Life's a Stitch

Why is it, you won’t see someone in years and then you see them three times in short succession? I experienced a version of this the other day. Stuck on a crossword puzzle word, Chuck asked me if I’d ever heard of the word ululate. Not having heard of it before he assumed it was incorrect. In fact it wasn’t. Ululate means a howling or baying sound.

Yesterday we discovered a new website: freerice.com. It’s an opportunity to improve your vocabulary while donating 20 grains of rice for each correct answer to a country in need of food security. Corporations, like Google and Apple, pay for the rice. Yesterday 369,000,000 grains of rice were won and donated. Can you imagine the pile of rice we could amass if all of us knitters/bloggers/lurkers took a shot at it?  Sure enough when I tried, a couple of words into it, what came up? Ululate. 

Then I was listening to CBC radio when the mayor of Ottawa was introduced. The cheering audience was acknowledged by the show’s host, "Thank you for that welcome, I believe I heard some ululating in there." She had either solved the same crossword or had logged on to freerice.com. I don’t for one minute believe that ululate was part of her vocabulary until the day before.

They say third’s a charm. What are the chances that you’d hear such an unusual word used three times in 24 hours? Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. I should probably pass, judging by my contest luck this morning, I had finally gotten through to the radio station to answer the question, "What was the name of Bach’s first wife." I had her first and middle name but couldn’t come up with her surname. I almost answered "Bach," but didn’t want to sound like a smartass. So, no win, but guess what her maiden surname was? Bach. She was his first cousin, Trick question. I’m overdue for a win.

Knitting update – Halfway through my faux Montego Bay scarf in Lorna’s Laces Shepard sock yarn in the Aslan colourway.

So we’ve talked vocabulary and Bach. How about some cuteness? A freshly groomed Gracee posing perfectly in front of a mirror – double your Scottie pleasure: