Stash: Enhanced!

Hello! I am yummy!

Um, yeah, remember all that time ago when I said I’d post again soon and update on various things?  Apparently “soon” meant “not so soon at all, actually”.  Sorry ’bout that! This is going to be a whirlwind survey of an update, dotted through with pictures of purty yarn that people have given me recently, and that I have utterly failed to blog about until now.

Though I have yet to add it to the list of free patterns on the sidebar (that’s going to have to become its own page, I think), the now-named Tamarind Cowl is available here or on Ravelry in free PDF download form.  There are already a few finished Tamarinds out there, and after seeing it on other people, I’m thinking that I may like the way it looks after all!  Yay!

So, OK, yarn.  A number of weeks back, I won a contest on The Lady’s blog.  How cool is that?  I’ve never won yarn before, and the pack she sent me is just gorgeous!  My recent experiences are just leading me to think that knitters are the most generous people out there.  Anyway, it’s all sock yarn, which means I now have all this yummy stuff in a great weight just sitting around begging to be knit.  I couldn’t resist the siren call and I’ve already used up one skein in a little baby sweater.

Parti colored leftovers.

The colors that The Lady picked out are just gorgeous - many of them go with colors already in my stash, which is super cool, and some cry out to be knit NOW, even though I have too many projects on the go as it is.  I’m being a real project tart at the moment, stringing a bunch of them along and refusing to commit to any.

Also in the “Knitters Are, Like, Totally Generous” category, Orata remembered that I had mentioned wanting to try Lamb’s Pride some time, and when she had a stash sale, she let me know that she was selling some.  I decided to start small and bought a skein of pretty green to make felted slippers, but look what arrived:

We be Lamb's Pride, yo.

I get to play around with more colors and really give this yarn a spin!  Yet more generosity!  I compared the Lamb’s Pride to some Mystery Yarn of Mystery that I got some time back, and I think that it may be the same stuff, so that was cool, too.  I’ve been wondering what that stuff was, and sort of wary of using it until I knew.  Oh, and I like the Lamb’s Pride.  I have yet to make the slippers and see how well it felts, but it’s nice to knit with.

And I’m not done with my praise of knitters, either.  DarlingFloy and I meet up on Mondays to sit and knit and shoot the breeze, and a couple Mondays ago, remembering that I had mentioned wanting to try Knit Picks Essential, she gave me these:

Essential!

Chocolately, no?  And so nice.  People really are lovely.  I’ll intersperse a few more pictures of the beautiful sock yarn from The Lady throughout the rest of the post.

Let’s see, what else?  This is the worst of delaying too long between posts.  So much happens, and I can’t write about all of it, so it all gets short shrift and ends up crammed into the bottom of a post.  I finally went ahead and added the i-cord border to my Baby Surprise Jacket and sent it off.  It’s amazing what a difference an i-cord border makes.  I had been putting it off and putting it off because somewhere in the back of my head, I was convinced that it would be hard to learn how to make an i-cord border (nevermind that it’s an abbreviation for idiot-cord, which should suggest its difficulty level as pretty low) but it turned out to be very simple, and to really professionalize the look of the jacket.

Surprise with border!

Not as surprising the second time round.

After that success, I went ahead and added an i-cord border to Nora’s Tomten (no pictures as yet) and that looks a lot better, too.  I think success is making me cocky, because now I’m eyeing all my projects and wondering how they’d look with an i-cord border.

Sooooo pretty!

Another finally: I cast on for that skirt that I’ve been talking about for ages.  The one from Greetings from Knit Cafe. (Sad note: Knit Cafe is currently no more.  Mr. Jejune’s last trip there turned out to be right before they closed due to a rent increase, and they’ve yet to find another venue.  I keep hoping for good news, though.)  I’m using the recycled cotton I harvested ages ago by ripping a thrift store turtleneck, and so far it’s going well.  It’s the right weight, and it has a nice depth to it that makes up for the lack of slub.  I really liked the slubby yarn used in the book, but it’s a bit steep for my budget.

