Deviant Dispatches

I've decided that my favorite thing about growing plants is getting something out of them in the end. This means no more silly houseplants that are just green will enter my domicile. Sure, plants of all types are great, but it seems I can't be bothered to care for them if they're not going to care for me. My second favorite thing about plants is seeing them grow so quickly. This is my amaryllis bulb. A week ago, it was an inch tall. Now, it's three. My big basil plant, purchased several weeks ago, is moving along at a fast clip. (Don't worry - I plucked the flowers off right after this picture.) My paste tomatoes are growing quickly, too - though to be fair, that tomato had a head start when I got it from my CSA . And the newest addition - another basil, this one from the CSA - is tiny, but going places. I can tell. Some people might be disappointed to get a second basil plant. I think that's silly. We eat pesto and caprese like mad in

When I was in second grade, I single handedly made my classmates develop a lifelong abhorrence of this song. They weren't too fond of me, either. Three times a week, the music teacher would come to our classroom with a cart full of large music books and instruments. Sometimes we would sing; sometimes we would play instruments. And sometimes, we would get to pick a song from the big music books to listen to. Whenever I was called on, I chose this song. I think part of why my classmates hated it was because it was boring to them, having no words at all. (My repetitive requests were probably also to blame.) My fondness for it was partially in the fact that it was by a Norwegian composer - even at that age, I recognized how awesome it was to be Norwegian. The other part was likely the awesome story behind the piece. (Though I didn't know that Grieg himself thought the piece "reeked of cowpats." Interesting.) I think even then, I loved the dark intensity of t

Source Due to a late Blackhawks game, not falling asleep till midnight, and a thunderstorm that decided I was being too sleepy, you get this picture of Thor Kitty instead of a blog today. I shall return later in the week with more hijinkery and shenanigans. Because that's what I do.

Last weekend, my sister Rachel married her loving partner of ten years, Max. It was wonderful to see the two of them so happy. The dress her mom made (by hand, composed of two different patterns!) was gorgeous and perfect for her. It was also wonderful to take some great pictures, like this one of Max breaking the glass at the end of their ceremony. Mazeltov! The decorations were exquisite. I got some priceless shots of her screaming at how much it tickled when Max removed the garter. Spousal Unit got his dance on pretty hard. And Rachel danced with her daddy. The weather was amazing all day. Everyone was sure it was going to get rained out - the radar was red for pretty much all of Wisconsin for Saturday. Instead of rainy, it was slightly overcast and cool during the ceremony, while we were outside. A dozen drops fell right after, and then the sun came out while the party took pictures. It was the perfect turn of events, leading to this won

In this little bag that I made (with size 2 needles) are two garters that I also made (with a size 7 crochet hook): one for wearing and one for tossing. The bag is a mohair blend, and the garters are bamboo and alpaca. I had a blast making this little bag, especially the picot and bead edging. This weekend, my sister Rachel is getting married, and I'm so glad I was able to make something gorgeous for her. I'll share pictures of the garter with y'all, but only after her soon-to-be husband, Max, has seen them. I think that's a fair trade.

I painted a watercolor in a one-day art class, back when I was in New Mexico. It turned out really nice, and I was proud of it. But a painting of an adobe church isn't really the kind of thing I would hang on my wall. So it stayed in a pile of papers for years. One day, it occurred to me that the person who would appreciate this most was Spousal Unit's mom. She adores all things southwestern. So I found a matte and a frame. I think it turned out pretty well.

MADISON, Wisc.--In true hippie spirit, the black pot and the brown pot have been blowing in the wind on a second story porch for several weeks now, content to roam wherever the wind takes them. At one point, in a show of individualistic thinking highly frowned upon by the brown pot, which has been wedged in a corner for two days, it almost appeared that the black pot would ignore the call of the wild and stay put. But in a last second gesture of bravery, it rolled across the patio once again, revisiting the same knot and splinters it rolled over five seconds ago. Pot owner Allison says she's considered picking them up and stacking them between other pots on the patio, which are full of dirt and serving a greater purpose in life. "I hate to take away their freedom, though. Look at those guys. They're free to do whatever they want. Who am I to put them in their place?" Her sentiment is representative of that throughout the Madison area, where many tree-hugging

Happy belated Avatar Day! We celebrated Avatar Day on Father's Day this year (instead of the day before), so we decided to include Spousal Unit's father in on the fun by writing "Happy Avatar Day , Father Lord " on the cake. He didn't get it, but that's okay. A slice of virtual ice cream cake to anyone who does get it.

