Update!

So as of Wednesday, with a half-day at work and much, much cleaning, we are out of the apartment.

And as of today, the job is no more.

I'm exhausted.

Here is something I was thinking about today at work, instead of thinking about work:

I was listening to a slightly older episode of Lime & Violet, in which there was much talk about Neil Gaiman, and then talk about books, and how much they appreciate the Kindle, which is much lighter than books. Miss Violet was talking about the fact that she finally has shelf space, having gotten rid of some books, and about how happy that made her.

It does not work that way with me.

If I have shelf space, I think, "I must fill that up with more books. I shall go buy some now."

Which made me think of this bit of gloriousness. Ever since I saw that, I have been coveting that library. So I was thinking today about how for now, while I am young, and prone to restlessness and moving about trying to find where I want to plant myself, I try to at least somewhat restrain my book buying.

But once I settle into my life, where I want to be settled, I want my personal library to look something like that.

Getting there.

I'm sad to say, there's absolutely nothing new to report this week. Still reading Dawkins. Still not reading any fiction, which is still weird. And now all my books are packed, soon to be followed by the contents of my kitchen. The apartment is slowly but surely starting to look less and less like our apartment. And by the end of the day on Wednesday, it won't be.

Ten days to go

I was going to say there's nothing new on the book front this week, but that's not entirely true. I'm still reading Unweaving the Rainbow, but it's going slow because I've been so busy.

The only other thing I'm reading is J.G. Ballard's Vermilion Sands. Re-reading, I should say. I've known for ages that I can't sleep without reading something, but lately I'm learning that fiction works better. So I've been randomly picking short stories out of the book and reading them until I fall asleep. Maybe I'll finish, maybe I won't, but I'm ok either way.

It's been a good weekend, though. Boy-Creature and I drove up to Julian yesterday and went apple-picking.


And then we hung around the town. We ate the best pie I've ever tasted at a little place called Mom's. It was apple cherry crumb, and I actually said "Oh my god," after the first bite. It was incredible. I wish I could have had more. We had cherry sodas at the old-fashioned soda fountain, too. It was a really nice day. And I have to say, there's nothing like eating slices of apple right off the tree that are perfectly sweet and warm from the sun.

Today, I've been knitting and baking. I made gingerbread, which is cooling on the stove right now. I'm hoping it came out ok. We have to be out of the apartment in ten days, so in addition to packing and taking things to Goodwill, I'm trying to use up as much food as I can. So now I'm out of flour, which is good, but I had a little less than the recipe called for. So I tried using some Bisquick as well. Fingers crossed. The batter tasted good, I can say that. And it looks right. I just hope it tastes right, too.

The knitting is most definitely going well, though. I finished my girly sweater this week. I just have to weave in the ends, and soak it in woolwash (Malabrigo smells kinda funny to me), and then that's it! Also, I successfully turned the heel on my first sock, and I've knit enough past the heel now that I was able to try it on. It fits! I think it'll be perfect. Finally! A sock that's going right! And it only took me five months.

It's only Wednesday?!?

Ohmahgawd, I'm exhausted and I haven't even truly started packing yet.

Yet another reason I can't wait until we get to New Orleans. Unpacking is so much easier than packing. And at that point, I won't have a pesky job to get in the way of things!

Busy day

At least, as busy as it could be after staying in our PJs until past noon.

But I got some knitting done. I've turned my very first heel! I also broke my first knitting needle. Right in the middle of a row. Thank god I managed not to drop any stitches. Luckily it was a set of five double-points, so I finished what I could on the four needles I had left. Michael's didn't have any in that size, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get more. I did also knit a wee little owl, though. He's blue, with beads for eyes, on a berry-pink clip. He's the fastest knitting project I've ever done. So I'll probably do another sometime soon, maybe in a different color.

Other than that, I went to the grocery store, and forgot to buy rosemary, so I went twice. And then I cooked a nice dinner.

Anyway. Booklove!

In the last couple of weeks, I finished Confederacy of Dunces. I liked it, but not as much as I thought I might. It reminded me of Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim, which I also only sorta liked. I think if Lucky Jim was the post-WWII modernist view of academia, Dunces was the post-modern view of how the role of the academic was changing. And that's all the big, fancy college talk I'll throw out tonight.

I also read Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris. A short, light book about booklove. My favorite was the essay about compulsive proofreaders. As one of their ranks, I'm one of those people that can't stop myself from thinking "They should have used a hyphen," or "Their, not they're!" When Mom and I first met my brother's girlfriend (or friend who was a girl, or whatever she was. He was vague about it), we liked her because she told us how she went around a grocery store once with a red pen, correcting all the little signs and labels on all the shelves.

Anyway, now I'm only reading Richard Dawkins. Still working on Unweaving the Rainbow. It's been slow going, because I haven't had a ton of time to read. Plus, I like to go a little slower with non-fiction. Especially with science writing, to try to absorb as much of the information as I can. And Dawkins really packs it in, so there's a LOT to absorb.

I probably won't get much time for reading in the next few weeks, either. I've got just over two weeks left at work, and about the same amount of time for us to get packed up and out of the apartment! By this time next month, we should already be in New Orleans! So I'm going through my clothes and things, getting rid of as much as I can, and as with most moves, the books and DVDs will be the first things to get packed. I've been thinking about what to leave unpacked, to read in the meantime. I've been thinking it'll probably be Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. But we'll see. I can never tell what book I'll be in the mood for, until it's actually time to start it.

Shiny happy fun stuff!

A selection of fun things I've found on the internet tonight (amidst researching moving stuff and updating my resume):

Monkey Island, in a nutshell: This game was perhaps a larger part of my childhood than it should have been, but it left its mark. Hence my lingering love of all things pun, and piratical.

Epicute: The Cute Food Blog: They are so not kidding when they say cute. I wasted way more time on this blog tonight that I should have allowed. My self-discipline is somewhat lagging, post-college. Deep down, I crave structure.

And finally...

The Uptown Soap Co.: More miniature, tasty-looking, cute things. I've always had this not-so-secret love of hand-made/fancy/pretty soaps, and this blog is a gorgeous chronicle of some amazing soapmakers out there. I realize a blog about soap sounds kind of odd and maybe even boring, but trust me. Take the bait. Click the link. So pretty! And yet somehow, I only use Dove soap. Go figure.

UPDATE!!!
P.S. I'm suddenly very seriously looking at bento blogs and going "Hmm... that looks doable."

Adventures!

No booklove post today, although there has been much booklove of late in my world. Boy-Creature and I are taking a labor-day road trip up to Hearst Castle, so I'm spending the morning running about the apartment getting myself together.

Try not to get into too much trouble without me.