Pretentious Much?

June 23, 2014May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 16 Comments

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HAVE YOU EVER HEARD yourself say something and think to yourself:

Did I really say that? Honestly, who am I?

Zen-Den and I, with some friends, were at an art show in a park that is along a river. We’ve been to this particular show many times together, and we each have our favorite artists who we want to checkout. It makes for a predictable, leisurely afternoon.

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Z-D AND I WENT into one particular artist’s tent to see what he had going on. For Z-D this guy is the highlight of the show, so he stopped to talk with the man. I looked around but didn’t see anything that I wanted so I went outside to stand with our friends who were waiting.

When Z-D caught up with us he hadn’t bought a thing. He turned to me and said: “what did you think of his stuff this year?” And then I said the most out-of-character statement that I may have ever said. I replied:

“Oh, his work is so derivative now that it’s passé.”

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THERE WAS A PAUSE while all of us looked at each other– and then we started laughing so hard that we had to stop looking at each other because of my absurd statement.

Accurate as it may be, I have no idea where that sentence came from. I’m not exactly an art critic [or a critic of anything, for that matter]. All I can think is that I’ve read too many scholarly articles on Arts & Letters Daily. Might be time for me to focus more on People magazine.

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I’M GOING TO FILE this charming little story, ridiculous as it is, under:

Do Not Take Yourself Too Seriously.

Derivative? Passé? Who says things like that? Not me, usually. That’s for sure.

Project Hummer Is Not Going Well

June 17, 2014November 19, 2015 / Ally Bean / 46 Comments

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I’m sad to report that my grand plan for turning one corner of our deck into a small hummingbird garden/feeding station is not going well. It’s not for lack of cuteness, I tell you.

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Here’s what I’ve done.

√ 3 pots of annuals: 1 dark red geranium, 1 hot pink calibrachoa, 1 fuchsia portulaca

√ 1 sturdy wrought iron shepherd’s hook attached to side of deck

√ 1 hand-painted hummingbird feeder with red plastic pretend flowers that allow the hummers to drink, but thwart the bees

√ 1 32 oz. hummingbird nectar concentrate, chilled in our fridge, then mixed with fresh water using an old Pyrex glass measuring cup to insure proper proportions

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No, it’s not me that’s causing trouble with the hummers. It is, I’m sad to report, Fuzzy the Squirrel and his partner in crime, Khaki, who are causing Project Hummer to fail.

Apparently the sweet nectar in the pretty feeder is too much for them to pass up, so they’ve found a way to tilt the feeder on its side allowing the sweet nectar to dribble onto the ground below where they can enjoy it at their squirrel-y leisure.

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This means that until I figure out a way to keep Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid of squirrels away from the hummingbird feeder, my grand plan is on hold. And all those amazing little hummers who live behind our house in the woods will have to feed themselves on the 22 pink or red or peach rose bushes that surround our house.

The little birds will survive, but I won’t get the fun of seeing them drink up each day… all because two sneaky, uncooperative squirrels have found the best nectar bar in town. Humph.

QOTD: What Do You Really Call Your “Honey Do” List?

June 14, 2014May 6, 2021 / Ally Bean / 12 Comments

We all know what a “Honey Do” List is, right? It’s that wonderful list kept by almost every woman on which she tells her beloved sweetie pie what tasks around the house need to be done next.

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[If you’ve always thought that people were talking about a “Honeydew” List I’m sorry to disabuse of this charming, albeit wrong, idea. We women are not keeping lists about melons. We’re keeping lists about things to do.]

[Image sources here & here.]

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So getting to my point, in our household the “Honey Do” List has been renamed. As we all know Zen-Den gets to the essence of things, and in this case he got it right when he began to refer to what you might call a “Honey Do” List as:

Ally’s List of S#%t That’s Wrong Around Here.

As Per NaBloPoMo: Make New Friends, But Keep The Old

June 11, 2014August 29, 2018 / Ally Bean / 22 Comments

I. I’ve enjoyed June 2014 NaBloPoMo [done my way]. The theme of this month’s challenge is: COMMENTS. There are daily prompts associated with this challenge, but I haven’t answered any of them. I’ve been lazy, but admit to feeling guilty about my behavior.

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II. To make up for my slothiness re: answering specific prompts, I thought that right here, right now I’d share MY GENERAL PHILOSOPHY ON PERSONAL BLOG COMMENTS.

I like them. I leave them. And so should you.
My blog, my rules. Therefore, if I consider a commenter to be a troll, flying monkey or spammer, I’ll delete what he/she/it says without comment. [Yes, that’s a bit of irony.]
Blogs have comment sections. I won’t return to a personal blog without a comment section because a blog without comments is just another webpage.

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III. Today’s prompt is: “Write on Someone Else’s Blog Day: instead of writing a post on your own blog, go leave five comments. It still counts as writing!” Here are the 5 NaBloPoMo bloggers who did as instructed [or other first time commenters who came here] to LEAVE A COMMENT FOR ME. I’ll fill this in later because today I’ll be out leaving comments on other NaBloPoMo bloggers’ blogs. [Obviously.]

Jennie at Jen’s Rambling Thoughts
Maria at FOREST TREE NUT
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?
?

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IV. So there you have it, my gentle readers. A confession. A summary. A list. And now, as I end this post, A THANK YOU FOR PAYING ATTENTION to my sweet little bloggy and taking the time to get involved in the conversation. I appreciate your gift of comments. Always.

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V. And as reward for getting this far in a lengthy meta post, I leave you all, new and old bloggy friends, with the funniest video I’ve seen in ages. WORDS OF WISDOM, gentle readers. Words of wisdom.