Pigeonroof Studios - Oceanwind

I haven’t blogged much about it, but I’ve been working on Gabriel’s jacket for a while now, and the reason I haven’t blogged much about it is that I have been starting and restarting it in a perpetual cycle of frustration, one that was so frustrating that I didn’t feel much like sharing it.  But I’ll mention it now, and add that I hope to have a more successful attempt to show you soon.  The recipe is brilliant, but with all the looseness of a recipe, and with so many cables, I find myself messing up more times than one would think possible.  My most recent attempt made it a few inches in before I realized that I was making a sweater too large for me, let alone my nine year old son.  He’s gigantic, but he’s not that big yet.

Green!

I went through some drawers recently and found a One Skein Wonder I’d made for Eleanor heaven knows when.  It was finished except for the ribbed edge, so I added that on and it was done.  I’ll share some pictures in my next post.

More sock yarn.

Bleah.  I knew this would be a fast paced mess.  There’s too much going on!  OK, well, hopefully this will be a lesson to me to try to post more often.

 

Kodachrome

It gives us those nice bright colors
Gives us the greens of summers
Makes us think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah!

I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away

Hi! I'm a cowl.

Yes, indeed!  After a period of no camera, I am the proud owner of a Nikon D50, thanks to my dad, who happened to have one that he wasn’t using.  And while I still have a lot to learn about it, I’m really enjoying the beast thus far, and snapping everything in sight.  (If you’re my Flickr friend, you’ve probably noticed this.)

Bumpy.

So you can see what I’m working on again.  I finally caved and joined the Cowl Girls.  These things really are irresistable, although I’m not really sure what I think of my own contribution to the genre.  I had pictured the ruched bumps settling into more of an accordion shape than actually happened.  But it’s very soft, and ZOMG do I love the color of this Malabrigo.  So very rich and warm.

I am a kninja. Sorta.

I’m going to write up a pattern for this sucker either way, because it’s darn easy, and someone might want to make one.  The only issue is a name.  Normally naming patterns isn’t a problem, but this one is stumping me.  The bumps remind me of various seed pods, but Seed Pod is not a melodious name.  If you have any brilliant suggestions, post them in the Comments.

The good thing about this particular cowl is that the extra ruched material traps a lot of air in it, so it’s very very warm.  Of course, it’s summer time, so it’s not the most practical item to wear right now, but it should be very nice come winter.

One last shot.

I have a lot to update, but it’s too much for one post, so we’ll leave it with the cowl this time.  Next: the stash, it has grown, thanks both to the generosity of knitters and the insatiable appetite for yarn that drives me.

 

Totally hot

It is, actually. The East Bay is usually pretty temperate, and I know very few people who have air conditioning, but it’s been hot as Hades lately. So, so totally hot. In a round about way, connected only by the vagaries of language, this brings me to some thoughts on beauty brought on by Julie Frick’s freaking amazing post about self image and hawtness, which I’ve been meaning to talk about since I read that post.

Where do we learn to think we’re somehow not OK? I used to think it was inherent in teenage angst and insecurity, but that was before I met my husband. Once, I said something to him about, “You know that age when you think you look just godawful and you feel terrible about your looks?” and he said, “No.” Further exploration revealed that he’d never actually experienced this. As he put it, he didn’t expect anyone else to find him attractive, but he was always very happy with his looks.

Now, I’ve been married to the guy long enough to know that he does have insecurities and issues, but his approach on looks struck me as remarkably healthy, and one that I’d like to emulate in raising my own kids. The idea of being happy in yourself without expecting praise or outside confirmation is amazing to me - something of a Holy Grail of self image. I would have considered it mythical had I not met my husband. Perhaps it is cultural. As one of my favorite Salon articles indicates, my husband is not the only Venezuelan with great self image. Perhaps it has to do with upbringing. Perhaps it has to do with gender. I’ve known more men than women who are happy with how they look.

