Two-thirds...

...of the summer is already gone. I'm tempted to say that it seems to have gone by quickly, but it really hasn't. I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just been a really nicely paced summer for me. I think the fact that it has been unseasonably cooler than usual has helped me enjoy it more than usual. And, oddly, I think my active efforts at gardening this year have made me more aware of time passing more slowly. After all, it takes time for things to grow, and when you're the one who's planted them, you take note of how long they're taking to produce the fruits of your labors!

This past week was the kids' week away at camp. I had a grand set of plans for how I would spend the week and all that I'd get done while I was home alone. Yeah. Well, things didn't really go according to plan. I did get to have fun on Monday...

 

My friend Angela and I went kayaking! (She took this picture.) It was a perfect day for it. Beautiful, sunny, in the upper 70's. I got a little sunburn, the kind that doesn't really hurt but makes you feel all healthy and glowy, even though you know you're doing bad things to your skin. It was a 7.5 mile trip and took us about 4 hours to complete. I have a bunch of my own pictures from the trip, too. I'll try to add a few here in the coming days, but until then, you can check them all out here, if you're so inclined. 

Aside from kayaking, I enjoyed a couple days of quality time with the grandson. Have I mentioned how much I love that little boy? I was worried that he'd be bored here without his aunt and uncle to keep him occupied, but he was precious and was perfectly happy to play with me instead, or to play near me on his own, as long as I was in the room. I forgot how little privacy you have with a four year old around, but that was a small price to pay for having such a good time with him.

I also spent the week doing an inordinate amount of laundry. I'm trying to figure this out. I did ALL of the laundry before the kids left for camp, so that they had clothes to pack. And then with them gone, that cut our dirty-laundry-producing capacity in half, right? So you'd think there should have only been half as much laundry to do this week. But you'd be wrong! There was still a lot of laundry, and I got it all done, including a backlog of old sheets and towels that I don't use much and my son's blue sleeping bag that has been sitting down there waiting to be washed for probably close to two years. (We own a lot of sleeping bags, so he had one for camp without his.)

What didn't get done this week? I did no spinning. I hardly did any knitting. I didn't read any books or magazines (though I tried one night). I did not get my car aligned. I did not make much progress on planning our school year. But I did get to the gym, I did hit several new high scores in Typing Mania on Facebook, and I did download a bunch of really old, obscure country songs that I remember from my childhood (I've been in a really weird music mood lately), including this one...remember it?

All in all, it was really a good week. Relaxing. Happy. 

And now we're resume our regular lives. :)

The world spins madly on...*

...and so do I. This is what the first batch of my Briar Rose BFL looks like plied...

...and while I still have the other half of that fiber to spin, I couldn't resist playing with this...

...this is some Corriedale roving I've had in my stash for a while. I bought it in Florida and its from a local (FL) indie dyer, the name of which escapes me at the moment. If I remember right, though, the dyer also owns the sheep the wool came from, which I always think is pretty cool. 

Anyway, I can't say I'm too thrilled with this fiber itself. I have not had good experience spinning Corriedale, ever. I find it difficult to work with. It's working out better on the wheel than it did with my spindle, but it is still not great. But the colors...! It's called Bermuda's Triangle, and it is a beautiful colorway. Especially bright and cheery on a gray winter day. Very tropical, and that's enough to keep me muddling through the fussy fiber (and the gray winter, though we are actually promised an appreciable amount of snow by the end of tomorrow...I'll believe it when I see it, but still, hope remains). 

I am still knitting, too. I've got my MIL's sweater back up to the point of starting the raglan decreases again, which I will do the correct way this time. Duh. I can't wait to get done with this sweater because I'm dying to move on to other knitting projects. While I really want to start something new, I have promised myself that I will first finish some things. I'd like to say I am going to dedicate the rest of January to finishing as many of my UFOs as I can before I start anything new, but I know better than to promise that. But I am going to try.

One thing I really want to do involves this...

It is some Sanguine Gryphon sock yarn, colorway Thoreau. Something I want to do more of this year is design. I have a sock pattern I designed a while back, but I didn't get it written up, so I thought I'd do it again so I could write up the details as I went. However, the more I look at this yarn, it has given me a completely different idea of what it would like to be. So, we'll have to see how that works out. More on that to come!

*World Spins Madly On is actually a very cool song by The Weepies (though it has nothing to do with spinning yarn, LOL). Check it out here, at their MySpace page.

Is that the sound of...Christmas?

I started listening to my Christmas music playlist this past week...

