Married with zombies

Married with zombies - by Jesse Petersen Let me just say this rates a definite 4 severed heads Sarah and David are having marital problems – Sarah is the breadwinner in the family while David is an unemployed schlub who stays home and plays video games all day. After five years of marriage they are almost through with one another but have been seeing a marriage counselor as a last ditch effort. You can tell how bad the marriage has gotten as they bicker over the music selections in the CD changer on their way to see their marriage counselor. They are so busy fighting with one another it takes them awhile to notice that traffic in Seattle is suspiciously light. Their garage attendant is absent from his post as is the receptionist for their counselor. We, as the reader, knows something’s up but Sarah and David are so absorbed in their grievances they have no idea of what they are about to walk into. They barge in on their counselor chowing down on the perfect couple who normally has the appointment before them. It’s only after the counselor turns on Sarah and she and David then have to fight her off that they begin to have an inkling that something is, indeed horribly wrong. David, who Sarah has felt has been pretty useless, is the first to cotton on to the fact that people are turning into zombies. The bulk of the story then revolves around their trying to leave Seattle to get to David’s sister. Along the way they meet some characters who are even scarier than the zombies. The story breaks no new real ground in terms of zombie lore partially due to the fact that Sarah and David utilize all their zombie knowledge from the books/movies/video games they’ve consumed. Rather it is a fun snarky read told from Sarah’s point of view and some of her observations are priceless, I defy you to not laugh at the vision of zombies still pulling handles on the slot machines. Since the two main characters ring true it’s entertaining to sit in their backseat as it were and watch they learn to not only fight zombies effectively but also learn how to get along. Learning to work as a team killing zombies is so much more effective than those trust exercises counselors are always trying to use. Anyone who has ever blown a gasket over finding the toilet seat up or the toothpaste cap off can relate to these two. A hoot – recommended even for you non zombie lovers as long as you don’t mind what my grandmother used to call salty language.

Furry fisherman

The terror, aka Marguerite, has learned to fish. I had recently left the silverware drawer open and this is also where we keep rubber bands which Marguerite loves. She proceeded to fish around in the drawer with her paw into she was able to scoop one up. Sadly she would not permit her picture to be taken at that time so we did a "staged" picture with her toy. Then this evening I had set the laundry basket down on the footstool in preparation for folding.. There was a small piece of paper under the basket and just enough space for a little paw to shoot under and, once again, fish for it. The curmudgeon has accused her of stealing one of her tricks being as it is that paper play is her baliwick.

Weeding the shelves July 23rd

I've accomplished removing four books from my pile. I cheated a bit by returning two books unread but the goal is to diminish the pile so I figure it counts. One of the books has been around quite awhile in the pile and I wish I had picked it up sooner. A dead man out of mind/Kate Charles explores a series of deaths in a "high catholic" Church of England church. Suspects abound and the reasons why the suspects might commit murder are valid and keep the reader guessing. I enjoyed entering the world of the Church of England as well as meeting our sleuths Lucy Kingsley and David Middletown-Brown. Since the book is older and, as an American, I tend to think of the C of E as very similar to the Episcopal church so some of the issues seemed a little dated to me including the opposition to women priests; a subplot of a man who is probably hiding his homosexuality by being married to a woman; and a 14 yr old who is disturbed by her aunt living with a man. I also felt that I would have understood the characters of Lucy and David better if I had started at the beginning of the series. David had had an affair with someone in the church and I was unsure as to why he stopped seeing this man and started seeing Lucy. This kept pulling me out of the current story. Overall the I did enjoy the mystery and when I can resume hitting the library stacks I intend to check out some of the other titles in the series.

