Nom de Plume

Woke up on Saturday prepared to surf (and miss Harry Potter), but Steve said he wanted to work on the house instead. That was fine by me. So he ripped out the bathroom sink. No half-measures in our little family, oh no.

I wasn’t wild about any of the sinks at Home Depot and persuaded Steve that we really needed to go to Restore, an architectural salvage place up in Ballard. Both of us gravitated towards this really cool (and really cheap because of a crack) sink with old-fashioned handles and a spout that was part of the porcelain.

Went back to Home Depot to get the right hardware. Boy, was that a pain. We were there for two hours. Got home and tried to put it together. That was even more of a pain. Steve ended up jerry-rigging the old plumbing to work with the new. Even so, the whole damn thing leaked.

To make a long story short, it’s a Crane pedestal sink. Very cool, but very expensive to fix. The two parts we need are $85 each. Steve found detailed information here (which he bookmarked on my computer under “Crane sinks my girlfriend makes me buy.”)

He also found this, which is what the sink looks like.
link

Midway through his jerryrigging, Harry Potter arrived. Naturally, I abandoned any pretense of helping him. Not that it matters, because we don’t have a sink in the bathroom, and won’t until we decide what to do. Abandon this one and get a new one? Order the parts? Steve’s asking a plumber on his job site today.

So how was the book, anyway?

Well, the jury’s still out. This is the problem with anticipating a book so much. It’s bound to disappoint. That’s not to say it wasn’t good. It was. Still, I think the fourth one was the best. Nonetheless, it made for a perfect Saturday night.

No, it’s not that Harry Potter has not arrived, although that irks me too. It’s one of my pet peeves: the use of lay when it should be lie. And it’s EVERYWHERE.

“Lay down, Spot!”
“I’m going to lay down and read now.”
“Do you have any extra reading glasses laying around?

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!

So what’s the difference between the two? Basically this: lay requires a direct object while lie does not. (In grammatical parlance, lay is a transitive verb while lie is an intransitive one.)

“Spot lay his slobbery green tennis ball at my feet.” (object=ball)
“I’m going to lay the blanket on the bed.” (object=blanket)
“She will then lay the damn glasses on top of the blanket. (object=damn glasses)

The only exception, of course, is when you’re using the past tense of lie, which is also lay. Confused? You needn’t be. Just consider the following.

LIE
Simple present: Spot lies at my feet.
Simple past: Spot lay on my feet last night, which was uncomfortable.

LAY
Simple present: She lay the glasses on the table.
Simple past: Unfortunately, she forgot she laid them there.

Actually, this rant reminds me of a wonderful pair of grammar books, oh what were they called … that’s it! The Transitive Vampire and The Well-Tempered Sentence.

Speaking of which, where are my copies?

Steve and I are going surfing this weekend, leaving tomorrow morning. Thus, my immediate happiness depends on getting Harry Potter today. But after hitting refresh 30 times on the UPS site, my package still does not show “Out for delivery.”

So I did what any self-respecting Harry fiend would do. I called UPS. I was fully prepared to drive down there and wrest it out of the warehouse.

The very nice man immediately asked, “Is this Harry Potter?”

I started laughing. We had a very nice conversation. Then he said the most beautiful words in the English language. “Yep. You’ll get it today.”

Received a notice that Harry Potter has shipped and that I will get it tomorrow. But it’s already in Seattle and in UPS’ hands … Will I get it today? Oh please please please …

The two on the right are my great grandparents, Jens Madsen Skagen and Phoeba Grace Eads. Jens emigrated from Norway in his teens. Phoeba was from Harlan County, Kentucky. She is at least a quarter Cherokee, and probably more (but it’s undocumented).

I ran down to the Columbia City Gallery this afternoon to get some stuff framed … and walked out with this gorgeous plate by Mark Ditzler:

of freshly watered tomato plants on a hot summer day.

I’m cheating.

I read this well over a year ago, but I’m deep into the spinsters book (mentioned previously) and it’s fab. The Gentleman’s Daughter is its twin. Vickery studies the lives of Georgian women through letters, diaries, and account books–and it makes for fascinating reading.

If you must read only one book on the era, read this one.

My only complaint about Dr. Johnson’s London is that there isn’t more of it. Entertaining and informative, Picard brings the era to life. A definite recommend. That she is not particularly enamored of Johnson–or Boswell, for that matter–serves only to entertain even more.