March 2007 Archives

Geez, this was a long month. Between the jury duty and the this and the that, I'm just glad its over.

Monday, I took my Mom to Disneyland, with Thing 1 and Thing 2 of course, for our first trip on our shiny new Southern California Resident Annual Passes. They're about as close to a good deal as one is going to get from the mouse. The $2 senior discount my mom got was certainly not worth writing home about. I had forgotten about spring break in the midwest (ours isn't till the week after Easter), so the happiest place on earth was one of the more crowded places, too, but we still managed to have fun and get some good rides in. (By the way, teenagers and their aimless wandering are really, um, annoying.) The boys and I can pop in and out at will now, so it was a good day, even if it was short. After which, Mom and I were exhausted.

Of course, the boys had a nap in the car on the way home. By nap, I mean Thing 1 slept like a rock and Thing 2 did stream of consciousness babbling all the way home, which is about an hour in LA traffic. So, I was physically exhausted from the day, and mentally exhausted from desperately trying to make my ears stop working while threading through traffic on the drive home. I keep telling myself this is just a phase, and I will probably pray for its return when Thing 2 is 14 and communicates in monosyllables. Some days, I would really like for him to practice having inaudible thoughts.

We got the breathtaking $6,000 estimate for replacing the main sewer line while my parents were here, so I am suddenly feeling very poor. The couch arrived, fits perfectly, is everything I hoped it would be and more. Sadly, now that its paid for, we can either afford food or sewage to remove used food. So, it will take longer for the puffy cushions to tamp down a bit, what with all the wasting away we'll be doing. Hey, that's less work for the sewer line, too! Win win! And for the week's finale, the elementary school variety show was friday night.

Thing 1 and two other boys did a dance number (fairly audacious for 2nd grade) to "Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. I got myself stuck with sewing hammer pants. The pants did actually materialize about an hour before the show. (Yay me.) Thing 2 was with a group of kindergarteners singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," which was cute. Both acts were every bit what one would expect from this age group: only the parents can love it, and we did.

The knitting content for the week is pretty slight: I turned the heel on #1 monsoon STR sock, set up the leg ribs and then proceeded to totally screw up the cable row several times. I have done cables before. Even complex ones. So I am clearly just too tired to twist at the moment. I've made a lateral move to a self-designed summer lace shift I've got going from sock yarn to feed my need for a day or two, then I'll head back for another go at the fiendish cables.

My parents are visiting. They've come from Phoenix, where they winter like geese.

I don't think I could talk them into flying here from IL, their real home where they spend the balance of the year. In fact, I'm surprised I talked them into flying this time. Usually they drive the 7 hours. Fate, for some reason made the flight last almost as long, since they had a few hours delay on the ground in Phoenix. I think my Dad was pleased to be able to crow "we'd of been here half an hour ago if I drove!". Possibly.

But then I would have missed the pleasure of driving to Burbank to retrieve them, its nice to wait for someone else at the terminal for once. And I got some sock knitting in while the boys plane-spotted through the Beluga sunroof while we waited on top of the short term parking deck. It was a lovely day in LA today, not too hot, not too cold, the sun was a pleasure instead of something to hide from, there was a breeze. We're taking delivery of a bespoke sectional couch next week, so I'll be spending the weekend cleaning and getting the area ready. The couch is earlyish, so I am pleased. This is also the weekend I intend to nail down the whole photo importing thing on the blog. Baby steps.

Whew, long day. Printing and reprinting report cards, 'splaining the same thing over and over and over again to eight classes of kids who are interested/motivated/clueless to wildly varying degrees. Going to the store with my boys, which I try to do solo anymore, but the entourage was unavoidable today.

In the great scheme of things, Thing 1 (the elder), and Thing 2 (the younger) are very well behaved in the store, they don't beg for things or whine, they're just bored and energetic. So I feel like the nucleus of an atom and they are my whizzing protons. I hate keeping track of protons and trying to calculate prices per ounce in my head, it just makes me cranky. Sometimes our little atom loses a proton, and then all hell breaks loose. Mommy goes nuclear, and that's not pretty. Which is why they are generally well behaved.

The highlight of the day was, and I'm finding this is a strangely trendy thing to do, Thing 2 and my violin lesson. That's right, I am taking Suzuki violin. I figure if I can force my 4/5 year old to do it after his interest has waned, the least I can do is join him. And, I decided, looking at the pieces of music involved, that violin looked easier than piano. Both hands are working to make the same notes, not different agendas for each hand like that freaky piano thing Thing 1 does. The heavy lifting is performed by the left hand on the violin, so I am uniquely suited to it. I like it. Which is not to imply that I don't suck, but it makes me happy even to suck at it, so I will keep plugging along. Violin has the added benefit of eliciting this response from Sysguy: "Couldn't you play an instrument we actually already own"? Priceless.

