The Boodler

Snow Day! Dec 19, 2009

2009-12-19T09:51:00.004-05:00

These pictures and video were taken around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 19.

Obamateering!

2008-10-14T13:29:00.002-04:00

Daughter and I spent yesterday evening volunteering at our local Obama office. The energy in the room was great! Here she is making phone calls, asking folks to volunteer to help turn Virginia blue! I'm so proud of her!

The Mega BPH T-Shirt Design is HERE!

2008-09-11T20:56:00.008-04:00

Here is the design for the Mega BPH T-shirt. The shirt will be navy blue with white and red graphics.

T-shirts have been ordered! I will be sending out invoices to folks who ordered shirts. Those of you coming to town will be able to pick up your shirts at the Friday night BPH or at the Main Event itself and pay me then.

Spotted at the Farmers’ Market...

2008-08-09T13:18:00.003-04:00

Richard Nixon...

IKEA Wisdom

2008-07-31T15:24:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I bought a thermal carafe at IKEA for $4.99. It has a name, of course: Skaffa; and it looks like this:
Now, usually when you bring home an item from IKEA, no matter how complicated an item, its instruction sheet contains absolutely no writing, other than the name of the item. They usually look like this:

Or like this...But the instructions that came with the Skaffa were very different... quite, er... wordy. How wordy? Thirty-nine pages of verbosity. In 18 different languages.

Here is the cover...

Here is the table of contents...

And here is what it says in English...

I guess they couldn't figure out a way to draw a picture that said to use washing-up liquid or that the product fulfills European Standard requirements for keeping drinks hot.

Boodlers in Action

2008-07-01T22:29:00.001-04:00

Purple Flowers!

2008-06-11T09:09:00.003-04:00

These shade-loving, purple-flowered, creeping plants are already overflowing the pots and providing beautiful small trumpet-shaped blooms. What are they? I never really looked at their name and have thrown out the markers. Any guidance is welcome!

All decked out

2008-06-05T22:45:00.003-04:00

My son spent a lot of his childhood in the company of his grandfather. Two peas in a pod. This was taken one day when Papou came to pick up Son of G for a typical day of fun... a stop at Costco for free samples and hot dogs and then to a couple of car dealerships where they'd check out the new models in the showroom.

A Day in the Mountains

2008-05-16T21:03:00.002-04:00

Lunch at the Banff Springs Hotel (L to R) TBG, Himself, Yoki and dmd.

The view from our table at lunch.

TBG, Yoki and dmd at the Canmore, AB, visitors' centre.

Pi Day at the Achenblog

2008-03-21T10:32:00.004-04:00

This year's Pi Day (3/14) celebration on the Achenblog took on a different twist... folks were asked to tell their favorite pie story. College Parkian compiled the entries and I put them together into a little booklet. Download the booklet and either print two-sided (or "duplex" if you printer so allows) or print out the even pages, flip over and print the odds on the other side.

Either way... a booklet will be born.

Be warned.. the file size is pretty large.. more than 500K. Click here or on the picture to download.

A Grand, Scary Canyon

2008-03-06T15:35:00.003-05:00

After driving for three days in the desert, and experiencing vastness I'd never seen or felt before, I really felt like a tiny mote in the universe. This set me up to be nervous around the canyon edge. This is as close as I'd let Son of G get.

Be Careful...

2008-02-28T21:16:00.006-05:00

Sirin’s Cookietown

2007-12-25T20:31:00.001-05:00

Boodler Sirin sent these pictures along of her Christmas masterpiece...

Sirin (red hair) and Francesca (right) begin plans for Cookietown.

Controversial Graham Cracker townhouses

Cookietown Pond

Cookietown trees

Sirin and son collaborate to build Cookietown
(which he prefers to call "Christmasville")

2007-12-09T22:18:00.001-05:00

Dancing Boodler

2007-11-25T17:26:00.000-05:00

Charlotte BPH

2007-11-05T09:47:00.000-05:00

We had a fun dinner at the Penguin Drive-In last night in Charlotte. Here are Jumper, Slyness and TBG...

