- Judith Martin, Miss Manner’s Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior and Miss Manners’ Guide to Rearing Perfect Children. (The latter is not very useful to the parent of an autistic kid, but it’s a fun read anyway.)
- G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy. (One of my bathroom reading books. At this point, I have read every page in the book once, although I’ve never read it straight from cover to cover. I like reading Chesterton; he’s entertaining, and he’s a great intellectual challenge — figuring out the hidden assumptions in his logic chain gets the brain going.)
- Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography. (Another bathroom book; have read every page once. Fabulous information.)
- Robin McKinley, Beauty (Still good.) and Rose Daughter (Also still good. Still wavering on which I like better.).
- Alexandra Stoddard, Creating a Beautiful Home. (Inspiration but not gospel.)
- Don Aslett, How to Lose 200 Pounds in One Weekend. (Gospel.)
- Lois McMaster Bujold, The Hallowed Hunt. (Will comment more later, I hope. For now, suffice it to say that it’s excellent, and I’m pleased she had the guts to do the very end as she did.)
- Meg Swansen et al., A Gathering of Lace. (Drool. Lace patterns.)
- Elizabeth Zimmerman, A Knitter’s Almanac. (Good read.)
- Elizabeth Enright, the Melendy Trilogy (The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, And Then There Were Five) and Spiderweb for Two. (I really don’t find Oliver Melendy half as interesting as the other Melendys, which is probably why I don’t like the latter as much as the trilogy.)
- Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse. (Still sweet but fun.)
- Patricia Kennealy, The Copper Crown and The Throne of Scone. (Still fun stories, although I feel like I could take a number of Limyaael’s rants and use them as checklists….)
27 July 2005
Reading Backlog
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21 July 2005
On Spending
It’s a truism that the more money you make, the more you find yourself spending.
In January I had a schedule change at work that, among other things, enabled me to take my son out of after-school care for the semester — almost $400/month more to work with! Yes, the truism applies to me. And yes, some of it is due to more “fun” spending — I can actually afford to take those ballroom dance classes now; since I’m less cash-pinched I’m eating out a bit more often; I’ve actually crossed the door of Ginger’s Needlearts for the first time in ages.
But you know where most of that money’s going? I’m getting around to all the home repair projects that I’d been putting off due to lack of funds.
I got the air conditioner repaired. I bought primer and started on the long-overdue eaves scraping and repainting. I bought a replacement door for the one that’s been covered by a piece of plywood ever since my house was broken into in September, and I’m hoping to install it or have it installed by the end of the summer. I finally ripped the carpet in my hallway and living room, the ugly and getting-moldy carpet that already needed replacing when we moved in here seven years ago, and replaced it with tile. I might even fix that falling-down fence at long last.
This is how a lot of financially-strapped people manage. If it’s not absolutely urgent, we put it off because the resources just aren’t there. The door’s ugly with that panel nailed over it, but it closes. The air conditioner wouldn’t have become an urgent need until mid-June. The fence may annoy neighbors, but it’s not hurting the structure of the house. So I let them float. (And I’m well-off compared to a whole lot of people in this country.)
Not all spending increases are frivolous!
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20 July 2005
Craft update
I had intended to use my son’s two weeks in Belgium as a time to get some serious craft work in. That was before I had any clue how much time the floor renovation would take. So, not a whole lot to update.
Knitting: The sleeves on the Starlight sweater are almost done. Soon I’ll be joining them up with the body and starting the yoke, and from there the sweater will probably progress fairly quickly. Just have to grind out those last few sleeve repeats….
In the meantime, I’ve started the Celtic Scarf. Since it’s made in two pieces that are grafted together, I decided to knit both sides at the same time. The scarf has an interesting wrapped edging; I’ll have to see how I like it once I’ve knit more of it (and see how well it keeps the thing from rolling up!), but I’ve at least got the hang of knitting it.
And I finally succumbed to the lure; I’ve ordered a few skeins from KnitPicks to try out. I’m getting some Alpaca Cloud in Stream (a dark blue) for a lace shawl, as well as two skeins each of two colors of Dancing, Swing and Jig, to make some socks. I have so far resisted the temptation to write them and suggest that they make a red, black, and white print in this yarn to be called Lesnoto, or a blue and white to be called Miserlou. (I also need to go back and reread my previous posts on stash enhancement.)
Crochet: Haven’t touched the lace blouse.
Sewing: The shirts for my brother-in-law and nephew are officially failures. While I’d measured from an actual shirt of my bro-in-law’s, I apparently didn’t correctly translate those numbers into the pattern, so the shirt ended up too narrow across the shoulders and with too short sleeves. The shirt for my nephew probably would fit fine, but since the matching shirt isn’t happening, that’s rather killed my interest in the small shirt.
So, next time I’m using a larger pattern, and I’ll try short sleeves instead, and I’m certainly not using cotton flannel!
No progress on any other sewing projects.
Counted work: I’ve done a few stitches on the bookmark; I’ve got until the end of August to finish it, and I know where the recipient lives, so I’m not too worried about it. The central book will take the longest to stitch; the rest seems to go pretty quickly.
Everything else? Haven’t touched it. Not even the Flanders map, which I’d hoped to work on while I was temporarily child-free.
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13 July 2005
Redecoration continued
The tile will all be down as of this evening. The grouting won’t be done befgt;ore the boy’s home, but I should be able to get it done this weekend. I might get the hall painted tonight and will definitely have it done by tomorrow morning; the living room will have to wait until I can get all the rest of the wallpaper off, which may mean that it’ll wait until school starts in August and I can take a morning off to do it.
Notes and observations:
- I resolve not to schedule a major home renovation for a time when I also have to work a full schedule. (Even if it is the first time I’ve had the kid away overnight in over two years and likely to be the last for the next two.)
- I also resolve that the next time my son’s away from home overnight and I’m at home, I will do needlework rather than house stuff.
- Never allow a home renovation to disrupt every single room in the house at once; have at least one room (besides the bathroom) that is still pristine and peaceful and that has a place to sit.
- In addition to my boyfriend’s many other virtues, he’s a good person to have help with home renovation tasks.
- You can have a perfectly good party on backerboard.
- There exist people (besides me!) who find peeling wallpaper backing compulsively enjoyable. Even at a party.
- One unexpected side effect of the lighter tile: I can find the black cat in the living room when the light’s off.
- Inhaling mortar turns snot gray.
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