too many things going on at once...

...for me to actually describe them all properly! it all started with lavender festival then my birthday last weekend and ended with me sexually harassing one of my best friends. however, i totally believe she was at least partially to blame, as she asked me a loaded question while i myself was loaded...so there. also, we bought another house, which means we now own two houses we can't afford. yay us!

pictures, hopefully, to come...eventually.

i am officially overwhelmed.

seriously. i am going under rapidly. this move is far more taxing and involved than any of the previous ones, and i have no idea why that is. maybe the addition of sophie is what is pushing me over the edge--i don't know. i do know that i have nothing clever or insightful or enlightening to say...because all i can think about is what i have to do in the next five minutes.

if anyone in albuquerque is reading this, i could so use an iced tea and a hug (but not from my stalker).

flag food!

happy 4th of july! this year we are taking it easy--i'm doing yardwork; rich is biking with gus and the bunny. last night there were TONS of fireworks going off in our neighborhood (at least i think they were fireworks--this is new mexico so one is never sure) so i'd imagine tonight will be even better. fireworks are legal here, which has always surprised me as we live in the desert...and the desert burns in the summer...but whatever. we've had lots of rain recently and we have our own private well that is chock full o' heavy metalfied water to put out whatever fires may catch.

so...flag food! i was looking for images of old glory to celebrate the 4th and i kept coming across food made to look like an american flag. most of them are cake, which is sweet (oooo, that's bad!), but there were also cookies, dog biscuits and even a toasted tuna sandwich. there was a pizza as well and i have no idea what they used for the blue (it's the last photo); i'm not sure i want to know. there are also a surprising number of undergarments made to cover our most american parts in flaggy goodness.

enjoy your fourth!

funny sight off the freeway

okay, a hardcore porn shop off an exit ramp isn't that funny; the juxtaposition of the mattress ad next door to such is a wee bit more humorous...but the fact that GUS' SECOND GRADE TEACHER is the woman featured on this mattress ad makes this freakin' hilarious. and we spent $40,000 sending gus where...to manzano day school!

super-duper classy, y'all!

jacinthe, redux (or perhaps my best facebook conversation ever)

Lynette Gaido
June 23 at 5:20pm
Wow it was so good to see you yesterday. Thanks so much for lunch. I had such a good time catching up with you. We need to get together more often.

I am at home cooking today (yea, right!) It's Roy's birthday. It's hot outside!

Missy Gaido Allen
Today at 9:58am
lynette...what a sweet note--too bad it's not for me!
love,
m.

Lynette Gaido
Today at 10:01am
I am such a moron. 56 year old gets run over by facebook. I just put two comments I think on your page. I'm stumped as to how to do this right. Okay so I'll write what I said there again. My bathroom cabinets are watchet. I love that against yellow and white striped walls. It's cool looking. When are you moving?

Missy Gaido Allen
Today at 11:10am
no problem! i'm totally entertained. we are moving in 6 weeks; i'm not terribly psyched. by the way, if you haven't read the jacinthe post you might want to take a gander at it--since you know who i am talking about, it might be funnier...
here's the link: http://www.cyberallens.blogspot.com
enjoy!
love,
m.

Lynette Gaido
Today at 12:32pm
Well, I have more news for you on St. Hyacinth. When we went to Cercenaska (sp?) the village near Torino where the Gaidos are from we went to the cemeteries and noticed that a lot of the soldiers who had been buried there were of the order of the Hyacinth or of San Jacinito (which means St. Hyacinth) Apparently this saint was the saint who looked after the men (or people) in cercinaska. I often wonder if my paternal grandfather the first San Jacinto Gaido who came to this country was actually named San Jacinto or whether they messed his name up when they came through Galveston. He was only 2 years old at the time and after his parents died he spent a lot of time living in the Galveston Orphans Home. The Columbos (our cousins) would take San Jacinto, Mike and Joe (the three brothers) out of the orphanage on holidays or when they had enough money to care for 3 more children.

Which brings me to the next question "san" is not saint in Italian, I don't think. So did the immigration people in Galveston figure his name just sounded like San Jacinto the monument and gave my grandfather this name?

Because in Italian Giacinto is spelled with a G - not a J.

