Chiarimento dove si non lo aspetta. I don't really enjoy going to the gym, but I do it anyway.  Not only for the obvious reasons, but because here in Italy, it's educational.  I can practice my Italian with my fellow exercisers and watch the very best of American television, dubbed and rebroadcast on Italian TV.  Unfortunately I can't listen to the dubbed dialogue because the audio is never loud enough, but at least I've become reacquainted with The Fall Guy, Dharma & Greg, the Happy Days gang, Hope & Faith, Jon & Ponch from CHiPs.... Veramente non mi piace andare alla palestra, pero' lo faccio.  Non solamente per le ragioni evidente, ma anche perche' qui in Italia, e' educativo.   Posso esercitare il mio italiano con i miei compagni di esercizio e guardare il proprio meglio  di televisione americana, doppiato e trasmesso ancora sulla TV italiana.  Purtroppo non posso ascoltare  il dialogo doppiato perche' l'audio non e' mai abbastanza forte, ma al minimo mi sono riconosciuto di The Fall Guy, Dharma & Greg, il gruppo di Happy Days, Hope & Faith, Jon & Ponch di ChiPs.... Well.  Stream-of-consciousness:  "Looks like the Happy Days gang has relocated en masse to the beach...I didn't know Fonzie could waterski!  He's not very good at it, though, and the leather jacket looks ridiculous with those baby blue...what are those, boxer shorts?!  Is that a...a shark?!  What kind of f&%#ing nonsense is that?!"  And then I realized I was watching the famous Jump the Shark episode! Allora.  Corrente di coscienza:  "Mi sembra che il gruppo di Happy Days si abbia trasferito intero sulla spiaggia...non sapevo che Fonzie potrebbe praticare lo sci nautico!  Non e' molto bravo, pero', e la giacca di cuoio mi pare ridicolo con quella azzurra...che cos'e, biancheria intima?!  E quello, e' un...un squalo?!  Che cavolo e' questa sciocchezza?!"  E poi mi sono accorto che stavo guardando l'episodio famoso Jump the Shark!

I believe in a multi-pronged approach to language learning-- hence not only do I have a weekly Italian lesson, but I listen to Radio Italia ("solo musica italiana") and Italian talk radio in the car (having exhausted all of my language lesson CDs); watch subtitled movies, both Italian- and foreign-made/dubbed; visit LearnItalianpod.com; read "parallel text" short stories (with the original Italian on one page and English translation on the opposite page); and probably most important, try to make conversation with the dry cleaner, the waiter, the landlord, the kid who helps out at the gym, the other mothers at the bar*....  So I must be fluent by now, right? To understand why my answer is "no", one need only glance at the photo:  my constant companion, the compact Webster's, has "over 30,000 entries," while that coffee table beast under it contains over 2800 PAGES!  Even taking into account that half of those entries and pages are English-to-Italian, mamma mia!  (Yes, Italians really do say that.)  What's that?  Aren't many English and Italian words virtually identical, with common Latin roots, you ask?  Excellent/eccellente question!  Aggression/aggressione, incredible/incredibile, irritable/irritabilita', persistent/persistente, etc./ecc.  However, many words are completely different, and some which seem similar (and may even have a common Latin root), are nevertheless completely different in meaning:  genitori does not mean genitals, but parents.  Not to mention the verbs...that Barron's is invaluable, with all 14 tenses of 1st, 2nd, & 3rd person singular and plural fully conjugated.  +Sigh+...I love that book.    A few errors that my, uh, friend has actually made:

• Ordering spaghetti with dick (spaghetti con cazzo) instead of with mussels (con cozze)
• asking a saleslady in a shoe store if they have any whores (zoccole) instead of clogs (zoccoli)
• telling someone "See you in nine years (nove anni)" instead of in the new year (nuovo anno)
• ordering a cow (vacca) instead of a vodka (properly pronounced "vohdeka" with emphasis on the "oh")

*Conjures up visions of knocking back a shot or two after dropping the kids off in the morning, no?  While it's true that the bar is just up the street from the school, and does contain a few slot machines and perhaps a drunk (ubriaco, not ebraico) or two, for the moms it's just caffe' e chiacchiera (coffee & chitchat).

I meant to link to this page awhile back (found thanks to the TS).   Never hurts to have a little cuteness with your coffee ("a little" being the operative words here).

