One last post for 2008

It snowed today! We were forecast rain last I checked (aka last Robert checked and I asked him), so this was quite a bit better and more exciting. Zion can get his own snow clothes on, and pretty quickly, too. It rocks, and was especially awesome today as he wanted to go outside every time Robert shoveled the driveway, and I didn't have to do a thing. Life is good.

Which is really the point of this post. Life here is good, and I am thankful. Sending energy and prayers to G-d and the universe for a peaceful, happy, healthy 2009 for all of us.

XOXO

The difference between you and me

This morning when I got up Robert was eating breakfast. Toast, with small slices of something white on top. He came and sat next to me while he ate and it was immediately apparent what the white slices were: raw garlic. I pointed out that he was going to be smelling very pungent for a while and he mumbled something about wanting garlic bread.

"But you don't make garlic bread with big slices of garlic!", I pointed out. "If you want garlic toast you rub the clove on the bread". (That's what my Jewish grandmother did. And great-grandmother. And mother. So I'm sticking to it! Even if I am a little surprised, in retrospect that my mom would feed us (and we would eat) rye toast with garlic rubbed on it for breakfast.)

"It wasn't that good", Robert admitted. "The garlic was really sharp".

"So why did you eat it?? After a bite of that I would've just brushed the garlic off". Sometimes I'm so reasonable it's amazing.

Robert looked a little shifty eyed. You that look people get when they can't answer a perfectly logical question? Yeah. "Well, um, it's good for my prostate?", he offered. "You wouldn't want me to get prostate cancer would you? You know I never go to the doctor..."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because going to the doctor prevents prostate cancer. You know, you still didn't need to eat all that sharp raw garlic".

Robert ate a candy cane. Then he smelled like peppermint. And garlic.

Color-ish

My Rav girls are doing a lace knit-a-long (KAL) starting in January. January 2- March 2 we are doing triangular shawls, and February 2- April 2 rectangular stoles. All the pics below are ganked (ie totally not mine).

For the triangles I'm doing Icarus, which looks like this:



So here's the Very Important Question: should I do it in Wollmeise in Sonne?



Or Wollmeise in Gewitterhimmel?

My magic wand

Kenn and Giselle are here tonight (en route to Montreal), so the kids got their Hanukkah gifts from them a few hours ago. One of Liel's gifts was a magic wand, like this (she's sleeping with hers so I can't show you the actual piece).

I know it's small, but you get the idea, right? OK, so after dinner the kids were running around in the living room playing with their new toys. Liel was nearly naked (for once it was my doing- we'd had spaghetti and meatballs and she had had chocolate milk. And did I mention she was wearing a white shirt? It was a disaster waiting to happen, I tell you. A laundry disaster), clad only in a pair of Tinkerbelle undies. I glanced over at their play when I heard Liel announce, "I'm going to put my magic wand in my pocket!"

What pocket? I wondered.

Liel stuffed the wand in her Tinkerbelle shorts. It poked out, pointing up at the ceiling while she continued to play, and her aunt, uncle, grandmother and I laughed so hard we cried (her father was washing dishes and missed the whole thing and her grandfather was very absorbed in his quinoa and red sauce right then).

More yarnz

Someday you may get tired of seeing the yarns I've spun. And I trust that, should that sad day ever come, you will keep it to yourself :)

So, here's the second yarn off my wheel! It is Corriedale (that's the breed of sheep), and 120 yards. I call this yarn "Blue Steel". Heh.



I turned it into this!



Third yarn off the wheel- I really got the hang of drafting while spinning on this one. Falkland wool, 160 yards.



Fourth yarn, completed this weekend. Blue-faced Leicester, 170 yards.



I've been fairly stressed lately (hence the lack of blogging) and spinning has been incredibly relaxing and full of awesome. I think the stress stuff is on the decline so with a little luck I'll get back in the blogging saddle, if for no other reason than to show of my babies yarn kids. Or something.

Scent

Just a bit of pimping for my favorite perfumer! Right now Possets is having a "Buy something get a free bottle" sale. HOLY CRAP! Free bottles of perfume. And Fabienne's work is gorgeous, too. Run right over! Sale goes til January 1, so I guess you don't have to run, but man. Don't miss it.

(For the record I am not affiliated with Possets in any way, other than being a fangirl. High Tea, Texas, and Churpz are my scent staples.)

