Oh, boo, or, Rain

Quite in keeping with the season, but still rather drab and grey. I actually quite like rainy days...at home, with a cup of something hot and my puppy and some knitting. Instead, I am in my office, pretending to work, chilly because the a/c is too cold, fighting the urge to sleep. How many weeks left before I get to stop coming in? I think about three (just checked my calendar in Outlook: maybe two!!) and not a moment too soon.

Completely unrelatedly: how is it that I keep hearing about pets getting into mouse and rat poison? Not bait, laid out to get the little critters, but boxes of the stuff? We had to take Wembley to the doggie Urgent Care when she was just a baby: she'd jumped off The Man's lap and bonked her knee into the floor, and was refusing to walk a day later. Very worrisome, though she was absolutely fine, it turned out. Just a wuss. Anyway, while we were there, a family brought in their little dog who had eaten rat bane up at the cottage. And just today, I read about some dogs getting into mouse poison. I can't imagine keeping poison in my possession, period (but I'll grant you, I have never lived with a mouse or rat infestation, so I can't truly appreciate what that must be like) but I particularly cannot fathom keeping poison accessible to little animals who are not the intended victims. Maybe the ease with which such deadly chemicals can be purchased, and in highly secure containers like cardboard boxes (I always like to keep my deadly chemicals in the equivalent of a cereal box, don't you?) contributes to a general forgetting of just exactly what these chemicals actually do. It isn't pretty. And it's not for puppies.

Cotton baby, or, Tiny Fan

About a month ago, The Man and I were over at my Mum's for dinner and she told us she had something for us. She had knit our little Bean this tiny outfit! It's knit out of Bernat Cottontots, and so soft!! I've thought it felt awfully nice in the skein when I've seen it at Michael's, but wasn't sure what it would look like knitted up. Well, it's lovely knit up, and just as soft as it's seemed skeined up.

The Man is a huge - HUGE - Seahawks fan, so Mum embroidered a logo on the cap, since he is adamant that our kids will be football fans, too. It isn't that he'll insist, just that they naturally will. Regardless, the jacket and bottoms are beautiful and so very soft.

I can't wait to see them on a little person.

Another one bites the dust, or, *sigh*

I never actually bought or knit anything from The Garter Belt, but I did enjoy seeing the different selection of patterns on their site. I find that - even of e-zines whose designs don't necessarily appeal to me - seeing the variety of possibilities involving fibre and two sticks is inspiring in and of itself. It is unfortunate, then, that The Garter Belt is no longer on the net.

Such a strange month, seeing the demise of Magknits, and now The Garter Belt, two rather long-standing online knitting mags and pattern sites. Still, few people can afford to leave their full-time job to devote all their time to an online publication; most sites are labours of love and devotion, not particularly money-making ventures, so who, then, could honestly blame anyone for choosing to discontinue a site if the time needed to maintain it is simply no longer available?*

Sadly, I remove The Garter Belt link from my sidebar, while wondering what online knitting site will next garner our interest and our favour.

*I have not heard/read any blame associated with the sad demise of The Garter Belt, which is nice and quite refreshing; all the ladies involved in keeping The Garter Belt on the net seem like truly lovely people, so I'm relieved that there seems to be no animus associated with the site or its being shut down.*

Grrr, or, Now why did I do that again?

If you look at any of the images in my posts, you will notice that the text butts right up to the 1 pixel border on the inserted images. For some reason, some time last year, I altered the coding of my site to make it do this (why, I have no idea, because I've never really liked it). Now I want to add a little space, and cannot, for the life of me, recall what I initially changed to make it look like this. Anyone have any ideas?

Examination, or, All Checked Out

Wembley went to the vet today! She hadn't been in, um, awhile. *lowers head in shame* Yes, we were a little negligent for the last year and a half, but she's been perfectly healthy, so, all things considered, it wasn't too bad. She was weighed (just over 10 1/2 lbs) and fawned over by the techs and assistants and the vet. Everyone loved her. And she was so well behaved! She was quiet and happy and co-operative; it was a little like how it must be to have a "good" dog! The vet told us she has very bad tartar on her teeth (which we'd noticed) and told us to use an electric toothbrush on her, which should be...interesting. Maybe I'll set up the camera to get it on video: I'm sure it will make for hilarious viewing, particularly for the cat owners!

