Living Below the Line

Okay, I'm a little late with this blog post. (I'm sure you're all shocked.) Live Below the Line started today, and I will do a post about my meals later, but since I never did a shopping post, that's what you're getting now.

So with no further ado, here's what I'll be eating for the next 5 days:

Yup, that's all of it. Want some detail? Okay.

1 lb Whole Wheat Bread, $1.19

1 dozen Eggs, $0.99 (an AMAZING deal)

1 lb Frozen Corn, $0.89

1 lb dried Pinto Beans, $1.19

6 oz Tomato Paste, $0.39

10.5 oz Tomatoes & Chiles, $0.59

Here's my other AMAZING deal: 10 lbs potatoes, $1.79

And because I CAN learn from previous experience, SPICES!

From left to right, that's
2 tsp Salt, $0.01
0.5 tsp Black Pepper, $0.02
2 tsp Garlic Powder, $0.04
3 tsp Chili Powder, $0.06
2 tsp Onion Powder, $0.03
3 tsp Cumin, $0.07

It is allowed in the rules to figure the price per gram for spices and just count how many grams you need. This is the only exception to the "You must buy the whole package" rule. I converted grams to teaspoons, but I can show my math if anyone wants.

More math:
1.19 + 0.99 + 0.89 + 1.19 + 0.39 + 0.59 + 1.79 + 0.01 + 0.02 + 0.04 + 0.06 + 0.03 + 0.07 = $7.26
1.75% sales tax = 0.13
Total spent: 7.26 + 0.13 = $7.39

That means I have 11 cents left for the week. I suppose in case I need more spices or something. Not sure what else I could afford with that.

 If you'd like to sponsor me, I'm still short of my $150 fundraising goal for Concern Worldwide. You can sponsor me at my page on Live Below the Line. $1, $2, $5 ... it all adds up. Thank you!

(Deenie's not at her goal yet either. She's raising money for UNICEF.)

A Tale of Two Kitties

Cats! On the internet! Guys, I think this might turn into a worldwide trend or something.

(Okay, I think I'm funnier than I am. Still, I am talking about cats today.)




This is Tiptoe. She's my mother's cat. My mother would be willing to share her, but Tiptoe is emphatically NOT ON BOARD with that idea.












She did let me pet her in December. I'm pretty sure it was her Christmas gift to me.

This is her usual attitude towards me. That's a pretty extreme zoom. I'm sitting on the far side of the dining room. She's hiding in the hallway by our laundry room. The entire length of the kitchen is between us.





She's not doing well. The vet thinks it's either wet-form FIP (from her symptoms) or congestive heart failure (from blood enzyme levels 15 times the "normal" count). Or possibly both. At this point, the only thing weighing against the FIP diagnosis is that she's still alive. She's a tough kitty.

She originally came into our lives when she wandered up to my mom on our front porch. She was wearing a collar with a rabies tag on it, so my mom brought her in, thinking that we'd track down her people for her.

Turns out the rabies tag was 11 years old (Tiptoe was only about 3 at the time), and for a DOG. While we did originally call her Spare, in a completely vain attempt to prevent my mom from getting too attached, she stuck around. We decided that Spare was a bit unkind, so she was rechristened Tiptoe. She and Lilac (our other cat) (who was here FIRST) (Lilac insists on the second parenthetical), tolerate each other. They are not friends. In fact, Lilac is usually a bit of a brat to Tiptoe. My mother is refusing to acknowledge how ill Tiptoe is, but I think the fact that Lilac hasn't pestered Tiptoe at all in over a week kind of says it all.

The second kitty from the title is Seamus. He's my sister's new cat. Well, new-to-her, as he's about 3 years old and was adopted from Hinsdale Humane Society (where we also got Licorice, my late dog, back in 1983). If you're looking for a pet in the Chicagoland area, they're pretty awesome.

Anyway, this is Seamus. He's much more friendly than either of our cats.












No, seriously. MUCH more friendly. This was the first time he met me, when we were at my sister's house to (belatedly) celebrate her birthday. Which is Seamus' birthday too! They're clearly meant to be.






