Friday Photos (a little early): The Boring Life of a Housewife

[Dear readers: please tell me what I want for Christmas. From my sweet husband. Sparkly things? A new teapot? Help.]


We went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. I bring back photographic evidence of how spoiled the dog is:

Spoiled rotten, but very, very happy.

Upon returning to Cold Utopia, we resolved that, because my ever-expanding waistline, here at 24w:

makes it increasingly difficult to put on my beautiful, waterproof, insulated Red Wings,

I have replaced them:

with this gorgeous pair of boots.

Likewise, pursuant to the fact that it will continue to look like this:

out my window until May or further notice, whichever comes first,

I have felted and recycled a sweater into this stylish yet warm hat:


and invested in yet another kind of foot gear.

My shoes may not be as sparkly as Dr. Isis's Naughty Monkeys, but Naughty Monkeys don't come in wide sizes.

On a totally unrelated note, as I am shortly to be employed, I have been furiously sewing baby gear:

such as this very frou-frou changing pad. (Vinyl laminates if you iron it on a very hot setting!).

On an equally unrelated note, these horrible nasty buggy things:

are infesting my citrus tree and I must kill them all dead. What on earth ARE THEY??? (Updated: They are citrus mealybugs. DIE DIE DIE.)

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Now with photos.

Working on a post about jobs and work. No brain. Must go register to vote today, too. Walk and be tired all day, or be a lazy slob? Choices, choices.

(Belle: the last photo is a surprise. For you. DON'T LOOK AT IT! NO CLICKING!!!)

1) The Mustard Museum


Mustard.


Mustard pots.


Yet more mustard pots. Oh, there was so much more!

2) The Hippie Festival, Highlights


Part of the Stilt Brigade


My two favorites, captured in one photo! Front: Some dude in awesome drag. Back: The Raging Grannies. Sadly, you cannot see the one in the wheelchair holding a sign that says 'Peace Now.'


An entire truck of people with drums. Note that they are, sensibly, wearing earplugs. They were LOUD.

3) My Chubbular Tummy


I swear I used to have a waist. (15 weeks.)


Note my highly stylish trousers, the only thing I will now wear.

4) Garage Sales Are Fun


Ignore my ugly carpet. Look! Eeeny weeny adorable baby clothes! In gender-neutral colors! Though I dreamed that I was having a baby girl, who knows.


Slightly less eeeny-weeny baby clothes. I seem to have a thing for overalls. The tarp? That's for under the high chair. (Just kidding! It's for our bikes.)


Baby bag and baby carrier. It was cheap; my mom's giving me my old baby carrier for larger kiddos. Total expenditure so far on baby objects: $25.

Belle, don't look at the next one!

Sewing project: birthday present for Belle. Grocery and produce and bulk-foods bags; note the little windows! Inspired by this. I was all like, I can make that. Constructed entirely from fabric scraps, plus a half-price bit of plastic from the craft store which will make, at a guess, 256 bag windows. Most of the bags also stand up.

Now all I need is another sewing project....

And Also, A Friday Photo

The main problem about the aforementioned difficulties is, of course, that I need more data. In more ways than one.

In any event, to distract myself from my gnawing envy of pregnant friends, I make them quilts after work:


Because hand-sewing is both mindless and soothing.

Bookshelves

Since Julia tagged me- and pictures! with books! what more could I want, I present to you: our bookshelves.

Due to our utter lack of cabinets, most of them have linens, food, board games, and camping equipment on them. However, I doubt that's what Julia wanted.

The big bookshelf in the dining room:


Featuring photo albums (and my book on gardening-in-apartments):


When a chemist marries a biologist:

and this is after we sold the duplicates, too.

Reference in several languages, plus Howard McGee (thank you again Belle, we still look things up in it at at least once a week!):


The product of a college bookstore which often ended up with dead (white male) professors' libraries, left them on shelves for years, and finally moved them to the 25-cent cart, some of which books I have even read:


The product of a French Lit degree and the fact that French books are much, much cheaper in France (who knew?), plus miscellaneous books left with me over the years and a partial set of Worst-Case Scenario postcards (I used to send my little sister one every week, but ran out of funny ones; the rest are kind of depressing, like 'What To Do If Your Car Crashes):


The product of many people's erroneous assumption that because I cook, I want more cookbooks, bless their hearts. My family gave me Moosewood and the Farm Country ones; I bought both Julia Childs and the French pastry one; the Asian one was my gift to Dr. S, and the rest accumulated:


There is a heap of books next to the bed: Dr. S's Bible, a couple Robin McKinleys, a few stray Economists. I have spared you this unsightly scene.

