Friday Unrelated Information

1. Why is Dick Cheney still talking? Why are there news articles about how he's still talking? Please stop talking now, Dick.

2. The Writer's Almanac tells me it's the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who hated writing Sherlock Holmes stories:
"To get out of writing Holmes tales, he asked Strandfor higher and higher prices for his stories, ridiculously high, hoping they would turn him down. But they went ahead and paid him anything he asked."

3. Finally, Lego sets that adults can leave out without feeling silly: Frank Lloyd Wright models! Read more here.

May Is National Bike Month

I've finally started riding my bike to work! I know I wanted to be less wimpy about riding in cooler weather (Thing #9), but I started my new job in April and was just too shy to wheel my bike through the office right away. (It didn't help my shyness to learn that one coworker is a fancy bike racer and one boss rode/ran/swam the Hawaii Ironman last year.)

But now I've started riding and it's significantly easier to pedal every time, which is good, and all the roadies at work are friendly, and I'm getting waves from passersby again. Velo bon!

The Attack Of The Cute

I had to be on an East-coast client call early this morning, and Toby did not like that one bit. In his cat mind, if I'm up earlier than usual it should be to lavish him with even more attention and monologues in the kitty voice. So he did his best to distract me with races, squeaks, surprise attacks, and most distracting of all, the Cute Roll:

Tuesday Project Roundup: Christmas Stockings Are Not Holding My Interest

To be fair, I haven't been working on them very much because of the yard and graduation parties and eating outside on the new patio. But these caught my eye, despite my knowing I haven't worn any summer knits I've made in the past:

I really like the navy one, but the directions appear to be in Finnish and would have to be mail ordered and Christmas stockings are easy and I'm not knitting that much anyway. (I'm not sewing much, either. Because have you noticed? It's WARM outside!)

If I do decide to knit either of these, I guess I could get enough yarn to make them long-sleeved. Because I probably wouldn't finish until fall anyway.

Ninety Degress!

I think the whole office will be restless today.

There is some treasure hidden in the heart of summer
everyone remembers now, and they can't be sure
the lives they live in will discover it.

(From "Santa Barbara Road," Robert Hass.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Things I have done at work this week (unrelated projects): Researched the difference between a multi-level marketing scheme and a pyramid scheme; used more exclamation points writing one web site than I have in my entire professional career; and learned about the growing mainstream market for total-body cleanses. My job is awesome!

2. Speaking of advertising, let's watch some Precious Roy Home Shopping Network (from the most brilliant show ever to appear on MTV, Sifl & Olly):


3. And to end the week on a more highbrow note, I came across an Elizabeth Bishop quote that, for me, defines the reason literature exists: "Since we do float on an unknown sea I think we should examine the other floating things that come our way carefully; who knows what might depend on it."

Science Fiction Plants!

Last night I discovered that ivy has pushed through the outside bricks, into the walls, and is trying to sprout through the baseboard in the bedroom. And that is thoroughly creepy. Not because I think that ivy will suddenly come shooting in to attack us in our beds, but because the ivy has been slowly, slowly working its way in and is probably not going to stop now. (I am so glad I rent, by the way.)

Something that inexorable and vegetative reminded me of a couple of science fiction stories--there's one by Bradbury in S is For Space about mushroom kits that kids order and start growing; the mushrooms then turn out to be a weird alien life that takes over the world and smothers all the kids' parents. And Ursula LeGuin wrote "Vaster Than Empires, and More Slow" which I don't recall as well, but is about a planet whose plant life slowly strangles the explorers, I think. (I mostly remember that the title comes from Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress": My vegetable love should grow/ Vaster than empires, and more slow.)

So maybe if I hadn't read so much science fiction I wouldn't be nervous about walking by the spot where I saw the ivy pushing in. I think the landlord can deal with this...

It's Almost Time To Read Dandelion Wine Again

This poem was on the Writer's Almanac this morning and it reminded me of the first long chapter of Dandelion Wine where Douglas realizes he's alive (well, mortal; he's 11 in the book so obviously he's been alive and known about it for some time).

Anyway. Good old Mark Strand gives us another lovely poem:

My Name

Once when the lawn was a golden green
and the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials
in the scented air, and the whole countryside pulsed
with the chirr and murmur of insects, I lay in the grass,
feeling the great distances open above me, and wondered
what I would become and where I would find myself,
and though I barely existed, I felt for an instant
that the vast star-clustered sky was mine, and I heard
my name as if for the first time, heard it the way
one hears the wind or the rain, but faint and far off
as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
from which it had come and to which it would go.