SO. MUCH. More Friendly. Okay, it's not the most flattering pose for either of us, but spontaneous chin-rubs from a kitty! That hasn't happened to me in years and years. Later that evening he fell asleep in my arms. I could tell because his purring got softer and softer until it finally stopped.



I haven't had contact with an actually FRIENDLY cat in so long that I was practically giddy, and that lasted for hours after we left Seamus. Oh yeah, and my sister. Sorry sis! You're definitely ranking second to your cat at the moment.

In non-feline news, I'm still fundraising for Concern Worldwide through the Live Below the Line challenge. And I'm hanging onto 98th place on the Top 100 Leaderboard for US fundraising. That's good and bad. I mean, it's awesome to be on the leaderboard! But I've only raised $75 so far. And although that's way ahead of my fundraising at this point last year, it's still a little disheartening to think that there are only 97 people in the US who've raised more. It's better than when I was in the top 30 though. I was up there for over a week.

If you'd like to bump me up the leaderboard, you can sponsor me here. My friend Deen is also doing the challenge, and her page is here. She's way ahead of me though: she's #67!

It's That Time Again

Who remembers this photo?

That's right, it's time for me to start fundraising for Live Below the Line again. In case you've forgotten since last year, LBTL is a global challenge where participants commit to spending only $1.50 per day on food for a five day period. I'll be joining most of the US participants from April 27 to May 1.

Live Below the Line is dedicated to raising awareness of global poverty and to raising money for charities that fight it. The reasoning behind the $1.50 per day is that about 1.2 billion (that's BILLION) people in the world live in extreme poverty, and extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.50 per day or less. To make it more manageable for participants, we only have to limit our food and drink budget to $1.50. We don't have to include shelter, transportation, medical care, schooling, clothing, and everything else in that amount. Whew!

This year I am raising money for Concern Worldwide (US). This is a charity that was started in Ireland in 1968. It was born out of the same conflict in Biafur that triggered the beginning of Medicens Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders. Concern Worldwide helps over 6.5 million people in 27 of the world's poorest countries. They provide emergency aid, nutrition assistance, safe water, education, help for people with HIV/AIDS, and skills training and the like to enable people to become independent and support themselves. If you'd like more detailed information, check out their program page.

Concern Worldwide (US) also has 4 stars on Charity Navigator, with a 95.92 overall rating (out of 100). That's the highest rating I've ever seen on that site (although I don't pretend to have looked through every single charity they rate).

So who's with me? You can sponsor me HERE. My good friend Deen is also taking the challenge, and her page is here. She's already raised more money than me though. You should sponsor me first. >_>

If you really want to help, take the challenge yourself! I'd be happy to share tips from last year's experience. I'm definitely doing things differently this year.

I'm So Excited!

(Did I earworm you? I've done it to myself several times now, so I'm only half sorry.)

Rafe and Taro are back!!!

I love Rafe and Taro. They are easily in my top 10 of all fictional characters. KD Sarge has published her fifth book in the Dream'verse, and this is the third one that features Rafe and Taro as the central characters. Now that they're settled on BFR and settled in their relationship, it seems like things should be a bit easier, but a mysterious someone who's bent on revenge can complicate the most conventional relationship. And Rafe and Taro don't have one of those.

I've read and reread all four of the previous Dream'verse books, as well as KD's short stories--some available at Turtleduck Press and some through the M/M Romance group on Goodreads. (You must be a member, but that's free and so are the stories.) I've spent decades reading murder mysteries written by a wide variety of authors. You'd think, after all that, that it would be tricky to completely flabbergast me, but KD managed it. Even when I had a Very Bad Feeling™ about Taro going off on his own, I was utterly surprised by what actually happened. I love a mystery that can fool me. :D

Official Blurb:

Buy your copy from Smashwords! (It's also available on Amazon, but Smashwords does handle the .mobi format that the Kindle uses.)

Want to read a few chapters for free to be sure you like it? Click here.

Or...

Are You Feeling Lucky?

Enter to win a free e-copy! Leave a comment telling me you want to be entered. On Sunday, January 4, 2015 (my birthday), I will use a random number generator to choose one lucky commenter. The copy will come via Smashwords, so the available formats are epub, mobi, pdf, rtf, lrf, pdb, txt, and html. Let me know which you prefer.

