Expetesso

Moving Day

2011-07-09T09:00:00.002-04:00

Sometimes, everything changes at once. New job, new home, new virtual home...

Starting in July of 2011, this site will no longer be updated.

Please join me at expetesso.com, instead, for the adventures of two girls and two cats in one big city.

On Lake Time

2011-07-04T18:43:00.001-04:00

Corrin and I have been on vacation since last Thursday, visiting her parents and exploring her hometown, just outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. I seem to be living in a CountryTime Lemonade commercial, and am loving it -- riding bicycles on dirt roads, picking (and eating) wild black raspberries, napping in hammocks, feeding pet horses wild clover, and swimming in warm lakes bounded by grassy knolls.

I'll have a longer post about our trip when we return to the city later this week, but for now, here's a photo that I snapped this morning. The horizon here is so low that I've had Rachel Loy's Big Sky in my head since we drove our Texas-plated rental car onto the highway on Thursday afternoon.

The morning sky over a corn field in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Moving Plans, Updated

2011-05-07T12:20:00.000-04:00

According to Pandora, I am presently comforted by neo-romantic compositional styles, symphony orchestras, harp playing, french horn, bittersweet sentiments, tranquil moods, new age aesthetics, the subtle use of paired vocal harmonies, celtic roots, and singing, mellifluous aesthetics. I am also comforted by knowing that there's something I can add to my environment to bring comfort; otherwise I'm afraid the stress of this move would finally do me in.

We've finally claimed a moving date. It's not our best choice, and was provided by default rather than through any actual work on behalf of anyone other than us, but it's a date and deadline: June 1, 2011. There are lots of things about it that I don't like: it's a Wednesday, which means that Corrin has a class to teach at 6pm that evening, and it's difficult for out of town family to help us on the day. It's just far enough after Memorial Day weekend to be incredibly inconvenient for finalizing the packing and cleaning of present spaces, since I have three new staff people starting at work on the 31st and can't exactly take a day off. It's close enough to June 3rd that I have to miss participating in my designated Relay For Life event (Green Island, NY) for the first time since 2003 (or come back to town to a pair of cats utterly traumatized at having been moved and then abandoned, and a home in complete disarray.) There are many things about it that could be better.

BUT. It is what it is -- a day and a deadline. My fantastic Uncle Bob may be able to come to town with his expert moving skills to corral all of our possessions from two homes into one. If he can't -- because Wednesday is a *really* crappy day for a move -- I will rent a truck, learn to drive in Manhattan, and put out a call for strong, burly types to help lift mattresses and box springs and a pair of heavy dressers in and out of said truck in exchange for a batch of my variation on Deb's brownies -- delivered the following weekend, after I've rescued the baking pans and pastry flour and Icelandic chocolate from the packing crates.

The best news is that, in having a date, I can begin to act. Time to spend hours on the phone with utility companies moving services and setting up joint accounts. Time to decide if we really want a sofa, reconstruct Corrin's awesome-but-less-than-pretty futon into a piece of grown-up furniture, cull more of my books, decide if we'll really have an ice cream party for fifty of our friends in July (and if not, give away some bowls and spoons), and figure out how to ship my unused-for-a-year television from Brooklyn to my Nana in Saratoga. Time to switch in the spring wardrobes, so we can lug boxes around in shorts and t-shirts instead of corduroys and wool cardigans.

And some where in all of that I have to hire three people and launch a new project at work, arrange contra participation in The Dance Parade (with an infuriatingly disorganized group of parade organizers), and keep the broker who's showing my current space from allowing my cats to escape into the wilds of Fort Greene. Woe to those who cross my path attempting to make my life more difficult this month!

But joy and delight and a pending sigh of relief for the impending month of lilies that is nearly upon us.

First published at expetesso.com

A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest

2011-04-24T12:32:00.002-04:00

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology cites moving to a new community as "one of the most stress-producing events a family faces." Combine that with Manhattan's apartment vacancy rate for the month of March -- less than 1% -- and the fact that Corrin and I are two single people combining households for the first time (an event ranked as more stressful than planning a wedding and having a baby combined), and you might have a theoretical understanding of what the last few months have been like for us -- and what the next few weeks will continue to bring.

The Search for a Neighborhood
We started thinking about, researching, and examining apartment listings for various neighborhoods in early November, about a month after we made the decision to live together. Knowing that we wouldn't make the move until late spring (at the end of her academic year and the end of my busiest fundraising season) we still started our research early. We took stock of our lifestyles -- both regarding our life together and our individual interests -- and narrowed down a selection of neighborhoods that would work for us.

Speaking generally, Corrin was less happy with anything terribly far from campus, and I was very unhappy with anything much north of the Columbia gates at 116th. Considering the difficulty and general unreliability of cross-town transportation, anything so far east as to make a walk to campus or an express train unpleasant was completely out. Additionally most of our activities take place on Columbia's campus; in the not-Times-Square theatre districts; in Central, Riverside, or Morningside parks; in the blocks surrounding my office at Herald Square; or in the West Village. We were left with decidedly west side neighborhoods on our list:

Morningside Heights, directly surrounding Columbia University
Manhattan Valley, between Central Park and Broadway south of 110th Street
Upper West Side, everything west of Central Park between Columbus Circle and Columbia's campus
Lincoln Square, the area surrounding Lincoln Center at 6th Street

The Search for an Apartment
Having narrowed down the areas we were willing to call "home", we started looking at apartment amenities in earnest. We made exhaustive lists of features -- a kitchen large and pleasant enough to cook in together and host dinner parties from; a living space that included some sort of nook that could be used for Corrin's study -- either a loft, an alcove, or a closet (a full second bedroom is almost too much to hope for); a large enough footprint that our cats wouldn't go stir crazy and climb the curtains, with a layout conducive to entertaining our friends (i.e. a bathroom available without having guests traipse through our bedroom, and space for a decent-sized dining table). Good quality light, at least some of it direct sunlight, and some form of green space were absolutely necessary, as were laundry facilities in the building.

After several months of making lists and debating our negotiable points, we reached out in early April to hit up various real estate firms to find brokers with access to what interested us. We found listings that we liked on the CitiHabitats, Corcoran, Bond, Fenwick Keats, NY Bits, and StreetEasy websites, as well as Columbia's Off Campus Housing List, and contacted brokers at each firm (or on each composite site) to compile lists for us. With a less than 1% vacancy rate, our loyalty wasn't available at any price; any agent willing to show us a listing received our attention.

