2 posts in as many days. This won't happen again.

I stopped paying much attention to American news sources a long time ago. Too much obsession with celebrity gossip (I refuse to call any of it news) and sports. BBC news is my homepage on the internet and I really only look at anything else if I'm looking for something specific or more facts. Today, however they are completely obsessed with the Royal Wedding. This is obviously completely understandable. I don't care about the wedding (though that dress was gorgeous) but I understand them covering it the way they did. The problem is that it's making me miss London very badly to see it plastered all over every time I open a new browser window.

I spent a semester there for school in 2004. Life has kept getting in the way and I haven't been able to go back since then. Sometimes the missing it is worse than others. I grew up a small town girl (there were 1800 kids in the entire K-12 district I attended) but I love the big city.  I've always been very much a home is where your family is sort of person, but if I was forced to pick on physical location to call home, it would be London (though not, perhaps, the exact place we stayed).

I love this picture, despite the blurriness.

There was a whole group of us from Ball State that went, and we lived in a wing of a hostel that had been set up as a dormitory for us. It changed ownership while I was there, and has apparently been closed for renovations over since. Either it's never going to reopen or they've gutted the entire thing. It wasn't a bad place, but it wasn't great either. We were, however, just a few short blocks from Hyde Park.

This the Google satellite view of our neighborhood. The red dot is the intersection we lived at. Number 1 Queen's Gardens. School was past Paddington, just off Edgware Road* and the touristy stuff was on the other end of the park. The mall, Whitely's, became more interesting later when I learned it had originally been one of the first department stores.

I hope to be able to go back before we have kids. Dustin has never been, and I'd love to be able to show it to him without having to worry about having wee ones be able to keep up. Had his boss's corporate contract not run out and so vastly changed our financial situation, we probably would go this summer.

This was actually not taken in London. It's York, actually. But it is the people I spent the most time with. Stephanie, my two roommates Sarah and Mandy, Debbie, Me, Jenny, and Kari. Debbie's the only one I still keep in contact with. Last I heard, Stephanie was married to one of the guys who went (they started dating there) and Kari was living in Germany teaching on a military base. I don't know about the others. I miss it. I miss them.




*Terrorism takes on a different face when they hit somewhere you know. I was through that station on a very regular basis.

If April showers bring Mayflowers...

Then we're going to have quite a lot of flowers. It seems like it's been raining constantly these past few days. However, given the fact that Carmel insists on setting off their storm sirens any time that Hamilton County has a severe thunderstorm warning, I'm getting quite tired of hearing them.




Quarter Goals

Quarter 1: make a sweater for myself and three pairs of socks. The sweater is done, the socks are not. And I've decided (I think the whole group has done the same) that it's going to be 12 socks, rather than 12 pairs.  I quite like it; this picture does not do it justice. I've also been losing weight, which makes it even better.






Quarter 2: I need to catch up on my socks and enter something in the state fair. If I can find a quality place to get a print made (I need to get on that) I'll be entering that picture I showed a few weeks ago. I am also planning on making a lace shawl for it; it's at one half of it's needed diameter, but being that it's a circle, that doesn't mean that I'm anywhere near halfway done with it. 


The pattern is the Circular Shell Shawl (that's really hard to say, try it) from the book Crochet Lace. Thankfully the library had it, or I never would have been able to make any of the patterns. The book is out of print and is well over $100 on Amazon. I'm using some black (yes, black lace, I am that crazy) Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace that I had in my stash. It's a 70/30 alpaca/silk blend and it is amazing. 

There aren't really any good pictures on the Ravelry page for this. This one by Shepardscrook is the best there is, but she did modify the border a bit.

For the non-yarnies reading this, this is what size yarn we're dealing with when we say "lace weight." It's tiny, and it can be a pain the a** to work with. 







Aside from that, there's not been a lot going on. Today is the last day of classes, finals next week, then off until mid-August. I am hoping that I'll be able to switch to basically full-time at work. I also plan on doing some major cleaning of the house. We're both horrible packrats and we have closets full of stuff that we likely don't need. We've also decided that we're likely going to be in our current place until I graduate, which will be in 2013 and now that we've officially decided that this isn't just a temporary place, I'd really like to paint. I am so tired of cream colored walls.

