Ecology

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
http://www.mrsbeeton.com/
http://www.xtheband.com/gift7.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12109/12109-h/12109-h.htm

http://pw1.netcom.com/~rogermw/square_earth.html



Today's earrings: flies, globes

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.



Winning word: Serrefine

Scattered day

Going in all directions, and got not nearly enough done. Tried to explain AGOA, ADD/CVD cases, and saluala when I should have been proofreading, that sort of thing.

Someone's done an edition of The Deptford Trilogy with tarot-card illustrations. WTF? I mean seriously, WTF? The narrator is a hagiographer. The illustrator had sixteen centuries of saintly iconography to draw on. Instead, the idiot decided to bastardize Waite's cosmology with scenes from Davies' books. Wrong, wrong, wrongety-wrong with wrong sauce on top. So wrong.

Lending Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil to my boss.


Today's earrings: great big sparkly amethysts set in gold.

Bedtime reading: Aesop's Fables, Townsend & James, trans.

Ephemera

Seen while channel-flipping:

Elton John singing "Crocodile Rock" with a stadiumfull of middle-aged people jumping around going "naaaaa, na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, na-na-na-naaa."

Kathy Griffin saying how she doesn't confront people. She was raised right, you see, and only talks about them behind their backs. It's called manners.

The whales have had enough of the delta. They made good time today, and are bedded down between Alcatraz and Tiburon. Marine biologists, Coast Guard officers, and State Fish & Game employees are all confident that they'll head out through the Golden Gate tomorrow. (Me, I think they'll be making a side trip to San Jose.) A Darwinist said that maybe a couple of whales who can't find the ocean without the help of marine biologists, Coast Guard officers, and State Fish & Game employees maybe shouldn't be in the gene pool...


Today's earrings: Elephant heads, dopamine molecules

Bedtime reading: Aesop's Fables, Townsend & James, trans.

So Many Books, So Little Time

This was the last of my long weekends, and it was double-long for good measure. Four days off... there was much slacking... and it was good.

In world news, Green Apple has taken a third storefront, a block down from the first two, in which they are selling their overstock at rock-bottom prices. The organization is a bit rudimentary, though. I'll have to stop in sometime when I'm in the mood to read every single title on the shelves.


Most recent book purchase:
Aesop's Fables; Townsend & James, trans.; J.B. Lippincott Company
a bunch of kid stuff


Today's earrings: leaves, typewriter keys

Bedtime reading: Aesop's Fables; Townsend & James, trans.

Vacation

Happy Long Weekend, everyone. :)


Today's earrings: opal turtles I got at a rest stop on interstate 50, crystal turtles MH got me in Cozumel

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

Instant OCD spike

My boss told me before she left (early) today that I was in charge of turning off the office coffee pot before I left. I can't remember if I turned it off or not. I think I did. But I'm not really sure. This could be a bad night...


Today's earrings: bees, flowers

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.


P.S. psst, K, do you think S would like something like this http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5399572 for his birthday?

Seasoning

must shop for
Basil
Oregano
Peppercorns
Parsley
Curry
something new.


Today's earrings: bunnies, peppers

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

Motion Toward

What is it about a pair of wayward whales (tm channel 3 news) that makes me giggle so? Perhaps it's not the whales. Perhaps it's the squadrons of people who've been mobilized to annoy the whales into going back to sea... or the legions of gawkers standing around watching the dorsal fins circle... No, I think it's the whales, and the way they're not going anywhere until they're damn good and ready.


Today's earrings: ants, stones

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

Family Dinner

GOTHIC DOLPHINS

NOT BOMBS

- - Graffiti, West Oakland



We had pesto & a heavily avocadoed salad. :) Good pesto - go M! The avocados were perfectly ripe - excellent work, A! S & I hung about and fondled the cats. prrrrr.

We spoke of visiting K/S/D this summer, but did not go so far as to make a plan.

S won the scrabble game, despite me scoring 61 points for "axe."


Today's earrings: frogs, chocolate molecules

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

A Day at the Beach

We rode the Giant Dipper twice. I dipped my feet in the Pacific Ocean. (M put in her toes.) We looked at books in Logos & ate diner food on the patio at Jack's. Definitely an E ticket. :)


Today's earrings: crabs, shells

Bedtime reading: Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers

No Survivor tonight...

