meet spencer, the corgie/boston mix! and omg he is WEARING that sweater.
spencer contemplates life on the pier
and this is bowler... i can't even talk about how much i love this picture.i also started helping out at a local food bank recommended to me by a couple friends. for as long as i'm unemployed, i'll volunteer once a week for st. mary's by delivering groceries to the homes of people who are unable to make it out to the foodbank themselves. my first shift took about two hours, but as i get the lay of the land and can get in and out of the foodbank more quickly it will probably only take one hour per week. slowly but surely i'm chipping away at those fifty hours...
after unpacking at my new apartment i re-discovered my word-a-day calendar that hadn't had a page ripped off since, oof, july of last year... i cruised through over five months' worth of tidbits and here's just a snippet of what i now know:
- in the eighteenth century, government workers in england bound official documents in red ribbons to denote royal approval. the ribbons were called "tapes," and came to stand for the daunting piles of paperwork often associated with any kind of official business. thus, bureaucratic "red tape" (which is a redundant phrase, apparently).
- lego comes from the danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well."
- kinko's got its moniker from the nickname of the founder, who had curly hair.
- geico, established in d.c. the nineteen-thirties, was first called government employees insurance company. the acronym became its official name in the eighties.
- "by and large." ok, this one is long but worth it. a ship that enjoyed a fair, constant breeze is said to be sailing "at large," meaning its sails didn't have to constantly be adjusted. a ship sailing against the airflow is said to be "by the wind." thus, "by and large," in its original sense, meant "under all conditions," which is a bit different from its current meaning of "for the most part."
and finally, some list revisions. as i wrote earlier, some of these goals are gonna have to go. either they're no longer feasible or i'm just not as into them as i was back when i first put this thing together. so here's what i'm mulling over:
old and busted (#41): enter a poker tournament. i've done this lots, just not recently.
new hotness: go to a casino. i've never done it!
old and busted (#62): get a p-patch. wooooah, a wait list? of over a year?!
new hotness: buy a house plant. i've also never done this - and no waiting required!
old and busted (#67): go to dc. i have to get to so many other places, i don't know if this can continue to be a priority. doesn't necessarily mean i'm gonna stop trying to get there, though.
new hotness: get my motorcycle endorsement. the harley trip on kauai inspired me.
old and busted (#68): go to london. my friends there are likely getting rid of the flat, which was a major impetus for me going.
new hotness: ride a snowmobile. it's like a motorcycle, and no endorsement needed!
old and busted (#86): start putting money back in my ira. the market's too volatile - that account lost more than half its value in the last two years.
new hotness: go a week without spending money. discounting rent, bills, and other necessities that aren't really purchased on a weekly basis, this means getting my groceries ahead of time, no impulse buying anything, and staying the hell away from online shopping. and finding ways to leave my apartment without losing cash.
old and busted (#45): paint a wall purple. i'm still into it - i'm also still renting, though.
new hotness: use my food processor. i've had it for years... in the box.
old and busted (#4): go to church four sundays in a row. i just can't access the place that once existed in my mind where i thought i would have a lot to gain from this.
new hotness: i also have not yet thought of a suitable replacement that's in a similar vein... i have lots of other things i want to do though. like, i really want to take an archery lesson. but can i justify that replacing my church goal? gaaaah this catholic guilt...
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