Tuesday Project Roundup: What I've Been Doing Instead Of Sewing

The short answer: Buying things for the yard. (And working in it, too, but mostly buying things.)

Mr. Isbell expanded the front stoop into a patio and I bought some chairs:
(And a new hose! and hose storage!)

And I bought a lot of marigolds and potting soil:

I did finally get the yellow dot fabric from two weeks ago cut out last night, but someone decided to impede progress as much as he could:
Look at that stubborn face. He wasn't about to move.

Let's Talk About The Twilight Movie

This movie made it onto the Netflix queue because I was considering the books for trashy summer reading (along with Anne McCaffery and some Ian Fleming) and I thought the movie might give me an idea of how bad the books might be.

And let me tell you, it was bad. Not so much bad dialogue, or a bad plot (well...), but bad for teen girls all over America: How did a book that teaches you that it's ok to throw all your love at someone who will hurt you--who might even kill you--become a worldwide bestselling romance? Because in real life the person you're throwing your love at isn't a sparkly vampire; he's just going to give you a broken arm. Or worse.

So I don't think I need to read the books--I'll spare myself that frustration (and spare Mr. Isbell the rants about women perpetuating these behavior patterns). (Seriously, Woman Author and Women Director and Producers? You think that because a secondary character asks a boy to prom that this makes your book/movie modern and empowering? Wow.)

The movie ended with a Radiohead song, though. I didn't see that coming.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. How cool are these Blue Note album covers from the 60's? Even the names of the albums are cool:


You can see a lot more here on what looks to be a Japanese site.

2. Seriously, I can't take the coolness. If anyone browsing in a thrift store finds any old jazz albums, I plan to buy a turntable someday. Hint.

3. I stumbled across an essay on perfume that does as good a job as anything can describing a smell, in the purplest prose imaginable. Which is a good thing, because it gives us paragraphs like this:
"The best way to describe Bigarade is to say, first, that it is a vast smell. And second, that it smells like a human being in the summer in a complex weather system; whoever this person is, we can smell them, they're showered but they have a smell all the same, and the lovely, intricate smells of summer are all around and clinging to their skin, and also it seems to have just rained because there's the scent of rainwater on pavement and perhaps a bit of ozone, plus some flower petals and grass that got washed into the puddle they're stepping in. "

Happy Brithday, Famous Composers

Today is the birthday of Johannes Brahms AND of Piotr Tchaikovsky. Poor Brahms was in love with Clara Schumann his whole life, which was tricky because Robert Schumann was his good friend and mentor, and poor Tchaikovsky was gay at a time when that was illegal in Russia. (Hell, it still might be.)

I recommend listening to the Brahms string sextet #1, which I found online here (pretty good, but find the Berlin Octet recording). And for Tchaikovsky, you can watch The Music Lovers, but then you'll be depressed, so you'd better just put on the 1812 Overture.

Entertaining, Yet Morbid

I found this in my online reading yesterday: A site with the premise, "If we started a movie on the day you were born, and stretched it over your lifespan, this is where you'd be in that movie."

You enter your birthday, how long you expect to live, and pick a movie (Ghostbusters, 2001, Star Wars, etc.), then the results tell you where you are in that movie, if that movie were your life.

Apparently, I'm in that long fantastic scene in 2001 where Dave is jogging in the round part of the spaceship. I don't know how that helps me with my Wednesday at all, but such is the internet.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Working On Thing #7

Thing #7 from the 29 Things is "Knit Christmas stockings, starting with Toby's." I got the yarn a few weeks ago and finally started last week. I'm to the heel now but, since it looks like a stripey tube, I'll wait on a picture.

Mr. Isbell saw my yarn colors (orange*, turquoise, and a weird green) and said, "Those aren't Christmas colors!" But they are:
*Toby gets the orange one, of course.

The Map Of Library Cats

The internet has produced yet another neat thing to look at--thank you, internet! This is an interactive map of all the known library cats in the world. The main page gives you the summary, and then you can click on the state of the country for more particulars. For example, a library in Huntsville up north had a cat named Dewey ten years ago.

