BlogHer ‘10, continued (sort of)

You know what?  I just read a post by ThreeSeven that makes anything I have to say about BlogHer ‘10 seem trite and a bit frivolous.  Please do go read it.

I would like to say, though, that the Keynote for the International Activist Blogger Scholarship Recipients was particularly moving and thought-provoking.  I tend to take my own freedom for granted, and these women’s stories put my little piques into sharp relief.  These women?  They have difficult lives, they live in difficult situations, and they are doing something to change it.  And because what they’re doing is so dangerous, there was an embargo on taking their photos during the keynote.

Attend a BlogHer Conference. Check.

I came, I saw, I wanna go again next year.

Things I’m going to do next time:

• Make and bring business cards. Everyone had them. I wound up using my phone to email myself a list of people’s Twitter handles and/or blog names.
• Wear more comfortable shoes to the dress-up events. The ones I bought were killing me. While walking back to the hotel from happies at the Volstead (a few blocks away) I was tempted to kick them off and walk stocking-foot down the sidewalks of Manhattan.
• Take more pictures. I took some with my phone, but I could have (should have) taken more.

Things I’m not going to do next time:

• Be so shy. Oy. I could write a book on this one bullet point alone. I need to remember that everyone is there for similar reasons—to get away from the keyboard, get out from behind the screen, to meet fellow bloggers face-to-face. We all want to talk to each other.
• Leave my camera in the hotel room. It does me absolutely no good when it’s sitting in its case. Though I did get some good shots from the window of room, like the one below. I don’t think I could handle a terrace 20-30 stories above street level, could you? I think I’d be clinging to the walls.

• Leave the badge on the kitchen table! Granted, they did have a kiosk called “Reprints” just for people like me. And I did meet nice people in the line. We had 45 minutes or so to get to know each other. Still. They went to the trouble to print the thing ahead of time so we wouldn’t have a 45-minute wait in line.
• Bring something to do during "down time." I brought an embroidery project I started last month. Didn't touch it once, except to move it out of the way to get at other stuff in my suitcase. Down time? That's when you sleep.
  

The sessions were great. I’ve already started putting into practice some of the things I learned – like that picture above. The original picture was a little cock-eyed, because the building in question was down the street and the terraces were a few floors below me. Here, let me show you:

Unsettling, isn’t it? Like all the furniture’s about to tumble over the edge of the railings and into the street below. And everything looks kind of faded, too. Not quite the way I remember it. I know how to fix the color, but I thought I was stuck with that tilt. Until someone mentioned Windows Live at one of the Geek Lab sessions on photography, that is. Then they demonstrated it. It does cool stuff. One of its features? It straightens pictures. I clicked one button and went from the picture immediately above to one that had the building straight up and down!

Better still? I don’t even have to download this. It’s been hanging out on my laptop for over a year, waiting to be noticed.

I’m going to introduce an Ideas Jar in my house--an idea from another one of the sessions. I will put words and phrases into it—cut-outs from magazines, quotations from books I’ve read, stray thoughts I have that I manage to write down before they leave, things like that—and when I get stuck for material I’m going to take something from the jar and work with it. I may grab the camera and work it out that way. I may write. Dunno.

I also had an idea for a joint blog I’d like to do with my sister. I don’t know if it’ll pan out. More on that later when (if) it develops.

I met lots of great people. You might notice some new blogs in the blogroll to the right of this post. Arts and Dafts is an art blog by Ry, an artist from Brooklyn. She takes great photographs, among other things. And then there’s Feast After Famine, by Dana in Washington D.C. She used to be a journalist, struggled with infertility for a while and beat it into submission. She has four children now. And then there’s Amiee of mamieknits. She lives in Los Angeles, is a knitter, a mother of twins, and an absolute maniac on the dance floor—I’ve seen that last part with my own eyes. She reminds me an awful lot of one of my best friends from high school (who is now an Air Force wife living in New Jersey. Are you out there, lurking?).

I met these three at a BlogHer meet-up at the Volstead. I’ll write about that tomorrow, because it’s quarter after ten now and I really should go to bed.

In an unrelated note, I put eggs on to boil before I started this post and forgot about them until I heard something go “click” in the next room about 20 minutes ago. All the water had boiled away. I’m lucky I didn’t set the house on fire. Can you burn hard-boiled eggs? I guess I’ll find out when I can touch them without losing my fingerprints.

Home again

My mind is reeling from this past weekend. What an amazing time! I am going to blog about it, but not today. I'm still processing the whole thing.

I know this much, though. If I can swing it, I'm going next year! San Diego next time.

Better start saving my pennies now.

Day 2 starting soon

In the morning, after a breakfast for people new to the conference, my sister and I went to a really good session on how to stoke your creativity. There I sat at a social media conference with my laptop in my tote, taking notes with pen and paper. I am hopelessly old-school in some respects.

After lunch I wandered around the exhibits halls for a bit. Favorite booths so far: the Honey Board and Playskool. Playskool gave me Weebles. Remember Weebles? I begged for them for Christmas and got some weird wooden toy people instead--not Fisher-Price people, something else. All I remember is that they were a family, the mother was red, and they had some sort of van they all fit in. I thought Santa misunderstood, or didn't watch TV (Sing it with me, folks, "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!"), and that's why I got these. Being a fairly easy child to please most of the time, I shrugged and played with those things instead.

They also gave me a canister of black Play-Doh, and -- one of the weirdest giveaway items yet -- Play-Doh scented perfume. And you know what? It smells great.

Back to another session in the afternoon about taking better pictures. Most of the women in there had DSLR cameras. Mine's a point-and-shoot, but they said you can do most of this with a point-and-shoot camera as well. It was mainly about the "rules" of photography -- composition, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, Dutch angles, lines. Someone had told me some of these things before, but since I hadn't been taking notes then everything except the Rule of Thirds fell out of my head. The Rule of Thirds, incidentally, is that the most interesting thing in the picture should take up 1/3 of the picture. Centering things makes them less interesting.

The Voices of the Year keynote was great. They do this every year. People nominate bloggers for a particular post they've written over the past year, a committee chooses the best, and then those people get up on stage and read their posts aloud. I mismanaged my time a little, so I only caught about 2/3 of the program. They were all very good. There was one about a woman meeting Holocaust survivors in an airport, and introducing them to her friend's grandmother, who had been in the same camp at the same time. That one made me reach over and hug my sister.

That night there was a gala in the ballroom, an art display (for an auction that's going to start online on Sept. 15), all sorts of stuff to make and do. We got to the make/do part after everything was over, but that gave us as much time as we wanted to look at all the art. All the proceeds of this auction are going to benefit Gulf coast clean-up.

This morning we have a presentation by/for the International Activist Blogger Scholarship recipients, and then I'm going to a session on how to improve my photos through editing. After lunch I'm going to troll through the expo hall I didn't get to yesterday, and maybe visit the sponsor suites. Someone came up to me and invited me to one of them. Said something about giveaways for readers (all four of you), so I'm gonna look into it.

One thing that really surprised me was how friendly everyone is. Strangers walk right up to you, say hi, want to know what you write about, where you're from. They hand out cards with their blog info on them (I keep kicking myself for not doing that. I'll have them next year). There's a very egalitarian atmosphere.

And then I wonder why I'm surprised. This is what we're here for, to connect, to talk to each other, to find like-minded folks, to grow and learn.

Yesterday after breakfast they announced where next year's conference is. San Diego. Time to start saving my pennies. I want to do this again.

We're here!

Ditter and I checked into the hotel around 3, into the conference by about 5:30. Ditter's conference check-in took about 2 minutes. Mine took for-freaking-ever, but that's my own fault. BlogHer mailed out the badges months ago. I have a manila envelope with all my conference stuff in it. As I was packing I'd say things like, "Need to remember to put that badge in here," every time I saw the envelope. And every time I saw the badge I'd say, "Need to get that in the envelope." I never managed to do that. Badge is still sitting on the kitchen table. Luckily there was a line for doofuses (doofi? Spellcheck doesn't like either word) like me, but since it was the "badge problem" line it took forever to get to the front.

While in line, I met an interesting woman from Germany named Nicole. She's trying to put together a blogroll of everyone who's here. Which reminds me, I need to email her my blog's URL just as soon as I'm done here.

We went to the People's Party last night, which was fun. Met some nice people that I'll probably see again this morning: Abi, who's running a session today, Heather, who's one of the organizers, Casey, a grad student and fellow blogger, a couple more people whose names have fallen out of my head. The Bloggess was holding court in the ladies' room outside the party, so we stopped in to say hello. She surprised my sister when she read her nametag and said, "Oh! I know you!" and gave her a hug. Then she turned to me, read my tag, and said, "Oh! I know you too!" and hugged me as well. Perhaps it's silly, but I feel like I spoke with a celebrity. She looms large in my mind as part of The Blogosphere.

Average Jane was there as well. She started out at another party, and we started tweeting back and forth about where this party was. When she got here, I tried to find her on my own but wasn't having much luck--I only had a vague idea of what she looks like, and since I don't put pictures of myself on my blog, she wouldn't recognize me if I was standing right in front of her. And it turns out I was. I broke down and tweeted her, and turns out she was sitting about 10 feet away. Nice to see someone in person that I've been reading for almost 2 years now.

