First, I made my new winter hat: This was pretty time-intensive with an intricate (for me) pattern and a small gauge, but I'm thrilled with the results. The yarn has a bit of merino wool and because I knit it tight, it's already proven to be up to the task of blocking the Providence winds.
Seriously, this is the windiest place I've ever lived.
Second, I knit a scarf and several hats for homeless veterans in Rhode Island. A lady in the Rhode Island group on Ravelry gathered donations and I was happy to participate. Third, some Christmas gifts, which I'll post pictures of after they've been given.
"Infamous" does not mean super famous, or extra famous, or, as they would say in 1984, doubleplusfamous. Infamous means really, really bad. Webster's says it means, "having a reputation of the worst kind: notoriously evil."
It is derived from the word "infamy", like when FDR said December 7, 1941 was a day that would live in infamy.
I don't care what you heard about El Guapo, "infamous" does not mean something is even more than famous.
I've noticed the word being used more and more lately and I just had to say something.
Like, when someone talks about his infamous baby. Really? Your baby is infamous?
Really?
I mean maybe your baby is really terrible, but I don't think that's what you meant.
When I first started this blog in Fall 2004, it was called "A Day In An Often Overwhelming Life", which kind of summed up the period I was in during my last year of law school when I had a full course load, worked 17 hours a week at one firm, interned about 10 hours a week at another firm, worked 2 Saturday mornings per month in the temple and tried to focus on my newly-discovered social life.
I also created the blog-associated frazzled.kelly at gmail email address, which has become my main email address because it's the one Jason uses to email me (because we met through the blog). I feel kind of silly giving that email address out now, but since Jason and I email each other 47,000 times a day, it would be too much trouble to switch back and forth between gmail accounts.
So I'm thinking it might be time to embrace the overwhelming and the frazzled again. My friend Rachel and I talked a bit ago about scheduling a Christmas baking day. I just reviewed my schedule to give her the days and times I have available, and what with work and Young Womens and doing a couple of holiday-themed things with Jason, these are literally the only days and times I have free between now and when we leave for Christmas in Chicago:
Evening of Friday, December 3 Evening of Thursday, December 16 Saturday, December 18 after 11 AM Sunday, December 19 after 1 PM Evening of Monday, December 20
That's it. Anyone else feeling a little overwhelmed by your holiday schedule?
Happy birthday to my brilliant, hilarious, awesome husband who not only cleaned the basement this past weekend, but surprised me by cleaning the kitchen while I was at the Young Women's activity last night.
And he's pretty cool for reasons not related to cleaning too, that just happens to be what thrills me the most lately.
He brought his mom, dad and 2 little brothers along with him. (Liam is 3, Wes is 1 1/2 and Isaac is 1 month old. Frankly, I don't know how Molly and Garrett are doing it.)
Molly and Garrett used to live close to us, but 2 years ago they moved to Virginia and took Jason's favorite little boy with them. This week Garrett has a conference in Boston, so they came a couple days early and stayed with us.
Wes with the hamburger-shaped CD holder that he claimed as his own. Liam is amazingly precocious and forms sentences like a 4o year-old. Best line from this weekend: upon receiving praise from his mom for his big poo in the potty, Liam exclaimed, "I have to tell Jason the news!"
We had a great time visiting with our friends and playing with their little boys.
Jason with Isaac, the CEO. Poor kid already has some major male-pattern baldness. We were able to put them in the basement because on Saturday while I cleaned the rest of the house, Jason worked hard all day and reorganized the basement and the garage. I can't stop telling him how awesome he is.
The storage alcove at the bottom of the stairs: Past the storage and the laundry room, you come to a carpeted area with a bed and cabinets. When you turn off the overhead fluorescent lights and use the two lamps on the nightstands, it actually winds up being kind of cozy down there. There was enough room for a Pack and Play and for the 2 older boys to sleep on the floor. (Tiny always has to be in on the pictures)
The man who owned the house before us had a grown son who basically lived in the basement. So he installed all of these kitchen cabinets, which are great for storage, and also a mini fridge, which is great for Jason's sodas.
I'm realizing now that I should have taken some before pictures so you could fully appreciate the awesomeness of Jason. I was too mortified by the chaos and figured I would never want it documented.
Well, I'll take some before shots of the office, because we still have to tackle that. Next month.
As of Sunday, I'm the new Young Women's President in our ward. Which is a little intimidating. I felt like I was doing an ok job with the girls, but there was always someone to defer to for the tough decisions. Now I'm that person. You can bet I'm praying my little heart out.