I was recently reminded that I haven't blogged in a very long time. I am very busy, and very overwhelmed with school right now. One week of classes left, and then it's finals. I have a huge portfolio due on Tuesday, and then several final projects as well as the tests themselves. I foresee a very late night tomorrow on the portfolio. Once all that is done (or at least the portfolio part) I shall write a proper post.

For now, though, I  finished my Quarter One goal for group with a couple of days left and have started the Quarter Two project. I'll post pictures of both when I get a chance for a proper update.

Spring and Valentines

At the very least, it feels like spring. Highs in the 40's (which is a full 40F warmer than it was 2 weeks ago) and finally a good thaw to get rid of all the ice. I suspect we've got another good freeze coming before spring truly arrives, but the air has gotten that springtime smell too it and I suspect that when the glacier is gone from my flower bed I will have crocus noses poking up. (And it is a glacier at this point; it's migrating downhill)

Crocus picture, because I can.

We're not doing much for the holiday, such as it is. We had wanted to go to the Claddagh for fish and chips but we're broke so that's not happening. Instead, we're just going to have a nice meal at home and I made a cake.

As for the cake- my mother got me one of those cupcake shaped cake pans for Christmas this past year and this is the first time I've had a chance to use it. If I bake cake, we will eat it. And by we I mean I, so I solve the problem by not baking cake. But it's a special occasion so cake it is. I'm not so sure I like the pan, as it turns out. Problem number one is that you apparently need a whole thing of cake mix (I was lazy this time and used mix) for each half. For a family of two, that's way too much cake. Problem number two is that I think it would take fondant to get the cup part to look right, which is not my favorite thing ever. The store didn't have any ready made and I didn't have time to make my own, so I just used frosting. You can't get the bumps right. Still, I think the idea has potential and when I have a reason to make more cake (4th of July party, maybe?) I shall try it again.

My less than stellar first attempt. I also need to remember that while I used to be able to churn out frosting roses like a pro, I haven't actually done any cake decorating beyond sprinkles since high school.

Also, Chaos has decided that at my feet under the desk is the premier place to be when Dustin is at work. At least he's not quite as codependent as Scamper is.

Still chugging along on my quarterly goals for knitting group. Sweater is almost to the point of having sleeves attached; I'll get pictures when the main body is done. There's also a super secret project coming up soon that I'll only be able to talk about when it's done.

Something that Won't Happen often

This is going to be a bit (ok, potentially a lot) political. It's not something I'll do here frequently. I'll never hide my political views if I am asked but I do usually hold to the tenant that it's not a discussion for exceptionally public places. Usually my small rants will stay on Facebook or Live Journal. Maybe, if I'm feeling particularly feisty, they'll make it to deviantArt. Very rarely will you see them here. This is one of those rare times, though. The news of the last few weeks is just adding up too much for me to not say something; writing, especially when it needs to be well thought out and ordered, can be quite cathartic.  And now onto the rant. 

For how much certain political forces like to claim that they want "small government" they do seem awfully happy to shove their government all over my body. Especially my reproductive system.

Several states have passed/are considering laws that would require a woman seeking an abortion to first have a sonogram. One state would be too many. The fact that's not just one... Perhaps worst of all, there's no exceptions. Carrying a rapist's child? Listen to the heartbeat. Carrying a child you know will be stillborn or dead soon after birth? Listen to the heart beat.

And now there's a bill in the House (that naturally has the support of my congress creature) that will limit tax dollars that go towards abortions. Currently, medicaid can pay for them in cases of rape. Even if we go with the idea that that is the only time it's acceptable to have one, this bill wants to change that to only cover it in times of forcible and violent rape. That's it. Date rape drugs involved? Alcohol? You weren't raped enough to deserve that abortion. Further, it's limiting all tax money spent, and they're saying that because an HSA is tax free that money can't be spent on abortions, regardless of reason. And those tax deductions that you can get for insurance payments if you itemize your taxes? Kiss those goodbye if your plan even offers abortion coverage, regardless of if you ever use it.^

There's fear mongering in this country that it's going to turn into some socialist nightmare. We'll ignore the fact that most of the people screaming about this cannot actually tell you what socialism or communism is, just that Joe McCarthy told them it was a Bad Thing. Problem is, it's not one of Orwell's novels that I'm worried is going to come about; it's Atwood's*. That's not socialism. It's fascism, and it is far far scarier.