Last Sunday Miles and I had a "Solo Party", which is apparently how they're avoiding the dreaded "R" word (recital) these days. Miles sawed out the extended dance remix of Twinkle Twinkle, version D, also known as "I like donuts you like donuts". Or, eighth notes. I felt for him, it was really long, but he hung in there. I, being an adult, have graduated to doing "Allegro", and I nailed it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I can be relied on to musically entertain with assertiveness for approximately 38 seconds. Give or take.

So its been 5 days already since I last posted, I've been informed. Oops.

I've completed the Madil Eden scarf for Thing 2's old preschool coop benefit on Saturday. It came out ok, not as super wonderful as I had hoped, but it will make a nice summer scarf. I know, summer scarf? It gets cold at night here in the desert, what can I tell you. Hundertwasser Opal socks are done though:


Now I'm on to the other 5 projects, I am looking forward to getting the percent list of what I've got on needles in the right column, just so I can keep track of what I'm doing. Currently at the top of the list is the STR sock and a tote in Cotton Classic from the Spring IK.

At the computer lab, it is report card week, which is somewhat crazy making. The report card software is "written" (I imagine the same way I "write" the code in this blog) by someone in filemaker pro and seems to be working ok, despite dire warnings that it was horribly buggy. There's a bit of operator error involved, I think, on the part of the teachers. At my school, the report cards are printed in the computer lab, because the fast laser printer lives there, so there's a lot of last minute dashes to get me to print the things out.

For some reason, after my bout of flu, I actually feel like cooking somewhat complicated food. Challenging even. I've been such a workaday cook for the last year or so, it is really refreshing to be inspired to extend myself again. I'm not talking Julia Child or anything (hey, it's still after work/school), but food involving more than 3 ingredients and chopping is unusual for me lately. Cooking day to day dinner is such a drag, I can't even make light of how I loathe it. Yeah yeah, I am keeping my family healthy and showing I love them whatever. I'm ready for the Human Chow food pellets in a 50# bag. Oh, wait, we have that already, its called cold cereal.

On an exciting note, I have a trip planned for the distant future. Thing 1 has decided to take me with him when he becomes the first person to travel to a black hole and return. I can hardly wait!

Well, blogging has not been at the top of my agenda this week, clearly. I have been very unusually tightly focused on the goings on of my digestive system, having just endured a short bitter bout of flu.

Nothing says enjoy your good health like a day trip to extreme Nausea-land (South of Smal-land). And hey, while you're there, a side trip to scenic Clogged Main Sewer Line Drive is a lot of fun! I have a theory that if I wait till I just can't take it one more second, and then start thinking that I can't even remember what it felt like to be well, as dramatically as possible, that I'll get well faster. The key is to wait to have the thought until you just can't stand it any more. All the concentrating on not having the thought is very much like not thinking about Zebras when someone tells you not to, but it keeps me occupied when I am incapable of even knitting. (To those of you who know me, that's saying something.) Of course, I've thankfully never been seriously ill, so I really know not of what I speak. I am normally possessed of the complete inability to hurl a bad oyster even if I want to.

I returned to work on Tuesday, after the jury duty lapse. Tuesdays I shepherd about 150 children through various forms of electronic interaction with the world. Probably the darling little germ vectors had nothing to do with my ensuing debilitation. I've been told by the old timers that the first year working with kids is really killer on your immune system. Parenting pre-schoolers is apparently not vaccination enough.

As long as I have brought up my job (computer lab docent at an elementary school), I'd like to make a request: Would you people with elementary school age children allow them to make their own time-consuming and cringe-worthy mistakes occasionally? Honestly, this is a group of kids with learned helplessness like I cannot believe. I literally spent the first three weeks of lab time explaining to them that mistakes are the best way to learn, that I could fix anything they could possibly break. Because I had first graders who were unwilling to make a single mark on a digital paper in KidPix for fear of making a mistake. Just for fun, no purpose, just have at it and enjoy yourself.

They froze like deer in headlights. That is so sad. I had to take the eraser tool away. Then, somehow, it wasn't their fault if it was "wrong". Sigh. Like kid art is ever wrong.

We are planning on these people growing into self-determining adults, right?

Friday afternoon is so great. There's no homework to drag everyone through, we can just relax. Our kids spend the whole week talking about how many days till Saturday, that hallowed day we allow them hours of uninterrupted TV cartoons. I usually let them watch qubo (wow, I'm sounding like they get a lot of tv. It probably won't kill them) Friday afternoons on the local pax channel. Its 3 hours of relatively clever kid friendly shows. We three chill together, I like that. In case you're feeling all superior in the kids and tv department, we don't have cable or satellite. We are at the mercy of whatever is broadcast in the greater LA basin. Have you seen those Korean soaps? Oooh la la! Eh, go ahead, feel superior.

