To the Coast

We are headed out this morning to spend a few days in Mendocino, visiting family and hanging out at the beach and (for Caroline's highlight) visiting a miniature horse ranch. I've packed up my Nikon D80 and am looking forward to taking lots and lots of pictures.

In preparation for this little outing, I've been working away at the stuff on my "must get done" list. I emailed off a bunch of work documents last night, which felt darn good.

And I have a quilt ready to quilt! Remember the red and white house blocks I was working on ages and ages ago? The top has been sitting in my closet waiting for the final borders to be sewn on. So, last week I got that done, pieced the back (why do I dread that task so much? It's never as bad as I think it'll be), and basted it all together while Caroline watched the much-advertised Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana 3-D concert on Saturday night. (Yep, she wore the 3-D glasses, even.) So now it's all ready to go and is sitting on my sewing table providing a comfy resting spot for a cat while I decide how I'm going to quilt it.

I also had the great fun of indoctrinating a newbie into the Great Quilting Cult last week. My friend Jane has been wanting to learn to make a quilt, so gave her a stack of books to peruse. She made various choices (lots of choices!) and we settled on one that is a good first project -- a basic snail's trail pattern in batiks. Ooh la la! Jane has great taste. Then we spent a day fabric shopping -- very very fun -- and selected a gorgeous assortment of fabrics. I was amused at how quickly Jane grasped the concept (and importance) of having a stash ... she kept adding fabrics to the pile, saying "If I end up deciding not to use it, I'll just add it to my stash." See? She's got the right spirit for this sort of thing. Next week we'll get together for cutting and the beginning of sewing. It has been fun to consider things from a newcomer's point of view ...and, not surprisingly, it has made me want to start a new project. Because i don't have enough started, you see.

Before we head up north, we have to stop at Caroline's school for a uniform sale. This will be her first year attending a private school and doing the plaid skirt, logo shirt uniform thing, and she is less than thrilled. And, not surprisingly, she was up at 5:15 am, standing by the side of my bed to say she was nervous about starting at a new school. Ugh -- remember that icky feeling? I can't blame her, and who wants to start thinking about school when it's still a month away? We'll get the uniform stuff done quickly (I hope) and then try to have wild beachy fun to put it out of her head.

Okay... time to finalize the packing and get the dog ready for her doggy camp. I'll be back with (I hope) stunning pictures and sandy shoes and a refreshed attitude. Later!

It really is Sew Easy.

One of the great side-benefits of attending workshops and retreats is that you see your fellow students using tools and products you'd not discovered. And I made a great discovery at my workshop with Laura Fogg a few weeks ago.

My friend Diana was using these quilting disks, by "Quilt Sew Easy," as she did her machine quilting. I'd not seen these before but I'd seen something similar somewhere, and I just didn't think they'd make much difference. But Diana insisted I try them, and I was amazed. Truly amazed.

The white part is hard plastic, and the blue surface (which sits on the quilt) is sort of dense foam but with enough texture that it grips the fabric. I know, it simply doesn't seem like it'd be a big deal. But they make machine quilting WAY easier. You don't need to grip or wear gloves or clutch at the fabric.

I was totally sold after using them for 10 minutes, and I ordered them for myself when I got home. They're around $12.00 (or more, depending on the retailer) -- I ordered mine here.

Trust me. They really work!

Because I can't get enough talk about reading...

One of the reasons I enjoy Deb's blog as much as I do is that she loves books and reading as much as I do. She just posted a great book related meme, and so I'm snagging it to share here. Do feel free to blog your answers -- and if you do, let me know in the comments so I can go and read your answers!


So, here we go...


One book that changed your life: There's this pretty old book called "Greensleeves" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, about a girl (college age, I think) who is uncertain about what to do with her future so she takes a job in a diner and pretends to be someone else. Her "diner" character allowed her to be social, snappy-witty, and other things she wasn't comfortable being in her real life. Well, that's how I remember it, anyway -- lord knows what it was really about. But I just loved that book as a junior high schooler, and read it over and over. The idea that you could create who you wanted to be was a new concept to me. Also, "Beloved" by Toni Morrison had a huge effect on me, in terms of thinking about race relations and slavery and history and just good writing in general.


One book you’ve read more than once twice: Oh boy, there've been tons of them. There are books I read for comfort when I'm ill, because they make me feel like I'm wrapped in cozy flannel. (Rosamunde Pilcher's "The Shell Seekers" is one of those.) There are books that were so mind-bogglingly wonderful and beautifully written that I want to start over the minute I finish them. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd was like that for me.


One book you’d want on a desert island: Can it be an island with a well-stocked library, please?


One book that made you laugh: The one that comes immediately to mind is "Neither Here nor There" by Bill Bryson. Bryson, a 40 year old American living in England at the time, decided to retrace the European trek he'd made as a college student. It's simply hilarious ... as is much of what Bryson writes. I also love "Im A Stranger Here Myself," his essays on returning to the US after living away for years.