I had my first trial by fire moment last night and found myself calling Annie (our former La Presidente) for advice after I dropped the girls off at home following our weekly activity. As a high school teacher of several years, she has insights into dealing with teenagers that I just don't have yet. She gave me some good pointers, which I have stored away for future use.
Jason likes to say (and I like to repeat) that we got 85% done with moving and we ran out of steam. I think another way of looking at that is we spent several summer weekends moving and decided that we didn't want to waste anymore sunny Saturdays finishing the move.
For the last 3 1/2 months, I've given tours of the house while apologizing for the disaster state of the basement and the office, and explaining away the odd elements here and there (Yes, we do have 3 lamps in that one corner of the family room, but only one is plugged in. Yes, that is a glass punch bowl with a porcelain sugar and creamer inside it on the little table in the living room. Why do you ask?)
But this weekend we have friends coming into town. Not just friends, but friend with 3 little boys under the age of 4! We've decided to put them in our number 2 guest room in the basement because there is a lot more room down there for air mattresses and pack-and-plays than in the number 1 guest room on the 2nd floor . However, that means we have to clean the basement, which has become our catch-all for everything we didn't want to deal with yet.
You go down the basement stairs and on your left is a little alcove, which is jam-packed full of boxes and miscellaneous stuff. Then you walk further in and on your right is this large room with a bed and lots of storage cabinets, also jam-packed with suitcases, scuba gear, wrapping paper, computer paraphernalia, camping gear, and a whole bunch of other things.
Last night, I was home alone and took the opportunity to survey the damage down there. I created a few piles of stuff that needs to be shifted from the basement to other locations, and basically determined that, A) most of the miscellaneous stuff is Jason's (shocker), and it's all on him to deal with it, and B) once Jason's stuff is dealt with, it's really just a matter of organizing the loose items into bins, and shifting some stuff from the basement to the garage and vice versa. In other words, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Jason and I are busy every night this week and I was wondering when we were going to have a chance to take care of the basement mess. But I'm feeling much better about it and think a good few hours of hard work on Saturday before our friends show up, and we'll be done.
The office is another story. But they won't be staying in the office and we can shut that door.
1) Living in a house has taught me that something can go wrong at least once a month. Since we moved in we have had a washing machine issue, a gas issue, an air conditioning issue, a water heater issue, and, as of this weekend, a furnace issue. This is in a house that has had people living in it for the last few years, and an attentive landlady who takes care of regular maintenance. Just sometimes things wear out and sometimes things go wrong.
2) Last night's conversation with some friends who bought a house is even further evidence that we are doing the right thing for now. Our friends feel stuck. They have had to deal with regular maintenance issues, as well as unforeseen problems. They told us last night that they have to spend their vacation budget on an emergency plumbing problem (and also get their yard completely dug up to get to the pipes). Also, they have wound up not being thrilled with their neighborhood, and he's not completely thrilled with his job. But they can't really move with the market the way it is, and they would probably lose their investment. The husband in the couple asked us, with a wistful tone in his voice, "You're renting, right...?" We confirmed that yes, indeed, we are. And are so, so happy we are.
The one caveat is that you have to have a good landlord/lady. We've been lucky that the owners of the last two places we've lived in have provided stellar service. I've lived in a slumlord's house before and it's no fun.
We started off the day by going to church with my grandpa, and paying a visit to my Nana. Her ashes are in the memorial gardens at the church. It's a very peaceful place.
Then the three of us (me, Jason and Papa) met up with my aunt Vicki and her husband Bill and headed up Mt. Lemmon. In the depths of Tucson summer, my mom, dad and I would drive up the mountain on a Sunday afternoon and enjoy the 30-degree drop in temperature. Later, in college, I would drive up with friends and revel in the views of the city and the scent of the woods.
We stopped at Windy Point lookout. Saw a guy climb one of the big rocks: Look at that! Hmmm..... We stopped for a picnic halfway up, then pressed for the summit (in the car, mind you. This was not a hiking adventure).
In 2003, a forest fire whipped across the top of the mountain and burned the town of Summerhaven, as well as a huge swath of the forest. I had been wondering how everything looked. Well, the trees are pretty decimated. It's actually pretty shocking because I remember when it was all forest.
The good news is, they've rebuilt a lot of the cabins up there, and some of the shops.
