tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-540219955526386012024-03-13T22:47:21.474-05:00DigressionsMostly dogs and yarn and books.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-73622080414964270962018-12-15T08:51:00.000-06:002018-12-15T08:51:14.949-06:00"Why Is This at All Important?"My local library is running an informal Best Books of 2018 contest. Customers can vote on social media or drop their vote in a "ballot box" (i.e., a shoe box wrapped in craft paper). One anonymous commenter decided not to vote. Instead, he or she left a note asking, "Why is this at all important?"
The answer, of course, is that it's not one bit important! It's fun!
I adore this time Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-24223159402192161982018-11-28T07:26:00.000-06:002018-11-28T07:26:20.789-06:00Thirteen Books
Who set 2018 reading goals this year? And did you meet them? Come on, you GoodReads power users, fess up. What was your goal? Seventy-five? One hundred?
Me? My goal this year? Twelve books. My goal was to complete the #ReadICT program, which identifies twelve categories. That's it.
Now I knew I'd exceed that goal, and of course I did. As of today, in late November, I've finished . . . are youAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-61053323025996842612018-10-13T07:56:00.000-05:002018-10-13T07:56:43.810-05:00The Brett Kavanaugh MakeoverI want to thank Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump for my new lewk.
What do you think?
I think the lack of eyeliner and mascara really highlights how tired I am of men* who blame and even make fun of women who are victims of sexual assault, while the absence of foundation does a nice job of emphasizing the frustration with men* who continue to blithely ignore what women are actually saying Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-70600776546782070092018-09-15T19:29:00.000-05:002018-09-15T19:29:55.166-05:00Who You Lookin At? The reading slump is over! Woo Hoo! I finished Dietland last week, and with that, I'm a reader again! Whew, that feels so much better.
Before I get too far into this, yes, I know there's a show out on AMC, but I didn't know that when I started the book. It's on my list to watch as soon as I can get it on DVD or streaming. If you've watched the show, this is not about that. No spoilers!
This Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-38431347579586050532018-08-29T21:58:00.000-05:002018-08-29T21:58:25.555-05:00Reading Is Fundamental June 5th. The last book I finished was All the Light We Cannot See, and according to Goodreads, I finished it on June 5th.
It's not that I haven't been reading in all that time. I just haven't finished anything. Americanah, Record of a Spaceborn Few, Women Heroes of World War II, and a Obama-Biden bromance parody called Hope Never Dies are just some of the books I've started and haven't managed Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-4526027009204530762018-07-15T10:20:00.001-05:002018-07-15T10:20:32.040-05:00So Much TMIFirst, if you're a perfectly healthy, happy human being whose life is working out exactly as you planned, this post is not for you. Feel free to skip it, and we'll see you next month when I return to my normal babble about books and dogs.
Let's talk about brain chemicals. And thyroid hormones. And poor sleep. And being a little embarrassed.
My brain chemicals are a little off. Just a little, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-62847034846748084402018-06-09T15:34:00.000-05:002018-06-09T15:34:04.003-05:00A Draft, or Ode to an Orange NotebookNotebooks are a tactile thing. I love the way a stack of pages feel when they've been covered with ink on both sides. You can keep your 100 GSM. I adore shitty student notebooks that show the dents and gouges and ink bleeds from yesterday's intentions and agonies and mistakes. It's braille for the sighted. It's a topographical relief map of the brain.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-90973363164108154922018-05-17T19:49:00.000-05:002018-05-17T19:49:42.633-05:00#readICT Category 11: Published the Year You Were BornI've been chugging along on the #readICT reading challenge, but I had a hell of a time with category 11, a book "published the year you were born." The year 1976 was all about giant mustaches and bell bottoms and some of the books were pretty tacky, too.