One book that made you cry: "Final Payments" by Mary Gordon. I read this on a long airplane flight, when I was seated next to a harried mom and her squirmy toddler (I wasn't a mom then and didn't realize the extreme sympathy she deserved for her plight). I buried my nose in the book and was not only swept away, but weeping copiously by the end.


One book you wish you had written: I can't narrow it down to one book, but I can name writers who make me wish I could write like them: Joshilyn Jackson, Elizabeth Berg, Anne Rivers Siddons. I love everything they write and how they infuse their characters with such believable, normal complexity.


One book you wish had never been written: I can't think of any I'd put in that category, but I admit to wondering how in the world certain authors ever, ever, ever got published and why in the world people read them. Those "The Cat Who..." books? Yikes. The one I tried to read was so poorly written I was appalled. I just don't get it.


One book you’re currently reading: "If You Lived Here" by Dana Sachs. It's the story of a woman waiting to adopt a baby from Vietnam, her friendship with a vietnamese woman who has not been back for 20 years, and the results when they travel together to Vietnam. Lovely story, well written.


One book you’ve been meaning to read: "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser. I picked this up in a bookstore one day because it looked intriguing and different, compared to Dickens' "Bleak House," but I've not managed to get to it. It looks like a winter book to me, dense and heavy.

Summertime Relaxation

Doesn't this look like a lovely spot for an afternoon of relaxation? Chatting with a friend, reading a novel, sipping iced tea.... This beautiful scene is at the Bishop's Ranch in Healdsburg, California. I swear, just looking at this picture changes my blood pressure and breathing rhythem.

And look at the summery color palette this photos yields, courtesy of Big Huge Lab's "Palette Generator":

I'm heading off for a weekend alone with my husband -- boy is that a rarity! Before I go, a few random thoughts:

I'm so happy that Project Runway is back! But c'mon -- if you knew you were going to be a contestant, wouldn't you think about previous challenges, and have some idea of what you'd do if faced with that challenge? I'd be thinking -- "what would I do if we had to use materials from a grocery store...a hardware store... a florist... a Walmart... a thrift store..." How could those people be faced with a grocery store challenge and have no idea what to do?

I just finished a delightful novel, called "If You Could See Me Now" by Cecelia Ahern. The premise is great: What if there were a group of invisible people whose job it was to befriend kids who need a bit of social support? So when a kid talks about his "imaginary friend," what if those "friends" were REAL, just invisible to everyone but the child? The novel is told from the perspective of such an "imaginary friend" whose perspective on life is amusing and entertaining and poignant. He hates being used by parents ("Fred LOVES broccoli and says you should try it, too!") and he just loves having fun. It's a charming novel, well written.

Now, off to the weekend fun...hope your weekend is relaxing!

My, your dog is handsome...

I am trying to carry my camera with me every day (or at least have it in the car) so I can take pictures when I see something that captures my eye. And the other morning, I spotted two gorgeous Weimaraners waiting patiently outside Starbucks while their owner was fetching coffee.

I'm not yet brave enough to ask people if I can take *their* picture. But it's not hard for me to approach strangers to admire their dogs ... and asking if I can take the dogs' pictures was an easy step from there.

So here are these beauties. I love how these dogs look so calm and regal (unlike a certain tail-waggy, rambunctious lab at my house...)

So remember I mentioned the 2 day workshop I was taking with Laura Fogg? It was really fun. Here's what I have so far after those 2 days. It needs a lot more work, but I'm happy with where it is so far.

Turns out Laura has a website, www.fogwomancreations.com, where you can see a lot of her work. She's a terrific teacher.

The process involved starting with a photograph, then building a collage with just raw cutting and placing the pieces on a batting background. Once you've created the picture you want, you lay a layer of tulle over the top and sew it all down with machine quilting. And, once that's done, you can add more detail and embellishment on top of that. Laura showed us how to add borders and then add a foreground elements (and a lot more embellishment) that carries into the main image...you can see great examples on her website.

So, I have a long way to go with this, but it was very fun. And the process was very freeing, just cutting and putting bits down.

The image I'm working with is a photo I took of a scene I pass every day between the house and C's school. When the plum trees are in bloom, it's just spectacular. But I've not managed to get a really good photograph, so it's fun to work with it in fabric and see where I can go with it.

Now I can't wait to get back to it.

At last -- back to fiber

After what seems like a long, long non-fabric stretch, I am excited that finally I am going to spend the weekend playing with fabric. Through a small art group I'm in, I'm doing a workshop with Mendocino quilt artist Laura Fogg. Laura is known for her fabric collages, and her name may be familiar to you because she is one of the Mendocino Quilt Artists whose groups of quilts have won the AQS group challenge a few times.

