$3.25 worth of awesomeness

Tonight I went to a nearby Goodwill because I heard through the grapevine that this particular store location was a good place to pick up quality used books. Well, I only ended up buying one book, but it was a doozy:


It is a book called Molly!!!!!! And here is something freaky: it came out the year I was born. I love the cover of this book more than words can say. I think I am going to keep it on my dresser so that I can style my hair that way.

Now, I admit that I probably would have bought this book for its cover alone, but listen to the intriguing text found on the book jacket:
“Molly” is storytelling at its dramatic best – the fast-paced, engrossing tale of a feisty young Irish girl whose spirit triumphs over poverty and personal tragedy.

Fleeing her fanatical republican family, Molly O’Dowd arrives nearly penniless in London at the end of the nineteenth century. With the aid of a social worker, she escapes the world of East End gambling houses and brothels and invests what little money she has in a typing course – an investment that will lead to the founding of her own employment agency and her establishment as a woman of power and means.

Along the way Molly wins – and then loses in the Boer War – her first love, makes a marriage of convenience, is widowed, and marries again. But her energy and determination never flag, and finally she meets the man who will be her match in business and in love.

From the rough-and-tumble world of the London docks to the luxurious hotels and restaurants of the fashionable West End, “Molly” captures the temper of the times – the unrest of the laboring classes, the courage of the suffragette movement, the ravages of the First World War. And through it all moves one of the most appealing and fully realized heroines in years: the indomitable Molly O’Dowd.

Can you believe that? And that’s just the book jacket!! Who knows how much more plot acclaimed author Teresa Crane stuck into this book?!?! It sounds like that Molly really gets around. Even if I never read this book, the book cover and jacket description make it well worth the $1.25 I spent on it.

Then, even though it seemed like my night couldn’t get any better, I wandered into the dollar store that was next door to the Goodwill. And there, I found some outfits for my bears Barnabas and Chester. For just $2, I was able to outfit an ENTIRE BEAR ARMY. Dressed like this, these bears will CONQUER THE WORLD.

Now, I do think that the material of Barnabas’s outfit is the same kind of material used for those kids’ pajamas that would spontaneously combust. So he might have to sleep out on the couch when he’s wearing his army outfit. But the real find, I think, is Chester’s outfit. While Barnabas is sort of a standard size bear as far as clothing goes, Chester is not. So far he only has an Appalachian State t-shirt to wear. He is petite, yet he has big hips. I’m not exactly sure what other stuffed animals or dolls this army outfit could fit, so I guess the only way to describe it is Chester–size. Though, since the outfit doesn’t have any Velcro, I’m not sure it will ever come off. So Chester Bear, you are in the army for life.

This is Chester trying to comfort fictional Molly, after he heard about her tragic loss in the Boer War:
And that is how you entertain yourself for hours with only $3.25. Plus tax.

one badass bear

When I first got my adorable bear, Barnabas, I was living in Seattle and I needed someone to keep an eye on the place when I wasn’t around. I wanted some security for when I was home alone at night. And Barnabas, in addition to being a wonderful companion, has kept things very safe. I haven’t been burgled once in the entire time that I’ve owned Barnabas, and I don’t think that’s just a coincidence.

Now, I envisioned that Barnabas would be able to stay at home and make my protection his full time job and life’s mission. But, no one can deny that times are tough these days, and I have asked Barnabas to get a job to cover a few household expenses. For example, I didn’t expect that my fish would live an entire year and now we’re going to have to keep buying fish food. Also, we have another mouth to feed since little Chester Bear came into our life at Christmas.

Man, if this is the first blog entry that you’re reading, you’re really confused and disturbed, huh?

So Barnabas sat down about a month ago and started thinking about what job he might like. At first he wanted to be a puppeteer, but as always, nobody’s looking for a puppeteer in today’s wintry economic climate. Then he thought he might like to be a sports coach, because he’s been really interested in things like the Final Four and the Masters lately. But he doesn’t really excel at any one sport. He is however, athletic, and when I considered that, in combination with the fact that he came along for the express purpose of personal protection, I told him that maybe he should consider being a police bear or a bodyguard or something.

