kmkat and her kneedles

Ten on Tuesday, the stress edition.

This week Carole asked us to name the things we stress out about today that we didn't stress out about 10-15-20 years ago. While this is a good topic for someone in the their 40s or 50s, a person in their 60s (like me) has passed that stress hump in her life. So instead, I am going to list things that I used to stress out about 10-15-20 years ago but that don't even show on my radar any more.

Ten Things I Used To Stress Out Over.

1. Getting to work on time. I am not a morning person, and getting out of bed was very hard. When I started at the seasonal tax job, office hours began at 8am. Getting myself up, feeding the boys, getting Younger Son to daycare and myself downtown, all before 8am, was a struggle. As the years went on, the office became a bit more relaxed; 8:30 or 9:00 was acceptable as long as the work got done. Even so, I still struggled frequently.
   
   
2. Not letting Younger Son push me over the edge. There were a couple years, perhaps ages 10-11, when he seemed to push my buttons all the time. Happily, that stage passed.
   
   
3. Getting Smokey somewhere on time. He was always loosey-goosey about time, and it used to drive me bonkers. But eventually he decided that since it was important to me, it was irresponsible of him to dilly-dally around. Now he asks me what time I want to leave for X, and he is ready to go by them. (See, I've told you before what a hero he is!)
   
   
4. Um...

I am not a person who stresses out much. This is all I could come up with. If I had gone with the original topic, my list would have been blank.*

 

* Right now I am stressing out about the stuff I need to do before the election, but that stressor is self-limiting. So I don't count it.

 

Knit, knit, knit. Purl, purl, purl. Link, link, link.

Help out here. Is this an old photo of Paul McCartney, or is this a Paul McCartney look-alike?

Deer season is nearing.

Beginnings of a stegasaurus costume?

This would be a cute addition to a housewarming gift basket.

More Hermione knitting.

"Everyone underestimates my love for pigs and knitting."

Love the road sign!

Sweater for a serial killer?

Sheep-to-sweater: a dastardly time waster.

Lots of flashy socks.

Sheep balls!

Clara Parkes reviews Unshrinkit, a new product that claims to be able to unshrink shrunken clothes.

Applied Knot Theory.

I need to start dressing like this. 

The easiest yarny pumpkin ever.

Crochet: the invisible join.

We've all been there.

Once again: which is crazier, the sweater or the skirt?

An excrutiatingly detailed tutorial -- but that's the kind we like, right? -- on how to dye yarn into a rainbow.

It's a pun...*

 
photo credit: kdee64 via photopin cc

How big is Africa?

...and then they voted.

Net neutrality explained.

PSA: don't drink and drive.

Cool (NOT!) art dudes from history.

Chris's links.

Nature, red hot in tooth and claw wing.

I may make this next time we visit Elder Son.

Younger Americans are more likely to visit the library than those over 30.

Have you had your lithium today?

The heart of a smoker.

If you had three wishes...

Guess what? A CEO with a more masculine face is substantially more likely to misreport his company's financial results.

Being John Malkovich.

Have I shown this to you?

An interesting read on off-shoring, hillbilly shoring, and ricochet shoring. 

Why is there a cloud in the kitchen?

Punctuation, in messaging, carries emotion.

How to take great photographs of your pets.

Links from Chao--, er, Chris.

Hidden bias at Google. Related: understanding our own prejudices.

Beautiful but deadly.

Ease.

Subtle.

 

*... that it took 2+ years for me to think of.

Dogs!

Last Saturday the county humane society held its annual dog walk. 

This is Rusty The Wonder Dog, mentioned in the article linked above.
Those who paid the extra $10 registration fee got these snazzy orange t-shirts. 

 

Participating dogs got bandanas, which their owners often chose to match their own outfits.

 

These collies and shelties were gorgeous.

 

Pugs? I think so. Boston terriers*? I got a lesson in distinguishing a pug from a French bulldog.
(The latter has stand-up ears.)

I was working the registration desk and did not walk either of our dogs. Besides, Lucy is too old and Misha way too insecure around other people and dogs.

It was a great day and a great fund-raiser for the shelter. 

 

* Thanks, Vicki!

This is so cool!

