Nick knack, paddywhack, one upside the head

Yes, it was he, Nick the contractor with an estimate twice as much as the "ballpark" figure he gave two weeks ago. The work will take " a good month", not the 2 weeks he mentioned previously.We said we'd sleep on it, but I was up all night. It's not just the money, I feel a trust issue has been breached and I'm paralyzed with fear that this demo and reno ( technical terms!) will be a slow, torturous,unending nightmare, wrecking my garden and forcing us to eat take-out every night. Wahhh! We need a second opinion, like really.
Last words about TequilaCon: The posted photos are great but do not do anyone justice; these are very attractive peeps. I tried to steal them from Sarah's site, but I couldn't; go to Sad and Beautiful World to see them. Kudos to the J's (Jen and Jess) for arranging from it halfway across the continent. AND, I was not only the oldest, I was older than some attendee's parents. I rejoice in my cronity.There are too many boring old people. Age may not bring wisdom or grace but it has brought me the awarness of my right to not give a good flying fudge bar and not act my age, which is pretty boring for the most part. Tha's why I enjoy the youngin's, folks. Lest you think I discriminate, I aver that I have nothing against the old - in fact, some of my best friends are old folks.

In other news, I have amended my blog name, it is now Oivavoi: Beingbebe. In my travels through cyberspace, I have often come upon interesting sounding blogs but once I get there I am annoyed to find that the title is in English but the blog is not. Shame replaced my indignation when I realized I was doing the same thing; Oivavoi is Hebrew not English and evidently no one other than Herman Wouk knows what it means. Additionally, Oi is "hey" in Britain and Oivavoi looks like French to some and has been pronounced as wha va vwah. Lest I forget that the internet is planet-wide, I have Americanized myself bloggily both to prove my patriotism and attract more readers of the English of which I am an ardent student with hopes to someday to master the language. But more better than that sentence was.

Garden notes to myself:
Moved from center bed to left bed: Salvia, siberian bellflower, ajuga, coreopsis, lichnis. New; pink malva mallow
From center to back bed: potted pink rambler rose, double pink/lav clematis, ajuga border
New: peach astilbe in left corner, back bed.
Caramelita is comfortable only in the backyard when she does her business despite hours spent outdoors. I am not, but I moved the mountain anyway. This year, the dying daffodils will not yield not posies in their place,but pee weeds. Wanna see my teenie weenie paradise? I took and uploaded these, ALL BY MYSELF!

TequilaCon06: the recapitulation

It was a dark and stormy night, and colder than Rumsfeld's heart. We fought our through the crowds watching the breakdancers in the subway. We got to the place; it was an Irish sports bar 1/2 block from Madison Square Garden, already crowded at 7:00PM. A live band was due to start at 10: The Gaelic Adrenaline Peddlers. My worst nightmare, realized. Under the weather, I knew I couldn't even have a drink. Kill me now Sarah, I thought, and save yourself!
But no, out of the gloom appeared beautiful sprites who showed us the way to a quiet (relatively) and private (semi) downstairs bar, right near the bathroom!
Everyone was delightful and interesting and most got drunk very politely and quitely. Sure there was groping, shot-shooting, worm-licking, tatooing, one incident of deliberate squeezing of lime in the eye and many candid photos but it was all done with class. I was in a unique position at TequilaCon in that I hadn't read any but Sarah's blog and only knew Mihow and TJ , so my impressions of these people were of the firstly kind. I found out later that many are Big Stars of the blogging world, of which I am only a neophyte. I am intimidated, retroactively. I'm looking forward to reading them all, they are way cool. (I hope to learn how to post links so all can share.) It was really fun and we stayed till midnight! Wild girl's night out with Sarah, my sweetie! Oi! The last pix of Carmelita were by Sarah. I did not give her credit for her fab Carmie shots and will so now.
This is a pic I took myself for the Self-portrait day site. It is quite difficult with a wriggly puppy. My life these days is about the dog, the garden and the contractor. There's a sitcom title there I think. But hark! Can it be he who ringeth my bell. Attends,Nick! J'arrive!

