Willa's Journal

Transition

2013-05-16T11:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the transfer of the domain name has taken place. willa.com now leads to the website for Willa skincare products, and my new domain is willacline.com. I know that there will be lots of broken (or "brokeny," as we tend to say at work) things throughout the site, so bear with me. I probably won't go back all the way to the beginning of time to fix things, but if you run across a page that is particularly broken, let me know. I plan to go through at some point and fix links to images, but that will probably happen slowly.

My new email address is willa at willacline dot com. I express it that way so that it doesn't look like an email address to robots. My old willa.com email address has been collecting spam for 17 years, so it's probably time to retire it anyway. Maybe I can keep the new one a little cleaner by using alternate addresses for signing up for things, and keeping the "real" one for real email. I guess we'll see.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

2013-05-10T16:38:00.001-05:00

I am currently in the process of selling the domain willa.com. I will be using willacline.com in the future, but for now, please bookmark this URL (http://willacline.blogspot.com), and change any contact information you have for me to my gmail account, willa.cline@gmail.com. Thank you! More details to follow.

My beautiful, expensive Mulberry agenda

2013-04-24T11:44:00.000-05:00

Here's another obsession: notebooks. All office supply-type stuff, really, but notebooks in particular. Variously called agendas, diaries, organizers, journals. I haven't bought any expensive ones for a long time, but I have several, in different sizes--a big Franklin-Covey desk size in soft cream-colored leather, another Franklin-Covey one, a smaller size (Junior?) in red leather, a small black leather zippered FC pocket size, and a gorgeous blue leather Mulberry. Lately, though, I've been trying to keep everything paperless. When I look at a catalog like Levenger's, I admire the merchandise, but tell myself that I don't need it, it's too expensive, and I move on. It's fairly easy for me to resist buying something that's over $100. It's the little things that I find hard to walk by.

Over the weekend I dreamed about the Mulberry agenda. I've had it for a long time. When I used to travel for work, I would sometimes seek out stationery stores, but in this case I think I bought it at a discount store like T. J. Maxx or Marshall's (back in the day when they were actually two different stores and didn't carry exactly the same stuff). I know that at some point I ordered a calendar refill and some blank paper; I threw away the used calendar pages, apparently, but the remaining flyleaf is dated 1999, so I bought it sometime prior to that. I have no idea how much I paid for it, but I would guess something like $25-30. I don't think I would have paid more than that, although I had a lot more disposable income during that period of time.

So I dug it out on Sunday and looked through it, and then went looking online to see if I could find any refills.

The pages are cream colored, printed in red. They have (of course, as Bob would say) stopped offering those refills. Mulberry no longer makes a page-a-day organizer refill (they only have a weekly one), and they don't make the cream-colored paper at all, only white with black. And it's pretty expensive--$14 for 25 sheets of lined paper. That seems excessive, but the binders are extremely expensive as well, ranging from about $500 up to $1500. Mine is very similar to one that retails for $600. So whatever I paid for it, it was definitely worth it.

Of course (again) other brands of refills like Filofax, Franklin-Covey or Quo Vadis, don't fit. The pages are kind of an odd size, being more square than most agenda pages, and the holes are spaced differently than, for instance, Filofax pages. As I went through a bunch of notebook blogs (you knew those existed, right?) looking for Mulberry info, there was a lot of discussion about how it was obvious that Mulberry was no longer producing the range of refills that used to be available, and discussions about what to do in order to keep using these incredibly expensive notebooks. There was even a graphic that someone had made showing the hole configuration of Mulberry paper compared to Filofax, and an even more extensive comparison of the various paper sizes of different brands.

One of the suggestions was to download and print templates, but that didn't really appeal to me. Part of the pleasure of writing in an agenda--for me, at least--is writing on nice paper, and copy paper doesn't really cut it.

Then I thought, well, I could buy some nice paper and have it cut and punched somewhere like Office Max or Kinko's, and I may still end up doing that. For now, I accidentally discovered that the Franklin-Covey "pocket" size refills are punched in the same configuration as the Mulberry refills. The pages are quite a bit narrower, though, so I'm not sure how that will work out. I did go ahead and order a set of monthly calendar pages and a pack of refill paper from FC; they were having a sale, and I got both of those things for under $10, with free shipping, so it won't hurt to try. I also tried cutting and punching some paper on my own using some nice Levenger Circa dot grid paper, which is still an option.

In any event, I've really been enjoying setting up the notebook and using it. There are a lot of people listed in the contacts section that I don't even remember at all, and a lot of people have moved or changed phone numbers. But the phone number section consists of tabbed pages that fit into thin plastic sleeves, so difficult to change/replace. I think I'll leave them for now.

The notebook is leather, with a lizard grain (or it could actually be lizard, although it's pretty uniform). The color is blue, with a slight green tint. There are full length pockets in the front and back, with a slip pocket and three card slots in front, and a zipper pocket and a pen loop in back. I've got a photo of me and Bob, some stamps and return address labels in clear plastic pockets, and I had a couple of Franklin-Covey page dividers, so I'm using those, too.

It's a little cobbled-together, but I kind of like that. It makes it easier to punch various paper oddments and put them in, and make it more personalized, and it looks (and is) well used and loved. Anyway, for now at least, I'm loving it.

Knit Buddy

2013-04-17T13:53:00.001-05:00

I am in love with Vogue Knitting's Knit Buddy app. I have used other knitting apps in the past, but I think the last one I really got into was one for my Palm, so that one's been gone awhile. I haven't found an iPhone app that I like as much as this one.