Now the internet needs to come up with a map of all the bookstore cats in the world.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Happy May Day to everyone enjoying an eight-hour work day today. International Workers Day "is the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when Chicago police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight hour day" (although someone did throw a bomb at the police first, apparently. But still.).

2. If I were ever going to knit anything for my brother, this would be it:
I actually think these are machine-knit anyway, but check them out on the collector's Flickr page of "promotional knit beer sweaters from the 70s and 80s."

3. And more music to finish the week--this is a blast from my past that I suddenly wanted to listen to, and then I was 15 again and riding around with my friend in the summer, going to malls.

Songs Used To Good Effect In Popular Television Series

In addition to shoes, I bought the first season of Mad Men with my first paycheck. Watching it again has been as enthralling as watching it the first time, but since I know to expect the sexism I don't get so worked up about it--a win-win!

I watched the final episode last night and it closes with the main characters' marriage (still) on the rocks, with "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." And listening to it, I thought, "Man, those are some bitter lyrics. But such a pretty tune. And wow, does that really work well to close the first season."

So here is some early Bob Dylan for your listening pleasure:

So True

I think this has been making the rounds, but I had to post it anyway: It's a fake "internet age writing course description and syllabus," from McSweeney's, and it makes writers everywhere feel very smug and vindicated. The whole thing is here (check out "Week 7: Blogging"--not so smug now!) and a sample is below:

Course Description

As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering, there has emerged a new literary age, one in which writers no longer need to feel encumbered by the paper cuts, reading, and excessive use of words traditionally associated with the writing trade. Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era focuses on the creation of short-form prose that is not intended to be reproduced on pulp fibers.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Types Of Dots

Aspirin dot:


And pin dot:

The aspirin dot is a knit that I've made into a t-shirt dress (I want to wait to get a modeled shot) and the pin dot will be a little 60's shift soon.

And then I think I need to really work on the quilt that's languishing at my parents' house, because the closet is getting so packed with clothing that it's going to becoming super-dense and turn into a supernova. It's that full.

Let's Talk About My Hair

In the past two years my hair has gone from being this curly:

to what could only be called "wavy" if you're feeling generous. My hair has betrayed me, and now I don't know what to do with it.

In the winter I cut it even shorter, hoping for a Jean Seberg look:
But, in the words of the wife in a Hemingway short story*, "I get so tired of looking like a boy."

It's been nearly 10 years since I had long hair; I didn't do anything special with my hair when it was long (although it was curly then, AHEM, HAIR); and I know I would hate growing it out. But. I find myself staring at pictures of braids and long glossy hair and echoing that Hemingway character:
"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel. . . . And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes."

In other words, I don't know what I want.

*The story is "Cat in the Rain," from In Our Time.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. This article in the NY Times made me smile: A 67-year-old trying to set a new land speed record essentially bought a JET and put wheels on it. He'll be the driver when they try to set the record--800 mph.

2. Did you know Audrey Tatou (of Amelie) is starring as Coco Chanel in a new French movie? I will have to see that. For now, you can see the trailer here--with subtitles provided by a high-school student of French. (The official English trailer isn't out yet.)

3. Here is Toby in a bag. Just because.

Robins: What Do They Do All Winter, Anyway?

Yesterday evening was so pretty; all the robins were singing. I've noticed them in the early mornings, too, which is my favorite part of late spring. So here is a poem about one bird starting to sing early, by our friend Wallace Stevens:

Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself

At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.

He knew that he heard it,
A bird's cry at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.

The sun was rising at six,
No longer a battered panache above snow . . .
It would have been outside.

It was not from the vast ventriloquism
Of sleep's faded papier mâché . . .
The sun was coming from outside.

That scrawny cry—it was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun,

Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality.

Potato-Growing Methods To Celebrate Earth Day

I've always thought that potatoes need a lot of space, but look at what the internet has shown me: I can grow potatoes vertically!

The full story is here, along with a lot of step-by-step photos. Of course, I don't have room to store my harvest in the apartment...I suppose I could dig a root cellar.

Tuesday Project Roundup: The Inevitable Fail

When I wasn't arguing with my boyfriend (sorry, hon) or yelling at the neighbors (sorry, lady) this last week, I was finishing a sweater that turned out too big. (Sorry, yarn.) I wanted it to look like this girl's version but something happened with the neckline and it ended up looking like this when it was done blocking:

Oh well, I did finish two other sweaters this season that fit and that I wear, so that's a record anyway. This one was pushing my luck.