Mole

Zion is currently behind the couch pretending that he is a mole and that space is his mole-hole. As he often does when playing this game, he asked me if I were hungry.

"No, thank you", I replied. Past experience has taught me that he doesn't always like me to say yes to this question.

Not today, however. "No mommy", he says, "this is just pretend".

"Ok. Yes, I am hungry!"

"Would you like apple, or grape, or raspberry, or lemon?", he asks.

"Um...lemon.", I say. I wasn't really paying much attention, to be honest. Then the word "raspberry" pops up in my mind and I say, "No, raspberry. Please".

"Not raspberry", says the mole.

"Fine. What do you think I should have?"

"No, no mama. You should choose what you want".

"OK, lemon." I try again.

"No mommy, I think you should have apple. It's smaller". A little hand popped out from behind the couch, proffering a red Mr. Potato-head nose for me to nibble.

Yes, it's all about choosing what I want, you see ;) (and you'll notice that apple wasn't even on the original list. How can I be expected to choose correctly if I'm not even offered all the choices??)

In case you were wondering

I'm relatively certain that there is at least one person out there wondering what I might like this season of gimme (and possibly as many as 4 people...directly under me). For all of you(s), I present my current wishlist of awesome.

1. Princess Unicorn! I think it might be the only way to get "My horn can pierce the sky!" out of my head. Plus it's princesses. And unicorns. FTW!

2. Spinning fiber, for Cupcake (that's the name I'm test driving for my spinning wheel). Right now I'm digging on the color combos at Laughingratstudio on Etsy- especially Iris, Flowerbox, Orchid, and Pacific. Or other spinning fibers in similar colors? Just no cotton, please. Or pure bamboo. Oh, I really like the pencil roving at Crown Mountain Farms, too!

3. How about a niddy noddy?

4. Needles for lace. Sizes 6 and 4, please.

5. Fake colored hair. I like pink, and blue,and aqua. Been wanting these for ages.

My horn can pierce the sky!!
xoxo

Melodrama

Zion and Liel are fighting over a plastic Spiderman head with a suction cup on the back. It belongs to Zion (it came with his toothbrush), but our rules about sharing dictate this toy is one that she may play with as long as she didn't, you know, snatch it out of his hand or something.

Zion wailed and threw himself backwards. "Li-EL!", he howled, "I neeeed that! I will DIE if you play with it! Did you know that, Liel? You will kill me if you play with my Spiderman!"

Liel looked over at him curiously. "Are you dead, Zion?"

Yarnz, I makez them!

It's the first yarn off my wheel!!! I'm on to yarn #2 now...it's a blue/white/gray/black roving.

Newark

Today I got to go to Newark, NJ. The drive from my house to there isn't very pretty- lots of um, urban grittiness. And while the sun was shining in NY, it was gray and bleak in NJ. Robert said that it looked like an Edward Hopper painting, which was fairly apt.

While driving through Newark I saw at least 6 billboards (sadly I didn't start counting right away) with a picture of a man in a jailhouse jumper and handcuffs. The "get tough" caption read: "Buy a gun for someone who can't, buy yourself 10 years in jail". The subcaption (apparently that's not a word, but I think it should be so there!) advised readers not to "Lie for the other guy".

Yeah. I think that pretty much sums up what I had to say.

Stalking

The end of the semester is here, and I am happy. I need to write my exams, give my exams, grade my exams, calculate final grades for everyone and by December 15 I should be done, done, done. 11 days, baby! My only regret is that I didn't wear my corset to class this semester. Maybe next fall...

Anyway, it appears I've started stalking yarn (cause, you know, it moves so fast. No, really. It does! With help from crazy people, like me). Wollmeise is having an update tonight and I'm kind of giddy about it. Not giddy enough to stay up all night waiting for it (that's what I have my dear sweet Ravelry friends for!), but still. And Posh is updating her shop on Sunday! Will I get yarn from both of these? Probably not. But I'm excited anyway, which clearly indicates the depths to which I've sunk. Thank G-d I have my Rav girls and Leslie to keep me company down here.

In unrelated news I just ate a ton of deep fried turkey with veganaise. One of my students brought it to me in class today and it was soooo delicious...the perfect lunch. Vegetableless, true, but so full of fat and protein! I can only imagine how much turkey I might've eaten straight out of the frier with it's crispy crispy skin...

