I’m glad I knit because yarn is much easier to buy than anti-anxiety meds, and nearly as effective. (I don’t travel well, if you couldn’t tell.) Look what I got (nearly) done on the business trip yesterday:
These are the legwarmers for my yoga teacher. I think I will knit the fold over cuff, as discussed before–probably because I just. kept. knitting. on the plane and the ribbing got a little long anyway.
February 2012
Guess Where I Am Today?
One-day business trips, you are brutal. But at least this destination gives me a catchy tune to have stuck in my head.
Friday Unrelated Information2.
1. Have you seen Better Book Titles yet? It redesigns book covers “to give you the meat of the story in one condensed image”–one hilarious condensed image, that is:
So many more here.
2. Happy birthday to Marxist/alienist playwright/composer Bertolt Brecht today. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be singing “Show me the way to the next whisky bar” when this week is finally over tonight.
Bad Days
Sometimes all you can do is accept that the bad day wins, get takeout, make a drink, and listen to Bob Dylan (who I find soothing; your mileage may vary). My inner hippie really loves “Mr. Tambourine Man,” because my inner poet thinks the lyrics are so pretty:
Then take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves:
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
That last line is like a tagline for bad days! Also, be sure to watch the video soon if you find Bob soothing; I found it on a Turkish (?) site and it may not be up long.
Something To Consider
Does anyone else do this? Build up events so they seem to “mean” more than they really do? I didn’t even clearly know I did it (just wondered why I felt disappointed so much) until I encountered this part of The Hours years ago. So let’s revisit the helpful quote for the third time on this blog:
It had seemed like the beginning of happiness, and Clarissa is still sometimes shocked, more than 30 years later, to realize it was happiness; that the entire experience lay in a kiss and a walk, the anticipation of dinner and a book.
[…] What lives undimmed in Clarissa’s mind more than three decades later is a kiss at dusk on a patch of dead grass, and a walk around a pond while the mosquitoes droned in the darkening air. There is still that singular perfection, and it’s perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more. Now she knows: That was the moment, right then. There has been no other.
“It was happiness…that was the moment, right then. There has been no other.” Michael Cunningham, you simultaneously destroy me and make my life so much better.
Tuesday Project Roundup: The Longest Project Of All
This week will mark the one-year anniversary of my being in the house. Since it’s really the biggest and longest-term project I’ll undertake, why not look at the progress made through the year?*
With an Eames chair and real window coverings.
And with a coffee table and Arco-esque lamp. Things are getting fancy…
And here’s the orange sofa and grown-up art over the fireplace.
And on the other side of the room, there are curtains and fabric art I made (and more than two people can dine in comfort).
Hooray for home decorating!
*No, I haven’t finished any sewing this week. Can you tell?
Mountain Things
Friday Unrelated Information
1. If you ever wanted to branch out from “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” here’s a list of pangrams–even some in other languages!
2. This was on kottke.org this week, but I find it hilarious: Fake pronunciation guides. They’re eight seconds of pure awesome.
Celebrate the weekend with a glass of chimpoopisto!
3+2 Things: Book Report
So it’s February 2–how about that goal of reading a book a month? I picked Brideshead Revisited as the first one, as I knew the Granada series from the 80s well but had never read the novel all the way through.
However, it’s slow going: Because I know the plot from the TV series, I’m tempted to skip ahead, and I keep hearing Jeremy Irons in my head as I read. I’m also out of the habit of reading, I think; I tend to open my laptop instead of a book lately.
But I’m pushing through–can’t get too behind on the year of book already!
A Grammar Tip
I have a few tricks I use to keep things straight mentally (and to help explain my copy edits at work), but I’ve never shared them with anyone. Are you interested? Shall we see if this makes sense and start a Wednesday grammar tip series? Let’s try.
Today’s tip is about getting the possessive version of “its”–that is, the one WITHOUT the apostrophe–right. My tip? See if you can substitute “his” for “its”.
So, for example, take this sentence:
“The chair was missing one of its legs.”
Using our trick, we can pretend we live in a cartoon universe and say,
“Mr. Chair was missing one of HIS legs.”
Yes, this makes sense! DO NOT add an apostrophe to that “its” in the original sentence.
Another example:
“Paris is famous for its lights, its food, and its wine.”
Let’s use our trick again and substitute “his”:
“Bob Paris is famous for HIS lights, HIS food, and HIS wine.”
Yes! Resist the urge to add an apostrophe to “its” as it is used here.
You can also reverse this if you see an “it’s” with an apostrophe and you’re not sure it is correct:
Does changing “It’s going to snow tonight.” to “HIS going to snow tonight” work?
No, that makes no sense. Therefore, this apostrophe is OK.
So remember: If you can substitute “his” for “its” in the sentence you’re worried about, that “its” does NOT need an apostrophe.