Why I'm Not Going To Grad School

I've had two classes to go to this month--dance class and sewing machine class. I reported on swing dancing a few weeks ago and predicted success at the end of the four week class. Well, let's just say we dropped that class and will re-take it before graduation. We missed last week at the last minute to go to the Utah Democratic Party inaugural celebration, and last night Mr. Isbell and I looked at each other and said, "Let's not." (To make us sound less like lazy quitters, the class was HUGE, so we weren't sure we could pick up what we missed; and our original plan was to take it with another couple, which we still want to try to do.)

But sewing machine classs was going well, and tonight was going to be my final class. Except while not at dance class last night I got a call from my friend Sean saying, "Scopes Monkey Trial! Kingsbury Hall! Culture!" After some confusion, it turned out he had scored tickets to the one-night only LA Theater production of "The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial." So I'll be skipping class tonight*, too.

Apparently, I'm still 21 and think skipping classes without consequence is AWESOME. Hey, let's go get a bagel instead of going to Music Theory!


*I can still go to the Saturday morning session of sewing machine class, so I won't miss vital information about using a walking foot. Otherwise, I would have had to say, "No Monkey Trial."

Tuesday Project Roundup: Piles Of Projects

Which pile should I start with? The pile of quilt fabrics?
Turning this into a quilt shouldn't be too daunting, because the final product will consist of just long columns of these fabrics, like this or this. I just need to get started. (I decided against making a doll quilt to practice, because most of my motivation on a project comes from anticipating the final result, and, well, Toby already got his new rug.)

This pile of yarn will be that owl sweater I've been talking about since November:

And then there's this pile, which is the sweater I've been working on for ten weeks now. It will look like this someday...

Maybe I can blame Toby for impeding progress. I had to snatch the pieces from the jaws of death right after I took this.

Feeling Sad? Do Something For Someone Else

I did something for my cat...Toby got a sheepskin rug from IKEA yesterday and it makes him so happy that I get happy, too. (Kitty happiness also trumps my animal-cruelty principles, apparently.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Wow, a president who promptly does what he has specifically promised to do? Yes! Obama Issues Directive to Shut Down Guantanamo.

2. I know Tuesday's picture of my skirt wasn't very detailed, but I just saw this, which is essentially what I made, brown buttons and all. And it wasn't $195.

Not me. But I have a similar skirt that was cheaper.

Wouldn't It Be Cool If This Was What You Did On Thursdays?

I found Wayne Levin Photography in my internet wanderings last week. There are more whale pictures on the site. Check out the "Fish Schools" series, too--really cool and a little sinister. But then, I'm pretty terrified of the ocean. I like whales, though.

I Think We All Feel This Way:

And I loved this shot--"Good bye! Good luck! Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!"

Photos from the NY Times. You can read the complete Inaugural Address on their site, too.

UPDATE: Just saw this headline--Obama Orders Halt To Prosecutions At Guantanamo. He's not wasting any time!

Tuesday Project Roundup: New Blog Format, New Storage, New Skirt, New President

It's a good day!

First, notice the new blog format? The archives are now a lot easier to go through.*

The new storage, built by my dad and furnished with boxes from IKEA**:

There are quilt fabrics in the top half of the stack in this close up:

The skirt I mentioned last week:

And, of course, OBAMA! I have Mr. Isbell's laptop open streaming the beginning of the ceremony as I write this.

*The images in the archives were lost, sadly. But I was unable to search them for particular posts with or without images before. We'll just say 2009 starts a new phase in the blog.

**I highly recommend the elderberry flower concentrate from IKEA foods--"Fladersaft." Mix one part concentrate, two parts gin, and three parts water, and serve with a lemon slice for a delicious elderberry sour apertif.
*

Just 24 Hours More

Boing Boing pointed me towards the online portion of the Harper's Index for this month--it's all about Bush. And while I appreciate that he didn't bring about a Dr. Strangelove-like "nucular" winter--which I fully expected when the war(s) started--these just reminded me alll over again how really and truly bad the last eight years have been:

• Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an "elevated terror alert" that the level has been relaxed: 0
• Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50
• Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98
• Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4
• Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35
• Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4
• Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8
• Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60
• Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000
• Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000
• Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1
• Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37
• Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37

There's more online, if you want to get worked up even more. But guess what? Tomorrow will have happy news!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Wow, how about the captain of the jet the landed in the Hudson yesterday? That's one hell of a pilot.

