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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

A Random Conglomeration of Awesomeness, a.k.a. An Excellent Gift Guide

Hurry, folks, time's a-wastin'. By my count, there are 5 more days until Hanukkah, 9 to Christmas.

Were you looking for CHEAP-ASS gifts for your beloveds? Ones that say "Even though I can't afford much, I still think you're worthy of cool stuff."? Look no further, here are four sweet deals for under $20, one for under $30 and one for exactly $40 that was too cool to pass up. Not too shabby.


This poster is about the coolest reference material ever made.


Yarn in beautiful colorways for the peacenik in your life.



A "Rad" tee shirt by rad artist Ray Fenwick.


Foxes in Trees.


A pretty little cardinal pendant, featuring my favorite colors.

I don't know about you, but I feel better knowing that you know about this now.

Fay Four: the Sitar

Not as exotic as a hurdy gurdy, and every Beatles fan on the planet is familiar with it, but who doesn't love a sitar?

This is Anoushka Shenkar, daughter of Ravi Shenkar, who taught George Harrison how to play. She is incredible.

Day Three: The Hurdy Gurdy

We saw a hurdy gurdy in action at Folklife Festival a few years ago, and I fell in love with it.

I've always been drawn to gypsy music, starting with Bartok's Romanian Dances in 7th grade, with my youth orchestra. There's something so complicated sounding about the hurdy gurdy. I think it's the drone strings.

Close your eyes, and you might mistake it for a bagpipe. If you're not Scottish, I suppose.

Day Two: The OUD

My belly dance classes have introduced a whole new world of instrumentation into my life. The oud is very impressive.

Theme Week: Exotic Instruments

Tonight, at dinner, we were (nerdily) listening to a radio program about Nicola Tesla. At some point, there was a theramin theme song. We asked Fezzik if he knew which instrument it was. Negative. We reminded him that he'd played one once, at the Science Center.

He replied, "Am I supposed to remember every exotic instrument I see?"

Yes, Fezzik, yes you are.

I bring you EXOTIC INSTRUMENT WEEK. Don't forget them, these instruments rule the world.

Day 1: Theramin

Project Time

It's that time of year again, when thoughts turn to cheap but meaningful gifts. Using up what I already have is a plus, too.

Spoiler alert: it's rather difficult to make soap with Tiny Viking getting into everything these days.

Knitting projects have their appeal. I have tons of yarn (if not tons, maybe pounds), needles, and there are a million free patterns on the interwebs. I enjoy knitting, the design element, the ability to customize a gift to a loved-one's personality. And most people appreciate the time and effort put into it (and non-knitters are sufficiently amazed by my skills), so it pays off. I wonder if it's a bit hokey, though, and if the actual item is appreciated as much as the sentiment, or in equal relation to the efforts I put into creating it.

I just finished a headband for my friend Heidi's (belated) birthday. It only took about an hour and a half to make. Then I came home from her brunch, and swiftly made my friend Jessica one that she can use for a wedding headband, if she wishes. Then, after I finished that one, I started on a hat for Fezzik. I finished the hat this morning. Now it's time to find a pattern and start one for Tiny Viking. This is appealing, I must say, but perhaps a bit too difficult for this time of year. And, well, it is ridiculous.

Lawnboy's ever-more hairless pate is in need of a nice forest green watchcap, too. Yarn has been procured, all that's left is finding the right pattern.

I know I'm crazy, and what's worse is that these are just the ones I could mention; there are a dozen or so more ideas floating in my head, what to make for my friends. We'll see if I get my shit together in time to pull them all off. Don't hold your breath.

The Never-ending Coral Maze

This post is for Brooks and Dave; I hope you already have tickets, dudes:

http://www.phish.com/news/index.php?year=2008#story409

Timing is Everything

Heh. Right, so the whole family has been running on empty for about a week. I'm exhausted, and I don't know why. I think it's me fighting off the flu (and succeeding, dammit!), but today Lawnboy asked me if I thought I might be, you know, maybe, pregnant?

WHAT THE EFF?! Oh hell no. Lawnboy, have you blocked that trip we took to Dr. Snip? Because even though they weren't my vas deferens, I remember it. Don't get teste with me. (Oh god, I can't believe I just wrote that. It's staying, though. I love puns. Especially dorky ones like "teste.")

Well, this whole post is way more than you needed to know, so I think I'll just keep on going. Here's the deal, the secret behind that question: Dr. Snip told Lawnboy that he doesn't have a green light yet. Something went wrong with that surgery. And he might have to repeat the whole procedure.

If there's one thing that trying to get pregnant for two-and-a-half years taught me, that thing is timing. It's everything. And, since there are only a few live swimmers in any given "deposit" (I'm so sorry, there's no delicate way to put it, and please rest assured I'm blushing right now, prude that I am), we've been mostly careful since his surgery, so the odds are slim to none, so don't get your hopes up.

