Tuesday, January 27, 2009

So, incredibly, boring are we.

This is an attempt to convince you to stick around, as I have grand plans for more postings soon.

I'm sorry, but we've been sick, and, well, boring lately. Not much going on, other than general business. Nothing exciting enough to put up here.

Except the kitchen. The kitchen is ALMOST ready to post the before and after pics, I swear.

And the basketball. Fezzik joined a team and watching 8 year olds run up and down the court for 32 minutes is highly entertaining.

And the transitioning. The Tiny Viking has moved up to the Transition room. He's almost 2! Weep!

Rest assured I have stuff brewing, so if you could just hold please, until I can nail that stuff down, that would be great.

Ooh, and one of the things I'm trying to nail down is muy muy controversial. Dontcha just love a cliff hanger?

Yours,
Kath

Monday, January 12, 2009

Lawnboy, the Interview

I have not waxed poetic about my husband of almost 12 years in a while. Dudes, I'm the luckiest nerd-girl in the world. Evidence:

What's your favorite book? I'm gonna go with Guns, Germs and Steel.
What's your favorite song? 'Fool's Gold,' The Stone Roses
What's your favorite movie? First one that comes to mind?"Delicatessen"
Television Show? Nova (like father, like son!)
Favorite Smell? In terms of the memories it evokes, the dry-cleaning chemical PERC (dear god, his parents ran a dry-cleaner's when he was a child. we're all going to die of cancer.)
Favorite Taste? Garlic Naan
Favorite Sound? Tiny Viking's jabbering
What's your favorite instrument? Probably the guitar
Favorite Food? Rice
Favorite thing to drink? Wine, tokay (specifically, my dad's)
What's your favorite animal? cat
What's your favorite thing to do (G-rated)? Read
What's your favorite planet? Earth. It has got life on it.
Where's your favorite place to go? Tuscany is the first one that comes to mind.
What's your favorite imaginary place? At the moment, Kwutunga
What the hell is that? That's here, but not. A subset of Cascadia, it's the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin/Juan de Fuca Strait Watersheds.
Where could I learn more about Kwutunga? Only by talking to me, right now. Maybe one day it will be a book.
Why is it called "Kwutunga?" It's a bastardation of the Salish words for land and water.
What makes you nervous? Lots of things. I guess probably talking about things I don't know anything about.
Specific example? Like a job interview. I don't know what the questions are going to be, and I don't know how to answer them.
What makes you happy? My family.
Who do you admire? Ummm, your mom.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Me.
Not who, what? Fezzik and Tiny Viking's dad
You already are that. Pick something else. Something that you're not already. An author, a writer.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Fezzik, the Bio

At this moment, Fezzik is on the cusp of turning 8 years old. Thought it was a good idea to capture some snippets of his last few days of being 7.



What's your favorite book? Brisingr
What's your favorite song? The first song in our They Might Be Giants cd that's in my thing that wakes me up in the morning (that would be "Birdhouse in Your Soul" from "Dial a Song" disc 1)
What's your favorite movie? Bionicle 2 (really? not "Star Wars?"..."nope.")
Television Show? Nova
Favorite Smell? They way Rocky and Blankie smell
Favorite Taste? ice cream (vanilla)
Favorite Sound? Mom singing bedtime songs
What's your favorite instrument? violin
Favorite thing to do at school? go to the computer lab and have free choice
What's your favorite game? chess
Favorite Food? pizza
Favorite thing to drink? juice (apple)
What's your favorite animal? king cobra
What's your favorite thing to do? go on Club Penguin
What's your favorite planet? Venus, because of its atmosphere - I like its atmosphere. It crushes everything that comes in, really. Pretty fast.
Where's your favorite place to go? New Mexico, because Grandma Kay and Grandpa Dave live there.
What's your favorite imaginary place? On Bionicle, silly, it is my favorite imaginary place, except someone else made it up: The Great Barrier
What makes you nervous? Well, sometimes, monsters in the dark. Being late is one of the scariest things in the world for me.
What makes you happy? Rocky and Blankie; my Bionicles.
Who do you admire? ...(long pause) the only person I admire is already dead. Leonardo da Vinci.
What do you want to be when you grow up? a paleontologist.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Things I Do

Auctions.

At this one, I'm taking a particular interest in the wooden file cabinets, I think they would replace our old metal "MASH 4077" green ones nicely, given the opportunity.

Also, the small painted chest. There's a neat looking old dresser and nightstand too. We'll see.

Try going to an estate auction in your area. They're completely addictive.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Craftiness

I may have mentioned (a billion times) before, that I've been obsessively knitting. I had intended to make Lawnboy a hat (FAIL!), slippers for my sister (check!), fingerless gloves for Fezzik (FAIL!), mittens for Tiny Viking (FAIL!), a hat for my sister-in-law (check!), and various and sundry other random accessories for my other beloveds.

Two out of 40 ain't bad, eh?

The knitting-for-profit thing has taken off, though. I did a craft fair at work before the holidays, and was able to sell a handful of hats. Then, I went to my friend's annual ornament exchange party, and since we were broke, I decided to knit my ornament. I made the cutest pair of tiny mittens you've ever seen. So cute, in fact, that they were fought over at the party, and 2 (!) people demanded to buy some from me on the spot. I dutifully went home that weekend and knitted both pair.

That makes me a PROFESSIONAL KNITTER. Don't get me wrong; I have no delusions about knitting for a living (sigh), but DUDE. I SELL STUFF I MAKE. TO STRANGERS. AND THEY LOVE IT.

(NOTE TO SELF: I need to get the leftover baby hats up on my Etsy store before the weather takes a turn for the warm. )

Meanwhile, I'm struggling with what to call my stuff, and how to handle my varying array of stuff I plan to sell there.

What do you think? Should I have a separate shop for each type of obsession? A knit shop, a soap shop, and a vintage shop? Or is it not as weird as I think it is, to have them combined?

Friday, January 02, 2009

2009 Goals

Well, hello doves! A friend mildly suggested I get cracking on the ol' blog again. The only inspiration I have is my 2009 goals. They are as follows, for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to benchmark me at the end of the year.

  1. Knit a pair of socks each month, alternating between the boys and myself.
  2. Save enough cash to travel to Chicago and New Mexico to see the families, all of whom I love and miss. This means you, Sis. And you, Dave, Kay, Thane and Aleisha, who remain blogless to date.
  3. Cook every recipe in The Indian Vegetarian, up to and including the eggplant ones. This might be the only cookbook in my vast collection from which I've never even tried a recipe. It haunts me.
  4. Blah, blah, blah, pay off the debts we've re-incurred. This one makes my stomach hurt. But I have a new kitchen to show for it! Stomach pain is wearing off now...
  5. Start funding an Emergency Savings Account. This will come in handy should I (conveniently?) get laid off. Which isn't imminent, but you know, it doesn't hurt to have a plan.
  6. Live well within our means this year. We've laid a good foundation for this, with a grocery budget and everything, and the daycare payment is going down by 56 whole dollars next month! It's hard, yo.
  7. Figure out how to be happy about the tiny, but affordable (and completely adequate!) house we have. I'm getting there. Not there yet, and I'm sure it involves more organizing and cleaning than I've grown accustomed to, but let's see if we can get there this year, shall we? Dude, the neighbors have 8 kids in their little house, and if they can do it, I should be able to fit the 4 of us into these 900 square feet without issue.
  8. Play more with the boys. As in, every single day, play.

These are not too head-in-the-clouds goals, don't you think? And all with nary a weight-loss word mentioned!

Happy New Year, all!