fox

Well

All the instructions I could find about how to patch holes were about how to patch stockinette. I couldn't work out how to do garter, so what I ended up doing was more or less darning each spot; the mends are visible but garter stitch in wool is kind of a mess to look at anyway, so it's not perfect but I think all the loose loops are caught and nothing should unravel any further. (The fact that it's all sliiightly felted to itself is also helping there.) And the holes are patched. It's particularly BLEH in the biggest hole, which happened to be in a section knitted from the yarn that's two colors plied together, which were also always the most visually busy areas of the thing anyway, so.

It is no longer draped over my ironing board salvaged with waste yarn, is the important thing. I brought it back from Ohio in the first week of May and told my mom it would be quick to fix - and it has been, I mean, there were five or six places to fix and I did it while my kid napped this afternoon. It's just that it was nine weeks of rumination and avoidance before I finally did this.

Let's see how long before I can get to the post office to ship it. (Possibly as much as three more weeks, because that's the next time I have a Friday off. On the up side, it's the height of summer, so she won't have been wishing she had a heavy wool blanket to use.)

For my parents' 40th anniversary, my brother bought a ton of yarn in several shades of red and I knit them a ruby afghan. My mother still uses it all the time and loves it, which is very gratifying, and alas it now has a few moth-eaten spots, so when I was back visiting after her recent surgery I brought it home with me and now it's out on my ironing board where I'm examining the holes in an attempt to begin fixing them -

- and all the explanations of fixing moth holes in knitting that I can find anywhere on the internets (Dayana's "MOTH ATTACK!" is the clearest to me) are about fixing stockinette, and this is garter, and the first one I'm tackling is close to a seam (the pattern is mitered squares knit together), and I am struggling to adapt the stockinette advice to garter and this project is giving me the wiggins.

I seem to have scratched my cornea. How delightful.

Saturday night I slept solidly and soundly - I was vaguely aware that Himself got up to pee around 6ish and vaguely aware that he came back to bed, but then I was having elaborate travel dreams* and I thought I heard the prince make a noise and I woke up and it was after 8:00. When I got downstairs Himself said he'd told me he was going to take a shower, and I had not replied, and then when he was dressed he'd told me he was going to get the prince up and dressed and breakfasted, and I had not replied, so he concluded I needed the sleep and it was Sunday so what the hell and if his mom had come at 9:00 and taken the prince to her house and I had still not got up, then he'd have come and given me a shake and made sure I was okay.

Last night I slept less soundly - I woke up a bit in the sort of 4am area and I know I tossed and turned for a while - but again I was dreaming vividly (the prince and I had stopped at a playground on the way to school and were trying to get an alphabet computer game thing back to the home screen we'd found it on before leaving it, and then we were super late for dropping him off if I was going to get home and get to work on time) and then Himself was shaking me and the light turned on. (The prince had turned on the overhead light in our room; Himself apologized and said he'd meant to wake me gently, but the boy had other ideas.) I'd had no idea he was up, in the shower, anything like that; the prince often comes into our room while his dad is showering, but if he did that this morning I had no idea.

So this morning my forehead feels kind of heavy and I'm a little out of sorts from the sudden awakening.** I don't have a ton of work to do, and what I do have is waiting on answers to some questions from someone who may, for all I know, be out of the office until the new year, so I've been playing with a map of the world quiz bethbethbeth linked to on Twitter recently. I've done all the suggested other quizzes until I could get all the answers right (except the Every Country Shape one, because no), and I continue to have fun with the World Map Minus 20 Random Countries one, which changes every time. Could I now pass the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service's one-credit mandatory pass/fail "Map of the Modern World" course? Probably not, because as I understand it you have to know some facts about each country, not just its name and location on the globe, and all I know is that Albania, a mostly mountainous land, borders on the Adriatic and its chief export is chrome.


