NaBloPoMo success!

So it's the thirtieth of the month. I have blogged every day this month. And I have come to the conclusion that sometimes I just don't have much to say. Like today.

I liked blogging more often, and having to make myself think more about it and put more effort into it, but I sort of think I should probably only post when there's something to actually post about. And today is not one of those days. So I'm off.

Have a nice day.

Kung-fu avoidance skills

I'm afraid I may have a cold coming on. But I don't seem to have a fever, so I'm going to remain in denial and go see "Fantastic Mr. Fox" with the Boy-Creature and best friend.

Denial is more fun than staying home and eating soup. We'll just make sure to sit away from other people, as much as can be done at the seven o'clock showing on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend.

Denial! I has it!

Crawling towards the finish line

As fun as this week has been, I am so glad it's almost over, and that I don't really have any big plans for Christmas.

I am exhausted! Good exhausted, because it's been a good month, but still exhausted. We left Austin, and we're back in Arlington for tonight, and probably tomorrow. And for the moment, we're hanging out with friends playing music and talking. I've got my ukulele and our old friend has her guitar, and we're all singing and laughing. It's fun.

So I'm going to get back to it now. Maybe tomorrow, when I find some wi-fi, since there's no internet at the house, I'll have a wee bit more stamina for a longer post. Maybe.

The Tour de Grass, 2009

It has been a long, fun day. The whole reason we're in Austin is for the Boy-Creature Thanksgiving tradition, the Tour de Grass. His uncle and his friends started playing back when they were in college about twenty-four years ago, and they all get together again every year.

The kids croquet tournament started at about ten this morning, and then the adults started a couple of hours later. We've been playing ever since, and the game is still going on as I type this. It's down to sixth people, and I just got knocked out, so I came in seventh.

So I'm out, and only lasted about halfway, but the good news is that I don't have to stand out in the cold anymore. It gets awfully hard to see those balls in the dark, too. I've got the feeling back in my fingers, and my toes are getting there. So all in all, a good day.

Turkey turkey turkey

Wanna know what I'm thankful for?


Hand-knitted socks.

I started decreasing for the toe while we waited for the THREE turkeys to finish cooking (Seriously. They're not kidding when they say everything's bigger in Texas), and I finished and grafted the toe while fending off my second turkey coma of the week.

It's been a pretty good week.

The halfway point

I was thinking that I was too tired to bang out a post, but then I realized that if I put it off until later, that would mean I'd have to go downstairs and be social and whatnot.

Nearly everyone has arrived for the Thanksgiving festivities, so the house is crammed full. I'm right at that halfway point of a big trip where I'm tired of people and just want a nap. But I'm trying to squelch that and stay friendly.

On the upside, part of the reason I'm so knackered is because we've been running all around Austin seeing all sorts of awesome stuff, and it's been great. I'm really loving it.

But now even MORE people have shown up, so now I really do have to go downstairs and be friendly.

An admirable goal

I'm really enjoying Austin, and all it's beautiful weirdness. Anyone familiar with their beloved slogan, Keep Austin Weird, will find this as no surprise. But I'm enjoying it.

We went to this great indie bookstore today that I loved. And I was noticing a trend in the things I was picking up and looking at, which got me thinking about my tastes, and the things I want to write. I'm just drawn to strangeness. All the things that are a little bit tilted and tainted and veering away from the norm, if not just all out bizarre. I've been thinking a lot about this today. That I have all that same odd creativity lurking in my head, I just need to work more on getting it out and onto paper. So that will be my goal for awhile, to try to loosen those creative muscles that have been stagnant lately.

In short, I will try to be weirder. That should make the Boy-Creature happy, right?

Autumn in Austin

It is a beautiful night in Austin tonight. Boy-Creature and I ran around downtown today, and then came back to hang out at the house. Everyone is cooking and drinking and laughing. The guys keep arguing over who gets to control the stereo, and who has the best collection on his ipod, and who has the best taste in classic music. There's a cool breeze coming off the pond behind the house, and I was listening to that part in "Night moves" where Bob Seger is singing about autumn closing in, and it just seemed like such a perfect moment.

Mom said we should see as much of Austin as we can, and see if we might like to live here. I will be applying to UT for grad school, so it's not out of the question. The couple that owns the house even offered to rent us a room while we find jobs and a place, if we do decide we want to come here. But I'm not making any decisions tonight. We're here until Saturday, so we've got five days to see how we feel.