This morning is the newbie breakfast, speed-dating blogher-style, and a morning session. This afternoon, lunch, more sessions, and a keynote. Tonight? Voices of the Year reception, gala, and art auction.

Oh, and all the people who talk about how much "swag" you get at BlogHer conferences? They are not kidding. I think right before I leave I'm going to have to take a picture of all the stuff I got. Some guy came around last night around 11 and left us presents. One of them is a Mr. Potato Head, Toy Story 3 edition.

And now I must get a shower. Ditter's already up, showered, dressed, and outside at the Smoker's Oasis by the front door. Hotel is completely smoke-free, so any time she needs a cig break she has to go all the way down to this bench by the entrance. We're on the 36th floor. Later today I'll post pictures I took from my window. Gawd, I'm such a tourist.

Birthweek vacay

I'm on vacation. Again. This one is a combination birthday week/going to BlogHer vacation. I turn 42 tomorrow. I think. Hang on, I need to do math...2010 minus 1968....yes. 42. I can never remember how old I am. Well, why bother committing the number to memory? It's only going to change again in a year.

So anyway. Tomorrow's my birthday. I'll be on a bus for part of it, then at my sister's. We're probably going to do a little clothes-shopping because we both need some party clothes for BlogHer -- me because I gave away or threw out a lot of my fancy stuff when I moved because I didn't think I'd be using it any time soon, and my sister because she's lost 35 pounds (!) and none of her party clothes fit.

Since I'm going to be on the road tomorrow, I took myself out for my birthday breakfast today at The Waffle Shop downtown. I usually go to the movies after that. Instead, I watched Julie & Julia, which I'd DVR'd yesterday.

I have a friend stopping in a couple of times this weekend to check on Sophie. Friday she's going to give the cat the 2nd dose of worm medicine and then she's coming Sunday to make sure she's still OK. I bought a feeder so that Sophie'll have plenty to eat, and after I hit "publish" I'm going to take apart Delilah's fountain, clean it thoroughly, put in a new filter, fill it, and start it running. Here's hoping she'll drink from it.

After I do that I'm going to try to sort out what among all the stuff I just laundered I'm going to take with me to BlogHer. Then I need to tidy this place up a bit, so I'm not embarrassed to have someone come in while I'm not here. Nothing major, just a lot of put-this-away, throw-this-out stuff.

Next post will probably be from my sister's house. Or maybe from the train, if it has wifi.

Summer vacay

I took this video with my phone when I was on vacation, and have been trying to find the cable that lets me put it onto my laptop (and then on to Flick'r) ever since. Just found it this evening. I went to my parents' house in the mountains for the first week of July.



Not sure it came through on the phone, but there was birdsong constantly.

Ready or not

I've had people ask me various times over the past 7 months when I'm going to get another cat. The first inquiry was only about a month after Lolly died, and I'm really glad it was asked through email so that I had a chance to temper my response. I keep telling people I'm not ready yet. I was thinking I'd start looking into it in about a year, maybe more.

The universe had other plans.

A week ago Thursday evening I was sitting in my living room goofing around on my laptop when I heard the cries of a cat in distress. I got up, looked out my window, and found a little gray cat in my flower bed. She was staring up at the window, and when she saw me started meowing directly to me. I went outside to get a better look, and when I started talking to her ("Well who are you? Where did you come from?") my neighbor came out too. She said this little cat showed up that morning and no one knew where she came from. As we were talking, a neighborhood cat came stalking up -- he lives farther down the road, but I guess he considers this place part of his territory -- and the little stranger ran right up to him like she was expecting to be greeted. She was very surprised at the hissing, spitting response she got.

"That's it," I said, "you don't know danger when you see it. In you go." And I picked her up and put her in my house. I still have Lolly's old litter box (I meant to throw it out, but never got around to it) and some catbox filler (ditto), but I had no food. My neighbor has a cat, and she gave me some food. She said not to worry about replacing the food. Her cat is FIV positive, so not only she can not ever touch another cat, she has problems finding food he's not allergic to. This was perfectly good food that he couldn't eat, and she was happy someone could use it.

I started looking in the papers and online (Craig's list) to see if anyone was looking for a little gray declawed female. Yes. Declawed. Out there for who knows how long with no weapons up front. She has her back claws, though, so she's not completely unarmed. One of the reasons I thought someone might be missing her is because she's declawed. I also looked around the neighborhood for flyers about her. Nothing.

Saturday morning I took her to the vet's to see if she was microchipped. No luck there. I asked the tech I talked to if he could give me an idea as to her age. He said she was an adult, but very young--probably 1 year, maybe 2. He based that on her teeth. He also said that if she's declawed she's probably been spayed as well. Those two things are generally done together, if they're both going to be done. She's not a purebred, so I was pretty sure they hadn't declawed her and left her intact.

I wanted this info for the ad. I put an ad in the local paper, both print and online editions. The print one read:

FOUND CAT Small gray declawed female.

and then my cell number. They only give three free lines for Found ads, and they center-justify the type so that it's very hard to get much info into those 3 lines. Fourth line costs $7.77. What a racket. I had to keep rearranging the words to get them to fit into the free space, but I made it. The online ad was much more generous, space-wise. I added her approximate age, when and where she was found, and my email address. I held back the info on being spayed, thinking it might be something they could tell me to ID their cat, along with eye color, specific coat coloring, etc.

This cat is a funny shade of gray. Kind of a gunmetal gray. Her undercoat is white. In certain light, she looks like she has brown in her coat. In other light, I can see stripes.

I only got one response to the ad, and that was from someone looking for a cat who was 4-5 years old, with a white throat and white front paws. I decided that if I didn't hear anything by Monday (tomorrow) she's living with me. By last Monday I'd already named her Sophie. That woman called Wednesday morning, but I didn't get the voicemail until late that night. Accidentally left my cell phone on my nightstand. Freudian slip? Really upset me that I might not have her around, and I noticed after I talked to the woman Thursday that I hadn't been referring to the cat as "Sophie" when I spoke about her or even thought about her from the time I got the message to the time I found out she was still unclaimed. She went back to being The Cat for about 12 hours. I'm now fairly certain that no one's going to claim her by tomorrow.

I took her back to the vet on Friday afternoon for a "new pet" exam. Poor kitty. She got poked and prodded and shaved on her belly (to look for the spay scar. And it was there.) blood drawn (for FIV/Feline leukemia/heartworm tests, all negative), and her temperature taken 'cause the litterbox has been...well...abnormal. She's been prescribed wormer (they're not sure worms are causing this, but it can't hurt to be careful. Who knows what she picked up out there) and an antibiotic to combat all the bacteria in her gut (I brought in a stool sample. Thank goodness I went to scoopable litter there with Delilah towards the end and had one of those scoopy-strainy-rake things. Yuk). I also have prescribed food for her for now. It's supposed to be very easy to digest. The vet called it the cat food version of tea and toast. I'm supposed to get a call when they get lab results back, though I think I know now what happened. She got sick briefly yesterday morning. Coughed up a hairball and a large chunk of undigested cooked meat. I have not given her anything but cat food since she's been with me. I think someone "out there" took pity on her and gave her some of their leftover dinner, and she was so hungry she swallowed it whole. Her poor little belly was doing its best to take this apart, and ramped up on production of the bacteria needed to digest things. I guess Saturday, after 2 applications of the antibiotic, the stomach gave up and kicked it out the way it came in.

Whoa. Too much information there, huh?

I'll show you a picture of her once she settles down a bit. Right now she follows me around and is very interested in everything I do. She'll start doing something cute, I'll go get the camera or my cell phone, and when I turn around she's right behind me looking to see what I'm doing. When I point the camera at her she either puts her nose to it or rolls around on the floor. So I get either extreme close-ups or gray furry blurs.

She's a very affectionate, sweet-natured little girl. I don't know why no one's looking for her. Of course, it is the start of move-out season. One of the things I really, really hate about living in a college town is the number of people who adopt animals while they're here and then just leave them behind when they move away. I think that might be what happened. They couldn't find a place that would allow pets, no one could take her, or maybe they didn't try very hard to place her, the no-kill shelters are full, so she just got pushed out the door and wished good luck. Especially cruel, since she's young, doesn't know who not to trust, and is declawed, for pity's sake. I hope karma catches up with whoever did that and bites them in the butt. Hard.

Only thing that bugs me a little bit is that I feel I'm being disloyal to Delilah by adopting another cat so quickly, and liking her so much already. I hope that wherever she is, Lolly understands.

Prepping for vacation

I'm going on vacation tomorrow. Today I am dashing about like a crazy woman trying to clear my desk and my task list so that I don't leave the building at 5 feeling guilty for having left things undone. Also, being a supervisor going on vacation makes me feel a lot like a new mother about to hand her infant off to a babysitter.