The vet commented several times on what a good job we had done with her in regards to her temperament and her behaviour, and we sort of looked at each other and thought: "Huh??" The next time she gets obnoxious or loud, I'll have to remind myself that I haven't actually totally failed to raise my puppy properly. The vet referred to her as being of a fairly "bossy" breed, so I think the fact that we have as much control as we do must be rather an accomplishment!

She got her shots, and her heartworm meds for this year, and we got all the information on having her spayed, because no, we haven't had her scooped out yet. She's very much an indoor dog who gets all her real exercise tearing around the house, so the opportunity for accidental puppies to happen would be pretty limited, and next to impossible. Still, we definitely want to have her done. Not cheap!! But then, if we wanted a cheap pet, we would have gotten a goldfish. Maybe a gerbil. But you can't do this with a goldfish.

Advantages, or, Rotund

Yesterday afternoon, The Man was in a rush to get to a dinner meeting for this youth group thing he helps out, and asked me if I could walk the dog. Then he rephrased, and asked if I was physically capable of walking the dog. "I mean," he says, "could you pick up poop?" And I stopped and thought about it, and realised that, yeah, actually, that might be a little difficult now. When we had a foot of snow on the ground, and she was climbing up snowbanks (as she loves to do) it was no trouble, but now...it would certainly be tougher! I could, but since it's so much easier for him, I let him have that privilege. :)

If you can't use a giant preggo belly to get out of scooping poop, there's something wrong with the world!

A little update, or, thoughts?

A few formatting changes to the blog. Whaddaya think?

Soft, or, More baby content!

More baby stuff. The local fabric chain (it's a land of fabric!) is having a giant anniversary sale, so I decided that it would be wise to start picking up fabric for zee behbeh. On the left we have three flannelettes, in one-metre squares each for receiving/swaddling/burping blankets: a very soft and very lovely space-dyed fabric in blues and greens (The Man's choice), a nice cream with funky spots in blues and browns, and a chartreuse, cheeky monkey print! On the right we have bedding fabrics/fabric for the baby's room: a heavier-than-average quilting cotton in brown with a turquoise dot, and a finer quilting cotton in chartreuse with brown 'trees' (I think they're tree-like) and squiggles, and white and turquoise swirls. So pretty!! And they match unbelievably well, too. I got the brown and turquoise dotted fabric for about $2 a metre, so I bought 7 m of it! That should be ample material for crib, a fabric-covered pin-board, and possibly a diaper bag (I have a design hatching in my brain, and it is awesome!).

If you're thinking that you can guess what we're having based on the colour scheme, guess again. We have no idea, and we aren't finding out until this kid is out, either! I like the gender-neutralness of the fabrics: I don't want to impose my own uber-girliness on a daughter just because she happens to have the same sort of parts as I have (and truly, I can be pretty girly).

Leftovers, or, Tiny

After making the BIL's kilt hose last summer, I had some leftover sock yarn. I thought, what lovelier stuff to use for a baby sweater than nice, soft, sock yarn? I adored the smocking stitch I had used for the cuff of his hose, so I did some quick math and cast on. This will be a little cardi, knit flat in one piece from the bottom up. I've just reached the split between back and fronts, and I've also run out of yarn, so the project is just waiting for me to get back out to the shop to buy another two balls of it. Obviously, the same dye-lot being found is a virtual impossibility, so I'm going to switch to a nice, soft, mushroomy shade for the upper body and upper arms, so that the switch in dye-lots for the lower arms won't be so noticeable. Hopefully, this will actually be done before the Bean arrives. Also, I hope it fits; I have the sneaking suspicion that it is a little large for a newborn, but I have some ideas that may allow me to adjust the size for a smaller or larger Bean.

I'm gone for four months and then I post a novel...what can I say: I'm wacky.

Betcha thought I'd been abducted by aliens or something, huh?