*Interestingly, usually when I dream about travel or transit it's all about anxiety - I'm lost in an airport or a bridge is out or I got on the right train and it suddenly turned into the wrong train or I've driven a hundred miles out of my way and it will take too long to get back to where I should have turned left (and I have indeed had the experience of deliberately thinking to myself this is a dream; you don't need to drive all the way back. you can just wake up now.) or ~similar~. But Saturday night/Sunday morning I was dreaming about visiting new places and seeing people I haven't seen in ages, and I'm convinced that's a vaccine dream is what that was.

**It would also have been my dad's birthday today, which probably isn't improving my sorts at all.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t sleep last night so much as I lay there for a few hours with my eyes closed.

Looking forward to an extremely productive day.

Okay no. But I have made masks! A hundred years (that is, a couple of months) ago when All This began, a former co-worker friend made some masks for me and my family, which was lovely of her. Two for me, which are fine; they smush my nose just a bit but otherwise no problem. Two for Himself, which are fine; they cut into his jowls just a bit but otherwise no problem. Four for the prince, which don't fit; she thoughtfully made them with elastic bands to go behind our heads rather than around our ears, and the kid is still kid-proportioned enough that an elastic band that will hold the bottom of the mask snugly around his chin and the nape of his neck won't fit over the top of his head nohow. I cut the elastics on one of these and tied them into ear loops, which more or less works; he doesn't like the feeling of the things pulling on his ears, even when I made the loops loose enough that the mask no longer smushes his nose. I crocheted him a button band to take the pressure of the elastic loops and he didn't like that either - it was a little too short, so the mask flattened his nose again. I added a mini hair elastic to each ear loop, so now everything reaches everything else at the perfect length, but he's not convinced. Sigh.

So I cleaned up and re-started my mom's old sewing machine, which was probably a wedding present in 1969, and made him one of these, which of course was wildly ambitious for mama's first sewing project but it's not like I'm brand-new to Making Stuff In General, and long story short, it went okay. Everything is put together as it's meant to be and I threaded some yarn through the loops to make a head tie instead of any elastic anywhere, and on today's walk I gave the kid the choice of the new one that ties behind his head and the old one that loops around his ears, and he picked the new one. He still takes it off as soon as he's allowed to, but hey.

I also made Himself one of these, which was way easier piecing-and-sewing-wise, although he also wanted behind his head rather than around his ears, and I mos def should have run the yarn through the side hems before I sewed up the pleats. I got it done, with a tapestry needle. But it would have been tidier to do otherwise. In any event, he didn't like the yarn, so I pulled that out and have threaded up some elastic through there and will measure it around his head later this evening and then probably stitch the ends of the elastic together and call that one done.

I have a yard each of many patterns of fabric and 5 yards of plain off-white for linings, so I can keep doing this until I get better at it, is my feeling. (In my copious free time, of course.) As you may have seen me say on Facebook, I'm not going to win any prizes at any county fairs, but the objects are functional. Right now. As intended. And if there's a prize for Quickness on the Uptake, maybe I can win that. ;-)

Since about December 27 I’ve done at least 20 minutes on the elliptical every day (except one day when I think I did 15).

Also since then, according to my Fitbit, my resting heart rate has gone down by 20 bpm.

🤔

Transliteration into English is an interesting concept that I still think about from time to time even though I'm not eye-deep in linguistics anymore. Earlier generations of phrase books in languages of the Indian subcontinent for English speakers - probably Raj-era - had things like "Hindoo" and "saree" where today we'd certainly have "Hindu" and "sari;" the double-vowel spelling looks not just wrong but offensive to me now. Though I am neither a speaker nor a student of any such language, only a former student of language systems - so I should say the double-vowel transliteration looks wrong to me and makes me imagine it might be offensive to someone whose language was being transliterated this way. ... But I wonder why potatoes are still "aloo" instead of "alu." I'm confident there is a reason! - And I have never known what it is.