We made appointments to view two dozen apartments between the third and seventeenth of April, and visited nine of them before we struck gold. Some of those first nine met some of our needs; they were on beautiful blocks in the neighborhoods we most loved, were apartments with amazing details and light (there was a lofted space with a fireplace that I fell in love with, but for the fact that it was a closet), or had terrific landlords (Isaac was a young guy willing to make some changes for us -- until we gently pointed out that installing a washer and dryer unit for us would require hiring a plumber to run a water line). Some of them were horrendous -- like the 300 sf 5th floor walk up with crumbling brick walls; even with a view over Central Park it was awful. And then, while waiting between apartments, my gorgeous, genius girlfriend insisted that we take a look at Craigs List.

I'm skeptical. Craigs List? The website where anyone can post anything, where finding a single item of quality is akin to finding buried treasure in a mangrove swamp? But given how stressed out we were by then, and how anxious we both were to just have the whole process over with, I humored her. We sifted back through a week's worth of rental listings, seraching for our neighborhoods as key words. On the very last page was a single, unassuming ad for a one-bedroom apartment in Morningside Heights. The title and description were well-written and free of unnecessary adjectives, the photographs were clear and from realistic angles, the amenities listed were an even mix of what we were looking for, and the price was in the middle of our anticipated range. Too good to be true or not, I typed out our standard inquiry and sent it off, expecting to hear nothing.

Our Perfect Gem of a New Home
Within an hour, I received an email from a young woman named Julie. While her boss, Jason, was on vacation out of the country, she'd be happy to show us the apartment he'd listed on Craigs List the week before. We would be the first to view it, and they weren't planning to relist until he returned, so we could take our time with the scheduling. Corrin and I arranged to meet Julie for a walk-through of the apartment the following Tuesday evening. April 8th turned out to be cold, wet, gray, and rather morose. Just like us, Julie was early, and greeted us with a warm smile. She's clearly not in the Real Estate business! -- and yet just as clearly really likes her boss, and thinks of him as a genuinely good guy. (Happy employees, and all that.) She took us through the entire building.

Originally built in 1890 (thank you Zillow), the building was completely renovated less than a decade ago. Full of newly constructed condominiums, the building overlooks Morningside Park and also has two gated, landscaped courtyards available for tenant use on the adjacent side. The entrance is bright and inviting but modest, with a small staircase and a clean wheelchair ramp. The mail room is adjacent to the building Super's apartment, and just behind it is a large elevator lobby and a wide staircase that runs through the center of the building. In the basement is a shared community room (with a full kitchen available for parties), a recycling room, and a set of storage lockers.

The apartment itself is a bright, spacious one-bedroom flat on the second floor. You enter into the great room, a rectangular space running west to east that the current tenants had arranged into a formal dining space and a living room with a playpen for their 4 month old daughter -- and which we'll arrange with zones for studying, dining, and relaxing/entertaining. To the right of the door are two closets, one for coats and shoes and outdoor storage, and one which Corrin has already deemed "the craft nook" for my yarn. Beyond the closets on the south wall are a pair of large windows letting in a great deal of sunlight.

To the left of the entrance and the west half of the great room is a lovely kitchen adorned with numerous cabinets, a pantry, a dishwasher, full-size appliances including a gigantic side-by-side refrigerator, and a north-facing window over the sink. Beyond the kitchen but off of the great room is a tiny hallway leading to a roomy bathroom (also boasting a north facing window) and a pair of closets. One of those closets houses a stacking washer-and-dryer, and the other is a linen closet.

The eastern-most portion of the apartment is the bedroom, again boasting a pair of closets and a pair of east-facing windows. I was so enamored with the kitchen, laundry, and closet options that I didn't pay very close attention to the bedroom, but the current tenants had positioned a full-size bed, a bassinet for their infant, an enormous Ikea Storage chamber, and a chair in the room with plenty of space for us to walk around and explore; I imagine our bed, club chair, and pair of dressers will be perfectly at home here.

Making the Found Space Ours
Julie was as enamored with the space as Corrin and I were, and was incredibly helpful. Within 35 minutes of returning home and comparing what we'd seen against our notes, we called her to indicate our interest in applying. With our potential landlord out of town, she was tasked with communicating with us to collect all of our application materials -- rental history, employment history, work references, personal references, credit scores and statements, tax forms, bank statements, and copies of official identification -- in electronic form. After ten hours of scrambling to collect, scan, and create PDF documentation of everything requested, we turned it over -- and were approved for the space 48 hours later.

Jason returned to town last week, and Corrin and I signed the lease together on April 22nd. While we're still waiting on a precise move-in date (our lease is effective June 1, but we may have the option of moving in toward the end of May, depending on the plans of the current tenants), the hardest part of the apartment search is over. We still have to find boxes, sort through our possessions, determine which items we're keeping and which should be stored or passed on to new owners, pack everything, move it to the new space, arrange furniture, unpack everything, paint and decorate the space so that it in some way reflects the fact that two different people with a shared couplehood inhabit the home -- but the most difficult, most time-intensive, most stressful part of the shift (at least in NYC) is over.

The Short Version
We have a home in La Petite Senegal, a relatively new neighborhood on the edge of Harlem alongside Morningside Heights. We found the apartment without the aid of a broker (and thus without incurring a $3,500 fee) after nearly six months of research and searching, because we knew precisely what we were looking for, and were diligent about following up on leads. The space has everything that we wished for: a large floor plan; lots of windows with great light and cross-ventilation; a multi-use great room for dining, living, studying, and entertaining; a large kitchen for cooking together; numerous closets and an on-site storage facility for our personal use; a community room and two locked gardens to which we have keys; a super on site; and easy access to the subway for my shorter-than-current commute and to Corrin's office on campus and to a park with community activities (a three season farmer's market, open-air jazz concerts all summer, and community service festivals every few months). We have a landlord who is a genuinely nice guy and doesn't deal with a lot of bureaucratic tape, who is willing to let us *live* in the space -- painting, decorating, installing hardware, etc. as we wish while documenting the changes for everyone's security. The rent is in the middle of our affordable range, which means we don't need to worry about moving again before Corrin finishes her dissertation, and the neighbors seem delightful -- many of them are Columbia affiliates, too, which means we'll have numerous points of contact for making friends and being sociable.

We are so very happy, in part because the search is over, but moreso because we have found precisely what we most desire: a home where we can be content to build the next phase of our lives.

First published at expetesso.com

Book Review: A Knitter's Home Companion

2011-04-22T17:24:00.001-04:00

A Knitter's Home Companion by Michelle Edwards
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Since I started collecting advance copies of books to review at Goodreads, collecting the mail has become one of my happiest tasks. The sense that "something special might arrive for me" infuses my day with some small bit of happy expectancy -- so much so that I broke my own "no buying more Stuff before moving" rule and bought a book for myself earlier this month. Last week A Knitter's Home Companion arrived in the mail, and I abandoned a ridiculous novel I'd selected from the library with higher hopes than it deserved in favor of curling up on the sofa with Michelle's little book.