2. The ability to embed video on this blog continues to elude me, but if you go here, you can watch an announcement by my favorite singer Neko Case: For every blog that posts her new single, her record label will donate $5 to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary! I'm playing along--this link will download the song directly and get a $5 donation. http://www.anti.com/media/download/708
(If you don't want to download, you can also hear the song on the info page. It's the number of blog posts that gets the donation, not the number of downloads.)

3. I have a shelf being delivered tomorrow that my dad built, so I can spend the long weekend stacking fabric and sewing. Yay!

I Don't Mind Winter When It's Sunny And In The 40's

So I can post these pictures from an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, Massachusetts) without complaining too much about the cold. (I can't complain at all after reading about Shackleton.)

There are 14 images from the show online, with informative captions, and they're worth a look. For example:


And the caption:
Painter George Marston joined explorer Ernest Shackleton on two voyages, the 1908 Nimrod expedition and the ill-fated 1914 Endurance expedition to Antarctica.

In his painting Aurora Australis, he uses the southern lights - the southern counterpart of the northern lights - to frame an iconic view of polar exploration at the turn of the 20th century, showing the rough shelters and sled dogs.

Lacking a canvas, he painted the scene on a salvaged piece of tea crate

Also, who knew there was an Antarctic equivalent to the Northern Lights?

Thing #24: Learn How To Dance

Before I thought of the 29 Things, I had already planned to take some sort of Continuing Ed class with Mr. Isbell in 2009, just to get us off the couch and away from re-watching old seasons of The Office. Once I realized I'd like to know how to dance going into the next decade, we signed up to learn "East Coast Swing." Our first class was last night.

We picked swing because it was a more convenient night than the general ballroom dance class, and because I thought the music would be better--you'd expect big band swing standards from Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, and Tommy Dorsey in a swing class, right? Well, that wasn't the case. Although we're not really dancing yet, either, just going through the steps, so I guess we wouldn't have done good music justice anyway.

Despite my disappointment in the music (Bad 90's swing revival stuff? Really?), it was fun, and when I got home I learned a lot about the history of swing. And now I want some saddle shoes:

This will so be us in a month.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Project Overload

Currently working on: Navy corduroy skirt using this pattern* (and the FANTASTIC buttonhole feature on my new machine).

Currently planning to work on:
-Quilt top
-Tan knit t-shirt
-Striped knit t-shirt
-Navy floral blouse
-Brown Japanese rose-print dress
-Vintage orange floral dress

Currently wishing I had another two weeks off to sew.

*That isn't my photo in the link; it's the designer's. It's been too dark for pictures here, hence no modeled shot of the plaid blouse from last week and no pictures of the pile of sweater pieces that are growing at the rate of cave formations. And no pictures of the failed cowl that was supposed to be so chic because, well, FAIL.

Happy Birthday Jack London

The Writer's Almanac tells me that today is Jack London's birthday, so I got some more details from Wikipedia: Born in 1876, he worked in a cannery, sailed as a pirate and as part of the California Fish Patrol, went to the Klondike with goldrush fever, got scurvy, bought a ranch and a yacht, amassed a library of 15,000 volumes, and died in 1914 of a morphine overdose.

I didn't realize that he died so young--I guess children's copies of The Call of the Wild don't get into a lot of detail about death from alcoholism and accidental overdoses.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The URL tells you all you need to know:www.cutethingsfallingasleep.org. Just don't watch it when you're in an afternoon tired funk at work.

2. I've been thinking about quilts--Thing 4 on the 29 Things. To practice quilting and binding a big quilt, I am thinking about making a doll quilt. For Toby. To sit on when he looks out the window. Because I am a crazy cat lady. (Although I think I would be crazier if I made a doll quilt for actual DOLLS.)

3. I've also been thinking about storage solutions, so this is appropriate: Translate your name into an IKEA furniture name here.

Poem For A Sluggish Morning

"Waking From Sleep," by Robert Bly:

Inside the veins there are navies setting forth,

Tiny explosions at the waterlines,

And seagulls weaving in the wind of the salty blood.

It is the morning. The country has slept the whole winter.

Window seats were covered with fur skins, the yard was full

Of stiff dogs, and hands that clumsily held heavy books.

