Spring Break!


Mercifully, my children aren't at the age where Spring Break is synonymous with "South Beach" or "MTV". For Spring Break this year, we escaped the Concrete Jungle and headed to literally greener pastures - Amish Country, in Lancaster, PA. We took my mom along, who really needed a break herself.

Let's hear it for Waffle House!

There is something very relaxing about waking up and seeing green everywhere. Our EconoLodge was right next to a farm, so we got to see (yes, and smell) the cows every morning. No alarm clocks, no work stress, no e-mail - it was bliss.


I was blown away by the amount of craftsmanship that still exists in Lancaster. There are handcrafted gifts in every store, from the beautiful quilts that Amish Country is known for, to the incredible amount of woodworked gifts - I treated myself to a little tin star (so many of the homes have the beautiful bigger ones on their doors - where am I putting that? My living room?) that's hanging in my kitchen, and the cutest little sheep - I've recently gotten little sheep figures in a couple of my knitting swaps, so I've kind of fallen into collecting them.


I also went to the Lancaster Yarn Shop, which was just gorgeous. I could have bought every single thing they had, if there wasn't that whole money thing involved. Just amazing yarns. I did have great deal of restraint - I didn't buy a thing. Lately, I've found that just increasing my stash hasn't helped when I go to find something to knit. I take part in a few swaps, so I love getting my stash increased that way, and it also helps me knit things for me - if I buy my stash, I end up knitting for everyone else.


Speaking of knitting, I had started a Stargazer sweater over the drive - figured the stockinette sleeves would make for good car knitting. For some reason, though, I got about halfway through one sleeve and I just noticed several little holes - I thought I was knitting evenly, but they were really on my nerves, so I frogged the sleeve. Yes, the whole sleeve. Augh.


I'm still working on the Cirque sock, but that required a completely different level of attention, so it ended up languishing in my knitting bag for the trip.

I'm still reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which I'm enjoying much more than I thought I would originally would. But I've got to say, it's completely different from Blade Runner, the movie - in a good way. I'm looking forward to reading the supplement which details more about the making of the movie, because I'm thinking Ridley Scott used Dick's novel as a jumping-off point for telling his own story using Rick Deckard and the idea of retiring replicants. I think I'll watch the movie just after finishing the book, so it's fresh in my mind and I can get a full picture.

Back to Amish Country. We visited Kitchen Kettle Village, a shopping village where we got to take the kids and Mom on a buggy ride and wander around enjoying the beautiful day. We ate fresh kettle corn - I may never be able to eat the 99% fat-free microwaved stuff again - and Mike and the boys enjoyed freshly made ice cream.

The FOOD. I can't even describe it. We went to a few Amish-type places, where we had corn fritters with powdered sugar (heavenly!), homemade noodles in a chicken pot pie, brown buttered noodles (caramelizing the butter at the bottom to give it extra flavor) - I could go on and on and on. Heartbreaker managed to find macaroni and cheese everywhere we went, and Cutie Pie actually ate - at one point, after polishing his third hot dog off at Jakey's Amish Barbecue, Mike and I considered a move to Lancaster County, since we finally found a place he'd eat.

We also found several petting zoos, which I enjoyed as much as the boys did. Kitchen Kettle Village even had a llama, which I was desperate to shear and spin. ;) As you can see from the picture below, he was quite interested in being fed - right after this picture was taken, he managed to lean over enough to headbutt my Mom as she got the feed out!

Heartbreaker was looking forward to his funnel cake, so when he finally got a chance to have it, he expressed his glee. And that funnel cake was HUGE.

All in all, the boys thoroughly enjoyed having Nana spend three days with them. And the feeling was more than mutual.

I Finished Two Books...

I finally finished To Heaven by Water. While it wasn't as bad as I feared it was going to be, it's not my literary cup of tea. But I did enjoy the way the author layered his story - I cringed, thinking it was going to be one particular storyline, but that was only the opening scene. The novel unfolded, and seeing how each of the main characters struggled to move on after the death of their mother/wife drew me in quite a bit. Good stuff.

I also finished a re-read of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You know when you're in the mood to revisit an old book friend? I'd gotten a jonesing to reread H2G2 a few weeks ago, so I hit the library and ended up with that, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - I've been on a Blade Runner kick since I got my suitcase of DVDs a couple of weeks ago.

I have to say, I enjoyed re-reading H2G2, but the re-read didn't make it any clearer than it was the first time I read it almost two decades ago. Which, I guess, is the point. It was a lot of fun, and I still love Marvin the manically depressed android. Having Alan Rickman voice him in the movie was an example of perfection in casting. I think I want to sit down and watch the movie again, having the book fresher in my mind now. I do remember them covering a bit more in the movie than the book had, so I may have to check out Restaurant at the End of the Universe sooner rather than later. I've only ever read the first book in the series. Feedback, anyone?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and/or Passover!

Ah... Spring.

Today kicked off the boys' Spring Break, and it couldn't have arrived on a more perfect day. We woke up, relaxed, played some video games, ate breakfast, and finally, headed out to the playground - I was going to be damned if I made us sit indoors on a beautiful day like today. Loaded up a big bag with snacks, drinks, some knitting for me, baseball mitts for the boys, and we were off. Cutie Pie ended up meeting a friend at the playground, so Heartbreaker and I threw the baseball back and forth for a while. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun being out with my boys. Is the secret actually getting in there and playing with them, rather than sitting on the sidelines, waiting for some other kid to bump yours?

We were off to McDonald's for the boys to have lunch, then I treated them to Baskin-Robbins ice cream. I was tempted, but held off. Cutie Pie proceeded to wear the better part of his ice cream - and I didn't even sweat it. Being dirty is part of being a little boy, isn't it?

We headed home so I could eat my own lunch, and then I dropped them off at a friend's house. I offered to stick around, but was told to go enjoy myself. Sweet! So I came home and finally watched The Amazing Screw-On Head, loaned to me by my friend Chuck ages ago. How did it take me this long to catch this? It's like Hellboy (same creator) but further back in time. It's good, solid steampunk - but taking place in the U.S. rather than the U.K. Paul Giamatti voices the Screw-On Head, and David Hyde-Pierce takes voiceover duties for Emperor Zombie, Head's nemesis. It's surrealistic, it's dark comedy - it's just freaking great.

And it was only one episode. The hell? Sci-Fi, you let the updated Flash Gordon abomination run for an entire season, but only let a pilot episode of this show slip through your fingers? Cartoon Network - Adult Swim needs this in their lineup. Take a look.

I also got some time with Blade Runner today - Hubs surprised me with the Blade Runner suitcase as an early Easter gift, so I've been jonesing to watch it for a couple of weeks now. It holds up nicely, considering it's 27 years old. Wow.

