kmbrknits

Now that the citizens of the Commonwealth have enjoyed a few years of statewide health coverage, it was awfully good of you to endanger similar benefits for the rest of us. Oh, I know, state health coverage hasn't been perfect. But its A HELL OF A LOT BETTER THAN NOTHING, ASSHOLES!

I do actually knit pretty continuously, for sanity’s sake. Currently, I am just finishing up a cardigan, loosely based on this particular design from Vogue Knitting Holiday '09—I know! Its crazy that I am actually finishing something within 2 months of getting the magazine it was in! Unheard of!

Well, I need a black cardigan. NEED.

As you can see, there are some truly regrettable aspects to this design, but I like the ruffles down that front. Its kind of like a boa, only not as “out there” as actually wearing a boa. A secret boa, if you will.

The ruffly bits on the arms though? They’re a bit sad buck rogers-looking. Also too 80’s, which I already did once, thank you. Anyway, that’s it. Barring housework or actual responsibilities getting in the way, I will be sporting my secret boa cardigan by the time Supermom and Wonderdad arrive on Thursday night!

Well, Sysguy and I finally overcame our desire to lay around the house all day and took the Things to see some snow. We cheated a bit by visiting relatives in Northern CA, where snow is easier to get to. We spent a day roaming the Lake Tahoe area looking at views, finding little sledding places and generally trolling for untrammeled snow. Its hard to come by in these parts, which is frustrating when you've grown up with a yard full of virgin snow at your disposal every winter. Usually, snow is pretty well packed and icy by the time we get to it.

Since we live where it doesn't get cold, we're not particularly equipped for it. We did manage to score decent coats this year, but decided to forgo winter footwear. Here are the guys attempting to stay upright on a pretty well-used and icy sled hill we found, in their essentially treadless sneakers. Note the spiffy new "barf" colored sleds.

After lunch at a mom'n'pop place in the Donner Pass (yes, that one) we found a fabulous little pullout spot just during a little snowsquall. The snow was perfect, new, and falling like crazy—somehow, there wasn't anyone else there!! It was the perfectest snowman packing snow I've seen in ages. Also, excellent for snowball fights.

Thing 2 got tired of having snow down his back, and retired to the relative comfort of the beluga; you can see SysGuy and Thing 1 are still at it. Below is the road home.

Happy New Year!

Turkey Day for kmbrknit’s family was spent with SysGuy’s sister, Fleur, in Davis, CA. Its a 7 hour drive from chez kmbrknits (this state is too damn big). The Things are really good at entertaining themselves in the car, we’ve trained them to mostly read books and listen to audio plays that SysGuy has audiohijacked from the BBC Big Toe Radio Show (I told you he was awesome!). Here is Thing 1 rapidly draining the battery on my Touch while killing pygmies in PocketGod. Its digusting, but we treat them to it occasionally. You can see that Thing 2 amuses himself with suction darts. We’re a family of geniuses.

Davis is a nexus of animal husbandry and biology studies, what with the ginormous UC land grant school as the town anchor. Its also a ridiculously liberal and feel-goody town, so we like to visit. Fleur has provided the Things with 4 cousins (Fleurette, Biscuit, Myrtille and Bruyant) with her husband, DrÉnergie; a fluffy cat and a fluffy dog complete the family. They’re a lot to keep track of, I don’t know how she does it—just thinking about vacuuming after the fluffy pets exhausts me.

DrÉnergie has a veterinary pathology business, where your local veterinarian sends acky bits of sick pets for expert analysis under a microscope, and various research studies are conducted. He’s built his own lab, which is very, very cool. We managed to get a tour for the Things the day before Thanksgiving. Starting with the video microscope, where DrÉnergie has a collection of “kid friendly” slides of interesting things he’s found to look at (black widow egg sac, anyone?). This is a mosquito wing. It looks kind of like my legs in winter. Who knew they were so hairy? I reduced the size a little bit, and I’m sparing you their disgusting little feet.

Stop here and scroll directly to the bottom if you are squeamish, it gets grosser quickly.

Then was the really interesting part! First, DrÉnergie slapped some gloves on Thing 2, and before he knew it he was holding a diseased dog tail for all to see. You can see that Thing 2 is a bit happy but unsure about this. I have to admit, the tail was the grossest thing of all, be grateful it is blurry. And there was a lot more to come.

Next, there happened to be a recently amputated cat leg for analysis. Now, veterinarians don’t do this operation casually. While it is gross, the leg has a fast-growing cancer that was headed for the cat’s body, and cats can get by just fine on 3 legs. Anyway, out comes a ziplock bag with a cat leg in it, with which DrÉnergie shows the kids how muscles work and where the cancer is. Thing 1 gets to palpate the leg and feel the tumor (This is where Thing 2 bails.), then DrÉnergie shows us how he takes a sample and prepares a slide for later analysis. 

After the cat leg was safely put away, DrÉnergie fished a sheep’s heart out of a small bucket of other sheep bits that are part of a study at the lab. He showed the kids how it was insulated with fat, and ran water through it to show how it pumps. Then, in what was fascinating and gross, he dissected it for Thing 1 and Myrtille to see the different chambers. It was really neat. Meanwhile, in another room, Thing 2 was being entertained by a technician who was showing him slides of brain and kidney slices. (Its way less smelly outside the lab room, and slides are a less “immediate” reminder of where the tissue came from.)