Where the well-thumbed fiction lives: under the coffee table. (Hey, it's a shelf.) These are the books I read over and over and over and over again. I have a weakness for 'cozy' mysteries, but really don't like violent ones. LMB: my hero. (The rest of her books are to the left except those latest ones with the knife, which I don't like. Robin McKinley, LeGuin: also my heroes. I read a lot of science fiction, but usually don't love it enough to buy, so...


Most books circulate through here, the final resting place for library books on their way out the door. The people at the library know my name. The Snooty U library delivers me books to the library that is downstairs from my lab. I probably borrow several hundred books a year. And I love Laurie King's mysteries, although the non-Mary Russell ones keep me up at night.

Ta-da!

The Return of the Photo Library

It is not dead; it was merely resting. (I am giving things away at the bottom, by the way.)

A quilt for little Ms. Julianna

(It looked better in person.)

Over Colorado it looks very wrinkly.


In San Diego, on the other hand, there are beaches:


And they are pretty.


They have peculiar, six-foot-long bits of seaweed:


And long bridges.


It also boasts a multitude of flora, including cactus gardens:


Truly odd flowering trees:


And museums of 'Man'. Bah.


It is spring! (Turns out warm sunny places get there first, who knew?) The ranunculus are in bloom:


The aloes are fascinatingly patterned:


And the orchids are overjoyed.


But the TSA is, as always, pleased to inform us that it has no sense of humor:









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On another note, here are some well-meaning gifts that I do not like. If you want one- preferably for your own personal use and enjoyment, or to give to some other deserving soul- email me,and I'll check on Sunday and sort it out in the unlikely event that more than one person wants any of them. (I would like to add that I make no assertion that I will ship them quickly.)


Scarf. New. Beige. Very beige. Made of polyester. I don't do beige. Probably a little darker than it looks in the picture. The tape measure's 60 inches long, so it's a little longer than that.

My dear and well-meaning aunt gave me both of the pins below. I have carted them around for fifteen years and have not yet worn either one even once. They'd be lovely for someone's coat... LIKE MY GRANDMA. They are made by hand; ceramic with unknown glazes. Both have a locking bar pin on the back. Sorry the little one's out of focus.






Happy weekends to all. I hope it is not raining wherever you are, and that the daffodils are blooming!

Weekend Featherwittedness; Gifts

This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely and talented Flicka Mawa. She is even more charming in person than online, and was, in addition, tolerant of my feather-witted failure to have my stuff together. We met up nonetheless, for the gods of conferences were with us. :)

My nephew, as some of you know, visited recently. (Recap: right-wing Orthodox sister.) I got him another baby present:

Oink.

When Inattention Meets Absent-Mindedness

Or: 'Before Coffee'



(I supplied the absent-mindedness.)

I have: complaining about my sister; a report on the adorableness of my nephew, who was kind enough to immediately spit up on me; continued amazement at the Inner Advisor's emergence; the vague but increasingly determined hope that I shall graduate; further thoughts on mentoring, at Aurelia's request; and a great deal of risk-in-science philosophy to consider, courtesy of Kevin. In the meanwhile, I leave you all to ponder the effects of gravity. How long would it take a fan to reach terminal velocity?

Happy weekends to all, with hopes for fall weather.

And then it knocked me down and took my wallet.

I went out to get: a haircut, an orange, two limes, maraschino cherries, and brandy.

I got a haircut.


I drove by a library book sale. It grabbed me by the arm and said 'If you come along quietly, nobody will get hurt.'


I went to the liquor store. There was a 'bargain bin' by the door. What could I do?


It became obvious that I was going to accomplish utterly nothing that day. So I picked ten pounds of raspberries.


And finally, I got an orange, two limes, and brandy. No cherries; they were green.