Wednesday, May 31, 2006

rubber dragon

I'm sure you are all glad to know that the metal thingie stayed glued to the windshield, even after the mirror was hung from it this morning, and that the Taurus is now driveable again. Being able to go where you need to go is a Good Thing.

Here is something I made, a very long time ago. My parents bought us this dragon-making stuff for Christmas, many moons ago. There were a whole bunch of metal molds, and this rubber stuff that is liquid before it is cooked. The molds got filled with the rubber stuff, and then set on a heater thing. Then you waited until the rubber was solidly cooked. When there is just one cooker thing for you and your two siblings and your two cousins, it could be hard to wait for your turn......

There were mostly bug molds, as I recall it, but there was this nice dragon head and body, with choices for feet and wings, I think. As you see, you could get quite elaborate with the different colors of rubbery stuff.

This may be the oldest thing I have made that is on display in my house....

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

I love Murray

This morning when the kid went out to drive herself to the high school to visit her old teachers, she discovered that the Taurus's rearview mirror had fallen off the inside of the windshield. Sigh.

I've glued the rearview mirror back onto the windshield of our Voyager twice, and maybe once in the previous Voyager, too, so I anticipated no problems with the Taurus. The DH and I stopped at Murray's Discount Auto for a kit on the way home from work, and I took the kid out to show her how to do the fix.

Well, sheesh. #@((*#$^ Ford -- you can't get the metal thingie that is supposed to be glued to the windshield loose from the mirror without a special tool!!!!!!!! WHAT is up with THAT???????????????? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So I went BACK to Murray's, and the fourth guy there who worked at helping me finally went and got a tool off the rack (used for this purpose and this purpose only!!!!!!), opened the package, used the tool, popped the metal thingie off the mirror, stapled the package back together, and put it back on the rack.

I LOVE Murray's Discount Auto. That's not the first time they have helped me with some part of that Taurus that is easy to take care of by myself on the Voyager -- they put on the windshield wipers for me, when I couldn't get them to go on.............

Ford, SHAME on you. I won't be buying another Ford product. It is ridiculous to require a special tool to re-glue a rearview mirror!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (And let's not get into how I feel about you stopping manufacture of replacement parts for any car older than 10 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >:-( Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!)

We have been happy with the Taurus. It is a '95 we bought two years ago as a teenager car, and it has been reliable and comfortable. But I am not at all happy with Ford, and wouldn't buy another. Sigh.

Monday, May 29, 2006

blue and yellow

Sometimes I arrange the color, and sometimes I just appreciate it. We hang our laundry outside in the summertime, and here is part of what was on the line yesterday.

The blue and yellow remind me of the Swedish flag. We were lucky enough to visit Sweden 20 years ago, in the summertime (and even hung some laundry outdoors when we were there).

Sunday, May 28, 2006

all about color

I was reading, on someone's blog, that for him, it's all about line.

For me, it's all about color. My DH thinks I'm weird -- the towel aisle at Target will stop me in my tracks when the colors are hot and saturated: the fuchsia next to the turquoise, the orange next to the violet....... Color, and most especially, color juxtaposed with color......

When I'm arranging things, color is always a primary consideration, and usually *the* primary consideration.

Without further ado, some red and yellow.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

blue and brown

I like blue and brown as much as anyone.

















I have, however, Officially Seen Blue and Brown Too Many Times.

Too many blue&brown websites, too many blue&brown greeting cards.........

I've been enjoying design*sponge and funky finds. There is a LOT of excellently cool design out there, and I love getting to see it. But enough with the blue&brown already. Abandon fashion. Do your own thing................

Friday, May 26, 2006

power outage

We lost power last night, for about 2.5 hours. I think it may be the first time my daughter had experienced a nighttime power outage. She was annoyed because she wanted to watch her beloved Pistons in their play-off game, and then she was annoyed because there was nothing to do.....

She was surprised to discover that the dark isn't, really. That you could see to navigate in the house, and that, outside, it seemed more like dusk than darkness.

Then she remembered that her laptop was charged up, so we watched "Dave" (Kevin Klein and Sigourney Weaver -- a very good movie).

My favorite memory from last night is using the light from the laptop to find the candles and matches.

I am so grateful to live in a time and place where we can take for granted having all the light we want. All the clean water we need (hot and cold!). All the refrigeration, all the heat for cooking. Power for computers and televisions. Modern medicine. Modern plumbing. Tampons. I work on remembering how lucky we are to live with such plenty.

