st. louis or bust

ann and dabney are driving to st. louis this week for crazy bride and golfin' groom's wedding shower. ann and dabney foolishly offered to cater the affair, because they didn't have enough fun doing the wedding invitations a couple of weeks ago.

here's an inventory of everything that needs to fit in their car- the junk in their trunk if you will:

1. 250 ivory-colored capiz boxes purchased in and shipped back from the philippines, to become crazy bride's wedding favors
2. 20 rattan boxes, 40 tea cups, and 20 spoons, to become hotel room gifts for out-of-town guests
3. one 65 lb. springer spaniel
4. one round dog bed for said springer spaniel
5. one set of golf clubs
6. two tennis racquets, three cans of balls, and two pairs of tennis shoes
7. three cookbooks (for reading in the car to figure out what to cook for 45 people on saturday)
8. ten trays (to serve the food once they figure out what it will be)
9. one imac and accompanying cords, to be sent to ann's family in the philippines
10.enough clothes for a week for ann and dabney

they'll try to post periodically throughout the week, but tonight they'll be in some red roof inn somewhere in ohio without web access. to give you an idea, here's a photo from the last time they made the long haul to the "show me state."

cape coddah

ann and dabney headed to southie on sunday to visit boston tara at her family's pub, the black thorn. the pub was sold recently, so this was ann and dabney's last chance to soak up tara in all her glory behind the bar, and they jumped at the chance. they had a very pleasant afternoon hanging out with tara and her peeps, drinking guinness and black & tans.

if you happen to run into boston tara, be sure to ask her about the time that chronicle came to get footage of her bartending class a couple of years ago for a story they were doing. tara planned to make drinks she could say that wouldn't reveal her boston accent. things like gin & tonic. tom collins. manhattan. cosmopolitan. she just forgot one drink.

the cape coddah.

for weeks after the program aired, she couldn't escape people yelling "cape coddah!" at her. on the other end of the phone. across the softball field. at work.

so, a toast to boston tara and her irish clan. that the tap may be open when it rusts!

happy birthday to you...

ann and dabney returned to the scene of the crime (a.k.a. their wedding) when they headed to mass moca and the porches inn for ann's birthday late last week. both ann and dabney love north adams, and the trip allowed them to relive their much-adored wedding weekend. except, much to the porches' delight, this time ann kept her clothes on while drunk in the hot tub in the middle of the night.



it was a tough surprise for dabney to pull off. ann knew something was up when dabney arose at 6:45 am and was an immediate whirlwind of activity - all highly unusual. usually it takes her until noon to just open both eyes, let alone make breakfast, secretly pack the car, and take feidler to the dogsitter's. when ann got out of bed, the dog's absence was a quick tip off that something was up. after giving ann the runaround for a couple of minutes, "feidler is out front. no? he must be in the backyard," dabney 'fessed up.

it would turn out to be a museum-themed birthday. after a delicious lunch at oishi (sea urchin! salmon roe! sweet potato!), they revisited the quilts of gee's bend at the mfa, via an audio tour featuring the voices of the quilters telling stories and singing their favorite hymns. once in the berkshires, they also went to mass moca. here's a montage of the exhibits they saw:

cai guo-qiang: inopportune


the knitting machine


becoming animal: contemporary art in the animal kingdom

Shhhh....

today is ann's birthday and as a surprise dabney is taking her away to the berkshires for the night. superette will return on monday.

just don't tell ann...

DO NOT BUY THIS HOUSE!

if you are driving around the suburbs of boston, and happen to see this cute little grey number, DRIVE ON BY. if you happen to go to the open house, do not walk through the french doors to the sunlit porch. do not admire the stainless steel appliances in the newly renovated kitchen. do not pause to ooh and ahh at the two (strike that, three!) bedrooms, office, mudroom, or dining room.

because if you do, you are facilitating the move to vermont of two of the kindest, sweetest people that ann and dabney know.



and you do not want that on your shoulders, do you? because as ann and dabney know, vermont is a lawless place - filled with crime, pollution, ugly vistas, and horrible schools. worse yet, it is a four hour drive from boston.

and whatever you do, whatever else you do - do not stop to admire its new paint job. ann and dabney did not spend saturday painting the garage (yes, there is a cute little garage to match the cute little house. so what?) for you to compliment it, tell them what a good job they did, and how they are the best painters in the entire universe.

so just don't even think about it.

ann, tegan, dabney and sara

on friday night, ann and dabney had the pleasure of seeing two singing canadian lesbian identical twins (yes, you heard that right), otherwise known as tegan and sara.



