Si Dice Cosi

I'm refreshing my long-ago education in the beautiful language of Italian. In the dim memory, the darkened past, beyond the mists of time, before such a thing as an internet even existed, I took four years (four years!) of Italian Language instruction in High School. I was something of a languages geek, I took all that were offered, including three years of Spanish and a year and a half or so of French. The only one that I subsequently used was Spanish, when I lived in Texas, and also because there's a Spanish-speaking woman where I work and we sometimes banter back and forth so I don't completely forget. Literally, I have not spoken more than an odd sentence of Italian in almost thirty years. (Some of them were very odd sentences, indeed.)

A couple of years ago, at a Mensa gathering, I picked up an Italian Grammar book called "Si Dice Cosi", hoping to refresh my memory. As is the way of things, I completely forgot that I had it. Well, last week, I started downloading some instructional audio files, and I now have a complete course of Italian 1, 2, and 3 on my computer, as well as a more casual/tourist oriented course called "Learn Italian in Your Car". I've been loading them onto my Walkman Bean, and happily feeling my brain tingle at the long ago learning being reactivated. Much of it is still there, which amazes me. I think I'll be up to speed in a year or so.
Funny thing is I am kinda speaking Italian with a Spanish accent. My R's are still all wrong. It'll come back.
This is my Bean. It's adorable.

(well, it's not MY bean, but mine looks just like that.) The sound quality is the best I've heard out of any MP3 player. Ipods can go pound salt, they don't capture music like this does.

On to fibrous undertakings. Here's Bob's scarf, about a third of the way along, now.


A detail of the cables.

It's actually getting a little boring. I've also finished one of his socks (FINALLY) and cast on the second. Poor Bob, so patient for his handknits!

Speaking of patience, here's some shots of my sweater, all sewn together and pinned out on the blocking styrofoam.
It looks weird because of the angle here, but here's the whole thing.


A closer look at the underarm and shoulder


The collar


And the cuff detail


I ended up doing two rows of a scallop edging on the bottom, the collar, and the cuffs. It smooths it out a lot, and the collar actually looks really nice with the edging. I think it'll be fine. It's a bit itchy. I washed it and rinsed with Downy before pinning it outso hopefully it'll be more comfy. If not, I'll just have to wear it over a tee or something. It's too nice to not wear.

It's been a bit of an unplanned vacation this week. I've had a horrible cold, woke up sick on Saturday morning and was pretty much confined to the couch until yesterday, when I managed to get up and move around a little. I'm coughing up unspeakable things, and my sinuses are exploding. It's not fun. At least the body aches are gone now, but at this point, there's no point in going in to work, wearing myself down, and spreading contagion to my co-workers. We'll just start over on Tuesday. Thank goodness for paid sick time. I'm going to try to get to the Doctor's office tomorrow or Friday, since I'll have to have a note from him to return to work. Last night was the first time I've slept more than three hours in a row, and it was very nice. A whole five uninterrupted hours of sleep! I'm hoping to top that tonight.