Off I go to get the kidlings...

And I've Been Reading, Too...

So during my blogging hiatus, I've been doing more than Twittering/Facebooking. I managed to polish off Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking in about two hours - wow, Princess Leia has issues. It's a quick read because it's pretty much a stream-of-consciousness look back at the life she's had that hasn't been wiped out by electro-convulsive therapy. Getting glimpses of the life she had with her parents (can you say car wreck?), the madness of Star Wars, and her relationships is kind of like reading Star Magazine, but the stories are all real. Wow.


Still sticking with the Mary Todd Lincoln fictional bio, in between book reviews. Currently, I'm in the home stretch with a book called To Heaven By Water, which is a story about the lives of a retired British journalist and his grown kids after his wife dies. The hard part about books like this? There are flashes of interest between parts that slog along. I have to push this one through because I want to be done with it; I've got two more manuscripts on the on-deck circle and am in a serious sci-fi mood, so I want to get to some of MY books.

I've been knitting, too, although for a little bit, my knitting mojo seemed to have followed my blogging mojo out the window. I tried to cast on for a warm winter hat for winter's last gasp, but ripped it out because I couldn't get gauge. I tried to cast on for two different spring sweaters, but they fell upon the same fate as the hat. Finally, I just did what I normally do when I can't get it together - I picked up some sock yarn and went to what's become my 'go-to' project - socks.



I'm working up the Cirque pattern from the Spring 2009 Knitty issue, and I love it so far. I love cabled socks, but I've never made a pair for myself; this pair has little circular cables all the way down the leg and through the instep, so it should look nice when it's done. I'm working it up in Panda Soy Silk, which I believe also has a little bamboo to it. It feels so soft; I hope it washes up nicely.



Okay, so back to books. When I was growing up, my Uncle Billy had the greatest room in the world. It had several bookshelves lining the walls, and I remember how I'd sit on his couch/bed and look through them constantly. I remember his various Time/Life series, his encyclopedia, and most of all, I remember the paperback novels. Science Fiction, fantasy, some horror, all for me to browse. Uncle Billy's the person that introduced me to Tolkien as a child; he, along with my father (believe it or not!) imbued me with a love of science fiction and fantasy, which ended up forming a lot of the person I am today.

Anyway, recently Uncle Bill handed off a box - a BIG box - of those paperbacks. Digging through the box, I saw covers from 30 years ago that I remembered like it was yesterday. I've posted a picture above of two of the books - how '60s/'70s sci fi are they? So awesome.

I even tried to dig into one of them right away. The Gray Prince, the book on the right, is a Jack Vance novel. When I looked Vance up on Wikipedia, I discovered that he's a pretty heavy hitter in the sci fi arena, so I dug right in. Holy. Crap.

As my friend Keith put it, when I brought the book to him, "pre-Star Wars sci fi and post-Star Wars sci fi are two VERY different things." Talk about psychadelics. After two weeks and a total of nine pages, I waved a white flag. I'll have to try this another time, when I don't have Star Trek on the brain. In the meantime, the books are safe and cozy and awaiting my leisure. I feel like I've got a nice little piece of my childhood back.



My on-deck circle... soon, my sweet Doctor Who books, soon... (yes, there are other books there - notably, Cryptonomicon and a Battlestar Galactica novel called Unity, not to mention the Torchwood books) And yes, that is Daniel from Sandman standing guard in front of the books.

I Got an Award!


So despite my blog mojo having gone missing for several weeks, I still managed to garner an award from one of my knitting sisters, UrbanZooKnitter. Not only is she a kickass knitter, she's an all-around great person. I'll gush more about her below, as I'm awarding her right back, but I just wanted to thank her here.

We've got some rules here, so let me post them and move along:

- Put the logo on your blog or post.

- Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude! (holy crap, 10?!)

- Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

- Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

So I nominate:

1. A.J., author of the UrbanZoo, who not only knits beautiful things, but is a devoted pet mom, gardener, and spouse.

2. Stacey, my co-Geek Sisterhood blogger and author of the Stacey's Stream of Consciousness blog; she finds some of the coolest links on the Internet and is lethal in a craft store.

3. Linda, at Coffee n Danish, has been my friend for eons, and is one of the calmest, most together people I've ever met. She hasn't blogged for a little while, so I hope this entry gently reminds her how much I miss her on the blogosphere.

4. Lauren, another Geek Sister who has taken a little hiatus from her blog at I Was Thinking of an Unreleated Thing to enjoy her little squish, has left New York for somewhat greener pastures. We miss her here, but thank goodness for e-mail and webcams.

5. Nancy over at Bronx Girl Knits knits, loves sci fi, and also writes for Pink Raygun, which makes my girlie geek brain happy. Oh, and she loves herself some Doctor Who - love ya!

6. Peg, the Chaos Mommy, is another mom who makes it all look good - an armed forces wife, three kids, assorted pets and all.

7. Piera, fellow coffee and rage fanatic over at There's Just Not Enough Coffee, is coming back from a blogging hiatus - welcome back, Piera!

8. Snowflake, over at Snowflake Submerged, is another mom with whom I share way too many things - our kids, for instance, are very close in birth months and years; we both have an unabashed love of Tolkien, original Star Wars, and Watership Down; and we're both Catholic school refugees, to start. She's also an armed forces wife, holding down the homefront.

9. Marly, podcaster, blogger and needlewear designer extraordinaire over at Yarn Thing, is another example of the cool people you meet online. She's got a great knitting and crochet podcast, and is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Check out her site and her podcast, even if you don't knit or crochet; she's hilarious and her laugh is infectious.

10. Karen over at The Knitting Patch is a knitter and spinner who makes some of the most beautiful socks I've ever seen. I miss our Pret Knit nights, and hope we get to have one soon. She also does an incredible amount of charity work with New York Cares, so she's an all-around awesome person.

Wow, coming up with 10 bloggers was not nearly as difficult as I thought - I feel like I've left people out! So to everyone who may have felt left out, I apologize - there are more awards out in the ether to be had, right?

Jeez, Have I Been Remiss.

Wow, it's been over two weeks. Poor neglected li'l blog. Let's see what I can do to catch up.

Books - just finished Caryl Phillips' "In the Falling Snow," which was a bit of a struggle for me. Man goes through midlife crisis, gets divorced, has a teenage son he's struggling to keep a relationship with, and makes stupid decisions that get him put on administrative leave. It's a very nutshell summary of the book, but that's the main idea. Not really my bag, fictionwise, but it's coming out in September, so judge for yourself. I'm still running back to the Mary Todd Lincoln book in between book assignments, and I am enjoying it greatly.