At any rate, I've got my goodies packed up, I have my inspiration photos ready to go, and I am looking forward to a fun and free time cutting and placing fabric. (And then we smack down tulle and sew. Fun!)

I've packed my camera and hopefully will remember to take pictures!

List Friday: Summer Reading!

Yay! Yay! It's List Friday! My friend Loretta over at PomegranatesandPaper has resumed one of my favorite bloggerly traditions, "List Friday!" And c'mon, who doesn't love a good list?!

This week, the topic is one that is dear to my heart: "Summer Reading." (Followed closely by fall reading, spring reading, and cozy winter reading...) Summer is all about reading for me, ever since I was a child and our summer vacation was punctuated by trips to the library ever two weeks to get new stacks of books to fill our voracious little minds. Now, I'm at the library every week or two, filling my library basket with a new assortment of novels to take me away and entertain me.

I'll tell you what I've been reading (and what I'm about to read) in a second...but what are YOU reading? What's on your nightstand? What book have you read lately that you just loved? What book will be the first one in your duffel bag when you head to the beach? Give me your suggestions in the comments or use a comment to link to your blog. I'm always happy to find new suggestions for future reading....

Okay... first, what I've read lately that I've really liked:

The President's Assassin by Brian Haig (he's the son of Alexander Haig, and he writes political thrillers with a sarcastic funny hero and lots of plot twists)

Magic Time by Doug Marlette (a guy who grew up in Mississippi in the 60's goes home and the effects of the civil rights turmoil are leaking into present day, where learns things about friends and family that shock him...)

Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler (an intriguing and unusual mystery involving a writer who makes a miniature dollhouse featuring a murder scene for each mystery she writes, and her granddaughter who is sorting out which mysteries tell real family stories and which are fiction...)

Footprints in the Sand by Sarah Challis (Two cousins travel to Africa to scatter their grandmother's ashes, and don't know why she wanted them to go there...)

And here's what's ahead on the summer reading list:

Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (I LOVED LOVED LOVED her first novel, Garden Spells)

If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter

The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline

I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley (just the title alone makes me want to read it)

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and other small acts of liberation by Elizabeth Berg

Feels like just yesterday

You know how with really good friends, a long hunk of time can dash by without your seeing each other, and then you DO manage to get together, and it seems like no time at all has passed and you were just hanging out yesterday?

I've just had the wonderful experience of having a few days with my dear friend Carol, who was visiting from New England. She and I worked together in a law firm back east, at a time when there were only three of us females in a sea of males. So we banded together and relied on each other and giggled over lunch together and complained about the work together, and all in all made the whole thing bearable.

Carol and I hadn't seen each other in [gasp] ten years. It hardly seems possible. Still, time flies when you're doing what you're doing... and here we are.



Carol was the first of my close friends to have a baby and for me to watch her experience new motherhood up close and personal. I was the first non-parent to hold her daughter Elise in the hospital, and I still remember Carol saying, "I still have this weird feeling like 'When is this baby's mother going to come and take her away?!" I watched (as a single professional woman) and commiserated and fought for her (as the only woman partner in the firm) as Carol confronted the struggle of balancing motherhood and work, in a group of men who had wives at home full time to take care of their kids, and didn't have to worry about how they'd get the trial brief written and the laundry done and dinner on the table.

And, some years later, when Roger and I adopted Caroline, so many of Carol's wise parenting words guided how I handled things with Caroline, and the whole juggling thing.

But "baby" Elise is 17 now (gulp) ... Carol and I have each had different jobs, she lost a husband and I gained one, and we live on opposite sides of the country. But we still look young (or is that well-preserved?) and we still laugh together and have a grand old time. It was just simply delightful to be with her again.

Of course we talked nonstop. But when a visitor comes to Healdsburg, wine tasting is on the top of the list of things to do. So I took Carol to one of my favorite local vineyards:



Yep! That's the same Raymond Burr you're thinking of.



And for us lawyers, being able to taste wine AND experience Perry Mason memorabilia is downright thrilling.

(I have one lawyer-friend who, having watched Perry Mason reruns as his method of procrastinating his studying in law school -- on the theory that it was SORT of research -- just about fainted with sheer excitement then they let him hold one of the Emmy Awards that Burr won playing Perry Mason.)



And, Perry Mason and Ironside paraphanalia aside, the wine is delicious (the cabernet sauvigon especially) and the vineyard is gorgeous. It's the perfect place for a picnic.



Because it was 104 degrees AND the air was still so hazy from the numerous distant fires, we opted to head indoors to another winery up the road, Amphora Vineyards. Far healthier to stay inside and drink wine, don't you think?



Carol departed early this morning, but I'm still smiling and thinking of how great it was to see her.

A hot time in northern California

Life in Northern California is very weird right now. For over a week, the sky has been filled with a grey smoky haze, and the smell of fire is constantly in the air.

