perfect song

The first time I heard Willie Nelson's voice was probably while I was still in the womb, and I grew up listening to my dad sing along with his records. I cannot hear his voice or see his face without thinking of my dad.

A year or so after my dad died, I heard Willie Nelson's version of That Lucky Old Sun, and it is so fitting and perfect for my dad, I think.  The third anniversary of his death was this week, so I thought I'd share this song with you.  It sorta makes me feel better, imagining him up there with the sun, rolling around heaven all day.

One year ago: do you MIND?
Two years ago: an open letter to Verizon FiOS

big girls

The Gremlin Sisters will be a year old on Friday!

They've filled out a little since these days, eh:

Bayon

 

Our next stop after Angkor Wat and Phnom Bakheng was Bayon, which is absolutely lovely, as it is covered in sweetly smiling faces. 

And, not to be outdone, there was a sweetly smiling lion:

There are also lots of detailed carvings of daily life – the good and the bad.  The description outside the temple says, “The Chinese appear in many places, they form a troupe of foot-soldiers, shop-owners with Khmer women as wives, and in drunken dance aboard a boat. Other bas-reliefs show small stalls at the market-place, construction workers plotting a route, women preparing grilled fish on skewers, and women suffering sickness.”

if I recall correctly, this is the point where our guide began expounding upon
the merits of dog meat, about which we remain steadfastly closed-minded

There is also a guy cutting off his own fingers, as punishment for some crime:

It’s interesting to me that somebody decided to record daily life like this, instead of using the temple solely to tell stories related to religion or theology (this type of story is there too, but I found the daily life stories more interesting).  It’s as if they purposefully created the temple to be a sort of history book. 

And here is a miscellaneous picture that I just like and want to post:

After Bayon, we headed to a divey restaurant where I got some sort of chicken dish “with kale”, which turned out to be kale stems.  Generally, stems are the part of the kale that you throw in the trash because they are tough and, you know, stem-like.  But my dish consisted of stems that had been carefully and thoroughly stripped of any leaf remnants whatsoever. I thought this was so strange that I talked myself into believing that they ran out of kale, and dug the stems out of the trash to put in my lunch because they didn’t want to tell me they ran out.  I’m sure I was being completely irrational, but really?  There was not a leaf in that dish.  Kale is made of leaves!  If they didn't use the leaves in my dish, which they listed on the menu as “with kale”, then what the heck did they use them for?  Anyway, I did not eat the stems.  I did drink out of a coconut though, and it was good.

Two years ago: only one thing to say

happies

Last week I mentioned my fun times at the airport, but I guess I forgot to say why I was there.  The main reason I was at the airport was because I was on my way to see KC and MS get married.  Their wedding was on Sunday the 11th, which was a beautiful day.  It was absolutely perfect, especially the bouquet:

isn't that the best bouquet you've ever seen in your life?
(I made it, and I'm pretty shocked at how well it turned out)

Also, the cake was perfect.  It was not only beautiful, but it also shared its Bolivian heritage with the bride and included a layer of tres leches.  Which is not a trait it shared with the bride.  Luckily.  Or unluckily, depending on how you look at it.

I am having a Pavlov's dog sort of reaction to this picture

The wedding was just really wonderful.  They both looked so happy, and they were both pretty calm, and I'm pretty sure KC was not stressed at all (if she was, she hid it well). The vows were very sweet, the party was so fun, the food was delicious, the speeches were moving... it just could not have been better.  Plus, I absolutely adore the group of people who were at that wedding, and I had not seen them all together for a lot years.  It was worth every agonizing hour at the airport.


While I was home, I took the opportunity to make my family take me to the mountains for a day (except I drove, because I love driving and I don't get to do it here because this place is awesome like that).  The thing I love most about Virginia is its natural beauty - the Piedmont hills that roll you along your way toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, and then the long and winding Skyline Drive, which showcases the mountains, the valleys, and the hundreds of places to hike and explore.

It was a fun little trip.  We stopped at this place in Sperryville where my mom likes to buy coffee - I wish I'd thought to take pictures.  It's this little cottage run by this sort of hippy-ish family, and they are all artists of some sort.  They do wood working, etchings, paintings, sculpture, pottery... and they roast and sell coffee beans.  And they are so friendly, I could just sit there chatting with them all week.  However. They are only super friendly up to a point.  And that is the point when you have to go to the bathroom, because they don't want your cooties.  So, we drove up the road to one of those little touristy country stores where, to make up for barging in and making a beeline straight for the bathroom, we bought some honey butter.

And then we headed for the hills.

I guess they don't call em Blue Ridge for nothin

One year ago: loungin'
Two years ago: life list(s)

a cow named biscuit

My mom mailed me this giant poofy cow for Christmas a couple years ago.  Fluffy has claimed it as her own.  She cannot walk past this cow without stopping to make biscuits.  And so, the cow's very un-cow-like name is Biscuit.

can't live without my microwave

I read recently in Consumer Reports that in a survey asking people what “innovations from the past few decades” they couldn’t live without, the most popular answer at 26% was the microwave.  This beat out internet and cell phones.  I find that really, really weird.

Here is what I mostly use my microwave for:

That is a picture of me making dinner, and storing all of my ingredients in the microwave because if I don’t, the hyenas cats will put their faces in them.  And you know where their faces have been, don't you?

One year ago: excuse me, pardon me
Two years ago: into the unknown

where were we?

I have been a giant slacker when it comes to blogging about Cambodia, don’t I know it.  Remember about thirty years ago when I posted about Angkor Wat?  Well.  After Angkor Wat, we went to a temple called Phnom Bakheng, which people normally go to for the sunset because it’s at the top of a big hill and affords a good view.  It’s a big tourist circus, complete with elephant rides to the top, and heaving masses and throngs of tourists.  Because who doesn’t want to enjoy a peaceful sunset with thirteen thousand of your closest friends?  We chose to go in the morning so that we could avoid all the fun.  It was a pretty walk, and we saw a brick temple in the woods along the way.

I vaguely remember something about these bricks, but I am not sure what it is.  Maybe they are made of something mysterious?  Maybe they are held together by something mysterious?  Something.  Mysterious. 

We also saw a ton of spiders in little funnel webs, and I will give you fair warning Meana, I am posting a picture of a spider now:

We also saw a couple of ladies in big floppy hats, and beautiful silky shawls, and bright red lipstick, and gigantic, possibly 10-inch high heels, cheerfully sweating as they slogged up the hill in the unsurprising Cambodian heat and humidity.  I did not get any pictures of them, however.  Or of their shoes.  

Once you get to the top of the hill, you then have to climb to the top of the temple, which I suppose is Hindu, as our guide told us that Buddhist temples are generally flat. 

here's the top of the temple

Anyway, the temple itself is not super remarkable, but it has nice views of Angkor Wat and the forest, and presumably, of the sunset.  

There is also a cow involved, which seems reasonable:

When we came down, there were all these strange looking little black birds running around in the woods.  It took me a good several minutes to realize that they were chickens.  This is a testament to either a) the extremely unnatural state of American chickens or b) the extremely unnatural state of Cambodian chickens and I will give you one guess which is the correct answer.

Also, there was a lion:

Two years ago: the long awaited photos

a place at the table for everyone

...everyone except me and Mr. Bear, that is.

it shouldn't be this hard

So, here I am at my gate at Frankfurt Airport, writing this in a Word document to post later.  I have an 8 hour layover.  I’m 2 hours in, and I cannot get wifi.  I also can’t get a sim card for my phone.  I’m sure these things are possible, but they don’t really ever work out for me.  I expect to open my laptop, connect to some network, and give my credit card number to some website, and pay ridiculous prices to be online, but I do expect to be online.  But that doesn’t work here.  There’s an internet kiosk, but even though I selected “English,” it apparently does not believe me.  German it is!  So, here I am, drinking an espresso (the snack bar didn’t have “American” coffee), and eating some fabulous chocolate.  At 8:00 in the morning.  With 6 hours of sitting to go.

Also, this airport doesn’t have a hotel as far as I can tell.  Heathrow does, it has this cute little hotel where you go, and there’s a bed, and internet, and tv, and room service, and a shower… SO nice.  Anyway, what this airport does have is a large group of cots (many with what appear to be vomit stains on them) in a hallway on the third floor.  I snoozed for about an hour there until a family with a crying baby came and camped out right next to me.  There was an entire sea of empty cots all the way down the hallway, but I am a magnet for screaming babies, so of course they chose me with whom to grace their presence.  

Also, why does flying hurt so much?  If I’m on a plane for more than 2 hours, my knees and ankles and hips start aching relentlessly – it’s awful!  What is that?  

As I sit here typing, there is a line of five people at the window, all taking pictures and videos of an airplane taxiing to its gate.  Is this airport new in the airport business or something?  Wifi is inaccessible, there’s no hotel, and now it appears as if airplanes are a novelty.

Anyway, by the time I post this, I’m counting on being in a much better mood.  My mood is inextricably tied to my access to the internet.  Also to sleep.  Also to being clean and not being coughed on by the person next to me for six hours.  So I’m pretty sure I’ll be good by the time I post this.  Yeah.