25.1.07

being alive is a challenge sometimes

but thankfully, now is not one of those times.......................
I present my list of good things that are right now:
1. I am back online at home (for five minutes) thanks to someones connection named, appropriately, "home"
2. I have finally figured out the correct use of the apostrophe <----------that is not an English word, though it has been corrupted sufficiently to make it pronouncable in English 3. This Stygian day is drawing rapidly (and perhaps vapidly) to a close, though today actually wasn't so hellish as days in the recent past have been 4. The house is warm and cozy......I really love it when the house is warm and cozy 5. I resume classes on Monday and I am really looking forward to this semester: not only will I be attending a class on the history of the Italian language, and a class in discovery and invention (for which I am required to read the travels of one very shiny Marco Polo) but I will also be tutoring level I and II Italian students 6. I can go back to the gym come Jan 29th!! WOO HOO!! 7. I got a chance to read up on all the fugly messes at Go Fug Yourself this afternoon
8. I have resolved with myself that I am not going to have any cookies until my birthday (which is looming in the not to distant future and this birthday is the big bad 30 I want to run screaming out of my life now) that way they will taste better and be more deserved. (we'll just see how long this lasts)
9. My dental work is nearing completion........one more (okay, maybe two) appointment and it's finished
10. I am learning to relax (and hoping that come one day, I'll be so relaxed as to be approaching a waking coma)
there, that's it from here for now

23.1.07

since Frank, truer words have not been spoken...

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others."
- Edward Abbey

Thanks, Frank for speaking the truth

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.
- Frank Zappa

20.1.07

me-me oh my

Well, thank you Maritza for allowing me this opportunity to give you six new (and possibly interesting) tidbits about me.....strange? not so sure about strange.....you know what someone said: one man's strange is another man's perfectly normal psychotic behavior.
so here goes:
6 strange things about me...
1. I used to eat yellow onions as though they were apples when I was a little kid. This habit didn't last very long (thankfully!); when I was a little girl my parents used to keep onions and potatoes in a bin at the bottom of the food pantry. The pantry faced an outside wall and so was cool....I guess it was sort of like a root cellar if you will. Well, maybe it was because I tried the potatoes and was disillusioned with those (have you ever tried a piece of raw potato?? EW!! is all I can say), or maybe because they were pretty much the only food I could reach on my own (I don't think I was yet tall or heavy enough to open the fridge by myself), but apparently I picked up the habit of eating onions. I'd peel off the brown papery skin and eat the onion. Wacky, isn't it?
2. I loathe ugly feet. I think the condition of a persons feet says a lot about them. The really long index toe always remindes me of aye-ayes middle fingers.....and I always have these visions of people with that toe really long digging in rotting tree trunks for bugs....much like the aye-ayes do with their one long and bony middle finger. The aye-aye lives in Madagascar and is the only creature of its kind (in Madagascar, anyway) that digs into tree trunks (they don't have to be rotting) for bugs to eat. I think people with ugly feet should never wear open-toed shoes.
3. I have the soundtrack to my life playing in my head all the time and often am more than willing to share it with others. While this may not be so strange, as others may have this very same thing happening, I am the only one I know who spontaneously bursts into song (in the most inopportune places). Sometimes, I just can't help it. The situation, the person I'm with, or something they say will remind me of a song, and I will just start singing or humming the tunes that pop into my head......now that's like hypnotizing chickens...
4. I am a sort of exhibitionist....I don't really care who sees me naked. Naked is natural and I have no shame about my body (a body-image complex, maybe.... but shame? no way)
5. I find repetitive noises annoying to the point of having to make them stop. I HATE my alarm clock and would like nothing more than to throw it out the window. I cannot abide the repetition of it and the loud, jarring sound it makes. I find it impossible to concentrate with repetitve noises going on in the background. I know that the brain is supposed to habituate to background noise, but mine won't do it. If the noise is really low or off in the distance someplace I have to get away from it because I know I can't make it stop. I have more of an issue with high frequencies that with low frequencies, but still....repetitive noises make my skin crawl.
6. I am insane about keeping my fingernails short. I hate long fingernails and think they make my hands look like meathooks. Long nails look very nice on others, but somehow they make my hands look like giant paws. Not that having paws is a bad thing in and of itself, but I object to looking at my arms and seeing them terminate in paws...............VERY disturbing......
and here's something else, just for good measure...............
7. I miss my tail.

18.1.07

the realm of the humdinger

I'm a mucky pup, I'm a mucky pup, I'm a real humdinger of a Mucky Pup.....................WHAT??

can you hear the needle scratching on the record now? rewind.................

Hello Gentle Reader,

I am writing to you to let you know that I miss you so and that things are fine here. Your brother says "Hi" and he loves you.

What is she talking about??!?! --I have no idea, but it doesn't make any sense whatsoever

can you hear the needle scratching on the record again?? fast forward this time...........

P.S. I am wearing the Endpaper Mitts as we speak (because the cafe is freezing) and no, I didn't quit my job....there's a really quaint cafe near where I work that has wifi (unlike my house O curse you you unsharing network havers!!) so I get to play for a bit without the annoyance of people looking over my shoulder at work while I type and post things and check my e.mail and proofread Boccaccio (you remember Giovanni, right?)