Well, Barnabas did a little investigation and talking to other local bears, and I am proud to announce that little Barn is now fully trained and employed as a member of the Bear SWAT Team. Here he is with Alvin the fish before his first day of work:

Here are some fun facts about SWAT teams that I got from Wikipedia:
--SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics.
--The first SWAT team was established in 1968 in Los Angeles.
--The first significant deployment of that SWAT team was a four-hour confrontation with the Black Panthers in 1969.
--The most common weapons used by SWAT units are submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns and sniper rifles.
--SWAT duties include perimeter security against snipers for visiting dignitaries, countering terrorist operations in U.S. cities and stabilizing situations involving high-risk suicidal subjects.

Now maybe you are thinking, “Whoa! Molly! How can you handle sending your sweet little bear into such a big bad world?” And I cannot lie, it is hard for me. But from what I understand, the bear SWAT units are a little bit different, in ways that Wikipedia hasn’t quite caught up to yet. And Barnabas assures me that he is always very safe and that he feels it is his duty to go out and protect other bears, like Chester.

I did worry when he came home from his first day on the job, because the first thing he did was head for the fridge, get a beer, and sit in front of the tv. He didn’t say a word, and it was only because I pestered him that he mumbled something about a bear hostage crisis. Here he is, looking kinda rough:

So of course I’m concerned that he may become hardened by this job. However, after a beer, he was back to his old Barnabas self, and we had a good discussion about how we both hate the song “Maggie May” by Rod Stewart. Like, we both REALLY hate it. I asked him if he thought I should add black beans to the hash browns I was making for dinner, cause I’m all about adding black beans to everything these days. Barnabas voted no, that I should get my hash brown technique more finely tuned before I start experimenting with add-ins. And friends and neighbors, that bear was right. My hash browns still need work.

stylin' and profilin'

Time for another post about Barnabas Bear. (If you need to catch up with who Barnabas the Bear is, you can check out these posts: #1, #2, #3) On the day that Barnabas entered my life, he was wearing a brown t-shirt and blue jeans, and that is what he has been wearing ever since. I don't dwell on it too much, because he seems to really like the outfit and he keeps it fairly clean. Occasionally he gets a little too lean, and I wish he would get a belt cause his pants are always falling off. Oh well.

But the bear's wardrobe, or lack thereof, has always bothered my mother. So on occasion, I have looked in craft stores for bear clothing, because there's usually an aisle where you can make your own bear and dress it up. But most of those clothes are for girl bears, so I've always been out of luck. Oh! You know what else I was out of luck on? When the pope visited America, Build-a-bear released a tiny little bear shirt that commemorated the occasion, but it was only sold in D.C. area stores. Oh well again.

Finally, though, my mother had some luck finding additional outfits for Barnabas. The last time I went home, I found a tiny bear sweater and some bear pajamas on my bed. Man oh man it was like Christmas all over again. Mom said to tell Barnabas that the clothes were from his grandmother, which was about as creepy and awesome all at the same time as you might expect.

So now Barnabas has three outfits, basically. I worry that soon I will have to clear out a shelf for him or something.

His new blue sweater says "Little Star" and has various sports depicted upon it. It's a good sweater to wear when Barnabas watches sports with his new little brother Chester, who came already attired in athletic gear:

Now, on to the pajamas. The creepiest thing about these pajamas, from my perspective, is that they have an opening at the crotch as if Barnabas were a real male bear that might need to go to the bathroom. Now, I know I treat my bear like he is a real person, but that is weird even to me. And it can't be for a teddy tail, which was my first thought, because they're in the front of the pants and not the back. Well, I'm going to try not to focus on that.

In addition to the weird opening, the pajamas concern me ever so slightly because Barnabas already does a lot of lounging around. Hopefully these pajamas will not completely turn him into a Howard Hughes-style recluse. So far, though, he is proving to take more of a Hugh Hefner tack, wearing his pajamas around and macking on the ladies. Here is how I found Barnabas just the other night:

But I raised Barnabas to be a gentleman, and he arose in the morning to make everyone coffee and poptarts:

the bear's hanukkah

If you're a faithful reader of this blog, then you're probably familiar with my bear Barnabas. What may be surprising to you is that Barnabas is Jewish. That's right, I have been engaged in an inter-faith relationship. Since last night was the last night of Hanukkah, I figured today's Picture of the Day should be Barnabas with his holiday loot:
I will run down what Barnabas received:
--A copy of Paste magazine with Zooey Deschanel on the cover, because Barnabas has the biggest crush on her.
--A can of black beans, which is one of his favorite foods.
--A mini-bottle of Jose Cuervo, whom Barnabas likes to refer to as his "good amigo Jose" when he's had a few
--Frizz-ease (maintaining bear hair can be difficult)
--Drano (see above regarding bear hair)
--Socks with turtles on them
--The Ped Egg (Barnabas has had some feet issues lately)
--Q-tips
--A mini-stapler (he told me he has been pushing through lots of paperwork while I'm gone)

Also, he got some postage stamps but I forgot to put them in the picture.