Y'know what? Making sure everybody who depends upon you for work

• has a week's worth of everything they need to do his/her job;
  
• knows who to contact to answer questions; and
  
• does what you ask them to prior to your departure

is a right royal pain in the tushie. Particularly the third item in the list.

Today is the day I have to OK everyone's time cards so that they get paid on time two weeks from now. It's all electronic. If they don't hit the "finalize" button on their accounts, I can't hit the "OK" button on mine, and then the bursar doesn't get the message that the university owes them money. There's a small grace period -- technically I have until Monday morning to get everyone OK'd. But I'm not going to be here Monday, and I can't access the program from off-campus (it's a security thing). I sent my folks an email at the beginning of the week telling them all this, and asking them to please, please, PLEASE finalize their time cards ASAP on Friday to ensure they get paid on time. One girl complied. She wasn't the one I was worried about. She's always the first one done. I just finished chasing after another one and getting her to do it, and as soon as I see the third employee I'm grabbing him by the shoulders and sitting him down at my computer to click. the. blasted. button. What, do they not want their money?

I am at the moment also trying to find my desk under all the junk. I told them if they didn't want to ask questions of strangers they could leave their problems on my desk with a note. Then I took a look at my desk and said, "Yeah. And where are they supposed to do that?"

Well, that's enough goofing off. Back to excavating my desk. Just wanted to stop in for a quick rant.

An experiment

There was a free, open-air concert today starting around 5 pm at the base of the steps of my workplace. Watched it for a while, then got the bright idea to try taking a video with my phone:



Looks like it worked. Even managed to figure out how to get it off the phone and onto Flickr.

Pruning

Something about listing all the things I want to do has made it easier to identify what I don't want to do. Case in point: at the beginning of May I realized that the embroiderer's guild I've been part of for years is not an organization I want to belong to any more.

I still like embroidering. I still do it sometimes, but my interests are so varied right now, it's hard to find time to do needlework. Still, that's not the reason I've decided to quit the group. There are two, really. First of all, this guild seems to be aimed at people who have an awful lot of free time and a larger disposable income than mine. Retirees, I'm thinking, or empty-nesters. The correspondence courses, the 3-day classes you have to travel to Kentucky (or, for one I just read about, New Mexico. It was supposed to be in Louisville, but they moved it. To another time zone! What if I'd signed up for that, booked my flight and hotel, and then they moved the class to the southwest? I do not have that kind of money), the yearly conferences in expensive venues all over the United States--I can't do it. I have a mortgage, see, and the only income in this household is mine.

I joined another needlework guild a few years ago and I find they're more in tune with my needs. They're smaller, which may be why correspondence courses are cheaper, most of them are conducted online (through emailed lessons and a listserv for students and teacher to communicate), and while I still don't have the money to go to a conference, I might be able to swing it one day. It's more like the BlogHer conference, price-wise. Chief among the reasons why I like this other group? Being a very small, spread-out guild means there are not enough members in the immediate vicinity for us to form a chapter. This means no meetings. Which means I don't have to deal with people problems--my second reason for wanting to leave.

There are a lot of people in this guild I just left that I like and will miss. There are a few, though, who I will be extremely happy to see the back of. I'm the same age as a lot of their children, see. Unmarried, unattached, no kids. I think I'm seen as some sort of project by these ladies, since their own chicks have fledged (most of them out of state. Probably so that they don't have to take so much unsolicited advice). They're a little too forceful with their opinions, though, and seem to think they can say whatever the hell they want to me. The membership chair, for example, has all the tact, grace, and subtlety of a MAC truck.

Back in September, after at least two years of paying dues and not going to meetings, I decided ah, what the hell, let's give it a go. So I went. I walked in and felt immediately defensive about not having been there for a while. I bit my tongue (a lot) when people made a fuss and asked me where I'd been. "Busy," was the only answer I'd give them. You know what? I'm on the members address list. If you missed me so much, why didn't you give me a call? Shoot me an email?

So I sat through the meeting, listened to all the news, got introduced to a new member (she was sitting next to me), ooohed and aaahed over other members' show-and-tell items -- I think that's the part I'm going to miss most. People will bring in their finished pieces, framed or stuffed or whatever, and pass them round the room. Always got me extra motivated to go work on something. Whatever else I have to say about these women, they are very skilled.

After the meeting proper was over, the class started. There's always someone teaching something. Those who haven't signed up for the class can observe it, or sit and stitch and converse quietly, or leave. I decided to stay a little, even though I'd brought nothing to do. At this point, the membership chairwoman enters the room. She plops down next to me, asks where I've been. I told her I've been busy and haven't been stitching much. She then starts talking to the new member (probably why she aimed herself at our table anyway), and in the course of conversation introduces me, saying "We've been with her through thick and thin." She pats my hand. "Literally."

Bitch, I think. No wonder your kids moved so far away from you.

Lemme explain. When I joined the guild, I was very, very large. Then I joined Weight Watchers and lost a bunch of weight. Then, a few years ago now, my Grandma died. It hit me hard. I got depressed. And found an awful lot of the weight I'd lost. So. Thick...and thin...literally.

I left that meeting rather insulted. Didn't go back for a while. I'd mostly decided that after this crewel workshop I'd signed up for was over with, I was dropping out. I only hung in there for the workshop because a) I'd already paid for it; and b) withdrawing and taking my money out would mean it would be more expensive for everyone else. We were getting a nationally known, famous (in our little circle, anyway) crewel embroiderer/instructor/guild master craftswoman to come teach us, and it wasn't going to be cheap.

Between that September meeting and the workshop in the spring, I went to one other meeting. The quarterly newsletter was a little sketchy on the time and place of this workshop, and I went to ask questions. Managed to stay away from Mrs. ThickandThin, but was accosted instead by another woman who I hadn't seen in the autumn. First thing out of her mouth:

"Are you driving yet?"

"No."

"Vee! You said you were going to learn how to drive!"

"Well, apparently I lied."

She gave a burst of surprised laughter.

"Well you ought to drive, my goodness, I don't know how you get around otherwise..." and then I tuned her out. Kept on nodding and smiling, thinking to myself I am so out of here when that workshop's over!

And so, the workshop came and went. My resolve wobbled a little because I really did enjoy the weekend. I didn't leave feeling insulted or irritated either day. Heck, I had such a good time Saturday that I even went out to dinner with the teacher and most of the rest of the class. But that's because the people who drive me nuts don't really like crewel work and weren't there that weekend.

Dues are paid by the end of May. To forestall a phone call from Mrs. ThickandThin about where my dues were I sent her an email. One line: I'm not renewing my membership. I never got a response, though I'm sure she got it and passed the message on to the board. I bumped into the chapter president in the grocery store earlier this month. We passed each other a couple of times in various aisles. I smiled, said "Hi," and walked past. She looked like she wanted to talk to me, but I just kept moving. Not interested in explaining myself. Don't want a confrontation or an apology. I just want to be left alone.

And that's why I'm with the other guild now, and very happy with it too.

That lighthouse theme really didn't suit me anyway

Blogger just released a whole bunch of new templates and images ways to play around with your blog's layout. I think this one will suit me until someone teaches me how to make my own.

Thoughts? Does it hurt anybody's eyes? My very first blog theme (the one before the lighthouse) was done in shocking pink. It started to make me squint after looking at it for a year or so. The theme I left it for was chosen mainly because it didn't scream "I'm an eight-year-old in love with Barbie pink! Eeeee!"

This one looks a little more like me. But only a little.

I wish there was a way to get the blog's title bar to center. It's bugging me.

Forgetfulness, thy name is...um...

I spend a large chunk of time listening to music at my desk at work (iTunes, Blip, 365 radio, Pandora, things like that) using headphones. Later on, after I'm bored/tired of noise/can't find anything I wanna listen to, I turn off whatever-it-is and keep on working in silence, but with the headphones still on. Not on purpose, mind you. I forget they're still on. Until I try to retrieve a pen from the floor or a book from the other end of the table and the headphones fly off my head as I go past the cord's limit, that is. Always the same thought goes through my head:

"Why was I still wearing those things?"

Anyone else? Or is my mind going?

And yes, I'm writing about this 'cause it just happened. Again. Almost clothes-lined myself trying to get at something in one of my drawers. Idiot.

Stop! Plumber time

My bathtub faucet has had a slow drip for a while. It's part of why #67 on my life list exists. I need to fix or replace that faucet. Monday it got worse. I got out of the shower, turned off the water, and instead of a slow drip I had a small, thin, steady stream of water coming from the tap. Crap. I tested it with my finger. Hot water. And again I say, crap.

One of the people I used to work with in the library is married to a plumber. I called him, told him my problem, described as best I could the kind of faucet I was dealing with (he thought it was a Moen, but I couldn't find a name anywhere on the thing), and made an appointment for Tuesday morning at 8.

Tuesday morning he shows up right on time, checks my faucet and says it needs a new cartridge. It's definitely a Moen, one of their first ones, and it should be pretty simple to fix. After he replaces the cartridge he has me turn it on. It is surprisingly easy to move. He said I should be able to turn it on with two fingers. When it starts to fight me, that means the cartridge is going and should be replaced. As an illustration, he turned on the bathroom sink faucet. And said, "Hmm. Why don't I replace this one while I'm here? And while I'm doing it you watch me. That way when the downstairs powder room faucet goes, you can fix it yourself."

