sugar & spice

it snows in the night, just a civilized sugar sprinkle. i'm all for superficial these days. better my creature comforts than heroic angst. better to be wimp than to shovel. better, in fact, bikini than wool.

requiem to norman rockwell: the longest day

has been last night into this afternoon, after the winds fell a tree onto a power line, right in the coldest heart of winter.

we live through a nightmare born of too many modern comforts: no lights no warmth no washer no internet no tv no garage door opener and dwindling cellphone battery. eventually J2 and i escape to the community library, where we at least get lights internet a socket to charge the cellphone with and a marginally higher ambient temperature.

our lord says in matthew 24, pray that your flight will not take place in winter. today, perhaps for the first time, i realize just how brutal the ice queen can be. no pretty guileless maiden she but a wilfully capricious woman capable of cruelty, and we often forget because of the layers of insulation we erect.

new trend

like different than, and the enormity of it, or a myriad of, now they say thusly. i'm all for dynamic originality in using a live language but the line should be drawn at reinventing grammar. would you say thereforely? the enormity of it.

marks of a frequent flyer

1. bose noise cancelling headphones,

2. hotel number on speed dial,

3. easy familiarity with foreign menu, and

4. nodding acquaintance with the chef.

this post is dedicated to HOM, because of whom i maintain a clutch of authentic greetings in different languages for the telephonists of the institutions on my speed dial.

agony 2

turns out there is chinese water torture, and there's the college application, and there's filing your taxes, in order of increasing ghastliness.

stickability

made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die. heath, c. & d. (2007)
i read this last year and:
1. i totally recall the book cover,
2. the authors' photograph is familiar, and
3. the innards of the book are a foggy mystery, BUT
4. i remember it was an enjoyable read.

which leads to the following:
1. effective jacket,
2. not so sticky book huh?, and
3. it's a good thing we can google the synopsis.

time is a remarkably effective filter for sifting the straw from the wheat. perhaps we should only review books after a cooling off period.

major linguistic rant

the next academic cow to slay in singapore has to be english. now they want to pound in grammar emphasize oral skills and hopefully de-emphasize singlish. here are my suggestions:

1. retire cloze passages, which only help if you want to acquire elementary esl.

2. upgrade local newspapers, currently oblivious bastions of solecism and inelegant syntax.

3. let them read puffins or penguins, not local newspapers (see #2).

4. make teachers learn some latin, it will improve their grammar. i'm serious.

5. boost teachers' parents' and public's english. i wish.

the potter

the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.        -jer 18:4

it is at once humbling and elating to realize that my flaws do not preclude an eventual whole. the potter is skilled enough, and wastes not.

genesis 8:10-12

the excavators come in today, so we finally see asphalt across the breadth of the road. the intersections are still pretty much blind corners from the piles of snow, but our roads are bidirectional again!

the enormity of it

why do people keep saying enormity when they mean greatness??? it's enormously grating.

seasonal affective disorder

a sudden desire to don my bikini.

facebook: on the fringe

1. putting your c.v. up on the info page.
2. having over 1000 friends. are you serious?
3. peddling your business interests to your fb friends.

tale of woe

1. long lost. schoolmate. internet. yeah!
2. health product. longevity. ummm.
3. work. from. home. errr.
4. meaning. to. life. mine?

cny cooking

chop julienne slice season. the stuff of tonight's reunion dinner. by ten in the morning i am about ready to collapse back into bed. bring me out, i beg HOM. let me breathe some air, buy lunch back.

beneath the smiles, womenfolk in chinese new year countries sport a haunted look on the days leading up to it. this is our thanksgiving meltdown.

a shovel runs through it

HOM

the consolation is that we now have the record for the heaviest snowfall here in a century, and we are sore enough to prove it.

snowed in

cons:
1. we are one tree branch from an outage, and
2. one half load of snow from a cave-in, and
3. shoveling is painfully exhausting.

pros:
1. there's really no option but cheerful vegetation,
2. we seem to be getting along quite well, and
3. my exam tomorrow* is cancelled.

*step 3. yesss.

snowstorm

again.

another storm tonight!!@#%!

at 7:30 am the grocer's is swarming with faintly desperate looking shoppers doing yet another food run.

i am so drained by my own marketing that as a reward i betake myself and the toyota to the carwash for a full monty on my way home. i am the sole car going for a bath. when i emerge gleaming, i recall why.

remind me next time: no mani/pedicure before a mudbath.

the aftermath

hoping to shore up the pantry, HOM and i venture into the great outdoors two days in a row, encountering increasing slush and success. we feel like noah's dove checking out the land after the flood.

sweet sixteen

it's J2's birthday today. God's hand has been more gracious than mine, more sure and much gentler. what He has crafted is something far richer than anything i could have asked for, and in spite of all i am limited by. i am grateful.

the morning after

one dog, four shovels, ten hours.

metamorphosis

one day after, the monicker has changed from historic to monster to epic and now, to snowmageddon, according to the last word on such things, or did he say snowpocalypse? all i want to know is, did the snowstorm reach blizzard conditions?

i wish we would let history bestow her own labels.

perspectives

people who say they enjoy the snow quite clearly have not had the privilege of shoveling an average single-family home driveway after a blizzard. perhaps they own a snowblower.

big snow day

in case anyone is wonderin', it's now an epic event. thank God:

1. we still have power,

2. for strong able men, and

3. for the tumble dryer.

the monster storm

even Dog doesn't want to go out.

eureka

this morning i finally catch the latest shipment of shovels at our hardware store. so does half the village. the lines stretch way back, with everyone holding several shovels. the store has a festive feel, with all around jollity and warm fuzzy feelings as we partake of the camaraderie of the relieved.

now, my fellow shopper says, i feel ready.

wild geese

the weatherman promises a historic snow event. i visit the stores five times today in a futile search for a new snow shovel. they have sleds and toboggans by the stacks but are consistently out of this season's most desired home accessory.

what men want

or at least, what HOM and J1 want, is a nifty little snowblower to deal with the two winter storms that are moseying over.

what i am off now to the hardware store to get, is a new snow shovel.

snow day

five inches overnight. school is cancelled. shovels get conscripted. backs hurt. it's foggy. if it wasn't also imperiously beautiful, it would be tragic.

escapism 2

HOM J1 and J2 are in the home stretch of a decade long marathon. their current swordfighting series flying fox of snowy mountain concludes our collection of tv adaptations of louis cha's novels. the grand question that HOM keeps asking is,

what's there to watch after louis cha?

we have strict criteria, outlined here. unfortunately gu long just doesn't cut it.

systematic error

we have each of us (J1 J2 and me) gained three pounds in the last couple of weeks, which begs the question of instrument accuracy. the one hitch is HOM, who has gained a poundage that he absolutely declines to quantify.

bathroom shenanigans 3

Dog is in utter disgrace, on account of his having gone to the bathroom in the trunk of the toyota.

college visit

visiting a campus in the depths of winter is like sussing out a potential property purchase in the evening rush hour. your focus sharpens as credentials cede to chilbains.

great reputation, J1 says. wrong latitude.

my new sweater

for which i pay J2 many dollars. i must have done something right, i tell HOM, to have a daughter who can make me clothes, even if i do have to pay handsomely for the privilege.