And She Knits Too!

Fifteen years (is that wool?)

Wow--15 years I've been married to my best friend and sweetie Craig.

I've been with him longer than I've been without him--we met when I was 18 and he was 20--and I can't imagine life without him.

Happy Anniversary!

Wounded in the process of world domination*

Monday was not a good day.

I slipped and fell down some stairs at work.  I'm not sure how many.  What I do know is that I saw the toes of my pink daisy wellies and landed right on my ass on one of the stairs.  It was a slipped on a banana peel movie fall.  I landed hard enough that I didn't get up and had to yell for help.

Not the nicest way to meet people in the building.  Though I thank them for calling campus police and making sure I was okay.  

Luckily Craig had just dropped me off, so I called him and he took me to the ER.  Nothing broken.  Lots of bruises.  I feel sore and bleh.

But my bruises may inspire a new colourway* from Kim.  My bruised ass should be good for something.  Sigh.

First Fall Must-Have-Knit

Maire Riding Jacket.

Gorgeousness.

Right now I'm swatching my brick Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted. 

Second choice yarn is Utiku Perendale my brother bought me from New Zealand.  It's natural coloured and lovely, but I may have Kim do her dye magic on it if I decide I don't want to have a natural coloured coat.  Perhaps after the fact. 

But I digress...the Lorna's is the yarn I want to use (fingers crossed).

 

Soccer Mom now on hiatus for Fall and Winter

The 2009 season of the East York Soccer club closed with excellent performances by Alexander (U9) and Emma (U10).

Alexander's much-improved performance assisted Spirale Banquet Hall (also known as Grey) in their end of season 10-game winning streak, narrowly missing the first place position for the season.  Their streak did not continue into the final tournament where they took 3rd spot but had a lot of fun.

Emma had a 13 goal season as the Striker for Agora E-Client and benefitted greatly from the fine coaching skills of Alan S. who lead Agora to his first league championship.  Emma and her team had a fantastic season, played well together and learned about fine sportsgirlship and team comarderie.  The final tournament was also disappointing for Agora, but allowed the girls more opportunities to work on their team cheer and Emma had a scoreless stint as goalkeeper.

Soccer Mom Stephannie and Soccer Dad Craig felt that both kids had an excellent season and are looking forward to the Fall/Winter hiatus.

While I was gone I finished a sweater

Sorry to disappear like that; September came in like a roaring freight train and I was staring at the headlights as it barreled me over.

School started, film festival happened (I saw six films), work got stupid-busy and there was a lot of soccer (more on that in another post).  

When I did have a bit of time I did a bit of knitting and I finished something I started in January.

The ubiquitous Drops Cardi is complete:

It was perfect for keeping more warm on the chilly mornings at the soccer field and fits me just right.

The yarn is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran that was aging in my stash and the size large took 7 balls.  

The pattern was fine, the knitting was good and I have a wearable sweater.   

Now I just need to get into my yarn cabinet (which is stuck behind some cement board) and pull out my Bohus.  Fall is coming and I'm ready for it.

There's no excuse...

Things I learned on the long weekend

1. My bathroom is one inch wider at the tub end than the door end.

2. My bathroom roof line is not straight.  We framed a dropped ceiling so it was level to the earth because the floor is about 1/2" higher at the tub end than the door end.

3. Old houses are crooked.

4. Having a friend help Craig position the tub that doesn't easily fit into the spot is preferable to helping on my own.  Because of this, we are still married and love each other very much.

5. Our new tub is 1/4" higher on one long end vs the other.  This means it will drain properly, but more floor prep is required.

6. The tub is no longer in the dining room.  It now looks so much bigger.

7. I going to love my new tub.

8. Going to the beach on labour day is a good thing. 

9. Kid's lunch bags get really disgusting after a year.  I should have bought new ones.

10. My kids have HUGE feet (size 6.5 men's and 7.5 women's).  Big feet=expensive shoes.  But size 16 men's shoes cost the same as 6.5 so at least I won't be spending more money over the next 10 years.