Now we wake, and rise from bed, and eat breakfast!

Shouts rise from the harbor of the blood,

Mist, and masts rising, the knock of wooden tackle in the sunlight.

Now we sing, and do tiny dances on the kitchen floor.

Our whole body is like a harbor at dawn;

We know that our master has left us for the day.

This Guy Isn't Telling Kids To Get Off His Lawn

Via BoingBoing, yesterday I read an interview online at PingMag MAKE, "The Japan-based interview magazine about 'making things' " with a 97-year old botanical illustrator. The man, Chikabo Kumada, sounds like the most serene and happy person on the planet. He has an exhibition planned for his hundreth birthday!

I think the interview is just fascinating to read. The first few questions set up his career, so you could skip those if you're pressed for time, but it's really worth a look--there are quotes like this:

I hit the renaissance of my life when I turned seventy. That was when I really bloomed. Up until then it was like I had been like living in muddy water. (laughs)...So my 80s were really like the bloom of youth for me. But when you reach such an age, you could really die at any moment. So I felt that it was important that I didn’t miss anything, and I took another close look around my garden. And that was when I realized I was able to see things in flowers and leaves that I hadn’t been able to see before, and my work got more detailed.

And this: "I believe that any living thing can be beautiful if you love it."

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Vacation Projects

I didn't get as much knitting finished as I'd hoped during my time off after Christmas but the new sewing machine certainly helped me get some projects done.

I finished this tunic pattern from the 70's in gray corduroy. It looks medieval to me, but Mr. Isbell said that I looked like an elf from Lord of the Rings and my mother mentioned Star Wars. I think those were all compliments, though.

Here, I just look like a cat wrangler. (It's really tricky to get a picture of gray corduroy in a dark apartment at dusk. This was the best one.)

I was able to start and almost finish another blouse, using all the seam finishes and bell and whistles on the new Bernina. This one has already prompted Mr. Isbell to say, "The collar is like a Star Trek villain's," but I like it. It just needs buttonholes and a hem.
I'll try to have a (better-lit) modeled shot next week. Maybe there will be some knitting, too!

29 Things

I turned 29 Saturday--which for me marks a new year much better than any drunken New Year's Eve goings-on--and I made some birthday resolutions of things I'd like to have happen before I turn 30 and magically become a bona-fide adult. So here's my list of 29 things I want to accomplish before I turn 30:

1. Learn the names of the Wasatch mountain peaks--I only can point to Mt. Olympus
   
2. Pay off the remaining debt
3. Get a queen size mattress
   
4. Make a queen-sized quilt
   
5. Hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas again
6. Finish reading The Silmarillion
7. Knit Christmas stockings (starting with Toby's, of course)
8. Visit the north end of Zion National Park
9. Be less wimpy about riding my bike on cooler days (80% of Copenhageners ride their bikes throughout the winter. So does my father. I'm shamed enough to try to be tougher in the spring and fall.)
10. Eat at Red Iguana
11. Eat at The Paris
12. Chill a watermelon in a stream on a picnic in the mountains
13. Knit at least one thing for charity using up yarn I have
14. Get a new desk chair, if an affordable molded Eames chair exists
    
15. Cook moules marnieres and frites
16. Stop biting my nails. (God only knows how, since I've been wanting to stop biting my nails for about 20 years, but I'd like to have lovely grown-up hands now.)
17. Learn how to sew knit fabric
18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara
    
19. Learn how to apply eye makeup that doesn't look scary or amateurish
20. Go to the Oyster Bar one Monday a month after work for a half-priced appetizer
    
21. Replace my Rubbermaid kitchen garbage can with a broken spring top with something nicer. Because a 30-year-old should not have duct tape on her garbage can.
22. Knit an elaborate cabled sweater*
    
23. Build my collection of Bach CDs
    
24. Learn how to dance
    
25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store
26. Have tea at The Grand America
    
27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals
28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month
29. Go to Moab for New Year's Eve
    

*I think this is the one to knit--after I finish that cardigan and make an owl sweater and Christmas stockings and the charity thing, of course. Hey, I have a year.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Tomorrow is my birthday! (And Tolkein's.) I will sew on my new sewing machine and eat some seafood. I've made a list of things I want to accomplish by my next birthday that I'll post on Monday.

