Plan your work. Work your plan.

Here's to my dad, Bill Nagan, someone who knew how to work. Who knew how to 'convert to cash.' Who could get things done without 'holding high mass over it.' Great Dad to all 9 of us. Great husband. And all around great guy. At first, his loss was almost too much to bear. He was constantly in touch -- he loved to pick up the phone and check-in. Daily. Trite but true: time eases the pain. We just carry on in his traditions: constant phone contact; avoiding conflict; obsessive cleaning--no one could work a Hoover like Bill; a compulsion to be constantly busy--resulting in an inability to actually relax and have nothing to do; delegating chores even to random onlookers and a deep love of the 20-minute nap.








I love this photo of mom and dad. They were married in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma and shortly thereafter dad shipped out to North Africa. Get a load of those feet. Unfortunately, they've been passed along to the females of the clan. Many of us sport size 11+, to our great shopping dismay.









". . . if every friend became his foe
he'd laugh and build a world with snow."
e.e. cummings "My Father Moved Through Dooms of Love."

Listening to: Tosca
Eating: Split pea soup with CRUSHED FRITOS. (you should try it)
Struggling with: Sudoku puzzles to keep my brain from degenerating.

I'm Wearing One.

My lovely sister, Rita, took this photo in Monticatini, Italy. Mid-October, 2005.




For the uninitiated, and for those who have never seen Fellini's amazing film "8 1/2", Monticatini is a spa town in Northern Italy. (Most of 8 1/2 was filmed there.) Europeans have flocked to Montecatini for hundreds of years to take the restorative waters and now, for more traditional beauty treatments. Like mud baths and inhalation therapy. Here's a direct quote from one of the Spa web sites:

"The spa waters of Montecatini are unique in the world and contain precious elements to restore your organism.
bromine • calcium • chlorine • iodine • lithium • magnesium • potassium • sodium sulphate
Inhalation treatment with alkaline saline sulphate waters is indicated in chronic inflammation of the upper respiratory tract as sodium chloride, their main component, has a marked bactericide action and stimulates the defences of the mucous membranes."

Hmmm. I think my mucous membranes have a fairly intact defense system. Some of these treatments sound pretty scary, like nasal douches, but the Italians I saw on the streets of Montecatini looked pretty good, so maybe they've got something that American's have yet to discover.

How about an "ascending intestinal douche?" Thanks, I think I'll pass. I'd rather beat my head against a wall. Unless it's a weight-loss treatment. Then I'm in.



How could such bizarre treatments -- which are open to anyone who can pay -- take place in such lovely surroundings. Definitly the dark side. Definitely.

Here are some of your other beauty treatment options:
• Direct jet inhalation treatment (wet inhalation). (The photos are disturbing!)
• Nasal douches
• Tubal insufflation of the tympanum

• Fangotherapy with therapeutic bath and rest. (some sort of special mineral mud treatment which requires resting afterwards!)
• Gynaecological irrigations (your yearly gyno exam isn't enough, you need an irrigation?!)
• Ascending intestinal douches

I was wondering about the proximity of a foundation undergarment store to the spas, but after all that irrigating and insufflation perhaps one needs some help holding it all together.

Listening to: "Otto e mezzo" Nino Rota from 8 1/2.
Snacking on: FRITOS!
Reading: Robert Graves short story, "The Shout," 1924.

Hey, not so fast.

The nest is empty. Here are the birds. Then and now.


Nora tolerates Paddy's enthusiasm on the first day of school. Alas, that initial euphoria would be subdued in record time.


Now. Paddy tolerates Nora's enthusiasm with his customary restraint.


Reading: Utility bills.
Working on: Paying the bills.
Listening to: The cat purring. And Willie Dixon, "I live the life I love and I love the life I live."

Who was that masked man?

Austin. Always ready for anything from rain to a masquerade. And, from an early age, a true animal lover.



Now. Ready for the move to Philly -- sans raincoat, critters. Not sure about the mask.

Reading: "Elementary Citizenship for Minnesota Schools" (1923).
Listening to: Duke Ellington -- C Jam Blues.
Snacking on: Constant Comment Tea and Lorna Doone cookies.

Swiftly flow the days.

Meghan in the garden during the LaCrosse years. Why, just yesterday, right?


Meggie and Jeremy's engagement picture. Why, just last year, right?

First comes love.
Then comes marriage.
Then comes Jeremy with a baby carriage.

Currently listening to: NPR Weekend with Drunken Tiger, Korean Hip-Hop.
Reading: Target Circular.
Enjoying: My second cup of coffee.

Change is Good.

Fair warning to the family out there--I've rearranged the furniture. Starting with the office. See. Neat and tidy. Clutter relegated to the netherworld of the basement. The family tends to get wigged out when I move something--we're talking about people who freaked out when I moved the silverware to a different drawer in the kitchen.

Recently watched: Scorcese's "The Last Waltz".
Listening to: Music from Last Waltz: Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Neil Young, Dylan.
Currently eating: carmelized onions.
Current activity: Knitting an orange scarf.

Veterans Day (formerly Armistice Day). 2005

. . . If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."

-- from "Dulce et decorum est" by Wilfred Owen (1917)

Translation: it is sweet and proper to die for your country.

Currently reading: Norton Anthology of English Literature
Listening to: Miles Davis

From Here to There

Minneapolis to LaQuinta, CA in 3 days. Stevil heads west to avoid winter. See. He's a little nervous with anticipation.




For him: No snow. No shoveling. No one forgetting to flush the toilet.

For me: No cooking. (How does cottage cheese and fritos sound for dinner?) No schedule. Although, I do admit, it's a little unsettling to be rattling around in the house alone. I immediately jumped on the beds, stayed up till 2 a.m. Not because I was partying. Because I spooked myself thinking that every little noise would reveal an axe murderer walking the down hall. I'll get used to it. Good thing the watch cats are on duty.




Currently reading: New Yorker movie reviews.
Listening to: Dr. John. "Such a Night."
Eating: Cottage cheese and Fritos.

Do I see a pattern?

The two must never meet.

Social Lubricant

Carmichael Lynch's Happy Hour @ O'Donovan's Irish Pub to "meet the new." Nothing like free liquor to level the playing field and encourage social activity. Hello boys!

So, it's come to this.

With Steve gone, breakfast becomes a face off with the cat for the paper, coffee and peanut butter toast. Have a nice day.

Recently seen: Capote
Reading: Minneapolis StarTribune
Eating: Toast!
Listening to: MPR

What we need

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

-- from "Asphodel, that Greeny Flower"

Thomas Edward Nagan. Born 18 January 1957. Died 3 November 1996

May the angels lead him into paradise. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him. Requiescant in pace.

The Best Hobby I never Had.

Yes, here is evidence of another artsy craftsy project that was never completed. Beads. So many choices. Buy a little of everything. In my family, we don't do anything the easy way: we choose the most complicated route. So, instead of making a simple bracelet, I had to choose some complicated form that I was never able to finish. But the beads. They're still beautiful. Yes?

88 Candles: thass a lot of fire!

My mom a.k.a. Mary Jane Nagan, nee Farley, is 88 years old today! Here's to the mom who made potatoes for dinner almost every day of the year, made almost all of our clothes, including our underwear (after she discovered the fabric outlet store at Munsingwear), and even made chokecherry wine in the basement. Good times, Mom. Thanks for all of them.

My world includes: McMen

Here is a photo of my fellas taken at Meggie's wedding last year. Paddy, age 20. Steve, age 55. Austin, age 28. Really, just to look at them makes my heart burst with joy. Or was it something I ate for breakfast?