Nope, still very much alive. Too much, perhaps, which caused the loss of the blogging mojo, as well as the knitting mojo, and also the general loss of my intelligence. Very frustrating, all, I tell you.

So, since it's been....roughly four months since my last real post, I have a little catching up to do. I won't bore you with crazy details, because, frankly, I'm lucky if anyone at all is interested in reading this at this point! In chronological order of occurrence:

- I'm pregnant. Well and truly at this point, as I'm just over 31 weeks. Great big belly, constant need to pee, back aches and all the fun of pregnancy. The first three months weren't particularly fun, the second three months simply flew by, and now I'm at the stage of just really, really wanting to not be at work and stay home and do house-readying, nesting things. How domestic. Gag me with a spoon! :D

- We moved! Thank heavens! The burbs were driving me bananas. Between the crazy people next door, and the crazy people next door to them, it was...crazy. Sure, I actually see more craziness now that we're downtown, but I don't find it objectionable to see people who have honest-to-goodness mental health concerns making their way in the world. The woman we lived next to out in the burbs, however, has no excuse for her behaviour. She's just a nutter by choice. And mean. And creeeeeepy.

- The Man has another job! And it's a permanent, not-on-contract, salaried position, walking distance from home. We park the car on the street and leave it there for days at a time! It's awesome! He's really enjoying it, too: he's a recruiter for an IT recruitment firm, placing people in positions with the federal government. It's quite a weight off both of us, knowing that he has a good job that he enjoys and in which he seems to be thriving before the baby makes his or her grand entrance.

- Work is changing. After the organization moved from Toronto to Ottawa there were some significant changes in personnel, as is to be expected whenever an office moves between cities over 5 hours away from each other. Recently our two primary administrative staff have both either stepped down or are in the process of stepping down. The changes are positive and good, and I'm very happy for both of them as they move on to new things, and in one case, gets to stop commuting every other week to room with friends, but it does mean a lot of change for us at work. It's actually pretty exciting, seeing that things are going to change a bit and watching the organization grow. What that means for me is pretty exciting, as well; with the personnel changes have come some alteration in the distribution of responsibilities, allowing me to take on more tasks that I'll really enjoy, and drop a few that I haven't been particularly enjoying (what the heck was a former religion and philosophy student doing running a database?!). So I'll go on maternity leave next month, leaving my job to somebody new (we're interviewing candidates this week!) and come back to a new job, with different responsibilities and...an office! I get walls and a kid in the course of 12 months! Awesome! I have a new boss, as well, and she is, quite simply, fantastic. I'm a very big fan of hers (she's the one who's getting me out of a cubicle and amongst proper walls, too)!

I mentioned that I lost my knitting mojo in addition to my blogging mojo. I truly did. I was commuting by bus for almost two hours each day during the first 4 months of this pregnancy, and the bus ride alone was almost enough to make me ill most days; since that was my primary knitting time, I saw a real drop off in the amount of knitting time I got in any given week. Plus, then I started going to bed around 8:30 every night, so there was pretty much no knitting happening for the first few months. In the past few months I've been back to knitting again, but until very recently there was no sunlight! Every day was cloudy or snowing. Quite depressing, and made for absolutely no good photo-taking. The upshot is that I don't have any knitting shots for you. I did, however, spend some time today looking at some splendidly shot blogs, with alarmingly beautiful photos, so I'm feeling very inspired to plaster this space with pretty pictures of...anything! I have one little thing in the works worth seeing, so look for it very soon. In the meantime, just in case you forgot, I still have the cutest dog in, yes, the world.

Two Years

We haven't forgotten you, Laura. We still miss you terribly.

Always will.

Why? or, Not the Point

I have read multiple news stories about 18 year old Butler Community College student Emily Sander, and in every single one it is pointed out in great gory detail how she led a "secret double life as an internet porn star". At the conclusion of this article, which focuses almost entirely on the details of her internet presence, it is noted that: "...Sander's Internet activity had no connection to her disappearance. "The issue of the Internet and the spinoff of that has been literally crippling our investigation" [Police Chief Tom Boren] said."

