The soundtrack for my life

My friend Stones recently sent me a mix CD created for her and her husband's recent trip to New Mexico. I popped in my CD player at work; road trip mixes are great to listen to at work. It's a good mix, thoughtful and thematic (unlike any of my mixes which just tend to be a random glob of songs that I happen to like thrown together without any rhyme or reason.)

Anyway, after grooving out to the Talking Heads and Eagles, among others, this song came up and I collapsed in a fit of hysterical giggles. Not because the song is in anyway funny, but I have a gallows sense of humor and this song so perfectly sums up my new job:

Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands your hands together for AC/DC's "Highway to Hell"!

Why I'm not posting much lately

This is a stack of engineering plans I'm supposed to read and comment on by, um, tomorrow. Starbucks Grande cup for scale. 

A close up with ruler. Yes, that stack of paper is nearly 7 inches (18cm) thick. 

a random selection of pictures taken with my cell phone

Clothing is inexpensive in Tacoma! Mural in downtown Tacoma in the theater district.

The Glass sculpture in front of the Hotel Murano in downtown Tacoma. It's about 25 feet tall.

A close up. An intense green.

View from the train. This is between Sumner and Puyallup; that's Mt Rainier in the background.

View from the train. Green River, near Sumner.

Two cats squeezed into one cat bed at Next To Nature's Pet Shop in Tacoma. 

more doggie pandemonium

In 24 hours, Sam has:

1. learned to sit on command, most of the time

2. had a bath without too much fuss

3. mightily resisted crate training

4. peed on the kitchen floor

5. removed all the items from my knitting area and strew them around the living room*

6. removed everything from my backpack except the binder

7. enticed Seamus to play with him (Yay!)

8. Never stopped smiling (except when in the crate)

*(thankfully, he didn't eat any yarn. I don't care about losing yarn; I'm concerned about intestinal blockages!)

Meet the new foster dog

Meet Sam, our new foster dog from the Humane Society/Bulls Eye Dog Rescue.

He's about 55 lbs (25kg) of lovable, snuggly doggie sweetness. He's about a year old and has no manners. Yet. But he's a sweet boy and very attuned to people so I think he will learn quickly.  He and Kate are already BFFs and spent the afternoon playing around in the yard. His left shoulder is malformed but it doesn't seem to cause him any pain. It certainly doesn't seem to slow him down. 

He's great with Kate and Sheba, and so far Seamus is treating him all right. Seamus was acting like a bully earlier but we separated them for a few hours and gradually reintroduced them and so far, so good. 

Sam will be with us for a month full time, then go back to the Humane Society during the week and come back to us on weekends until he's adopted. I expect him to be adopted pretty quickly, though. He's young and very sweet. 

on location

I don't care much about cars, much less about luxury ones. But I am posting this link to for a car commercial because it was filmed right here in Tacoma.

http://www.lincoln.com/mks/home.asp

The "stage" is right in front of the Museum of Glass. Rotate the car and you can see Commencement Bay, the Thea Foss Bridge, and Union Station.

another book read!

I recently finished Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation by Olivia Judson. The book is subtitled "The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex" and it is a very fun read. The author (an evolutionary biologist who also writes "The Wild Side" column in the New York Times) wrote this book as if she were a sex-advice columnist to all creatures. 

The book is divided into three major parts: "Let Slip the Whores of War!", "The Evolution of Depravity", and "Are Men Necessary? Usually, but Not Always." Within each part are several chapters, each on a particular theme. 

Here's the first question in the first chapter.

"Dear Dr. Tatiana,

My name's Twiggy, and I'm a stick insect. It's with great embarrassment that I write to you while copulating, but my mate and I have been copulating for ten weeks already. I'm bored out of my skull, yet she shows no signs of flagging. He says it's because he's madly in love with me, but I think he's just plain mad. How can I get him to quit?"--Sick of Sex in India

[Dr Tatiana] 

Who'd have thought a stick insect would be among the world's most tireless lovers? Ten weeks! I can see why you've had enough. Twiggy, your suspicions are half right. Your paramour is mad, though not with love but with jealousy. By continually copulating he can guarantee that no one else will have a chance to get near you. It's a good thing he's only half your length, so he's not too heavy to carry about.

The answer goes on, giving more examples interspersed with explanations of evolutionary biology. The book is hugely entertaining, as well as informative (the book has 308 pages and pages 235 to 297 are devoted to notes and bibliography). Most of the book is written in Q&A format, which makes it easy for us non-biologists to avoid being overwhelmed with the huge diversity of sexual behavior in the animal kingdom!

My life in song titles

I stole this meme from Gubbinal. I've selected Radiohead as my group, although I was tempted to choose the Beatles.

Here are the rules: "Pick an artist, and using ONLY SONG TITLES from only that artist, cleverly (preferably) answer these questions. This is harder than it seems! (Well, that kinda depends who you pick."

1. Are you a male or female:

"I Might Be Wrong"

2. Describe yourself:

"Paranoid Android"

3. How do you feel about yourself:

"Bulletproof...I wish I was"

4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend:

"Creep"

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation:

"Optimistic"

6. Describe your current location

"In Limbo"

7. Describe where you want to be:

"How to Disappear Completely"

8. Your best friend(s) is

"Where I end and You Begin"

9. Your favourite colour is:

"Black Star"

10. You know that

"Down is the New Up"

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called

"Worrywart"

13. What is life to you:

"Push/Pull Revolving Doors"

14. What is the best advice you have to give

a toss up between "Sit Down Stand Up" and "Anyone Can Play Guitar"

WTF

Most professional pics of models are extensively retouched. 

However, this is one picture which could use just a bit more:

Seriously, are you selling the underwear or the cleft? Really, a barbie crotch would have been much less freaky. 

And $99 for a single pair of underwear? You're joking, right?

Sheba has a question for everyone

"Do ya think I'm sexy?"

And how was your day, dear?

Last Thursday, I saw the doctor and got a Tdap (tetanus, diptheria, and pertussis) vaccine since I was due. I got the shot in my left arm and that was no big deal. In fact, I didn't even notice the nurse give me the injection at all.

Friday, my arm was starting to feel sore and felt under the weather. I sort of felt like I was coming down with the flu so I stayed home from Knit Night. I went to be early and shivered under the covers for a few hours until I could finally fall asleep.

Saturday, I have a welt on my arm and it's even more sore and the discomfort has spread down to my chest. The whole area from my armpit to my breast is tender to the touch and I have to take Tylenol just to be able to wear my bra. I check the handout the nurse gave me about possible side effects and decide that I fall into the rare category of people who get flu-like symptoms, swelling, and tenderness. Continue to take Tylenol.

Sunday, hurts to move arm, welt is bigger. Decide to call doctor on Monday if I don't feel better by then. Decide to take Advil for it's anti-inflammatory properties.

