Aloha Zen. Sounds good to me.

From NYTimes, last week.

David Gergen, an adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents, said Mr. Obama seemed to exude an “Aloha Zen,” a kind of comfortable calm that, Mr. Gergen said, reflects a man who “seems easy going, not so full of himself.”

Picture: Barack and his half-sister Maya. www.hawaiiforobama.org

One last shot of the blooming citrus.

Geese landing.

Lyle on the right. Half of Gangi.

Matt Gangi on the left.

The frozen park yesterday.

Then there were three.

Happy to announce that Nyack Backyard is a new member of the Tchotchke Challenge group. On Feb 15 we will post pictures of our Letter C entries. I've already got mine picked out.

Letter B Tchotchke Entry: Bottle bells.

My dad was a compulsive hoarder. A familiar phrase was (approximately) "I should save that. I may be able to use it for something later." So interesting bottles could not be tossed out. He came up with the idea of cutting off the bottoms of bottles, then using string and the bottle top (or cork) and some little piece of metal to make a knocker. Viola! Bells. The knockers are made of miscellaneous small metal things: nuts (as in nuts and bolts), buttons, locks. The bells have a nice tone. But really. How many bells does one person need? I found four of these tucked back behind other treasures. And unlike God Bless Y'all Real Good, I'm not going to liberate my entry. Back they go, into china cabinets and bookcases to gather dust. My kids can make the hard decision to throw them out after I'm gone.

I liked this photo spread.

You can see a much better, and complete, slide show of all the photos here.

Lemon tree blooms.

Or lime or tangerine or gapefruit or orange tree. I'll never know.

January 31, 2009, NYT

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Metallica closed its main set on Thursday night at the Nassau Coliseum here as if it were a Raffi show, or a Promise Keepers meeting. “You make Metallica feel great,” the frontman, James Hetfield, barked into his microphone. “Thank you, friends!”

Platitudes have not typically been among the strengths of this preternaturally wise band, which formed almost 30 years ago and quickly became one of the most proficient and influential outfits in American heavy metal. And this was not Mr. Hetfield’s only bland affirmation. (“You’ve come here to release some energy tonight.” “You are the fifth member of Metallica.”) But somehow with his gravelly rasp and all-black ensemble — Mr. Hetfield remains one of the few people in the world who can make skintight black jeans look tough — he can say these things to a several-thousand-strong crowd consisting largely of loudly bellowing bruisers, and still inspire fear and awe.

That’s because even after a decade and a half of creative muddle, the Metallica mystique trumps all. Here, for more than two hours, the musicians and their fans gladly imagined the band as it once was — punishing, technically astonishing, relentless.

The waxing crescent moon is my favorite.

A driver's license for the late great Socks.

See. This is why it's a good thing to keep boxes and bags full of old papers. You find treasures like this.

Limb by limb.

I woke up to discover that the Washington Post plans to stop publishing their Sunday Book World section. I've long muttered that the Post has a crummy book section, at least when compared to the one published by the NYTimes. And then I would always add "well at least we HAVE a book section; most papers don't." Boy do I hate to see the newspaper business die such a slow painful death. It's like the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: each extremity gets hacked off but he still keeps hopping around, taunting his adversary. For anyone who wants to continue receiving a weekly book supplement I highly recommend giving the NYTimes $91 a year:

How do I subscribe to the printed version of The New York Times Book Review?
The New York Times Book Review is available separately from the Sunday newspaper. It contains reviews of new releases, author interviews and coverage of the book world, as well as bestseller lists for fiction, non-fiction and paperbacks.
A one-year mail subscription (52 weeks) is $91 to a U.S. address, US $140.40 to a Canadian address, and $169.00 for all other foreign addresses.

To order, call 1-800-631-2580, Monday to Friday, 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. ET or visit www.homedelivery.nytimes.com.

Outside the U.S. call (201) 750-5200 or send a fax to (201) 750-5390.

Ice!

Snow!

Too bad it caused me to take out a stop sign today when I tried to leave my neighborhood. I had to use the sign to stop my car, which was about to slide right into oncoming traffic. Everyone thinks DC'ers are wimps about driving in snow. It's not the snow that causes us to be wimps...it's that ice that's always hiding just under the snow. My car is making a lot of awful noises but it drives.

Lemon tree very pretty (not) and the lemon flower is sweet.

Buds are getting whiter...any day now the blooms will open. The smell will be divine.

This won't be funny to some people but it sure made me laugh.

From NYT, 1/25/09, page 1

"Early this month, Barack Obama was meeting with [his staff] when Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, began nervously cracking a knuckle.

"Mr. Obama then turned to complain to Mr. E about this noisy habit.

"At which point, Mr. E held the offending knuckle up to Mr. O's left ear and, like an annoying little brother, snapped off a few special cracks."

Art by Don Relyea from his Hair Particle Drawing Project.

Seagulls. They looked stunned today.

Birds have not been coming to my feeders this week, at least not as much as they normally do. Maybe it's just too cold for them to eat? I love this weather but I must admit I'd like the ground to defrost.

Cold again today.

More moss.

This moss is from western Maryland, near Gormania, West Virginia.

Guess what? The mysterious red elephant on NH Ave was gone on Tuesday....

I'll never know for sure but I will forever assume it was no accident that the red elephant went missing (a phrase I hate, by the way) on Inauguration Day.

We got a dusting of snow last week. Wish we'd get more.

Citrus blossoms. 2nd year.

I grew this citrus tree (lemon? lime? tangerine? didn't keep track) from a seed. It's about 20 years old and very ugly. It sits at the bottom of a staircase with an extra-high ceiling. Last year for the first time I got flowers with a heavenly aroma, but no fruit. I suspect the same will happen this year. I wish I could kill the tree but my heart won't let me.

Obama Belt. Purchased on the mall on Inauguration Day by a friend. She had just about thawed out when I took the pictures.

As Rev Lowry said today...

...in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead man, and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

Eucalyptus. Only a bit of color in my garden so I appreciate it all the more.

Mahonia japonica.

Phyllo Encounter of the First Kind.

Thanks to blogger Kitt, I've now tried my hand at making spinach pies with phyllo dough. Hard to work with! But very tasty. I'll be doing this one again. And maybe one day I'll make pretty ones, instead of these that look like leftovers from a very bad meal.

Greenbelt Lake.

Friday midnight EST: 9 degrees in Silver Spring, minus 6 degrees in Gormania, 68 degrees in Burbank.

I took it off on Jan 1. I might put it back on for the weekend.

I've changed my mind. I AM going to the Inauguration. I'll stand just about here. The Capitol is about 10 crow-miles in that direction.

That's as close as a lot of people will get. And my bathroom is a lot nicer than those 5,000 porta-potties they're setting up. For those of you not in the DC area you almost can't imagine how much the Wash Post has tried its best to keep us home on Tues. (And Mon, Sun, and Sat too.) OMG, the traffic. OMG, the cold. OMG, the busses and their parking lots. OMG, the bridge closures and the one-way streets and the no-vehicle zones! It's all very exciting.

See these cans? See those ugly 4 x 4s holding up my deck? Remember the Alum Can House? Yes I Can!

I've never known such a serene cat. Gus.

Sleeping in and on the water.