chock-a-blog

moil \MOYL\, intransitive verb: 1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge. 2. To churn or swirl about continuously. noun: 1. Toil; hard work; drudgery. 2. Confusion; turmoil. "random illusion" from moillusions. Do you see the portraits?

wastrel \WAY-struhl\, noun: 1. A person who wastes, especially one who squanders money; a spendthrift. 2. An idler; a loafer; a good-for-nothing. As if. I seem to have so much to do, there's just no opportunity to squander time or money.

scapegrace \SKAYP-grayss\, noun: A reckless, unprincipled person; one who is wild and reckless; a rascal; a scoundrel. We manage to get in the car for the drive to school. Me: purse, lunch, knitting that I never get to do on my lunch break, clipboard. Jack: backpack, homework, lunchbox, water bottle, cereal for extra breakfast. As we pull through the first light on the way to school, Jack's voice from the back seat: "Mommy? Um-uh, I ate two pancakes and that should be enough to fill me up, but I still feel hungry. Actually, my stomach hurts. It feels not like hungry but like throw-up." I watch him in the rearview, looking out his window and idly munching Cookie Crisp. We pass the preschool on our way. Monday. Light attendance in my classroom. Two other teachers there. Mental calculations. At the second traffic light to his school I put on the blinker for the left hand turn, but instead I do a u-ey. I glance at Jack in the rearview. His mouth hangs open, his hand halfway...

disport \dis-PORT\, intransitive verb: 1. To amuse oneself in light or lively manner; to frolic. transitive verb: 1. To divert or amuse. 2. To display. The weekend began after a 9-hour preschool workday with a drive to a campus town pho restaurant called Miss Saigon, where I was maybe? meeting with a friend for dinner. Communication breakdown: no friend to meet me there, but I did run into acquaintances I hadn't seen in some time so it was nice to catch up with them. Saturday morning I treated my best friend Ana to breakfast for her birthday at my favorite Tucson restaurant, Son's Bakery Cafe. Ana had chicken curry and I had pho; Son treated us to an egg roll apiece and a chocolate mountain for dessert. Delicious. Afterwards Ana indulged my thrifty side and spent an hour shopping the dollar racks at St. Vinnie's. That's where I got the giant blue bathrobe pictured in my previous entry. After indulging me, I indulged Ana by going with her for a manicure. I've had ...

transmogrify \trans-MOG-ruh-fy\, transitive verb: To change into a different shape or to transform, often with bizarre or humorous effect. Nothing like paying just a buck for the ability to transmogrify successfully into Cookie Monster.

pelf \PELF\, noun: Money; riches; gain; -- generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten. Today I'm wearing a new-to-me Tshirt, pelf from the Goodwill dropoff. I've blogged about my raids before, so I won't go into detail. But this time it was like a preschool teacher from a parallel universe dropped off all her Tshirts, just so I'd have a summer wardrobe. And just wait til you hear what I'll be doing this summer.

bloviate \BLOH-vee-ayt\, intransitive verb: To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner. Sometimes it's just best not to blog about it.

ne plus ultra \nee-plus-UL-truh; nay-\, noun: 1. The highest point, as of excellence or achievement; the acme; the pinnacle; the ultimate. 2. The most profound degree of a quality or condition. Utz Cheese Balls. The ne plus ultra of snack foods. (I am ashamed to admit that we polished this off in a mere 5 days.)

neologism \nee-OLL-uh-jiz-um\, noun: 1. A new word or expression. 2. A new use of a word or expression. 3. The use or creation of new words or expressions. 4. (Psychiatry) An invented, meaningless word used by a person with a psychiatric disorder. 5. (Theology) A new view or interpretation of a scripture. Father Sumith, the associate rector at our church, is from Sri Lanka. Singhalese is his first language, English his second, and if I'm not mistaken he speaks a few others fluently as well. He's a small man, with nut brown skin and wavy dark hair. His pastoral care is at the heart of our church. At communion his devotion inspires me, but tickles me too. After we proclaim the mystery of our faith, Father Sumith intones, "We celebrate the memoridemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." Memoridemption: the memorial of our redemption. Father Sumith's neologism is, for me, the heart of worship. The light heart that brings a smile to my face as...

dishabille \dis-uh-BEEL\, noun: 1. The state of being carelessly or partially dressed. 2. Casual or lounging attire. 3. An intentionally careless or casual manner. This afternoon Cassie acquised to model my dishabille, a large shawl I fondly refer to as My Massive Monstrosity. Over the past month I crocheted it using ragtag skeins from my stash. It's meant to ward off the chill of the desert at night after the sun's gone down, and in the early morn before the sun's come up. I'm quite pleased with it. Cassie is, too.