2. Today is Issac Asimov's birthday, and yesterday was both J.D. Salinger's and E.M. Forster's birthday.

3. Well duh, New York Times: an article announces that it costs less to make things than to buy them. At Jo-Ann, the supplies to make a child's apron and chef hat cost $7.90 for fabric designed with gingerbread men, iron-on letters to spell "chef" and elastic. Making a hand-knit throw costs $40 for nine skeins of yarn and $6 for knitting needles; a similar-looking item at Pottery Barn costs $129.

They don't mention that it takes about four months to knit that throw.

Happy 2009

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

T.S. Eliot

Going Forward Into The New Year

I hope your New Year's Eve is as calm as it is for these alpacas. Don't get too drunk tonight--no one wants to start a fresh new year with a hangover.

Tuesday Project Roundup: NEW SEWING MACHINE!!!!!!!

Look what is in my house RIGHT NOW:
Compared with the 1962 Singer I've been using (goodbye, Old Paint), it is like a spaceship. I hear the Also Sprach Zaruthustra theme whenever I look at it. This is the beginning of a new Sewing Age. It makes buttonholes! It finishes the edges of your seams! There are nineteen different stitches to choose from! It comes with accessories! (Cat butt not included in all models.) And I think the Swiss Army made its ballistic nylon cover:
Best (early) birthday present EVER. Thank you Mom and Dad!

It's Monday

And if you're home on vacation, you can just do this:

Notice there's still a blog here? That's good! But it still looks the same--I figured out how to make the change but still need some more info to do it. So we're waiting on that. NEXT week it will be all new and improved.

Testing!

This is only a test.

Happy Christmas Eve

Like the rest of the blogging world, I won't be posting the rest of the week because of Christmas. But I have more plans than celebration and vacation--I'm going to attempt to move the blog to Blogspot (gasp!) to help with the organization and overall look.*

So I will leave you with three things to read for the next three days:

1. Tonight I'll be reading The Tailor Of Gloucester (this link even has the illustrations!) to everyone. Mr. Isbell can humor me, Toby can look at the pictures of the mice, and I can commiserate with the Tailor about not finishing his projects and buttonhole quality. And we can all say NO MORE TWIST.
2. If you'd rather read something to yourself or if your cat has a longer attention span than mine, I recommend the Christmas chapter in The Wind in the Willows. It's the winter chapter where Mole rediscovers his old home after living at Rat's all summer and takes Ratty there on Christmas Eve. There are also caroling field mice.
3. And if this is all too cute, here's something adult you can read: It's Nigel Slater describing Christmas in Vienna in a Guardian column last year. You will want to listen to Strauss.
   

*I am a little nervous about this, but I have reinforcements I can call in (hi Amber!) to fix things if the move goes horribly awry. So if you don't see a blog here next Monday, don't panic; it just means that I'll need another week to have someone who knows what she's doing fix things.

Tuesday Project Roundup: All I Want For Christmas Is Some Crafty Time

And after today, I will have time--I have tomorrow through January 4th OFF. I'm going to try to finish that taupe cardigan (I have to start over on the back, though, so it may not happen), sew two shirts, and knit one of these cowl-y scarf-y things:

(Found, along with a pattern, on the suitably titled CopyCat blog of craftiness.)

We Made It

Yesterday marked the Winter Solstice, so at least we can have more light as we fight "the depressive psychological effects of winter on individuals and societies," which Wikipedia defines as "coldness, tiredness, malaise, and inactivity."

I've mostly escaped malaise and Mr. Isbell and I have been pretty good about staying active, but the coldness this year has been getting to me. My fingers and toes are ALWAYS cold, and Toby and I are in front of the space heater like it's a roaring fire. (If only it were.)

But at least December is almost over, then there's just January and February. We can do it, right?

Friday Unrelated Information

1. www.postcardsfromyomomma.com is a collection of emails and IMs that adult children have received from their parents, and it's priceless. (Especially the "dads" category, no offence to any excellent fathers.) Maybe it's because I think moms are so awesome, but I get such a kick out of reading them:

Got it! Good photo! Did the studio send out the buffet for you?!! Is that a hotdog/cigarette/donut you’re eating?!! Who is the young lady in front of you?

I really must know what you have in your mouth. Dad is curious, too.

