resorting to a meme

Things are slow today. Hopefully I'll have something more colourful / crafty / delicious / photorific tomorrow, but today I'm doing the Word Beads meme. The challenge is to take the five words given and string them together in a sentence, paragraph, story, or something. Here I go. It might be cheating to conjugate the verbs, but whatever.

Champagne
Glimpse
Retried
Nibble
Abash


After glimpsing a glass of champagne left on the table and a lone hors d'oeuvre on a plate, he took a gulp and a nibble, unabashed, and retried the door, but it was still locked.

Word.. Saturday?

It's been months since I posted a new word. Not sure what killed my Word Thursday thing, but I forgot about it entirely.

Cacoethes

an uncontrollable urge or desire, esp for something harmful; mania

~Free Online Dictionary

Aerial word... Saturday

I've fallen behind on my word-learning since coming home from Quebec. Must get back into it. Since I have flying on the brain, here are some airplane words.

cabotage

1. navigation or trade along the coast.
2. Aviation. the legal restriction to domestic carriers of air transport between points within a country's borders.

~Dictionary.com

aeropleustic
pertaining to aerial navigation

~Dictionary of Difficult Words

I'm losing the battle with my suitcase and the airline weight limit at the moment, but I will prevail. My next post will be from England - I will see you on the other side!

Des mots de jeudi

J'essaie d'écrire en français un peu aujourd'hui. Si quelqu'un parle français et trouve des erreurs (qui sont inévitable), corrigez-moi!

Ne paniquez pas: je n'ecrirai pas en français toujours...

(I'm trying to write in French today. If anyone reading this speaks French and finds my inevitable mistakes, please correct me! Don't panic: I won't write in French all the time...)


un autre fleur qui s'ouvre sur le campus

éclore

1. (Oeuf) S'ouvrir
2. Se dit d'une fleur en bouton qui s'ouvre
3. [fig] naître, paraître

~Le Robert Micro


1. to open out, to blossom; to hatch ; [fig] to develop
2. [fig] to dawn

~Larousse

woolly words

I meant to post these words last week during Knit and Crochet Blog Week, but I totally forgot. So, a week late, my words are vaguely fibre related.

pannose
like felt
The Phrontistery

capric
having a goatlike smell; of, like or pertaining to goats
The Phrontistery

To avoid a pictureless post, here is some seasonal flora from around my home.

The crabapple trees are in full force.


The tulips were early and they may be all gone by the time the Tulip Festival gets going.


There is a forest of forget-me-nots on the lawn! My favourite :)

word/symbol/blogging/yarn

First, a weekly word. Then some rambles about blogging. Then some yarn. Excited?

Octothorpe

the symbol #

~Merriam Webster

Much cooler to say "octothorpe" than "pound sign" or "hash key," in my opinion.

In other news, I will be participating in Knitting and Crochet Blog Week next week.



I'm a pretty quiet blogger, and I don't really feel like part of any "blogging community" - I read lots of blogs, and I comment occasionally, but I'm mostly a lurker. I'm looking forward to finding new and fun knit/crochet blogs over the course of the week (because I clearly need to follow more blogs! Haha).

Anyway, I think the exercise will be interesting. Unlike November blog posting month, this one has daily suggested topics. So you won't be getting any random stressed out rambles. At least, that's not the plan.

By the way, I'm finished graduate school. So that crazy stress? Should be lifting any day now... Stress has become habitual.

I promised yarn, so here we go:



This is Elann Sock It To Me 4-Ply - the last two skeins of the batch I ordered. I used PAAS Easter egg dyes (50% off, hurray), and I'm surprised yet pleased at the results.

I followed this tutorial, except instead of steaming the yarn to set the colour, I used the microwave.

It has been awhile since I dyed Easter eggs, so I had forgotten that dye tablets don't resemble the colours they produce. Hurray! Experiments with no idea how it will turn out! I'm pretty happy with it, and it reminds me a bit of rainbow sherbet. Mmmm childhood.

Thursday Word: Cachinnate

Tomorrow I will attend my last class of graduate school, which has turned me into a complete crazy person for the last few months or weeks. So today's word is appropriate.

Cachinnate
laugh loudly and in an unrestrained way
~Free Online Dictionary

I predict much cachinnation tomorrow starting at around noon. Possibly accompanied by consumption of fine ale, but maybe not. There might be cachinnation before that coming from various faculty members as I do one final group presentation... but that's kind of a worst-case scenario, since database design turns out not to be that funny.

What's a word for a mixture of excitement and trepidation? Because that's what I feel right now. So ready to be done this degree...

Word... Friday.

Fustian

n.

1.
a. A coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax.
b. Any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy, having a short nap.
2. Pretentious speech or writing; pompous language.

adj.

1. Made of or as if of fustian
2. Pompous, bombastic, and ranting

~Free Online Dictionary


Nothing to do with the word, but it was a lucky picture the other day. Anybody know what this odd rectangular beetle is?

