I got a new camera

Terry's digital camera broke a few weeks ago. He started haunting eBay for another one. His requirements: It must be cheap, and it must be better than what he had. Specifically, he wanted exactly the same camera I had - an Olympus C740 that we have had for a few years. And he wanted it for under $100.

After listening to him go on and on about needing another camera, I told him to take the Olympus and I would find something else. Since the majority of my pictures are of Katie and my knitting and occasionally stuff around the office or in the backyard, I figured a downgrade wouldn't kill me.

Last weekend, we were at CompUSA and I found a camera I thought I could live with - a Kodak Z7590. 5.0 megapixels (much better than the Olympus), 10X optical zoom (same as the Olympus), video with sound (better than the Olympus), and pretty intuitive to use.

Here is what passes for an action shot with my favorite model.


Katie never met my dad, but she instinctively knows one of PaPa Roy's favorite ways to spoil kitties - give them a drink of fresh, running water from the sink. She'll lap the water from the bottom of the sink if she has to, but when it is running, she is one happy cat.

Extreme close up!


Look at the action in that tongue.

I have no knitting news to report except that I looked through some of the knitting mags today, and was horrified and amused to see this:


(I apologize for the tiny picture.) It's a knitted cover for a bicycle seat, decorated with small crocheted doilies. I showed it to Terry, and before I could even offer to make one for him, he gave me the Glare O' Death and said, "No way."

In knitting, as with so many other things in life, just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should.

What knitting needles are you?

You are pink aluminum.
Retro, straightforward and fun, you love classic things. If they're 99 cents at Goodwill all the better! You are moved by striking colors and tasty morsels, and you like a stitch-n-bitch session in the sun. Just remember, while you're being kitschy cool, don't get too cold. Ice cubes are best kept in your cocktails, baby!

What kind of knitting needles are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
com">Quizilla

Commentary: One of the answers was something about knitting on a train as beautiful scenery goes my outside. That sounds like the best vacation ever.

This week in the Press: Another poem by yours truly.

Looking like a sweater

Margie, Amy, and I, dismayed about the number of knitting projects we have underway, have adopted the motto "Off the sticks in 2006" for our knitting this year. Find it, then finish it or frog it.

On the top of my hit parade is the sweater. It is so close to being done. I just broke for the front neck opening, and am working up to the back neck.


You can't really see in this picture, but I am also knitting down the sleeves at the same time. The picture here shows what the finished sweater looks like. The pattern is Ridgeway Lite from Cabin Fever. The pattern is very well written. It explains what is happening along the way, rather than just telling you what to do, which is helpful when the technique is unconventional.


Spokeskitty Katie says, "I like it, too." (But I'm not letting Fourmyle near it.)

Farewell to Don

In a few more days, we won’t be waking up with Don.

Don Forsling has been in radio longer than I have been alive, and has hosted “The Morning Report” as long as I can remember. From 6:00 to 7:00 AM on weekdays, when every other NPR station in the country is giving us yet another hour of news, WOI lets us spend an hour listening to whatever Don likes.

The show opens with a peppy jazz tune called “Have a Nice Day.” (Remember theme songs? But I digress.) There is a brief recap of world news, followed by local news, sports, and weather. (Local weather, in Don’s world, includes the coldest temperature in Minnesota or the strongest wind gust in the country.) The majority of the show alternates between NPR features from a few days ago, and music. The music tends toward jazzy, but it’s no surprise to hear “Sioux City Sue” or “City of New Orleans”, or "Three Little Fishies" for that matter. He’ll read some funny news stories, and some made-up ones, usually side by side and without distinguishing which is which. Occasionally, he will take off on a curmudgeonly rant about careless grammar in reporting, or read jokes and puns sent in by listeners.

If you listen to NPR, you may have heard them talk about “Driveway Moments”, when you become so engrossed in a drive-time story that you sit in the car listening until it is finished. With Don, we have “Bedroom Moments” when the stories and music are flowing so effortlessly, we just can’t drag ourselves out of bed.

Don has had a long career in broadcasting, and an illustrious one, having been involved with the founding of NPR back in the day. Lord knows he has earned his retirement. But, sadly for the listeners, it’s a Clear Channel world these days, and it is cheaper and easier if everyone programs all of the same shows.

