Friday Unrelated Information

It's been a tricky week, as I'm sure you've been able to tell from the shortness of the posts, but here are some things that made me happy online:  

1. GRUMPY CAT. Guys, I'm losing my edge--I didn't even know this was a meme!

2. An elephant helping a man play some ragtime on the piano:


3. And this gif from the last season of Mad Men. Someday I will re-create it.

Writerly Birthdays

Today is the birthday of both Madeleine L'Engle (A Wrinkle In Time), Louisa May Alcott (Little Women), and my buddy Clive, aka C.S. Lewis (Narnia!).

Making Me Happy

It's not a hippie quote today. It's not a space picture (although there is a penumbral lunar eclipse happening). Instead, it's cat-bounce.com! Just go and make those kitties bounce. You won't be sorry. Meow! 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Starting, Finishing, In Progress

Over the long weekend I made a valiant effort to finish (or at least start) a few projects in the queue, in between eating pie for breakfast.

Another pair of boot toppers for a friend are DONE:

 The rayon dress has sleeves and half a collar (but is still looking a little Laura Ingalls Wilder; I'm not sure about this one):

And 4 out of 8 kitty blankets are cut out (but not fringed). Maybe my helper needs to be a little more helpful:

Again

Another weekend, another hike in Millcreek, another chance to smirk at nature.

Look at that air! People, you need to stop idling your cars.

Gratitude

 

“Finding our attitude of gratitude may be a difficult task, but the more we learn to return thanks, the more space we make for new unexpected blessings to appear in our lives. There is no substitute for finally acknowledging the blessings that we have taken for granted. In this process we rediscover the magic and wonder of the most simple gifts. Do we have to suffer from emphysema before we can have gratitude for the precious breath of life? Do we have to lose our homes before we can return thanks for having shelter? If we have taken for granted all our blessings of health or a loving family, will we need to be reminded to be grateful through near tragedy or actual loss?”

(quote and image via Mystic Mamma)

 This weekend is for focusing on my blessings, and finally pruning the lavender, and Tofurkey. I'll be back Monday.

No Projects To Round Up

I haven't tackled the pile of Christmas projects from October (except for the chutney--everybody's getting chutney this year!) nor have I put the sleeves in that rayon dress, nor have I started on a quilt for a friend. I also don't think I ever mentioned that Skyler's sweater turned out plenty big, so I don't have a picture of him wearing that (since wearing it won't be possible for a few months). 

Instead, I give you a picture of Skyler hiding in an end table, lifted from my brother's blog. Because sometimes you just have to hide in an end table. I feel the same way lately, kiddo.

Weekend Hiking, Winter Edition

It's winter in Millcreek Canyon and I'm about to get really familiar with all the trails below the upper gate, which is now closed. I think I can deal with that, though.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I don't want to make Carl Sagan sad, but I really think I can get behind the latest hippie astrology advice for the new moon:

We need to sleep as much as possible during our cycle of transformation. We process the most karmic residue, readjust and realign into higher vibration when we are sleeping.

 I could definitely sleep more. I'm not staying up too late; I have a lot of karmic residue to process!

2. Check out 100,000 Stars, a web app (those are covered in my friend's book!) that plots our nearest 100,000 stars in interactive 3D.  The "play" button on the upper left gives you a nice tour and sense of scale. (This was built for Chrome, but it worked fine for me in Firefox. No guarantees for Internet Explorer, though.)

Idiom

Here's a Polish saying I found on Pinterest that is an awesome way of saying, "Not my problem": 

This

Realizing it's only Wednesday:

Tuesday Project Roundup: Test

I had an idea and some fabric I didn't care about and Joann stores had Simplicity patterns at $1. So I tried making one of those "waterfall cardigans" with an idea to wear it to yoga.* 

Of course,  then I realized that having a lot of moving fabric around your waist is probably not the best thing for yoga, so I experimented with tying it: 

I'm not sure. It's a test, after all, so I don't have to feel bad if I don't wear it too much. I used Simplicity 1945 and some random burnout tie-dye knit I'd ordered online a couple years ago, somehow not realizing it was either burnout or tie-dye.

*Assuming I ever get back to a real class, that is. Anybody have a favorite Anusara teacher who has a class people working normal hours can get to?

Holiday

Yesterday was Veterans Day and the end of three days of snow. I heard this song on KRCL as I was driving home Sunday and it was a really good pick (thanks, Linda on Sunday Sage). The Veterans Day part doesn't start until about 4:10 but all of the song is brilliant ("the kids are strapped down like a half laod of pipe" in the back of the car). I wouldn't expect less from my almost-boyfriend James McMurtry.

Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan

Today is the birthday of my science boyfriend Carl Sagan. It's hard to narrow down what I want to say about him, or pick a favorite quote, because how can you say that this:

There was a time when the stars seemed an impenetrable mystery, but today we have begun to understand them. In our personal lives, also, we journey from ignorance to knowledge. Our individual growth reflects the advancement of the species. The exploration of the cosmos is a voyage of self-discovery.

is more inspiring than this?

Even The Writer's Almanac gave him a mention today:

Because he had done extensive research on nearby planets, NASA hired him as an advisor for a mission to send remote-controlled spacecrafts to Venus..In preparation for the mission, Sagan was shocked to learn that there would be no cameras on the robotic spacecrafts, called Mariner I and Mariner II. The other scientists thought cameras would be a waste of valuable space and equipment...Sagan couldn't believe they would give up the chance to see an alien planet up close[...]

Sagan lost the argument that time, but he won over NASA eventually. The Mariners were the last exploratory spacecraft ever launched by NASA without cameras. He contributed to the Viking, Voyager, and Galileo planetary exploration missions, and his insistence on the use of cameras helped us get the first close-up photographs of the outer planets and their moons.

I think that this latest image from Curiosity--on THE SURFACE OF MARS, fer crissake--reflects his legacy.  

My Friend Wrote A Book (And I Edited It)!

My oldest friend, career and boyfriend adviser, portfolio builder, and fellow viewer of the Birdemic live event has written a book! In her non-Birdemic watching time she's a super-savvy business owner, and the book reflects what she's learned as her company builds mobile apps. 

It's not at all technical, don't worry; it just gives you what you need to know before you get involved in an app project. My friend is a really entertaining writer and I found the info very useful as a background for my own field--and for the modern world in general. 

Check out the book's site here: www.buildingamobileapp.com. There is a launch party for it tomorrow night at another friend's new rare book gallery downtown. Bring your Kindle/device with a Kindle app and you can get a free edition of the e-book!

Whew

It's over. And I'm trying not to have too much schadenfreude about Romney backers threatening to move to Canada or Mexico, because that was the liberal reaction to Bush's 2004 re-election, too.

I'm thrilled about more than just the president: Voters in Maine and Maryland approved a measure to make same-sex marriage legal in those states, the first time the issue was at the ballot and not in the legislature. And voters in Minnesota voted down a proposed amendment to make gay marriage illegal. Well done, people of M-states.

Plus, Todd "Legitimate Rape Doens't Get You Pregnant" Akin and Richard "Rape Pregnancies Are A Gift From God!" Mourdock have not won re-election. Well done, every thinking human who realized what utter bullshit these two were spouting. 

 So yeah, I feel good. I feel that hate didn't carry the day like I was afraid it would. And I feel really happy I don't have to stockpile birth control between now and January. We may have a long way to go, but I'm proud of America right now.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Tiny Tolkein

Skyler's sweater is finally done! It came out somewhere between "Hobbit child" and "Oxford scholar who writes about hobbits." I can't wait to see it on him. 

I don't know if I have that many knitters reading along, but here are some knitterly details: 

• Pattern: Duck Soup, in the 2-3 year old size
• Yarn: Berroco Vintage Chunky, really nice for a wool/acrylic blend (I wanted it to be machine washable)
• Toggles: from M&J Trimming in NYC, sewn on with a leather needle in my trusty sewing machine

Get Ready To Vote

I let early voting pass my by but I'll be out tomorrow morning to participate. And I'll keep this in mind, from The New Yorker's endorsement of Obama (all emphasis mine):

Romney, despite his pose of chiselled equanimity, has pledged to ravage the safety net, oppose progress on marriage equality, ignore all warnings of ecological disaster, dismantle health-care reform, and appoint right-wing judges to the courts. Four of the nine Supreme Court Justices are in their seventies; a Romney Administration may well have a chance to replace two of the more liberal incumbents...The rightward drift of a court led by Justices Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito—a drift marked by appalling decisions like Citizens United—would only intensify during a Romney Presidency. The consolidation of a hard-right majority would be a mortal threat to the ability of women to make their own decisions about contraception and pregnancy, the ability of institutions to alleviate the baneful legacies of past oppression and present prejudice, and the ability of American democracy to insulate itself from the corrupt domination of unlimited, anonymous money. Romney has pronounced himself “severely conservative.” There is every reason to believe him.

And I'm also going to have this ready to read Tuesday if I need it.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. This video of ladybugs taking off is like a Mary Oliver poem. And also very soothing. 



2. Enjoy a big list of all the "uh oh!" moments from infomercials as animated gifs. My favorite is below: 

Truth