TV Land

2007-11-02T17:37:00.001-04:00

My son and I found a great deal on an old Magnavox TV from the '50s and had fun cleaning it up, taking out the old (nonworking) tube and screen and replacing it with a new digital 19" TV. Here is what it looked like when we bought it...

After cleaning it up, replacing the fabric covering the speaker area and adding a DVD player, here's what it looks like now...

Fall Splendor

2007-10-23T15:46:00.001-04:00

Mr. G and I took an impromptu trip to Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia last weekend, not even realizing until we had embarked that it was 25 years ago that we visited there on our very first weekend trip together.

The colors were spectacular. Mr. G decided it looked like we were driving through a cartoon...

Vote Error in ’08

2007-09-23T09:56:00.000-04:00

I'm very sad today because someone I never met in person has died. This isn't someone I just read about in the news or online.. but read online. He was one of my "imaginary friends" on the Achenblog: Error Flynn, or Bob Lewis, as his "real" friends and family knew him.

Error came to the Achenblog I think from early on. He was honored as a Guest Kitter last summer and explained how his clever handle was born from an error itself:

My handle was the result of typing 'Error Flynn' instead of 'Errol Flynn,' one of my childhood heroes, and the intrepid Bayou Self pointed out that not only was it an error but it had a sort of rolled off the tongue. That I typed "error" shouldn't be a surprise because as a software developer I type it quite often. In this case it worked out. There are many cases in art and music where a 'mistake' might turn out better than what's planned.

I will miss Error Flynn. I'll miss his posts and I will be sad knowing that he's not in my world anymore.

I'm glad I can go back and read his witty, kind, gruff and insightful posts and in that way I won't really lose him for good.

We've Been South Parked!

2007-08-19T08:47:00.000-04:00

dbG's been South Parked...

I'd already been South Parked...

I've been Simpsonized!

2007-08-17T23:01:00.000-04:00

Someone's in the kitchen with TBG...

When you wish....

2007-06-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

May 7, 2007: dmd and TBG at the second Canadian-American Boodlefest. Here we are in front of the White House on the day the Queen was also visiting. Apparently I thought if I closed my eyes and wished hard enough, the person currently living in the White House would disappear. Sigh.

Great Test Answers

2007-04-14T21:30:00.000-04:00

2007-03-14T20:23:00.000-04:00

JA at the Corcoran

2007-02-11T13:29:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, some of the BPHers and I trudged down to the Corcoran Museum/College of Art to hear the great Joel Achenbach address the issue of Surviving the Age of Bad Information. The talk was great; Joel was interesting, funny, relaxed... and seemed to enjoy meeting the DC Boodlers. Here's a picture of us with The Man himself...

(L to R: bc, Scottynuke, Joel Achenbach, TBG, mo (in front),

*Tim, Annie and Curmudgeon.
Not pictured: LostInThought, pixel and Friend of pixel.)

Our buddy Curmudgeon tells the tale...

2007-01-10T15:18:00.000-05:00

. . . “Did I tell you about the time I met El Niño in a Mexican bar on a back street in Cancun City?”

Boodle Pinups

2007-01-01T16:42:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a bea c for pointing us to this cool PikiPimp page.

A Model Cat

2006-12-08T17:43:00.000-05:00

Who says cats aren't photogenic?

Achengirls Gone Wild at the Miami Book Fair

2006-11-19T17:01:00.000-05:00

The Miami Book Fair started out like any other: with a huge dog. Kbertocci and I had our day planned out and it worked out even better than we thought it would.

We started out in a session with Kurt Anderson (Spy Magazine, New York Magazine, NPR, etc) and kbertocci was impressed when she mentioned something to him at the book signing and he said, "You've blogged about that, haven't you?"

While she went off in search of Jonathan Franzen's words of wisdom, I stuck around for Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's shenanigans. I was not disappointed.

