boring interlude

Well I’ve been trying to write every day, but I am hampered by an unfortunate circumstance: nothing’s happening. Kids = fine. Weather = rainy. Knitting = proceeding apace. London = coming up. Kitten = right after London. Nothing in the paper that I don’t already know, more or less. In such a situation, what is a blogger to do?

I’m still here. I haven’t forgotten y’all. But for the time being, I have nothing of interest to report.

Bummer.

Song du jour of the day: Let the Good Times Roll, by the Cars.

knitting update

Weird cognitive trap: as you may recall, my original Arwen yarn disappointed me, so I put the project on hold for awhile. I decided to use the rest of April to finish up a bunch of UFOs, and I did finish them all, so on May 1st I was able to cast on my next three projects, which I thought of as my May Knitting Projects, which somehow led me to the assumption that I’d get them all done within the month. Duh. Like that was ever going to happen.

Anyway, here they are, so far:

how to name a cat

I wanted to call her Liluminai Lekatariba Lamina-Tchai Ekbat de Sebat, because saddling a teeny tiny cat with a big long name is the sort of thing that I think is funny, and I’m also considering what would be fun to shout from the front porch of an evening, on the pretext of calling her in. But the guys aren’t going for it.

you can’t handle the cute

We’re going to go pick out a kitten today! They’re only 4 weeks old right now, so we don’t get to bring him or her home until about this time next month (after London, fortunately) but today we get to go look at little baby kitties I am so excited!1!

um, you sure about that?

The petitions for cheap gas, the one-day boycotts, the consumer outrage at high gas prices in the U.S… people keep forwarding me stuff to sign, and now even MoveOn.org seems to be getting in on it.

Now, if you’re all for the Iraq war, don’t give a rat’s ass about the environment and think women should be burned and not seen, then by all means sign the petitions. But if you consider yourself politically liberal, take a moment to think about what it takes to keep gas prices low. This is an email I sent in response to one forwarded gas price screed, about a year ago.

Are you sure you want to send this message to the oil barons and the government?

• It’s largely American demand for cheap fuel that has prompted the war on Iraq, not to mention our cozy relationship with the Wahhabist Saudis.
• Oil executives are now saying that global warming and the subsequent melting of the arctic ice shelf (which is even now leading to the extinction of the polar bears) may actually be a good thing because there’s oil under there.
• The Alaskan oil pipeline, which threatens Alaskan wildlife and is built on a fault line, is also there to feed American oil addiction.
• When fossil fuel is cheaper more people will use it, and the attendant pollution problems will increase.

We in Europe already pay more than $4.00 a gallon, and have for years. It’s not price-fixing by oil barons here, it’s taxes – to keep the roads in good repair and to offset some of the cost of cleaning up the environmenal problems gas consumption causes. Europeans accept that as necessary and logical, and find ways to conserve.

If you want to stop the oil barons, reduce your dependence on them, and make them obsolete. Drive a smaller car, drive it slower, drive it less. Ride the bus. Get a bike. Telecommute.

Spread the word.

I’m an athlete, me!

Yes. I played soccer on Monday. Uh, sort of.

I’ll have you know that at some point this month I was going to write a post titled “TEN YEARS, BABY!” with a big ol’ no-smoking sign in it, because it was sometime in May of 1997 that I quit smoking. I don’t know the exact date because I was trying not to think about smoking too much, and writing little monuments to My Last Cigarette would have defeated that purpose.

still around

Still here, still knitting, played soccer today and am going to London in a few weeks. It’s not that nothing’s happening, it’s just that I haven’t felt like writing. Maybe I’ve been too busy, I dunno. At the moment I have a headache, and I can’t write when my head hurts. So this is just a placeholder, sort of, to remind me in a few days to bring you all up to date on the knitting, confess that I’m no athlete (WHEEEEZE!), and possibly talk about London and ask for advice about my first official function as a Faculty Wife.

Ack! Did I really say Faculty Wife? I’m not even used to being a Wife yet! Ack!

Song du jour of the day: Still Around, by Robert Cray, although that’s a bit hostile, so I’d rather you not consider it somehow representative of this post or my mood. The Lemonheads’ Being Around would be more apt, but I like the Robert Cray song better. That is a tricky thing about the song du jour of the day: I meant it only to highlight a song I’m liking lately, but it keeps turning into a sort of emblem of the day I’ve had, which then precludes the use of a lot of really great songs just because they happen to be sad or angry, and I am rarely sad or angry. Hmm, a dilemma.

an Ignatz follow-up

Re Laume‘s very interesting and thought-provoking and ultimately encouraging comment:

Yeah, he is probably a good candidate for homeschooling – worked a treat for Thomas Edison, dinnit? – except for two things: firstly, homeschooling is thoroughly illegal here in Germany. Secondly, and even more insurmountably, it takes a certain kind of parent to homeschool, and I am definitely – ooo look! Something shiny! Is it edible? Anyway, where was I? Also, what day is it?

knitmeme

Today I chopped a big hole in my workday to go on a yarn-crawl with Elemmaciltur, and met some really nice women. He has such great friends. It was a good day, and I was extremely virtuous: I didn’t buy any yarn! Erm, I did buy yet another circular needle. But I neeeeeeeeded it!

Ganked from Elemmaciltur, in lieu of writing a real post, here is my knitting-list:

‘bold‘ for stuff you’ve done, ‘italics‘ for stuff you plan to do one day, and ‘normal’ for stuff you’re not planning on doing. I would like to add signifiers for things I am currently doing and things that I might do, but plan is maybe too big a word. But I won’t add them, because I am lazy.

You don’t have to tell me…

… that I am completely alone in this. I know, I know. Nevertheless:

Squeeeeeeeeee!

Song du jour of the day: Why, Star Trekkin‘, of course!

Aside to Laume: thank you for much food for thought and reassurance. Will definitely ponder your words.