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Zugt mir a mazel tov!

A Canon PowerShot A630 has taken up residence in my house. I'm sure we'll be great friends, as soon as I wade through the fat stack of manuals that came with it.

What I Didn't Do Last Night

I didn't watch the State of the Union address.

I won't have that sort of filth in the house; I have a toddler to think about.

Because I am a glutton for punishment, though, I read about it today. Let's run through the salient points, shall we?

Health Care:
There's a lovely deconstruction of this happening over at Making Light. (I know, I know, do I ever read anything else? Just go.)

Alternative Fuel:
You know what? Not even touching that one. Gun, fish, barrel.

Give War a Chance:
Work with me on this, folks; it's gonna happen this time, just be patient? Hey, Moron, what have we been doing for the past 8,000 corpses?

Sigh.

Hey, Halifax

To the person who found my blog by searching "car door won't latch cold" - if you find a fix for that, would you let me know?

Promiscuous Knitter

I admit it. I have a problem.

Yesterday, the boys went skiing, and I had six glorious hours all to myself. I worked a bit on the smut, and a bit on the resume. I drank coffee, and ducked out to look at digital cameras. Finally, I popped a movie in and settled down to knit.

I've been such a good girl, too; all I had hanging around on the needles was the Steppe sweater and the ladybug hat/baby hat combo (this is two hats, but since one is made of the leftovers from the other, and they're destined for the same head, they've become one in my mind. Only two (three) projects! So virtuous, and I really can see the light at the end of the hat tunnel.

So what did I do? I cast on for another hat. I had planned to do the Aran cap from the Knitter's Almanac for January, but a few rows into it, I wasn't having much fun. I started to rationalize: really, I wanted to do the full-on Aran sweater, but I refuse to knit myself a sweater until I've lost a set amount of weight (no, I'm not sharing the number). And, after all, I don't really even wear hats; they give me apalling hair. So maybe I shouldn't keep going with this. Maybe I should start the Almanac in February, and come back around to the Aran next January, when I can do it properly. Besides, I'm really not wild about this fishtrap pattern, and it will be much better once I've designed my own...

I stopped working on the hat. At this point, common sense anf knitterly virtue would dictate that I pick up, say, the Steppe sweater. (Perfect movie knitting. All stockinette. Way better than cables. Idjit.) Can you guess what happened instead?

Bad knitter. Faithless knitter. Where has my attention span gone?

Mazel Tov!

While my household was recovering from the plague, my friend Kristy and her husband Mike became the proud parents of an adorable little girl. Welcome to the world, Isabella!

Smut

After letting it stew in the back of my head for a bit, I've decided to enter this contest. I may or may not post some of my entry here, depending on how it goes.

Extended Forecast

While the viral front we've been experiencing for the past week has moved on, look for scattered vomiting and general crankiness through Friday.

This morning I got Adam ready for daycare and bundled into the car, only to arrive and find that they'd be opening two hours late. Crap. Across the street to the coffee shop to waste some time, then.

I got Adam situated, gave him a bit of my bagel, and we were having a fine time, until he scooted too far back across the chair and tumbled to the floor. Not a bad bonk, but enough to make him cry. I picked him up and tried to calm him down, and just as he started getting quieter, I heard the all-too-familiar hairball sound.

Both of us were covered in yuck. Neither of us had a spare shirt.

Back into the car and home, stinking of bile all the way. Clothes into the washer, everybody wiped clean, new clothes and anti-nausea medication applied.

Then I dropped him off at daycare, because another day at home with a cranky, sick-but-not-really kid would send me straight to the madhouse at this point.

*Note* I am not a bad person. I am not endangering the other leetle children (won't somebody please think of the children!). His doctor assures me he is safe to be in company, but that the nausea may last through the weekend. Emetrol for baby, Vodka for mommy.

Whiny

I'm worn out.

On Wednesday, it started snowing again. I worked from home, since the roads in ourt neighborhood are the first to ice up, and I didn't trust that I'd be able to get home if I waited until the weather turned at work. It turns out it was a good idea, since the daycare closed early, and Matt was stuck in traffic on the east side for hours. I picked Adam up shortly after the snow started, and my usual ten-minute trip home took an hour. If I'd had to make that trek from work, I don't think I would have even gotten there by the normal closing time.

On Thursday we all stayed home. Our house is in the middle of a hill in every direction (like most of Seattle), and even had the office and daycare been open, I don't think we could have gotten there. The city has de-iced the main roads, but we're too far off the beaten path for that: can't get up the hill in one direction, and can't get traction going down it.

Thursday evening, while I was curled up on the sofa with my knitting, nursing a headache, I heard an unfortunate splatting sound. I looked up just in time to see all the contents of Adam's stomach hit the cupboard. Several times. This continued through the night, but I'll spare you the details.

