wow, really?

So right after that last post my betrothed got a job offer with a company that was about 45 minutes north, as the crow flies. However, this being southern California, and LA being between us and the company, that meant the commute would have been about an hour and a half to two hours. One way. So upon accepting the job (and turning in his two weeks notice an hour later,) we had to start packing, and quick.

I'm still digging out of the boxes, although there is light at the end of the tunnel! Hopefully we'll be out of moving-mode in the next few days, and hopefully by then I will have found my camera cable... and the rest of our clothes!

At any rate, I can totally recommend the new game they're working on- it went onto open Beta testing on Tuesday, so go and check it out! I will sit here and shamelessly plug it from here! :)

Brain Dump

I'm feeling really rather positive about things this morning. I'm still trying to shake off the dregs of this cold-turned-con-plague that I mutated at Anime Expo, but otherwise I'm feeling prety dang good! I also feel like I got more accomplished this morning before I left the apartment for work than I have for the past week, all put together! Things are looking pretty darned good for the future, too, with one, single exception: Ugly Shoe Blight.

I'm trying to find a decent pair of pumps, you see, that I can wear under my wedding dress without wanting to gnaw off my own feet by the end of the day. The real sticking point, however, is that I want them to be shoes I can wear more than just the once- so perfectly appropriate work shoes. Unfortunately nobody seems to be selling shoes this summer that aren't really truly ugly. I just plain don't understand it at all. Really, is anybody buying these awful things? Ah well.

In other news, I finished the market bag project I started knitting when I heard about my aunt passing away. I had been working on the baby sweater for my friend's soon-to-be new baby, but somehow the idea of knitting grief into a baby sweater felt wrong on any number of levels, so I needed something else to get me through that raw freshness of it all. So I started this, and this past weekend I finished it! I have to say that I really loved this pattern. It took me a little while to get my head around the instructions once or twice, but it wasn't actually hard. I was pretty distracted, to be totally fair. And the cotton yarn they sent in the kit is actually really fun to work with, so it was a win all around, and I've already started a second bag! I'll post a pic as soon as I remember to get the bag out of my trunk where all my grocery bags live. :P

Also I've been thinking a lot about getting unstuck and out of my Rut. I've been hitting up the Happiness Blog a lot, and actually got going with the Toolbox a bit. I have a few quibbles with the actual website layout (I think it’s a little busy, and my iPhone REALLY doesn't like to load it at all, though to be fair, that's not entirely the site designer's fault.) but the tools themselves are pretty neat. AND they are why I felt so accomplished this morning! I knocked out three out of my four resolutions, which makes me feel rather like I'm keeping my promises, even though they're just promises to myself. I am trying to really zone in on two habits that I really really want to improve- my Japanese and keeping my space tidy- and trying to make them more of a regular part of my day. I'm getting better about some of it, and that feeling of improvement really does make a huge difference in my general happiness level.

So there's today's Random Brain Dump for your reading pleasure!

[edit: I found some shoes, finally! They should arrive Tuesday and if they fit I'll post some photos. Yay!!]

Wow, has it really been over a month? Well it's been busy. Wedding invitations needed planning out and cakes needed to be discussed and bills needed paying and anime conventions needed bracing for. I can't believe how soon SDCC is! I can't wait to see everyone- if I can find them!

Also, baby sweaters needed to be knit!! My friend at work is expecting his second any old time now, and being a knitter, naturally the first thing I did was to rush out to pick the perfect shade of yarn. Once you really think about Elizabeth Zimmerman's directions for a bit, it really does make a lot of sense, pithy or not. Here's my version of her February Baby Sweater:

I hope it tastes just great! (hey, I know perfectly well how babies assess things.) The only change I made was that instead of buttons I picked up stitches along the neck and did i-cord across to make the ties. (also, I really can't figure out why this photo won't stay re-oriented correctly. I'm really sorry it's on it's side, I will try to fix it later.) Anyway, it's a really fun thing to knit, I rather enjoyed it!