Hmm. Can’t find my sheep picture. Will post later.

While the turkey was roasting on Thanksgiving day, DrÉnergie entertained us, and the neighborhood, with his collection of estes rockets. Many tiny parachute men were sent to the stratosphere about 200ft. It was really fun, the shooting off, and the watching the platoon of kids race to catch the spent rocket and parachute men.

Here is DrÉnergie getting a rocket ready with Thing 1, Fleurette and Myrtille.

This one is self-explanatory.

Fleurette and Myrtille readying the porta-potty rocket. : )

Happy, Lucky Things.

As if that weren’t enough excitement for one weekend, on Friday we took the Things to the Happiest Place on Earth: The Exploratorium in San Francisco. (I bet you’ve seen ads about another Happiest Place. Don’t believe everything you see on TV.) We spent basically the entire day doing the hands-on demonstrations of scads of scientific concepts. I don’t know about the Things, but I personally experienced sensory overload about 3 hours in. We’ll definitely be back!!

The things pedal-power a light bulb, among other choices of appliance.

SysGuy smoke ring generating with the Things and Myrtille.

Oh, yeah. On the way out of town we went across some old orange bridge.

And that, was that.

Well little bloggy, its been a while. Lets forget about summer and move on to recent bits. Most recently, my darling sister Cricket made me aware of impending They Might Be Giants concerts at venues in and near LA. TMBG recently released a cd/dvd combo of catchy songs about Science! that totally apply to our lives (and yours), and as a representative for both our families, I had to take the Things. It was, of course, awesome! Here are the dudes at their very first actual rock concert. Sadly, at grown-up rock concerts U2 and their ilk do not stay after and hand out sheets of stickers to the audience; I consider this a serious lack of customer service on their part.

This concert is important to the Things on several levels, not least of which is providing Thing 1 with a tune that explains the difference between a scientific theory and a stab-in-the-dark theory to sing to the crazy "christian" kid who forcibly evangelizes creationism on the playground. Good grief.
Science is Real.





Giving Props
I have to give a seriously respectful OMGUR AWESOME!!! to SysGuy for his amazing husbandy handyguy prowess during a particularly irksome 4 weeks of September/October. With the ominous high-pitched whine emitted by our hideously expensive 8-year-old dishwasher—the harbinger of incipient motor axle disintegration—SysGuy's odyssey of home repair began. My intrepid SysGuy disassembled the beast, found the offending problem and promptly hied us off to our local Pacific Sales Showroom of Newer Hideously Expensive Dishwashers. We were informed by our salesperson that one could expect a lifetime of roughly 8-10 years for a dishwasher, we think he was parroting Consumer Reports. Balking at the investment, and finding the lifetime expectancy objectionable, SysGuy found another motor that would work and installed it. Meanwhile, the Things got to learn all about getting to wash the dishes for reals.

While this was happening, the ice maker in our marital freezer was completing what had been a slow demise. Perhaps for normal people, this might not be a big deal. I, however, am an ice addict. I come from a line of ice addicts. The ice machine, it is an instrumental marital aid at our house, not merely an appliance. Without the ice machine, many many, many, words are spoken, bickering about who used the last ice. Much research is done on the optimization of ice tray release; we have a critical issue with mineral deposits. No, vinegar has not worked, thanks. It is not a good situation. SysGuy swiftly disassembled the beast, attempted a fix, and reinstalled. Sadly, we woke up to Lake Inferior the next morning, though mildly grateful that it had somehow not overflowed the ice bin to the bottom of the freezer overnight. Thus began the researching a new ice machine, post haste. Its cheaper than couples therapy.

That same weekend, our blighted main sewer line, ancient, porous, ceramic, directly beneath a hungry hungry elm tree, decided to act up. Fortunately, I can fix this myself. I call a man who comes and deals with it. While it was annoying to have this problem on a weekend, we are counting our lucky stars that it didn't happen the weekend the Grandparents were visiting.

During the wait for ice machine delivery, SysGuy happened to check on "stuff" out by the pool pump. In the process of checking on "stuff," the big, pressurized, pool filter tank decided now was a good time to twist off its (pre-us) precarious perch, thereby destroying ALL of the PVC piping in the general vicinity. Thus ensued the great Pool Pump Pipe Redesign and Build of 2009, wherin SysGuy had the opportunity to remove the 35 extraneous 90° bends that have been inserted into the system by inept hirelings over the years decades. This took 4 evenings. In the dark. With a big spotlight.

Just after the Pool Pump Pipe Redesign and Build of 2009, the computer SysGuy built for me for Xmas a few years ago, which houses our custom DVR, had a hard drive FAIL. Apocolypse. In addition to recording tv stuff, so we never have to see another commercial ever again, the drive housed many movies ripped from public library dvds (hey, its legal if you don't show them for profit). Ma and Pa Kettle. The Three Stooges. An Affair to Remember. Important things to have on hand. Frantic research of an appropriate replacement drive ensued. Desperate attempts to retrieve data were performed (mostly) successfully. Re-installation of the apparently ginormous pain the the ass DVR software happened. Several times.

Then the new ice machine arrived.

This is the Real Prince Charming. He does not arrive in a carriage with diamonds in hand; he comes with majah skillz, and a never-ending trough of the important kind of ice.

He's my hero.