Then, San Jacinto, or Cinto as everyone called him, got married and had three sons of his own: Mike (my father), Fritz, and San Jacinto, your dad's dad.

Then, my father had three boys too. Interesting symmetry.

Anyway, that's my version of the tale of San Jacinto.

Missy Gaido Allen
Today at 2:27pm
that is very interesting--i didn't know any of that. san is saint in italian, but what i found to be strange was the jacinto part--it isn't italian (as you noted) but rather spanish. and saint hyacinth was seriously militaristic. so i wonder if what you described is what happened--they heard "san giacinto" and wrote "san jacinto" because of the battle and subsequent texas pride and all that good stuff.

?

Lynette Gaido
Today at 3:41pm
Yea and let's face it. The immigration people in Galveston were probably very uneducated about the world. So, they just said Oh, must be like San Jacinto.

Did you know that your dad and his dad used to be photographed and interviewed by the Houston papers on San Jacinto Day? I bet you all have copies of those pictures somewhere.

Also we noticed in the cemeteries in Italy that each little village appeared to have a patron saint who looked after the village. Why that meant that he or she protected them in battle is another thing. And by the way, I wonder if San Giacinto was a man or a woman. I think the statues or etchings for lack of a better word were of a male in robes but I will have to ask Roy because he always remembers these details.

Hmm. All very interesting.

Missy Gaido Allen
Today at 4:32pm
how the hell did i never hear about grandad and dad until now? i NEVER knew that, and i am sure ashley and lindsay do not either! holy shit. that sounds like a research project...

so san giacinto was the patron saint of the gaido's village? that adds even another giant question mark to what your grandfather's name was or should be, as they could have been describing their village as one that was protected by san giacinto...or maybe not. i don't know.

very enlightening, indeed! i am cutting and pasting this entire conversation on my blog--this is too good not to make public! actually, i won't do it without your consent, so let me rephrase that and say, "may i reproduce this conversation on my blog?"

thank you for all this fascinating background info!

Lynette Gaido
Today at 6:30pm
of course! I think Charlotte Daniel may have gone to Cerneaska too. I'm still not sure about the spelling of the name of the village.
Please feel free to post it.

We also met a man whose last name was Gaido and he looked just like your dad's brother. very similar looks.

Missy Gaido Allen
Today at 8:09pm
cercenasco! that's the village outside of torino. and who would this mythical brother of my dad be, who last i heard was an only child? actually, grandad was super-social, so nothing would surprise me in that way...
love,
m.

**crickets chirping**

facebook spillover: jacinthe

for about a week i have been posting a word-of-the-day color descriptor as my status on facebook. i'm enjoying it...and my two friends are as well...but today's is too long to post as a status so i'm writing it here. i started with eau-de-nil (pale blue-green; the color of the nile river), then albugineous (whitish, like the white of an eye), next was coccineous (red, derived from the latin root for cochineal), then amaranthine (deep red, like the color of undying love); yesterday's was greige (exactly what it sounds like--grey beige), and today is jacinthe.

jacinthe is tremendously difficult to define, because in the three different dictionaries i used i got three different color definitions. let me explain: i first came across the word online describing something orange. i was intrigued, because i had never heard of the word before, so i looked it up. jacinthe is actually the french term for hyacinth (it is also spelled jacinth when anglicized). i personally have never seen an orange hyacinth so i looked it up in our dictionary here at home. it was defined as a dark purple. i looked it up in another dictionary at a bookstore and it was defined as a deep red zircon (a gem). so i got online, and found yellow, purple and red definitions. and someone said it used to mean "sapphire." i was thoroughly confused.

so i took a step back: i couldn't help noticing that jacinthe bore a striking similarity to my dad's name, san jacinto. (as an aside, san jacinto is just a scary-ass name, no matter what last name you pair it with, but his particular combination makes for a truly imposing moniker.) and, i remember a priest talking to me after his (my dad's) mother's funeral about how saint hyacinth did....who knows what. i had never put it together--this scary-ass name actually means saint hyacinth. i know from greek mythology that hyacinthus was killed by accident by his lover, apollo, and that is where we get the flowers from; st. hyacinth apparently walked on water (thank you, google). anyway, jacinto and jacinthe both translate to hyacinth; ironically, jacinthe is now gaining popularity as a girl's name.

