Friday Unrelated Information

1. Happy New Year's Eve! I've been so wrapped up in the house and future house plans that I got confused what year it will be yesterday. I plan on having my tonsils out in 2011, not 2012.

2. The Writer's Almanac tells me that in Scotland, there's a New Year's tradition known as "first footing":
...where right after midnight, a person from outside the house scrambles into the house of a neighbor or friend with some small gifts --- becoming the first person to bring good fortune for the new year. In this Scottish tradition, it’s important that the first-footer is a tall dark-haired male.
If any tall dark-haired males with gifts care to visit tonight, I won't turn them away. I'm just saying.

3. And finally, plan your meteor shower watching for 2011 with this handy guide from NASA.

30 Things Wrap Up

Since today is the 30th (yikes), I thought it would make sense to wrap up the 30 Things today. Like last year, there's only about a 50% success rate, but this year there are other things that I'm proud of that cancel out not buying home furnishings or going to restaurants:
- I found a house to buy.
- I didn't drunk-dial or drunk-email or drunk-text any ex-boyfriends. (I am inordinately proud of that.)

But on to the list I put up at the beginning on the year--green is accomplished, yellow is a sort-of accomplished, and red is a no. Commentary is in italics.

1. Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo. DONE! I just dipped into the down payment fund for earnest money and a construction deposit. Hooray for a year of saving!
   
2. Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes. Done! Real Estate for Dummies worked for me!
   
3. Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD) I made it a month and then set some limits, and then I fell for J. Crew again.
   
4. Buy that Eames desk chair. I'll use the money I'll be saving from not buying any non-essentials. I do have a new desk, which I needed more than a chair, so I'm calling this done. (On most home furnishings, I just decided to wait and see what happened with the house hunt.)
   
5. Buy that damn garbage can already. See above.
   
6. Buy a living room chair--armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22. Done!
   
7. Sew new pillow covers for the living room. Done!
   
8. Buy a vacuum. Done!
   
9. Refresh my yoga skills and then...
10. Start doing yoga once or twice a week. Kind of done. I started in June and then slacked off in the late fall and winter, but at least I went enough to realize that I need to go more.
    
11. Get recycling at the apartment. I haven't had it for three years and I'm tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail. Not done. Sorry, Earth--but soon I should have my own recycling!
    
12. Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the break room at work to cut down on waste. Also not done. Apparently I'd rather feel guilty than go to a thrift store...
    
13. November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month. Fail on this one. I guess this was the year of Looking At Houses On The Internet Instead Of Exercising.
    
14. Eat at one new restaurant a month--any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven't been before. I kind of lost count, but I know I didn't go where I planned. I think I'd have a better success rate if I could go to restaurants alone...
    
15. Eat at Red Iguana. Never mind. I'm over you, Red Iguana.
    
16. Go to Bonneville Speed Week. No. It seemed like too much of an insider's club to just drive out to, and the lack of info about it didn't help.
    
17. Go to a roller derby game. Done--but demolition derbies are better.
    
18. Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year). DONE! DONE! DONE! All it took was some color...
    
19. Wear more colors of lipstick than "pink" and "darker pink." I bought red lipstick...
    
20. Find a perfume I want to wear regularly. Done!
    
21. Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it. Done! Yay, booze!
    
22. Have more people over to the apartment--not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc. I was being really social (for me) at the beginning of the year but petered out in spring and summer. I am planning on my New Year's party, though.
23. Learn more about wine. The wine class in January will have to count.
    
24. Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch. They're all whiskey. Bourbon and scotch are just variations of it. (Thanks, Jason!)
    
25. Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac. Likewise, cognac is just a particular type of brandy (from the Cognac region, AOC.)
    
26. Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer. Not yet, but they haven't been bothering me as much.
    
27. Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer. Um, no. But on the medical front I will schedule a visit with ENT before the end of the year (hello, tonsillectomy 2012!)
    
28. Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam. Done! I canned all sorts of things!
    
29. Get a better camera. I've picked out a replacement but I just haven't bought it yet.
    
30. Go to Moab and/or Zion. No. Again, I'd have a better success rate if I went alone, but going on vacation alone when you have a roommate is fun and exciting; going when you live alone is just more of the same, minus your darling cat.

Mine At Last

I like to announce important things on a Wednesday in December, it seems, so here's the big news for this year: I'm under contract to buy a house!

The search was long; the houses were many. I wondered if it was worth it. I wondered if I could go on. I was disappointed and then I was indecisive and then grim determination set in. In the last two weeks of wrangling over offers and addenda there have been innumerable setbacks, but I have emerged triumphant with a signed acceptance on new construction that is only nine blocks south of my desired area.

