Serendipity, Serendoogles, and Serendubes

The word “serendipity” is defined as something beneficial or desirable that is found or that occurs by accident or chance.  A while back,  I coined the word “serendoogle” (serendipity + google) for something cool/interesting you come across while you’re googling for something else.

And then there is  that glorious, bottomless *SEARCHABLE* Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit hole called “YouTube.” One of my favorite activities in these long days of isolation has become “channel surfing” YouTube for serendubes. (If you think about it, it’ll come to you. . .)

The other day, those arcane YouTubean algorhythms coughed up a video called  Art in Isolation.  The one I chanced upon was number 6 in a series, was short (around 15 minutes), and looked interesting.  Because I am well trained in the art of binge watching, instead of watching that one,  I naturally searched for episode 1 and watched it.

Turns out, they’re  a whole series of videos by this Brit art dealer guy geeking out about various pieces in his personal art collection, which is interesting if you are into that kind of thing, but, guys — his house!  Look at THAT HOUSE!  Only in Britain, where you can hardly turn around without falling over something historic*, could you have a house like that that!  By the time I’d watched back up to episode  6, I was like, enough about the art, dude**.  Do a tour of that house!

*As for history here in the flat lands of Tx, we have the Clovis culture,  followed by 11,000 years of hunter/gatherers wandering over bald prairie dropping the odd stone arrowhead until my town was founded in 1876.  No ancient neolithic monuments, no Roman ruins, or castles, or medieval stone cottages or stately homes.  Nada.  Bubkes.  Zip. 
 
**which is why God gave us the mute function/button/icon.

It Fooled Around And Got Cold On Us

When I went for my followup visit yesterday to the surgeon who did my hernia repair, I started out the door in a teeshirt, and went, “Whoa!”  It was rainy and downright chilly out.  So chilly, in fact, that I went right back in and put on my favorite SomaFM zip up hoodie.  When I got home long about noon and looked at the HVAC thermometer in the hall, it was 77 F/25 C inside.  I have this single size microfiber blanket I got years ago intending to make a lap robe out of but haven’t yet, and last night was the second night in a row I’ve slept with it spread over my side of the bed.  This morning when I went in to boot up my computer, the digital clock/calendar/thermostat on the tower read 74 F/23.3 C.  First thing I did was turn off the floor fan in my office.   I’m wearing long pants, albeit cotton ones, and a teeshirt instead of my usual summer uniform of a lightweight teeshirt dress, and I’m seriously thinking about going and putting some socks on.

This is what the five-day forecast looks like:

  Fall has definitely fell.

I was having a little read in bed this morning, and my dern arms got chilly!  So, I’m going to try again to knit a reader’s shrug, which I envision as basically a pair of sleeves held together across the back.   It’ll be Turkish cast on down the middle of the back, which I’ll knit in both directions at the same time (“magic loop“) out to the sleeves, which will be done two at a time out to the cuffs.  It’ll be ribbed, in a DK weight yarn, on a US 4 (3.5 mm) 60-inch circular needle.  I got two cakes of this Lion Brand Mandala yarn (color “Troll”) because I liked the colors in combination, or at least all but one of them.  I’m editing out the light green as I roll it into balls.   I’ll try writing a pattern for it, but it’s going to be basically me, a tape measure and the calculator app on my computer playing it by ear.  I’ll start it as soon as I can get both cakes wound into balls.  I’ll have to get my covered yarn bowl down for this one.

Shoutout:  I am a reader of webcomics.  One of my favorites is one called “Wilde Life” drawn by a lady from Oklahoma named Pascalle Lepas.  If you’re into that kind of thing, go check it out.  It’s beautifully drawn, I like the characters, and the plot is interesting.  Here’s a teeny taste (which also could be the motto of Gemini, which I kind of am*).  (I want this on a teeshirt so bad!)

Here are a couple more serendoogles**

This is a nerd play on a well-known mathematical formula.  This one is a “DUH!” it’s so obvious.  Girl got it absolutely right on.

*I'm born on the cusp of Taurus, which is an earth sign, and Gemini, which is an air sign.  The burrowing owl is a bird native to the flatlands that lives in a hole in the ground.  Its closest relative is the little owl that lives on the Acropolis in Athens known as Athena's owl, whence its taxonomic name, Athene cunicularia hypugaea.  That should give you a clue why this blog has the name it does. 

θεά από τη μηχανή

**Serendoogle -- something cool you run across by chance while googling for something else.  I invented this word by combining "serendipity + google"

 

A Change of Pace

That loud grinding noise you heard a while ago was me changing gears from knitting to crochet. (Yes, I am ambicraftous.)  My mom belongs to this Sekret Klub, and every year in early December they have a fund-raising auction.  The members bring things to auction off, pay inflated prices for each other’s stuff, and the money goes into a college scholarship fund of some sort.  Last year, I made her four buttoned cowls.  This year, I’m making her three sets of five crocheted snowflakes. I’m also making several sets of three for hostess gifts.

Tuesday after knitting group, I need to dash over to Michael’s and get some stiff stuff, some opalescent embossing powder, a container of sewing pins, and a paint brush.   I’m pretty sure I already have enough crochet thread in my thread stash.  In order to turn the snowflakes into tree ornaments, which is the goal of the exercise, they have to be blocked (stretched and pinned into shape), then soaked in the stiff stuff and sprinkled with opalescent embossing powder to give them just the right amount of sparkle. When that side is dry, you flip them over and repeat the process.  Once they’re thoroughly dry, you hot glue a little loop of the narrowest white satin ribbon they make to one “point” so an ornament hook can be attached for hanging it on the tree.

One down, many to go.

I googled crocheted snowflakes and found this website that has a whole slew of free patterns for them.  More than enough for the 15 I’m making for my mom.  I’ll choose the 15 I like best, and do them.

I was searching for “Russian waltzes” on YouTube yesterday (because I couldn’t remember whether this one waltz was written by Prokofiev or Khachaturian)(It was Khachaturian.) and found this serendooglously*.

And yes! It’s from a Russian film.  And yes! An English language version is available on Amazon, . . . And yes! It’s been shipped!  (It’s dubbed in English.  I wish it had been in Russian with English subtitles, but I may just turn the sound off and gorge on the video.)

Here’s the Russian language trailer.

Matvey Lykov, who plays the guy she really loves (spoiler alert:  Not the blond guy.), is yummy.  And that wedding ensemble she’s wearing in the boat is just fabulous.

 

*serendoogle — something you find serendipitously while googling for something else.  I made this word up by mashing “serendipity” and “google” together.