What a Life!

Does that look like a fish to you?

I’m making fish hats for my fishermen and that is about as far as I can get on one while the boys are awake. The same limitations apply to photography as well, so I cannot show you what this one looks like now – the tail and fins are finished and it only needs eyes.

I am tired of knitting.

Actually, I now have a cold (I realized this when I got up this morning) so I think I am tired of everything.

I did manage to get one more gift completed this afternoon. It will be late, of course. But my family loves me anyway, and I would rather give them something good albeit late than something ugly that got done on time.

Seriously, though, I am tired of knitting for other people. I want to knit for me-me-me. Knitted things are lovely and they are so nice to wear, and I spend all my time knitting for everyone else. It’s just not fair.

Joey needs mittens or he cannot play outside in the snow. [And we have snow right now so he is missing out. Insert guilt here.] I want to make one more holiday stocking, but I’m doubting whether that will get done. I am making socks for the boys for Christmas and I need to finish knitting the second sock for Joey. All this on top of making a third fish hat for Steve and finishing Joey’s fish hat.

The socks will probably be done in time for Christmas. The fish hats, probably not. I keep telling myself they’ll be more excited about the hats if they aren’t distracted by all the other gifts I hear they’re getting. It’s sounds great in theory. But I don’t think I’ll be writing any “Dear Santa, I’ve been such a good girl this year…” letters any time soon.

But if I did, here’s what I’d be asking for:

A bigger, better computer with a bigger hard drive and more memory so I could store and edit my pictures. I love my Mac, but I should have bought one with a bigger hard drive and more memory when I bought this one last year, even though I wasn’t sure whether I would love it or not. I want to get better at editing my photos, and to do that I need fancier software. Right now I’m thinking Aperture 2 with a new MacBook. Photoshop sounds great, but Aperture gets good reviews too, and it would sync with the other software on my computer, which would make things like making next year’s calendar much easier.

My other wishes?

Yarn. To make this and this. It’s 4 degrees outside right now, and even though I’m inside where it is supposedly warm, I’m sitting on the couch shivering. I have an electric blanket to keep me warm at night – I had to turn it up to 8 last night and usually I run it on 3 or 4 – but even the quilts I’ve made aren’t enough to keep me warm when it gets this cold. So I’m thinking Girasole in worsted weight yarn for a “blanket” sized version.

I’ve been drooling over Girasole ever since it came out on the 4th. But what yarn to make it with? I don’t like either of the yarns used to make the sample pieces. I was actually thinking Berocco Ultra Alpaca and had even picked out a color. If I remember correctly, even though it is alpaca, it isn’t exactly soft. But it is pretty and would make a nice warm blanket. The yarn [8 skeins of it] is in my shopping cart over at Webs, with the discount and all.

But then Friday, Berocco came out with Rosebud. That has to be the prettiest sweater ever. I could make it to be fitted at the top where the buttons are, and if you look at the schematic, it is shaped on the sides. But it only fastens at the top which would do a very good job of hiding my, uh, mommy tummy, which I still have even though Joey is two years old. I just love the roses, and I just love the ribbing on the top. And the name of the ribbing, Wheat Ear Rib – I love wheat! It’s the prettiest sweater ever, and I would love to make it with the yarn called for in the pattern, which happens to be Berocco Alpaca Light. Yeah, same stuff I was going to make Girasole with, just a different weight.

I even have that yarn [13 skeins of it] in my cart right now, too. Which means I qualify for the big discount. The only problem? [Other than not wanting to spend that much money on yarn right now, regardless of how hopelessly in love I am with the projects] I simply cannot decide what color I want. When I was shopping for the blanket, somehow Blueberry Mix kept jumping out at me. My living room has earthtone versions of red, yellow, green and blue in it, and with the blue couch and blue rug, Blueberry Mix probably wouldn’t be the best choice. But I love blueberries – they are my favorite fruit. For the cardigan, Lavender Mix looks very pretty, but I have yarn in a very similar color to make another sweater right now so that wouldn’t be a good choice. Ach!

So here I sit, agonizing over yarn color while I continue to knit (…and knit…and knit) fish hats. And socks. And mittens. While I shiver. And dream. Of knitting. For myself. Once again.

I had all these great plans in October to get pictures taken of the boys, the family calendar made so my parents could bring it to Kentucky in November instead of shipping it to me, and all of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, too.

