What's a fillyjonk?
(It's a made-up animal. Very feminine. Somewhat neurotic. A lot like me.)

Read Tove Jansson if you really want to know.
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You know the new iPod Nano commercial? The one for the one with video and a really catchy song? (At first I thought it was one of the female singers from Squirrel Nut Zippers singing backup - it sounds a bit like her - but no, it's a couple of Swedish indie rockers). (The song is called "Bourgeois Shangri-la")

Anyway, the tune kept bugging me - the tinkly intro, and all that. I had heard something like that before.

Yup:



I wouldn't call it a "rip off" but it's certainly an "inspired by" I think.

(And you know? Gary Lewis does look like his dad. I guess I never really saw video of him before.)

I have a very good "auditory memory" - to the point where sometimes tunes used in commercials strike me funny because they are so out of context. Three I remember:

"House of the Rising Sun" used for some sports drink (IIRC), showing runners "burning out" on the road. (The song is itself about a guy in a New Orleans brothel, or at least the version I know is)

"La Goulante du Pauvre Jean" used for Dove shampoo (It's a French song, essentially about a guy who turns to crime because girls won't fall in love with him. And he winds up being hanged in the end.)

and, most ridiculously, "Little Bitty Pretty One" turned into a sort of Zen chant for a green tea beverage.

I could probably serve as a detective or expert witness in cases where one artist is accused of plagiarizing another artist's song. If I've heard it more than once, I remember it.

(Sadly, that memory does not seem to be able to extend - at least yet - to playing piano "by ear.")
posted by fillyjonk at 7:45 PM

 
Some perspective. (The Universe has a way of whacking a person upside the head now and again):

I got an e-mail concerning a person I know. He is one of the "driving forces" behind the local soup kitchen (Families Feeding Families) that provides a hot meal, five days a week, to anyone in need. They also do things like collect winter coats to distribute to kids who might not otherwise have one. And they do other good stuff.

He has been diagnosed with throat cancer and is going to be starting chemo. He and his family don't have insurance. (I anticipate that if they hold a benefit, or ask for donations to help with the cost, they will find their cups running over...that is how people in this community feel about them). But the time and the strain and all the risk...that is worrying. I hope his family will be able to continue their service, or find people able to take it over - it is incredibly important and valuable in what it does (I've helped out on a few - sadly, only a few, because of my schedule - occasions and it really does fill a big need in my town).

He has a wife and children, too. Cancer is always horrible, but for someone fairly young like him and who is so vital and busy, it's an extra bad blow.

If you're a praying sort, would you mind saying one for him? (Brian Burkhalter is his name). And for his family.

My problems this week are nothing in comparison to what he is facing.
posted by fillyjonk at 4:08 PM

 
This is for Lynn, in regards to her last comment:


see more Epic Fails

Yes, you are probably right. And sadly, it seems to me that the "it's all about me" people are taking over. And you know, I WANT to see some of them FAIL. I want to see some of them face consequences for their self-entitledness. I'm tired of being responsible and doing what I'm supposed to and still having people come whining to me that, because I didn't bring the paperwork they missed getting to THE DOOR OF THEIR HOUSE that I am somehow a bad and wrong person.
posted by fillyjonk at 9:58 AM

 
I think we've already established that I watched far, far too many hours of Looney Tunes cartoons in my youth.

(But I maintain that they were FAR more educational - at least in terms of mid-century American culture - than many of today's cartoons are. I learned what a War Bond was, for example, from Bugs Bunny.)

Today in stats we did correlation coefficients. And I was mightily, mightily tempted to walk in there and exclaim in my best Daffy-Duck-impersonating-Jerry-Colonna impression, "Greetings, gates! Let's correlate!" (the best reference that I can find to the original)

But sadly, I knew that (a) not a one of them would get it and (b) as I was being evaluated today, anything that made me look like a nut (well, more of one than I usually do) would be inadvisable.
posted by fillyjonk at 9:41 AM

 
The day ended better than it began.