The map shows the current fires raging in Northern California. See where it says "Santa Rosa," right near the number 128? I live just north of there by about 20 miles. We're not in any fire danger (thank goodness) but it's no wonder that the air is so smoky. It is so odd, not to see the sun but to have this smoky heat. Everyone I know is hoping and praying for a good long rainstorm.

As you can imagine, most people are trying to stay indoors as much as possible, to avoid breathing air that is undoubtedly full of unhealthy particulates. The local tennis courts and parks are a lot emptier than they usually are at this time of year.

We've been hunkered down inside, alterntately working and then tiring ourselves out with our new Nintendo Wii (a combo 6th grade graduation present for Caroline and Father's Day present for Roger). Playing tennis and swimming on that thing is actually pretty darn tiring! My personal favorite is the disk of Winter Olympics games we got -- the downhill skiing is very fun (plus there's the psychologial pleasure of seeing snow and hearing the SHHHHH of swooshing over it in this heat). We all get pretty hysterical when we try the ski jumping -- we have not yet mastered the skill of landing on our feet, so we freqently reenact "the Agony of Defeat" as our virtual body slams onto the snow.

I won't be trying that in person any time soon.

So, if you are somewhere where the sky is blue and the air is fresh, take a big gulp next time you are outside and enjoy it for me.

Just Holding On

I took this picture in the backyard the other morning, loving how one vine had reached over to hold onto the tendril next to it. And when I was thinking about how, for some strange reason, I feel like I've been having trouble holding onto all of the bits and pieces of my life these days, I thought of this picture.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I've been feeling so scattered. I mean, there's the usual stuff of daily life: ferrying Caroline to and from activities, trying to get work done, keeping the house clutter to a reasonable state, throwing a load of laundry in from time to time.... And we've all had colds here over the past two weeks, that hasn't helped... But somehow, I'm not managing to get time for quilting, or getting together with friends, or making it to a quilt guild meeting now and then, or doing a bunch of things that are important and fun and I've managed to make time for before now.

At any rate, my goal -- starting now -- is to remember what's important in terms of quality of life and DO THAT STUFF. Yes, work and laundry and such have to get done, but still.

And when I'll be doing that fun stuff? I'll try to blog about it, too. Things have been a little sparse here, I know.

With that said, I'm going to go get to work on a an idea for a quilt that's been haunting me for a while now. No time like the present, eh?!

Need Color? See Kris.

Are you in need of color inspiration? Need a smile? Want something so light your creative spark?

Well, then go look at Kris's Color Stripes. Yes. Right now.

Kris is a an artist and fashion designer who has an amazing eye for color. And she shares her simple, elegant view on a blog where she just extracts color from images that catch her eye. What a simple concept, right? But the images she chooses, and the colors she pulls out of each picture, are just perfect. I think it looks easy, but each gem of a set is so RIGHT that I know there's art and talent at work here.

When I look at her blog, I feel like I've had a little art-spa time -- relaxing and energizing at the same time.

So go douse yourself in color. (And tell Kris I sent you.)

One thing inevitably leads to another...

So, remember how back at Christmas time, I got this great new camera? It's a Panasonic Lumix dmc-fz18, in case you're wondering. Roger and I did a bunch of research, and debated about whether to go the full-out digital SLR route, and I chose this little guy. My thinking was that it's small and has an amazing zoom and because it was small and light, I was much more likely to carry it with me and actually use it.

I had a grand time using it, and became addicted to Flickr.com. And then the zoom function started being weird. So, off the camera went to the Panasonic warranty repair place. No problem. A few weeks later (eek! no camera!) it came back. I happily took it out to shoot some flower pictures... But wait! The zoom problem was still there.

I crankily sent it back to Panasonic, after an exhausting and irritating time navigating thru the Panasonic repair phone tree -- which, I'll tell you now, only leads you to a recording instructing you to send the thing to the service center. If there is a way to talk to an actual human at Panasonic, I wasn't able to discover it.

So off the camera went again. Meanwhile, I used Roger's camera and pondered whether I wanted to just demand a refund and get a full digital SLR. My weeks using the Panasonic made me realize that I really like taking pictures and I really, really like the Photoshop post-processing. (And I was already realizing the limitations of a smaller point-and-shoot style camera and how at times the quality of my images was sacrificed.)

After more reading reviews and shopping, I jumped in head first and got this gorgeous Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. It's bigger, and heavier, a real grown-up, big girl camera.



In fact, it's way more advanced than I am and I know that I'll be growing with this thing for a long time.

Meanwhile, no word from Panasonic about the little FZ18. I sent a few emails (ranging from polite inquiries to increasingly angry ones) and finally emailed the president of Panasonic North America simply because he was the only individual name I could find. I told the whole story, pointing out that in my brief period of owning the camera, Panasonic had had it in its possession longer than I'd had it in mine.

