mamacate

Thankya, Thankya; Gift Knitting; Shall We Unleash The Knitters?

The Thanky:

It was a very nice T-day.  We had all the grandparents who usually come but not the best friends, which was too bad.  The turkey was overcooked by moi who did not put the thermometer in until it was way, WAY too late.  I managed to overcook the pecan pie too, and advertised it as "blackened, caramelized pecan pie."  Despite being a wee bit, um, caramelized, it actually was quite edible.  As was the turkey when doused with some pan juices and smothered with gravy.

I was trying to take it easy, cooking-wise (I confess to a certain amount of obsessive behavior about thanksgiving dinner--my standard is no room for the plates on the table and more pies than people).  Somehow, we managed to have more food than could fit on plates despite missing salad and rolls and creamed onions and a couple of spare veggies and the homemade vegetarian nut gravy, etc.)  Maybe I'll dial it down again next year, even if there's no reason to.  Yeah, right.

Four days off in a row was kind of amazing.  We stayed home, unpacked (our closet shelves and hanging bars came Friday), puttered, and played.  Man, I needed that, and the kids did too.  I don't think anyone was trying to play me guilt-wise, but there were a lot of comments about how I wasn't at work and I was able to play and such.  We flew kites and went on expotitions and sat in front of the fireplace and watched the Wizard of Oz.  All good.

Coming back to work was hard, but it's okay.  I sure am looking forward to a week off at the end of the year.

Gift Knitting:

I've been starting the Yule sweater for the last three weeks.  Every year I knit a sweater for the person I draw in our family gift exchange.  It's usually a lopi sweater, but I thought this year's recipient might like something different.  Well, I've now been through two yarns and two patterns, I've swatched and ripped and knitted inches of sweater and yanked out the needles and now I finally think I've got something.  It's the Cabin Fever Top-Down Swing Coat and this thing is a blast to knit and it seems to be coming out vaguely the right size plus I can adjust it as I go, which after having ripped out this many times is the only thing likely to keep me sane.  Pictures when the camera, me, my computer, and a charged battery are all in the same place.  No promises.  Anyway, right now it looks like a big lump.  I'm about halfway through the yoke.  Elizabeth is on hold but might get finished when (if) I get sick of the Swing Coat.  She just needs a sleeve cap, some sewing, and a neckline.  Maybe three night's work, and I could wear her for Solstice.  Hmm.

Unleashing the Knitters:

So there's this guy who's doing a panel at the MLA, and he's checking to see how a meme or, depending on how you look at it, a chain letter, moves through the blogosphere.  We knitters have a rather populous corner of the blogosphere, and one that I think routinely buffaloes those who attempt to study blogs and blogging.  Who are all these knitters and what do they want?  (Wool.)  If blogging is concerned with social change, what the hell are all these people doing talking about yarn? (We'll get back to you when the plans for world domination are available in pdf format.)

Anyway, Jody explains it all in a way that is far more interesting and complete than I have the patience for, but do please play.  All you need to do is mention and link to the project, beg ask others to participate, and then ping technocrati.  Let's show the MLA a little knitting mojo, eh?

This is not my (big) house

Okay, the presentation is over.  I only had to do about 10% of it--my boss did the rest, which may represent either her desire to present to her own division, or a lack of confidence in my abilities.  At this point, I don't really care.  I don't know whether I'm an extroverted introvert or an introverted extrovert, but either way, I get stressed out when I have to present to 100+ people.  And it's over.  Now that's a birthday present.  I still have a big backlog of work to do, but right now I'm taking a deep breath and being happy.

Rhys (with J's help) grilled a nice swordfish dinner and I didn't lift a finger.  J and Henry went and got me a cake from Stop & Shop, my very favorite.  To quote Henry's description of it, "with balloons!  and your name on it!  and everything!"  After dinner Rhys put the kids to bed and I built a fire and listened to music and knitted on a sock and just chilled out in our gorgeous new living room.  Despite still being nervous about this morning, I got to step back and think about how lucky I am.  Thankful doesn't even begin to describe it.

