Thought Provoking...

My Uncle forwarded me this link. It's a quiz that matches your views/opinions with a presidential candidate.

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

I didn't expect my results (Bill Richardson), although I'm pleased to know that I am still a Democrat at heart! Apprently, though, I need to deepen my candidate research...

Wet, Hot, and Agitated

A Felting Story

**For those of you who don't give a crap about my knitting adventures, please come back later for a non-fiber related post**

One of the projects on my needles this past week has been the Booga Bag, an adventure for me, since I have never felted anything before. I got the bag and the i-cord all knitted up, and this morning, decided to go ahead a felt the sonofabitch. Now, I have read a lot about the felting, and how it can't be done properly in a front loading washer, but that's all I have available to me. There's either my Maytag at home, or the Asko here at work. Turns out, the Asko has tons of heat settings, and a no-spin option, so I figured I'd try that one first.

I bundled my bag pieces up in an old pillow case, and cinched it closed with a hair elastic (to keep the fuzz out of the washer's pump - no sense in wrecking the bosses' new European washer before it's even a year old...), added some heavy pieces of clothing for agitation, set it to 205 degrees and no-spin cycle, and let 'er rip. One hour later, perfectly felted bag! It's now sitting on a Cheez-It box covered in a DeLuca's market bag to dry out before I can assemble it fully, but I'm psyched, especially as it's going into the Christmas Gifty Bag. I love it when a gift comes together!

Oh, happy felting! Happy, happy felting!

Misanthrope in the City

Do you ever have those days when you wish you were so old that you could mutter unkind things about everyone you had to deal with, and nobody would bother with you because of your age?

I do, with some frequency, and today was one of those days.

I'm not even in a bad mood, really. I just don't like people very much. I spent an hour and half at the playground with O this morning, and I wanted to slap just about every other parent there, and a few of the kids besides. There were the mothers who leave the gates swinging open, even though they had to open them to get in, leaving the temptation of freedom open to every kid in the place. There was a dad who kept turning on the sprinklers and splashing other kids, even after one mom asked him not to get her son wet. There was an obnoxious grandmother from Melbourne, Australia, who was trashing the MBTA for having "old trains." (Now, I can think of a million reasons to disparage the MBTA, but who cares that the Red Line from Harvard Sq. isn't a brand new train?)

Then there are the preschool mothers. O has only had one full week of school, and already I'm getting the frosty smile and dismissive conversation reserved for hired help on this Hill. I always go into a school year assuming that, as a full grown adult, educated, polite (in public, I am!), and possessing the ability to chit-chat when necessary, I will at least be given a trial before I'm convicted of NOT BEING A PARENT.

Not that I really want any of these people as friends, but it would be nice to be treated as a proper citizen of the world, especially when I have just a close, and sometimes a more functional relationship with my preschooler that they do.

Or is that the problem?

Baby Shower!

Thanks to everyone who was there for the shower at my Aunt's house. It was wonderful to see everyone, and I'm just overwhelmed with the generosity displayed. I feel quite spoiled on the baby's behalf!

Wicked

I am a not-so-closet Broadway junkie. Or at least I was. And then, after I'd recovered from "Rent," I lost interest. I saw some of the Disney shows, but most of the shows being pushed by the Great White Way seemed like commercial attempts to cash in on a successful Hollywood franchise, or soulless revivals of once-great standards. Bah.

Not that I object to a quality revival, mind you. The revival of "Showboat" about 15 years ago still remains one of the best shows I've ever seen. Ever.

Well, it may not have been first run with the decidedly amazing talent that originated its rolls, but the touring company of "Wicked" (now playing at the Opera House in Boston) is one hell of a show. Gorgeous, complicated score deliverd by talented, spirited performers, clever book, interesting choreography, nifty staging and lighting... the whole package. It also didn't hurt that our seats (my Mom gave me the ticket as a Christmas gift last year, as a girls' day out) were just right of center orchestra, about 15 rows from the stage. Nice.

A much better way to spend a trip in to Boston on the weekend than last night's adventure.

Saturday Night's Alright for Passing a Kidney Stone

Adventures in obstetrical care!

Yesterday started out innocuously enough. I had to assemble the cake (banana cake with cream cheese frosting) for my brother's wedding party (at my parents' house - for local friends and family who couldn't attend the wedding itself), and then head over to the party.