Please reply immediately. Love, Mom

2. Speaking of parents, I was visitng last Sunday and my father had taped part of a sales flyer shouting THESE ARE THE FINAL DAYS to the calendar in the kitchen. With six days left until Christmas and Snow-mageddon on the way in just hours, I couldn't agree more.

3. And, from The Onion: McCain Stares at Screen, Attempts to Write Family Christmas Letter:
Forty-five minutes later, after two aborted attempts to compose the letter from the point of view of the family cat, Oreo, and another about what 2009 held in store for the McCain clan, the Arizona senator took a break to make a cup of hot cocoa and listen to the grandfather clock ticking in the background. "Jesus," McCain mumbled. "Jesus Christ."

So awesome. Go read all of it.

Food I Cook For Myself

Oyster stew is a traditional Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve supper in my mother's family, but only she and I like it. Mr. Isbell doesn't care for it either, but since he was at band practice last night, I made some for a week-before-Christmas-eve dinner for myself. (And Toby. Toby, I discovered, is a big fan of oyster stew.)

I've started reading some M.F.K. Fisher again, to compare her with Laurie Colwin, and in Consider The Oyster I found this about oyster stew: "mildly potent, quietly sustaining, warm as love and welcomer in the winter."

And also very popular with spoiled housecats.

A Poem For Shopping

This was on the Writer's Almanac site last month. Don't worry, the deer is not being hunted...

A Deer in the Target

by Robert Fanning

I only got a ten-second shot,
grainy footage of the huge deer
caught in the crosshairs
of a ceiling security camera, a scene
of utter chaos in a strip mall store,
shown on the late local news.
The beautiful beast clearly scared
to death in this fluorescent forest,
its once graceful legs giving out
on mopped floors, think Bambi
as a fawn its first time standing.
Seeing the scattering shoppers,
you'd think a demon had barged
into this temple of commerce,
as they sacrificed their merchandise,
stranded full carts and dove for cover.
And when the aisles were emptied
of these bargain hunters, who was left
but an army of brave red-shirted
team members, mobilized by
the store manager over the intercom
to drive this wild animal out.
I wager there's nothing on this
in the How to Approach
an Unsatisfied Shopper
section in the Target employee handbook,
but there they were: the cashiers
and stockers, the Floor Supervisor,
the Assistant Floor Supervisor,
the Store Manager,
the Assistant Store Manager,
the District Associate Manager,
the District Supervisor,
the District Assistant Supervisor
and visiting members from
the Regional Corporate Office,
running after it, it running after
them, bull's eye logos on their red golf shirts,
everyone frenzied and panting: razor hooves
clattering on the mirror-white floor tiles,
nostrils heaving, its rack clearing
off-season clothes from clearance racks.
All of them, in Target,
chasing the almighty buck.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Too Busy For Projects

There's a reason I made last week a week of Things That Are Soothing: I left the house yesterday and came home thirteen hours later. It's Christmas! It's Christmas in retail! There are parties to attend! Parties to plan! Presents to wrap! Booze to stockpile against the coming Canadian cold front! You get the picture.

I have sewing projects planned for my winter vacation between Christmas and New Year's (bless you, winter vacation) and I'm knitting when I can, but there's not much to show for this week.

I don't want to complain too much, though, because as frantic as Christmas can get, we can't forget what it's all about: The night when we get presents.

It's Monday

Go to it as thoroughly as Toby washes his leg:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. It's my sister-in-law's birthday today--the big 3-0! This year she's gotten a dog and started grad school, too, so she's officially an adult now. Happy Birthday!

2. If you're not working or attending a questionable performance of Babes in Toyland tomorrow, you should go up to the Holiday Open House at Blue Moon Ranch. There'll be free hot chocolate and snow-covered alpacas.

Things That Are Soothing: Laurie Colwin

I only recently discovered Laurie Colwin as a food writer (I still haven't read her novels) and got Home Cooking and More Home Cooking in quick succession from the library. More Home Cooking in particular has been a delight: How can you not love a cookbook/memoir whose first chapter begins with, "There are those of us--the harried, cowardly, overextended--who find the beginning of December to be life's most trying time."

She encourages us to hang in there until New Year's Eve, when we can stay home with "a couple of similarly New Year's Eve-phobic close friends" and eat delicious soothing food, including salmon and marinated Brussels sprouts and lemon rice pudding.

