|
Froggy Bottom Cafe
Welcome newcomers! Please introduce yourself
Come on in!
Coffee & Tea under the window, platters of treats on every table
|
Newspapers are in their regular spot next to the door
|
Please recommend (and unrecommend the Cafe/Lounge from yesterday)
|
May the 4’s be with you
|
Mornin,evening folks, the cafe is open for business, come on over!!!!!
Hey Diane..this makes two days in a row I end up here, a record so far. Wonder what’s going on with this ol non-social recluse? Hmm. Maybe I just feel a need to be around familiar, gentle energies awhile? Yeah, I think that’s it.
Maybe I’ll go over there a ways and build a little campfire; nothing beats a nice campfire on a dull grey damp day. I brought some graham crackers, marshmellows and Hershey bars. Anyone wanna make some S’mores?
I’m just going to vegetate near your campfire if it’s okay with you.
Hi Scribe, nothing wrong with coming to the cafe, a little respite from the harsher realities of the world, a little place to gather and renew our energies, a place to make up after some tough talking on a diary, and even yes room for a campfire over by the beach, or the woods, yes we do have a beach and we do have woods here, we have a little bit of everything, in our all purpose FBC.
Yum.
Tonight I get to meet a friend’s new baby cockatiel. I love birds and can’t wait to go coo at it. His name is Squeak and he’ll soon be getting a sister named Bubbles, both of them hand-raised by a relative of my friends. Has anybody here ever had a cockatiel and do you have any advice I should pass along?
Oh my! The marriage of bird and British cuisine. That’s lovely.
It is, isn’t it? I think the names are so cute. Hope the birds like them, too.
That sounds about perfect today.
They have Smores poptarts even.
I know I know, poptarts are like giving your kids crack cocaine for breakfast, but for YEARS that’s all Wesley would accept as a morning snack. I had to pick my battles LOL 🙂
But I am now an expert of PopTartage. 🙂
I am nervous and hiding from reality at the moment. I finished a 40 hour training course to be a guardian ad litem and just got sworn in last week. While I was in the shower they left a message saying they have a case for me (you are always free to decline)and to return their call ASAP. So, here I am completely freaked out and trying to work up the nerve to call them back and accept the case.
The thing is I know I’ll (eventually) be a damn good guardian, but it’s very work-intensive and you have to conduct an independent investigation and possibly butt heads with lawyers and social workers, and I’m kind of a shy person in my real life. I’m afraid I’m not going to do a good job for this child/children who were just taken away from their abusive home last night and are no doubt scared and upset.
I think I need more than coffee this morning, Diane. Got valium?
Call them back! You are going to be just wonderful for those children, I’d want you fighting on my team any day!
Ditto that!! Which I’d say out loud except I have my mouth full of S’mores.
Take several deep breaths, and focus on the child — remember, for all intents and purposes, this is YOUR CHILD you’re fighting for, at least for a brief period of time. If someone was battering around (physically, emotionally, legally) a flesh-and-blood child of yours (or even your step-children; I’ve seen how you’re trying to fight for them), you’d stop at nothing to make sure they were treated right. Same thing, but a step farther away.
I think the challenge would be to fight for the child without getting emotionally involved…that’s where I’d have the big problem.
I admire you for taking this step, Laura…now tell that Voice Of Self-Doubt to STFU and get out there… 🙂
Thanks everyone for making me feel strong when I’m really just a huge wuss. I know I’ll be good at it it’s just that I have to fight through this feeling of wanting to throw myself off a cliff first.
I’ll keep you informed.
Hugs,
Laura
Where’s Holden Caulfield when we need him?
because it’s just a virtual one. I’ll go up with you; we’ll jump together, bounce back up and then you’ll be ready to go.
lol…sometimes you just need to get it out of your system and then go on.
blue dot waving at us?
This was the first one I put up after identification of ur-blue dot at the grand canyon.
I work in family court representing the county and have handled abuse/neglect cases. (although I’m not doing those currently) Our law guardians do a great service and keep us properly focused on the welfare of the child. I’m sure that you will do well. Good luck in your new role!
