Three years ago

Today I decided to take a look back at what I was doing in 2007, 2008 and 2009 on this day.

November 28, 2007
I’m wearing the Silliest Slippers

It looks as though I’ve always been busy in November. Three years ago I had just come back from a Thanksgiving trip to Anchorage, Alaska to visit my brother, one of the most interesting trips I’ve taken (that’s me on the Matanuska glacier). Jeff had just lost his grandmother, and I was just remembering my uncle who had passed the previous November. I had only been writing this blog for 5 months. I bought my hiking shoes and my camera in Alaska, the former in anticipation of what’s now a frequent pastime, the latter in response to the photography needs of this blog. Oh, and they really were the silliest slippers!

November 28, 2008
Shell Stitch Baby Blanket

The baby blanket remains one of my favorite projects when I look at all my projects in Ravelry. I just like the soft colors and the pattern. Amazing that baby is now almost two!! I still remember my friend telling me she was pregnant, right out of the blue! That November was relatively quiet – it was December that was eventful, when my brother graduated from college and we had a fun trip to visit him in Bellingham. It was then that Audrey got sick, though, which was not the best way to end the year.

November 28, 2009
Jeff’s Blue Beanie

Last year I remember visiting my mom for Thanksgiving and working on a blue beanie for Jeff for Blue Beanie Day (a nerd awareness day). I also remember overdoing the cooking on Thanksgiving at Jennifer’s house. It was a fun day! I was quite grateful that there were no tragedies last year. On the other hand, I did move into my tiny apartment last year, so it was not a November without excitement.

Writing a journal is an interesting exercise in memory. I don’t remember the blanket being that far back, for example, nor my Alaska trip being over three years ago. Some of my projects from quite a while back seem as if I just finished them a few months ago, not a few years ago!

I’ll try to remember this next year during NaBloPoMo and on a different day. Next year, hopefully, I will be busy being grateful I don’t have to move again!

P.S. I’m expecting something to go terribly awry with this post. I very laboriously composed it with WordPress for iPhone with pictures and everything. The cafe trip didn’t work out, so all I have is my phone for Internet right now. This app is TERRIBLE! It’s very crashy, very unlike the ease of other iPhone apps. The WordPress people ought to be ashamed of themselves for writing such a crap application.

Tidbits

First, from one of my favorite blogs, how true:

Second, if you like to buy things online, there’s this site I found called Retail Me Not. People can submit online coupons/discount codes. They happen to have  a selection from Joann’s and Hancock Fabrics among other craft suppliers.

Finally, 8 questions. I got this … somewhere.

1. What is your staple meal? (ie. what meal do you cook most often, when you can’t be bothered to think of anything adventurous)
Scrambled eggs, Morningstar fake sausage and toast or pancakes. Or if Jeff has his way we end up with pizza. But I can eat breakfast anytime.

2. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Ummm. I’ve always thought about being a librarian … I rather wish I wouldn’t grow up so much that I have to reach a place where I have to define myself as one thing in particular and settle down. I’d rather be many things all at once at whatever time of life works.

3. What book are you reading at the moment (if any)?
The Changeling (2nd Book of the Fey) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  It’s book 2 of a series of I don’t know how many.

4. How do you relax?
I read. I sit.  have decaf coffee at a pleasing location. I eat at lovely places. Sometimes I cook or sew. Sometimes I sleep late.

5. What colour are the interior walls of your home?
White. Normally this is not so. I had walls the color of a latte in my last home. Here? No, this is not a long-term solution, it’s not worth it.

6. What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Shopping? Er … I drink beer? Seriously, I have few vices. I suppose my guiltiest pleasure is staying up all night and reading an entire book. I did this last week and read a new book I have on the Gospel of Judas. I am terribly boring, aren’t I?

7. What time is bed time and getting up time?
Midnight or later, 7:30-ish. How I long for the days when my earliest call time was a 11 am class.

8. How long do you spend reading blogs (per day or per week)?
Um. Lots. Too much? I fit it in.

Part 1 of 4: In the sun

Three weeks. I haven’t managed to post in three weeks! The days really crept up on me like bad spandex this time, just a little more silently and stealthily. I’ve been doing my usual things, just a few more dozen of them than usual. So in exchange for my absence, I humbly offer you some beautiful butterflies and flowers today.

People think I must spend simply acres of time on the computer, due to my being a geek, and at work that’s true. But at home, outside of comics and digital manuscripts, I tend to avoid my computer. I wrestle the dog and cook and sew and since it’s summer, I’ve spent time sweating on edible plants and weedy trees outside. Also, lately, I’ve been building websites, which has taken up what little time I spend on the computer at home. Ironically, one reason I’ve neglected the blog writing is to create a new blog template. Hmm. Methinks I should remember Content Before Design.

I also just realized my third blogoversary was yesterday! I started my blog in 2007 after playing around with a bunch of short-lived and hopefully no longer extant websites and blogs. I was mostly practicing HTML and CSS. In the process I wrote various silly pages on trivia, ancient manuscripts, recipes, traveling, and other exercises in existentialism and futility. I recall writing something called the League of Extraordinary Monkeys at one point.

One day I put together a page on crafting, and it turned out I had more stuff to put on that page than any other page. So my next experiment was a crafting blog. I tried LiveJournal, Blogger and Typepad, but really they aren’t so much fun when you want to get your hands dirty. And at the time, I was all about doing the coding myself, all from scratch.  Actually, I’m still into that, and it takes forever. Anyway, I migrated to WordPress next and I’m still here.

My first few posts were random, and then I wrote about making beer. My dad and I made a batch of beer (which didn’t turn out at all) and I wrote about making it, and the ingredients, and all sorts of stuff. I took pictures. I made chemical diagrams. I did research. And it was awesome, because it was intellectually interesting, and I got to do something fun with my dad, and because of the blog I had a reason to record it in words and images. And now I have that memory preserved, like many others. I can go back and read all about the things I’d normally forget.

Anyway, I’ve uploaded pictures, an Im going to start updating about all the various things I’ve been doing since I wandered off into la-la land three weeks ago.  Like flaming dogs, and muslin, and tailoring, and more!