Blogless Zach, PhD

Dissertation is successfully defended. Drinking will commence momentarily.

My BFF is a smarty-pants and he has papers to prove it.

Congratulations, Sweetie.

My Daemon

Squee! My dæmon has a ligature!

Hang on... Modest, shy, humble, and assertive? Okay, internets, weigh in. Is it me? Or do I choke up on multiple choice questions?

Via Leila

Fun Parenting Moments

Adam just pooped in the bathtub. We had to throw away a toothbrush.

Someday, he'll be mortified that I posted this.

At least there aren't photos.

Listening to NPR

Gonzales seems to be having his ass and his hat simultaneously handed to him by the Senate.

As Annie pointed out, if he really remembers so little and was so uninvolved, why is he even drawing a paycheck?

Blog Switch

I'm really frustrated with Blogger right now. Since the new Google/Blogger switch, they've really left those of us who use the service on a blog we host on our own website high and dry. There's no support for us because none of their fancy-shmancy new features work for us.

Now it seems that people are trying to comment here, but the comments are never showing up. I looked at installing HaloScan, but I don't see an easy way to install it for my hybrid new/old Bloggger blog. The manual install instructions don't make much sense to me, I'm afraid.

Combine the lack of features and support with my continuing frustration at the things Blogger has never allowed me to do and its frequent outages, and I've had it. I'm switching to a grown up blog service. I'm thinking Movable Type, but I'd welcome any advice. If you can't leave a comment, email me, and I'll see about posting it for you.

So Priketh Hem Nature in Hir Corages

Lately, my head's been full of a confused jumble of springtime thoughts. I've had an overwhelming urge to make things grow, and possibly do some frolicking. It's all very odd and pastoral.

This past Saturday, it came to a head: I woke Matt up and told him we either needed to go buy plants, or have another baby.

I've never seen the man get dressed and into the car so quickly.

We went to the Fred Meyer garden section, which makes up for not being a proper nursery by being very, very close to home, and a better place for Adam to run around. I wanted my usual herbs and vegetables (yes, I still harbor the delusion that I can not only tend plants until they turn into food, but that I can then get it together enough to cook with them), but this time I also wanted actual, honest-to-G-d flowers. Pretty, fragrant, blooming things. And I wanted to get down in the dirt and plant them, and pull weeds so the new flowers could be happy.

It's possible I'm becoming a grown-up.

We bought a bunch of seeds - I've never in my life grown anything from a seed. I can't explain why I got seeds instead of starts, except that I saw the seed packets first, and they seduced me with words like "organic" and "heirloom." Beans, peas, carrots, tomatoes, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, basil, nasturtiums. I did get a few starts, since I feel slightly more competent with those: more tomatoes (cherry and Roma), sage, and dill.

As of last night, all the starts and all the vegetable seeds are planted. I pulled weeds out of all my pots and my tomato bed, and was surprised to see that last year's sage, oregano, and lavender all survived the winter and the opportunistic boarders. Per-en-ni-al. Huh. So I shuffled things around slightly, and introduced Fresh, Young Sage with Big Dreams to Wise Old Sage with White Beard. I'm sure they'll get on famously.

Adam helped the whole process by moving dirt around and bringing us tools he thought we might need. (Daddy! Big shovel!)

Of course, because I'm a big dork with a new obsession, I had to go buy a book about it. Because, you know, the problem isn't that I forget to water things. The problem is clearly Lack of Book.

I still need to clear the planter boxes so I can start the herb and tomato seeds in them; I should be able to do it after work on Thursday.

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll snap out of this soon.

KTC Swap

Yay! Brooke's package arrived, so now I can say how much fun it was to shop for her. I don't use vibrant colors as much as she does, so it was thrilling to have an excuse to buy the sari silk yarn. It was like a puzzle, trying to figure out what a total stranger would like.

Also, can I just say how proud I am of my packing job? I found the perfect-sized box to fit it all into -you know, the kind where you have to play 3-D Tetris to get it all in properly? So very satisfying.

I'm glad you liked it Brooke. I hope you enjoy the books. (And your vacation!)

Idiocy

I just saw a kid, maybe eight or nine years old, skating through a busy parking lot on her stupid wheelie shoes.

Adam will never have wheelie shoes.

Bloglift

I've been toying with a new look over on my yarn stash blog. I'm getting tired of the dark and dank look here.

It's not done yet, but the general idea is there. If you have a moment, check it out and tell me what you think.

So, Yeah

You know when you hear something that you absolutely weren't expecting, and it doesn't make any sense, and you spend the whole day trying to come up with an explanation, and most of what you come up with is pretty sinister and horrible, and then you finally get a chance to talk to the person involved, and it turns out it's something totally innocuous and harmless, and you feel like a complete dork for even giving it a second thought.

Yeah.

Totally didn't do that all day today.

Sharing the Love

If you have good wishes to spare this week, Blogless Zach could use them. He's racing against a deadline on his dissertation, and feeling a wee bit stressed about the whole thing. Go on, tell him he's smart and pretty.

What Have I Been Doing?

Oy. What haven't I been doing?

I've been dyeing up a heap of Ryan's avalanche yarn for another Dulaan sweater. I've been nursing a sick kid through every common illness the planet has to offer. I've been knitting. I've been spinning. I've taken road trips and played hooky from work, all at the same time (because I'm very talented). I've failed to prepare the house for Pesach. I've taught my son the word "elephant." I've started to prepare my fleece and nearly skewered myself with a flick carder. I've finished one book and watched two movies. I've read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? ad nauseum.

Haven't done a single bit of laundry, though.