The next day, I woke up with the bug, and Matt took over pushing fluids on Adam and cleaning them up when he gave them back. I don't really know what happened for most of that day.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with Adam, gave him some water, and settled him in to our bed. When he seemed asleep, I went in to take a shower, only to hear him yelling when I was midway through conditioning my hair. I finished up as quickly as I could and came back to the bedroom, dripping all over the carpet. Rather than finding a little boy upset because he'd woken up alone, I found a little boy upset because he'd just vomited. Again. All over our bed.

Matt poked his head in to say that I was on deck for this one, since he'd come down with the bug overnight.

I stripped the bed, but couldn't remake it, since Adam wouldn't let me put him down. I tried giving him a few tiny sips of water, and when they came back up as well, I called his doctor, who wanted me to bring him in.

I may not have been thinking too clearly at this point - my brain was sort of stuck in a third day/no fluids/dehydration loop. I got Adam as clean as I could manage, and settled him in the car. I started the car. I scraped the windows. My door wouldn't close (this happens when it gets too cold; the door won't close until the car has warmed up, so you get to drive for fifteen minutes with the dinging "door open" sound).

I finally got moving and got partway up the hill when my car completely lost traction, and I coasted back down. Somehow I made it back around the corner; I'm still not entirely sure how I managed that. Back on our flat street (it runs for two whole blocks! The most level area in Seattle, I'm sure of it!) I tried to figure out what to do. Can't go up? Better go down, then.

Just one block down is a main-ish street through our neighborhood, that goes straight and fairly flat to a proper main street. I have three choices of hills to get down to it. Feeling skittish about the first one, since I'd just slid on it going the other way, and not together enough to turn down the second, I took the third.

Bad idea.

Somewhere along the way, my tires stopped responding. I slid down and to the right, unable to brake, and wound up halfway into someone's front yard.

At that point, I started crying.

Really, what else could I have done? Sick baby in the back of the car, still feverish myself, perilously close to a drainage ditch, and no idea how to get back onto the road, nor whether I could stay on it once I did. It was that or scream "I grew up in the Pacific Northwest ferfucksake! I don't know how to drive in this shit because it never fucking happens here!"

Had the mailman not come by, I'd proabably still be there.

Three cheers for the postal workers; they're not all gun-toting psychos. This one was wonderful. Sadly, he's not our usual guy, so I may never see him again to thank him, but he helped push my car back a few inches, then talked me through going forward and back onto the road. He told me which roads were clear (everything beyond the one I was on), and which was the best way to go. If I knew who he was, I'd bake him cookies.

We made it to the doctor's office without further incident, although it did start to snow partway there. After a quick check, the doctor prescribed anti-nausea suppositories (I sincerely hope this will be the last post in which I discuss suppositories), and said that the Norwalk Virus had been making it's way through Seattle's children. Yes, why pay thousands of dollars when you can have the authentic cruise experience in the privacy of your own home?

On to the pharmacy, then, to fill the prescription, and watch the snock come down harder. But wait, this pharmacy doesn't stock the pediatric version, only the adult version. Same dosage, larger diameter. Did I want that? I could cut it in half.

Fine. Whatever. Just give me something that will let him keep fluids down, and let me go home before I'm stuck in Fred Meyer until Ragnorok.

More waiting. Calls to the doctor. Consultation with other pharmacists. Eventually, an adult prescription, and back home through the snow. I took the second hill back up to our street and got home just fine.

Then there was Operation: Get Fluids into Adam, closely followed by Operation: Fine, Give Him Some Crackers if it Will Make Him Happy. Matt and I still felt horrible, but Adam was definitely perky. After all that nap time in the car, he was ready to party well into the night. Finally, at 8:30, we turned out all the lights and tried to be as boring as possible. An hour later (kid's got eyes like a cat!), he finally fell asleep, and Matt and I collapsed into bed.

I had to get up shortly to take a Tylenol, since everything hurt too much to even lie still, which set my stomach back some. I slept. Adam woke up. I tried to get him back to sleep. He saw Matt, and screamed for Daddy. I went back to bed and put in earplugs. Matt and Adam stayed up for three hours, and after another whole hour in bed, I got to get up with him at 8:00. I think it's safe to say his sleep schedule is shot.

This morning, he refused to eat any approved foods, and wanted milk. He made gagging noises when shown crackers. He repeatedly asked for, then rejected banana. He continues to scream for Matt and not give a shit whether I'm around.

I'm gonna go hide in a corner and cry now, 'kay?

Edited to add: Ad we're still snowed in, with no sign of the sub-freezing temperatures leaving any time soon. Every time I check the weather, they've added another day before it thaws.

