Idiomatic Expression

Yesterday we had a mild snow event in the DC area. The overblown forecast and warnings by the local meteorologists, and the school districts that close before a flake of snow has fallen drives me crazy! This article in the post is a bit more articulate about this problem.

I finally got around to ordering some new books. First up isThe Friar and the Cipher : Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World I am loving this book so far. Both the cipher and the unusual manuscript in the title reference The Voynich Manuscript, an encrypted tome discovered in 1912 by the English book dealer Wilfrid Michael Voynich. I am 80 pages in, and so far the book has concentrated on how knowledge was passed down from Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle through the Muslim world and back to Medieval Europe. It is truly fascinating, if I could retain half of the facts and bits of trivia that this book is throwing at me I would have material to bore and annoy my friends with for the rest of the year.

If you liked Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle, you will love this book. The subject is similar, the pacing is better, and you don’t have to worry about which characters are fictional! Even better if you haven’t read the Baroque cycle, but plan to this book is the perfect primer to understand the environment of the characters in that trilogy.

After way too many weeks of packing and moving, I am 100% out of the house in Vienna. The house is emptied cleaned and I am done with it 8 days early! Thank Jeebus!

Thanks, James, Mike, and John.

Finally the U.S. has a little backing on its promise to defend Taiwan from attack by China. According to the Washington Post, “The United States and Japan will declare Saturday for the first time in a joint agreement that Taiwan is a mutual security concern, according to a draft of the document. Analysts called the move a demonstration of Japan’s willingness to confront the rapidly growing might of China.”

Now if only a couple of the European nations that claim to be pro-democracy had the backbone to join in this promise, perhaps China would ease off of its stance on Taiwan. Then again any outside intervention in this matter may force China into action in order to “save face”.

Katherine and I recently bought a house. Most of the house is covered in wallpaper that is offensive to my delicate sensibilities.

The master bath was also decked out in wallpaper with a 70’s era sink and cabinet.

So far I have removed all of the wallpaper from the Master Bathroom and trashed the sink and vanity from the Master Bathroom. Katherine has started in on the wallpaper in the Master Bedroom, and much to our delight we discovered a layer of older uglier wallpaper.

I just found 43 Things when reading a MetaFilter entry. Not really sure what I think about the concept, but here are my personal 43 things. Anyone else out there tried this yet?

Note: By “out there” I am referring to the readers of this blog, which is a population approaching zero.

To avoid injury, always cut away from your body.

After two weeks I now have 90% of my crap into the new house, including all but two of the items that require two or more people to carry. I will have to stop procrastinating soon and tackle the elliptical training machine that I have been avoiding. Thankfully, a couple of people have volunteered to help with that tomorrow afternoon.

I think that we are still on track to have vacated the Vienna house by the end of February. I still have a huge load of stuff to take to the Salvation Army, unless I can convince someone that they want some of my useless junk. You know you want that cheap kite I never used!

If you want to volunteer for cheerleader, or assistant mover this week let me know.