This is an odd little book. It's organized into brief, titled sections that are more memoir than essay and laid out so that sweet illustrations, asides, and pattern/technique notes interrupt the flow. After we encounter particular people, places, and projects, a page turn reveals a pattern or recipe redolent of their stories. It's exactly the sort of "real life storybook" that I like, and reminds me a bit of Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times, which I read and loved during the storms of January.

I confess that I don't care for most of the patterns included; I prefer clean lines and clearly defined stitches as opposed to the large gauge, bulky pieces that Michelle shared. That said, the Clutch of Inspiration is right up my alley, and the story of The Mitten Ladies and the Pearl mitten pattern that followed with instructions for
charity knitting stopped me in my tracks. Literally; I was reading while walking home from work. As soon as I arrived, I pulled out my stash basket and found something approximating the yarn she called for, then cast on for the cuff. I didn't pick up the book until I'd bound off.

Being that so much of the volume is memoir, I found myself caring deeply for Michelle's family; feeling the ache of loss as she described herself and her husband in their orphaned state, and the hunger after connection she felt -- and found -- in a community of knitters. Characters make any story, and this book is full of gentle sketches of the people Michelle has loved. It's a feel-good read that wraps you up, rather like a nubbly sweater with sleeves you can roll up, in a soft yarn that disguises dropped and twisted stitches with easy forgiveness.

First published at Goodreads

2KCBWDAY7: My Knitting and Crochet Time

2011-04-17T07:26:00.002-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I've spent the last week blogging for the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. I've had a wonderful time with this challenge, as it's forced me to think more carefully about my knitting process and output and what those things really mean to me. I hope that you've enjoyed the posts.

My “knitting and crochet time” is rather ad hoc. I don’t like to sit still without “doing something”, so if I’m watching television shows, TED talks, or NetFlix I will have my needles at hand. Ditto for listening to podcasts of The Rachel Maddow Show and the Irish and Celtic Music show, or live broadcasts of Yankee games. I also have a small project with me for subway rides (I can manage two or three rounds of a sock on my ride to work each day), and allot a generous portion of carry-on luggage for knitting when I’m flying for work or taking a bus trip to visit friends and family.

Frogging a sock on the IKEA Shuttle last night.

See how other yarnies enjoy their knitting time:

Currently Purrin
Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts
And a whole host of other knit bloggers whom I haven't met yet, but hope to soon.

First published at expetesso.com

2KCBWDAY6: Something to Aspire to

2011-04-16T06:46:00.001-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I'm taking part in the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. For the next two days, you can expect to see a prompted story about my Knitting habits. Enjoy!

I love the practice of knitting. Sitting quietly (or leaning against the door of the subway) with needles out, softly adding stitches to a project – one after another after another after another. I like simple knitting – long expanses of stockinette and garter stitch bounded by a pretty border of ribbing or seed stitch, socks and sweaters with clean lines and unfussed finishing.

That said, I am immensely impressed by the lace shawls and cowls made by Corrin and the women in my knitting group. They create work from deeply complicated patterns with long repeats or asymmetrical lines, unfolding yards and yards of finished fabric stitched with gossamer threads of wool or silk, seeming more like cobwebs than yarn.

I don’t know that I dream of making a great deal of lace in my life, given that I like simple knitting, but one of the things that appeals to me about handwork is the timelessness of it: every time I pick up my knitted socks, I imagine women and children knitting dense socks from simple patterns as Red Cross work in the early 20th century, and when I work on a blanket (knitted, crocheted, or quilted) I think of pioneer families saving scraps of worn out cloth for winter coverings. In that old-fashioned mindset, I can see a future me knitting or crocheting yards of lace for a wedding dress, or small pieces for a baby’s summer hat.

We’ll see.

~*~

See what other yarnies dream of attempting:

Currently Purrin
Mooncalf Makes
Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts
And a whole host of other knit bloggers whom I haven't met yet.

First published at expetesso.com

2KCBWDAY5: And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-04-15T09:11:00.000-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I'm taking part in the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. For the next three days, you can expect to see a prompted story about my Knitting habits. Enjoy!

Dear Lissa,

Don’t you love me anymore? Aren’t I pretty enough for you to wear? Have I offended you? My purple stitches and fluffy ruffles made you so happy all winter – why am I relegated to the hat-and-mitten suitcase now that it’s spring?

Love,
Your Side Slip Cloche

Dear Lissa,

Thank you for the gentleness and consideration with which you’ve been treating us lately. We much prefer your company when you aren’t cursing and stabbing at us with one another while knitting the ribbed leg of a sock.

Love,
Your size 2 dpns

Dear Lissa,

I’m tired of asking nicely so now I’m going to get pushy; it’s time to bring
me out to play for awhile. Mike is coming back to New York at some point this
summer, and you have to finish knitting my striped garter-stitch rows so that
you can finally send me back to Seattle with him.
What’s the matter – afraid you aren’t up to snuff? 

Loser!

No love,
The Doctor Who Scarf

~*~

See how other yarnies pushed their boundaries:

Currently Purrin
Mooncalf Makes
Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts
And a whole host of other knit bloggers whom I haven't met yet.

First published at expetesso.com

2KCBWDAY4: Where Are They Now?

2011-04-14T14:30:00.003-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I'm taking part in the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. For the next four days, you can expect to see a prompted story about my Knitting habits. Enjoy!

I don't have children -- and for the longest time swore that I never would! -- but am thrilled to count six nieces and nephews among the tiny humans in my life. My sister Becky has three boys; one who's nearly 4 and a pair of 2-year-old twins, my best friend Becca has a six year-old daughter and 9-month-old son, and my dear friend Emily has a tiny girl who will shortly be a year old.

Children -- at least these kids -- are happy recipients of even imperfect gifts, and I've cheerfully made blankets and sweaters and hats and booties and dresses and vests and pillows and toys for them over the last few years. For today's post, I leaned on Becky and Emily to provide reviews of the baby blankets that I made over the last year for Liam, Rory, and Mara.

Magic Afghans made as a Christening present for Liam and Rory

Becky reports that her rambunctious boys regularly enjoy their blankies.

"The boys love their blankets!! They use them in the car, in their strollers, to play on the floors, and most importantly, to build forts with!! I have washed them countless times, and they are still in great shape."

Having three tiny humans who routinely climb the drapes and swing from the curtain rods, she hasn't been able to snap a photograph yet. The next time I visit them, I'll try to remember my camera.