Spring tra la and TequilaCon news

Spring makes me very hyper, it's all that burgeoning life goin' on. I have very little inclination to stay inside, much less sit at the computer while there is much lovely air to breathe and so much weeding and planting to do. I am, it seems, a fair weather friend, or rather, a foul weather friend. And, we live near Prospect Park which in the midst of the urban jungle is chock-full of many kinds of wildlife, 16 waterfalls, natural forest and meadows. It has always been a sacred and holy place for me since I was a child. My parents would tell of dates they had in the 20's, walking to the park and rowing on the lake. It was the first place I was allowed to go on the subway with friends and no adults. I had dates of my own there, as well as going to the wonderful concerts every summer which range from The NY Phiharmonic to all kinds of ethnic music to au courant Big Stars. For FREE, Bring your own blanket. When I was 24 and newly emancipated, I lived across the street from the park. One late night in a heavy snowstorm, I entered the park alone (very reckless) and hid behind a tree and pelted the few carst that were out with snowballs. Totally one of my scariest and most fun experiences.
I worked in the park (another dream) for 5 years for a non-profit, teaching about the urban environment. In all these years, only one thing was missing from the park experience and that was a dog of my own.
I am living a dream come true! We are both exeedingly blissed out at the park; there are smells galore, meadows to roll in, squirrels to harry, birds to chase, a sandy dog beach by the lake and new doggie friends to make. And Carmelita loves it too! Like a pedophile who hangs out at playgrounds, so I would haunt dog runs all over Brooklyn, always living in fear of being busted as dogless. Others may have bibles or pornor hootch at their bedside, for me it was always dog books. With the coming of Carmie, she of canine perfection, I have acheived doggy nirvana. On our first visit, she chased geese, rolled in mud and barked at four horses on the bridle path. Silly puppy.
She is much friendlier with other dogs in the park than she is on our block, where she protects her territory. Also, she no longer growls at the cat who lives nextdoor, a step closer to cat acquistion! Here are pix of Niecette and Carmie at the park. She is not wearing a muzzle - it is a Haltie, which keeps her from pulling; think horse. I get questioned about it endlessly.
Primavera; first green! It is Spring with a vengence here in NY. The weather is heavenly, the air is like blue and gold gaseous silk, the grass is lush and green satin. Breathing deeply gives me rushes. Our garden is blooming: daffs, tulips, dicentra, euonymous, ajuga. My tiny sticks of pyracantha and forsythia survived, lilacs, clematis, iris, roses and azaleas are on their way and despite being mutilated by Verizon workers, I still have 1/2 a blueberry bush, in bud. I have worked for 10 years on our backyard to create this tiny garden and Carmelita has trashed ( urine-ized) 1/2 of it in 3 weeks. (She is still doesn't get it about going anywhere but the yard, despite being in the dog run, park or walking for hours. Any suggestions?)
We are starting kitchen renovation soon (by the grace of the constructon gods) and I will lose backyard access for a while anyway. Che sera, sera. My garden has always in a state of change anyhow. Survival of the fittest, what?
My niece Sarah, the prolific and intrepid blogger and my mentor in all things bloggy, has invited me to accompany her to TequilaCon, a blogger meeting which to my understanding is a wild, bacchanalian affair comprised of bloggers from around the globe. Although Sarah is sober and just a taste of liquor gets me stoned, and I will know only 2 other people (Mihow and TJ!) and I will no doubt be the oldest person there and I dislike crowds of noisy drunks, it should be fun and quite interesting. It will be a good place to exploit the " Eccentric but colorful Crone" persona I am cultivating, as well as hang with my beloved babygirl. And Steve, Carmie & niecette will have an op to hang at home together.

Come one, come all, be you bloggers, readers, lurkers or friends.
The festivities start at 7:00 PM, Saturday, April 22, 2006 and are conveniently located at:

Stout NYC

133 W. 33rd St., New York, NY
Between Sixth and Seventh Aves.
212-629-6191

http://stoutnyc.com

Be there or Bsquare!

Open up: From the Stone to the Space Age

Recently in Pakistan, a discovery of ancient remains revealed that the Neolithiths practiced dentistry, or dontistry as it were. Evidence of 9000 year-old teeth showed signs of drilling, done with stone tools. Just writing these words make my molars ache.
Flash ahead to the 21st century! Yesterday, I had my gums scraped and cut yet I had no needles! Believe it or not! They have this new gizmo where the anaesthesia is spritzed between the spaces, then under the gums. No pain, no needle prick that goes right up into your brain, no numbness that lasts for hours. Hooray! The nitrous gas played a role as well. We are all hoping that the tooth in question is happy too and goes back to not beng noticed.
While I was so engaged, Sarah and niecette came up and took the Carmelita to the park where love was shared. Sarah had a date with 2 lovely blogger friends so we decided to invite ourselves along and suggested a restaurant nearby, previously referred to in this space as the one-you-can't-get-to-from here. We were enjoying our salads when the owner came over to apologize: for some reason the sprinkler system went on, ruining our meals and shutting off the gas.
I'm thinking of a career in writing restaurant recommendations.
Caramelita is quite popular in the nabe, and has a posse of kids literally draped all over her and the front stoop every time we are out. Dogs and kids: priceless.
Thinking BostonLegal would be on TV, we watched the horrible end of that Moses movie. I saw the Ten commandments in 1956 at the age of 7 and it scared the hell out of me; death of the first-born, angel of death, you know. But this one was unbelievably violent and ugly and it made me wonder if Hallmark was doing a "Passion of the Christ" style version of Exodus. And to quote Sarah, that dude was no Charlton Heston.
Someone made a reference to the TV show American Idol and the irony of Moses' struggle with the people to give up their idol worship, and lo these many years, all America is into Idol worship.

FYI: the diety if the day is the Spiderwoman!

Whelmed, over and under

Well folks, I have a lot going on these days, little patience and energy and I feel like I was hit by a truck: a seasonal change courtesy of Fibromyalgia.
Carmelita is a dream, she is dainty, alert and affectionate, smart and gorgeous although her training is stressful and tiring.
Real Estate people, re my Mother's house: incompetent, intrusive, specious, suck and I don't want to deal with them anymore.
We had a contractor come (hallelulah) and tell me my plans for the kitchen won't work. Back to the drawing board, but at least we have a possible contractor.
I have more dental surgery tomorrow; I'm praying to keep the tooth.
I am disgusted by everything in the media, but not surprised at all.
I'm alternating between pissed off and depressed and feeling as if the weight of the world is on my shoulders.
But spring is bound to come for real and I 've got my doggie!

1000 words