Don't get me wrong. WOI is still a terrific station with some wonderful voices we will continue to enjoy (I'm talking to you, Hollis and Karen.) When Terry and I travel, we listen to local public radio, and frequently comment, "They don't have as much personality as WOI."

On a few occasions when Terry and I have talked about the possibility of relocating to another state, the ticking off of pros and cons always includes, “I’d miss Don.” Sad to day, beginning February 27th, there will be one less reason for us to stay.

Happy trails to you, Don. We wish you the best as you pursue your dreams.

And WOI? Could you please keep running The Writer's Almanac at 6:45? That's how I know it's time to get in the shower.

Catching up, quickly

The big awards whoop-de-doo is over. As I predicted, I was not a winner. My picture was in the program, though, so I'm satisfied.

The meds are working. My ear feels better, and I am no longer running a fever. I still have a cough, though. Now Terry has a sore throat. It's always something with us.

The five inches of snow they promised us ended up being about one inch.

I am so glad that NBC managed to nick Dick Button for their figure skating commentary.

Katie just gave me a nuzzle and stared at my shoulder. I think my attention is requested.

Later.

Did anyone get the number of that truck?

Saturday's stuffy ear was also Sunday's stuffy ear, plus I developed a cough, but in these days of managed health care, you need a lot more than that to get attention on the weekend. I managed to crank out an article on podcasts for the Piker Press, which was published this week.

Monday, I didn't notice the ear so much, but I could barely hold a thought in my head or focus on anything for more than a nanosecond. Terry picked me up from work at noon, and I slept all afternoon and dozed most of the evening. I was too tired to go to Monday night knitting - that's how bad I was. Tuesday, I stayed home again, and went to the doctor, who told me, Yep, it's infected.

So, while I don't have much to report for the last couple of days, I'm all medicated now, and moderately well rested, and I'm going to try going to work today.

Since Terry was off yesterday, he had gambled on being able to get me a Valentine card while I was at work. Bad gamble. He had to go do some shopping in the afternoon, though, while I took a nap, and came home with a box of chocolates and the new "Breakfast At Tiffany's" DVD. I love that movie. Young George Peppard is Le Stuff Hot.

Powering through Saturday

The first thing I noticed this morning, before I even sat up in bed, was that my ear was really stuffed up. I tried all of my airplane tricks - yawning, chewing gum - to no avail. I finally took a decongestant. That helped some, but the ear has stayed wonky all day.

There were snow flurries this morning, sparse flakes that glittered under the street lights. It kept spitting snow all day, but it didn't amount to anything.

There were a couple of things I had been wanting to do for awhile, so I bundled up and went out to do them. After I had lunch with Terry (who was working), I headed to the Art Center. Rather than having a special featured installation, they brought some pieces out of storage (and unfortunately, stored a couple of my favorites) and rearranged everything. We have some fine works in the Art Center, but none of the crowds you see at the big museums. It's neat to be able to get up close with a Hopper or a Rodin, and linger with it as long as you want.

Then, I headed to the East Village and visited Gong Fu Tea. What a gem that store is. You like tea? They have tea. They don't have a menu - they have a 20-page booklet. My favorite kind of tea is oolong. They have 10 oolongs to choose from. One of them, Oriental Beauty, costs $36 for two ounces. I passed on that one. I did get a cup of lesser oolong to drink there, and a Papaya and Sunflower black tea to bring home. The label tells how much tea to use, what temperature the water should be, and how long to steep it. They are serious about their tea.

Back home, I did some writing and some knitting and some cat snuggling. As soon as this is posted, I'm going to go do some husband snuggling.

We are still having snow flurries, glistening under the street lights.

It's an honor just to be nominated

I learned today that I am on the short list for Employee of the Year at my company. I am the only nominee from my department.

I was nominated a few years ago, and arrived at the awards event to learn that they had left my picture out of the program. Geez, was that supposed to be a hint?

While the recognition and cash would be cool, I'll be happy if they just get me in the program this time.

Check back late next week to learn the outcome.

Sunday at home

Sunday afternoon at my house. My roommates were both quite content. Terry had a new astronomy book to read. Katie had a warm lap. And after an outage, the cable came back on in time for me to see the Steelers win the Super Bowl. It was a good day.