There are a lot of components, but the three main ones are:

Yarn stash & yarn detail
Needle and hook inventory
Project list & project detail

For each yarn that you have in your stash, you can fill out all the details--weight, fiber content (including blends), color number/name, dye lot, number of skeins, and yards and grams per skein. There is also a "notes" field, and a place where you can add a photo of the yarn. I have sometimes grabbed photos off the web, but you can also take your own photos. The needle inventory screen allows you to enter any number of needles, specifying whether they are straight, double pointed or circular, the length, and the material that they are made from. One thing that it doesn't have that I would like is the ability to add a number in case you have multiple occurrences of the same needle, especially for sock needles and steel crochet hooks. I probably have about 87 sets of Size 1 Brittany Birch needles . . . The next section is the project section. For each project, you can save whether it is a Work in Progress (WIP), in your queue, or a finished object. When you choose the needles that you are using, the app marks them in the needle inventory as used (shows them highlighted in yellow), so if you are checking to see if you have the particular needles you need for a project, you can also see if they are in use. Selecting a yarn from your stash doesn't seem to do anything to the yarn inventory, which is fine. There is a free-text notes section where you can add any particular notes about that project, i.e., who it is for, what size you made, and any notes you may want to make about the project. I have also used this field to enter a text version of the pattern. It isn't really made for that, and it formats it kind of oddly, but it is possible to use it that way. I save all of my patterns in the Evernote app anyway, so they are always available to me on my iPhone or iPad wherever I am, but I like having them in Knit Buddy as well. Within the Pattens screen you can set counters. These can be named whatever you like, and you can choose whether pressing on the + or - makes a sound or not. I kind of like the sound feedback. Once you are finished with a counter you can delete it, but you can also have multiple counters going at the same time. I don't think there is any limit to the number of counters you can have, but I have only used two at one time. The functionality of the app is pretty close to the information that can be entered in your notebook at Ravelry. They don't sync, of course, but it would be really great if they could! Maybe someday.

The Knit Buddy app also includes a place to catalog knitting books, a "stitchionary" with cable, colorwork, and other patterns, a "how-to" section for knitting and crocheting, terms and abbreviations, and a tool for substituting yarn. The app was really well thought out, and unlike some, I'm guessing that they had actual knitters use it for awhile and give feedback. I.e., it is actually useful for a real knitter, not what a non-knitting programmer might guess that a knitter would need and use.

I understand from comments in the App Store that at one time this app synced over multiple devices so you could have it on both your iPhone and iPad, but only have to enter information in one place, but that functionality was removed in a recent update. I need it on my phone the most since that is what I always have with me, but it would be nice to be able to enter information on the iPad and have it sync between them. I wonder if that's something they may add back into the app, given all of the negative comments, but I don't know the reason they removed it in the first place.

Obsessions, I haz them

2013-04-09T17:40:00.000-05:00

I have a few obsessions. They come and go; right now my knitting obsession is in the forefront. It never really goes away completely, but it had been dormant for awhile. I'm not sure what prompted the resurgence this time; it may have been seeing that Vera Bradley bag that would be just perfect for a knitting bag for small projects . . . It works that way sometimes. Something seemingly unrelated will set it off, and I'm back to stashing sock yarn, carrying my knitting with me everywhere, and saving scores of patterns to knit "someday."

I got a "Knitting Daily" email a couple of weeks ago advertising a new book, "5 Favorite Knitting Patterns for Babies and Kids." One of the patterns illustrated was Stephanie Japel's "Whirligig Shrug." I wasn't especially excited about the other patterns, but I definitely wanted that one, so I went on a hunt and found that I could buy a PDF download of that pattern only on Ravelry. So I bought it, downloaded it, went to Joann for cheap yarn, and started knitting it. I love the pattern. It's knit in one piece from the top down; I'm almost finished with the back, just a few more rows of seed stitch, then I will finish the sleeves.

I was showing the pattern to someone at work, and she said, "can you do that?" I said, "Sure." I'm not really afraid of anything as long as there is a pattern. Some things I don't particularly want to do, like lace, but I can. This shrug has raglan increases for shaping, a little cable, and a drapey seed stitch peplum. My plan is to make one for my 5 year old niece Abby, the tiniest size for her doll, and two for the new babies in the family, Avery and Addison. I figure if the one I'm making now is too large for Abby, she can grow into it, and if it's too small, Avery can grow into it, and I'll make another one for Abby. Win-win.

I'm not crazy about the apple green yarn, but it was the best color I could find at Joann in DK weight superwash. I've already ordered yarn for the two others . . . okay, four. Lavender, dusty rose, light teal, and denim blue. Obsessed.

Knitting Tools

2013-03-11T18:15:00.000-05:00

This is my knitting bag, the "Holiday Tote" from Vera Bradley in Suzani. I bought it because I was looking for a smallish tote bag. My regular-size tote bags are too large to carry around all the time, and I tend to carry too much stuff when I have too large a bag. I had been using a transparent plastic zippered tote that is just the right size for a sock project, but I grew tired of it. This particular bag was only made in the Suzani pattern, so I didn't have to choose. Sometimes not having to choose is good.

I love Vera Bradley products, and I think part of it goes back to what I previously talked about in my sock knitting post, i.e., I don't wear much, if any, color, but I do like to have color in some of the accessories that I carry. Vera bags are colorful, very well made, they last a long time, and they're light. If they get dirty, they can be washed in the machine (although I never have), and they usually have a bunch of pockets inside and out. This one has two slip pockets inside. I would have liked to have a zipper pocket, too, but it isn't really necessary.