Huh. Wasn't expecting that.

So he got another cartridge out of his van, and proceeded to give me a lesson in how to turn off the water main in my house (turn it off, then let the water out through the kitchen sink faucet), followed by a narrated demonstration on how to take apart my faucet, which way the cartridge should go into the pipe (notch up, otherwise the hot and cold water get reversed), the importance of greasing everything with something called "key grease" before inserting the cartridge, putting the faucet back together, turning the water main back on (turn off the kitchen tap and v-e-e-e-r-r-r-y slowly turn the main back on), and voila! Fixed faucet. He gave me the part name and stock number that I need, then said, "Well, here, use this," and handed me the plastic baggie from the part he just used. It has all that info on it in big print. Apparently I can get these and key grease at Lowe's or Home Depot. He said Moens are designed specifically so that homeowners can fix them without special equipment or knowledge.

I bumped into his wife the next day at work. I asked her if he shows all his customers how to do things themselves. She said yes. She says he wants to demystify plumbing. Sometimes he even talks people through what they need to do over the phone instead of showing up and charging them for a visit. My first thought was that he's teaching himself right out of a job (he's self-employed), but you know what? If I have a big problem, he's who I'm calling. And I'm giving his name to anyone in the area who needs a plumber. That lesson sowed the seeds of goodwill.

And? I got #67 of my life list. I can fix my faucet. I don't need to yet, but when the time comes, I know what to do.

Updated Life List

I wrote to a friend yesterday and mentioned my life list, told him he was on it (I've never actually seen him face to face and I want to -- we met online through blogging), and then realized that yes, he's on the list I'm writing but not the one I posted.

Here's my updated life list. I have 74 items so far:

1. Go on on Alaskan cruise.
2. Have Mom teach me how to make grape jelly. Done!
3. Dye my hair red.
4. Read every book I own.
5. Learn to spin yarn.
6. Learn to weave (maybe with the yarn I just learned to spin).
7. Make spaghetti sauce from scratch.
8. Take guitar lessons.
9. Make my home look the way I see it in my head.
10. Read Les Miserables in the original French.
11. Learn French (this should probably be switched with #10).
12. Knit a sweater.
13. Become a more confident seamstress.
14. Get my weight under control.
15. After I do #13 and #14-- make a quilt out of my "fat clothes."
16. See the Grand Canyon.
17. Learn how to apply make-up correctly.
18. Have a pint at The Eagle and Child in Oxford.
19. Ride a San Francisco cable car.
20. Taste 1000 kinds of fresh produce (originally "1000 fruits," shamelessly lifted from Mighty Girl's list; changed June 26, 2012 because really, I am more interested in vegetables than fruit).
21. Learn to drive.
22. Become dog-owned.
23. See Stonehenge.
24. Find my friend Suzanne's grave and lay flowers on it.
25. Learn Gaelic.
26. Take a yoga class.
27. Use every single thing I receive in my CSA crates for an entire season.
28. Make that storage room I've been calling a craft room into a real craft room.
29. Design a blog of my own instead of using a canned theme from Blogger.
30. Take a cross-country train trip.
31. Stand on the glass floor at the top of the CN tower in Toronto and look down between my feet.
32. Take Mom to the Stratford Festival of Canada.
33. Attend a BlogHer conference. Done!
34. Go fishing with my Dad.
35. Finish all of the half-done projects I have lying around.
36. Get all my finished embroidery framed.
37. Handmade Christmas (one year, everyone on my Christmas list will get a present handmade by me).
38. Visit Edinburgh.
39. Walk home from work for one solid month, regardless of weather conditions (except lightning!).
40. Pay my respects at the grave of Jane Austen.
41. Go Christmas caroling with my sister.
42. Grow tomatoes. Done!
43. Write a novel.
44. Join a choir again.
45. Make a calendar using 12 photos I took myself, and distribute this calendar as a present.
46. Learn to tango.
47. See the Mona Lisa.
48. Buy and decorate my own Christmas tree.
49. Wade in the Pacific Ocean.
50. Take a tai chi class.
51. Attend a Renaissance Faire. (Costume not necessary).
52. Own and wear (on a regular basis) a black leather biker jacket.
53. Visit the farm in New Zealand where Hobbiton was built for The Lord of the Rings movies.
54. Attend 100 live performances (Originally "100 films," but thought live performances would be more of a challenge.
55. Make a pie from fruit I picked myself. Done!
56. Meet G. face-to-face.
57. Own a piano.
58. Be able to play the piano in mentioned in #57.
59. Be able to do 30 real push-ups (no kneesies!).
60. Host a dinner party and enjoy it. (The enjoying will be the hard part)
61. Commute to work by bike one summer.
62. Keep bees.
63. See if I can find the "bloody field by Shrewsbury" that Edith Pargeter wrote about (Henry IV v. Owen Glendower)
64. Go kite flying with my Dad and sister.
65. Learn to lay tile.
66. Learn how to fix/replace/install a faucet. Done!
67. Get my copy of Suzanne's thesis professionally bound.
68. Start an arts and crafts business with my sister (I have the name all picked out and everything).
69. Learn to make soap.
70. Start (and complete) a 365 photography project (take one photo everyday for a year).
71. Visit the Key West Butterfly Conservatory.
72. Ride in a hot-air balloon.
73. Knit a pair of socks. Done!
74. Attend the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival.

I think that's enough to keep me amused for a while. I need to stop listing all the things I want to do, and focus on doing some of them.

Unexpected progress

Life list #6 -- Learn to weave

I just bumped into someone in the staff break room who was doing something called Viking knitting -- weaving a tube out of wire with the aid of a large dowel. As I stopped to admire it she told me she learned the method at a class taught at the Weavers' Guild, of which she's a member.

Score! Found 'em! She's going to get me on the emailing list, try to scrounge up a loom for me to borrow (lap loom, I hope), and teach me some stuff.

Yaaaay! Looks like I'm taking aim at #6.

Y'know, these folks probably know how to spin as well. So there's #5. Maybe.

Quick update

At the moment all my free time is being spent furiously tidying the downstairs of the house. My parents are swinging by to pick me up on Friday to go to my sister's for the weekend, and I know they're gonna need to come in for a potty break before we take off. If I leave it the way it is right now, I'm sure my father will make a snide remark, and then I'll have to stab him. And blood is so hard to get out of the carpet.

When I have the time I need to post about the crewel workshop I took last weekend (or "StabThumbSwear Fest," as I dubbed it Sunday morning). Here's a picture of how the project looked at the end of Day 1 of the workshop:

Getting ready for BlogHer '10

So I guess today was the day that all the registrations opened up for the cocktail parties at BlogHer. I've signed up for three -- got into two of them: the People's Party, co-hosted by the Bloggess (the only party that I knew I wanted to go to before I registered for the conference) and Sparklecorn. I have absolutely no idea what that one is, but some of the people I read are going, so I thought "Oh, go on. Fling yourself right into the middle of things."

There's another one that sounds like fun that I've been wait-listed for -- CheeseburgHer. It started a few years back with some friends in a hotel room and a lot of take-out from McDonald's. Now it's an official party. The menu's the same, and I guess since at the first one they made hats of the McDonald's bags that's become tradition. Sounds like a nice, silly way to end a conference.

So that's what those two new badges in my sidebar are about.

Writer's block...

...it sucks.

I have stories to tell, but everything I write looks long-winded and uninteresting. Been trying for a few days now. I think I need to get away from things related to keyboards for a while so today I'm gonna garden a little, clean my kitchen a lot (call Ripley!), and work on crewel-work piece I bought to use as practice for an embroidery workshop I'm taking next weekend.

Oh, by the way. That employee I was talking about? Miss No-show? Tuesday she pulled the same "I'll be in an hour late" crap again. She said she had a quiz to take. That left me wondering whether she'd scheduled work time right over her classes. And then she showed up half an hour after she said she would. Wednesday she emailed me asking if she worked that day--she had made her own schedule, mind you--and when I told her yes she did (due in 20 minutes, actually), she asked to be taken off the schedule for Wednesdays. I did one better and took her off the schedule permanently. She'd signed up for 20 hours a week, and so far in two weeks she worked 2 and half, 2 and three-quarters, tops.

She went from "scatterbrain" to "sneak" in my book when I got a look at her online time card and saw she was padding her hours. The half hour to 45 minutes she was here the first day she submitted as two hours. I guess she thought I'd already left the building and wouldn't know when she'd quit for the day. The second day she worked she claimed 2 1/2 hours even though she was only there for two of them. Luckily as supervisor I have the ability to go in and adjust her time card before it gets submitted, and that's exactly what I did.

You know, dealing with this person may be what has me not wanting to write at the moment. I've been preoccupied with how to handle with her, and with trying to figure out how to make her see what I want from her. It hit me when I looked at that time card: it wasn't a communication problem. She was testing me to see how much she could get away with. I'd been a little scattered and nervous at the interview (she was my first one), and I guess she thought I was distracted and inattentive. An easy mark. *Buzz* Wrong!

