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.  

  

Cabin fever update

The snow has almost completely melted , and it was finally possible to take a neighborhood walk without any extra risk to life and limb. (just the usual risks associated with crappy sidewalks and drivers wearing virtual blinders). Gusano Medidor and I took Kate for a walk this afternoon, and it was nice to stretch my legs. I admit that I'm usually a pretty contented homebody, but even I was starting to feel cabin-feverish and wanted to go out. I could only take Kate because Seamus's foot is still healing and I haven't been able to leash train Sheba and Simba yet. It's Kate's last walk for awhile because tomorrow she's going to the vet to have a growth removed from her toe. It's a pretty simple procedure and I'm sure will heal quickly, but I'm guessing that a long walk is out of the question. 

Oscar, G.M., and I went to The Mall today to get GM's giftmas gift. (Don't look at me like that. I didn't know what she wanted until she got here and then the whole area has been snowed in.) She wanted some walking shoes and found just what she wanted at Nordstroms. My friends tease me that I shop just like a guy. I never enter a shop unless I have a pretty good idea of what I want and am ready to buy. I hate the mall with a passion and while we were there, we had to go to Macy's because Nordstrom didn't have the other thing GM wanted (much to my surprise). We found what she needed at Macy's (and at 50% off! a pleasant surprise this time) and even though we had been in the Mall for about 2o minutes total, I was all ready to leave. It wasn't even that crowded but I could already feel the werewolf-like change from fairly-laid back, somewhat mellow person to uptight and bitchy woman starting to happen. (So why even go to the Mall, you ask? Well, as far as I know, item #2 is only available in department stores, which tend to be located in malls.)  If Nordstrom hadn't let me down by not having item #2, we would have been in and out of there before any anxiety had started (instead of making a hasty retreat as anxiety started to set in). 

I don't hate all shopping. I like browsing in bookstores. I like going to yarn shops. I don't even mind shopping if it's in a market-type environment instead of a mall. I really hate the artificiality of the suburban shopping mall. The only mall that doesn't give me hives is University Center in Seattle, and that's probably because each shop actually exits to the outside instead of to a giant room with artificial lighting.  

And (tangentially) speaking of yarn, I am working on the first project in about two months that hasn't turned to crap. I went to my LYS (local yarn shop) this afternoon to finally purchase the books that I'd ordered. They arrived over a week ago, but I hadn't been able to get there until yesterday. While there, I noticed some skeins of Noro Kuyeron yarn on the sale table. Noro is a Japanese company that specializes in multicolored yarns, and they are often quite beautiful. Most multicolored yarns I'm familiar with are made by dyeing sections of a large skein of yarn, but Noro creates multicolored yarn by spinning several colors in sequence. Since the new color is added bit by bit, each color transitions gradually and they tend to be quite beautiful. (I say "tend to" because often a color sequence will have a color which I Just Don't Like.) Anyway, one of the popular project in knitting world recently has been this scarf using two different colorways knit in an extremely simple pattern of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing and switching the colorways every two rows. Anyway, I saw this yarn for sale and asked G.M. if she were interested in a scarf. She said yes, and so off I went. (And yes, if I were a real frugalista, I would have waited one day to buy the yarn because the next day, everything in the store went on sale and even stuff on the sale rack would be further discounted. But I wasn't sure I'd make it back before the clearance rack was cleared out, and besides, I really like my LYS and support her as often as I can. That's why I order knitting books from her instead of from Amazon or Powells.) 

I may have mentioned before that I really don't like making scarves. And usually I don't. But for some reason this scarf is really holding my attention. The stitch pattern of knit one, purl one is quite rhythmic and therefore soothing. The colors of each yarn are constantly changing and each row is rather short so it is rather intriguing to see what will happen next. One of the yarns is in a very neutral colorway probably best described as "greige". You know, light grey to dark grey to light brown to dark brown to charcoal to black. This "greige" colorway provides a lovely balance to the other colorway which so far has transitioned from rust red-burnt orange-bright orange-muddy red-green-purple-magenta-dark magenta-deep greenish black. 

This is one seriously gorgeous scarf. I can't believe that I've already knitted half of it since I only started it yesterday. But the colors are so bewitching! I hope she likes it, 'cuz if she doesn't, I may just keep it for myself. 

let it snow?

It's snowing again!

Actually, it seems to be starting as snow and then turning into rain about four feet above the ground. 

I'm getting mighty sick of this...

frakkin' cat

Ok, the house is now enveloped in that toxic gas cloud that means that a cat has just taken a dump. 

So, good cat human that I am, I immediately go to clean the litter box...and there's nothing in the box except clean litter.

