Deviant Dispatches

Hey look! Another mish-mash of recent happenings. I'll be expanding upon a few of these later in the week. I made eggplant parmesan for the first time last night. It was much easier and more fun than I thought it would be (both good signs, as I haven't been very into cooking lately). It was a simple matter of baking the breaded eggplant and making some sauce. Spousal Unit and I found a three-tier cat tree near a dumpster. It had been rained on, but we let it dry in the sun and gave it a thorough cleaning. The cats seem to like it so far, though Oberon is still more of a ground-based kitty. Last week at work, someone used "thru." In a professional report. I headdesked so bad. Another item in my work week: someone emailed saying that if the government shuts down, she'll have to send her report on Monday instead of Tuesday. That should not be a serious sentence. I feel like "If the government shuts down" should be the start of a joke, not a qualifi...

  lolcats go fishing I dreamt last night that I had decided to run from Chicago to Madison (which is a really bad idea for me), and I encountered a car that had a fishing pole sticking out into the "running lane" on the highway. It was complete with a dead fish hanging from the end of it. I was upset, so naturally I grabbed the pole off the back of the car, intending to give it to the owners to put elsewhere. But I seem to have forgotten that I can't run as fast as cars can drive on the highway. So the car drove off, and I turned back to Chicago, pole and fish in hand. I came near Spousal Unit's parents' house, and stopped at a second-hand boutique. By this point, the fishing pole was collapsed to about one foot long, with it and the fish in a ziploc baggie. I set it down in the boutique while I tried on some clothes - the owner didn't turn me away, despite my sweatiness. Turned out that the boutique had a whole bunch of my old toys that Mom had d...

It's been an interesting week. We hung up our first Halloween decoration. I found The Most Gorgeous Tomato in the World. (On the inside, at least.) Titania decided to become a heating specialist. She's been randomly taking apart the baseboard heaters while playing with her catnip mouse. And I made beet chips for the first time. Here's a brief tutorial on how not  to make beet chips. 1. Pay attention to the timer. 2. If the timer goes off while you're on the phone with your mom, set it again instead of thinking, I'll remember to take them out when we're done talking . Moms are understanding like that. Edit: I have no idea why I dubbed this post "Week 2." There is no earthly reason that this could be considered Week 2 of anything at all. Even in football, this is the end of Week 3. I am very confused by my brain.

The Freedom to Read They say not to feed the trolls, but I can't help it. I've been baited, so I'm turning it into a chance to bring visibility to a subject about which I'm passionate: book banning. September 22-28 is National Banned Books Week , and I was pleased to see that a site I frequent recognized it. This site usually has some civil, intelligent discussions, but there are always a few who have to bring it down, as on any site. This particular troll started out innocuously enough, wondering why they were called "banned" if you could still get them elsewhere. A simple misunderstanding of the word is where it all began. But after several people pointed out the error of the troll's ways, he/she began to talk about book banning as if it wasn't a big deal. In shop/library displays, perusers run across books that were drilled into them in tenth-grade English class, so what's "banned" about it? You can still get a book, even if t...

Over the weekend, I had to do relatively little, and it was wonderful. There was Star Trek to be watched (though not enough), a museum to visit, a devastating Packers game to watch, and a few errands to do. I got to read more than I have in quite a while, and when the TV was on, I managed to quell my desire to multitask - instead, I just sat and enjoyed. Unfortunately, at the end of yesterday night, I was thrown nearly into a panic and rushed around the house tidying like a cyclone in reverse. It was a feeling that if I woke up to a messy apartment, I would turn into a puddle of emotional goo; it was the proverbial straw ready to break my back (...okay, I guess I'm the camel in this metaphor. That's fun.). A clean apartment would keep me sane, and the cleaning process would calm my meltdown from Chernobyl levels to oh-crap-this-cheese-is-moldy levels. The thing is, the apartment wasn't even that messy, and at the end of it, I hadn't crossed off anything on my to-...

Part I One of the coolest things about Bloodbuzz Ohio was in the theatrics. Behind the band, a screen depicted, for the most part, live video of  the band in abstract. But for Bloodbuzz, they used a feature that looked like blood cells creeping across the screen. The band was also cast in red by overhead lights, making them individual cells on stage to match the screen. Then, white light swept across the audience in a beautiful contrast. Aside from the fact that the lights were sometimes so bright that I had to close my eyes, the theatrics were wonderful. (No thanks to the idiot or two who started smoking during the concert. Inside the Orpheum.) Lead singer Matt, about halfway through, tossed a drink cup into the crowd. Between songs, one of the twin guitarists asked him about it. "It was a plastic cup," said Matt, "with a few drops of white wine in it. That's totally punk rock." He went on, pausing between each sentence. "They don't let me have...

