This is my holiday greeting to all my wonderful readers here at “From the Garrett”.  We had a snowstorm over the weekend which made my house look like a Victorian picture postcard so I thought I’d share it with you.

May your holidays be merry and bright…and filled with great books!

Okay, it’s a slight exaggeration.  However, while visiting my daughter in the wilds of Ohio, I attended a Columbus Blue Jackets game.  Lest you think I abandoned my beloved Devils, it was not so.  I wore my Devils hat proudly, as is evidenced by the photo below:

The Blue Jackets lost to the Anaheim Ducks, and, honestly, it wasn’t a very good game.  However, I enjoyed seeing former Devil Scott Niedermeyer, now a Duck.  And I was interested in watching Jackets goalie Steve Mason, who, like me, named his dog after Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.  Here’s Steve in goal:

Other than that, it was fun to see the different touches the Jackets brought to Nationwide Arena, a very nice place to watch hockey.  They fire a cannon when they score a goal:

They have a drum line, the Boom Jackets, which my Darling Daughter, the former marching band drill sargeant, appreciated.

The one slightly creepy aspect was their mascot Stinger, who is a weird cross between a hornet and a frog.  Seeing him dressed in a Santa suit just added to the general impression of strangeness.

They had a massive cleaning crew who streaked onto the ice and madly scraped and hauled during every break in the action.

In addition, I got into a conversation with one of the ushers who spotted my Devils hat.  Rather than harassing me, he praised Marty Brodeur, saying that he was in a class by himself.  Only in Ohio….

All in all, it was a lot of fun to see a different team’s arena, and to feel a different hockey vibe.  It beats hanging out with llamas.

Yes, an old goldfish CAN be taught new tricks!  Gosh, who’d a thunk?  Here’s what the catalogue copy says:

R2 Fish Training School Kit

• The R2 Fish Training School Kit is a complete training system that includes everything you need to teach your fish over 10 amazing tricks (including soccer, football, basketball, limbo, fetch, tunnels, and more!)
• Includes:
  • Instructional DVD
  • R2 Fish School training platform
  • Over 20 compatible training accessories
  • Feeding wand
  • Instruction manual with over 100 photos
  • Compact, weighted base for bowls or small tanks – measures 10.25″ x 6.25″
• Simple, fast, and easy to understand
• For almost all fish 1″ to 6″ in length
• Used to train the fish trick world record holder – developed by a real Ph.D!
• Winner of “Best in Show” at 2009 Global Pet Expo!

I would have thought this was a total gag gift except for this YouTube video.  Take a look.  They claim that, “No stunt fish or special effects were used; that was an actual fish trained using this kit. You get everything you need to teach your fish to play football, play soccer, limbo, weave, fetch, go through tubes, and more! And then you can quit your job and go on tour. It’ll be just you, Twinkie the fish, and the open road. With the R2 Fish Training School Kit and a little perseverance, the world is your oyster . . . well, goldfish.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Iznh9VbsY

But can they teach their fish to shake fins?  I think not.

Anyway, if you’d like the best trained fish in your town, you can buy the kit for $29.99 here:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/adca/

Glug, glug.

This is unadulaterated joy!  It’s my son’s soccer team celebrating the goal they scored to win their first playoff game.  It was scored in the last 30 seconds of double overtime.

This team has won lots of games.  In fact, they won their division championship, but they never celebrated with such abandon.  I think I know why: because they really EARNED this moment of triumph.  Their opponents played well, and my son’s team was down 1-0 at the half.  Coming back to force the game into overtime was satisfying, but winning with almost no time left on the clock created a sense of jubilation.

When we earn our happiness by putting forth our best efforts, it’s so much more satisfying than having it just handed to us for no good reason.  I try to remember that when things are not going well.  If I can make it work out, I will feel all the greater joy.

Something for your Bible-toting friends?   I can’t quite figure out the target audience for this particular gift, especially given the first line of description.