Well, I have no idea what happened, but those plans never became anything more than plans. I still don’t have pictures of the boys [still holding out hope on that one]. I did the family calendar this weekend. And I find myself frantically working on last minute Christmas presents.

Part of the problem was lack of work in November (I work from home a few hours a week to supplement the family income). With no income, I didn’t feel like spending money on anything, even though I had the time to do so. Now in December, I find myself swamped with more work than I can get done. Along with all these Christmas things I have to do.

Accomplishments thus far:

• Christmas program at the church where Ben attends Sunday School. [See him up there, standing in the front row?] Ben said his line. Into the microphone. Ben, the child who hardly spoke at age 2 when he should have had a vocabulary of at least 50 words. Ben, the child who will not say anything on command. Yeah, that Ben. I asked him once what his line was, you know, to practice it at home. He informed me that he could only say it into the microphone at church. Far be it from me to tell him otherwise. And by gum, he said it, into the microphone, for everybody to hear. We were very proud. I played the piano for the Christmas program, so I was very involved in it as well.
• Christmas goodies have been made. So far – Molasses Cookies, Pound Cake Cookies, Sugar Cookies – including cutting them out with the boys, and Almond Bark. The Almond Bark tastes like wax so I will be making another batch with different chocolate. I hate that when grocery stores try to be cheap. I still intend to make Auntie Ann’s Caramel Corn and Grandma Hagele’s Chocolate Caramels.
• I got the family calendars done – did I mention that? I went through all 4,330 photos I have on my computer that were taken within the last 12 months. The calendar took about twelve hours of my time. Four hours going through the pictures and selecting ones I thought I might use. Two hours making up a calendar in one program, only to find out that I could not print out a copy of it myself unless I paid the makers of the program $19.99 for each copy. Two hours surfing the internet looking for other options. And four hours trying to get the software on my computer to do the calendar for me. That said, next year the entire project should only take two hours now that I know how to do it in a word processing program.

Which leads me to my discussion of the Annual Reckoning. Steve asked me if my pictures were good this year since I have a better camera and lens (after complaining about the ones I had last year). Yes, they have improved. But if I were to state my goal for next year, it would be to upgrade my computer and learn how to edit my photos in Photoshop. It would be one of those small-step-for-man-giant-step-for-mankind kind of improvements. My dear husband complains that we have no photo albums to look at, but I can hardly bear to print out my photos because they could be so. much. better. Just saying…

My last minute gift for this year? Fish hats for my three fishermen. Stay tuned…

Joey loves cookies. Can you tell?

These are actually Molasses Cookies from my classic Fanny Farmer Cookbook. Steve requested them, and I’d never made them before. The dough was not like cookie dough at all – I had to add flour to get it to hold together enough to shape cookies. Then they’re bitter, like molasses, and not very sweet. Not my idea of a good cookie. But Steve says they’re like he remembers them being as a kid. So I guess I made them correctly.

And this would be my favorite series of the fifty or so pictures I took of Joey eating cookies.

Stuffin’ it in.

Make sure you get it all in there.

Now check those fingers for crumbs.

And just for the record – I don’t give my child dozens of cookies to eat. He found the Tupperware container I keep them in in the kitchen and drug it out to the living room where he started eating them as fast as he could. Just saying…

And yes, I made him sit at the table proper like and eat the ones he’d already taken a bite out of. No sense spreading any more crumbs than necessary.

My little Cookie Monster.

My camera is kaput.

Last weekend, Steve wanted pizza. So when I went to the grocery store, I bought a Four Cheese Freschetta pizza. But that didn’t do the trick, because the next day, Steve was asking for pizza again. We had a coupon for Valentino’s, so we decided to go there.

And since we were going to town and Steve was with me and the sun was shining nicely – not too bright, but shining none the less – I decided to take the boys sweaters and the camera, in hopes that I could take another try at getting some good portraits of the boys.

Then Steve got grumpy with me because we can’t just go to town – no, everything we do has to be a big production with all this stuff we have to take along… And you can’t blame him, really. I was even making him take a change of clothes in case he got caught in one of the pictures.

But in the midst of all that, I dropped my camera.

It was in the bag I normally carry it in, which does have some padding. But apparently, not enough.

I didn’t even think anything of it when I picked it up. It’s not like it fell on concrete or anything. Just the linoleum floor in our kitchen which has plywood underneath.