Thursday I interviewed and hired someone who is also a student but in all other respects is the polar opposite of this girl I just fired. When we were talking about schedules, she told me about a vacation to England she'll be taking in a few weeks, and wanted to know if that would be a problem. Nope. As long as she's not texting me from the airport prior to boarding to tell me she won't be here for 2 weeks, I have no problems. Also, the other place she works has a different schedule over the summer, and it hasn't been posted yet. I told her to consider her other job the primary job. We'll rearrange her hours with me once the schedule at the other place is set. And yes, I talked to her supervisor before hiring her. Got a glowing recommendation. Yay for learning from one's mistakes!

So it looks like I did have something to write about after all. Next post should be something very unrelated to work, I promise.

Going home for Easter

The dryer is full of clothes that are going to get folded and stuffed into a duffel bag just as soon as possible. The phone and iPod are charged up and ready for use. Taxi ride to the bus terminal has been scheduled (5:45 in the bleeding a.m. Ugh). Bus ticket has been bought and is currently in my purse. In about 7 hours I'll start checking that purse every 15 minutes to make sure it's still there until I actually take them out to use it. Stuff to keep myself amused this weekend has been identified but not yet packed. Still trying to decide if I'm taking the laptop.

I'm heading off to into the woods of Pennsylvania (where cell service is pretty good but Internet, eh, not so much) to spend Easter with my parents. Haven't seen them since Christmastime.

It feels weird to be packing without Delilah supervising the process, eying me with mingled suspicion and disapproval.

Have a good weekend, everyone! I may post at some point from the BlackBerry if I can figure out how, and if the idea of typing a bunch of paragraphs on a touch screen keyboard while the device auto-suggests words that are so very much not what I was trying to say doesn't make me give up before I start.

Baptism by fire

The italicized bits scattered throughout this post are from my feed on Twitter. In case you're wondering what the heck that's all about.

My original title for this post was "Sweet Baby Jesus, make it stop." That should tell you how the project is going, huh?

My first of three new hires was to start work Monday at 10 am. She was planning on working a 4-hour shift (which I thought was crazy ambitious--or maybe just crazy) putting labels on books and recording call numbers on a form attached to a clipboard. We'd agreed to this last week, through email.

Last Saturday afternoon the camera card for my rapidly expiring photo ID showed up in the mail. Of course it did. I couldn't go take care of it on Saturday, 'cause by the time I'd get to the place it'd be closed. I decided to run this errand on Monday, after I got the young lady started.

So, Monday. I send out an email to my teammates telling them I needed to run this errand, will be leaving around quarter of 11, yadda, yadda, yadda. No sooner do I hit the send button then I get a message from my worker--can she start work at 11 instead of 10? Sigh. Sure. I rearrange plans, do something in the morning that I was gonna do in the afternoon, and I meet her at the reception desk at 11.

So far, so good. I take her back to where I have things set up, give her a packet with her name on it, explain what's in it, show her where to pick up and drop off things, and give her a set of the instructions I wrote the week before. I tell her to take a seat and read the instructions, as I don't want her to go all the way out into the stacks only to have to come right back because she doesn't understand what she's supposed to do.

I want to say right here that I ran these instructions past 2 people: one for basic proof-reading and sense, the other for accuracy. They came back with a thumbs up, so I'm confident they are clear.

I don't want to make her nervous by standing over her while she reads, so I go off and do something for a few minutes. When I come back, she's flipping the paper over and over like she's finished with it. She asks me about proper placement of the barcode, to make sure she understands where it goes. I confirm that she is right, ask if she has other questions. Nope. We're good. And away she goes into the stacks. I feel like I'm on a pier waving goodbye to a ship.

jugglingscarves First employee has arrived, been instructed, given supplies, and sent off into the stacks. Project has officially started. *fistpump*

Not five minutes later she's back. With a question about something that was very well-covered on the instructions. There was a graphic and everything. So I answer that question (though what I wanted to say was "read the instructions again."), and off she goes into the stacks again. I wait to see if she'll come back. She doesn't, so I head out to the bus stop.

As I sit on a bench at the stop, I'm beginning to wonder if she actually understood what I said. So I go back into the building to double check -- she's not where she's supposed to be in the stacks. Hmm. Maybe she had another question and is looking for me in the work room? Nope. The packet I gave her is back in its slot, her backpack (which we put in my desk drawer) is gone. And there's a note that says she left early (it doesn't say how early) because of a meeting she forgot she had.

jugglingscarves Aaand she left already. Not a good start.

I got my errand done in surprisingly good time by the way. There were only 4 of us at the DMV, and 2 of the people there were already leaving by the time I sat down.

This morning at the bus stop I resolve to salvage this situation. Maybe she really did have a meeting. I have to remember that she's a student, and her primary focus is not my project. And maybe she's an aural learner, or a learn-by-doing kind of person.

jugglingscarves Declaring a do-over re: yesterday's new hire. Going to take her by the hand & show her what to do.

Unless she's already written off this job as a bad idea.

jugglingscarves If she hasn't already quit via email, that is.

At work I check my email, and I see nothing from her. Okay, so I should expect her. 10 o'clock comes. And goes. No employee. 10:30. Nope. All right, maybe the "can I start at 11" thing was a permanent switch? She actually hasn't been very clear about when I'm to expect her. I go to our faculty member's office and tell him what's been going on. He gets a good laugh or two out of it. "And that," he says, "is why I'm glad I don't supervise anyone."

jugglingscarves Yesterday's new hire is a no-show today. No email, either. I'm somewhere between irritated and relieved.

11 o'clock comes. And goes. At 11:30 I show my faculty person a print-out of an email I'm about to send, prefacing it with the question, "Is this a polite enough way to say where the heck are you?" He says it's very tactful. In the email I tell her I'm writing up a schedule of all the project team's hours and I'm posting it in the work space, but I'm a bit unclear about her hours. Would she please clarify for me when she plans to work? Day and time, please.

Someone following my tweets replies to my last one by writing: "I can't imagine getting a job and then not showing up...who does that?!"

jugglingscarves @[deleted]Well, maybe someone who left 3 hrs and 15 minutes early on the first day. I just sent an email to see if she still works 4 me.

jugglingscarves @[deleted] The shift? Was 4 hours long. Related: I officially hate supervising.

To which my friend replied: "Oh gee, that's too much!"

jugglingscarves @[deleted] She left a note on my desk saying she left early (after we pushed back the start time an hour) because of a meeting she forgot.

jugglingscarves @[deleted] Perhaps she just had a horrible Monday. Or perhaps I'm giving her too much benefit of the doubt.

By 2:30, I still haven't heard from her and I have no idea how to proceed. My own supervisor is out for the next two months (which is why this got farmed out to me), and the only other person I can think of to ask for direction is her boss, our department head. Thank goodness the woman is approachable. I explain the situation, show her the email I sent, and ask what to do next. She said to give the young woman to the end of the day and then call her. Tell her (or her voicemail, which is what we both think I'll probably get) that if she's not here by ten tomorrow and I haven't received a call from her, that she doesn't work here any more.

Whew. Allrightythen.

In the meantime, I have another new hire to train. Having learned from the day before, I decide I'm gonna do like they do in the army: say what I am going to say, then say it, then say what I said. In other words, I will summarize the instructions, send her off to read them, then take her to the stacks and do a couple volumes with her.

This may or may not be relevant, but this other woman is older, and not a student. Both of these people are already employees of the library, see, and I'd worked near both of them at one time or another. I'd observed them both working and had thought both would suit for this job. Never checked with the first person's current supervisor, though. This is a mistake I will not make again. I spoke to someone who was visiting in my department today, someone who worked with my AWOL employee, and she said basically that a) when she heard this person was going to be barcoding, she'd hoped it wasn't beyond her abilities; and b) she was a nice kid, but she did have a problem with showing up consistently. To which my response was, "And she still works for you guys because?"

jugglingscarves Obvious supervisor lesson #1: no matter what I think I know, check references. Turns out she has trouble with showing up regularly. Awesome

A little bit later someone else I follow tweeted me, saying: "sorry ur having rough go at being supervisor. Hope it makes u feel better to know I am thoroughly enjoying ur tweets today."

jugglingscarves @[deleted] Well, as long as someone's getting something out today. I'll call that a partial win. :)

jugglingscarves @[deleted] out *of* today, I meant. Off I go to go train another new hire! (Tweeted this before but Brizzly ate it)

And she responded: "totally am. Eek! to clarify: not at your expense (!!!) but from your creative play-by-plays"

jugglingscarves @[deleted] Flattery will get you everywhere. This 2nd one went better. Learning from my mistakes. Summarize the instructions ...

jugglingscarves @[deleted]... have them read them, then take 'em out demonstrate what I want. This one's a keeper. I think I scared off the other one. :(

Shortly before 5, after an entire day of radio silence from this person, I fired up Word and started to type up a script for myself: what to do if I get her on the phone, what to say to her voicemail. I didn't want to stumble or sound indecisive. I didn't want to be rude, either--another reason to choose my words beforehand. First thing is to say I was expecting her today. Is she all right (she could've gotten sick. That negates all of this. Then it's a simple matter of call-me-when-you're-better)? If she's all right, good. Did she get my email? Explain what my email was about if she didn't read it yet. Ask if she'll be in tomorrow, and at what time. If she later finds that she cannot come, she needs to tell me. I don't need to know why, just that she's not coming. And if we have another day like today, where she doesn't come and doesn't contact me, then I'll assume she no longer wants this job and I will make other arrangements.

