Report from Redbird Country: Day 2-3

I was pretty tuckered out by Boo at the Zoo, so I took my time getting in touch with Mom for our trip to Grandma's. She's doing okay--more hard of hearing than ever, somewhat forgetful, but still pretty interactive. I engaged her on opera for at least half an hour (trying to tease out some DVD gift ideas), though by the end I was doing most of the talking.

Afterwards, Mom took me to a trendy new "Nuevo Latino" restaurant in the Loop called Mirasol. Pretty good overall. A little snooty--we didn't have a res, so they stuck us on the "common table" even while several booths stood vacant all evening BUT the put us on the window side and the only other couple was seated at the far end--farther away then if we'd been at separate tables. Only a few missteps: rare but lackluster beef in the carne asada, oily tostadas, a mushy bit of squid in the ceviche. The blue crab empanadas deserve special mention, especially when dressed up with the homemade hot sauce. Excellent service.

Before we were chased out by a flamenco guitarist setting up only a few feet away, we did some good talking about where she is. A friend gave her a journal to record some thoughts in but she was intimidated by the blank, creamy, acid-free pages. After dinner, she apologised that what she really wanted was to go home and hermitise, but I told her it was okay--as long as she spent the time writing. "Just start anywhere," I told her, "don't worry about sorting it all out."

Sis asked what I wanted to do the next morning and I confessed that what I really wanted was to get out of the damn city for a change. So next morning we packed up the car, picked up my older brother, swung back for my sister's dog, and headed out to Babler State Park for a picnic and a hike. On the way, BIL explained how they took all their family vacations here so he knew all the trails and corners. The boys did surprisingly well on our first brief march down the Dogwood Trail, which debouched near a jungle gym. AWI wanted to keep playing there, but just as we three siblings were heading out, ECI decided he didn't want to stay behind with his brother and father.

Of course, he lasted like five minutes before climbing into his mommy's arms and falling asleep. Taking turns lugging him for the rest of the hike made things a little less leisurely, but, really, I couldn't have asked for a better day. It was sunny, clear, and cool. Most of the underbrush had died away, though few of the trees had changed. An exception were the eponymous dogwoods with their deep purple foliage. Damn, I miss those trees. We made it back to the car only moments ahead of a cloudburst.

Back at the ranch, Dad was waiting for us. Not surprisingly, it had all taken longer than we'd expected and--just as unexpectedly--he'd misplaced my cell phone number for the umpteenth time and couldn't reach us. (I literally had to take the phone out of his pocket and input it my damn self. At least that should last until he loses that phone.) He drove me back to his place so I could catch up with him and my stepmother. Finally, I got to hear something about their recent trip to Egypt! (Y'all may remember that they arrived at Sharm al-Sheikh only a day or two after the bombs went off.)

German lessons for Owlet: A new approach?

I know I've been lax about putting up a new lesson, but I'm beginning to wonder if trying to write structured lessons on somewhat abstract grammatical topics is really the most reaonsable approach. Might it not make more sense to incorporate the goal--reading Rilke in the original--by using his sentences as specimens for dissection? It would be a better way of determining what aspects of German grammar are straighforward enough to an English-Russian bilingual that they can be passed over lightly and which ones need lengthy discussion.

So throw up a couplet, snowy_owlet, and we'll pull it apart until there's no poetry left in it! How does that sound?

Osage for bigots

The Challenge: Come up with translations of "If you want to live here, learn the language!" in Amerind languages for deployment against English Only wingnuts.

My Pathetic Attempt: ðe mąžą ðalįį škǫštapi tą ie špižǫǫ

Rough pronunciation guide: /ðe 'mãʒã ða'lį: 'ʃkõʃtapi tã 'ie 'ʃpiʒõ:/

Rough gloss: this land A2P-sit/dwell A2P-want-PL if speech A2P-learn-IMP

Notes:

1. The verb lįį can mean "sit" or "dwell", so I thought a literal translation of "here" might be too ambiguous. I figure saying "this land" should clarify things.
2. ie can mean "speak" as well as "speech" or "language", so I suppose the reading "learn to speak!" is possible. I'm not sure how to disambiguate this command. I could add a plural particle, but it would probably be interpreted as applying to the subject (as in the first clause, i.e. škǫštapi "y'all want") rather than the object.
3. As cool as it is, I will refrain from pointing out the double person marking on both main verbs just this once.