This means that a cat...and I'm blaming Sasha here...has defecated somewhere outside the litter box. Given that it's 2:30 am, and Oscar's mom is asleep (I hope) on the couch, I can't turn on all the lights looking for said pile of cat crap and have to wait until morning. All I can hope is that he crapped on a dog blanket and not on the carpet. 

I know that some of my readers (cherished all!) are cat people or at least know cats better than I do. Can anyone help? What can I do? I can handle the 200+lbs of dogs in my house with no problem but I live in stark terror of a 10lb cat and his bodily functions.

ah, sweet slumber, I hardly knew ye

After a blissful week of sleeping soundly through the night, my insomnia has returned.

Oh well. At least I have tomorrow off, even though I'm still getting up early (or maybe just staying up) to give Oscar a ride to the transit center. This makes me a bit nervous, to be honest. Given the several inches of snow/ice outside, I'm not exactly thrilled about having to drive. All routes involve steep hills, so getting there really won't be a problem because gravity is friend you can always rely on but getting back up those hills is going to be more of a challenge.  

It is REALLY is a winter storm

For an area that doesn't get much snow, we've certainly gotten a lot of it this week. It's snowing again, and our area is forecast to get 3-8 inches (8 to 20 cm). 

I've already swept the front steps three times today and should probably do it one more time before I go to bed. 

Sweep the steps? No, I don't have a snow shovel. It doesn't snow much here, remember? Sweeping works just fine.

Good news!!

Simba was accepted by Bulls Eye Dog Rescue!  Yay! We will still foster him until he has found his forever home, but I'm really happy that they accepted him because it means we'll be part of their network and resources. And they are very strict about the adoptive homes so the odds are very good that the forever home will be a good match for human and hound. 

And since they only accept ambassadors of the breed, this means my instincts were correct and he really is a great dog. 

He passed his temperament test with flying colors. As they said, they acted as rude as they could be possibly be in dog culture terms. In essence, trying to provoke him. And he was mellow throughout everything. One of the volunteers even picked him up and held him upside down for a few seconds. I think he was a bit startled but he didn't growl or snap.  

Seattle has a snow freakout even without any snow!

Seriously, snow was forecast yesterday so all the schools were cancelled.

Not a single flake fell in Seattle area. To the north, lots. To the south, tons. But in Seattle and immediate environs? Nada. To paraphrase the weather service, if the snow were a doughnut, Seattle would would be the hole.

It made up for it today though. Yesterday in T-town, we got aabout 1-2 inches, which mostly melted during the day. Last night we got about 2 more inches but conditions weren't all that bad. The roads were clear. But we figured something was up because while waiting for the bus to Seattle, the station agent told us that the bus trips were taking two hours (it's normally 45-60 minutes). So we waited 1/2 hour for the last commuter train and when the train pulled into Tukwila (about 10 miles south of downtown Seattle), I understood why traffic was so bad. It was snowing really heavily and it was near white-out conditions. 

And it snowed heavily all day. Offices were sending their employees home (half of our office didn't even make it in today). Even the local Starbucks was closing its doors at 1pm. Oscar's office closed at 3pm. Given how long the bus trips were taking this morning, we both decided to take an early train home. The train is wonderful. Never affected by traffic, and almost never affected by bad weather. 

Note I said almost never.  We took the 4:20, pulled out of the station, traveled the six miles to the Georgetown area...and sat there for almost 40 minutes. The intercom wasn't working in the car we were in but one of the staff came by and said there was ice on the rails, so we had to sit. An inconvenience for us, but really, really crappy for the folks waiting at Tukwila for the train. Most of the train stations are part of transit centers and are really quite nice. Tukwila exists essentially for workers at Boeing and there's nothing there except a parking lot for shuttle buses and it's next to a swamp. The platform is literally plywood. There's no place for them to go, no businesses around, and no building to huddle inside. These poor folks were out there in the cold for almost an hour but no one complained when the train finally arrived. I think they were all too cold to do anything but shiver. 

No problems until the final stretch when the train stopped again for another 20 minutes, just outside of Tacoma. 

Despite the two hour train ride, I'm glad we decided to leave early. The train I normally take was cancelled.

baby, it's cold outside

It doesn't get all that cold here in the Pacific Northwest, but there are a few days out of the year when it does feel like "real" winter. 

Like now. The ground is frozen, it snowed all day, but the really good thing is that now I can wear my alpaca sweater.

My mother in law gave me a drop-dead gorgeous Millma sweater a few years ago, and it's truly the most beautiful thing I own. It's not a heavy sweater but alpaca is really warm and sadly, it's just not cold enough here to wear it very often. 