Magic Adam and Eve Mug

“A Hot Beverage Reveals Their Secret Shame!  Mug is the picture of innocence until a hot beverage is added.  Then watch the fig leaves disappear to reveal their privates.”  Oh, and make sure to handwash only!

If you can think of someone who’d enjoy this, it’s only $12.98 at http://www.thingsyouneverknew.com/product/code/85252.do?showPrevNext=false.

Happy Secret Shame?!

It’s that time of year again where I round up the weirdest gift ideas I can find in the catalogues that rain through my mailslot.

This first one is something that I might secretly want for myself if it weren’t for the price.  Yes, I’m a Trekkie so this appeals to me:

It’s a Kirk and Spock Transporter Figure Set.  “One shake of our water tube transporters recreates the effect [of beaming up], with flashing red, green and blue LED lights, enhanced by swirls of gold glitter.”

The hitch: the set costs $49.98 plus tax, shipping and handling.  That seems kind of pricey for something I’d play with on Christmas Day and then put on a shelf to collect dust.  Maybe there are Trekkies more devoted than I, but I refuse to even ask Santa to fork over $50 for this.

However, for all you lottery winners, here’s the link if you want to buy one: http://www.thingsyouneverknew.com/product/code/55944.do?showPrevNext=false

Beam me up, Scotty!

I discovered Jon Katz through his Suburban Detective series, books I adored.  The first was titled Death by Station Wagon.  What soccer mom could resist?  Evidently, his mysteries didn’t sell well enough so the series was discontinued, much to my disappointment, since each one was better than the last.

Jon Katz then turned to writing about dogs and the rest is history.  His first doggy story, A Dog Year, about a psychotic Border Collie he rescued, made me laugh and cry at the same time.  It was great stuff and hit the bestseller lists.

So I was delighted to see Soul of a Dog in my local library and snatched it up immediately.  Mr. Katz has left his suburban home and  moved to Bedlam Farm in upstate New York.  This book talks about all of the animals on the farm although dogs are certainly central.  There’s Elvis the enormous Snickers-loving steer, Henrietta the unusual hen, Mother the barn cat, along with various  sheep, donkeys, and goats.  Nearest and dearest to his heart are Rose and Izzy, the Border Collies, and Lenore, the Labrador.  The entertaining stories about these critters are framed by Katz’s own exploration of the on-going debate as to whether animals have souls. 

As an animal lover myself, I gobbled up Katz’s descriptions of his creature companions, but I also enjoyed the depth his occasional philosophical tangents  gave the book.  He is remarkably clear-eyed about the dangers of anthropomorphizing our pets, yet he clearly cares deeply about  all of his animals.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who loves animals.  I’ve already put it on my gift-giving list.

My sister had a big birthday this year (I won’t reveal how big) and my gift to her was a trip to see Fallingwater,  the famous house over a waterfall designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, something we both wanted to see.  What an amazing place! 

That’s me standing in the driveway beside the entrance (to the left of the photo).

 The house surprised me in several ways.  First, the drama of the structure is incredible.  Second, it’s not fancy which makes sense since it was built as a weekend retreat for the Kaufman family of Pittsburgh, PA.  Third, it blurs the lines between interior and exterior in an extraordinary way. 

Below is a photo of the Kaufman family with son Edgar, Jr. in the center.  He became a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and introduced him to the Kaufman parents.  They hired him to design their house which was constructed between 1936 and 1939.  In today’s dollars, it cost about $2 million to build.

Edgar, Jr. donated the house and all its contents to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963.  What’s especially significant about that is that you see the house with the original furniture and objets d’art.  The Kaufmans had some nice stuff: Picassos, Tiffany lamps and lots more.  Yet the feeling is casual and comfortable as you can see in this photo of the main living area. 