Girls of Mara's variety are a little calmer, though that might be because she's still a baby. Emily reports:

"Mara is still too young to have a blanket preference, but the blanket you made is so soft and warm it has been a favorite stroller blanket of mine. I keep it in the basket of the stroller , ready and on hand at all times."

And the photo she sent certainly speaks volumes:

Miss Mara with her giant Granny Square

I'll keep making presents for my kids for as long as they enjoy them -- and I'm so glad that's true for right now. Thanks for the updates, girls!

~*~

See what other yarnies have to say about their skills:

Currently Purrin
Mooncalf Makes
And a whole host of other knit bloggers whom I haven't met yet.

First published at expetesso.com

2KCBWDAY3: Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches

2011-04-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I'm taking part in the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. For the next five days, you can expect to see a prompted story about my Knitting habits. Enjoy!

Projects in Queue with pattern books

As I mentioned in A Tale of Two Yarns, I have quite the stash for a beginner yarnie. Since I live in New York City, where storage space is at a premium (a one bedroom apartment with 3 closets can claim an extra $250 per month in rent over a similar apartment with just two!), and share my home with two adorable cats who nevertheless shed their fur rather egregiously, I’ve gotten creative with my yarn storage.

Project yarn wrapped up

In January, I purchased a set of four wire-and-canvas bins from The Container Store, sized to fit within or atop the shelves of my heavy wooden bookcases. Each bin has a small label on the front and side, indicating what is inside.

One is designated for “Sewing Materials and Supplies” – fabric, notions, pattern books, scissors, needles and pins in my tomato-pincushion, extra feet, and the power supply/pedal for my machine.
One is for Knitting “Projects in Queue” – each project-worth of yarn tucked into a sealed plastic bag along with a marked copy of the pattern and any notions purchased for it.
One is for Knitting “Stash” – yarns that haven’t yet been designated for a specific project, similarly bagged and sealed.
The last is for “Knitting Accoutrements” – needles, hooks, project bags, and yarn for projects that are currently in progress (mainly the as-yet-unknit yardage for the Who Scarf, but also a few skeins of Renaissance for the Francis sweater and one extra ball of Lion Brand sock-ease, which I may need to finish my first pair of socks.

While my yarnwork lives in these bins most of the time, I do have a few project bags for in-progress work. The project bags are tucked inside a sturdy canvas bag that was a gift from my Nana, which lives on the floor near the knitting corner of my sofa.

The Who scarf resides in an open tote bag from a Danish jewelry house, given to me by my friend Nicole in 2009.
The Francis sweater is carried around in my Sound of Music project bag, which I made last month.
My first socks project currently lives in a reclaimed plastic zipper pouch that originally held a pair of flannel pillowcases, though I am half desperate to sew one of these beautiful zippered project bags for them, instead.

Project Bag Repository

I’m not the most obsessively organized crafty person on the planet, but my system works for me – with strict adherence to my one rule: I am not allowed to buy yarn or fabric or notions unless there is room to store them in one of the existing bins. Talk about motivation to finish already on-the-needles projects!

See what other yarnies have to say about the tidiness of their stashes:
Currently Purrin
Mooncalf Makes
And a whole host of other bloggers whom I haven't met yet

First published at expetesso.com

2KCBWDAY2: Skill + 1UP

2011-04-12T11:00:00.002-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I'm taking part in the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. For the next six days, you can expect to see a prompted story about my Knitting habits. Enjoy!

I learned how to crochet during my first year of college; my mother taught several of my housemates and I during a visit to campus in the fall of 1997. I was never a particularly good hooker; I learned the basic skills and put them to use on simple projects that didn’t require a great deal of thought or attention. I wasn’t particularly picky about my accuracy – since I couldn’t easily “read” my work – so left errors like dropped stitches in place and corrected for them whenever I noticed, rather than ripping back to complete a piece according to pattern directions.

That changed in April of last year, when Corrin taught me how to cast-on for the Who Scarf. Rather than teaching me only what motions to make with my hands, and which particular loop of yarn to reach for with my needles, she taught me how to read my knitting – what completed stitches looked like in-pattern, how to identify if something is incorrect, and how to unknit (rather than rip everything out and begin again). In July, August, and October, my knitting instructor Angela expanded on those skills to teach me how to evaluate a pattern and make judgment calls about substituting stitches or techniques if I think that something will serve me better than what a designer calls for.

Side Slip Cloche

Argyle Lace Hat

Francis-in-progress

I try not to be embarrassed of my first projects – the uneven rectangular scarves, the "not to any recognized gauge" crocheted blankets, the stiff mittens made with a too-small hook. I’ve kept them on my Ravelry account despite wanting to cringe when I look back over them. Instead I think of them in context; there are the early efforts that led to my most recent patterns that require a real understanding of pattern reading and dressmaking -- the Side Slip Cloche I knit for myself in cashmerino, the Argyle Lace Hat I made for Lisa of poppy red merino, the angora Pleated Sleeves I knit for my mother, the still-sleeveless Francis sweater I’m working on for myself, and the lovely little socks that I’m almost ready to make a heel-flap for. Everyone starts somewhere, after all, and my first projects are loved and well-used if not admired for being overly beautiful.

Bracelet Backdrop Sleeves

See what other yarnies have to say about their skills:
Currently Purrin
Mooncalf Makes
And a whole host of other knit bloggers whom I haven't met yet.

First published at expetesso.com

2KCBWDAY1: A Tale of Two Yarns

2011-04-11T07:10:00.005-04:00

As the banner above indicates, I'm taking part in the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, albeit two weeks late. For the next seven days, you can expect to see a prompted story about my Knitting habits. Enjoy!

Prior to joining Ravelry and attending regular meetups (however irregularly) with professional knitters, my knowledge of yarn was limited to the selection available at crafty chain stores in my home town. I’m not disparaging that selection; there are lovely cottons, wools, and socky wool blends available at affordable prices, and they saw me through a decade of off-and-on crocheting quite well. But that selection doesn’t compare at all to the little specialty shops I’ve visited on my yarny adventures in the city. The breathless wonder with which I step into Brooklyn General, Downtown Yarns, Knitty City, Purl Soho, and Yarntopia can’t be found in the aisles of A.C. Moore or Michael’s – and the anticipation that preceded opening my first box of goodies from WEBS is as yet unmatched by any other hobbyist moment. I’ve found many beautiful yarns, some of which I’ve had the pleasure – and frustration – of working with. Thus, I present a tale of two yarns.