But I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow. No doubt my colleagues won't recognize me in anything besides my usual jeans and hoodie.

good thing I love animals

1. I have to figure out a way to hobble Seamus to keep him from putting weight on his foot. Every sling Oscar and I have managed to create, he has managed to figure out a way to literally put his foot down.

2. It's all out war between me and Sasha at the moment. He's had issues with urinating outside of the litterbox sporadically since we got him (although, as far as I can tell, he hasn't sprayed since we found Eddie a new home). The vet suggested Feliway, which didn't seem to do a damn thing. But this afternoon, he used the litterbox  and I immediately cleaned it (stinky) and a few minutes later he went into the office and promptly defecated on the carpet.  I tried to grab him to toss him in the shower but the little bugger fled (I did this the last time I caught him spraying, and as far as I know, it worked since I don't think he's done it since.) He's always defecated in the box before unless he's been outside, so I don't know what the hell is going on right now. I'm still furious and he's outside but I feel a bit guilty because it's below freezing right now. 

3. Sheba got a bath, and while I could not coax her past the bathroom door (even using cheese!), and had to pick her up and carry her into the tub,  she was wonderfully behaved during the bath. Didn't put up a fuss. Didn't try to jump out of the tub. And she smells better now. 

4. This dog stew idea is working out quite well. (Remember, this is stew FOR dogs, not stew OF dogs.) It does stretch the kibble although it's not a big savings; however, the dogs love it and they will eat their dinner immediately. Both Seamus and Kate were grazers...I'd feed them morning and evening, and they'd nibble from their dishes during the day. This doesn't work with having Simba and Sheba around. Kate loves the stew and she'll clean her bowl right away. It's also becoming a good way to use up leftover veggies from our own cooking as well as using up the less-than-loved veggies that come in the produce delivery. (Celery root? bleah.) 

EDIT--it's snowing so I let the little f*cker back in, although the snowflakes looked quite lovely on his black fur.

Are you smarter than a 5th grader--UK edition

Here's a sample of the type of test that used to be administered in UK schools to 11 year olds whose academic future depended on how well they scored. 

I'm pleased to admit that I would have passed and gone on to grammar school, but very humbled that I didn't get a perfect score, considering that I'm 39 and well-educated. 

Go ahead. Take it. I dare you. I double dog dare you to post your score in the comments section! 

you can't make this stuff up

overheard this conversation on the way into the office:

street person, talking to police officer: "This is what scabies looks like"

police officer: "Oh, so you have scabies, then?"

street person: "no, this is just some dried skin. But that's what scabies looks like."

in which my friend plays with her new iPhone

Someday, I'll learn to smile without smirking. Oscar looks a bit uncomfortable, no?

'cuz you just can't have enough memes in blogland

Nine Places I've Been

1. La Paz Bolivia

2. Cochabamba, Bolivia

3. Uppsala, Sweden

4. Boschenhoofd, Netherlands

5. London

6. New York City

7. Montevideo, Uruguay

8. Buenos Aires, Argentina

9. Pittsburgh, PA

Eight Ways to Win My Heart

1. Enjoy reading books

2. Tidying up after yourself

3. Opening the door when my arms are full of parcels but leaving me be otherwise

4. Like to cook

5. Have traveled outside of the US

6. Be a native English speaker with a non-USian accent (Australian, Scottish, Irish, Northern English, Southern English...I find them all very charming)

7. Like dogs

8. Be self-confident without arrogance

Seven Things I Want to Do Before I Die

1. Get out of debt

2. Finish graduate school

3. Visit Antarctica

4. Visit El Salvador

5. Visit Iceland

6. Visit New Zealand

7. Visit Japan

Six Things I'm afraid of

1. rats

2. dancing in public

3. my car catching on fire

4. getting laid off

5. having nothing but Lipton's tea or Folger's coffee to drink

6. something terrible happening to the animals in my care

Five Things I don't like

1. goat cheese

2. dill weed

3. ill-tempered, little yappy dogs

4. home repair 

5. mowing the lawn

Four Things Ways to Turn Me Off

1. own an ill-tempered, little yappy dog

2. talk on a cell-phone whilst driving

3. tell me to "just Google it" if I ask you a question

4. not tidy up after yourself

Three Things I do everyday

1. knit

2. read

3. take a walk

Two Things That Make Me Happy

1. a freshly made pot of good tea

2. a day at work where there is plenty of work to keep me busy and all of it interesting

One Thing on my mind right now

1. I'm glad Seamus is going to be all right.

glass half full

Seamus is limping because he's broken his toe, and the toe is not broken because a tumor shattered it. 