The books are smart, engaging, funny (read the "Jam Anxiety" chapter) and most of all encouraging. And we all need encouragement.

Things That Are Soothing: New Upstairs Neighbors

Last week Mr. and Mrs. Stompy moved out, taking their tap shoes, anvils, and bowling balls* with them. I know we have new upstairs neighbors because I saw them moving in, but that's the only way I could tell. It's like having little mice wearing slippers above us. Or angels flying over the softest snow with fluffy feathers. I love our new neighbors.

*Not really. But they were SO LOUD. They walked loudly, dropped things loudly, Mrs. Stompy laughed loudly--it's amazing how much my blood pressure has dropped this week.

Soothing Project Roundup: Knitting

I haven't made much progress on the sweater this week, but knitting definitely gets a mention in the Week of Things That Are Soothing and Not Rushed, Worried About Money, or Full of People.

I'm still just tickled to death that sticks and string can make something warm and useful. Knitting lets you feel productive, surround yourself with something soft and pretty, and make something much greater than the sum of its parts--which are basically just the same stitches, over and over and over. Kind of like the Bach G major cello suite prelude. (Listen here.)

Also: My house got about five inches of snow and I finally have new tires this year. This is not soothing as much as reassuring, but I'll add it to the week's list anyway.

Things That Are Soothing

I think I'll focus on calm subjects this week--things that are quiet and as far away from the retail aspect of Christmas as possible.

Let's start with alpacas at sunrise:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. My father can relate to this. It applies to me, too--just change "ten o'clock" to "two o'clock."
A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.- Emily Bronte

2. I've started listening to Christmas music, at home, of my own volition. I don't know what's wrong with me.

3. Look at this sweater! There are OWLS on it. I know what I'm knitting next. (More pictures and lots of scholarly musings on craft, history, and women on the creator's blog, Needled.)

Putting It All In Perspective

The Big Picture blog--a news blog in pictures (yes, big ones)--has started a galactic Advent calendar. As the lead notes:
"Every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the amazing Hubble Space Telescope. As I take this chance to share these images of our amazing Universe with you, I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone."

The images really are beautiful. I'll take this as an Advent calendar any day--kind of puts all the squabbles about "Christmas" versus "holidays" in perspective.

(Via my new favorite blog of imaginary outfits and space news.)

Why Must You Be Like This, Chris Buttars?

From yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune:

The West Jordan Republican is sponsoring a resolution encouraging retailers to embrace Christmas in their promotions rather than the generic "holidays."

"It would encourage the use of 'Merry Christmas,' " Buttars said of the non-binding statement that is still being drafted. "I'm sick of the Christmas wars--we're a Christian nation and ought to use the word."

I know this is rhetorical at this point, but is anyone else concerned that a member of the state legislature seems so blissfully unaware of the First Amendment? We're a Christian nation? No we're not, jackass: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"

And here's another point: He's encouraging retailers to use "Christmas" in their promotions, as if a "Christmas Sale" is more righteous than a "Holiday Sale," but if he's that devout, shouldn't he be objecting to using the Birth of Our Lord to sell crass material items?

Why do you waste our time like this, Buttars? Why?!

Tuesday Project Roundup: Measure Twice, Cut Once

Even measuring once would have been enough, but I'm not used to making things with long, cuffed sleeves so their length didn't come up--until it was too late. Oh well. It was a nice enough way to spend a couple of days of vacation last week.

The knitting is going well, too. Look, more sleeves! (These are long enough.)

I haven't cut into the Japanese fabric from last week, though, because I need to save a project for Christmas vacation and because there's a possibility of a new sewing machine that either Santa or the Birthday Fairy will bring.

(Hear that, Santa or Birthday Fairy? I still think that's a great idea.)

It's Monday

Sit on it like it's the arm of a couch and make a weird face:

Toby Is Thankful For His Heater

Sorry, Parents. Here's A Poem.

Sewing all day with only Toby for company this week has made me lose my focus: I'm having a hard time typing accurately; I didn't give yesterday's Project Roundup a clever title; and I let my cell phone sit in my car and die, thus panicking my parents, who thought I had suffered the same fate.

Fortunately, I am not dead and now I have an excuse to put up a poem about parenting. The Writers Almanac had this Ellen Bass piece up in the last week or so and it really resonated with me, even though I'm still just a cat parent. (I guess worry is a universal emotion.)