Sorry this blog has been whiny lately.  The "ending" of the construction project threw me for a loop a bit, and I wasn't expecting that.  We do still have a lot to do, and I feel strangely pressured.  Maybe it's just me, but it's challenging for me to see myself as doing things "for real."  Of course my family is always for real, but for a long time, I've just been *doing* my job, not letting it be a part of who I am.  I've had a similar feeling about my house--it's just the place we're living now, it's not the place we created.  Now, we have the place we created.  There's no more "when we do the construction..."  This is it (well, except for the banishing of the bad wallpaper.  And the kitchen.  Did I mention the kitchen?).  And despite the fact that I never imagined having a job as dorky as this, I apparently am an institutional researcher, for better or worse.  Weird.

It's not really about the birthday, but I suppose 37 really is a big deal for me.  This isn't a dress rehersal.  This is my life.  It's for real.  Part of me can't believe how lucky I am.  Part of me can't believe that my body is going to look like this forever (or worse!  news flash: aging sucks).  We're the lesbian moms with the careers and the house and fifteen years together.  If we'd just get over ourselves and make it official, we'd be the poster children for Massachusetts marriage.  Maybe instead we're poster children for AtMP.

So another year, a time of thanksgiving, and a new chapter in so many ways.  Life is not without its difficulties, but all in all, it's sweet sweet sweet.  And spinning by the fire makes it all the sweeter.  Happy holidays.

They Say It's My Birthday, As An Aside

They say it's my birthday, but since I've recently been unable to tell what day of the week it is, this is only a theory.

I've been wanting to post all day, but frankly haven't been able to muster a good enough mood to sound anything but whiny.  I have a giant presentation at 8 am tomorrow.  Then thanksgiving dinner to prepare.  Then a mountain of work that I have somehow let pile up and before I know it the fall semester will be over.  ACK! 

As an aside to the Thanksgiving preparatons, we do actually having dining room furniture.  It's the living room furniture that's lacking.  The grandfathers will have to fight one another for the only comfortable places to take their respective post-turkey naps.  I'm sure I'll be disinherited.  It could be so much worse.

The house is coming together and things are getting put back.  Giving up on purchasing furniture in time for Thanksgiving was a big relief.  I feel like we have to go out and now drop new giant piles of money on various things and it's a little overwhelming.  As another aside, does anyone really pay $400 a window for shades?  There are no words.

My stash is back (but not organized, not that it was before) and the knitting books are up on their own shelf in the room with the bad wallpaper.  Anyone who has visited my house knows what room I'm talking about.  That wallpaper is still there, but I have hope.  I'm sort of quietly colonizing this room as my fiber space.  I'll keep you posted.

I sort of got a very special birthday present for myself.  It will live with Sara until she comes to visit (heh, I know).  Don't tell.

Could We Please Reschedule for a Brain Transplant?

I look reasonably normal this week.  My hair may be a little extra frizzy, but a) that's not exactly an unusual occurance and b) the fine mist falling from the sky makes it almost inevitable.  My brain, however, seems to be having a system crash, and it's really not helping.

I knew something was up because I've been spinning my wheels at work all week, despite trying hard to produce something useful.  I even wrote down a list of goals on Monday--they're sitting there mocking me right now.  Producing something good and useful might really help my state of mind at the moment, but despite having outlines, spreadsheets, and a powerpoint template, nothing good or useful has been produced.

And I don't have a lunch date, which should be okay since I should work through lunch, however pointless that may be.

Anyway, the final proof that my brain has shorted out came this morning.  I showed up 23 hours and 45 minutes early for my physical.  That is to say, fifteen minutes late, one day early.

Argh.  Also, shit.

(In my defense, the fifteen minutes late was that "arrive fifteen minutes early so we can make you wait an even more alarming amount of time in a paper johnny."  I was on time for the actual appointment.  If it had been today.  Which it wasn't.  But anyway.)

So there is something distinctly wrong with my brain right now, and I would like to fix it.  It's kind of amazing that my brain is just going on strike: I think it's about the house and some child care changes (Eleanor is back to school, Henry will be staying home until further notice).  I feel pretty normal and like, although life is completely chaotic and an utter mess, like I'm handling things okay all things considered.  And then I go and just completely screw up my schedule and come to work and stare at a computer screen and forget how to conceptualize the task of making a graph. 

