Amber & Time-Lapse Photography

Monday, 11:54 am EST:

Monday, 1:22 pm:

Tuesday, 11:17 AM:

Boys.

Amber & Tomorrow Will Be Pretty Much Like Today, Only Maybe A Little Snowier

When, on Monday morning you check the weather as you are leaving the house to make sure you are wearing enough socks and you see this...

...you are not then surprised when you step outside and see this.

It is pretty and grounding and good for your soul and Robert-Frosty, and you enjoy it.  (You come, too!) And then by the end of the day it is over.

But then, the next day when you wake up and bundle up (two pairs of socks, Expedition Weight long johns, a thermal shirt under cashmere and fingerless gloves) and step outside into this...

...you are a little surprised.  It's less of a "wintery mix" and more of a full-on snow storm.

And then you check the weather again, and find this.

I love that the NWS releases are in all caps.  It conveys a sense of URGENCY and also vaguely suggests an old teletype machine.  Highlights:

* HAZARDS... HEAVY SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS... 8 TO 12 INCHES OF SNOW.

Huh.  Even an unreliable weather app is right, although perhaps understated, twice a week.

I wish the weather app had little icons showing you which level of Capilene to wear.

Amber & Just One More Thing...

Oh my goodness, I love Columbo.

I have been watching episodes from Netflix which aired on the Mystery Hour from the early 1970s and they are fantastic.  Unlike most modern mystery programs, the first 20 minutes show the murder so we, the audience, know the identity of the murderer and therefore more than Columbo.  We then get the pleasure of watching him slowly, slowly, and persistently circle in on the answers, picking up clues and putting them in the pockets of his rumpled trench coat.  He is the anti-Poirot: thinking aloud, imprecise, and clean-shaven.  And yet somehow, in the midst of his sloppiness and annoying questioning and self-depreciating asides, he brings calm and justice.

Peter Falk is fabulous.  His Columbo is an enigma.  Just how goofy is he really?  Is his tangential babbling all a rouse to disarm the crooks?  Or is he simultaneously bumbling and genius?  Whichever he is, he is likable.  The anecdotes about his wife ("My wife says I am the second best [detective].  She says there are 80 guys tied for first place.") round his person.  The episodes are filled with little human moments like when our hero blushes when kissed by a hooker played by Valerie Harper.  (I guess we know what happens in season 3 of Rhoda after her marriage to Joe dissolves.)  (I never liked that Joe or his temper.)

And the guest stars!  John Cassavetes (who directed Falk in some fantastic roles), Leonard Nimoy, Julie Newmar, Eddie Albert, Roddy McDowall (whose Lord Love a Duck is also on Netflix streaming), Anne Baxter and Edith Head (playing herself and choosing a new tie for the detective).

Dare I say it?  I may enjoy Columbo more than either Castle or Bones.

God bless, Peter Falk.  My favorite angel-seer über Berlin.





Who better to explain the simple joys of being alive?  Compañero.

Amber & Spirit of the Season

I love these men.

Amber & Hello, 2011

I look forward to your arrival, new year, and I embrace you with this motto.


Upward.

I also offer you this rhyming resolution.

From the roots upward
My spirits to leaven
In two thousand and eleven.

And I sing you this theme song.  (Or, really, I sing along with Joe Pug.)



I look forward to your arrival.  Whenever you want to get here, I will be ready.  And so will my first chakra.

Amber & Multitasking

How do I do it, you ask?

Work full time for Mother Goose Inc. (and pretty darn well if my department's contribution to the bottom line is any evidence)?

Stay in touch with both my friends and pop culture (my BFF)?

Maintain compelling web content meant to maximize audience engagement on this blog, a go-to source for serious journalism on topics as broad reaching as Hat Hair, Kitties, and Television?

And, all the while, manage to kick the behind of my own Sudoku score?

I have an amazing muse, darling reader.

Muses, even.

Amber & EOY 2010

It's official: next year will be 2011.

So far, it looks like it will be a year full of possibilities.  Lots of opportunity to define the year and organize my priorities.  One might even call it a blank slate.

Now, all it needs is a theme song, a rhyming resolution and a some goals.

Also, my birthday falls on a Thursday next year.

Amber & Target Demographic

So, I was just in D.C. overnight for biznusses.  And I stayed at the lovely Quincy hotel, mostly because it was cheap and also right around the corner from where the biznusses were conducted.  (And because my old apartment at the Argonne has probably been rented.)  There were several notable things about the Quincy which I will proceed to note hereforth.

1.  The couch in my room was totally the larger L version of my home couch.  Same fabric, same feet shape, same velcro attachments for the pillows.

Same, same, same-- except less cat fur.  And no sheet covering it to protect it from cats or little decorator pillows or Ginger.

2.  There was a very strange music thing happening, both in that they chose to blast all of the songs from my "HS Memories" playlist in the lobby (see sidebar), but also because, very randomly, there was a Billy Squier album cover on the wall on my floor near the elevator.

True, they never played any Billy Squier in the lobby, but there he was, gazing at me while I waited for the elevator.  This prompted Kevin to say, "This must be a hotel for young people."  And that made me laugh uproariously since that album came out before some of my younger friends were born.