After Our Daughter's Wedding

While the remnants of cake
and half-empty champagne glasses
lay on the lawn like sunbathers lingering
in the slanting light, we left the house guests
and drove to Antonelli's pond.
On a log by the bank I sat in my flowered dress and cried.
A lone fisherman drifted by, casting his ribbon of light.
"Do you feel like you've given her away?" you asked.
But no, it was that she made it
to here, that she didn't
drown in a well or die
of pneumonia or take the pills.
She wasn't crushed
under the mammoth wheels of a semi
on highway 17, wasn't found
lying in the alley
that night after rehearsal
when I got the time wrong.
It's animal. The egg
not eaten by a weasel. Turtles
crossing the beach, exposed
in the moonlight. And we
have so few to start with.
And that long gestation—
like carrying your soul out in front of you.
All those years of feeding
and watching. The vulnerable hollow
at the back of the neck. Never knowing
what could pick them off—a seagull
swooping down for a clam.
Our most basic imperative:
for them to survive.
And there's never been a moment
we could count on it.

Tuesday Project Roundup:

I haven't mentioned yet that I have this week off, which means this pile of materials will probably be at least half finished by this time next week: The floral in the middle is the stuff from Japan, obviously not stuck in customs. And see that yarn? I couldn't decide which blue to order for the pullover sweater, so I changed projects completely. Now I will have a nice neutral cardigan that matches what I'll make out of the fabric.

Toby approves of my staying home this week.

Now For 1,500,001

You've all seen this. 1.5 million people on YouTube have seen it. But I think we all need to see it again on Monday:

The Cat On A Roomba Video!


Enjoy.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. My Japanese fabric is in customs in San Fransisco. I hope it's not stuck.

2.I've been fresh out of political outrage (burned out, rather) and haven't been paying much attention to the economy or the bailouts or the First Puppy. But I read a post that changed my mind about whether we should give automakers any part of that huge aid package: I thought those greedy fat cats could wither and die but this made me realize that there are people behind the fat cats, and abandoned machine shops, and that it all ties in with my own ethos of "create something." So here: Don't let them die. (It's long, but good. There are pictures, too!)

3. Mr. Isbell announced this morning, "If Toby did work for free, it would be Tobono."

Words That Shouldn't Be

1. Spearheading
2. Drive, in any sense other than "operate a vehicle" or "move cattle"

(Why yes, I am still writing things for Microsoft. How could you tell?)

A Poem About Getting New Stuff To Wear For The Fall

This is a subject that has been on my mind the last month or two. I've been spending the second paychecks with abandon (not the point of a second job, really, but I did need shoes and jeans, and knee socks and fabric are ALMOST essential). Emily Dickinson understands, though:

#12

The morns are meeker than they were—
The nuts are getting brown—
The berry's cheek is plumper—
The Rose is out of town.

The Maple wears a gayer scarf—
The field a scarlet gown—
Lest I should be old fashioned
I'll put a trinket on.

(I found that poem on this blog, which is one of my new favorites. Be sure to check out the "imaginary outfit" category, in which she imagines what she'd wear if she were a children's book author, or rode a Vespa, or was a physicist. Fun...but it makes me want to buy more things.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: I'm A Lumberjack and I'm OK

I got inspired to sew again--inspired by Paul Bunyan, that is!

I used a shirtdress pattern from the 70's
and posed like the pattern model:
While it may look like a nightshirt, a plaid flannel dress is actually like wearing a bathrobe all day. It's really comfy.

Things To Look Forward To This Week

1. A new space heater arriving for Toby. (We've been borrowing Minas Heatas from my parents.) The new one isn't tower-shaped, though, so it will need a different Lord of the Rings name. Helm's Heat, maybe?