If it could always be like it is tonight, I might just say yes.

Go west, young man

This morning, we're packing up and heading west again. Almost due west, according to my good friend Google Maps. I'm pretty much all packed and ready to go. Just waiting for a couple of podcasts to finish downloading, and for Boy-Creature to get out of the shower and get himself together. And then we're off! Very exciting.

I was told there should be internet at the house where we're staying, so here's hoping that's true, so I can keep up with the blogging. It would suck to make it to the last week of NaBloPoMo and then lose out on making it to the end. So fingers crossed for that, and wish me happy travelling, folks!

Thanksgiving, part I

Today we had our big family dinner for Thanksgiving. Over forty people showed up, which is more than we were supposed to have. Luckily, I somehow managed to get first in line for food, so I got plenty. And yet, there are still leftovers. As it should be.

So I ate a lot, and then took a turkey nap with my mom's kitty in her room, and now I'm going back downstairs to hang out with whatever family hasn't left yet. And then I think Boy-Creature and I are going to leave and try to go see "An Education" tonight. And then tomorrow we're off to Austin, for part 2 of our Thanksgiving adventures! Very exciting.

Sixty-seven percent!

Hooray for making it two thirds of the way through NaBloPoMo! Very exciting. Anyway.

Today we're at Gram's house, and staying the night. Tomorrow is our big family Thanksgiving dinner. It's a really, REALLY big family, and so many people had other plans last year that they decided to have the family dinner the weekend before. And everybody liked it enough that they decided to do it again this year. So we came across the lake early(ish) this morning, to cook and hang out.

I made two batches of sausage swirls, which are one of my favorite foods in the universe. They're so yummy. I don't have a recipe I can link to, because it's one of those family recipes that's written on index cards or in those cookbooks where you write in your own recipe. I have no idea where it originally came from. Maybe one of those Southern Living cookbooks. But anyway, it's just a layer of dough and a layer of Jimmy Dean sausage (one regular, one hot) rolled out flat, and you roll them up like a jelly roll, then slice and bake. Right now they're cooling in the fridge, and I'll slice and bake tomorrow.

Otherwise, we're mostly just hanging out. We went to the grocery, where Boy-Creature got his contribution to the dinner (four cans of jellied cranberry sauce. He will also do his slicing tomorrow), and now we're mostly just hanging out. We watched "The Office" and "30 Rock" and I knit, and now I guess I'll go back to the kitchen and see if I can help with anything.

Knitting update

Another week has gone by, and a lot of knitting has happened. I'm nearly done with the first of three balls of yarn on the super secret Christmas gift project, so it's coming along well. Especially considering it was only a week ago that I had to start over. So thank goodness for that.

The sock is coming along. I turned the heel yesterday, and I'm through the decreases and now I'm just knitting the foot. See?


I'm having a few annoying little doubts about the heel. I think it may be a little too big, but I couldn't decide. So I'm still waffling about whether I want to rip back and redo it or not. I can definitely say that I like the flap heel better than this one. It just feels sturdier to me, like it'll last longer. But then I've never worn hand-knit socks, so I don't have any frame of reference for how well they'll hold up. Other than those little hesitations, it's going well.

There is one other little bit of news. Remember this sweater?


The sweater that I finished back in July? Well, confession: I hadn't actually, entirely finished finished it. I just finished the knitting. But it's cool enough now to wear a sweater, so I decided I want to wear it to the big Thanksgiving dinner we're having this Saturday, with the whole family. So I sat down yesterday to weave in all the ends- and there were a lot of them. So it's actually finished now. Hooray! Finally.

A moment of seriousness

I like this internet thing. I really do. I've got the blog, I've got the plurk, and I spend way too much time on Ravelry. And even though I'm normally way behind on all the techie stuff (I have avoided instant messaging like the plague, and my phone can't even get text messages), I really like where web 2.0 has been going. Some really amazing things are happening on the web.

But, and I'm sure this will come as a shock to no one, some really low, frankly disgusting things are happening on the web as well. Boy-Creature has actually learned to shield me from the things I don't want to see, because they are out there. I don't mean pop-up porn ads, either. I mean the disturbing things that people post on YouTube and on blogs and call them news, when really it's just voyeurism at its sickest.

