Head Shots

Sometimes I get ahead of myself....

Boboli Gardens, 2011

sometimes I get a head of another...

Today's Friday photo from Florence.

Pi in the Sky

Today's a day that I can admit I have a book about pi.  To some, I could even admit that I as I drove to spin class my nerd brain automatically calculated the speed of the biker I passed using my speed and the time it took to pass him.  I might also (if you prodded) admit I deduced a range of 20-23 mph.  (In class, he confirmed a speed of 21 mph.)  You might even remember that I once won a bet with a guy because I could rattle off the 15 significant digits of pi.    If you know me (and remember my pi poem), I don't have to tell you that I like math.

So as GBC K1m suggested this morning, let us all eat pie in celebration of circles round (and do random math problems in our heads).

You Give Me (Spring) Fever

I had a visit to Lowe's yesterday which made me wax a bit nostalgic over my first house.  Over the course of a few years, I changed every lock and hinge as well as a variety of other items like electrical outlet and light switch covers.  (It only takes installing a hinge backwards one time to make you check it twice.  Outlet covers?  I hope I don't need to remind you to check those twice.)

More than the changes on the inside, the backyard had a radical transformation over the course of the four years I was there.  The book that gave me the probability of whether that fern would die:  The Book of Outdoor Gardening published by Smith & Hawken.  I was surprised to find that a few copies of this book are still available and the paperback version is a cheap as a flat of pansies.

Do you have a favorite garden reference book?  Spring is nearly official so good luck planting something new.

Cites Unseen

A friend of mine is tutoring grammar to young minds.  When speaking of verbs that end in "-ing", she sent me to pun jail for the phrase, "He should have gone to gerund."  Oh well, it was probably too obscure for the average middle-school student who is far removed from the diamond engagement.

A few of us are grammar nerds and I was surprised to learn via GBC K1m, that both MLA and APA have a proper format of citation when used as a reference.  [At this moment, my sister is twinging as she already has distaste for the use of Wiki in formal writing.]  While I don't know that this was the exact tweet link, it serves as a pretty neat example of how far we've come for the average English paper.

For further reference, you may want to consider adding A Grammar Book for You and I (Oops, Me) by C. Edward Good to your shelves.  Good is a writer in residence for a group of attorneys (which reminded me of a GBC member or two).

Enjoy the sunshine, and don't forget to punctuate properly.