Although, there's a sick, sick part of me who would really enjoy having another baby in the house. Tiny Viking is not a little baby any more, and holding our friends' baby Sadie last weekend reminded me that I might have agreed to the vasectomy a little too soon. Not that we could afford another child. That's another post in itself, although I'm sure most of you can relate. However, two in daycare almost completely mitigate my salary, so perhaps it's not such a terrible accident after all. Perhaps I'm not hoping I'm fighting the flu. PERHAPS I REALLY AM PREGNANT!

Whoa, is that hormones? Was I just yelling at my audience?!? Time to get an EPT.

Chronic Overachiever

In my endless quest for attention, I've ventured into the world of online craft and vintage crap sales.

Hooray for the internets, and hooray for me!

I need a better camera, obviously, but that will have to wait for a while. Until, you know, we pay off the kitchen remodel. Unless anyone out there has a Canon EOS Rebel they want to get rid of. Anyone? Anyone? Email me & I'll send you our home address...

So, anywhoodle, go here and buy my thing. There are more things to come. But as you know, I'm busy, so please be patient.

The Shiner

My boys have not yet broken any bones, or required any stitches. Before yesterday, in my 8+ years as a parent, I'd only been to the emergency room once, for pneumonia when Fezzik was about 2.

I'm not a freaker-outer, so there may have been instances in past that could have been borderline E.R. material. But my usual routine is to slap some hydrogen peroxide (or magic bubbles) and a bandage on their owies and call it good.

Yesterday, while I was in a meeting (at the job that pays me to stay there and do stuff), I got a call on my cell phone from Tiny Viking's teacher. I knew it would be bad when I saw the caller ID, because they NEVER chase me down on my cell phone. I excused myself from the meeting and picked up the call, and found out that Tiny Viking had hit his face on a window sill and required my attention. Immediately.

These are the moments in which I'm glad we pay and arm and a leg to have him onsite at my work. I was able to run to his class and get there while he was still crying. He had a cold wash cloth on his face, and whimpered when I reached out for him. I pulled the wash cloth back to see the damage, and I knew that it wasn't great. Head wounds bleed, y'all. A lot.

After I saw that the cut was pretty deep, I decided to err on the side of caution this time, and take him to the hospital. I felt a little silly, because there were no protruding bones or hanging body parts, but still.

Do you know that they super glue now, instead of stitching? It's so cool! They washed it out, and glued his face back together, and all he has is a little owie and a shiner now. Very dangerous, very mysterious. See?

Victory is Ours!

Oh happy day!

How Not To Parent

The budget doesn't have room in it for studio portraits of the boys in their (ADORABLE! CREATIVE! MOSTLY HOME MADE!) Halloween costumes, but do you think I could take a damn picture with MY OWN CAMERA? Nope.

Not of both of them, anyway.

I did capture the Tiny Viking in all his precocious glory. This was pre-pillage, so he's not all tuckered out in his stroller like he was when we went trick-or-treating. Fezzik did the door-to-door stuff. I figured we didn't need any more candy, and the small one doesn't know he missed out anyway.

By the way, the small one will henceforth be referred to as TINY VIKING. Because it's cute. And he's Swedish. And he dressed up as a Viking. And it's much, much easier to type than "The Amazing So and So."

Vocab

Ten old fashioned terms I'd like to bring back into our daily lexicon:

1. Shenanigans (My boys and their shenanigans!)
2. Snazzy (Brooke, that's a snazzy top you have on today!)
3. Razzle-dazzle (This power point is boring. Let's add some razzle-dazzle.)
4. Houligan (Those houligans across the street are up to no good again.)
5. Trousers (These trousers are tight on me!)
6. Scram (Here comes Steve, we'd better scram.)
7. Meat hooks (Get your meat-hooks off of me!)
8. Unmentionables (I washed my husband's unmentionables with my red shirt, and now they're all pink.)
9. Davenport (Let me move the cat so you can sit down on the davenport.)
10. Drainboard (I left the banana bread out on the drainboad; help yourself.)

Halloween at the Zoo

We went to the zoo last night for the Pumpkin Prowl, and it was dark and scary for Fezzik, but fun for the rest of us!

We saw this fantastic acrobatics troupe from Portland, Kazüm, performing to The B-52's "Planet Claire." It was amazing.


And the Youth Company from SANCA. No video, but they juggled glowing balls in the dark, and jumped rope (sometimes while juggling). These kids were so composed, even when they missed. I'm always in awe of folks who can pick up and run with it after a snafu, without a hint of poor showmanship. This is the place where we'll take The Amazing So and So for acrobatics classes once he turns two.