So, I celebrated my #$*#)%*()@$=+th birthday recently (don't ask), and we had a blast. A Spanish speaker noted that we were having such a good time that "tiramos la casa por la ventana" -- literally, "we're throwing the house out the window."
I was reminded of how much I love that picturesque idiom. How about the rest of you? Have a favorite like that?
I don't know that this counts as an idiom, but I liked this phrase that came up in the English-language press coverage of the earthquake in Chile:
I find it used in 2005 in Chilean Spanish:
Also, this one, supposedly Chinese: "killing the chicken to scare the monkey" means teaching a person a lesson by punishing someone else or making an example of one offender so everyone else will stop their nefarious deeds.
One of my favorite French idioms is "j'ai mal aux cheveux" which means "I have a hangover." The literal translation is "I have bad hair" but it really means "my hair hurts."
Another idiom for having a hangover is "j'ai une geule de bois" which literally translates to "I have a wooden mouth."
Not that I'd know anything about having hangovers, mind you.
One that my parents always used made me feel crazy when I grew up because no one else had ever heard it before. "Where God left his shoes." It means out in a far off place or remote location. I know I didn't make this up, but please tell me my family isn't the only one to toss around this phrase.