Hi Laura, sorry no valium, but do you hear the calming music in the background, that and our companionship is the best.
I can see your point about your new endeavor, let me offer something.
My brother and law and niece are right now involved in a case, not of abuse but some problems my niece has been in with the law and school, she is 16.
My niece has a court advocate and I must report that my brother in law says that the advocate was most helpful to them, she came into a school meeting and exerted her power, and set the tone for the meeting telling them what she could do, which was override them and suggest to the court her solutions.
I don’t know if you will only have cases of abuse, but consider how important it is to the child to have a representative that is caring.
Other than that, I know how hard it is to take on something so demanding as this job, perhaps you could return the call and ask about the case, and then accept or not depending on the type of case it is and try to start our with an easier one if that is possible.
Well, after all of that hullabaloo, I turned down the case, which in a weird way took more guts that accepting it would have because I’m the type of person who wants everyone to like me and I could hear the disappointment in her voice.
The reason I turned it down is that it is an ongoing case and the other guardian just didn’t have time for it anymore. There was already a very long paper trail and history that I had missed and I would prefer to come into a case right from the start and get to know everyone involved from day one.
There are plenty of new cases and I expect one in the next few days.
My God though, just hearing some bare facts on the phone took my breath away. I need to squeeze my remaining two teenagers as soon as they come home from school. Even if they’re boys and even if they think I’m weird.
Sounds like a good decision, SN.
Thanks for the support. I kind of felt like a weenie but I turned it down for good reasons. This is NOT one of those times when I make excuses to get out of something. I’m psyched about doing it.
For starters, you’re not a weenie. (Nor a pussy)
Proud that you will be helping to protect children.
You say you’re shy and such… that isn’t a flaw. That can be used to your benefit. Children will be able to respond and trust you since you are not a hardliner.
Be yourself so that the children can feel secure in being themselves around you.
Okay – fuck this shit… let’s huggie! 🙂 WHOOOT!
Congrats on your first call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think it must be impossible to be around you, DJ, and stay in a bad mood. You’re making me smile on a morning when I feel too tired to move my face muscles. CabinGirl should put you–and a lot of other Good Humor People around here– on her perscription list.
I love the Cafe.
with you and diane and brofel and andiF and katiebird and ManEe and militarytracy and supersoling (where is he anyway?) and teachertoni and brinnainne and shycat and shirlstars and dada and boran2 and ghostdancer and gooserock and simplexity and ubikkibu and caatnip and KnoxProg and ejmw and cedwyn and boston joe and salunga and scribe and kmc and second nature and melanchthon and oui and ask and I really hope I didn’t miss anyone but there are so many of you and you get the point…
In that spirit I submit shameless diary whoring .
Come share the love.
WOW! Not THAT’S a diary!! Whoring, hell! I say stand on the street corner, lift your diary skirt, and shout, “Come and get it!” That is a GREAT diary.
You caught the magical element of the best communities, the part that cannot cannot cannot be planned.
We’ll all be talking in three’s today. (You have to read her diary to understand what I mean by that.)
Well, I guess that makes you my pimp. Thanks, kansas!
And, it really is OK.
I’m laughing my head off.
Best damn diary I’ve seen this week!
Wow.
to pimp for you, heh. You wouldn’t cheat me on the money, would you?
on a fallback career in case that writing thing doesn’t work out?
a fallback career in case that writing thing doesn’t work out?
Don’t you know–being a novelist is the best training for becoming a pimp that there is? That’s something they don’t tell you in Novelist Training School where it’s all about Art, Art, Art. Turns out “Art” is the guy who orders books for Barnes & Noble.
lol…it’s all about who you know.
I salute your bravery. Despite the gaaa, it’s plain to see that you’re going to go out and do this and do it well. And persevering in the face of those inner voices of panic is the heart of bravery. Good luck!
Hope everyone has a great day.
Here in NYC it is poring down – rain, rain, rain.
I noticed yesterday that sunrise pictures were in demand. Here’s one from last week.