so, what color is jacinthe? i have no idea. anything that isn't white, black, brown or green seems to be fair game. if you find out definitively, let me know!

open letter to whole foods

dear whole foods:

i am a long time buyer/first time critic of your market. my family spends about $4000 a year at your stores here in new mexico, however i think our relationship has run its course. i defended you when my friends called you "whole paycheck;" i defended you against claims of not really selling locally produced food and having obscenely overpriced goods; i defended you when everyone i know said, "why the hell are you still shopping there? join the co-op and buy the rest at trader joe's!"

but those days are now over.

i shopped at your store here in albuquerque today--the big one at academy and wyoming--and you overcharged me on three separate items. and they weren't insignificant amounts--it was like $20 in overcharging. so after i checked my receipt whilst sitting in my still-hot car, i trotted myself back in the store, waited in line at customer service (where, coincidentally, the man in front of me had also been overcharged), and i met your valued team member, diablo. now diablo may have had a bad day, she may be hormonal--i don't know--but diablo decided that even though i showed her what i bought, showed her the receipt, and walked her pissed-off ass over to the posted signs for the items i bought that a full refund was not in order. her problem was that i had paid about $70 total for said items and there was no way she was going to refund it. as an aside, you should make her CFO. i begged to differ with diablo's opinion, suffered her aggressiveness, and stood my ground until she acquiesced.

now this wasn't an instance where you rang up one product twice or three times, you had the scanned prices set WAY higher than what was posted for the goods--goods that were regularly priced, not on sale--and diablo wanted to reimburse me the overage. since you fail to post anything on your website or at your stores regarding corporate policy on overcharging, i can only go with what i know from other grocery stores (randall's, kroger, safeway, smith's) and what is found on the texas and new mexico state department of agriculture sites: to wit, if you overcharge for an item, that item should be free. and you shouldn't sell that item until you fix your scanning error. and at the very least, if these are not your policies, you should post them clearly where everyone can see them and make their own decision about whether or not they want to patronize your store.

why? because overcharging is stealing and as a socially-responsible company you should be doing better than that. aside from the fact that it is morally and ethically wrong, what incentive could your corporation possibly have to not overcharge if all your employees do is offer the difference of the prices? that just puts the onus on the customer to make sure their bill is right. after today, i can assure you that i will no longer be inconveniencing your employees with my business (and if you take the time to google "whole foods overcharges," you will see that i am not alone in either this experience or this sentiment). your corporation probably made thousands of dollars off of the mispriced goods that i called to your attention--you just got caught and there should be a penalty.

have a lovely day!
missy

taos for rich's 44th

lily pads and koi at el monte sagrado

ahhh, taos. so peaceful, so lovely, so blissful. fortunately rich wants to go there for his birthday every year and we all benefit. this year we totally hit the jackpot--not only did we get to drink good beer at eske's and listen to ktao (solar radio) but we stayed at the el monte sagrado and luxuriated amidst the koi ponds and cottonwoods like we were freakin' royalty. sweet. while rich biked the enchanted circle gus, sophie and i continued to experience the wonder that is el monte sagrado and take whatever abuse the staff there could throw at us (why is it that at these over-the-top hotel/resorts the staff tries their best to treat you like something stuck to the bottom of their shoe? it was the same thing at the mandarin oriental in DC--do they take a class on this?). but there was to be no rain on our parade because we were on vacation, damnit!

anyway, please feel free to put on some mood music and bask in the glory of el monte sagrado...

waterfall emulating its big brother, the rio grande rapids

this is the view from our balcony (gus and sophie are on the bridge)

view from the balcony, facing the other direction

gus and sophie acclimated nicely to such luxurious surroundings (they are the little dots on the grass)

even dung beetles are cute at el monte sagrado! (sorry about the focus)

abridged sophie bunny

abridged gus and sophie bunny

poppies

gus and sophie collecting cottonwood stars

(this is what they look like close-up)

this is terribly cool and i think i am going to steal this idea--it is a tree of solar panels that provides electricity to a casita

you gotta love taoseños (rumsfeld lives in taos, by the way)

the birthday boy, after biking the enchanted circle

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICH!

happy 44th most wonderful man! we love love love you and so wish you weren't at work (although i bet you are quite upset about it yourself). come home soon!