I hate seeing videos of people doing mean things to pets that could be construed as funny, until you stop to look at how freaked out the poor pet is, like when that guy took his cat skydiving by strapping the cat to his chest. I think that guy shouldn't be allowed to have pets, but maybe that's just me. Even when it's an accident, like when the Tour de France bicyclist accidentally hit a dog that had run out into the roadway, I still don't want to see it. Especially then. Because then I fault not the guy who hit the dog. There wasn't much he could have done. I fault the jerk who records it and puts it on the internet. I realize I don't know his intentions in posting it, but by the time the video got to me, it already seemed like yet another stupid video on the web for entertainment. That's not entertainment to me.

But even more than seeing things like that, there was one that Boy-Creature found on the Huffington Post today that just made me sick. I didn't even stick around long enough to read the whole title, because once I saw the gist of it, I left, but it was something about a police car that ran off the road and killed two people. Bad enough as it is, but somehow the video surveillance from inside the cop car ended up on the internet. So people are sitting around today, watching people get killed. And I hate that thought. I really don't understand the people who think things like that need to be strewn across the web for anyone to see, and I never will. I get that it does constitute news, as far as our media is concerned, but there's a difference between reporting the event and sharing the real-time video of it happening. It feels like there are no boundaries anymore. I can't help but wonder how the families of the victims feel, knowing complete strangers can watch that video in between checking out LolCats and updating their Twitter statuses.

I just don't get it. And I try to stay away from that sort of internet.

Hold onto your hats, it's way too exciting around here.

Today we learned that I am extremely possessive when it comes to my jigsaw puzzles. I hate when I do two-thirds of a puzzle (including the whole bottom third that was just GRASS), and someone else comes along and decides to help on the last bit. And the closer it gets to the end of the puzzle, the more I want the other person to go away, until I'm hoarding a handful of odd pieces that I'm keeping just so that the other person can't do them.

Luckily, the Boy-Creature is really good at getting me to admit when I'm being thoroughly ridiculous, and with putting up with that ridiculosity. So the Stonehenge puzzle is done now. Maybe tomorrow we'll start on the wacky cow that got tangled in the clothesline!

God, I need a job.

Rainstorm

It's pouring down rain tonight in New Orleans. And while it mostly just means it's harder to see and people drive just as crazily as they do when it's not raining, I still like the rain. There wasn't nearly enough of it in San Diego. So I'm enjoying my night so far. It's not much to report, and I'm sure it doesn't make for terribly interesting blog reading, but we can't be thrilling all the time, now can we? So it'll do.

Killing time

It's another lazy Sunday around here. We saw "A Serious Man" last night, which was an excellent movie, but it meant we were out pretty late, so I'm all sleepy today. We're still mostly just killing time. Which makes for lots of knitting, and video games (we've moved on from Lego Star Wars to Lego Indiana Jones), and jigsaw puzzles, and of course reading.

I'm still reading Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and Happy Alchemy, and they're still both really good. The Tom Robbins is just so funny and strange, and Switters is a fabulous character. I get the feeling it's about to get really good, too. I can feel a big plot movement coming on. And Happy Alchemy is fascinating. He's postulating on all this really interesting stuff about Greek culture and society, and how we really can't understand it from our cultural perspective, because there are such enormous differences in our cultures, even though our "democratic" society is somewhat based on theirs. It makes for great reading.

And that's about all I have to report today. Not much, but it's still pretty nice for a lazy Sunday.

Jonesing for a bagel fix

I think it's going to be a fun-filled day. There's a weird little art festival in Covington that my mom wants us to go to, plus, Boy-Creature has been foaming at the mouth to go see "A Serious Man" and it's playing in Hammond. So there will be actual things done today! Very exciting. Maybe I'll take pictures or something. As proof that I actually go out and do things sometimes, it's not all just knitting and reading books.

But first, we need bagels.

Low caffeine tolerance

So last night I went to a coffeehouse for the wi-fi signal, because I couldn't get a connection at the house. Just another reason I'm looking forward to getting a job and our own place again. But at said coffeehouse, you have to spend at least five dollars to get a passcode for access to the wi-fi. So I got this iced coffee thing, because it's really yummy, and it's overpriced. My usual cup of hot tea will not hit five bucks- probably not even with a biscotti. So I was drinking coffee at ten at night, and I don't eat or drink much of anything with caffeine lately, which means I was up all night last night. On the bright side, I got plenty of knitting and reading and drawing done. On the downside, it's mid-afternoon, and I'm expecting to start crashing soon. So it's going to be a lazy day.

