magid

Best bit of the morning commute: a small boy (a year and a half, maybe?) sitting up attentively to catch the first glimpse of the Charles as the train crossed the river, excitedly announcing "river!" And then "sailboats!" Totally cute, his enthusiasm.

Best job title, pretty much ever: Director of Smiles.

I saw the florist loading a bouquet of black balloons into his delivery minivan. First thoughts: goth wedding, or circus funeral.

Cars things are Not Cheap. *sigh* (Neither are roofs, or repointing, or bathrooms, for that matter. None of them are very optional, either.)

I have deferred some of the apricot inundation, by halving and freezing a lot of them, instead of many batches of canning in the heat. And the tree is winding down production; I think I'll be picking the last of them this week.

Other trees this week: this morning one of the trees across the street was taken down by the city, for no obvious reason I could figure out. I hope they'll replace it soon, though the shade won't be back for years, since they always put in saplings. And a couple of days ago a huge branch fell off one of the neighbor's trees, luckily landing on no one, nor on the house. It was a huge crash on impact, that I felt as well as heard.

I've been lacking inspiration (or yarn) for hats (though I do want to make something to put on my top hat to be like the cards in Under London (or whatever that game is called), with eyes and teeth, and a couple of people have talked to me about making them hats), so I've been filling in crochet time doing little hyperbolic doodles, likely as playa gifts. It's productive, but doesn't feel creative. I hope I get some ideas (and yarn) soon.

Packing for two events simultaneously is challenging. I hope I'm going to make it. Or at least, I hope that whatever I forget I can compensate for.

Links (also extremely misc.)

downloadable recordings from this January's JOFA conference
at some point, I want to visit the Cotton-Arbo Retum, in Winchester
a woman urging vegetarianism, by wearing a suit of lettuce, as well as her regular hijab
a fascinating history of mince pie, the American pie before apple pie
steampunk Lady Gaga
a list of edible flowers and how to use them, also a recipe for clover and wild strawberry jelly (uses pectin)
some interesting wood carving (warning: sound)
what sleep talkin' man said recently in his sleep
2010 map of Black Rock City (interactive version) (so far, my favorite camp name is Bacon Without Borders)