And now it's on to dresses--polka-dot ones.

As My Old Roommate Would Say, "Bad Form."

So Mr. Isbell and I got into a domestic dispute Sunday morning, and in the middle of it I noticed that, instead of going to the public open space two blocks west, a neighbor woman had decided to play with her dog on our lawn--complete with a stack of Frisbees and the dog running into the flowerbed and planted garden.

I lost it:



And then of course I felt bad, because I was really mad about the argument that was going on and I could have told her to get lost in a nicer way. Poor lady had no idea what she was in for...

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I've been checking out Nerd Boyfriend, "a shopping guide and style blog for the fashionably nerdy male." I mostly like it for the old pictures. And I also like nerds. And Fasuto Coppi's sweater on today's post.

2. Here's an essay on the case for memorizing poems, which included this quote: “If one is delayed in a bus terminal, or sitting in a foxhole, it’s wonderful to have an inner anthology to say over, yet again, in one’s mind.” Except I don't think the foxhole argument will mean anything to the youth of today--not really making a case there, author.

3. It's the birthday of Isak Dineson, aka Karen Blixen, who wrote Out of Africa, the opening of which is the best opening of any book ever, in my opinion.

Toby's Latest Trick: Impeding Progress

He comes running when he hears me start to make the bed and promptly stretches out on it. He's also a fan of sitting on the laptop in the morning, although I think that's because he just likes the warmth from it:

Happy Birthday

...to Leonardo da Vinci, Bessie Smith, Emma Thompson, and my mom! Here is a song for her, with the big disclaimer that she is NOT 64. I just thought it was a good description of her life right now, what with the parts about gardening and going for a ride and having my dad around.



Unrelated: Yellow Submarine looks completely terrifying.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Easter Dress

So I made myself an Easter dress for the first time in about ten years. My mom used to make me fantastic ones when I was little, and later I'd go shop for something, but the only point of an Easter dress is wearing it on Easter, and the only place to wear something on Easter is church, and I decided about the same time I stopped getting new Easter dresses that the only part of Lutheranism I liked was Bach. But I digress.

This is impossible to photograph on a cloudy morning but it looks very nice on--it's navy dotted swiss over a plain navy lining, using the same pattern as last week.

And what's going on in knitting? Well, look who's helping my yellow sweater block:

"uuh, mama, this sweater is damp..."

If Only The Background Were Turquoise

If it were, I would buy this and put it on the wall next to the Bernina:

(The larger size is still for sale on 20x200.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Sorry I didn't post yesterday--the internet was down at the apartment and I was busy at work (!), talking to clients (!!) and being creative (!!!). (Seriously, I would have liked this job just for the paycheck. But it's actually really fun!)

2. Kottke.org linked to the origin of "steal my thunder" this week:
In 1704, playright John Dennis invented a new method of producing the sound of thunder during a play. Dennis' play was unsuccessful, but his thunder technique was soon borrowed by another production, leading Dennis to exclaim:

Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder.

3. Look, it's the alpaca Easter bunny!
My Easter plans include listening to Bach's St. Matthew Passion tonight. I have a friend who always listens to Parsifal on Good Friday for the "Good Friday Music" in it, but it's Bach for me.

Reading The Writer's Almanac Again

I got caught up on The Writer's Almanac site yesterday and saw this poem from last week, which suits the weather and the sort of watery, in-transition feelings from the last few months that are not quite dispersed yet:

Larry Smith, "In Early Spring"

Road catkins, russet and tan, let the
wind sweep over them as dusk
seeps in along the lake,
and I pass road puddles
swelling to ponds, mirroring
the sky's own silveriness.
At the railroad tracks seven geese
veer off and set down in a field
so that only their necks
speak for them, telling us all
to go on while they rest
by the barn. Today a man
asked me if I were depressed,
and I looked up and smiled.
No more than these geese or catkins
as light falls around them, no
more than those pine boughs
lifting in the wind—just so,
life goes on.

Tuesday Project Roundup: "You're Just Happier In A Dress"

My first week of work was notable for lots of friendliness and busyness--and for not knowing what the hell to wear every day. It's a little dressier than the the last place and the weather was not cooperating, so I tried the t-shirt and blazer combo for four days. But Friday I said to myself, "This is bunk, I'm wearing a dres," and Mr. Isbell said, "You're just happier in a dress. There's a sparkle in your eye when you wear one." And it's true.