A new house! That's still being built! That has no upstairs neighbors! That has two bathrooms and room for Toby and modern conveniences like an attached garage! And I am buying it for myself--no one is buying it for me, no one is buying it with me. It's mine...

My own...

MY PRECIOUS!!!

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Homemade Presents

As you know by now, it wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't make things for people. This year my co-workers mostly felt the fury of my crafty storm.

The bosses got the results of my canning:
From the top that's marmalade, rosemary-peach jam, and green tomato chutney.

My work friends got coin purses...

...with contrasting linings!

I did knit something, too: my dad has said several times that he's always wanted a chullo hat. Since I did not get the gene that just wants something and doesn't buy it, I couldn't fathom waiting years and years for a hat and decided it was time to make one for him. So I did:
It's baby alpaca and there are alpacas in the design--douple pacas!

And now I'm going back to sewing for me, I think.

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Well--I hope we all had a Merry Christmas! I'm sorry to disappear on Friday, but I ended up at Instacare for a raging tonsil infection. It was bad enough that I asked my mother to make and deliver chicken soup on Christmas Eve, and then called mid-delivery to ask for ginger ale, too.

But I think the chicken soup and the antibiotics are finally working, because this morning I feel happy! I'm getting better!



I think I'll go for a walk!

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

There's nothing like some Modernist poetry about the end times during the hap-hap-happiest season of the year, right?

The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Merry Christmas To Me

I know this is the season of buying things for others, but I thought I should let everyone know that I finally have my orange coat:
J .Crew, I wish I could quit you!

In either Playback or The Little Sister (sorry, I'm running too late to look it up), Marlowe takes a cigar "out of a handsome leather humidor an admirer had given him last Christmas--the admirer just happening to have the same name as himself." In that spirit, I'm saying this is from an admirer.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Fancy Things

Here are two projects that are very sophisticated, if only because they aren't kitty blankets or baby clothes.

First up is a shiny tunic that one could wear to adult parties where there is champagne and witty conversation (or one could just wear it to a regular party and be overdressed):Fabric is a run-of-the-mill brocade from JoAnn; pattern is from Simplicity.

And here's a fancy scarf, which I made for a friend who's going through a rough time and needed something nice. The pattern is the "Figure Eight Scarf" and it's really just a big tube. But it looks nice on:


Fabric here was a Liberty of London print backed with some cotton velveteen. Here's a picture that's actually in focus:
Fancy!

Get Out Your Druid Robes

Not only is tonight the winter solstice, but there is a full lunar eclipse, too! The last full moon on the solstice was 20 years ago; the last full lunar eclipse on the solstice was December 21, 1638.

Start here on the NASA site to read up about it--they'll even have a live web cam (!). The eclipse should start about 11:30 p.m. tonight, with totality starting Tuesday morning at 12:41 a.m. and ending at 1:53 a.m. The whole thing will be happening in the western sky. I hope it's not cloudy!

(Bonus activity: sing "Total Eclipse of the Moon" to the Bonnie Tyler tune. You're welcome.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Yesterday was Beethoven's birthday. Sorry I missed it, Ludwig!

2. These sci-fi slanted children's book covers have been making the rounds, but they make my heart too happy not to post a couple:


3. And here's the first animated gif I've ever posted--but come on, bees are HILARIOUS.

see more Gifs

Did Judy Garland Ever Sing A Happy Christmas Song?

As you know, she sang "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in Meet Me in St. Louis, which was such a sad song it featured a small child crying during the performance. But just this week I was watching In The Good Old Summertime and there she was singing another wistful little Christmas song:


Poor Judy. You kind of want her to belt out "Joy to the World" next. (Did she?)

New Snow Boots Make A Big Difference In One's Enjoyment Of Snow

Here's a poem about being happy in the snow (about more than boots).

Manna

by Joseph Stroud

Everywhere, everywhere, snow sifting down,
a world becoming white, no more sounds,
no longer possible to find the heart of the day,
the sun is gone, the sky is nowhere, and of all
I wanted in life – so be it – whatever it is
that brought me here, chance, fortune, whatever
blessing each flake of snow is the hint of, I am
grateful, I bear witness, I hold out my arms,
palms up, I know it is impossible to hold
for long what we love of the world, but look
at me, is it foolish, shameful, arrogant to say this,
see how the snow drifts down, look how happy
I am.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Kitty Blankets!

The blankets that I mentioned (and Toby modeled) a week ago got all tied and ready for the shelter over the weekend.

That's a stack of 20 kitty blankets and the elbow of my work friend (I didn't get a chance to ask if she wanted her picture posted or not so I just cropped it).