3.  There was a giant mirror against the wall.  (Even bigger than yours, CRD.)  It made me realize that I really need a full length mirror if I am going to avoid making outfit mistakes like that one time I wore the balloon top out in public.  Or, maybe just forgetfully not make outfit choices at all.

4.  In this big mirror, I also noticed that my skirt (seen here with the oddly ruffly sweater, both acquired during my total blogging black out at Outlet Mall Weekend Edition of Awesome Club) matched the orange couch pillows.

Is there such a thing as fate?  Are some matches are meant to be?  E.g.,  My skirt + the couch pillows? Me + The Quincy?  This must be a hotel for me.

 Billy Squier doesn't want me to embed his video as my conclusion, but it's here.  But, we also heard this song in the lobby, and it made me touch my heart in nostalgia and emotion.  And a voice inside my head said, "Don't look back-- you can never look back."



Except at the Quincy.

Amber & Baby Kevin

It was on this day in history that baby Kevin entered the world.  He was very small and probably wrinkly, like babies are, but I imagine he looked something like this.

Only maybe he didn't have glasses then.  But that scarf is from his heritage and so it seems likely they swaddled him in that in the hospital.

Well, today we celebrate that day, long, long and almost six feet tall ago.  Several rotations of the hands of this clock have passed, anyway.

(Photo by Jimmy)

And, now Kevin is my professional colleague in addition to being my morale booster, musical entertainment, life advice coacher, and truly wonderful friend.  He is also a snappy dresser--this jacket is also heritage, so maybe this was what he wore to his Christening?

(Photo by Jimmy)

Kevin is the kind of loyal, heartful friend that you need for your first chakra.  If someone is going to pack up the contents of your life and present them to you in a U-Haul truck, you want it to be Kevin.

(Photo by Jimmy)

 Kevin will present you with the truth (maybe that you are a hoarder) with humor and caring.  Kevin understands that you're just a regular person and he respects you for it.

Thanks, Kevin, for being born, and for being one of the smartest, generous, funniest, most celebratory, best-haired, book-lovingest, tallest, most dedicated, strongest, and kitty-lovingest people I know.  Had we not met sometime in between your birth and now, I would be much, much less and not at all who I am today.

So, Happy Birthday, Baby Kevin.  And Big Kevin, too.

Amber & Truth

Amber & Days of Yore

Yesterday, I became Facefriends with my college-freshman-year roommate Jamie.

Sure, this is the thing about Facebook; people from your past come out of the woodwork.  But, it's really kind of amazing.  Jamie and I actually hadn't spoken since we parted on not-great terms at the end of freshman year.  There's this amazingly good feeling that comes from recognizing just how far behind you those differences are and being able to share in those happy, happy, happy memories.

There's also a sense of wonder, both at the outfits that I chose (that is a Banana Republic skirt from back when they were actually safari-style gear and the name sort of made more sense), and at how very young we once were.  I am a baby in these photos!  Waaaa.  But I still have those pillow shams.

Jamie was hugely important to my transition to college which in turn was hugely important to who I am today.  I have so much appreciation for Facebook today, and for Jamie for making the effort to find me so that we could bask in the warm of nostalgia.

P.S.  And how wonderous and lucky is it that I have made the journey from babyhood to where I am now with James as my friend?

Or that he still has those crazy long toes?

Amber & It's All In There

This weekend, a new kitty environment was added to my household.

This Super Fabulous Kitty House really sums up the weekend.  It was made by my fantastic sister.

Candice is seen here prepping for her trip to the Gulf where she helped out with the oil clean up efforts by wrapping herself in toilet paper and then rolling around on the beach.  See?  She is not only very giving of environments to the kitties, but she also helps out the other Al Gore kind of environment.

In addition to being made by the birthday girl, out of the box which contained an air conditioner present from my parents which made my apartment completely livable again, which they gave me on their visit, and which my dad and Bernard installed, the Super Fabulous Kitty House also reminds me of all the fun games the cats played in it all weekend which reminds me that I had a super fun time watching the World Cup Soccer game on Sunday with Nick and Diana after brunch at La Palapa.  And that reminds me of huevos rancheros con salsa verde.  And that pile of green stew and white creamy stuff on an egg makes me happy.

See?  The Super Fabulous Kitty House is really quite representative of my whole weekend.

Amber & If The Ballet Shoe Fits

I present you, on this fine Sunday, with some Culture.

You see now why I wanted to be a ballerina.  This was made the year I was born.  It was, you might say, the Role I Was Born to Dance.  Coming soon to an office where I work?

Amber & Epic Stories

Some days, I miss Veronica Mars.



Maybe there's just not enough sassy girl detective in my life these days.  Kate Beckett comes close, but her hair isn't nearly as flippy.

Or, maybe I miss teen romances that span years and continents--lives ruined, bloodshed-- and summer break.  They don't write songs about the ones that come easy.

P.S. I snost and lost, too.

Amber & Woodra Pooja

Today is the second of the annual kitty poojas!  Happy Woodra Pooja every one!

