quotable

"Everybody's got to leave their darkness sometime."
-Sting, aka Gordon Matthew Sumner (1951 - ), English musician and actor, in "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying"

at a loss for words

I aspire to cheekiness.

Naturally, I think that the "cheeky not geeky" T-shirt being sold at the Scrabble world championship is terribly clever. But I'd prefer one that just says "cheekiness." Gratuitous tangent: When I was a little girl, my mother's pet name for me was chiqui, (pronounced like the English work "cheeky,") and short for chiquita (Spanish for "little one.")

Oh, I also wouldn't mind being a better Scrabble player. For now, I'll settle for being a good Boggle player and leave the Scrabble domination to Laura, Aaron, Brandon, and Cass.

Scrabble Kings Vie for Linguistic Superiority
In the end, the zobo and the ogive could not quite triumph over the qanat and the euripi on Sunday, and thus the contender was birsled - Scottish dialect for scorched or toasted.

It was with such linguistic acrobatics that the eighth World Scrabble Championships came to an end in a north London hotel, when Adam Logan, a 30-year-old mathematician from Canada, scored 465 points to beat Pakorn Nemitrmansuk, a 30-year-old architect from Thailand, with 426 points in the final game of a playoff.

two words

Minimum wage.

meet cass

Cass is one of my closest friends.

In addition to being smart, beautiful, talented, an amazing listener, and kind, she is also a great cook.

These are from Eleanor's birthday this weekend.

Can you please take the picture, already?

We're not drunk. Really.

this i believe: there is no god

"This I Believe" is a series of essays on values and beliefs by Americans from all walks of life.

I thoroughly enjoyed Penn Jillette's essay, There is No God. I'm struck by how he lives in the present and appreciates everyday gifts. That's a lesson for all of us, no matter what our personal beliefs happen to be.

So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

redemption

Can a person change?

Can someone who (in his own words) did monstrous things in his past do more good for society alive than dead?

Today's Morning Edition story on Tookie Williams has me churning on these questions.

Crips co-founder Tookie Williams faces execution in California on Dec. 13 unless the governor grants him clemency. Williams, convicted of four murders, has become a noted anti-gang crusader, writer of children's books, and a Nobel Prize nominee while in prison at San Quentin.

layering

Today's forecast calls for a high of 82° and a low of 48°. W.T.F.

subtle

I like people who are direct.

Welcome to my 'hood, where at least one of my neighbors is very direct.

happiness is ...

... sleeping in on a Saturday (and Sunday) morning.

... hearing Dan Savage talk about his new book on NPR.

... crocheting at the gym and having a perfect stranger ask if my pregnant friend can "just put it [childbirth] off a little bit," so that I can have more time to work on the baby blanket.

... organic baby greens, organic sweet 100 tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, marinated artichoke hearts, and caesar chicken strips tossed in an olive oil vinaigrette and seasoned with a touch of salt and freshly ground black pepper.

... watching an especially good episode of Six Feet Under Saturday afternoon.

... brushing Casey's belly and watching him play the (air) banjo with both hind legs.

... a Saturday afternoon at Wine Steals, celebrating Eleanor's thirtieth birthday with her, Cass, Jason, Tony, and other far-flung folks.

... congratulating Karen on her recent engagement while at dinner with her, Georgia, and Jane.

... recounting the 14-game Rummikub winning streak story to Cass and getting the low-down on why neither of us wear skirt boots.

... being completely unfazed at the thought of my parents house/Caseysitting for me while I'm on vacation.

... realizing that its 31 30 days until finals are over and 37 36 days until my vacation.

... seeing a box of Bentley tea in a store Saturday night.

... eating the inaugural breakfast (pumpkin pancakes) in Cass' beautiful new kitchen while singing along to Sting and the Indigo Girls and trying to figure out when This American Life will come on.

... walking around at the farmer's market in short sleeves and jeans and being too hot because it's 88 freakin' degrees on Nov. 20. Can you say global warming?

cass' pumpkin puff pancakes

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 TBSP melted butter
1 cup milk
1 TBSP honey
1/2 cup pumpkin (cooked and pureed)
2 egg yolks, beaten
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Sift dry ingredients together. Combine wet ingredients, except for egg whites. Stir. Fold in egg whites.

Serve with butter and maple syrup. (Or fresh whipped cream and apple/ pumpkin butter.)

Makes 8 pancakes.

spellcheck on aisle four

More fun for Anglophiles like me who love Britishisms ...

While double-checking the spelling of the word "bollocks," I ran across the English-to-American dictionary.

quotable

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own."
-Bruce Lee (1940—1973), Chinese American martial artist and actor

isoquant inflation

Finals countdown: 31 days until I gladly forget that isoquants aren't something I'd do at the gym.
Vacation countdown: 37 days until I get empirical data on the scientist's doting threshhold and his analysis of doting inflation theory.

stitch and bitch

Serious props to Regina for hosting tonight's crochet stitch and bitch. The Chinese food was tasty, the plum wine divine, the homebrewed limoncello potent, the fireplace toasty, and the hookers fun.

Thanks to Susan A. for stirring the pot and ensuring that the conversation with Regina, Cass, Carol, Norma, and Melissa stayed in interesting territory (politics, religion, and sex) almost all night.

balancing a hooker

Finals countdown: 32 days until trial balances cease to be so damn trying.
Vacation countdown: 38 days until I hang with a hooker.

phalaenopsis

While looking through some old files today, I stumbled on this image.