The Crime Writer - a review

As promised my first review of my read or weed em pile The opening scene of The Crime Writer by Greg Hurwitz opens with a bang. Drew Danner wakes up in a hospital bed to “a haze of face, too close for casual”. Two policemen are waiting for him to become conscious. Turns out these officers think he killed his ex-girlfriend as they found his unconscious body slumped over hers. There is only one problem, Danner had a tumor which caused him to black out so he has no memory of whether he really killed his ex or not. He is convicted of her murder but is released due to insanity of the time of the murder (that pesky tumor). He returns home only to find odd things happening - the first night he is home he awakens to find his patio sliding glass door open and bloody footprints which turn out to be his as he has cut his toe, or so he assumes, with the same type of knife used to kill his girlfriend. Since he is not sure whether he is sane or not he decides to look into the murder as if he were writing one of his own thrillers. He doesn't get very far along before another woman is found murdered in a manner very similar to the first murder and he is again arrested. However, due to his previous nocturnal activities he had filmed himself sleeping and the police must release him from custody.Drew determines to investigate this new murder as well. What I liked about this book is that Drew does think he might have killed his ex girlfriend and is terrified by this knowledge. I also liked the conceit of "writing" his own murder mystery and got a kick out of the pages marked up by his editor. His descriptions of Los Angeles and the types of people who live there are also fabulous. Here is just one example as Drew is waiting to see an actor friend in a club “they gain position in the scrum by working in concert, like raptors, with the friends they’ll only be too eager to drop once they book their first pilot.” Drew has a lot of people help him in his investigation, including his editor, a cop and forensic specialist, his AA sponsor and a young Latino kid. The AA sponsor, who is African American and the Latino kid sometimes veer awfully close into stereotype sidekick territory and I would have liked to see their characters fleshed out more. I was willing to overlook this problem though and just go along for the ride as Drew tries to solve his own mystery. Recommended with the caveat that this is more of a mystery than a thriller.

Weeding the shelves

As with most people in the book profession I tend to accumulate books. Some I collect with a view towards permanence, for example, I have a small collection of children’s books, first editions, quilting books etc. and these types of books I’ll never part with. I also have a large number of books for casual reading – which have made unmanageable by pursuing other people’s reading blogs. Quite a few blogs have a mailbox Monday, waiting on Wednesday day type of feature wherein they are looking forward to new books and thus adding to my reading piles. However, I’ve come to the realization that I have more books than I'll ever get to and I really need to weed some of my books so I’ve set myself a challenge. So I’m going to do a similar type of thing but call it weeding the shelves. Hopefully once a week I’ll report on what I’ve cleared from my shelves and perhaps even write a book review or two. My initial goal is to work with the 35 books that have wandered into my living room. I’ve decided that I must read 15 of them by the end of Sept. If I haven’t read 15 then I must get rid of an equivalent number to make it 15. I must read the remainder of the books by the end of December or get rid of the rest of the pile. Then it is onwards and upwards – I’ll continue winnowing by setting deadlines and to help with the reading part I’m not going to the public library. So far I’ve finished one so I better pick up the pace!

Peace at last?

Detente has been reached! Tilly and Marguerite have reached an agreement. If a common enemy approaches the back door such as the baby possum that visits nightly they will ignore one another and sit side by side, ever vigilant that a new enemy is not allowed in. Tilly has also decided not to expend too much energy in hissing unless the terror ventures really, really close now. The spouse even tells me that there has been an occasional touching of noses, this I’ll believe when I see it. I believe that peace will continue to reign as long as tiny one is not allowed into the main bedroom. Should she come between Tilly and her beloved at night – well then all bets are off.

Stealth moves

The little one has pulled out the best weapon in her arsenal in her attempts to ingratiate herself to the human half of the curmudgeon duo – uber cute play moves. Last night she took her feather toy, carried it over to Mark’s shoe, stuffed it in and then proceeded to insert half her body into said shoe to recapture her prey. Pretty good move! Though Tilly remains impervious

Love is ever hopeful

Poor Sammy – he persists in continuing his love call to the lovely, but now spayed, Marguerite. He sits at the back door night after night only to be rudely rebuffed. He calls to her she repays him by rushing the door and swatting him through the screen. I ask you though, who could resist this face?