On Sunday night, my friends Joey and Kaelin took me to see The National  at the Orpheum in Madison, with opening act Frightened Rabbit . I was excited for the opener because Joey was excited for the opener - he and I have very similar musical tastes, and I trust his opinion because he knows what he's talking about . He described them as very similar to U2, and lead singer Scott Hutchison said at the concert that they built their band with The National as a role model. I don't remember what songs they played that night, but here's one I've enjoyed since then: Living in Colour, from their album The Winter of Mixed Drinks . The National themselves were excellent. (Oddly comforting side note: the lead singer, Matt Berninger, wore glasses for the concert.) They had excellent sound throughout, with Berninger throwing in some interesting heavy-metal screams for certain songs (for example, at the end of Squalor Victoria  - I hadn't thought about it, but their songs...

Today calls for something naturally beautiful and uncomplicated. Prairie pickles, as my grandpa calls them. Old buildings on the farm The ad my mom placed in the paper for my grandpa's 90th! (I took the original picture.) My grandpa, wearing his hat backwards before it was cool.

I finished a new project! I'm so happy for me, even if the finished product has ... issues. As with all the items I've been binding off lately, I began this set of Norwegian-style snowflake/flower leg warmers quite a while ago. I think I finished the first leg last winter. So when I started the second leg, I only had a rough memory of how the pattern went (these are self-designed, based on a pattern from The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Perry-Jones). At first, it seemed to be going quite well. I knitted loosely, because I have problems with stranded knitting being too tight. I figured that if the second leg was a little looser, all the better - the first was tight enough to be a circulatory aid. I bound off the project with brandy on the rocks and excitement in my very strange mind. Unfortunately, I learned too late that I had likely used the wrong size of needles. I'd debated at the start whether I'd used size 6 or 8 for the first leg and just couldn...

Going Slightly Mad - Queen In the last few days, I feel like I've gotten a little crazier than usual. I've been researching viruses for the last several days, trying to understand them better so that I can write about them. The problem is, science was never my strong suit. I adore it beyond all reason, but I never got better than a B in most of my science classes. Another issue is probably in my methods - skipping from Wiki to Wiki in search of authentic sources in the reference list is a little ridiculous. I need to check out some books. My 40-hour work weeks have begun. Before this I was doing 35 a week, and that was full time. But the Mighty Overlords have put their backs into our floggings, and now I spend less time sleeping and more commuting during rush hour. I hate driving in the city.  People are idiotic behind the wheel. I do still love my job - I just didn't want to spend extra time loving it. Family matters are ... complicated right now. So I've al...

Don't let the picture fool you - they're little terrors. 10 p.m. - Yarn, my evil nemesis, we meet again. I am here to attack you. Oh, sorry, was your leg on the other side of that yarn? (Attacks it again.) 12 a.m. - Midnight snack time. Where's my favorite plant?... 1 a.m. - Cuddle interlude. 1:30 a.m. - I MUST RUN FROM ROOM TO ROOM FOR NO REASON. 1:45 a.m. - The wild lioness stalks her prey, an unsuspecting fly. (Crashing noises from somewhere in the apartment.) 3 a.m. - Look! Another enemy to attack! I bet it's delicious. (Claws at unsuspecting feet.) 4 a.m. - I MUST RUN FROM ROOM TO ROOM FOR NO REASON. 4:15 a.m. - Nap. 5 a.m. - Hey, are you awake yet? No? (Attack on plants, feet, and fly all at once.) You awake now? 5:30 a.m. - Intermittent meowing to summon my lord from the underworld isn't working. Perhaps if I sit on this sleeping head while doing it... 6:15 a.m. - Thank goodness  you're awake! I was on the verge of starvation. I...

Today, I have a ridiculous headache and am totally exhausted. So it's another Monday full of pictures and little to no exposition. We went to Chicagoland over the weekend for Spousal Unit's grandma's 80th birthday party. At one point, she remarked to me that all her friends are younger than her, and not just by a couple of years - many of them are 60 or even younger. But if not for knowing Gram's age, I never would have guessed that they were younger than her - she has all the energy and spunk of a woman half her age.

There are some gorgeous things out in the world that you need to see. I follow The Creative Crochet Collective on Facebook . They are constantly posting the most creative, beautiful projects, and this morning is no different. Check out this shawl by millicurie on Ravelry. It's called Venus Transit . Perfect. A friend shared this beautiful book art with me. Elaborate paintings were discovered on the edges of 19th century book pages, visible only when the pages are fanned out. More book paintings This gorgeous vegetable medley was in the CSA box yesterday. This is how it looked after  I removed the spinach, and basil, and herbs. A rainbow of delicious. Here are the tomatoes we received. I had trouble fitting them all into the fruit bowl. Sauce is upon us. (Not literally. That would be gross.)

Spousal Unit and I went to the Aztalan Museum and part of the state park over the weekend. It was extremely whitewashed and focused more on the white settlers than the Native American population , but that doesn't mean there weren't still cool things there. Click to read the cool slipper poem by Edna Wilson! So many thimbles. Even a clown one. Why would anyone make a clown thimble? Arrowheads found near Aztalan Leatherwork on an old book cover A.k.a. gauges Handmade lace! I was excited to see lots of this. A former home, lived in by about seven people. There are no additional rooms. You're welcome for not zooming in on the creepy doll in the crib.