The first book I picked up was Mary Stewart's Touch Not the Cat, a supernatural romance--a precursor to vampire romances, I suppose. I Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-51320566096381045382018-04-14T07:41:00.000-05:002018-04-14T07:41:23.794-05:00Listen, This Is a Bummer. Read It Anyway.Every once in a while, Brewster reminds me that he used to live with people who hit him. This morning he couldn't wait for me to let him outside and he had an "accident." He has a mild bladder infection right now, and he's only had two doses of antibiotics so far, so it's completely understandable—and he hit the pee pad, so it's really no big deal. But even if he had peed on my new living room Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-59870699466255436162018-03-29T11:48:00.000-05:002018-03-29T11:48:19.517-05:00#ReadICT Are Words that Mean a ThingA few years ago I was messaging a friend from out of town and I absent-mindedly referred to "ICT." "What's that?" she wanted to know. It's the code for the Wichita airport, which has somehow become local shorthand for the city itself. Do people in Kansas City refer to their town as "KCI"? Do Los Angelenos talk about the city as "LAX"? I kind of doubt it. It's weird. But it's everywhere, includingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-55914236154325330222018-02-22T20:44:00.000-06:002018-02-22T20:44:18.593-06:00It Took a YearIt was almost exactly a year ago, in fact, when the cowl I was knitting in Andreality's (Ravelry name) birthday Malabrigo got suddenly and unceremoniously pushed aside for some new, shiny projects:
I had to make these:
A plain sock pattern over 32 stitches on size 2 needles.
And then there was this:
The Welcome Home Baby Blanket from Lace One-Skein Wonders.
And of course that:
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-35967176530183704402018-01-26T14:34:00.000-06:002018-01-27T07:19:55.377-06:00And the Best Books I Read This Year (2017)Yup, that's all this blog is now: annual reviews of the books I liked the best. Sorry I haven't been posting, promise to do better, blah, blah, blah, nobody cares.
So let's get to it. Based on the "would I re-read it" premise, the list is pretty small, so stay tuned for some honorable mentions at the end.
Aiken, Joan. 1963. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.
Last year I was entranced by The PeopleAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-50842901067382298462016-12-30T22:58:00.000-06:002016-12-30T22:58:16.531-06:00The Best Books I Read This Year
This has really been a banner year for good books. Am I getting better at choosing? Are my tastes expanding? Probably yes.
To choose these books, I went through all my 2016 GoodReads reviews asking myself if I would re-read that book. I don’t re-read very often, but, in the unlikely event that authors stopped writing new books and I got caught up on all the books ever published and had Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-74232573774509921562016-08-28T07:18:00.000-05:002016-08-28T07:18:10.562-05:00What It's Like to "Own" a Dog
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mso-font-format:Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-36812205422824821282016-04-23T20:45:00.001-05:002016-04-23T21:19:34.163-05:00Wichita, Take a LookI saw something today that everyone in Wichita needs to take a look at. I volunteered for the river cleanup this morning and somehow ended up under the Seneca Street bridge next to the Indian Center, where people have lived.
I and a friend, along with other volunteers, spent 2 hours filling five garbage bags. It took so long because we had to spend time deciding whether everythingAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-63818733016938866412015-06-01T17:01:00.000-05:002015-06-01T17:02:41.656-05:00Sockghan Square 4Vacation is looming, and I wanted to do a square based on Knitty's Inlay before I leave because this is not a road trip square.
The twisted stitch technique isn't difficult (it's similar to cabling, except instead of reversing the order of the stitches and then knitting them, you knit the stitches out of order), but it's not a "Hey, look at that!" kind of project. Car passenger knitting has Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-77086174357004761212015-04-15T18:35:00.001-05:002015-04-15T18:35:45.196-05:00Sockghan Square 3The easiest square yet is based on Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder.
Other than purling the plain knit rounds, no modifications were necessary for this extra-simple pattern, which only requires the ability to count to four. Cast on 38 (32-stitch pattern plus 3-stitch border), knit three rows of garter, knit pattern until it seemed like the right size, knit three more rows of garterAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-44874404476348024852015-04-07T09:17:00.000-05:002015-04-07T09:18:36.826-05:00Sockghan Square 2So far, this project is going swimmingly. The next entry is Cookie A's Monkey.
