Faster than you know...

When I look through my late mother's papers, it is apparent to me that she put in an enormous amount of effort to master her craft. However, it also becomes apparent - as I look through the French language books that graced the shelves of my parents' house - that she never read many of those books (and here I speak of books published in French, not of books about the French language).

For one thing, she hadn't written in them. One of the hallmark characteristics of a French book my mother had read was her dogged dedication to underlining unfamiliar words and making marginal notes as to their meaning.

(Apropos of which, my stepfather shared her apparent mania for looking up words in English. He simply wore out at least three dictionaries that I know of over the years.)

For another, the books were still "unopened," a turn of the phrase I uncovered today when I went looking for the term to use to describe books whose page signatures have not been trimmed, requiring the reader to use a knife or letter-opener to slit the pages along the top, bottom, or outboard edge to separate them for reading.

Such books are, apparently, called "uncut" books, and the process of slitting the pages is called "opening" the book, at least according to a 1993 post to the Rare Books and Special Collections Forum (EXLIBRIS), which discussed the pros and cons of "opening" books as they were being cataloged in university library collections.

* * *Huntur turned eight today, and there was a party, and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. I had not seen children play "musical chairs" in years. A good time aside, I am dogged by the feeling that, when I rise tomorrow morning, Huntur will have turned 16, because it certainly hasn't felt like 8 years.

* * *Work was supposed to come in last night for Monday, but the end-client's inability to get everything finished on time means basically a 24-hr delay in delivery (and a free Saturday to attend birthday parties!). I've since responded with a willingness to commence work, and am keeping my fingers crossed.

Cheers...

Hey, I was kidding!

A couple of days ago, I flippantly suggested that the House might, in its apparent rush to pass wide-sweeping cap and trade legislation (still not finalized 48 hours before the scheduled vote), consider passing laws that haven't actually been written yet.

It turns out my suggestion might actually have been heeded (though most certainly inadvertently).

It would appear that TPTB on the Rules Committee added a 300-page amendment to the 1200-plus-page bill at 3 am on Friday, filled with descriptions of changes to the bill (e.g., on page so-and-so, starting on line such-and-such, strike the paragraph that starts blah-blah-blah).

Curiously, it would appear that, at the time of the vote, no "final" copy of the legislation actually existed. And thus, it would appear that nobody in the House actually knew what they were voting for (or against, for that matter). Said another way, Congresscritters knew even less about what the law is going to do, or not, than what they usually know when they vote on legislation.

(Except for the pork, naturally.)

Cheers...

P.S. Hilariously, a story at CNN Money.com still has the subhead: Lawmakers are set to debate a sweeping energy bill Friday. Ri-i-i-ight!

Strange attraction...

I received a query asking if I was interested in translating a chunk of science fiction.

That certainly piqued my curiosity, so I asked for (and received) a sample, which turns out to be from a book I picked up during this most recent trip to Russia. As a lark, I translated about 250 target words, and it went well.

It's hard to start a negotiation when you're pretty certain that cost is an overarching factor for your client, so I just quoted my standard price (the size of the job and the deadline justify it), and I'll wait to see how things turn out.

* * *The second batch of kefir I started yesterday turned out beautifully. The next step is to determine whether cooling the kefir kills off the probiotic bacteria or whether the action of such bacteria is simply inhibited until the kefir is warmed back up to room temperature.

The kefir we've made over the past couple of days more closely resembles the product I first encountered in the USSR back a generation ago. Not creamy at all, it looks like the semi-sour, clotted milk that it is.

Though it lacks the buttermilk consistency of the commercial product, our home-made stuff is, in my opinion, better-tasting than the product sold at the supermarket. It is also hands-down less expensive.

At the City Market, kefir costs about $3.25 a quart; if memory serves, the same bottle runs nearly $5 at the natural foods market in Durango. Our home-made product costs about 63 cents for a quart of milk (bought by the gallon) and about $1 for an envelope of the starter (when used as recommended on the package, though we've just made two quarts from one envelope, and could probably make more).

* * *Love is having your cat jump up on the bed, sit on your chest, and deposit a freshly killed mouse on your sternum. Galina was not amused.

But that's true love!

Cheers...