Eeeeeeeeeeek!

It's Halloween, and if you're a Celt it's Samhain tomorrow, and that means it's just six weeks until the winter solstice, and if you're me you may begin a prolonged and escalating freakout as you contemplate 2013, so what do you? 

You pet your cat, you see your nephew tonight in his costume, and you look at this picture from your brother's blog yesterday.

You may also listen to this.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Wrapping Up Little Things

I've been meaning to finish that rayon dress for the last two weekends but fall yard cleanups have pushed it back, so it's still sleeveless. But I did get some little things done (literally, tee hee): 

Tiny 4 ounce jars of green tomato chutney: 

And Skyler's sweater, which is just waiting on toggle closures to arrive on the Wells Fargo wagon today.

Monday Poem

From today's Writer's Almanac, by Denise Levertov:

Bedtime 
We are a meadow where the bees hum,
mind and body are almost one

as the fire snaps in the stove
and our eyes close,

and mouth to mouth, the covers
pulled over our shoulders,

we drowse as horses drowse afield,
in accord; though the fall cold

surrounds our warm bed, and though
by day we are singular and often lonely.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. This is pretty much the best scathing restaurant review I've read, of Guy Fieri's new restaurant in Times Square, full of utterances like: 

Mr. Fieri not only serves truly horrible-tasting food, an awkward origami of clashing aleatory flavors, but he serves this punishing food emulsified with a bombastic recasting of deep-fried American myth.

 and

When they come, the fries are a sticky supernatural orange simulacrum of a former potato, fried to paralysis.

2. The Rifftrax live Birdemic screening didn't disappoint. I leave you with "slpnls":

Shock And Terror...And Awesome

I think if you've been reading for a while you know that I love Mystery Science Theater 3000. I saw the final seasons on TV in high school and then rediscovered it online, along with Rifftrax (a new venture with Mike and the voices of Servo and Crow riffing current movies as a voiceover track).

Well, the Rifftrax crew is riffing the 2010 "hit" Birdemic: Shock And Terror live and broadcast to theaters tonight, and I'm going. Check out the official trailer (yes, the official trailer) to see what I have in store for me, and then imagine the possibilites for riffing:



That's all for now, though. I gotta go, I hear a mountain lion! 

Let's Just Get This Over With

I have election fatigue. Here's an infographic from Google that sums the last debate, I think:

Beyond the "horses and bayonets" moment, though, there's only so much "I'm the opposite of the other guy and I'm right!" you can hear.

So go vote--especially if you're a woman, because you haven't had that right for even a century and you gotta cling to the rights you have in this election. (I'm just sayin'.)


Also, this: 

Tuesday Project Roundup: It's Not Too Soon

If you're a crafty type who's really slowed down lately, it's not too soon to be thinking about what you will make for The Holidays. 

Things will need to be made for neighbors and party hosts:

This will be green tomato chutney--if you haven't take out your garden yet, find the Joy of Cooking recipe and make some!

Things will need to be made for friends:

And things will need to be made for kitties: 

I might need to take a day off just to sew. 
  

It's Monday

Stand on it like it's a tree stump and you're a tiny mountain explorer on another weekend hike. (See more pics on my brother's blog!)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I did my annual Halloween-ish viewing of the 1986 David Bowie movie Labyrinth this week--but now I have to go watch the Flight of the Conchords parody immediately after the movie ends ("Labyrinth-era David Bowie" starts at about 3:00 but it's all brilliant).

2. The Writer's Almanac posted something nice and hippie-ish today:

A Prayer Among Friends 
 by John Daniel 

Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive
with one another, we walk here
in the light of this unlikely world
that isn't ours for long.
May we spend generously
the time we are given.
May we enact our responsibilities
as thoroughly as we enjoy
our pleasures. May we see with clarity,
may we seek a vision
that serves all beings, may we honor
the mystery surpassing our sight,
and may we hold in our hands
the gift of good work
and bear it forth whole, as we
were borne forth by a power we praise
to this one Earth, this homeland of all we love.

Space News

Did you hear that astronomers at the European Southern Observatory have found a plant orbiting Alpha Centauri B, the closest star system to our own? 

It's not remotely Earth-like (small and really hot), but this is a really cool discovery because 1) we figured out it was there in a pretty sophisticated process after looking for a planet in the system for decades and not finding anything, and 2) as Phil Plait says in the same link above: 

This is Alpha Centauri! Famed and fabled in a thousand science fiction stories. It’s where the Robinson family was supposed to go in "Lost in Space". It’s where Zefram Cochrane lived in "Star Trek". It’s where the Fithp came from in Footfall...So I, and a lot of people like me, grew up hoping against hope we’d find a planet around one of these stars someday. And here we are.

And it's just a matter of time until we find planets that are actually Earth-like, I bet. Go humans!

"How much for your women? I want to buy your women!"

Last night's presidential debate was awfully shouty but made for some good (worrisome) entertainment, at least for this female voter. Let's start with one that blew up the internet: The "binders full of women" quote from Mitt, which was his response to a question asking what each candidate would do to help close the pay gap between women and men.

"And I said: ‘Well, gosh, can't we find some women that are also qualified?’ And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said: ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women."

 (Emphasis mine throughout.) More context and quotes can be found right here, including the very next breath when he went on to say: 

I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible.