The original, well-loved Monkey sock.
Details: Berroco Vintage worsted, size 8 needles, CO 38 (32-stitch pattern plus 3-stitch garter border on each side).
This one was slightly more challenging to knit flat because, in the original pattern knit in the round, there's no plain knit round between the pattern Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-92224893603067611972015-03-29T16:04:00.000-05:002015-03-29T16:04:07.293-05:00The Great Sockghan Experiment of 2015: Square 1Hi Blog! I missed you!
But yeesh, have I been busy with the earning a living thing.
I'm fine. The dogs are fine. The cat is fine. Perpetually angry, but fine.
Nothing much has struck me as worth a blog post for a while, but I thought it would be fun to tell you about my knitting dilemma and how I'm planning to solve it. Later this summer I'll be on a road trip that involves a couple thousand Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-59159525085623187502014-01-12T09:35:00.000-06:002014-01-12T09:35:04.643-06:00Smart as Geese? I took the dogs for a walk this morning because when it's a balmy 40 degrees at 8am on a Sunday in January, you and your fear-reactive dog DO NOT MISS the opportunity to go out at a time when no one else will be around. And no one was. We dodged a few cars, but no other humans or even a loose dog.
But this is not a dog story, although I have them to thank for getting me out the door. This is a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-70193142922084775282014-01-10T13:35:00.000-06:002014-01-10T13:37:10.850-06:00Doggy CrackSweet Potato Chews, people. If you have dogs, buy a couple of sweet potatoes, slice them up in thick (1/4- to 1/2-inch) slices, and bake them at about 175 degrees for 12 to 14 hours (turning every 4ish hours), or until you get a good, chewy consistency.
You can buy sweet potato chews at pet supply stores, but the cost markup is truly obscene. As I recall, it's about $7 for a bag that probably Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-74262961734547180612013-12-24T13:08:00.000-06:002013-12-24T13:08:01.654-06:00The Christmas TaskA wee bit of wishful thinking for Christmas:
The wind tears at my breath as I step outdoors, and I have to concentrate to breath. Exhaling's no problem, but inhaling, stealing a breath back, is a challenge. But as miserable as it feels, the noisy, fretful, wicked wind that drowns out all but the loudest noises and can cause untold and unexpected property damage is why I've chosen this night for Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-49244861818012050882013-12-14T20:30:00.000-06:002013-12-14T20:30:30.968-06:00Bertie Sue is SENSITIVE, Y'allOr picky. Whichever.
A year ago at just about this time, I made a sweater for Bertie Sue. I was inordinately proud of it, because, even if just a dog sweater, it was the first knitted object that I ever conceived of and knitted on my own without a pattern. And it was awesome.
Mostly.
I learned one important lesson while constructing that sweater: You should put the leg holes in where the legsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-24261133600565119252013-09-15T11:45:00.000-05:002013-09-15T20:28:47.289-05:00Reading Journal: Burial RitesHannah Kent's first novel, Burial Rites, was published this month by Little, Brown. I don't remember reading an early review or putting it on my holds list, but I must've done both, because it showed up in my box last Wednesday.
Once I had a chance to flip through it, I decided I wasn't going to like it. It's a fictionalized account of the months leading up to the 1830 beheading of Agnes Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54021995552638601.post-55265700788989769182013-08-20T09:52:00.000-05:002013-08-20T09:52:23.541-05:00An Open Letter to Minneha Elementary School Students and StaffWhat a way to start the school year! You enter your classrooms excited to begin another year, and what do you get? A "scandal" created by people who don't seem to understand the purpose of education in general, let alone the mission of Minneha Core Knowledge Magnet in particular.
I'm sorry you had to take down your display depicting the Five Pillars of Islam. I hope you'll be able to replace it Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09993721384980403543noreply@blogger.com2