The wonders of the internet! I noticed this in the side bar of the blog yesterday:

 

Where is Oblast? I wondered. Ever the Kurious Kat, I scampered over to Google to find out.

 

A little more information:

Welcome, visitor from Poltava Oblast! Talk to us! Tell us what it is like where you are. How are you affected by the turmoil in the southeastern part of your country? Were you affected by the Chernobyl disaster? (Now you know the extent of American knowledge of Ukraine.) How did you find this blog? What is your favorite color? Sorry, got a little carried away there...

Q: How long has it been since I did a post on Sunday Wenesday?

A: Roughly... forever. Yes, I wrote this on Sunday, but Typepad locked up and I walked away and didn't get back to it until Monday. When the knit links post went up. So you get this on Tuesday  Wednesday. Please hold your applause/tears/whatever.

* * * * *

1. Equality :: yes.
2. Strappy :: sandals.
3. Kitten :: YES!
4. Program :: library.
5. Inventory :: take.
6. Choice :: pro-
7. Scuba :: dive.
8. Purchase :: YARN!
9. Promotion :: advertising.
10. Organization :: lacking.

* * * * *

Today I must clear some of the debris from my desk. Also from the table by my chair. And my bedroom. Maybe start the laundry.

Life has been so frickin' busy the past few weeks that my mind is basically fried. Just trying to hang in there and not miss anything that I committed to -- library, farmers market, humane society, political (mostly political), not to mention family.

Retirement? Sheesh. I am over-committed and actually said NO to something last week. Yay for me.

* * * * *

And now, because what is a blog post without photos, a view of my revolving desktop wallpapers.

Ten on Tuesday, the auto edition.

Boy howdy, can I get into this one! Smokey is a car collector, so we have had, quite literally, DOZENS of cars. I will list the ones that were my primary car. Some I picked out myself, some were assigned to me from the fleet because my own car was temporarily* down for repairs.

Ten Thirteen Cars That I Have Had (latest first).

1. 1998 Volvo 700XC station wagon, silver
   
   
   
   
2. 1998 Isuzu Oasis, minivan, dark red
   
   
   
   
3. 2008 Chevy Aveo, white hatchback (same as below, but white)
4. 2008 Chevy Aveo, yellow hatchback (the one that Elder Son totaled in 2013)
   
   
   
   
5. 2006 Chevy Aveo, yellow hatchback
6. 2004 Chevy Aveo, yellow hatchback We really liked those Aveos, can you tell?
7. 1999 Chevy Metro, blue hatchback (became Elder Son's, then Younger Son's, car when each got his license; YS drove it until 2013)
   
   
   
   
8. 1986 Subaru GL, 4WD station wagon, red (The first new car I ever owned. I loved the four-wheel-drive -- pulling neighbor's cars out of the snow, charging up the hill in front of our Mpls house, driving fearlessly all winter.) (The one pictured below is clearly not mine -- see the license plate.)
   
   
   
   
9. 1976 Subaru, 4WD station wagon, red (pictured is one that has the same *wood* trim as mine)
   
   
   
   
10. 1979 Toyota Corolla, 4-door sedan, gold (later repainted red)
    
    
    
    
11. 197x Austin America, 2-door sedan, light blue (Please use your imagination to repaint the one below. The car was tiny. It could -- and often did -- hide behind a VW Beetle in a parking lot. To get into the back seat, you had to unlock the front seat by sliding its headrest, then tip the seat forward. This was not nearly as easy as it sounds. The electric fuel pump would short out on a regular basis, like the time I was merging from one freeway onto another in a cloverleaf. Had to pull over, open the trunk, and bang on the floor -- fuel pump was under it. But it was one of the very few front-wheel drive cars in America at the time; great fun in the snow.)
    
    
    
    
12. 197x Austin America, 2-door sedan, brown
13. 1966 VW Beetle, mud brown (nicknamed Vincent Von Volksvagen; in the winter the undercarriage would get jammed up with frozen slush and I had to attach twine to the pedals to pull them back up, a fact of which Smokey likes to remind me when I complain about some minor defect in a current car.)
    