Have you heard about the Knitting Olympics? The Yarn Harlot challenged knitters to knit a challenging project (challenging as defined by the knitter) during the time the Olympic torch is lit. I'm not signing up - I'm trying to finish stuff I already have started - but 2500 people have registered. I get a kick out of looking at all of the teams that have banded together, complete with blogs, message boards, and team buttons. They have even been getting some press - MSNBC and BBC, for example.

If I were going to participate, I would seriously consider joining under the Team Wales banner. I once dreamed that I had to do some work in Wales, so I think they would let me in. As it is, though, I am just going to keep plugging away on my sweater, and hope I get it done before spring arrives.

Poetry revisited

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

--from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

Last spring, I wrote about an out-of-print book of poetry I wanted to get my hands on (The Art of Love by Kenneth Koch.) I read it when I was in college, and wanted to revisit it. Just before Christmas (very convenient for Santa), The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch was released, and The Art of Love was included. Thank you, Alfred A. Knopf, and Terry.

Aside from being a prolific poet, Koch was also a teacher, and he wrote several wonderful books about teaching children and adults to write and read poetry. One of his techniques for teaching children was to present them with a poem, and have them imitate it, and one of the poems he used was Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

I've imitated this poem myself, writing several short haiku-like stanzas about a single topic. At some time in the last two years, I must have been thinking about such a poem at work, because today, when I sorted through some old papers at my desk, I ran across a copy of Stevens's poem I had printed out for reference.

My favorite stanza has always been IV: A man and a woman/Are one./A man and a woman and a blackbird/Are one. But today, with winter weather returning after a week of false spring, the last stanza caught my attention. Even though I was in a downtown office building, in my mind, I could see the color of the sky and feel the temperature against my face. I was surprised to learn that I understand how it can be "snowing" and "going to snow" at the same time.

The moral is, don't be afraid to revisit a poem. You may find something you didn't realize was there before.

Silent Poetry Reading

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear times’ waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d and sorrows end.

--Sonnet 30, William Shakespeare

You follow enough links around the 'net, you find something you might like to do. Today, that something, for me, is Reya's Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading. In a nutshell, you put a poem in your blog on February 2. Since I am a poetry editor in my spare time, how could I resist joining in?

I discovered this poem on a greeting card when I was in college. (I still have the card somewhere.) Of course, at 21, I didn't have a lot of old woes or grievances forgone, but I just knew that, someday, every line of the poem would resonate with me. Now, I don't claim to wallow in self-pity - quite the opposite - but I do believe that the companionship of good people can make one happier. Shakespeare, fortunately, said it much better than I just did, and it is always my pleasure to share his words with others.

This blog in a nutshell

Word cloud created here.

Energy knitting

A couple of weeks ago, one of the Knitwits announced that she had signed us all up to attend a lecture on “Healing with Energy” at Adult Ed. From the class description, it sounded like this would be a presentation intended to drum up interest in two courses on Reiki and whatnot that the presenter would be offering later in the term.

Game girls that we are, we all showed up Thursday night for the class, but only I thought to bring along some knitting. I often do this when I go to events at someone else’s urging. A small project, such as a sock, is unobtrusive, doesn’t require a lot of concentration, and if the event is stupid, I haven’t totally wasted two hours of my life.

I didn’t have anything in progress that was in the mindless phase – the current sock in progress is at the heel – but I did have a ball of DK weight yarn that I bought at the same time as the Karaoke for the iPod pocket. I threw the yarn and the same size 5 bamboo needles into a baggie and stuffed them into my purse before I left.

When I bought the yarn, the ladies at the shop told me the formula for making a standard rolled brim baby hat in the round. It is:

Cast on a multiple of 12 stitches. Try 72 to start, or 84 for very fine yarn.
Knit in the round for about four inches. The bottom edge will roll up naturally.
To decrease for the crown-
First row: *Knit 10, knit 2 together, repeat from * all the way around.
Next row: *K9, K2tog, repeat from * all the way around.
Next row: *K8, K2tog, etc.
And so on. They assumed I would figure out how to finish it once I got down to three stitches, and I will assume the same about you.

