look at me still talking when there's science to do

Took tallin and machineplay's advice and made scheduleish/to do list that sets times to things. Limited writing time to 1 hour for now. (more is fine, but not required. this takes away the 'must be at computer constantly to wait for inspiration or am not a Real Writer.' anxiety. Day has been particularly satisfying, and i finished two minifics during that hour.

i always resisted schedules because they made me feel anal-retentive. idk why this is different, but apparently it is.

clickies from ecwoodburn, gizmometer and magie_05:

white whale off coast of San Diego

ettiquite guide for flamboyantly gay/transgender thai monks i cannot stop giggling. i cannot. i'm sorry, i just can't.

thai school offers transsexual toilet.

ants inhabit world without sex. for some reason i find this deeply scary.

in pictures: knitted village this is so sweet. it's taken this knitting club twenty years to do and now they're auctioning the bits off to support the town hall. i just love it.

i am now Le Tired. The kid needs a new dentist: the one he had at children's dental retired and we haven't found a new one and they're backed up until the second coming. he has cavities. i forsee sedation in our future.

clickies brought to you today by foxestacado and tourmailine1973 <3<3<3

summit feast for troops and staff After the summit in Thailand was cancelled, rather than let the food go to waste they served the journalists, guards and various staff members the dinner. I don't know much about thai food (yes, i realize my license to live in Seattle is now under jeopardy - there are about seven thai restaurants within a three block radius of my apartment) but it sounds lovely. <3

twilight advertises using contact lenses okay, no matter what you think of the movie or the books, that's seriously fucking creepy. Look at the model. the whole idea gives me chills.

passenger lands plane after pilot dies. OMG.

icebreaker mission sets sail scientific american is starting a series of posts done by a couple of journalists on an icebreaker on the Bering Sea. This is the first one. (for extra bonus fun note pedantic comment which is pedantic at the beginning there.)

Found new ice-cream dessert thing (cookie bottom + ice cream + fudge) by Ben and Jerry's at grocery store. bought two packages. ice cream = srs bzns. Have new toe up socks book to play with: am pondering ripping apart caston row from just-started socks to try toe-up. Will probably do this as i tend to cast-on tightly and have found that it cuts into my leg if i do it that way. more room at the toe to play with.

Despite that i am grouchy and tired of people today. Some random person patted me on the shoulder as she got past me in the post office line. Do not like being touched by complete strangers.

have picked up 'the open focus brain' from the library. looks short. therapist asked me to read it for next session (2 weeks away). some people have asked me to review it, which i will try to do.

tomorrow visit from new neurologist. scary thing: only missed circling 3 of the dozen or so symptoms on 'neurological complaints' list. do not want. appointment is at 9:20 tomorrow morning, which is also nervewracking.

read book, had 1 1/2 hour nap. feel astoundingly better. am now cuddled up with two cats. sometimes life is really good. okay, my shoulder hurts kind of badly but other than that.

does anyone have a particularly good website or something on how to convert DPN sock patterns to two-circular needles sock patterns (not magic loop as yet, i want to try this first). i know cat borhi had a book out but i think it's still packed or something, i don't know where it is right off?

<3

edit: okay, shoulder hurts worse than anticipated. ugh.

What's the point of Facebook? It seems to be getting quite popular but I still fail to understand why. You can't really do much with it except turn people into zombies or whateveritis.

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I have spent most of the past few hours playing with my new ball winder and yarn swift. They are named Denna and Richard, respectively. I have so far wound most of a ball of yarn; my mind is actually quite calm except for the niggling part that keeps pointing out what else we could have done with those four hours.

I swear if there weren't guilt in the world I wouldn't know what to do with myself.



(the other two wee dragons/eggs are 'hidden' due to sickness.)

The Mario Scarf.

She's knitting the entire first level. As a scarf.

SO COOL.

Courtesy my most awesome, amazing girlfriend: Measure to name sewage treatment plant after President Bush is on the California ballot for November. WIN.

This is very nifty: how to reduce packaging: ideas from Japan. SERIOUSLY cool.

God, my brain is oatmeal, I swear.

ETA: I just recieved the little box of socks which is all sock knitting patterns! Very, very cute. And a nice form factor (they're all on laminated cards, very handy.) Mmmm, nomnom socks.

I want a pattern for an adult sized knitted (lacy/summery, not felted) bucket hat. You know, like those gilliganesque type things. I have two balls of linen yarn (marigold-esque colour and greeny-turquoise colour) that want to be a bucket hat. They have told me so.

The only patterns I can find are either (a) for children or (2) crocheted.

Please advise.

*kisses*

Original fic: Finally got smacked in the head with the perfect way to deal with one of my long-standing plots. Result: 1500 words under my belt so far today and counting. AWESOMESAUCE.

Fanfic.remix: 300 words-ish, which means one third done. Is like pulling teeth with a pair of tweezers. Am hating it right now because of this, but I objectively think it'll turn out okay.

Childcare: have care tomorrow, Thursday and Friday from 9-1 for sanity retention; have care Thursday 4-8 due to doctor's visit and other assorted crap. Botox/rehab visit rescheduled for next Tuesday. Next week is fililng up and I'm not sure I like it: not scheduling anything else for next week, I think. Leaving for Portland for the weekend Saturday morning early. OMGWTF, I can SLEEP and I'm planning a trip to Yarnia.