ETA: Winner chosen! It's the lovely Renee Noelle.

New Glasses! & My Live Below the Line Wrap-Up

            stodge*

                 stäj

                     noun

BRITISHinformal

                     1. food that is heavy, filling, and high in carbohydrates.

                         "she ate her way through a plateful of stodge"

                     2. dull and uninspired material or work.

So very much of my food fit both of those definitions during my 5 days of Living Below the Line. I did end up with a great quantity of food, but it was all bland, boring, and... well, stodge. By the end of the week, it was frequently difficult for me to make myself eat another meal of tasteless food, even if I was hungry. It got to the point where I didn't even feel hungry, although I was certainly exhibiting other symptoms of hunger like slowed thought processes, extreme lethargy, and a hair-trigger temper.

I'm glad I did the challenge. I met my goal** and raised $150 for UNICEF, which isn't a huge amount, but is definitely something. I developed more empathy for people who live on any sort of limited food budget, even if it's not so limited to qualify as the "extreme poverty" that the challenge is designed to emulate. I proved to myself that I actually could complete the challenge, not just think that I could complete it if I tried.

(Thinking is pretty much what I did last year.)

I am definitely going to do the challenge again next year. I've already started working on my shopping list and meal plan. It's going to be rather different. There WILL be spices; that's not negotiable. I need to start fundraising earlier, and possibly more aggressively. Only one third of my donations came from other people. That needs to change, especially if I raise my goal amount. It's not at all likely that I'll be able to work next year either, and $100 is about the limit of what I can scrape out of my already tight budget in a couple of months. Yes, I could just start saving now and donate that money next year, but it's important to me to give to other charities as well. I donate monthly to Feeding America. I support the Yarn Harlot and her family and team when they do the Friends For Life Bike Rally in support of Toronto's branch of People With AIDS. Doctors Without Borders usually gets a chunk of my charity budget. So I'm going to stick to taking no more than two months of my charity budget to help me meet my goal next year.

Living on such a limited budget also gave me a couple of ideas about local giving. There's a group, Addison Switchboard, that helps people who live in my town. They run a food pantry, among other services. I'm going to make a point of eliminating meat for a few days every month. I'll take the money I save from buying beans and the like instead of meat and use it to buy food to donate to them. My other idea is that I will choose the food I buy to donate Very Carefully, because I do want to get the most bang for my buck, but I also don't want anyone who depends on Switchboard for all or part of their food to be stuck eating nothing but stodge. Because that's a really terrible feeling, when surrounded by all the choices that our society and the media make sure that everyone knows about. Maybe nothing but beans, rice, eggs, toast, and potatoes would be easier to take if that was all I'd ever had or known about, but knowing what's out there, being confronted with ads for other food... well, it was really hard to take.

In completely unrelated news, my eyes have finally settled down from their diabetic shenanigans, and I have new glasses! It's SO exciting to be able to see clearly again after over two months of not.

front(ish) view

side view

Just ignore the weird smirk on my face. I absolutely Could. Not. get a decent picture. These are the best of over a dozen.

* definition from Google
** If anyone would still like to donate, you have until June 15. Here's my donation page.

Seventeen Cents

I figured out what to do with that $0.17 I had leftover from my grocery shopping for Live Below the Line.

Lucky that it's on sale this week. I was afraid that tax might bump it up to $0.18, but I got lucky.

Why do I need ramen? For the seasoning packet. My rice-and-kidney-beans-with-minced-garlic dinner on Day 1 was so bland that I had trouble eating all of it. Last night I added water to make soup.

I'm sure you will be shocked to hear that it wasn't a dramatic improvement. However, I am hopeful that adding a third of the Ramen seasoning packet will add enough flavor that I won't have to force myself to finish my dinner tonight, tomorrow, and Friday.

I don't know exactly what I'm eating on Saturday, but I can tell you that it will NOT have rice, beans, whole wheat toast, eggs, potatoes, or garlic in it.

Here's my Day 3 breakfast. It's difficult to crack open 2.4 eggs per day, so I have some days with 2 eggs and some with 3. This is one of my 3 Egg days. Thank goodness for a non-stick frying pan that lives up to its name! (That's American-style Toad in the Hole, in case you can't tell.)

