mode, i guess.
so i've been woefully uninformed about the incredible events in iran. my ignorance is largely my own fault for not looking, but partially the major media's fault for not focusing. the big news outlets have almost uniformly become entertainment variety shows and vomit all over them.
i'm glad i finally clicked on the daily dish today. my heart thrills to the bravery of the iranian people, defying their own oppressive strangling theocratic regime to demand transparency in their election process, risking possibly even their lives.
whoda thunk iran could teach us something about how democracy ought to look?
khairete
suz

since losing my stall slave, it's back on me to make sure my mostly-neglected ponies get groomed, skritched, pampered and attended to as they think they deserve, so i decided to keep lisa's former lesson days as my riding days. i tacked old nik up (she was surprised but pleased) and we actually schooled briefly, just about 20 minutes, just to remind us both of the work we used to do back when we had big dreams. she was wonderful, soft and compliant and eager. she's physically stiff on the right rein, always has been and now more so with age, but very willing to soften to my massaging inside aids. what a star. then we went out for a brief trail ride, which was wonderful except for the terrible plague of mosquitoes we're experiencing. we live near the river and my farm has boggy bits, so they're always bad here, but this wet wet wet cool spring and early summer have morphed them into something from a horror movie. i don't swat them, i wipe them away in sheets. my riding gloves are spotted with blood from my constant re-sweeping of poor nik's neck, the only part of her i could reach. and this was after liberal application of fly spray.
afterwards i gave her her first deep bath of the year, scrubbed her til her lip flapped with ecstacy, show-sheened her, re-applied fly spray and decked her out in a red fly sheet. the other two rolled their eyes at the preening.
( her ridiculousness )
i love riding her. there is no other horse in the world i love riding like i do her. we've come so far together, and finally i've got the perfect blend of her fire and gofaster with the education she's had and the nice attitude she's acquired over recent years. i adore the fatties and they are a blast to ride, but there's nothing quite like miss pickles.
when i had her fluffed and flounced to her satisfaction i finished up my planting (yes, i WAS done but mumsie took me to lunch and a garden center for my birthday and i lost control), weeded the herb garden, got the tomato cages in, and had a nice swim. then i fixed a pork loin for david's dinner and a huge fruit-laden salad for me. i'm in the midst of the 3/3/3 fast, but my head's not into it and i'm cheating regularly and nonchalantly. hey! don't judge me! i just did the master cleanse AGAIN three months ago!
on tuesday night i told an original horror story about a vampiric teddy bear and (rather confusedly) sharks up at the 'there's no place like homeschool' camp. i was thrilled when several moms had to bug out of yakking afterwards cuz their kids couldn't sleep without them. damaging the psyches of the next generation is my constant goal. and tonight my booboo comes home. it feels as if he's been gone for way more than 5 nights.
all is well in the peaceable kingdom.
:) khairete
suz

okay, finally got around to uploading pics from my camera, so here are the ones from my 3-day alice in wonderland festival inspired by erl_queen. the first two days were just me doing various celebratory alice things, but the festival culminated in a mad hatter tea party here with some of my favorite folks.
( a busy noisy table )
( dee dee and olivia )
( my faboo mumsie )
( goofy kids )
( deana who's too busy having adventures in Oz to have tea with us )
( ben and dylan )
( mah pimp hat )
( kailee and hannah )
next year i'm going to scarf up on some of erl_queen's stuff.
:) khairete
suz

i asked the family of my working student to care for the farm while we're in bermuda, and they agreed and asked me to set the rate. my first (low) offer was met uncomfortably, so i jacked it up the going business rate of $100 per day which everyone was happy with.
then i got an offer from another friend to do it for free.
$700 vs free, and the free folks are actually a better fit for us, worry-wise.
no contest.
so i broke the news to my working student and her mom, which was not received well. this morning came the mostly-expected angry denunciation email about my 'inexplicable' decision.
i will answer her with love, because i know they are hurt and disappointed.
but to you, my lj friends, i have to ask 'inexplicable'?
what's so friggin' inexplicable about $700 or free?
:/ khairete
suz