I considered satellite service recently, just to join the 21st century. I know the boys would love the discovery channel, at the very least. After a month of checking to see if there was anything on cable when I'd want to watch, and coming up empty, I decided to just record the broadcast tv stuff I normally miss anyway to fill the void (such as it is). So my charming husband, fondly referred to here as SysGuy, assembled a MythTV computer for me over the holidays. It's basically tivo for nerds (and their appreciative wives) that does not have a monthly fee, but requires a fair amount of expertise. Which I do not possess, so there is a pretty pretty web interface. As far as I'm concerned, its magic, and I like it. SysGuy is happy to have dodged the satellite monthly fee bullet. Everybody wins!

I got a fair bit of sock knitting done on the Opal, it will be done by Monday. I also knit up a swatch of the STR Monsoon. It is wonderful! So soft and fluffy/springy. I think that my skein of Monsoon is a bit darker than the others I've seen. I don't mind, its just an observation that the gray/pale areas seem to be smaller or nonexistent in my bit. Can't wait to have socks from this.

...something unpleasant and relatively toothless, but necessary. By the very slimmest of margins I have escaped serving on a trial. A truly wonderful thing for me. Not so good for Mr. Not Guilty of 13 counts of kidnapping, assault, extortion and impersonating a police officer. It would have been an interesting defense, I'm sure. I'm just as happy to not know the gory details. (Mr. Text Messaging, who attended a party at which the prosecutor was present, was excused first thing this morning. Louse. The cardiac specialist was still stranded when I left. The universe is strange.) Thank you to the LA Metro Bus line for a delightful and stress-free commute. As if being released from jury duty was not a glorious enough experience for one day, the Socks that Rock 2007 club box was on the step when I got home. In the middle of the day. Alone. So I could indulge in the wonderful woolenness and craftsy pleasure of its contents totally uninterrupted for over an hour. With a beer. Life, is good. At some point in the not too distant future I will post a photo of the most incredibly cute key fob ever (once I figure out how, and negotiate with my SysGuy for write priveledges on the precious linux box). It is destined to be the only thing I will have ever hung from my rear view mirror. I will be true to the opal sock until completion; I already have too many ufo's circling the airport that is my nimble fingers. I will, however, lovingly hand roll a luscious ball of monsoon this evening. Kinky, no? I got to pick up my kids after school in the normal fashion, and in celebration we went out for ice cream. They were flabbergasted at my extravagance. Usually, after school snack nagging is only good for an apple and/or a cheese stick from the self-serve drawer in the fridge (formerly known as "the rotter"). What can I say, sometimes I'm a rebel. This momming thing is really hard. I'd much prefer to spend every afternoon curled around giant bowls of ice cream, watching cartoons till their Dad gets home from work. They'll have to wait to get in that habit when they get their own apartments, just like I did. Hopefully, by then I can remember how.

On to jury duty, Day 2. My interest level in this endeavor is waning in direct opposite proportion to the likelihood that I'll be on a jury. Which is looking quite certain at this point, since I've made it into the box. Where I have been diligently knitting my sock. I can't seem to keep track of the whole every other row decrease thing, so I've had to rip out a few rows here and there. I hope the judge appreciates that. I'm conflicted about the jury gig, as I guess most people are—with the exception of the entitlement clique, that means you, Mr. continuously texting the office jerk—like your input is somehow more necessary than the cardiac specialist politely listening in the back row, who are deliberately antagonistic to the court in order to get released. I don't really want to do it, it is inconvenient; it is the priveledge of living in a democracy. Bleh. All signs point to my making the final cut because I have been fortunate enough to have had a life untrammeled by crime or violence to cloud my objectivity. Not that it should really matter. I had no idea that: A. Violent crime was so common, or B. So many victims of same choose not to report it for one reason or another. Voire dire turns out to be a nonstop litany of horribleness people perpetrate on one another under the radar. I may be naive, but the thing about statistics is that you have to stand up and be counted if you want them to be accurate, even if you are one. So much for the greater good. I wonder if these people get vaccinated. I like my lucky bubble, and I want to stay in it. I would be happy to have other people in it with me. Thank you.

When I wrote about jury duty, I forgot to include that: about a block away from the jury parking there was a farmer's market in an elevated plaza. In the back of my mind all day I'm thinking (random bandwidth again) I would swing by, get flowers for my buddy Sunshine (who picked up my kids from school—thanks sweetie!), score something yummy for dinner, and feel all granola-ey after a day in the grubby courthouse. I walk over there after we're released, fortunately it is just by a Starbucks, which I am craving. I can see the strawberry boxes from the street. Yum! And then I get to the market. Sigh. It's a freakin' set for an episode of "Without a Trace". Not that I'd want to shop for vegetables in a market crawling with real FBI, but I would have liked to have the choice. I really need to keep better track of the market schedules.