Most of the new words I learn come from trawling dictionaries, but this one I learned from literature.

"A thief in fustian is a vulgar character, scarcely to be thought of by persons of refinement; but dress him in green velvet, with a high-crowned hat, and change the scene of his operations, from a thickly peopled city to a mountain road, and you shall find in him the very soul of poetry and adventure."
~Nicholas Nickleby, Charles Dickens

Word: Crepuscular

Crepuscular

1. of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; dim; indistinct.
2. Zoology. appearing or active in the twilight, as certain bats and insects.

~Dictionary.com

I'm sure I've learned this word before. To me, it sounds like a word describing the exoskeleton of some creature of the deep rather than something associated with twilight, that mysterious, brooding, and romantic time of night. (note: I'm talking about twilight, not Twilight with a capital T :P).

Thursday Word: Salsipotent

Salsipotent
ruling the salt seas
~The Phrontistery

Arrrr...

That's all for today.

Word Thurs: Rede

Rede
1. To give advice to; counsel.
2. To interpret; explain.

n. 1. Advice or counsel.
2. (Archaic) A narration.

~The Free Online Dictionary

FO and words

Eclose
(Entomology) (of an insect) emerge as an adult from the pupa or as a larva from the egg.
~Oxford Reference Online

I saw my first two squashed lady bugs on the sidewalk today. I guess they had already experienced eclosion - the first to eclose of spring? I have no idea if I'm using that right. Please correct me. Anyway, it was unnerving to see, since there is still snow on the ground in places, although it has been reaching 10 C over the last few days. I keep waiting for another blizzard.

On that note, I finished my last hat of winter, but it's way too warm to wear it.


My eyes are tightly closed because they are not yet used to bright sunlight! squint squint.

Flora, by Margaux Pena
This pattern is full of errors, but they aren't too bad, and they are well-documented on Ravelry. I couldn't resist the cute little leaves, and I would knit this again despite errors.

Yarn: inherited handspun that tends towards DK weight, undyed and dyed blue with food colouring.

Needles: 3.5 mm for the garter stitch band, and 4.0 mm for the rest.

Mods: After the colour pattern, I knit 2 rounds of stockinette before the decreases, rather than the 5 specified in the pattern. It's still a little big, but I like to pull my hats down to my eyebrows, so it's fine.



Turns out I'm terrible at photographing my own head. I took about 15 photos and didn't manage to get any centred shots. Whoops. I blocked it flat, rather than over a balloon or something spherical since I didn't have anything on hand, so there's a bit that's slightly bulgy. I hope it will come out with wear.

I was so frustrated when I dyed the yarn last year, since I was trying for a darker blue. I got two large skeins to be turquoise/blue and then (attempting) the same formula dyed another two that turned out completely different - blue/purple. Ah, dye lots to the extreme. So much for a sweater's worth of yarn! Anyway, I left the crapload of bluish yarn under my bed for months, since I was mad at it, but once I started knitting Flora, I fell in love with this yarn. It's much brighter than I had remembered it, and it's semisolid, and quite fun. So, good news after all.

Now. What else can I make with 800+ yards of various bluish scratchy DK handspun?!

Thursday words: crapulent and prevernal

Crapulent
(literary) relating to the drinking of alcohol or drunkenness.
~Oxford Reference Online

I just think this word is funny in a sort of "I'm an 8 year old boy" way. No crapulence in these parts lately, for good or for ill.

A slightly more topical, relevent word, since I'm feeling wordy:

Prevernal
In the early spring.
~Oxford Reference Online

Maybe that's wishful thinking, since March in Canada generally brings more snow before it brings spring, but it has been very bright and shiny out there today!

colour words

Because I'm fixated on yellow right now, here's a yellow word.

Gamboge
1. Also, cambogia. a gum resin from various Asian trees of the genus Garcinia, esp. G. hanburyi, used as a yellow pigment and as a cathartic.
2. yellow or yellow-orange.

~Dictionary.com

Quite unexpectedly, my new word of last week, incunabula, came up in one of my lectures today. Perhaps it shouldn't be so unexpected since I'm in library school; it may be a case of hearing a word everywhere once I've learned it.

In other news, yesterday our toilet flooded and leaked (luckily clean) water through the floor and out through our light fixtures in the living room. That's a sign of a brilliant house design! I'm hoping nothing is ruined. Then today we got a notice from the city threatening to shut off our water, hopefully due to a misunderstanding. Things are awesome, you guys! I love my house in London! Blah.

I feel like all I do is complain lately, so I'll finish this with some happy things.