We live in town; we have water when we have no power. Our stove and hot water heater are gas, so we have hot (and really hot) water, with no power. Here is the view above my stove.....

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

two rhinos and a hippo

I love the largest African mammals. I have lots of hippos around the house, and I love rhinos, too. The Toledo (Ohio) zoo has a fabulous hippoquarium. You can see the hippos underwater, at their level. It is astonishing -- something you could never experience in the wild -- you are within touching distance, as they glide by. Research has been done on hippo sounds and hippo communication at the Toledo zoo that could not have been done in the wild (as you couldn't see, in the murky rivers of their homeland, what the hippos were doing when they made the sounds). Well worth a trip.

I'll have to take a digital pic of one of my snaps of the hippos, so I can post it. (One day, I *will* buy a scanner!)

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

no-sock diddling

I really really need to settle in with some yarn I don't care about and practice some heels..........................

In my defense, I will say that I worked several hours over the weekend at my day job *and* solved a medium-sized crisis at one of my volunteer gigs.

I think I just need to have a lot more projects on the needles, so that when I approach a point of needing to Make Decisions, I'm not brought to a total screeching halt. I did find some 000, 00, 0, 1 needles (four sets of five as one thing-to-buy) online, and ordered them, but not sure what's up with that order........... I don't really want to launch any socks with the new (and finer) yarn without smaller needles.......

In any case, here is some eye candy for you. I love these little things......

Monday, May 22, 2006

island eye candy

I have had a (minor, but still annoying) headache for the last couple of days. This seems to happen when the weather changes. After a week and a half of low pressure (and rain, rain, rain, rain, rain), it is now clear and sunny, and the inside of my head has not yet equalized..................

So I've been lying around reading, rather than *doing* things. I send you to januaryone for your eye candy. Amazing photos all over her blog.................

Friday, May 19, 2006

swim meet

Well, here's a part of my life I haven't shown you yet....

Since my daughter joined the high school swim team as a freshman, competitive swim has been a big part of our lives. My daughter had a wonderful swim experience in high school with hall-of-fame coaches Denny Hill and Liz Hill, and she currently swims for her university's Division III program.

I offer you here a picture of three 2004 Olympians. From left to right, Natalie Coughlin, Katie Hoff, and Kara Lynn Joyce. Kara Lynn was my daughter's "big sister" on the high school swim team during the 2002-2003 season. Kara set the age group record (no girl 18 or younger has ever gone faster) in the 50 yard freestyle that year (22.03), leading out the 200 freestyle relay that also still holds the national record. Our high school team was national number one that year.

(Being part of that swim team has been an incredible ride!)

The picture shows them on the medal stand this afternoon. Kara Lynn won the 50 freestyle.

The meet today was in memory of Erik Namesnik, a young local swim coach (and two-time Olympian) who was killed in a traffic accident on an icy road last winter.

Lots of famous swimming names swam, including Michael Phelps. I thought of offering you pics of (nearly) naked (nearly) men....

I did knit on the blue sock while I waited to be able to buy my ticket to the swim meet this afternoon...... (And I wore my Olympic socks to the meet!)

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Burt, somewhat less tufty

Well, here is Wilbur Gilbert, looking rather less pointedly tufty, but still very excess-hairy.

Note also that very bright patch of light -- yes, it is sunlight! A rare sight around here, in the last week. We are lucky compared to many -- it rained, but just only rained. I've heard that in the northeast it was an absolute deluge, broken by periods of driving rain.... I saw on the weather channel that while Chicago and Boston had each had 8 straight days of rain, Chicago got 1.24" of rain, while Boston got 10.46"! I think we got more than 1.25, but not anything like 10.46.

Hoping for all those soggy people that their weather clears up and stays clear and they get dry and no more deluge!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

green, green, it's green, I say.....

Wow, is this gorgeous, or what? I bought it on ebay, from Pagewood Farm. I won the auction on Sunday, and the yarn showed up today -- lightning fast shipping. Greensox. Yes.

Now I need to figure out where the Harlot gets her less-than-zero needles. This yarn is finer than the other yarn I've been using.... I have some 0000s. Somewhere. But they are the long kind (8"?), rather than the ~5" ones I prefer. I really like my bamboo needles, but there is a limit to how low you can go without metal...........

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

fiber of a different sort

Here is Wilbur, my rescue dog. Note Extreme Butt Tufts. Ordinarily we would indulge ourselves by plucking his tufts, but since my daughter is coming home from college tomorrow, we've been doing our best to resist picking his tufts so that she can have the pleasure. The tufts are coming out on their own (he would tell you that is The Way It Should BE and we should leave his butt alone, but sadly, we hardly ever can leave it alone.....).