the show was fantastic. the music - stellar. tegan and sara combine a power pop sound with an ani difranco attitude. their harmonies soared live (perhaps their identical chromosomes give them an advantage???) ann and dabney even appreciated that they weren't afraid to flub up a song and start over. bonus: melissa ferrick (who they used to open for in the past) joined them on stage for a surprise encore.

plus they - individually and collectively - were hilarious. usually, when ann and dabney go to a concert they want the artist to shut up and just play their music. but the banter between tegan & sara's songs was a window into their inimitable sisterspeak. they would tell childhood stories, interrupt each other to give another perspective, tell the other one to stop talking and play, or adopt the voice of a national geographic narrator describing the other's movements actions, i.e. "tegan, 24, is tuning her guitar."

and then there was the other show. perhaps because everyone was there to see two canadian lesbian identical twins, there was the obvious freak factor. it was the best people-watching opportunity that ann and dabney had had in some time. there was a bookish couple sitting to their right (how did ann and dabney know they were bookish? they tried to READ during the concert) and only a handful of people over the age of thirty scattered about (yes, mika and sherman, you count). and the lesbians. oh, the lesbians. the entire baby dyke population of all the area new england colleges was out in full force.

last but not least, tegan & sara had some of the best concert t-shirts that ann & dabney had ever seen. none of that plastisol photo of the band on a black t-shirt with the concert location and dates on the back shit. these concert tees looked like they could have come out of superette's craft room. to order one, click on a design.

matcha!

go ahead and say it, starbucks is the wal-mart of the coffee world steamrolling over competition and turning up on every corner of the globe with the same green and beige non-descript decor. superette hates to advocate for such atrocious mass marketing, but damn, this one may just be worth the four bucks at "fourbucks."



if you have not tried a green tea frappuccino, you have not lived. when ann and dabney were in japan last spring, they discovered these frothy concoctions and could not wait for them to make their american debut. (while on a layover in nagoya earlier this year, they ran to the airport fourbucks just for a quick icy treat.) walking down newbury street last week, they had their first domestic sighting and immediately changed directions to the closest fourbucks. superette fully expects green-laced whipped cream mustaches to be the hip look this summer.

"real" mail

in the sea of catalogs, bills, flyers, credit card offers, and fundraising solicitations, it sure is nice when superette receives fun packages in the mail. today's delivery included two fantastic surprises: two handmade silkscreened patches from the lovely maitreya at craftlog and a rainbow flag courtesy of faithful friend, lindsey.

the patches are a thank you from maitreya to her faithful readers.



lindsey picked up the flag on a recent trip to p-town, and thought ann and dabney would want to hang it up when boston pride hits next year.



many, many thanks to both for making ann and dabney's day...

macworld nerds

ann and dabney let out their inner geeks at the macworld expo today (not that they are ever really that far from the surface). ann has been chomping at the bit for the past two days wanting to go, but other projects kept them away until today.



since she was about ten years old playing around on her apple IIc, ann has been a mac enthusiast. hard core. back then, graphic design entailed making images out of x's and o's on a dot matrix printer. dabney's slightly lesser addiction came later, via tetris on her apple se during college. today, ann and dabney are the proud owners of one imac, two powerbooks, two ipods, and two ipod shuffles. see, nerds.

both ann and dabney attended the macworld expo years ago and had memories of a carnival-like atmosphere where thousands of fellow geeks rejoiced in their love of the macintosh and admiration of steve jobs. today's experience was much tamer; the expo was about one quarter of the size of the 1998 event. although, all their nerd brethren were certainly still out in full force.



today, it's all about accessories for mac devices. cases, clips, sleeves, bags, lanyards - you name it. even mac accessories come with accessories. witness the cable yoyo. as a result, ann and dabney came home with a lot of shwag. their favorite items were - hands down - attachments for their shuffles. one is the imojo shuffle sweat and one is called a flip clip from dlo. -- both of which are perfect for use during exercise. ann and dabney will post their reviews after they go to the gym. stay tuned, or should we say "ituned." see, nerds.

voilá... wedding invitations

it has taken four trips to the paper source, three priority mail packages, two fedex deliveries, three hours of hp phone support, three printers, and countless hours of frustration. but at long last, superette is pleased to announce the completion of crazy bride and golfin' groom's wedding invitations.

invitation and cover of the accompanying folder of information:


invitation and open folder:

now for some feidler madness

after further consideration of saturday's spaniel madness post, superette thought some feidler madness was in order.


feidler seurat


feidler pollack


feidler warhol


feidler gothic


feidler neel

flirting with skirts

there was the mini. there was the maxi. now, there is the "dabney."