Monday am: welt is size of my hand, hard and hot to the touch. Armpit/breast area even more tender and ponder actually not wearing a bra to work. Decide that "free movement" causes just as much discomfort as wearing a bra so suck down a few more Advil in order to get dressed in a socially acceptable way. Later, call doctor's office, explain that I got a vaccine a few days ago and am I just suffering side-effects? Doctor wants to see me that day to check it out.

Monday afternoon (early): really hurts to move arm. Shot was in left shoulder. I am left handed. Really, I am not very happy. 

Monday afternoon (mid): doctor appointment. Doctor feels that my flu-like symptoms on Friday were most likely a side effect to the pertussis vaccine but that the welt on my arm and the pain in my chest are due to an infection caused by the injection itself. Prescribes antibiotics. I am wondering how the hell I could get an infection from an injection from a doctor's office. While all breaks in the skin can lead to an infection, you'd think I'd get an infection from my frequent hangnails and not from an injection using a sterile, disposable needle on skin that cleaned with an antiseptic solution at the injection site which was covered by a bandage for several hours afterward. 

Monday evening. Home. Arm still hurts. Kitchen, trying to unload dish drainer. Sadly, there were casualties:

 

That's the remains of my orange teapot and my remaining Octopus pint glass. 

Sigh.

in which I muse about my new job

So I have a new job. Same agency, but as work for my current position was winding down, I was asked if I would like to help prepare the contract for The Most Expensive Single Project That The Agency Has Ever Produced. 

And it's still in downtown Seattle, and that's a definite bonus. 

Technically, I'm only in this position half-time but I've been in it for not quite two weeks and so far it has taken up 75% of my time. 

Why?

Meetings! So many frakkin' meetings!  The project is actually being designed by consultants, and although there are agency folks there overseeing the project, the project has suffered because there really isn't a lot of coordination between Agency group and Consultant group. My job is to be a mediator, apparently. Which apparently means going to lots and LOTS of meetings. 

Here's my meeting schedule for this week. Keep in mind that I am only supposed to be there from 1-5pm every day.

Monday: 10:30 to 12:30 (intra-agency); 1-2:30 conference call (in which my hand fell asleep holding the receiver because my phone doesn't have a speakerphone).

Tuesday: 10:30-12:30 (meeting with one agency person to find out how I can assist her for the next contract update), 1-3pm (consultant teams to discuss their progress on preparing the contract), 3-5pm (utilities coordination meeting)

Wednesday: 8-9:30 (agency team meeting), 10:30-11am impromptu meeting in my office, 3-4:30 conference call

Thursday: 1-3:30 Design Update meeting (agency and consultants)

Friday: 3-3:30 Design meeting

The good things about my job:

1. I have an office! With walls! and a door that I can close! And chairs for guests to sit in! But best of all, my office has a coat hook. No longer do I have to hang my coat over the back of my chair. No window, though. But that's ok. The office space takes up the entire floor and is set up so that most of the offices are in the center and the cubes are out toward the edges, so the folks in the cubicle farms get the window seats. (However, the executive offices are very large and do have windows.)

2. It's in downtown Seattle. 

the weird things about my job:

1. I keep getting lost on the floor. Like I said, it's roughly circular (actually more of a trapezoidal shape) but everything looks the same. The receptionist thinks I'm an idiot* because I keep getting lost. (I actually turned around and went the other way when I realized I was about to pass her desk yet again en route trying to find out where Person Z sat.) There is a map near her desk (actually, on all the walls) and she tried to help me by telling me that the person sat across from the North Conference Room, so I searched the map looking for the North Conference Room, and she rolled her eyes at me when I told her I couldn't find the North Conference Room on the map. 

Hear me out. I mentioned that this office floor plan is circular/trapezoidal but the drawing had to be oriented so that it fit on an 11"x17" (i.e. rectangular) piece of paper. While most maps produced in the USA have north oriented towards the top (and most maps produced by the agency have north pointing towards the right), I couldn't figure out where North was on this map. There was no arrow. There two conference rooms on the floor among about 100 office/cubicle spaces drawn on this map and everything was labeled with a teeny-tiny typeface so it was a wee bit difficult to find at a quick glance. Or even with careful study. (After studying the floor map some more, I finally figured out where north pointed. If the floor map were a clock, the north arrow would point toward 5:30. Totally obvious. Duh.)

2. So many frakkin' consultants! It's not that there are lots of consultants but so many different companies of consultants. I've identified five different consultant companies working on this project and it's devilishly difficult trying to figure out who answers to who. And the consultants outnumber the agency folks by 9 to 1. 

3. People snidely talk about "union" folks who sit around not doing what needs to be done because "it's not [my] job" but I swear that consultants are no different. "That's outside my scope of work. You'll have to talk to [another one of the sub-consultants]." 

4. Have I mentioned the meetings?

new wool socks--just in time for spring!

Yes folks, hot off the needles on this 65 degree F (18 C) day is a pair of 100% wool socks.

these pictures don't do justice to the yarn or the sock pattern. (Insert Oscar's grumbling about his crappy digital camera and how he really needs a better one...)

The yarn is Socks that Rock Lightweight from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in a random colorway called "Rare Gems".  This colorway is reserved for the all the experiments done by Tina (BMFA master dyer). These only sold at BMFA booths at various festivlas because the Rare Gems are never consistent.  I think a few of the Rare Gems have become part of the permanent line, but for the most part, if you see a Rare Gems that you like, you need to get it then, because it may never be available again. 

And I really like this color. The blues and greens in this yarn remind me of a peacock. There's a depth to these colors that sadly doesn't show up in the photo. Also, neither does the stitch pattern I chose.  You really can't tell that the leg of the sock is done in a lace pattern, can you? Usually, "fancy stitches" aren't recommended for variegated yarns because the stitch work doesn't show up. And that's true in this case. However, and I admit that it's hard to see in the picture (insert Oscar's grumbling about his crappy digital camera here), the stitch pattern I used for the cuff of the sock broke up the color variegation in a subtle and interesting way, giving the colors a dappled effect. 

To be honest, that was really a happy accident. I chose this particular sock pattern because it is fun to knit and is very comfortable. Everything else was serendipity. :)

in praise (?) of modern dentistry

I am a good dental patient. I don't freak out. I instinctively keep my tongue out of the dentist's way.  I am quite aware that if I didn't earn a professional salary while living in a first world country, I'd probably be missing many of my teeth. 

And I know that HUGE strides have been made to make dentistry as comfortable and as comfortable as possible. 

BUT! All the fancy pain numbing drugs given DURING a procedure wear off. My freaking jaw still hurts and my gums are a rather frightening black color. 

AND! Dental dams? If you still have to stick that suction-thingy in my mouth, then skip the stupid dam already. 