My Uncle Bill is one of the reasons I became such a sci fi nut. As a kid, I can remember the bookshelves lining his room, with the greatest paperbacks. Well, he's been cleaning out his basement, and guess what I have? A box of those same paperbacks. Thankfully, my friend Chuck is as big a sci fi fan as I am, so I have someone to share these with or I'd be facing a divorce court. He's taking some, then we're swapping. I've never read Jack Vance, but he's got a bunch of novels in there, so I'm looking forward to checking some stuff out.

Knitting: Working on a pair of socks for Will, and still need to finish Baby Boyd's birthday gift. Sleeves are not cooperating. ARGH. I even e-mailed the designer, who gave me some helpful feedback, but now there's another problem on the horizon. Is it too late for me to just frog the thing and make something else? I may have to.

365 Photo project: That's going to be on hold until I remember to actually take the camera out with me every day. Who would have thought it was that difficult to remember?

And in other news, Heartbreaker kind of walked to school by himself today. I say kind of, because I let him go a half block ahead of Cutie Pie and me. I didn't scream out every time he walked in front of a garage (he did stop and look both ways each time), and I managed to not have a full-on cardiac arrest each time he crossed the street - 3 of them. He looked both ways each time, and jogged across. He looked back a couple of times, which made me feel good - at least he wanted to make sure I was there, right?

He crossed the final street, stood on the corner where the school is, and waved, saying, "'Bye, Mom!" He turned around and jogged through the playground to his entrance. My heart broke just a little more. When did I have a baby old enough to cross a street without me?

Cutie Pie informed me that I get "six kisses" in the morning, "and that's THAT." He also runs into the school building now, no last kiss at the door. My heart broke just a little more.

Being Mommy aches sometimes.

As Promised, Pictures!

Hat for Baby Park (Heartbreaker's teacher's upcoming baby). Yup, it's my baby shower fave, the Umbilical Cord Hat from SnB. I used the last of my Adrienne Vittadini yarn, with baby alpaca goodness.

Square on the garter stitch baby blanket. I ran out of my main color yarn, the yarn store was closed, so I improvised and ended up pretty happy with the effect.

Full shot of the blanket; I even got crazy and did some crochet on the border.

Another Book Down, Another Knitting Project Complete.

I just finished another book for the book clubs. This one, called On The Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren, was practically written to be a Lifetime Movie for Women. Great if you like that sort of thing, not so much my cup of tea. It's a dysfunctional family comes back together with the help of wacky outsider help-type of story.

Granted, I am partial to space battles and zombies and not so much the women's books, so I'm not the audience it was written for, but sometimes it came off as a bit TOO much. The youngest daughter is an Earth Mother-type, complete with bare feet and spirit guide/imaginary friend. But we discover there's more to it - she’s a reincarnated African-American preacher who died in a KKK-fueled church fire and was reborn into the body of a white girl; her constant canine companion was a dog who died in the church fire, and her spirit guide was a parishoner. The eldest daughter is the overachieving, power exec who lives with a loser slacker, only to dump him, discover she’s pregnant, and head off to live in a mud house she creates on her grandmother’s property. The brother is hiding a horrible secret, so he took off at the age of 14 to go live in a tree. In the woods. And then we have the tap-dancing troupe of elderly women – it’s the Red Hat Society in tights and taps. It just feels like it was constructed to have all the major elements of a ‘women’s book’ – it’s a good story that just tries a bit too hard to appeal to its audience. But like I said, I'm not the audience for this book, so I'm pretty sure I'm reading too harshly.

I've also finally finished a knitting project, after endless starts and pauses. Pictures to come, but it's a blanket for one of Heartbreaker's former teachers, who I always thought highly of and whose baby is due in a few short weeks. It was a pretty garter stitch (easy to work on while watching TV!) pattern that I put some color work into, and I think the end result was nice. I even tested by crochet mettle by putting a little border onto it.

Still trying to get an answer on the issue I've come up against with the Baby Boyd birthday gift - I e-mailed Interweave about it, but have yet to hear. Normally, when I've contacted a magazine about a problem with a pattern, I've heard right away - anyone have any experiences with Interweave?

My Ravelry queue/projects/stash is just a mess. I need to do a lot of updating. I've been spending entirely too much time on Facebook; need to get a lot of stuff buttoned down when the boys go back to school on Monday. I haven't even been spending much time on Ravelry, so I totally feel out of the loop.

Being home for this long is starting to weigh on me. Thankfully the weather's starting to perk up, because I find myself settling into this daze that takes up most of the day. I need to start moving around more, because I'm beginning to notice that it's all too easy for me to spend an entire day just zoning out at the computer. I need to give myself things to do and not tell myself they'll take too long - where am I gong?

And Now, For Something Completely Different.

I'm pretty lucky. I've got the best family and friends in the world, I'm grooming my children for world domination, I've always got a good book and fresh yarn ready, and I've even managed to carve out my own little space on the Web. I'm thankful every day for that, no matter how grudgingly it may sound at times.

Recently, my friend Jen mentioned that a woman I went to high school with had been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. There were no symptoms, no signs, no warning. She was tired - she's got a 3 year old daughter, of course she's tired! But that was the only sign. She's had several abdominal surgeries and bouts with chemotherapy, and she's looking at another big fight coming up. This is someone I went through high school and college with, and although we moved in separate social circles, I always thought well of. The fact that anyone's got to go through this is awful. That I know her just makes it worse.

I may not be able to do much, but I can use my little corner of the Web to let you know about this. Jen and another friend from high school are putting together a "Celebrate Life" benefit to raise awareness about colon cancer, and to raise money not only to provide support to Alanna and her family but to the Colon Cancer Alliance (CCA). The Celebrate Life benefit will be taking place on March 21. For details on attending or perhaps donating a raffle prize, shoot an e-mail on over to celebratelife.benefit@yahoo.com. I'll be getting some raffle tickets from Jen shortly, so if you're interested, leave me a comment and I'll contact you. I don't know yet what all the prizes are, but I do know one is a huge hi-def television. I've offered my knitting services for one of the auction prizes; hopefully, my project will be done in time!

There is also a Facebook group for the benefit, which you can check out here and learn more. I'll also have the link posted on my Facebook page.

More on ComicCon

The boys even got some role-playing in at ComicCon, with a Wizards of the Coast booth where they had gaming tables set up to teach the basic Dungeons & Dragons game and Magic the Gathering card games. They've been playing D&D with Mike for a while now, so they thoroughly enjoyed that, and I have to say that despite all of us being a bit confused with Magic, we dug it. We got sample decks and will be trying to play. The guy running the game was really thorough and nice in explaining the game. He also told me that Cutie Pie is actually at a great age to start learning the game, which really surprised me; I guess I never thought of a CCD as a kids' kind of thing. But it incorporates reasoning, planning and math skills; not bad, when you think of it.