The curmudgeon and the terror

Anyone who knows us well knows that somehow stray cats know to come to our house for rescue. We currently have two rather moth eaten toms who make their home in our backyard. Then in early May we noticed a youngish looking longhaired calico who occasionally flitted in and out of yard to eat some of the boys food. We just assumed that she belonged to someone as we had other moochers come by and partake of the dry food we left out for the boys. However, we began to notice she seemed to be ravenous all the time and came to the conclusion that she did not belong to anyone. In early May we decided we needed to do something about her. She had already had one litter of kittens and was showing clear signs of being in heat again. We were able to snatch her and have her spayed. During her recuperative phase she remained indoors but my intention was to turn her into an indoor/outdoor cat as we have a very old (22yrs) cat already indoors and I knew she would not appreciate a new cat being in the house My husband had other plans and so Marguerite has remained indoors with us. Tilly, the other cat is not amused by the newbie. Tilly can sulk rather effectively around the house and rather ungraciously growls at the new cat and generally goes out of her way to show just how displeased she is. Being set in her ways she would just as soon that this new, loud animal of elephantine habits would disappear. Marguerite, not to be outdone in the surly department, has the lovely little habit of lunging at one both front paws fully extended in a sort of an Mountain lionfish type of lunge. Her claws are fully extended and she does not attack with a light paw. Little wonder then that Tilly is so curmudgeonish around Marguerite. Tilly mainly growls at the newb and then vacates her immediate vicinity as she does not want to play the role of hapless victim. Last night though Tilly finally got her own back. She, my husband and I were all lying on the bed reading while the terror aka Marguerite was providing her own entertainment on the floor, darting in and out beneath the dresser, rooting around in the baskets I have set out for books and magazines and just generally having a good time. Tilly, in a very stately way slowly made her way down the cat stairs next to our bed. We had thought she was perhaps going to go get a drink of water or perhaps snack on a few kibbles. This, however, was not her plan. She waited until the little one was halfway beneath the dresser chasing yet another dust bunny when WHAM, Tilly plants a paw right across the backside of poor Marguerite. Marguerite somehow does a flip out from underneath the dresser with a most shocked expression on her face. Tilly, being a wise one immediately fled the scene.

The Vegan experiment - the final report

I'm a day late and a dollar short on my final report on being a vegan, but hey, life got in the way. First let me say that I and my true love, butter, have been happily reunited for a week now and I am so glad i can cook with something besides canola oil.
I can say that I survived 23.25 days more or less as a vegan.
So on to the questions
1. Did I lose any weight? Nope I stayed exactly the same not an ounce lost nor gained thus proving that a vegan diet is not a diet per se but more of a lifestyle choice.

2. Did I cheat - Yes I did. I admitted to eating French toast at Denny's and my downfall seems to be chocolate. I had a couple of pieces of Halloween candy and a slice of chocolate cream pie but overall I did try to stay true to the vegan food principles.

3. Was it easy? If the definition of easy is convenient then nope it wasn't. I was able to find a limited number of convenience foods as well as the usual suspects e.g. veggies, fruits, soy etc. at the mainstream grocery stores so kudos for them. Eating at a restaurant, not surprisingly, was much harder. Vegetarian choices seem to be pretty prevalent but not vegan. The one restaurant where I asked for cheese to be removed from the veggie sandwich was accommodating and the Black Bear diner where I thought I'd find nothing vegan had a veggie burger but for the most part I avoided eating out as I knew the choices would be slim.

4. Do I feel better physically? No I don't and for the first few days I actually felt pretty lousy as did the spouse. We both had stomach problems from the soy products and I had a headache for a good four days. I have to admit the headache is probably my fault. I suspect I simply needed to increase my water intake. My guess is that i was lacking due to no milk consumption.

5. Will I stick to a vegan diet - Heck no but I do plan on becoming more of a vegetarian eater again.

6. What was your first non-vegan meal? The spouse had suggested we go out to lunch on day 23 and I mentioned that I couldn’t as I had one more day of veganism to go but then he mentioned Baja Cactus and I caved. They have THE best enchiladas enmoldas so my firs ton vegan meal was chicken enchiladas and boy were they good.