Inside the bag is a Vera Bradley small cosmetic bag in the brand new pattern Tutti Fruitti. This pattern isn't available in the VB stores yet, but it's one of their new baby product patterns coming next week. I absolutely fell in love with it when I saw it, and ordered the bag on Ebay from Singapore. The background is my favorite teal green, and it goes well with the tote bag's print, I think. I try to stay away from matching everything, but I do try to choose patterns in the same general color mix.

Inside the tote bag is my current sock project, my cosmetic/knitting tool bag, a small notepad, a purple pen, a pair of reading glasses, a tube of hand cream and a packet of tissues.

Inside the small bag is:

Extra bamboo sock knitting needles, size US 1
A tape measure
Another pen
Several 3x5 cards in case I want to make a note about something
A small pair of scissors
A needle sizer
Several small steel crochet hooks for picking up dropped stitches
A row counter
A pill box full of tiny rubber bands and handmade (by me) stitch markers

Sock Yarn Snob

2013-02-28T14:52:00.000-06:00

I was reading a food blog the other day, I think it was Fat Shadow's Diary of a Fat Foodie, where she said something like if you're going to eat something, you should eat the best of that thing that there is (paraphrasing, of course!). I've always felt like that about chocolate--if you're going to eat chocolate, it should be Godiva or something similar, because there really isn't a lot of point in eating something like Brach's. It's just calories at that point.

I feel the same way about yarn. I would probably be considered a "yarn snob" since I don't bother buying Red Heart or Sugar & Cream or any of the kinds of yarns that you will usually find at chain craft stores. I'm not prolific enough, frankly. If I was (and when I did) crocheting afghans, I would definitely buy inexpensive yarn, but I mostly only knit socks. Sock yarn, good sock yarn, is pretty expensive. My favorite is Opal, and depending on where you buy it, it runs around $20-$22 per skein, which for me, will make a pair of adult socks and a pair of children, or baby, socks.

In the past, what has generally happened is that when I'm feeling flush, I'll buy several (or more than several) skeins of expensive sock yarn, then feel guilty about it and sell them on eBay, which is what I did last year. But I've been severely regretting selling off a few skeins of some Fortissima yarn that I ordered online in a particular pattern line (regrets, I've had a few). As a result, I've spent a lot of time searching for it online, to no avail, until last week when I found someone who had a skein of the colorway that I most regretted selling. She's doing the auction in a weird way by posting three skeins of unrelated yarn with a bidding price of $16 which will get you the skein of your choice, or a "buy it now" price of $48, which will get you all three.

I don't want all three, I just want the one, so I placed a bid, and so far no one else has bid against me. The auction is over on Friday, so I'm hopeful that I'll win it, and it's looking like I will (fingers crossed). I've decided this time to collect a reasonable number of skeins of sock yarn, and then stop for awhile until I've knit it up. And I'm not going to sell it off this time.

Why I love sock knitting:

The self patterning yarn. I have a short attention span, and find it almost impossible to knit something in a solid color. For whatever reason, the variegated yarn makes it more fun to knit, at least for me. I also think it's amazing that yarn can be created that makes a specified pattern when you knit it.
Color. I don't wear a lot of color. Most of my clothes are black, white or gray. In sock knitting I can have all of the color I want, but I don't have to wear it, I just get to carry it around (and wear it if I want, but as a small (sock) amount.
Portability. It's easy to carry around a small bag with a skein/ball of yarn and the tools needed to knit a sock. I keep a small knitting bag with my current sock project in it so I can grab it on the way out the door at any time. Even if I don't plan on stopping somewhere long enough to knit, I usually take it with me in case I get caught waiting somewhere.
Usability. I don't wear my beautiful hand knitted socks every day, or even every day in the winter, but I do wear them. Bob says sock knitting is my apocalypse skill, i.e., when the world ends, or the zombie apocalypse happens, at least our feet will be warm.
Pattern retention/memorization. I can now knit a sock that will fit me without following a pattern. I only knit plain socks, i.e., no cables or lace or anything like that, since the self-striping yarn takes care of the pattern. So I can knit while watching television, or talking, and I don't have to concentrate on a pattern. The heel is the only fiddly part, so I do need to concentrate on that, but for the most part, it's just knitting.
Sanity. Bob says knitting keeps me sane. I'm not sure about that, but I do know that it helps. It's interesting--knitting both gives me time to think, and keeps my mind off things. I'm not sure how that works, but apparently knitting uses enough of my brain power that I have a hard time worrying about things when I do it, but it also seems to smooth things out so that I can think things through while I'm knitting. I think it's something to do with what I'm knitting, i.e., it's simple enough that I don't have to constantly refer to a pattern, but it does take some concentration since I'm knitting with such small needles, and in the round.
Pride. I'm pretty proud of myself for teaching myself to knit socks. I always thought that I could never do it, that I had no interest in knitting with tiny sock needles, but once I saw my first skein of self-patterning yarn, I couldn't resist trying. The heel in my first sock was pretty daunting, but I soldiered through it, and now it's a piece of cake. I'm proud of that.

The sock yarn in the picture is, from top left, clockwise:

Regia Sockenmonster 01804 (50g skein)
Opal Sweet and Spicy 6756, Plum (100g skein)
Regia Sockenmonster 01804 (second 50g skein)
Opal Sweet and Spicy 6750, Ice Cream (100g skein)
Fortissima Mexiko Fairy Tale World 0077, Heinzelmannchen (House Gnome) (100g skein)
Opal Schafpate IV 5847 (100g skein)
Kertzer On Your Toes 3816 (100g skein)

There are new reviews on my What I'm Reading page.

