Just drink it up

A few tidbits to start the week:

Y a des marins qui chantent

Work is slowing down somewhat, not because there is less to do, but because of the expediencies of election years. Things may or may not go berserk in two months' time. We shall see.

in perfection but a little moment

We're all familiar with the ads that appear in the sidebars of web pages, promising us freedom from credit card debt, guaranteed weight loss, and cheaper auto insurance. Sometimes they're just text, but other times they're illustrated with stock images of cars, poorly Photoshopped headshots of pretty models, or animations of dancing aliens.

There are stars up above

The end is closing in on the Christmas rush. I'm still not confident I'm going to finish all the knitting, but I've prioritised, and I'm moderately hopeful that not too many people will be disappointed on Christmas Day.

We salute at the threshold of the North Sea

It's a feature of my Christmas knitting that there is always one project that takes much longer than it ought.

It's little things like this that matter to me

It's been one of those weeks.  I got nothin'

rejoice with the little Owl

If you missed your chance at a 2011 make-your-own owl calendar, rejoice, for there is a 2012 version now available.



Christopher Smart

The world’s as the world is

Two tropical weather systems in as many weeks have left everything sodden. Even the daddy longlegs, who don't normally enter the house, have moved inside to get away from the wet. The grass squelches when I walk on it, which I take as a sign that I should not walk on it. Last week the grounds crew that maintains the lawns around my office tried to cut the grass between rains and succeeded mainly in leaving riding mower-sized ruts in the zoysia.

Anticipating some return on investment

I dreamed last night of being at the beach with various members of the extended clan, admiring the sea at twilight and eating ice cream. This happy inactivity was disrupted by a rogue wave, several stories tall, that crashed down upon us. No one was injured and nothing was damaged (except, perhaps, the ice cream) but we were all waist-deep in water.

Who keeps the owl’s breath? Whose eyes desire?

The last two weeks were not good ones for blogging.  This next one is not looking really good, either.

I knelt to spoon and suck the healing sea

I had hopes of at least one interesting post this week but amongst the usual work stuff, the usual home stuff, the getting-ready-to-go-on-vacation stuff, and a 3-day (so far) attack of allergies I may not pull it off.

From segment, fragment, he can reconstruct the whole

I'd call this "The Ort Report" except the rhyme began to annoy me about 10 seconds after I thought of it. I can't think of anything better though: The Scrap Brief? The Niggle Chronicle?

Antidotes

Browsing headlines in Google Reader today, I skimmed past one that I could have sworn advocated the use of poison-control devices at home.

Littérature trouvée

Marcel Duchamp and the Dadaistes believed in 'found art.' I got a spam this morning that I am tempted to claim as 'found literature,' though of what genre I cannot decide. Poetry? Fiction? Drama?

Pandemic?

Last week was not the best.

Amends

Lately I've fallen into weekly what-I-cooked-this-weekend entries, for which I apologise. Either there hasn't been much else going on, or contrariwise, there's been plenty going on but I can't really talk about it (i.e., work is busy) and that sort of chokes the blogflow.

Forgetful

There was something I was going to write about, but I forgot what it was.

Adventuring. Or Not.

I've been enjoying Penny Arcade's recent comic series on The Lookouts, a boy scout-like troop in the magical forest of Eyrewood. (The Lookouts series is here: page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5)

Two Diversions

Any day that starts in a conference call with a frantic program contact and an auditor from the Office of the Inspector General cannot be wholly happy.

Back among the living

I don't often take sick leave. This partly because I'm generally healthy and partly because, being my father's daughter, I will drag myself to work even if I am feeling under the weather. This isn't to say I don't call in occasionally but I rarely take more than a day here and there.