What made you smile today?

the drag show I went to today

nimh, It's the New York Palace Hotel.
Looks real ritzy! http://www.boscolohotels.com/hotel.cfm?SectionId=1001

It's very fancy. Has a long tradition too. But a sketchy recent past. I remember going there with my mom and sis when we here on holidays in ... '94 - and it was overwhelmingly fancy back then, too. But by '97 I think it'd already closed, and it only opened again just now, like, last month. I think they pretty much redid everything - though it has much the same (opulent) style as it had then.

Back in the days (like, before the war), famous writers sat there all day and wrote, or chatted with each other. Of course most of 'em didnt have any money, but the hotelier would supply them with free coffee or at least not bother them when they spent four hours on one coffee. After all, he made the profit from all the bourgeois gentlefolk who came there to gawk at the famous writers in their own corner, or at least to share in the reflective prestige of their proximity. (Writers traditionally have a much higher status here than is easy to imagine for us Westerners..)

Beautiful children, all grown up.

My sister called and asked me to the Memorial BBQ, and I went. Her husband's family were all there, and I had the most wonderful time. My nephews won't walk through a room without hugging me or putting an arm around me.

Funny to see all the faces of the children that buzzed through the house such a short time ago. They're men and women, and beautiful.

Still smiling.

I gave Roland the cat his first bath today, and he was such a good boy!

Didn't fuss, liked the warm water rinse, and enjoyed the toweling off.

What a great little guy!

You bathed a cat?

Sure, why not? He's just past being a kitten, it's good to get them used to it while they're young. I started a few weeks ago putting him in the wet tub after I showered, then graduated to an inch of water, then a couple of inches and guided him while he walked around in the water for a minute or so.

His heart rate didn't even go up much.

Now he smells all nice. We used Fructice for color treated hair. He's been very happy since then, and has been following me around. He's under the desk right now.

Roland is a metrosexual, he cares about such things.

Hey, it's Chai Tea you're talking to here! Course she can bathe a cat


Ha!

I can bring home the bacon....(ba da da dum)
Fry it up in a pan....(da da da dum)
and never let you forget you're a man....
cause I'm a woman!
(oh yeah, thas right...)
I'm a W-O-M-A-N,
say it again....

About a half hour ago, my wife started screaming, and I was in the computer room, so I went to the front door, and our son from Austin was home! He's only here for two days, and I'm leaving tomorrow for Russia, but it's really nice to see him. I know my wife is very heppy too!

That's a good reason to smile, CI!

Great news, CI, enjoy your next adventure!

There was one thing that made me smile today: the dogs and children in Szabadsag Park. Lots of both of them around there, always.

Man and woman who had met / were hanging out had, respectively, a cute beagle and a fierce pitbull-type. Both went running after the ball they tossed around, and the division of roles was clear: the tough dog would jump up in might and catch the ball mid-air between his jaws - but - when he missed, he ended up nonplussed looking around in the wrong place, while the beagle sniffled around him to where the ball was and triumphantically held it up.

(Tho he then never wanted to let it go, instead running away when boss came to pick it up - leaving the handsome guy running rather foolishly in circles behind him. None of which homegirl seemed to think strange, which I thought was cute.)

Then there was this little girl, who was fearlessly spontaneous. She walked straight up to pitbull-type in curious wonder, wanna caress. Not a good idea, so she was quickly diverted to cute-beagle, who let himself be followed and petted with indifference. But still the big dog held sway, and she kept eyeing it in eagerness, anticipation. In the end mum had to drag her away, holding her wrist - she kept turning around still and protesting. Once she was distracted, however, she was quickly off to a new sight; a boy they knew (I assume), twice her size (like, eight or something), whose hair was freshly cut to near-nonexistence. Hmm, interesting!, so she started kinda caressing his head, feeling how soft it was I suppose.

He too remained supremely unaffected, just going on doing what he was doing, which was something with his friend and two sticks they'd found somewhere. When after quite a long time in the end mom took her away from this attraction too, she ran straight up to a boy with a skateboard (a short boy with tremendously thick glasses, who wasnt actually riding his skateboard but rather pushing it and watching it go). What is that? Can I try it? And off she went.

That girl is gonna be a lot of fun - and get in a lotta trouble - when she grows up

Oh, and then the beagle came running down the field from the other end, and sprintingly grabbed the two boys' stick and ran off, just like that, the two of them flailing after him and running in the circles we'd already seen the owner practice.

That was like four minutes in the life of Szabadsag Square ;-)

wow, I'm all out of breath!

sounds like fun.

<smiles>

Went to an art festival today, plenty that was smile-inducing. We had a run of HOT weather, and then a run of rain, and the sun came out today but the breezes were cool and the sky was pure blue with meandering white clouds.

First one was that there is this tent that has artwork donated by the exhibitors, all kinds of different stuff, priced from $1-$5 -- only kids are allowed in, and they can select what they want. The tent is completely enclosed, no coaching from adults. Last year sozlet's friend Dolly (who we went with) selected a necklace that was worth $80. So cool.

So a kid ahead of us went in, his big tough dad (early 30's or so) was waiting for him outside, tons of tattoos, spiky hair, various piercings, etc. Kid came out with this quite large stone fish statue thing -- I thought it was cool! Dad wasn't having it. "Nope, nope, I'm not carrying that home, that ain't going in my house, nuh-uh." While I felt bad for the kid (he went back in readily enough, came out with something else, another kid came out with the fish) there was something so incongruous about the guy's appearance and how fussy he was being.

(Meanwhile, I waited eagerly to see what sozlet would come up with, she came out with a standard "mardi gras" mask -- the black raccoon things -- that had been covered with a simple design in suede. Eh. She adores it though, so...)

Later, we sat on the grass and ate and watched a play, I had a full skirt on and sat cross-legged on it (love full skirts for just that reason). Sozlet sat on one knee so she could see better, and Dolly took the other, which was surprisingly comfortable. Just nice, sitting there with these two girls on my knees, and chatting with Dolly's mom, on a gorgeous summer day.

Was my last day of work at the lobster plant :-D

Friend of mine back home's got a new baby daughter ... their second ...

(That sounded like a lovely day, Soz ... really nice.)

Indeed, Soz, it appears yall had a fine, fine day.

I spend far too much time playing on-line scrabble. I am not very good at it but I have met some fascinating people, Tonight, with absolutely no effort, I picked up players from two new countries: Malaysia and Singapore. #45 and #46. First new countries in more than a month.

In between, I played a person from Birmingham, UK. I don't remember who won the game, but we chatted for another half an hour. Turns out she is a female rap singer. I knew nothing about rap but now I know a lot more than I did a few hours ago. And female rap from a gritty, working class city.

It is not the same as being there, like Nimh often is. But I ended up feeling happy, The lady is going to a rap contest next week; she shared some of her lyrics with me. She is optimistic.

Aint the internet great?