And you know, the VERY next day I got a phone call confirming me that they were sending me a new camera.

Coincidence? I think not.

So now I have a little FZ18 which, I think, will live in the car for those "I need to take a picture of THAT" moments. And maybe it'll be the one Caroline can use when we go on family walks.

The especially amusing thing (yes, NOW I can chuckle about it) is that with all the camera talk, my dad decided to upgrade his camera, which meant that he ended up passing his camera on to my sister to replace her really ancient one. So out of my camera agonies, I ended up with two cameras and Roger, my dad, and my sister ended up with new cameras too.

Maybe this is kind of like how people end up with multiple sewing machines (which I never understood until I added that second one...)

Just too cute

I know, pictures of fluffy little kittens are just too precious. But life around here has been dull lately ... lots of work, making my way through my 12 hours of continuing legal education, pruning the overgrown shrubbery in the yard, other mundane things like that... Hardly blog-worthy events.

So, I thought I'd post a few of the pictures I took yesterday at the ranch. I tell myself I'm not going to take more kitten pictures, but they're just so dang adorable.



Some of them are very timid around people, but still curious...



... but if you sit still long enough, they come out and get distracting by anything moving and then have to pounce.



This rather cranky guy just watched the kitten shenanigans from his royal spot in a tub of dirt.



(C'mon, confess, those kitties made you smile, didn't they?)

Stopping and Starting

Here's a shot of the quilt I've just finished machine quilting, which I call "Bali Dreams." Some time back, my MIL gave me some pieces of batik fabric she'd bought in Bali years ago (that rust and black one in the lower right corner and the gold one with a black linear design in the upper left corner). I mixed them with some other batiks and can now give her a lapwarmer quilt for when she sits to read or watch tv. She's always cold, so I hope she'll enjoy this.

But now we are entering into a few transitional weeks around here. Funny, how some periods of time are all about transitions, isn't it?

I am vowing to wean myself off of CNN so I stop getting riled up about politics ... I will try to just enjoy the knowledge that there will be an excellent, smart, compassionate liberal in the presidential race. So I'm mentally shifting gears in that arena and will just enjoy the ride. YES WE CAN. (See? I can!)

[OH! Guess what? I got an actual PERSONAL EMAIL from Jeffrey Toobin after I emailed him to comment about some stuff he said on CNN. So now, when ever he appears on screen, I refer to him as "my good friend Jeff." He's in my email inbox!! Because, you know, we're just TIGHT like that. But I digress.]

I'll be taking down the quilting frame, so we can replace the carpeting in our master bedroom, due to a little (ahem) problem one of the cats had with incontinence (or purposeful, vengeful urinating) when we got the dog. (Yes, that's the same cat who chewed thru the cord on my Juki foot pedal and recently did the SAME DANG THING to my Bernina foot pedal cord. If she weren't my daughter's "familiar," I'd throttle her.) I've also taken the opportunity to buy a new bedspread and so that room will get a makeover. I'm looking forward to refreshing the room -- literally and figuratively.

Caroline will finish 6th grade in a week, so we are officially transitioning ... she into the world of middle school, Roger and I as parents of an adolescent. And we are entering the world of private school, which already (judging from the emails and meetings and uniform-buying sales) feels rather different from the public school world to which we're accustomed.

With Caroline and Roger both home from school, we have our annual summer transition -- beautiful family time, some strain of all of us home all the time ... but we have learned to retreat to our own corners when we need private time, a concept we all respect.

As the weather gets warmer, we will be heading to the pool more, and maybe I'll get myself going in other areas of the health club, too. Let's figure that this will continue my post-gall-bladder-removal-healthier-living transition.

I'm transitioning away from my point-and-shoot Panasonic camera (which I love, if it weren't for the fact that Panasonic repair has now had custody of it for longer than I've owned the thing) to a big-girl, grown-up Nikon DSLR camera. It's fun but it's a lot more complicated. So I will be making my way through the learning curve.

So, some changes, but lots of the usual, ongoing, comfortable, life pleasures. Wonderful family and friends, solid and thought-provoking work, good books to read, fun things to sew, pretty fabrics to fondle...

I'm Not Ready to Make Nice

There are an awful lot of us who know what it feels like to live with the double standard of being female in male-dominated environments. We’ve earned less pay for doing the same work as men. We’ve been criticized for leaving work early to care for a sick child, while the man down the hall is praised as a "great dad" when he leaves early to watch his son’s softball game. We’ve been interrupted by men more often, and we’ve had our opinions disregarded because we speak with softer voices. We’ve been told we’re too friendly with the secretaries, and we’ve been criticized for being cold or snooty when we don’t join in the girl talk in the lunch room. We’ve fended off comments about appearing too feminine or seductive at the office, and we’ve been mocked for trying to dress "like a man" when we downplay the shapes of our bodies or wear more practical pants suits. We’ve been passed over for raises or promotions in favor of the man in the next office, who "needs" the increase "more" because "he’s supporting a family." We’re weak and hormonal if we cry, and we’re cold and unemotional if we don’t. Having seen how men behave in the workplace, we emulate their behaviors and are called hard and emasculating and bitchy.