Voicemail option? Similar. Only variation is that I need her to show up or contact me tomorrow by 11. I'd originally said 10, but then realized I was going to be at another location from 9-11, so I moved it back to 11.

While I was writing this up, the department head came by to see if I'd called yet. I told her what I was doing. She said she did that too sometimes with phone calls. It's helps you focus and not stumble. Did I want her to stay while I made this call? For moral support? I said, no, I really didn't want anyone witnessing me being a bitch. She laughed, and said, "You don't have to be mean, just firm." That's what I was trying for, I said. In my head I asked myself: Did I just say "bitch" in front of my boss's boss? Yes, I believe I did. Luckily it doesn't seem to bother her.

And so I called. Got her voicemail. Left a message that was polite but firm, and told her that in any event she should make sure she records the time she worked on this project so that she gets paid for it. (Internal snark: yeah, all 45 minutes of it).

jugglingscarves Just left serious do-you-want-to-work-here-you'd-better-call-me message on my AWOL employee's voicemail. She has until 11 tomorrow morning

She'll either call, email, show up, or ignore me altogether. In any event, I know what to do next.

Boy howdy, I sure don't like this supervising thing. On a positive note, the other woman seems to have caught right on. Third person starts Thursday. Here's hoping for 2 out of 3 are keepers!

Edited 3/31 to add: And apparently threats work. She emailed me at 5 minutes after midnight this morning, apologizing for not showing up. She was attending a job fair (that she probably knew about weeks ahead of time, I might add), and she is attending another one today. And she gave me definite start and end times for every day she plans to work (Hallelujah!). She seemed to think she was going to be working this weekend, but that ain't gonna fly. I'd like to be confident that she knows what she's doing before I let her loose in the stacks on a weekend with no one around to answer questions for her. So I emailed her back suggesting we just start over fresh next Tuesday. And I told her that from now on, if she isn't going to show up for a shift I need to be contacted prior to the start of that shift. I need to know whether to expect her or not. She sent me an email back agreeing to this, promising to be there on Tuesday.

Wish us luck. I think we're both going to need it.

Hire #2 continues to be wonderful, bless 'er, and Hire #3 starts tomorrow morning. Man, I hope he works out. I don't think I can take having to chase around someone else.

Checking in

Hello. Yes, I am still here. Still having a problem focusing. It's been a busy few weeks at work, and when I get home all I want to do is goof off.

I got thrown for a loop this past Wednesday. I was talking to my team mate, glanced up, and saw my supervisor headed down the aisle looking right at me. She gave me the universal signal for "come here" (index finger: bend/straighten/repeat).

"Uh-oh," I said to Bess. "I'm getting The Finger. Gotta go."

We went to her office, she shut the door (uh-oh again), and then she told me the project I've been working on for about 2 1/2 years has just been expanded, and I'm going to have three part-time folks to help me. Here's the kicker -- I'm supervising them! She gave me the applications (I knew there was a call going out for help with this project, but I didn't know it had been expanded), told me to pick some, interview 'em, and hire three. She's going to get me set up for the program that we use to keep track of the part-timers' hours, and we're going to start as soon as possible.

Oh, and over the summer? She wants a "whole crew," whatever that means. So I have three people to supervise to start with and then I'm getting more.

Don't mind me, I'll just be over here in the corner having a panic attack.

I don't want to supervise. I don't mind training people, I just don't wanna be The Boss Lady. I have no choice, though, so after a couple hours of what I've been calling "booga-booga freak-out" mode, I sat down and came up with a plan of attack. Since then I've been interviewing, hiring, writing up instructions, gathering supplies, setting up a work space (more of a pick-up and drop-off center), giving people gentle nudges to get me the things I need so that I actually have something for these three to do when they show up for work.

I told my Mom, she's thrilled. And I heard from my sister who, after three weeks in her new position, has been drafted as a trainer to help out with something. Three weeks, and she's made enough of an impression on them that they want her to teach other people. My Mom is so proud of her kids right now, she could burst.

So could I, but not from pride. Part of the reason I've never sought a management position is that I'm afraid of what I'd do if given power. The little rational voice in the back of my head says I'd be a good supervisor precisely because I'm afraid of turning into a tyrant. And goodness knows, I've seen plenty of those to know how not to behave. I hope.

In life list news, I don't know if you noticed the new gadget on the sidebar. it's from LibraryThing. In an effort to get through #4 (Read every book I own) I've started to catalog them. (Ugh. Library people. Go on. Roll your eyes. It's OK.) Can't know if I've read everything if I don't know what I have, right? Right.

Until just about 1/2 an hour ago, the book in my "Currently reading" box was Zombies of the Gene Pool, by Sharyn McCrumb. It's a murder mystery that happens at a science fiction writers' reunion party. Next up: Fox Evil, by Minette Walters. Then maybe I'll read the one about Eleanor of Aquitaine. Or something by Garrison Keillor. Or maybe I'll finally read Slaves of New York, which I've had so long that I don't remember where I got it.

Or maybe I'll try to figure out how to use the camera on my new phone. I bought a BlackBerry, gang. Yup. With a touchscreen. The fella who helped me at the Verizon store yesterday looked up my account and said, "Wow! You've been eligible for an upgrade since 2005!" Yeah, well, it ain't broke so...but now it is. Poor old thing is dying. Can't pull down a signal without using most of the battery. I've been using it as my alarm clock for two years now (because I can't find where I packed the alarm clock. It's in here somewhere!), and that's really about all it's good for any more. So I adjusted my voice and text plan (I very rarely talk on my cell. Last month I used one minute, and that was to check a voicemail. And I think that's the first time I used it to call anyone all year so far), added on the data package, and I'm only paying about $10 more a month than I used to.

And? I have a fancy-schmancy phone. With wi-fi. And email. Squeee! And a camera! I've been feeling a bit lost without my camera. Only two more weeks until I can collect it from my folks.

Added two more things to the life list:

56. View the Perseid Meteor Shower from a really good vantage point. (Arizona desert? Pennsylvania's Black Forest (a night sky preserve)? Not sure yet.)
57. Go kite-flying.

And I refined #54 a bit:

54. See 1000 independent/foreign/art-house films.

Because the other was just too easy. Already seen one: 24-Hour Party People, about the music scene in Manchester in the 1980s. Very interesting to see where the songs I grew up with in the 80s came from. One movie down, 999 to go!

Psst. Bunny alert! Nibbling on the grass outside the window in the computer lab where I am right now. Look!



Thank you, BlackBerry!

Braaaaaains!

I'd like to say that I've spent the week horribly busy working on my life list. You know, getting those projects done, signing up for guitar lessons, learning French, arm-twisting my Mom into getting a passport for a trip to a country she thinks hates her, buying and consuming a wide variety of fruit...

Yeah. I'd like to say that. What really happened? I saw Alice in Wonderland last weekend, in 3-D. I liked it a lot, except for the last ten minutes. But then, any return to The Real World from Wonderland was bound to be a let-down, right? I did my taxes, filing them online for the first time (what was I fighting? I'm getting me refund Tuesday. Freaking Tuesday! Booyah!). I wrote my piece of my performance review for work. I called my Mom to see how her doctor's appointment went. Oh, and I ate a plum. A black plum. And a MacIntosh apple. And a navel orange. Oh! And some red seedless grapes. 4 down, 996 to go!

The rest of the week I wasted with a computer game I bought a few weeks ago called "Plants vs. Zombies." Sweet Mother of Pearl, is that addictive! The premise is simple: you're being attacked by zombies, and your plants are there to defend you. They shoot things, like peas, spores, cactus needles, cabbages, corn (interspersed with big gobs of butter, that momentarily stop the zombies). The squash? Squashes. The cherries explode (a la cherry bombs). So do the jalapeños. Once you get to the end of the adventure part of the game, all sorts of other game modes get unlocked.

If you have some time to kill, go play with the demo. ** I warn you though, playing the demo made me want to download the free trial. Once I got to the last level available for the trial, I dragged out my credit card to pay $20 for the full version. I'd say I've gotten my money's worth.

But I'm not gonna play it tonight. No. No! I have stuff to do. Laundry, dishes, projects, I cannot spend any more time with the plants and the zombies.

"Zombies .... are coming!"

Must....not....click....icon!

You know what? The first night I played it, I was so enamored of it I dreamed about it that night. And the next day? I played better.