Dennys you shouldn't have

Dear reader, I have a confession. I was tempted into sin by that bright red and yellow sign gleaming in the dark…let me tell you the story.
Long before I decided to try being a vegan for 25 days a girlfriend and I had planned on going to Yosemite in September. This past weekend she, my husband and I went up to Yosemite and had a fabulous time. The park was comparatively empty, the weather was cooperative and we generally just had a good time taking in the sights as we hiked through the park.
I had some worries that I might not find much to eat but was reassured when I took a look at the Ahwahnee hotels lunch menu. I had a perfectly nice roasted vegetable sandwich and the chef withheld the cheese normally added to the sandwich. We decided to not eat dinner in the park in order to give the driver sat least some daylight on the return trip. We left at 6:30 and at 8:00 p.m. we were all pretty hungry. We had passed through several small towns and finally in Oakdale we decided to stop. Since it was comparatively late in the evening and we were so famished we stopped at the first restaurant we spotted which happened to be Dennys. I knew that Dennys had recently gotten some bad press after having added some horrendously huge calorie laden items to their menu but I figured I’d be able to at least eat a salad. However, all the salads I saw on the menu had meat of some sort including those salads on their new fit fare menu. I could have probably asked that the meat items not be included but I was cranky and hungry, the waitress was tired and probably hungry so …I succumbed. I knew not to go whole hog as it were so I stuck to having 2 pieces of French toast. I have to confess it was pretty tasty too. I then went hell for broke and ordered a piece of French silk pie. The pie actually tasted pretty nasty to me so I stopped after a few bites.
I do know how I could have prevented my lapse into vegetarianism. I could have bought fruits, nuts etc with me so that I wouldn’t have gotten too hungry but I was afraid that while we were in the park a bear might take a liking to my snacks and either break into my car or, if I had the food on me, decide I was a tasty snack waiting to happen. So I left the foodstuffs at home. The other thing I could have done would have been to check out one of the many vegan websites to see what their recommendations were for eating vegan at Dennys. It turns out that there are vegan choices at Dennys including a true vegan burger as well as oatmeal, potatoes, bagels etc. However, because I was so hungry I let it get the better of me. I never saw those items on the menu but I bet they are on there. So lesson learned – either keep decent snacks with me or do better research next time.

Hubby lives - vegan for three days and counting

Both hubby and I have survived for three days on our new “regime.” It was a close call our first night when I made vegan migas (recipe to be found here if interests you http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/vegan_migas.html) but didn’t really follow the recipe closely enough and dang near burned out the back of my throat. A word of warning, the combination of adobo and Serrano peppers, not a good thing. It then continued to be touch and go when I turned to a frozen soy meat analog dish and himself mentioned that I was already eating meat. A little crochety from burning my throat out with the Serrano peppers I kept pointing at the box and shrieking “meatless, see right here it says meatless”. The downhill trend continued when he decided to consume peanut M&Ms in front of me. He, going the vegetarian route can have them but I can’t. Haven’t men learned by now that chocolate is sacred and should not be consumed lightly in front of those who can’t have it?
Both the hubby and I had a few misconceptions before I decided to follow the vegan lifestyle for 25 days so I’d like to address a few of them.
Going vegan is healthy –
Well, yes and no. Remember when I mentioned that Boulder potato chips were vegan? So is a lot of other junk food including some foods aimed directly at vegans. Tofurcky anyone? BTW, purely in the interests of science, I tried a whole foods vegan donut. It wasn’t bad but a bit oily, and definitely not healthy.
If one were to go on a low fat, unprocessed diet that is completely plant-based then, yes, vegan is healthy. One word of caution even here though. If you have a thyroid condition, some plant based elements (goitrogens) including soy and cruciferous vegetables are considered to be toxic to thyroid patients. Not all experts feel this is true but it is something to think about.
As long as you are not eating meat, dairy or eggs you are eating vegan, right?
I certainly thought so and was surprised to learn that many vegans also don’t use honey. Planet Green has a good explanation here http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/reason-vegans-honey.html. I was also surprised when I started reading labels how many otherwise “healthy” foods use honey. So far I’ve yet to find a non pumpernickel bread I can eat. Fortunately Thomas New York style bagels are vegan so I’ll use them for a snack. As an aside, pumpernickel bread, which I love, is very hard to find here in California. I’ve only ever found cocktail sized pumpernickel. Other ingredients I now need to look for on labels are casein and whey which are milk by-products (duh, curds and whey)
Eating Vegan is boring
Okay, I’m not going to lie, for me it probably is going to be boring. Remember I don’t really like a lot of fruits and veg but for those people with more enlightened palates there are tons of recipes out there and if you actually follow the instructions a lot of them look pretty darn good. The internet as a tool offers no excuses for boring. There are tons of recipe sites on the web along with many vegan organizations willing to answer questions so you should be able to eat meals with lots of variety.