I might start a puzzle later. Fasten your seat belts.

Yarny goodness

It's been another week of unemployment, so another week of lots of knitting getting done.

The sooper seekrit Christmas project has suffered yet another setback, hopefully the last. On this last attempt, I was almost to the end of the first of two balls of yarn. That hurt to frog. Hopefully I've finally landed on the right yarn. Fingers crossed, because starting over might actually kill me. Or I might hang myself with a hank of hand-painted. So fingers crossed. And the yarn that I frogged will just become another pair of socks. You can never have too many socks, right?

In more public news, I've started a sock with the FIRST yarn I attempted the gift with. With which I attempted the gift. It's going incredibly quickly. I think I'm gaining confidence on the sock front. Also, I had nothing else to knit in between the times when I decided to frog the second attempt gift and when I acquired new yarn for the third attempt. So here's my progress so far:


That's the progress of two days of knitting. That's a quarter of a sock! That's so much faster than the last pair! So that feels good. The pattern is called Slave to the Plurk, from Terry Ross, and I'm loving it. The yarn still isn't exactly my favorite colors, but it at least looks less like cat yak than the gift did. And if I truly end up hating them, I can always wear them under boots or something. I'll find a silver lining if it kills me!

The other news is that BOY-CREATURE ASKED ME TO TEACH HIM TO KNIT!!! I'm not sure if he wants that announced across the interwebs, but he didn't expressly say not to, so I'll do it anyway.


That was his progress as of this morning, when I took that picture. I taught him to cast on and knit, and he did most of that without supervision! He's doing awesome! He has since learned to purl, and how to switch between purl and knit, and - brace yourselves - how to cable! He wants to learn to make himself cabled hats, and maybe a scarf or something, and maybe even his own sweater someday. How amazing is that?

My boyfriend knits now. Does yours? Try not to be too jealous.

Plans and changes

So two days ago I finally told my mom that we're going to Fort Worth instead of staying in New Orleans. We're having a hard time finding jobs, and it doesn't really feel like where we want to be, even if it is just until one or both of us goes to grad school. And considering that I want to start grad school next fall, and one of them is in the DFW area, it kinda makes sense to just head that way.

This was a weird decision for me. The first time the Boy-Creature suggested it, I was caught way off guard, and was not prepared for it, and I got all freaked out and upset. I grew up in Arlington (right next door to Fort Worth), and spent my freshman year at TCU, where I was doing everything I could to transfer to an out-of-state school and get out of there as soon as possible. I never really wanted to go back, and I never even really considered it until now. So after the initial freakout, that's the plan.

It's weird, to be going back while trying to move forward at the same time. A part of me still isn't sure if this is what I want, but it's what we're doing. So wish us luck.

Scenes from an Italian coffeehouse

Tonight, the Boy-Creature and I are out at a coffeehouse, as we're growing tired of stealing wireless internet from the innocent neighbors. Plus, there was a near-hurricane that turned out not to be a hurricane yesterday, but it's still very windy, and we're having trouble getting a good enough signal. So we're out.

And as soon as we sat down, I started wishing I had brought something to write with. I only brought the basics: wallet, laptop, book, and lip gloss. So I am without my Moleskine, or my little notebook, or even a pen. It's dreadful. Luckily I've managed to wrest the laptop (MY laptop, I might add) from him. I really like this place. It's an Italian espresso cafe, and it's chock full of students. The Asian kids at the table directly next to us have biochemistry textbooks and little plastic containers of trail mix from Whole Foods to munch with their tea and juice and tiny cups of espresso. The blondes in UNO sweatshirts at the next table are drinking pink, frothy, iced things. The brunettes on the other side have textbooks and notebooks and papers spread all over the table, and there's a nicely-dressed young man drinking a glass of red wine and reading T.S. Eliot at the booth in the corner.