-Yesterday was my birthday: I'm happy to be alive! (Even if yesterday's birthday festivities consisted of sitting through a boring night class and frantically mopping up toilet water - I'm trying to take it in stride)
-I have nice friends who regaled me with facebook birthday messages
-I have two new CDs that I'm enjoying: Heart of My Own by Basia Bulat and the Watchmen soundtrack.
-There is a lot of chocolate in the house, but I don't feel guilty about any of it!
-Right now a sizable chocolate monkey made of chocolate is peering at me curiously from my desk
-The monkey was a present from my lovely boyfriend across the sea who is wonderful even though he's so far away.
-The snow on the ground is dry and not slushy at all.
-Noro Kureyon Sock is so pretty, and eventually I'll have knee socks made of it.
-I'm going to the gym tomorrow.
-In about 7 weeks I will be finished graduate school!

Incunabula

I'm back in London after a fun few days in Ottawa. The break was too short, of course, but I had fun and got to catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in a while.


Fun things included skating the length of the canal twice in one afternoon. It was warm, but the ice wasn't soft yet. There were lots of people out, since it was "Family Day" on Monday, but the ice was much better than I expected it to be.

Skating is my favourite athletic activity, and for a long time it was the only one I felt like I was any good at. I miss having an outdoor skating space nearby now that I'm in London. I'll miss it more once I go to England, but maybe I can schedule my vacations in February.

I also went to see Basia Bulat in concert. My only experience with her prior to the show was on youtube, but it was lots of fun seeing her live! She has a great voice, so I was disappointed to find that she tends to swallow it sometimes. I think this is a stylistic choice, but I wish she'd sing out instead! Anyway, it was a fun gig despite my annoyance at that part - I love how she played ukelele, autoharp, piano, and guitar. So cool. A while back I shared her song "In the Night," but here's another fun one.



And it's time for a word:

Incunabula

the early stages of the development of something; in particular, early printed books, especially those printed before 1501 . The word comes from Latin, meaning literally ‘swaddling clothes’.

~Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

Appropriate, since I spent Wednesday pretending to do research in an archives. I'm pretty sure there are no true incunabula among the corporate and historical files in the municipal archives, but I did find some really old library cards.

Thursday for words and missed photo opportunities

echt
Authentic, genuine, typical.
~The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English

Despite some examples in Oxford Reference Online (thank goodness for a library subscription), I'm not really sure how to use this word. Does anyone out there know?

In completely unrelated news -

Things I wanted to take pictures of today, but didn't have my camera:

-a Wet Floor sign usually posted in or near the washrooms in my building at university that has been modified to read "Don't Slip on the BS"
-a rusted out muffler lying abandoned on the sidewalk

Thursword: Titivate

Titivate

to make smart or spruce

~Dictionary.com

Weekend words: an addendum to Thursday

Last night I got together with some friends for a night of jollity, including a rousing game of Balderdash, which led to me learning several new words, so I thought I'd add on the ones I remember. (Yes, Balderdash is rousing!) This puts me at 38 out of 150, in case anyone is keeping track.

biltong
(chiefly S. African) lean meat which is salted and dried in strips.
~OED

tamarau
a small brownish-black buffalo similar to the anoa, found only on Mindoro in the Philippines. • Bubalus mindorensis , family Bovidae.
~OED

sprod
(N. Amer.) a young cod, haddock, or similar fish.
~OED
(The Balderdash definition specified salmon...)

gundalow
a form of river barge, long obsolete, used in the USA. It had a high carved bow and a large lateen sail set on a short, stumpy mast. The lateen yard was very high in the peak and the lower end was heavily weighed and balanced so that it could easily be lowered on deck. The small offshore fishing schooners of Maine, USA, which had high sterns, were also known as gundalows. They, too, are obsolete.
~The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea

(The best thing was two separate players submitted definitions for Gundalow that involved one storey houses--i.e bungalows-- filled with fire arms. Good times, good times.)

contango
(Brit. Stock Exchange) the normal situation in which the spot or cash price of a commodity is lower than the forward price. Often contrasted with backwardation.
~OED

teenter
A seesaw
~Dictionary.com

craquelure
a network of fine cracks in the paint or varnish of a painting.
~OED

There were more, but some of them I can't actually find definitions for, and some of them I don't remember. These words are obscure and specific enough that I'm sure I'll never use them, but hey. Words!

Thursday. Word.

Still playing catch-up.

Esurient
greedy; voracious
~Free Online Dictionary

Lambative
A medicine taken by licking with the tongue; a lincture.
~Dictionary.com

Exiguous
scanty; meager; small; slender: exiguous income.
~Dictionary.com

Exiguous is one of those words I am sure I've looked up in the dictionary and learned a dozen times, but I keep forgetting what it means. Maybe I'll remember it next to Esurient: an esurient appetite on exiguous means.

It's still Thursday, right?: Word

Here's word #28.

Scabrous

1. having a rough surface because of minute points or projections.
2. indecent or scandalous; risqué; obscene
3. full of difficulties.

~Dictionary.com

In my head I heard this in a pirate-voice. Arrr.