So I'm a little at loose ends. Thinking about this past season:

- The Have/Have Not split at the beginning was not fun, not cute, not good. Boo. Hiss.
- Hated the totally unfair twist that got Michelle voted out before her time. Hated it. Still annoyed with Yau Man for not throwing that challenge & voting out Edgardo.
- Loved the episodes where the Pony Boys tried to do the ultra-slick strategery and got completely blindsided. The falling faces... too marvelous for words.
- Kinda weirded out that the part I liked so much was only possible because of the part I hated so much.
- Glad Earl won. I'd have been good with Yau Man or Cassandra winning, too. Or even "Dreamz," if he'd had the wit to change his tune completely at the final TC. He should've dropped the "pity poor unfortunate me" refrain and gone to, "I was conning you from day one! I suckered you completely! I own you fools! *evil laughter*" He might have gotten some votes from the testosterone club. Cassandra should have changed her mode of presentation as well, but let's be real. Four of that jury would never vote for a girl, one (quitter) would never vote for "unprepared" Cassandra, and two were voting for Earl no matter what happened. I think Boo was pretty well set on voting for Earl, too. Cassandra could have given the most persuasive speech since Demosthenes and still only gotten Stacy's vote.


Today's earrings: little flowers K gave me, brass triangles K brought me from Greece

Bedtime reading: When in Greece, Emma Lathen

Elementals

Approach near the fire.
Let us go respire the air.
These apricots and these peaches make me and to come water in mouth.
How many this earth produce?
-- Pedro Carolino


Today's earrings: camels, fish

Bedtime reading: Not To Mention Camels, R.A. Lafferty

Numfar! Do the Dance of Joy!

The nice lady in the Mauritius Government Printing Office sent the promised fax. All praise the nice lady in the Mauritius Government Printing Office. :)

Several suits in the office today. My boss was kind enough to remind me that I'd agreed to show them the Happy Dance while they were in town, as they had missed the "75% Complete!" celebration. And then she brought up my promise to perform the Dance of Joy when we get initial updates published on all 104 books... and that day looms nigh. I really need to study up on the Dance of Joy.


Today's earrings: diamonds, aquamarines

Bedtime reading: Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.

Lucky woman

Was innocently browsing the cheap racks in the window at Stacey's when I realized the office troll was peering over the case in front of me. Gave me quite a start. I go to some trouble not to trip-trap over his bridge, and here he was regardless. He started telling me about Strip Clubs He Has Known as I edged away... and then he asked to borrow the book that I hadn't bought yet when I was done with it.


12:10 am: called Mauritius Government Printing Office. Was transferred to Contact Person. I told Contact Person why I was calling; Contact Person told me she was on another call, I should call back in ten minutes, and hung up on me.

12:20 am: called Mauritius Government Printing Office. Asked for Contact Person, got Someone Else. Someone Else said that their fax number had changed, which explains why I haven't been able to get through, and gave me the new number. Someone Else gave me an estimate of how much the subscription would cost and agreed to fax it to our office. Someone Else didn't hang up on me, not once.

I think I like Someone Else better than Contact Person.


Today's book purchase:
The Atlantic, June 2007
Logorrhea, John Klima, ed.


Today's earrings: horseshoes, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: The Atlantic, June 2007

Weekend Update

This weekend, I

• disassembled my bed frame & tightened the squeaky screw so that it doesn't squeak any more.
• washed down the wall behind the bed/under the window with ammonia, which seems to have had a bracing effect on the mold.
• turned the springs & the mattress.
• spoke to each of my sisters, and the Angry Lemming & the Wandering Albatross. Here's hoping the cold and the sunburn go away soon, and everyone's week is better than last week.
• repeatedly conquered the world.
• put down my lovely new rug in the kitchen. The pile is lovely, dark and deep. Well, lovely, pale and deep. Lovely & deep, certainly. :)
• watched the Survivor finale, and discovered that "Dreamz" was 100% con from the get go (but why lie in the confessionals? undercuts his claim that the Big Lie was game play), that Alex is an even worse tantrum-throwing baby than I thought, and that Cassandra may have been overpoweringly nice to people but couldn't switch gears to make a case that the jury might have been willing to hear. Earl won in a sweep, btw.
• wore no earrings of any description.

I have not yet resolved the perennial dilemma of where to keep the vacuum cleaner. I did, however, have an epiphany on the linen storage front. If I never speak of this again, you will know that it was a false revelation.