And here is Barnabas wearing his socks, enjoying a drink, and reading his magazine:

As I briefly mentioned earlier, on Christmas day Barnabas got a new brother, Chester, which was a present from my brother William. I think I am starting to become the Angelina Jolie of bears. Anyways, I will be posting more about Chester as I learn about him. I don't think he is Jewish since he came on Christmas but sometimes life is funny that way.

doughboy, part 2

After posting yesterday’s Picture of the Day, I started to feel a little bad, because truth be told, there is another doughboy in my life. The Pillsbury one, of course. Here is that doughboy in today’s Picture of the Day, with Barnabas Bear and his new bear brother Chester. Chester came on Christmas day as a present from my brother William, but I digress. This story is about the Pillsbury doughboy.

This doughboy used to live at my grandmother Mimi’s house. When I used to go visit Mimi as a little girl, I would put that doughboy in a little stroller and push it around the neighborhood. We’d go off to feed the ducks or to drop leaves off the side of a bridge so that they went off to Never-Neverland because those were the kinds of things I did when I visited Mimi. Then, likely, we came back to the house and Mimi fixed us a cheese plate and some ice cream because there was always good eatin’ at Mimi’s house.

Mimi died when I was in the fifth grade, and it fell upon us to clean out her house. We took a fair share of stuff but there was no way everything could go. As my parents remember it, I said goodbye to the doughboy and put him in the pile to go to the dump. But dad said I didn’t seem quite convinced, and when he took that load to the dump he pulled that doughboy back from the edge of extinction. When he got home, he gave me the doughboy and said that he’d heard the doughboy saying, “Save me! Save me!” This is a situation where the written word really fails to convey the essence of the story because my dad does a perfect Pillsbury doughboy voice.

So legend has it that the doughboy can never be thrown away, because he will cry out and pierce your heart. And that is the tale of the other doughboy in my life.

now that's what I call Christmas decorating!

Recently I wrote about the Christmas decorating I did this year. I made it a simple affair, with a jingly tree wired Christmas decorations, which was more than enough to get me into the holiday spirit. But lo, I have added another decoration to my apartment, and it is awesome. For a mere $2.24 (all holiday decorations are on sale now, if you need any), I have brought life-size wise men into my bedroom, and they are today's Picture of the Day:

Here are the three wise men presenting Barnabas with their gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh. While I put Barnabas there because the wise men all appeared to be looking at someone down there (and I didn't have any Baby Jesus's hanging around), I hope that he will also be useful in terms of scale. These guys are well over five feet tall.

I put the wise men up in my bedroom, because there's a corner that as of yet has no furniture or wall hanging or the like; my mother, also known as my interior decorator, has thrown out a few ideas for what we could do to decorate that corner. But I'm kind of glad we haven't gotten around to it yet, otherwise there would be no room at the inn for these wise men. Best of all, they can stay around until Epiphany! But probably even longer because I like having them around. Probably until Mom and I decide what to do with that corner.

Now, this is the corner that faces my bed, and I will say it's a little creepy to wake up and see three guys in the corner. And I have woken up in the middle of the night and wondered what the shadow on the wall was. So it may not be the best Christmas decoration for my sanity. But it's still a great addition to my Christmas decorations, nay, my apartment decorations. I like having three men bearing presents around.

trying to reason with hurricane season

So, I wasn't going to blog tonight. I was going to curl up in bed with a nice beverage and read about the wonder and mystery that is the human brain. But I get into bed and who do I find but my little companion Barnabas. Barnabas is a magic bear and he comes alive but I'm the only one who knows. To everyone else, he just looks lazy and like he needs to lie down a lot.

Sometimes I feel that I shouldn't mention my bear too much and how he and I just have the longest conversations about whatever we are doing. But luckily I have at least one other friend who is as willing to talk to stuffed animals as much as I am, and that person is my friend Adam. Recently I hosted Adam in my apartment when he had to evacuate from New Orleans due to a hurricane. I kept saying, "I am kind of like the Superdome, but better!" but I don't know if it's too soon for that kind of humor.