In the fall of 2009, I made my first trip to a Local Yarn Store (LYS). I chose Brooklyn General for my Sunday afternoon foray, catching the bus at Park Avenue in Fort Greene and riding over to Cobble Hill in the sunshine. It was a good choice for a first visit: a pleasantly roomy shop with a large-but-not-overwhelming selection and staff who were polite and helpful but not watching my every eye-blink. I brought home two lovely skeins of brilliant pink Malabrigo Worsted, having fallen in love with the squishy, cushiony, soft-as-a-new-lamb texture.

Malabrigo Worsted in colorway Geranio

Alas, I am a fickle woman. More specifically, I am a particular, fastidious crafty-person; my mother claims that I don’t crochet, but instead that I make one stitch and pause to admire it, then I make another and pause to admire it, etc. The soft gorgeousness of my Malabrigo is inconsistent, unspooling with threads of various thickness. Inconsistency of weight could be overcome, but the resemblance to roving rather than a spun yarn is more than skin deep – Malabrigo has a clearly inherited tendency to felt itself with very little effort. Since I don’t actually like felted textures, and work far too hard on each of my stitches to be happy making them indistinguishable from one another, we simply weren’t meant to be. If only I’d known… anything about yarn.

In the spring of 2010, though, I had better luck. After learning to cast on stitches for the endless Doctor Who scarf, I immediately visited WEBS to purchase a not-yet-sweater for myself. I had something like two dozen patterns in my queue to choose from, all with top-down and in-the-round construction yielding gentle drape and shaping, and all calling for worsted weight yarn. Knowing as little about yarn at that point as when I purchased the Malabrigo, and needing to stay within a relatively strict budget, I started with their on-sale advertisements.

Classic Elite Yarns Renaissance caught my eye first because of the description, “a very soft hand and a simple twist providing lovely stitch definition”, and second because of the plethora of colors available. I figuratively bit the proverbial bullet and ordered 11 skeins in celery, a pale golden-green color that reminded me of the underside of early spring leaves. As a novice knitter who had never constructed a garment (in any craft) with as much detail as is required for a sweater, that large a materials purchase was a big deal for me – and I am so fortunate to have guessed well.

The yarn feels a bit wooly in my fingers and on the needles; it reminds me that I’m working with a product that came from something living, that was worked into its current state with careful effort and cultivation. The swatch that I knitted up and washed softened beautifully, though; so much so that I can’t wait to feel the finished garment against my skin. The best word I have to describe the quality of the dye is “clear” – as if I were looking into a pool of celery-colored water and could see into it endlessly without reaching murky, muddy depths at the bottom. (By contrast, the Misti Alpaca that I worked into a notched, buttoned collar just this January had such depth and richness to it that it seemed to contain every tinge and hue of blue, green, and purple ever invented layered over warm chocolate.) Renaissance is lovely and clean, and for the price at WEBS ($3.95 per 50g skein), an exceptional bargain. I look forward to using the remnants of my Francis sweater in another project, and to purchasing it again after I work through my stash.

Because novice knitter though I may be, I already have a stash that will supply me with yarn for two years’ worth of projects.

See what other yarnies have to say about their favorites:
Currently Purrin
Mooncalf Makes
And a whole host of other knit bloggers whom I haven't met yet.

First published at expetesso.com

Blog Recommendation: Be More With Less

2011-04-06T17:00:00.002-04:00

I had the good fortune yesterday to stumble across a new blog. According to Courtney's About page, Be More with Less is a blog about simplifying your life and really living. Here, you can learn how to create a life with more savings and less no debt, more health and less stress, more time and less stuff, and more joy with less obligation.

The passage that convinced me to subscribe was from a post she wrote last week, titled The Power of One:

Obligations: we overload our schedules because…

We don’t want to be seen as lazy.

We don’t know what to do with free time.

There’s no time to address the fact that we are overworked and overwhelmed.

A jam packed calendar means we are important.

We don’t want to say no.

Being too busy is better than disappointing someone.

Every day that we have too much too do, we are performing sub par and missing out on so much. Running from errand to errand, and place to place leaves us to tired to enjoy what really matters.

This was my life prior to November. This would still be my life were it not for a newly-won insistence on clearing things from my calendar.

I was thrilled this morning to read a friend's emailed request to meet up for tea, but mortified to see her follow-up line "I'm sure you're booking many months out." I'm so glad to have scheduled an hour with her for next week, and planning to be ever more vigilant about leaving time in my days, and weeks, for the people I care about -- more joy, with less obligation.

What do you think of Courtney's work?

First published at expetesso.com

Blogging About Blogging

2011-04-04T18:15:00.001-04:00

Blogging about blogging -- oh, the meta. The lovely folks at blogger.com (Google (since 2003), for those who care but didn't know) have been making changes to the basic tools. This happens frequently; developers and programmers and code hacks love to improve things, and can't stop tinkering. I'm cool with that -- it's the kind of geekery club that I fall into. (That particular geekery is why I returned to Blogger a year ago after stints with Vox, TypePad, and WordPress; I want to spend my time writing, not thinking about how to make the platform work for my writing.)

At the end of 2010 the new template designer, roll out of real-time stats, and super improved spam filtration were set as standard options for all users. Given the craziness of the last few months, I'm only now getting around to taking advantage of them and implement the items I've been making notations about. Next time you visit expetesso.com you'll see some new bits of fun, like

A new template (from Blogger's stash of stock items) that captures my love of old books and warm colors
New sidebar content -- including snazzy new "follow" buttons (from MySiteMyWay -- thanks, gang!) for my in-use social networking accounts, and a direct link for RSS subscription
A pair of widgets for Ravelry and Goodreads that I customized from work done by experienced API developers, so you can check out what I'm in the middle of knitting or reading. (Major thanks to sarahspins at Ravelry for the yarny base, and to Ettore and team at Goodreads for the customizable shelf badge. Though if anyone can advise me on correcting the spacing of the Ravelry badge, I'd be much obliged; my patience has run out for the moment.)
A badge advertising the brand spanking new cdny.org website that Miriam launched over the weekend.

You might also notice that I've been simplifying post labels (tags). Since I'm using blogging as a way of cataloging my journey away from workaholism and toward a lighter, more carefree attitude of play, I'm focusing attention on the joy. I can't imagine any of you are searching for my blog content, but if you are the search widget in the Blogger header at the very top of the page can run through older posts for you.

And while you won't see it quite yet, I'm also working on some new content ideas. Book reviews that are more fun and less work while still sharing meaningful thoughts and opinions. Reviews of yarn and patterns as I slog my way through learning to knit (so that I can write about the sticks on a more frequent basis than I currently do (since I average three months between finished projects!)). Maybe even some better quality photos, as I'm back to reading about line and lighting.

Anyway, thanks for following along on my simple adventures. I hope you enjoy the new elements as much as I do.

First published at expetesso.com

Mini-Break*

2011-04-04T17:03:00.001-04:00

I was thrilled to get out of the city in order to visit my family upstate over the weekend.