I cast on 72 before the lecture started, and had a couple of inches done by the time it was over. Mission accomplished – some nice progress to show for my time.

Friday was unseasonably warm (*see below), and I couldn’t bring myself to work on the sweater, so I took the hat to our bookstore knitting get-together. By the time they ran us out, the hat was finished, and I added a few rows to a long-neglected sock as well.

Here’s the hat on the usual baby head stand-in, a Winfield mug.


The yarn is Magic Garden Buttons from New Zealand, 83% wool, 17% polyester effect yarn, and washable. I believe, based on my extremely unscientific method of holding the hat in one hand and the remaining yarn in the other, that the 50 gram ball would be enough for two hats. My team of enablers, though, is campaigning to have me make matching mittens and socks. We’ll see.

Extreme close-up!


This might be the ultimate in mindless knitting, and it would also be a great project for someone who is intimidated by learning to use double points, or just learning to knit, period. It’s quick, and there aren’t too many ways to screw it up.

*About this weather we have been having: Aser and Kathy have both written about how it is unseasonably warm in their locales. We’ve been having some of that action, too. Thursday’s high was 60, and Friday’s was 58. I went to work yesterday in short sleeves, without a coat. Terry and I went out for ice cream. Today is cooler, and rainy, and we may have thunderstorms. Are you sure this is January?

Sunday's knitting

Despite my plan to not start new stuff until I've finished the old stuff, I decided I simply must have a bag for my iPod. I started it and finished it Sunday afternoon. Knitwit enabler Amy said, "It's small, it's quick, and you know you are going to finish it, so it doesn't count as a new project."


The yarn is Karaoke (appropriate for an iPod, don't you think?), 50% soy fiber, 50% wool from Southwest Trading Company. I cast on 32 stitches onto size 5 dp needles, although in retrospect I maybe should have gone down to 30 to allow for stretching. I ribbed for about half an inch, and then knit stockinette until it was long enough. I grafted the bottom, screwed it up, cussed, tried it again, screwed up, cussed some more, and finally got it right on the third try. (Many thanks to the Kitchener stitch instructions at Knitty.)

I made an I-cord hand loop. After I had the I-cord finished and attached, I realized that the better solution would have been to put it in the middle, across from another shorter loop, and pull it through as a latch. It would also keep the corner from stretching.

Anyway, it only took an afternoon, and it is done, so Amy was right.

A day mostly off

It was a lazy Saturday in Des Moines. I brought some work home yesterday (my office pc is still out of commission) and fiddled around with it this morning. When Katie saw that I had my laptop on my lap, she hopped up to get a piece of the action. It was a very crowded lap for awhile.


No, that's not work you see. We switched over to The Piker Press so we could vote for Lichloved and Fever Dreams at various web comic sites. Lichloved is so close to getting back into the top 100 at Webcomics, and after 12 episodes, the story is developing nicely. For the most part, fantasy is a big yawn for me, but Alex knows how to tell a fantasy story and get my attention - namely, by making the star a blue-eyed, pretty-in-pink girly girl in a "Goodbye Kitty" shirt. If you haven't read Lichloved yet, go do so, and if the spirit moves you, click the buttons at the bottom to vote.

The party's over

The balloons have all wilted and been thrown away. Today, my computer wilted as well. The hard drive is kaput. I spent most of the day wandering around from desk to desk, stealing a few minutes of access here and there. Fortunately, my teammates and I have quite a bit of redundancy in our workstations, so it's easy to sneak in while they are at lunch or something.

Kathy said:

There must have been times when you wanted to throw it in sometime during those 25 years yet you stayed. Wow!

Right you are, Kathy. The worst boss I ever worked for was about 1985. She was scheming and two-faced and not to be trusted, and she was pushing me close the edge of a breakdown. A dear friend of mine was living in Hong Kong at the time. He offered to put me up if I wanted to go live there for awhile. It was tempting, very tempting, but I chickened out and stayed put. Looking back at it now, I think, "Were you insane? That would have been great!" Yes, my life would have different, but it would also have been different. In particular, I would not have met Terry. So in that respect, it's good that I stayed put.

Anyway, the quality of my bosses has improved since then, and the last three (all of whom still work there) have been gems.

