sara skates

I mean wool insulation for housing construction – walls, attics, floors, etc. Check it out!

I’d much prefer installing it to working with fiberglass. Aside from the obvious “awww, there’s sheep in my walls” factor.

There’s more to the story (of course) but suffice it to say that my cat can (and does) plant himself on the shower drain and pee down it.

He’s one freaking weird cat is all I can say. I can’t even imagine what prompted him to learn and start this little habit.

Toby would like a pair of Sully and Mike Wazowski (Monsters Inc) mittens.

I think I can pull that off though it’s taking some pondering.

Still.

I finished this sweater this weekend. I had been 99.9% done for *months*. I needed to take out about 5 inches of the collar hem and shorten it by 3 rows and sew it back on again, weave in all the ends, and block it. That’s it.

here it is, crappy picture for the moment but I’m rushed, Marta from Cocoknits:

Reposing on the blocking board

In a weird moment of insanity last November, I briefly thought I would try to knit a sweater a month throughout 2009.   Truth be told, I had succeeded at knitting a pair of socks every two weeks that summer so there was a chance I could do it.  I decided to do a practice run in December – giving myself a couple of weeks of a head start.  While I failed miserably at the sweater-a-year plan, all in all this was a pretty quick knit.  It was 90% completed in December.

I made two pattern modifications.  I used an i-cord loop for the button fastener rather than a buttonhole.  And I made it longer below the waist shaping.

While some of the color variation in the above is due to weird lighting in my bedroom, some is also due to different dyelots of the yarn.  I don’t mind it, although it’s noticable – the top of the sweater is lighter, and one sleeve is darker and pinker.

Norma inspired this sweater – although she finished hers months and months ago and has ripped it out already. I can’t believe she ripped it – it looked perfectly lovely on her.

More pictures to come – I love love love the button!

We have a FIRST Lego League team – BrightonBots has not disappeared this year.  We start meeting next week – six 9-10 year old boys will descend upon our house every Wednesday after school until dinner time.

what was I thinking?!

Actually I’m looking forward to it.  I’ve started reading the material that comes with the Lego Mindstorm set, and for this year’s Robot Game and Challenge.  We’re getting a very late start, so are scaling back all competitive urges, but really?  Constructing robots and programming them will be a blast

I tried really hard to not make it a boys-only team this year – maybe I’ll have better luck next year.  Hannah’s team was always pretty mixed – which is rare but it worked really well.

Ketchup, as Marta says.  While sparse in posting, I’m not ready to give up blogging altogether.  I am on sabbatical now, and have had a chance to start and finish some projects and regain the head-space to post.  No doubt, many details that I have wanted to blog about will be forgotten and lost – but heck.  It’s still worth it to pick up and go, rather than fading out completely, eh?  I am facebooking more – and while it’s entirely not the same as blogging?  It’s nice that some of the same “chatter” with online friends has picked up there.

Sabbatical. It’s a wonderful thing.  Last year at work was pretty much hellacious from start to finish.  I transitioned out of my Institutional Research job (with some regrets, but all in all, with open arms), and back to a regular faculty member.  It’s a good time to do so for a lot of reasons – I have a year left on my grant to finish up (and it was getting entirely shafted while in IR), it’s a good time to be home a lot with the kids, it’s a good time to gear up and produce a lot in the soonish bid for promotion.  I am making headway on getting one manuscript for publication, with two more planned for the year – if I pull 2/3 out of my hat this year I’ll be happy.

Fibery Things. Oh My.