-aholism, a-holism or a-holeism? (also desktop goodies)

i was going to write a post about -aholisms (as in alcoholism, rageaholism, shopaholism, etc.) and describe rich's prediliction for workaholism, but once i typed "-aholism" i realized it was essentially "a-holism," also known as "a-holeism," and it just wasn't writable anymore. basically the gist of it was that rich is a workaholic, it's pissing me off, and his "a-holeism" is showing. it is also leading me to flirt with the idea of letting him to go to iowa by himself while i stay here with the kids (that and the more i show the house the less i want to give it to anyone else). imagine how happy he'd be to work however long he wanted to and not have to worry about laborus interruptus from us? he'd be in heaven. a-hole.

instead of that, i'm posting extremely random and unrelated images that are populating my desktop at the moment:

sophie and her gargantuan piece of chocolate cake (and chocolate milk) for her third birthday dinner! all four of us could have split this one piece, but gus and sophie were having none of that and insisted on their own.

mr. gus at the flagstaff train station, being deceptively innocent-looking...

...and then biting his sister in the back at the first opportunity (not really)

my favorite breakfast partner

mmmmmm, the range...i wonder if they're open yet?

rich captaining a difficult crew

sweet sophie having a milk at satellite

i'm wondering if that big ol' magnet thing is located somewhere around oklahoma city for us? just far enough away for us to move around, but too strong to ever escape...i could see that

cross stitch wondrousness! i think i stole this from the feeling stitchy site

this i definitely grabbed from feeling stitchy--and it is the most wonderful adaptation of munch's "the scream" i have ever seen

napoleon, my little pony, and rainbows...spectacular (also from feeling stitchy)

interesting little diversion...

have you ever taken the birmingham grid for learning? you must do so, at once! send me your pictures and i'll post the results--anonymously, if you prefer. the above is me; the below is rich. i have to believe we complement each other (rather than being almost entirely incompatible).

SPECTACULAR home in los ranchos de albuquerque for lease!

appr. 3900 sq. ft. of adobe loveliness on .6 fenced acre. available for rent august 1, 2009. please contact me for further information and thank you for looking!

*heavy sigh* camp is over...let the summer reading begin!

poor gus. he's going from the excitement of UNM basketball camp with a group of big kids (the lobos) and kids his age to the living hell of his mommy-imposed summer reading experiment. after we received gus' test scores from the much-despised manzano day school, we realized that yes, in fact, he learned nothing this year and has even slipped a little bit in some areas since last year. so, instead of romping in the open spaces with his friends and puppy dog gus has to spend one. hour. a. day. reading. a. book. AND. writing. a. review.

the horror.

the iowa city schools actually provide a decent summer reading list for kids in all grades and i'm just using that as my list of books for gus. that way i can also tell him that he has to do it because they say so and every kid in iowa city is doing this...i wonder how long that will work? actually, i think i would rather like it if someone forced me to sit down every day during the day and stop, relax, read a book, think about it, write a review...rather than my usual insomnia-fueled nightly reading that becomes morning reading and makes for a verrry looooong daaaaayyyy following such.

he did get one read and reviewed today, though--yay gus!

coach alford's basketball camp...GO LOBOS!

gus, pulling a funny face, with The Man looking on

steve alford's basketball camp at UNM started today--gus did the camp last year and absolutely loved it. he had coach ro (roman martinez) as his main coach last year...but no such luck this year--i'm not sure what his new coach's name is, but i'm sure he'll be good. gus actually jumped in and started shooting as soon as we got there, which was refreshing--sometimes it is hard to motivate him to move if he doesn't absolutely have to (hence the rough year in little league...he could hit beautifully but then he had to run to first when a leisurely jog would have suited him so much better).

here's to a wonderful week of lobo-fied ball!

bounce bounce bounce

get that ball, gus! and who is that kid running into my shot?

gus being coached by The Man himself

more belated pictures...

super mega-excited birthday girl!!!

