In which - Satellites and lost planes.....

Stupid computer....

"Maddy! Why isn't this stupid thing showing the song titles?"

She looked. "It has to be in their database to pick up the album info. I don't think it is - yet."

"Shouldn't it be in there if it's been released?"

"I think it's been released but not like "officially" officially released. Like it isn't available on say. Amazon or anything." She isn't sure how this whole Pledgemusic thing works any more than I am. It's a long (and presumably better) way from the days when Big Record controlled  - well, just about everything. But long story short, the long-awaited Satellite Paradiso CD arrived on the eve of Christmas eve - one heck of an awesome little Christmas surprise. (Of course, if Maddy ever bothered to actually CHECK her Gmail from time to time, she would have known it was on the way!)

And as for why we're using the computer to play it in the first place - well, we can't find the remote control for the CD player - Maddy *thinks* she might have accidentally packed it up with the air conditioner, because we found the remote for the air conditioner on top of the CD player - and in a cruel twist of modern fate, the CD player is inoperable without the remote. Oops.

All that aside, it really is one heck of an awesome album. We've actually been listening to a secret, pledge-only MP3 version we downloaded in May, but we never burned a CD copy - and it ended up marooned on the failed hard drive in Maddy's old computer. I think that's what they call first-world problems - although they're still not a whole lot of fun when you're having them.

"I like this one," Scaramouche said.

"It's called "Super Anti-Hero," I told her.

"It sounds kind of like the Alarm - like it could have been on Declaration," she said. "I'm glad to see him back, I always did like him."

"John Ashton?" I swear, this deva knows everyone....

"Yeah. I was up in Beasrville when they were recording Forever Now. They were a freaking trip. I just loved hanging around them. Somewhere there's a picture of John and my pet salamander at the time, Charlotte."

"I think they were worried toward the end that the whole pledge thing wouldn't come through." I was worried. I think Maddy was, but she kept saying she wasn't.

"I would have gone up there, but all that was right about the time the plane vanished."

"Why did they ask you to help?" I never was clear on that.

"The Ondines - ocean devas - don't have much experience dealing with humans, so they wanted me to act as an intermediary. They thought they might be able to help find the plane. Some of the whales had reported hearing what they thought was that pinger everyone kept talking about, and if they had - well, someone had to lead the humans to the right spot. That was where I would have come in."


"But mot humans don't even know what devas are - or would even believe in you if they did. How were you going to do that?"

"I have my ways. I've worked so much with humans. and I can speak just about any language. It's what I do." She shrugged. "But I wanted to help. I wanted to try to find out what happened. But even the Ondines and the whales and - well, everybody else - couldn't find the plane. Anywhere. Like the humans, we couldn't even find anyone who could definitely say they'd seen it. One Ondine thinks - thinks - she saw it turn back over the Malay Peninsula, But she isn't sure it was really MH 370." She shook her head. "Trust me. The humans aren't dumb. None of us could find any trace of it, either. And when a whale can't find it, you know it's lost."

I'll have to take her word for that one.....

In which - Happy Birthday, John Ashton!

A very, very happy birthday to our favorite Psychedelic Fur/space cadet, John Ashton!

We were going to make cupcakes to celebrate.....

And will, if Maddy ever finds the muffin pan,

One would think it was in the obvious place, but nope,,,,,

Or the other obvious place....

And no, the dishwasher actually isn't used for washing dishes. It's merely for storage at this point. Maddy isn't even sure it's still hooked up to the water lines.

But cupcakes or no, we hope your birthday's a great one!

So, is THIS the year I get to spank the birthday boy?

Maddy: CAROLINE!

At least she wasn't drinking anything this year...


Speaking of Maddy, she was planning to do a new dress tutorial to celebrate my Woodstock fella's birthday again this year, but - well, she kind of didn't realize that November 30th was, in fact, THIS Sunday. So she's hoping to put up a belated birthday dress tutorial sometime soon....

In which we're keeping an eye to the sky because it looks better than the ground....

Someone (I assume it was my "Woodstock fella," John Ashton) posted a charmingly cryptic post on the Satellite Paradiso FB page: "Keep an eye to the sky."

 Sounds like a plan to me......

Because it's better than looking at the yard right now

What started out as a simple "fix the leak that soaked the drywall downstairs" culminated in most of the side and back yard being torn up to fix the curtain drain last week and early this week.

