verbatim

Out with the Old

Hey, where have you all been for 10 days? Oh wait, I'm the one who's been missing. Well, chez Verbatim we decided to ring out the old year by getting sick, serially. We are all finally at the tail end of whatever it was that got us, but we decided not to head north for the weekend anyhow, what with all the sneezing and coughing that's still going on. I wasn't sure Andy could stand the long round-trip car ride yet anyhow.

Speaking of Andy, he is coming along, slowly but surely. In the space of less than 6 weeks, he's gone from bedridden to a walker to two crutches to one crutch to a cane—and even occasionally (carefully) walking across a room on his own. He still has a lot of pain and his sleep is still disrupted, but his mobility and strength are measurably improved. Still no hint that the nerve issues have begun to resolve (and they very well might not), but he is doing his physical therapy and hoping for the best.

This year refuses to go out with a whimper. Yesterday I got a flat tire—and discovered I had a flat spare too! The day before came an estimate of $8000 to repair our chimney/roof issue. Just a few more hours and we can start fresh. I'll drink to that!

You know I'm not one to make resolutions, but I do have some goals, both personal and professional, that I'd like to pay some attention to. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I wish everyone out there a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year.

Celebrating

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, and we were invited to a big party! We usually do it at home, so this was a new experience for us. It was lovely. There were probably close to 100 people there, and each family was asked to bring a menorah from home. We lit them all together—about 20 at once! It was really nice, and the latkes were delicious.

We got Steph some nice earrings (nice = not junky), Julie a set of Bucky Balls that she'd been dying for, and Pete a really cool remote-controlled helicopter that is suprisingly easy to maneuver and sturdy enough to withstand crashes. Everyone was happy.

And today was Steph's 15th birthday! How can that be? She is now a decade and a half old but still a cheap date: Once again she chose Bill's Pizza for her birthday dinner. Her big gift was that I finally caved and am letting her get another hole pierced in each ear. Oy.

Hot Tip: Make Friends with a Potter

How great is it when you get a text message from a faraway friend that says, "I sent you a package, and it was left at your front door this morning!" Downstairs I ran to find a big box containing this magnificent handmade work of art:

It was from Steve, who made me this other gorgeous piece of pottery, which I use all the time. Yes, that Steve.

He enclosed a description of the specific process he used on this piece, called raku, which is a Japanese technique in which you fire the pottery until it reaches 1700 degrees, which is what gives the glaze its characteristic metallic sheen. The top part was covered with wax so it wouldn't get glazed, but rather "smoked," hence the dark color. It is so beautiful, and once again I am fretting that I'm not a good enough photographer to do it justice. The Hebrew inscription going around translates to "GRATITUDE - LOVE - LIFE."

OK, I'm off to go cry again.

Get Ready to Waste Some Time

Thanks so much for all of your emails and tweets asking about Andy. He is slowly but surely getting up and around, but he still has a long road ahead of him. This week will be the last that the physical therapist comes to the house; next week he'll start going to his old PT place. He's been going to work for a couple of hours at a time a few times a week, but he's really too tired to do much else. The PT is practically a full-time job in and of itself, and he's still having trouble sleeping because of the pain.

But ... I owe you a little something more interesting than all that, right? How about a bunch of links I've been collecting over the past few weeks? Some of them are old (particularly if you follow me on Twitter—and if you don't, why not?) but may be new to you.

Everyone knows to send me their Pantone sightings! I've recently seen Pantone jewelry and Pantone storage tins (via @califmom) and Pantone VISA cards (via @MsRedPen)!

For some reason, @sethlipkin immediately thought of me when he read an article that featured both tampons and vodka. Speaking of tampons, I think I'll move to Canada so my beloved can sing to me of my beloved discontinued o.b. ultras (via @mir).

This is the perfect family Christmas card to send when you love your iPhone more than your family.

Someone in my Torah class passed along this link to a TED talk about being grateful for the gift of today. I made it sound sappy, but it's not—and only 10 minutes, so go watch.

You have to see Jimmy Fallon doing Jim Morrison singing the theme from "Reading Rainbow."

Here are some reviews of pepper spray from the clever folks at Amazon.com.

I got a kick out of these bar jokes involving grammar and punctuation (via @grammar_girl). And, oh, look—punctuation floor lamps!

I think I actually LOL'd at "When Used Books Attack: Banana Edition" (via @lkblackburne).

Check out these classic album covers featuring kitties. I'm particularly fond of "Londong Calling."

What would it be like if Cormac McCarthy posted on Yelp?

Finally, Merriam-Webster presents some words that spiked in their search engine stats according to their use in various news stories throughout the year.