I remember how, for many years, I was all about traditional Christmas songs. I grew up with Johnny Mathis, Peter, Paul & Mary, and the Norman Luboff Choir, and that was my Christmas music. Later, my parents bought other Christmas albums -- mostly country -- and it annoyed me when they'd have a bunch of songs on them that I didn't know. Silly, really...I mean, how many artists do you really need to listen to singing Silver Bells and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing? Srsly.

Thankfully, my holiday music preferences have widened over the years, and I am more wont to listen to the non-traditional songs now. (Though I will admit that I have at least five different versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" on my iPod.) In addition to the "top 20" songs on the playlist above, I've got a ton of Trans-Siberian Orchestra (I so want to see them in concert one of these years!), some Celtic Christmas music (The Night Heron Consort), Handel's Messiah, and, yeah, Johnny Mathis' Merry Christmas...just can't let go of the classics. 

Some of my favorites from the ones listed above, though, are Rudy by The Be Good Tanyas (makes me cry!), Gary by MC Lars (makes me laugh!), Barenaked Ladies' God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (all three of which are part of the extended version A Winter's Night CD), and Snoopy's Christmas (which I posted about last year). The one I play the most, usually in the car and really loud, is Relient K's version of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Dude...rockin'!

PS...if you figure out what they're saying in the "five golden rings" part of Day 10, would you let me know? It's driving me nuts that I can't figure it out.

PPS...in the world of knitting...I was just booking along on my Paley yesterday...finished the left front and did the entire right front. As I was about halfway through the right front, however, my knitter's Spidey-sense started kicking in telling me something was no right. The right front was going way faster than the left had gone, and it clearly seemed I was working with fewer stitches than I had been on the left (as opposed to working with fewer marbles, which is not a rarity in my world). As we knitters are wont to do, though, I kept going a while before finally giving in and comparing the two panels. Yep. The left was about 2" wider than the right. I knew I had the correct number of stitches on the right because I'd counted them several times, both before and after the decreases in the first stockinette row. So I counted the stitches on the left panel. Uh huh. Too, too many. I know I'd counted them too, but clearly I counted wrong. :::sigh::: So, today's task was to rip out the left and start it over. Thankfully, it moves along quickly, but really? I prefer to knit these things only once. All I can say is this sweater darned well better fit when it's done. 

Sounds familiar...

Ok, so, we went and saw Twilight on Friday afternoon (are you tired of me talking about Twilight yet? Sorry.). I loved the book so much that I chose to go into the movie with neutral expectations because movies, in general, never live up to the original books, and that is especially so when they're books I love. I was surprised by how much I really loved the movie! Clearly, my inner thirteen-year-old girl is alive and well, because I giggled along with my daughter at some points and melted straight into the floor during the romantic parts.

Yes, the movie left out a lot of stuff that I wish they could have developed, and it added things not in the book, which is always irksome (but in their defense, the book had so much narration, I think they had to add new material to help illustrate in a timely manner what was originally narration), and it was kind of corny at some places (which led to audience laughter at places that probably weren't meant to be funny), but overall, I think they did a respectable job of condensing an intricate, well-loved, 500+ page book into the space of two hours of screen time.

But I wasn't really planning to talk about the movie. What I do want to talk about, though, is the music from the movie. I bought the soundtrack a couple weeks before seeing the movie -- I rarely ever buy movie soundtracks and never before a movie comes out, but I was dying to hear Bella's Lullaby and darned iTunes only lets you get it by buying the whole soundtrack, so I just went out and bought the CD instead.

I. Love. It. The music is fabulous. The lullaby permeates the movie at all the pivotal places (though the soundtrack doesn't do it justice...it's just too short and too mixed up with other instruments than just the piano). I totally love Muse's Supermassive Black Hole...excellent song to play at full volume in the car. (Though I admit to not reading the song title on the CD and thinking they were saying "super magic vagabond." Yeah. "Black hole" and "vagabond"? Sound nothing alike. But that's what I heard. I'm weird.)

But the song in the movie that most captured me isn't even on the freakin' CD (though it is a bonus song in the iTunes album download, go figure, argh), and that is Debussy's Clair de Lune. It is beautiful. I'm not a big classical music buff, but I recognized the tune as soon as I heard it in the movie. So I came home and Googled it (Ha! "You can Google it." Ahem...let the gratuitous movie quotes begin.) because I'm a geek and that's what I do. I played several versions of it over and over. I definitely love the piano solo versions the best. But what kept nagging at me is that I knew I'd heard it in another movie before -- I'm sure it's been in lots of movies, but I knew there was a specific one that I was thinking of, but I just couldn't place it.