I finally broke free, got out to Lowe's, and ordered my new windows. I had been worrying about "When will I get out there?" and worrying about making a Big Expensive Decision and I think that partly preyed on my mind. (I am much happier AFTER making decisions - when it's done, and I can't mentally debate it any more, and I tell myself I will be happy with the result - than I am in the PROCESS of making decisions)

I did find out - when I called - that the Millwork guy is there from something like 2 pm until after the store closes at 10. (OK, so other jobs have things that stink worse than some of the stuff I put up with in academia...). I was afraid he'd have short hours, like 10 to 2 or some lunacy and I'd never get out there when he was on duty.

But I did, and got the windows picked out.

They are not the very top of the line, but close to it, and by Pella. I tend to think a company that's been around for umpteen years, at the very least, will be willing to make stuff right if it isn't. They're double-glazed (I suspect all windows are now), and have the tilt-in frames to make them easy to clean (I don't have to crawl behind the holly bush to clean the outside of the dining room windows any more; I can tilt them in and clean them from inside the house). And they have low-e glass, which I'm hoping will keep it cooler in the summer without running heck out of my air conditioner.

And they are vinyl. Yes, I know. Heresy, in a 60-odd year old house. I probably "should" have gone with wood. But I don't have time to paint wood and worry about its upkeep and if it's warping and all that mess. Luckily, I don't live in anything designated as an "historic district" so the Aesthetics Police won't come after me. I did select ones as close in style as possible to what I have now.

And if whoever winds up with the house after I'm done with it - if there still is a world and still is a house in the future - if they don't like it, they can put in whatever the heck they want.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised on the cost. I had money saved up for this, I was anticipating something like $12K, as a friend had window replacements priced out a couple years ago and claimed, "It will cost more than my place is WORTH" - he was saying it ran like $22K, and his house is no bigger than mine, so I was prepared to boggle at the cost. (I have no idea why his were so expensive. Maybe he was looking at custom jobs. Or maybe he wanted wood, and wood is a lot more expensive...)

Turns out, my replacement (barring anything unforseen like dry rot in the sills - which I may actually foresee, I spotted a bit and pointed it out to the installer and he said, "yeah, we can replace that for a bit extra") was only about half of the anticipated $12K. So instead of mostly-depleting my savings, it's only partly-depleted them, which relieves me - I like having a cushion of money in case something really goes bad and needs to be dealt with right away. And with a year or so's frugal living, I can build the savings back up to where they were before.

And yeah, yeah, they made the offer of financing and all (even with 0% interest) but my philosophy is, if you have the money NOW, pay for it all NOW. Then you don't have it hanging over your head.

Other good news: if the special-order comes when it's supposed to, it will be in the correct time frame for the installers to put them in in my little break between exam week and my departure for Christmas break. (Extra good: if the vinyl "outgasses" at all, I will be gone for much of it and won't have to smell it)

***

Knitted more on the never ending scarf of neverendingness. It's getting close to done, actually. And I know there are a few places with errors in it - mainly row 11s where I forgot a yarn over, and just said "bag it" and fudged in the next eyelet row (the following row 5). I don't know. Intellectually I know the errors won't show, but I admit that emotionally they bug me. Not quite enough to rip literally months of work out and start over (swearing not to make a mistake - because that never works anyway), but it still bugs me.

I keep telling myself that it's like the Amish quilts or the Persian rugs where the maker left an intentional flaw because supposedly to make something too perfect offends God. (Sigh. I never have to make sure to leave an "intentional" flaw in things).

I'll probably feel better about it when (a) I am less tired, and less tired of it, (b) it has blocked and I can realize that the mistakes don't really show, and (c) if I wear it and someone comments that it's nice or pretty or something.