not a bandwagon i'm gonna be jumping on.
i'm a pagan and i have values, but the values themselves are not intrinsically pagan. they're human values.
i hate it when christians start yawping about how our country was formed on 'christian values' and when asked what they are talk about values that are mine as much as theirs.
it seems hypocrital to me to try and claim the values important to me.....honesty, piety, arete, family and community for example.......as 'pagan.' i know too many non-pagans who share them wholeheartedly.
khairete
suz

what, am i nuts? but my parents mentioned they were heading off to tennessee to offer aid and comfort to my newly divorced brother and his somewhat shell-shocked girls. since i had nothing going on that i couldn't put off, i impulsively said i'd come too. so i'm deserting my appallingly mosquito-infested farm and heading south, right at the end of the retro when the hinky retro energy is at its hinkiest.
so i have packed my sleeping bag, several books, my tarot cards, and my sense of humor.
see ya next week, dears!
khairete
suz

Neowiccan. Love Every Bite.

That pretty much sums you up!

:) khairete
suz

okay, my updates and photos are STILL not happening yet, but i must post a quick happy-post after my last snarly one!
i spent all day wednesday in blissful thrall to demeter, starting with a theoxenia breakfast then moving onto spending the entire day planting, watering and tending. major bliss!
thursday was flower pots, then work at palettie where i had a very good night. bliss!
a week or so ago, when it was still very chilly at night, i walked down the dark lane and saw the first glimmers of fireflies in the hedgerows (did i already post about that?) last night, against the violet of the dusky star-studded sky, was the first bright one aloft, moving from above the persephone shrine to hover over the herm. bliss!
i got the front pasture mowed, and yesterday did the lawn. last night david put the ladder in the pool and officially declared it open (even if it's not quite as crystal clear as i'd like.) bliss!
no time to get in it today, but i'm off to the farmer's market to find some fresh veggies and a few more annuals for my strawberry pots before i get GARgeous and go read tarot. tomorrow, plant them, make amish friendship bread, and SWIM! BLISS!
i saw my first hummingbird two days ago, although i haven't seen him back yet. bliss!!!!!
oh, how i'm loving this early part of summer! my classes are finished and i don't have to start working on autumn's quite yet. i can be lazy for more days in a week than i have to be busy. that makes todays' busy-ness so very do-able. bliss!
:) khairete
suz

i'm way behind on uploading pics and updating journal, but a quick snarl is called for. i'm deeply unhappy with obama on a number of things, although in the balance i'm still overjoyed to have him as POTUS. i'm royally pissed at our craven, pandering, short-sighted, criminally insane congress.
we have more prisons per capita than any other nation in the world. if there's one thing we can do, it's incarcerate. i've got a max security prison 10 miles down the road. the lights from that fucker create ambient light that interferes with my stargazing. put the terrorist suspects THERE.
when i saw that asshat maundering about the soldiers at levenworth don't want to be near terrorists i nearly went through the monitor. we can KILL them, but we can't have them in a close enough proximity to LEARN anything about them? (and pointedly, whether or not they ARE actually terrorists?????) we can warehouse the worst of rapists, child molesters, serial killers, psychopaths and crazies in our prisons, but we're askeered of the less than 300 at gitmo whose guilt hasn't even actually been established yet?
WTF?????
khairete
suz

i'm sitting here thumbing idly through my latest toscano catalague looking at all the kewl statuary and beautiful things i'd get if i had uber $$, when i see a beautiful and familiar-looking wall mask. i look more closely and SHAZAM!!! it is indeed the work of the incredible cocotopia.
behold!
http://www.designtoscano.com/product/wall+decor/wall+sculptures/classic+wall+sculptures/presence+of+carnevale+wall+sculpture+-+os69872.do
i first saw her work hanging on the wall of veggie annie's old frederick apartment and about dropped my teeth in covetous admiration.
i will, before too long, own a zeleny for my very own.
khairete
suz