Sunrise across the White Nile – close to Juba.
Found the tea while it was still warm today. Hooray!
I’m teaching this evening. Wow but I’ve got a good bunch of kids. I mean that in the writing biz sense, not age, though I think I’m older than all but a couple of them. Not sure how that happened. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that I was always the youngest person in the room. Even now, I’m not old by any measure, 38, and a kid by the standards of the writing side of the field. But here I am with a bunch of writers just starting on their journeys and giving them a little hand along the way. It makes me smile and gives me a chance to pay back all the great writers who’ve helped me out and who continue to do so. It’s something I find that I’m deeply grateful for.
When I first started writing, I could see the people up the feeding chain who were selling short stories, and I wanted to be there. When I was there, I could see the people selling books. Now that I’m selling books, I see the people selling lots of books… And so it goes. The game doesn’t really change, but the stakes keep getting higher.
But the best thing about is that at each level I’ve met more of the people further along the path, and have been continually gratified to find everyone so friendly and welcoming, eager to help. People who started out in my mind as heroes on pedestals have become good friends. That’s all a bit of a ramble, but I felt the need to say it, and this is such a good place to say the things that need saying.
Anyway, I hope that all of you are having a good morning and that you have something to be grateful for today.
Yep, that giant sucking sound tells us it’s low tide again. A red-right-returning channel marker stands exposed on a shallow Puget Sound bay earlier in the summer. A great time for clamming and harvesting nutritious seaweed when they’re in season.
Somehow it’s reassuring to know that within a few miles of my house we could launch a boat and scud away to Tahiti or New Zealand if we need to. In theory!
I think I see a tennis shoe I lost while traisping around digging for clams.
Would really suck to lose your shoe or boot and then your sock would be all grody… and you’d have to walk back home like that….
🙂
Now there’s a word I haven’t heard in forever and a day!
Thanks for the grin, Janet!
Insult of an uppercrust Englishman to bumbling help at Fawlty Towers.
I’ve got to go to my brothers this weekend. And, reading recent cafe postings re: snobby beers, and it being a special occasion where I want to go all out, what beer would you recommend. (Remember. I am a pansy corporate beer drinking type, trying to expand my horizons. I like ambers — think they are called — light colored beers — yellow — and I need something national or regional enough that I can get it at finer distributors in Michigan — if you have time to fulfill such requests).
I just emailed the Mendocino Brew Co to find out if you can get Red Tail Ale in MI. It’s an amber ale with many happy memories for me:
That’s near me. They make a great pale ale. Hubby drinks that.
Damnit Ryan would KNOW about beer.
Hopland used to be a “must-stop” on every trip north from the city for us…yummy stuff.
Man. You sent an e-mail and posted a graphic. For me. (Tearing up like old Budweiser beer ad guy) Where’s the love, man.
Thanks. Red-tail I will look for it. But is Ale like, beer? Sounds all together British.
Ale is like hopped up beer, with fewer trips to the restroom…
Smithwick’s Ale is another good one.
Sam Smith’s Nut Brown Ale is another favorite.
The color of Walnuts and the palate of of hazelnuts. My brother is going to think I’ve taken to wearing a thong or something. But, I may be game to try it.
And I just finished off the last of a case of mixed beers from Magic Hat Brewery
I’m devoted to Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout but I know it isn’t for everyone (my husband calls it the beer you can eat).
Eh. I could never eat my oatmeal when I was a boy. So now they’re going to make me drink it. Dad always said he was saving it.
All of the Sam Smith’s are fabulous! I was thinking the nut brown is a good “beginner ale”. So, when are we getting together for a pint of either?
you’re in Pennsylvania (right?) and I’m in Indiana. So it looks like we could meet in Ohio — I know a great place in Yellow Springs.
Ohhhhhh, tell me that a Ohio meeting is happening.
where in Ohio are you?
I am in Detroit.
Hmmm…Ohio is a bit far for a beer…but what the heck. Where’s that rock and roll hall of fame located?
See if a local microbrewery with a good reputation makes a Hefeweizen. You won’t regret it.