Heartbreaker and I also found a great booth, Lerner Publishing, where they publish Choose Your Own Adventure-type graphic novels. Heartbreaker loved it, and as I checked out the books and information they had there, so did I. The rep at the booth was really personable, too, which always helps. We ended up completing a scavenger hunt that took us to a few more cool publishers' booths, and he got a free book out of the deal. And I bought him one of the graphic novels.

We've been fans of the Sci Fi Channel show, Who Wants to be a Superhero? for the two seasons it's run so far (I've heard that Sci Fi only contracted to do two seasons of the show - come ON, we need a third season!). The first season runner up, Fat Momma, was always Heartbreaker's fave to win. And she was at ComicCon! We saw her table as we were on the way out, so we made sure to stop over and say hello.

She is the nicest person! She signed her comics, gave Cutie Pie and Heartbreaker each an autographed postcard, and took a picture with them. The boys loved it and I thought she was really great.


One of the main reasons for going to ComicCon this year was so Heartbreaker could meet Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books - I've blogged about them here (and I just finished the third book, The Last Straw) and about how Heartbreaker's such a huge fan. We got on a surprisingly quick line, and he got to meet Mr. Kinney. Not much time for chat or even pictures, which explains why the line moved so quickly, but Mr. Kinney did notice that Heartbreaker's name was the same as his own son's, so Heartbreaker got a kick out of that. And now he has an autographed first edition of his own!

Cutie Pie and I got to sit in on another main reason for attending the Con this year - we got to hear Mo Willems, who writes the Elephant and Piggy, Knuffle Bunny, and my particular favorites, the Pigeon books. Aside from the genius who tried to get him to sign autographs in the middle of his presentation, it was a great time. He read Elephant and Piggy's Are You Ready to Play Outside?, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, and, to my joy, Pigeon Wants a Puppy. I told Mike that I'll never be able to live up to that kind of storytime; the guy is great.



I told you there was a Sleestack. I spent the latter part of the evening trying to call up videos on YouTube and illustrate to the kids how cool the Sleestacks are. Kids today. Harumph.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. The kids got lots of swag and Mike and I got to enjoy being immersed in geek culture again. And ate a lot of carb-filled crap. Convention food at its finest.

ComicCon is Teh Awesome

Where to begin? ComicCon was simply awesome this year. It's the first year I've gone to a Comic Con at Javits since Reed Exhibitions, the company that organizes BookExpo, took it over, and man - they really tidied up the house.

I didn't go on Saturday, where a lot of events were happening, but I went on Sunday - Kids' Day - and the kids' admission was FREE! There were a lot of kids' events set up, so it was a great day for the kids.

Oddly enough, my pictures have posted in the reverse order I'd wanted. Let's review.

Cutie Pie takes lessons in bad-assery from the best. And will one day go on to say, "When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master."

The order of the day was dress-up, and it was quite awesome to see people walking around in various stages of Jedi and stormtrooper dress. We also saw a Cobra Commander from G.I. Joe, several adorable little Boba Fetts, and a Mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Cutie Pie pretty much took his picture with every stormtrooper he could get near; Heartbreaker, who's a 'tween now and eschews such childish foolishness, politely declined. Even when I embraced a Sleestack (more on that later).

Neither of the boys were too cool, however, for lightsaber lessons. It was a moment that would make any mother worth her geek label proud. The New York Jedi were kind enough to conduct lessons for the kids all day long, and were really wonderful in working with them.

No matter what new 'thing' Cutie Pie finds interest in, he always comes back to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He loves these guys. So when we saw all four of them walking around the convention floor, we made sure to get Cutie Pie in there. Look at that face. That's just sheer joy.

Jesus Christ, that's a lot of people.

More in the next post.

Still Reading, Still Knitting...

So the first semester's pretty much in the can for me, and I have to say, school is every bit as great as I hoped it would be. I know things will ratchet up a notch next semester once the papers and research kick in, but for now, it was a wonderful re-entry into the world of college. I've been checking out various webcasts the school has, learning about different areas of study, and have been interested and thrilled to find that library studies has so many great places for me to go. I've said all along that I'd likely go into public librarianship, specializing in children's library studies, and I'm still pretty married to that, but archival studies with an eye toward working in museums is also right up my alley. So for now, who knows? I may specialize in one field but skew my electives toward the backup field. I feel hopeful and excited, which is nice these days.

I'm still reading the Mary Todd Lincoln fictional autobio, which is very good; I do have to wonder how fictional this is - I can't imagine this is very close to the bone, but it's good reading and good fun. The author seems to have Lincoln's bouts of depression down pretty well (from what I've read about Lincoln in the past), and I may be tempted to read an actual biography of Mary Todd Lincoln down the line to see how well the author 'got her'.

I also finished a book for review a couple of weeks ago called The Wisdom Trail, which features profiles of women now ages 73-90. They've been there, done that, and blazed the trail while doing it – women who came of age during the ‘40s and ‘50s, when women’s roles were in transition from Rosie the Riveter back to Donna Reed, and they bucked the trend by getting a college education and using it. Most of them married and became the women who ‘had it all’ – eventually, the model we as women have today. Not a ‘how to’ book, but an important look at where we were and how we got here. The main age range of the women profiled in this book is 73-90, most college educated, all wanted to make a difference.

It's an inspiring book, and an interesting read but I had two glaring issues arise while reading it - first, where were the single women? Most of the women profiled were married, had children, and figured out how to work a career by working around their husbands or by waiting until their children started school. And second, most of the women profiled are Caucasian – where are the African-American voices? Where are the Asian-American women? There is a small handful in here, but I would have liked to see a little more diversity. Other than that, it's an interesting book that I think should open up a dialogue between generations of women.

Okay, I see a cool meme I'm going to pick up, so I'll pause this post for now.

What's on the Night Table This Week

First up - in less than two hours, we get to watch President Obama being sworn in. I cannot tell you how excited I am. I hope the kids are able to see some of it in school, but as the Inauguration is taking place during part of the lunch period, I'm not sure. Since the weather is too cold for recess, I can hope that they will try to show some of it in the auditorium. I'll record it just to be safe, because I know they wanted to see it.

So this week, I've got to finish another book I'm reviewing; The Wisdom Trail by Janet Lieberman and Julie Hungar, both in their late 70s/80s. It's really an interesting read; it's the stories of women who blazed the trail from the Depression and before through the 60s - women who worked, raised families, were active in their communities - very good stuff, very inspiring. I have to devote some serious reading time here so I can get my report in. It's a promising sign when my manuscript is all marked up with notes, though.

I've also been trying to get an idea of what I've got in the way of projects for the next couple of months. I've just cast on for a cute little birthday gift that I can't disclose much about, as the recipient's Mommy reads the blog. I've also got a March gift to start thinking about, another possible March gift - not sure as yet - and two Aprils. So at least I know I'll have stuff to work on - now, I just have to actually settle on projects.