I had reluctantly decided not to bring my Wyvern Wrap along during our various holiday junkets, reasoning that a cashmere-blend sweater was not ideal travel-- (nor warm weather) knitting.  Instead I brought a

Negotiating the whitewater week before Christmas left me no time for knitting, much less blogging.  I did manage a couple of additions to my stash along the way!  (There's no way I can compete for the World's Biggest Stash, but maybe The Most Far-Flung, with stashage in Como, Italy and in Massachusetts, USA?)  Happy holidays a

I'm editing a translation of my Chinese grandmother's memoir; my grandmother is now in her eighties, but shortly after my grandfather died, over 20 years ago, her children (8 of them, pictured with her in July) asked her to write down her memories of her youth and the earlier years of her marriage.  My mother and two of my aunts just got around to translating the memoir from Chinese into English a few months ago. Sto curando una traduzione della memoria della mia nonna cinese; mia nonna ha superato gli ottant' anni, ma fra poco dopo mio nonno e morto, piu di venti anni fa, i suoi figli (8 di loro, nella foto con lei) le hanno chiesto di scrivere le sue memorie della sua giovinezza e gli piu prim' anni del suo matrimonio.  La mia mamma e due delle mie zie hanno appena tradotto la memoria dal cinese all' inglese, alcuni mesi fa. A couple of excerpts/Un paio d' estratti: [Early 1940s, Shanghai]:  "Even with a servant, I was busy.  When there was free time, the servant would help me make cloth shoes for the children.  Four pairs of shoes were needed for each child not counting slippers.  This was done during spring and summer.  Fall and winter seasons were taken up with knitting sweaters." [I primi 1940s, Shanghai]:  "Anche con una domestica, ero occupata.  Quando c'era tempo libero, la domestica mi aiutava fare le scarpe di tessuto per i bambini.  Quattro paio di scarpe erano necessario per ogni bambino, non incluso di pantofole.  Questo era fatto durante la primavera e l' estate.  L' autunno e l' inverno era consumato della lavorazione a maglia, per fare i maglioni." (No wonder Grandma always knit so fast, and never bothered with patterns!/Ecco perche' Nonna lavorava sempre cosi velocimente, e non si dava mai la pena di usare i modelli!) "My second daughter...was a very quiet and obedient child.  When her brother was born, she already knew how to knit woolen diapers for him." "La mia figlia seconda...era una bambina molto tranquila e ubbidiente.  Quando suo fratello era nato, sapeva gia come a lavorare a maglia i pannolini di lana per lui. (And I thought knitting dishrags was a wasted effort!/E pensavo io che lavorare a maglia gli strofinacci fossi un sforzo perso!) All I can say is, what a luxury it is to knit for entertainment, for curiosity, for the love of special fibers and beautiful and unusual garments, and finally for the pleasure--and not the necessity--of crafting things with your hands.  Devo dire, che lusso, cioe il lavoro a maglia per divertimento, per curiosita', per l'amore delle fibre particolare ed i vestiti belli ed insoliti, e finalmente  per il piacere--e non la necessita'--di fare qualcos' a mano.

I wanted to mention a couple of tiny pet peeves; these are not on the order of chronic lateness (my own or someone else's), crazy drivers, or even PMS headaches or frizzy hair.  No, these are niggling concerns--yet nagging nonetheless.  First:  the tendency of drapey and/or fine gauge sweaters to show the outlines of hardware such as belt loops, belts, snaps or buttons (and I'm sorry, but I refuse to wear leggings under everything); second, the tendency of many sweaters to hang shapelessly at the small of the back (which is after all part of the waist).  These are two reasons I really like how the Chinese Lace pullover fits; the lace has enough relief and texture, plus a slight flare, which combine to conceal the tops of jeans very nicely (and yes, even the dreaded muffin top--not saying that I have one, but...); and the ribbing and side waist decreases and increases give a shapely fit, even at the small of the back. And this?  A gorgeous version of Chinese Lace, from Angelika, in Germany; it puts my own to shame.  Thanks, Angelika!

The blog takes on a life of its own, true?  I first started blogging because I had an idea for a book of knitting patterns--a series of books, actually--several years ago, but I decided that no editor would

Connie tagged me for the "8 random things about me" meme, and since it's the first time I've been tagged, I thought it would be bad luck not to jump in.  It did take some introspection to come up with 8 things, after the "6 weird things" and the "