A megabus ride through the Lincoln Tunnel and along the Hudson River on Friday afternoon got me to the Albany-Rennselaer train station in enough time to make it home for dinner with the parents -- plus enough minutes to spare for an evening haircut, and a closing-the-stores dash to buy a new suit and a pair of shoes for a meeting on Wednesday.

The Croatian Church of St. Cyril on 41st Street near the Lincoln Tunnel,
captured from the upper level of a double-decker bus in motion.

The sun arose Saturday morning over a peaceful, woodsy neighborhood without any street noise floating through my windows. I slept until eight o'clock -- then had a mad scramble through the house to prepare for my sister, brother-in-law and nephews to arrive in time for brunch, to be joined by Nana, friends, cousins, and aunts and uncles. We met the newest member of the FamiLee, as my mother calls us, little Hunter Michael.

Mama Jessica watching while Freddy holds Hunter, Rory gives the baby a kiss,
and Liam looks on with an I-don't-like-this-very-much-AT-ALL expression.

The afternoon was slightly more peaceful, as naptime for the babies let the grown-ups collapse into couch cushions. There was much baking of muffins, scrambling after lost blackberries, shopping for craft materials, and reviewing some of the newest product Innovations from 3M. That last items isn't nearly as out of character as you might think; my Uncle Eric is 3M's lead product qualifier in Andover, Massachusetts, and I'm running an innovation development project at work and exploring 3M's modalities -- it was a great conversation.

The kids woke up just in time for *another* set of cousins and aunts and uncles to arrive for dinner. Three little girls, three little boys, Christmas in April courtesy of the Massachusetts Lees (snow and ice covered mountains canceled several weekend trips planned for the winter), and a wonderful turkey dinner left everyone bubbling with happiness. As my facebook status of the night read,

Mikayla is teaching Rosanne and I about 3rd grade equations. Freddy is wooing Madison, bouncing like a kangaroo with each new idea. (Corrin, you may have been supplanted in his affections!) Rory, Liam, and Maya are chasing each other in circles, occasionally tripping up Rascal and Bear. Penn Station at rush hour is more relaxing than Mom and Dad's living room right now!

Best of all, there's a whole new generation at The Cousins Table.

Sleep wasn't in any way difficult to come by on Saturday night, and Sunday morning was a lazy, relaxed affair for adults only -- a great deal of coffee and multi-syllabic words were shared over breakfast before we were bundled into cars and buses for return trips.

I didn't read or knit much at all this weekend -- my Francis sweater is still sleeveless and I'll have to return Metropolis to the library un-re-read -- but there's not a moment of time I'd exchange for crossing something off of a mythical To Do list. It looks like I might be getting the hang of this "having fun" thing after all.

* Mini-break, a British noun meaning "short holiday"

First published at expetesso.com

Photographing Tulips

2011-03-31T17:17:00.002-04:00

2011.03.31 Tulips, a photo by expetesso on Flickr.

Taking my mother's advice that I shouldn't make photography into yet another job, and my friend Ross's advice that I should practice taking lots of photos of a particular type of scene, I walked through a few miles of midtown Manhattan today with my blackberry's camera application open. After taking a dozen lousy snaps of window dressings, I captured this tiny little bit of "nature with art" along Fifth Avenue.

Yeah, that's a win.

Project 365 is really just Project 100. Maybe.

2011-03-27T13:05:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of January I had some ambitious goals for the year, goals of a resolved nature, with a determination that I find difficult to sustain after a few days (or weeks, or hours, depending on how cold and dark the winter is). I'm afraid that I have failed abysmally at my "take and post a photo every day for a year" pattern, given that it's March 27th and I have a sum total of 27 photos thus far. My revised goal -- at the moment -- is to take at least three more this week, so that I can be on par for "a posting every third day".

I'll go looking for some photography forums later this week, and some lessons on line and scale that I can take out the door with me. My big problem is that I often don't think about taking a photograph until I'm home for the night -- and much as I love my pets, there are only so many times I can capture them being cute and call it an effort. So, tips on taking the camera out the door with me are welcome.

In the meantime, I've updated the Flickr set, and enclosed the slideshow. Enjoy!

First published at expetesso.com

Sewing: The Sound of Music Project Bag

2011-03-24T23:26:00.001-04:00

I've been hanging on every word of the creative, resourceful people in my life who take things that are past their usefulness and turn them into lovely bits of everyday goodness.

My mother, Bonnie, is one of those people; she salvages all sorts of fantastical stuff that others would write off as "junk" and turns it into gorgeous, wearable art for her business, The FamiLee Jewels
My friend Patty, owner of The Plaid Cupcake, is another artist, making pretty, whimsical, fun items to sweeten your everyday life.
I recently reread Make Do and Mend: Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations, and have been poring over some new craft books that I received for Christmas: Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing and Amanda Soule's Handmade Home, dreaming of ways to spruce up the home that Corrin and I are building together.

Tonight, I decided to take the tiniest, baby step of sewing something pretty for myself -- a new project bag for my knitting. The project was born of equal parts desire-to-create and I-dropped-my-only-project-bag-in-the-snow-and-need-something-to-carry-my-knitting-in-necessity -- necessity as the mother of invention and all that. I'm pleased as punch with the result:

"The Sound of Music" Project Bag

I pulled remnants from my barely-in-existence scrap bag: a bit of courderoy in a blue paisley print leftover from a gift I made for my Nana several Christmases ago, and a healthy yard of woven cotton that I cut off of a pair of curtains purchased for my bathroom last spring. Without too much effort I trimmed the pieces into a pair of rectangles (approximately 12"x15"), double hemmed the top and stitched the front and back together along three sides. With a bit of extra ingenuity, I cut away the triple-thickness 1" hem from the curtain remnants, chopped up and restitched together the hem bits to fashion a pair of handles, and neatly stitched them onto the miniature tote bag with lots of reinforcement.

Without a pattern, and without much work besides some aggressive pressing and repeated pinning of corners, I havea cute little bag just large enough to hold the sweater I'm working on for myself and the fingerless mitts I'm making for my Mom. I can't wait to carry it around with me on my travels next week!

I'm calling it The Sound of Music Project Bag, since like the play clothes that Maria made for the Von Trapp children, it's pieced together from old curtains.

First published at expetesso.com

Progress at 43things: Go Skydiving

2011-03-24T07:41:00.000-04:00

Purchase the ticket?

Today’s Buy With Me NYC coupon is for a tandem jump in New Jersey at 45% off the typical price.