Reading

2013-01-24T19:51:00.000-06:00

Amazon.com Widgets

I've been reading Yoga Journal Magazine and a new-to-me one, "Spirituality & Health," and trying to get back into that space where I feel calm, centered, and in charge, because right now I don't feel like I'm in charge at all. I'm struggling, and feel like I'm searching for something that is out of my reach, and I can't quite focus on what it is.

I've been writing down affirmations and goals, and journaling, and things felt better for a couple of weeks, but I'm down again. I probably need to have my meds adjusted. :)

The current issue of Spirituality & Health contains an interview with Anne Lamott, who I adore.

I don't buy a lot of magazines anymore, but I do have several subscriptions (Yoga Journal, Spirituality & Health, Whole Living, and More) through the Zinio iPad app, plus a few single issues of knitting magazines. I also have a subscription to Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine through Amazon. I have stopped all of my paper magazine subscriptions, and I don't think I've bought one actual (paper) book since I started reading on the Kindle (which I have since sold to my sister) or the iPadi/Phone.

I was reading on my iPad in bed last night, and Bob came in and asked me, "what mystery are you reading?" I guess he thinks I always read mysteries, and that probably is my genre of choice, although lately it's more urban fantasy than anything else. I said it was about vampires, and he said, "oh, that's a great thing to be reading about when you're getting ready to go to sleep." I said, no, it wasn't that kind of vampires.

I'm reading Bad to the Bone, the second in Jeri Smith-Ready's "WVMP" series. It's about a radio station (Bob: "Vampire DJ's?" Me: "Yes.") where the vampires work; this this world vampires are basically stuck in the decade where they lived/died, i.e., there is one from th3 40's, one from the 50's, etc., up to an indie/grunge DJ who died in the 90's and plays a lot of Kurt Cobain.

I was thinking this morning that although I read all the time, Bob and I don't really talk about it. I remember a few days ago, something came up about time travel. I don't remember what we were talking about, but I brought up the Company books by Kage Baker, where you can go back in time, but not forward. So the time travelers are cyborgs that are sent back in time, sometimes as far back as caveman days, and then "live forward."

Other time travel books I like are by Connie Willis, one of my favorite authors. She writes about a group of university historians in England who travel back to study various historical events such as the Black Plague (Doomsday Book) or the Second World War (Black Out and All Clear). I don't read much (any) historical fiction, but I like hers. Right now I'm listening to the audio book version of Shadow of Night, the second in the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness (the first one was A Discovery of Witches. Frankly, I'm struggling through it a little bit, and the only reason I'm listening to it, really, is that I listened to the first one and hated to just give up on it. Each of the books' audio is 24 hours long, and it seemed to take months to listen to the first one. I think I'm about a third of the way through the second one, and have paused for a little while.

I'm currently listening to Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch, also the second in a series ("Peter Grant"), this one about a London constable who discovers that he has some latent talents and is recruited to join a secret arm of Scotland Yard that deals with magical crimes. These books aren't exactly "light," but I love the narrator (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) and already read the ebook versions. I like listening to the audio of books that I have read because I pick up a lot of details that I missed when I read them. I don't like to listen too soon after I've read them, but a few months gives me enough space that I'm still a little bit surprised.

Back to my roots

2013-01-22T17:57:00.000-06:00

Collection of charms:
4-way Catholic religious medal (Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph, Mary, Saint Christopher)
St. Christopher medal
Chinese kanji "Happiness"
Walt Disney World 20th Anniversary medal
Namasté
"Love" circlet
Small silver heart
Sea Turtle
Epcot charm
Mickey Mouse Epcot charm
Clamshell

I don't remember where they all came from, but most of them are from Florida. I tried to buy a new charm every time we went there. The Epcot, Mickey Mouse and Disney World charms came from Disney World (of course). The seashell and (I think) the sea turtle are from a silver shop in Sarasota, Florida, which didn't exist anymore the last time we were there. I think the Chinese "Happiness" charm was from the China pavilion at Disney World. Today I added a fairly large rutilated quartz crystal (clear quartz with needle-like rutile, a reddish titanium dioxide, embedded in it). The rest of them are just things that I found either at jewelry supply stores or ordered online. But things (words and thoughts) that are meaningful to me.

This year I am making a conscious effort to try to keep the things I love around me, to do those things that bring me happiness and contentment. I'm reading more about feng shui and world religions, writing affirmations, working on my vision boards, and writing in a journal. I'm bookmarking blogs that I want to keep up with, and saving quotations that are meaningful to me. One of the things that I used to do, but haven't done lately, is wear my crystals and charms. I got them all out last weekend and put together a collection that I've been wearing the last few days.

Other things I love that I want to do more of, have more of, be more conscious of:

Writing by hand in journals
Trying different kinds of teas
Spending contemplative time knitting
Writing affirmations
Looking for iPad and iPhone apps that contribute to my renewed focus
Look for and visit shops that stock the kinds of things I love
Work more with the tarot
Spend some time every day reading
Try out a iPhone alarm clock app that wakes me up with windchimes or singing bowls instead of a distressing alarm
Re-start a yoga practice (I bought a Groupon for yoga classes near my home, but haven't signed up yet)
Re-subscribe to Yoga Journal (I did this)
Work in the yard this spring and summer, and plant herbs and flowers

It feels kind of like going back to my "roots," concentrating on things that are more my core interests, and trying to sustain that focus. I guess I'm trying to define my life's purpose. Kind of late, but it feels important to me.

Happy New Year!

2013-01-02T16:42:00.001-06:00

We had a nice, quiet New Year's Eve, like we've had for the last several years. We used to go to a friend's house, but I like that we stay home now. We had our little ritual feast--fondue, olives and pickles, spinach dip. I would have gotten shrimp, too, but we had had quite a bit at Christmas and we didn't really need it. Bob got the atomic clock that my folks gave him for Christmas a few years ago, and we toasted the new year with Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante, which we like better than champagne, at midnight.