    
    
    
14. 1966 Pontiac Tempest, 2-door sedan, white (my first car; thanks, Mom & Dad! once again, use your imagination to repaint it)
    
    
    
    
    

Other fleet cars that I drove a lot:

1. 1998 Subaru Outback, white station wagon
2. 1989 Dodge mini-mini-motorhome
   
   
   
   
3. 2002 Chrysler Sebring, dark blue convertible
4. 198x Jeep Wrangler, aka Da Yeep
   
   
   
   
5. 1975 Mercedes 240 diesel, red. I put a Ferengi School of Business decal in the back window. It had a sunroof the size of Connecticut and a killer air conditioner. It also put out a nice cloud of oily exhaust when I accelerated from a stop sign, a great way to punish motorcyclists who had been tailgating.
6. 199x Dodge conversion van, blue
7. 199x Dodge conversion van, blue
8. 199x Dodge conversion van , brown
9. 1999 Chevy Metro, blue hatchback (BLUE)
   
   
   
   
10. 1994 Dodge Caravan Plymouth Voyager, blue minivan. It had a Starfleet Academy decal in the back window.

 

* Where "temporarily" could be up to several years.

 

...and the knit goes on. The knit goes on.

I never thought of this.

The 30-day knitting challenge.

Putting this scarf here because I want to remember it.

Want.

Knitting is my cardio.

Hermione-inspired knitting.

My philosophy entirely.

PSA for knitters and crocheters.

Fashion designers, dreaming up ridiculously useless bits of clothing since 1722.

I want to make this cup cozy.

.

Links go walkabout.

photo credit: Thomas Gehrke via photopin cc

Wes Anderson vehicles.

So true.

Make life better.

Why the Starbucks barista spells your name wrong.

A little something from The Bloggess.

And another little something.

Just as we readers have always known, reading is good for us.

Reports of the death of independent bookstores are greatly exaggerated.

Harvard... a real estate and hedge fund concern with a college attached.

Over my dead body.

What's heppenin'?

Put up yer dukes! (tiger style)

This would be nice.

Creative people are more mobile.

Why is this Tumblr devoted solely to DUDES in start-up t-shirts?.

The truth behind the humans-only-use-10%-of-their-brain myth.

Arhh, mateys!

photo credit: Kakadu via photopin cc

This is cosplay done awesomely right. Oops, this link looks like it has broken since I first saved it. Sorry.

Meet Sir Stuffington, the pirate cat.

Yaarrrnnn, mateys!

Lady pirate knitted duds.

Ten on Tuesday, the fall (non-gravity!) edition.

Getting ready for fall here is really all about getting ready for winter. Traditional fall -- colorful leaves, bright blue sky, crisp air -- means we are only a few weeks away from chilly gray skies that promise snow.

Ten Things I Do To Get The House Ready For Fall.

1. Take screens out of the windows to improve the view. This takes about five minutes -- easy peasy.
   
   
2. Replace the pots of flowering plants on the front stoop with mums. I have prepared for this by neglecting the pots for a week -- they are looking a little droopy. We haven't had a killing frost yet, although it has been close, so I really should keep watering them.
   
   
3. Bring in the umbrella from the deck table. This one is especially easy this year, since that umbrella never made it out onto the deck in the first place.
   
   
4. Move all the deck furniture to one side, stack the chairs. This probably won't happen until Halloween or so. The move is just so we can have Younger Slave Son use the snowblower on the deck once or twice.
   
   
5. Put my down comforter back into its cover -- extra warmth! This may happen sooner rather than later. I have been a tiny bit chilly when I first get under the comforter.
   
   
6. Dream about wearing winter woolens.
   
   
7. Pull the dock and boat out of the lake. I wish -- they haven't been in the lake for a couple years.
   
   
8. Ask Smokey if Da Jeep is ready to plow snow.
   
   
9. Ask Smokey if my car is ready for winter -- antifreeze, oil, tires. It usually is, but I worry about these things.
   
   
10. Discuss whether Smokey can get rid of another car before the snow comes (to help clear out space to pile snow).

 

Knitting stuff.

At least she didn't attempt an afghan.

I always check at least three times.

Easy knitted plaid. What it might look like in a large piece.

Knitted nails.

