The paint color on the dining room walls is growing me. Houseplants help. Still not ready to put up photos.
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Bienvenido, Zenil family - thanks for the great Christmas visit! And au revoir, 2011!
The boot rack is functional, and assembly was easy. However, it looks quite a bit more like an upside-down side table than I expected it to.
Also, I’m going to disable comments from here on out. I literally have to sort through hundreds of spam messages for every single legitimate comment. I love you guys, [...]
I have a new DIY project - a boot rack. I’d hoped to have before and after pictures to put up, but the stain on the sundry pieces hasn’t dried yet, so I’m holding off on final assembly. The idea is to set dowels in a base so that the shafts can hang straight, and [...]
I’ve really felt the days getting shorter this month. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve been busy…
So a few weeks back, I got a new car, a 2011 Nissan Altima:
Up until this week, I’ve had nothing but good things to say about it. I have, however, discovered a serious design flaw. Like all late-model Nissans, it starts with an electronic key. There’s a manual key hidden inside that you can use [...]
I recently had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Chicago. I’m delighted to find a place that’s best visited in the dog days of summer.
There was plenty of Chicago to go around. If only there was more summer to see it - and the people I neglected to visit. Sorry LW and CB - [...]
I’m 30. I must say, I kinda like it so far. Thanks, friends and family.
If Sleep and Death be truly one,
And every spirit’s folded bloom
Thro’ all its intervital gloom
In some long trance should slumber on;
Unconscious of the sliding hour,
Bare of the body, might it last,
And silent traces of the [...]
The Mississippi is expected to flood this spring. Truthfully, I believe it floods every spring. But this time, we are supposed to hit record levels.
Chart is from NOAA.
I’ll see your dike and raise you a levee…
Family, how many holidays have we been gathered in the kitchen, puzzling over what to do with the crab meat? You don’t want to overpower it with cheese and heavy stewing spices. You want to flatter the subtle sweetness, but not obliterate that fresh seafood essence. Lemon juice and salt are delicious, but lack a [...]
Taking the Arkansas Bar this week (or at least the essays). With any luck, this will be my last bar. Two keep me busy, three might make me crazy, four would be unfathomable at this point.
I’ve ordered my roses for spring planting. Coming soon to the southeastern corner of my house:
A trio of Tess of the d’Urbervilles bushes, on the corner facing the street, which I’m going to try and train up to balance a tall shrub I’ve got on the opposite corner. These are a dark crimson, and should [...]
So I’m years late to the party on this one, but I just discovered Indexed by Jessica Hagy. Imagine if Randall Munroe of XKCD fame was female, and content to stick to pre-algebra. Or alternatively, imagine if PostSecret weeded out all the emo entries about eating disorders, molestation, and cries for help, and converted the [...]
I’m putting the kittens (and their mother) up for adoption this week.
Quite a change from last month, isn’t it. They’ve all got very cat-like personalities now, and are no longer just fuzzy stomachs. The white one on the left is the pick of the litter, both the most playful and the most affectionate. The mackerel [...]
When I first moved into my new digs, there was a stray cat living in the crawlspace. A neighbor was putting out food for her, so I was pretty content to leave well enough alone. But she was never spayed, and there are plenty of toms around. Sure enough, she turned up pregnant. Now I’m [...]
I went to Cincinnati over Labor Day to visit people from the Incomparable Concepción VAC and and attend the Despedida of Darling Danita. Gents, you know Peace Corps Paraguay didn’t shut the VAC down over security concerns re: those no-account, half-assed narco-communists in the EPP. The real reason is that The Office knew the C-VAC [...]
I went and argued my first appellate case this week before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Jackson.
Funny building, isn’t it? Kind of reverse federal style. That’s oddly appropriate - most of my conversation with the justices seemed to revolve around how far off from standard federal procedure this case had gone. Our client [...]
I want to plant a hedge by the sidewalk that runs in front of my house. It’s a very small front yard with full sun morning through early afternoon and good soil. I’m right on the borderline between USDA zones 6b and 7a.
My ideal hedge shrub would be around 4-5 feet tall, evergreen, and fragrant. [...]
I’m finally getting into long-term housing. For a limited time only, I’m posting my new address online:
904 Ferguson Avenue
Caruthersville, MO 63830
Get it while it’s hot!
I’ve been having spam problems lately, so I’ve changed the comments policy to “administrator approval required.” You can still post comments, but it’ll take a day or two now for them to show up. Sorry for that. Blame organized crime in Eastern Europe and sub-Sarahan Africa.
It’s been a busy month - my sister is now a wedded woman, I went to the beach for the first time in years, and I’m getting ready to move (not far this time - just a few blocks down into permanent housing). And there’ve been photos of almost all of this. I just don’t [...]
Stars, I have seen them fall,
But when they drop and die
No star is lost at all
From all the star-sown sky.
The toil of all that be
Helps not the primal fault;
It rains into the sea
And still the sea is salt.
A.E. Housman, “Stars” from More Poems, 1936.
No, I’m not depressed or anything. I’ve just had this stuck in [...]
One of the less obvious benefits of lawyering in the greater Pemiscot County area is getting to spend time in this awesome old courthouse:
It smells like history.
The last of last week’s snow has melted off now, and I’m settling in.
Cool digs, huh?
Magic like it here!
Also, hidden light switches for cool haunted house effects:
As of this week, I’ve moved to Caruthersville, MO, where I’ll be working in the Law Offices of Wendell L Hoskins as an associate.