Today: went to hipster coffee joint for morning, did a whole foods run this afternoon. Talked with Seaners' care person for a while after I got home. She rocks, and we just found out we can hire her officially as his ABA assistant without any weird conflicts of interest (because she's currently a respite person, we weren't sure). This means that the insurance pays for it. Can we say AWESOME? We so, so can.

Bought some of the stuff to get my GF-baking-fu on (potato starch, tapioca starch, garbanzo bean flour, rice flour). Am going to try and tweak the zucchini bread recipe tomorrow afternoon, thanks to a little guidance from krasota. Whole Foods sells my favorite ginger candies in their bulk section for a song. I approve of this.

My internet wife is AWESOME and my girlfriend is AWESOME and I'm just having an astoundingly rockin' day. I hope you are too. <3

Home. Tired. Have defeated my fear of the damn bridge over the freeway. Walked about a mile from the freeway stop to home.

Emmi gifted me with Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting Without Tears' (which looks awesome as I glanced through it) and some pumpkin bread mix.

She made tallin a t-shirt that says 'if you can read this you're too damn close' in braille, (seriously, it's totally awesome) and Seaners got a lovely letter (also brailled) with a promise of three trips to Jump Palace (one of those local bounce-castle places which he has been to before and loves) with treats on the way home, and some nifty trays for food wherein he can separate all of his dinner into sections. (They are seriously cool. He likes being able to Find Stuff Himself.) And tallin played Space Channel 5 Part 2 on PS2 and is way better than I would be at it, so we have to buy it now, or well, eventually. <3

She made us brunch and sent us home with dinner and cookies (OMG beet risotto SO GOOD) and I love her to itty bitty bits. And now I'm going to collapse because my body hates the fact that I've walked a mile, especially the ankle (and did I mention I strained the tendons on the other one by falling? No? I did. So I have two screwed up ankles now.) But it was super nice because the little boy stayed home and I got to feel like an actual sociable grownup for a while instead of a kid-chaser.

OMG I r ded. The End.

• Respite day! Any day that includes respite hours is automatically good.
  
• Improved the apartment's feng shui (otherwise known as cleaning.)
  
• Located most of the pieces for tallin's Alucard costume (still must buy: sunglasses, vampire teeth, white shirt.) My Seras Victoria costume just needs vampire teeth and the skirt shortened on my dress. Most excellent.
  
• Picked up apple cider from the farmer's market (6.95 for a half gallon. yum yum.)
  
• Met bork downtown for dinner at The Steelhead Diner (verdict: fabulous. they have poutine, which makes them an immediate win already.)
  
• Came home to package (used copy of Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting, which looks insanely fun.)
  
• Now it's time for the boy to go to bed.
  

All in all, a satisfyingly good day.

To deza:
I was at the farmer's market today and was hooked into buying some gorgeous alpaca DK weight yarn in a kind of coffee latte colour. The woman kindly pointed out which one of her adorable alpacas had provided the fiber, and I was totally sold.

So yeah, sell your future alpaca yarn at farmer's markets. Unexpected, but definitely a good idea, the knitters aren't expecting it and they're weak.

(They also had spinnable fiber.)

Dangerous people! Peaches and yarn. Hit me when I wasn't looking.

Other things I've found today: someone's Christmas gift, five dishtowels for a quarter, Japanese cucumbers (for refrigerator pickles) and thai iced chai. (omg yum) And a good coffee shop which is currently making lemon waffles for me.

I love my neighborhood. I may never move again.

For knitters: Mochi Mochi Land knitted stuffed toy patterns.

I absolutely must have the snake and mouse - and the heffalump and hippo-potamus. And the raincloud! I'm going to knit a raincloud and hang it in our window. :-)

SQUEE CUTENESS! MUST HAVE! YES!

(not that I need more projects. but dude, adorable or what?)

Obama is considering running for president.

Please, let democracy work. Let him run and win. I'd love to have a president who can spell without the aid of Hooked on Phonics...

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Things I need right now:
To write something that I'm actually happy with. ARGH.
A rice cooker
Someone to clean my bathrooms
Dessert
New knees
The new Haruki Murakami book to magically teleport itself from the holds shelf in the Central Library downtown to my present location.

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I want to make this sweater for myself (I love it, but a sweater?). (Although I'd probably do it in Knitpicks Main Line, in either Blueberry or Red Velvet Cake. Mmm, cake.)

While I'm talking about sweaters, I'm thinking about doing Kyoto (yes, still) in Knitpicks Crayon, but I don't know how to size it up (I have a 46" chest, and it only goes up to 42" in the pattern.) Help? If I can figure this out (having passed the 'I can't afford that much yarn' hurdle) I might actually do it. Of course, it would still take forever. I have enough problems finishing small patterns.

That said, I am making decent progress on this knitted hat-thing I'm making for one of my sibs. If I can keep the boy and the cats away from it, I might be done by the end of the week. Considering that keeping the boy and the cats away from it is no easy task and if I knit too awfully long at a sitting my hands start to hurt, that's not too bad. I'm making it in Suri Dream, (Ocean) which has been sitting in my stash for ages because it's too damn fluffy to do just about anything with but pet.

And after I'm done the few knitted gifts I'm doing this season, I'm making myself a pair of very tall socks. Because secretly, I like wearing skirts.