Where was this picture taken? Canyonlands? Somewhere in the Mexican desert? No—Mars.Somebody found the NASA site while idly reading about drunken astronauts. Science is cool!
2. My morning glory is blooming—I’ll have to get up early enough to get a picture this weekend. And a hummingbird was checking it out this morning!
3. For all the science-fiction lovers, here’s a Dune lolcat picture:
As for Mr. Burrow, he said the worst part of being flooded was the struggle to evacuate his cats, one of whom jumped into the water in fear. Finally, he corralled them into cat boxes provided by the fire department and, led by several firefighters, he waded through the river that had been the road, being careful not to fall into a manhole after their covers had been ripped off by the force of the water.
"I wasn't scared, as long as I could wade along the road," he said. "And the war was worse."
The war was worse. What understatement. Carry on, sir!
And I have a fan. (Sweatshops get hot.)
It's also something of a "happy eyesore," to use a phrase from the Dress a Day blog lady, but I like eyesores ("what? I can't hear you over this print!").
BoingBoing, source of all my interesting news, posted a link today to a site where a very clever person had re-imagined famous poems as limericks. Nothing makes me happier than corny literary tricks! Maybe I’ll write my own today!
I have tomorrow off, which makes today feel like Friday. So here’s some early unrelated information!
2. Have you ever wanted to see where your cat goes when he has his adventures? Order him a CatCam and find out! Or just see photos from a day in the life of a cat named Mr. Lee.
3. If you ever need to ask a French person is he or she made something themselves, this is how: Avez-vous fait cela vous-meme?
There was a post on BoingBoing last week about scary monsters from Sesame Street, and guess who were listed? Those Martian things that said “yip yip yip, uh-huh, uh-huh”! They absolutely terrified me, especially in the episode where they discovered the telephone and mimicked its ringing. The first “Brrrrrrringgg!!!” out of their scary, scary mouths was almost too much.
The post has an awesome quote from someone who was also scared of the Yip Yips: “I found a clip on YouTube and freaked myself out a little. When the phone rang and their lips flew up above their head, I thought about cowering behind my desk chair for a second."
Last night there was something different from the month of sun and sky we’ve had: wind and clouds! And even some rain! Like just about every other thing, weather makes me think of poetry, and I thought of what Pablo Neruda had to say about it:
Suddenly the wind howls and bangs at my shut window.
The sky is a net crammed with shadowy fish.
Here all the winds let go sooner or later, all of them.
The rain takes off her clothes.
The birds go by, fleeing.
The wind. The wind.
I can contend only against the power of men.
The storm whirls dark leaves
and turns loose all the boats that were moored last night to the sky.
(From “Every Day You Play,” complete text here. [Warning: terrifying web design.] It’s really a love poem, so if you’re not in love it may make you sad and bitter. Hey, I’m just saying—)
To quote my sister-in-law, "It's working!" And to quote M.F.K. Fisher: "They did as they were meant to, which is one of the most satisfying things that can happen to a gardener."
I wore it to the yarn store at lunch yesterday, which was full of knitting ladies, and one of them said, "That dress looks just like Audrey Hepburn." (I think she meant the dress looked like something Audrey would wear. I took it as a compliment.) 
Notice the neckline? I was really thrifty and used the same pattern as the Venice dress and just changed the skirt. And notice the pleats under the waistline? Gut pleats. Brilliant. I may never wear pants again.
But one must put up with something, I suppose.
10. Washed my car again because it got rained on at the derby.
Nachos rule!
It's a print of Mexican loteria cards that I loved online, but that just screamed "fortune teller" in person. But I had ordered enough to make a dress, so I thought I'd better make a dress. I was so relieved when I saw the bodice wasn't working and I could make it into a skirt.
A pillow, finally finished. It's for the living room but it got its picture taken in the kitchen, where the light is better. The back is knitted, but it needs a button, so I'm not showing it off.
It will be another big full skirted 50's dress with a square neck, so I can pretend I'm in "Roman Holiday." Except the print is of Venice. Venetian Holiday!
We find our clothes, our clothes find us: they save us from being lost. At home in dress, we enjoy its touch, its crispness, smoothness, softness, texture, its feel on the skin it fits: these pleasures serving the larger pleasure of being at last, or hoping we are, our more glamorous and more potent self. In dressing we enter an inheritance, which may include a new self, which we feel to be a 'true' self, revealed or rather realized by the donning of these good clothes.From Men in Black by John Harvey (U of Chicago Press, 1996)