(photo by James)

Like, Gigi, Woody has a dual nature that we celebrate on this special day.  Woodrow Wilson Gutherie Feline is both an incredible snuggle monster, always close by and looking for under-leg tummy rubs...

But also the world's crankiest old man cat, barely tolerant of the affections of his little brothers.

Thus, Woody teaches us that we are all compassionate, but that being nice doesn't mean letting others walk all over us (or chew our necks).  Woody reminds us that, through it all--even if we start out a small snake-eyed frizzy beast...

...even through Elizabethan Collars and knee surgery...

(photo by James)

...our foremost duty is to honor and respect the miracle of life and to enjoy every day that we can spend with our fellow living creatures-- especially if they provide us with environments.

 To celebrate Woodra Pooja, there be lots of ritualistic face rubbing, with the customary shedding of great amounts of facial fur.  Thus, we coat ourselves with the essence of Woody: softness.

(photo by James)

Once the rubbing has completed, there will be some eating of wet food mixed with water, plenty of sink hands (with Woody perched on the edge of the tub--not on the sink) and then we will repeat the cheek rubbing and coating of our pants in fur, pretty much every time we sit down.

There will be the traditional offering of a cup of water out of which I have taken sips for paw bathing and drinking.

(photo by James)

And there will be appreciation of how beautiful and special all living things are.  And we may even get weepy thinking about how lucky we are to have such magical and unique interspecies friends who mean so much to us every day and give us unconditional* love.

And then there will probably be more lap time.

Happy Woodra Pooja!

*Unconditional as long as there is wet food, clean litter and belly rubbing.

Amber & Magnificent Animals

After a happy, rich seventeen years of life, complete with cross-country adventures including rubbing his fur in the dirt on a Navajo reservation and sharing six different apartments in three different states with his people, we are all sad to learn George has left us.  He was a noble beast, a proud, big boy with a yen for loving, and a good and honorable friend to Amy and David Bee.

He will be missed.  George, I am honored to have known and loved you.

Amber & I Spy With My Four Eyes

Can you spot my four kitties in this picture?

My life is nothing if not abundant of cat.

[Solution to be posted later.]

Amber & Earth Animals

I celebrated Earth Day this morning by petting the cats (who, after all, are part of the wonders of Earth) and reading this article in The New York Times non-paper edition.  It chronicles something I have only experienced on an airplane: the newly hatched oeuvre of animal reality shows.  The author draws this questionable, although likely tongue-cheeked, conclusion:


Sure, you could argue that we humans have abused nature far more than nature has abused us. You could also argue that these portentous nature shows are merely playing on the secret desire we all have to feel that there is still some danger, some life-or-death excitement, left in this sterilized, seat-belted, stay-on-marked-trails world.


But while you’re making these arguments, a bear may be breaking into your garage, your neighbor’s pet boa is probably making its way into your closet, and a flatworm could be laying eggs in your blood vessels. So sure, on Earth Day, all hail nature for its beauty and wonder. But remember that, as that volcano in Iceland reminds us, it’s also violent, and hungry. Very hungry.


I've only ever seen those animal rescue shows and the one where the British lady wears a jumpsuit and always figures out that it's the owner who is the problem, not the dogs.  So, I could only wish the article had been better illustrated.

Here without delay, I fulfill my own wish, providing one image for each category of show he discusses.


1.  ANIMALS ARE ADORABLE.

Really, I could have gone with just about anything from the heroes over at Cuteoverload.com where they document this category, one ridonkulus animal at a time.


2.  ANIMALS ARE WEIRD.

Remember this guy?  Aye aye, captain!


3.  ANIMALS ARE JUST LIKE US.

They eat in restaurants and sometimes get served the wrong dish.  Only they can't spell.  Oh wait, that is just like us.  (Maybe we were better spellers before LOLcats?  Chicken or the egg?)


4.  ANIMALS WANT TO KILL AND OFTEN EAT US.




Yo, nobody should dance with the bear.  DANGER ZONE!

Amber & Hanuman Jayanti

Today, on the birthday of the mighty mythic monkey king, Hanuman, I want to talk to you, dear reader, about monkeys.  Namely, I want to tell you two things.

1.  Monkeys are awesome.

2.  And, as such, they should be recognized as their amazing, diverse selves and not confused with apes.  Monkeys and apes are totally different.  It's almost like confusing hippos and hedge pigs.

You think I am overly sensitive to the confusion?  Googleimagesearch "monkey" and notice that orangs, chimps, and gorillas are not monkeys.  Nor is Kevin: he has not tail, for starters.

I leave you with this wonderful story.  Hanuman's buddy Lakshaman is gravely injured as the result of an unfortunate mishap.  Hanuman flies to the Himalayas to get an herb that will heal the wounds.  My understanding, from MC Yogi, is that he can't decide which herb to bring back so he takes the whole mountain.  In this version, I'm not sure why he brings the whole mountain since he seems to have found the herb.  Maybe it's about bringing enough?  Anyway: super cool mountain-moving trick.



I love monkeys so much, I will even forgive Hanuman introducing non-native species to the area.