Fabulous. The patriarchal bias of the media has inhibited the investigators and likely delayed the discovery of her body. Hell, the approximate date of her death is not mentioned in the article; for all we know, she may have been held captive during the early part of the investigation. Had the media not been so needlessly and insultingly focused on what she chose to post on the internet, perhaps she could have been saved.

Someone stop the planet. I think I'd like to get off now.

Finally, or, YES!!

This is awesome. Really and truly fantastic. I'm very proud of my MP's right now. They've done a good thing, even if it ends up being largely symbolic. I say screw bilateral relations with the Japanese government; it's about damn time.

What's that again? or, UFO, or, Unbelievably, a Finished Object!

Yep. I knit something. And I finished it. And I've worn it. Awesome.



Pattern: Urchin by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Sheepjes Inca in Wine
Needles: 7mm
Modifications: Hmm, I needed a small-medium sized hat, but the yarn was of a finer gauge than the yarn suggested in the pattern, so I began by knitting a medium, but it was a little smallish due to the yarn substitution. So I reknit it in the large size, and now it's a little on the loose side. Argh. I'll probably frog and reknit on 6.5mm needles this weekend to snug up the fabric. Still, the hat is fab, and the pattern is PERFECT! I think I've just become a very big fan of Ysolda's!

The split-neck raglan hasn't had any progress at all, and I have one almost FO to show off in the next few weeks, so there will be more to come, I promise! To tide you over, here is a little bit of Wembley!

33, or, long time coming

It has been 33 days since my last post. I totally lost my blogging mojo. It was terrible. I would think of posting (very rarely; I even lost my remembering mojo!) and come up completely blank. It was actually rather depressing. I have had things to say, things I've thought, but actually putting finger to key in some coherent sense was simply unthinkable. Blegh.

Fortunately, things are looking up. I'm feeling the old blogging spark smouldering away, and I'm excited to think that I may be back in the swing of posting regularly very very soon. Maybe now. Perhaps this is the first of all the frequent posts to come. I make no promises, but I offer hope.

What's also been frustrating is that when my blogging mojo went on vacation, it appeared to take my knitting mojo with it. I have a few suspicions as to precisely why that may be, and I'll explain them soon, but in the meantime, I have no knitting news or pics to offer you. I foresee myself diving back into my split-neck raglan within the next day or so, though. I'd really like to have it finished in the very near future.

It's cold here! Perfect sweater weather, truly. In fact, I woke to a thick blanket of snow this morning. Wet and slushy snow, it's true, but very pretty nonetheless. It made me happy. The Man, not so much, but I've always been a bit more of a freak about winter than he.

I have an incredibly angry and heartfelt post about evilness written, but I suspect that I was just too overcome by recent news when I wrote it to be in any way coherent or objective, so it will undergo some thoughtful editing before it's actually posted.

Some people have all the luck, or, The Week

The Man and I were married February 12, 2005. Since then, life has been a struggle. We have endured bad jobs and unemployment, and in the course of our almost-three-year marriage, we have survived - barely - on very little money, usually from only one income. It's been tough, it's been heartbreaking, and there have been days when I have very seriously wanted to just run away. Not from him, or from us, just from the world. Abandon our debts and live as nomadic bums. It isn't that this option is really so attractive, just that there have been times when I - when we both - have felt that there is no digging ourselves out from under the pile beneath which we are living.

Some people seem to be born under a lucky star. I dated two such guys in my early twenties. These are the people who go out shopping for cds and are offered two jobs along the way, apropos of nothing. These are the people who, when looking for apartments, finagle their way into a superintendent gig as well, thus allowing them to live in beautiful, sizable spaces for very little money, and very little work. These are the people whose parents buy them houses for kicks.

The Man and I are not these people. We are the opposite. He says that, statistically, it stands to reason that if some people are frequently lucky, there will also be people that generally are not. I still feel like I'm battling some cosmic force.