"Go Skydiving" has been on my list of 43Things since I first set up my account in 2006; along with "Read 50 Books in 2006," it was the first goal I added. Cost hasn’t been a factor in why I haven’t taken steps to actually complete a jump, but the availability of a discounted ticket coupled with the clear advertisement of a company specializing in tandem work very nearby makes it seem like I should jump on this -- pun intended -- or decide that I’m not serious about the goal.

See my progress on Go Skydiving.

First published at 43Things

World Poetry Day

2011-03-22T10:16:00.001-04:00

Happy World Poetry Day, so declared by UNESCO "to give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements". In celebration of the day, I present two poems: my favorites by John Keats (English Romantic, 1795 - 1821) and Pablo Neruda (Chilean Communist, 1904 - 1973).

Ode to Psyche
John Keats
O GODDESS! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung
By sweet enforcement and remembrance dear,
And pardon that thy secrets should be sung
Even into thine own soft-conchèd ear:
Surely I dream'd to-day, or did I see 5
The wingèd Psyche with awaken'd eyes?
I wander'd in a forest thoughtlessly,
And, on the sudden, fainting with surprise,
Saw two fair creatures, couchèd side by side
In deepest grass, beneath the whisp'ring roof
Of leaves and trembled blossoms, where there ran
   A brooklet, scarce espied:
'Mid hush'd, cool-rooted flowers, fragrant-eyed,
Blue, silver-white, and budded Tyrian
They lay calm-breathing on the bedded grass;
Their arms embracèd, and their pinions too;
Their lips touch'd not, but had not bade adieu,
As if disjoinèd by soft-handed slumber,
And ready still past kisses to outnumber
At tender eye-dawn of aurorean love:
The wingèd boy I knew;
But who wast thou, O happy, happy dove?
His Psyche true!

O latest-born and loveliest vision far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy!
Fairer than Phoebe's sapphire-region'd star,
Or Vesper, amorous glow-worm of the sky;
Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none,
    Nor altar heap'd with flowers;
Nor Virgin-choir to make delicious moan
    Upon the midnight hours;
No voice, no lute, no pipe, no incense sweet
From chain-swung censer teeming;
No shrine, no grove, no oracle, no heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.

O brightest! though too late for antique vows,
Too, too late for the fond believing lyre,
When holy were the haunted forest boughs,
Holy the air, the water, and the fire;
Yet even in these days so far retired
From happy pieties, thy lucent fans,
Fluttering among the faint Olympians,
I see, and sing, by my own eyes inspired.
So let me be thy choir, and make a moan
    Upon the midnight hours;
Thy voice, thy lute, thy pipe, thy incense sweet
From swingèd censer teeming:
Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat
Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming.

Yes, I will be thy priest, and build a fane
In some untrodden region of my mind,
Where branchèd thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain,
Instead of pines shall murmur in the wind:
Far, far around shall those dark-cluster'd trees
Fledge the wild-ridgèd mountains steep by steep;
And there by zephyrs, streams, and birds, and bees,
The moss-lain Dryads shall be lull'd to sleep;
And in the midst of this wide quietness
A rosy sanctuary will I dress
With the wreath'd trellis of a working brain,
With buds, and bells, and stars without a name,
With all the gardener Fancy e'er could feign,
Who breeding flowers, will never breed the same;
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
    That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
    To let the warm Love in!

Puedo Escribir (Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines)
Pablo Neruda
This is much more beautiful in Spanish than in the English translation, but I know that most of you don't speak Spanish.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Poetry: the height of human ecstasy and the depths of human pain.

First published at expetesso.com

Book Review: Make Do and Mend

2011-03-15T04:43:00.001-04:00

Make Do and Mend: Keeping Family and Home Afloat on War Rations by Jill Norman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This lovely little book is a collection of representation images, of the many pamphlets that were printed by the British government during World War II, advising those on the home front of how to stretch life out of every bit of fabric, scrap of ribbon, found button, and length of thread -- and how to use existing pieces to the end of their usable lives in order to save from using hoarded ration coupons.

Nostalgic and old-fashioned, but a terrific reminder of the stark reality faced by people each and every day for a decade. The sections on fuel, woolens, and altering clothes to save wear and tear have given me pause in my day-to-day, and even greater respect for my own grandmother's resourcefulness.

First published at Goodreads; View all my reviews

Book Review: Circle of Friends

2011-03-14T04:28:00.002-04:00

Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found a hard-cover version of Circle of Friends on my mother's bookcase one summer during high school. I read it through in less than two days, took it with me to college, and re-read it so many times over the net few years that the binding eventually gave out. I didn't replace it, figuring that I had every page memorized.

The characters -- Benny Hogan, Eve Malone, Mother Francis, Peggy Pine, Mr. and Mrs. Hogan, Patsy, Sean Walsh, the Kennedys and Healys and Johnsons, Clodaugh, Mario and Fonsie, Kit Hegarty, Jack Foley and Aidan Lynch and Nan Mahon -- could be a person sitting opposite you on a bus, so real and full of personality and flaws and dreams are they. The situations they get themselves into, or find themselves lodged within, are simple ones, filled with drama and humour because of the deep care given to each human being involved. Even the villains aren't purely villainous; we see enough of the hopes and dreams and desires of Simon Westward, Sean Walsh, Nan Mahon, and Mrs. Healy that even their sins seem pardonable, their foibles human, their mistakes and lapses of judgment worthy of compassion.

The story is magnificent. Maeve Binchy spins Irish yarns of the commonplace and realistic with quiet dexterity, but this one hangs fully on the shoulders of the characters themselves. Abandoned orphans, desperately love only children, drunken and abusive parents, first steps away from home, stealing from an employer, courting one who can never love you, falling in love and being loved in return, infidelity, unplanned pregnancy, placing trust in the wrong person, accidental death, abandonment as an adult, loneliness, finding friends, realizing the dreams you've worked toward can never be true, or finding out that the things you've wished for might actually come to pass -- these are commonplace situations that individual people find themselves in all the time; we know our own stories, and those of our friends and relations, or the neighbors down the street whom we can't help but gossip about. And we care about this ending, this resolution, the steps that take place after the last page, because we care for these characters.

Sticklers for technical writing will have much to complain about, but there isn't an error that can't be forgiven, to my way of thinking. Binchy creates friends for us in the pages of her novels, and in so doing, points the way to finding the friends we might never have had in the world outside it. What a gift.