See? Progress.

At Heartbreaker's behest, I've read both Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. I thoroughly enjoyed both books; the mix of cartoons and the story told in the main character's voice was fun to read and I admit to quite a few out-loud giggles while reading them. Heartbreaker assures me that I will enjoy Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw as well; he finished it last night.

I also have to admit to some selfish pride in getting the book for Will the day it came out, because he brought it to school the next day and was surrounded by kids, whose mothers haven't gotten it for them yet. Score one for Mommy.

So today was orientation today for me at SJSU. It's lovely having an online course where I can take my time, because orientations are normally not my thing. So being able to hit 'pause' while I made myself a cup of coffee (this apartment is drafty as all get-out and I'm FREEZING) was awesome. And being able to sit back and knit as I got to know all my future professors was very cool, as you can see:


That's a mitten for Cutie Pie, who isn't a fan of his gloves. He has told me several times that he wishes he had mittens, so when he gets home today, he'll have a nice, warm pair of blue mittens waiting for his cold little fingers.

And yes, that is an old-school Cylon head you see in the background.

And, Some Knitting.

I've been knitting, too. Honest, I'm not just on the computer all day long. Okay, lately I am, but I am knitting, too. I've still been working on the Nutkin socks, which I love - I'm on sock #2 now. It's a short-row heel, which I've never done before, and I'm a little distressed because it looks rather holey. Just means more finishing to be done, since I'll go in and close them up when I'm done. I have to look up how it's done and see where I may have gone wrong. Or maybe I just need more practice.

I haven't spun in a few weeks; again, just frustrated and really in need of someone who can show me, rather than watch a video on YouTube. Nothing, at least for me, beats someone that can show me what I'm doing wrong.

Okay, now I'm off to knit. Seriously.

Let's Hear it for The Wimpy Kid!

Here is a really enjoyable article from USA Today about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid phenomenon - Heartbreaker is a huge fan of these books and I'll be running over to Barnes & Noble today to pick up the newest one, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, so he'll have a little present to come home to today.

I think I'll even take a break from Mary Todd Lincoln to finally read these myself. Heartbreaker's been raving about them (along with many other kids) and telling me how I need to read them as well, and it's been far too long since Will and I have read a book together (other than Inkheart, which we're working through right now). When I helped staff the school's book fair this year, this series sold like hotcakes (as did the Camp Rock novelization, but Heartbreaker's not into that so much). Kids love this stuff. Hey, any book that gets kids excited about reading wins my vote hands-down.

I remember my cousin stressing out to me about her son, who's the same age as Heartbreaker, not wanting to read; I recommended Captain Underpants; a favorite of Heartbreaker's at the time. She proceeded to get all sanctimonious on me about the 'bathroom humor' of the book and how she'd never let her son read that.

Oh, please. Do you want your son to read? Do you think that not reading Captain Underpants, or any 'bathroom humor'-related book is going to stop your son from sniggering at a good fart joke? I'm a 38-year old female that thinks fart jokes are absolutely hilarious, provided they're done well. Drop the pretenses of being Victorian; you live in a split-level in New Jersey.

That said, kudos to teachers and librarians who have championed Captain Underpants and now, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, in all their boogers- and fart-related glory. Reading things that are written to speak to kids is the way to get them to read, particularly since we now know that boys learn differently from girls.

And if you have a boy, by the way, check out author Jon Scieszka's site, Guys Read - it's his literacy program to help boys find things they like to read. I first 'met' Scieszka through Nancy, who read The Stinky Cheese Man to Heartbreaker when he was but a toddler. He darn near giggled his Blues Clues socks off, and Scieszka went on to become one of his first favorite writers.

Weighty Thoughts...

After my frustration at not losing the 20 pounds I wanted to by Christmas (I did, however, get down by almost 4 pounds), I got into the whole hopeless bit; you know, where I'll never see my 'real' size again, yet I hate the way I look in pictures. I deliberate stayed away from making a weight-related New Year's resolution, because I'm tired of feeling like I've failed.

I did, however, get back in the Wii Fit after 31 days (as it so sweetly reminded me) today. Surpringly, my weight wasn't that different from my last time on the scale, and considering that normally I'd weigh in before I ate breakfast, and today I weighed in after I ate breakfast, lunch and a small afternoon snack, I was actually kind of hopeful about my starting point. It's not going to be easy, but if I can remember to be kinder and easier on my psyche, and remember that it's all about the baby steps, I'm hoping to see some positive results this year.

Book Blogging

I've decided to blog about the books I read this year. I read a lot of books, and looking back at the end of the year, I'm never able to quite remember everything I've read, for better or worse.

I ended last year and began this year with a book called Strange Nervous Laughter by Bridget McNulty, which'll be coming out in March. I've got to admit, this one left me cold. I'm able to read a book that doesn't necessarily appeal to me and still find something good about it, or pick who it will appeal to, but this one was just on my nerves from about five pages in.

The two biggest issues I had were the shallow characters that the author tried to make deep and a major storylines that just went nowhere. I felt like the author wrote this book to show how literary she is. For instance, one of the most irritating characters in the book is a woman who wears a “corset of cynicism”. Good. Lord. Maybe it's just too experimental or surrealistic for me - that's one genre of literature I've never been able to completely get on board with.

The story begins with an interesting scenario – a robbery at a grocery store in Durban, South Africa. Three of the main characters are in the store being robbed, but the robbery just becomes a throwaway reference point after it's over. The scene was just there to introduce the characters.

And speaking of the characters, there are six main characters, all of whom not only have their own little dysfunctional superpower but who have also had some abysmal childhoods. These six damaged folks end up pairing off and eventually falling apart.

I was frustrated with this book early on, and looking back, I still can't say I found something I truly enjoyed. I'll have to see what the word is on this book when it hits the shelves.

I just picked up a book I got during my BEA 2006 run; I've been dying to read it for ages and just decided to take a break from everything else and grab it. Mary, by Janis Cooke Newman, is a fictional autobiography of Abraham Lincoln's widow, Mary Todd Lincoln. History nerd that I am, I've been interested in her for years and the book is very readable. It's told in the first person from Mary's point of view, right after her commitment for insanity 10 years after President Lincoln's assassination; she's looking back at her life and currently, I'm up to when her father remarries her stepmother, who's apparently a wicked witch. I think I'm going to enjoy this read.

Rant.

Do you want to know what I think is killing the book business? Authors who lie. We all remember the ugly business of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, which brought forth the wrath of Oprah, and right on the heels of that debacle, Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan's disgrace when it was discovered that she plagiarized sections of her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.

