Aaaawwww!

We were hoping for the imaginary mayonnaise!

Trip day one

Up at 4:30, two flights of around five hours, four-hour drive through AMAZING scenery, checked in, exhausted, waiting for a burger and a margarita. Not necessarily in that order. Tomorrow, up at 6, another four-hour drive to Fort Carson to see Andrew!

From iPhone

favorite typo (lately)

Spychological

words with no English equivalent

from Andrew Sullivan, but his site makes you jump around to see them all

Zhaghzhagh (Persian)
The chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage.
Yuputka (Ulwa)
A word made for walking in the woods at night, it’s the phantom sensation of something crawling on your skin.
Slampadato (Italian)
Addicted to the UV glow of tanning salons? This word describes you.
Luftmensch (Yiddish)
There are several Yiddish words to describe social misfits. This one is for an impractical dreamer with no business sense. Literally, air person.
Iktsuarpok (Inuit)
You know that feeling of anticipation when you’re waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they’re there yet? This is the word for it.
Cotisuelto (Caribbean Spanish)
A word that would aptly describe the prevailing fashion trend among American men under 40, it means one who wears the shirt tail outside of his trousers.
Pana Po’o (Hawaiian)
“Hmm, now where did I leave those keys?” he said, pana po’oing. It means to scratch your head in order to help you remember something you’ve forgotten.
Gumusservi (Turkish)
Meteorologists can be poets in Turkey with words like this at their disposal. It means moonlight shining on water.
Vybafnout (Czech)
A word tailor-made for annoying older brothers—it means to jump out and say boo.
Mencolek (Indonesian)
You know that old trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them? The Indonesians have a word for it.
Faamiti (Samoan)
To make a squeaking sound by sucking air past the lips in order to gain the attention of a dog or child.
Glas wen (Welsh)
A smile that is insincere or mocking. Literally, a blue smile.
Bakku-shan (Japanese)
The experience of seeing a woman who appears pretty from behind but not from the front.
Boketto (Japanese)
It’s nice to know that the Japanese think enough of the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking to give it a name.
Kummerspeck (German)
Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.
L'esprit de l'escalier" (French)
to think of a witty response to someone after the moment has passed.
Tocayo (Spanish-Mexican)
It is only used by people with the same name. So that one person named Ricardo might call another person named Ricardo "Tocayo."
biritilulo (Papua, New Guinea)
literally means "to argue over yams" but is actually a great, loud row deliberately started between two angry parties as a way of letting out tension. It allows everyone to realize that the conflict in question is silly and to get on with life.
sobremesa (Spanish)
sitting around the table in leisurely conversation after the meal is over.
saudades (Portuguese) 
the pain and the pleasure of missing someone or something.  The pain part is obvious; the pleasure is because the realization that you have a connection with a person or place that is so strong it causes you pain.  And, more generally, it's joyous to remember what you love. Soldiers looking at pictures of their lovers or family are experiencing saudades.
Fremdschämen (German)
feeling shame or embarrassment on behalf of someone else (versus Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in others' pain)

embarrassment of riches

folk art bookmark

love this idea -- had to hack the picture from the website, http://www.designsbysick.com/details/xsfolkartbm

Crocheted bracelet

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Knit update

Two horizontal sections done




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Knit update

First horizontal row of color




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logic through the ages

I'm reading Andersonville, a memoir of a Civil War POW, and came upon this passage:

All whom we met were eager to discuss with us the causes, phases and progress of the war, and whenever opportunity offered or could be made, those of us who were inclined to talk were speedily involved in an argument with crowds of soldiers and citizens. But, owing to the polemic poverty of our opponents, the argument was more in name than in fact. Like all people of slender or untrained intellectual powers they labored under the hallucination that asserting was reasoning, and the emphatic reiteration of bald statements, logic.

Applicable today.

Knit update

Done with the border




After knitting the whole thing, I'll fold over the border and sew it, sort of like this:





But I have much to do before then -- tomorrow I begin COLOR from this promising pile:



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New knit project

Starting a throw blanket for (the other) Sarah. Here is the progress I was able to make on the drive back from Maine:








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Web flight

Did you ever read Charlotte's Web? Charlotte's children climb to the top of (whatever), spin some silk, and fly away.

I just saw it happen. Sitting on Nick and Sarah's front steps (Bob is helping put in a walkway), I noticed a little spider that kept climbing up my leg (and I kept removing her and placing her in the grass). A while later I saw her at the top of the railing, and before I could blink, she had launched herself over my head. I watched her cross the yard, hovering 4 to 3 to 2 feet, before I lost sight of her.


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Time travel

Driving north to Maine, going back in time, seeing the hawthorn bloom again


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End

Finished reading John Adams just after midnight. Now bereft.


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Shiva's Eye

Turns out, the filed-shell jewelry (usually a cabochon) that I love has a name: Shiva's Eye. It is the operculum of many shelled marine animals.

Also true

In last night's dream, I told a friend about a dream.

True story

Last night I dreamed that I was sleeping.

incredible book

...unfortunately one of those things that make me despair of ever making something worthwhile myself! just LOOK at this!

Really, the only possible flaw is that the type is not embroidered, too.

separated at birth: music edition

Sometimes I mix up Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz. Am I a bad person?

Try this jewelry

http://jmnt.me/hGyfSR

(no commitment necessary)

(don't like it? no harm, no foul)

Spider Mating Dance

too funny -- how does evolution come up with these things??? Good stuff starts at around 2 minutes.

too lazy to look it up

Ordinals question: why are the ordinal forms of "one" and "two" "first" and "second"? (instead of, say Onth and Twain or whatever)

what are the roots of "first" and "second," I guess is my question.

books and TV

still loving John Adams -- and being entertained by hints of Jefferson, too:

Alone is his upstairs parlor at Seventh and Market, Jefferson went to work, seated in an unusual revolving Windsor chair and holding on his lap a portable writing box, a small folding desk of his own design which, like the chair, he had had specially made for him by a Philadelphia cabinetmaker.

At which point, of course, I had to put the book down and find this video:

and bless, again, Dame Maggie Smith.

music tastes: a taste

I still haven't gotten very far in sorting out my thoughts about good/bad music, etc., let alone writing them down.

But here's a quote from Tina Fey (she was responding to a man saying women aren't funny):

“It is an impressively arrogant move to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good. I don’t like Chinese food, but I don’t write articles trying to prove it doesn’t exist.”

So that's sort of my riff when it comes to music collections and value and time. More to come (honest).

I'm such a sap

but this is so awesome:

Surprise song trio

The wood song
Wooden ships
Woodstock


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morning bird report

Our juncos are still in town (yay! I love their coloring and spunk), the goldfinches joined us a week or two ago, and this morning we have house finches. I've heard the nuthatches in the neighborhood, but they may be mad at us for taking down the trees, I haven't seen them.

font decisions

this is awesome:


http://julianhansen.com/files/infographiclarge_v2.png

what he said

You know what interferes with my writing? Good writers.

Because I read something like this, from Ryan O'Connell (requoted by Andrew Sullivan, as usual):

Here’s what it comes down to: Any victim of sexual assault is in no way responsible for the attack. “Oh, I apologize that my super cute dress from Zara caused you to force yourself on me. Next time I’ll wear a burka!” As fucking if. How does anyone expect women to advance as a gender if we subscribe to these rules?

and I think, Ditto. Why come up with my own screed when someone has already done it so well? (I'm thinking of you, Tracy -- ditto to everything you write...)