In other news, I did venture out of the house on the rainiest, most blustery day so far this year to attend the Home Show out at the indoor sports arena on campus. Got a few ideas. And probably a cold. Then I went to Petsmart, because a local no-kill animal shelter was bringing in cats that were available for adoption.

No. Not ready to bring home a new cat just yet. I just really, really needed to touch one. Hung around talking to the woman who runs the shelter--out of her home. She had started as a volunteer for another no-kill shelter, catching feral cats and trying to gentle them. She was keeping them at her place for the other organization, at their request, and when new management took over they pretended she and her 20+ foster cats were not their problem. So she went registered herself as non-profit and started her own shelter.

I'm glad she's not affiliated with them. I don't think I'd ever adopt a pet from them. Though if I had one that needed a home (like those two kittens I found a couple years ago) I'd try to get this organization to take it, and probably for the same reason. They act like they're the animal's equivalent to the Office of Children and Youth. They keep tabs on the pet, you have to bring it back to them periodically for them to check that it's still all right, they contact your vet to make sure you're taking the pet for regular check-ups, and they reserve the right to swoop down and take the animal back at any time.

I see some of the reasoning behind that, it's to protect the animal. There's a line between protective and possessive though, and I think they're dangerously close to it. I don't like having my privacy invaded, so I won't be adopting anyone from there. This other woman seems to be much more laid-back. She gave me her card for when I'm ready to bring someone home.

Okay, that's it for now. Those dishes aren't going to do themselves.

**I am not a paid spokesperson. Just a fan of really good computer games.

Life list: week 1

So not even 24 hours after I posted the first half of my life list, I got a comment from the marketing director of the Stratford Festival. Did you see that? It stunned me.

I emailed her and told her that I have no idea when this is going to happen--I don't even know if my mother will agree to go--and I asked if there was any expiration date on the offer. She said no, just keep her address on file and use it when I'm ready.

I talked to Mom about it. She is, as I thought she would be, hesitant. It's based on a bad reaction to the way she was treated by some docent in a museum in Toronto back in the seventies. Woman made some comment about how the whole Nixon/Watergate thing would have never happened up there.

"Mom? That was, um, forty years ago."

"Well, there have been other things."

"Like what?"

"On the news."

"Like what?"

She didn't say anything. I still don't know quite what she's talking about, but then I don't read, watch, or listen to much news. The news industry's main objective as far as I can tell is to scare their audience. Scare them so badly that they'll need to come back again, to see what else they should be scared of. Either that or make them angry. Or both. No thanks.

"I just to don't want to spend my money somewhere that I'm not welcome."

"Mom, I've been in Toronto and Stratford a number of times, and I've never felt unwelcome. And not just because I'm spending money. They're polite, they're friendly, they're interested in strangers. At least, all the people I've met were."

Tell you what, if I do get her up there, we're not going anywhere near whatever museum that was. She told me, I can't remember. Something House. Yeah, that's helpful. And I want to say it had to do with government, which is why Nixon got mentioned. Mackenzie House?

I just looked up Mackenzie house. Vaguely to do with government, more to do with history and a Scotsman, it sounds like a place Mom would want to go visit.

Anyway.

And then JustMe sent me a bunch of stuff on weaving and spinning guilds in my area. Did I say thank-you yet, JM? I meant to. Some of my friends who knit also spin. I'm going to follow up with them about where they learned, is this local guild still active, things like that.

And then she sent me a recipe for tomato gravy that sounds pretty good. Thank you for that too. Gonna try that sometime soon. What I meant by "from scratch" was "from all fresh ingredients," and I think I can adapt this one. When I was looking around for what to do with my CSA tomatoes last year, I couldn't find a sauce recipe that used fresh ripe tomatoes, or didn't have tomato paste (or, in one case tomato sauce) listed as an ingredient. Yes. Tomato sauce as an ingredient to make tomato sauce. I'm not naming names (but it rhymes with Nettie Docker), but some of those old stand-by name-trademarked cookbooks are no help at all. I gave up and decided to stew them instead.

I think I need to get myself a copy of the Ball Canning Book. I'm probably going to need it anyway, if I really am planning to use everything I get from the CSA this year. Mom told me there's a simple tomato sauce recipe in there. I could try that one too.

And I've started on the 1000 fruits list. I decided that different varieties of the same fruit count as different fruits. Concord grapes don't have the same taste, color, or texture as seedless green Thomspon grapes, do they? So, different fruits. I've bought Pink Lady apples, some bananas, and a Korean butter pear. I'm going to try the butter pear tomorrow, but as I have no camera I can't show you what it looks like. I'll have a do-over after Easter and take pictures. Until then, I'll try to stick to the more common fruits.

I tell you what, though, just the idea of trying 1000 different fruits has made me pay more attention in the produce section. I didn't know Wegman's had prickly pears. Or kumquats. Or star fruit. There's three more that need to wait for the camera before I try 'em.

I'm gonna look into how much guitar lessons are. Someone in town who I know slightly (through Twitter) just mentioned he's about to start lessons, once he finds a good, patient teacher. We local Tweeters are getting together for lunch next Friday. I'll have to ask him how his search is going, and if he can give me a recommendation.

And now I need to go work on one of my many, many unfinished projects. I think tonight it's knitting.

Oh! And tomorrow? I'm going to go see "Alice in Wonderland" with some more friends from Twitter.

I added a few more things to the list, by the way:

51. Attend a Renaissance Faire. In costume. (Really need to get that "confident seamstress" thing going, don't I?)
52. Own and wear (on a regular basis) a black leather biker jacket.
53. Visit the farm in New Zealand where Hobbiton was built for The Lord of the Rings movies.
54. Watch 1000 movies. (Yeah, like that'll be hard. Maybe it should be "watch 1000 movies and then never watch another one.")

For the fruit and the movie thing, I'm not counting things I've already done. I've eaten a banana before, but I'm not counting it until I eat the one for my list. As for movies, I'm not going to count things I've already seen, even if I see it again. Ever. So maybe it should be:

54. Watch 1000 new (to me) movies.

I think this will finally get me to clear out my DVR queue and get through my Netflix list. I have a habit of collecting the names of movies that I want to watch, but then never seeing them. I've had the same two Netflix discs for months now. And my DVR is over half full. So maybe this is a challenge after all.

55. Make a pie from fruit I picked myself.

And now it's ten-thirty, too late to work on a project. I'm starting to get droopy.

Good night, everybody.

Ambitious undertaking

Okay, here's what I've been doing.

Almost two years ago, Maggie Mason (Mighty Girl--my bloggy hero) wrote up a list of 100 things she wants to do before she goes. She called it her Mighty Life List. I like that. I like it a whole lot more than calling it a "bucket list," which is what people tend to say when I start to describe it. Now that she has it written out, she's working her way through it. She often urges anyone (everyone) to make a list of their own. She calls it "transformative."

I thought of doing something like that, but I didn't think I had nearly enough things I wanted to do to make a whole long list of them. Last Thursday, after reading her post about a conference she just attended, and how her roommate started to write her own Mighty List right there in their room, I decided what the heck? Let's see what I can come up with. So I grabbed a piece of scratch paper and started writing things down--things I've said I wanted to do, things I've looked at and admired, wistful vague wishes, things I thought I should do...anything I could remember. Before I knew it, I had twenty. And I wasn't done. The more I write, the more things pop up. I don't have a hundred, but I do have a lot. Here's what I have so far, in the order that they occurred to me:

1. Go on on Alaskan cruise.
2. Have Mom teach me how to make grape jelly.
   
3. Dye my hair red.
4. Read every book I own.
5. Learn to spin yarn.
6. Learn to weave (maybe with the yarn I just learned to spin).
7. Make spaghetti sauce from scratch.
8. Take guitar lessons.
9. Make my home look the way I see it in my head.
10. Read Les Miserables in the original French.
11. Learn French (this should probably be switched with #10).
12. Knit a sweater.
13. Become a more confident seamstress.
14. Get my weight under control.
15. After I do #13 and #14-- make a quilt out of my "fat clothes."
16. See the Grand Canyon.
17. Learn how to apply make-up correctly.
18. Have a pint at The Eagle and Child in Oxford.
19. Ride a San Francisco cable car.
20. Taste 1000 fruits (shamelessly lifted from Maggie's list).
21. Learn to drive.
22. Become dog-owned.
23. See Stonehenge.
24. Find my friend Suzanne's grave and lay flowers on it.
25. Learn Gaelic.
26. Take a yoga class.
    
27. Use every single thing I receive in my CSA crates.
28. Make that storage room I've been calling a craft room into a real craft room.
29. Design a blog of my own instead of using a canned theme from Blogger.
30. Take a cross-country train trip.
31. Stand on the glass floor at the top of the CN tower in Toronto and look down between my feet.
32. Take Mom to the Stratford Festival of Canada.
33. Attend a Blogher conference.
34. Go fishing with my Dad.
35. Finish all of the half-done projects I have lying around.
36. Get all my finished embroidery framed.
37. Handmade Christmas (everyone on my list gets a handmade Christmas present from me one year).
38. Visit Edinburgh.
39. Walk home from work for one solid month, regardless of weather conditions (scrawled in different ink: except lightning!).
40. Pay my respects at the grave of Jane Austen.
41. Go Christmas caroling with my sister.
42. Grow tomatoes.
43. Write a novel.
44. Join a choir again.
45. Make a calendar using 12 photos I took myself, and distribute this calendar as a present.
46. Learn to tango.
47. See the Mona Lisa.
48. Buy and decorate my own Christmas tree.
49. Wade in the Pacific Ocean.
50. Take a tai chi class.

