You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2011.
Because it is almost Halloween, I thought I would post this . . . red, sparkly shoes! Click your heals together and think “there is no place like home!” What more can one want?
I was Glinda the Good Witch one year for Halloween as a little girl, I had the perfect outfit. It was very pink and puffy – plenty of frou-frou. I had a glittery crown. My Dad made me a wand that was as tall as I and with a deadly, pointy star on the top. But, in my wizened old age, I now realize I totally missed out on the Ruby Slipper Factor, a fault I will remedy someday. . . even if I have to wear gingham and pig-tales.
Le Grand Canal by Monet
The fortnight at Venice passed quickly and sweetly — perhaps to sweetly; I was drowning in honey, stingless. On some days life kept pace with the gondola, as we nosed through the side-canals and the boatman uttered his plaintive musical bird-cry of warning; on other days with the speed-boat bouncing over the lagoon in a stream of sun-lit foam; it left a confused memory of fierce sunlight on the sands and cool, marble interiors; of water everywhere, lapping on smooth stone, reflected in a dapple of light on painted ceilings; of a night at the Corombona palace such as Byron might have known, and another Byronic night fishing for scampi in the shallows of Chioggia, the phosphorescent wake of the little ship, the lantern swinging in the prow and the net coming up full of weed and sand and floundering fishes; of melon and prosciutto on the balcony in the cool of the morning; of hot cheese sandwiches and champagne cocktails at the English bar.
Waugh, Evelyn, Brideshead Revisited (Little Brown and Company, Boston: 1973), 101.
Yesterday I went to the Arlington County Library Book Sale (details here) which was amazing. I made out like a bandit. My most prized find being a complete Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Yes, a dictionary. I am a complete nerd when it comes to the English language.
Why the OED? Well, in the first place its so big I can’t actually lift it by myself. I had to get a cart for it, that is how thorough it is. Secondly, it gives you the history of the word and all the different ways it has been used throughout the years. This is fantastic if you are reading something written in a different era — what their words mean might not be what our words mean. Finally, its an actual book. I don’t mind online dictionaries, they are useful. But there is something to be said for a huge, two volume, type-so-small-you-need-a-magnifying-glass, English dictionary.
I am amused by the little headlines that pop up in entertainment news, “another celebrity voted off Dancing With the Stars!” Um, yes, I thought that’s the whole point of the show. I am so glad, dear journalist, that you are here to clarify, what would the world do without you?
I don’t have a TV or watch Dancing with the Stars. I think it would be a much more interesting show back pre-1950 when all the stars could dance and had to dance (and your average citizen could too). Then make a competition out of it, yes, I think that would be amazing to watch!
Below is my favorite scene from Top Hat with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I love the music, the dancing, the dress. . . the grace.
- Sales Associates are very helpful- but not pushy
- I’ve never been abandoned in a dressing room
- Its always a clean and friendly enviroment
- Clothing is always tasteful
- Clothes are never in messy heaps on tables that you have to dig through to find your size
- Displays aren’t overwhelming
- Prices are decent
- When you check out they always comes around to your side of the cash registar to hand you your bag instead of making you reach over the counter
- And now. . .
Nordstrom’s keeps the holidays in their respective season! Personally, nothing disgusts more than a store that is catering towards Christmas in October. I just can’t handle Christmas frou-frou until after Thanksgiving. Even then that is too early because the Christmas season is traditionally (before retail grabbed it and ran) after Christmas, not before. And then seeing Valentines displays a week after Christmas makes me gag. Don’t get me started on the poor Easter bunnies that show up around February 15.
The empire of Alexander the Great is pictured below. I would like to point out that he conquered all the territory before the age of 32. I would also like to point out that he was able to do this because no one could tell him no. He didn’t have to run his ideas by anybody. People didn’t ask if he had “experience.” People trusted his judgement.
Today is also Bosses Day, in case you were wondering.
I really want these bracelets! Wouldn’t they look cute with a skinny jeans, a tunic top and red shoes?
I was looking for some ettiquette information and made a beeline for missmanners.com. Sadly I didn’t find what I was looking for there, but I browsed around the site for a bit, and came across this portrait. I remembered reading an article with a picture in the Washington Post about this portrait of Judith Martin (Miss Manners) a while ago. I just think the lines in this painting are so beautiful. And I love her hair.
I’ve been falling behind on my reading, mainly because right now I am trying to plow through Muir’s Wilderness Essays. Bless Muir for being the explorer he was, but his essays are long, highly detailed, and a little boring.
The last thing I read was Richard Carvel by Winston Churchill and it was a great read. Its starts in pre-revolutionary America and continues right through to the end of the war. The hero is everything a young man should be and then some. The story includes: pirates, chases, escapes, true love. . . no giants though. . . sorry.
Fun fact: Winston Churchill the author is not the same as the great English PM, Sir Winston Churchill, however, the two men are contemporaries. Apparently, after some of his work was accidentally attributed to the PM, Winston Churchill the author wrote the PM and said that because he was older he should have first claim to the name of Winston Churchill. After that the PM always included his middle initial S (for the Spencer family).
Last week was a crazy week, I’ll tell you more about it later. The Cox guy finally came and now we have internet again. Yay! The cable that was lying in the street was our internet cable. How did it get there? I am blaming the demonic squirrel that lives in the backyard. It has an agenda beyond storing nuts for winter, you can tell by looking at it. Sometimes it taps on the sliding glass door and watches as I jump in fright. Creepy, right?