Bob had to work on New Year's Day. Normally we stay home and don't even leave the house that day, but I decided to go out and get a few groceries--bread and potato chips and milk. I also decided to go to 888 International Market, the Oriental grocery store. I had never been there before, but I know someone who goes there quite a bit to buy fresh seafood, and I had been wanting to try it.

I wanted to get some red envelopes as part of this class I'm taking. I thought they would probably have them there, and they did. I put three Chinese coins into one of the red envelopes and put it in my wallet to attract abundance. I also put three coins, tied with red ribbon, under the front doormat to symbolize money entering our house.

I wandered all over the store yesterday and only bought the red envelopes, but that was all I really needed. They also had a lot of Maneki Neko good luck statues, and I would have liked to buy some, but I have several already and don't really need any more. But they were really cute.

I have a few that I bought at Disney World at the Japanese store. This first one above is on my desk at work. I also several several at home. I bought them at first because of Doña, but now I just like them. I like this one better than the ones that I saw yesterday, because the coloring is a little more subtle. Although maybe that's because it's a few years old. I like the ones with their eyes shut best.

The "what I'm reading" page has been updated.

Little Altars

2012-12-20T16:47:00.002-06:00

I've been neglecting my little altar. I notice last night that it was dusty, so I took everything down and washed it. I put new cornmeal in the rabbit's dish, clean coarse salt in the salt dish, and new sand (I have a baggie full of Siesta Beach sand from the last time we were there) in the sand dish sitting in the woven basket.

Everything sits on top of a little dresser, maybe intended as a jewelry box, I'm not sure. The drawers hold a crystal pendulum in a Chinese silk bag, matches, Chinese coins, and candles.

On top, there's a statue of Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles, along with an amethyst Buddha and a Native American bear fetish that Bob brought back for me from a trip to Minnesota. There's a tiny "sand castle," along with some shells from the beach in Sarasota, a carved rabbit in the dish with a cornmeal offering for protection, and the salt in the pale blue lotus cup is for purification, as well as a reminder of the ocean.

Christmas Trees

2012-12-03T17:12:00.000-06:00

I am not the most emotionally stable person at the best of times, and the holiday season makes it that much worse. I try, but I'm not always able to be in good spirits. Christmas decorations do help, though! This tree was at the little cafe/bar across the street from our office. I don't normally participate in the Friday afternoon happy hour, but I did on Friday. I had one drink (a Bloody Mary), then got a Diet Coke for the road and headed home to Bob.

The second tree is in our common area at work. We had a "family lunch" at work on Friday. We're doing that about once a month, where one of the teams cooks lunch for the whole company. My team was on point last week; I made spinach dip (it was a big hit!), Aaron made tomato basil soup and Julia made vegetable soup, and Joey and Aaron teamed up to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Nicole made brownies for dessert. It was a great lunch and a lot of fun.

I think part of the fun was the interaction, i.e., the "short order cook" aspect. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if we had all just brought casseroles or something. I don't know what we'll do next time, but I'm sure we'll think of something interesting.

The third little tree was sitting on the kitchen counter at work. I don't remember it from last year, but it must have been on display somewhere, because it was apparently in the closet. Actually, for some reason I think this one started out as mine. I can't remember why, though. I just sort of vaguely remember feeling a little regretful that I had given it away, but I don't remember the circumstances.

I do have another little tree that I'll set up on my desk in my office this week. We never set up a tree at home until a lot closer to Christmas, since we will probably have a live tree. We leave it up until Epiphany, January 12th, so we don't want to get it too soon.

Later: I meant to mention that I kicked off the Christmas movie watching season with "Love Actually" on Sunday. Perhaps not the best thing to watch, since it always makes me cry, but in a good way. I also watched Men in Black 3, which didn't make me cry.

Thanksgiving/Birthday Weekend

2012-11-28T15:12:00.000-06:00

I kind of like having my birthday around Thanksgiving. Sometimes my birthday is on Thanksgiving, sometimes it's a day before, or a day after, but either way it usually falls somewhere in the four-day weekend, which is nice.

My sister was going to her boyfriend's house for Thanksgiving along with her daughter and her husband, and my other sister, who lives in Denver, was going to her husband's family, and Bob had to work. So it was just my brother and his family and me. I was originally going to go over to his house, but since it was just the five of us, he asked my parents if we could go over there, and they agreed. They don't really want to go anywhere anymore, and also don't want to have a whole houseful of people, but it worked out all right.

We bought over all the food, and cleaned up afterwards, so they didn't have to do anything. We got to eat, and talk, and didn't stay very long, and it was really nice.

The rest of the weekend I just kind of did what I wanted. I got a pedicure on Black Friday, and did a very small amount of shopping. I went to Kohl's for the sole purpose of spending a $10 coupon that I had gotten in the mail, and I went to JoAnn and bought supplies for Christmas gifts using their Black Friday coupons, and that was about it.

I had lunch at Noodles & Co. with a free coupon that they sent me, got my free birthday Starbucks drink, got a free small sundae at Culver's ... that was a lot of fun!

On Monday Julia brought doughnuts in to work for my birthday, and about a half dozen of us went out to lunch. Dan bought my lunch. All in all, it was a pretty good birthday week!

Vacation

2012-11-02T17:17:00.000-05:00

We went on a mini-vacation last week. Even though I never really worried about it before, I have been a little more cautious about posting that we're gone. I did post a few photos, though. We went to Lake Taneycomo, and stayed at the condo of a friend of Bob's, right on the lake. Bob fished and I slept, read, and knitted a tiny bit, not much. I mostly read.