Just a basic broken toe, and like most broken toes, there's not much you can do for it. He's too big for a splint so he just needs to stay off it until it heals.  (Right now I'm really amused because he had to be sedated for the x-rays and he is totally stoned. Normally, he's hyperactive at the vet's office and can't stop jumping around but when the tech brought him back out, he just kind of sank down onto the floor and lay there, wagging his tail.)

So no walks for Seamus now either.  

'tis time to leash train the foster dogs so that I can get some exercise! 

glass half empty

Seamus is limping. 

I noticed it this morning when he came inside after his potty break and so I figured he stepped on something. I didn't notice anything in his paw pads so figured he may have just twisted/sprained/stepped wrong. 

10 hours later and he's still limping. He holds his paw up and won't put any weight on it. I give him a tablet of Deramaxx (an pain med for dogs) to see if that helps. I'm a bit concerned giving him this medication because our dog Rose died because of a reaction to it (it ulcerated her bowel, and she died of internal bleeding). While I know that Rose's case was very unusual, and at recommended doses Deramaxx is a good drug, please believe me that I'm still a bit spooked by Rose's experience and I only gave it to him because Seamus was in pain. 

However, an hour later, and the drug seems to have had no effect. He's still limping and won't put weight on his paw. 

In my experience (what I call the "Year of the Three Rottweilers"*), an older dog that suddenly starts limping and the pain doesn't respond to a non-opiate pain med has meant only one thing. A really bad thing. Seamus isn't all that old (he's about 7 or 8) but old enough to fall into the "increased risk of osteosarcoma" category.  Osteosarcoma is not really treatable.  From what I understand, by the time it becomes obvious (a limp), the tumor is growing enough to have started to break the bone (which is what causes the pain). Also, it's likely to have metastasized by that time. 

I will wait and see if his limp goes away. If it seems worse, I will take him to the vet and brace myself. 

*The Year of the Three Rottweilers: 

Rottweiler #1: Haida

When we found out that Haida was suffering the disease in her foreleg, our only options were euthanasia or amputation. We elected amputation, even though her chances of surviving more than a few months were only 50-50. (This should give you a good idea of how much we loved that dog to elect a procedure in which her prognosis was essentially a toss of the coin.) She did survive the operation, and was recovering quite nicely but the disease had spread to her brain and three weeks after her operation, she suffered a string of seizures and died. 

Rottweiler #2: Carla

We adopted her a few months after Haida's death. In my grief, I was looking at Petfinder and came across her at the Humane Society in Kelso, WA. She had been in the shelter for a long time and had terrible calluses on her elbows and knees from sleeping on concrete. She was a total sweetheart. She turned out to be deaf, which wasn't a problem for us, but she also had a slight limp, which turned out to be a really big problem. In a single day, that slight limp turned into an inability to move without crying out in pain, so we took her to the vet and found she had a tumor in one of the vertebrae in her lower back. Amputation was not an option, so three weeks after we'd adopted her, we had her euthanized. It bothered me so much that her calluses hadn't healed; obviously, her time was limited anyway, and I'm still glad she spent her last three weeks with us instead of in that filthy kennel, but her calluses were healing nicely. The hair was starting to grow back, as the vet noted while she was injected that bright pink solution of death. I was very startled by her comment, and wanted to yell "What the frack are you talking about her calluses healing right now? You are euthanizing my dog!"

Rottweiler #3--Rose

We got Rose a few months after Carla died when my friend who runs a pet shop in Seattle told me about a woman who came in with her two foster Rotties, and after interacting with the dogs, he thought Rose would be a perfect dog for us. It turned out, he was right. She was the third in a row of fantastically tempered and wonderful Rottweilers. After taking Rose in for shots, the vet staff asked us where we found such consistently wonderful dogs. (Every single one was rescued from a shelter. Rose came to the private rescue group from Spokane Animal Shelter.) But Rose did suffer from joint pain, which is not unusual for larger dogs which is why she went on the Deramaxx. And although she never exceeded the recommended dose, she reacted to it and died very suddenly a few months after we got her. (I made the vet perform a necropsy, which was admittedly very difficult for him but this is how we found out how she died.) 

Prop 8--the musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Two and a half minutes of amusement

four dogs is a lot to have underfoot but...

the amusement factor of watching four dogs simultaneously eating peanut butter is incredibly high.

Houston, we have a problem

What you see are four single, handknit socks arranged left to right in the order I knitted them. These are all socks I knit for myself and wear.