The online knitters are all a-twitter about some outfit throwing their weight around about copyright infringement over the phrase "Stitch and Bitch." I don't know all of the details, but clicking on this graphic will take you to a Cafe Press shop with some information about it, and some fun items for sale - all proceeds of which go to either a legal defense fund or a breast cancer charity.


(ETA I'm back, refreshed by a bowl of chili and some suck-up service from one of my favorite waiters. If you want to know more about the Stitch * Bitch dust up, check out You Knit What and The Knitting Curmudgeon. The Girl From Auntie, a real-life attorney, gives a succinct legal overview of the situation.

My gang of public knitters never got into the S*B name. There are several writers in the group, and several sharp tongues, so we have always referred to ourselves as Knitwits. But I believe, to a woman, that we all believe strongly in our right to stitch, and to bitch, any damn time we please.)

25 years ago today

Today was my 25th anniversary working at the newspaper. My co-workers thought it would be fun to get me 25 balloons, one for each year, not realizing just how many balloons that would be. The good news is, I now have the only cubicle with a door.


They had to root around in the prize vault to find something to weight the balloons down, and came up with this:


It's an old trophy of a newspaper carrier from God knows how many years ago. The freshly filled balloons had so much helium that the trophy barely held them. It would sit on the ground, but if I nudged it the slightest bit, it would go sliding across the carpet.

In the afternoon, we had a cookie cake, and even after sharing it, I still ended up bringing half of it home. They also gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble. All in all, it was a good day.

I got a couple of tickets to go to an exhibit opening at the Art Center Downtown, so Terry and I went there after work. The exhibit is "Sleeping by the Mississippi" by photographer Alec Soth. It was the perfect art exhibit for writers. Terry was a little baffled by the stark photographs. I told him how a writer would look at them - first seeing "it's a guy in a chair" - but then asking yourself more questions. Where is he? Why is he dressed like that? What's that on the wall behind him? When Terry said, "He's a Marine, and the plates belonged to his grandmother," I knew he was starting to Get It.

Alive again

I'm on the mend. My voice is ragged and I can't sing anything higher than Bea Arthur's parts from "Mame." But I'm off the cold medicine and getting by with an occasional cough drop and lots of tissues. It's been really hot at my office this week. I think I may have sweated out the cold.

Tonight, the local Nanowrimo survivors got together to write. Okay, officially I was a Nano casualty this year, but they still let me come. I took a notebook that had some poetry shards, and worked on one of those. I must be better, if I can concentrate enough to work on poetry.

Your Inner Blood Type is Type A

You seem cool and collected, though a bit shy. You are highly driven and a perfectionist, but that's a side you keep to yourself. Creative and artistic, you are a very unique person who doesn't quite fit in. People accept you more than you realize, seeing you as trustworthy and loyal. You are most compatible with: A and AB Famous Type A's: Britney Spears and Hilter

What's Your Inner Blood Type?

I actually am type A. Blood type A, that is. I inherited that from my dad. I am quite far from being a "type A personality" - again, just like Dad.

Sniffles day 3

I'm still sniffley and have the attention span of a gnat. Nonetheless, I manged to finish a couple of projects. First, the alpaca scarf:


I used not quite two skeins. I could have finished the second skein, but it was long enough, and I want to wear it. Katie really likes this yarn, so I may make her a toy out of the leftovers.

Second, a baby hat for a co-worker who is expecting.


It's made from Velvet Spun, using the pattern that was on the ball band. It's just a basic rolled-brim hat, scaled to baby size with fat yarn. I don't know if the knot on the top is supposed to look like an umbilical cord, but it does.

I'd write more, but the only other activity that I spent much time on this weekend was blowing my nose.

Sniffles

I wanted to write a real entry tonight, but my dearly beloved, who once vowed to share everything with me, has given me his head cold. Feel free to post in the comments your favorite home remedies for a stuffy nose.

Since I feel less than stellar, you know what that means - it's time for a quiz.

Your Inner Child Is Surprised

You see many things through the eyes of a child. Meaning, you're rarely cynical or jaded. You cherish all of the details in life. Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Pretty much true. I like experiencing new things, especially if they involve breathing through my nose.