About 15 minutes after we arrived, I started having evil, crampy pain in my right side, sort of near my kidneys. The pain came in waves, then accompanied by nausea and eventually vomiting, leaving me shaky and chilled... We decided to head home, so I could go to bed, and I took the precaution of calling my OB's answering service while Mark drove. The final decision from Dr. Greenberg had me headed into Brigham & Women's, stopping, like the class act I am, by the side of the road in Newton, to throw up out the door of the car.

An IV, fluids, nausea meds, a urine sample, a blood test, and a kidney ultrasound later, it was determined that I most likely passed a kidney stone, and that there might be more... but they can't be exactly sure right now.

They let me go home when the pain was gone, and the tests had cleared for anything else that might have been wrong, and I did sleep better at home, pain free, and confident that the Little Man was fine in his watery home.

In the final analysis, Brigham & Women's has a lovely OB triage area, and the staff were fantastic. I felt very well taken care of, and it was a relatively quick trip in and out of the hospital, so who can complain, right? Especially when I'll be back there in seven or eight weeks to deliver...

I am a party animal, n'est-ce pas?

Preschool Blues

I just got back to work after dropping O off at his first day of preschool, and I'm a little lonely...

It was different six years ago when I was going through this with Big Brother J, since we had the infant Miss E to keep us occupied... Now I'm faced with an empty house for three hours, and the daunting tasks of laundry, tidying, and refilling the dishwasher before the extended family arrived for Rosh Hashanah.

It somehow seems wrong to put my feet up for a few hours when there's not even a child asleep upstairs.

But he was so very excited to put on his backpack and walk over to school, and he didn't raise a fuss when it was time for us to leave him, so I'm going to take my cue from him, and just get on with my day as if this were already routine.

And to think, in a few years, I'll be doing this again....

Whingeing About Languishing Knitting UFOs

Have you ever had a project start with great enthusiasm and intentions, and then find that, for one reason or another, it fizzles? (I'm sure the answer is yes...)

I have two afghans that I've started in the last year that are meant for people I love dearly, two very different patterns in very different yarns... and I just can't get excited to finish them...

Especially, when I have holiday gift knitting projects waiting in line behind these dinosaur-sized projects...

I am despondent.

OK, and my baby-brain is like mush, so maybe I shouldn't be trying to finish longterm tasks?

Anyone care to chime in with motivation?

Traffic Patterns and Seasonal Shifts, also, The Weekend

My 35-40 minute commute took an hour this morning, must mean Labor Day has come and gone...

It was quite the weekend, here at MoMP. I kicked off the holiday with an errand run that took me to Fabric Place in Framingham, in search of T pins for my sweater blocking project. I left with two skeins of Noro Kochoran in different colorways that I got for %30 off. Whoops. No more yarn!!!!

Saturday afternoon I spent at the Spencer Fair with Rylee, who tore a swath through the midway and the carnival rides, before devouring a soft serve cone, and checking out the agricultural elements of the fair. She was most impressed by the variety of poultry and barnyard animals, and by the first prize winning 696 pound pumpkin in the Cattle Barn.

Sunday, I drove up to Brattleboro, VT, to visit with my dear friend, Judy, who was in town visiting from DC (a much shorter drive to VT than DC for me, after all). We went with her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew to the Annual Labor Day Festival at the Friends of Music at Guilford, where we ate, relaxed (I started a scarf with my new discount yarn!), and listened to some fairly good festival orchestra renditions of Gershwin, Schubert, and others. It was a lovely afternoon, and oh-so-Vermonty.

Monday was, in fact, a Labor Day. I cleaned the kitchen, cabinet doors and all, did about a month's worth of shopping, and made the first of two blocking boards, in order to kick off the holiday knitting season in good speed.

During all of this, Mark switched the electrical service to an upgraded 200 amps, framed in the bathroom/office wall, installed a bunch of ducting and venting for the bathroom and office, and adjusted for the crooked ceiling (ie: the crooked floors on the second floor) in the bathroom, to accommodate said ducting and venting. Pictures soon!

I hope everyone else had a lovely weekend, and that summer is only nominally over. I, for one, would like to hold on until the 21st!