My wheel- I loves it

That's right folks...I am now the proud owner of a spinning wheel! It's an Ashford Traditional, double treadle, single drive, scotch tensioning. I love, love, love it. It still needs a name tho- I'm working on it.

Here it is, in it's beautiful beautifulness. My spinning still leaves something to be desired, but it will come. And it looks pretty in the picture at least.

Things remembered

Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, I was watching the Anamaniacs and saw Pinky and the Brain perform a song called "Brain Stem". Even though I could only remember one line ("Hippocampus/neural node/Brain stem! Brain stem!") the song stuck in my head. And stuck in my head. And stuck in my head. And now, probably a decade later, it still pops into my mind from time to time, indicating that it is taking up increasingly valuable brain space. However! A few days ago I realized that the video was surely available on youtube, and it was. Enjoy!

Thankful

I've kind of fallen down on the whole blogging thing lately...tonight, Becka sweetly pointed out that she was over the "Jump to Conclusions Mat" post, and probably everyone else was, too. So I got off my tired, lazy bum and made this post. Just for you. All of you.

Kenn and Giselle came up yesterday. They discovered a new way of getting to our house, and I must say I like it. I like it so well I'm considering asking my parents to get here the same way when they are out in December. Stay tuned for that. Anyway, we cooked the usual Thanksgiving foods, ate them with great delight, and then went to Craig, Vivienne and Valentina's house for dessert and drinks. Other friends were there too: Abby and Asi with Gari and Eli, and Naomi and Dave with Agatha. The kids played and played and the grown ups ate and drank (Zion ate, too- 3 pieces of pie! Child sized pieces, but still. The boy is just not a big sweets eater, and 98% of the time doesn't even finish dessert). It was all very wonderful.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. First up: Uncle Kenny dancing the turkey! This is a Thanksgiving tradition in our family. Before the turkey is put into the oven it dances, and sings a little song about how much it looks forward to being roasted and eaten. I think it started because my mom sometimes used to dance whole chickens before roasting them, and as adults Kenny and I were delighted to discover that we both do that, too. Zion has always loved watching the chicken dance and we just naturally fell into it with the turkey. Now it is one of the most anticipated traditions of the holiday (really).



Zion, enjoying the leg of the turkey. Someday he and Kenny might have to fight over these.



And Liel, with a mouthful of food, not wanting to smile.

It's a "jump to conclusions" mat!

OK, not really. You got me. But damn, I love "Office Space"!

Just now Liel and I were looking at the birthday card the Tolls sent her, which has a picture of a dog on the front, and says "celebrate like someone forgot to lock the gate" on the inside. I read the words to Liel and she closed the card and looked at the front again.

"There's a dog on it", she said thoughtfully, "and his people forgot to lock the gate".

We have neither a dog nor a gate (or even a fence), so I was surprised she seemed to get the joke. "That's right", I said,"and what's the dog going to do?"

"Run around!", she said enthusiastically. So I guess she got the joke after all! Clearly I need to give the girl more credit.

Yesterday afternoon Zion was asking about our Dia de los Muertos alter, which we notably forgot to set up this year. "Who do we love that is dead?", he asked.

"Well," I said, "My grandpa, G.G.'s husband. He died when I was a little girl. And my great-grandpa, up there in that picture. You're named after him. And grandpa's brother- Uncle Kenny is named after him".

"How did Grampa's brother die?", Zion asked.

"In a motorcycle accident", I said.

"What happened with the motorcycle?", Zion wanted to know.

"I'm not sure", I said. "It was a long time ago, before I was born and I don't remember. If you want to know we can ask Grampa".

"But...will that make Grampa sad?", Zion wondered.

"It's very nice that you are concerned about Grampa", I said, "but I don't think it will make him sad".

"Because I would not want to make Grampa sad", said Zion.

And here I was, typing up this heartwarming story about how Zion is developing empathy and I hear crying downstairs. Zion and his friend J were fighting bad guys and Zion swung something too near to J and caught him on the side of the face. You win some you lose some, I guess...

Underoos and the like

I see I touched a happy collective memory nerve with my last post! I had Wonder Woman Underoos, too. Oh how I loved them! About 7 years ago I got it in my head that I needed grown up sized ones. I googled around and found nothing. So I actually emailed the company that makes Underoos and asked them if they were going to make adult sizes. Rather to my surprise I got a personal email back saying that yes, they were planning to make adult sizes in the near future. I checked for about 6 months and then forgot...until yesterday, when someone posted a link to these beauties. The total rad-ness nearly blinded me, and I'm glad it had the same effect on some of you!