And we have it happening again. A few weeks ago, we found out that Oprah has been burned again (and yes, I admit I get a little giggle out of it) by an author who claimed he met his wife when he was in a concentration camp during World War II - guess what? It didn't happen! And today, I just read an article on USA Today that the author of Conversations with God just got caught trying to pass off another writer's Christmas memories as his own on his blog. His defense? "Wow, I don't know how that happened, I guess I just read it and kind of internalized it as my own memory." (Amusingly similar to Viswanathan's defense, by the way.)

People, what is going on here? If you have a compelling story, do you have to pretend it was your life? Do you not think it's going to sell otherwise? Have we become such a reality TV-crazed nation that we have to think everything is a peek into someone's home before we'll consider looking at it?

The book business is in enough trouble without greedy or just plain stupid people trying to fool the public into buying their stuff.

Just a Sunday rant from me.

Quick Rewind

A brief New Year's recap:

I could have slotted in a picture from any of the past 10 New Year's Eves, and you really wouldn't have known better, would you? I will now refer to this and all similar as the "Annual Guy Shot".

Finally getting Mike to take a shot I can post.

Birthday gift from Stacey and Adam - a Dalek necklace!

Birthday gift from Nancy and Keith - Box O'Hello Kitty!

I'm about to start burning a few years' worth of photos onto disc, something I should have been doing more regularly all along. I do tend to use Snapfish as offsite storage for many photos, but I need to free up computer space for the updates I need to make. Plus, I'm terrified of crashing my entire system and losing my photos. Now, I just have to worry about what to do when my CDs deteriorate. I think I'm going to listen to my friend Chuck and just order prints of everything. Of course, that would mean going back to finding space for all the photo albums. Gah!

Wii Knitting?!

(screencap taken from KNiiTTiiNG concept site)

Who'd have seen this one coming? An artist and a scientist are collaborating to bring a knitting game to the Wii. You can check out the GeekSugar article here or you can check out the concept and some storyboards here. On the one hand, my inner nerd and knitting obessive loves the idea, but on the other, I'm kind of worried about people not bothering to learn how or continue to knit if they can just do it virtually. I guess knitting nuts like myself and the rest of you (y'all know who you are) will still do it, because once you've felt the caress of baby alpaca, there's no going back. And seriously, no matter how much fun it may be to make online, can you wear Wii-Knit socks? I think not.





So I've officially been a grad student for three days, and it's been pretty darned awesome. I've completed two of my nine assignments, and have already made some new friends with my classmates. One of my biggest concerns was feeling like the old fogie in the bunch, but I've been delighted to discover that many, if not most, of the people in my class are around my age/stage of life! We've been posting links and pictures of our families and getting to know each other and it's been a really comfortable atmosphere so far. It sets the stage to really enjoy learning.





I've also really enjoyed this apparent connection between knitting and library studies. I know a couple of knitting librarians in real life (hi, Ravelers!) and I've met at least three more this week through the SJSU program! I've even joined a librarian knitting group on Ravelry. Do a love of books and yarn go hand in hand? Is it a love of learning? I don't know, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

One thing I've discovered about the program so far is that I will apparently become more technologically proficient, so I'd better get over the fear of crashing my computer I constantly live with. One of my next assignments is to update my Word program with an update that will allow me to access documents with a .docx extension, so this weekend I'm going to suck it up and download the update. Pray for me. After that, I've got to install my Webcam - I need it for a seminar on the 15th - so this should be quite amusing to watch. I'll report back on it.

See? I Learned Something Already...



I have a Cloud! I found out about Wordle.Net while reading for school today, so I wandered on over, submitted my URL, and made my own little Cloud. How cool is that?

School Daze!

Well, it's finally arrived! Today is my first day of school at San Jose State University's online MLIS program. I've been checking out the syllabus and getting to know my fellow classmates and peer mentor via the bulletin board, and I have to say, I love it already. There's just something about being in school that agrees with me. It makes an otherwise dreary day pretty cool.

So I finally finished all of my holiday knitting - and promptly neglected to take pictures of any of it. Gah! But it's done, and the recipients all seemed happy with their goodies. Mike's grandmother and great-aunts loved their socks, and the kidlings gifties were happily received by the parents. So did I take a 6-month knitting hiatus like I swore I'd do? Nope. Cast on a pair of Nutkin socks with some of my bamboo yarn. The heel is driving me a bit insane, but otherwise, these are beautiful and I can't wait to get them on my tootsies.

I haven't been spinning since my first few sorry attempts, but I'm hoping to get together with my PretPlurk knitters soon to remedy that. I haven't been on Plurk in so long, my karma is probably zippo. I'll deal.

Just a quick update for now, but more to come, I'm sure...

The Finish Line Approacheth...

I can practically hear the sleigh bells departing the North Pole, and still, I knit on. I've got two more gifties left to go, and something tells me I'll be up 'til the wee hours of Christmas Eve. Okay, maybe not, because I've got a load of wrapping to finish up, too. The question then arises - what's next? What happens after the epic Christmas Knitting Season of 2008 comes to a close?

Hell, I dunno. But whatever I pick, it'll be something fun. I have much stash from my employed days, and with grad school on the horizon, methinks I will need much in the way of stress management handy.

Speaking of grad school, I've officially paid the bursar. Whoo hoo! Next up, the scholarship applications...

Of Duran Duran and Christmas Postcards...

The Duran Duran show was FANTASTIC. Mike and I waited seemingly forever for them to finally take the stage, but it was all worthwhile once they did. From the second they took the stage with The Valley from Red Carpet Massacre to the final strains of Rio, I didn't stand still; they sounded (and looked - never forget looked) amazing and complete command over the crowd. John and Simon looked like they were having the time of their lives, Nick was his usual ironic self behind the keyboards (Simon did manage to get him to crack a grin once), Roger is at the top of his game, and Dominic Brown, the guitarist that replaced Andy, has a great rapport with the guys in the band and with the audience. They played for two solid hours and for those two hours, I was back to being 15 years old. It was a pretty fantastic way to celebrate my birthday.

Atlantic City looks very different from the Atlantic City I'd be dragged to every summer for the requisite family vacation, too. Lots of new buildings, casinos have gotten more flashy in attempts to get East Coasters to make it the Vegas of the East Coast, and - and this is the very cool part - AN OUTDOOR OUTLET SHOPPING AREA. Oh yes. I took full advantage of my birthday finances and treated myself to some new shoes (RocketDog, Stacey - but they were on sale) and a few new things to wear (hopefully, to job interviews soon...).

