Here's what it looks like shut.

I knit up this little tampon holder from stash yarn and made the button from shrinky dinks.

I made this sweater for my sister--finished by Valentine's day.

Books read in 2005

I added a link on my sidebar--a running list of the books I've read in 2005 with comments about the books. So an annotated list.

response!

How gratifying to acknowledge one's procrastination and have a quick response to confront it--the guy from the Community Observer emailed me yesterday (bless him for not assuming I fell off the planet) and I told him I'd get it to him next week. So I'll be spending some time here at the keyboard this weekend getting the Camping Close to Home piece fit for another's eyes. Maybe this will get me back into my writing mode since I seem to have slipped from the wonderfully productive period last summer.

Procrastination

What I'm procrastinating about at the moment:

Writing: My Camping Close to Home piece. The Community Observer wants it for their summer issue, but I can't get myself to sit down and revise it.

Knitting: The yellow baby sweater that needs its sleeves. I guess because the sleeves are the boring part.

Reading: I've got more books that I've started and not finished going now than usual. Where oh where has my discipline gone?

Cooking: Thankfully there isn't much stuff rotting in the fridge right now waiting for me to deal with it. I have two big Portobello mushroom caps that need attention, but for once I don't feel a panicked need to cook to justify purchases. The freezer, however, is packed and if I want any more ice cream, I'll have to start preparing some of the other stuff that is in there taking up space.

getting started

I need a little discipline in my life so here goes my ramblings on the things that seem to occupy me when not kid-wrangling...

What I'm reading right now:
Jane Smiley Good Faith, only on chapter 2, so-so so far (not terrific from the beginning like some of Smiley's other books.)

I'm also in the process of reading the following but for various reasons (my mood or attention span, the book's flaws) have put on hold:
Imagined London (in progress)
Brick Lane (in progress)
Dreams from My Father (in progress)

What I've read since the beginning of 2005:
Toast—Nigel Slater
Song of Solomon—Toni Morrison
House of Blue Light—David Kirby
The Traveling Library—David Kirby
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Mark Haddon
The Warden—Trollope
Barchester Towers—Trollope
The Madness of Love—Katharine Davies

What's for dinner?
Probably leftover chicken and sesame noodles from Cook's Illustrated--I made a ton yesterday.

What I'm knitting:
Still working on the mustard colored sweater for myself, also on the little yellow baby sweater (need to do the sleeves). I'll post some pics soon.

relevant poem

Brian's dad died on Monday morning.

This poem came via The Writer's Almanac and couldn't be more relevant:
"Moment of Inertia" by Debra Spencer

Moment of Inertia

It's what makes the pancake hold still
while you slip the spatula under it
so fast it doesn't move, my father said
standing by the stove.

All motion stopped when he died.
With his last breath the earth
lurched to a halt and hung still on its axis,
the atoms in the air
coming to rest within their molecules,
and in that moment
something slid beneath me
so fast I couldn't move.