martinimade

Finally figured out the spiffy new digital camera and the downloading of pictures off of same.

Proof that Spring has finally come to this corner of New York.

Last week, the crabapples did that blooming thing,

as did the daffodils, which are ripe for mangaling by little hands.

Also discovered that we have the largest bleeding heart that I've ever seen. Yeah, we're liberals. Your point?

Also, a bunch of this flowered and I haven't any idea what it is. Kind of pretty, I guess.

After the garden romp, the Diva watched Dora and got mighty irked that my camera was in her way.

In other news: friends of ours had a wee little girl of their own last week. Congrats to them! She's a cutie. And, yes, I knitted this blankie for her. Every baby needs a blankie. More pixs are in the photo album.

Via the father o' Pip:

If you could travel forward in time and meet yourself for a drink or a coffee somewhere, what are the five things you'd ask yourself about how your life turned out?

A short list, mostly because I simply don't want to know about how most things turn out. I suspect I'd be disappointed or amazed or aghast, for the most part, and just wouldn't want the stress. Still, things I'd like to know, sort of:

1. Did the Diva ever climb a bell tower with a high-powered rifle, metaphorically? I mean, I fully believe that she won't, still, there's that tiny lingering doubt that you may do something so very, very wrong parenting-wise that your kids will be totally screwed up for the rest of their lives. This may not be something every parent feels--but msot will admit that it has crossed their minds every now and again.

2. Did I ever publish a damn book? And, if so, which one was it?

3. Did I ever get my student loans paid off? How about a mortgage?

4. Did Mooch ever stop being so very, very odd and irritating? Did I ever just snap and choke the ever-lovin' crap out of him?

5. Did I ever lose all of the baby weight or did I just resort to paying someone to nip and tuck it?

Profound, I know.

In keeping with my general profundity, Nine Naked Men (not work-safe, natch) via Making Light. Be sure to have the sound up.

"As are we all," said Eliza. "For confusion is a kind of bewitchment--a moment when what we supposed we understood loses its form and runs together and becomes one with other things that, though they might have different outward forms, shared the same inward nature." She gave the melting spoon a little shake, and the beads of wax that had been floating on its top--which had become sacs of liquid wax, held together by surface tension--burst and collapsed into the pool of molten wax below, giving off a puff of sweet fragrence, vestiges of the flowers visited long ago by the bees that had made this stuff. If was sweeter by far than the telltale fragrence of smallpox, which she hoped never to smell again, though she caught a whiff of it from time to time as she moved about the town.

--The Confusion, Neal Stephenson. (page 555, for those who want to look for themselves. Wicked, brilliant and devastating.)

For thems that care, I am now writing for Bookslut. Woot!

Two things in the May issue: an interview with Steven Brust, who I strongly suspect isn't as bad at poker as he claims, and a column about Stepheson's Quicksilver . Yes, I am now the official "SpecFic Floozy."

Send along your comments and criticisms, should any occur.

One of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Still giggling, in fact. Requires sound and work-safe, especially if your coworkers are used to you bursting into helpless laughter at inappropriate times.

via Making Light.

You're a Plot writer!


What kind of writer are you?
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I've not been flinging up scans of my favorite series of classified ads simply because my scanner seems to have suffered a small death. I blame the cats. Dawned on me this a.m., tho, that they (the classifieds, not the cats) are probably online. Sure enough, they are. Here's the latest. An excerpt: It has been said that I'm narrow-minded. Maybe so! It's hard to be objective when our countrymen were slaughtered on 911, construction workers are targeted in Afghanistan, and our soldiers are being killed by suicide bombers...

Two things--

New column at Austinmama, this one about ear infections and other inner demons.

Also, check out the last interior page of the summer '04 Interweave Knits, the one with the dark haired woman in the beige shell on the cover. Ever the trendsetter, I take on yoga and knitting for fun and profit. (Not online, otherwise I'd give you a link. There is always the option of leaning against the magazine rack long enough to read it...)

Pictures of the Diva and other spring lovelies TK.

Insular Majuscule- You are spiritual and well
rounded. People look to you for advice, but
sometimes find you difficult to understand.


What Calligraphy Hand Are You?
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From Mr. Spittle-flecked:

I was recently involved in an online discussion of Role Playing Games, and one participant began rhapsodizing about the latest Final Fantasy game for the Playstation 2. The rest of the participants in this discussion were old-school, pencil-and-paper gamers, and the sneer in response to that one guy's description of a video game as an RPG was similar to the reaction you'd get for bringing a bottle of "Night Train" to a wine tasting.

So here's what I want to know, my Sinful Little Monkeys: What are the Top 5 things you're snobbish about? What things make you curl your lip, look down your nose and say, "Really! We don't do that here!"

Things that I am all uppity about:

1) Yarn. Call me elite but if I'm going to put weeks of time an effort into some knitted project, I'm not using plastic yarn. Same goes for needles, frankly. If I can buy either at Wal-Mart, I'm not using 'em. (One caveat: if it's a Critter Knitters blankie or other object that will see hard use and lots of washing, acrylic yarns are perfect. But for everything else, make mine some natural fiber.)

2) Books. TV/movie franchise tie-in books, like the endless Star Trek series, shan't be purchased with my money. Same goes for fantasy involving talking cats. How droll.

3) Cheese. Velveeta is the tool of the devil. I'm not saying that my hard dairy of choice needs to be the finest French unpasteurized, but it does need to not be a cheese food product.

4) Tomato Sauce. When I buy the jarred stuff--I can hear my grandmother clutching her bosom in horror even as I type that--I can spend vast amounts of time reading the label. There can be no high-fructose corn syrup (also true for juice, frankly) or MSG. Only ingredients that can be readily I.D.'d in the produce section. Tomatoes. Onions. Garlic. Olive Oil. Nothing else shall grace my pasta.

5) Grammar. Sure, we all screw up. I am neither Strunk nor White. Seriously--I don't insist that the average Joe and Jane use "that" and "which" correctly or know when "fewer" is more appropriate than "less." But--come on--get the basics right at least. "Its" and "it's." "They're," "their" and "there." It's not hard--and screwing it up is a sure sign that you just don't care. And if you don't care, why should anyone else bother reading it? (Can you tell I've been reading a lot of student papers lately? Oy.)

You know where the other Fivers are.