Whatever the reason, I’d like to find it and solidify it into a talisman to protect my kids. And I’m starting by looking at myself. (Navel gazing for the benefit of others! Yowza!) How often do I think, say, or indicate that I’m not good enough? Pretty darn often, actually.

I’m an occasional reader of Kate Harding’s Shapely Prose. I have read about, and I believe I understand, thin privilege. But something that comes up again and again, for women of any weight, is this feeling of inadequacy. For some, thin is never thin enough. For some, it’s not about weight at all. I’ve talked about my personal issues with weight on here before, and with my recent weight gain, I think I’m the healthiest and happiest with my body that I’ve been in ages. Which is why it’s weird that the way getting on clothes has gotten harder feels a little upsetting to me some of the time. And it’s probably also why, instead of sitting around being down on my body, I’ve started in on my face.

Silly stuff. My face hasn’t changed, but without my body to focus on as the problem, it seems like I have some sort of sick need to pick at myself, to deconstruct my looks and find what’s wrong. It’s a form of vanity, I think, because it seems like, rather than accepting myself and just moving on, it’s a way to focus on my own looks and spend more time on them than is really necessary.

Reading about the beauty of other women, I realized that it’s one of the things I absolutely love about reading knitting blogs. I love looking at pictures of other people’s beautiful knits and I love it even more when I can see pictures of the knitters as well.  There are so many beautiful people whose blogs I read on a regular basis, and it’s real beauty, more than skin deep, that’s on display.  I see beauty from models in magazines and catalogs, but it’s not the same as these personal pictures in which you can see the pride of a creator, beauty without design or ostentation, and the little flaws that are so much more lovely than all the perfect features in the world.  It seems like all the beautiful women in magazines and movies begin to blend together after a while.  There’s only so much Photoshop airbrushing one can take before all skin looks too smooth, all eyes too sparkly, all breasts too perky.  Freckles disappear, and one never sees an interestingly crooked smile or a gentle curve of a belly anymore.  It’s all the same, it’s all bland, and while there’s some beauty there, it’s less real than the beauty of interest.

I can see all this in other people.  I’m grateful for it.  Maybe you’re like me in this: it’s easy to appreciate the beauty of others without extending much of that courtesy to ourselves.  We’re trained up to think it vain to even appreciate our own physical assets silently.  We begin searching out all our flaws far too young, and not in an appreciative, interested way, but as a means of telling ourselves how little we are, how disgusting, how ugly.  I’ve met very few young women who felt comfortable in their own bodies.

Age is a gift here.  I, and many of my friends, have found that we like our bodies and selves better as we get older.  At nearly thirty, I’m a lot happier with how I look than I was at twenty.  But there’s still a long way to go before I’m comfortable with what I’m showing my daughter about beauty.  I think, some days, we need to look in the mirror and actually say, “I look good today.”

Totally hot.

 

Designy stuff

I’m in a weird state right now as a pseudo knitting designer type person.  I have had a lot of ideas lately for new patterns, and I have confidence that I can knit them.  I have no confidence, though, that I can write them down, or that I’ll find time to do it.  I realized recently that I think I need to reknit some of the patterns I’ve created, because my errors are legion, and I don’t seem to be able to catch them on reading my patterns over.  Even when they’re glaring, obvious, and really pathetic, involving very basic math.

I’ve been meaning to edit Maude Louise for ages, but I freeze up when I sit down to it, because I can’t seem to spot the errors on my own, or to see where I’ve gone totally, crazily, weirdly wrong.  It’s odd.  I’m not feeling sorry for myself, because honestly, I’m not the person affected most by these mistakes.  I feel awful to be misleading innocent knitters with my errors, but I’m not thinking I’m an awful person who needs to be flogged or anything.  Mostly just thinking.  I managed to mess up my recipe for Arthemis, too, on the first go round, and that was a case of adding ten over and over.  A first grader could have done it correctly, but I managed to mess up.