1. Knitting. As usual, I have a gazillion things on the needles.  Unfortunately my socks-in-progress are all at hard places – I skipped the heel turn and went right to picking up the gusset stitches on one so need to rip that out and remember how to turn heels; I’m on sock #2 of another pair and despite using the same needles and having the same row gauge – one sock is skinnier than the other (the stitch gauge is off – I KNOW – that seems physically impossible doesn’t it?  To have the stitch gauge change but not the row gauge?  It did.  The socks are fraternal not identical.  They’re intended to be a gift, and I’m not sure what to do about it.).  The third – I’m down the ankle of the first sock and I have decided that the gauge is really just too tight – I don’t want socks of armor after all.  There’s a fourth pair somewhere I believe and no doubt something is wrong with it too.
2. I am so so so nearly done with a sweater (Marta), though I need to rip out 5 measly inches of a neck ribbing and redo it.  It’s nothing really.  I just need to do it.  I have another sweater started and it’s suffering a similar gauge issue as that sock – I used Sweater Wizard and my gauge to generate the pattern, which is turning out nothing like what it should.  I now have a giant gauge swatch of the top part of a top-down raglan (nearly to the split of the sleeves at the underarm from the body), and have no clue what the problem is.  I have about 3 more sweaters I am desperate to start and since I seem to only complete about one a year, well, something needs to start making progress.
3. New Equipment! Risa put her NZAK circular sock knitting machine up for sale, and I’ve been wanting one for oh about a decade, so I bit the bullet and met her somewhere in Pennsylvania (I was traveling back with Hannah from sleepaway camp and a stay with Marta and family; Risa was traveling back from a stay with her sister), and brought it home.  The learning curve is shall we say steep.  I have figured out how to cast on and how to knit tubes.  Next up – heels/toes and the ribber – I was going to start with the ribber, but that’s not going well, so I think I’ll back off of that and wokr on heels for a while.  B/c socks can be knit without ribbing after all.  AND, this weekend I took the kids off to the Syracuse Rabbit Show and picked up a small table loom from Kim – there  showing her rabbits.  Oh my gosh the bunnies were cute.  Toby is now pondering starting a rabbit breeding business (ever the entrepreneur).  How I managed to come home without a black and white spotted one with ears the size of its body I have no idea.  But the loom – it’s perfect – I’ve been intrigued by weaving for a little while, and starting with a small table-top one??  Perfect.
4. Spinning. I have some Brooks Farm roving on the wheel, and totally love it.  I picked it up at Hemlock (aka Finger Lakes Fiber Festival) probably a year ago.  There’s a lot of it – I haven’t been spinning a lot but it’s pulling at me to do it more.

Kids!

1. Hannah has started 7th grade, she’s still playing the bassoon, and after much todo involving her being sick for all of week two of school and missing tryouts, she is on the cross-country team and enjoying it.  She’s a tired puppy at the end of the day – the team meets from 3-4:30 Monday through Friday.  Love it.
2. Toby has started 4th grade.  He is rising to the increased homework expectations and settling in nicely.  He starts instrumental music this year – and after trying out a number of things, settled on the baritone.  He was going to start with the trumpet – but, the baritone is easier to hold and similar in many ways.  Bonus for me, the baritone is too big to carry on the bus (school rule), so the school rents it to us for $50 for the year – one for home and one for school.  Love it.  No need to track down an instrument myself.  (Hannah does the same thing with the bassoon, which is still bigger than she is.)

Other.

I seem to be in a weird (albeit productive) sort of ‘nesting’? phase of life.

1. I did a clean-sweep of the basement playroom, sold a bunch of it and had a big yard sale, and am now working on repurposing the room.  The top contender idea is to turn the space into a movie-watching room – with couches and chairs and a DVD projector.  I figure it’ll get used throughout the teenaged years (which are soon for Hannah, very soon!).  A big craft table is moving down there too.  Really I could do without the room (I know, how “eesh” to be in the position of wishing for less space), but – moving is not an option.  The basement only has one egress so it’s not suitable for a bedroom – though Hannah did have a sleepover down there.  I may sort out some sort of rope ladder/window breaking thing for a small high window exit – and not worry so much for future sleepovers.
2. Hannah’s room also got a big clean and purge, and Toby’s got a once-over.
3. I am done – well, ok, nearly done with what I can do until I sort out one last problem, with the front deck project – it was built last year when Toby’s ramp was put in, and never painted or stained.  The main part has a coat of paint on it (and needs a second, and then varnish).  I am using linseed oil paint which really functions as a stain – it’ll never peel and won’t need re-doing.  The unsolved problem is tracking some down in a specific trim color for the uprights on the railing.  Eesh.  I could paint it with the regular exterior trim paint used on the rest of the house…
4. I am now focusing on the kitchen – I want to add a wheel-chair height counter to the one empty wall (with probably a base cabinet, or more likely, an under-counter freezer that we currently have in the basement, under it) – to give Toby more usable workspace in the kitchen.  It’s not an enormous project, but it does require some time and tools, and the time has been the issue lately.