There's a New Agey shop with lots of beads and beaded jewelry that completely burnt to the ground. The owner salvaged a bunch of glass beads that had melted together in the heat of the fire and created new beads and attached them to little chimes. I bought one.
Back down the mountain and to Vicki and Bill's before dinner.
Presents! Vicki gave me this fantastic old movie poster for Gone With the Wind in Spanish. Also, a cameo brooch that she thinks was either my great-grandma's or my great-aunt's. Either way, it belonged to someone I love who has passed away, so I'll love wearing it.
My cousin Trevor joined us for dinner at Cup Cafe in Hotel Congress downtown. (Sadly, I realized when we got home that I didn't get any pictures with Trevor, despite my grandpa mentioning he wanted one. I am a bad granddaughter. My excuse is, it was very dark in Cup. Also, Trevor was out and about a lot, as 20 year-olds are wont to be.)
(Speaking of Trevor, he wants to be a music producer and played some of his stuff for us. It was actually pretty awesome. Anyone know how you go to LA and become a producer?)
Cup is one of my favorite places and I ate a Heartbreaker (baguette, melted brie, apple, roasted garlic = fabulous) and triple chocolate pudding for dessert.
Our first stop was Kitt Peak National Observatory, which I had never been to during all my years in Tucson. It's about 50 miles outside of town.
Saguaros on the drive to Kitt Peak: We arrive We went on the tours of the telescopes. One of the first things Jim, our tour guide, told us was that Kitt Peak is on the land of the Tohono O'odham Nation. Astronomers researched sites all over the country to build telescopes and determined Kitt Peak Mountain was one of the best. However, it was the 2nd most sacred site for the Tohono O'odham. Initially the tribe told the astronomers "no", but then the astronomers invited the leaders of the tribe to the U of A to look through the telescopes there. The leaders were intrigued by what they saw and agreed to lease the space for the observatory, with the qualification that only research would happen on the mountain. Now there are several telescopes and other associated buildings on the mountain, but no commercial businesses, which I think is great. It's very peaceful up there.
Jim took us to the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. Inside the solar telescope. The sunlight comes down at a slant about 200 feet underground, where the light bounces off one mirror, back up to another mirror and down into the observation room.
This researcher was working and took some time out to talk to us. The benefits of working on a solar telescope is you get to do your research during the day and sleep at night like a normal person.
View from the mountain next to the solar telescope Baboquivari, the most sacred mountain to the Tohono O'Odham: Also, you can see Mexico
Between the telescopes was this basketball court: Apparently astronomers aren't what you would call "sporty".
Next we went to the 2.1-meter telescope. Jim the tour guide was pretty great, but our second tour guide was a little rambly. We wound up breaking off from the group and going to the telescope ahead of the crowd. Kitt Peak has mp3 tours you can download ahead of time, which probably would have been a good way to go for this telescope.
Our last stop was the Mayall 4-meter telescope: Looking at the view from inside the telescope building: The telescope: HUGE!
Jason took this video from the site of the Mayall telescope (Ignore the last 6 seconds. Technical difficulties):
We finished up with Kitt Peak pretty early and since we were already west of town, we decided to check out the Titan Missile Museum, which we had seen advertised at the Pima Air Museum the day before. I had been there with my dad and grandpas when I was little, but that was a long time ago. The museum is the last remaining Titan missile silo in the U.S., a part of our Cold War defense.
Above the silo: Showing us the boosters before we head underground: Down in the silo, tall people have to wear hardhats Everything is on giant springs so that when the bombs hit above ground, the shock waves don't shake apart the silo underground. I am commander of the old school computers Our silo tour guide (also named Jim like the guide at Kitt Peak) explained what would have happened if the soldiers on duty were told to launch the missile, or, as I like to call it, Defcon 1 (thank you, War Games).
This is serious business Hallway to the missile: The Titan missile in the flesh: We bade farewell to Jim 2 and headed back to my aunt's house where she filled us full of chips and salsa and guacamole and veggies and hummus. Later, we went to see Dracula at the Gaslight Theatre, which was something I especially requested. It was a blast, as always, and I wish we could go back in December and see Bill, my aunt's husband, in the Christmas show. My only regret is that we got no pictures at the theatre.
This was pretty time-intensive with an intricate (for me) pattern and a small gauge, but I'm thrilled with the results.
The yarn has a bit of merino wool and because I knit it tight, it's already proven to be up to the task of blocking the Providence winds.