Pyrrhic victory \PIR-ik\, noun: A victory achieved at great or excessive cost; a ruinous victory. I'm planning to participate in the current Lion Brand Crochet-along (did you notice that little badge in my sidebar?). I love this cardi. I love the extra help and guidance on Lion Brand's blog, Lion Brand Notebook. I love Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton. I don't love its price. When perusing the Lion Brand offerings at my local JoAnn's, I made a very uncharacteristic choice. I've decided to crochet my cover-up using Pound of Love, a "super soft 4 ply knitting worsted weight 100% premium acrylic" in color no. 102: Bubble Gum. To me it was the most offensive (least offensive?) color offering in these jumbo skeins. Total cost for my cardi will be around $20, a 75% savings from what I'd pay for that lovely organic cotton. (How do I work in a reference to Pyrrhic victory here? If I finish the damned cardigan using this heinous bubble gum color,...

indefatigable \in-dih-FAT-ih-guh-bul\, adjective: Incapable of being fatigued; not readily exhausted; untiring; unwearying; not yielding to fatigue. Not me.

interlard \in-tuhr-LARD\, transitive verb: To insert between; to mix or mingle; especially, to introduce something foreign or irrelevant into; as, "to interlard a conversation with oaths or allusions." We pulled out of the driveway and pointed the car out of the neighborhood, only to find our way barred by these fellas: They trundled across the street... ...and up along the neighbor's wall. There they feasted upon jimson weed, a form of datura. I imagine those tender young shoots tasted pretty good. I wonder if javelina feel the hallucinogenic effects, or if they just think it tastes good? They look pretty happy. Such a close encounter with area wildlife is always fun, and a great start to the day. No one expects to interlard their morning commute with a Desert Museum moment.

megrim \MEE-grim\, noun: 1. A migraine. 2. A fancy; a whim. 3. In the plural: lowness of spirits -- often with 'the'. After much procrastinating I finally set up a dental appointment with an office that takes my insurance. The technician took multiple Xrays at my first consultation; the dentist told me I need a scaling and optional antibacterial irrigation as well as 2 fairly comprehensive Cerac crowns. No new caries, though. So I set up the appointment for the scaling and irrigation. It sounds terrible, and I'm squeamish about teeth things. I asked Mandy, who'd recently had the same treatment, if it hurt. "Nah," she said. "But the tech kept apologizing for the machine so I'm not sure if it was working right." When I got to the dentist's office, I asked the hygienist, "Is this going to hurt?" "No," she assured me. "No more than a regular cleaning." No more than a regular cleaning in a medieval barbershop using t...

land of Nod \land-uhv-NOD\, noun: A mythical land of sleep. Nothing like going to bed humble. The school year is coming quickly to an end, which for me means a summer of no pay. I could have worked summer camp, but balance my pay with what I'd be shelling out to put Jack in summer camp somewhere and it's just not economically sensible. I've been cruising Craigslist and tucsonhelpwanted(dot)com for offbeat opportunities that might earn me some pay without incurring further economic hardship. I found an intriguing ad placed by EditorLive, a 24/7/365 on-line academic editing/proofreading service. I spent the evening polishing up my resume, creating a cover letter, and distilling PDF files of both of them. I even set up a new, more "professional" email address and tested it. After dinner, I settled in to take their proprietary test, estimated to take 20 minutes. It took me 38 minutes. I've done copyediting and proofreading in the past---for academic textbooks, n...

grok \GRAWK\, verb: To understand, especially in a profound and intimate way. Slang. Thank God for accountants because I do not grok the United States income tax system.

I drove downtown with no inkling of what to expect. I had a general idea of where El Festival en el Barrio would be held, but I didn't know who to talk to, where to go to set up the booth, or where to meet my partner Susan. Me, I've never done a craft show or art festival before. Susan: she's a veteran. We met up at the intersection of Cushing and Myer and manuevered the road block to unload. We unloaded, parked a million miles away, and set up the booth. It's my first time ever and Susan's first time working with me, but we managed OK. See? That's MAST to the left and the Shea Butter guy to the right. The other merchandise vendor sold reworked license plate collage and I didn't get the name. This had to be the most poorly organized craft fair on the planet, but when we realized that the craft fair was just tacked on to a music festival we understood a little better why everything was so haphazard. At least Susan understood. I felt I was just along for the ...

slake \SLAYK\, transitive verb: 1. To satisfy; to quench; to extinguish; as, to slake thirst. 2. To cause to lessen; to make less active or intense; to moderate; as, slaking his anger. 3. To cause (as lime) to heat and crumble by treatment with water. intransitive verb: 1. To become slaked; to crumble or disintegrate, as lime. My fingers are gummed with E-6000 and Triple Thick and my brain is abuzz with the fumes. I've been working feverishly to finish 9 pairs of bottle cap earrings and 5 bottle cap crosses before the Festival tomorrow. I've indulged in two bottles of New Belgium 2 Below Ale to slake my thirst and my work. Funny, again, how that word means two things. Though I'm feeling fine---from the fumes and the brews---my work has disintegrated. I know I'm stretching the intransitive verb usage, but it fits tonight. Stretch it.

hugger-mugger \HUH-guhr-muh-guhr\, noun: 1. A disorderly jumble; muddle; confusion. 2. Secrecy; concealment. adjective: 1. Confused; muddled; disorderly. 2. Secret. adverb: 1. In a muddle or confusion. 2. Secretly. transitive verb: 1. To keep secret. intransitive verb: 1. To act in a secretive manner. All hugger-mugger in the garage, as if I don't know what you're doing there.