I need one of these for my Jaguar.

These knitted tiles are amazing. More tiles. Aha! Here is where they start.

We have all been here, right?

O.M.F.G.

Yarn space. Another yarn space. Another one, although I don't recommend it.

I want this on a t-shirt.

Hack your knitting basket with Sugru.

"Sample based on PCB research imagery from the underside of a hard drive, with eyelets."

How knitting is like writing.

Simple but ingenious.

Awww.

When I was small.

Knitted home decor. More.

Black sheep.

Just do it.

Story scarf: early and a bit later.

Knitted giftwrap.

Link-up Saturday.

photo credit: Âtin via photopin cc

Is this available on Amazon?

How to avoid incest in Iceland.

"It's 'Little House on the Prairie' meets 'Mad Max.' " More.

Why cat racing is boring.

Fox bots.

This is one of the nicest things I have read in awhile.

Important advice from The Bloggess.

And then there is this.

Chaos links.

Skimming this Tumblr blog makes me want to write.

Uh-oh.

My opinion of inspirational quotes.

Interloper.

How the sizing of women's clothing works.

Forced perspective with clouds.

Why cats purr.

A university president did something remarkable.

Writer's mood rings.

Friday funnies.

From a recent email.

Such a great idea! I wish had had one when the boys were little.

 

This might be our dinner table if Smokey had his way.

I am putting this up for all you crocheters out there.

 

Substitute Elder Son's face, and this could be he and Moose.
 

Perfect timing on this photo.

 

Let's talk fingerless.

I have been knitting fingerless gloves all summer to sell as a library fundraiser at our local farmer's market. The market is sponsored by the library building committee, and the Friends have a booth there.

  
  
I knitted all summer and all I got done was five pairs? 

Clockwise from upper left: JoJoland DK superwash merino, no particular pattern; Fetchings (with a couple extra cable twists because faulty pattern reading), Knit Picks Wool of the Andes superwash; two pairs of Susie's Reading Mitts (more on these below) from some Drops alpaca left over from a Red Scarf Project scarf a couple years ago; another pair of Fetchings (more below), KP WotA superwash.

The variegated ones were the first pair I knitted. Easy peasy, I can make a dozen pairs by the time fall comes!

Then I started a pair of the red alpaca ones. Between user error and doggie interference, I probably knit three or four pairs of these in order to get two finished pairs. As much as I love the finished gloves, my less-than-stellar execution is keeping me from attempting a third pair from this pattern. The alpaca is all gone now; I am hoping that knitting a pair in a less fuzzy yarn will eliminate most of the user errors. ::fingers crossed::

The gray Fetchings are a little long because I inadvertently added a couple extra cable twists at the finger end. Pattern reading = a good thing, often neglected.

The blue Fetchings followed the pattern much better... almost.

See? If I wasn't so fond of the color I might set these on fire.

I didn't notice the longer cable section on the first one (at right) until I had knit the second glove and woven in the ends on the first. Self-disgust prevented me from frogging and reknitting. Maybe next week.

I got kind of burned out on fingerless gloves, especially given how much trouble I was having with user error. Put them aside to knit a lacy cowl. And cast on a scarf/stole ( broke my yarn fast to buy this yarn). And cast on a scarf. And cast on a shawl. More on those another time.

After working the library booth at last Saturday's market, I was re-invigorated about fingerless gloves. I bound off and wove in the ends last night on this pair; tonight I will add the thumbs.

If you look closely you can see the three sets of butterfly stitches on each one.

The color is wayyy off in that photo (bad indoor light, no time to get a better shot). Color is more accurate here.

Ten on Tuesday, the lingering book edition.

You know I am a voracious reader. This post is right up my street.

Ten Eleven Books That Have Stayed With Me Long After I Read Them.

1. A Wrinkle in Time / Madeline l'Engle. I read this when I was about 12 when it was new, and I always remembered it with affection. Reread it in about 1990 when Elder Son was at an age when I thought he might enjoy it; it didn't age quite as well as I had hoped but was still good.
   