I read a book a day:

Say You're Sorry, by Michael Robotham
The Vanishing Point, by Val McDermid
Face of Betrayal, by Lis Wiehl
Heart of Ice, by Lis Wiehl
Don't Breathe a Word, by Jennifer McMahon

They had a big, squishy, long leather couch, and I laid on it so that I looked out the sliding glass doors over the lake. I'd read until I got sleepy, then just fall asleep and take a little nap, then maybe wake up and read some more. It was heaven.

In the mornings I would sit on the deck with a glass of lemonade, and read out there, then when Bob came in from fishing, he would make me breakfast. Sometimes he would cook dinner--hotdogs or pork chops on the grill--and a couple of times we went in to town to get groceries. We went in for dinner a couple of times--once to Long John Silver's and once to Golden Corral.

That was pretty much the extent of the week--reading, eating and sleeping. It was perfect! I really had a great, relaxing time. Bob had some trouble with the boat motor, so he wasn't able to do as much of the kind of fishing he wanted to do, but it all worked out.

Today I am grateful for:

Getting a new phone at work
Finding a pattern that I want to stitch (I'll show it when I get a little bit done)
Leftover pizza for lunch (again!)
Getting to go on vacation
Lots of books to read!

A quiet Hallowe'en

2012-11-01T17:09:00.000-05:00

Halloween was fun at the office. Dexter and Olive Oyl had matching outfits -- doggie skeletons with candy corn and treats floating around inside. Olive is sort of used to wearing clothes -- she has a little parka, and a couple of sweater vests in addition to the lobster Halloween costume she wore last year -- but I don't think Dexter ever had before. But he seemed to adapt pretty well.

I loved that when they made their rounds of the offices to get treats, it was like they were trick-or-treating. The only thing that would have made it better is if they would have had little plastic pumpkins to carry around in their mouths to collect their treats!

At the end of the day, Julia borrowed Dexter's costume for Ranger, since he and Dexter are about the same size. I would have liked to have seen him in it, but I wonder if he was as blasé about it as Dexter was.

Bob was working until 9:30, so I wasn't really looking forward to being at home alone. We don't get very many trick-or-treaters anymore. They must all go to parties or something. Still, I had originally planned to go eat someplace--I had a coupon for a free salad bar at Sweet Tomatoes--but I got an email from Pizza Hut advertising tht you could get 2 or more large 3-topping pizzas for $9 each, so I decided to do that. I ordered two pizzas online (one with sausage, pepperoni and mushrooms and one with chicken, onions and mushrooms), to pick up on my way home.

I stopped at Hobby Lobby first and got some embroidery floss (I'm cross stitching again, yikes! Another hobby slash obsession!), then picked up the pizzas and headed home. It was around 7:00 when I got there. There was one house down at the end of the block that was lit up like they were having a party, but not much else was going on. My doorbell didn't ring once, and I was, frankly, glad.

I sat upstairs in the bedroom with Dinah and stitched, then went back downstairs when Bob got home and had pizza with him. A nice, quiet evening, the best kind.

Today I am grateful for:

Leftover pizza for lunch
Indian Summer weather
Good friends at work
Good books to read (Currently the "Chet the Dog" series, about Chet and his person, Bernie Little, who run a small--er, "little"--detective agency together. The books are told from Chet's perspective, which sounds weird, but really isn't.)
Getting back into stitching

Busy Weekend

2012-10-14T14:52:00.001-05:00

This weekend felt like it was crazy busy. I know it probably wasn't compared to a lot of other people (especially those with children), but it felt like it to me. It started Friday night. I got home at about 6:30, got online and ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut (sausage, pepperoni and mushroom) and reserved a movie at RedBox (The Avengers). Then we headed out to Quik Trip to get gas in Bob's car, went to Hen House to pick up the movie, and went to Pizza Hut to pick up the pizza. The order hadn't gone through correctly, so they had made a cheese-only pizza, and I ended up sitting there for 15 minutes, and Bob sitting in the car, while they made a new one.

It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening -- we had pizza, watched the movie, made popcorn, just had a really nice, relaxing night.

Then, on Saturday, we woke up to rain. I've been worried about my car. Sometimes (most of the time) it acts like it doesn't want to start, and sometimes takes a couple of tries. I was worried that it was something major/electrical. I have a friend at work who knows a lot about cars, and when I explained it to him, he said it sounded like it was probably just the battery, which was a relief.

So I started out getting my nails done, then went to Target to pick up a prescription, and when I got back in the car it wouldn't start the first time, so I sucked it up and went to Advance Auto Parts to have the battery tested. It was just sprinkling at the time, but by the time they had tested it (it was BAD), we'd gone back in and bought a new battery, and gone back out to install it, it was raining in earnest.

I stayed outside in solidarity while the technician was putting in the battery, but she was having trouble--the battery had leaked and welded the clamp to the battery post, and it wouldn't come off--and she told me go ahead and get back in the car. It just kept raining harder, and two guys came out to work on it, and she went back inside. It turned out that they had to cut the wires and put on another clamp (which they didn't charge me for), so it took forever, and I was soaked from standing in the rain, and still had errands to do.

Once the battery was in (and the car started right up!), I went to Price Chopper because Target didn't have the Sugar Free Oregon Chai concentrate that I needed, then went to Hen House to return the movie and pick up something for dinner, which ended up being cold fried chicken and a salad.

While I was there I picked up another Red Box movie (Snow White and the Huntsman), but Bob didn't home from work until almost 10:00, so I begged off and went to bed and left him to watch it alone.