Vegan for 25 days

Can a girl who hates fruits and vegetables become vegan for 25 days? Can her spouse survive?
On a lark I’ve decided to try and find out. After all, if former President Clinton, “Mr Fried Foods” can do it then I figure so can I. After all I did become a vegetarian for a year and a half and did pretty well, though I must confess the occasional hamburger was eaten during that time.
I’m curious to see how easy it really is to go vegan. I have no desire to permanently go vegan but all the vegan converts keep talking about how easy it is. However, these same people seem to be well… zealots. I’ve not really heard from the perspective of “I’m an ordinary Joe and yes it really is easy, or no it’s not all that easy and here are the problems” point of view. I hope to represent that point of view.
My ground rules are that from Sept.1 – Sept 25th
1. I’ll not eat the obvious: no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no honey. I will miss you butter…
2. I’ve got to eat like I normally eat, i.e. I use a lot of convenience foods during the week and cook on the weekends. Also vegan does not necessarily mean no junk food. Guess what? Boulder potato chips =vegan. Just sayin’
3. If I go to a restaurant I can’t cheat and eat meat just because I don’t see anything I like on the menu. However, I am also not going to interrogate the staff to determine if my tofu was fried on a grill separate from meat products either. I’m trying this as a possible life style choice and not a religious conversion type of thing.
I’m lucky that I live in the Bay Area. We seem to have, at least, a lot of vegetarian choices on the restaurant menus as well as several stores in the area that have a good selection of vegan frozen foods. In other words, even I may be fairly successful at going vegan.
There are also several websites that should help me in my quest such as http://www.isitvegan.com; eatingwell.com and PETAs website.
For those of you concerned about the spouse, he is not going vegan but he has been “strongly” encouraged to go vegetarian for the 25 days. After all eating a nice juicy steak in front of me could be hazardous to his health.
Finally, you may ask “why only 25 days” and not the widely promoted vegan for 30 days? The answer is that realistically I don’t think I can sustain being vegan after Sept 25th. ON Sept.26th I start my usual training regime for student library clerks and the days tend to be very long. Meals are generally taken in a haphazard fashion and I don’t want to faint in front of a freshman because I haven’t eaten in 12 hours. That tends to scare them.
Wish me luck….

Garden dreaming

My husband, mother in law, a friend and I all went to view a garden of a local artist/gardener in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago. I’d seen this woman’s work at the San Francisco home and garden show and had perused a couple of her books. I knew I’d be seeing lots of color as well as fanciful statuary but seeing them “in the flesh” is a whole different experience. Keeyla Meadows truly has not met a color she doesn’t like but more importantly she makes effective use of these colors. I also love her use of art work as well as a variety of different materials she uses in pavings and planting structures. She has a web site and if you love color check it out here http://www.keeylameadows.net/home/home.html
Her color suggestions are very similar to those used by various quilt instructors over the years. Alas do I ever follow these principles? The short answer is no. If I try to combine several different colors my garden tends to look, at best, disordered and, at worst, muddy. However, I’ve become so enamored of her style that I’ve decided to totally redo my back garden in the hopes that I might obtain a pale version of hers. Regretfully for the spouse this means lots of physical labor. Last weekend we started looking for boulders and found some. My husband’s valiant little four cylinder Nissan hauled the rocks home. Himself, with the help of a hoist, got the rocks off the truck and in the back yard in the approximate position that the rocks will ultimately go. Did I metnion that he moved over a ton (literally) of rock?