We know how impossibly hard it is to be a strong, smart, outspoken, and competitive woman in a setting men are used to controlling. It’s an uncomfortable and difficult balance to achieve, especially with constant grace and humor and level-headedness. Most of all, we know how it feels to be expected, without question, to sit down and be quiet and stop complaining and instead defer to a man sitting next to us at the conference table... even if he is younger, less qualified, less knowledgeable, or less experienced.

So it’s no wonder that a lot of us are angry as this primary race is coming to a close. It has been discouraging and saddening to watch this same double standard play out so plainly as two qualified, ground-breaking presidential candidates have made this primary race one of which we should have been proud.

Tonight, even as Barack Obama was being feted for being the first african american to win a major party’s candidacy – which to be sure is a momentous, wonderful, historical event – I cannot help but chafe at the open hostility directed at Hillary Clinton for her failure to give in, sit down and shut up.

As journalist Steven Stark pointed out recently in the Boston Phoenix, a candidate has never been vilified for continuing a candidacy the way Hillary Clinton has. To the contrary, past candidates have been praised for their perseverance as they’ve taken their fights all the way to the conventions. As Stark summarized:

"• In 1988, Jesse Jackson took his hopeless campaign against winner Michael Dukakis all the way to the convention, often to great media praise.

• In 1980, Ted Kennedy carried his run against Jimmy Carter all the way to the convention, even though it was clear he had been routed.

• In 1976, Ronald Reagan contested the "inevitability" of Gerald Ford all the way to the convention. Few, then or since, have ever thought to criticize Reagan’s failure to step aside and let Ford assume the mantle.

• Also in 1976, three candidates — Mo Udall, Jerry Brown, and Frank Church — ran against Jimmy Carter all the way through the final primaries, even though Carter seemed more than likely to be the eventual nominee.

• Even in 1960, Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson fought the "certain" nomination of John F. Kennedy all the way to the convention floor.

In fact, until this year, it’s been an axiom of American politics that candidates are allowed to pursue their runs until they decide to drop out — which is usually, by the way, when they run out of money. Even Mike Huckabee kept running against John McCain in this campaign long after it was obvious he had no hope of winning the GOP nod."

At the culminating point of one of the closest races in modern history, the election results aren’t official. The delegate count has been affected by bizarre, unprecedented "guess-timating" wholly unrelated to actual vote results, a certainly troubling and possibly unconstitutional result with far-reaching implications for future elections.

And nevertheless, people are expressing outrage that Hillary Clinton didn’t see fit to "give the night" to Barack Obama.

I’m proud that our country (the democratic half, anyway) can put forward a smart, passionate, and idealistic candidate like Barack Obama, and I recognize that it’s a significant and hopeful moment in our country’s race relations.

But I’m angry and sad and ashamed that so many in our country can’t celebrate the rise of the first significant black candidate without simultaneously (and almost gleefully) trying to stomp the first significant female candidate down.

We’ve come a long way, baby ... but apparently we’re not good sports if we expect to make it over the finish line.

A Watery Day

It's "reveal" day over on the Twelve by Twelve blog for our latest challenge, on the theme "water." And all 12 quilts are already up! Once again, I'm amazed and delighted by the variety of directions people pursued, and impressed by the talent of these artists. They're gorgeous, all of them.

Mine is above, called "Music from Across the Water." I based the image on a photograph (with the artist's permission). I had grand plans to do this with reverse applique, but quickly realized how hard that would be for a 12x12 inch size. So, I opted to do it via painting.

First, I created a line drawing.

I laid white cotton over it (Hoffman's PFD pima cotton, actually) and started in with the Tsukineko inks.

I had a grand time painting... I just love these inks and the little pen applicator thingies that come with them.

Then I quilted, faced it, and voila.

I can't wait to find out what our next theme will be!

Those 27 People

Just a brief update to say I was very interested to hear the DNC committee proceedings today. I was impressed at how the speakers presented such cogent, clear, and reasoned positions -- and I was struck at how difficult the situation is and how people were really trying to do the right thing. So many competing interests to balance.

I'm not sure how I feel about the result. I think it was appropriate to seat delegates from both Michigan and Florida, and the half-vote thing seems right, given that that was the penalty originally stated in the rules. I'm still pretty troubled about the allocation aspect of the decision regarding Michigan, because it means that 27 people decided to give an arbitrary number of delegates to someone who wasn't even on the ballot, and in so doing they took delegates away from the specifically designated "uncommitted category" which is supposed to mean "uncommitted."