Lego League. For three years, Hannah was on a FIRST Lego League team. She had an awesome time – although it ends with a challenge competition that – like anything else with a competitive component – can get a little intense (often more on the part of the parents than the kids).  She sort of wants to do it again, although Toby really wants to do it.  The team coach from the last couple of years is not doing it again – though he’s willing to pass on all the equipment (table, kits from prior years, etc.) and to mentor someone new.  It’s a little late but not too late (yet, Oct 15 is the deadline for signing up teams), and I have calls out – if I can get a group of kids together I’ll coach it.  I love the program – kids research a problem, present their research, and also build and program a robot and put it through its paces.  It focuses on teamwork, and kids end up learning a lot and – what’s not to like about playing with robots???  Last year the research component was focused on climate – and Hannah’s team did a whole thing on the local climate and maple syrup production.  Yes, I feel slightly insane even pondering taking on a task like this – but heck.  If the team thing doesn’t sort out – we’ll just do informal robot building and playing.

Last for today – I had an essay on knitting published in Times Higher Education.  I already posted this pretty liberally on Facebook – but I’ll link it here too.  It was a really fun article to write – the goal of that column is for academics to write about something that is specifically *not* in their academic field of study.  There are some awesome articles about things that folks are passionate about.  I was asked to write it by a fellow adult skater – one I have not met in person but who I have connected with via blogging.  She’s on my list of people to meet in person and skate with someday   Thanks Karen!

and the kitchen sink, is how I think this post will end up.

Work seems to be calming down – I am winding down in my current position as an Institutional Researcher, and moving back to the faculty ranks as of June 30th.  Yes, that means a low-key summer.  I am really happy about this decision – while it came about due to a number of majorly stressful and awful work events involving a stolen computer and sensitive data, it’s a good move at this point in my life.  Hannah is screaming towards teen-dom at an alarming rate, and being home more when she’s a teenager?  As near as I can tell, it’s even more important than when they’re toddlers.

We have added an aquarium and fish to our mengagerie.  It started with the gifting of two betta fish, supplied in a teeny tank (divided down the middle so they saw each other but did not fight each other), where they both got progressively more lethargic and seemingly unhappy – as near as I could tell anyway not being any sort of expert about fish states of being.  Last week I started looking at Craigslist for a second-hand set up of a tank larger than an ice cream bowl but not seriously huge – nothing panned out by the end of last week so Saturday I went and got a 10-gallon tank from the fish store.  Before I could get water in it and the fish transferred over etc., Toby’s fish died…very sad timing and Toby was rather distraught.  However it did result in not needing to separate two aggressive fish, and extensive googling on what might fit in there as a community tank with one betta.

The next day, we visited the fish store again and came home with a pleco (which eats algae – it’s the craziest thing, it sucks itself along the glass), a small aquatic Dwarf African frog, and a broad vertical striped platy (a fish about the same size as the betta, which is a smaller female).  While it took a day or two for the fish to settle from the stress of transferring to a new habitat, once the heater heated the water and now that a filter has been added filtering the water – all seem pretty zippy and happy.  The betta got some new food today – she’s a picky betta (damn).  She had been spitting out the little pellets of betta food – but this morning ate about seven freeze-dried mosquito larvae (aka bloodworms, yummy).

I have no pictures yet – the tank doesn’t have a light at the moment, and it’s set in a “well” of a dry sink piece of furniture that we have – leaving it rather dark and unphotographable unless you’d like to see a grey blob of water.

Toby’s emotioanal development has been on my mind lately.  It really deserves it’s own post, and I have pieces of the story saved from various emails etc.  In short, as he nears the end of third grade, he’s struggling with coming to terms with his own reality and “limits” placed upon him with CP.  He apologizes ALL the time for really nothing – often for moments when he needs a little help doing something, often for moments when he perceives someone else’s tiredness or frustration – he takes it on as “his” fault when really 99.9 times out of 100 it has nothing to do with him.

In some ways where he’s at feels so utterly familiar to me – I remember taking on so much as “mine” growing up that really wasn’t mine.  I reacted by moving more internally and not expressing some really pretty basic needs (and it was not helped by the reality of all the moves my family made, resulting in new locations, new languages at school, building new friendships while learning new langauges, etc.).  Toby does not seem to suffer that same internalization – I am so proud of when he advocates for himself and tells us when something is bothering him (and  yes, I tell him so grin).

But the bigger picture is that we’re sussing out finding some help for him.  In many ways – it’s a developmental process – third grade is the right timing for him to be struggling through the issues of differences – he’s cognitively aware enough to process his differences in ways that he couldn’t before this point.  He started some of this “grieving” earlier this year when the school year started, and even if it’s all developmental – it doesn’t mean he needs to go through it without help and support.

