utter desolation

It is the saddest picture i have ever taken. Dang. Look at that. We were driving to our school when i looked over at this sad, sad field and had to stop the van to figure out what is going on. Those are dead sunflowers, people. Wow. This picture makes me think of how much i dislike the month of February. Poor February; i almost feel bad for it. It is the shortest month, but i swear it takes the longest to get through. In the mid-Atlantic, February's weather can be described as cold, damp and dreary. Despite there being several important anniversaries and birthdays in February (including my BFF's) i just can't get excited about the month. Every year i try to face February with my patented brand of pathological optimism; generally i think that if you find what you are looking for, so why not look for the good? But every year no matter how up-beat i attempt to be, i am disappointed by Crapuary. So this year i am taking a new track: lowered expectation reverse psychology. I am going to EXPECT February to blow dog. I am going to look for the dreary. I will not be disappointed by the continuing doom bubble, but rather accepting of it. During the next 28 days I will expect February to betray me at every turn so that any day that doesn't look like this will be a good day. Happy Crapuary, everybody! Don't worry; we're in this together.

Chocolate nachos

It sounded odd. I was dubious. Was the chocolate IN the nachos or ON the nachos? The answer is both. Plus vanilla and strawberry ice cream. Plus strawberries. Plus rainbow sprinkles. If heaven were a dessert, it might be this.

just in the nick of time

150 gold stars acheived; massage scheduled for Monday; thank God.

Baby Glory

So last week Mel and Mike were in Virginia to visit friends and had a Sunday afternoon slot available for a Scott House mini-reunion. Jason and Kate and i drove down from Baltimore to meet them and the lovely Colleen for lunch in Ballston. It was a fun faux-British pub with both football (soccer) and football on large tvs. It was wonderful to have a chance catch up with everyone and spend time with the far-flung relations. Mel and James Mike and Matthew The twins were well behaved through napping, eating and being passed around. Kate had Matthew while I took James Is it my imagination or does it look like i am imparting tips for world domination to him? After not being able to even touch the boys when i saw them in the hospital over the summer it was pure joy to get to play with them. At one point there was even more reunionary as Colleen's mom showed up table side with her granddaughter (Colleen's niece), Mallory. I love my friends that are like family and wish i could spend more time with 'em.

2009 book breakdown

I read a lot last year -because that's what i do- but i realized as i was culling my commonplace book to put this post together that it wasn't really a stand-out year for books for me.
I enjoyed almost all of what i read.
 I found some new authors.
I started some new series.
 But there were no books that after i read them i thought, Man, i need to write a blog post about that or Everyone i know must read this book. There also weren't any Jeez that was so bad i feel like i should get a time refund from the author moments either. I guess some years are just like that.
Anyhoo, since no great truth or hidden wisdom was revealed to me during my perusal of last year's books, here is just a super quick breakdown of the literary habits of the Nikiverse, circa 2009:
Total books read: 132
Re-reads: 6
Mystery/ action: 68
Children's/ YA: 37
Graphic novel/manga/comic collections: 19
Short story collections: 6
New series started: 7
Most read month: August, 22
Least read month: March, 0
Most read author: Charlaine Harris, 25
Most interesting read: Lullaby, Chuck Palahnuik
Most surprising reveal: the Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
Most quotes gleaned from: The Book of the Unknown, Jonathon Keats
Best title: the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse, Robert Rankin
The story was better than the movie: "Quantum of Solace", Ian Fleming
The movie was better than the book: The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau
It will be interesting to see how things go in 2010, especially since i just finished a book by a cartoonist that features a dachshund with a soup ladle for a leg.