101 in 1001

I've been thinking a lot about New Year's resolutions, and how I always end up forgetting them after a week or so. There are a lot of things I want to do, or changes I want to make, but I feel overwhelmed by the immensity of it most of the time. When I came across 101 in 1001 on Supergirl's blog, I decided it seemed like either a good idea, or a crazy-huge goal to blow off, or a way to make a really long list. I hope it's the first.

In any case, here are the tasks I hope to accomplish by October 2, 2009:

Computer
1. Back up my files regularly
2. Clean up my music files
3. Convert cassettes to mp3
4. Blog regularly (3+ days/week)
5. Complete Stash Blog (no cheating!)
6. Try podcasting
7. Give my website a facelift & keep it up-to-date
8. Get my own hosting service
9. Participate more in Knit the Classics
10. Document all my books on Library Thing
11. Leave comments on the blogs I read regularly
Craft
12. Knit a sweater for myself
13. Knit a lace shawl
14. Learn magic loop method for knitting socks
15. Knit through Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac
16. Make 10 items to donate to Dulaan
17. Knit with my yarn stash
18. Swatch and get yarn for the Wedding Ring Shawl
19. Design a knitting pattern
20. Create a Gansey or Aran pattern
21. Start the Master Knitter program, level 1
22. Designate one day a week to spin
23. Go to Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival
24. Complete a bed-sized quilt
25. Create & register a tartan
26. Draw more
27. Learn to make cold process soap
28. Take more photos
Food
29. Adopt healthier eating habits
30. Eat less beef
31. Cook actual meals more
32. Plant herbs and vegetables to cook with and keep them alive
33. Eat more organic food
34. Stop making vegetable soup in the crisper drawer
35. Limit lunches out to once a week
Family
36. Have dinner with Grandpa and the aunts once a month
37. Take Adam to Portland to visit my parents once a month
Finance
38. Pay off student loan
39. Make a budget and stick to it
40. Support local arts/non-profit groups by getting season tickets/memberships
41. Donate money to charities
42. Put $X into savings every month
43. Increase my 401k contribution
44. Set all bills up for auto-pay
Health
45. Lose X pounds to get to target weight
46. Go to the gym twice a week
47. Take a yoga class
48. Drink two Nalgene bottles of water per day
49. Wear sunscreen every day
50. Moisturize every day
51. Remember to floss
52. Take a CPR class
53. Start dancing again
Learning
54. Learn Hebrew
Life
55. Make a will
56. Remember & acknowledge birthdays
57. Hand-wash my hand-wash items
58. Plant a fruit tree
59. Adopt a cat
60. [Private – Relationship]
61. Drive less
62. Volunteer for charities
63. Get regular haircuts
64. Get a spa treatment once a month
65. [Private – Resource Consumption]
66. Get car maintenance work done on-time
67. Reduce clutter at home
68. Make a first aid/emergency kit and keep it in the car
69. Get stuff out of storage/get rid of storage space
70. Find a job I love
71. Keep my resume up-to-date
Parenting
72. Make a co-parenting agreement
73. Read a book to Adam every night
74. Set up a babysitting co-op
75. Get Adam to eat some vegetables
76. Cook real food for Adam
77. Make Adam’s lunch the night before
Reading
78. Read 2 books from my to-be-read pile for every new book I purchase
79. Listen to audiobooks during commute
Religion
80. Go to temple for Shabbat twice a month
81. Observe Yom Kippur fast
82. Join a temple
Shopping
83. Research & buy a digital camera
84. Buy a dawn simulator lamp for my bedside
85. Buy a jumbo bobbin/flyer for plying
Social
86. Stop hermitting; get out and see my friends
87. Host a monthly knit & nosh
88. Host fancy dinner parties again
89. Create communities
Travel
90. Take a vacation with just Matt
91. Go to Ireland
92. Go back to Italy
Writing
93. Write something every day; make time to write
94. Write a poem every week
95. Keep a journal
96. Sell something I’ve written (not to a newspaper)
97. Actually complete NaNoWriMo
98. Participate in 24-Hour-Comic Day
99. Apply to Viable Paradise
100. Create a professional website for freelance writing/editing
101. Finish Victorian RPG

Simple Things: Playing Dress-Up

As you may have noticed from the sidebar, I've joined A Year of Simple Things. I've decided to do these as photos only, since commentary would make them a bit less, err, simple, doncha think? I hope that through the year I get better at letting my photos speak for themselves.



(Photo by Matt. They'll be mine in the future, I promise.)

Ew

Chocolate-covered gummi is an affront to G-d and man.

Particularly when you've bitten into it expecting raspberry cream.