Lost, in translation

I'm a little bit in love with Jorge Garcia's blog. [He plays Hurley on Lost.] 

He writes short little day-in-the-life entries about his lost shoe, the oversized hotel key, the polar bears at the zoo, or strange menu items he encounters. [He seems pretty Hurleyesque to me.]  Check it out here.

Sometimes you just have to give it a whirl...

Happy Friday!
I've been craving creativity lately. Itching to create. 

My inner critic has been working overtime, though (skeptical thing that she is).

So I made her sit down and watch this:

video by the talented Jen Gray

p.s. We're off to see Up! this afternoon.  Because it's rainy. And because it's Friday. And because why do we even need to have a reason?

Kick up your heels

I had a great dinner last night with Matt and Frank and am looking forward to connecting with them again on Saturday. Denver just keeps looking better and better. Matt shared this and I had to pass it along:

If anyone is planning one of those cool public dance/crowd art events...call me! I'm your gal. It's one of those things I have to do sometime in my life.

Also, have you seen the previews of the Where the Wild Things Are movie?

Beautiful. Judging from their use of Arcade Fire's Wake Up for the clip, the soundtrack sounds like it will be pretty great, too.

For your reading pleasure...

Just passing along some favorite writing I've discovered lately around the internet. 

Oh, the delight of words well spent!

Hula Seventy's lovely written snapshot of her plane flight. Are you a stander or a sitter? {I can't seem to link to her post directly, so scroll down to "flight 749"}

Having had my share of "feedback opportunities" lately, I can so relate to Mental Tesserae's post on frescos, failures, and feedback.

I love Stephanie Kallos's writing (I'm reading her newest, Sing Them Home right now.  When I was starting Letters to a Parent, she was gracious enough to write a post in the midst of wrapping up the editing process for that novel.  Also, it was Stevie who inspired my How to Find Me post. See? I love her.) Her website includes several essays, including the lovely Things Dorie Taught Me, dedicated to her mother.

Finally, have you seen 1001 rules for my unborn son?  Clever and true, with rules both practical (don't use a chisel for anything but its intended purpose; and don't make a scene; and keep it short, lose the notes, and thank your dad) to life enhancing (jazz is for dancing; and be subtle, she sees you).  

* * *

Have a great weekend!

{I'm looking forward to going to see Two Men of Florence tonight}

{tomorrow we have a miraculously free Saturday! Local road trip, maybe?!)

photo via trio of love songs

Junior sleuths society

Veteran's Day 2008.

Lauren headed to Cambridge with three friends (on the subway! by themselves! huge rite of passage right there) to go to the Harvard Natural History Museum as part of a big Biology project.

Greg was at work, talking on his phone and doing what he does at work, where he is usually found on Tuesdays. (His company doesn't take those kind of holidays off. Moment of silence for absent G.)

That left the three of us (Maddy, Sam and me) for the day. I took a break from homework & projects in the morning and we decided to go letterboxing.

It's no secret that Sam loves everything to do with sleuthing and puzzles and mysteries so he loves it when we go on a letterboxing adventure. Plus it gets us out in the fresh air at the same time...just right for a day off from school. We hadn't been for a year or two (I know I've posted about letterboxing before but somehow can't find it in my archives) so we clicked here for a refresher.

[You could really make this two days of activities: the first day you could make your stamp notebook and even carve your own stamp from a rubber eraser. The next day you could follow the clues to the treasure. I'm just saying.]

Letterboxing is basically a treasure hunt arranged by kind and interested strangers. At each site, they bury a box with a notebook (for you to sign or stamp with your own stamp), a stamp (to stamp your own notebook like a passport book), and an inkpad. On the website, you can search for a location near you and download the clues to find the buried box. We chose the one in Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord.

Thank you, veterans.

There were clues like "go to Author's Ridge"
"you will pass a sphere on the right and a hollow stump on the right"

"walk 20 paces"

"...behind the tree you will see a partly buried rock.
The box is under the rock."

The thrill of discovery!

I was kind of concerned about the ethics of bringing Louie
to a cemetery
(would he want to dig anything up?)
but he was very well behaved

The stamp: "the earth laughs in flowers [Ralph Waldo Emerson]"

It was a good day.
{Let me know if you try this...I'd love to hear about
other sleuthing adventures}
p.s.
Lauren successfully navigated the city and the subway
and finished her assignment.
She came back spilling with stories of getting a bit lost
(she did some sleuthing of her own after all)
and loving the glass flowers
and the stuffed llama.