I've also been swept off of my feet by bread. Bread?! Yeah, I know. I'm not one of those "eat my weight in bread" types...bread serves a purpose from time to time, but most days I don't eat any at all (and I bake a significant amount of the bread we eat in this house, too!). Anyway, someone recently shared a no-knead bread recipe with me and I just had to try it. Cause even though I let the kitchen-aid do most of my kneading I am apparently so lazy that even that small effort (turning on the machine??) was more than I really wanted to put in. So, I was intrigued, but slightly skeptical. I mean, if you could make good bread without kneading don't you think everyone would be doing it?

So, the night before last I mixed up the dough before bedtime (it sits at least 12 hours) figuring that at worst I'd have wasted 3 cups of flour. I baked it yesterday afternoon, and when we ate the bread last night I wasn't sure which I loved more: the bread, or me (for baking such amazing, delicious bread). I'm about to put a loaf in the oven right now, and will be back later with p0rn pictures.

FINALLY!!

I have been waiting for these for YEARS. I must have them.



Just leave a comment or send me an email if you need my address ;) Hey, I'll even post pics on the blog!

For Stacie

My dear friend Stacie tagged me in a game last week! But I'm so lame and slow that it's taken me this long to get around to it. Sorry, Stace!

I'm pretty sure that I'm supposed to list 6 irrelevant facts about myself and then try to get 6 of you to do the same. Hmm, shouldn't be too hard, right??

1. This one time, in Bali, I got a 4 handed massage (two masseurs, one me) and even though that was 7 years ago I still daydream about it. I am a massage piglet, so double the attention = rockstar.

2. Actually, I'm an attention piglet in general, come to think of it.

3. I play a live-on-teh-interwebz high end yarn swap game 1-2 times a week. It's probably the most grown up oriented social activity I do these days, and it's lots of fun.

4. I like my men manly. You know, the dangerous bad boy type who might get in a bar fight before roaring away on his motorcycle? Yeah, that one. As long as there was a good reason for the bar fight. Boys who use hair products (for example) are O-U-T. Oh, and so are boys (celebrities, I'm looking at you!) I've never met. Sorry, oh my thousands of fanboys!

5. Folding and putting away laundry was NOT on my mental to-do list today. Until I came home and saw it on my bed. The laundry is still on my bed (and I'm waging a tough mental battle against it), but it appears I'm going to have to do it at some point today, unless I want to sleep with laundry on my bed. And while I admit that my housekeeping is not really up to snuff, it's not far enough below snuff (whatever the hell that means) for me to do that.

6. I think I cook better when I cook with music and on and love front and center in my heart. Other things are probably better with music, too. Accordingly, I await the soundtrack to my life with minor impatience.

Leslie, Becka, Abby, Lilly, Mel and Robin, give it a whirl!

A day of days

Because, my darling daughter, it was just 3 years ago this day that you came to be with us in this world. Like your brother you were born at home, but in your case home was on a different edge of the world, in Brooklyn. You were posterior and sunny side up, which made labor a little different, but right before you entered the world you turned and spun (I think it was the not-quite-born equivalent of a leap), entering the world in grace and beauty. The midwife who was attending us even commented on what a beautiful birth you had.

Sweetheart, I love you in, on, around and through all worlds. This morning you said, "Mama, when you were just a little, little girl you wanted to grow up and be my mommy!", which shows your precocious wisdom :)









Happy birthday and MANY happy returns of the day (G-d willing!) Liel!

Pinch me

I think I'm dreaming. Last night I finally fell asleep around midnight and this morning I woke up at 530am. I couldn't fall back asleep. As soon as I was awake enough to read the clock my brain started in, "Did Obama really win?? What if the polls changed over night? Oh my G-d we actually elected him! Did we???". So I had to get up and check the polls again. And he still won. And I still feel like I'm in a dream.

The first presidential election I remember was the Carter/Regan race of 1980. I was 4 years old and remember being at school the next morning feeling sad. I didn't really know who Regan was, but I knew that my parents had voted for Carter and were disappointed and upset that Regan had been elected.

