I'm having this weird issue, that I'm slowly becoming aware of:  I cannot clean in the house while loml is present. And by present I mean not otherwise entertained/detained.  And detained means one of the following:  asleep, out of the house, somewhere in the house with someone else, cleaning with me. 

Is this super childish of me or ingrained habit?  I can't figure out if I'm resistant to cleaning because he is available to clean to so why isn't he doing it?  Or if I'm resistant because I don't want to be watched?  Or if I'm resistant because if he's not busy I am striving for quality time?  Or really, when it all comes down to it, am I just so used to working the cleaning junket by myself that I can't fathom having another human wandering around messing up my pattern?

I think they are all equally likely.  

Journal swap round 5: me

I realize, as I'm doing this, that most of my ideas are neutrals.  What I mean is...the idea behind this page was a winter tree with an owl.  I wanted to start experimenting more with color though, so I forced spring.  And I think, honestly, it was better in my head.  But, that's bound to happen quite a bit.  It's kind of twee, huh?


I also realize that I'm fairly obsessed with texture.  So I'm challenging myself to use a completely flat surface in the future as well as colors.  

Let the experiments begin...

This is the life....

Head on a pillow, on the warm radiator, Christmas tree providing soft/mood lighting...


Good life.

And no, I wasn't watching access, I just hadn't changed the channel yet....

baby gimlet blanket pattern

This is a departure and not meant for regular readers.  Just an fyi.  

A few years ago now, I knit a blanket for a cousin's baby.  I loved that pattern - which I found on a knitting blog I frequented.  Since that time, that blog and its author have all but disappeared.  I tried to get permission to reprint the blanket pattern and failed.  However, the pattern was printed on her blog for free and I absolutely have no wish to take the credit for it.  So, this pattern courtesy of KnitAnnie.  The ravelry link is here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-gimlet. 

All details in pattern are from KnitAnnie and do not apply to the blanket that I, personally, knit.  Note that the pattern was written by KnitAnnie, so any "I"'s from here on out are her.  Also, she's from Australia, so watch out for metric.

Materials

Any double knit (8 ply) or aran weight yarn would be fine for this blanket, as long as it's soft and fairly plain.  I used Cleckheaton Country 8 ply (5 and a bit skeins) in Colour 003 and 4mm needles.

Finished size: 64cm x 64cm before blocking, 75cm x 75 cm after.

Directions:

Moss Stitch: *K1, P1, repeat from * to end

Diamond pattern:

Row 1: *P1, K7, repeat from * to end

Row 2: *K1, P5, K1, p1, repeat from * to end

Row 3: K2, *(P1, K3), repeat from * to last two stitches, P1, K1

Row 4: P2, *(K1, P1, K1, P5), repeat from * to last 3 sts, K1, P2

Row 5: K4, *(P1, K7), repeat from * to end

Row 6: repeat row 4

Row 7: repeat row 3

Row 8: repeat row 2

Cast on 104 stitches and moss stitch for 4 rows.  This forms the bottom border of the blanket.  Moss stitch 4 stitches then follow diamond patter until 4 stitches remain, moss stitch 4 sts.

Continue as above for all rows until blanket is almost square.  Moss stitch 4 rows and cast off.  Weave in ends.

(katie here:  I ended up doing 17 repeats of the diamond pattern to get a square.  Plan for something similar)

Image of this blanket (complete with baby!):

Journal swap round 5: librarian.

When I saw this, I thought of new beginnings and spring...London and Mary Poppins...I don't know if i can explain those last two.  It's also highly possible I felt this way because I received this right around the move.  And yes, I've had this book sitting around for months.  But I'm finally getting back into it...

For next year, I'd like to continue to write here every now and again, to keep up with the knitting, to keep loml around.  Basically I want a year of status quo - a year where nothing huge happens.  I also am already planning on doing more for myself.  My first three areas of attack are:

• Coding improvements.  I'm taking a Ruby on Rails program in winter. I know I code for my living, but I often feel like I don't actually do much coding.  Sharepoint sort of stole that from me.  And so I'm going to try a few certificate programs and learn some new languages.
• Hobby improvements.  I'm taking an embroidery class from Lill Street.  I've wanted to try classes there for years and now it's on my way home from work.  There's no reason I shouldn't try stuff out there.
• Body improvements.  Since getting the IUD I've gained a shit ton of weight.  You go on the pill, you gain weight.  You go off, you gain weight.  It's all very frustrating.  So I'd like to get in a routine where my exercise is just part of my day and I only eat cookies once or twice a week, not every day.  That seems doable and will hopefully aid in shedding a few of those pounds.