But making mistakes does bug me. And it's more than on an "oh, I screwed up" level, it's almost like "The earth has now tilted a couple extra degrees on its axis because you did this thing WRONG and gravity is all out of whack and things aren't RIGHT." It takes me a while of living with a mistake to learn to tolerate it.
posted by fillyjonk at 6:57 AM

 
From a friend:

"Some days are just a waste of make-up."

That kind of sums it up. I'm going to bed.
posted by fillyjonk at 9:12 PM

 
Okay, maybe not. Maybe I won't leave this gig after all. Maybe I just have to channel that part of me that is "quietly and politely evil sometimes" (as my friend Doug says about me).

Student comes by wanting to know "are we doing anything tomorrow?" (urge to kill, rising, rising...seriously, if they KNEW how many times I have heard that question and resent it).

But this time, I had a response prepared - this is the stats class, the one that is driving me batguano crazy because so many people have missed and then don't know how to do the tests and then earn 20%s on their homeworks and are all sad and angry over it.

I said: "In fact, we are. We are doing correlation coefficients. They will be on the final, you will need to know how to calculate one. And the way it's written up in the book is not at all clear; you need to see someone work an example to understand it. You will be sorry if you skip class."

And he kind of hemmed and hawed - it was a social thing he was going to that might lead to miss class - but then he assured me he'd be there. So I need to stop any desire I have to be liked or even respected, I just need to be the tough old witch who tells it like it is.

I'm putting an attendance policy in my classes - all of 'em - next semester. Now, I hate attendance policies, first, because this is NOT fifth grade, they are adults and should know that they need to be in class, and second, because all of the logistics and the dealing with doctor's notes and obituaries and sad faced people demanding excused absences drives me wild. But I am so tired of people skipping for two solid weeks and then coming back and being SURPRISED there are consequences to it.
posted by fillyjonk at 2:49 PM

 
I hate to say this, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's time to leave academia. The combination of the rising Millennial generation and their sense of entitlement is the main reason, but there is other stuff.

I'm just utterly tapped out right now. I have no more sympathy. I have no more patience. I nearly cried twice today, and nearly snapped at a student.

The sad thing is, I have absolutely no idea what I could do if I left this gig. I have completely the wrong personality for sales and retail, I don't have any wonderful skills like being able to do electrical work, as much as I like knitting and quilting and stuff I hold no illusions about my work being good enough to earn me a living...

I need to find a rich older man and entice him into marrying me. That's all there is to it. He doesn't even have to be THAT rich. Or I have to go back in time and get born into a family with a rich grandparent that dotes on me.
posted by fillyjonk at 12:27 PM

 
You know what?

Even though I said I "had" to finish at least one project before starting something new, I am so totally casting on a new project tonight to reward myself for making it through this day.

I wound off some yarn last night...the Northern Lights yarn for the Lepidoptera mitts (and it looks even better wound up - I do not think it's going to pool in an ugly way, but rather maybe "sparkle" a bit - dark background with brighter flecks rather than brighter blobs).

And I kept thinking about the Cauchy socks (yes, named [indirectly] after that Cauchy) and how I wanted to make them but didn't have yarn in mind. So a hunt in the stash boxes turned up a skein of Dream in Color in a medium blue ("Deep Seaflower") that I think would be very nice for them. (Also, I just LIKE the Dream in Color sockyarn; it's pretty and it knits up well). So I wound that off.

I'm getting closer-to-done with the Angee socks (from the same book as the Cauchy pattern, which is why I was thinking about it). Maybe not before break, but they will be done soon.

I also wound off a couple of skeins of Happy Feet in a greenish-brown colorway. No pattern in mind of yet, but when I was getting the Dream in Color out of the box, I wound up disturbing them and made the skein "separate" (come out of the twist that it was wrapped up in) and from past experience, I know that leaving a skein in that state can mean that it's very messy to wind up later on.