Let's see… what else have I been up to? I finally repotted the Japanese maple, I think it's rather happier now that it has some root space. The tomato plants have not only flowers, but some wee tomatoes on them! The snails have, unfortunately been at the peppers, but I'm hoping they're making a comeback. The peppers, I mean, not the snails.

Well, I can't think of anything else necessary to bringing y'all up to date with me. I will try to be better at this whole keeping-up-with-my-writing thing, which is of course half the point of this here blog!

grotto

So I've been on a bit of a garden kick lately. Not a surprise, really, since I've needed some just plain fun, happy things in m y life recently, and I enjoy gardens, and gardening, and so does most of my family, so there ya go. I have gotten some new plants (all in pots, of course, what with me living in an apartment and all) and I got a little fountain kit, and I've cleaned and arranged, and puttered, and, well...

I want to get a small cabinet of some sort to put all the unsightly garden implements into that can double as a table-and-or-plant stand so that the apartment people don't get on my case about having storage out there which is a big no-no. I understand the idea behind the rule, they don't want ugly plastic storage bins out on everyone's deck, but you know. Spirit of the law, not letter, right? If I can find something nice looking, maybe wicker or bamboo...




Also, I think I've mentioned that we have been adopted by a cat? my sweetie named her Margaret. I think she likes this chair because it's closer to the bird feeder.

ish

Today I put together a bamboo zen water garden fountain thingie. It's oddly comforting. I was aided in this enterprise by the neighborhood cat that has adopted us. My S.O. has decided that the cat's name is Margaret, so there ya go. Margaret and I put this fountain together and fussed a little and arranged it with some ferns and my geranium and suchlike, and it makes a nice birdbathy addition to our cement slab. I mean porch. I mean deck. Oh I don't know whatever the heck that thing is. It's a 4'x8' slab of concrete that has no railings or anything to seperate us from the landscaping, and gets not nearly enough sun.

It does get enough for our tomatoes to be going a little crazy. I shall have to get cages or stakes or something soon.

I will get photos soon, but it got too dark to take any good ones today. I promise I will start taking pictures soon!

crazy

There are a dozen birds fighting for position on my porch. There's only four perches on the bird feeder, but I think they must be taking turns. It's kinda hard to tell. They're house finches, I think, and the colored birds range from red to the same yellow-orange you find in a Crayola box. One of them looks like it flew into a bowl of orange sherbet and it stained. They make a huge old mess of seed shells and detritus underneath, but I enjoy watching them so I don't mind cleaning up after.

We just bought a hummingbird feeder, too, so that should be fun!

I'm finding that sometimes it's really just the little things that make life right. Crazy old birds. :)

smart!

The trouble with having someone you love pass away is that (after the shock wears off a bit) you start getting morbidly philosophical. I try to take a walk every day, just a bit of a break from the computer at work you know, and today I started thinking about my aunt, and how much I'm going to miss her, and how she was just so good and fun and smart, and what's the point of it all if you're just going to die anyway? I mean really?

So maybe I trend a bit pessimistic...

I'm not entirely over the morbid philosophicalness (is that even a word?) but since I'm not really a depressed sort of person, and since I really have been trying to focus on the positive lately, I have taken action instead. While I was in Oregon I got to see all sorts of wonderful, clever, fun, smart things that my aunt did. I plan to follow right in her footsteps! I bought a staple gun (Went in for a basic old T-50, came out with a Power Shot. It's an extra $4 and I've always found them easier, even if they ARE 'backwards.')

In a couple of weeks i am going to go back for a couple sheets of lauan and maybe some wallpaper. I have Plans. Great Plans! My poor sweetheart, he's in for such a mess and he doesn't even know it yet! But it'll make the apartment so much cozier! And more fun! And it's all because I've been inspired by my clever aunt. I'll post photos of my projects as they're completed... and I figure out how to post photos.

PS Yes I know that my grammar is somewhat creative. It's because I'm posting late at night and frankly, writing very stream of consciousness-y.