Evil Eye

Now, I can understand being overwhelmed by large cities, they are big, and have busy, crowded neighborhoods.  I can understand being nervous about visiting a big city if you are not used to them.  But since when are city dwellers not as American as small town and rural Americans?  Since when are we un- or anti-American?  Since when are we not a part of real America?  Is it so hard to discuss policy that some must stoop to dividing us as a nation of real and not as real Americans?  (Well, I think I know the answer to that question.)

Big cities are marvels of American ingenuity, the result of people who made big plans, homes of beautiful art and architecture, places where people come to realize their dreams.  I have nothing against small towns, they are as much a part of the fabric of this country as are the big cities.  I am just sick of hearing Sarah Palin, Nancy Pfotenhauer, Michele Bachmann, and the like divide us as a nation, and paint some of us as anti-American.

And what is wrong with the elite?  What do they mean by elite?  Rich?  I doubt it, McCain’s not hurting.  Certainly not well dressed, right Sarah Palin?  Well educated, is that it?  Smarter than the average Joe?  Know what?  I want someone who is well educated and smart running things, how about you?  I don’t  care if the candidate is the kind of person I would want to have a beer with, like it’s gonna happen.  I want them to be smart and wise.  We have our chummy president, and he sucks, lets try something else this time.

I will leave you with a positive message from Sarah Vowell.

Yesterday Victor and I went for a walk in the local cemetery.  It just so happens that our local cemetery, Oak Woods, is Chicago’s oldest, and has all kinds of interesting people buried there.  Yesterday we went to look at the restored monument on the Cornell family plot.  Cornell* like the college?  Well, yes in fact, but that has nothing to do with its importance to this area (Woodlawn/ Hyde Park).  Paul Cornell founded the Hyde Park Township, which was annexed by the City of Chicago in 1889.

We had never seen the monument, which was off site being restored.  Last month when Victor and I went for a walk at Oak Woods I noticed it was back, but I was already heading back home, so I didn’t take s much time to look at it as I would have liked.

Not only is it the marker for the founder of this area, and of the first railroad suburb, it is also significant because it is made of white bronze, not a common statuary metal.  You can tell right away it looks different for some reason, it is just not a color one is used to seeing in statues and monuments.

Cornell’s monument is of white bronze (zinc), and, at about fifteen feet tall, is the largest of this material to be found in the Chicago area. The lowest step is buckling from the weight, its sides visibly bulging outward.**

I should contact them so they can update their page, the monument looks as good as new.

A few shots of our walk yesterday:

It was a beautiful day to be out and about, see the fall colors, both in the cemetery and across the street from my house.

I find that if I have a camera handy, I am much more observant of my surroundings, of course.  Yesterday I noticed that a stone block I have been walking past for four years has writing on the side.

If only I could salvage that block.  I don’t know what I would do with it, other than put it in my yard and sit on it, but I like it.

*Cornell was founded by Paul Cornell’s cousin, Ezra.

** http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/oakwoods/cornell.html

I have been spending part of my morning feeding Victor and catching up on blogs lately.  I read a lot of crafty blogs, and it is no surprise that the focus is on the economy for many bloggers.  How could it not be?

Apron Thrift Girl’s guest writer posted a great link yesterday about living well within your means.  It reminded me of the changes I’ve made concerning how I spend money, of how little money Scott and I made when we first got married, and how we’ve always been happy and have enjoyed ourselves regardless of our bank statements.  I was so irresponsible with that first credit card, I had no idea what I was getting into (if you’re going to give college kids credit cards, make them take a class in fiscal responsibility to qualify!)  I learned my lesson, we got out of all of our debt (short of our mortgage), and we are very careful to stay out of debt.

It also reminded me of my post last year in April when we took the leap and I quit my job.  Learning to live within our means, to put money aside for emergencies, to consider each purchase we make has made it possible for me to work from home, and now to take time off from that to take care of Victor.  Do we splurge on occasion?  Of course!  But by living a very DIY lifestyle, and buying resale, and making due with what we have, we get along nicely.  Some months are tighter than others, and we adjust accordingly.  I feel sad for people who got in over their heads in debt, who took mortgages they could never afford, and grateful that I learned my lesson when I was younger and the stakes were not so high.  I am angry at the lenders who were willing to give people loans they clearly could not afford.  What the hell?  Now we have empty houses on our block, with boarded up windows and shabby yards where there used to be friendly neighbors and pleasant conversation.  It’s just sad.

I am glad I can go through my baskets of yarn and knit up gifts for a few people this year.  I enjoy planning projects for little gifts my loved one’s will hopefully enjoy, without going out and shopping.  Where I used to love to bring home new stuff (and I still do to some extent, Halloween stuff, I am looking at you), I have come to feel a great deal of satisfaction in not bring home something new, but making it myself, or even getting rid of some of the old clutter.

I am also quite satisfied with two new knitting techniques I learned this week while working on a gift.  Hooray for the magic cast-on!  I am also getting the hang the short-row heel.  I am so happy about these new skills that I have decided that next year must include more challenging knitting, including some stranded knitting, and maybe even steeking!

Hopefully I will keep all of this in mind when I go to Target this week.  I love their Halloween decorations!  Sigh…

It happens every year as the weather gets cooler (and yes, I know we are expecting a high of 80F today,) I start to plan new crafty projects in my head.  I see new knitting patterns, I start revisiting old ideas (cigar box dioramas, I haven’t forgotten you), or I see pictures on Flickr and blogs and get excited about entirely new ideas.  I am like a crafty squirrel (yes, I know they are cute rats, I am a pack rat, it works,) I want to start gathering supplies, preparing my space so I am ready to hunker down all winter and make stuff.  Other than a few consumable supplies, I have no reason to gather supplies, I have all kinds of crafty goods in the house.  I need to learn to wait to start a project, and then see if I need anything, and get just those supplies.  Besides, I am still learning to balance those activites with caring for a newborn.