With all my love and kisses,

Mucky Pup

and the best line I came up with this week was by far: "Curse you, o depth! Why could I have not just been a sex kitten??" H wanted to know if this was from a movie.....sadly, not Dietmar....I made that up all by myself! I could go and write screenplays for a living, no?

well clearly I have lost my mind...but one more thing before I go.....

Dana,

For crunchy's sake woman, what did you say???

Maritza,

Thanks I will certainly tell him (and his hair) just as soon as I can....

Susan,

Allora, siediti e aspettare perche' Alitalia non puo' aiutarti per anni. I tuoi valiggi sono persi! ;-)

Tanti Bacini a tutti voi!!

17.1.07

I could have

spent the afternoon at home today........REALLY I could have. But sadly, I do not have such luxurious opportunities. Rather, I am stuck in the hell that is my job.though upon reflection I suppose it could be worse. WAIT!! I'm wracking my brain for a way in which it could be worse, and well, I got nuthin. I'm coming up empty....with niente, nada, zero, zip, gatz.....somehow, except for the I-can't-pay-my-bills part, unemployment is not looking so unattractive at the moment. Ah, to be young again (this said by the girl who is actually younger than methusela's grandmother). And since I clearly have nothing interesting to say, I'll just shut up for the time being and be back later (perhaps in another language next time as I KNOW how everyone adores that HAHAHA)

10.1.07

Endpaper Mitts


Endpaper Mitts
Originally uploaded by tresjoli.

Look at how perfect these fingerless gloves are!!! and LOOK HOW EVEN AND NOT UNEVEN THEY ARE as well!!! (now that's a bit redundant is it not?) Seriously though, a BIG, LOVING, NAD MOST HEARTFELT THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! goes to Maritza for these she is a friend above and beyond the call of friendship. And clearly, she thinks quite highly of me as well since these were a Christmas gift from her. They are 100% Pure delicious Alpaca (who doesn't love Alpaca?? Okay, maybe those of you who are allergic to Alpaca coughcoughMaritzacoughcough) and happily, with the discovery of Maritza's recently developed alpaca aversion, I inherited a bunch of alpaca yarn!! Apparently, 'tis the season of the allergy as I have a peanut problem that I never had before.....but the last two times that I've eaten peanut butter, I swelled up like a balloon (Maritza says that the alpaca thing is sneezing runny nose itchy and watery eyes, the standard fiber allergy reaction) of course, leave it to me to eat peanuut butter and get cankles......
oh the injustice!! but It's totally ok..........
why? you might be asking o gentle reader............
here is why: THE FABULOUS FINGERLESS GLOVES!!!!!!!!!!

8.1.07

Once upon a midnight dreary

while I pondered weak and weary..........I thought to myself.....DAMN! the Weather is UG-LEE today!! (and by the way, Ug Lee bears no relation or resemblance to General-lee, Spike Lee, Happil-lee, or Snugg-lee....) PUN PUN PUN PUN PUN! oh the horrors!! wow..........I'm surprised anything that hideous could issue forth from my head.......slightly scary isn't it?
As a result of my negligence in posting, I present you with some links to what I have actually been doing with myself since school has been out
First, there's Project Gutenberg a subdivision of Distributed Proofreaders
Then, there's my recreational reading
and then there's my big career change ........(who knows how that will work out)
and I've actually been knitting!! I even made an appearance at the tuesday night group! no one recognized me!!!!!!!!!! (kidding)
I promise to post photos as soon as I can.........maybe I will even have internet at home again........wifi is down..........I think the persons who were graciously letting me pirate their connection have caught on to the fact that others were accessing the internet as a result of their hospitality and decided it was high time that the free ride be so much water under the bridge and we can now only make obscure references to it in a loving and lamenting manner
Not to mention the lovely photos of my NEW FINGERLESS GLOVES THANK YOU MARITZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She really is the bestest friend ever..........

4.1.07

Antidiluvian, Antebellum, Ante victoriam ne canas triumphum

Before the flood, Before the war and well, as for the last "Ante" I've seen this translated in a few ways........the closest literal translation I could come up with is: Before victory, do not count on triumph....and the award for least literal translation goes to......(drumroll please.....): Give every man thine ear but few thy voice. Do not ask me how they came up with this one, for I haven't a clue...........
In other news.....I got straight A's this semester...and I must say, that I will really miss Giovanni .........even though I think he may still be lurking under my bed betwixt and between the many dustbunnies........(hey, he's not judging though) ah well, they'll provide padding and insulation so he won't get a chill (never mind the fact that he's been dead for oh, 650 years or so and probably isn't terribly concerned with catching a draft)
I am quite excited about next semster's classes.......discovery and invention, history of the italian language, italian poetry, and advanced composition. I forsee much writing in the near future......having nothing to do with my psychic abilies but rather the profs I know I'm going to have and the classes......I mean composition? what else is there besides writing? But I am sure I will have fun (who wouldn't have fun with discovery and invention?)