Anyway, it’s got me in an introspective state, because, as I said, I’ve had an absolute ton of ideas (and have knit a few new items up that I’d like to write up patterns for at some point) and I want to be better at this whole design thing.  It’s why I haven’t written up the Erin Shrug yet, despite requests, and my own intentions, because damn it, I’d like to release a pattern or more that is entirely error free.

Ysolda, who does not have these problems, often knits two of her prototypes, and I’m thinking that even though the idea is somewhat abborhent to me, I may need to do the same, just to test what I’ve written.  And I think I probably need to get my patterns test knit by others as well, in future.

Anyway, this stems from my finding that other people have found major errors on the finished parts of Maude Louise, which is, anyway, an unfinished pattern.  I knew it was unfinished, and I found errors in rereading it before, but I missed some biggies.  I have been meaning to sit down and finish the whole pattern pretty much since I first posted it, but as I said, I’ve frozen up at writing patterns, the more problems that are exposed.  But with all these ideas exploding in my head lately, it’s probably important for me to get better at this, or to invest in some good software that can help me with the math, because as frustrating as it is for me to find myself in all these mistakes, it’s probably a lot more frustrating for those who are actually trying to knit what I’ve written so poorly.

 

Now with knitting

The young lady’s lungs took precedence over knitting in my last two posts, and you all have been so wonderful and supportive, but now that we’re almost all the way better here (save for a lingering cough), I think it’s about time to get back to knitting and navel gazing. Personally, I much prefer both those activities to worrying about the state of my offspring’s lungs.

I have a number of finished projects I haven’t shown you, but no really excellent pictures of any of them. Nonetheless, I’ll start with the best first, just so you can be let down at the end. I’m sorry this won’t be a more comprehensive post, as I’ve had a lot I’ve been thinking about lately, but it seems very hard to find time to sit down and write.

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket
Yarn: Catalina Baby Silk, with Malabrigo Merino Worsted on the edges
Needles: U.S. size 10 dpns and 16″ circular
Yardage: About 425 yards of the Baby Silk and probably about 150 yards of the Malabrigo
Modifications: Smaller needles, slightly thinner yarn, contrast edging, slightly smaller than a standard throw

This is a very popular pattern, with 1368 examples on Ravelry thus far, and what’s not to love? I was pleased to find that it’s actually a fairly simple pattern. I don’t seem to have learned all that much in my years of knitting sometimes, and I can still be tricked by a beautiful finished product into thinking that something is a lot more complex than it really is. I wouldn’t tell a beginning knitter to plough right in on this one, but I think it’s definitely feasible for an intermediate knitter who has used dpns before, and who has done some simple lace work. The original 1942 doily pattern contains an error, an error that is corrected in the Rainey Sisters‘ version of this pattern, so I recommend going there first if you plan on knitting the Hemlock Ring. Of course, numbers being what they are, the chances are good that you’ve already knit a Hemlock Ring Blanket.

I’m very very happy with my contrast edging. I hadn’t seen one of these with contrast edging, though I’m sure someone else has done it. I had no choice, though, if I’m honest - I ran out of the blue yarn. Here are a few tips for anyone else who wishes to have similar contrast edging on their blanket. I knit to the second to last row of the repeat and did one knit row of the brown before going into the edging. By the time you’re at the edge, you’re going around a pretty big circumference. I had half a skein of that lovely chocolate Malabrigo, obtained when DarlingFloy and I swapped our leftover Malabrigo, and I thought that would be enough. No. I ran out about three fifths of the way around the border and had to make a desperate run to the yarn store, where they had three skeins of Malabrigo in Rich Chocolate, but not one that was a match for the skein I was using. As it happened, this didn’t really matter, since the edging is a sharp enough contrast that the difference in skein color doesn’t show up much at all, drowned out by the contrast of the blue. But it was a close one. Make sure you have enough yarn on hand to really do the edging!