We have also spent the better part of the year trying to get a wheelchair for him.  Insurance doesn’t want to pay for it b/c he can walk 20 feet in his walker (or something like that).  He CAN walk in his walker (and canes for shorter distances) but he is slow, and if we want to go to a place that has a lot of distance to walk (this local festival like the Lilac Festival; or mall which ok doesn’t happen much but sometimes you just gotta go; or even the grocery store; or etc.) – more often than not we either don’t go, or he sits on the back of his walker and we push him.  (Which is so not what the walker is designed for – while we turn it into a defacto wheelchair jeeze he just needs a wheelchair already.)  While he’d use it in school for sports and stuff, it’s not really appropriate as a school-funded piece of equipment as he needs it outside of school too.  Medicaid won’t cover it because the right wheelchair for him is an atypical choice – it’s lighter than what they’d pick (as an example).  We’re on it – we’re waiting for the final “Medicaid denial” piece of paper and then a local agency will cover it.  That it has taken SO much effort (including detailed assessments of his functioning in the Medicaid-approved wheelchair vs. the one that suits him better – tracking down a loaner version of that to do so) and that it’s not done yet is just – mind-boggling.

Related to all of that – I have an article ‘published’ up on the Exceptional Parent website – about some of our advocacy efforts in building an atypical slate of services for Toby while he was in EI (Early Intervention, from birth to age 3) and during his early elementary school years.  For now, the story is here – their “top story”.  Shortly, it’ll be moved to this url (in the “Family and Community” section of their website).  I’m pleased to finally have the story out somewhere – it’s a good story and an important one to share with other families working with designing services for their children.

I have been spinning up a storm lately.  I need to upload pictures to Flickr to get them here – but I’ve taken the pictures which really is half the battle. Knitting has taken a backseat for the moment – for now, it’s all about adding twist.  Or more likely, unwinding my own tension and putting it to good use.

Courtesy of this blog post on some work-related “larger issues” (we’re sorting though “business intelligence” decisions – at a glacier pace), I found this picture – whereupon my institutional research and fibery worlds collide:

data/sheep = story/knitting

1.  Toby funny from a few days ago:  He typically crawls down to my bed for a good-morning cuddle when he wakes up.  A few days ago, he slept in later than usual, so I was up and downstairs when he did – though I heard him so I went upstairs.  I popped him up onto the bed and jumped up myself – though, we were sorta sideways on the mattress rather than stretched out with our heads on the pillows.

Toby’s quiet for a minute and then I hear:  “Mama, how come we are in landscape mode?”

The kid entirely cracks me up!

2.  Skating competition season is upon us – I’m off to Eastern Adult Sectionals tomorrow.  I skate in one of the first events on Saturday morning – which has the bonus of being relaxed through the rest of the competition!  I only signed up for Freestyle at Sectionals – I don’t have an interp program this year, and I’ll do Solo Dance too at Adult Nationals.

Skating is going pretty well all things considered.  I have some boot issues that continue to plague me, with the added bonus of my blade “chassis” breaking a week or two ago (story on that below).  My annual winter cold-air-induced (after a cold virus) asthma has been pretty fierce this year although a new round of meds seems to be helping (Advair plus a rescue inhaler).  I’m pretty happy with where my program is at – it needs improvements but it’s getting there.

3.  My blades.  I have Jackson Ultima Matrix blades – which were recently discontinued.  In short, they have a “chassis” (part that screws to the boot, and into which you bolt the runner of hte blade), and a “runner” – the part you skate on.  I have two sets of runners as I swap them out and mail them off to be sharpened.  I noticed about a week ago – while drying my blades off – that the chassis of one skate had snapped – right in the middle, if I were to take the chassis off the boot without the runner attached?  it’d come off in two pieces.  Since this model of blades was just discontinued – Jackson scrambled a bit to find a pair to send me (they have no more, my skate shop dealt with them and they got a pair from another skate shop), they’re on their way.  The alternative would have been to wait for the new Matrix II blades – which will be on the market in a few months – BUT they’re a very different model as they don’t have the interchangable runners and I’d lose my mail-to-sharpen plan.  I am thrilled to have a new pair of chassis coming my way – Kudos to Jackson and the Figure Skating Boutique for such excellent customer service.

4.  My blog.  I think I finally decided that really?  If I only blog once a month?  That’s ok.  It’s really not worth feeling guilty about yanno?

5.  Hannah is awesome.  She has recently discovered social computing for the pre-teen set – Warriors roleplay forums.  Cats and social stuff – what’s not to like?

She has also really picked up the ball and started doing some household chores – folding laundry and doing the dishwasher – without a lot of complaining. I thank her daily – it’s entirely awesome.