This morning after he left for work, I got up and went to get my oil changed. It was past due, but I would have put it off except that we're going to Lake Taneycomo in a couple of weeks, and Bob needs tires, so I think we're going to take my car. I went to Valvoline Instant Oil Change, and it was pretty quick. Then I headed to Ulta because I had a $5 off $10 coupon and I needed conditioner, then to Petco in Olathe for cat food because no one closer sells the Eukaneuba dry food that Dinah eats.

They actually didn't have it, either. She eats the Weight Control type, but they only had it in 40 pounds bags, and even if I thought she'd eat it all eventually, I don't have any place to store it. So I got the weight control/hairball control type, and will mix it with the other that I have left. Hopefully it will be okay. I hate to change her food, since it seems to invariably cause problems, but I don't know what else to do.

Then I had to come home because I had forgotten to bring the movie to return. So I got that, went back out and returned it, went back to Quik Trip to get gas in my car, then came home and am now doing laundry. Bob will have leftover fried chicken for dinner, and I'm not sure what I'll have, but I'll find something.

Busy weekend!

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 22 - Time

2012-09-22T11:49:00.000-05:00

I took a picture of the clock when I laid back down to go to sleep after having to get up and clean up after Dinah, who had a hairball very early this morning. Bob is out of town, at the Lake of the Ozarks fishing with friends, so I had hoped to have a long lazy morning sleeping in without anyone's alarm clock going off.

There's nothing quite like the sound of an animal getting ready to throw up that can make you jump up, wide awake from a sound sleep. I suppose a child crying would do that also, but cats are what I have experience with.

I was able to grab a towel and put it in front of her, and for once, she didn't back away from me like she's done in the past. I'm grateful for that. :)

Photo: 9/22: Take a walk

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 21 - Alignment

2012-09-21T20:41:00.000-05:00

I went looking for the photograph of Pyewacket where she was lying in the "kitty holder" in the window with her front legs dangling down, showing how nicely the stripes on her legs matched/aligned. But I have apparently set the header file for the whole site to automatically redirect to the new Blogspot blog address, so I need to sit down and figure that out. I'll do it one day, not today. In the meantime, I thought Jojo's legs aligned pretty well.

I'm grateful, though, that I have the skill to do that. It's interesting, when you know how to do something so well that it's part of your DNA, almost, how it's hard to understand that everyone doesn't know how to do it. HTML is one thing, knitting is another. Or sewing -- it's second nature to me to be able to understand a sewing pattern, to take something already made and figure out how to make it -- it's easy to forget that not everyone has that skill.

I'm grateful for the female lineage in my family -- my grandmother, who taught me how to crochet, and my mother, who taught me how to sew -- and the home ec classes, and Girl Scout meetings, where I learned to knit.

Photo: 9/21: Alignment

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 20 - Take a walk

2012-09-20T17:28:00.000-05:00

I need to start walking again, and I hope to do that now that the weather has cooled off. It's been awhile since I went out walking every night; 100+ degree temperatures don't exactly contribute to wanting to be out in the evenings. But it's the perfect weather now.

I'm grateful for the neighborhood that we live in. I know that not every place is safe. I am still aware of my surroundings and don't walk after dark, and Bob always knows basically where I am, and I have my phone, of course. But it's a nice neighborhood, with neighbors out in the yards most evenings, and while I don't actually know many of them, I do know them to speak to. I feel safe in our neighborhood, and I'm grateful for that.

Photo: 9/20: Take a walk

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 19 - Exotic

2012-09-19T19:22:00.000-05:00

I looked at my list to see what I was supposed to take a picture of, and saw that it was "Exotic." I purposely didn't give a lot of thought to the list, I just wrote out a list of words that I would have to figure out later, so I couldn't really think of what I could photograph that would convey "exotic." But I stopped at the grocery store on the way home tonight and there were exotic pumpkins (or squash, I guess) piled up in front of the store, so I took a picture of them. Then, when I got inside, I looked at the floral department right inside the door, and there were "Exotic Black Calla Lillies." So I guess I just need to have faith that the right thing will come along.

I'm grateful for the wonderful abundance that we have available--a place to buy groceries and flowers a couple of blocks from my house. It's a little more expensive than some stores, but it's very convenient. I don't do much shopping there--I do most of my every day shopping at Super Target--but it's nice to know that it's there when I just need a couple of things, or need to run out for something in the evening.

They have a lot of gourmet stuff, a nice deli section, and a great Chinese food bar. Oh, and an exotic olive bar. Lots of fun stuff that I don't normally buy, but it's nice to have a place to get those things for special occasions.

Photo: 9/19: Exotic

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 18 - Animal Instincts

2012-09-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

I hadn't really planned for the "photo a day" and the "30 days of gratitude" to be the same subjects, but it has kind of worked out that way.

The photo is of Connor, the German Shepherd at our office. He's one of Dave's dogs, the other being Jojo. When Jojo sees one of us coming, she'll flip over on her back, displaying her tummy for a tummy rub. It gets her lots of attention, and I think Connor has been watching that. Recently he's started doing the same thing, flopping over on his side and rolling to his back, trying to look cute. He is cute, but he's a big guy, and it's kind of funny to see him doing it. But it does, of course, get him a treat and a tummy rub, so his strategy is working.

I'm always surprised when animals learn something on their own, i.e., not a trick that they've been taught, but something that they figure out on their own.