Until tonight! Thank you, YouTube! It is the song that plays at the end of Ocean's Eleven, when the guys are all staring at the Bellagio's fountain show, and they all start to walk away one by one. Love that scene. (Here's the YouTube video that helped me figure it out, though it is not the actual movie clip.)

...and the choreography was unbelievable!

This has to be one of the best non-stupid Youtube videos I've ever seen. These guys are amazing! It totally made me smile and laugh first thing this morning -- before coffee, even! Enjoy!

Colors...

...this song, by Kira Willey, is featured on a new Dell color laptop commercial (and we know how I love finding cool new music from commercials). It's a song from her Dance for the Sun: Yoga Songs for Kids CD.  The commercial only uses a short bit of the song, but it captured me enough to seek out the rest. I found a few videos on Youtube that feature the song (including one with Kara Willey herself singing, I think), but I liked this one best. 

I think this song could be my own personal artist's anthem, color being one of the two main elements that inspire me creatively and personally. (Texture is the other, but I don't know any songs about texture. LOL) Anyway, enjoy...she's got a fabulously soothing voice to listen to...

Commercial love...

Watched our Pens get whooped tonight, poor guys. I'm not a die hard hockey fan, but they are the home team, after all, and it would have been great to have them win. At least they didn't have to play three overtime periods tonight...that would have really made a loss suck.

A side benefit of watching the game, however, was seeing this commercial about a half dozen times. I love this commercial. I love the song (It's Love, by Chris Knox). Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and happy inside.

Perfect day...

...or nearly perfect, but I'll take it.

We were heathens today and skipped church. Kevin headed out to do his thang after breakfast, leaving the kids and I to enjoy our leisurely Sunday however we pleased. Waking up to bright sunlight at this time of year is always a bonus, because there are some years where the sun barely shines between November and March in the 'burgh.

Today was unseasonably warm -- if we can't have real winter with actual snow, I'll gladly take 40 degree temps and sunshine. I lingered in bed, bathed in sunlight, first reading, then spending some time journaling, which I haven't done since last fall, hard as that is to believe. I also spent some time re-reading my journal from early 2007...I love going back and reading what was going on in my life a year earlier. It's amazing how much surprises me and how much I forget about until I reread it.

Being the gorgeous day that it was, the kids and I took a walk, our first of 2008. Technically, I walked and they rode their bikes.


The sky was an absolutely beautiful blue...

As I was walking, I noticed how much litter was strewn along the road. This drives me crazy. Sometimes I have the foresight to bring a bag with me and pick it up as I go. I hadn't thought ahead today, but as we were on our way back up the road, there on the ground, under some remaining snow and ice, was a plastic bag! I figured that was the universe's way of telling me to go back and pick up the trash, so I did.


Most of it was the usual -- beer cans, plastic bottles and paper cups. We had a pretty significant wind storm last week, which blew a lot of garbage cans and recycling bins over and spread the contents far and wide. I figure that was how the liquid soap bottle and some other things ended up along the road (not many people go on hand-washing binges in the car and then toss the empties out the window, you know?).

Along with two empty Marlboro Light packs, I also found...

...an empty nicotine gum packet. Wonder if they came from the same person?

Sometimes, when I pick up my bagfuls of litter, I'm tempted to be cynical and wonder just how much difference does this really make to the planet? Sure, it makes things look nicer, but does it really have an impact on the earth's health? I know the answer is "yes," and that, say, over the course of a year, all those bags add up. But I can understand why some people don't bother to make the effort...it's hard to see the benefit in what seems like such a small bit of a huge problem...like spitting into the ocean.

On the way back home, I ran into a neighbor coming the other way. I love when the weather gets warm, even just for a day, and people get out and you get to talk to them after having stayed inside all winter. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and connected.

I took advantage of the day and filled the bird feeders again, too. It didn't take long before some of the birds came to check them out...tons of black-capped chickadees...


...and one tufted titmouse that flitted around insanely fast, making it very hard to get a good picture of her. Or him. Not sure on the gender.



And as if a lovely afternoon was not enough, I stepped outside tonight, after my family was in bed, to find the most perfect sky for stargazing. It was dark and clear, and the stars were shining brightly. I took my star charts out and gazed. For an hour. It was freakin' cold, but I didn't care. I was able to clearly identify about six new constellations that I'd not located before, and learned the names of several key stars, and I figured out where Saturn is, too! How cool is that?! (I get so excited about these things.) I just stood out there, turning in a circle, my eyes glued to the sky, reciting to myself the names I was trying to learn...Wezen, Adhara, Aludra...Procyon, Castor, Pollux...Lepus and Arneb...Perseus and Mirphak...Auriga and Capella and Alnath. I love these names...they're like another language and I love speaking them...I love how they feel as my mouth forms the words and annunciates their names.