The careful observer will notice a few things:

1. The foot size changes from left to right. 

Yes, the one on the left was my first knitted sock and I used needles that were too large for the yarn. These socks would fit someone with a really wide or swollen foot. I wear these as sleeping socks to keep my feet warm.

2. The cuffs get steadily longer

Very true. Cuffs are usually ribbed and I find 2x2 ribbing to be the most pathetically dull and boring stitch pattern to do. (This is where you alternate 2 knit stitches with 2 purl stitches. It's not the only ribbing pattern that can be done; but I hate to admit it, it's a really great rib pattern for socks but it stretches a lot but holds its shape.) The sock on the left is more like an anklet, the green sock just covers my ankles, and the next two are a more "proper" length. The really careful observer will note the two on the right, the ones with the "proper" length legs, only have a very short section of ribbing at the top and the rest of the leg is done in plain stockingette (plain knit stitch). Yes, I realized I'm making these socks for me, so I can do whatever the frack I like and I don't have to knit 7 inches (18cm) of ribbing of any pattern if I don't want to.

3. There's only a single sock of each pair.

This is the problem. These are all handknit socks, and each sock represents about 8 hours of work, and each of these used to have a twin.  I wear my handknit socks exclusively but I seem to have lost these socks' mates. I'm bummed about all losing all these mates but especially about the one on the right. I just finished that pair about a month ago. 

**EDIT** found the orange mate.

Meet the new fosters

This is Simba; he's hard to photograph because he wants to be as near you as possible.

Another action shot.

Yes, that's a big smile! This guy's a total sweetheart, although he may challenge Seamus in the "who can lick Luneray's face the most" department.

This is Sheba. She is also usually smiling but she really needed to go out at that moment.

So far, they've both been good with the cats. Maggie had to teach Simba some manners because he was invading her personal space but he and Sasha seemed to hit it off right away. It'd be great if Sasha could have another dog buddy.  

insomnia inspired meme

I'm not tagging anyone, but I'd be happy to read your own answers in a comment. 

1. Magazines Subscribed To: Archaeology, Current World Archaeology, Atlantic Monthly, Interweave Knits, Piecework, Vogue Knitting.  The Atlantic Monthly and Vogue Knitting will probably not be renewed. Vogue Knitting because I don't think it's as interesting as I'd thought it would be and Atlantic Monthly because I never get around to reading it even though I know it's one of the good cerebral magazines to actually subscribe to. Yes, this seems like a lot of magazines but all except for Atlantic Monthly are bimonthly or quarterly so it's not like I'm overwhelmed with glossy paper. 

2. Aside from knitting, my favorite pastimes are: reading, writing, listening to audiobooks, playing video games

3. If I were not a _____________(insert your own profession here), I'd be a: dudes, trust me when I tell you I never dreamt about being a transportation engineer when I was a kid, or even an adult for that matter. Good grief, I didn't even study engineering in the university! (I did get a degree in Geology, as well as do graduate study in Scandinavian Literature, because Geology so obviously leads to literary studies.)  But I'd still love to be a university professor. 

4. I am irrationally worried about: my car catching on fire. 

5. If I were the opposite sex: I'd probably never really appreciate the awesomeness of being able to pee standing up. (Ok, as a female, I certainly can pee standing up, so I should qualify this by saying "peeing standing up without drenching yourself in your own urine".)

6. The thing I miss most about childhood is: y'know, I don't really miss being a kid. There's really nothing about either the emotional or physical stages of childhood that I'm nostalgic about. Well, I wouldn't mind being flat-chested again...but now that I think about it, I used to have a really powerful and creative imagination, which I'd love to have again. I don't really think I have an imagination anymore; that's been replaced by daydreams and fantasies. Not unpleasant, but not the same. 

7. I like to collect: I'm trying not to collect anything but I seem to constantly acquire new knitting paraphenelia, whether it's yarn or needles or stitch markers. I also have a talent for acquiring homeless animals. 

8. Though I've never been there, I feel inexplicably homesick for: New Zealand. I cannot explain my love for this place. (And this existed before the Lord of the Rings films, thank you very much)

9. I've never really liked to eat: I'm not a picky eater but I'm not a big fan of pie. (Pumpkin pie excluded but even then I usually just eat the pumpkin custard and leave the bottom and edge crusts.) 

10. When I have nightmares, they are usually about:  I don't have nightmares because that would require an imagination. I just have anxieties, and that usually centers around a loss of independence.

note to self

don't rub eyes after applying muscle balm to affected limb. 

in a word, ouch. 

in several words, owowowowowowowohmygodwhereissalinesolutionwillthisstuffrinseoutholyf*ckitfrackin'burns!