we thought they'd never end

I took ballet lessons as a wee pony-tailed-spindly-legged lass, and, when my hour was over, I pirouetted myself downstairs to Lattimer's Drugstore and perched myself on a stool till my Mum or my Dad picked me up to take me home. I was given 35 cents to buy a soda or a sundae while I waited, and I remember spinning, alone, to the hiss of the fountain, in my leotard and my ballerinas, on scarlet leatherette, and feeling very Grown Up indeed.
I thought of this, decades later, in Penang, when I saw these fluted coupes: my mind jeté'd back to then, when "chocolate" or "butterscotch" was pretty much the most important decision I had to make.

the bright side

I packed four whole rolls of black & white film, but my good intentions fell by waysides...like this.

to taste

if i were not too tired to be silly - i last awoke 38 hours ago - i might be tempted to say something about needing to "catch up".

ahem.

and hello.

and maybe not.

i could hardly concentrate on the pictures wanting to be taken, there on the harbourfront at aberdeen, because an energetic, elderly-but-ageless little chinese entrepeneuse followed us everywhere we went.
"sampan? sampan?" she wheedled. "very cheap! very nice! see jumbo restaurant!". my husband, who has traveled extensively in china, answered - time after time - "maybe later!". and - time after time - she muttered "maybe later! ahh!" and paused in her pursuit, only to pop up moments later to try again: a relentless wrinkled shadow in a bamboo hat.

will you stay for tea?

i have been an inattentive hostess, but i am determined to lay my table with sweetness and delicacies again.
you are very patient, and oh-so-very welcome.

nips and tucks

two-muses is five years old today.

five years sounds fledgling, but it is actually quite venerable - elderly even - in this world of webcreativity, and i would be the first to confess that some restorative and corrective surgery is in order.

it's not so much our demeanor - although the possibility of posting larger images would please me no end - but functionality is faltering, especially since the hack: whole pages have gone missing, for instance, and we (meaning i) can no longer update the "inspiration" links.

help seems blessedly at hand. the lovely myla has offered to guide us through some changes (thanks, myla!) as has the cleverest of my colleagues (thanks, börge!).

within weeks, we may be looking fresh and feeling sprightly again.

until then: cake, anyone?