Zion is 4 1/2. Will he remember this election? Time will tell of course, but I think he will. We took both kids to vote yesterday, as we always do, and Zion asked questions about Obama and the presidential race. This morning when he woke up I told him that Obama had won and he came and sat on my lap an we talked about what that meant. I told him that our new president wouldn't take office until the beginning of the year, and that he would have a lot of work to do because our country wasn't in a very good place right now.

"What kind of things aren't good right now?", Zion asked. So I told him about the economy and the wars and the health care problems. He listened quietly and then said, "Yes. And the old president was not so good. He did not protect endangered animals".

So, I think he will remember. I hope he will remember. And if he does, I'm oh-so-glad that his first election memory will be more positive than mine! Either way I'm loving his interest in and engagement with our political process.

Today I am tired, but glowing.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween! Very low key. After nap/quiet time we carved pumpkins.







Then we went to Vivienne, Craig and Valentina's house so the kids could trick or treat together. Their neighborhood is more fun than ours in that respect- there were many houses with lots of decorations and a very Halloween-ish vibe. The kids were uber-cute and had lots of fun!





This morning I presided over the "mandatory allergy trade" wherein Liel gives Zion all her candy with peanuts and he gives her all his candy with eggs and any disparity therein is rectified. Now they've been at me all morning to let them eat candy. And I really do mean ALL morning...Liel ran into my room at 7am with her pumpkin bucket.

Twice in one day!!

Check me out.

I haven't had much knitting time lately- or at least not as much as I would like. But I did finish these gloves on Monday and I LOVE them!



And, as a total non-sequiter:

Tonight I read the kids a story called Good Night, Gorilla about a Gorilla who lets many of the zoo animals out of their cages so they can all try to sleep in the zoo-keeper's bed. One of the animals is an armadillo and the armadillo is usually Zion's favorite. Tonight he told me that, "If a little chubby armadillo with a stubby little tail and stubby legs and a cute face wanted to sleep in my bed I would snuggle and snuggle him!"

Really, I've done a rather amazing job of passing on my love of chubby/plump/stubby things to my children, wouldn't you say??

Hanging in there

Still here, more or less. Things have NOT slowed down for us. Our stream of visitors continues, works piles up, kids are...well, you know. Always there. Usually needing or wanting things. Being cute as hell, but taking up all the time in the world plus a few hours and leaving very little for anything else.

Robert's dad and his wife left this morning after a 3 1/2 day visit. Robert leaves at the crack of dawn Saturday for our annual professional conference (it's in Chicago this year), and I'll have the kids on my own for 3 days. He gets back on Monday, and my grandmother arrives on Tuesday. Next Friday is Liel's birthday and next Saturday we'll go down to Brooklyn to celebrate with Kenn and Giselle (and drop my grandmother off for a quick visit with them before she flies home).

I've finally (mostly) recovered from the horrible illness. At the height of it Zion accidentally whacked the crap out of my tooth with his head, giving me a tooth concussion which = my tooth still hurts a week later. Robert's cousin Eryn, who is in dental school tells me I should try not to use it and let the ligaments rest. Good advice, I'm sure, but I've managed to totally forget it until after I've torn off a huge hunk of french bread with my teeth and it starts hurting again. Maybe tomorrow will be my day!

We went thru the usual flip flops in terms of a Halloween costume for Zion this year. In the end he decided he'd like to be a ghost and I finally bought a white sheet for him yesterday. I cut out eyes, shortened it so he wouldn't trip and had a very happy boy. Today he is at a Halloween party dressed as...a ghost? No. Not a ghost. Dressed as some kind of Japanese style gangster in a double breasted suit with a sword. He looks awesome. Becka, it's the suit you sent! He loves it, and looks super sharp. I'll try to take a picture when he comes home.

We've had some beautiful fall weather so I'll leave you with some pictures from our walk to the park a couple days ago and a very weak promise to try to blog more!

Sick. Blah. Funny!

It's true, I'm sick. Run down. Achey. Can't stop sneezing. And last night, as we were drifting off to sleep I had a coughing fit that ended with me spitting in the trashcan next to my bed.

"Damn, I'm charming", I gasped as I reached for my water.

Robert assured me that he had married me hoping that he would someday get to hear me coughing and spitting into a trashcan. I guess it was his lucky night (but not mine as I had that horrible sick sleep where you're hurting so much you're sure you won't sleep and then you wake up hurting and think you'll never get back to sleep and then...)!