Update on the beans: They're simmering away on the stove. They've been going for a couple hours at this point. I am NOT going to make the same mistake twice. Hopefully they'll be ready soonish.

(Did you miss the bean story? Check out my blog at the LBtL site. While you're there, I'm still looking for sponsors. Any amount will help - it's amazing how quickly little donations can add up. Deen's page is here, although she's already met her goal. Lucky! (Go Deenie! Excellent fundraising!))

Day One

Well, I've made my breakfast. What's that? Almost 11 pm is kind of late for breakfast? Why yes. Yes it is. I meant to have breakfast around 4 pm, like usual, but I had to boil the eggs, and then I wanted them to be cool before I ate them, so I started cooking the (dried) beans for my lunches this week. And then I had to mince all the garlic. And since I'd gone that far, I might as well make my dinners for the week (more dried beans) (and then rice).

So I got a bit of a late start. Luckily it's the first day, so I wasn't hungry at all going in. I think I'm probably going to end up skipping my lunch just because I have to be in bed early tonight. At least almost all of the cooking is done though. That will be a big help going forward. (Tuesday's and Thursday's breakfasts can't be cooked ahead.)

So, here's my Day One Breakfast. Posted a scant 59 minutes before Day Two starts for most people. That bottle is actually full of tap water (hence no label) because I buy 2 bottles of water per year and reuse them to death. And tap water is allowed without having to come out of the $7.50. So.

If you're feeling inclined to sponsor me, you can do so here. Deen's link is here. Thanks for reading/commenting/silently supporting!

Living Below The Line

I've done my shopping. Okay, actually my sister did my shopping. Between my new meds and my blood sugars fluctuating a ton (although on a consistently downward trend overall), my vision is shot. I can't see well enough to drive, or even well enough to reliably find food on grocery store shelves. But my glasses are OVERcorrecting my eyes enough to make things even worse. Supposedly this will settle down in a month or so.

It had better. I can't function like this. Let's ... well, I was going to say "let's not even talk about how close to the monitor I'm leaning to be able to proofread this," but then I got curious. And a ruler. It's tricky to measure the distance to something from your eyes, but it's about 8.25 to 8.5 inches.

ANYWAY, on to the point of this post.

This is all the food I can eat for the next 5 days, while I participate in the Live Below The Line challenge. I got very lucky because eggs and potatoes were on sale, and I still ran out of money before I could get a can of tomato paste.

In case you can't see clearly, this is what I got:
$1.29 - 8 lbs russet potatoes (yep, EIGHT pounds! Great sale!)
$1.19 - 16 oz (18 slices) whole wheat bread
$0.99 - 1 dozen large eggs (another sale)
$1.44 - 1 lb kidney beans
$1.16 - 1 lb pinto beans
$0.86 - 1 lb brown rice
$0.27 - 1 bulb garlic
$0.13 - tax *sigh*
$7.33 - total

So I have $0.17 cents leftover if I decide that I need to figure out the price per gram of salt or pepper (which, along with a few other spices, are the only exception to the Buy The Whole Container rule). There's actually $0.18 in the photo, but that's an oops. I did the original addition yesterday but didn't check the amount until after I'd taken the photo. Apparently my overnight memory isn't as good as I thought.

You can still sponsor me here if you're feeling generous. Deen is also doing the challenge (for her second year). Her page is here. We're both raising money for UNICEF.

I'll be posting photos of my meals on my Twitter, if you're interested in following me there.

Feeling Virtuous

I'm feeling very virtuous tonight.

Obviously that virtuous feeling is fairly easy to come by, if grapes and weights are all it takes. But it's been a long time since I bothered to pay attention to fruit, and even longer since I've exercised.

Of course this isn't some sort of unprompted leaf-turning. I was diagnosed with diabetes last week, and all the advice I've received so far is heavy on fruits, vegetables, and exercise. So I'm trying. Not sure how long I'll be able to maintain the motivation, but there's always hope, right?


Just a reminder that I'm doing Live Below the Line later this month. You can sponsor me here if you'd like. Deen is also doing the challenge, and her page is here.