This blanket is for my grandfather. I wanted to knit something for him, and most of what I could come up with seemed trite or silly, or unnecessary. I figured that blankets are something that most of us use and love, and the Hemlock Ring is the prettiest one I can think of. I’m glad to have knit it. It’s a relaxing project, and takes much less time than one would think. I’m sure I’ll make one for our living room at some point.

The Catalina Baby Silk is a blend of baby alpaca and silk, and it feels really soft on the skin. I think alpaca is a nice choice for a blanket, and since it’s so drapey, this was a lot easier to block than I feared it might be.

And for the let down, here are a few picture of end of year teacher gifts, all knit in Malabrigo Worsted or Seleccion Privada:

Next time: thoughts!

 

Much better!

Thank you all so much for your well wishes, offers of help, and general kindness. I promise to reply to each and every one of you soon, but I’m a little worn out today, so it may be a few days.

Eleanor’s appointment went well, though she was tired and stroppy and generally rude.  I suppose that in a way that was a good sign.  Anyway, her lungs sounded pretty clear and her treatments have been stretched out to every four hours.  The doctor I saw yesterday said she thinks it was likely a mucus clot in her lung, and that it blocked everything up for a while, which would make sense, as the first doctor she saw noticed that there was one spot that seemed to be more blocked than the rest.  Either the clot is broken up or it is on the move, because she’s nearly back to normal, save for a cough (good - can get mucus out of the lungs), some slight wheezing, and total insanity from the various medications she’s on.  Luckily, she’s generally a fairly calm child, so insanity in her is not too bad.

Unfortunately, I’m the sick one now, which isn’t a big suprise, since I was under the weather to begin with, and then went through all of that stress and adrenaline.  (Etymology break: Apparently it’s adrenaline in Britain and epinephrine in the States, but I’ve only ever heard it referred to as adrenaline by anyone who isn’t involved in the science of the human body.  I’m not sure why the distinction.)  Anyway, I’m taking it easy for a while and luckily, Nora’s being pretty self sufficient and playing with just the right amount of activity.  Too little, and a clot could form again, too much and she’ll exhaust herself and risks other complications.

I’m going to eat a little and lie down.  Even knitting is making me tired, so I’ve got a project that is on larger needles to work on, because that seems to be a little easier.  It’s boring to lie there and do nothing.  I’ll probably rent a trashy, but kid appropriate, movie as well, and just veg today.  Thank you so much for all of your good thoughts and words.  They are truly appreciated.

 

Bad day

We had a big scare with Eleanor yesterday, and I’m feeling the need to tell as many people as possible about it so that she can have as many people as possible rooting for her.  This isn’t a very organized post - I’m just going to copy and paste from the posts and emails I’ve put elsewhere.   It will probably sound familiar - we had a similar scare with Liam some time back.

It’s been a long, long day. Daniel was sick this past weekend, and this morning, Nora and I were sick, too. Luckily, she had a well child check up that I’d scheduled last month. Yay for coincidences. We went in, the check up went well, and sure enough, her lungs were a little congested, so they gave her a breathing treatment and gave me a prescription for an inhaler and a small spacer. I took those to the pharmacy and tried to hang out until the prescription was ready, but they kept extending the time, so I went home with Nora, who seemed pretty much OK. After we got home, though, she was very whiny and whimpery, and she wouldn’t eat her lunch, even when I tried to bribe her with a donut. I didn’t think too much of it, assuming she was just under the weather still. We picked up the boys and when we got home, she seemed very unwell, very whiny and whimpery again, and just off. I told her to go lie down, and she did. I got the boys set up with a movie and went to check on her. I couldn’t find her at first because she’d humped herself up under the covers. When I got very close to my bed, I saw this tiny white little face with the eyes half open and the mouth hanging open, and she wasn’t moving, and her chest was heaving like she was struggling to breathe. I said her name a number of times and she didn’t respond. That was one of the scariest things ever. Then I shook her arm a little and she made a small crying sound. She was able to respond to a few questions, but she just kept whimpering and then she fell asleep - sort of. She was still making little crying sounds. I called the doctor and they said to bring her right in.