I remember Pyewacket figuring out how to make the dry food in the automatic feeder come down and fill the bowl when it got stuck. Dinah still hasn't figured that one out. But Dinah has figured out that patting me on the face with her paw in the middle of the night is a sure-fire way of waking me up when she wants to be cuddled. Nothing else, except maybe throwing up, gets quite as immediate a reaction.

Of course, all the dogs at work are now conditioned to show up in the morning at each of the offices that have treats for them--or is it us that are conditioned? I think that's more likely.

I'm grateful for all of the animals in my life that give me so much joy. Our lives would be dull and boring without them, I think.

Photo: 9/18: Animal Instincts

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 17 - Memory

2012-09-17T19:55:00.001-05:00

I know I've written about Evernote before. I jokingly said in a meeting the other day that it's my brain, but really, it is.

I discovered a long time ago that I can't keep everything in my head. I would wake up in the middle of the night with lists in my head, trying to remember everything that I needed to do. I figured out that if I write it down, I don't have to worry about it. So I started keeping a pad of paper and a pen on my bedside table so I could write things down when I woke up.

Then when I got the iPhone (and later, the iPad), I discovered Evernote. There are a lot of different apps that do similar things, and they're probably just as good, but I picked Evernote and have stuck with it.

I put lists of things that I want to remember--books I want to read, ideas about things to write. When I get a new piece of equipment, like a phone or DVD player, I find the instruction manual online and save it into Evernote. I keep my work to-do lists there. I keep lists of the medications that we take, knitting patterns, recipes. I just stick everything there so I know when I'm looking for something, it's going to be in one place.

I'm grateful for Evernote, for giving me a place to keep everything, and I'm grateful that I got in the habit of putting everything there. I'm grateful that I don't have to keep my grocery lists in my head anymore.

Photo: 9/17: Memory

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 16 - My obsession

2012-09-16T16:36:00.000-05:00

I guess I have a lot of obsessions. I sort of hate to admit it, but yeah, I'm a little obsessive-compulsive. Most of my obsessions are fairly harmless, I think. This photo illustrates two of them -- sock knitting and Vera Bradley.

I go through periods of sock knitting fever. I knit and knit, then I lay off for a few months. I love sock knitting because it's portable, and because of the cool self-patterning yarn. When I'm in one of my crazy sock knitting phases, I spend time at yarn shops and yarn websites and collect sock patterns (although I never use any patterns except my basic one). I love all the little accouterments--the tiny bamboo needles, the little stitch markers that I make, yarn snippers, the coilless safety pins I use as markers, the little pill box I keep them in. And the knitting bag that I keep all of it in.

Lately, I've been sock knitting with yarn that comes in 50 gram balls, enough for one sock, rather than the 100 gram balls I normally use. A 50 gram ball of yarn fits perfectly (along with all the aforementioned bits and pieces) in a Vera Bradley medium cosmetic bag.

Which leads into the Vera Bradley obsession. I don't think I've ever paid full price for any VB piece, but I do occasionally check on Ebay, and I get their email sale announcements. They've got such a great marketing technique--they change the patterns every season, so if you find one you like, you'd better buy everything you want in it, because it will be gone in a few months. Or else you haunt eBay for it. Right now I have everything I want in this pattern--one purse, one tote bag, one wallet, a lanyard, and the cosmetic case that I use for knitting. (Oh, and the backpack that I had such problems with on eBay. But we won't mention that. It resides in a plastic bin in the basement.)

I do know that it's crazy. But pretty harmless, I think. I'm grateful that my obsessions don't run to drugs, drinking or gambling, and that they are so easily fulfilled.

Photo: 9/16: My obsession

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 15 - Artist Date

2012-09-15T14:34:00.000-05:00

One of the main tenets of Julia Cameron's "Artist's Way" is the artist date, basically time spent by yourself in creative or inspirational pursuits. For instance, you could take a walk with your sketchbook, go to an art supply shop and buy some new supplies, or write in a journal. Extra points for doing something for your inner child, like getting new crayons or fingerpainting.

Here are some ideas.

I did this on Saturday; I went to JoAnn and spent as much time as I wanted (probably around an hour) wandering around, looking at everything, looking at beads and magazines and art supplies, and was particularly struck by the new Halloween items.

One of the SARK quotes that I always remember is something like, "Inspiration follows action, not the other way around." In other words, to get inspired, do something. Write something, even if it's junk (like Anne Lamott's "shitty first drafts" advice). Paint something, make something, write something. If you can't think of anything to write, make lists.

James Altucher:

Every day I write down ideas. I write down so many ideas that it hurts my head to come up with one more. Then I try to write down five more.

. . .

The “idea muscle” atrophies within days if you don’t use it. Just like walking. If you don’t use your legs for a week, they atrophy. You need to exercise the idea muscle. It takes about 3-6 months to build up once it atrophies. Trust me on this.

It's the same way with the "creative muscle." The more you create, whether it's writing or painting or sewing, the more you do, the more ideas come to you.

I'm grateful for my "creative muscles," and grateful that there are so many inspirational places for me to spend time feeding and growing them.

Photo: 9/15: Artist Date

Links:

Julia Cameron Live - Artist Dates
101 Artist's Date Ideas
James Altucher - How to be the luckiest guy on the planet

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 14

2012-09-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

I am grateful for this beautiful world that we live in. I know that there is much suffering and unhappiness and pain in the world, and I am never able to think of the things that I'm grateful for without thinking of the people who are in terrible trouble. But I do try to remember that my happiness doesn't depend on someone else being unhappy. I can enjoy a sunset without that affecting anyone else in a negative way. It's hard sometimes, though. My empathy gets in the way.

But I try to remember to look up and around me, to see all of the beautiful things that surround us, and to be grateful for them.

Photo: 9/14: Gratitude