Bedtime reading: Something From the Oven, Laura Shapiro

Mountains of the Moon

Went to see a guy talk about China & India's increasing investments in Africa. He only had an hour, so, very general. His idea of the best outcome is for Africa to become one large free trade area. Afterward, I asked him what he thought would actually happen with that. He was all general. I asked about the EAC, and how Rwanda & Burundi are joining in July, and was that the sort of thing he was talking about? I was going to follow up with all those editorials about how Tanzania ought to pull out of the EAC and stick with the SADC program. (Seems like there's one every other week.) But instead he went off on how much time & energy gets wasted negotiating these trade agreements that don't necessarily get enforced, and how gov't officials in Africa would do better to put their time into fighting corruption at home. Which, ok, good point. But is this continent-wide free trade area supposed to bloom spontaneously? That would be a first.


Today's earrings: sapphires, double moonstones

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard

Balance restored

Tax refund arrived, which neatly covers the cost of my new rug. :)


Today's earrings: Bees, typewriter keys

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines; H. Rider Haggard

Too darn hot

Awfully warm out these past few days. I think I should try to talk someone into riding a rollercoaster with me this weekend.


Today's earrings: leaves, other leaves

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard

A million ducks and a twelve-inch pianist

Why are they called "shaggy dog stories"?


Today's earrings: elephants, ebony teardrops

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard

Promenade

Took a walk up the boulevard this afternoon. First Congo is still building their new church on a site that used to be a Lebanese restaurant. (First Congo's old building is now a lecture hall for the Academy of Art. I'm beginning to suspect that they're a front for the Trilateral Commission. I mean, check out that logo. That triangular logo... But at least they can afford to fix the roof.) Someone had set off a stinkbomb in the bookstore, "because he thought it was funny," and the employees were buzzing like wasps. A Christian Science reading room has moved in across from Good Vibrations. The small-art gallery had gotten a shipment of molecule jewelry. And they had a still life of pears and plums that would be perfect in my living room. *sigh* No one had the pig earrings I seek. But there was banana-leaf wrapped salmon, and a lemon square for after, so life is pretty not bad.


Today's earring purchase: estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Desert

It's just gone noon
Half past monsoon
On the banks of the river Nile
Here comes the boat
Only half-afloat
Oarsman grins a toothless smile
Only just one more
To this desolate shore
Last boat along the river Nile
Doesn't seem to care
No more wind in his hair
As he reaches his last half mile
The oar snaps in his hand
Before he reaches dry land
But the sound doesn't dampen his smile
Just pokes at wet sand
With an oar in his hand
Floats off down the river Nile
Floats off down the river Nile
- - Graham McPerson, Mike Barson


Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

I think Boo should have sent Stacy to Exile Island. There are four people left who might possibly win this thing: Boo, Cassandra, Earl, and Yau Man. Which means, each of those people should be trying to set up a final three that includes Dreamz and Stacy. Which means, Boo would be better served by Stacy having a HII than by Earl having a HII. On the other hand, Boo & Stacy have been on the same beach since day one, and they don't seem to have had a single conversation about anything of substance. Editing or deep antipathy? No way to know...

Cassandra was very slick, the way she deflected Yau Man's statement of the obvious. She didn't promise him jack, and yet, it was all smoothed over. Very neat.


Today's earrings: flowers, other flowers

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard

My Treasures

THESE nuts, that I keep in the back of the nest
Where all my lead soldiers are lying at rest,
Were gathered in autumn by nursie and me
In a wood with a well by the side of the sea.

This whistle we made (and how clearly it sounds!
By the side of a field at the end of the grounds.
Of a branch of a plane, with a knife of my own,
It was nursie who made it, and nursie alone!

The stone, with the white and the yellow and gray,
We discovered I cannot tell how far away;
And I carried it back although weary and cold,
For though father denies it, I’m sure it is gold.

But of all my treasures the last is the king.
For there’s very few children possess such a thing;
And that is a chisel, both handle and blade,
Which a man who was really a carpenter made.
- - Robert Louis Stevenson


Today's earrings: diamonds, coins

Bedtime reading: King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard

Well Spoken

8am: Arrived at work. Drank deeply of the office coffee.
12noon: Birthday lunch for the guy who sits in front of me. He's 36.
1pm: Reported for jury duty. Did logic puzzles. Listened to the woman next to me sigh petulantly every few minutes. Changed seats.
2:45pm: Released from jury duty for the next twelve months.
3:30pm: Purchased new rug for kitchen. 'tis lovely.
11:30pm: evening snack of bread & butter with bergamot jam. 'twas lovely. :)


Today's earrings: owls, Sts Bridget and Clare

Bedtime reading: Miss Manners' Basic Training, Judith Martin