i am SO behind in updating, i've actually been procrastinating cuz it seems overwhelming. but just a quickie....brian took me to star trek for mother's day, and i loveloveloveloved it. terrific casting, brilliance in capturing the small nuances and mannerisms that totally channeled the origian characters, great story, judicious use of humor. the hand-to-hand combat scenes are too jerky and fast, i want a god's eye view not a first person one. apparently i'm a geezer....today's vidgame afficionados can mentally keep up with that chaotic camera work. i don't like it. and christopher pike was too old. but that's it.
i want to own it and watch it a lot, and give daniel craig and riddick a rest.
more to come soon!
:) khairete
suz

in prepping for my alice class, i'm finding plenty of mythological examples of girls going down 'rabbit holes' into the under/otherworld in classical mythology, but not so much in celtic/norse stuff. it seems as if it's much more prevalent for men to be lured or snatched away, often by females. am i missing something? got any examples of celtic alice tales for me?
:) khairete
suz

so, here's what i look like with my front-teeth gap....
( suz au naturel )

here i am with the fillings....
( enhanced smile )

khairete
suz

well, most of it was lies, but in hermes' honor i tried to mix my lies with enough truth to make it plausible, and i love you all heartily for even thinking i might be capable of all that.
yesterday was the modern festival of boukokleptia, in which outrageous boasts are blared about in heroic fashion in honor of my beloved god. but i thought i'd sneak in a little odysseus and see if it worked. lying does not come easily to me and i still don't feel right about doing it even for this purpose, and honestly reading the nice comments makes me feel pretty oogly.
maybe next time i just need to brag outrageously and obviously and be done with it.
i couldn't run 20 miles if you dragged a baked potato in front of me the whole way. i did power walk with the ol' man for about 3 miles, and it nearly killed me. the bluebells ARE out and i think i could almost hear 'em sing.
lisa did come for her lesson and we did set up the dressage letters and use the new 'arena' for the first time and nik did indeed spook at each and every one. i barely convinced the two of 'em to trot a third of the way around the arena without racing off, and they sort of managed an okay circle. nik is capable of doing flying lead changes but i'm not good at asking her so even i rarely get one, and we've never done a canter pirouette.
my nails are done and my smile enhanced. pics to follow.
i did go get milk, but the repair-the-udder thing was stolen almost entirely from 'my friend flicka', all hail hermes logios for inspiring both the original faboo book and my blatant theft of it.
i did grill sausages and eat too much amish friendship bread.
i really am sorry, and hope it doesn't offend my beloved hermes that i don't think i'll celebrate this festival quite this way again.
:/ khairete
suz

i woke up this morning bursting with energy, so i ran about 20 miles on the canal just as the sun was rising. the bluebells are in bloom, and some of them sang to me as i flew along.
lisa came for her lesson. we set up the dressage arena with the lettes she and her dad made, and nik spooked at every one. but due to my awesome teaching skillz they nailed a flying change of lead and a perfect canter pirouette.
then i headed to frederick, where i got my nails done (shades of gold) and had my smile enhanced by my cute dentist. took about an hour and came out awfully well. Io Aphrodite Kallipugos!
i stopped to get milk on the way home, and found one of the cows tangled up in some wire, tearing her udder, blood and milk pouring out onto the ground. she was terrified and frantic and in pain, so rather than waste time getting help, i stopped, grabbed some handy wire cutters i always keep in the car for emergencies, sang to her until she was calm, cut and drew out all the bits of wire embedded in her flesh, and stitched up her udder with strands of my hair. the farmer will be baffled.
then i came home and grilled sausages, which we devoured with the awesome amish friendship bread (which my aunt linda refers to as 'that damn shit that's like a chain letter only it sits on your counter for days and days and demands that you tend it.)
i am all o' that and a bag of UTZ barbecue chips!
:) khairete
suz