Category: Uncategorized

In which I go off on a wild tare

So, we have this bay window right? And its big, and pretty, and has a decent amount of room for a display in it. That decent amount of room is usually covered in all kinds of detritus of the house. It leaks cold air like a sieve. You can feel it flowing over your hand like a liquid if you put your hands on the bottom.

Not today. Not any longer. I did a thing. I took everything out of it. The Terrarium. The random horse statue. The weirdly healthy african violet. All re-homed (some of it needs to be permanently re-homed, but I’ll get there).

Once I had it clear, I cut several pieces of 3/4 inch foam insulation to fit in it and covered the shelf.

 

Then I had to trim it to make it look pretty.

Once it was (almost) completely covered, I hit my stash. A couple years ago I made a quilted circle skirt. I had a fair amount of the cotton batting left over that I should have thrown out years ago. I used that to cover the foam insulation and make it look like snow. Its cotton with no glitter in it so we don’t have to worry about microplastics. I used scraps to fill in the gaps that I couldn’t get into with the foam core.

My ability to throw things out has taken a huge hit, but hey. It looks amazing.

Once it was covered, I broke out the lasercut village display Michele gave us years ago. It is really pretty and I love it. I hung two strings of LED lights around it, and added our window candles. It looks so cheery and light!

I sent pictures to Michele. Hopefully she likes them.

I can’t feel cold air pouring out of the windows anymore, so hopefully that is all set, too. It would be nice to not have to plastic the window this year.

A Little Empathy

It’s good to take a refresher course in empathy, from time to time.  I may need it more often than most.

When someone appears to be having a moment, start by asking:

Do you want to be helped, heard, or hugged?

Follow their decision and go on from there.

For the source of the quote, and for a deeper discussion, see When Someone You Love Is Upset, Ask This One Question.

 

Ghoti

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough? Others may stumble, but not you, on hiccough, thorough, laugh and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, to learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word, that looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead — it’s said like bed not bead — and for goodness’ sake don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not the moth in mother, nor both in bother, broth in brother. And here is not a match for there, nor dear and fear for bear and pear. And then there’s dose and rose and lose – just look them up – and goose and choose, and cork and work and card and ward, and font and front and word and sword, and do and go and thwart and cart – come, come I’ve hardly made a start.  A dreadful language? Man alive. I’d mastered it when I was five.

— unknown

According to this, it may be attributed to T.S.Watt or Richard Krough. Some other articles attribute it to Gerard Nolst Trenite, because of it’s similarity to The Chaos, but that seems to be incorrect as well.

Drivers Gone Wild

After tailgating Meghan for the length of our street, over a mile, dumbass passes her on the left when she slows down to make a left-hand turn.

Just tryin’ to drive home, but nooooooo from IdiotsInCars

Notice in the video that a) she’s driving the speed limit, b) her left-turn indicator was on, and c) there’s no right turn anywhere near there – it’s all trees –  so there’s no way the truck’s driver made an honest mistake.

Air Disasters

I think that, were I an A-list actor, I would ask for bit parts in Air Disasters.

I would take roles like a random passenger. Non-speaking, maybe three seconds of screen time at most, just something fun for me and for fans.

I’ve seen small time actors from other shows, such as Russell Ferrier (whom I recognized from an Outer Limits episode), which is a treat. But could you imagine spotting Robert DeNiro in the cabin, or Jessica Chastain in the background of a tower scene?

A Random Flamingo

A quick note about the blog’s new name.

While re-watching The Abominable Bride with a clogged ear, I mis-heard a reference to the Obliquity of the Ecliptic.  The resulting phrase, “The Ubiquity of the Ecliptic,” was confusingly vague and mysterious, just like “A Random Flamingo” was.  Perfect for a family journal.