Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I've actually felt like I've had quite a lot to say lately ... I just haven't felt like I've had the time to write any of it down when I also had the energy and alertness to do so. (Despite a pretty crappy Monday and Tuesday, I did get some productive stuff done this week. And I've got a rather full weekend scheduled.)

I've lost a windowpane. :-( But I finally got a definite and official answer from the city regarding what kinds of windows I'm allowed to have. :-) But now the contractor who had been supposed to give me an estimate isn't responding to my email. :-( Getting the window+paint situation resolved before cold weather arrives would be good.

Apparently my cat doesn't taste good. My usual defense against biting insects is to stand near people who taste better. Go to a festival? I'm fine. Go to a place with fewer bugs alone? I get bitten. Some flying bugs got in before I got a screen up to cover where the pane of glass now occupying a small, glittering pile on the sidewalk had previously been. And Perrine is not drawing them away from me. Coulda' sworn I had a can of bug spray somewhere ...

(Yeah, I need to sweep up the broken glass. When my back stops hurting from sweeping it into one pile out of usual kid-traffic instead of being strewn in front of three houses, I'll work on getting it picked up and disposed of properly.)

Question ... a calf cramp that still won't unclench 37 [expletive]ing hours later: bad sign, or just really, really annoying? If bad, how bad?

Neeeeed mooooore diiiiiisk spaaaaaace.

Noisy next-door neighbours mostly quiet lately, except for the one night when I heard a woman screaming about another having left for the bar without her, and how since these weren't her kids she wasn't going to take responsibility for them, and would just lock them in the house and go off to wherever ... and if I heard right (and no, I'm not sure that I did), I got the impression that the "not my kids" in question were the speaker's shouter's grandchildren. (I don't think she actually left like she was threatening. I'm not sure.) Anyhow, I'm grateful for the relative quiet.

Tonight different neighbours got loud: someone behind my house (comparing voice effects to loudness-at-my-back-door, I'm thinking maybe the far side of the sort-of-street-sort-of-alley in between Lombard and Pratt), shouting so hard that her voice was distorted, with the overtones starting to swamp the fundamental, in a classic Balteemoar "hon" accent, about ... uh, someone who had wronged her by going off in a car with all her stuff with someone else who had wronged her and she was going to kill them and no she really meant it and (in response to a male voice too low for me to make out) she wasn't scared of so-and-so's gun because whether you put a nine to her head or not she's going to go when it's her time to go and she knows so-and-so better than their own mother and ... and (still shouting at really the very top of her voice) "no, I'm not angry". Fortunately she was only audible from my kitchen and bathroom, so not an ongoing annoyance once I headed back to the bedroom. But still ... wow. She went on for quite a while, too. I wonder whether she trains for that, or will wake up tomorrow more hoarse than people who helped their friends try out the new Beatles Rock Band game (I saw three different reviews just after it came out, all of which involved people hurting themselves by getting carried away with the singing and not having warmed up).

Mom gave me food. I should cook and eat some of it, then see whether my body is willing to sleep. Then if I get where I want to go in the afternoon I should try to remember what all I'd wanted to say all week tomorrow night. (Oh yeah, I meant to write something for invisible disability week ...)

Oh drat. I spoke too soon about the next-door neighbours. There's an argument on the sidewalk under my bedroom window.

"I may have evaded the payment of duties to the custom house, but I have never ceased to be a good citizen..." -- Jean Lafitte, smuggler and privateer[*]

"If you have a hook instead of a hand, which arm do you put teffillin on?
 Does your treasure map show how far the eruv extends?
 Are booty and spoils assur if the conquered ship was worshipping avodah zarah?"
-- from "Top Ten Halachic Questions for a Jewish Pirate", (two items from original post by Seth of bangitout.com; one from a comment), 2006-09-19

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good." -- Alice May Brock

[Wishing a blessed Rosh Hashana to my friends celebrating it, a joyous Eid al-Fitr tonight and tomorrow[**] to friends celebrating that, a fun International Talk Like A Cornish Actor[***] er, Pirate Day to most of you, whether you participate or merely put up with it!]

[*] Aye, I Googled "Jewish pirate". Lafitte be the only one I found a quotation from in time, o' the several names I found. Arrrr!

[**] At least in places that allow astronomical calculations to determine the start of the month ahead of time rather than waiting for direct human observation of the crescent moon, but most likely most other places too. Sorry I didn't manage to find a quote I liked that covered more than just the feasting aspect.

[***] Alrighty then, born in Dorrrrset, but went to school in Cornwall, 'e did! (How similar are the Dorset and Cornwall accents?)