I also dug out some screaming pink yarn and the Traffic-Stoppin' Boot Sock pattern. I've been wanting to do this one for a while but never quite decided on a yarn, but I think the brilliant pink (and it really is, it's almost Hello Kitty pink) will be "right" for it.
posted by fillyjonk at 8:35 AM

 
If anyone needs me today, I am going to be under my desk. Possibly sucking my thumb, something I haven't done since I was 2 or so.

This morning alone, I have had:

three weepy e-mails from students about why they canNOT take the exam today and how I "need to" give them a make up

an e-mail from a student who missed the exam I gave Monday because he was out of the country (I am SO asking for documentation on that one) and he "needs" to take it now. This is an exam that includes a take-home exam component. Which is due Monday. His, even though he doesn't have it yet, will still be due Monday.

A phone message from someone else who missed class yesterday and will likely miss class tomorrow.

an e-mail from someone On High...uh, telling me I have to do something that turns out it's supposed to be confidential and Kept From The Students (which we weren't told right off). And I don't know for 100% sure no one reads, so....you may have seen something different here earlier...

Oh, and we are also mid-Program-Review, which is like a collective departmental panic attack.

So it has not been a stellar morning. And I have only been here about an hour.
posted by fillyjonk at 7:36 AM

 
It turns out that this week (Monday, actually) could be considered a potential birthday for the American Teddy Bear. (I say "American" because the Germans - through Marguerite Steiff - also have a claim on the invention).

In 1902, then-president Roosevelt was in Mississippi. He was there to settle a border dispute with Louisiana, but he was also hunting at the same time. He had wanted to shoot a bear, but no bears crossed his path.

So one of his "handlers" went out and FOUND a bear. By some reports, it was an elderly bear that was weak, in others, it was a cub. The bear was (allegedly) tethered so it couldn't get away. But Roosevelt (allegedly, again*) would not take such an unsporting shot. So the cartoonist Clifford Berryman drew up "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," showing Roosevelt refusing to shoot what was depicted in the cartoon as a scared bear cub.

(*I say "allegedly" because another record of the trip notes that Roosevelt returned to Washington after shooting a bear. Hopefully not the one that was tethered.)

A toy maker in New York (Morris Michtom) thought he could capitalize on the popularity of the president - he sewed up a toy bear and (allegedly, again) wrote to Roosevelt asking permission to call it "Teddy's Bear." (If such correspondence existed, it's been lost, I think).

The Teddy Bear became quite a fad in its early days. It was even fashionable for flappers to carry them at one time. (The fact that some bears were made with flasks concealed in their bodies probably had something to do with that).

The bear's popularity seemed to wane after the 50s (this site refers to the 50s-70s as "the lean years," which I think was actually true for a LOT of toys...there were a lot of good toys that came out after I was too old to really enjoy them, and there were a lot of crummy toys in the 70s). It became repopularized in the 1980s, after collectors discovered the antique bears.

I've made quite a few bears over the years - I got interested in them when they became popular again and ALWAYS wanted an antique one, but could never afford it. (And actually, now, after getting a couple of modern Steiffs as gifts, I'm not sure I still want one - the "traditional" bear is very stiff and unyielding, and of course, the antique ones would have to be displayed very carefully, kept out of the light and all that). I think I prefer the more cuddly modern versions.

Like Bertie:



I have a lot of bears I've sewn from patterns (either from books, or ones I made up myself) over the years but have few photos of them. This one (I call him Algonquin) was made to look a bit like the original Berryman cub. He wears a small sized cat's collar. (The photo was really taken using the bear just as a model for the hat, but I remembered I had it in my photostream):



I also have quite a collection of "purchased" bears - I put several of them out at Christmastime (which I will be decorating for this weekend).

I've read a lot of different supposed reasons for why people respond to teddy bears - one being that they are vaguely human in form (bears, when they walk upright, walk "plantigrade" - on the soles of their feet - like humans; many other animals walk "digigrade," on their toes). But they are NOT human, and if you're someone who has temporary or permanent difficulties relating to other humans, that can mean something. And traditional bears have a rather "neutral" expression, so you can kind of project your own emotions on to them. And they were proposed as a sort of cuddly, lovable thing that it was at least marginally OK for a boy to play with.