So now he looks like some sort of wild animal that no one brushes. Like the kid who comes to school in dirty clothes and rumpled hair. The kid who looks like no one loves him......

His tufts are too short to do much with, though I suppose they would felt..... My Corgis, on the other hand, have undercoat that is an inch long, or even more. Definitely spinnable.............

Sunday, May 14, 2006

fleece envy

So I've been reading about everyone's trips to Maryland Sheep&Wool, and drooling over all the cool stuff everyone bought. And I've been having a serious fleece lust. I love the smell of fleece, I love to handle it, I love to wash it. As I have pillowcases full of clean fleece, I've been resolutely not buying any fleece. My local spinning group has wonderful sales in the spring and fall, with dozens of lovely fleeces, and I've been resisting, resisting..... Then I asked if anyone would be willing to sell me just a pound of fleece (a whole fleece is several pounds, from ~3 for a very small fleece to over 10 pounds for a very large one). Someone was willing, I got it from her yesterday.

Here is part of it, nice and clean. This is Romney fleece.

Friday, May 12, 2006

two-handed revelation

Some days you learn something so cool you just have to run out and tell all your friends. Today, I was reading Dances with Wool's blog. She shows us her gorgeous twined-knitting, embroidered, wrist warmers. Those alone would leave one satisfied to have visited her blog, and her usual thoughtful comments leave one happy.

In addtion, today, she sends us to Philosophers Wool for a video on two-handed color knitting (one color in each hand).

I have done two-handed color knitting. My knitting project that comes the closest to being a tour de force of anything I've knit was done with two-handed color work. But I had no idea about "stitches 3 and 4" as taught by The Philosopher. That twist-in-the-back thing is a revelation, for sure, and I am grateful to Lene for sending me to see it.

My 90-yarn sweater was one of those projects that is very significant in one's creative life. It began with a yarn swap by my local spinning guild. I can't remember any more how many people participated, but I want to say over 40. We swapped spun yarn -- one ounce, maybe -- the details fail me. Anyway, that was a good start. Then various spinning friends, one as far afield as New Zealand, sent me more handspun. I added several yarns of my own (and really enjoyed being able to dye up some bright yellow, when I needed it). In the end, I used over 90 different yarns.

I had decided I would use *every* yarn I'd been given, even the ones that I didn't like. This was a real challenge, as they varied incredibly in every way. I learned an enormous amount about color and value as I knit this sweater. The first sleeve took me forever. Knit two inches, rip one and a half, repeat, repeat, repeat. Then the summer happened, and I didn't want to knit a heavy wool sweater. I messed around with fabric over the summer, and when I picked up the sweater in the fall, it flew off the needles. My new comfort with color and value helped me know just what should come next, with far less ripping. (The second sleeve is MUCH more alive than the first, which is much more rigid, visually speaking.......)

I learned far more from knitting this sweater than from any other thing I've made.

The other aspect of this project that stands alone for me is that I wrote up the swap and the sweater, and my article and photos were published in Spin-Off. To date that is my only writing for which I was paid.

As I look at the sweater now, I find the gestalt unsatisfying. I would like to do it again, with alllllll yarns that I love. There are too many places in this sweater where there are yarns/colors that do not float my boat. In addition, it's too short, and really would have benefitted from some shaping.......

For those of you into technical details, it is cuff-to-cuff, and is all knit/purl, no slip stitches, only two colors in any row. It looks much more complex than it is, because of the purling. When you change colors, the color-change row looks totally different when purled than when knit......

Should you want to try two-handed color knitting, I suggest you start with a bunch of different yarns. When the yarns vary in size and fuzziness as well as color, no one can tell when your tension isn't perfect..............

Without further ado, I give you the 90-Yarn Sweater:





Thursday, May 11, 2006

I love drugs

What is up with the way so many things are treated as black or white in our culture? "Just say no!" I wonder if the notion is that most people can't handle nuances? Is that why it is thought better to have blanket condemnation than reasoned appraisal?

Kids in elementary schools these days get large doses of "Drugs are BAD!" and very very little "moderation is good."

When essentially everything has SOME value, SOMEWHERE (thinking of botulism toxin used for uncrossing a little kid's crossed eyes), it is just stupid and short-sighted to be incessantly throwing out the baby with the bathwater. SURELY it would be more valuable to all of us to teach appropriate use (appropriate behavior!) rather than "just say no!"

