i got a present!!

heeheehee.........
let's see, since we last talked.........we have since cleaned part of the living room, cleaned out the sewing room, and rearranged the house.....his desk is now in teh sewing room (which has been turned backwards from where it was), and the corner that used to have his desk now has my armoire (7ft tall, monstrous, grandpa-built) has switched living room corners......and the best happens tommorrow............
tomorrow morn, we are getting satellite installed..............so instead of dealing with the dreaded dial-up, we will have satellite internet.........maybe i can finally start listening to some of the podcasts i keep hearing about........and download some of the how-to videos i recently found...........i never could......the thought of dealign with dialup wasn't worth thinking about.............
so all those of you who try to call, and the line is always busy, should be thankful!!

also, about the present i mentioned up top.........drogo gave me part of my b-day present early (mostly because he wanted to play with his that coordinates) and handed me an mp3 player......holds a gig.............so i'll be able to listen to what i want to in the shop, and it'll hook up to a set of old confuser speakers i have, so i can set it up to play out of the speakers ..............
the amusing thing about all this is that he wanted to play wiht his, didn't wanna wait, and his doesn't work...........heeheehee..............and isn't it ironic??

anyways..........gotta go............got some more cleaning and straightening to do before we go get the monkey.................
and then i gotta get the drogo to take some pics for me to post here........current projects and stuff............
laters!!!

FINALLY!!!! someone gets a clue........

alright, so here's the warning.............this post could prolly be considered opinion, or even inflammatory................and possible even rant-ish...............
you've been warned.................
this is a test of the emergency rant system. remember, this is only a test.

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finally, someone is getting a clue, and it only took a 10-year-long study to do it.........

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22809222/
"For women, bisexuality may not be just a phase"

please, check out the article..............i think i've finally been vindicated...........now, there is finally something to point to when people look at me and say 'but you can't be bi, you're with a man!!'...............stupid people........both straight and gay have told me this..............don't people understand that just becuase you are with one person, doesn't mean that you are not attracted to someone else, even if you don't act on it????? how many people lust over movie stars or singers, and consider it alright because they will never act on it (because the object of their lust is unnattainable).................and don't see this as the same sort of thing..................

now, this rant isn't stating whether or not i act on anything.........that is a private matter between myself and my significant other................those who know, know, and those who don't, dont' usually need to know...............and if they need to know, i'll tell them!!

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this has been a test of the emergency rant system. remember, in the event of a real rant, screaming would have ensued from out of your computer screen, usually followed by an oonagh intent on snapping necks..................thank you for your cooperation.

knitting scouts

i was putzing around knitting websites (not sure now what i was really looking up!)..............cuz ya see, one of my favorite "i'm bored!!" pastimes is to drop a random search term into google and see what pops back out at me...........when i was in college it was things like 'gothic' or 'fairy', but now it tends to be more involved things like 'medeival india womens clothing rajasthan' or something equally involved...........
but i digress.
as i was saying, i was putzing around knitting websites, when i found the knitting scouts. now, this is a part of the "cast on" knitting podcast, and i can't listen to podcasts, we have dial-up for now............but i thought this was rather amusing, and wanted to share.............because we all tend to have some of these moments!!
http://www.cast-on.com/?page_id=123
i particularly like the "knitting whilst under the influence" badge.............

i'll prolly be using these at some point in time, yes i know this is not specifically a knitting blog, but it is about what i'm doing right now, and what i'm doing right now tends to be knitting (along with other things that readers don't really need to know about, unless you are interested in just how many books a day i go through!!)...................
and on that note, here's the ravelry update..................

You signed up on January 20, 2008
You are #91164 on the list.
5805 people are ahead of you in line.
1747 people are behind you in line.
92% of the list has been invited so far

no i'm not obsessing, i'm just impatient!!!!! wanna have fun!!!!!

BROKEN!!!!!

alright, i finally broke...........i finally did it..................and here's the stats::

You signed up on Today
You are #91164 on the list.
7033 people are ahead of you in line.
6 people are behind you in line.
91% of the list has been invited so far

yes, this means i'm waiting for my ravelry invite...............

and i just signed up on the knitty.com coffeeshop forums...............we'll see how that goes too..........

i'm hoping to use all this new stuff to look at as motivation to keep knitting.............i tend to get halfway through a project (of whatever genre!) and then move to something else............the trick is to continue doing whatever it is i'm doing WHILE moving on to that something else.............and then combining and timesharing and whatever needs done to get everything done...........
so..............we'll see!!

health

so yeah, the word of the week is conjuctivitis..............much more commonly known as pinkeye......