I think perhaps the "nonthreateningness" of the bears is something people respond to as well. (Funny, because real bears can be quite dangerous, at least mothers with cubs can). I think also there is a tactile quality to them - at least to the furry bears - and I think some people are perhaps a bit deprived of the tactile in life.

I'm not sure any of those explanations work - or maybe, a bit of all of them do. At any rate, I'm glad teddy bears exist. I suppose some day I should chronicle the other ones I've made, most of which came into being before I had a camera.
posted by fillyjonk at 7:23 AM

 
Apparently, 'Unfriend' is the New It Word for 2009.

Is it wrong of me to say that that makes me a little sad? The whole concept of "unfriending" (and yes, I understand that there are valid uses of it, like if someone turns out to be stalkery and weird) makes me sad. It reminds me too much of grade school days, where the girls I knew would "friend" and "unfriend" people with, it seemed to me, no good reason at all*. The whole concept of "unfriending" pushes the button corresponding to one of my deepest "issues" - I think because I DID have "friends" in my past who either pulled the "If you don't give me your new Barbie, I won't be your friend any more" scam**, or who just decided that I was a drag on their newfound popularity. So they unfriended me. And 25 to 30 years later, it STILL hurts to contemplate it.

So I don't like "unfriend," and I don't like the thought of it being used lightly. Or maybe I just need to get used to this brave new world, where relationships mean little - where "hook up" has replaced "courtship" and where BFFs are really only BFFs until the following months.

I've said before I don't have a lot of friends, but the ones I do have, I am pretty fiercely loyal to. They have to do A LOT - I mean A LOT - to make me angry enough to consider dropping them. (I am actually probably too forgiving sometimes for my own good). So I find the whole idea of making and then dropping friends (I mean intentionally, not the sort of "we live on opposite coasts and never see each other and are at different points in our life's journey so we don't have so much in common any more" type of growing-apart) sort of appalling. And it makes me feel insecure: how can I trust this person if they might decide to stop being my friend next week for some capricious reason?

So, though "unfriending" may be the wave of the future, and I realize it's what I interpret as a serious word being used for a casual situation, it still bugs me.

(*I really, seriously wonder some days if, as a child, I might have been a bit farther towards the Asperger's end of the neurological spectrum, remembering how baffling and opaque so much of socialization and the "rules" (particularly those levied by other girls) seemed to me. It just seemed so much of what they did and how they chose friends seemed very capricious and illogical.)

(**How I got through high school without some guy pulling the bad old, "If you really loved me, you would..." scam on me makes me wonder now. Perhaps there were a few things I was capable of holding the line on.)
posted by fillyjonk at 3:59 PM

 
The contractors just got done (when they said they'd be out...I said they were good and I particularly asked for these folks).

The funny thing? After checking to see if "inside" and "outside" dimensions were the same using one of the dining room windows, they DID NOT HAVE TO GO IN THE HOUSE AT ALL. Instead, they went around outside and measured.

So, yeah. My rushing to clean up this weekend was actually not necessary. But now I need to keep stuff cleaned up until they can complete the work. (Hopefully that will be in about a month, unless the windows have to be special-ordered and specially constructed for my house).

The guy explained all that would need to be done; he seems very knowledgeable and also didn't act like I was the "little lady" who wouldn't know what he was talking about. Which is another reason why I like hiring these folks. (They asked if I had requested them and thanked me when I said yes.)
posted by fillyjonk at 3:27 PM

 
WANT..

500 colored pencils. With color-names like "Meryl" and "Garden Club" and "Orange Glaze."