Maddy *thinks* her poppies were spared - she told them to keep the backhoe well away from that flowerbed and they did - mostly - but there's not a heck of a lot else left. The worst part is that we don't even know for sure if all this really did anything or not. The back and side yard don't seem quite as squishy - the ground's usually kind of wet, but it seems drier. But then again, we're nine inches short on rain right now and it's been dry for almost two weeks.

And where it wasn't dug up, there are tire tracks. Everywhere.

Where's a deva to even start?

"If we find out they didn't have to do this...."

"Smackdown time?" I think Scaramouche was going to say something else, but decided to keep it G-rated.

"You better believe it."

Aura thinks the poppies are fine, though. They're normally dormant by this time of year, anyway.

"You're going to need to seed it with winter grass and cover it with straw," she said of the rest of this mini-disaster. "If you don't, the spring melt's going to just wash it all away. Maybe you can ask the fella who does your leaves for you if he can do it."

"Or maybe you come with me to Lowe's and help me pick out grass seed," Maddy said.

"We can try. Get some bulbs while you're at it and I'll help you put hyacinths in," Aura suggested. "Hyacinths and hellbores. You need some early spring color around here that isn't daffodils. and see if you can order more of those poppies, maybe."


Leave it to a deva to see an opportunity when most people just see a ginormous mess. But I think this is going to take more than a couple of bags off grass seed and some bulbs......

In which the tree comes down and Scaramouche needs to start telling me stuff....

Not the usual view from the window this morning....

Along with the dead tree, the other trees in the front yard needed some attention. Dead branches removed, a couple of limbs overhanging the house trimmed back, that sort of thing.

Not fun for a deva who works with plants to watch, though, even though it was all needed for the health of the trees.

"It's like watching surgery," Aura said. "But you can tell they're feeling better." She looked around. "I warned them what to expect, so it's not as bad. But still not pleasant."

Here's what it looks like without that tree. There's still a nasty tangle of brush to contend with - this looks like a wilderness, but it's actually where the hedge overgrew into the old lily garden.

"Aura, you're going to have to show me what to do with this. I don't want to just go in and start cutting stuff," Maddy said.

"Why is there so much barberry?" Aura said, looking around.

"It spreads. I think they've classified it as invasive."

"No, I mean, why so much barberry in the first place?" (For those not familiar with barberry, it's attractive, but it gets out of control. And it has thorns. Lots and lots of thorns....)

"My father planted it. Remember, ninety-nine percent of what grows in the yard was his doing. And he didn't always have good judgement in matters of the garden."

"It's a nice plant, but it doesn't really belong here. And it's not very welcoming with all the thorns."

"That was why he planted it. He used to say it was to keep people out. What people, I don't know."

~*~

Aura was happy to see the twin oaks doing well after their trimming.

"Solid and healthy," she said. "You don't usually see that in trees like these."

"Trees? So it is two?" Maddy said.

Aura nodded. "They're two separate trees that, instead of one choking out the other, grew together. If you really look closely at the base, you can see they have two separate trunks instead of a fork. An oak that forked this far down would never have survived."

This is the bottom of the trunk, by the way.

And this is looking up.

















~*~

These are more my style, for obvious reasons.

"If it weren't for al the noise from the trucks, you'd think this was Bearsville," Scaramouche said.

"You were up there?" I said.

"Yeah. I went up there with the New York Dolls when they recorded up there. First time I'd been out of the city. I can see why your guy fell so hard for it."

"My guy?"

"Yeah, John Ashton." She looked around. "I was hanging around there when they were recording Forever Now. They were so cute. I don't think any of them had ever been out of London for any length of time and here they were out in the country."

"You met them?" She really needs to, like TELL me stuff like this.

"Yeah. They're all really nice, although I don't think poor John realized he wasn't seeing me because he was drunk. He was kind of a mess in those days. Sweet, but kind of a mess. He got it together, though. They all did. I have to show you a picture one of their friends took of John and Charlotte, my salamander."

Okay, I need to get some stories out of this girl. Like, a lot of stories.....

In which - Happy Go Fishing Day!

Which may seem a little odd after World Ocean Day, but hey - everything in moderation.

"As long as you do it responsibly, and don't take more than you need," Aura said. "I think your fella was talking about it in that interview you showed me."

(My fella? I kind of wish. She means John Ashton, who does indeed like fishing.)

 "I've never tried it," I admitted.