It's a detail of a photo from a series I did on orchids a few years ago.

great googly moogly

If you google the word "failure," the first site in the results is President Bush's biography.

Because many Google users would not find this amusing and would "assume that this reflects a political bias on our part," Google has kindly and defensively provided an explanation:

The Google engine ranks pages in order of popularity. Pranksters adept at Google-bombing can influence those rankings. Google doesn't like such pranks but doesn't want to "alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up."

I thought it was interesting that Michael Moore is second in those results.
Via Nancy and the SF Chronicle

diana's sangria

2 bottles red wine
1 liter (the large bottle) Orangina
1 cup vodka
1/2 cup triple sec
1/2 cup peach schnapps
Fruit (sliced apples, oranges, peaches, plums, nectarines)

Tip: macerate the fruit in the hard liquor for 4-6 hours. I like to macerate the fruit for 2-3 days (in the refrigerator) before making the sangria.
Via Diana L.

quotable

"There's nothing new under the sun. The difference is how the furniture is arranged."
-My friend (and fellow Toastmaster) Teresa Jache

potential

peachy drinking

Finals countdown: 33 days until I kick, take, and drink with my fellow SchMemBA-ers.
Vacation countdown: 39 days until I meet the woman who's "sweet as a peach."

fellow traveller

Tonight I learned that a woman whom I greatly respect is taking a journey similar to one I began in April 2004.

I hope that she finds the same rewards along the way. And that she savors the strength that comes from being one's own person as she grows out of a relationship that no longer makes sense.

choosing love

"There is an attorney I know who always jokes 'I gave up Harvard for love,' but I really think it would sound even lamer to say 'I gave up love for Harvard.'"
-My friend Nancy Doig, on choices of the heart

Ah, the things we do for love.

I think Nancy's right. And Princess Sayako's story below appeals to the romantic in me. I guess the lesson here is to choose wisely, which isn't always easy in matters of the heart. I don't think it's as simple as using your head or your heart.

Japanese princess trades palace for apartment: With wedding to commoner, Sayako exits hereditary monarchy

Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Japan’s Emperor Akihito, wed a commoner in a private ceremony at a Tokyo hotel on Tuesday, losing her privileged status as a member of the imperial family.

Sayako, wearing a simple, full-length white silk dress and pearls, walked several steps behind groom Yoshiki Kuroda into a sparsely decorated room where the traditional Shinto ceremony was held.

The couple were greeted by a priest dressed in white silk robes. About 30 close relatives, including the emperor and empress, attended.

Rather than exchanging wedding rings, the half-hour ritual centered on the sipping of cups of sake rice wine.

Marriage to Kuroda, a 40-year-old urban planner, means Sayako, 36, relinquishes her title, swapping the grandeur of the Imperial Palace for an ordinary Tokyo apartment, and trading official duties for housework and the supermarket run.

She is the first daughter of an emperor to marry for 45 years.

quotable

"Exes have a funny way of becoming a thousand times more fuckable the minute they stop being the same inconsiderate fuckface who forgets to replace the liner when they take the garbage out of the can. It's like what they say about childbirth — the body forgets about the pain. Otherwise, people would never want to have a second child or get into another relationship. "
-Erin Bradley, in her "Miss Information" advice column on love and sex

running bs

Finals countdown: 34 days until BS statements are just things you write on a test in free-flowing prose, rather than in a tabular format.
Vacation countdown: 40 days until I'm walking (or running) in a winter wonderland.

quotable

On grad school, from a friend who is currently writing her thesis:

"The first semester, you're over it.
Somewhere in the middle, you go numb.
Then, at the end, you're over it again."

good times avec les voyous

You never know when photos from a crazy summer in France will surface ... welcome to my misspent well-spent youth.

Watch out for firemen's balls!
Quel souvenir! Oui. Les pompiers ont des très grandes fêtes.

The only way to drink beer is a liter at a time.Quand ils etaient les voyous.
Liberated from mon ami Trevor's MySpace profile.

oh for fuck's sake

When putting one's lunch in one's messenger bag, one ought to ensure that said bag remains upright in one's trunk. Otherwise, the Chinese takeout box containing one's chicken Katsu Dan leftovers will spill sauce from the aforementioned leftovers all over the contents of one's bag, including one's planner, calculator, cds, checkbook, and accounting notes.

Fuckfuckfuck. It's a decidedly inauspicious start to my day.

godless economies of scale

Finals countdown: 35 days until economy of scale only means splitting a ginormous package of Costco toilet paper with Z and Mrs. Z.
Vacation countdown: 41 days until I break bread with a godless liberal, the fundamentalist agnostic, and a quaker couple.

i am i said

I'm grinning from ear to ear because my Monday has been fantastic so far.

• Aaron stopped by with a video montage of baby pictures set to "Here Comes the Sun."
• Cute photo montages of happy parents and baby: 1
• 6 dewy-eyed women: 0
• My colleague Chris surprised me with a beautiful gift: postcard plates. They are all vintage scenes of Parisian landmarks (La tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur, the carousel at the base of Montmartre, and the Arc de Triomphe).
• A database at work that was attacked by a virus didn't lose any data. : )
• I just bought tickets to see Neil Diamond in December with my friend Geraghty.