If left to my own devices for the night, I will seriously consider chocolate chip cookie dough for dinner, will rule it out because softening butter takes too much time, and will settle on Lipton’s chicken soup and an ice cream sundae.

Luckily, Rudi does not often leave me to fend for myself for dinner — possibly for this very reason. He actually enjoys cooking and, for reasons unfathomable to me, finds it relaxing. So I eat tasty gourmet food on a regular basis and nutritionally sound almost always.

On a bright note, despite my nutritionally questionable dinner, I did put a dent in the shredding portion of the housecleaning. Shredding is a large portion of the cleaning Rudi and I have to do, because we only do it once or twice a year. And junk mail accumulates with surprising rapidity. (Rapidity is a nice word. Go ahead, say it aloud. It has an onomonopoetic pop to it, don’t you think?)

Visit this site and start dragging and clicking away at will with your mouse. I guarantee you’ll be surprised by how long you can entertain yourself.

(Via Kat and Cate.)

The Burrow experienced technical difficulties last night as Verizon did not see fit to deign to grant us internet access all last night. Therefore, instead of posting photos of pretty yarn and recent knitted objects or sending my friend Brian birthday greetings, I spent the evening doing off-line activities.

I celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day by cracking open Gideon DeFoe’s The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. It’s short and it’s saucy, so if you check back next week I should have a review in the monthly roundup.

I also tried to celebrate a beautifully sunny late summer evening by sitting outside Teaism with a salty oat cookie and a mango lassi. Unfortunately, all those mosquitos who thought this summer was too hot to be outside also wanted to hang out at Teaism, but instead of feasting on tasty baked goods and refreshing yogurt drinks, they thought *I* looked particularly appetizing. I switched seats. I swatted and shooed. Eventually I walked home. They followed me. It was like a Looney Tunes cartoon. It wouldn’t have surprised me if they’d knocked on the door and tried to sneak in when I answered it. Hmmm… Maybe that’s what the large cockroach Rudi killed outside the Burrow was working on this morning…

Anyway, look for photos of pretty things tonight…

Well, it’s that time of the year again — the time of year where I start to want to have people come over.

Which means it’s also time to clean the Burrow.

Rudi and I are not minimalist people. We enjoy bulky hobbies — music, books, yarn, and bicycles. Unfortunately, we do not live in a clutter-friendly home. We live in a home suited to a single person with small hobbies — painting miniatures, perhaps, or dollhouse embroidery.

Or, perhaps, we live in a home suited to Type A personalities who do a good job of tidying up after themselves in a quick fashion.

Us? We tidy up in emergency situations — flooding, bug infestations, impending visits…

But it’s time to pull out the paper shredder and deal with the junk mail situation. I think it’s possible we could be buried alive otherwise, leaving three hungry cats to alert passersby that we’re under a huge pile of campaign announcements and charity requests.

It’s time to locate our quarters and do some laundry. I’m not ready yet to switch away from the summer wardrobe (this is D.C., after all, where January 1st reached 75 degrees), but it would be good to get it cleaned so that I can put it away for the two-week period it won’t be needed.

Rudi already started the cleaning by emptying the fridge of unmentionables. I need to do my part by washing the containers. I think they may have soaked long enough now to remove unpleasant odors.

It’s time to unpack from Utah and find places for all the … stuff … that came home with us from Salt Lake.

And it’s time to look hard at what we have lying around and see what we can do without. Do you think GoodWill picks up?

It occured to me a few weeks ago that knitting is good training for life, if only I would apply the lessons I learn on the needles to the real world:

1. New things are neither as hard nor as scary as I think they’re going to be. Turning a heel intimidated me tremendously, as do things like sending in resumes for interesting sounding jobs. Turning a heel turns out to be remarkably simple, so why shouldn’t writing a cover letter be similarly so? (Picking up gusset stitches on the other hand may always remain hard — or, at least, odious…)
2. On the other hand, you shouldn’t attempt the unfamiliar (be it a cast-on that will affect your whole bloody project, microeconomics, or how to use Excel’s formulas) when you are already tired and cranky and ought to have been in bed a while ago. Hint: When your partner wishes you good luck and heads to bed is the point at which you should stop learning new skills for the night.
3. Little stuff takes the most time. I never think weaving in ends should take very long but it regularly takes me three to four times how long I believe it will. The same goes for those “last few boxes” when packing up for a move.
4. New projects should be approached as adventures. Knitters notoriously love to start new projects. The act of combining a pattern and yarn is deliciously addictive. Joining a group (like a knitting group or a volleyball team) ought to be approached with a similarly adventurous spirit.
5. Projects that don’t go as planned can be adapted into something wholly my own. For instance, I once neglected to realize that patterns are altered when you knit in the round and you have to approach it that way from the start. I didn’t, and as long as I continued on as if I’d intended for it to look the way it came out, no one was going to be any the wiser. This is somewhat similar to the “Whistle a Happy Tune” song from The King and I. You will make mistakes, but you can minimize how many people know about them by trying to remain open to new options. New trends have to start someplace, right?
6. Try to strike a balance between doing for yourself and doing for others. Never knitting for yourself will make you sad. Never putting yourself first in life will make you equally frustrated. Always focusing on yourself loses you the wonderful feeling of giving of yourself to someone who loves or needs you.
7. Don’t waste your time on people who won’t appreciate your talents. Don’t knit a hat for the friend who hates hats (or wool or whatever). Similarly don’t spend days arguing with someone whose mind is made up on a subject that you feel passionately or strongly about. (Alternately, you can surround yourself only with those who will fully appreciate you and your quirky self (although there is then the potential for ego overdevelopment).)
8. It might seem like you’re just going around in circles, but usually you are making progress. It’s just that you’re too close to notice it. Step away from the situation (or your knitting) for a little while and come back to it later. You’ll be surprised by how far you’ve actually come and how much less you still have to do to accomplish your goal.
9. Look for patterns. On its own a yarnover is just a hole. Combined with a decrease and repeated regularly, it’s lace. On its own, a single response to a situation is unique. Looked at in the context of similar situations, though, you discover how you cope (for better or for worse) with life. Life is in the details, sometimes.
10. Things that totally don’t work out or that I hate can (and possibly should) be scrapped. Life is too short to live with a garment or a situation I don’t like.

After reading today’s article on O’Rourke’s in the Hartford Courant and visiting the website set up to facilitate communication about the diner, I’m pleased to say there’s good news.

Brian says he’d definitely like to rebuild. Offers of assistance from around the world have poured in. And some Middletown attorneys have set up a trust to help Brian rebuild.

If you’d like to send a check to help, you can direct it here:

Howard and McMillan, Trustees
Howard and McMillan, Counselors at Law
386 Main Street
Middletown, CT 06457

They’re looking into the ability to process credit card and Paypal payments and information about that should be available sometime next week. Lots of people are working on fundraisers (as well as weekend bake sales in front of the diner), too.

Should it prove infeasible for Brian to rebuild, the attorneys will return everyone’s money.