So I finished a new one over the weekend and wore it yesterday and I was indeed happier. It was also a lot easier to get ready.

I used the fabric from Japan (finally), and this pattern, which looks to be from the'60s. I made the left version but without any sleeves, because the weather has to warm up someday. And I'm trying to have the right version with the neck ruffle finished for next week.

It's Monday

And sometimes Toby has a hard time getting up an hour earlier with me. He usually has to have a quick nap around 8:00, which he's doing here on the back of the couch in the sun.


Updated after morning internet reading to add: Iowa, you rock. I haven't been getting the paper daily or reading my news sites at work, so this was a happy surprise.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Did you know that you can watch all of the Carl Sagan Cosmos series online for free? I discovered it on Hulu while searching for episodes of The A-Team (also available online).

2. Did you know the actor who played the leader of the A-Team, "Hannibal" Smith, was George Peppard, aka the male lead in Breakfast at Tiffany's? I missed these things in 1985.

3. Behold, via Married to the Sea:

Not Appropriate For Client Meetings

I bought this shirt when it was on sale a few weeks ago and I really, really want to wear it today. That would probably be frowned on, though.

Feel Free To Start Any Time, Spring

Now that it's April, I can post the part from The Wasteland that everyone knows and uses to complain about the weather:

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Tuesday Project Roundup: One Out of Three

The three projects I wanted to finish last week didn't go so well--in my rush to get the knit dress done in two days so I could wear it to drink an Old Fashioned Friday night, I didn't measure the skirt when cutting it out, just trusting it to stretch. Um, it didn't. And the woven floral dress languished all week because I couldn't decide whether to put sleeves on it or not. (The weather has been very confusing lately!) But I did get the t-shirt finished.

The fabric was only $4, it only took about 2.5 hours to sew, and there were no tan stripey t-shirts in any stores, so this was deinitely a winner. As long as I know the pattern fits me (ahem), I think I can say I can sew knits with no problem now.

I threw in a label in the back, too. That's how you can tell I really like it.

First Day of Work

Time to say goodbye to baking three times a week, going to the grocery store at noon on a Wednesday, not getting dressed until 10:00, drinking the entire pot of coffee...and worrying constantly about money, not having anywhere to wear the latest projects, and the sad realization that all my plans involving money would have to be put on hold.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Tonight is Drink an Old Fashioned at the Bar at Bambara Night--here's to getting back on track with the 29 Things!

2. I didn't mention it, but I sent my owl sweater pictures to the designer for a contest, and I won a prize! I won the "Ma's favorite prize, " meaning that the designer's mom liked mine best, and my owl-ish goodies and yarn arrived today:

3. I haven't checked out Martha Stewart's blog in a long time, but yesterday's post title was "My horse, Martyn, loves a good massage" so of course I had to go see. I was reveling in the absurdity until I realized that I would probably do anything to make an animal of mine more comfortable. And if I had Martha's fortune, I would definitely hire a Sherpa to give my ailing horse a massage.

I Really Wish Mad Men Season 2 Was Out On DVD

Because with my fancy new job I could use some advice from Don Draper! (Not for picking up women, of course; step 4 is the payoff..."Be uncannily successful at your job.")



If you haven't seen any Mad Men yet, you're missing out, and not just on fantastic period clothes. Desperate for another series, I got Big Love from Netflix this week and couldn't even make it to episode three. I kept wishing the acting were better, like Mad Men. Check it out here.(Mad Men, that is; don't bother checking out Big Love.)

Today Is ANOTHER Great Day

Because I have a job again! I'll be starting here on Monday and I even have a title, one that has "senior" and "manager" and "writing" in it. Hot damn! Let the good times roll INDEED.



As Mr. Charles says at 1:47, I got fifty cents more than I'm gonna keep!


(No, not really, hon; I won't spend it all. Don't worry.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Mysterious!

I don't have anything finished to show for this week but I have three projects I'd like to wrap up before Monday or so...let's just say that I think I'll be leaving the house again on a daily basis soon!

So I'll try to finish a brown dress, a stripey knit t-shirt, and a knit floral print dress and tell you all about it next week. More to come, indeed.

Today Is A Great Day

Why? Because one year ago Toby joined the family!