"I did. At a rainbow trout farm in Tennessee when I was a kid. Somewhere there's probably a photo of me with a hat like yours and a fishing pole," Maddy said. "And no, I never caught a thing. All these poor fish in a cement pond probably not being fed so idiots like us could come by, rent a pole and pretend we were actually out there being sporting and all and nope - not a nibble." She shook her head. "I've got a bad feeling it was the aquatic version of that awful buffalo farm in Bless The Beasts and the Children."

"Well, back in Scotland we do it a wee bit differently," Aura said. "Of course, when you're a deva, a minnow school is pretty much the equivalent of the salmon run. But watch. I'll show you how to do your Woodstock fella proud. You reel out a bit of line, then you swing it back like this....."

"Wait, what? Oh bugger - excuse my language."

"And that's more than I ever caught," Maddy said with a laugh.

"Besides, fish paralyzed by helpless fits of laughter are somewhat easier to catch," Aura added. 

(It's all kind of moot since none of us have a fishing license, but oh well.)

*No curtains were harmed in the making of this photostory*

In which...just a whole bunch more random photos...

Oh no, there goes Tokyo, go go Hogzilla!

"Got my Nissan in the EZ-Park-It
At the rock and roll supermarket
Muzak music makes me feel so funny
I went and spent all my money....

We're riding on the escalator of life
We're shopping at the human mall
We're dancing on the escalator of life
Won't be happy 'til we have it all, we want it alllllll...."

The view from the EZ-Park-It....

Sooooo ready for my closeup here....

A bran fan? Or a yarn fan?

Crud. Too much cloth, not enough table....

And Jasper in pig-atory. He really hates having his cage cleaned.....

In which we interrupt this Sunday to bring you some really awesome news....

But first, we want to extend a very warm "welcome back" to an old friend we haven't seen since the end of December.....

The Ground....

Yes, it's been awhile....

Welcome back, Ground! We missed you!

It's not a lot of help for Daisy, though. Her place is still somewhere under all that....stuff.

She lived in something like a hobbit hole (as in really nice place, not an icky damp tunnel) but the weight of the snow started collapsing it. So she had to take refuge in the nearest safe place - the house. Since she had to get out with pretty much the clothes on her back, she's pretty short on outfits at the moment. Maddy and I tried to make her some clothes but - it didn't go well.

"It's not bad..." Daisy, the ever-polite, said.

"Yes, it is," Maddy said. "I have a new pattern coming in for Caroline that's supposed to have different sizes. We'll see if one of them fits you. I think it should."

"Hey, Caroline?" Fawn had been reading about that missing plane on CNN's website when an email arrived. "Look at this. Isn't this the band you and Maddy are following?"

"Which one? John Ashton's?" I ran to look.

"They just got to 100% on their pledge page." She looked at Maddy. "Wasn't tomorrow the deadline?"

"I think so. Ohmigod, that's great!" She leaned over to look. "They did it!"

"Yes! Yes! They did it! They did it! In your face!" Whose face, I don't know, but it seemed appropriate somehow. "It's happening, it's happening, it's gonna happen, the album is happening and it is going to be majorly awesome and....

 .....what?"

"Haven't you ever seen the Hitty Happy Dance before?"

"Indeed I have," Fawn deadpanned. "And I hate to say it, but the problems you Hittys have dancing have nothing to do with whether or not you're pegged."

Ouch. I hate it when she's right....




~*~

Fawn is a lot like Shel in some ways. Like him, she reads - everything. She's read the entire Wrinkle In Time series, Maddy's Douglas Adams books and some of her band bios. Right now she's reading John-John's Findhorn Garden book.

"Cool." Daisy had come to see what she was reading. "I know a forest deva, She's nice, but she's tough. Of course, you kind of have to be to protect trees around here."

"Around here as in the backyard?" I said.

"She comes and goes. Right now I think she's down south helping out where they had all those ice storms. The trees down there need all the help they can get."

"Do you think she'd want to meet us?" I said.

"I'm sure she would. She already likes Maddy for not having the tree out back cut down a couple of years ago."

"It didn't need it. It just needed that one broken branch removed," Maddy said. "Besides, I like that tree, too."

"When will she be back?" Fawn said.

"Probably not until late spring. I'm kind of watching out for everything until then," Daisy said.

Wow. A real deva, Too cool....as if today wasn't too cool already.

(They did it! YES! Ohmigod, this album is going to be AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!)