I hope you all have a lovely NYE, whatever you may be doing.  

I can't believe 2010 is over.  It sometimes is amazing to me how quickly and sometimes slowly a year goes.  Here's my quick year-end review.  I cheated and googled "year end review meme" and came up with this list.  I feel pressed for time as I only have 18 minutes left in December 30 to do this for you, so here's my quickfire:

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before? I bought a house, lived with a boy.  Huge things.
2.  Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I looked on my blog, and I made some hobby resolutions, that I wanted to hobby more.  And I think I did that pretty successfully.  Seven finished knitting projects, with a move.  I also stated that I wanted to write here more, which I mostly did.  And to keep loml around...and here we are.  Sitting on the couch together.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No.
4. Did anyone close to you die? No. 
5. What countries did you visit? Er.  None.  I don't even think I left the state last year?  Oh my goodness, that's sad.
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? I am pretty content, though the last question shamed me, so how about some vacations?
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? URGH, my memory kills me.  I want to say the day I signed the mortgage, but I already can't remember it.  And I am close to the day we moved in, but again, I think I'm off by a day or two.  Date memories are just lost on me.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Definitely buying a house without completely losing my mind.
9. What was your biggest failure? I think I didn't do enough for myself still - I wanted to take classes of some kind forever (art, etc) and just never did.  I had nothing but time between January and July and did nothing with it.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Yes.  For a while there I thought I was dying of some unknown lung problem.  I am not.  
11. What was the best thing you bought? HOUSE!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Boku?  This is a weird question.  Boku is becoming a real cat slowly.  Here's proof.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?  Republicans.  
14. Where did most of your money go? HOUSE!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? HOUSE!  (how boring is this becoming?)
16. What song will always remind you of 2010? Again, my memory really prevents this from being true.  I just...don't really have this kind of song memory.  Maybe 'Dancing on my Own' by Robyn.  Or some other pop number.  Like a G6?
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: - happier or sadder? I hate this kind of question.  I was happy last year.  I am happy this year.  Any happy is good.  Why should I qualify one against the other?  I think I'm probably the same or happier but meh...
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Exercise. 
19.  What do you wish you'd done less of? Stress.
20. How did you spend the holidays? Thanksgiving with loml's, eve with mine, day with both.
21. Did you fall in love in 2010? Not anymore than already.
22. How many one-night stands? Uh.  Now I feel like it's 5 years ago and this blog was awesome and new and I was doing random memes all the time.  Zero. 
23. What was your favorite TV program?  I like 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, etc.
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? No.  
25. What was the best book you read?  Hmmmm.  I really liked the Hunger Games trilogy.  That's the first I thought of.
26. What was your favorite film of this year? Harry Potter!  I think it's the only one I saw in the theater this year.  
27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? Comfort above style, aka, why don't any of my pants fiiiit (whiny voice)?
28. Whom did you miss?  Hmm.  No one?
29. Who was the best new person you met?  Is it weird if i say I didn't meet anyone? 
30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.  It's midnight.  I failed because I can't answer this one quickly enough.  Something cheesy about home is where the heart is?

Yesterday, on the way home from the burbs/zoo, loml was fiesty (probably due to the gigantic pop he had at dinner).  He has very sharp elbows and enjoys "dancing" in the car which mainly involves flailing his arm in front of me and elbowing me with his awfully sharp elbow.  I had had just about enough and was saying as much, when we had this conversation:

me: GAAAAHHHH.  Stop it.
loml: Who would have thought that you would be the one that needed time alone?
me:  ME.
loml: Who would have thought?  

