Tuesday, July 25, 2006

"Another Gay Movie" opens around the country



Another Gay Movie

Countess Bedelia 7/25/2006 06:25:00 PM | 7 comments |

Sunday, July 23, 2006

A log cabin for KnottyBoy

KnottyBoy is an artist who lives in the great state of Wyoming, so I thought he would appreciate the log cabin I built for my grandson, aka The Grand Duke. The Grand Duke used to keep his GI Joe dolls in it when he was young but since he has gone to college and given up his childish playthings, I have custody of the log cabin until he has a home to put it in.



The interior of the cabin is a loft with the living room and kitchen on the first floor and a sleeping loft above the kitchen. Unlike the Victorian mansion, there is no electricity in the log cabin. A pump for the sink, a fireplace to cook in, fishing rods hanging from a hook by the door, and guns over the mantle provide the atmosphere.

I built the fieldstone fireplace one stone at a time. There is an iron hook inside the fireplace to hang a pot from and a pile of firewood on the porch to make sure that winter nights are warm and cozy inside this little cabin.

The bear skin rug is in honor of my stepfather, Ray. He brought home a rug like this to our vacation cabin on a lake in Maine one year. He told a fantastic story about how he killed the bear but in later years we found out that the bear was actually roadkill...and Ray was given the skin. We still loved him anyway!!
Countess Bedelia 7/23/2006 07:26:00 PM | 8 comments |

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

A Promise for Jesse



Last night Jesse, Meri, Brian, Bennett, Jeff, and I met for a wonderful dinner at the Club Cafe in Boston. Lots of stories were shared and, most important, much laughter ensued. One of the stories was about the dollhouses that I have built and the Victorian mansion that takes up a good portion of one room in my home. As I told Meri, if you can't find me some day, it is because I have figured out how to shrink myself down and have moved into my Victorian mansion with Mrs. Bridges, the cook, and Marie, the maid.

The kitchen in the mansion is completely furnished with copper pots, cooking utensils, silverware, and dishes. The shelf that runs across the back of the room over the window has mugs with the names of all my family members. Two mugs on the kitchen table have my name and my late husband, Bob, along with his favorite meal of homemade beans.

Marie, the French maid, does the dusting and acts as my lady's maid. She is in charge of the boudoir, which includes a dressing table filled with perfumes, closets filled with gowns, and a linen closet filled with sheets, blankets, and towels. Here you see her in her bedroom over the kitchen which is reached by a circular wrought iron staircase.

There are many rooms in this mansion including 2 bathrooms, an office, a working grandfather clock, an upstairs parlor, and a carriage house for Henry, the butler and handyman, with an apartment over the garage. This dollhouse will be going to a museum when I no longer have a home to keep it in.
Countess Bedelia 7/19/2006 08:40:00 PM | 12 comments |

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Hot Weekend in New England!


The Little Princess in the Pool.

Temperature: 95 degrees and humid.

Need I say more?
Countess Bedelia 7/16/2006 06:30:00 PM | 9 comments |

Thursday, July 13, 2006

This is why English Teachers die young!!



Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual similes and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are a few of my favorites from last year's winners:




- She grew on him like she was a colony of E.Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

- She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

- The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated becauseof his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

- From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie,surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.

- Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

- The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

- The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

- It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

- He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Some of the items made me wonder what I was missing by today's teenage standards. Is the shock of getting an ATM surcharge in a formerly surcharge-free machine really that much of a shock? Is the change in time of a TV show such a surreal experience? Are teenagers frying maggots these days as an afterschool snack? Have there been a lot of murders by fathers brandishing power saws?

Am I hopelessly out of date?
Countess Bedelia 7/13/2006 07:49:00 PM | 8 comments |

Monday, July 10, 2006

Karaoke and other adventures



Karaoke night at the local pub out in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts is a big event. The Amadeus cast showed up every week after the play and camped it up. This was the last Friday for most of them as the show has had its final performance and everyone is moving on to other roles in other theaters.

I also went to the Saturday morning Open Rehearsal at Tanglewood featuring the violin virtuoso Joshua Bell. Joshua played the Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor. In a way this tied into Amadeus because in one of Mozart's speeches in the play, he tries to explain how God must hear music. When I heard Joshua Bell play the violin in person, I understood exactly what that meant. This beautiful young man has the ability to send the audience to a magical place.

Open Rehearsal is always relaxed and fun. The orchestra wears t-shirts and jeans instead of the formal wear that they don for the evening performances. Somehow I always think that the casual clothes and atmosphere actually makes for a more intense performance. In any case, if you ever have a chance to see Joshua Bell in person, take advantage of it.

Countess Bedelia 7/10/2006 02:47:00 PM | 5 comments |

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Joke for today

A couple of days ago I posted a picture of Mickey Mouse and received a few comments about his 'endowment'. In the interest of fairness, that not all men can be as big a star as Mickey Mouse, I present Michelangelo's David, who has always been held up as an example of male beauty and perfection. If you need a magnifying glass, blame it on technology.


Joke for the day:

A new employee joins the Company, and is required to have a password setup for his computer. The boss directed a secretary to setup the password for him. The secretary asks the man for the password.

The man, attempting to embrass the secretary in order to show superiority, said, "Penis." Blushed, the secretary inputted the password Penis, and re-typed it again. Then she hit enter.

The whole office heard the secretary bursting into laughter as she reacted to the computer's screen announcement: "Password rejected. Reason: Too short"
Countess Bedelia 7/05/2006 10:39:00 PM | 4 comments |

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy 4th of July !!!!!!

Countess Bedelia 7/04/2006 08:50:00 PM | 0 comments |

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Odds and Ends

I have been to DisneyWorld a few times and have never seen this side of Mickey Mouse. Is this why Minnie is always squealing, "EEEEEEK"??

Apparently someone thought this elephant slide was suitable for children. No pictures of the pooper scooper that accompanies it.
Countess Bedelia 7/02/2006 03:15:00 PM | 6 comments |