Positively Puzzled

Winner Mosaic Title , 1. Spiderman III , 2. ... be happy :) , 3. Reflection Mosaic created with fd's Flickr Toys . Congratulations! The New Theme of the Week is Landscape If you'd like to enter, join Flickr's Theme of the Week group. Photos must be taken between April 29 and May 6. From Today's Soundtrack Love─Chet Baker, trumpet─ Chet Baker & Strings Mon-Gu Tuul 2 (Mongolia)─Artists Unknown─ The Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol. 6: Central Asia: Ethnic Music Classics J.S. Bach (maybe): Wiederstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54─Ricercar Consort─ Kantaten Der Bach Familie I Wanna Get Married─Nellie McKay─ Get Away from Me Raga Lalit─Zakir Hussain, tabla & Brij Narayan, Sarod─ Raga Lalit/Raga Bairagi Bhairav

A Great Big Happy Birthday to EllaL!!! Hope you are having a wonderful actual birthday today! Meera and I had a great time at your party last night! Wish we could have stayed longer. Thanks for inviting us! From Today's Playlist of Life A Case Of You─Joni Mitchell─ Blue Musique Merina─Talakimaso village performers ─Valiha Madagascar W.A. Mozart: Vesperae solennes de Dominica KV 321 5. Laudate Dominum omnes gentes (Ps 116-117)─FRANK-REINECKE, ETC.─ Mozart: Litanies, Vespers, Etc. Guateque Campesino─Ibrahim Ferrer─ Ibrahim Ferrer My Little Town─Simon & Garfunkel─ The Essential Simon & Garfunkel Eleanor Rigby─The Beatles Ring of Fire─Johnny Cash Standing in My Doorway Crying─Jessie Mae Hemphill─Putumayo's Mali to Memphis Einojuhani Rautavaara: Lorca Suite─Netherlands Youth Choir; Conducted by Eric Ericson It’s A Pose─Nellie McKay─ Get Away From Me La valse des Bélugas─La Bottine Souriante─ Je Voudrais Changer d’Chapeau

PICT2768.JPG This photo is by mikehillwig . Sometimes a photo comes across the Everyone's Photos stream that you've just got to click. Thanks for the smile, Mike, whoever you are! From Today's Soundtrack It’s All Too Beautiful─Small Faces And I Love Her─The Beatles─ A Hard Day’s Night Water Babies─Miles Davis─ Columbia Years 1955-85, Disc 3, Originals/Moods Kylä Vuotti Uutta Kuuta (The Village Awaits the New Moon)─Värttinä─ Seleniko (with a shout out to lionlady) John Tavener: The Last Sleep of the Virgin─The Chilingirian Quartet;Iain Simcock, Handbells─ The Last Sleep of the Virgin Overs (Live)─Simon & Garfunkel─ The Essential Simon & Garfunkel Ravel: Bolero─Frank Zappa La Vie En Rose─Madeleine Peyroux─ Dreamland Be My Love─Keith Jarrett, piano─ The Melody At Night, With You Hallelujah─Imogen Heap

another sweet meezer moment , originally uploaded by I, Puzzled . Piper and I thought this was a really cute shot of us. From Today's Soundtrack We’ll Meet Again─Peggy Lee & Benny Goodman Suffragette City─David Bowie, with a shout out to leigh cheri. (Gabriel insisted I play this twice...well, three times, but twice is what he got. Direct quote: I LOVE ROCK 'N ROLL!!!) Pipistrello II─Clusone 3─ Clusone 3 (Meera hates these guys...I love 'em.) Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 76, No.2, "Quinten"─Quatuor Festetics─ Haydn: Les Quatuors Oeuvres 75, 76 & 77 Vaclovas Augustinas: The stomping bride (1994)─Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; Paul Hiller, conducting─ Baltic Voices 3 Mahoni─Idjah Hadidjah & Jugala Ensemble─ Tonggeret: Sundanese Jaipong and Other Popular Music Corcovado (Quiet Nights)─Stan Getz─ Stan Getz: Compact Jazz Walk Of Life─Dire Straits Ciaccona─Itzhak Perlman, violin─J.S.Bach: Sonatas & Partitas (one of the be...