Have a Smartphone?

I don't. I have a prepaid cell, because at my current rate of pay ($0 per year, not including xmas and birthday gifts), I can't justify spending more than the ~$7.14 per month that I pay now.

HOWEVER, if YOU have a smartphone, have you heard about this app from UNICEF?

I was going to write a post this week about exactly what UNICEF does, since I can't be the only one who doesn't know precisely. In the process of gathering information for that, I found this app. It donates money to UNICEF to provide clean water to kids for every 10 minutes that you don't use your phone. Apparently Giorgio Armani Fragrances really hate it when people are on their phones in restaurants? Or the bus? Or something like that.

Anyway, it sounds like a fairly painless way to do some good. Check it out?

And if you've forgotten why I'm talking about UNICEF, or if you missed my last blog post, I'm raising money for UNICEF doing the Live Below the Line challenge this year. You can sponsor me (or just find out more about it) here. The site accepts donations through the end of May.

(Deenie's page is here. She's much closer to her fundraising goal than I am.)

Grand Plans

Earlier this year, I was thinking about my blog. My poor neglected blog. And I thought that it might be nice to try to get back to knitting more. I've missed knitting and how it soothes me. I figured that if I was knitting, I'd have things to blog about.

That was in early January. How early? Before my birthday (the 4th).

HOWEVER, I now have another reason to get back to blogging. 

This year I am doing the Live Below the Line challenge at the end of April. Check out the link for more detail, but basically I (and thousands of others) commit to spending $1.50 or less on food every day for 5 days. That's $7.50 for 5 days. This number was chosen because of the millions of people who live on less than $1.50 per day for EVERYTHING. I'm just limiting my food budget to that amount.

The Live Below the Line challenge has two purposes: it raises awareness and it raises money for global charities through sponsorship. I've chosen UNICEF as my charity, and if you're feeling generous, you can sponsor me here. I will also be blogging there from now through the end of the challenge (May 2, 2014). I'm going to try to blog about it here as well. And during the challenge itself (April 28 to May 2), I'll be posting pics of my meals to my Twitter account.

(Deenie is also doing the challenge. It's her second year. She's the one who got me into it. Her sponsorship page is here.)

Hopefully the knitting will come.

New Book! (That rates a new post.)

Hey, guess what! KD Sarge has a new book out! Captain's Boy came out April 1. (Yes, I'm late. Shhh.) As you all know, I'm really quite lazy, so here's my review from a couple of other sites. 

I was so excited to see another installment in the Dream'verse, and Captain's Boy does not disappoint!

This is the fourth book in the series, and it's fun to see all of the characters from the Pendragon's Dream towards the end of the book, but the story centers around Donte and Selene. During the course of the story, they experience so many things that are horrible reminders of the past and daunting new situations, but they learn each other's strengths and how to work together. I love having the backstory that explains glimpses of their relationship that I got from the other books in the series.

I wish it was my gift to write insightful reviews that drop hints to tantalize, but I'm afraid I would end up spoiling the story somehow. So I will simply say that I HIGHLY recommend this book.

If you've read the earlier books, you may remember that Donte and Selene show up a bit in Knight Errant and are mentioned in His Faithful Squire as well. This is one of those universes where I really want to know more about every single character, so I loved this book. And really, let's be serious: any book with Eve and one of her rescues in it is a must-read. 

*looks pointedly at the reader* 

A MUST read. Have you bought it? Have you read it? If not, you know what to do.

Check out this link to the Chronology of the Dream'verse and be sure that you haven't missed any of the free stories that have been posted over at Turtleduck Press.

His Faithful Squire

His Faithful Squire is out! This is the second book in the Dream'verse by KD Sarge. I've been ridiculously tired, sleepy, and unmotivated this month, so I'm recommending this book late (It was released on August 1), but at least I'm finally getting it done.



Here's the review I posted on Amazon and a few other places:

Rafe spent the first twenty years of his life learning how helpless he was. He's been with Taro for two years, living under the protection of Taro and Taro's formidable sister. He's learned some new skills, but he's pretty sure he's still helpless. However, when he and Taro strike out on their own, problems keep cropping up, and suddenly Taro is the one who needs to be rescued, more than once. It's only after Rafe's found solutions--however unorthodox--that he begins to realize that perhaps he was never as helpless as he'd been taught.