   
2. Winterdance: The Fine Magic of Running the Iditarod / Gary Paulsen. One of my favorite books ever, maybe because I have a weakness for north-woods-wilderness-type stories. (Especially if they involve dogs or other animals.) This is a nonfiction account of Paulsen's training for and running two Iditarod races. It is hilarious and profane and spiritual and totally enjoyable.
   
   
3. The Exception / Christian Jungersen. A suspenseful psychological semi-thriller set at a Danish NGO that researches genocides. I use the term "suspenseful" here to denote "could barely breathe and lay awake at night after reading." 
   
   
4. Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead / Ayn Rand. I was, like many people, a devotee of Ayn Rand when I was about 17. Happily, I outgrew her. But the books were powerful and still linger in my memory, not necessarily in a good way.
   
   
5. The Stand / Stephen King. My favorite Stephen King book. I reread it every few years. 
   
   
6. Prodigal Summer / Barbara Kingsolver. The image of the mountain breathing (exhaling at morning, inhaling at evening) is still with me. And how the protagonist solved the problem of how to make her land sufficiently profitable without growing tobacco.
   
   
7. Never Cry Wolf / Farley Mowat. This one is a classic of animal behavior. As a young naturalist, Mowat lived for a time in the remote woods and tundra of northern Canada to study wolves. I read it in high school; perhaps it was the basis of my love of such stories. 
   
   
8. War for the Oaks / Emma Bell. The book is modern urban fantasy. The reasons I loved it were 1, it was set in Minneapolis, and b, it took me back to my early 20s in that city, hanging out on weekend nights with my friends, skinny dipping at Hidden Beach at 2am and eating breakfast at 4am at the Embers at 26th and Hennepin. (Neither of those two things occur in the book, but it had the same feeling I remembered.)
   
   
9. We Wish To Inform You That We Will Be Killed Tomorrow With Our Families / Philip Gourevitch. Nonfiction about the 1995 genocide in Rwanda. As much as humanity said, "Never again!" after the Holocaust, genocide continues. 
   
   
10. Mountains Beyond Mountains / Tracy Kidder. Nonfiction about Paul Farmer's health campaigns in Haiti. Farmer is a Harvard-trained doctor and anthropologist who founded Partners in Health and invented effective and low-cost ways of delivering good health care in desperately poor countries. His approach made me consider other NGOs in a different light.
    
    
11. Nickel and Dimed : On (Not) Getting By in America / Barbara Ehrenreich. Author is an investigative reporter; this is her account of her -- ultimately unsuccessful -- attempt to live on the minimum wage in several different cities in America. Eye-opening.

 

Why there is no knitting links post today.

Why there is no knitting links post today:

The Kat™ is lame.

 

Computer struck by a gigantic meteorite.

 

Sudden onset of Ebola symptoms in The Kat™.

 

Paralyzed paw--. er, fingers, could not type.

 

Severe flooding in n.w. Wisconsin.

 

The Kat™ is lazy.

 

Keyboard scrambled, post looked like this: eritbneroi ertneri hkihn.

 

Too busy eating scrambled eggs.

 

The Kat™ has been incredibly busy.

 

 

pollcode.com free polls

If you chose option #9, Ding! Ding! we have a winner.

We were in Sioux Falls over the Labor Day weekend, and I seem to have had outside obligations nearly every day since. Blogging fell right off the bottom of my priority list.

Link, link, who's got the link?

photo credit: @Doug88888 via photopin cc

I want the earrings.

Some of the Viking warriors were women.

Professions with the highest substance abuse rates.

DIY antique Mason jars.

 

Note: We were in Sioux Falls last weekend visiting Elder Son, and this week was a blur of catching up and volunteerism. And our internet was out until Thursday afternoon. And the dog ate my homework. More links next Saturday (I hope).

 

O.M.F.G., it's September! Time to break out the knitting!

These are adorable.

And this is just weird.

As stunning as this is, what is more amazing to me is that she knit it in a month.

The amazement goes on. How does she DO that?

Hat inspiration.

Knitting is versatile.

New skill ratings for knitting patterns.

Making yarn the easy way.

I thought these were chocolate bars when I first saw the photo.

Sixteen heels.

Slightly op art.

Design a shawl for Stevie Nicks!

Tumbling blocks.

I forgot to include Chris's links on Saturday.