"I Can Be...." Barbie - Yoga Teacher

So scary and horrible in a hundred different ways. So of course I bought one (available at Target only)

Barbie has some physical limitations. Her waist is not articulated, so no twists, deep backbends or forward folds. That cuts out a lot of classic poses (Triangle, for instance)

It works, however, in Camel pose, where she has no problem avoiding dumping into her lower back.

Her ankles are also not articulated, and her feet are pointed the better to wear heels. So pretty much no standing poses without some support. Sad, cause I'd love me some Warrior I or Warrior II Barbie....

However, her feet pretty much fit the definition of "active", perfect for abdominals.

And with a little support, she's an asana rock start with King Dancer. Nice and open psoas muscle!

We've had fun posing her in the poses she can do, and noticing which ones her construction prohibits (kind of informative and instructive right there)

I suspect Barbie is going to get a punkish / lesbian makeover pretty soon. Cut her hair, change her outfit to something vaguely anarchic, and give her some sharpie tatts. She's way too perky right now.

Life in Da Hood

I was out of state for a few days this week; work in Wilkes Barre PA. When I returned on Wednesday afternoon, I came home to this lovely site.




The low rents in the apartment building next door occasionally drive across the lawn - I've always assumed it was an "end of the month, moving out, too lazy to carry stuff 20 feet" kind of move. But this seems to have been either a case of drunk and stupid or just plain ornery. They left tired marks a good 40-50 feet along the back of their building, and another 10 feet or so in our lawn, where they apparently got stuck.

Of course, in the process of getting stuck and trying to get unstuck, they plastered the side of my condo unit with mud - 1/2" - 1" thick mud, all over the siding, foundation, and electrical and utility boxes.






Being not so smart, the perpetrator left his car right where it ended up, still mud spattered and with tire tracks intact. CT License 157-YBE, I see you.....


I called the local police, an officer showed up who was friendly but mostly unhelpful - she took some pictures, did a plate search on the car (came up clean) and found it was registered to the place next door. But was unsuccessful in contacting the owner and confessed that there was nothing she could do (because apparently this happened on Tuesday, so to charge them on Wednesday involved "warrants" which I guess means paperwork, and besides, this was not a vehicular matter (tickets) but a criminal one. etc. etc.

So, I found an email addy for the management company, and sent off the photos; our condo president is going to contact them via phone / snail mail. Someone apparently came over to try to clean off the side of the building with what appeared to be Windex and paper towels (uhm, nice try, loser) - I ended up going out this afternoon with a hose hooked up to the washing machine's hot water feed, a bucket of soapy water, and a scrubber on a 6' extension. It took a while but it's pretty much cleaned up.

The yard is still a mess, but I assume the apartment complex will have to do something about their own property so hopefully will address ours as well. Once we get the police report, maybe we can find the perps name and follow-up on our own.

Slabs of Cheese

Last night, taking Elo out for a quick bio break after coming home after a Guinea Pigs rehearsal, I discovered in the yard between my place and the apartment building next door, two slabs of cheese.


These were unwrapped - one looked like a Stop n' Shop slab of sharp chedder, the other some sliced swiss. I picked them up and tossed them last night, but pulled them out today to recreate the scene of the crime, for my Facebook friends. Hard to wrap your mind around slabs of cheese appearing in your yard.

I'm befuddled about this cheese.

I could understand wrapped cheese - someone bringing home the groceries and things fall out of the bag. I could understand rough chunks of moldy cheese - an animal gets into the trash and drops some cheese. A few slices - somebody is decheesing a sandwich or grinder. But these looked remarkably fresh and almost as if they were dropped into the yard deliberately.

My theories:

a) Some domestic dispute next door that resulted in cheese being tossed out the window. Dammit, I wanted provolone!
b) The cheese is poisoned, and placed to take care of vermin, feral cats, or perhaps even Elo (he's a pretty good dog but who knows what might piss off somebody - his barking antics when we get ready for a walk, or perhaps a pissed off dog walker who Elo terrorized one time when he got off the leash.

In any case, I'll be keeping an eye on the lawn looking for future foodstuffs....