You're doubtless asking yourself by now, where are the Duran Duran pictures? Folks, I got nothing. I was only about 25 feet from the stage, and probably could have taken some amazing shots, but I decided against bringing my camera for a couple of reasons. First, I'm never sure whether or not I can bring my camera into a venue these days, with most digital cameras having recording capability and all; I don't want to get my camera pulled for bootlegging suspicions. Second, I was in a general admision show - some fool bumps me and I drop my camera or spills their drink on my camera, I'm showing up on Judge Judy for assault while I counterclaim for my lost camera fees. Finally, the biggest reason - I just wanted to dance and have fun. I get nuts when I have my camera with me; I always want to take full advantage of a photo opp, and I didn't want to do that. It was my birthday, I just wanted to get lost in the show, so I opted to leave the camera home.

I've finally managed to get holiday preparation kicked into gear this week, too. Since we've got a smaller tree than normal, we only used half of our ornament stash, which kind of made me pouty, but at least now I tell myself I can rotate ornaments each year. Boba and Jango Fett made the tree this year, as did Han Solo and the Clone Troopers, but I gave the Klingon Bird of Prey and Romulan Warbird a break. The Baby's First Christmas ornaments from both kids are up, though; they'll always be on the tree because I love the memories.

Speaking of the holidays, I took part in a holiday postcard swap with my fellow knitting Plurkers and am finally getting the postcards in the mail today. I repurposed some older Christmas cards and added a postcard backing template courtesy of our friend Martha (Stewart) and I think they look cute, if I say so myself. I should have thought to scan them and post them, but they've already been addressed so I don't want to do that now. I also received two of the three I'm getting, which is so nice for someone who stalks the mailbox looking for mail that doesn't have a bill in it. Bev, who I see on Plurk and Ravelry all the time, was one of my partners and sent me a great postcard from Maine - loved it! And I received a great Virginia postcard from Stacey, which just reminded me how much I miss Virginia and that I need to get back soon. :) Thanks, all!

I'm off for now to finish off some more holiday knitting - deadline time approacheth...

Birthday Goodness a Little Early!


I was treated to more early birthday goodness this morning, when Cutie Pie and Heartbreaker demanded to give me my birthday gift from them, since tomorrow, I'll be throwing myself around the House of Blues like a psychotic 14-year old listening to The Wild Boys. Oh, wait a minute - I'll be a psychotic 38-year old listening to The Wild Boys!

So I got the cutest card ever, and something I'd been heavily hinting that I wouldn't be averse to receiving - a drop spindle and some roving to start me off with!

Many of you are staring at the screen saying, "What in the world is she talking about?" I will explain. I'm going to start spinning (well, attempting to) my own yarn! Roving wants to be yarn when it grows up. You need to spin roving into yarn (that's the most basic way to put it), and I've been thinking that I want to try it out and see if I like it.

Roving samples!

Das Kit! See the spindle in the back? And the fiber is alpaca - see the picture on the front? His name is Amos. I get to meet the animal whose teaching me to spin. Kind of like those Sally Struthers commercials, but not.

Gypsy loves herself some roving.

P.S. I've been letting the video for Wild Boys play on YouTube as I wrote this post. And I clicked back each time to catch the cuts to John Taylor's close-ups. Man, I've still got timing. And I'm sure I've terrified a bunch of you. Deal.

I'm off to play with roving now, and ingest massive quantities of caffeine. If you hear high-pitched squealing sometime tomorrow evening, you'll know that Duran just took the stage.

I have the bestest husband EVER. Guess who's going to see Duran Duran at the House of Blues in Atlantic City for her birthday present?

Hey all, not missing in action, just had a few things beating me down. I'll be posting more soon; I owe lots of phone calls and e-mails that I'm just starting to address now.

Bzz, Bzz, Bzz...

One of the geeky things I do, when not watching Star Trek, for instance, is act as a BzzAgent. It's a really cool deal - you sign up for free, and you get stuff to brag about, essentially. So I figured for Thanksgiving, I'd offer some Bzzz... and a giveaway!

My current Bzz campaign is for Boston Market. We've all eaten there at least once, right? I know my Heartbreaker, for instance, would get IV servings of their mac and cheese - no joke, he gets an order of mac and cheese with mac and cheese as a side dish. Me? If I could find a way to get shipments of their cornbread to my door hourly, I'd be a happy girl.

Now that the holidays are coming up, Boston Market is catering - so when you get all crazy and excited during the holiday season, inviting all your family, friends and coworkers over for a holiday party, only to slap yourself when you get home and realize that you've got 20 people coming over that actually expect to eat something, there's salvation to be found at their catering link. Get a whole spread delivered to you, cornbread included. Nice, right? I have the info if anyone wants, plus a sweet little discount code.

Oh, and the giveaway - I've got five Boston Market magnets, coupons for $3 off any $6 or more purchase, and a free cupcake token. The first 5 posts I get are the lucky recipients of the little prize packages. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

I have a good reason.

I know I haven't blogged in over a week, but there is a good reason. Honest.

I am the proud owner of a Wii Fit. My mom gave me an early birthday gift, and HOLY MOSES, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I have been putting myself through paces and working out every day for at least a half hour, trying to push for an hour, and have managed to get a pound and a half down! Whoooo! Now, I just have to stop bingeing on fruit snacks... emotional eating has been high today.

Fair isle knitting with 2 yarns in the left hand

Don't know if this posted the first time, so I'll repost and say again, Fair Isle. I must conquer this.

After Christmas.

I'm No Slouch...

Lest anyone think I've been home either wallowing or sitting on the couch feasting on bon-bons.

I'm pretty sure Jen doesn't read this blog, so I can safely post this - it's another Helena sweater (I did one for Mike's cousin's baby shower a couple of months ago), this time for her daughter.

Here's a scarf for one of Ron & Christine's daughters...

...and a close-up of the pattern for Ron & Christine's other daughter. I took the Elvish Leaves dischloth pattern and turned the pattern stitch into a scarf. I used this pattern to make a lap blanket for Mike's great-aunt last year and she loved it; I love the way it knits up, so I'll just keep on using it. Maybe I'll design a pair of socks next?

My first glove! It wasn't as aggravating as I'd feared. I used the One Skein pattern which I loved; the cabled cuff is adorable. However, I severely underestimated the yarn - and now I have no more to complete a second glove. ::facepalm:: I'll declare this one a stunt glove and call it a day.

Le sock! For me! I used bamboo yarn to make this Clover sock, and I LOVE it. So. Soft. I even gave myself a different toe using a different skein of bamboo. Hee. I can't wait to finish the other sock so I can wear these; I just have to finish up some Christmas goodies first. Delayed gratification...

Baby Steps...

This morning I celebrated another little victory. I have gotten into the (bad) habit lately of not eating breakfast before bringing the boys to school, figuring I'll have a 'real' breakfast when I get home. (And then, of course, noshing on whatever is lying around, swearing I don't have time to cook - seriously, where am I going?) Anyway, today was no exception, so off I went, a mere cup of coffee burning a hole in my stomach.