the monkey has it..............and when the eyedrops say every four hours for the first two days, we take it seriously................meaning i stayed up and dropped her at midnight, and set an alarm and got up at four am, and then did it again at 8am................and then noon, 4pm, 8pm...............and again midnight and 4am and 8am......................
and then, thank all the gods, we can drop down to four times a day for 5 days..............
i really hate interuppted sleep, but being that this is stupid kinds of infectious, will spread with barely a thought, and my lord and i don't have health insurance................we are kicking this thing as hard as possible............so it stays kicked.

on that note, i have recently found a really cool website.............

http://kidshealth.org/index.html

yeah, it's called kids health, but it has a section for parents, kids themselves, and teens..............and it covers all sorts of things, from physical things, wounds, mental health stuff, and other things like deaths in the family and bullying...............
and has decent info that is easy to assimilate, even if there is no kid involved...........it uses smaller words to explain difficult concepts.............which, even as a grownup, can make health a lot easier to understand!!

knitting

so currently, knitting is the passion........now granted, my passions tend to be circular, and go around in loops, but then again, so do most fibers.......heeheehee.......................
so here's the list of stuff i've found...........

starting wtih my favorite yarn company............ www.knitpicks.com ................amazing prices, decent colors, free shipping over $50..............pages of how-tos..................a really great all around site...............

my mother, oma, just gave our little monkey yarn and needles for x-mas, and started teaching her how to knit........and my grandmother gave her a little kit, from peace fleece (they don't have a website, try googling them to find their kits)....................so here's some interesting stuff on knitting with kids...........

for a list of multiple links, all about knitting with kids, http://anacleta.homestead.com/knittingwithchildren.html ..........how to knit with kids, articles on how knitting has helped kids, kits designed for kid's hands............

if you (or a kid) is just starting, try with knitting without needles, finger knitting..........only four stitches across, rather loose, but makes nifty cords, thin scarves, or belts............... http://www.maggiesrags.com/tips_fingerknit.htm has the best how to on fingerknitting, for pictures (but the commentary isn't as good) try http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/FEATfingerknitting.html
(both of these links is on the above knitting with children links page)

for a comprehensive page of knitting links, with everything from how to pages to patterns, tools, blogs, catalog sites, try http://home.earthlink.net/~teechkidz/id46.html .......some of the links are out of date, most are alright..........

for conversions and calculations.......... http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/tools/index.html ..................increases, decreases, yardages, convert yards to ounces............haven't tried them out, but worth it to keep in favorites...........

and for the green of us.............something to do with all those plastic walmart bags that seem to always act like bunnies.............. http://oma57.tripod.com/cleobag.html ...........i'm thinking of making up a few, and using them at camping events for shower bags..........or shopping bags..........or food bags..........or anything bags!! not sure how strong they are, i'll post after i make one..............

in the tools category, try here.......... http://www.craftydiversions.com/patterns/homemade_yarn_swift.htm ................simple, pretty..............and for a slightly weirder version of the same, http://www.folkcatart.com/blogs/jen/?p=742 (i've also seen one motorized out of k'nex!!)........
my grandfather (carpenter, contractor, furniture maker) made me a swift for x-mas.......not sure of the wood, but it's gorgeuos..............i'll try and post pics eventually.............

for a online magazine, try www.knitty.com ...............they have articles, patterns, etc.............with a flair for the unusual and interesting..............

and that's all just what didn't get lost on the other confuser when it died.........

my current project is a set of wristies.........like mittens, without the finger pocket and the thumb (just a hole for the thumb)............i'm using knitpicks yarn, wool of the andes coal, cardinal twist, and carbon twist. the next project i'm going to be working on (still hafta get the yarn!!) is a knit, felted basket for use at events (every wicker one i use i kill)...........gonna be large enough post-felting for a hardcover book (ish).....................prolly again in knitpicks wool of the andes coal, mist, carbon twist, firecracker heather, amethyst heather, and sapphire heather............i think that's it...........i eventually wanna pick up a set of their harmony wood needles, they are gorgeous.................but i'll prolly spend my x-mas money that was supposed to go to those and get yarn instead..........

i'll attempt to post pics, when i get stuff done............remember, i did say attempt.........

silly gypsies!