It takes 20 months to collect the entire set - they do it by "subscription" (Yes, I checked.) It's also apparently $33 a month. As much as I'd love to have them, I balk at that kind of a cost.
posted by fillyjonk at 8:46 AM

 
It's a good thing I did push to get the entire house cleaned this weekend. Yesterday, the contractors called - they are going to be in town today and could come out and measure for windows. So after I get out of class, I am going to go home and wait for them; they ought to be able to get out before my 1:30 meeting this afternoon.

****

I worked a bit more on the Clapotis last night. Did one more drop row. And I'm now beginning to worry if I will have enough yarn to make it as wide as I want it. I was able to complete just over four repeats on one ball, I have

I think my next project needs to be a pair of fingerless mitts made of fingering weight. It's cold in my office but the worsted-weight ones I had on make it too hard to type.

I've decided on a different pattern for the "Northern Lights" sock yarn (this is the one I had a photo of earlier - black with light greens). I'm going to use the Lepidoptera pattern, which is a freebee on the Simply Sock Yarns website. I like it better for this yarn, and I think the pattern will be faster to do than my original plan.

****

Two spoilers (though I'm not sure how spoily they are; I've not seen the show for the past 2 weeks or so) from last night's House, MD:





I have to admit I'm tiring of the soap-opera-ness of the subplots. I enjoy the "medical mystery" angle, and trying to figure out what the patient has, and I enjoy House's interactions with the "team," but, seriously: NO ONE, no one, of the eight or so "major" characters, has a happy marriage/relationship? Or seems to have the potential for one?

"Fore-teen" (gag) has broken up. Wilson has had several marriages and several relationships. Taub apparently cheated on his wife. House was married but got divorced (well, I'd probably divorce someone with that kind of an attitude too), Cuddy is chasing after some guy who, I'm sure he's over 30 seeing as he's a doctor, seems too young for her (And almost looks a bit like "House, Jr." Interesting, that.). And now Chase and Cameron have broken up and Cameron is leaving.

I know an awful lot of doctors who are happily coupled. Granted, it may not be the same kind of pressure cooker atmosphere as "Diagnostics" seems to generate, but I know a surgeon who's happily married (and married for a long time), so it doesn't seem impossible. And I know two doctors who are married and who work in the same practice together and are still married.

It's like, can we have one token "old married couple" for a little balance? I once said that the reason I never watched soap operas was that the people around me in real life lived sufficient frustrating drama for me. I'm beginning to feel the same way about House, MD - kind of "meh," like I'm tired of all the excessive drama re: interpersonal relationships. I mean, in some ways I'm a screwed-up hermit but (a) I recognize that not everyone has to be that way and (b) I'm not even THAT screwed-up. In House universe, I'd be the person House was accusing of having brain damage because I am generally happy and more-than-generally nice to other people.

I don't know. Sometimes I think if I were an alien from another planet, and all I learned of Earth came from its current television shows, I'd never come here, for fear of being set upon by people who are alternately needy, whiny, backstabby, or rude.

It's funny, some people excoriate television for showing people's lives as being more glamorous than reality - that they are thinner and prettier and they dress better and have nicer apartments - and yet, at the same time, it seems to me a lot of characters on television shows have greatly impoverished emotional lives relative to those of the real people - the less-pretty, less-wealthy, don't-drive-a-new-car sort of people - that I know.

I'd rather have the rich emotional life than the perfect cheekbones. Even if they offered to throw in a new car.
posted by fillyjonk at 7:30 AM

 
This FAIL contains an R-rated word, so I'm linking rather than posting it, but I admit that:

1. It made me laugh.

2. It is a good reminder to be careful how you write exam questions, lest you get responses like that. (You still might, I guess).