And even right now, he's talking to me about what this post is going to be about and I want lip zippers to actually exist.  Sometimes, as a person used to being alone, I get super annoyed and want to chop off his arm right above his exceedingly sharp elbow.  This, my friends, is what happens when you have an easily annoyed person living with someone who is really great at annoying.

I even warned him of my crabbiness:  the "plumber" came today from my contractor to look at the basement shower (not getting hot enough).  Only it wasn't really a plumber, it was the catch-all man who did various and sundry in our basement.  This annoyed me after already waking up crabby.  I woke up crabby because I generally sleep with a fan pointed at me at night to cool my 1000 degree sleeping temp.  Loml is concerned about the amount of white noise and so we attempted without.  I slept, but fitfully.  Tossed and turned a lot.  

As for the icicle situation, contractor deemed that "ice/snow build up, not diagnosable by him as shoddy work until spring".  Even though loml and I both saw the water leaking out of the joint between gutters.  Bah.  Bullshit.

Zoo lights!  Tonight I finally got to see Brookfield's take on zoo lights.  It's pretty much the same as Lincoln Park Zoo, only on a grander scale.  And the grander scale was cool and definitely worth seeing.  Plus, now we own three holiday Mold-A-Rama's: a reindeer, an angel and a snowman.  I love them; they are awesome.  The middle fountain in the zoo has trees "dancing" all around it.  Basically that just means the lights turn off and on to the music.  But it was worth walking by as we made our way around (it was too cold to loiter).

Also.  There was this.  Love.  

Two brief and basic reviews for today. 

One.
This afternoon I dragged loml to see the latest HP movie: Deathly Hallows the first.  I was going to see it with a fellow HP lover but movie times failed us.  Apparently if you wait a month to see a movie you don't have all that many options.  Anyway, I think it was fantastically done.  The last movie was OK, enjoyable, but I thought there were too many liberties taken (like the burning down of the Weasley's house which apparently had magically reappeared in the same form in this film).  It was also kind of fun to see what questions loml had about what happened in the film: what are snatchers?  what year is it now?  etc etc.  Also, no, the "naked silver twilight makeout" scene was not like that in the book.  It is fun to imagine how JK Rowling would have written that though...

Two.
I recently finished Tess of the D'urbervilles.  It was a smooth read; I read it and was interested in what was going to happen almost the whole way through.  But this book made me confront something about myself:  I do not enjoy unhappy books.  And I especially don't like an unhappy end.  I've thought of a few exceptions to this rule, but overall I'd rather read a happy ending.  And while Tess was clearly engaging due to how well written it was, my goodness what a depressing book.  What am I supposed to take out of it?  That pride prevents people from being happy or that blind devotion does?  That having no true faith will lead you to toil and gloom?  And really, who would ever say this is their favorite book?  That is the part that baffles me the most.  Who reads this and thinks, well, it was engaging and depressing but MAN did I enjoy all that time that I felt depressed while reading it?

What a lovely two days.  I hope yours was everything you wanted.  And if not that, then better.  And if not that, then not so terrible that you were full of hate.  I haven't done much of anything today.  Read a book.  Knitted.  Put some things away.  Knitted more.  Ate leftovers.  Made loml try the Kinect with me.  Then pushed him out of the basement while I played it and Lego Harry Potter.  The downstairs TV just became much more popular.  Also, everyone looks stupid playing the Kinect.

Oh, I also wrote an email to my "done with the job" contractor because his shoddy work is causing the icicle of death:

What are the chances that he fixes that?  It's his gutter work that's leaking...maybe in a few days I'll have a non-recommendation for a contractor for you all.  With a list of everything that we feel was done half-assedly.

Otherwise, I have plans to write about a book I finished recently, my New Year's Resolutions and maybe a quick 2010 wrap up before the end of the year. Anything else I promised that I forgot?

What a lovely, lovely day.  I slept for at least 9 hours last night (there's no telling how long as I was up for a set of hours in the middle having a tantrum at loml for staying up so late).  I tidied and watched movies (Big is still an amazing movie.  Did you hear about the morgans was exactly as terrible as I expected).  I did loads of laundry (if you're ever in the market for a new dryer, DO NOT buy one where the lint trap pulls out of the top of the machine.  It causes lint dirtiness everywhere).  And I spent hours wrapping presents.