This past weekend I then got it into my head that we needed to amend our very clay like soil. Keeyla also has a recipe for “good soil” so we set off on a quest for the various ingredients. We discovered that commercial establishments such as Summer winds and Home Depot do not carry “loamy sand” 5/16”” lava and rock nor do they know what rice hulls are much less were to purchase them. It has finally warmed up in California so driving around in the truck looking for these things got a little “heated”. One lady in Osh was pretty sure the spouse was in trouble but I can assure her we were simply discussing types of sand. After a very hot 2 hours in the truck we came home disheartened. I, information specialist that I am, then turned to the internet. We have discovered where most of our ingredients are and next weekend I hope to obtain them. Stay tuned….

By Jove, I think she's got it.

By Jove I think I’ve got it.
I hate machine piecing or at least I did. I was always afraid that I was going to make too many mistakes and in the process ruin perfectly wonderful fabric. For years a friend has been trying to convert me to the dark side and even helped me make a lap quilt with really large half square triangles. This made me just comfortable enough that I thought I’d take a sampler class at my local quilt shop. After all, I knew that with my growing fabric hoard I had to start doing at least some quilts by machine or I, the cats and quite possibly the hubby would be swallowed whole. I don’t think the hubby would notice as he’d be too intent on his computer screen, but still..
The sampler class caused a resurfacing of all those fears I’d initially had and gone was the comfort level I’d obtained with the lap quilt my friend had helped me with. I became obsessed with that quarter inch seam and whether my 12 inch blocks would ever square up. I’d burst into tears and shriek at the hubby (who did notice) and really began to hate one of my favorite hobbies. I finished the class, finished my quilt and am happy to say it looks pretty good. I decided to persevere and try another quilt but on my own so I signed up for a block of the month type of deal and found that, as the months went on, I began to feel comfortable again. Yes, there are definite mistakes in the first three blocks but nothing that can’t be “repaired” with either a little extra strip of fabric or some carefully placed borderie perse. Some of my blocks now even fit the required 12 ½ inches and can be squared up. I feel like an absolute wiz with snowball/flying geese type units. While I can’t say that I’m having fun yet I have begun to enjoy the machine piecing process just a little. I’ve got three more blocks to go along with sashing so keep your fingers crossed for me. Amazingly I’ve started thinking about my next couple of quilts and, yes, I’ll be doing them by machine.
I will never be a total convert as evidenced by the fact that I’ve got several hand piecing projects in process but I can definitely see doing more and more quilts by machine! My friend will be so proud.
Postscript – after writing this I worked on block no.10 and 11. Block no.10 came together perfectly – block no.11, not so much. I was off by a whole quarter on one edge. I have no ruddy idea why as I worked on the blocks together, overly cocky maybe? Instead of ripping my hair out, I simply added a strip to the bottom. It ain’t pretty but it is a solution. Fingers crossed that block no. 12 comes together.
You can see from my early blocks that there are some boo boos but none too horribly bad.

Speculative fiction Reading challenge

I've just discovered that there is a speculative reading challenge for 2011 going on. It sounds like fun and since horror counts I think I might try it out. Since I've already forced a friend of mine to engage in a science fiction book reading club this might tie in nicely to what we are already doing as well. She won't read horror but is trying to turn me onto Iain Banks so I'll tr yin turn to get her to try the challenge.
It shouldn't be too hard to read 12 spec. fiction novels even this late in the game.
So let the fun begin....