What is with the "if," Mittens? Women are in the workforce. And they're in the workforce not as some sort of runner-up to being moms, or because they don't have someone supporting them, but because they are humans who need jobs to live, just like most other American humans regardless of genitalia. 

Dear god. This reaction gif of women in the audience (from yet another priceless moment, in which he said that two [heterosexual, naturally] parent families are the way to stop gun violence)  pretty much sums up my feelings:

 

PS, the title of the post is, of course, from here.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Progress

Good crafty news: I finished the real knitting part on Skyler's sweater last night. Now I just need to sew up the hood seam at the top and figure out how I want to do the buttons. 

In other good news, I successfully dyed that sweatshirt dress to a more muted turquoise. Hooray for liquid Rit dye and my big kitchen sink!

Before

After! There's more of a difference in real life.

Hiking With Skyler!

I went up Millcreek Canyon with my brother and sister-in-law and Skyler (in the backpack) yesterday. It was a perfect fall day! 

 

Skyler thought nature was pretty delicious. 

Friday Unrelated Information

1. This tune has been in my head lately. Just remember it the next time you need to shake something off;


2. I start a new job Monday, whee! Let's keep this inspirational message in mind:

Happy Belated Birthday, Camille

Tuesday was the birthday of composer Camille Saint-Saens, the Frenchman who wrote such pieces as "The Carnival of the Animals" and the "Organ Sympony" (#3). Even though I played the Organ Symphony back in the day, I can never hear the last movement now without thinking of the movie Babe.

3+2 Things: The +1

I haven't been blogging about my 3 quantitative and 2 qualitative goals for the year of being 32 very much, but I've been working on them behind the scenes. Remember the first qualitative goal?

+1. Be happier in my work
This is qualitative for now because I don't know what it's going to take for me to be happier. Just an attitude adjustment? Some internal changes at my current job? A different ad gig? A radical career shift? I've been pondering this for a while now, but I'm still "living my way into the answer."

Well, Rilke will be happy to know that I finally found the answer: As of Monday I'm starting a new job as a writer. I'm leaving ad agency life and software clients (and downtown SLC) behind and going to work in-house at a craft company. It's a big change, but I think it was time to shake things up--and I'm pretty excited about it. 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Beat The Calendar

I'm trying to finish up the current projects so Skyler can have his sweater while he still fits in it and I can get a few more things sewn before it's too cold to wear anything but sweaters and boots.

For Skyler's sweater, there's a sleeve done now. I think I can get this wrapped up in the next couple of weeks.

For sewing, the rayon that was a pile of pieces is now a dress front and a somewhat reduced pile of pieces. It's looking really "Little House on the Prairie Maternity" right now but I have hopes that it will get better as I add more parts.

Camping For People Who Lie About Being The Outdoor Type (Or At Least Exaggerate It)

I can't even call this a day trip since we drove up Little Cottonwood in the morning to get a site, got breakfast on the way down the canyon and continued our day, and then came back at dark with soup and camping gear. City camping is the best! And my down bag is rated to at least 28 degrees, which was the low Sunday morning.

 

(Pictures from Sunday morning before we packed up and drove back to my place, where there was central heating.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Yesterday brother posted about my dad's latest balloon creation for Skyler (a fireman's hat!) and included this picture. If this doesn't make you happy, I think you're broken. 

2. I just discovered the Yummy Books blog, which takes foods from literature and cooks them. It's recipes and quotes--perfect!

Skyler Says

"It's Thursday! My grandpa makes me balloon animals! I'm eating tiny food!"

Enjoy.

Best Grandpa Ever

My little nephew Skyler loves balloons. This has inspired my dad to learn how to make balloon animals for him, thus earning the title of "Best Grandpa Ever."

Making balloon animals had come up in the past and I'd guessed that YouTube had some tutorials. But Dad found a local clown (literally; I'm not being mean) who teaches classes and got instruction first-hand. (He also got a red nose to wear while making the balloon animals.) Then Dad had to go to a place called House Of Chuckles (!) to get a supply of animal-making balloons. And now he's practicing every day so he can surprise Skyler with new animals every week.

I'm really resisting italics here because every part of this story delights me. You know what else is delightful? This monkey. And my dad. 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Of Course This Is Going To End Well

I've been pulling fall and winter clothes out of storage and assessing what to hold on to for another season and what I'm really not going to wear any more. I found this sweatshirt dress I made last year and realized I never wore it very much because of the color.

I have a clown-like love of bright colors but in this case it made me feel like a great big cyan color swatch (it's considerably brighter in person than in the photo). So this is happening: 

I don't have a particularly successful track record of dyeing things, but I figure that if it doesn't turn out well I'll just have a dress I don't wear, which is pretty much the current situation anyway.  Stay tuned!

Bravery

I haven't had an inspirational hippie quote to start off the week in a while. Here's one for today (source):

The truth is that meaningful change is a process. It can be uncomfortable and is often risky, especially when we’re talking about embracing our imperfections, cultivating authenticity, and looking the world in the eye and saying, "I am enough."

However afraid we are of change, the question that we must ultimately answer is this: What the greater risk? Letting go of what people think or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It’s about cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, "No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough."

OK. Let's do this.