Sunday Sunday

Oscar woke me up this morning and said that it had snowed and there was at least an inch on the ground. I didn't believe him but it was true. I snapped some photographic evidence through the windows and then went back to bed. :P

The front yard.

The back yard. 

The snow turned to rain later on in the morning and all the snow has melted away by now.

And here's a picture of Seamus looking really goofy:

25 Things About Me--The Musical Edition

1. I have almost no musical skill despite having years of formal musical instruction in clarinet, guitar, saxophone, trombone, and flute. I can read music but I can’t keep time.

2. I also learned to play the Scottish bagpipes. These are a much easier instrument than the others as there are only nine notes. But I still can’t keep time.

3. I can’t sing either.

4. With very few exceptions, my knowledge of popular music does not include any bands or songs released after 1996.

5. I can’t stand Boston (the band, not the city). My dislike is visceral. Their music literally makes my stomach hurt.

6. ELO is a guilty pleasure. I love it when one of their songs comes on the radio, and I will turn it up and hum or sing along.

7. I would say that Franz Ferdinand is my “favorite” band at the moment.

8. Past favorite bands have been U2, Simple Minds, REM, and Radiohead.

9. The Beatles? I loved their music then, I love it now, and I will love it in the future.

10. AC/DC is another guilty pleasure.

11. Three bands that I loved in high school but was too “cool” to admit it are Duran Duran (didn’t want to be associated with the girls who wanted to marry Simon Le Bon), Def Leppard (didn’t want to be associated with the boys I thought were jerks), and Huey Lewis and the News (because I thought I couldn’t be cool and like this band).

12. The bedroom in our Seattle apartment was right next door to an English pub which piped music from the jukebox to the outdoor patio. Even with the windows closed, we could clearly hear the jukebox selections. From the time the Verve released their song “Bittersweet Symphony’ in 1997 to October 2006 when we moved, we heard that damn song no fewer than three times Every. Single. Night. Amazingly, I still like the song but Oscar would be very happy if he never had to hear it again.

13. However, I would be very happy if I never had to hear “Hotel California” again. I have hit my lifetime limit on that song.

14. I’ve also hit my lifetime limit for “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus. This is a very painful thing for this former Goth to admit to herself.

15. Most people can list their favorite songs, and even rank them all but I used to work with a guy who had a list of his five least favorite songs, in order. I can’t remember his entire list but number one (least liked) was “Scarborough Fair” by Queensryche.

16. I really loved Blondie when I was a kid, and when I got older I really liked the Pretenders. I thought Debbie Harry was cool but I wanted to BE Chrissie Hynde.

17. My favorite Beatles song has always been “I am the Walrus”. It’s so weird!

18. I have been trying for the past 10 years to develop an appreciation for opera and I am making progress.

19. Not knowing how to play guitar is an advantage when playing Guitar Hero.

20. A few years ago, I got Franz Ferdinand’s first CD and the Hobbit video game at about the same time. I listened to this CD endlessly while playing that game and to this day, whenever I hear any song off that CD, I get a mental image of maneuvering Bilbo Baggins through that game. Every. Single.Time.

21. I don’t think I’m passionate about music but some songs have made me literally stop everything I’m doing in order to listen to the song: “The Quiet Man” by Jonny Hardie and Gavin Marwick (Scottish folk song medley), “Vocalise” composed by Wojceich Kilar and sung by Sumi Jo, and “Hallelujah” covered by Jeff Buckley.

22. I have never been able to listen to “Neroli” by Brian Eno. I swear there is something subliminal in that composition that makes me grind my teeth and finally stop the CD because I literally can’t stand it anymore. But the music is not overtly annoying and I can’t tell you what bothers me so much.

23. I’ve never been able to develop an appreciation for King Crimson, although I feel like I ought to.

24. My favorite movie soundtrack is “The Ninth Gate” composed by Wojceich Kilar. The movie isn’t very good but the music is incredible. I bought this CD just for the theme song (see #21) but every track is great.

25. I think “The Ideal Copy” from Wire and “Sons and Fascination” by Simple Minds have stood the test of time.

Gui Ling Gao

I found this product in the canned vegetable section of Uwajimaya (a local Asian supermarket specializing in Asian foods). Among all the cans of very usual and not so "usual" canned vegetables (did you know that there's such a thing as canned sushi filling?), was a display of ceramics bowl with matching lids, containing "Gui Ling Gao". It piqued my interest: I liked the bowl, I'm a bit more adventurous eater than many people I know, and I'm not afraid of foods I can't pronounce.  And it wasn't expensive, so I thought I'd give it a try. 

Plus, it was in the canned vegetable section, so whatever this product is was most likely made from plants. (Hey, I'm adventurous, not fearless.) The ingredient list wasn't too helpful because besides sugar, all the ingredients were listed by their latin botanical names.

Gui Ling Gao turned out to be a jelly, and it is also used as an herbal medicine, although I guess it can also be eaten as a snack.

Finding out it was described as "Chinese herbal medicine" should have forewarned me because in my experience "Chinese herbal medicine"  is synonymous with "it's very good for you because otherwise you would never consume something that tastes so foul." 

Sadly, I will never experience the health effects of Gui Ling Gao because I took one spoonful, let the jelly linger on my tongue and thought that at first it kind of tasted like blackstrap molasses but the taste quickly changed into the most intensely bitter flavor  as the jelly dissolved, and I couldn't spit it out fast enough. Ugh. It was terribly foul and the bitterness just lingered. (Why was it so bitter? The second ingredient was sugar!)

But I have a neat little bowl and lid now. 

 

Attack of the Crip Keeper

Here's the one side of the garage. There's about two feet (60 cm) of space between this wall and the fence so it's really quite isolated (as well as being a horribly planned waste of space and impossible to mow) 

Here's the side of the garage facing the alley way and is the only non-Crip text. I have no idea what it actually says. I later realized that the tagger started in the yard and must have done this bit last and probably ran out of paint.

The fence.

The side of the garage facing the house. 

The house. This bit pissed me off the most.

And blue bikes are just so last year. 

@!#$%&*

some *ssh*le or *ssh*les came into our yard today and spray painted graffiti in three places on our garage, fence, and house.  

Don't know if "crip" is still a gang or if it is some slang I don't know but that's what's written.

At least no one broke into the house. Perhaps the dogs frightened 'em off?

Old Man Winter ain't dead yet

Last Friday, Oscar and I had to scrape ice off the INSIDE of the car windows. 

And today, it's been snowing off an on.

This (last gasp?) of winter isn't really a problem except that Mr Seamus has been violently sick with explosive diarrhea these past few days and we've had to leave the house windows open to try to get rid of the smell. 

Yeah, it's been bad. Real bad. 

How bad? 

"Decide to get rid of the carpet" bad. (There are wood floors underneath and wood is a heck of a lot easier to clean up than carpet.)

"Cut off the bottom of the curtains" bad. (The cat had already shredded them so they need to be replaced anyway.)