I’ll be working a gamut of cases, civil and criminal, and pursuing a Missouri law license.
My cell phone number has not changed. My mailing address will, but not until I’m in a [...]
Just got back from a trip to the High Museum of Art. The headline event there right now is a DaVinci exhibit featuring his works depicting angels, soldiers, and grizzled old men. And also this giant bronze recreation of his incomplete Sforza Horse:
You can see snow on the ground around it. The giant bronze would [...]
Or not - it’s Saturday and the roads are clear, so there’s nothing cancelled, but this is the closest I’ve gotten in years, so I’ll just go ahead and celebrate if you don’t mind.
Peace, plenty, and a solitaire-playing gadget to all!
After a long day of near-continuous eating and talking, there’s nothing quite so refreshing as sinking into an evening gadget-coma.
I firmly believe that Oprah will single-handedly undo every scientific advance from the Renaissance onward, and bring us back to four humors and a bucket of leeches if left unchecked.
Courtesy of GraphJam.com:
It’s fall. In this part of the world, it’s not 100 degrees Fahrenheit out. And there are trees turning seasonal pumpkin shades. This weekend, we took Highway 31 to the fire tower on Clinch Mountain, clambered around up there for a while, and then came back to Knoxville along Highway 131. Wanna see?
View Clinch [...]
My mother and I were invited to attend Eid ul-Fitr celebrations with her colleague Asmaa, her family, and several members of the Knoxville Muslim Community. It was a wonderful experience.
Eid ul-Fitr, briefly, is the feast at the end of the fasting month Ramadan. We started the morning of 1 Shawwal 1430 Muslim calendar (or 20 [...]
New car.
New computer.
New cell phone.
New cat.
Melting credit card.
I’m not really charmed by the name her previous owners gave her - Cheesy (or Cheesie, depending on how you feel about Spell Check). Anybody got a better idea?
I’m back in the United States. Call me! E-mail me!
I went to BA’s famous Recoleta cemetery. I know a lot of people who would like it very much. It has three purposes:
1.) A place where people mourn their lost loved ones. I think, at least. I saw memorial plaques here and there, but no actual mourners. The live humans were all carrying cameras and [...]
A note about pizza. Buenos Aires has it. It came across the Atlantic with upteen boatloads of Italian immigrants. BA pizza ranges from utter wretchedness to the sublime, and there’s little predicting which you’ll get without getting inside information. And I’m going guidebook-free at the moment, so just about everything is a surprise, for good [...]
I’m in Buenos Aires. It ended up being harder to get here than I’d hoped. When the clerk at the bus station told me the bus would get in at eight, I naïvely assumed that meant 8 pm that same day. Nuh uh. It meant 8 am today.
For a variety of reasons, including a mechanical [...]
OK, wow.
The Iguazú Falls are every bit as impressive as advertised. It’s not just one big waterfall - there are dozens, any one of which would be a star attraction at another nature reserve. I lucked into great weather. Enough sun for rainbows, enough clouds for a bit of drama, chilly enough for clambering up [...]
I’ve arrived in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina. This is the Argentine side of the tri-border region with Brazil and Paraguay, at the joining of the Paraná and Iguazu rivers. The Paraná drains out of Brazil to form the border between Argentina and Paraguay. This is the river that was dammed to form the Itaipu reservoir. I’m [...]
I’m finishing my Peace Corps service and starting my trip home from Asunción, Paraguay. The weather’s great, I know by now where to find buses, grub, and ATMs, so all in all an auspicious start. We had a group of about forty volunteers go out for dinner, drinking, and dancing last night. Today there’ll be [...]
This is it. I’m out of Peace Corps this afternoon. I’ve turned in my cell phone and my Paraguayan foreign ministry ID card. Watch this space for pictures from Argentina. See you in the US.
This is it - I’m leaving Tacuatí for as far as I can see early on Saturday morning. After two years, I’m scared and relieved and sad and excited. I’m having cake with my host family tonight. Tomorrow I’ll throw a little party for my friends around town with sopa paraguaya (think corn bread, but [...]
My friend and neighbor Mary Cinadr has gotten an article published on the Boston Globe’s website. Want to check it out? She’s one of Peace Corps’ beekeeping volunteers, and she’s done awesome work with africanized “killer” bees.
Above, the girl who cat sits for me. A while back, she put on a full-on wedding for her tom [...]
Not much news.
Wanna see some pictures?
From back: me, Mitra, Nina, Anita, Charlotte, and Barbara.
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Danita feeds a puppy
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Liam Winters and Rachel Newby - oenophiles nonpareil
The Guaraní word of the day is vai vai, meaning “not well” or “poorly”.
- ¿Reñe’é Guaraníme? (”Do you speak Guaraní?”)
- Vai vai. (”After two years, I can understand basic phrases and pick [...]
I’m back to our old stomping grounds of Guarambaré this week, where Peace Corps Paraguay trains its volunteers. In particular, all the new volunteers to my project group come in May to spend the winter training, so we’ve got a new crop in class right now. The training contractor, an organization known by the cryptic [...]
Post-vacation and post-COS-conference, life has been quiet. Since I’ll be the last Peace Corps volunteer to work at my financial cooperative, I’ve been trying to prepare them to operate independently. To that end, I’ve been writing an operations manual for the administrative council and the secretary I hope they’ll eventually hire. It’s turned into a [...]
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