...this time they are of sophie's birthday party at her school. i LOVE her school with a deep and abiding passion--gus also went there. i am so disappointed that she won't be able to spend more time at a child's garden, but i'm happy she had the year that she had. her teachers, sarah and barb, were stellar. they will be lifelong family friends. gus was completely jealous of sophie all year long...i wonder why? no, i don't.

mmmmm, chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles

gus and chocofied sophie

"if you're not going to finish that..."

daddy, who made an appearance, gus, reading chicka chicka boom boom, and sophie, being smiley

sarah and gus--he volunteered in her classroom and it was a good match (so i'm further sorry to be leaving ACG since gus would probably have worked there in a few years)

and look who found gus! this is his first teacher, michelle (of michelle and nona), and they have always gotten along beautifully. she was wonderful to gus and he has carried that with him, always.

belated mother's day pictures

teddy/panda bear tea party in sophie's room

rich's stepfather passed away rather unexpectedly yesterday (he went in for major heart surgery on wednesday and didn't come out--it was peaceful and he didn't suffer, thankfully), and i know his mom is unhappy and i am sorry for her. hopefully she'll come visit soon (or i'll inflict my children on her).

i'm posting happier pictures today--these were from mother's day and a bit before.

sophie's new big girl bed!!! in a span of about two weeks, sophie became fully potty trained and traded in her crib for a big girl bed. she even picked out the color of the stain (it was originally a dark walnut, which would never suit for sophie)--fruit punch!

sophie checkin' out her bitchin' bike in the backyard

bunny in a tube

hop hop hop

there she goes

this is the sight that greeted me first thing in the morning on mother's day...actually, it's a frequent sight in the triangle

i did get a very beautiful orchid, though

sophie and rich trying desperately to be patient at gus' mother's day cello recital

look at that cello-playing stud! yes, he is big. he is huge in comparison to the other kids. be kind about it--he's developing a complex.

party in the triangle

woohoo! it's the end of an era in the AFBT--the manzano day school years are OVER and we couldn't be happier. good riddance to bad blood and all that. gus was able to celebrate in style by hosting the end-of-the-year party at our house (third year in a row) and, as in years past, it was a mucho successful fiesta. people were here for seven hours this year and i think they all had fun. rich even made an appearance! but the most important thing was that gus had a fantastic, joyful day, and that is the most i could have hoped for for him--i believe manzano owed him some joy after this year (and some learning, but hopefully iowa will fix that).

bring on summer!

sophie having second thoughts about tackling the giant, inflatable slide that dominated half the backyard (the kids LOVED it)

who's behind that big ol' splash?

it's sophie! (and cole and hart--they were very kind to her)

yyyyyyyuuuuck.

gus' sweetheart of a teacher, debbie, and parents watching the mayhem from a safe distance

kiddos loungin' on the patio with some popsicles

gus being silly on the slide

sophie being silly on the slide

all the kids loved the treehouse--there was a perpetual line to get up there...

...and that line included some parents as well! meet pamela, queen of the jungle.

happy birthday tom!

i think i might be a day early or a day late, but i know it is around this time...happy birthday tom, and i wish we were there to treat you to a delicious homemade mojito!

back, again, for now...

we're back; i know you missed us. we've been in flagstaff and sedona for a) a conference of tri-state ophthalmologists (NM, AZ and NV, otherwise known as the hardcore part of the west) and b) SOPHIE'S THIRD BIRTHDAY!!!! two tons o' pictures to follow in a day or two...

ceci n'est pas une maison

my new kitchen...and it was a major reason i bought this house

the new house; la nouvelle maison. it is very, very different from where we live now, but i think it will suit. the people who live there now have EXCELLENT taste in furniture--perhaps they will sell some to me? and, who would have thought that a house like this could be found in iowa city? any comments will be appreciated--i could use some encouragement, so if you hate it just keep it to yourself (i'm obviously still trying to wrap my head and heart around the idea of a move).

this was the other element that sold the house--can you believe this window?

living room (love the art--loret mast, love the rug)

my back is to the window, facing sitting area outside the master

view from sitting area outside the master

dining room (love the art--loret mast, again)

this is gus' room--he has his own patio!

and this is our room...which isn't as nice as gus' but will allow us to hear what he is up to when he tries to sneak out through that lovely patio door

peeping tom

i love this fountain--it totally suits the property, and the current owners won't give it to us

this isn't in the new house, but it was my hotel room while i was looking for a home--perhaps it influenced my decision...

pretty jodi, who was briefly my chauffeur during this visit and is leaving IC right when we get there, damnit!