Crazy Stable

A Friday wrap-up!

* It is still raining...and raining in the laundry room too; the string, however, (see below), has begun to channel a feeble drip. It is not diverting the robust drippage into the windowframe, however; we now empty several cups a day of "roof tea" from the foil roasting pans.

* Winter must be on the way--I'm calling guys. Can't call Roof Guy until we dry out. But called Tree Guy, a smart and sensitive arborist, so that the Ent could have its physical before ice-storm season. And called Vinnie the Noble and Indispensible Plumber, so the boiler could get its check-up before the first cold snap--Vinnie himself is in Alaska hunting, but one of his guys will come next week to fire up the terrifying Firebeast in the basement. (Next week I'll tell you the blood-curdling backstory of the Firebeast and the CrazyStable Museum of Heating Technology.) Winter is when Guys with trucks arrive, peer at various high-ticket items around the property, and say things like, "Well, ma'am, you got a problem..."

* WE GOT OUR CLOSE-UP! Law & Order on Wednesday night was a blast...there was the porch, the garage, the interior of our tenant's apartment! The fire stunt in the garage was amazing, much bigger and scarier than I'd thought. (Spouse and Child watched it on the monitor, but all I saw was the orange flash of light outside the garage itself.) Amazing that they spent the day dressing that garage interior with perfectly aged, detailed props to look like a workshop/shed; you could hardly see anything but a few seconds of cluttered shelves in silhouette. And the "faux" shabby fencing they carefully wired over our new lattice-top? Never showed up in the shot. Spouse took pride in seeing the kitchen alcove he'd painted (with I say, taxi-cab yellow, he says, sunshiney yellow) in the background; I got a kick out of seeing the pink-and-white striped curtains my mother made for what was then her apartment. (Particularly since she had a tantrum over making them and always insisted they weren't up to her usual standards.) Wish I could have seen the first scene, shot nearby at the erstwhile Caledonian Hospital, wherein they fireballed a Jaguar--that was pretty cool too. (I asked the crew last month where you get a Jaguar to blow up. "It wasn't a very good Jaguar," I was told.)

* FLATBUSH MOVIE STAR FATIGUE ALERT--NOW IT'S UMA THURMAN! I told you this neighborhood was filthy with film crews. This morning, two blocks away in the Prospect Park South historic district, yea even in the dismal rain, it's lights-camera-action time again...and the guy on the catering truck says it's Uma Thurman in some flick called Super Ex-Girlfriend. In fact, he says Uma will be on set today, if you feel like zipping over to the intersection of Rugby and Albemarle Roads. As befits a movie with an architect hero, it's being filmed at one of my two favorite mansions, the "Spiderweb House," a white wedding-cake fantasy with columns, balconies, and (no kidding) web-like muntins. Hey--live in Flatbush and you just start tossing around terms like "muntins" and "Uma Thurman" and "fire stunt." You get used to it--almost bored with it. Now, I will confess to a momentary stab of A-list envy--we got Dennis Farina, they got Uma Thurman. But they have muntins and we have leaking shingles, after all. And hey, we got Jesse Martin, which was more fun for the StableMistress than oodles of Umas.

* CAT-BLOGGING FRIDAY, YEAH! Finally, it's time for cat-blogging. Here he is, the second of the CrazyStable 3: 

CocoBop, seen here humming "57 channels and nothin' on." Also known as: GreyBoy, Sporran Man, Aye-Aye, Jackass, Mr. Softie, and the Silver-Tipped Bandicoot. He is the Child's alter ego (together they are a.k.a. Lilo and Stitch). Coco is a "wool-sucker"--an actual term for displaced nursing behavior in cats. He derives "imaginary milk" from several sources, most notably a black stuffed cat and my neck. But the neck-nursing can only be done while I sit at my computer or lie in bed, preferably with no one else looking. Of course  we think he is part Russian Blue (head is wedgier, eyes are gold, otherwise he's a breed standard par excellence.)

He's doing it as I type this...the sucking isn't so bad, it's the kneading my collarbone with his claws that gets uncomfortable. Yet I feel strangely honored--and it's chilly in here, and he's nice and warm.