mondays

i love mondays - off! working with people who are cranky and/or still hung over, come monday = not cool. my weekends off are normally rotated, but i asked for mondays and tuesdays off this semester. won't be doing that again.



my plan for this past saturday was completely overlooked. annette gordon-reed was on booktv/cspan2 promoting her pulitzer prize winner.



i wanted to watch her segment of the library of congress' book festival, aired on booktv/cspan2, saturday at 1150. missed it. remembered it this morning. went to booktv.org and there it was. more that eight hours of the festival, viewable on their video player.

my tax dollars at work. how very nice.

360+1 = take a hike

coming up on fifty this february and i have to accept that i may never own a home of my very own. but i won't give up on that goal. in the meanwhile, i'd like to explore america's national parks. starting right here in new bedford. really cool to see new bedford listed on nps.gov.



surprise! it's now 1400 and wgbh is showing the first of ken burns' current series - The National Parks: America's Best Idea.

della (stith) andrade

i went to oak bluffs this past july, doing as much as i could in five days. hadn't been back in about six years. weather wasn't that great. fast ferry from new bedford to oak bluffs was smooth and quick. will definitely use them again in future. place was crowded.


stay included required pilgrimage to my grandmother's grave and former home. her name was della (stith) andrade and she lived in this cottage on the east side of pacific avenue, north of the library. she was my mother's [june (andrade) cosme] stepmother. i knew her as nana della and i spent childhood summers here, next door to the devines. tiny place. french guy fixing the place said owner's were to arrive the next day. never got back to them.



looks like her blood family only wanted her property. assessor's database still shows stith on the deed. here's her grave marker. not an 'a' for andrade, but an 's' for stith. what's that about? no respect for nana della's marriage to my grandfather? no other stith buried anywhere near her. i'll look into it on my next visit.

kreiola

the beginning. the place to start, right? well, i did want to blog some time ago. problem was that i'd been feeling a little overwhelmed. but i do love a healthy challenge. penelope trunk's wapo discussion (read the transcript yesterday) is the reason i'm here now. write something.

need a title. here's the end of an lengthy thought process:

• cape verdean: crioulu -> crioula - taken
  
• i like 'k': crioula -> krioula, kreola - taken
• kreeola: eeeeeeee.
  
• kreiola: looks good. could be pronounced 'crayola'. a name i hope no mother bestows on their child.
  
• kreiola: available! i'll take it.

yeah.