4 million entries in one day, I know. But this one is about presents!

So, some of us have big families, huge friend groups, and small budgets. I want the time to craft lovingly for everyone without going bonkers, or the funding to give awesome presents, but things get ridiculously tight each year. So the idea came up last year of giving friend presents at Imbolc!

Some facts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc
To summarize, Imbolc is typically celebrated on February 2nd. It's an Irish festival, with lots of good things going on, like purification, healing, bonfires, all those good things.

The thought was that you could tell friends that you'll give them presents at Imbolc, but do the family ones (or really close friends) at Christmas, thus diversifying. It also gives a unifying day for people of different faiths to all celebrate together.

So, who thinks this is a good idea? Who wants to wait until an Imbolc party or get-together to give holiday cheer?

You'll need to be on Rav to see the pictures. Otherwise, I did what I can with descriptions. Help?

( Stupid yarn. )

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

So, I seem to have lost my phone on the bus this morning. I'm going through the proper channels to track it down and/or possibly replace it. I'll be potentially unreachable until Friday of next week (May 29th). If you need me, please email or call Daniel or Carol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4VzuWmN8zY

15 minutes to remind you how wonderful language really is.

It occurs to me that there are many names of ballroom dances that would make excellent names for cats. For example:
Bolero
Tango
Mambo
Cha-Cha
Rumba
Samba
Those are the ones I can think of.

And Happy Birthday, Reid.

Happy Birthday, Chad.

It seems today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day! And in honor thereof, I present thee the following YouTubes. Verily.



A brief history of Shakespeare's life, so as to educate the unwashed masses.




"If beginneth be a word..."

2 Dancing thoughts:

1. Last night, DWTS contestant Ty Murray said that, in rodeo, there's an equal and opposite movement for every movement the bull makes. This leads me to think he'd be an excellent follower.

2. If I ever have to do a paso double, I want to do it in Leia's slave outfit and to the Imperial March.

Because I am a crafter, Christmas work starts a hell of a lot earlier for me than most people. So! This is your chance to think about what you'd like and place requests and preferences now!

Ideas you could pick from include, but are not limited to:
pj pants (sewn)
scarves/cowls (knitted)
hats (knitted)
fingerless gloves (knitted)
socks (knitted)
dice bags (sewn)

I'm open to other ideas, too. And I've already had requests for a pair of fingerless gloves and a lace beret like mine. So, what would you like for Christmas?

And other neat things you can find in a reform siddur...

Either you will
go through this door
or you will not go through.

If you go through
there is always the risk
of remembering your name.

Things look at you doubly
and you must look back
and let them happen.

If you do not want to go through
it is possible
to live worthily
to maintain your attitudes
to hold your position
to die bravely

but much will blind you,
much will evade you,
at what cost, who knows?

The door itself
makes no promises.
It is only a door.

Well, I went in to talk to Estelle. Before we could get into the real conflict, she let me know, as nicely as she could, that the order had come from upon high that the part time teachers needed to be let go. The studio has been doing so poorly financially that they just can't afford to keep anyone on who isn't full time (or practically full time). So that was it. I was sent home.

Arthur Murray Dance Specialist, Jan 2008-March 2009 Laid off due to economic cutbacks.

*sings silly nonsense songs*

Doo bee doo bee doo....
gonna finish my work today, gonna take a bus.
I know the difference between using "we" and "us."
Gonna get my needles, then I'll do some chores,
Gonna play some games, gonna hit the yarn store!

toot too toot toot tooot...

And I'm gonna start a project from what's in Liz's book.
Post some pictures of the latest so y'all can take a look.
I'm filling up my time with giggles, reading, plans, and play
It's not extraordinary, but it's just one of those days.

Someone should do a meme of trying to tell a story about your day using various verses of different songs. At least three different ones must be used.

Barring the zipper, Sweatherthulhu is done. Pictures after I install the zipper and reality sinks in.

I was bored at work, so I stole this meme from Facebook.

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Italics = read it
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (all but the last one!)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Addams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (But isn't this part of the Chronicles??)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas </i>
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

List makes me want to go home and read, even though some of it is screwy.

And my total? 42/100.

Can anyone please give me a ride to Columbia on Monday, March 2nd for a doctor's appointment? I need to be there by 3, but could get there any time before that, pretty much. I do not need a ride back, just a ride there. I'll pay for lunch!

^_^

Edit: </i>Thank you, Mr. Carl! I can has ride in 3133t box!

Anyone want to go Swing Dancing on either the 21st or the 28th at Glen Echo?

This girl pretty much demonstrated my attitude towards dancing. And how I did it in college.