I've decided to get myself a proper ring with my kid's birthstone. (I got a little one from Etsy a while ago and liked the concept, but that was a teeny-tiny bezel-cut stone that's hard to see and the whole look wasn't quite what I was after, so good thing I only spent 20 bucks on it.) The options I've narrowed down to are (a) an eternity band with channel-stones all around, (b) a twist eternity band with ditto, and (c) a "hugs and kisses" (XOX) mother's ring with a bezel-set solitaire in the space of the O. Each of these has its advantages and disadvantages. I like the light design of the (b) twist quite a lot, but it looks like the stones have metal beads holding them in place (maybe the ends of prongs) and it seems a little cluttered. The simpler channel-set (a) band feels kind of stodgy, but maybe that's just by comparison with the airiness of (b). And the XOX option for (c) may be the solidest item with the best workmanship - that is, their website is more convincing to me than the other ones' - but the design seems too precious; I really prefer the idea of an eternity ring. (I mean, hugs and kisses are nice, but I will be this child's mother forever, is my point.)

Then there's the question of materials. The boy's birthday is in November, so the birthstone is yellow topaz (or citrine) (or, one jewelry website suggests to me, smoky quartz, feh). I am normally not flattered by yellows, but that's when the kid was born, so I have no problem getting past it w/r/t the stone(s). I can't get comfortable with yellow gold, though, so I'm looking at silver, white gold, rose gold, or platinum.

My wedding ring is white gold. My engagement ring is platinum. I have a plain very skinny rose gold band that I've been wearing outside the engagement ring as a sort of, I don't know, proof of concept? - so the idea of mixing metals does not distress me. I think probably white or rose gold would be better than silver or platinum; wouldn't they go better with the warmth of the yellow stone? (And also because platinum costs a fortune, let's be honest.) I lean toward rose gold because I actually do like the difference; white gold is the wedding ring, so let's have a different base color for the mother's ring. But will the pink of the rose gold overwhelm the color of the topaz-or-citrine so it would be better to use white gold so the stones are actually visible? (If the visibility is in fact an issue against rose gold?)

Finally, will I wear the thing on my left hand (probably middle finger, rather than stacked with my wedding and engagement rings) or right? And if on the right hand, will I wear it on my ring or middle finger? I have a slight preference for not using the same finger on both hands - but I don't know if I'll regret going with the middle finger. Hmmmm.

So when I get my contact lenses, my optometrist gives me a mail-in certificate for a rebate. It's a bit of a hassle but I get a prepaid card for $150 on two years' worth of contacts, so I do it. Mainly I use the card to repecuniate (thanks for that word, ellen_fremedon) my Starbucks card, which after some number of purchases I'm not able to determine gets me a free drink or food item. I hit Starbucks on the way to the Catholics every Sunday but almost never any other times, so I don't accumulate those points very quickly, but whatever. Anyway so I used half the prepaid card on my last Starbucks card fill-up, and last week I tried to use the other half - and the thing was declined because it had expired in September. (Why I didn't use all of it at once I don't know, but it was probably because the idea of more than a hundred bucks sitting there waiting to be spent on coffee and nothing else seemed vaguely obscene to me. Won't make that mistake again.)

I was annoyed and about to throw away the expired card when the Starbucks guy said But listen, you may be able to call and get a replacement? And he was not wrong. There is a number to call, and the worst that could happen was they said no. [shrug] And as it happened, I sat on hold for more than five minutes but less than ten minutes and they reactivated the thing so I can have them send me a reissue. I have to print and sign a form and I'll lose $19.95 of the $80 on the card, but hey, throwing away twenty bucks is way less offensive to me than throwing away eighty.

So I win! ... With a B-minus. I'll take it.

Alexandra Petri: [some stuff about hot cross buns and the song pertaining thereto] Actually, this opens a question: what songs always fuse together in your mind? There are some songs whose bridges inevitably lead me into other different songs, in spite of my best efforts.

Me: Q: fusion songs
It's out of season, but the best example in my life is "Wonderful Town" mashed up with the Gloucestershire Wassail. "Wassail, wassail, all over the town/ The Bronx it is up and the Battery's down./ The people, they ride in a hole in the ground;/ New York, New York, a hell of a town." (Conversely, although it happens less often, "New York, New York, a hell of a town/ Our toast is white and our ale is brown." And so on.)

