You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2011.
Happy, feline, arboreal, happier.
Roasted and tasty.
Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
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Topics covered today include, but are not limited to:
cheetahs
complimentary adjectives which are more specific than ‘nice’ and ‘good’
anger management
the intelligence of a squirrel avoiding our trap
astronomical units
triangulation
parallax
German nouns relating to a living room
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
blood tests
addition
algebra
Leo the Late Bloomer
mistakes in knitting
Manitoba geology and geography
fatigue
time management
snacks
in which we go on strike
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Rainer’s on strike, and today we joined him and the professors on the picket lines for about half an hour.
It’s a good mix with our focus on Canadian civics, politics, and history this year. After all, later this year Sandra will be reading One Proud Summer about an important strike in Quebec.
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Putting a good spin on things is important, right?
It’s time again! Woolly Wormhead is hosting her fantastic Mystery Hat Knit-a-Long. Follow the link to basic information like what yarn you’ll need, how much, and what each pattern is kinda-sorta-maybe like.
Right now I’m leaning towards Hat 2. I’m feeling beanie-ish.
I’m really digging the clothes that are in the shops right now. Texture, layering, knitwear…. I’m not a big shopper, so finding a season full of great clothes is always an unexpected pleasure. But I’m falling in love with every sweater in the shops when the budget won’t play along. Grrr.
Then I realized that
1) I’m a knitter
2) I have already ponied up the cash for yarn and it’s waiting at home
Plan: Knit a sweater I’d buy.
Pattern: Textured Circle Shrug, available for free
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, 865 olive heather
A lovely, fast knit. It took less than three weeks. People complain about the ribbing section, but I just worked at it steadily – after all, it’s the kind of knitting you can do while reading or watching TV. The kind of knitting that goes well with life.
And now I have a sweater that goes well with fall.
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Lately, I’ve been enjoying the photos from the archive of the National Library of Ireland. The archive is one of my Flickr contacts, and the daily parade of mostly black and white images is a constant source of delight.
When I go to art galleries full of old portraits, I try to look them in the eye. I try to see the person behind the paint. I’m too prone to the sweep of history in my thoughts, and I relish the opportunity to remind myself that this was a person. This human had thoughts, dreams, loves, jokes.
The photos from Ireland cover a wide swath of topics and times, but in every one there is a person to meet. A dress to admire. A mustache to goggle at.
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The National Archives of Norway are a more recent addition to my contacts, but the photos have the same ability to leap across time and space and technology to make a connection.
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My list of books I mean to read, not just want to but mean to, is getting a little obstreperous. And then there is the guilt. Books I’ve been meaning to read for a while. A long while. And books gifted to me for Christmas.
It’s time to read more and that’s fun to talk about. I went through a bit of a fluff jag there in summer, reading YA novels that were all about impulse reading. I read two back-to-back that were very similar in concept and audience, but only one satisfied.
I started with City of Bones, book one of the Mortal Instruments series. The display at the library really sucked me in. The cover design on these is great – it’s got what seems to be the currently obligatory ‘photo of human’, but the focus on the body rather than the face, the texture added to the photos, and the cityscape all combine to make a compelling design. The premise: teenaged Clary discovers that beneath the facade of normalcy that we all assume is reality there is a whole world of magic and demons. Sounds familiar? Yeah. Also: she might be a Chosen One in the Fated Fight to Save Us All. Sure it’s been done before, but it’s awesome if done well.
My biggest disappointment with this book is that it read exactly like fan-fic for Buffy, but without the strong female, witty dialogue, or unpredictability. There was only one plot point which surprised me in all 500+ pages. And Clary was a bit of a bonehead. She’s one of those protagonists (cannot bring myself to call her a hero) that makes you want to shout at the book, “Have you not read a single book or seen a single movie?! Can you not see the bleeding obvious?! Oh, hell, did you really just ignore all those clues and flashing arrows ? Yes, yes, you did. Fine.”