When I was still in college in Santa Fe and I had either a big block of reading or writing to do, I would go to the Starbucks on the Plaza and sit for hours, sipping chai and munching cookies or pumpkin bread or croissants. I've gotten a lot of work done in coffeehouses over the last five or six years. And here I am again, typing at a laptop and sipping some iced coffee thing with whipped cream and a caramel drizzle on top. It was pretty tasty, too

Career path inspiration

I've been planning for awhile now to go back to school (hopefully next fall) to get my masters in library sciences, and go be a librarian somewhere. I love libraries, because I love books, and I love being around them, and sharing them with other people. And at this point, that's mostly the extent of what I plan to do with the degree.

But there are people who get library degrees and go on to work as archivists, among other things, and they go work in museums and places like that, that are about preserving not just books and documents, but history as well.

Yesterday I read a post on Neil Gaiman's blog where he put a link to a site called Curious Expeditions, which in itself is pretty amazing (and you should go check it out). But on the sidebar, in the list of reader favorites, is the link to the Librophiliac Love Letter post, there are dozens of photos of breathtaking libraries from all over the world.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit that part of me wants to work somewhere like that. Not just surrounded by the ordinary books that anyone in the world can check out, but to work alongside treasures, in a beautiful place built to honor and preserve them.

Attention span required

This morning, I was wondering what I could blog about today, and then I finally remembered it's Sunday. I can't remember what day of the week it is anymore. I need a job again.

Anyway. Sunday means booklove day! It also means I made it through the first week of NaBloPoMo! All good things. So onto business.

I finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and it was fantastic. It really does fly by. The story is so good, and it keeps taking all sorts of delicious turns that you think will go one way, and then they go somewhere completely unexpected, and it's all still marvelous. I loved it, and I've already passed it on to my mom for her to read it.

Since then, I also finished David Sedaris' When you are Engulfed in Flames. I like David Sedaris' writing just fine, but his books go by so fast for me, and this time I actually think it's not just because I don't have a job and I can read half the book in a day if I feel like it. I think his kind of writing just slides past me very quickly. So while it's still a really funny book, and I'd still recommend it to anyone looking for something strange and entertaining, it's not my favorite type of writing.

Now I've started reading the other book I bought when I got the David Sedaris. Boy-Creature and I went to this little independent bookstore near Magazine Street called the Maple Street Book Shop. When we got there, it turned out they actually have two shops right next to each other, one for used books, and one for new. We only went in the used side. So I got the David Sedaris for a little over five bucks, and Robertson Davies' Happy Alchemy for five bucks as well. Not bad, for two fairly new books.

I've read Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, which are some of his more famous works, if I'm not mistaken. I loved Fifth Business, very much, and while I wasn't crazy about The Manticore, it was ok; the last of the three, World of Wonders, was also very good, but not a terribly close second. Davies is a pretty prolific writer, and I can't pretend to be that versed in his books, but I enjoyed those books enough that I bought this just based on it being his writing. Happy Alchemy is a posthumous collection of his essays, speeches, and thoughts on music and theater. I'm not very far into it yet, but I like it so far.

The other thing I started is Tom Robbins' Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates. I've read even less of it than the Davies, because I just started it this morning and I seem to have almost no attention span today, but I think I'll like it. I read Even Cowgirls Get the Blues when I was in high school, and I've heard a lot of his other books are even better than that. Fierce Invalids... came recommended by a friend who lent it to my mom, who has since passed it on to me, so I've got a feeling I'll like it. So far he reminds me a little of Christopher Moore, although no monsters or demons or vampires have shown up yet, and I don't entirely expect them to. But I'm looking forward to reading more of it.

At Gram's house

Today I'm blogging at my Grandparents' house, on the computer that has been around since my junior year of high school. Just the fact that it still turns on is a testament to how little my mom likes to spend money on new things, if there's even a slight chance she can just fix the old one. Some of the old stuff doesn't actually get fixed, and it gets turned into something else. Outside, there is a three-legged bathtub holding up racks of plants. In addition to who knows what else.

I'm also typing on one of those old clicky keyboards that I don't even think they make anymore. People seem to prefer much quieter keyboards these days. And I type fast, and the noise is getting annoying, so I'm thinking it'll be a short post today.

It's just interesting hanging around this house, and seeing what has changed, and seeing the things that have never changed for as long as I can remember.

The other bit of news from today is that I can't get my laptop to find the wireless signal here, so I've actually been getting a little bit of writing done.

Fear of the dining dead

I know it's not how you're supposed to judge your self, or your relationships, but sometimes I start to think about how other people see Boy-Creature and me. Sometimes I wonder if strangers look at us and try to figure us out, and whether they think we're happy together. It bothers me the most in restaurants.

