Just a List of Random Things

I don't have much today.  So feel free to ignore me completely.  Just a list of random stuff.  Things I've been meaning to blog about but haven't worked into a post, so here they come.  Uninspired.  That's me.

So, in no particular order:

• Sara is selling these very cool bracelets to support Challenged Athletes.  If you're feeling inclined to support such a cause, go get one.  Make her give them lots of money!
• Okay, why don't I have a job where I get to go on a cruise and blog about it for a living?  Bay Windows has an "embedded reporter" on the R Family Vacations cruise (the gay family cruise Rosie O'Donnell is promoting).  Here's the blog.  For your daily dose of envy.
• Jo has an excellent post about responding to terrorism.  I didn't blog about London, mostly because I didn't know what to say, but everything Jo says makes tons of sense, and it's actually consistent with my philosophy on a personal level.  I have been the victim of violence in my life, and I have made a very clear choice not to live in fear.  So far, it has worked for me.  Thanks, Jo, for connecting the dots for me on a larger scale.  I will not be terrorized.
• On a complete and utter tangent, can somebody explain to me why people from Ottawa always sign their names in comments as "NAME in Ottawa?"  I don't have a problem with it or anything, but it seems to be ubiquitous.  Have you noticed this too?  Is there something about being from Ottawa that makes it an integral part of your identity?  Is there a rule that each first name can only occur once within city limits, thereby making such a moniker a perfect identifier?  Is "In Ottawa" a last name and you people have a really big family?  Or is it just that there's a conspiracy afoot to prove to everybody that all the cool people live in Ottawa?  Because it's working.  I'm just saying.
• Birch?  Yeah, black hole phase.  'Nuff said.
• I had a little freakout last week that a) in September, Rhys will be going back to work more than full-time, b) the kids will cut down from four to three days a week at preschool, and c) both my jobs plus the freelance would still be going strong.  A and B are still happening, but C is looking like it's going to slow down, as originally planned (well, one job was supposed to end in June, yeah).  That, combined with Rhys' job insecurity and the whole "who gets to stay home with the kids" thing have put me on a bit of a roller coaster.  But after all of that, it looks like the original plan of me doing freelance and Rhys working full-time and the kids spending less time in preschool is going to happen.  Among people I know, I cope with uncertainty pretty darned well, but even I am getting a little weary of the "what's next" in my life these days.  That little in-the-end-inconsequential roller coaster last week was a good reminder that what I'm doing is really what I want.  And if I change my mind, I have options.  That's good too.  Except when I drive myself crazy with it.
• My spinning boot camp lesson with Marcy turns out to have been even more helpful than I thought.  I'm plying more consistently and more enjoyably (to me, I think the latter is actually more important), and I'm starting to really get long draw, which I never did before.  I actually did long draw with 100% cashmere last night.  Well, it was a short long draw, but the twist was in the fiber supply, and I wasn't choking it off with my wheel-side hand.  Of course I have a little pile of pieces of cashmere singles where I broke the yarn repeatedly, but dude, 100% cash is not easy to spin.  On the other end of the spectrum, I have about 200 yards of Motley that's springy and sproingy and ready to knit.  I may swatch by making a hat.  It's not an elegant yarn, but I can spin it long draw with one hand, and filling up a 4 oz. bobbin takes less than an hour.  I don't care if it comes out feeling like acrylic.  Okay, let's not go that far.
• In kid news, I've really been hesitant to say anything about this, because the stakes are terribly high.  But, well, the time has come to take the risk and put it out there---here goes---okay---I'm going to say it now.  Okay, that didn't work.  I'm just too afraid that the curse of saying it out loud will come down on my head and I'm sorry but I can't risk it.  I think pig latin is exempt from that curse, so listen closely: I ink-thay we're one-day with iapers-day.  Both kids are regularly, enthusiastically, and relatively reliably using the otty-pay.  This changes my life in ways I have yet to fully comprehend.  I offer thanks to whomever is in charge of indoor plumbing.
• Okay, all of a sudden, everyone is coming out of the woodwork and half of them have blogs.  A former student worker of mine (and the first person to call me an "older lesbian"--yet I still talk to her!), and her friend, with whom I kicked around Webs on Saturday; one of my kids' former preschool teachers, who is starting a parent-teacher knitting group at preschool, just as a start.  And they're all fibery folks.  Cassie did point out that the original world domination plot involved spinning, but I think the knitbloggers might beat the spinners to the punch.  Luckily, my children are being raised to name every part of a spinning wheel, when they hear the word "naughty" they think I'm talking about a yarn-measuring device, and when a drain plug is found, it's obviously "for washing fleece."  So the next generation is well-prepared to inherit the earth, regardless of which group makes it first.  Today, we're tying our shoes together and peeing in all the right places.  Tomorrow: world domination.  Plans subject to change.

Comments

[Stacie]

ongrats-cay on the otty-pay :)

[Lee Ann]

I just about peed in the WRONG place with that "we're peeing in all the right places...Tomorrow: world domination." Here, we *still* have a little trouble getting to the right place on time, and Now We Are Six. (Nearly Seven. Holy crap, how did that happen...)

I don't know what long draw is, but it sounds cool. Sort of cowgirl-like. :-)

I'm on my second batch of roving, by the way. And I did it in public: in the CN Building, to be specific. Bwuahahahaha. Security guard was in awe.

[Cassie]

But the thing is, without the spinners, on a very primal level, the knitters are screwed.

Not logical. I don't do logical.

[Janine]

I have a theory about the Ottawa thing. Have you seen the movie Canadian Bacon? Where the American yahoos are heading off to attack the capital of Canada--Toronto? And the Canadians say, no, the capital is Ottawa? And the Americans just laugh and say "you gotta be kidding? Ottawa??? Nah, it's Toronto." This is one of our family's favorite movies (partly because my dad was Canadian). So people from Ottawa are kind of touchy that way.

[claudia]

You get a big cheer for long-draw cashmere spinning.

YEAH!

[Judy]

yep, I've been doing the loooong draw too. It took me a while to decide that I did get something out of that workshop.

[Elaine]

I'm with Cassie on this one; without spinners, knitters beg. Hmmm I haven't had a spinning post in quite some time...how about one on how to long draw angora.

[Jo in Ottawa]

I'm going to swap, NOW. I can't remember why I did the Jo in Ottawa thing to begin with but once started, it is hard to stop. I have noticed others, too. I think I was actually inspired by Charles in Wayne and other similar on the GLB knit list (and do you remember the humourous discussion he generated?!)

You might be done with one thing but I'd advise to bring extra underpants. f. is 8 and still needs to change sometimes.

[Kathy]

Peeing in the right place is something my six year old has yet to master as well. I have high hopes, though ;-)

[Teresa]

*sigh* we have just mastered the "sleeping all night thing" diapers are still very much a part of my future..

[Laurie]

I remember being thoroughly humiliated at Canadian customs many years ago. The customs inspector went thru the usual question: vacation or business? how long?
Then he asked me what the capital of Canada was. I had no idea. So much for American education. Or me. I like to blame the former for this one.

[Norma]

Well, you said you were uninspired, and I was all like, "yeah, ME TOO," and I was going to say, "I'm sick of blogging, even," and then you wrote all that. Bleh, big showoff.

[amysue]

Sigh. Hey...but can your son pee in a water bottle when you're on a long trip and don't want to stop? The downside of this is that Noah now always wants to pee in the water bottle...

[Kathy]

Ok -- the pig latin for potty training just cracked me up -- but, I don't blame you, don't want to tempt the gods on that one :-)