We went back to the doctor’s office and she was grey and semi-conscious, and the doctor told me later that barely any air was moving in her lungs. She had a breathing treatment and it did very little. At that point, I was told she’d most likely be hospitalized. But then the doctors consulted together and decided that the most likely thing the hospital would do was give her more breathing treatments, so they decided to do it at the office. She had four in a row. By the end of the second, she could talk a little more and her eyes stayed open, but she was too weak to hold a small book and her skin was still cold. At the end of three, she could hold a toy and sit up. At the end of four, she was jittery and shaking, but she could stand up, and she was talking almost normally. Then she was given a shot of steroids - prednisone or cortisone, I can’t remember which. Then she threw up on Daniel, but she was essentially cheerful, so we were encouraged. We’re at home now, and she’s here, too, but it’s not over. The doctor bullied our insurance company into getting us a machine to give breathing treatments at home, and it should be delivered soon. We have to get up every three hours tonight and give her a treatment and tomorrow she goes back to the doctor. If anything gets worse, we have to go to the hospital.

And that’s where it stands. She’s gasping when she talks and she’s very very hyper, but otherwise OK right now. It seems to be her first asthma attack - she got Liam’s variety, which lies dormant and then springs with a vengeance. I’m not pleased. They both have the super dangerous kind, while Gabriel has consistently bad asthma on a day to day basis. Yay for genetics. There was some concern with pneumonia, but she seems to have responded well enough to the breathing treatments to rule that out.

I feel sort of sick and scared. She went downhill so fast, and the doctors said that while she should be OK, no one expected her to get so sick so fast to begin with so she needs extra attention and care. I seriously thought she was dying for a while there. I’ll update you as it goes on.

<update>

The machine arrived, and luckily she likes it better than the one at the doctor’s office. She was starting to gasp a little, but the machine definitely helped, and she’s hyper (for her) but breathing pretty well. Not perfectly, but heck, it’s breathing. The next treatment is at 11. I’m so tired, but I’m sure I’ll have no problem staying awake.

My house is a big huge mess, which was kind of embarrassing when the man came to set up the machine, but I guess that doesn’t matter. Man, I am so just burned out. I’m so glad I could hold it together when it was really bad, though. I didn’t want her to be scared or alone. Now I just feel so weak. I hope there are no more crises to necessitate strength for a while.

<update>

The best news so far: she just came in (the treatments give an adrenaline rush and she’s had a lot more than is usual for a person of her size, so she may be up most of the night) and when I asked how she feels, she said, “Much better.” Every other time I’ve asked her how she’s feeling today, she’s said, “Sick,” or “Bad,” or “Really bad.”

<update>

She’s a lot better this morning. Completely and totally insane on medication, but entirely cheerful. Her breathing still sounds a little off, but we’re repeating the treatments every three hours, and it’s definitely helping. She has an appointment at noon.

Sorry for the terseness - I am sick myself, and this hasn’t improved my situation. I’ll give a fuller reply soon.

___________________________

So that’s where we are now.  If you could send some good thoughts in my little girl’s direction, I’d appreciate it.  She’s doing very well, but her breathing is still a little ragged, so I’m still nervous.  I’m sure she’ll be fine, but it’s been a terrible couple of days.  She’s currently having a tea party with her stuffed animals, which has to be a good sign, and she’s eating again and seems pretty happy.  It’s hard to feel secure, though, when she seemed mostly fine yesterday and got un-fine so fast.  Asthma runs in my family, but neither my siblings nor myself ever had it this bad, and I’m shocked at just how bad it can be.  And grateful to live in a time when medical treatment is so good.

 

Holy pattern love, Batman!

That’d be the February Lady Sweater, by Pam at Flint Knits!  Gorgeous, no?  I lust after the gorgeous Sundara yarn she used to make it no less than the sweater itself.  Wowsa.