Ah well.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a headache. I do caffeine. I forgot to drink my evening green tea on Tuesday. And the weather changed overnight -- not sure which factors combined, but my head was pretty uncomfortable when I woke up at 6:00 am.

So I had a glass of milk and an Excedrin. Those of you who have migraines -- if you have yet to try Excedrin, do. It works better for me than anything else ever has, with the sole exception of codeine, which is much harder to get. In an hour, I felt MUCH better.

Pain is Bad. Drugs are Good. I would like to thank every person who went around tasting/chewing/infusing/brewing random vegetative substances to see what they did, especially the ones who tried the willow bark and the tea leaves (I have no idea where tylenol comes from!).


Last night I decided the blue sock probably wasn't quite big enough around, so I ripped it back, almost to the toe. I've recovered almost all the way back (just a few yards left that were ripped but haven't been re-knit). I'm thinking I should practice some toe-up heel techniques, but am finding myself with no desire to do so. Perhaps I should just do the two socks' heels differently, and see which I prefer, in use.

And now for your eye candy. When you come in our back door, you are in a little hallway that leads through a doorway to the front door. This mask is over that doorway. I like to think that this entity guards the portal.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

cool places on the web

I've been knitting the blue sock. It's past the halfway-up-the-foot point.

Here are two new places on the web I've found in the last couple of days.

http://jujulovespolkadots.typepad.com/juju_loves_polka_dots/2006/05/paintings_by_lo.html

Did you know such things existed? I didn't. How cool! I'm very curious about how they work......

Now look at this:
http://megillustrations.typepad.com/photos/christmas_kitchen/index.html

If my house were neat and clean, it would look exactly like hers. Only different. More orange, less lace...... But the notion is exactly the same. The monster next to a Christmas tree on the mantel, the yellow trucks and construction vehicles on top of the over-the-mantel mirror -- this is me, all over.

She says she never throws anything away; I wonder where she keeps all of it? Not in that neat house (or not in any part she has shown us -- maybe she's got a nice big attic.....).

Monday, May 08, 2006

wisteria


Of all the things my previous neighbors planted (including English ivy, and a hawthorn right next to our garage), I forgive them the wisteria. They shouldn't have planted it, either, probably. My goodness, it's invasive. But my goodness, it's beautiful. It's climbing up the weedy trees along the property line, and turning them purple. And my goodness, it smells wonderful.......

Sunday, May 07, 2006

blue sock

I've been working more than I generally do on the weekend. Once I've begun a nasty task, I like to keep after it as long as I can bear, because I'd just as soon not have to struggle to overcome my aversion to it any more often than I have to.....

But I did do a little knitting.

"A plain boring blue sock?" I hear you wonder.....

I have a plan. I'm going to learn a toe-up heel other than the afterthought on this pair, and once I get to the ankle, I'm going to start knitting stripes out of embroidery floss. I already have a lot of colors, and if I want more, I can have several for a dollar. Colors. Bright saturated ones. Colors I get to pick as I knit. Excellent.

(Hope for me that the floss stays knotted, so that this whole plan doesn't unravel!)



Friday, May 05, 2006

I said I hated cleaning...........

My actual, paying, day job involves a lot of messing with databases. Putting stuff in, getting it out, putting it in, getting it out, putting it in............

I've been assigned the most disgusting job I think I've ever had to do at work. The database equivalent of mucking out stalls, cleaning fish, and scouring the jock bar mens' room the Sunday morning after the Saturday night of the Big Game.

(I'm parsing huMONgous created-by-hand-by-persons text files, and trying to put the info into the db.)

Gack.

Ok, let's draw a curtain over that; too horrid and depressing to contemplate. (I guess, though, I should try to concentrate on the positive -- at least once this has been done, it will never need to be done again, unlike each of those nasty corporeal-world things I mentioned.......)

So I need to do something fibrous, don't I?? Yes, I do.

In the mean time, here is part of a shelf in my kitchen. I collected all of the food containers in their native habitat, with the exception of the candy tin.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Google

Since I seem to be in the middle of recommending things, I'll talk about Google for a bit.

Google just rocks. Things have gotten to the point that even for technical questions I have at work, I can find the answer faster through Google's www search than I can find it by looking it up in the book on my desk. Not always, but 90-95% of the time.

I use Google's www search so often that when I see someone ask a question like "What is geocaching?" I kindly say "Honey, Google is your friend." The old "teach 'em to fish" thing.