I don't know what caused Seamus's distress, but thankfully it doesn't seem contagious as neither of the other dogs has been ill. Also, Seamus seems to be recovering. No more accidents in the house and his toxic farts have almost stopped. He's on a diet of boiled rice and hamburger for awhile.)

But between the car, the furnace acting up, Seamus's illness, and finding out that we owe almost $1000 in income tax...it's been a rough week. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that ...

while trying to organize/declutter, you will make an incredible mess. 

I have been going through my yarn stash, ripping out all projects I started that that are either more than a year old or don't hold interest any longer. I know have lots more available needles to use for new projects. (haha)

Many knitters have lots of yarn.  

Some knitters have lots of sock yarn.

But I think I may be the only knitter who has a dresser drawer full of orange sock yarn. 

Irrefutable proof that I am an idiot

We are a weird American family in that we have only a single car. (Oh, the horrors! Yes, we alone are responsible for the collapse of the American car industry because we own only one car, paid it off, and continue to drive it instead of leasing or constantly upgrading.)

 I took the car in to the mechanic this morning for an oil change and tune-up, and, by the way, the car is making a rattling sound, can you investigate that? Well, that rattle is luckily not the car's death rattle, just a very expensive rattle, and so I decided to walk home because there really isn't any interesting way to pass four hours in the local of the mechanic shop.

I walk home from the mechanic (about 30 minute walk), approach our house, and my first thought is "hey, the car isn't here. I wonder where Oscar went?"

I thought memes were passe but not on Facebook...

'cept on Facebook, they're called "notes" and it seems they are the second most popular thing for people to do, only slightly less popular than sending coffee/drink/plants/superpokes to people. 

Anyway, here's the latest:

This is the Layer Cake, covering different parts of your life.


11 Layers of Me

--Layer One: On the Outside

Name:: Lee (my last name)
Birthday:: January 18
School:: University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA (undergrad); University of Washington, Seattle, WA (grad)
Major:: Geology (undergrad)/Scandinavian Studies (grad--unfinished)
Minor:: none
Current Location: Tacoma, WA
Eye Color:: Blue-grey
Hair Color:: brown
Righty or Lefty:: Lefty, baby!
Zodiac Sign:: Capricorn

--Layer Two: On the Inside

Your Heritage:: Northern European mix--German, Norwegian, Scottish
Your Fears:: Rats
Weakness:: sweets, video games, yarn
Goal:: day to day goal--to make it to work on time, long term goal--to finish graduate school
Regrets:: dropping out of grad school, taking financial advice from someone dearly unqualified
Change one thing about your life:: learn to wake up early on a regular basis
Relieve Stress:: I'd really like some tips on this, 'cuz right now even alcohol isn't working
Hardest thing ever dealt with: realizing it really was me, not you
What upsets you:: duplicity
Vent about something:: I really wish my neighbor's would stop parking their two ton truck on my lawn AND pick up their dog's shit from my lawn

--Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Your thoughts first waking up:: How many hours before I can go back to bed?
Your bedtime:: 11ish
Your most missed memory:: staying up late with Katze, talking to the wee hours.

--Layer Four: You’re picking

Pepsi or Coke:: Jarritos Tamarindo 
McDonald's or Burger King:: I have a weakness for McDonald's Happy Meals.
Single or Group dates:: Group
Adidas or Nike:: Keens
Lipton Tea or Nestea:: freshly steeped Sencha from Peet's
Chocolate or Vanilla: strawberry
Cappuccino or Coffee:: coffee, black


--Layer Five: Do You?

Do Drugs:: besides Tylenol?
Have a crush:: only on various actors, although I had a lovely dream about the lead singer from Franz Ferdinand the other night.
Think you've been in love:: I know I have
Want to get married:: already am.
Believe in yourself:: More than I used to, not as much as I wish
Think you're a health freak:: I have a healthy diet. 

--Layer Six: In the Past Month

Drank alcohol: Yes
Gone to the mall:: dear god, no.
Eaten Sushi:: Yes
Gone skating:: does slipping on ice count?
Dyed your hair:: Yes
Done something exciting:: I met with a college friend who was on town for business. A lovely evening!

--Layer Seven: Have You Ever?

Played a stripping game:: nope
Gotten beaten up:: Yes, more than once.
Changed who you were to fit in:: Sadly, yes. I don't think it worked, though.
Hid something from someone:: Yes, and I'm not telling you.

--Layer Eight: Getting Old

Age your hoping to be married:: I got married at age 24.
Age to start having children:: not likely 
Want to travel to:: pick a place, and I will likely want to visit there.

--Layer Nine: Perfect Mate

Best Eye Color:: brown
Best Hair Color:: no real preference
Short or Long Hair:: as long as it's well groomed, the length makes no difference. Even bald is fine (but comb-overs are not.)

--Layer Ten: What were you doing...

1 MINUTE AGO:: letting the dogs in 
1 HOUR AGO::enjoying a beer at Harmon's
1 DAY AGO:: lounging around in my PJs, staving off a cold
1 YEAR AGO:: nothing stands out

--Layer Eleven: Finish the Sentence

I LOVE:: my  husband, my friends, and my pets
I FEEL:: stressed out
I HATE:: being stressed out
I HIDE:: my anger
I MISS:: my friends
I NEED:: to start going for walks again

Yay!

My colleague finally had her baby. He was due Feb 4th (I think) but didn't arrive until Feb. 12. Check out the link for baby and new parent cuteness.

Gotta finish up that Baby Surprise Jacket now...

Weird

Rowan's Scottish Tweed DK yarn smells like Crayola crayons. 

Decluttering little by little

I put my Xbox and Xbox games up on craigslist. $50 for the full system, three controllers, and nine games. The Xbox 360 plays some original Xbox games but not all. I was surprised that it read "Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy" because it wasn't very popular (although quite fun) but really surprised that it didn't read "Deus Ex: Invisible War" because that was a high-profile game that got great reviews (and is one of my favorite games of all time. It's got an intelligent story AND it gives you the option of playing through without having to actually to kill any enemies. This is actually the much harder option, by the way. You can try to sneak by them and hope they don't come after you or knock out them out with a tranquilizer gun (after you find it) and hope you can run fast or hide until the tranq. takes effect. It makes for very tense encounters.)

I'm getting rid of the system because I never play it anymore (and am seriously thinking of getting rid of the Playstation2 for the same reason) but I have the same feeling now as I did when I got rid of the VHS. I kept the VHS for much longer than I probably needed to because I had a lot of things on VHS that I'd never be able to see again, like the great travelogue of La Paz Oscar made for me when he visited his family right after we started dating. And the Tick cartoon episodes that Oscar taped (My favorite quote from the series is when the Tick says to the supervillian du jour: "You can't blow up the Earth! That's where I keep my stuff!").