dabney has always dreamed of making her own clothing. now, with the help of a sewing stars pattern, slightly modified to accommodate a zipper, she has. over the weekend, dabney stitched up two a-line skirts, one brown and one navy blue.

she wore the appropriately somber navy one to little blue scooter's wake last night.



and then she took a close-up of the brown one this morning, so you could see the teal blue stitching on the bottom.

spaniel madness

everyone knows that here at superette, dogs rule. but this is ridiculous.

the first of many posts about the farm co-op

ann, dabney, and ashbloem started their first food co-op last week through stillman's farms. the may rains caused new england's growing season to begin rather late. but boy, was it worth the wait. ann and dabney worked out an arrangement where they pick out their produce from the stands at the copley farmers market on tuesdays and fridays. so this week there were oodles of green beans, bunches of strawberries, and heaps of tomatoes to choose from. but ann and dabney weren't quite prepared for the mounds of zucchini that welcomed them in this first cornucopia.



this totally changes the way ann and dabney go about cooking in their household, and signals their foray into the world of ingredient-based cooking. so please forgive them if this summer they sound like a vegetarian version of forrest gump's good buddy bubba - because so far all they can talk about is zucchini: zucchini bread, grilled zucchini, pickled zucchini, roasted zucchini with thyme, zucchini fritters, steamed zucchini with scallions, portabello zucchini tacos, zucchini pizza, stuffed zucchini, spaghetti with fried zucchini...

aaarghhh.

today was a day of total sadness and frustration, both in large and small ways. ann and dabney woke to news of the london bombings, and the people who died there. then they spent the rest of the day on the phone with hewlett packard, trying to make their printer print as it should.

not much else to say today.

we lovermont

ann and dabney had a blissful weekend in dabney's homestate. thanks to their good friend jen b., who provided the view above, they were able to swim, play tennis, sunbathe, eat s'mores and sing campfire songs all weekend long. joining them were ashbloem and girlladyfriend, along with some new faces isaac, jess, carmella, and phillip. for more on the fun they had, go here.



while in vt, ann and dabney were able to catch up with their favorite happy family, the joneses. ann and mom were college roommates.



ann's future parental shutterbug tendencies manifested that afternoon. she couldn't help herself around little "e" and snapped pics of her every few seconds.



although ann clearly enjoyed herself, she is not sure if e cared for it much.

an old friend here, an old friend there, here a friend, there a friend, everywhere an old friend

old friends have been coming out of the woodwork in droves this past week. so much so that it's freaking ann and dabney out a little bit. the first part of the week was all about ann's past life; now dabney's past has started to emerge.

first there was sumana, ann's boarding school classmate, at supreme trading the other night.



sumana then brought their other high school classmate, roy, by their booth at the renegade craft fair the next day to say hi. it's been fifteen years since ann has since either one of the them.



then in the middle of the fair, a former colleague of ann and dabney's, maria, walked right up to their booth. ann was in the middle of explaining the cell phone charms and cleaners when she realized just who she was talking to. maria was herself a bit weirded out when they told her that a couple of weeks ago someone brought them a bottle of wine from her family's vineyard in sonoma valley. it's been six or seven years since they'd been in touch. and she now lives in Brooklyn.



ann also got to relive her glory days at wellesley with her favorite former londoner, jenny. it had been seven years since their last visit and it was as if they were back in college, except there were no dining halls, no rushing off to class, nor stale beer smells. instead, it was leisurely conversation at the w hotel over bellinis and vodka tonics.



this week was also dabney's reunion with childhood friend amy olk and her boyfriend sorin. they had a great overnight visit, and screened amy's short film jack's garden, about the death of amy's father.



and then just last night, in the middle of dinner with new friends seth and mana, gil called out of the blue. gil is a very old friend of dabney's from her college days. although a student at umass, gil used to spend much of his time on smith campus. in those days, they used to sit around in their birkenstocks, chain smoke, and listen to bread together. it had been about six years since the last time dabney saw gil.

dabney couldn't find a picture of gil, but a print that he gave her back in 1993 hangs in their bathroom.



although not quite the same, it also turns out that mana used to date one of dabney's high school classmates, scott. scott and dabney used to do theatre (scott did lighting and set design; dabney did set construction and stage management) together back in the day. dabney dated his younger brother for a couple of years. dabney discovered that, until just recently, scott was a performance artist in (where else) brooklyn, where ann and dabney just had their first craft fair this past weekend.

this is a picture of scott, which dabney found on-line. she hardly recognized him without his mohawk. scott graduated a couple of years before dabney, so it's been about eighteen years since she saw him last.



ann and dabney think it's clear that there is some weird juju going on...