I don't get a whole lot of "Hail Mary Pass" test answers, where the person puts something totally crazy and inappropriate in the hopes of getting sympathy points; usually they just leave the question blank. Which actually makes grading a lot easier but it still frustrates me: I will give partial credit even if they get just ONE of the necessary terms in there.
posted by fillyjonk at 10:43 AM

 
I have decided that this week is the beginning of Holiday Brain for me. Because I worked so hard last week, I find myself with fewer duties than expected. I have nothing (save grade some 50-point tests) to do after my 11 o'clock class this morning. So I am going to go home (I have no office hours this afternoon), have a nice lunch with a nice cup of tea, sit in my nice clean house and grade my tests, and then after that, put on some music and knit. And maybe think a bit about decorating.

Holiday Brain = that time of year when you think about all the good things related to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and do some of the fun things you like to do. (Ooh, I really need to order my Christmas cards.)
posted by fillyjonk at 10:16 AM

 
As it turned out, there was no Youth Group for my age group tonight - the older ones (18, 19 year olds) were at a friend's wedding out of town and got delayed coming back, and the two younger ones (brothers) both had migraines (they are 15 and 17, I think - which is about the age where my brother and I started having migraines, so I think that's not an uncommon age for them. I'm actually surprised I didn't get one as the weather here is supposed to undergo a large change overnight).

So anyway, I took advantage of the extra hour or so after dinner and the praise band played I went home and finished cleaning house. I scrubbed the bathroom and also the kitchen floor and vacuumed/swept floors. (Really, cleaning-cleaning goes a LOT faster - and is a lot easier, because you can go on autopilot - than decluttering-cleaning). I hope I didn't "rev" myself up to the point where it's hard to sleep (it's happened in the past), but I think taking a shower with lavender soap and playing the piano for a while before bed should help.

Even though this weekend was mostly devoted to life-maintenance tasks of the sort I normally gripe about, I actually feel pretty happy. It's a load off my mind to have the window-replacement process beginning, and also a huge relief to have the place cleaned up - I think my bleating about the house looking like a pigsty is partly mainly my own perfectionism; I would like my house to look like the ones in magazines, though of course I know the magazine sets involve the family that lives there moving out for a week while the "stagers" come in and remove everything that doesn't fit their "vision." And you can't actually live in a house like that.

(I also wonder if there's a difference in attitude between different people - the idea of "house as showplace" vs. "house as cave" - as in, the showplace is there largely to bring other people in, maybe to impress them, whereas the "cave" - which is what I lean to - is the place you go to escape the outside world. The place where you have your books and stuff and you can close the door on everything else "out there." And that you only rarely invite other people in to your cave, because a cave is a very private and personal thing...)

I still would like a self-cleaning kitchen though. Or at least one with a sealed floor that slopes to a drain, and a spigot close to floor level, so I could just close off the drain, turn the water on, add some soap, let it soak, open the drain, and then run fresh water through, instead of the laborious scrubbing. (And yes, despite all the Swiffer "Wet Jet" commercials, I think you DO have to really scrub at least once in a while to get the floor clean).

Despite doing all the life-maintenance stuff this weekend, I did finish the current "simple socks":

Well, it looks like Flickr needs a "massage." Darn it. No photo tonight, will see if I can upload one tomorrow.

Oh, wait, I still can, via Blogger:



I really like them. I'm always glad when I make the effort to make socks "match" - this involves starting at a recognizable place and then, if necessary, winding off yarn before starting the second sock so you get to that same "place."

As I said, they make me think a bit of roller derby - both the broad stripes and the acid green/grey color combination. (As I also said: Maybe I will feel tougher on the days when I wear them).

I like the "just simple" socks; there is something satisfying about them and they are easy to wear. I still like making the more complex lace or cabled socks, but there's also pleasure in just making something simple.
posted by fillyjonk at 8:06 PM

 
I spent about 40 minutes before church, and then three hours this afternoon cleaning and decluttering my bedroom and the guest room.