Well, Tuesday's mail has come and gone, and no Socks that Rock box. It is probably just as well. I had jury duty today, and I will have jury duty tomorrow. Didn't get on a jury, but I guess I still have jury potential. I did manage to pass the day usefully in the waiting area by coloring in St. Paddy's day prizes for the kindergarten. Nothing says reasonable and objective like an adult with crayons and many copies of the same cartoon to color. Did you know there was a Jury Appreciation Day? Me neither, but I guess it's a good day to have duty. Sadly, its in May. Once I made it to a courtroom, I managed to finish the leg and turn the heel of my 2nd opal sock. With the thinking parts over with, such as they were, I will have the mindless bits finished by the time my STR get here (depending on how long I'm detained tomorrow). This means the bamboo knitting needles made it through security, once, twice, thrice, nay, four separate times. I'm not sure if my needles were noticed, the screeners seemed not to be looking at the monitor when I went through. My countenance does not exactly set off danger alert bells, so I can understand. I don't know if knitting in court is actually allowed, but I have to say that it definitely enhances my listening abilities to have a project in hand, leaving less random brain bandwidth available for my mind to wander down more interesting paths. Probably muggles don't get that, its kind of an ADD thing. This is the first time I've been party to judicial proceedings, having deferred due to child-rearing duties previously. It was interesting. Now I know why lawyers mostly wear glasses. I always thought it was because of the mountain of mind-numbing reading that was required for the job. Nope, its the godawful life-sucking, contrast-decreasing, thought-deadening lighting in the courtrooms. My depth perception was messed up because the light was so flat—I normally have excellent vision (nature's little trade-off for my badonk-a-donk butt, I didn't get to choose). Can't wait to do it again tomorrow. Hopefully, only tomorrow.

Still no Socks That Rock. No jury duty today, either. Yay! I finished the gradeschool newsletter while the kids were at school today—they were both healthy enough to go, thankfully. In addition to the usual mom tasks, too boring to go into, I cast on for a quick scarf in the design of the Morehouse merino "Bilbao" scarf. I'm using Madil Eden Print, which is 100% bamboo and super soft and yummy. The scarf is for the annual fundraiser at my kid's old preschool. Of course, enough extra of the yarn attached itself to me on the way out of the lys to make a sleeveless shell for myself. As a midwesterner, it has taken me a while to come around to the whole "layering" method of dress that is the most useful here in Southern California. The temperature, which is reliably steady on a given day back in Illinois, can vary by 20 degrees from when you leave for work and when you have lunch here. It's crazy, I had no idea humidity was such a great insulator for the planet. But that means light shells, under various sweater-type options and possibly a scarf to block out early morning drafts. Its not like I have to make space for a parka in my life, but it takes some getting used to. Now I know why the whole knitting scarves thing caught on here. Also, the super thin t-shirts in many layers fad. What the hell? People must like to get dressed. Over and over again, until their clothes are actually opaque. Now I know, its the weather here, and lots of folks are too damn thin to maintain their own body temperature. But that's another post.

Sadly, I didn't get my Socks That Rock Club 2007 kit today. Sigh. I know, they've had trouble with murphy's law at BMFA. But still, it would have been nice. Maybe Monday. I must admit to having checked out some spoiler blogs, so I have an idea of what is coming. That makes it a bit easier. I am feverishly finishing my simple stockinette Opal Hundertwasser socks in anticipation. And I bought bamboo needles for possible jury duty sock knitting next week. Yippee! I can't complain too much, after all, I don't have to bundle up to leave the house or shovel snow (although I have done my share in the past). I'm just as happy that the STR folks in real winter get their kits first. Well, mostly.

So it is Friday, usually my day "off", as much as a mom gets the day off. My little guy, Thing 2, is home sick. He's 5, and missing kindergarten (plus a few hours in aftercare, which I will not normally relinquish on my day "off"). In our Southern CA school district kindergarten is of insufficient import to get a full day of attention, at a later date there will be a post about the school situation. Right now, I still need to educate myself on this whole blog thing. I know I am coming late to the party with this, I really dislike the feeling of being behind. The path is the goal, right? So, I'm enjoying cuddling next to my small boy radiator and absorbing the lessons of WordPress. And iChatting with my sister and a friend in France...and checking various blogs that I can't live without any more, checking email (because we stay at home moms get so much), setting up the school newsletter for the month. The usual bon bon eating mommy existence. At least I feel slightly guilty for blowing off the laundry. Like its not going to be there tomorrow.

Well, here is blog one. It will be short and sweet, so I can figure out how this hangs together relatively soon. Today was a good day, found out I get new computers at work, got my projector bulb, and all is generally right with the world. Also, if you want attention, a good way to get it is to advertise your desire for swimming pool renovation.