First published at Goodreads; View all my reviews

Absolutely NOT the Best Pancake Recipe

2011-03-13T17:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon I was walking home from the library when my blackberry alerted me to an email received. My daily recipe reminder from Real Simple was titled "The Best Pancake Recipe". I am a pancake fiend -- pancakes, johnnycakes, hotcakes, flapjacks, crepes -- whatever the style and nationality, you can call them what you will; I make and eat them at least weekly. I've experimented extensively with flours, sweeteners, the dry-to-liquid ratio, additives, the style of pan, the temperature it (and the warming plate) should be heated to, and the precise type and quantity of anti-sticking agent used. I have yet to make the perfect pancake, though I've developed a few standard go-to formulas -- and will successfully beg Corrin to make German-style crepes at least once every two weeks. (There's a reason I'm the one who washes the dishes!)

Needless to say, I'm a pancake fan. So when I saw the recipe for "The Best Pancake", I knew immediately what I was making for breakfast this morning. I just wish we hadn't been so disappointed in the dish.

Oven Pear Pancake was uniformly sweet (pears *plus* a scant half-cup of sugar?) with a texture more in line with a too-thin quiche (three eggs *and* a cup of milk to 1/4 cup of flour?) rather than a toasty-top puffed oven cake. The carmelized cinnamon-sugar dressing was delicious, and was a nice topper for a slice of baked pear, but couldn't disguise the over-sweet blandness of the dish.

While breakfast was less than satisfying, it did leave me with an idea for my next foray into pancake goodness. I'm going to try a variation on Cornmeal Pear Pancakes, replacing the pears and cinnamon with blueberries and a bit of super-fine orange zest, and reducing the sugar by a half-teaspoon. I'll make a sweet cinnamon butter sauce, and brush the top of each finished cake before adding them to the warming stack in the oven. I think that will replace the syrup used on a traditional buckwheat pancake nicely while allowing time for the hot-cinnamon sweetness to melt into the cakes through the butter, and allow for a play of flavors on the tongue. Stay tuned to see how it turns out!

First published at expetesso.com

Book Review: The Lost Art of Gratitude

2011-03-06T19:59:00.000-05:00

The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I needed a break from The Story of Stuff, which I finished reading more than a week ago but haven't been able to wrap my mind around without sinking into a depressive fit. I'll bounce back and come up with a fabulous, world-saving plan -- after I've had a bit of a break. Thankfully, the Brooklyn Public Library's online services include placing holds at the most convenient branch; I picked up five novels yesterday afternoon, including the sixth edition in the Sunday Philosophy Club series.

I find Alexander McCall Smith to be a delightful storyteller. His novels are just that -- novel, with witty, droll characters, a thoughtful reflection on the state of human affairs on this spinning orb we call home and generous kindness for the foibles and straights we get ourselves into.

Isabel Dalhousie is my favorite of his protagonists, and The Lost Art of Gratitude is a comfortable walk through the streets of Edinburgh and her library stacks of Philosophical journals and texts (with numerous quotes from her favorite poet, Auden). A typical month in the life of Isabel, with generous appearances by Jamie, Charlie, Grace, Cat, and the supporting cast of eccentric, lovable, and wickedly nefarious people of her neighborhood; with just enough righteous indignation to keep Isabel from being overly moralistic, and a much relished near-overdose of her ironic wit and wry humour.

I have The Charming Quirks of Others currently on the hold list at the library, and can't wait to read it on the next rainy Sunday afternoon in New York.

First published at Goodreads; View all my reviews

Book Review: The Story of Stuff (Chapter Four)

2011-02-25T05:15:00.003-05:00

The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-And How We Can Make It Better by Annie Leonard

Chapter One || Chapter Two || Chapter Three

If you've seen the Story of Stuff video and have heard about any of Colin Beavan's adventures as No Impact Man, not much in Chapter Four: Consumption will surprise you. Annie makes her standard points about how Americans are driven to an overconsumptive lifestyle by our public policy that protects corporate interests and trade at all costs, ubiquitous advertising designed to make us feel bad about ourselves (to the point of clinical depression) if we aren't contributing to the economy as purchasers, and through the planned obsolescence that requires products to be thrown away as quickly as possible to keep production and sales high.

She also makes what I know to be a common point (but which is likely still uncommon knowledge): that a clear tipping point exists where consuming more Stuff than we need actually makes us unhappier. (Before you leap down my throat, understand that "need" is a loose term here; rather than smacking of a Marxian philosophy (which isn't all bad, but that isn't the point), "need" incorporates luxuries and treats and experiences designed purely for human pleasure, while eschewing the excess of consumption-for-consumption's sake.) Annie's stories indicate that our existing social order of materialism undermines the American well-being, bringing us pain that ranges "from low life satisfaction and happiness to depression and anxiety, to physical problems such as headaches and to personality disorders, narcissism, and antisocial behavior (151)." It's not that having nice things can't actually bring us happiness - it most definitely can. It's that the costs of all of that Stuff within our American society of thoughtless consumption (with massive credit card debt, high cost burdens for education and healthcare, and a constant war to keep up with the Joneses) brings an abundance of misery that cancels out and then diminishes the original happiness.

That specific point about "misery" makes me think of Colin Beavan, and an experience he related on his blog several years ago. While riding his bicycle in New York City, cycling with the traffic (as thousands of New Yorkers do every day), Colin was nearly sideswiped and run off the road by a driver who didn't see him. To avoid being crushed between the ton of metal and rubber and fuel of the car and a cement wall, Colin pounded on the rear window and screamed, "I'm here, look out!" The driver's response was to roll down the window and furiously tell Colin off for having the audacity to touch his precious automobile. You can read the rest of the story at the No Impact Blog, but the important point is that the driver was so harried and stressed out that his immediate reaction in the situation was rage over potential injury to his own Stuff rather than horror over the potential death of another human being through his own lack of attention. That "stress" sure sounds like misery to me.

As in the other parts of The Story of Stuff, Annie also lays out her plan for improving this system - and the solution is actually remarkably simple, considering the complexity of the problem. The solution?

Activate your inner citizen (175). Because:

Participating in strong, vibrant communities makes us happier and healthier - and being socially isolated is the most common denominator among those who perish in natural disasters.
A vibrant community lifestyle, as opposed to a strong individualist lifestyle, lessens our toll on the planet -- because sharing and collaborating takes a lot less energy.
Reinvigorating that citizen muscle will rebuild public participation in politics and generate real collective solutions to the considerable problems we're facing on this planet. If we're going to succeed in changing the largest man-made system on the planet in order to improve life, liberty and happiness for all, we desperately need collective brain power. Show Up.

Chapters One, Two, and Three were awe-striking, overwhelming, and to some degree paralyzing. I find that Chapter Four is filled with hope. We can change this system that allows the thievery of the world's natural resources and the destruction of precious people, with leadership and creativity from ordinary citizens who demand something better.

All we have to do is be brave and show up. Because of Chapter Four, I recommend The Story of Stuff to everyone who can read.

First published at expetesso.com