Mortaine’s Blog

I am a prude, but I also answered 0 for: journals that are owned by me (even though, technically, you could say I’ve done all those things except oral on the owner of them), communities, and RSS feeds.

And this is a sick, sick, sick quiz when you have relatives on your friends list.

mortaine’s LiveJournal Slut Stats The below percentages indicate what mortaine has done with the 111 people on her friends list!

met 20.7% hugged 14.4% dated 0.0% seen topless 3.6% seen naked 2.7% made out 0.9% oral sex 0.0% fucked 0.0%

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I had a bout of stuttering this morning, where I just couldn’t get the words out– if I hadn’t been trying so damn hard, I probably would have just shut up and not said anything.

I wish I could remember what we were talking about. I think it had to do with the weeds on the back hill, and having Chris destroy them for us– I’m pretty sure that was it.

Stuttering is a very disturbing thing for me, by the way. Not just on a public-speaking way. Apparently, I used to have a small stutter when I was a child– something that nobody bothered to tell me about until I was an adult, and which disappeared when my dad moved out of the house (yes, I have Issues with a capital “I,” thx).

I’ve had bouts of stuttering before. Today was one of the worst, though– I just could not clear my mouth and form the words I needed to.

My typing is sucking ass today, too.

Wonder why.

Maybe I’m just tired from staying up too late last night doing the solar energy thing (we signed a contract to install solar panels last night). I don’t know. I did manage to do some nice spot-cleaning yesterday. Dishes got done. Food got put away. I cleared off the chest at the foot of the bed. I worked on my bedside table. I cleaned out my sock drawer (not perfect, but I threw away one bag of holie underwear, and bagged up a second bag of shirts and stuff to go to Goodwill).

I’ve managed to practice the dulcimer every day since Friday, for 15 minutes at a span (yeah, just 4 days so far– but I’m working on it). Minuet in D is coming along nicely, though I’m having trouble with the middle part. I remember my sister used to play this song all the time on the piano, chords and all. I always feel that it’s one of the “staples” of classical music– the kind of thing you learn how to play so that you have just a little bit under your belt. Now that I have the first and last sections pretty well, I’m working on that middle section and tackling Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (which, when I told my friend Roberta and Sharon, had her misinterpreting and humming Ode to Joy all evening, which amuses greatly). I think, when my 100-days of practice are over (in September), I’ll think about doing an open mic and playing the Minuet, Jesu, and maybe Carnival of Venice if I manage to learn that one as well. It would be a nice change, I think, from the standard acoustic open mic night fare, and focusing on three classical pieces would mean I wouldn’t need to re-tune halfway through my set. Of course, if I bring both dulcimers with me….. no, that way lies the madness of learning to play the 4-string (eep).

Which brings me to the issue of naming an instrument. I have several unnamed instruments, and I’d like to name one or two of them. Right now, it’d be nice to name the 4-string dulcimer. I’ll post another picture later, but for now there’s one
here. I haven’t played this instrument enough for it to name itself, or to have become attached to its namelessness, and I’m willing to impose a name on it, as desired. It’s a lighter color wood, with decorative sound holes (I think they’re leaves?) and the 4 strings are equidistant, to make it a chromatic instrument, rather than a modal one (which is the more traditional way to play a dulcimer– the 4-string lets you play things like jazz and rock, with key changes). So, suggest a name below, and in a couple of days I’ll post a poll, whose results I may promptly ignore at my whim….

And if you can’t post a suggestion because you’re not on LiveJournal but you happen to be a certain 5-string dulcimer playing friend of mine, just post it in comments and be sure to tell me how Ann Arbor’s reacting to the Supreme Court decision, because, you know, our local radio station has to spend 5 seconds on a superficial cover of the reaction so they can cut back over to their in-depth coverage of some story about chihuahuas or something.

Well. Wow.

I guess I’ll be doing my first public poetry reading at the LiveWire Literary Salon at Zebulon’s Lounge (21 4th Street, Petaluma, CA) on July 22, 7-9 PM.

It’s the “Rants and Pet Peeves” reading. I’ll be reading “Space,” which is a poem about space– parking as well as the kind of space that your lover says he needs when he’s packing up his things to move out. I may sort through my other poems and see if there’s a second one (I don’t know if reading more than one poem is okay or not) that would be appropriate.

Thanks, for posting the link in your journal– I’d never have found it otherwise.

That was the FlyLady question of the day. Could I leave my house in 30 minutes or less, with the possibility that nothing would be there when I came back?

Yes. But how?

Well, I’d open up the minivan and go out to the garage. First thing I’d grab is the cat carrier, then the cat to put into it. Grab his and Hammer’s flats of canned food, and run all three out to the front seat of the car. Put the dog in the yard while I finish in the house. Trip out to the car #1

Go into the bedroom and snag my passport, marriage license, etc. Grab a couple of changes of clothes from our dressers, and both pillows. Grab a quilt, just in case. Run those out to the car. Trip out to the car #2

Back in the house, grab our contacts and glasses, and my pills. It’s not that my prescription is irreplaceable– it’s that it’s a hassle to be sitting in a shelter for 2 days without it.

Put contacts, glasses, and pills into pocket or purse and keep going.

In my office, get my favorite stuffed animal. Shut down the computer.

In John’s office, shut down John’s if I can, or hope he is home to shut it down. Grab his backpack, which he usually keeps full. Again, this is for convenience– we may need sleeping bags and similar camping gear if we’re evac’d for a few days.

Dump these things in the car, ignoring the meowing cat. Trip out to the car #3

Go back in to the living room and grab the photo albums next to the piano and my bass clarinet. As long as I have 30 minutes, I might as well save her if I can. If not, then just the photo albums.

Nothing in the kitchen to get, but there’s another photo album in the den that I’d grab, from our wedding. Take these and my clarinet out to the car. Trip out to the car #4

Open the garage door and pull camping supplies off the shelves to throw into the car. If I’ve gotten te backpacking things from John’s office, then there’s little I need here, but there may be things that make our absence much easier. Shut the garage door. Trip out to the car #5

Back into the house. Go outside and turn off the main breaker. Turn off the main water supply. Get the dog and put his leash on him. Get him into the car. Shut and lock all the doors, and GO. Trip out to the car #6

Yeah, that’s a little haphazard, but if I’ve got 30 minutes, I might as well use them.

If I have 30 seconds, it’s open the nearest door as wide as I can. Grab John if I need to, cat and/or dog if I can reach them– and hold on to either if I can while exiting through the door. The dog is easy to hold onto, but the cat might get away, in which case I’ll be upset but hope to have gotten him out at least.