 Wright designed all the furniture, and was especially fond of built-ins which he called “client-proof furniture” (by which he meant that his clients couldn’t mess up his design aesthetic by putting in their own tacky stuff).  The weird round ball swings back into the fireplace and was for warming cider, etc.  Evidently, it was more for looks than practicality: it took about 2 days to heat a beverage in it.

Right in the living room is this glass structure known as “the hatch” which could be opened so the Kaufmans and their guests could walk down the steps to the water flowing under the house. 

These are the steps going down to Bear Run when viewed from outside the house. 

Off the living room is one of the famous cantilevered terraces (in the  photo below).  When Edgar, Jr., donated the house the cantilevers were all cracking and sagging.  Wright’s vision outstripped the building materials of his day so the house was in danger of dropping pieces into the water.  It took $11 million and alot of creative engineering to make it structurally sound again.

You can see from these photos how the house is literally built into the lanscape, an extraordinary vision for its time.  This is the foundation over the waterfall.

These supports are set into the native stone on the hill. 

You can see how much Wright wanted to preserve the natural surroundings, even bending his structure around a tree.

In one passageway, the wall includes a boulder in the hillside with a small spring flowing over it.  Wright simply cut a drainage channel through the floor and let the spring run right through it.

Of course, with all this water, the house had some moisture problems.  Evidently, Edgar Kaufman, Sr., called it “Rising Mildew”.  The restoration seems to have dealt with that, although our guide said that maintenance is a constant expense.

Look at the extraordinary use of glass in this small study.  When you open the windows, the forest seems to come right into the room.  The floors were  all stone so that when you went from the interior out onto one of the many terraces, the transition was almost seamless.

Just for fun, I thought I’d show you the kitchen.  The table was designed by Wright but he didn’t care about much else there since only the servants saw it.  On the other hand, he built very nice servant’s quarters up the hill so he wasn’t a total snob.

Here is the most famous view of the house, taken from downstream on Bear Run.  Wouldn’t you like to live there?

I’ve been feeling a little blue since my Darling Daughter went back to college.  Today, life seemed to be trying to cheer me up by dropping small treasures into my day: 

1) Today dawned sunny, warm and with NO HUMIDITY, something unheard of at this time of year in New Jersey.

2) Lured by the lovely weather, I took my J. D. Robb novel out on the patio to keep Brodie the Devil Dog company while he patrolled the back yard.  (The J. D. Robb novel was another small treat to myself from the RWA conference in July; it’s the latest IN HARDCOVER autographed by the incomparable Nora herself.)

Brodie found one of the acorns which are beginning to rain down from our oak trees.  He picked it up in his mouth, tossed it into the air, then pounced on it where it fell.  Now Brodie is a handsome fellow but he’s not graceful.  When he plays, his front end and back end don’t seem to quite know what each other are doing.  His acorn-chasing reduced me to helpless laughter.

3) About two hours later I was headed out the back door when I saw this little fellow happily perched on our back porch, chowing down on another of the ubiquitous acorns.

He didn’t even flinch as I snapped his picture and admired his elegant racing stripes.  I thought Brodie had chased all our chipmunks out of the yard, but evidently they’ve figured out my dog is a total goofball and couldn’t catch them if he tried.

4) When I took Brodie out for our evening stroll, his tail was flying high like a happy flag.  (He hates heat and humidity even more than I do and has been drooping along through our walks this summer.)  Usually, I use these moments alone to indulge in a little weepiness, but tonight I found myself smiling up at the nearly full moon where it glowed in the twilight sky.

Sometimes life is generous and gives you what you need just when you need it.

I didn’t get to do much shopping while houseboating.  Oddly enough, marinas aren’t filled with interesting boutiques.  However, I found this fun necklace and earring set which looked very much like some lovely flowers we saw on Cabbage Key (where Jimmy Buffet wrote “Cheeseburger in Paradise”).

Real flower above.  Floral jewelry below.

If you’d like a chance to win the floral jewelry, just send me an email at nancy@nancyherkness.com with “Florida” in the subject line.