various and sundry

[solarbird]

Lots going on; I'm engaged in some discussion with the graduate school, right on schedule; apparently, there were two hurdles to clear, the second one being the actual interviews, and I made it to the stack ranking (they don't call it that, but I get the impression that's what it was) for that round, meaning I actually got past the first round and was in the running for interviews. The person who has responded about my application says that the discussion included "a fair amount of squabbling," which I kind of like to hope means I had some supporters in the process. W00t! They're going to talk to me more on Monday.

Thursday's miles: 2.7
Miles out of Hobbiton: 708.1
Miles out of Rivendell: 248.3
Miles to Lothlórien: 218.1

On the way back from walking to the shops for some things I needed for tonight's dinner (bean sprouts and cilantro, mostly, but I grabbed a couple of other things while there), I was taking some flower pictures (coming soon!) and a neighbour whose garden I'd admired via glimpses around shrubbery stopped me and spazzkat and gave us a little impromptu tour of about half of the garden's main tier. He's been in the neighbourhood 45 years - I'm pretty sure he and his wife were the house's first owner. She's a working artist (still; he's retired) and designed the garden, he used to enter it in competitions and would do well. Personally, I think he could call Sunset tomorrow and it'd have a photospread inside in June - it's a great garden. He asked for some of my flower prints - I hope he has a computer, I'm not sure he realised I'm using Paul's digital camera.

Oh, what the hell. First flowerpic of the year, from January. Not an extraordinary shot, but this one shrub got fooled by Disingenuous January, so I took its picture before it got hammered by the return of cold.


January Flower Surprise!

Afterwards, I attacked a lot more horsetail with snips and eyedroppers, and also ripped out some dandelions. Stupid horsetail, I hate you so. Dandelions, I don't mind so much. Oh, and I put that door-prize annual flower we got at the neighbourhood annual potlock into the ground. I hope it likes where I put it, I wanted to be able to see it from one of the living room windows. I should take a picture of it, before I forget!


Two Metres Drain

A meme, from annathepiper: type in your birthday (minus the year) in the search bar at http://wikipedia.org/ andlist three interesting facts, two births, and one death that happened on that day.

Official birthdate:
three events:
1912 - The RMS Titanic leaves port in Southampton, England.
1925 - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York, New York by Charles Scribner's Sons.
1959 - Akihito, future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko (née Michiko Shoda), a commoner.

two births:
1870 (O.S.) - Vladimir Lenin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1924) roxx0r
1986 - Michael Thomas, American National Marbles Champion d00d

one death:
1945 - H.N. Werkman, Dutch artist and printer (executed) (b. 1882)

Most likely alternate date (yes, there is confusion):
three events:
1806 - Lewis and Clark return, after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States.
1846 - Discovery of Neptune by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch Adams; verified by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle
1889 - The company Nintendo was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards.

two births:
1880 - John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
1970 - Ani DiFranco, American musician much cooler than me

one death:
79 - Pope Linus where is your security blanket now!?

Comments

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Sounds good about the grad school! At least, what happens with us is we weed out the apps that are clearly unqualified, then we pull out the apps that are clear yeses, then we argue about the ones in the middle. Often somebody with non-traditional qualifications falls into that category, just because it's harder to predict what kind of student they will be.

Good luck!
Cathy