Becca's Blog

Having just an awesome day.

This afternoon during my knitting group, I got into a little spat with a woman who told me she wanted all the sparkly or novelty yarn that I brought, at any time. I know it's pointless to argue with someone who's not rational (and maybe not even capable of rationality), but when she refused to even consider sharing yarn that she wasn't using with someone else, I felt like it was time to set some limits. And of course I suck at setting limits. I also sucked at trying to communicate the idea that it wasn't her right to reserve all the nice yarn for herself, because someone else might want it.

Got home and let it go, caffeined up in preparation for another six hours or so of work, and then my beloved emails with the news that her college-age niece wants to stay this weekend. With a friend. The first weekend that I've promised myself I won't work in 8 weeks. Which I might have to spend some of working anyway. During which I was hoping to catch up a little bit on the housecleaning, provided I got some fun time as well. I'm actually quite fond of said niece, but fuckity motherfucking fuck. Do I have to get sick or leave town to have some downtime?

Lemme see now:

As of today, I'm legally married in Canada and New York, and I think Massachusetts. If not, I could probably sue for legal recognition of my Canadian marriage there, and likewise in California--until November that is, when my great state's voters could quite possibly say I can't marry, never could, never will. Everywhere else in the country and in the view of my country, I am not married. I think I need a spreadsheet to keep track.

One does not live by knitting podcasts alone.

Here's a smattering of the podcasts I've been stuffing my MP3 player with:

KUT's Radio Without Borders
The Unbearables and Shotgun Party are a couple of bands that I wanted to check out after hearing them on this podcast. Emphasizes Austin-based bands, but not exclusively. Most tracks are from live sessions at the radio station.

KEXP's Music that Matters
I'm almost cool enough for this Seattle station's indie rock podcast.

All Songs Considered
The host is one of those music dork blowhards with typical boomer chauvinism for the good old days, but the guest DJ episodes are way cool. The latest episode, with T-Bone Burnett, is awesome. I'm now going to download every song he played (except Bob Dylan, gah), and probably then hustle to the record store for that Alison Krauss/Robert Plant album. Pounding Sand, was it? ;-]

KCRW's Good Food
I've been an Evan Kleiman fan since the '80s, but I never knew what a media star she was until I discovered this show. Listening to this podcast about food trends, cooking, and LA restaurants keeps me from dwelling on the Sisyphean nature of housecleaning and yard work as I'm doing them--so it's really a form of suicide prevention. Heaven help me, I even like the farmer's market report.

These are all public radio shows--KCRW.com has a bunch of other great ones, too--and I also listen to Fresh Air and This American Life as podcasts. (Suzie, I'm going to write a check to KQED before the weekend is over.)

Yeah, I know nobody cares what I had for lunch, but

here's what I had for lunch:
hummus and sprouts on a whole-wheat pita with a little crumbled feta. Doesn't that just scream "dyke of a certain age"?

And in my informal taste comparo of Trader Joe's eggplant hummus vs Athenos black olive, the black olive won (slightly more piquant and less salty, but higher in fat and calories--oh well).

I snorked out loud.

If you watch The L-Word, you must go here.

Little twin sweaters.

This evening I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the very young ladies for whom I knit these sweaters. They are two weeks old today, so have a while to grow into their sweaters.  And they're darling (the girls, I mean).

Wooty woot woot.

On tap for next month:
REM concert on June 1.
True Colors Tour on June 29.

That eats up most of my "economic stimulus rebate," but it is money damn well spent. A good antidote to the persistent low-level sadness about Orange Boy's and Josie's failing health, and good incentive to keep the chin up during this month's deadline insanity.

Stocked up.

You dug deep into your stashes, and I’m very, very grateful. Thanks to contributions from Nanda, Teresa, Síle, Kate, Kate, and Carolyn, I have a solid supply of needles and hooks, and enough quantity and variety of yarn to let my students go “shopping” for just about any kind of yarn their hearts could desire. With a selection ranging from solid-color worsted wool to tiger-print chenille, I think they’ll be excited to choose something that suits them exactly, and be excited to get started. You know the feeling... A heartfelt thank you to each of you for making that happen.

I want to say a special thanks to Kate G. for going out of her way to procure the perfect new-knitter needles, and for being my guide to the wonderful world of SCRAP.

My needlecraft students need supplies.

I've been teaching knitting (and a bit of crochet) at the Women's Daytime Drop-In Center for about five weeks now, and it has been incredibly gratifying. Every time I do it, I leave happier than when I arrived, because I've had a chance to share something I love with people, and watch them get enjoyment from it.

I haven't had many repeat customers yet, but I don't feel that's a negative at all--I feel that I'm offering some enrichment to whoever wants to partake, in any way they want to. Often that means that I get someone started on something small, and at the end of the session, they take it with them. As a result, the knitting and crochet needles that I've brought and the odds and ends the center had are rapidly dwindling. We've gone through a lot of yarn, as well.

I'm going to start scavenging for more needles this weekend, starting with a trip to The Legacy in Sebastopol. A North Bay knitter named Fina tipped me off to it last fall at the Nordic Knitting Conference, but I haven't been yet. So I'm going to combine a nice little weekend drive with some supplies hunting. If I'm lucky I'll run across a couple of good thrift stores in Sebastopol and Petaluma as well. Next I'll hit SCRAP in San Francisco and the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse.

And I'll happily accept any and all donations of supplies--or tips on good sources. If you have needles that you don't care for, I'll take them off your hands. Super-small needles aren't great for beginners, of course, but I'll accept pretty much anything else. I've got plenty of yarn to donate in my own stash, but I'd be happy to give yours a good home as well (and yes, acrylic is very fine for this purpose!). Leave me a comment if you've got stuff I can take off your hands.

Special request of Bay Area folks.

Hi Bay Areans, and particularly San Francisco folks: I just got a call from Blood Centers of the Pacific because I've been donating whole blood with them for 20-plus years. It's very unusual to get a call requesting blood on a Sunday, but their supply of whole blood is just about depleted due to a single surgery that took 23 units.

If you are in the vicinity of one of their centers and you're eligible, willing, and able to give blood, please consider making an appointment in the next few days.

I don't live or work near a center anymore, but I will probably try to make some time to get over to the city and give. I hope you'll join me.

A couple of other expenditures.

One other small thing I popped for a couple of weeks ago was a donation to Ravelry. I figure that it's worth much more than $5 per month to me, so I donated $30, and in a few months I'll donate that much again.

And last night I had such a good time knit night at Stash that I bought a couple of skeins of Jitterbug. I know it's not free to keep a store open and staffed, and the vibe was extremely mellow and welcoming. So I purchased a little bit o' yarn as a way of paying some dues. Plus, it's really pretty yarn.

Kitty is behaving strangely again and howling a lot. So he's been to the vet a couple of times this week and been through a couple of rounds of blood tests. We won't know for about a week why the calcium level in his blood is elevated. He's going to be 17 at the end of this month.

Sometimes it suuuuucks to be a grownup.

I got a nice bonus a few weeks ago, and ever since I've been fantasizing about how to spend it: A real, grownup bedroom set? Yeah, I've wanted that for a while. Down payment on a new car? Yes indeed, I want that. Long overdue big vacation (destination of *my* choosing)? I think I want that most of all.

Here's where the money's gone so far: Teeth cleaning for Tina (damn); deposit to IRA (double-damn); extra credit card payment (triple damn). The majority has gone into savings, and the secret, childish part of me believes I'll never see it again, and certainly not in the form of fun. I don't believe I'll get to choose how the money gets spent; I believe I'll get told.