Photo by artolog / CC

Since I want to regain some writing fluency–writing a simple paragraph really shouldn’t feel like dragging bricks across sand–I’m going to try something a little different for a while. Most of my time these days is taken up by going to class, preparing for class, and doing assignments for class. So. I’m going to try using this space to actually capture what I’m doing day to day–what I’m actually working on. Some days it will be a laundry list of tasks, others  will be more substantive, and the kvetching that’s a standard part of library school will happen mostly offstage.

Found in a nook

I’m cleaning out nooks and crannies in the craft closet and found this pattern.

I’m alternately amazed and appalled by the hair, the headband which I just this moment noticed, the gladiator sandals, and the blousy pants.

I must have bought this sometime in the eighties. The plan was to make the shorter version cause even then I had enough sense to know that a cabled mini-dress knit out of soft cotton would be unflattering on almost every woman and would be a baggy mess after one wearing.

Can’t decide which is more distracting: their hair or their feet?

Wait, it might be that one is in the girlie, crossed leg posture and the other one is in the sporty, wider stance.  Or is it the contrast between the belt-defined waist and the pleat-disguised belly.  Let’s just pass quickly by the buggy and steamboat in the title.

I’m torn: do I keep it as an example of eighties textile design or do I add it to the St. Vinnie’s pile.

2. Simultaneously, your credit card company changes its interest rate from 19.75% to 24.75%. This 5% increase is not accompanied by any increase in services, or even prompted by any change in the number of times the card’s been whipped out.

Must remember to buy some stamps.

Heather

(via Bookslut)

I’m still on the look-out  for this one, but I don’t need this one or this one.

Why crows? Probably my father’s fault since he liked to claim he was going off to shoot crows when he and his buddies were headed into the woods to drink beer.  And if it wasn’t crow shooting, it was porcupine shooting. And when porcupines or crows weren’t to hand, there was beer can shooting or floating bleach bottle shooting.  The advantage of beer cans and bleach containers, I suppose, was that people wouldn’t complain that the kids where murdering animals. (Um, yes, lots of target practice. Um, yes, lots of different types of guns. Um, yes, we were all pretty good shots by the time we were 10. And, um, yes, it’s not that hard to make your own ammunition.)

These YouTube dogs are calm in comparison to the hurdling terriers.

Must learn more.

Heather

I hope the other more sedate unders don’t start to feel neglected.

It’s a crap excuse for a hack saw. Blade doesn’t stay in place. But it was better than the pruning saw, the wire strippers, the exacto knife, and the wire cutters. I have defeated the rusting-shower-thing.

There’s the phone.

H: picking up the phone but saying nothing as an attempt to foil the telemarketers

D: “Hello. Hello. Hello.”

H: “Oh hi”

D: “So how many fingers do you have?”

H: “Enough. Why?”

D: “Weeelll. The line was busy. And I thought maybe you’d had to call emergency and then left the phone off the hook.”

H: “But why.”

D: “The hack saw. You. Teetering on the edge of the tub. Whack. Slip. Blood.”

H: “I used a chair.”

D: “Okaaaay.”

H: “That’s a crap hack saw. And you need a new blade.”

D: “Okaaay. I’ll see you later.”

H: “Yup. Bye.”

You know, since he’s already imagining blood-spattered bathrooms, this may not be a good time to recommend Haddon’s Spot of Bother which I finished yesterday even though I did have to close my eyes for a bit in the middle.

Heather

The No Screens Measure was invoked householdwide. No vetos allowed. No computers and no televison and no dvds. Householders had to fall back on old-fangled amusements.

Much paper was used. Drawing pencils and beading needles were seen in action. Naps were had. Three and a half books were read. Actual conversations took place.

Verdict on No Screens: Some twitchiness observed at usual-podcast-listening time. Additional twitchiness observed at Google/Wikipedia withdrawal. Less inner twitchiness reported by all householders.

Heather

Happy highlights of the visit included

• a trip to Frenchy’s where I scored a couple of t-shirts  and a couple of wonderfully ugly work shirts with embroidered logos. (Frenchy’s made the New Yorker last week. Calvin Trillin loves it.)  I think Douglas will look quite fetching in Paul’s Plumbing snap front shirt.  I’m holding onto the minor hockey tournament t-shirt for myself I think; he can have the Take-One-Down-Hand-It-Around t-shirt
• a dash into Stanfield’s outlet shop where my search for long underwear was wildly successful.  He now has all the wooly undershirts he could possibly need. And as an added bonus–even though they were seconds, the arms and legs are the right length. Genuine 100% itchy grey wool Windsor Wear remains elusive.
• a jaunt out Tatamagouche way to the Lismore Sheep Farm yielded some beautiful wooden needles, a drop spindle, and wool that should make up into some good working mittens. My guess is that it’d also make a good gansey.

Heather