Pre-hiatus Update

Dear Bloggy Friends,
I must pause. Not to reflect, but to get everything else done.
We plan to close on our house on Sept. 8. Of course this has meant numerous phone calls, meetings, and appointments. We’ve got a lot of financial wrangling yet to do — buying appliances, applying for our government’s wonderful offer of $8,000, [...]

A Secret Hazard of Editing

I don’t mean to whine, but I am sick of being sick, already.
The day before our big trip to Washington, Napoleona puked all day. So of course the next day, while somewhere in the middle of nowhere (between Baker and La Grande) I got sick too, despite washing my hands 40 bazillion times. Then the [...]

Sleep Is My Friend

People, I am burnt. (No, it’s not because of Twitter!)
Napoleona stayed home all last week with a stomach flu. I thought I escaped lightly with only one day of ick, but it’s reared its ugly head again and I’m getting more and more tired.
We’re leaving for California in a few short weeks, and I’ve got [...]

Darwin, Gradually

Having finally finished the unpleasant book about psychopathic killers, I have gone back to finish editing a series of essays about Charles Darwin. 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, so he’s being feted and written about left and right.
This evening Anthropapa came across this bit of artwork, which is very funny and fits [...]

Inherited Bookishness

Warning: book-related geekery ahead!
Today SillyBilly and I had a book-lovin’ afternoon. First we watched this video of a modern book bindery that a fellow EFA member mentioned on our group discussion board (double click to open this one):

This contrasted nicely with another video we watched a few months ago, on hot [...]

Observations

Seasons Change
They tell me it’s spring, but the last few days have not seemed so. We spent most of Sunday inside except for necessities like doing laundry and driving to church. Instead of singing spring songs with the kids, I reverted back to some of our songs about snow and winter. Then last night [...]

Two Things

The Chicago Manual of Style Online Q&A made me smile today:

Q. Hello, I saw Barack Obama speak and he seemed to make a grammar error. I was wondering if I was missing something. He said, “President and Mrs. Bush invited Michelle and I to come to the White House.” Another [...]

Odd Coincidence

After yesterday’s post about homemaking, I think it’s rather odd that I came across this quote in my current editing project (which has nothing to do with homemaking but rather is an analysis of water rights and identity in Australia!):
The house and the body are intimately linked. The house is an extension of the person; [...]

When Editors Get Riled Up About Dirty Words

One of my daily pleasures is reading the discussion posts in the Yahoo Group for the
Editorial Freelancers Association. Aside from the usual technical questions, there are often posts labeled “Chat” that relate somewhat more remotely to editing or freelancing, though they usually have something to do with words or writing.

Recently someone posted a “Chat” about [...]

It’s All Good

I’m sitting in a comfy chair, eating a wedge of homemade chocolate chip shortbread.* I look out the window to watch SillyBilly flying a toy airplane out on the lawn in the wind. I can hear a cat munching on kibble across the room, and in a minute he’ll probably come over and try to [...]