It's almost worth keeping the system just to be able to play "Deus Ex: Invisible War" or "Otogi: Myth of Demons" sometime in the future. I love both these games.

I also realized I have far more beer bottles than I need at this point so I put a notice on Freecycle. Not that I'm too worried about those. If no one wants them, they go into the recycling bin on Thursday. Anyone need four dozen 12oz. amber beer bottles, suitable for bottle conditioning?

 

Fiber-iffic!

Imagine my surprise upon discovering that the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival--which is one of the best in the United States--is held right here in Tacoma. 

Yes, Tacoma. Vendors, teachers, and visitors come from ALL OVER THE WORLD for this festival and it's held in the lovely Hotel Murano, a mere 2.5 miles from my house. (And local people...if you haven't visited this hotel, go and check out the lobby. The hotel was renamed and redesigned to celebrate Tacoma's role in glass art, and the lobby is just beautiful, and full of individual glass art pieces.)

I didn't take any classes--most fill up the same day registration opens--but it's fun to go to the Marketplace as well as to hang out in the lobby with other people who are knitting, spinning, plying, felting, whatever. The vendors are a nice mix; there are some brick and mortar local yarn shops who set up booths with a miniature version of their shops*, as well as plenty of indy vendors who sell primarily online or at fairs. There were several familiar vendors like Philosopher's Wool, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and Toots LeBlanc as well, as well as some new faces like Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs (who had some wonderful self-patterning sock colors but who sadly** was sold out).

I met up with Kat and her husband Crash. They'd come the previous day and Kat made a list of things she wanted at the marketplace. She mulled over it that night and pared down what she really wanted--a shawl kit from Philosopher's Wool and some yarn from Rainy Days and Wooly Dogs. Her first stop was RDWD, and said there was a gorgeous red yarn and was bummed when she couldn't find it. She turned to ask the seller while I rummaged through the display and found an intense blue-based red called "Bloodletting" buried under a few other skeins of a different color. Happily, it was, and I understand why Kat liked that yarn so much. Kat has a good sense of color and knows what looks good on her and I hope she makes a hat or a scarf from that yarn because that color would look stunning around her face. (I'm pretty sure she already had matching lipstick.)

I also had a mission, but it was not for me. Some of my friends had gone on Thursday (the first day) and Rachel had fallen in love with some dark grey alpaca/silk roving but decided against it. And she regretted it. At Knit Night on Friday, she couldn't stop talking about that fiber and how it felt "better than sex" and how the color would pair beautifully with some rose pink yarn she had and and was pondering the logistics of going back to buy it. So I offered to get it for her. I made that booth my first stop, but apparently wasn't fast enough. It was all gone except for a small amount of light brown (which would not go well with rose pink). The vendor was completely out. Apparently there had been a great demand for that fiber blend but he couldn't create more while he was at the festival. "Wednesday! I'll have more by Wednesday. Your friend can order from me online!"

As for me, the only thing I wanted to buy was some Noro Kuyeron yarn. I'd made a scarf for Gusano Medidor while she was here and I really liked it. I was secretly hoping that she didn't like it so I could keep it, but dammit, she liked it so now I need to make one for myself.  It's a very simple pattern and alternating colorways every two rows. The yarns is self-striping and the color changes are really beautiful. The great idea with this scarf is that since one of the colorways is neutral (either creams/light grey or tans/dark brown/dark grey), the stripes harmonize quite well. My LYS used to carry Noro but replaced it with another company that made a similar yarn but was cheaper. I did buy some of this yarn from her but the scarf just didn't look very good. The yarn quality was just fine, but the colors weren't as intense so the color effect was very subtle, and I wasn't getting the effect that I wanted. 

Since it is a fiber festival, everyone was showing off their projects. Quite a few women were wearing Bohus sweaters (they ARE beautiful), but since Tacoma really doesn't get all that cold, there weren't too many people wearing wool sweaters. Instead, there were lots of people wearing shawls or scarves (there were several of the Noro scarves I just described). Me? My only knitterly object was the hat*** I was wearing, which I only wore inside so that Kat could find me easily but forgot to take it off and ended up wearing it throughout the day. However, several people came up to me and complimented me on it. The woman at Philosopher's Wool said it reminded her of a sea urchin and later in the day called out to me "hello, sea urchin lady!". :)

I also ran into my friend KittenLion who was going to make a sweater for her friend from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts yarn but wanted to make sure her friend loved it before KL bought it. The friend was made to fondle the yarn, and to make sure she loved how the yarn felt against her skin before KL would buy it. BFMA yarns are beautiful (even Crash, who really couldn't care less about yarn, admires Tina's (BMFA's master dyer) craftmanship and art sense) but they are not cheap and I think my eyebrows rose when KL said she was making a sweater for her friend from this yarn. KL just smiled and said, "this is why" and showed me a picture of a stunning quilt that this friend had made for her. Ah yes, now I understand.   

*The first year I went I thought this was a silly idea...why go through all the trouble to recreate to set up all the displays with so many generic needles and notions and books? I'm not talking about the special "art fair" needles hand-turned from rosewood ($30) or cast from glass ($50)or the hand made stitch markers made from silver, crystal, and gem chips ($25-$50 a set). I mean the mass-market Inox, Clover, Susan Bates, and Addi brands that you can find anywhere. But now I think these are savvy sellers because there is so many people are inspired to start a brand new project RIGHT NOW but dammit....I don't have the right size needles, or stitch markers or...hey, that booth has lots of needles....

**For me, not for her. All she had left of that yarn was her sample sock. 

***Link to the designer's site. That is not a photo of me. My hat is orange (naturally).

Oh so Lost.

Dear "Lost" writers:

I've been with you since Season 1. I've never found TV particularly fascinating but your show was very intriguing and entertaining. Not because there were a bunch of people suddenly stranded in a remote location, trying to figure out how to survive and get home. Any generic horror film does that. Ho-hum. What made "Lost" so worth watching were the people whose back stories and personalities were so carefully crafted. I watched "Lost" because these people were real to me, and I cared what happened to them. I stuck with you faithfully through season 2 even as your network nearly killed the show by repeating most of season 1 instead of showing new episodes. (Plot was secondary but still necessary.) I have never been as interested in finding out what the mysteries of the island were except as how the characters dealt with it. Does knowing that the "smoke monster" is a type of "security system" make it any less terrifying to the people on the island? It was more fascinating that these Western, intelligent, mostly well educated people would automatically refer to a frightening unknown as a "monster" than what the "unknown" turned out to be. (BTW, isn't Cerebus also a type of "security system"? Does that make it easier to understand?)

Admit it. You were making this st*t up as you went along, playfully experimenting with the 'fish out of water' theme...'hey, what if we put in a polar bear on a tropical island?  How about a shark with a Dharma logo?'  But the show was a huge hit and you felt compelled to force an story arc about the "mystery of the island" instead of "how are the desperate castaways dealing with such stuff that they could have never have imagined?"