I got to school, and offered to help our Parent Coordinator set up for a Math workshop she's running this morning. I really didn't have an intention to stay for the workshop; I have been feeling a little achy and wanted to take one day to stay home, lay down, and get some housework done. But I fully intended to help set up - and then she put me in charge of laying out the snacks. I poured myself another cup of coffee and set to work, displaying the myriad blueberry muffins, pumpkin muffins, chocolate chip muffins... and the pound cake. Marble pound cake. I could almost take the buttery goodness.

I almost took a slice, figuring it would be my breakfast and morning snack - it's got that many calories and fat, trust me. I almost did it, until I stopped and thought about it. My inner brat and I know full well that as soon as I got home, I'd be hungry, unsatisfied by the filler crap I just ate, and I'd eat more junk. So I shook it off. I finished setting up, went home, and made an actual breakfast that was far more filling and satisfying. Wow. Baby steps. They actually work.

Oh, and Don't Think I Let It Pass...

Today also happens to be Gab's birthday - so while I search for her phone number so I can call her in the next hour and a half (you've got to be done eating dinner by now, right?), I just want to say grattis på födelsdagen, min venn. (Yes, I know 'min venn' is Norwegian, but FreeTranslation.com doesn't have Svensk.)

It's the Little Victories.

So the day after I declare the I will lose 10 pounds by Christmas, I volunteer to help sort the candy sale packages at the boys' school. And the guy running the business gives us a box of pecan caramel turtles to thank us for our business. Nuts. Chocolate. Caramel. It's one of the combinations that makes this country sing. I slipped.

I came home and caught myself starting to munch thoughtlessly, because I was hungry and didn't have anything to warm up. But this time, rather than decide today was a lost day and push it off 'til tomorrow, I decided to make something. I pulled out a copy of Kraft Food & Family (the Fall 2005 issue) and made myself Rice, Broccoli & Cheese cups. Tasty! It's healthy, in that there is broccoli involved, but let's be clear - there's also a 1/4 cup of Ranch dressing (you can use light dressing, I just didn't have it in the fridge), two eggs, and 2/3 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese. But you know, I'd rather eat two of these for 240 calories than stuff my face with a bunch of chocolate bars that are easily double that plus all the guilt that follows, not to mention the fact that I'd still be hungry.

All in all, I love the recipe and will save the rest of these to warm up and eat during the week. The next time I make this, I'll make sure to have light Ranch dressing, part skim mozzarella cheese, and low sodium chicken broth in the house, but this was great in a pinch and filling enough to take the edge off my rumby tummy. And I feel good about myself, which is really the big battle these days. I'm thinking about trying this at some point using a vegetable broth (you cook the rice in chicken broth as opposed to water) for my veggie friends, because I think this may be right up Stacey's alley.

I'm so excited that I actually put the junk down rather than let the 'inner brat' dictate otherwise. On this rainy day, it gives me hope.

Back to the second sock for Mike's aunt... or maybe I should take advantage of my newfound energy and work out?

Time to Stop Whining...

...about not being able to fit into the pre-pregnancy clothes. I've been home for a week today and have had a few misfires. I am declaring here that by Christmas, I will be down by 10 pounds. And I intend to blog every day of the challenge to keep myself on track.

Yes, I did take a phone snapshot of Obama on Election Night. I texted madly away with Stacey as the realization sunk in - Yes, We Did! - and that I was the only one awake to see it live!

The excitement and the pride were overwhelming, and I couldn't stop myself from tearing up. I was blown away by the class and graciousness of Senator McCain's concession speech, and as one person put it, "He became the John McCain I'd have a beer with again." I have always has the uptmost respect for Senator McCain, and had this been a different time and against a different candidate, he would absolutely have received my vote.

As with many families, this race, and its outcome, have divided my family - those of you who know me know what I'm talking about, and I'll leave it pretty much at that. I love my family, and I hope that the next four years will not be fraught with tension and that we can all play nicely. We'll see how that turns out. It's been a major reason why I normally refuse to discuss politics and why I probably won't discuss them too much going forward. I respect everyone's right to their own opinion, but it does seem that those of us with differing opinions are either expected to keep them to themselves or be ready to defend them at any given time. If I'm proud of the candidate that I voted for, just let me be - I don't ask that you defend your choices, do I?

One last thing - I'd like to express my deep disappointment regarding Prop 8. How we could make such history as a nation one day with President-Elect Obama's win and the next, make history in a completely different direction, is just sad. Love is love, and that really should be that. As far as we've come, we apparently have a long, long way to go.

Anyway. Moving on. My excitement of the day was somewhat dampened the next day when I was laid off. I debated not even mentioning it here, but it's not something to be ashamed of. My company was bought by a bigger one, and apparently I was made 'redundant'. I'm hanging in and trying to find something else. It's a scary time to be unemployed but by no means am I in a minority. I'll hang in there.

I've been getting quite a bit of knitting done, working through Christmas project after Christmas project. I've just gotten one of a pair of socks off the needles for Hubs' great-aunt, and now I'm debating on - shudder - seaming up a sweater for Hubs' cousin's baby-to-be. I don't have to set in sleeves, but I am still world famous for my loathing of seaming. Sigh.

Off to job search and bang out a reader report.

I'm not a woman known for my patience. To quote a friend of mine, "people in the hills sing songs about your tolerance". I've walked off a line during a huge sale at one of my favorite clothing stores, because I just don't have the patience to wait.

I'm also not a woman known for my enjoyment of rising early. Hubs wakes me up by placing a cup of coffee at my bedside, and backs away slowly. Bless him.

This morning, I was out of my home at 7 a.m. and on the way to vote for Barack Obama. I was prepared for a siege-like wait, armed with a fully loaded iPod, a book, and some holiday knitting. I was ready for the wait, because I was going to be damned if I didn't let my voice be heard today.

In the last election, I voted not so much for John Kerry as for Not-Bush. I was pissed off when we got four more years of Dubya, but I can honestly say I didn't have as much emotional investment in that election. This time around, my heart and my mind are completely wrapped up in this election and this candidate. When he speaks, I believe he will help us find our way back. I have hope, which has been in very short supply these last several months.

My boys are apparently bigger Obama fans than I am - something I've noticed lately; kids LOVE Obama. He's got this great vibe that they totally pick up on. Cutie Pie has informed Hubs, loudly, that if he were to vote McCain, he could still live with us, but he would be angry at Hubs. I think Cutie Pie may be on the shortlist for Obama's Secret Service detail should the election shake out that way.

Regardless of who you vote for, PLEASE VOTE. Make your voice heard.

I've got more to write, but I'll pause here for now. Please - vote.

This Could Explain A Lot...