Anyway, someone on Ravelry showed me Engrish.com today and it has brightened my otherwise snot-filled day. Here are some gems for you to enjoy!

You spin me right round...

I need to edit my "About me" on the blog to reflect that I am now spinning yarn. And I looove it. I told Pete about it yesterday and stunned him into (temporary) silence. Then he said, "I think you've gone over the edge. Pretty soon you're going to be sitting cross-legged, on the floor- topless- with dreadlocks." I assured him that I was most certainly not going to be wandering around topless any time soon but I don't think I convinced him, somehow.

Anyway I actually don't have any pictures of my own fabulous yarn or spindles (I'm not spinning on a wheel but with a drop spindle). Now that I've realized this I'm feeling motivated to take pictures and share them with y'all...tomorrow. I promise! At least some time this week. And really, with the exam grading I'll be doing later in the week, tomorrow is certainly for the best. Yes.

Um, where was I? OH YEAH...spinning. Guess who has been really interested in my spinning, and begging to learn to spin? Zion! So tonight (after our big trip to Rhinebeck for the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival, which resulted in us coming home with 2 lbs of unspun roving to turn into yarn) I sat down with him and we started. I was a little apprehensive, cause I wasn't sure he'd have the fine motor skills to successfully spin and I didn't want to see him feeling frustrated or disappointed in himself or by an activity he had so many positive feelings about. But he did great! I split the wool into a thinnish piece for him and drafted it out just a bit for him. Then I hooked it up to the spindle and held the loose roving away from the spindle so it wouldn't get tangled up and away he went. He's watched me spin a fair bit so he had a good understanding of what he needed do be doing. He was essentially parking and drafting- spinning the spindle, the catching and holding it while he moved his fingers up the length of the roving allowing the twist to travel up, then pinching the wool to stop the twist travelling, spinning the spindle and starting the process again. He spent about 10 minutes spinning and I'd guess he spun about 5 yards of worsted weight yarn- and did so VERY evenly. Check it out:




And the yarn he spun!



I am so proud and impressed!

Goodnight, sweet prince

Brian and Ysette came over today for one of our regular wine events (today's wine was Pinot Noir. We had one from Germany and one from California and they were both delicious!). At first Liel was very cautious around both of them, probably because she's a bit sick and hasn't seen them in a few months. Later she cheered up and ran around playing football and other games with Brian (and Robert and Zion) in the backyard. When they left she even gave Uncle Brian a hug goodbye. I was so pleased that I told Robert about it as we turned off the porch light.

"Liel even gave Brian a hug goodbye!", I said.

Robert smiled at Liel. "Did you?", he asked. "That's nice, sweetheart".

Liel beamed. "Huh, I did!", she confirmed. "And then I picked my nose".

It's all true, I'm afraid.

Phoenix Sweater

Every year I knit the kids sweaters. Every year for the past two years, anyway! This year, after much debate, Zion decided he wanted a phoenix on his sweater. I spun the yarn for the phoenix myself! There was about an ounce of an alpaca/merino blend included with some roving I bought, which wasn't enough to do much with, but which was perfect for this little project. Anyway, I finished Zion's sweater tonight (and he's sleeping in it- how cute is that??).

Here is, not sure if I'm taking a picture yet.



And smiling!



And thanking me and telling me how much he loves his sweater (seriously, that's what he was doing. Charming to the max, that boy.).

Apple picking

It's fall here in New York. I can't believe the good weather we've had this year: cool summer, gorgeous sunny fall...I hope we aren't in for an extra long winter to make up for it!

Yesterday the kids and I went apple picking with Zion's class at a local farm.






After the farm we went to a classmate's grandparents house to learn about worms, compost, and bees. Here's Zion leaning in to see worm casings.



His friend has his own bee-keeper suit. Cutest. thing. ever. And he really helps, too!



Then the kids did circle time with their teachers and we all headed home. Liel was very tired!

Not exactly a born salesman

Yesterday our across the street neighbors had a yard sale. This morning they put some unsold stuff on their curb for the garbage man to pick up. When Zion and Robert were outside they spotted a plastic toy sword among the cast offs and Zion has been playing with it all morning. He did tell me it was for him AND Liel, but so far he's seeing all the play (though Liel hasn't really shown much interest in playing with it at this point anyway).