I guess the real noteworthy thing about Adam's visit is that we were in close vicinity to TWO car-jackings. Unfortunately the second one involved Adam. The first night, we were eating when someone ran in and said, "whoever drives such and such a car, it just got broken into!" Adam and I talked about how much that sucked. Then the next night we were at a bar on the very same street when Adam's car got broken into. But please don't worry about my safety. I live over a mile from where the carjackings took place, and while that might not seem like very much, believe me when I tell you it is a world away.

But back to the creatures. Adam has two creatures, a cat and a squirrel. And I have Barnabas. Adam and I treat these things like real people. We spent a bit of time discussing what our commitment to these creatures meant. Did our overwhelming fondness for these things make us selfish or shallow? Were we bad people for finding our creatures far superior to children or even living pets? Would this ever change, or would we be old people with stuffed playthings? And if so, would that be better or worse than becoming an old lady/man with an inordinate number of cats?

After awhile, though, we decided to stop worrying about it and just take adorable pictures of all the things our creatures did. And here are those pictures. Barnabas is glad I am finally taking the time to put them up.

From left to right: Squirrel, Cat, Barnabas. Barnabas was glad to have so much company, since I had left him home alone for 10 days while I went on vacation.


Barnabas sharing the only food I had in my apartment, pretzels:


Gossiping in the bathroom:


Barnabas playing some sweet tunes for his new friends:


Plotting something, no doubt:


Turns out they were plotting a hide-out in the laundry room. Barnabas likes to perch on that thing in the washing machine and ride it around and around. That's how he gets clean.


Adam is real conservative, and I started to worry that his rantings would influence Barnabas, so here I am reading Barnabas some things about Barack Obama:


Meanwhile, Cat and Squirrel check weather reports online to figure out when they can go back home:


Then Barnabas read everyone a bedtime story:


Then he tucked them in on the couch where they slept:


If this is the first entry of my blog that you read, please know that I'm not insane. I just really like this little bear.

home sweet home

The rest of my cleaning spree went okay, I guess. One problem I've already identified is that I stuck a lot of random stuff in random places, just to hide it, and now I have to find it all again. Today my landlord had an open house, but I don't know how it went. I can't imagine anyone not snapping this place up...when I got it, I was the first one to see it and I think I just lucked out. On the one hand, she's raising the price quite a bit, and I wouldn't pay that much for it (but I know about the upstairs neighbor who has a habit of walking around the hardwood floors at 4 am), but on the other hand, they did just build a really nice grocery store a few minutes away.

Anyways, here's a tour of my apartment, as I'll always remember and treasure it. I can post these now, because I'm only living here a little bit longer, so I think my chances of being robbed are probably going down. Although, depending on how many people came to the open house today, a lot of people were probably able to case the joint.

This is my kitchen nook. I love the table, which my dad found at an antique store...it's tiled on the top. My Uncle Ken did the paintings on the wall in the 1970's...they're of Germany. They were in my grandmother's condo for a long time, but they made it out to Seattle.

Here's the living room. That is Barnabas Pete Bear on the couch, who keeps an eye on the place while I am at work. Ruth Orkin's "American Girl in Italy" is on the wall there. That is one of the most comfortable couches ever and I spend an awful lot of time on it.

The other side of the living room. Above the tv is one of my favorite things in the world...a painting of St. Basil's in Moscow, which my uncle painted for me while I was in Russia. He gave it to me when I graduated. That blue chair is where most of the blogging magic happens.

The kitchen and living area are separated by this bar thingy. That's the bathroom door in the corner, and the bedroom is behind the couch.

Here's the bedroom...as you can see, pictures of Italy around the bed. One crutch is there, from when I tried to bang on the ceiling to get the girl who lives on the floor above me to stop doing her elephant impression at 3 a.m.

Here's where I get ready and whatnot:

Since I couldn't really be around during the open house, I drove about 30 minutes east of Seattle today to look at Snoqualmie Falls. It was alright. I didn't walk to the bottom because if there is anything TLC has taught me, it is, don't go chasing waterfalls. So instead, I had some strawberry ice cream and looked at some train things that were set up in downtown Snoqualmie.

Some to see a bear would pay a fee

Well, nothing makes me want to take a picture more than a fake bear. Here are some photos of bears and me on my most recent vacation.



This was a bear I didn't know about. It was in Arizona.




This bear scared me.




This is a bear on a motorcycle in Arizona. I blocked out the license plate myself, using my mad computer skillz.




These are some bears in Utah.




I am helping this bear climb.




This is the Coke bear in Vegas.