There are some times when we'll be out, and there are long periods where we just sit there, and don't say anything. Maybe they're not even as long as I think, maybe it's just that I'm self-conscious and they start to seem interminable. It always makes me think of that part in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" when he's talking about the dining dead, those bored couples who just stare off into space because there's something wrong in their relationship. I worry that people might think we're the dining dead, when really it's one of those comfortable silences. Plus, we both had mostly monotonous jobs, and there's very little fodder for conversation from that arena.

Every time we have one of those nights, I wonder if people think that about us, and I want to stand up and announce that really we're ok, and we're happy together. I've thought before about how when we're at home, we make each other laugh all the time. It makes me want to tell people, "You should see us in private! You'd be so envious of how happy and fun we are!"

Last night we had one of those rare nights out when everything was perfect. Boy-Creature was in this hyper, hilarious mood and it was rubbing off on me, which was good, because I'd been really crabby and snapped at him for no reason earlier. But we were laughing outside the restaurant, and then when we went in, we got seated right away, so we didn't have to wait around by the hostess stand. And we kept laughing through the whole meal, and we were sharing food and the waitress was nice. I found myself secretly hoping people saw us like that, even though we were at this tiny table kind of wedged behind this half-wall near the door. The restaurant was kind of crowded. But even if no one saw or cared, we had fun.

And we still do. Earlier today, I did something obnoxious and ridiculous, and the look on his face was so funny I laughed until I started crying. The true sign of a good relationship.

A knitter! With actual knitting!

My god, how long has it been since there was some knitting on this blog?!? Way too long. And I've gotten so much done!

Introducing... (wait for it...)


My first socks! They're finally done! And now they get to sit around for two months until Christmas. But still, it's a marvelous feeling, finally conquering something that had so many missed starts. And the second one went so much faster than the first. I think it was because of the combination of feeling more sure that it would turn out right (since the first one did), and because I have very little else to do these days than knit and read and write and send out resumes.

But during the whole driving across the country part of this moving trip, we did stop at one yarn store. There was a new one that opened up in Santa Fe right before graduation, and I never got to go while I was still there. So this time I made sure we went there. And I got my very first KOIGU!


All the knitters out there understand why I'm so excited. It's Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino, which is one of the most beloved yarns out there. I just wish I could have afforded more. But two skeins will have to do for now. It's just so pretty! And my camera kinda washes out colors, so you can only sort of tell from that picture how gorgeous it is. I have no idea what I'll make out of it, but it's gorgeous, and I can't wait to knit with it.


I also got a mini-skein of Opal Harry Potter sock yarn in Draco, because it was only two dollars and the little baby skeins are so cute. I should have put something in the picture for scale, because you can't really tell, but this picture is just about actual size. I figure I'll make a cuff or something out of it.


And finally, I ordered a skein of Cables and Lace yarn. The handsome and oh-so-manly proprietor is a Plurk buddy of mine, and he announced a couple of weeks ago that he would be closing down the shop. So unemployment-enforced yarn diet or no, I scampered over to his site and bought of skein of the Spider's Breath in Seahag (from his Old Man and the Sea line) immediately. It's way less blue than I expected, but just as beautiful as I'd hoped. Again, my camera does weird things to colors, but it's a deep, dark foresty green. I've already decided it's going to be a Whisper Cargidan, from Hannah Fettig's pattern. I had planned to make that sweater out of a different yarn, but the Cables and Lace is so gorgeous, I can already tell I'll get plenty of wear out of it.

As for what I'm actually knitting now, that's a secret. It's a certain Christmas present for a certain someone that doesn't know about it, and I've got a few more presents in the queue, too. So I'll be busy. But not too busy to cast on at least one more something for myself. I think it'll be the Avalon scarf from Susan Pandorf, in my Lime and Violet Intentions yarn. I've been excited to knit with that yarn since the day the nice mailman brought it to me.

One last thing: this is only-quasi knitting-related, in that someone knitted it, but I'm kind of in love with this girl's sweater on the Sartorialist.

Incidentally, if you want to see more of my knitting, you can click over to my Flickr photostream, over there in the sidebar.