We thought about going to Target today (these things really do become related later on, just wait), to get a refill on my meds and possibly to buy Spore. But the pharmacy didn't open until 11am and who wants to go to Target at noon on a Sunday? Yeah, not me, either.

Now it's nap time/quiet time, and Zion just came bouncing into our room. "Daddy!", he cried, "I just thought of something! We forgot to go to Target!"

"We didn't forget", Robert said. "Mommy thought it wouldn't be a good time to go to Target, so we're going to go another day".

Zion stood on the bed and stared at him, trying to digest this. Then he turned and stared out the window for a moment before speaking, apparently in mid thought. "...because we already got one of their pieces of shit", he said. Robert and I looked at each other in confusion as Zion continued, "They put a bunch of their shit out that they didn't want anymore and we got some of it."

I suddenly realized he was looking across the street at our neighbor's house- you know, the ones who had the yard sale yesterday, and who put the treasured sword out in the trash this morning. I nodded over at their house to Robert and mouthed "Sword". We both fought the good fight to keep a straight face, but ultimately lost. Luckily Zion was oblivious to our giggles and he continued to hold forth on yesterday's yard sale. "Yes, they put those pumpkins (Halloween decorations) out in front of the tables so that could trick people to come over and see what they were selling. They put them there to trick people, and then the people would come over and buy their shit. Where is a World of Warcraft book that I can look at?"

Just don't call it shit, kid, and you'll have the market cornered!

Heh.

Another gem from found on my favorite Ravelry group.

The Sweater

In all it's glory!



PS- for those of you who don't know my brother, he is 6'8". There's not really much to scale him against in the picture, but I assure you, that is one long sweater! Esp the arm part of the sweater.

That's how it is with Saturdays

This morning I got to hear Robert shouting, "Don't run with scissors!!" to Liel. I think she stopped, too! We were waiting for the mail to arrive before heading to Brooklyn...I bought some lovely Malabrigo on sale and am anxiously awaiting its arrival. Today was not the day, but I did get some gorgeous handspun yarn from a Ravelry swap. I can't get a good pic now cause it's dark and all, but needless to say it takes my own handspun pic down a notch. I need to try plying my yarn- maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, after my exciting mail we packed up and headed out. Big day: giving Kenny his birthday sweater! Because he's so very tall and thin it was a total custom job and involved at least 10 phone calls during which I demanded that he measure from underarm to wrist, shoulder to wrist, neck to hip, hip to underarm, the sleeves on a sweater that nearly fit, etc. etc. The sweater used more than a kilometer of yarn and took between 100,000 and 150,000 stitches. So you can see why I was a little nervous about whether or not it would actually fit. I'll put you out of your suspenseful misery quickly: IT FIT PERFECTLY. I should've had more confidence in my own rockstarness, ya know? Seriously, it looks awesome on him. I'd post a pic for you, but we forgot our camera, and Kenny hasn't emailed me the pic I took with his yet. I plan to call and harangue him about it in the morning.

Zion had a kind of hard day at Uncle Kenny and Aunt Giselle's. He was underslept, grumpy, kind of bored, and really happy to be there all at the same time. In practice this meant that he spent a lot of time alternately antagonizing Liel for the fun of hearing her shriek at him, and telling his aunt and uncle how glad he was to be there, and how nice it was to see them. Pretty much your standard 4 year old Jeckyll and Hyde.

Kenny's been on about this fabulous Thai place they discovered in the neighborhood, so naturally I had to try it. It was quite, quite good. Wish it had been there/we had known about it when we lived there! I love coconut milk.

No visit with Kenn and Giselle seems to be complete without a debate about some point of grammar or pronunciation, so today we all learned how to correctly conguate the verb "to forsake" (it's "Chester has forsaken his sausage" or "Chester forsook his sausage"). Well, 3 of us learned. One of us already knew the correct answer, and she's typing this blog post. And no, being right never gets tiring!

Can't talk, spinning

You've probably missed me, and wondered why I wasn't blogging, right? Well, I've been doing the usual work/preschool stuff AND I've been spinning. Yarn! Real yarn! Right now I'm working on some lovely undyed stuff that is destined to become a hat for my dear brother, but here is a pic of the first batch of wool I spun. It's only part of the batch, and was my third attempt at spinning.



You may now tell me how totally rad I am. Making yarn = the heavens obey my commands!!