Should you wish to join in follow the link below
"http://floor-to-ceiling-books.blogspot.com/2010/12/sign-up-speculative-fiction-reading.html"
So late May, early June is off to a good start
1. Blood Groove - technically a reread from 2009 but since I didn't remember it, it counts.
2. Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
3. The businessman - Thomas Disch
4. Embers - Laura Bickle
5. Ring of Solomon - Jonathan Stroud
6. Hull zero three - Greg Bear
7. one hundred thousand kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin
8. Midnight Riot Ben Aaronovitch
9. Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud
10. Consider Phelbas - Iain M. Banks
11. Red pyramid = Rick Riordan
12. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
13. Monstrumologist - Rick Yancey
14. Knife of never letting go - Patrick Ness
15. Outback stars - Sandra McDonald
16. Blood red road - Moira Young
17. Small gods - Terry Pratchett
18. When she woke - Hillary Jordan

Eye of the beholder

This may at first appear to be a slightly schizophrenic post about both weight/appearance and quilts but bear with me.
Two things happened almost within hours the other day and while not earth shattering it made me think, once again, about people’s perceptions. I and my middle aged exercise partners were walking toward the gym when two young, slender younger women walked past and I heard the inevitable “I’m so fat” comment. Instead of making me grit my teeth as these comments sometimes do I had a little laugh.
I had spoken with a good friend of mine the weekend before and we spoke of our perceptions of ourselves. She sees herself as a willowy tall blonde, I see myself as an elven flower child type. She’s’ got the tall but not willowy part down and I’ve got the short but not particularly elven part down yet both of us are pretty happy most of the time with how we look. As my friend and I age we become more and more optimistic about our looks. Maybe those young girls will too.
One thing that does make me angry though is when someone else looks at me and decides that because I’m short and stocky that I’m not very fit. I know how much time I invest in exercising and it’s not insubstantial so I tend to be a bit techy when someone looks at me and says something along the lines of “oh I don’t really think you should sign up for that ten mile hike” or “do you REALLY bike 12 miles a day?” Yep I do, don’t judge this book by its cover is my usual response.
After I left the gym I then went on to do some quilting with a couple of other people and, in this case, we quilters became the equivalent of those younger women. You should have heard us – “my applique isn’t looking very good, I messed up with the colors in this section….”So why are we so critical of our quilts? Come on, you know you’ve looked at a minute section of your quilt and been overly sensitive that a seam doesn’t match exactly, or your quilt stitched look too big or…? I ask, why can’t I and my quilty friends take the optimists view and love our quilts as is, perceived flaws and all?
Furthermore we also tend to be pretty judgmental of others work, especially at quilt shows. Do we really need to be that catty about someone else’s quilt? Just as I’ve worked hard to achieve a certain fitness level so, I suspect, have these women (and men) worked hard on their work. Maybe we should remember that next time instead of the fact that the quilt isn’t our cup of tea. Let’s be optimists and kinder individuals instead of negative nellies shall we?

Fitness for quilters … and all you other needlers too

Spring is afoot, though she does seem to be limping slightly, so it is time to turn our thoughts away from our machines and to think about ridding ourselves of our winter “ahem” stores.
There are many reasons why we should push ourselves away from the sewing table, to drop our knitting needles, shed our shuttles.
Perhaps the primary reason is that a healthy crafter is a productive crafter, that and I really don’t want my north forty to gain any more acreage if you know what I mean.
Exercise does more for us than just make us healthy though. It can energize us, it can inspire us. Just imagine what a half an hour’s walk can do for you. You might spot that perfect color to add to your quilt or see a heron take flight and envision creating that landscape quilt or tapestry.
If you walk with a friend you can brainstorm possible future projects and really get your blood pumping.
Stepping back from our machines also allows us to step back and remember that life is out there. The quilt police aren’t going to break down your door if you don’t get that last square done but go out and run with the dog instead. The knitting Nazis aren’t going to haul you off if you’ve only done three inches of knitting and then decide to go outside and weed the garden.
Our backs will also thank us if we stop every 20 – 30 minutes and get up and stretch, do squats ,what have you. The thing is if you step away for awhile, you may find that when you come back you have more energy, and to be quite frank , a little more joy when you resume your project. If you are like me, sometimes I begin to view my craft as just another chore…I’ve got to get three more squares done, 2 more quilts done by…type of mentality instead of just enjoying myself. If I just stop for a while and go out and bike around the neighborhood I feel much better and I start to have fun with my quilting again. It’s amazing what an effusion of oxygen will do for the brain!
So, I say to you, my breather. When the sun does finally come out in your neck of the woods, go out and enjoy it. Your fabric, yarn etc. will wait for you.