His Faithful Squire is a wonderful book, written from the point of view of the very chatty and personable Rafe. If you're ever been dissatisfied by a "happily ever after" ending, you'll appreciate this look at a relationship that's not exactly new, but is undergoing new stresses. And both parties need to learn how to adapt individually and to work together as a couple. If you've read Knight Errant, the first book in this series, you'll enjoy seeing memories from Rafe's perspective, but if you're new to this universe and this author, His Faithful Squire is an excellent and very welcoming starting point.

If you head over to KD's website, be sure to check out her Crestomanthy, which has links to all of her free short stories and excerpts. (While you're there, check out "The Staff" column on the right and realize that I've knitted 2/3 of them.) Do read "Romeo and Julien: a near-tragedy near Verona", which is a lovely little contemporary romance with a nod to Shakespeare (worth clicking just for the picture, but stick around to read when you're done drooling). Then head to the Turtleduck Press website to read the first three chapters of His Faithful Squire and Knight Errant for free. And then go buy them! There are links to all available purchase points at Turtleduck. (Amazon is the only one that sells the paperback. All of the links sell the ebook.)

And once you read and love the book, be sure to review it and recommend it to your friends. Maybe more promptly than I did. ;)

Color Meme

Iiiiinteresting. I'm terribly late to the party (over 2 years late), but I just did this color meme and this is my result:

You are the sort of person that needs a peaceful environment. You seek release from stress and freedom from conflicts and disagreements, of which you seem to have had more than your fair share. But you are taking pains to control the situation by proceeding cautiously and you are right in doing so as you are a very sensitive person.

You are feeling very disillusioned at this time and you feel that you are being left out of things. You know - or you think you know - what you want, but you seem unable to exert the effort to achieve your objectives. As a consequence, you are feeling left out and neglected. You would like to be afforded greater security and fewer problems.

You have a high opinion of yourself. It is perhaps because of this self-centredness that you become exasperated when you feel that your needs are misinterpreted by those around you. When this happens - and it does quite often - you feel that there is no-one that can understand the way you feel and it is because of this egocentric self that you are quick to take offence.

Setback after setback has resulted in considerable stress and now you have got to the stage where you are continuously on your guard, not only to protect yourself from others but to protect yourself from yourself. It would seem that many of your unfulfilled hopes and dreams have led to uncertainty and suspicion. You no longer wish to answer to others and you are insisting on freedom of thought. You feel that you are fully self-sufficient and can control your own destiny. You are seeking ways to protect yourself from further loss of prestige and against further setbacks. You have become very dependent and you doubt that matters could possibly get any better in the immediate future and this negative attitude is leading you to exaggerate your claims and to refuse reasonable compromise.

You wish to be left in peace... no more conflict and no more differences of opinion. In fact you just don't want to be involved in arguments of any shape or form. All you want is for 'them' to get on with it - and to leave you alone.

It fits. Really, really well. How did they manage to eavesdrop on my inner dialogue? >_>

Morton Arboretum & Some Links

*ignores the many-month-long lack of posts*

*whistles innocently*

So, I went to Morton Arboretum yesterday. My mom bought herself a membership last fall and added me to it for my birthday. I've been there 3 times in the past 3 weeks, and it's a lot of fun to see all the new blooms as they show up.

This week the crocuses are gone and the daffodils and snowdrops are blooming instead. There's another change on the East Side as well. I strongly suspect that someone at the Arboretum is an Adam Lambert fan.

Evidence:

(relevant lyric, from "Aftermath": "Tell a stranger that they're beautiful." But everyone knew that already, right? RIGHT?)

Sorry about the bushes that are in the way. It was raining, and I'd have had quite a bit of trouble walking far enough to see it from the path that has a clear view anyway. But you get the idea. I wonder if they're leaving it up all summer, or if it's just for the race today.

I ended up taking over 100 photos. If you're interested in seeing the rest of them, here's the link to my photobucket folder. (or view as a slideshow)

... ETA: I'm sorry about the blurriness of some of the pics. It was rainy and windy, so if I had to use my zoom (most of the time), the focus wasn't great. The Arboretum's a beautiful place though, and I hope you get that idea.