It is becoming quite clear to me that there is a group of politicians who do not view women as fully functioning adults capable of making their own decisions and running their own lives. Most shocking is the fact that there are women *in* this group. I've never really used "feminist" to describe myself. I never thought I had to; surely we had reached a point where there was no need to point out that I considered myself equal citizen despite having a uterus. Apparently that was naive of me. Regardless of my past naivety, this needs to be paid attention too. Every thinking woman, and every man who views women as more than chattel, needs to pay attention to this very slippery slope. Now it's proposed to not be rape from the view point of medical treatment. How long before it's not rape from the view of the law?

*The Handmaid's Tale is particularly creepy right now.
^H.R. 3 of 2011

edited for a couple of small typos

Not really resolutions

I decided a long time ago not to do New Year's resolutions. They're rarely ever kept with, and it seems to me that if one is going to make a change in one's life then one needs to do it right away, rather than just waiting for an arbitrary date.* That said, there are a couple of changes that I need to make, namely that I need to exercise more and stress less. Hopefully the two will easily go hand in hand. If it's not below 10F or knee deep in snow, there's no reason the dog and I can't go for a long walk daily. As for the stressing less, well, we'll see.

Dustin and I took advantage of the warm weather over the holiday weekend to take the dogs down to a nearby park for some hiking.  It was nice to get out of the house and do something outside without having to be bundled into multiple layers. I enjoy winter, but not that part of it.

Chaos had fun poking around in the bush, and Scamper does love digging for rodents, though I'm not sure what she'd do if she ever actually *found* anything.

I've gotten ready to start the first of my quarterly goals for my knit/crochet group. Everyday Crochet finally came in from the library, and I have the yarn to start my sweater. It's Berroco Vintage in a beautiful shade of green. I've also already finished the first sock for the group goal of making 12 pairs of socks this year, so that's looking much more achievable than it was two weeks ago.

Aside from that, life goes on much the same as normal. School starts again next week, and Dustin is looking for a new job. He loves the one that he's got now, but it appears that the crappy economy has finally hit it; he hasn't worked since before Christmas. We're eeking by for now, but that's not going to last. Technically, they have a corporate contract (redoing the lines in Taco Bell) but since they appear to be just sitting on it and not actually doing anything, having the contract doesn't do much good. We've talked about it, and if nothing better comes first, he'll be going (it is, sadly, a traveling thing) but if he gets something that looks to be a permanent full time thing with benefits, he's not going anywhere. The money's not worth it if there's the opportunity to actually have health insurance.

*I'll apologize right now for the writing style; I fell asleep watching Pride and Prejudice last night (the good one with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth) and it does effect my inner monologue quite a bit. 

Yearly Goals

The girls in my knitting/crochet group have come up with the idea that we should have some group goals as well as some individual goals for the next year, with the fact that we'll have each other as motivators to get things done.

Looks like the group goal is going to be something to do with socks. I'm not going to make any promises for 12 pairs of socks (that's one sock every 2 weeks), but I think I can manage 12 socks in a year. Half as many pairs, but still more than I've done before. As for my personal goals, I have a couple of ideas, but I'm not 100% sure on them all yet. So far, though, I have

1) Enter something in the State Fair. I planned on doing this last year, but missed the date and didn't have the money for the entry fee. Hopefully having the others around will help me remember at the very least. This might not be crochet related.

I have a picture or two I've got my eye on for entering. This one, most likely. Will have to dig through my computer and find the original and a quality place to get the print made. 








I would also like to enter in a cross-stitch piece that I'm working on. Unfortunately, those don't lend themselves to traveling projects or anything that requires more concentration to audio books, so I'm not sure it will get done for this year.

2) Make a nice sweater for both Dustin and I. Depending on how that goes and when it gets done, that might go towards #1 as well*.  These are the two that I'm currently planning on. The one I have planned for me is a Doris Chan design and I can't say enough how much I love her.

3) Get rid of all these works in progresses that I have floating around. This will be sort of a year long goal, but I want to finish the year with only one WIP per craft (this includes one project plus a pair of socks on the hook for crochet). If I'm going to finish things, I need to do so, and if not I need to get them frogged and decide if the yarn is worth keeping. Obviously, long term things like my scrap blanket don't count towards that.

*Jessica and I are going yarn shopping on Thursday and if the book the pattern is in has come into the library by then, I will try to find the yarn I want then.