I am almost at the point of saying "Forget it, I don't care whether the contractors think I'm an OCD hoarder who can't ever pitch a magazine." (And some of them, I really can't. The old Interweave Knits - they have so many patterns I still want to knit! The old "Groups" still have useful ideas (and wow, do I need useful ideas right now) for things to do with Youth Group)

However, I could probably eat off my bedroom floor right now. And not get sick, I mean.

The worst part of cleaning, I find, is putting everything back in its place. Or finding a place for the stuff that never had a place in the first place. The sweeping and dusting and scrubbing are easy by comparison.

I have decided to switch out the quilt on my bed for the Paddington Bear Christmas quilt (yes, it is still technically too early. No, I do not care).

And moving stash around - I had to move a couple of the clear boxes of it I had been keeping in my bedroom - always makes me long to start new projects. All the nice yarn I have! When will I have time to knit it all up?
posted by fillyjonk at 3:31 PM

 
I got a few things done today.

First, I finished sorting through the last soil samples. What this means is, I still have to count and score the "critters," but at least they are all preserved and if necessary, the preserved samples can wait a couple weeks. Which is good; I think I'm going to wait until after Thanksgiving to even think about these.

The second thing I did was went out to Lowe's and set the process in motion for getting new windows. The installers (the people I've worked with before on other things, so I know/trust them) are going to call some time next week. Which means I need to get the terrible clutter in my bedroom and the guest room out of the way, and at a minimum sweep again and scrub the kitchen floor. (I have this horrible vision of someone coming into my house and reacting like it's one of those houses on "Hoarders" - and, mind, my house is no where that bad, but I find that people who live in the bare/spare houses, who don't do crafts, who read one book at a time and that is checked out from the local library...well, they don't always understand. So I have issues about how people see my house. Having a small house with not much storage space does not help).

It may be too late to get them installed in the few "flex days" I left between exam week and going home for Christmas break, if they have to be special-ordered (or especially if they are not a standard size). But I also have a few days when I get back in January before classes start, so that would work too.

(Really, my bedroom is the only room where the windows are not readily accessible - I have low bookcases right in front of one set and also have a couple of stash-boxes stacked in front of those. If I just move the stash-boxes to my big closet it should be OK.)

I also bought a big tarp. Because they are saying on the weather that today is supposed to be the last warm dry day for a while, and I wanted to get the leaves out of my front yard.

In the past, I raked them all into piles, and then spent what felt like hours of punishing work trying to pick the leaves up (salad-tongs style, using a second rake) and dump them into the wheelbarrow, and then take them out back and dump them on the leaf pile (over the course of the year, they rot down to soil, so it seems really wasteful to me to send them to a landfill).

This year, I was smart - the tarp made things SO much easier. What I did was rake the leaves onto the tarp, and then when there were a bunch on there, I rolled it up into sort of a leaf-burrito and just carried the rolled up tarp to the leaf pile and dumped the leaves. The other nice thing about this was that when I raked the last pile of leaves and dumped them, I was DONE - no raking and raking and then realizing I had what seemed like endless piles of leaves to try to pick up. So I'm definitely using the tarp method in the future. (It also seemed to get done faster. I never timed things in the past so it's possible it wasn't faster, but it just seemed so because it was easier).

If anyone wants to replicate it, I used a 6' by 8' tarp, 5 mil thickness. Thicker than a painter's dropcloth but about the thinnest tarp that Lowe's sells, and it held up fine. It might have been a bit easier with another person or two to hold down the edge of the tarp while the leaves were being raked on to it (and to keep it from wanting to fly away on the breeze when it was empty), but even doing the job alone, it was not too bad.

I've also decided on the house cleaning that I am not going to kill myself by trying to do it all this afternoon or tomorrow; I have an easier schedule next week so I'm going to try to do a half-hour or an hour every afternoon until it gets done. Which should happen about the same time as the contractors call me to come out and measure for windows, if things work like I hope they will. And then, next weekend, I am decorating for Christmas. Yes, it is still early, but I will be gone over Thanksgiving.
posted by fillyjonk at 2:19 PM