A few thoughts on moving cross-country (again)

The Boy-Creature and I have been in New Orleans for a little over two weeks now. Sometimes it feels like we just got here, and sometimes it feels more like two months. For some reason, it's only now that I've really started thinking about all this moving business. Maybe it was seeing family the last couple of days, or maybe some of the big-decision-type stuff Boy-Creature and I have been talking about (more on that later). But it's all been on my mind.

This is a different kind of move for me than the ones before. I've only ever moved away, moved out. I went from my home in Texas, to school in Santa Fe, then to California. It was always new. But now I'm moving back. Even though I've never lived in New Orleans, or anywhere in Louisiana, I have so much family here and I've visited here so much, that it feels like going back home. Even though it is new. For the first time it's like moving backwards and forwards at the same time. And even more so, considering the decisions Boy-Creature and I have been making. That has been the real thought-provoker for me. You'll see why soon.

The bug has bitten once more

I may have decided not to do NaNoWriMo this year, but as fate would have it - brace yourselves - I've begun writing something anyway.

I only started seriously considering participating this year a week before it started. So I spent much of the last week of October planning. I had decided not to do an actual novel. I've been out of the writing habit so long this last year, that I really didn't think I was up for it. Instead, since there are no real rules to NaNoWriMo, other than don't start until November first and don't stop until you hit 50,000 words, I was thinking about just writing lots and lots of short stories instead.

So throughout the week, I started writing down ideas. Some were brand new. Some were old things that I'd been tinkering with in the back of my brain. Some weren't even fully-formed ideas, just images and thoughts to use as a springboard. I told myself that if I got a good number of ideas down, I would go ahead and do NaNoWriMo. If I came up with only twenty five ideas, that would come out to two thousand words each. And then at the end of the month, not only would I have joined and accomplished in the insane creative explosion that is NaNoWriMo, but I would potentially have twenty five (or so) stories' worth of raw material. That's a lot to work with, after a year of barely writing anything other than some very rough ideas and even rougher drafts. After all, you can edit anything but a blank page.

As the week went on, other things came up, and I didn't get down as many ideas as I'd hoped. Plus, the thoughts of all the stuff I'm up against, what with the move and everything, I had to admit this probably wasn't the year for it. And I was ok with that.

But those ideas were still simmering in my mind. And today I looked over my little list and started to see how similar in tone some of them were. And how this character felt like the beginnings of that one. And how several, if not all of my ideas, could conceivably fit together.

And suddenly I have the beginnings of what could potentially (possibly, maybe, don't say it too loud or you'll scare it away!) be a novel one day.

And I have the first four paragraphs written and the basic framework of an outline.

Wish me luck.

Everybody needs an evil plan

Ever since signing up yesterday for NaBloPoMo, the wheels have been turning.

I've been oogling other people's blogs and reading ideas about how people keep up with it, as well as coming up with my own ideas. I've gotten some really good tips, and I've got some stuff planned that I think is going to be fun. Some of it is stuff I've been meaning to do for awhile on this blog. Right now, while it's all starting and I've got the whole month ahead of me, it starts to look like a big, heaping pile of bloggy goodness.

This is going to be a fun month.

NaBloPo-FeeFiFoFumEenyMeenyMiney-Mo

Oh my god, it's November.

How did this happen?!? HOW?!?

Crazy. But it's here now. Which means all the NaNo stuff has begun. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers' Month), NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month), and so on. There's one for crochet, one for journalling, and one for blogging.

Of which I will be partaking.

The challenge is to blog every day for the month of November. Just like Blogtoberfest, which I forgot about until three days into the month of October. So I'll be doing NaBloPoMo.

I actually did NaNoWriMo in 2006, and I even made it to 50,000 words. But between moving, and job and apartment hunting, AND Christmas knitting (which recently suffered a semi-tragic setback), I don't think piling 50,000 words on top of all that would be the best idea. Even though I did have some really good ideas for what I could write. It kinda sucked having to put my foot down and tell myself not to do it.

But blogging I can do. And this lovely month of November just happens to start on a Sunday, so it's BOOKLOVE DAY!

I'm still just reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and loving it just as much as I was before. It's fantastic, and it's going much faster than I expected, considering it's over 1000 pages long. To anyone who has thought about reading this book, but has been intimidated by the monstrous page-count, read it! It's such a fun read, you'll fly through it.

Granted, it helps that I am still sans job, but still. It's a good read.