He went from small and timid that first week

to large and spoiled shortly thereafter.

He has an enormous vocabulary of squeaks and chirps, he knows 9 words and phrases (treat, drink, snack, catnip, lettuce, let's get up, good-bye, I'll be back, and toy), and he's the reason I got together a 72-hour kit.

So I guess today is also for celebrating the anniversary of me becoming a crazy cat lady.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Today is the Vernal Equinox. We made it! Here are some science facts (sciiiiience!):

• The fall and spring equinoxes are the only two times during the year when the sun rises due east and sets due west.
• The equinoxes are also the only days of the year when a person standing on the Equator can see the sun passing directly overhead.
• On the Northern Hemisphere's vernal equinox day, a person at the North Pole would see the sun skimming across the horizon, beginning six months of uninterrupted daylight.
• A person at the South Pole would also see the sun skim the horizon, but it would signal the start of six months of darkness.

2. The Obamas are planting a kitchen garden at the White House--it's the first time there's been a garden on the grounds since WWII, when there was a Victory Garden.

The First Signs Of The Season

The robins hopping around and the bulbs coming up and the seasonal allergies I've had all week tell me that spring is coming (tomorrow is the Equinox!), but do you know what really means the end of winter for me?

The return of the gin and tonic! I can only drink them when it's warm outside and it's been so nice this week that tonight is the night.
Delicious, delicious beverage of summer, how I've missed you....

Wednesday Garden-Planting Tune

We got the cold-weather greens in the ground yesterday afternoon. This was in my head the whole time, much to Mr. Isbell's chagrin:



(Sorry to get this in your head, too, but I had to do it. There are SINGING FLOWERS. And John Denver, who is probably high as a kite and who kind of looks like a Muppet himself. )

Tuesday Project Roundup: Crikey!

Crikey! It's a gator!

What a little beauty!

This project that makes me channel Steve Irwin is for my sister-in-law's nephew who asked for a "red alligator" for his birthday. It's a child-size scarf so it was a fast, fun knit. And I got to say, "Crikey!" a lot while knitting it.

And here's a progress shot of a sweater I hope I can finish before it's too warm for sweaters:
I decided I could buy yarn to make this, since it provided not only clothing but entertainment. (Not quite as much as the alligator scarf, though. Crikey!)

Something To Read While You're Waiting To Start Working

I'm waiting to organize web copy today and that
reminded me of Wallace Stevens' "The Idea of
Order at Key West," which you can read in full
here.

She measured to the hour its solitude.
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang.  And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker.  Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I worked half of the week (yay!), so no bread baking, but I did make cookies twice: These hazelnut blondies and the coffee-almond bars I linked to Tuesday. Tomorrow I'll make cinnamon bread again.

2. Speaking of Tuesday, navy wasn't the best color choice for the fleece top to wear around the house--there's an orange haze of Toby hair all over it after ten minutes. Oh well; a conductor in college once said that cat hair on your clothes was just "a memento of something you love."

3. How soon can I plant cold-weather crops like kale and spinach in the ground? St. Patricks day? I've always just transplanted seedlings, but the seed packets say "sow 4-6 weeks before the last frost."

It Writes Itself, Folks!

So I changed my Tribune subscription to Sundays only, but for the last three weeks it's been delivered every day, and today there was this gem: Let's Tax Caffeine, Legislator Argues

[Rep. Craig] Frank, R-American Fork, has asked lawmakers over the next year to study the potential for taxing caffeine, a response to proposals this session to hike the tax on cigarettes - all of which failed

[...]Frank said he has seen research that caffeine can cause spontaneous abortion, psychological abnormalities and other disorders.

"We're going after people who have problems with addiction for a revenue stream, only caffeine would be one that is more broad-based," said Frank, who calls himself a "social caffeine drinker."

That Diet Coke can KILL, people! Also, global warming is fake.

Wednesday Work Tune: Hear My [Freelance] Train A-Comin'

"Gonna make a whole lot of money [while the gig lasts], gonna be big, yeah..."



(You know, every time I see pictures of Hendirx I want to give up trying to dress like a Frenchwoman and break out the big rings and the calico and the velvet.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: It All Happened So Fast

Yesterday, when I said I had a knit top for thing #17, "in progress," that really meant that I had the pattern ready to go. Well, Monday morning is a good time to go to fabric stores so I got the fabric, pre-washed it, made some cookies while I waited for it to finish drying because the dryer is going out at the apartment, cut it out, and started sewing at 4:00. At 7:00, I was done. Is something that fast even a real project?
Granted, it's not a complicated piece of clothing and sweatshirt fleece is really forgiving. But I'm happy with it because now I have sweats to wear around the house! I might have to start watching daytime TV, too.