So...here are some of my issues that are making it harder and harder for me to tune in every week:

1. Ben has never been a very believable bad guy. A manipulative and possibly evil man, yes. But he grew up in isolation in a small community. How could he know how to maneuver in the "real world", to "outcon" other con men far more experienced than he ever was?

2. The time travel thing? Not buying it. It has the unpleasant whiff of a Deus Ex Machina.

3. Overarching conspiracies are so 1990s. The X-Files already did that, and much better.

4. With the exception of the smoke monster, none of the mysteries of the first season are answered--the polar bear (an escapee from the Others' zoo?) Why was Rose cured of her cancer? Why the hell can John walk (not that you haven't injured his legs several times since). Why was it so important that Claire's baby be born on the island? The frakkin' numbers? 

5. If the island turns out to be Atlantis, I'm sending you hate mail. 

That will be all for now,

Luneray

P.S. Kate is not very believable in business suits and heels. Put her in jeans and shoes she can run in.

 

Brewfest 2009 results are IN!

I had a friend who was very weight conscious and would perform a cost/benefit analysis for every morsel passing her lips. In short, "is this worth the calories?"

I find myself thinking that as I sip my freshman brew. Yes, folks, January 2009 Porter has now finally aged enough for drinking and wonder if it really is worth drinking. It's not so bad that it made me grimace and spit it out, but neither is it a very pleasant experience either. 

It's perfectly drinkable in that "if this is the only liquid available for me to drink over the next few weeks" (and I mean that there is NOTHING else to drink...no water, tea, coffee, etc.) But drinking it as purely a pleasurable experience? No, not at all. 

Is it worth the calories? Not really. 

Is it worth drinking because of all the time that I put into it? An excellent question.

Should I drink it because otherwise I'd be wasting the $35 spent on the ingredients? I'd say that yes, I should, but I can't truthfully say that I've never tossed out food before--even expensive food.

I think I'll toss it. It really is not very good at all. 

Dig a garden for Victory!

Just don't depend on me, 'cuz then the terrorists have already won.

I'm giving this garden thing another try this year, with a little bit more planning and education this time. I learned several things from last year's fiasco, which I guess is a good thing. 

Here are the things that I will not do this year:

1. try to share garden space with Oscar. We will each have our own raised bed. Oscar is a tomato maniac and he needs an entire bed just for those. 

2. Use a product called "Gardening Soil--great for fruits and flowers!" to try to grow root crops, and then wonder why none of the radishes, carrots, or beets are growing. (Hint--the nutrients needed for fruits and flowers are different than those needed for root crops.) Longtime readers may remember the pornographic radish from last year; that was grown in what has since become Oscar's Tomato Madness raised bed. 

3. Use flattened cardboard boxes as the barrier between the grass and the garden. Supposedly, the cardboard works to smother the grass, but I didn't have much success with that. My friend Latin Man gave me some landscape fabric, so I will use that this year.

4. Build the raised bed out of cinder blocks instead of lumber. It really was a great idea but it didn't work out for these reasons: a) they were not mortared together, and the ground was a bit uneven so there was some shifting from the weight of the soil, b) concrete is really porous and the bed dried out really fast

Here's what I will do this year:

1. Construct a 4' x 8' bed from lumber generously given to me by my friend HippieChick. (I'd asked her if she had any scrap lumber for building a bed, and she didn't but she's a very encouraging soul for anything gardening related so she bought me some "scrap" lumber for my birthday. Think that's a weird birthday gift? I don't. She once got a truckload of horsesh*t as a birthday gift and she was thrilled!)

2. Make the garden soil mixture per SFG recommendations.

3. Plant some pots with flowers that attract beneficial bugs and bees, and set these around the garden.

Oh well, we shall see. Wish me luck.

one resolution is going well

The book reading bit is going well.  Three actual printed books read this month, plus one audiobook as well as an audio lecture series!

In fact, I was up all night reading The Missing (info and Powells.com link in the sidebar). I started it when I got into bed, and bloody hell if I didn't stay up until I'd completed it around 6am this morning. I can't even remember the last time I read a novel straight through. (Probably the final Harry Potter novel.) 

Sadly, I didn't like the book all that much. The book was well-written in that the prose was fluid, but the story actually suffered from being a bit too long. I read a review of it in the NYTimes in an article discussing a genre the author called "the dark fantastic". I (generally) like fantasy, so I put a couple of these titles on hold at the library and finally read one. The term "genre" is an odd beast, really. While the article described the story as "dark fantastic" (i.e. fantasy with darker themes, possibly a hybrid of fantasy and horror), the genre listed on the book's spine was "suspense", and this reader classified it as "horror". (Note: my familiarity of the "horror" genre is almost nil, based almost entirely on a flirtation with Stephen King novels during early adolescence. Writers imaginations' never stand still, so the "horror" genre has most likely evolved considerably over the past [cough] 25 years. I hope so anyway.) 

As a plot driven novel, it wasn't entirely interesting because it was almost identical to the film "I am Legend" (so there were very few surprises), except the story took place in a small town in Maine instead of NYC. (And I did have to wonder if the author was being somewhat tongue in cheek and giving an homage to Mr King, who has made small-town-Maine ground zero for Really Weird Sh*t to Happen.) So the story had elements of science fiction in which there was a rational, scientific reason for the weird sh*t (environmental catastrophe). The story had elements of fantasy in which the cause of the weird sh*t was a primordial, supernatural force, older than humanity. You could also argue that it was a vampire story in that the affliction spread through humans biting other humans. But I call it a "horror" story because the story centered on this horrible plague that is overwhelming the town and the story focuses on who escapes the plague and who doesn't. And that's the reason I didn't like the book. There were far too many characters and most were not developed well enough and so there was very little emotional resonance for me as a reader to even care. 

It started very promisingly, but finished weakly. Yet I still stayed up all night to finish it. 

This is what 40 looks like

Ok, in all honesty, this photo dates to last week when I was still 39 but my hair looks like crap today. But the blue eyes and rosy cheeks are accurate. :)

A decision made

Ok, I am most definitely NOT renewing my subscription to Vogue Knitting. I only subscribed because I thought the mag featured a lot of good technical articles; I never expected to actually like too many of the patterns featured (not being very fashion forward myself).

I had some misgivings with the last issue because I did see an item I liked but then saw a note that the pattern chart wasn't included in the magazine but on the website. Ok, at least you don't have to register to get the chart, or even worse, PAY for it! (Interweave Knits pulled this stunt last year--showing an item in their mag and telling readers it was on the website. It was free for awhile and then they started charging for the pattern. Subscribers were furious.)

That was annoying. But I got the recent issue yesterday, and I saw that the same thing happened again. Including a partial pattern in the magazine and then saying that the rest was available on the website. But guess what. It's not there (yet).