(small note for starters........when i refer to period, it's to the time that is covered by the SCA (society for creative anachronisms), from around 650-1650 ish..............so that being said........)

so yeah, back in a research phase.................started actually doing quite a bit on gypsies, or the rom as they are known (gypsy tends to be a derogatory term, i use it becuase it is more easily understood)................and i've found some interesting info.

i might have some of this wrong, just wanted to start putting things out there..........

the first gypsy tribes were originally from india, the north-westerly section, who then moved to the extreme north.........this all happened in the early 1100's...........they would have been from rajasthan or rajput india...........were forced to migrate becuase of war..........info is unclear whether they were ousted from ancestral homes, or if they were with attacking armies and just kept moving after..........
they then moved through persia, and then through a medley of other countries, notably trebizond, the byzantine empire/constantinople, and then to the balkans around the 13th century, and then romania..........from there, in the 15th cent they moved through many more countries, by 1500 they were in the british isles, spain, norway, poland, and greece, to name a few..........

"We originated in North-Central India, migrated via the Upper-Indus Valley, Persia, the Caucuses, Armenia, Byzantium, Greece, the Kingdom of Serbia and what is now Rumania to Eastern Europe and then split off into smallish groups and made our way into all the countries of Europe." (http://www.kopachi.com/)

Language base was rajput/sanskritic, then dardic, then Persian, then Armenian, then greek, then Slavic/Serbian, then rumanian.…..
All romani dialects today contain same loan words from the above languages……..

what this (in practicality) leaves me with (as an overview) is that my garb choices are mostly in the right general area............i practice what we lovingly call MPD, or Multiple Persona Disorder.........i tend to wear viking, persian, turkish, and northern indian.............if the gypsies were originally from northern india, they would probably have worn the lengha/choli/gaghra combo (skirt, cropped top, veil) of the mughal empire.............i've been having difficulty finding info on the period garb of other empires, or the early period garb of the mughals.................i tend to wear this garb in the summer, as it is comfy, cool, and keeps the sun off.............persian is also a very comfortable style to wear, i'm still working on my summer versions, but the winter versions i have are both attractive and comfortable, and nifty enough to draw attention in the booth (yes, it's something i think about!)............about the only garb style i wear that is not in any way related to this topic is viking............way too early period for all this...........
and i didn't even know it when i started wearing all this..............i've had these outfits for several years, but have only recently started doing research and realizing i've been on the right track all along...........i just need to adjust my time periods.............

my sources for all this are all on the web currently...............

http://www.kopachi.com/ (the citation used above, site is a little sparse, but the info is easy to understand)
www.romani.org (lots of info, lots of words)
www.latchodrom.org (for people looking to put together an accurate sca persona)
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/patrin.htm (the patrin web journal)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Roma_history (yes it's wikipedia, it's not great, but it's a good starting point)
http://www.comm.unt.edu/histofperf/christiwells/chrono.htm (very simplistic, but easily assimilated)
http://scatoday.net/node/4115 (links list for sca gypsies, has some decent info linked in)

if there is anything i'm doing wrong, or may have missed, please feel free to drop a comment.........i've only recently started this research, and haven't really had time to assimilate........also, there is much more about post-period than there is about in period........

new year updates

so.........i'm really bad at keeping this all posted and updated.........so here's the update from the past month or so.........

-it was a board game kinda x-mas...........for the kids, i made board games out of fabric and glass pebble thingys...............researched rules offline...........seemed to turn out pretty well!!

-it was also a cookie kinda x-mas.............i made a batch of rum balls, batch of sugar cookies, batch of gingerbread, batch of shortbread, batch of mocha, and a double batch of peanut butter.........and also these chocolate sugar cookies shaped and baked around hershey's kisses........divvied these all up and gave them as gifts................who doesn't like getting cookies??

-it is becoming a organizational year..........we received gift cards, and promptly spent them on bookshelves. we now have a 9ft long, five shelf high wall-o-books down our hallway............and we have lists as to what comes next to get the house in shape.............at least, some shape other than tornado.........

-as an organizational year, i'm also trying to organize my personal life...........i have a daily planner, we are keeping several calendars, and i even put whiteboards on the fridge so i can keep to-do lists easily.............i hope it helps..........

-we are redoing the monkey's room..........she just hasn't gotten here yet to see what we've done to it...........we put our old wire shelves in her room, to hold her toys.............and we are planning to build her a loft bed, with built in desk, cubbies, and shelves...............this of course will prolly not happen until at least spring................but when you have an adhd monkey, keeping her stuff organized helps keep her brain organized...............so............

-not sure what shows we are doing yet........it's a slow starter year, usually we'd be starting like next weekend.............keep checking back here, i'll try and post what shows we are doing.......

i think that's all for now.........the fog is rolling in a little.............i will try and keep this updated more often now................hopefully..............

happy new year!!