As for accomplishing thing #17, I think I've learned enough to proceed with nicer fabrics. I over-stretched the neck a little when I sewed it and I'll redraft the sleeves the next time I make this, but overall I think it worked pretty well.

(The pattern and all tips were from this great book. Highly recommended!)

Almost-Quarterly Report: 29 Things

When I was laid off I thought immediately of the 29 Things and how things like paying off debt and buying a new mattress (#2 and #3) would have to be put on hold. While those things and other things that involve money or eating out have had to wait, understandably, I've been able to cross a few things off the list:

4. Make a queen-sized quilt. I bet you thought I forgot about this, but I've been working on it at my parents' house on Sundays. I already had the fabric when I was laid off, so I thought making a quilt with no pressure to finish and put it on a new mattress might be nice. I finished piecing the top yesterday! Now I have to add a border, because someone forgot to check her math about how big a queen-size quilt needs to be. Then there's the back and then, well, the quilting part. Good thing there's no pressure.
16. Stop biting my nails. I've made some progress here, too: After I gnawed them off completely in February, I've been able to let them grow a little, if only because I never want my hands to look like that again.
17. Learn how to sew knit fabric. I did a practice T-shirt that ended in the FAIL bin, but I have something else in progress now and future plans for a knit dress. I think I can get this thing figured out.
25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store. Only about a 50% success rate with this one so far, but at least it's 50%. And it doesn't cost money.
27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals. I haven't made any yet, but I have found three sets on clearance at Target and we've been using them regularly.
28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month. This was able to happen in January and even in February (we went out for Valentine's Day brunch instead of dinner at The Paris)(#11), so maybe I can keep this one up if we go somewhere humble in March.

And one thing I can't wait to do: 18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara the minute I find out I have a job again.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The blog is three years old tomorrow (!). I've been going back through and re-posting photos and labeling some of the better/craftier posts--check out the tag list on the right.

2. I had to be dressed and out of the house by 9:00 this week (!!) and Toby did not like that one bit. He got his revenge by going to sleep on the unmade bed just so I couldn't make it before I left.

3. Seriously, the new Neko Case album is so good--"little symphonies for the kids," indeed. Read the NY Times review here.

The (Not So) Secret Garden (That Is Actually A Flowerbed In The Front Yard)

I've been pulling weeds in the flowerbed we cleared out last fall and finished up yesterday, just in time for five inches of snow. But the bulbs I planted are coming up, so spring is near. I had let the weeding go all fall, so there was a lot to do, and as I cleared out the bulbs I knew I had a ready-made blog post from The Secret Garden:

She found many more of the sprouting pale green points than she had ever hoped to find. They seemed to be starting up everywhere and each new day she was sure she found tiny new ones, some so tiny they barely peeped above the earth...She wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers.

Go Buy This

Neko Case's new album came out yesterday, so Mr. Isbell and I walked down to Slowtrain to get it. Then we listened to it twice.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Who? ORLY?

Who, who, who? Owls!

Owls on the front:
And owls on the back:

The yarn was a thick Italian cotton I found online and the pattern was from here. The yarn is off-white, not a pinky cream like it appears in the modeled shots, and I have to confess that I went with white after Mr. Isbell pointed out that it would be "like the owl in Labyrinth." But you know what the yellow eyes make it look like? The ORLY owl:


ORLY?
YaRLY. Owls!

Why I Still Live Here, Despite The Legislature

"Homesickness is a great teacher. It taught me, during an endless rainy fall, that I came from the arid lands and liked where I came from. I was used to a dry clarity and sharpness in the air. I was used to horizons that either lifted into jagged ranges or rimmed the geometrical circle of the flat world. I was used to seeing a long way. I was used to earth colors--tan, rusty red, toned white--and the endless green of Iowa offended me. I was used to a sun that came up over mountains and went down behind other mountains. I missed the color and smell of sagebrush and the sight of bare ground."

Wallace Stegner, from the essay collection Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West. (The title's from the Big Rock Candy Mountain song!)