My next read was Wicked Lovely and coming on the heels of City of Bones this one seemed to be a lesson in how to do urban fantasy correctly. The premise: Aislinn can see faeries, but suddenly the rules that have kept her safe from them aren’t working. I liked it. Aislinn’s got grit and determination. The world she’s drawn into felt familiar but not rehashed; unlike City of Bones, where I felt like I was walking a path that hundreds of writers and directors had turned into a freeway, this maintained the feeling of a track in the woods. The familiarity was more like entering a place in a dream and the dream narrative tells you it feels familiar, and with a faerie story that’s a good thing. Most surprising of all was the romance, which felt real but played out in ways that surprised me. Now, I haven’t read a lot of YA romance, so this is coming from someone remembering YA romance from back in the day as well as her own teenage romance. But the moments felt real.
(marathon photos by Sandra)
Warming up. The kids before setting personal best times for the 5k on Saturday. Yes, Rainer did run the 5k with Tias on Saturday and then the marathon with me on Sunday. He’s got legs, man.
at the finishing line on Sunday
almost done, completely happy
I’m surprised by how good I look in these photos. I had been dealing with knee and hip pain for 3 hours at this point and felt pretty haggard.
Seeing the finishing line from the cathedral and then seeing the kids: two wonderful moments of lift I’d been waiting for.
Medals and finishers T shirts from the race organizers, Ritter Sport chocolate from the family
Post race. No shoes. Poor toes.
Why I had such trouble with blisters and with my left leg, I can’t say. I changed nothing from my training.
Waiting and waiting for the taxi to take us back to the hotel
I really wanted to be there already
It’s heavy. And utterly gorgeous. Rainer’s right, though. You train and train, and worry, and plan. Then suddenly it’s over. Yes, it took nearly 5 hours. But think: by lunch time it was over.
Gold! Tour of the capitol building nets Tias a free sample of leftover gold leaf from the repairs to the golden horses atop the front.
Rainer’s parents flew into Minneapolis to meet us. We had a fun 5 days before we took the train back to Rugby, ND. They traveled on in the minivan, driving to Florida via Boston and the autumnal colours of New England.
The statue garden at the modern art gallery.
Projection of parachute training projected inside a plane at the Minnesota History Center. One of the best museums I’ve been in. They didn’t generalize. They used particular people, their objects, their stories. And so of course the affect was much more emotional. This approach made the historical events important – from the person, to the sweep of history. We are social creatures after all.
pinball at the museum soda shop exhibit of “The Greatest Generation”
I loved how additional information on growing up in the 30s and 40s was put into ‘menus’ on the tables. All over the museum they found clever ways to work information into the displays, even lighting a slideshow of photos inside a table, the photos taking the place of two of the china plates.
StevenBe’s yarn shop. As fabulous a post-marathon reward as a knitter could wish. Steven even entertained the kids and Rainer with tales of his designs, including the Rod Stewart sweater knit out of novelty yarn and tape from old Rod Stewart cassettes. I found a perfect treat for myself after a lovely, long poke around the shop.
madelinetosh: Georgia O’Keefe. I got 2 of them and plan to make a matching hat/cowl set. In particular, I want to make Slable and the Jeweled Cowl. Here’s a shot of the cable within a cable detail of Slable that you can’t see in the official photos.
The sleeping compartment on the Amtrak train. It consisted of beds. Oh, and air. And a whole lot of us-ness.
Very wonderful, after years of reading Hercule Poirot, to sleep in a train.
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“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”
Mignon McLaughlin
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How do you find ways to see a comfortably familiar someone with fresh eyes?
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Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians in fact and in spirit!
Today, I’m thankful for:
a family that giggles together while playing Little Big Planet
books that help me understand other times and places, recently “Flygirl” by Sherri Smith
blisters that heal
raking the lawn before the rain began overnight
watching Matthias live life in italics
knitting: the way it calms me, the way it helps me give to others
people who inspire me
people who reassure me
tea
porridge
glimpses of Sandra drawing and dancing for hours a day
leg muscles that carried me so far
fabulous new knee-high boots that fit my orthotics
Rainer: always there