We ate our pizza, and then we went to the Arboretum on East Campus. The light was perfect. There was not distracting background to avoid. The boys were in a good mood. It was neither too cold nor too windy. The perfect opportunity to putter around and take some pictures.

I took my camera out and went to take a picture…

On my camera, you press the shutter release halfway and that sets the focus, aperture, and shutter speed. Then you press it all the way and you take the picture.

I pressed the shutter release, and it focused and did everything else, but it would not take the picture. There was no visible damage to the camera, but obviously something was wrong.

So Monday I shipped my camera off to Virginia for repairs.

Canon told me they’d send it back to me seven to ten days after they received it at their facility. I called them yesterday, and they said it would take three to five days from when they received it to contact me and let me know what the problem was and how much it would cost to fix it.

It arrived Wednesday at 1:09 p.m.

I am still waiting to hear from them.

This morning, Joey was playing with the dishes in the drainboard that hadn’t gotten put away last night. The light in the kitchen was perfect, and I would have been taking lots of pictures. Apparently Ben knows the routine. He had his toy camera in there and was taking lots of pictures of Joey playing with the pots and pans.

If only my children weren’t so cute…

The other night, Steve came home from work and went downstairs, where Ben was playing.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“The Chiefs are playing the Lions,” Ben replied.

“Who’s winning?”

“The band.”

[Ben loves-loves-loves the marching band and pretends he is in the band all the time.]

* * * * *

Every now and then at our house, Steve and I debate which child acts like which parent, looks like which parent, and so forth. Recently we were having one of these discussions and Steve turned to Ben.

“Who do you look like, Ben?”

Ben thought for a moment, then replied, “I look like Ben.”

* * * * *

And the picture at the top of this post is me at Wednesday night knitting. Jess had a cowl made out of Malabrigo – yarn which I have and something I’ve thought of making – so I tried it on. Everyone thought that between that and the handknit sweater I was wearing, I could use a little more texture. So Lisa handed me her sock that she was knitting (left hand). I tossed the scarf I was making around my shoulders. Julie handed me the square she was knitting (right hand). Jess gave me her hat to put on, and then she took that lovely picture.

What would I do without my friends?

I am sitting on the couch feeling literally ill. I couldn’t go to sleep last night – both when I went to bed and when I got up once with Joey. When the alarm went off, I knew it was the end.

On one hand, I am so, so tired of hearing liberals complain about how this country is “going in the wrong direction” and “we need change.” On the other hand, watching our nation elect someone on account of the color of his skin and his personal charisma is utterly appalling.

Even Tom Brokaw, on an interview on PBS last week, admitted that we really know very little about where Barack stands on many issues, including foreign policy. The press could find all sorts of negative things about Sarah Palin – in fact, almost all of their coverage was negative – but they couldn’t even do basic research on their own favorite candidate. I think appalling is an understatement.

It used to be that you didn’t talk about money, religion, or politics, as those were controversial topics that were considered personal. But for the last eight years, the liberals seem to have worn their politics on their sleeves while conservatives have just kept quiet, as they’ve always done. Liberals have whined incessantly about how terrible things are, how the country is going in the wrong direction, how we need change. And conservatives have just quietly stood by.

What’s worse…liberals speak about these things as though their viewpoints are common knowledge, as though everyone knows and agrees with what they’re saying. With no one answering their baseless arguments or presenting a different viewpoint, clearly, all that whining got through.

I like politics. I enjoy following what all goes on with national politics. Since it is such a passionate interest of mine, I have long debated talking politics occasionally on my blog. But I didn’t want to alienate all three readers who have subscribed to my blog in Google Reader.

I’ve decided, though, that being quiet on politics is no longer an options. The liberals cannot have the only voice in this discussion. It’s time for the conservative viewpoints to be voiced too. Conservatives do care about the environment, health care, and helping those with lower incomes. They aren’t just a bunch of right-wing evangelical nuts.

Some of my favorite classes in college were philosophy, ethics and history. It’s time to have those discussions in real life. Well thought opinions on current issues. Logically laying out positions that appeal to common sense.

Whether it’s on my blog or in casual conversations, I will no longer quietly stand by. My goal isn’t to make everyone a conservative. My goal is simply to present the other side. Correct misconceptions. Offer alternate ways of seeing things.

Because I don’t want to see another election where we elect someone just because we think we need “change” without having a clue as to what we’re actually getting instead.