There were six ladies--including our mothers--tying blankets for a few hours Saturday at my friend's home and it was a lovely time. We'll deliver the blankets to two different shelters this week, along with food and litter and toys.

What is this feeling? Altruism? I think I like it!

Counting My Blessings, For Reals*

1. It was my sister-in-law's birthday yesterday, which I forgot to mention Friday. Happy birthday!

2. My friends offered to help me out of a technical issue with my laptop and iPod. Hooray, friends!

3. I think I found a house to make an offer on. (I don't want to jinx it so you'll have to be patient.)

4. The sun is shining!


*Some blogs I read are taking a "no complaining for a week" challenge. Do you think I can do it? I'm not sure, which is why I haven't taken the challenge, but I'm going to try.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Roger Ebert is still being awesome. His review of the third Narnia movie (which is based on my favorite book of the series but sounds like it's been turned into a CGI-fest) contains too many gems to quote, but I liked this one:
No one knows how far away the Dark Island is. Lucky thing they know in which direction to sail. If they overshoot the island, they may sail off the edge of the Earth, Columbus having not existed in Narnia.

2. Have you all seen the Hungover Owls blog? Yes, I said hungover owls.

3. I knew there was a good reason why Toby doesn't get his picture taken with Santa:
This picture makes my heart so happy.

Counting My Blessings

I've been joking lately about "First World Problems," such as not being able to find a suitable new and fancy house, or being irritated with aspects of my specialized office job, or not liking any of the coughfivecough winter coats I have, and you know what? Those are not even problems. It just took Irving Berlin and Bing to remind me.

"Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep," from White Christmas:

Space!

I know I just posted a space picture from the Big Picture Advent Calendar, but this one is REALLY cool:

Each of those specks is a galaxy--which in turn has billions (and billions) of stars in it. The photo caption tells me that, "The amount of mass in this sea of galaxies is huge, and is great enough to visibly bend the fabric of spacetime." Mind boggling!

(And speaking of spacetime, have all the Dr. Who fans seen this video? Jason wrote about it Monday and it made my day.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: !!!!!!

What's this?
No, this isn't for a friend or a co-worker's baby. I haven't lost it and started making clothes for Toby. And I don't have any personal scandal I need to confess. There's a much better explanation:

I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a BOY! It's their first and the first baby on our side of the family at all, so we are all VERY EXCITED.

As you can see, I have some projects planned. I actually have enough projects planned to keep the kid dressed until he's about three, I think. And don't get me going on the toys to make and buy, and the trips to the park to take, and the storybooks to read, and all the free babysitting I will offer...

Very excited indeed! Hooray!

Things That Happened Over The Weekend

1. I had to wake up my upstairs neighbor and tell him his dishwasher was flooding. How did I know this? My ceiling was leaking.

2. I took my parents to see a potential house that wouldn't have any issues caused by an upstairs neighbor, but on a second visit I decided it wasn't The One.

3. I enjoyed some (a lot of) wine while watching my imaginary boyfriend in The Nutcracker.

4. I got some polar fleece kitty blankets ready for a kitty-blanket-tying party next week. (My work friend and I cooked up an idea to donate supplies to local shelters for Christmas.)

5. Toby helped:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. One month from today is my birthday. I don't think I'm going to have a very good success rate on the 30 Things.

2. I'm reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy again after a lapse of about fifteen years. Now that I've seen some Dr. Who, I realize how derivative the book was. It's still fun, though--gotta love Marvin the Paranoid Android.

3. Something to remember:

(From here.)

When I'm Feeling Blah, I LIke To Look At Space Pictures

Yes, it's that time again: The Big Picture Blog of the Boston Globe has the third annual Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar up. Get a new space picture a day from now until Christmas!

Because if you're wrapped up in your first-world problems and feeling irritated and put-upon, a picture of new stars forming in a nebula 7,500 light years away really puts things into perspective.
(More details, including a Lord of the Rings reference--thanks, NASA!)

Early Onset Of Winter

The snow came early and deep this year, and I'm trying to be resigned because we have three more months of it. But I think a new winter coat would help me be more resigned. Since I decided I didn't want to make an orange one, I found some colorful alternatives*--because we're going to need color to get through this.

J. Crew, finally on sale a little:


Vintage plaid on Etsy:

And a vintage CAPE (!):

Of course, with a cape you can't wear a bag over your shoulder, so I'd need to get a new winter purse, too. I'd take this one if someone were giving them away:
Oh hai, typewriter purse. You should live with me.


*I have plenty of warm coats already and none of these (especially that purse) are in the budget, but just indulge me in my First World Problem, OK?