But the worst thing is that there aren't any technical articles at all. I figured that last issue didn't have any because it was the holiday issue, and these from any knitting mag tend to focus exclusively on gift-appropriate patterns or swag for knitters. But no technical articles this time either unless you count the article on making Elizabeth Zimmermann's snail hat, which is of moderate use since the damn information is already covered in EZ's own books.

And now for something completely different

All images from Ihasahotdog.com

Stupid house

Well, the flood god passed us over but the moisture afrit had taken up residence long ago. Apparently, the NE & NW corners of the house have moisture problems. A few months after we moved in, we found black mold growing on the walls. Both these rooms are unheated, and I guess there is no insulation in the walls either. 

Last year, we had all the windows replaced with energy efficient ones which was rather expensive but it has made a difference in our utility bills (as well as being a heck of lot more aesthetic) and which also managed to keep the moisture under control. There weren't any mold problems last year. 

But last night, I discovered a huge patch of mold growing on the bedroom wall behind the curtains. These are floor to ceiling heavy curtains (came with the house), and the drawstring broke awhile ago so they can't be opened. I had a big plastic bin in the corner (not snug up against the wall, I learned that bit all ready) which was used to store some yarn. I decided I needed that bin for the cleaned beer bottles so moved it away. I used to have another plastic bin stacked on top of that one, which has been since used for another purpose but its lid had fallen against the wall and was hidden by the curtain. 

Apparently, a forgotten lid to a 2'x3' Rubbermaid container leaning against an uninsulated wall in a very damp winter makes an excellent environment for growing a variety of different molds. I discovered this huge patch at about 11:30 last night and didn't bother to clean it because I knew it would take awhile, plus I figured one more night wouldn't make much difference. However, I did have several anxiety dreams of mold, and mold removal, and being unable to stop the mold, and shortages of bleach.

So today, I washed the inside and outside walls with the recommended bleach solution (1/2 cup bleach in one gallon tepid water). I washed the inside walls twice. I don't know if it was necessary or not but it made me feel better. Then I painted all the walls below the window with Kilz. I'm not going to bother painting the rest of the room because really, that sheetrock there should be replaced. My neighbor across the street is a sheetrock contractor so I'll ask him for some tips. Like, should I do it now or wait until it's warmer? (Don't laugh at me. I have no idea. I grew up in a desert and the apartment in Seattle didn't have these moisture problems.)

Oh, and speaking of moisture? I recently found out that those damn toilet cozies actually have a function. I always figured that they were just some other sort of ploy for marketers to create a new product for squeamish people who didn't actually want to see a toilet; you know, the same people who'd cover the spare roll of toilet paper. Well, given that our water is so cold right now, there's a lot of condensation on the toilet tank and bowl. It actually drips off and pools on the floor. This is annoying, but it's a lot better than a leaky toilet, which was my original suspicion. Wiping off the tank and bowl with a towel after every use has helped but I am *this* close to buying a toilet tank cozy, especially since I can't reach around to wipe off the back of the tank.

The NW corner of the house isn't so bad, mostly because there aren't any windows there plus there isn't much in that corner. I just noticed this bit after I started typing this entry, and it still needs to be cleaned with bleach and painted as well. 

sigh.

New Year's Resolutions and all that stuff

I'm not really all that interested in making New Year's Resolutions because I have this really weird habit of being all goal oriented and making a list and then completely ignore anything that's on the list because I can't stand anyone telling me what to do, even if that person is myself. (Sometimes I wonder why I've always gotten stellar reviews at work. I've never had a bad review, and sometimes it really baffles me but apparently the Powers the Be seem to think that I do enough things well consistently enough that I am considered a Valuable Part of the Teamoplllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll,.)

(That last bit was Maggie's contribution to this blog post.)

So, interesting things that are going on....well, I made a batch of beer for the first time the other day. Oscar had bought me a kit a while back and has spent all this time wondering if I was ever going to use it. I finally did. I don't know why I ever thought it would be so hard. Most of beer making seems to consist of waiting for a very long time. hehe

Anyway, when we got the kit, I also got a kit for making porter. The first step in beer making is brewing the wort, which is the basic flavoring for the beer. The kit I had was two large cans of "beer syrup" if you will. All I had to do was pour it in the primary fermenter (a large plastic bucket), add some boiling water to thoroughly dissolve the condensed wort (it looked like black paint and smelled like molasses), and then add cold water to bring it up to 5UK gallons. When it had cooled down, I added the yeast that came with the kit, sealed up the container and added the airlock, and the whole thing has been sitting on top of the washing machine since Tuesday. I wait until it's stopped bubbling, and then I can bottle it. The beer will condition in the bottle for two weeks and then it's ready to be drunk. (Actually, I think it can be drunk as soon as it's stopped fermenting but it won't be carbonated.) These are the instructions for the stuff I got in the kit. Some beers need a secondary fermentation, but this one apparently doesn't.

I hope everything is coming along all right. At first I wasn't sure if I'd killed the yeast because it wasn't bubbling right away, but then I found out it starts to bubble after 24 hours. Even then, it's a slow bubbling--once every few seconds. 

For the past few months, I've been saving up the non-screw cap bottles from the beer I've drunk and storing them on the back deck (so my back deck looks like it belongs to a proper alcoholic). I let Mother Nature help me with the first wash of the bottles. Since they've been outside, they are dirty so Oscar filled a big tub with bottles and I added rainwater from the rain barrel and them soak most of the grime off. Then I washed them properly, and had flashbacks to my four years working in the Chemistry Labs at university and washing lots and lots and lots of glassware. For the first time in my entire life, I actually wished for an automatic dishwasher. I've only cleaned about 20 of them and I need at least 64. I need to go to the beer supply store and get some corn sugar for the conditioning and I'll check out the cost for a keg. I can see my enthusiasm for beer making wane if I am faced with washing 5+ dozen 12 oz. beer bottles each time. Actually, that's not so bad. I can wash them as I use them, but storing them clean is a bigger problem. I'll figure something out. 

According to the kit instructions, fermentation should be done after 7-8 days, so I can bottle everything up starting soon. Then, in two weeks, beer! 

Anyway, New Year's resolutions. Like I said, I don't really like these but there are still a few long term changes I'd like to make to my life. So, here they are:

1. Walk 10,000 steps a day at least 4 days a week including once on weekends. (This is about four miles at my stride. I actually have an easier time doing this on weekdays than on weekends.) 

2. Read at least one book a month. My book reading habits have seriously slipped. I have a hard time sitting down and reading. Part of that is because it takes me a while to be able to concentrate and part of the problem is that I think I need reading glasses. It's kind of embarrassing to get so many books from the library and having to return most them not merely unread, but not even looked at. I do listen to audiobooks and I will count those but there are far more books that I'm interested in than are available on audiobook.