I don't get the basis for giving the pledged delegates only half-votes and giving the superdelegates whole votes (that feels a bit like giving preference to the party insiders over the citizen voters) but I missed chunks of the hearing and maybe someone had some rationale for that.

So, it'll be interesting to see where it goes from here. I can appreciate why Clinton might appeal further -- the allocation of delegates does seem arbitrary and sets a very troubling precedent of ignoring actual votes to pick some number to benefit one candidate over the other. So aside from the political ramifications in this race, I can see how it could be important to address the principle that was derailed in that aspect of the vote.

But we'll see. It's definitely a fascinating inside look at party politics.

And I'm really gonna try to get back to more fun stuff. Fabric! Quilts! Art! Food! Books! Friends!

What's Fair is Fair ... but what's Fair?

I’ve heard so much emotionally-laden argument about the delegate counts for Michigan and Florida, with a lot of strong, negative language and inflammatory allegations being thrown around. And once again, the issue that trips me up as I listen to all of this is not who did what when, but whether the scrutiny and moral judgment applied to one candidate is also applied to the other. It’s the fairness thing that bugs me. It seems a sort of hypocrisy to criticize one candidate for doing something, while simply refusing to consider whether the other candidate did it too.

Maybe I’m just fed up with a vocal number of Obama supporters who, in their avid support of their candidate, do a whole lot of Clinton-bashing. I’ll say it again: I think Obama is a FINE candidate. Impressive. Smart. Capable. But isn’t it ironic that the very people who tout how Obama is not involved in dirty politics and doesn’t engage in nasty personal attacks are the ones making the meanest, most personal negative attacks against Clinton? That’s the sort of hypocrisy (on the supporters’ part, not Obama’s) that gets my ire up pretty fast.

So with all the talk about now bad it would be if Clinton were "allowed" to "change the rules in the middle of the game," I did some research about what the rules were in the first place. And I came across some interesting things. Make of them what you will.

I read the DNC rules on the selection of delegates. ( Wanna read them? They’re here.) There were some specific rules that seem to apply here.

First, there’s rule 13, "Fair Reflection of Presidential Preferences." The rule states: "Delegates shall be allocated in a fashion that fairly reflects the expressed presidential preference or uncommitted status of the primary voters or, if there is no binding primary, the convention or caucus participants."

"Shall" means that the rule is mandatory, and that the DNC must allocate delegates in a way that fairly reflects what the voters expressed. So, if the DNC were to decide to seat any of the Michigan delegates, how can it award any delegates to Obama without violating this rule? Obama withdrew his name from the ballot, so there was no "expressed presidential preference" in his favor. If Obama and/or his supporters end up with him getting any delegates for Michigan, isn’t that a way of changing Rule 13 in the middle of the race? And isn’t that what Obama people castigate Clinton about?

Second, there are the rules about what happens if a state sets its primary date outside of the timeline approved by the DNC, as Michigan and Florida did, and what that means for the democratic candidates.

Rule 20(C)(1)(b) says: "Any presidential candidate who campaigns in a state where the state party is in violation of the timing provision of these rules ... may not receive pledged delegates or delegate votes from that state." The famous "pledge" that people talk about turned this DNC rule into a promise from the individual candidates.

But in January, 2008 (prior to the Florida primary), Obama ran campaign ads in Florida via national cable networks (CNN and MSNBC) contrary to the terms of the pledge. When Obama was charged with violating the pledge, his campaign manager replied that the advertising was a "national buy" and the networks could not eliminate Florida from the national cable advertising. Other candidates (such as Clinton, Edwards, and Richardson) had chosen to buy local advertising for other areas which would not run in Florida, and had refrained from national advertising which might run in Florida to avoid violating the pledge and the DNC rule. Obama’s campaign manager also stated that they had received "permission" to run the ads in Florida from the chair of the South Carolina democratic party. However, the pledge itself makes no provision for any one state or individual to permit deviation from the terms of the pledge, nor does it provide for any exceptions other than fundraising. And, of course, one person in South Carolina can’t waive DNC rule 20.

So if Obama is given any delegates from Florida, or if he and/or his supporters argue that he should get any delegates from Florida, wouldn’t that allow a violation of the pledge, and Rule 20, and result from a change of the rule in the middle of the game?

But if the DNC sticks with the rules as they are, two whole states’ worth of democratic voters will be ignored. And to me, that is simply an intolerable option. I hate the thought in our democracy, especially after the 2000 election fiasco, we’ll end up with a result where people came out and voted and their votes will be meaningless. That just seems hugely wrong to me, regardless of who those votes favor.