We were a little sorry we didn't get in Dave's book-signing line so we could meet him (it would have been a little awkward since neither of us had any of his books) but as we were walking around the book fair we saw him approach, so we called him over ("Hey! DAVE!") and explained that we were Achenbloggers and told him about our Achengirls Gone Wild weekend. He had us at, "You mean the Boodle?" We asked him if he read the comments and he said, "Well... there's a lot of them." Ridley Pearson grabbed my camera and posed us for a picture--proof if you will of our wild weekend.

We went off to look for Cuban food and then returned to the Book Fair for a fabulous concert by the Rock Bottom Remainders (we couldn't get tickets for Barack Obama).

What a rockin’ show. Special guest appearances by Andy Borowitz, Daniel Handler and some other cool, baby-booming writer-musicians. One highlight of the concert: Dave Barry's I'm in Love with a Proofreading Woman ("She's got a great big dictionary and she never says, 'between you and I.'") Of course, Andy Borowitz's social-commentary song (The Monkees' I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone) was worth the price of admission (free).

With the Book Fair closed for the night (we could hear Obama's speech, but not see it), we left Miami and headed for Miami Beach and dinner with the Miami Achenfish, ready to get up the next day to return to the Fair for one more speaker: Carl Hiaasen.

After listening to Hiaasen convince us to buy his books, we stood in line for an hour to get them signed. He was more impressed with TBG's daughter's Greek name (his wife is Greek) than the fact that we are Achengirls. Oh well.

Time for the beach and pool....

My Dad at 21

2006-09-09T23:58:00.000-04:00

My father served on the USS Stentor in the Pacific in 1945 and 1946. The ship, originally an LST, was reconfigured in 1945 as a floating machine shop. By the time they arrived in Hawaii the war was nearly over, but the ship toured the Pacific and he said there was still lots of fighting going on.

He had the best job on the ship: Captain's Yeoman, or secretary. It's amazing to think that a 21-year-old immigrant's son from DC could travel through Asia like he did. He also tells great stories of traveling back to DC by train from San Francisco when he returned from overseas.

My kids love to hear their grandfather's stories. Recently he was over for dinner and out on the back porch with my husband and kids while I was making dinner. My son came in to get the dishes to set the table outside and said, "I've got to hurry; I'm missing one of his stories! I just heard him say, '... so he grabbed the guy by the neck!' so I know I'm missing something good!"

My dad is the handsome guy on the right.

---

2006-09-09T23:50:00.000-04:00

The writing on the back of this picture says: "Shanghai Jan. '46. Krouse, Christie, [Dad], Judge and Moore."

---

2006-09-09T23:41:00.000-04:00

Dad's the one in the hat.

The Movable BHP Goes South

2006-08-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful Family BPH with Slyness and her husband—both delightful people. Even without Yuengling and tinfoil hats, much hilarity ensued.

Boodlers Explore Time & Space.... and Yuengling & Burgers

2006-08-03T10:51:00.000-04:00

mo and bc show how tough the BPH can be.

pj, *Tim and Dolphin Michael.

RD Padouk goes incognito with yellojkt.

It seems that yellojkt is already ashamed of himself.
Here he is with Bob S and PLS.

PLS and TBG.

mo is hugging the AchenNativeAmerican.

Blue-bottomed boys you make the rockin’ world go ’round...

2006-07-20T12:42:00.000-04:00

So Curmudgeon's blue bottom isn't a myth at all! Here it is in all its glory.

nelson meets the G family

2006-07-09T19:21:00.000-04:00

Had a Tidewater Area BPH last week when nelson came down to Va Beach to schmooze and partake with the G family at our beach house on 37th Street. She arrived in full Achenboodle regalia, including her Charlize Theron bow, in purple, as inspired by fellow boodler RD Padouk.

Here is evidence of our meeting.

Man Food

2006-06-24T20:50:00.000-04:00

When Joel Achenbach wrote about manfood a while back I remembered some essays that my husband, DBG, wrote a few years ago that he also titled, "Man Food." I finally found them on an old hard disk and have offered them for posterity.

I hope you enjoy them... Man Food

Apple Users are Geniuses

2006-06-18T21:49:00.000-04:00

The boy learned to program around the same time he learned to read.