That's 50! I found fifty in under a week! I know I'm not done. This list is supposed to be an in-process list, 'cause if you stay interested in what's going on around you, you're going to find more that you want to do. Right? Right.

As I was compiling, you know what I figured out? I started working from this list a while ago, before I thought to write things down. Here are some things that I could put in the "done" column already:

1. Take bellydance lessons.
2. Learn to use a potter's wheel.
3. Buy a home of my own.
4. See Kansas.
5. Visit the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.
6. Take drawing lessons.
7. Learn to fix a toilet.
8. Organize a "NASCAR experience" birthday present for my Dad from my family.
9. Organize tickets for Cirque du Soleil as a birthday present for my Mom from my family.
10. Get published.

Okay, lemme 'splain that last one. Yes. I've been published. It was an article that is completely not my field, a piece I co-authored with a friend of mine who was a PhD candidate at the time (she has the degree now). We'd done a presentation together at a conference and afterward someone suggested we write an article. We did. It didn't get accepted for the publication we'd been suggested to try, but another one liked it and bam! Published. And a good thing, too, after all the work we put into it.

All right. Off I go to see if I can think up some more, and to start figuring out how to do what I've put on here so far. Wish me luck! #33 is already booked and paid for, so that's progress right there.

P.S. to my sister. Any of these you wanna join me in doing, feel free. I mean, just 'cause I said I want to go fishing with Dad doesn't mean you can't come too. Y'know?

Still here

I know it's been at least a week since I posted. Sorry. I'm working on something right now, and it's taking me a while. As soon as I finish I'll show it to you.

It's not nearly as exciting as it sounds.

Also, I got sucked into "The Tudors" a few weeks back, just found out that all three seasons are available for viewing On Demand by my cable provider--they do this from time to time for people like me who studiously avoid shows for three years at a go and then suddenly fall in love with them. Season 4 starts next month sometime and I want to catch up. I hate walking into something in the middle. So all this weekend when I haven't been working on this other thing I've been watching Jonathan Rhys Meyers portray Henry Tudor. I've gotten as far as the end of Season 2--Anne Boleyn just got beheaded.

I wonder if they're going to continue this series past Henry? I'd like to see them tackle Mary's reign, and maybe do something closer to the truth about Elizabeth's than the two Cate Blanchett movies got. Those movies were all right, but Hollywood and history don't ever mix very well.

Okay, time to get dressed and ready for work.

Hey guess what, gang! It's March! Spring is coming! Yaaaaay!

Holy crap, I'm going to BlogHer '10!

Over Christmas I mentioned in passing that it might be nice to go to a BlogHer conference, now that my sister is blogging and has friends in the blogosphere as well. We could go together. She agreed, wondered briefly where is was going to be this year. So far they've been in either the western or southwestern U.S.,which makes things cost-prohibitive for both of us. She then said it would depend on whether she had the money, and the conversation moved on to something else.

Fast forward two months to the day before yesterday. I checked an email account I tend to forget I have (on AOL) to find a message from Ditter with a subject line of "Blogher 2010." The message read simply,

NYC?!

I checked the BlogHer website. The conference is at the beginning of August, a few days after my birthday. Early bird discounts are still in effect until the end of February. It's at the Hilton, on the Avenue of Americas, and BlogHer has a block of rooms reserved at a discounted rate, first come, first served. I emailed all this to Ditter, who checked with the hubby to see if finances are such that she can swing this. Guess what! She can! Just a few moments ago, I booked a double room at the Hilton for Aug. 5-Aug.8, bought myself a full-conference pass, and am now contemplating making little business cards (using Moo 'cause it works with Flickr) in case I meet people I want to talk to later.

Eeeee! I'm going to BlogHer 2010! Who's with me?

Now that's more like it!

I've been grumbling for weeks that if it's gonna be cold, it should at least snow. I finally got my wish. Now if I only had my camera.

It looks like we're gonna get more. I can't find anything online to say how much we have already, but maybe I just don't know where to look. Pretty sure I'd be knee-deep in it if I tried to walk around out there.

Actually, I just checked my twitter account and someone did go out with a yardstick. Ten inches. Woo!

Looks like a good crafting-by-the-window day. Off I go to figure out which I'm going to do, embroidery or knitting.

Channeling Aunt Ida

I am rapidly turning into somebody's maiden great-aunt. Okay maybe not maiden, but I'm definitely spinster material.

I have been spending the past couple of days wondering what's going on in the unit next door, and whether they are as worried by that faint whooshing sound as I am; and if not, why not? I think they've got a problem with their water. It's running all the time. At least I think that's what the sound is.

And it's definitely coming from over there, not over here. There's a very different sort of sound when the water's in use over here (when the washing machine is going, say, or one of the toilets is filling up). I think it's coming from their kitchen (and yes, I've been putting my ear to the wall in various places in an attempt to pinpoint the source. Pathetic). Or it could be a running toilet, for all I know. I'm just worried they're going to have a huge water bill sometime soon.

See what I mean? When did I start giving a monkey's about the neighbors' water consumption? If they can't sort out a broken toilet without a slight goose from their water bill, is that any of my concern? Next thing you know, I'll be watching the parking lot through a centimeter wide gap in the curtains, waiting for someone who doesn't belong here to park in one of the numbered spots, just so I can chase them away. And give them a good tongue-lashing, while I'm at it.

That is turning into a problem around here (parking, not crazy women running screaming from their houses). I guess one of the boys in the other end unit has a girlfriend who sometimes spends the night, and she either doesn't know or doesn't care about the parking rules, which are: each unit has one space associated with it. That space bears the same number as the unit to which it belongs. If you're visiting that unit and the space is empty, take it. If it's occupied, go park in one of the many unnumbered spaces scattered about the lot. DO NOT park in another numbered space.

I generally don't care if someone parks in my spot, since I have no car. It would be rather dog-in-the-manger of me to demand people leave my space empty, since I so rarely need it and this lot sometimes gets really full. Problem is, folks are starting to act like it's an unnumbered space. There have been times I needed it and it was occupied. Ticked me off a little. When my sister was visiting in July, I set chairs in my space to make sure no one pulled into it before she got here. My roots were showing--I later told someone that I did that, and she told me that's how they do it in South Philly. That's where my Mom's side of the family was from originally.

By the way, the woman I mentioned in the title? Aunt Ida? She was my Mom's aunt. One of the Philadelphia contingent, unmarried, and during my mom's and my childhood she was a bit strict and sour. I thought she mellowed as she and I got older, but once I hit college (long after she'd gone to glory) I realized that "mellowing" was probably senility or Alzheimer's disease. She was turning back into the fun-loving flapper she'd been in her youth.

And for some reason, that brings to mind the "long-term care" insurance plan I just started paying into. John Hancock Insurance just started offering it to all the university's full-time employees this past November, and if we enrolled right then we were guaranteed acceptance without a physical. I looked through the literature, and while it seems a little expensive for the benefits I want ($11o a month), that rate is guaranteed not to go up, and it takes price inflation into account. I guess they compound interest or something. I had this vision of my sister, her husband, and their future children (whoever they may be) sitting around the kitchen table in 40 years talking about What to Do About Auntie Vee. Yeah. No. Let's not put people through that.

I guess what connects Aunt Ida and the long-term care insurance in my mind is that I think there was a similar discussion about Aunt Ida, once my mom and aunt realized she couldn't live on her own any more. They had her put in a home. We would come get her for holiday dinners, and Mom and my aunt would visit from time to time, but she was pretty much on her own otherwise. I don't know where the money came from to pay for the place, if Medicare took care of it, if she had funds of her own or a pension or something. It was all happening way over my head at the time. I was at an age where I didn't concern myself with things like, "how is Aunt Ida paying for her room at the home?"

I think the next time I talk to my Mom, I may just have to ask her that.

In other news, it's been over a month without the cat. I hope the fact that I've gotten a little squirrelly lately has less to do with grief and having no one to talk to but myself (and I do. A lot. Worrying) and more to do with the fact that it's February now and brutally cold. I'm longing for spring in a way I've never done before. I think it has to do with the garden. I want to go play in it and plant stuff. I have all sorts of plans and ideas. One of them involves extending the flower bed a little farther (further?) down the side of the house, sticking a wire thing that looks like an obelisk into the bed and training morning glories or clematis up the sides of it. Or maybe a climbing rose. And I might try to grow some tomatoes. It might work, I think there's enough sun. If I can get sunflowers to grow over there, I should be able to grow tomatoes, right? Oh, so many things I want to do, and so little space to do 'em in!

Well, I think this has rambled on long enough. It looks like it's just about bed time. 'Night y'all.