A: Alexandra Petri
Oooh, that’s great!! That is a perfect example!


I repeat: The fiendishly clever and funny Alexandra Petri saw my annual New York, New York/Wassail Song mashup and said it was a perfect example.

Might as well go home now.

+ Some time in the middle of June, I finally got the basement clean enough that I am willing to go down there on a daily basis and hit the elliptical. Since then I've been down there every evening except June 30 (protest day, plenty of walking, and everything hurt, so a judicious break was called for); I started out on 1000 steps/day at resistance level 5, and I guess for a couple of weeks I've been doing 1100 steps, and that's getting easy enough that I'm going to have to scale up again soon - only I don't want to keep adding time forever, so we'll see at what point I bump up the resistance instead. I can feel the difference in my strength, stamina, and general energy levels just from this frankly little bit of gymming every day. I am pleased to be more in control of my body.

+ I have also gone back to the eating habits that enabled me, 10 years ago, to reach (and stay for a bit at) a size and shape I liked better than the one I have now. I am already feeling slightly smaller and slightly leaner, so that's not nothing. Of course 10 years ago I hadn't had a baby, so there's some soft Baby Waz Here stuff around my middle that's probably going to be lumpy forever because ligaments can only tighten themselves so far. Still. I am pleased to be more in control of my diet.

/ I continue to try to be as supportive as I know how to Himself as he works (and he is working!) to manage his depression. I think we're comfortable calling it that. He's trying the meds in the order they are recommended to him and reporting on their effects or lack thereof, and he took a week off work in the middle of June, which was freaking huge - we went on vacation in October 2015 and that's the last break he had until the couple of weeks surrounding the prince's birth and homecoming, which as you all know is not a restful time - and he said it helped a bit in getting some looming neglected things off his back. I pointed out that we both know we can solo-parent for at least a few days at a time, because we've both done it, so what if he took a long weekend really away, where nobody was going to cry out for him in the middle of the night or insist on being picked up while he was trying to make breakfast or need his nose wiped or his diaper changed or etc. In fact what if he did that, say, quarterly? If that kind of brain maintenance schedule would help him sleep better more of the time, I'd sign up for it whether or not it also, downstream, made him feel like having another kid could be a good idea. Bottom line, we're both trying so hard to get each other what we need and want. Both our therapists comment on how well we communicate and treat each other, so there's that.

/ We got kiddo a pair of stepstools for the bathroom sinks, mainly because he's getting pretty heavy for me to hold while brushing his teeth. (He's about 25 pounds, which is not heavy at all, but leaning over the sink so a lot of that weight is on one of my wrists was getting precarious.) He is in love with climbing stairs, so getting him up onto the things was no problem at all, and at n=2 (washing hands when we got home yesterday, brushing teeth at bedtime last night) he is 100% not in favor of getting back down again. Poor kid. Of course he wants to explore, and when we introduce a new thing it's even odds whether he'll take to it or not - but once he does, it's his favorite thing in the world for at least a while, and I can totally see where he doesn't understand why we'd give him a new thing and then take it away again almost immediately.

- We're going to have to redo our hall bath. :-( The hope was that repairing the faucets and relining the tub would buy us several years before we had to really redo that room, but the plumber thinks the faucets are almost certainly not repairable (they're likely so damaged that they'll need to be destroyed to take them apart, and even if he can get them apart without ruining them, there's a decent chance they won't hold when he puts them back together again) and not replaceable (it's an old three-stem fixture that nobody makes now for baths and showers because you need a thermal limiter), and that means a Sawzall and some retiling of at a minimum the wall with the taps in it. And in any case you can hear and in many places feel the hollowness behind the tile on that wall and the adjacent wall, so the odds are overwhelming that all the tile has to go. It'll all be in concrete and need jackhammering to get it out. We are not looking forward to another period of living in a war zone, nor to spending this kind of money at this time. :-(