2. The start of Christmas gift knitting. Will I finish at 11:00 on Christmas Eve, like last year? We'll see!

3. Fabric coming from Japan. I splurged just a little (mostly on shipping, obviously), had to figure out meters needed instead of yards, and convert yen to dollars--but the fabric is awesome and I can track the package online. It left Kyoto prefecture and arrived in Osaka prefecture sometime yesterday, although the whole time difference is stumping me this morning.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. "Chicken tractor" is the best word combination I've heard all week, but it's an actual item, too: A floorless, moveable chicken coop so your chickens can scratch and eat bugs in whatever part of your garden needs cultivation. There's a gallery online, which included this literal interpretation:

2. From BoingBoing: The Internet Anagram Server + "Quantum of Solace," the latest James Bond movie opening today = 18,258 possible titles, including:

• A Quantum Of Close
• Futons Equal Coma
• Scam Unequal Foot
• Aqua Focus Melt On

3. The baby alpacas are charging you! Run!

Utah Politics: We're Actually Quite Sophisticated. Really.

Newly-elected Utah House speaker Dave Clark made this mystifying analogy in yesterday's paper. About the need for ethics reform, he said:

"It was like we had a car in the barn that had been sitting there for 10 years. We fired it up and ran it around the track and parts of it weren't working as well as we thought. Until we took it for a test drive, we didn't know, so it caught us off guard, but that's why we're proposing that we put these items up for discussion."

Wow, I just can't wait until January!

That's A Lot Of Cat Pictures

This is my 700th post. I wonder if I need to add a "Since 2006" subhead to the blog header. And I really need to work on making the archives a little easier to search. Because what if you remember a cat picture you want to see again?

Tuesday Project Roundup: Bilbo Had A Vest LIke This, Too

I did finish the vest over the weekend and it turned out about 95% as wearable as I hoped. (The armholes are a little long; I was in too much of a hurry to check them.) The contrasting red faced hem (worked kind of like this, but at the end of the sweater, not the beginning) turned out really well, and overall I like it. It looks very rustic to me, like something that would be worn in the Shire where life is simple, the yarn is purple, and nobody wants to go far from home.


However, you'll notice there are no pockets yet. I tried experimenting with an inset pocket (like on a suit jacket) on a swatch and that was really alarming:
It's already become a cat toy.

But a Shire vest has to have pockets, my precious, so now I'm considering patch pockets (like the back of jeans) versus further experimentation with an inset pocket. We'll see.

Details: Free pattern here, with the lace and extra bands edited out.
Yarn is Beaverslide fisherman weight, in "Nightshade."

Also: Happy Veterans Day today to Dad and Mr. Isbell! Thank you!

It's Monday

Attack it like it's an empty garment bag.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. According to kottke.org, The NY Times edition Wednesday was only the fifth time in its history that it used 96 pt. type in a headline. In chronological order:

• MEN WALK ON MOON
  
• NIXON RESIGNS
  
• 01/01/2000
• U.S. ATTACKED
  
• OBAMA

2. I got sucked back into writing for Microsoft at work and was updating a campaign promoting Windows Vista. Client feedback: "I think it promotes Vista too much." Ah, the head-smacking world of Microsoft...

3. The weather: I don't approve of it.

3.

Getting Back To Normal: Let's Talk About Yarn Now

I hope to finish the vest soon (Mr. Isbell has more weekend commitments and I have Brideshead Revisted), which means I'm going to need another project lined up. Continuing the "wearability" theme, I've decided it's going to be a plain pullover crewneck sweater--no fancy cut, no shaping, no stitch patterns.

I know the yarn should be from the magic Montana ranch but I can't decide on the color. I had been thinking navy for wearability, but now I'm tempted by sky blue. A navy blue sweater would be pretty and wearable, but I know that a sky blue one is going to make me happier, getting dressed in the dark cold dead of winter. It just isn't as versatile. Which one should I pick? (And thank goodness this is the my only problem right now, too; not how to get Mr. Isbell a passport and get him, Toby, and myself to Canada.)

THANK YOU, AMERICA. FINALLY.

I'm very proud of you. (Except for those who voted for Proposition 8 and those who re-elected Chris Buttars. I'm not proud of you.) But most of us did a pretty good job, I think.

You Know What To Do Today!

Image from Cute Overload, of course, with the full song up on their home page today.

(All stoats aside, though, we really, really want Obama to win. Because if McCain wins, Mr. Isbell will more than likely get called up out of inactive duty and sent back to Iraq. Or Iran. Or Afghanistan. Because the Geezer Express has made no secret that they plan to win at any cost over there. Mr. Isbell has done his time, has the VA schedule to prove it, and I do not want to be left on the "homefront" of a war against an abstract noun that we cannot win.)

(Besides, I'm sure Obama likes Cute Overload.)