Other Links:
Hidden Worlds by Kit Campbell is listed as a Goodreads Giveaway at the moment. Enter until May 15 to win a copy of this young-adult novel about a writer who gets trapped in her own book! At the moment it's on the top of that page, but you know the giveaway page. Enter soon while you can still find it! >_>

Speaking of Goodreads, Knight Errant by KD Sarge has 4.57/5 stars there, and 5/5 on Amazon. Go here to read the first 3 chapters for free. Bet you'll want the rest of the book after that. The ebook is still just $0.99 on Amazon. You can read it by downloading the free reader there. The price will be going back up at some point, so buy now for maximum savings. ;)

Turtleduck Press also has a new book out this month. Erin Zarro's second poetry chapbook, Without Wings, was released on the first. Perfect timing since April is Poetry Month.

If you haven't seen these two videos featuring Stephen Colbert ... wow. You live under a bigger rock than I do. But go watch them now! Walgreens (really funny bit starts at 1:35) and Friday

Okay, I think that's it for the links. Other life stuff? Still no job. The temp one ended on April 2. That schedule got me so stressed and wound up that I wasn't even knitting, and I haven't really started again yet. I need to get back to that. Other than that, nothing new really. Oh, wait. My mom's retiring on April 21. Just 4 more shifts. o.o

Maybe I'll post more often from now on. Just don't hold your breath.

Color Meme

"If you want to do the meme, leave a comment requesting a colour and I'll give you a colour that I think represents you / makes me think of you, and then you list ten things you like in that colour!"

Stolen from Kate & Scribbles & Taya & a bunch of other people. Scribbles gave me "green". I haven't done Kate's and Taya's yet.

So, GREEN:

No, I kid. The Grinch is much too Christmas-y for me. Even in that pic.



Yes, yes, there are eleven pics there. Two of them are really the same thing. I was having trouble deciding between the two windmills, and then I needed something to balance the lower corner, so they're both in there.

Anyway, left to right, top to bottom. If you get confused, look at the pictures for heaven's sake. ;)

Windmill: I like green energy. I like lower electric bills. I like the look of wind farms.

Mountain Dew: Do I really need to explain this one? It's the elixir of life! Or at least of NaNo.

Yarn: Again, this should be self explanatory. Yarn is soft and squishy and has such amazing potential to become cool knitted things. Or crocheted, I suppose. This is the color Evergreen from The Unique Sheep.

Cat's Eyes: This is Tiptoe, my mother's cat. (The cat formerly known as Spare. My mother finally caved to the peer pressure and renamed her.) She has beautiful green eyes.

Money: I like having money. I like having enough money that I don't need to budget every penny. I really like having enough money to spoil my friends. >_>

Desktop: Kate made this for Kay, but it's so pretty that I stole a copy (with permission). It hasn't been off my desktop since.

Moss: I love the look of moss. I used to love the feel of it, too, but there was an incident with a moss-covered rock and a wolf spider. *shudders*

Forest: I love trees, especially in forests. I may be part dryad or something.

Knitting Kit: This was a "freebie" from one of the shipments of a Sock of the Month club. At first I thought it was kind of silly, but it's incredibly useful and handy to have all my little tools in one place, and to not have to worry about losing them because they're so small.

Tupperware Bowl: I'm a dork, but I really love this particular Tupperware bowl. This isn't a picture of ours, which is a slightly darker green (mom/camera problems), but it's really a wonderful bowl. Microwave-, freezer-, and dishwasher-safe, even on the lower rack. It's a great size--big, but not too huge. The perfect size for hat modeling. >_> And jambalaya storage.

The other windmill: (see above)

Links & a Contest

Just 1 week until Knight Errant (by KD Sarge, available from Turtleduck Press or from Amazon for the Kindle. Or a few other ebook places, I believe) can be bought. Want to win a copy? Go here! KD is giving away TEN copies on Library Thing. (LT account required, but free.) You'll need to scroll down to find the right give away. KD and Knight Errant are also on Good Reads, and I've even got a (very brief) review up there. I'm working on a better one. >_>

I can't wait to get my hands on an actual PHYSICAL copy of the book! That will make it so much easier to reread all my favorite scenes at night. As it is, I go to bed, want to reread something, and have to decide if I really want to reboot the computer to get to the proofreading file.