I have learned to knit while nursing Victor, and yesterday I even made pie (not while nursing!)  So, some amount of craftiness has returned to my life.

It is amazing how quickly these last 10 weeks have gone.  I was so impatient at first for him to get bigger and more predictable so I could go back to doing some of the things I enjoy.  Now, I am beginning to understand that this all works itself out in time, and that these days of cuddling with Victor on the couch while knitting and blogging will not last for too long, and that this has become one of the things I enjoy.

Now, I think I will look at crafty things online and enjoy my dreaming.

Sometimes I decide to post to the blog, and my mind plays tug of war with where to start.

I’ll start with YarnCon.  Hooray for a successful event!  I love creative people, they are so invigorating to be around, and we had no shortage at YarnCon.  The vendors and visitors were wonderful!  I wish I could have been at the admission table and wandering around both rooms at the same time!  There wasn’t a single vendor I did not want to buy something from, and enjoyed meeting them all, however briefly.  Our volunteers were fantastic, and really helped make the day run smoothly.

hmm… I feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about how great Saturday was, which makes me not want to go onto the other topic that was on my mind, but I will anyway.  We need to have some repairs made to the house, gutters and tuckpointing.  We already had the parapet rebuilt earlier this summer, and we’re really happy with the masons we are working with.  I had good luck with people coming out to give us estimates for the brick work, and the people who came out spoke to me like an adult who can understand what is going on (I had a great conversation about using age appropriate brick and mortar on a hundred year old house with the guy who gave us the winning estimate.)  So what is up with getting someone to come out for gutter work?  And, I finally get one company to send someone out for an estimate, and he has the audacity to tell me that he could tell me more about the work they do, but I wouldn’t understand it.  Argh!  Few things get under my skin than that kind of talk.  Would have told Scott about it?  Would he have spared him the chit-chat about having lots of kids?  I was just checking out the welding seam (it was a little sloppy) on a custom gutter in his truck when he tells me I wouldn’t understand his work.  What makes me angrier?  That I didn’t tell him off.  I just became curt and was done with him.  I dislike confrontation, but I also dislike feeling like I should have said something.  Would it have made a difference?

I always enjoy reading the lists bloggers make, so I thought I would compile a popular one, 10 favorite things right now (in no particular order).

1.  YarnCon is on Saturday!  Please come and check it out*.

2. The poster my brother, Alex Uribe, created for YarnCon (and will be for sale at YarnCon.)

3. My baby curled up on my lap (or asleep in his sling).

4. Pumpkins!  I love pumpkin soup, pancakes, bread, roasted in the oven, and carved on front porches.

5. Scott spending time with Victor so I can spend time here:

6. Wool weather (yeay for knitting!)

7. Learning to knit while nursing.

8. Getting more sleep.

9. Sin in the Second City.

10. Listening to Public Radio streaming on my computer.

*We could use a couple more volunteers, please email me at info (at) yarnygoodness (dot) com if you are interested in helping.

We’re back from a wonderful weekend spent in the woods with our dear friends.  It was much easier to camp with an infant than I had expected, but I am sure that is in part because I had so much support from Scott and any number of people who couldn’t wait to hold Victor.  We were very cozy in our new tent, which felt huge to me, but gave us plenty of room for sleeping and changing the baby.

Victor, freshly changed, rocking his Ramones onsie.

As usual, the time went far too quickly, and I am already thinking about going back in the Spring, and how different Victor will be by then.

We’ll we’re off for our semi-annual camping trip, this time it’s 3 of us.  Victor and I have been getting out more, and now we’re going on a road trip, amazing.  We went with Sara to stop by Pulaski Park Fieldhouse and visit the new Loopy Yarns this week, and it is fabulous.  The yarn is arranged by weight, there is a room just for sock yarn!

In more knitting related news, I finished Victor’s hat.

He looks thrilled, eh?  We hope you have a lovely weekend, and we’ll be back with tales of our grand adventure.

Victor took a long enough nap yesterday for me to start knitting a hat for him.  I got a couple of inches done, yeay!

His feeding frenzy seems to be slowing down a bit, maybe we are almost through this growth spurt.

Want to enter a raffle for amazing knitterly goods, and support the Chicago AIDS Foundation at the same time?  Head over to kristyland.com to see how to do both, and see the great prizes.

A belated happy 80th birthday to Maurice Sendak.  I just heard some old interviews with him on Fresh Air.  He is one of my favorite illustrators and children’s book authors, and it was a pleasure to hear him interviewed.

So, it’s been almost 6 weeks since Victor came into our lives.  We’re adjusting to life with an infant.  Just when I think I detect a pattern in when he eats and sleeps, he changes it up.  Turns out infants do not grow gradually, but in spurts.  During a growth spurt they eat almost non-stop.  Wow!  Right now I am typing with one hand, while I hold him with the other.

Last night went out for our first social visit to Lane and Sara’s.  It was so nice to get out of the house for something other than errands or doctors appointments.

Although I have not knit much at all recently, I have been working with Sara on preparations for YarnCon!  It is shaping up to be a great show, we’re both very excited.  You can see the current list of vendors here.

Well, Victor seems to have fallen asleep, time for me to try to get a few things done.