11. Size 16 Nikes are really really big.  Sorta scary even.

12. It's too hot to seam an aran weight sweater on your lap, no matter how much you want it done.

13. Rhinebeck is 6 weeks away.

14. The film festival starts this week!

I read stuff like this...

...and I really get worried about how I will parent children growing up with the internet. 

They're Back, and They're Bad: Campus-Gossip Web Sites

By Jeffrey R. Young

Students have more ways than ever to post anonymous attacks on classmates, thanks (or rather, no thanks) to new and expanded online forums promising to be bigger and juicier than the infamous JuicyCampus, which drew fierce protests from harassed students before it shut down earlier this year.

"This is the new JuicyCampus," says a note at Campus Gossip, which boasts campus-specific message boards for hundreds of colleges and encourages anonymous and racy barbs such as "These Fellas got herpes," with a list of names attached. Going even further than its predecessor, there's also a photo section where students can post embarrassing pictures and videos of others.

(Read the rest here)

I wandered over to the site (which I don't even want to name) and it was full of misogynist crap, foul mouthed hate and just stupid remarks about college, fraternities, certain specific people and inanities. 

I know there has always been gossip.  Mean boys and girls who spread rumours to wield power.  Titterings in the bathroom about so-and-so and her new boyfriend.  I do it too; and I know it's not very nice.  But I also have some sense about when and where I have these discussions.  I don't write them down.  I don't post them anonymously on some website.  I certainly don't NAME people in writing in public forums. 

I can't imagine how it would feel to see my name on a website which disparages me as a slut or as too ugly to sleep with or which in any other way assesses my appropriateness as the object of partriarchy uber-babeness.  First off, I don't fucking care how I rate in the hotness contest of my oppression, but more than that, why would those making the posts think this is okay or free-speech? 

And how do a you a) keep your kids from doing stuff like this and b) keep your kids from being the subject of this stuff?

As someone who spends a lot of time on the internet--facebook (which I really don't like), twitter, the blog, ravelry etc--I know that it's part of the world and has much to offer.  I connect with all sorts of people I would never otherwise meet and 99% of the time they are good, interesting, generous, smart people.  They are also, for the most part, of my generation and like me straddle the thin line that has them out there in the world wide web while also trying to keep some boundaries on their privacy. 

Believe it or not, I don't tell you everything about my life here.  ;)

But I might share it on a closed message board with people I "know" (at least virtually) and trust.  I gauge my disclosures on the forum in which they will be released, but it seems like these gossip sites don't promote the same filters and younger people don't seem to even consider the consequences of their postings.  That the facebook photos of them puking at some party today, are going to be around forever and might not seem to so funny when they're applying for a job or wanting to volunteer at their kid's Scout troop.

While I write that, I feel that "in my day, people knew about respect" speech my mother/grandmother/great-grandmother gave and I feel a bit old.  But really it's the truth.  I suppose that respect and decorum have to be learned.  And yes, my kids are going to learn it.  While I can't completely control what they say, I can enforce the idea that gossip isn't nice and that gossiping in a public forum on the internet or texting is wrong, wrong, wrong.  I can tell them to think about how they would feel if someone did that to them and teach them to challenge others who are doing these things and not stand by and let it happen to some other kid.

As for protecting them from others, well I have to trust there are more of me's out there telling their kids the same thing.  There better be...

That girl's got it together

It's 8:23pm, Tuesday night, and the kids are both showered, toothbrushed and in bed.  Craig is out for the first game of the Withrow Ball Hockey Men's League Fall 2009 season and I am all alone.  The laundry is done (thanks Mom) and the house is clean.  The dishes are finished and aside from the continuing bathroom reno, there's nothing pressing to do this evening.

Check this out:

I'm blocking a sweater.  I'm a bit ahead of myself since I have half of the right front to go, but I figured I should get things blocking so I can sew them up while the fronts are drying. 

It's the ubiquitous Drops Cardi that everyone made a while back and mine's almost done.  Just in time for Fall.  It's been hibernating all summer, but I figure I can get it done just as the weather gets cool.

I'll have it for Rhinebeck (hooray! I'm going again). 

Holy shit--I look like I have it together eh?