Also, Monday is my 37th birthday.  Twenty-seven was really tough for me, it was like my pre-midlife crisis.  I'm not really feeling anything about turning 37.  Which either means that it doesn't matter, or that I'm so deeply in denial that I'm making the rest of my life crazy.  I'll probably wait until I'm 38 to freak out about the end of my 30's.

What, I ask you, the fuck?  Anyway.  I'll request a brain transplant tomorrow.  If that is, in fact, the day after today.  I'm not trusting my calendar anymore.

So there's that, and then just one other thing to share with you.  Those of you who do higher ed type stuff know about the Spellings Commission and the whole discussion about accountability and such.  You know, outcome measures, assessment, public disclosure, all that.  I was just struck, the other day, when my spam email was providing, surrounded by appropriate random characters to fool the filters, outcome statistics.  Specifically, this particular email announced, "73% of members got laid ZVgu75250."  Credibility questions notwithstanding (measurement methods?  don't ask), is this what we've come to?  (Also, it appears that Jesus has hot stock tips for me, which he announces with the vaguely surfer-ish "way, axioms."  The son of god is a busy guy, it's clear.)

Oh yeah, I do still knit, though slowly.  Eliz is nearly ready for assembly.  I'm convinced it will be too small, stretchy, and tragically unflattering, but I'm knitting anyway.  Then it's a sprint to the finish for an xmas sweater I haven't yet started.  Turns out I can't manage to get 3.5 sts/in in Araucania Chunky, which is really more of an aran weight yarn anyway.  Off to Webs.  (Perhaps yarn shopping will reboot the brain cells--can't hurt.)  Amazing, given the amount of yarn in stash, that I wouldn't have something that will work.  But it won't.  I could make something else at 4 sts/in with the Araucania, but time is short and that extra half-stitch is going to be necessary if I'm going to get through the next month.

Oh yes, speaking of getting through, did I mention that we're hosting Thanksgiving?  And that we pretty much have no furniture?  Let the games begin.

Blessed

It was a wonderful night and our house and our family are very blessed.  Thank you for the online blessings too.  All good, all good...

Something Approaching A House

I have not had much head space or time for blogging, what with the travel and the catching up after the travel and the house and all that.  But I have some pictures and I want to show them to you because...well....look!

It's like, almost done.

Which is a really good thing, because we are really sick of living in this:

(The piles of laundry are not usually this bad, but this is pretty much our space for the last four months.  We are ready to be done.  Really.)

Still life with bouncy boodle (and paint).  Should the wheel go there?  Or there?  How about the other one?  Sigh.

We even have a dramatically-lit bookshelf.  Also with boodle (incognito).  Do you like our fancy-pants lighting?  Eleanor has declared it "too fancy," though as Jo points out, this is sure not to last once we're actually living in it.

As I told a few people at Rhinebeck, it turns out that although I, like the model spouse I am (shut up), agreed to maple floors despite my personal preference for oak.  Everything was set for maple floors, including the contract.  Then they put them in.  Oak floors.  Red oak floors.  The foreman nearly fell over when he found out, and there was a fair amount of muttering about "maple--right here--in my own handwriting...and I ordered oak!" and such.  They were all in, and Rhys loves the oak and we were sure as hell not going to lose a week on the timeline, so oak floors we have.  I'm happy.

The tile in the entry is going in right now--done tomorrow.  Also the slate on the fireplace.  Then it's just paint...and closet hardware...and drapes...and...  But whatever.  There's an upstairs too.

There's even a downstairs.  A basement playroom!  Pinch me.

The movers come Saturday, and we have some serious work cut out for us.  It totally won't be ready, but we kind of totally don't care.  We'll be doing a house blessing and lighting our very first fire in the fireplace on Saturday night.  It's going to be a good day.

Top Reasons I Heart my Job

10. I'm in an expense account-funded hotel room.
9. That I'm sharing with one of my best friends in the world.
8. That's in Philadelphia.
7. Home of one of my other best friends.
6. Who keeps coming here and whisking us away to good food, good beer, and good conversation.
5. Oh yes, and there's a conference.
4. Conferences are great for socks (80% of a sock completed since I left home Sunday).
3. People at this conference don't mind (much) if you knit.
2. At least, I'm not asking if they mind.
1. Anyway, how can they complain?  This year they had a knitting SIG. I know.

Don't you wish you were a data geek too? 

Don't answer that.