Now, I am not an "early adopter." I got my first digital camera less than two years ago. But on-line, show me something that works better than what I have been using, and that's all it takes. Google maps. They rock. They are head and shoulders above the on-line maps I had been using. They zoom without having to reload the map, for one thing. For another, you can grab the map and shift it inside its window, again without a reload. Try 'em, you'll like 'em. We've also had really good luck with directions we've gotten from Google maps. (Unlike the maps I used to use, which had us driving around south of Saline, Michigan, in the middle of nowhere, looking for the new high school -- which is right in Saline, rather than south of it in the middle of a corn field where the other online map thingie directed us.............................)

My most recent foray into the Google universe is Google desktop. I downloaded it because I was annoyed at the search-of-my-machine's-contents that came with the computer. I haven't yet tried Google desktop's search, but the desktop replaced the nasty worthless default search in my browser with Google's www search (after asking me, and I was very pleased to say YES), *and*!!!!!!! the desktop gives me a bar down the side of my desktop that notifies me when any blogs I read are updated.

Well, that's worth the price ( $0! ) of admission, right there. I don't have to keep hitting various sites all day to see if there's been an update. Good old Google keeps me posted.

As with the other things I've been recommending, I have no affiliation with Google (though I share my alma mater with one of its founders).

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

I love my camera!

There are so many things we buy without a clue if we will actually like them. Stoves, for example. How on earth can you know if you will like a stove, when you've never had the opportunity to see how the burners adjust? You just can't tell until you *use* it for a while -- and, of course, you can't *use* it before you *buy* it.

Cameras are another example. I did go to a local store and hold cameras in my hands (a good thing, too -- another model I was considering was so big that I couldn't hold it securely and push the shutter button at the same time!). I did read reviews. But none of that predicts whether I will like the one I choose, over time.....

All the time, we must fork over hundreds (or thousands) of dollars for something, hoping that we shall like it, once we are able to try it out...............

So I'm sure that one reason I love my camera is that ... I love my camera. I am sure I love it more because of the unexpected pleasure of loving it.

My kid was on the swim team in high school. I wanted a camera that would take decent pictures of our high school's large pool area. So the 12x optical zoom and good lens on this camera were selling points. I read in a review that it was good at close up things, too. But it blows me away that it can take closeups of small objects like those marbles from a couple of days ago, and can also do this:



I took this pic from the bleachers, which are *not* kissed right up to the end of the 14-lane pool. This is the 12x optical plus the 3x digital zoom, and it's grainy, but don't you think it's amazing that the same lens that took those marble pics could also take this pic of something (my golfer DH estimates as) 40 yards away?


Here's a not-fully-zoomed pic, also taken from the bleachers. See how far away that wall is? And we can read those tiles................













Equally amazing to me is this:

This was taken from the middle of a dark auditorium, of a actor on stage. Without flash. As you can see from his blurry "hand", it only works if the subject of the picture is very still. But isn't this amazing?

This is my first digital camera; I don't know if "they can all do this." The technology is cool, and this expression of it -- exceedingly cool. I'm sure this camera would not work for everyone (it's not very good at stopping motion unless the light is very good indeed), but ... it works for me, and I love it.

(Don't you think Panasonic should be paying me? I wish!)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

cleaning is dangerous

I derive no more satisfaction from housecleaning than I do from yardwork. It looks better for about five minutes, and then you can't tell you did it, and have to start over. Feh.

Nevertheless, I carefully dusted off the top of this printer's drawer before photographing it for you. And got a splinter. (I did mention that I hate cleaning, didn't I? Even when I don't get splinters............)











After I dug the splinter out of my finger, I needed a bandaid. (Have you ever noticed how hard it is to take a photo of your right hand? With the shutter button on the right, and all?)


I LOVE these bandaids. (Well, ok, they are not Bandaids(tm), but you know what I mean.) In addition to coming in excellent colors, they are soft and stretchy, unlike regular plastic ones. They are comfy, and they Stay On. Even through the shower, usually. I gain nothing if you try these, but trust me, they are head and shoulders above any other bandaid-type product, except those with Shrek on them, which are so cool that we love them in spite of being the regular plastic kind.

Monday, May 01, 2006

marbles

I haven't knit a stitch since I finished the wool socks. I have another sock begun, well, two, really, in different Sockottas. Perhaps I'll work on one of them.....

In the mean time, I offer marbles. I took several pictures of marbles in mid-afternoon, when the sun was not coming directly through the windows. I like the subtle light coming through the marbles.










Then I took some more pics when the sun was coming right in. This is so much more emphatic, but I'm not sure I like it better than the more subtle one.....