Memorial Day

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, also known as Furlough Day #3. Three down one to go... then full salary for the rest of the year (I hope).

It should be gorgeous so we are going on the first sail of the summer! Yesterday we cruised down to the marina to check on the boat's motor and I photographed a very regal heron, just chilling out on the dock, unafraid.



It's so nice to sail out a bit to where it gets nice and quiet, anchor, and relax with a crossword or novel. We bring sandwiches and sodas and spend most of the day out there. It only takes a few minutes to get far enough away to where the noise of the city totally fades away.

Vocab

I'm currently reading Vladimir Nabokov's autobiography, Speak, Memory. Like most of his work the writing is simple but raw and unbelievably descriptive (without being flowery). But Nabokov is intense. Fluent in English and French along with his first language, Russian, he writes in whichever language he chooses (as opposed to writing everything in Russian and having the work translated).

Even as a non-native English speaker his grammar and overall mastery of the English language is far better than mine. I'm constantly in awe of his ability to express himself and he has a knack for choosing exactly the right words.

I finally decided to keep a list of the vocabulary words I wasn't familiar with, starting on page 40. Between pages 40-47 I listed no fewer than twelve words - some I feel like I know in context but wouldn't be able to use them properly on my own, and some are just unknown to me.

So in seven pages I noted the following words that need looking up:

simulacrum
ultima
coevals
assiduous
prodigious
mycologist
stipitate
pilei
viscid
serfage
hoary
nomenclatorial

It's kind of nice to get waist-deep in a long, absorbing, thoughtful book and nice to expand my vocabulary at the same time.

No Personal Space

At the risk of coming across like an old spinster, I live alone and am outnumbered by cats. My cats are becoming more and more affectionate as they age and lately I don't have an inch of personal space. I have at least one cat on my lap at all times, sometimes two - who knew my lap was big enough for two?

This is a typical scene: lying in bed with one cat between my knees and one on my stomach, barely leaving enough room for me to prop up my book.

Encouragement

While spending some time this afternoon with my dear friend Rosie, it was brought to my attention that I have been neglecting the blog. To be honest, I've been a bit commitment-phobic of the blog lately. I haven't had the energy to write any long posts so I haven't written any.

But I'm back. At least, I'll try to be back ;)

While scooting home from Union Station today I pulled up behind a scary car - PALIN 2012 as well as an NRA sticker. Yikes. I tried to take a picture with my phone but it resized it so you can't see any of the good details. Let's just say I was alarmed and exasperated.

Thankfully the rest of the afternoon was lovely. It was great to see Rosie and I'm very jealous of her summer plans - Ireland and France! Sigh.