Bookmarks! And Squid!

My bookmarks are here! YAYAYAYAY! They arrived yesterday, and I'm still gleeing about it. :D Sorry about the weird background color. The colored paper I had handy was melon-colored, but it scanned pink. Hope the boys will forgive me. (Click to embiggen so you can read it! Even my mother thinks it sounds like a good book!)

Do you want a bookmark of your own? (And if you don't, WHY ON EARTH NOT? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU???) Go here! KD's still giving them away.

Now then, I believe I promised people a post about a squid hat. >_>

It's big.


Really big.

Almost as tall as I am.

It took me about 5 months to knit it, using this pattern. Except I think KD's squid is cooler, because I made him in rainbow colors. (His name is Skidoo.)

It started with this.

Well, actually it started with this. I cut the yarn into lengths and spliced it to form the rainbow ball(s).

Then there was the inner hat. I don't actually have any pictures of that, so here it is inside out. The circle is where the eye was attached, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Next, 8 arms. Although I think of them as tentacles. (Yes, there are only 7 in the picture. Hush. I obviously wasn't thinking about photographing every stage as I did it.)

Then the 2 tentacles proper. (You are ignoring the backgrounds of the messy house, right? >_> )

Skidoo is so friendly. Even before he was completed, he'd hold hands with me.

Now come the eyes.
And the other one.

Attached:

Next up, the body! It took FOREVER, but at the same time went much faster than the tentacles. I don't have any pictures of this stage completed either. But here are the fins.


And the finished hat! Yay! (No cats were eaten in the taking of this photo. Afterwards? >_> Well, I think Lilac's still around here somewhere.)

And here's a post from KD in which she talks about Skidoo a little.

SO EXCITED!!!

Anyone who follows me on Facebook or Twitter knows that one of my all-time favorite authors is releasing her first book on Dec. 1 (Knight Errant by KD Sarge, available from Turtleduck Press). Now she's giving away bookmarks! Squeeeeeeeeeee! I've wanted one since she first posted a pic on her blog, but I felt weird asking for one since they're a promotional tool and I'm already buying the book. >_> But now I can have one! Yay!

I've read the book already, as sort of a beta/proofreader. It's wonderful! You should all buy it! Seriously! Buy it, tell me you bought it, and I'll knit you something. Maybe not something as big as the squid hat, but something.

What's that? I never posted about the squid hat? You're right! But that's for next week. I don't want to distract from the bookmarks.

Edited to add: KD has now written a blog post specifically about this bookmark giveaway here.

Deadline Knitting

I like crazy deadlines. This explains a lot about me.

It also explains why I'm knitting a child-sized afghan. In 2 weeks.

You see, one of the charity knitting groups that I'm involved with (For the Children of Pine Ridge (Ravelry link)) is trying to make blankets for the children enrolled in the Head Start program at one of the kindergartens on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Many of the children do not have their own blanket at home. Starting this past April, group members began knitting and crocheting squares to be joined into afghans. The goal was to make a blanket for every child (130 total), but at this point, we're still a bit short. So I'm going to make a whole afghan by myself. In 2 weeks. Yes, crazy deadline. But it's not really like I'm doing much else at the moment.

So, here's the yarn. (That shiny thing is a quarter.)
Each skein makes three center-pull balls like this. (Same quarter.)

And here's my progress so far. (The edges look stretched and uneven, but once it's blocked and the border is added, that will be fixed.)

I started last Tuesday. It's about halfway done at this point, because there will be a border to knit once the square's completed.

(This is the From the Heart Mystery Baby Blanket. (Ravelry link) I'm adding a bigger border to make it the required 48 inches square.)

Also, obviously, the blog has a new look/theme. Orange was my favorite color when I was a little kid -- so little I pronounced it oranch, as my mother never fails to remind me. It's taken a while, but I seem to be back to liking it. So welcome to my orange blog. Sunglasses are on the table to your left. >_>