So that's it. Walk a lot more and read a lot more. Unfortunately, both are in competition for my time. 

First snow, then rain, and now floods

City of Tacoma declares civil emergency:

City declares civil emergency due to potential flooding of Puyallup River

The U.S Army Corps of Engineers has predicted the Puyallup River may overflow its banks early Thursday morning. As a result of this prediction, Tacoma’s Mayor Bill Baarsma and City Manager Eric Anderson issued a proclamation that the City of Tacoma is in a state of civil emergency.

The declaration was made based on flooding risks to the City’s Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which could pose a risk to public health. The City’s Emergency Operations Center will open at 6 p.m. tonight and will remain open for the duration of the emergency. The City’s surface water crews have switched to a 24-hour work schedule to attempt to keep the more than 22,000 public storm drains clean in Tacoma. Drains near street corners and in low areas of streets and parking lots are the main concern. Drivers navigating Tacoma’s rain-logged streets or in areas that are prone to slides, such as Schuster Parkway and Marine View Drive, are encouraged to drive with caution. Remember that it is not safe to walk or drive through flooded areas.

in which the New Year has started out soggy

Despite all my griping about the snow, I think I liked it better. At least it was a lot less muddy. (I honestly don't mind snow all that much; the problem is that no one is prepared for it here and that was the challenge.)

Plus, snow is pretty. At first. Rain never is. Rain is just, well, wet. Plus it's been pouring, so even my MIL, who really loves her daily walks, is not too eager to venture forth. Poor woman. She traveled several thousand miles to visit us (for which I am very happy) and the weather has been so freaking crappy that we've been housebound for most of the month.

Even though it is raining, and is thus warmer than when it was snowing, it's not all that much warmer. In short, very cold rain. Barely too warm for snow and instead miserable cold rain, so it actually seems colder than it did when it snowed. The dogs certainly felt that way. They were outside for about five minutes in rain to do their business and then they all huddled in front of the furnace to get warm:

Three brown dogs and one white one. All I need now is a black dog to provide me with enough dog hair colors to show up on everything. 

In a random change of topic, I tried needle felting the other day. My Local Yarn Shop also carries needle felting supplies so I bought a kit there. I brushed Sasha, my long haired cat, and got a nice supply of fiber and tried making a little cat out of cat hair. Oh c'mon, it's a great idea. Why buy little cat toys when I make them out of the cats themselves? There's a few things I learned about needle felting. 

1. Those frakking needles are sharp. I jabbed myself a few times and drew blood every time.

2. The shaping process is really just a matter of practice, it seems. I got a few books from the library on needle felting, and while there are some basic directions on how to make a ball, a cylinder, or a tube, the directions for making animal shapes are essentially "make a cat/squirrel/dog body shape". My little cat is most definitely an abstract beast. 

3. Sculptural needle felting is actually rather fun. It's rather cathartic to repeatedly stab something (except thumbs and fingers). The process actually gives you quite a bit of control over the sculpture, so it's not as fast (using a single needle) but allows the possibility of very unique pieces.

I also tried my hand at spinning the other day. My friend Rachel from Knit Night invited a group of us over to spin. We all brought our wheels and had a very pleasant time spinning and socializing. The spinning bug hasn't hit me the way the knitting bug did. When I learned to knit, I was very enthralled and Ready to Learn and so was able to work through the learning curve. To be honest, spinning hasn't quite ensnared me. It's more like a theoretical interest than an actual one. I guess I should have figured that out when I got a spinning wheel last summer, stained it and assembled it and then let it sit in the corner until, well, last week. 

Spinning on a wheel is a heck of a lot less difficult than spinning with a drop spindle. In my opinion, drop spindle spinning makes patting your head while rubbing your tummy seem like a walk in the park. That said, wheel spinning is still a lot like learning to drive a stick shift: feet and hands are all doing separate things and it's not so hard to just do one or two things at a time but controlling all extremities is a challenge. (And yes, with drop spindle spinning, both hands are doing all the work that in wheel spinning is distributed between upper and lower limbs.) And I did spin. What I created was complete and utter crap which I didn't even bother to keep but instead cut off the bobbin and threw out. My friend Ickyfishy had given me a handful  of fiber to practice with, and it's really amazing how much fiber it takes to make a little bit of yarn. Fiber is very fluffy and what I thought was a pretty sizable amount of fiber spun up into a very small amount of yarn.  Rachel had received a spinning wheel for Christmas (a complete and utter surprise to her) and apparently had just learned to spin, oh, the day before? But she has been bitten by the Bug and was producing quite lovely yarn. AbsoluteJeanius had some pre-dyed fiber that she was spinning and it was just gorgeous stuff. (She gave me a skein of her handspun for a Christmas gift and I treasure it. It's lovely color, and beautifully textured, and I just have to figure out the Perfect Thing to Make with it.)

It seems that for those of us who dream of making our own yarn that the way to a beautifully colored yarn comes from dyeing the fiber and then spinning it up. Perhaps I've just not seen too many master dyers of yarn (Tina of Blue Moon Fiber Arts being an exception) but for really interesting colors, ones that have depth to them, you have to spin up dyed fiber instead of just dyeing yarn. You can create colors by either blending several fibers that have been dyed various colors and then spinning that or you can dye a large amount of fiber in various colors which blend to certain extent as they are spun. 

So maybe the spinning bug will eventually seize me. I keep trying, slogging through the learning curve until eventually everything will click and I won't have yarn that looks like ass. (Rachel said very encouragingly that master spinners have a very tough time recreating the thick and thin overspun slubby yarn that we beginners produce effortlessly. My thought, as I looked at that fuzzy curly thatch wrapped around my spinning wheel bobbin and which reminded me somewhat uncomfortably of pubic hair was "why would they want to?")

ignorance is bliss

I have mused before on the site meter. I don't get much traffic to this blog but it is still interesting to see who is reading it and where people are coming from.

Most of the traffic here is from people I either know personally or from sites where I am active (mostly raverly). Interestingly, there is a lot of traffic here from people doing a google search for "low cut sweater model" or "fat lady model" which led to the post in which I modeled my handknit sweater. This was at first somewhat creepy and then somewhat amusing but now I am really annoyed. 

Why? 

Because some jerk copied those photos of me in my sweater and pasted them in a fetish blog, and then someone else lamented that he couldn't find any other pictures of me on my site, so someone else copied the pictures in which I'm modeling the hat I made.

I guess what really bugs me is not that these photos turned up at a fetish site; I guess it's to be expected that images are copied and pasted around. I did put photos on teh intarwebz after all, and I understand that the internet is public and posting anything carries a bit of a risk.  But it bugs me that no one asked my permission. Also, these photos of me innocently showing off my sweater are right below a film loop of one guy sticking a mayonnaise jar up his ass, the image of which is now sadly burned into my brain.