So any compromise will involve changing some rule or another. From my perspective, if there are going to be any rule changes or creative interpretations, I’d favor the ones that give voice to people who cast actual votes that we can count. I’m extremely uncomfortable with making up figures out of thin air or reaching some artificial apportionment that doesn’t reflect what voters actually did. Isn't the actual vote count the only actual number we have? Isn't it a strange and dangerous precedent for our democratic system to disregard an actual vote count in favor of some theoretical, imagined number, no matter how "fair" the imagined number might seem to the unelected DNC committee members?

This situation is so complicated. The rules say what they say, and the candidates made their strategic choices for their own political reasons. That's fine -- it's a competition, after all, and they're both in the race to promote their own interests. But I can’t stand how lopsided the discussion seems sometimes. Clinton and Obama are both smart, strategic politicians. They wouldn’t be where they are if they weren’t. They’ve made the decisions that they thought would best benefit them at the time. But when we sort how to address this very difficult mess, let’s just apply the same rules to both competitors.

And while I’m on the subject, one more thought: It feels wrong to me that a political party, and not our elected representatives in state government, gets to decide whose votes count and whose don’t. And in challenging the awkward situation that now exists, I have more respect for a candidate who bucks the party view in favor of sticking up for people, than I do for one who complies with the party line but disregards voters’ voices.

So what’s fair? It’s not an easy answer, is it?

Feel like a good book?

I've had the lucky event of reading some really good novels lately (I love it when I stumble onto some unusual and good books) so I thought I'd share some of the ones that I especially enjoyed.

There's No Place Like Here by Cecelia Ahern

This was charming and unusual and poignant. Here's Amazon's summary:

"Sandy Shortt, an obsessive-compulsive Missing Persons investigator ... suddenly finds herself in the mystical land of the missing, desperate to return to the people and places from whom she has spent her life escaping. ... Ahern asks readers to step outside the boundaries of reality, and enter a world where missing people (and possessions) from all over the globe congregate to start anew. When Sandy goes on an early morning jog and strays too far into the forest, she too finds herself "Here," the aptly named home of the missing. In addition to finding her lost socks, diaries, and stuffed animals, she also finds many of the people she has searched for throughout her career." I loved this book. And it really makes you think about your own "lost things" differently.

The Age of Dreaming by Nina Revoyr

This was another unusual find, and an atypical story well-told. It's narrated by an elderly Japanese man looking back on his days as an actor in 1920's Hollywood silent films. Here's how Publisher's Weekly describes this novel:

"Prompted by a journalist's visit in 1964, 42 years after he left the screen for good, Jun revisits his youth in Japan, his discovery at L.A.'s Little Tokyo Theater, his rise to stardom and the scandalous events that led to his abrupt retreat from public life. Mixing real people with fictional characters like principled Japanese actress Hanako Minatoya, troubled starlet Elizabeth Banks (not the one in Seabiscuit), ingénue Nora Minton Niles and dashing director Ashley Bennett Tyler, Revoyr creates a vibrant portrait of a time when the film studio was a place of serious work. As Jun reveals the secrets he has kept for decades, he uncovers new twists in his own history and comes to terms with other painful experiences he has repressed, namely his loneliness and the effects of the anti-Japanese racism he mistakenly believed he could overcome by being as agreeable—and American—as possible."

This glimpse of LA and the silent movie world was fascinating, as was the style of narration.
Definitely an unusual story and an enjoyable book.

Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

This is an earlier novel by the authors of The Nanny Diaries. It's light chick lit, but fun and fast reading. It's about a woman who is haunted by the need for closure after her high school love became a rock star and has based all of his hit songs on aspects of their relationship. When he returns to their home town, she's determined to tell him off, for once and for all. It's funny and maddeningly familiar (to anyone whose had a seemingly great guy act like a big jerk) and fun reading.

Missing Witness by Gordon Campbell

I love a good legal mystery, especially when the trial details are reasonably accurate. And this was a fun surprise. Here's Booklists's summary:

"Sixty-four-year-old lawyer Campbell sent the manuscript of this novel, unsolicited, to Morrow, the publisher bought it within a week. That will come as no surprise to readers of this suspenseful legal thriller, which has drawn comparisons to the early work of Scott Turow. Campbell brings to it a deep love of the law and a great feel for his Phoenix setting. That's where recent law-school grad Douglas McKenzie takes his first job, passing up an offer from a blue-chip firm for a chance to work with legendary defense attorney Dan Morgan. The hard-drinking, chain-smoking ex-marine asks Doug to help him with a huge murder case when he learns Doug has a family connection to the defendants. A rich cattleman's son has been shot, and the murderer is either his glamorous wife or his emotionally disturbed 12-year-old daughter. The many finely detailed courtroom scenes crackle with tension as the driven Morgan, frequently hung over and so nervous that he sweats through his suit, makes his arguments with passionate conviction. A page-turner that is also a fascinating primer on the law."

I'm off to the library now for a new stack!

Sorry about the weird spacing-- I don't know why I can't get Blogger to do paragraphs this morning!