Except this week. In the past 6 days, we have gotten two pieces of very good news, including a job for The Man! He started a new recruiting position yesterday afternoon. It's a three month contract, but he has leads on future jobs, as well. We are thrilled, and apartment hunting this weekend. The sooner we can get back downtown and out of the uber-burbs, the happier we will both be. Walking to work will be such a relief after months of terrifying bus-rides (seriously: the bus drivers in this city freak me right out!). Being blocks away from our dear friends, K & M & little I-B will be wonderful. I am breathing easily once again, for the first time in two months. While I wasn't a wreck this whole time (which, considering my anxiety predilections, is quite remarkable) I have certainly been all-too aware of the stark reality of our financial situation. But no more!

::

I am behind on blogstalking by two weeks! I apologize, stalkers, but I PROMISE you: the pic of the statue will be up tomorrow afternoon and it is worth the wait! It's weird, it's big, and it's installed on the approach to the stunning National Art Gallery. I'm snapping the pic tomorrow afternoon; it should look awesome.

Up next, or, *Eee!!* They're here!!

My KP Harmony needles! I only ordered one size (I am, how do you say, cheap and anxious because I'm the only one with a job) but I'm still excited! They're preeeetty:



What's more, the arrival of these needles allows me to start on my warm handspun sweater. I'm using this yarn and the Raglan Generator. My plan is to supplement my limited supply of handspun with deep ribbing at the waist and cuffs of the lambswool. BUT....the question is: do I knit a pullie or a cardi? I'm not certain. My plan has been to knit a split-neck at the left shoulder with the lambswool, as well as buttons up the ribbing at the waist at the right hip, but I'm wondering if such a thick sweater would be more wearable as a cardi. My concern is that the lambswool button-band up the centre might hack up the continuity of the knit.

I'm so indecisive. Any thoughts?

Just in case you were concerned that the package contained anything less than entirely innocuous, Wembley gave it a good check before I ripped into it.

Shiny, or, A Nice Blend

"Helena" cotton/rayon blend from CirculoYarns. Destined to become Sahara.

There and Back Again, or, Bussy

I've been busy, but mostly, I'm bussy! Living in the 'burbs, and working in the downtown core in a city with a serious problem with it's road-way infrastructure (way too few lanes between the suburb I live in and the city proper), it only makes sense to take the bus. It's ecologically responsible, too, which is always a nice aspect!



That's a bus. That's actually the bus that brought me home this afternoon. The Red and White Rocket, as one particularly gregarious bus driver likes to announce it over the bus PA.

<-- I start out here. One bus, from that stop all the way downtown. No transfers is a nice luxury. Gives me ample time to read or knit without worrying about getting off and back on to another bus. Most days, the bus is the only motorized vehicle I set foot in. We have a car, but it stays home on work days. It isn't interesting, but it's how I get around.

::

Friends of ours are FINALLY getting married this weekend (it took awhile for the groom to accept this whole "getting married" thing). October in Ottawa generally means autumn, however, the forecast is calling for mid-twenties temperatures, so typical seasonal formal wear is a little out of the question. I haven't been to a summer wedding in a while (lil' sis's doesn't count as I was a bridesmaid) so I need to acquire me a dress in short order. A little empire waisted number in this fabric should work, don't you think? The spots are actually much pinker than they appear in this pic (nothing like taking pictures under compact florescents at night!) and on a just-off-white ground. Almost breaks the "no white at a wedding" rule, but I think it's polka-dotted enough not to be a problem.

Blegh, or, A bad case of the Yucks

I'm feeling pretty crap lately. Don't know why, and really, what does it matter, except that my brain appears to be rapidly deteriorating into a state of mushy incoherence? Yup, pretty fonging crappy.

I feel very stupid. Hence the greatly reduced frequency of posts. Also, there are sooo many more people in the office now (which is great, don't get me wrong*) that it's hard to do up a post at work without being discovered. I'm a sneaky blogger, you see. And once I get home I generally feel rather disinclined to sit and bang out posts after sitting at a 'puter all day at work. So I don't, and my blog suffers and stagnates.

Apologies. Blogstalking post should be up this evening, all things being equal, and I believe there may be some pr0n looking to make an appearance tomorrow.....

*How sad is it that I only just noticed the gross grammatical problem with that phrase?!