So, that was my day...my perfect, heathen Sunday. And yet, in so many ways, I worshiped God more meaningfully today than I do most Sundays that I do go to church.

In closing, let me just add this public service message while I'm thinking about it:

Dear Drivers Who Feel the Need to Drink:

Not to pick nits, but if you're going to drink and drive and then rid yourself of the evidence by tossing your empties out the car window, would you please at least be considerate enough and either a) drink canned beer or b) toss your glass bottles into grassy areas, not on the rocks? Those of us who care really do not like picking up broken bits of glass, risking cuts and god-knows-what kinds of germs infiltrating our flesh.

Also, drinking and driving? So not a good idea. Just ask my son. And if you're underage? All risks of injury to yourself or others aside, the legal ramifications of getting caught? So, so not worth the ensuing hassles and costs. Really. Just ask my son. Be responsible, find a friend's house to hole up in, drink your six pack and then order pizza, make prank calls, watch porn, whatever...just don't drive, ok?

Thanks,

Ms. Inspired

P.S. No...I didn't watch the Super Bowl tonight, but thanks to the alert from my friend Amy, I did tune in to the half-time show. Tom Petty, baby! Dude's gettin' old, but he still rocks. Not hitting as many high notes as he one did, but he pulled them off in Free Falling. Kewl. :)

Eclectic...

...or maybe schizophrenic is more apt? What a scattered collection of tunes.

This recent post from Cathy Zielske got me wondering what was on my own Top 25 list. I don't remember the last time I looked at it. Now that I've checked it out, it makes me smile. Music makes me so, so happy. (Live music makes me even happier...the louder, the better.) It is a simple joy.

What's on your Top 25 Most Played list? Take a look...see what it says to you about you and life and where you are and where you have been. It's an interesting study, I think. I can look at each song title on this iTunes list and almost every one brings to mind a specific memory that drove me to add it to my iPod to begin with. It's autobiographical. It's memoir in music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music is a form of memory for me. For instance, Cher's "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" will forever be embedded in my mind, as it was on one of the first two albums I ever owned, purchased for me by my parents for Christmas one year in junior high, along with my first stereo -- AM/FM, turn table, cassette player AND 8-track capable. (The other album they gave me that Christmas? Something by The Captain and Tennille. LOL How's that for musical dichotomy?)

I will always connect Dire Straits' "Skateaway" with the summer my dad was in the hospital having gall bladdar surgery, because I heard it on the radio so many times as my mom and I drove down to Shadyside to see him.

There will always be an angsty connection for me between The Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams," my senior year of high school and my then-boyfriend/later-briefly-married-to-husband.

Grateful Dead's "Ripple" has always, always made me cry. It not only reminds me of the tear-jerker movie Mask (hm, another Cher connection) that I've seen dozens of times, but it reminds me of a guy who I had been good friends with...we used to talk about all kinds of things together and had this connection to each other that I can't begin to explain even now. I've never had another friend like him. Only, later, this same guy came to like me just a little too much in a scary sort of way, and I had to make a choice to close him out of my life. It was the right thing to do. But the song still makes me cry.

Then there are songs I learned to play on the guitar. It was during a time when our oldest son was going through his own teenage angst. Relating to him was often dicey, but music often connected us. The year he was in 10th grade, he learned to play guitar. We both played for a while in a worship band at our church. Open the Eyes of My Heart was a song we often played, and even now when I hear it on Sunday morning, I can remember all of the parts, and how my son started it out on the bass and we all came in after him. It was the coolest thing. (There was another song whose name escapes me now that we all rearranged to play calypso style...that went over less well with the congregation at large. LOL) And even though it was "just" a church worship band, it was also cool that I was in it with my teenaged son. That group was a lot of fun. I have some really good memories there.

During that era, sometimes my son and I would sit down and he'd teach me bits of the songs he enjoyed. Earlier today, I had the urge to pick up my guitar after not playing it for a long time. My fingers had their own memories, letting me recall how to play (not well, mind you) the opening bars of Collective Soul's December. That simple thing stirred a particular joy in my heart, because as minor as that may seem, it was a connection between my son and me at a time when connecting wasn't always easy.

I'd like to think that music was, in the very beginning...God singing the world into existence, like Aslan does in The Magician's Nephew. Music is basic. It has meaning. It is full of life. Music can bring you home when you can't get there any other way. It can connect you to other people and other times. It can rip you open, and it can heal you. I cannot imagine life without it.