Last night I had a very distinct urge to spend my dinner break at a seedy bar. My thought process was tightly wound and seizing up; a little lubrication and a carousing social atmosphere seemed just the thing. A while back I'd gotten out of the deleterious habit of writing in my journal at a bar, so it was kind of fun to revisit the experience this one time. I had to find a new bar, though, because my old favorite dive, a noisy sports bar with a happy hour that couldn't be beat, had gone out of business*. I felt like an outsider when I entered the dark confines of my new-chosen venue, until I was greeted warmly by a bartender who had worked at the sports bar a couple years before. I set myself up at the end of the bar where I had the benefit of light from the front window and open door. I ordered a martini and a pint of Guinness, an allotment for the night that would amply satisfy me. I hauled out my journal book and the latest National Geographic . I did a quick survey of...

Zazzle Fun! , originally uploaded by I, Puzzled . This arrived in the mail today, my first order from Zazzle . Ordered through Flickr . Direct from the photo page, you can custom design your own U.S. postage stamps! Cool, huh? They look great. Stamps cost less than a buck a piece...price will go up when postage does in May, but in the meantime they're sending out 41-centers at the old price. From Today's Soundtrack John Tavener: The Protecting Veil─Steven Isserlis, cello;London Orchestra; Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, conductor Baby Let Me Follow You Down─Bob Dylan with The Band (live)─ The Last Waltz Never On Sunday─Pink Martini─ Sympathique Handel: Handel: Duetto Aci, Galatea: "Sorge il di" from Aci , Galatea e Polifemo ─Carolyn Watkinson, Alto; Emma Kirkby, soprano; London Baroque; Charles Medlam Nazali Mwasi─M'Bilia Bel─ Bameli Soy Aaja Nachle (Come on Dance!)─Mychael Danna─ Monsoon Wedding (soundtrack) Beirut Hal Zarafat─Fairuz Khammaj─Ustad Ali Akbar ...

Evidently, according to Dennis Kucinich's web site , he was to give a news conference today on a plan to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. ("Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 5 p.m. on the Cannon Terrace, intersection of Independence and New Jersey Avenue".) I'm not finding the coverage at the moment... It got me to thinking about a program I heard on public radio last month. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was on Tom Ashbrook's program On Point Monday, March 26, 2007. I found it riveting. I decided to transcribe portions of it because I thought it important and worth sharing. (Naturally, I recommend that you listen to the whole program .) Excerpts: Host Tom Ashbrook : Why are you calling for the impeachment of President Bush? Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson (pictured) : I think this president has so badly abused his power, breached his trust in remarkable ways with our Congress, with the American people, has violated so many of our international treaty o...

It's a warm and sunny spring day today, after countless cold, overcast, or downright rainy ones. I'm in a funk, though, because I lost my temper with Julian this morning. He was unwilling to get ready for school, and gentle coaxing and encouragement proved ineffective. I had to raise my voice, use intimidation tactics, so he would get dressed, but even that wasn't enough to get him to eat his breakfast. It was all too much, and I hated to drop him off at school before tensions had eased, and now I know I'll be carrying around this lump of remorse all day long. He was just groggy, and not ready to face Monday morning. I know how that is. With rue my heart is laden. Highlights from Today's Playlist of Life W.A Mozart: Sonata in D, K. 311, 2. Andantino con espressione─Mitsuko Uchida, piano─ Mozart: Complete Piano Sonatas Don’t Cry Baby─Bessie Smith─ Bessie Smith: Chattanooga Gal - Disc 4 (Me And My Gin) W.A. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K.622─English Ch...

I wonder if I should get a baby book for my blog. Thanks to RevJen for showing me what a blog comment looks like from my end, and for the words of encouragement. I had the foresight to activate email notification, not fearing for a moment that my inbox would be flooded, nor was it. I'm in a somewhat taciturn state of mind today, having stayed up rather late watching old TV shows on DVD. I put Amadeus on for Julian last night, and he watched it fairly attentively for a non-kids movie. It was way past his bedtime, though, when we got to the Intermission (i.e., the point when one has to turn the disc over) so hopefully we'll watch the exciting conclusion tonight. Today I want to focus on reading the blogs of my friends...I hope to add more to this entry throughout the day. ­µ µ­ µ I'm an avid Flickr user, and host a fun group called Theme of the Week . The theme changes every Sunday at 2:00 pm (Pacific Time), i.e., right about now. The new theme for this week is Toy ...

feline embrace , originally uploaded by I, Puzzled . Piper and Yoshe, very compatible.