I have two particular favorites this year.  It was a good one.  Though I feel like I had more presents in the past.  

I'll not be even attempting to blog tomorrow or Saturday.  So if you celebrate, Merry Christmas!  Either way, I hope you have a lovely two days without me.

It's crazy to realize that I moved in to this house only three months ago.  We drove by my old apartment on Saturday and I felt a slight pang of nostalgia, maybe a moment of sadness...but it was only a moment.  It feels like we've been living in this house for as long as I can remember (though maybe we have...if we're using my memory as the compass).  I think this house quickly became a home.  It's not a place I live, it's the place I want to go to at the end of a bad day and the place that I'm most comfortable.  I wasn't sure how having a roommate would affect my ability to feel at home here, but if anything he's made it easier.  If I don't stop myself now, I'll start writing in cheesy cliches and then next stop, vinyl wall art.

There are weird things I love about this house (the tiny window in the bedroom closet) and habits I can't seem to break from having an apartment.  I can't stop stock-piling laundry...I need to do it every few days, not every few weeks.  

This is sort of a round-about post.  I meant to write about how I want to settle in more next week (I have the week off).  To move my clothes into the closet in the basement and start showering down there.  And, maybe (gasp) look for a lamp for the side table and a towel bar/holder for the basement downstairs.  Big plans!  Super exciting!  Running low on topics!

There are some days when I really want to talk about work on this blog.  I have almost entirely, if not entirely, abstained from talking about my current workplace on this blog.  It is too easy to find me and connect me to say anything at all anonymously.  And I really like my job - enough that I don't want to ever leave under weird or uncomfortable circumstances.  So here are a few things that I would say openly if given the opportunity:

• There is such a thing as dead weight.  Firing is not a healthy thing in the workplace, but neither is 50% (or more) of our workers doing, almost obviously, nothing.
• Communication, even of stupid items, makes the little folks, the cogs, feel loved.  It is a problem if different departments within the same division are given different levels of information.  If X department is told all the details of something while Y department is left in the dark, Y will feel bitter.
• People can be awesome, nice, great people and still suck at their job.
• There is a level of respect that everyone should be afforded.  If you get frustrated with your work, it is not helpful nor polite to take it out on your coworker

That all sounds bad, but I really do like my job.  It seems that every job has it's problems.  My last full-time/real job had more problems with the people than this one...and I have to say I prefer it this way.

***

I now have two completely unrelated side notes.

There are weird adult moments involved in living with someone.  Like getting Christmas cards addressed to both of you.  I would like it noted, for the record, that I asked loml if he wanted to be signed on to the cards I sent.  He said "no.  what did i do to deserve that?"  And so, my name only.  More scary than Christmas cards: the check book that came with both of our names on the checks.  We're not even really using it as a joint account.  It's more like...a money pass through for rent.  But it was still a heavy moment.

I unpacked the board games before the housewarming party and now I want to play.  Who wants to join me?  Or us?  Either way works... I have off all of next week. 

Speaking of traditions....Santa Claus....

I love Christmas.  I love the time I spend with my family and Christmas decorations and shopping for gifts and snow and everything.  I find it magical at times (fun real mail daily!  holiday train!  happy kiddies everywhere!  wrapping presents with pretty bows!).  And part of that magic, at least for me, is Santa Claus.  I loved Santa as a kid, I still feel a little bit of joy when I see kids seeing Santa.  And honestly, I don't remember being all that distraught when we found out Santa was not real.  I have a bad memory in general, so please don't assume I wasn't distraught, it just didn't make a big enough impact to be memorable.  I remember other events in my childhood far more clearly (mostly physical pain events).  

So here's the thing.  Santa Claus is a lie.  I know this, you know this, we all know this now.  But if I have kids, I want them to know Christmas joy.  Is it possible to have the joy without Santa?  Loml doesn't want to do Santa Claus if he has kids...because it's lying to your children, it teaches them that parents are liars.

But what about the magic?  What shall we do if we continue this thing and take it to a new level involving little ones?  Can I give up Santa?  Can he lie to his kids?