*Warning: Triggers and politics ahead.* Dear Governor Walker, I was very disappointed to hear about the new legislation requiring women seeking abortions to 1) get an ultrasound first and 2) be forced to look at the ultrasound images. I understand that, from your perspective, this is being done to provide women with "more information" on which to base their life-altering decisions. I'd like to tell you why I think that is, to put it lightly, a misguided perception. Imagine being a pro-life woman who desperately wants a child, who has to have an abortion for medical reasons - if she doesn't, she, the child, or both of them will die. Being forced to look at that ultrasound would be a torturous reminder of what you can't have. Without that torture, would her decision be uninformed? Perhaps you are a woman who never would have considered abortion before being raped. A month or two have passed, and you are still traumatized by the event, having frequent night

Last week, my baby sister graduated. I got to see my niece again for the first time in ages - and she didn't start crying when I tried to take a picture with her! There was a strange murder mystery, and we're still not sure if the purple dinosaur (not Barney) was the intended victim or the murderer. But it doesn't really matter, because we're all mad here.

Jim Benton When I was little, I played a game in the car that, had my mother known about it, would have gotten me in possibly the biggest trouble ever. Mom would be in the front seat, driving to the grocery store, the mall, wherever. I'd be hanging out in the backseat, like you do when you're that young. Keep in mind, my imagination is nuts now; it was even more nuts back then. When I played this game, I was dead serious about it. As I entered the realm of make-believe, I left reality behind entirely; the game became my one and only reality. I would lean over to the window, my hands flat against the glass (Mom was always wondering what required me doing that, I'm sure). My mouth would follow suit - or at least be very close to the glass, right between my hands - and I would mouth two words at passing vehicles, in the hopes that they would see. Help me. That's right, I used to make-believe that I had been kidnapped and was sitting in the backseat of this t

My novel is complete. I have completely finished the most recent draft, meaning I have a book that can be read from beginning to end. It's still not pretty and still needs a lot of work, but this step is complete. For about two months, I worked on it nearly every day, writing about 400 words (a little more than one page) during my lunch hour at work. This is goal 7 of my 25 things . This has resulted in a total of 331 pages and 91,848 words. I'm very impressed with me. The next step is to reread the whole thing, then start draft 4. There are one or two sections that need to be added, several scenes to rewrite, and continuity to check for. I also want to revamp some characters. So much work to be done, but after about 30 pages, I can already see what the main problems are, so that's kind of nice. The main thing I'm worried about is my writing overall. I've improved so much while finishing the ending, and I'm afraid that by writing so much less righ

Today, we're heading out to see my little sister graduate. I will likely be so smothered by family that you won't hear from me again. This week, anyway. I don't think  they'd go so far as to kill me. Wasn't expecting this post to go there. It's always the short ones...

This picture is completely unrelated to the post. I just wanted to share it. Sometime in high school, while I was evaluating myself, I realized I didn't have much in the way of favorites. I decided I had to change that. It wasn't that I didn't have passion and goals; it was that when asked, "What's your favorite meal? What's your favorite hangout place? What's your favorite season? What's your favorite book?" I didn't have an answer. I knew what I liked, but all of my likes blended together. No one seemed to stick out as an obvious choice above the others. That seemed like it was wrong to me, so I pondered many different aspects of my life, hoping to reach a point at which I could say with confidence, "Spinach wrap-up lasagna. The coffee shop downtown. Autumn." I learned many things about myself and found many answers. Of course, in some areas, I still couldn't identify any one favorite thing. I still can't tell y

Spousal Unit and I stopped at an antiques place this weekend. It was so full of stuff that I couldn't find its name on the building, and it's not on the Googles. But it's on highway 11/14 about 10 minutes east of Janesville - it might be the General Antique Store in Emerald Grove. We found some awesome treasures there. The first date I could find in this German bible was 1714, which I knew couldn't possibly be correct, or it would be falling apart in my hands. The shop owner said it was late 1800s. Still very impressive - it had a wooden cover. I'd have bought it in a heartbeat if I had any cash. This is also the home to Ed Gein's second headstone . The room full of old books was pretty neat, and among them was a copy of Wisconsin Alumnus from 1957: "The University of Wisconsin in an Atomic Age." It was a good way to spend some time on a Sunday afternoon.