Piper Shows Some Tongue , originally uploaded by I, Puzzled . Piper, a lynx point, is one of our two Siamese cats. The other is Yoshe, a snowshoe Siamese. Latest Photos/Recent Uploads , Shuffle , and New! My Blog

I never liked the store brands of pasta sauces, until I tried Trader Joe's delicious varieties. Now I find I don't make my own spaghetti sauce nearly as often as I used to. Besides, who ever has the thyme? It's overcast and damp, and bloody freezing in the house, in the low 50's Fahrenheit. I'm too stubborn to make a fire in latter day April, so I'm resigned to being grumpy about it. I've added a playlist section to the blog. I'm a hopeless shuffler. I'm delighted with the first few tracks that popped up today. Coleman Hawkins "Body and Soul" is among my all-time favorite jazz recordings. I'm also very fond of that overplayed Iz tune (Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful Life). I am still trying to find my Blog voice. I'm also in that limbo of an inchoate blog that has yet to garner a comment other than my own. I'm guessing this is natural. As is the alarming amount of unaccountable time gobbled up by random ac...

Mar 16, 2004 – Julian said something yesterday in the car that made me laugh. I had just gotten a pedicure on Sunday--something I haven't ever done in his memory. He was very impressed with my shiny, painted toenails. I picked him up from school after a long day, and while we were driving away, he said, "I have to say hello to your toenails. I haven't seen them Allllll Day!" [Editor's note: This is Meera's story, in case you were wondering...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 25, 2004 – Julian's thing recently has been to talk about how he can fly and live in the clouds. I asked him if other people live there, too, and he said yes, lots of people live there... "And sometimes they poop on people's heads. Except Superman. His poops are asteroids." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jun 8, 2004 – Whenever I laugh at something I read on Table Talk, i...

I didn't give myself much time to post an entry today. I will report that last night I broke one of the DVDs from my 17-disc Avengers Emma Peel Megaset, taking it out of the box. It was stuck to the spindle, and I heard the sickening radial snap that rendered it unplayable. I was able to reorder just this one disc through www.originalavengers.com...expensively. But I must have a full set of this chic and campy B&W classic. Besides, I think this disc includes the episode where Emma adorns herself with whips, chains, and scanty leathers. Thank you to Meera for gathering together eloquent moments in our children's lives, mostly reported in Table Talk , Salon.com's on-line community, where she and I have been members since around the time our first son was born. She recently emailed this around to family members, and I thought I'd include it here, along with some school portraits of the boys that I recently scanned: -------------------------------------------------...

sunset celebration, detail , originally uploaded by Puzzled Gallery . One of my favorite photos, Gabriel and Julian at sunset, with the Cement Ship . I recently ordered US postage stamps with this image, using zazzle.com, via flickr.com. And here's an interesting recent side story about the Cement Ship. This is another test of Flickr's blogging feature, this time from my Puzzled Gallery account.

self-portrait using artpad.art.com , originally uploaded by I, Puzzled . Self-portrait sketch using the very cool on-line free hand drawing tool artpad.art.com . This is a fun program. I'm posting this mainly to test the blog feature of Flickr.

A second post turns out to be a big event in the life of Puzzled with Aplomb, as it comes more than a year after the first post. Distractions of the day are the bane of my existence, and yet they are often rewarding. Maintaining a blog promises to generate a lot of distraction, so I enter the blogosphere with trepidation. Two items I wish to share in this post are quite different. I'll start with a link to National Geographic 's LiveCam at Año Nuevo State Reserve, just up the coast from Santa Cruz where I work. Legions of elephant seals lounge, soak, sun, sand, tustle, and procreate on the coast within view of Año Nuevo Island, where an abandoned lighthouse keeper's house has been taken over by sea lions. I recently visited this wonderful location with my son and his 2nd grad class. Here are some of the photos we took: Ano Nuevo, Land of Elephant Seals (Set) . Just this morning I discovered the LiveCam link in the May issue of NGM. I was told of the LiveCam's e...

Monday, February 06, 2006 How many blogs get started because the person just wants to sign up so they can respond to another blogger? That's the case here. I don't have any particular desire to share my thoughts with the world, especially as I spend far too little time writing in my private journal. When I don't write in my private journal I start to lose touch with my emotions and my reality and it's not pretty. Well, that's enough for now.