Yes!!! Good advice Lil!
sorry I dont’ drink beer but spouse enjoys the microbrews here in Northern Calif.
Joe, ambers, pale ales and the one that starts with an H that Lil said… those are what my husband keeps stocked up on.
Me… I’m a risk taker drinker… I drink crap that usually has slices of some sort of fruit in it to make it all shishifrufur (aka daiquiries or margies) and thus I risk swallowing the fruit, having it lodge in my throat and thereby possibly choking to death. All that’s happened so far is that I’ve poked myself with the stirry straw.
🙂
Is that a typo, or are you calling me Lil? Mostly people around here call me Indy because I’ve never posted that my name is Jen, but I just wanted to make sure you didn’t think I was someone else. 🙂
So sorry, I think I was just reading a post LibraryLil had made elsewhere and …. well, I’m basically stoopid and easily confoozed. 🙂
Sorry Indy 🙂
That’s very good advice.
Hefeweizen has been a favorite for many years. Initially as a thirst quencher during the summer, but by now – it’s what I’ll have year round – if available. The cloudy appearance may cause some reluctance with the newcomer – once you’re passed that there is no way back.
And adding a slice of lemon is perfectly OK.
Michigan’s right next door to Wisconsin and the New Glaurus brewery, home of Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel among many fine brews. When you hit the liquor store it would be worth checking to see if they have a New Glaurus variety pack. When my writers group throws its annual party at WisCon in Madison the New Glaurus always goes first.
Because the only pricks in here are in PRICKly Pear Margaritas. Blended, of course. And in a glass that can’t be easily knocked over by a blonde. We need strong, sturdy glasses to grab. Yarrrr! No pussy glass stems for us. Narrrr.
What do you get if you add:
With
?????
Answer: Happy Birthday ShyCat!!!!!!
Lol…..with snortage. Good one!
… but where’s disclaimer that says no cats were injured making this picture?
if I had pointed that out, someone would have said that the sack had obviously been harmed in the creation of said photo…
Not to mention the whole Paper or Plastic controversy… ack! 🙂
hey, we’ve all seen the warnings on our dry cleaning bags so this is one controversy that won’t be getting its own diary.
You’re right. I read that safety guideline one morning when I was making toast and blow drying my hair while in the shower.
🙂
I’m stealing that cat in the bag pic, DJ… 😉
In the meantime, these cat’s definitely aren’t shy:
And here’s some painted kitties too:
Happy birthday! 🙂
.
His contribution to journalism today ::
But million-dollar nincompoop television news stars led with the absurdly ignorant observations that there was “nothing new” in this speech, and that the President was not likely to improve his reduced 35 percent public support for the Iraq war.
Having decided that the speech (which they manifestly did not substantively understand or report) was not going to make the president immediately more popular, their reporting trailed off into a rehash of his other current political problems.
One doesn’t mind, so much, mainstream journalists being b*st*rds. It’s being such dumb b*st*rds that one finds so irksome.
Panel member The McLaughlin Group
I guess the Right Wing Folks have a tummy ache this week!?
▼ ▼ ▼
Because they are emotionally, socially and intellectually constipated.
😀
Attachment break through. Andrew crawled right over to me and gave me a kiss today!!! That’s a first. Now I have to go back and play with him. I just wanted to share this tearfully joyful event.
Those are the best moments and the first of many many more with you and Andrew. Yay!
Boy, do I type slow…jinx!
Either that or we both work for American Greetings.
I might need a second job, think they’ll hire me?
That is wonderful! Just the first of many, many more, I’m sure!
for you TeacherToni!!! Hoooray! Fantastic News!
.
By Allah :: no inocculation from the West!
A health official tries to drop a polio vaccine into the mouth of a child in Kaiama town, Nigeria. International health experts said that a fraught global battle to eradicate polio was likely to reach its target next year, although they singled out Nigeria as the greatest obstacle to their bid. AFP/File/Pius Utomi Ekpe▼ ▼ ▼
I’ve got to post and run, but just wanted to stop in and say: thanks for being you – all of you.