It's fantasy, not a dating manual

There has been much discussion in the past few years over the portrayal of young women and their romantic entanglements in young adult fiction. Two of the most hotly contested series are the Twilight series and the Hunger Games series. Many women feel that Bella is a weak girl interested only in obtaining her happily ever after with Edward. She has no desire to go to college, have a career or become a person in her own right. She simply wants to be with Edward.
Katniss Everdeen on the other hand has fought in several ferocious battles and is very much a strong young woman. Yet she too has romantic entanglements and is torn between the classic best friend versus the kind boy who has always loved her. Many people think the author copped out by having Katniss indeed decide between the two and settle down with one of these two young men.
I am more sympathetic to the point in the Twilight series that this is perhaps an unrealistic portrayal for young women to have, that one person can fulfill all your needs and desires and that you don’t need to be a person complete in and of yourself. However I’d argue that this is an unrealistic expectation for any person, including young men. Edward sets the bar fairly high attentiveness wise.
I do think that people are overreacting a bit to the Twilight series though. There are a couple of things that bother me, the first being that all women must fit a certain mold and that if she doesn’t fit in that mold there is something wrong with her. If she isn’t strong and kickass then she is flawed in some way.
Secondly as much as we would all like a book to be life changing they very rarely are. Peer pressure will have far more to do with how young girls form their first romantic relationships. Most of the young women I know get that this is fantasy. They know perfectly well that very few men are going to attentively inquire after their thoughts and feelings and live in an angst like state in denying their feelings for the object of their desire. It is somewhat insulting that the inference is that these girls are so weak minded (Bella like?) that they cannot make up their own minds and form their own opinions as to whether this is the type of romance they would like to have.
Somewhat more puzzling for me is the vehement wish that Katniss had not “settled” for a man. I do not understand why, after all that Katniss had endured, anyone would deny her the love and company of another human being. To my way of thinking Katniss did not settle for Peeta. She instead chose to be with the one other person who as fellow survivor could understand all that she had gone through. Would the reader have preferred that Katniss live alone, becoming more and more like Haymitch as the years went by? Why can’t we have our happy endings in our fantasies or realities for that matter? Who would not want that ending?

summer vacation

Driven by the fear that one of my in-laws (or worse one of my friends) will nominate me for one of those hoarding programs I cleaned my house for my summer vacation. I did a fairly good job of ridding the closet and chest of drawers of old clothes as I never have really had attachments to clothing. After calculating that I will probably only read another 1,350 books I even winnowed the bookcases of books I will never read. I was slightly less successful at paring down my fabric stash but I still managed a respectable 2 ½ bags worth. What has me flummoxed though are a couple of old address books.
One of these belonged to my mother. I already know all the addresses of the people I need to so I am not sure why I can’t simply throw this one into recycle. Maybe it is because if I do it is one less link I have with her. My mother always had beautiful handwriting and it is the last thing of hers that still has her handwriting in it. Maybe it is because I watched one too many of those find your ancestors shows where they talk about finding a diary etc. that prevents me from throwing it away. Regardless of the reason why though I have left it on its shelf for now.
The second address book is one I had in high school and I look at some of the names and have absolutely no idea who some of these people were. It is kind of fun for me to see the name of my old freshman crush or to remember that my good friend in high school had the same birthday as my dad or to try and remember just who Debbie Williams was or why I would have known anyone in Iowa back in the 80s. I’ll keep this one for the puzzle value for awhile but it will be easier to dispose of it once the novelty has worn off. It is rather frightening though to know that old age has crept in to an extent that I no longer remember old friends. It makes me wonder what else I’ll eventually forget. Maybe this is why we keep so much stuff, they work as mnemonic aids. We’ll see if, in another twenty years, I remember any of the names at all.