 

My creation

My creation

Originally uploaded by Jejune Ennui

I was bored, and I’m falling pretty hard for Flickr, so I ended up playing the game by cast on cast off.

The rules:

Using fd’s Flickr Toys,

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Tag yourself if you want to play! It’s a lot of fun.

 

Me me!

The Lady tagged me for a meme, and I’m currently procrastinating, so it’s a welcome distraction from actual work. Yay! Thank you, The Lady! I am most appreciative.

“The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.”

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

Gosh, ten years ago. OK, let’s see. It’s June now. Ten years ago, I had just gone back home for the summer after my freshman year at art school. I had a good friend I left back in Baltimore. They held the graduation after the term ended, and I didn’t get to go to his, but we ended up writing to each other every day, either by email or with illustrated letters. In August, I would go back to Baltimore and start dating that friend, and then we’d have our massively out of order courtship of baby, marriage, and eventually more babies. But ten years ago, I didn’t see any of that on the horizon. He was my best friend at school, and I was missing him. And it was very weird to be back in Southern California, where everything suddenly seemed unfamiliar. June was also the month my mother got married ten years ago. (Happy anniversary, Mom!)

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

There are only 45 minutes left of today as I type this, and I’m not sure I have five things left to do. I’ll make an effort. I want to make one more mock up for a graphic design job I have. I want to move Eleanor, because she fell asleep on the couch in the living room, and I haven’t had the heart to move her yet. I want to change into PJs and brush my teeth. I want to read for a short time. And I want to get to sleep earlier than I actually will.

3) Snacks I enjoy:

I’ve been snacking on cheese as I sit here. I love cheese. Mostly soft cheeses, but really, most any good cheese will do. I’ve always thought of myself as having a sweet tooth, and I suppose I do, but in truth, I’ve been tending toward savory snacks lately, and I realize that even the sweets I like must not be too sweet. I prefer bittersweet chocolate to milk, and I can’t drink most sodas because they just taste too syrupy. I’m a big snacker, though. I like to make trays with a wide variety of little treats. I often like romaine hearts with a little dressing to dip them in, cheese, nuts, some kind of fruit, and maybe a pickle or a mushroom marinated with garlic. Olives are also much in favor. Pretzels are good, and wheat crackers. Now I’m hungry.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Oh man. This is hard. Well, I want to sound all generous and kind, but the very first thing I’d do, were I to become a billionaire overnight, would be to pay off all our medical debts, and any other debts we’ve got. And then I think I might indulge in a good bit of small spending, just because I could. I’d make sure all our needs were met, and I’d probably buy a house. And I would look into various charities, but I think if I’m honest, those would come after my crazy shopping spree. I hate shopping, though, so I don’t think it would be a long lived shopping spree. I would have a mad stash, though. I have a lot of charities I’d like to give a chunk to, so I’d spend some time figuring that out, and then I think I’d try to set up some kind of scholarship. Oh, and of course stash a large chunk of money away for retirement, and a chunk for the kids’ college educations, and a chunk for emergencies.

5) Places I have lived:

Los Angeles, CA
Altadena, CA
La Cañada, CA
La Crescenta, CA
Baltimore, MD
Oakland, CA
San Jose, CA
Albany, CA

6) Jobs I have had:

I haven’t had a lot of jobs. My first job was at a florist, and then I worked at a book and toy store throughout the rest of high school. In college, I worked at the front desk of the student apartments. I lived off campus by then, though. And then I got myself knocked up in my sophomore year, dropped out, and moved out to California to live in sin. I’ve been a stay at home mom ever since, though I’ve done a number of freelance jobs in that time. I write, and I occasionally get something published. I’ve also done some graphic design work, and the occasional illustration. But most of my work has been on a volunteer basis. I’ve never had a steady job in my adult life, which sounds pretty bad when I just blurt it out like that. Ah, well.

7) Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better:

Philippa

Sabrina

Whitney

Irene

Expat