Fun for biologists and linguists alike

You know that semi-awake state right before you go to sleep or right after you wake up?
The one where you know you aren't asleep, but you aren't really focusing on reality?
 The one where words and images slip by you in your stream of consciousness with little to no link to each other? Y
ou know what i'm talking about here?
I love that place.
 Some of my best ideas come from that place.
Of course, sometimes i get chickens bawking Christmas carols instead.
There is really no rhyme or reason.
I bring this up because this morning i didn't have to set my alarm clock (best day of the week) and slowly woke up on my own. As i was laying curled up in my warm, fuzzy blanket the word equine drifted through my brain.
Why?
Who knows.
But, it is kind of a cool sounding word. Say it with me - equine. Sounds like an over-priced drink in a french restaurant, but of course we know it actually means horse-like. As i pondered the word over and over in my barely awake state it was joined by the words canine and feline.
I like it when words rhyme.
They rhyme because of the suffix so i started thinking about other -ine words, like bovine and lupine.
Huh. Those are animal words, too.
So then the half-dozing brain started looking for connections between the words.
 First i thought about feline, canine and lupine all referring to carnivores - what other carnivores are there and did they have -ine adjective forms?
Foxes... goats - wait, they aren't carnivores
... panthers... lions... tigers... bears... Bears! Ursine!
YEA!
In the happy, drifty place my brain likes playing games and gets really excited when it wins. Maybe the link is that all of the words are adjectives for carnivores.
WAIT - horses and cows aren't carnivores; they are ungulates.
CRAP.
My brain pouts when it doesn't win.
So the link isn't carnivores.
hmmmm... ungulates... hooves... are there any other ungulate examples? Porcine!
YEA!
This is fun... canine, feline, equine, porcine, bovine, lupine, ursine, quinine...
WAIT... that last one is a chemical that you add to tonic water - it treats malaria and fluoresces under UV light. Strike it from the list!
okay... drifting... canine, feline, bovine, porcine, lupine, ursine, equine...
HEY - those are all mammals... maybe the link is that they are mammals.
Let's check for other mammals.
 hmmmmmm... no rodents... primates... weasels... ermine -no, that's an actual animal- ...no whales... marsupials.... monotremes...
At this point i was interested enough in the thought stream that i had to start actually concentrating on it which made me fully wake up. As i opened my eyes to the sunshine in the room the word serpentine jumped into my head.
Yea to another example, boo to defeating my mammal theory.
So here we are hours later and i am still contemplating this set of words.
I wonder if there are examples i've missed. It isn't just mammals, but i can't think of any insect, fish, amphibian or bird examples. We could probably take the latin/greek root of any animal and slap on -ine, but i am looking for actual words that someone might use in a sentence.
I'm sure i could look it up somewhere, but where is the challenge and fun in that? I prefer mulling it over, cogitating, pick-pick-picking my brain.
And yours.
 So come on, people - can you think of any other -ine animal adjectives besides the one listed below?
canine: dog-like
feline: cat-like
equine: horse-like
bovine: cow-like
porcine: pig-like
lupine: wolf-like
ursine: bear-like
serpentine: snake-like
[and no Frack, porcupine doesn't count]

5:30pm addition: computer locked, jacket on, briefcase on shoulder, keys in hand, heading away from my desk when i suddenly realize that vulpine means fox-like. YEA!

Quick Update

Thanks for all the love, guys.
Mom had what we like to call the ice cream scoop procedure on Tuesday [physical removal of mucus from the brachia - ewwww] and went home yesterday afternoon.
 She seems tired, but feeling a LOT better when i spoke to her last night.
Thanks for thoughts and prayers.

Gooooo Team Marge!

In an effort to do at least one new thing per month I joined a trivia team at Applebees.
 There are six rounds of three questions each that are point weighted by comfort with the topic.
 The topic pool is reeeeeeally broad, but I've determined that we need someone with sports knowledge to round out our expertise.
We bombed the first round, but did great in the second round.
 We ended in the top 10, winning 3 tournament points.
I just love trivia.

POed, but determined

You know what, World?
I know that you are trying to stromp on my last nerve.
I know that you are trying to break me down with the "taking away a member of my team" crap and the "sort through 16 years of your life, reliving every victory and defeat" crap and the "heat going off 2 nights in a row in the apartment in the middle of January" crap and the "mom in the hospital" crap and the "losing your voice during a show" crap and the "you now have no voice, but are supposed to do 2 shows tomorrow" crap and the "staff bathrooms are broken; we don't know when they will be fixed" crap and the "i think my gym changed ownership; why do they have a new name; is my membership still valid" crap and the "can't find khaki work pants that don't make me look like an oompah loompah so i have to wear the same 2 skirts and wash 3 times a week" crap and the "have pictures for 5 blog posts but never seem to get around to doing it" crap and the "i know i've chosen to be poor, but this is ridiculous" crap and the "spell check doesn't recognize your language" crap and the "state tax return is literally 10 cents" crap and the "former co-worker has cancer" crap.
I know that you have turned me into a Crankenstein lately.
But i also know something you don't, World.
No matter how hard you try to push me down or how often you make me cry or how simply pissed off you make me,
i will win in the end.
How do i know that?
Because when you present me with a situation where we are late to a school, dealing with the world's most dour office secretary, setting up in a space as far away from anything like water or a bathroom as possible and there are no parking spaces left because the last one is half covered with a schmanky pile of leftover, plowed snow i will simply drive back and forth over the snow creating a space for myself.
I will not be denied, World.
You can make me feel awful for a period of time, but the sparkle ponies will always kick your a** in the end, World.
Always.

For Rea

Phonemate received your message last night and loves you, too.
Today i was drying a piece of glassware that i have dried hundreds of time and noticed this
for the first time.
Smile!