6.  Knitting.  I have about a sleeve and a half left on a sweater, I have started 3 or 4 new pairs of socks, I’m working on a pair of mittens (I think rather than socks this summer?  I’m knitting mittens.  It gets cold here in the winter), and a scarf.  NO doubt there are other hibernating projects around the house.

7. That concludes this random edition!

This video was linked in Toby’s online playgroup board (a group of women who were all due the same month/year – 8.5 years later, the group persists – which is pretty awesome in it’s own right).  I think it’s a really nice way to start the year – looking at seasonal changes.  This guy took a picture every day for a year – at the same spot – and then put the stills all together into a 40 second “video”.

I tried but failed to embed the video – here’s a link:  Eirik Solheim

I have much to write, and was hoping to write some of it this week while on break.  Unfortunately, much *much* computer time was spent getting rid of a virus on the home desktop.  What a total PITA.  What finally worked was using a PrevX product – a malware scanner and removing tool.  I had been using McAfee antivirus software, but it got compromised with the virus and it was loading upon startup, but getting disabled within seconds and not allowing me to re-enable it.  I removed it and installed AVG antivirus software – which was not compromised – and it found a few trojans and viruses that McAfee hadn’t found.  I googled some of the names of the trojans, and came across the Prevx site.  I was initially intrigued by their graphic showing how much “more” they found than various other antivirus packages, and by some of the technical details explaining that it works differently than most antivirus software – rather than responding to specific named malware, it focuses on virusey behavior and thus targets the malware often before it’s even “named” and recognized.  Long story short (sorta, I have already gone on at great length), it identified over 35 additional viruses/trojans/malware and disabled them in short order.  The free download identifies what’s on your system; the $25-$30 fee gets you the removal tool.  It’s entirely worth it in my opinion.

Other news that I’ll touch on for the moment – in no particular order.

The holidays were good – it’s been great to have 2 weeks home with the kids.  Presents were numerous, the kids are happy, Hannah had many playdates; Toby had some; plus he and I did a lot of cooking.  I have embarked on a “minor” home reno plan – removing a hall closet, installing a boot bench and coat hooks instead for storage, and widening the doorway from the hallway to the den so that Toby can fit through with his walker.  Of course I thought I’d finish it while off on winter break.  Of course it’s taking way longer than that.  By removing the closet walls, there were “holes” in the floor tiling – I decided to remove the closet floor tiles add a border as a transition, and then matching new tiles.  Removing the closet tiles was a piece of cake – they popped right up with minimal effort.  Three tiles from the hallway need to be removed or at least cut down – to make room for the border – rather than being shaped to surround the former walls.  It took me two hours to get one of the three removed today – and involved eventually using a sledgehammer.  I may try using a circular saw with a tile blade on it – a messy somewhat dangerous job with flying shards of porceline – but, there are two freaking tiles to cut down (or remove) and however fun it is to get out some anger and aggression with a sledgehammer?  I don’t wanna.

Skating is gearing up for Adult Sectionals and Nationals again.  Sectionals are in North Carolina at my friend Amy’s rink – I’m very excited about returning there and spending some time with her.  The last time it was there was my first Sectionals experience – and I skated at the Silver level at that time (I have since moved up a level).  Moreover, it’s a great rink and one of my favorite coaches in the world is there – so I’ll stay an extra day or two and work with her.

Work persists at being pretty stressful, and upon return (break is over as of tomorrow) I need to have some difficult conversations and initiate some changes.  More details as they unfold – suffice it to say I am not happy with how things have unfolded due to the computer security issues from earlier this fall.

Home life is ok, the kids continue to sort through issues of their moms separating, while still all mostly living together (for lots of reasons).  It’s confusing and conflicting at times, it works much of the time, it’s difficult (muchly) some of the time.  Ultimately their needs continue to drive most of my decisions which is exactly how it should be.

Knitting has been happening at great speed.  Hannah has a new dragon scarf, Jill has a new scarf from yarn she designed at http://yarniapdx.com/in Portland (OR), I have a new sweater and another more than halfway done; I also have a new hat; I have a stranded mitten that turned out too small for even Hannah so I need to rip and restart it; and a pair of socks on the way.  No doubt I have left out a project or two.  As usual, knitting helps in so many ways – I partially feel like I’m knitting myself back together lately

Happy new year to all – and honestly?  I think my only resolution is to come to terms with how to continue to post sporadically but yet meaningfully.  Well, there are some other goals for the year – mostly related to things I have summarized above