Saturday, January 31, 2009

Finally, some new socks


Jitterbug Socks
Originally uploaded by chaimann
I think I have spent almost a year working on these socks, but I finally buckled down and finished them. Love the yarn (Colinette Jitterbug, Toscano colorway), love the pattern (pinched from a British knitting mag and tweaked to suit), and love that I finally get to use the cute sock blockers I bought at Stitches Midwest last fall.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Houseplant 911!

This pathetic specimen showed up in my office today.


The stalk is nice and green, and tied to a support stick. It has a couple of little sprouts of new growth down low. You can see one of them below the lower tie. The pot is probably about 8 inches.

So... What is it, and what should I do about it?

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Why proofreading matters

From this post about the peanut butter recall (emphasis mine):
This month's King Nut peanut butter recall is different. That brand isn't sold directly to the public, so consumers don't have any sitting on their shelves. But on the other hand, it might be contained in some other products in their panties, which could make it even more dangerous.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

No frostbite here

We survived the cold snap last week with not too much trauma. Thursday, it was - 18 F when we left for work, and that is not including wind chill. Temperatures like that can make your nose hairs hurt. But today it got up to, and possibly even above, freezing. I wheedled T into taking the car to the car wash. I know it won't stay clean for long, not with all the snow and slush we have around, but it was nice to rinse off the old mud and start on a fresh layer.

Shed Kitty also survived the cold. T took food out to her a couple of times during the worst of it. (I have no idea if SK is a he or a she. I just say "her" because I have not observed any cojones.) Today, we saw her sitting outside, so I took some more food out. She ducked under the shed when I got close, but I didn't get very far away before she came out. She looked at me in that calculating way cats have, and I talked to her. Finally, she finished her risk analysis and concluded, "I'm more hungry than scared." She strode over to the bowl and tucked in, and let me stand there and watch her. We may get to be friends yet.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Best garbage ever

Tonight was my tai chi class, and we were a little late getting home from work. I didn't even go into the house, just dropped T off at home, took the car, and went to my class. But before I left, T pointed out that he had a couple of packages - some gear he had ordered in hopes of being able to revive his broken telescope.

When I came home, I was greeted with this:


And this:


Whatever he got, it was packed in a bunch of six-inch discs of soft pink foam rubber. They are so much cuter, and so much more substantial, than packing peanuts, that it seems a shame to toss them out. But I also can't think of a good reason to keep them.

I haven't been to tai chi for a couple of weeks due to the holidays, and oh, boy, can I tell I am out of the groove. Note to self: Clear out a spot in the basement so you can practice even when there is no class.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Welcome 2009!

Here's to a year in which some of the things that are broken get fixed. (Insert your own list of broken things that need fixin'.)

Last night, I managed to stay up until midnight, barely. The clock said 12:00 when I got into bed.

I am resolutely trying to avoid resolutions, although in my heart I have some. In my heart. Don't go looking for the list here.

I did commit to write some Backyard Astronomy articles for The Piker Press this year, in honor of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The introductory article went up this week, and I'm planning to write them more or less every other week.

I also got a Twitter account for Backyard Astronomy. You can see the feed over there on the sidebar. The account is BackyardAstro. This introverted geezer doesn't quite know what to make of this social media stuff, but new year, new beginnings, what the heck, give it a whirl. At the very least, I can report when new articles go up.