The blog had some technical difficulties that kept comments from being published. Thank you, persistent commenters who were repeatedly rejected. I think blog comments are the only thing Baby wakes up for, but the problem appears to be fixed. The blog engine thing was having trouble distinguishing between genuine comments and the numerous messages from "Billie" about the "awesome party" we had "last night" or other spam about unspeakable sex acts. The blog deletes junk comments older than three days, and we have over 1500 in our folder. The internet sucks. Comment for Seth -- henceforth known as ELLIOTT -- MELIO, and CHET: all told, I prefer gopher.
And -- since I haven't posted in forever -- I owe you all an update. Baby and I are looking at moving into a house with a few of our friends: namely GRANDMA DEATH, THE QUAKER, and ARKAY. The house we're looking at is pretty cool -- it's a five or six bedroom with a large yard, and it's very cheap. (Not just cheap for LA, either.) The only downside is that Ramona will have to live outside (although we plan on letting her inside at night unless the landlord complains).
Other than that, I have little to report. I'm busy with work and school, as usual. Baby and I are planning a trip to JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK next weekend. We were going to go this weekend, but Baby pointed out last night that the place will be crawling with MADONNA FANS shelling out $6 for red string bracelets and holy water and whatnot.
Wren is her usual awesome self. She gots lots of teeth and seasonal allergies, just like her dad. Baby has had to take over the weedwhacking since my nasal membranes are oversensitive during this time of the year.
That's all the news I have for now. Thanks for reading.
Oh yeah, and COLONEL RHOMBUS is (most likely) moving to OUR NATION'S CAPITAL to be closer to Ben's Chili Bowl. This is a sad development for the Hollyfeld house, but we're happy he's living his dream of becoming an "exotic dancer." Hey Colonel -- I hear the House outtips the Senate bigtime.
P.S.: Thanks especially to Sarah, who actually told us the comments weren't working. We just thought nobody was reading the blog anymore.
A good thing to note before reading this post: In times of stress and uncertainty in life (for instance- looking for a place to move) I tend to live more fully in a fantasy world of subsistance farming or post-nuclear apocolyse or zombies-attack-my-house or any number of scenarios that seem for some reason or other less stressful than my current situation. So this post can be taken with a grain of salt.
I've been pretty interested in the textile arts for quite a while now, and I've recently been thinking about following my current yarnish hobbies to their inevitable end. To their source. Sheep, goats and llamas. Maybe some rabbits.
i've enjoyed knitting for years, although I haven't really progressed from the hat and scarf stage. Part of it is laziness of course, but there are also financial concerns. Acrylic yarn is cheap and plentiful, but not that great to work with, and any quality fiber or wool varietal "merino, alpaca, angora, cashmere, yadda yadda) is pretty freakin' expensive. If you want to make a Lazlo-size sweater you're talking $50+, and you're probably going to make it all wonky and three-sleaved the first time anyway. Not a great investment. I can support my habit as long as it's just a batch of scarves/hats every Christmas, but when I start thinking about the natural progression from knitting to weaving... Well as you may know, it takes a lot of warp to weft a weave...or something.
This is where we head to the source. You can buy a wool fleece, fresh from the sheep, for around $1/lb. Higher quality fleece costs more. Given, a good size modern spinning wheel doesn't come cheap, but I could use a drop spindle until we win the lottery. And okay, okay, sure floor looms are expensive! But so are clothes, damnitt! And now I can make all our clothes! Right?!?! Right. What color of woven pants would you like to wear today, Lazlo? Well we have home-dyed dandilion green, home-dyed baby-poop yellow, and this reddish color I made from the bodies of crushed insects I harvested from the llama flock! I used Alum as a fixing agent! Alum!
I get a little crazy at times like this, planning an alternate reality on a 15 acre farm in Manor, Tx, complete, of course, with livestock. I feel more at home in another century, or at least in that movie Witness, than I do on the outskirts of downtown L.A. Of course my alternate reality still comes with front-loading washing machines, refridgerators, laptops, and those little chips you can implant in your dog's ear for when they get lost. Poor Ramona; she's not too bright.
I know, I know. Your head is exploding from the cuteness.
Those thighs alone could launch a thousand ships.
You can't see Ramona in this picture but she's sulking around the yard, pouting because I wouldn't let her get in the baby pool with Wren.
About damn time for a general update:
- We finally got a new computer! (thanks Dad!) It's so great to have email and internet at home again, not to mention movies and tv shows. Our little ibook is cute and I'll try to keep it un-grubby as long as possible in our ultra-grubby house.
- I got into the TWU masters program for library science. I'll start classes in the fall on the above mentioned ibook. I'm really looking forward to being in school again, even from home. And I'm also excited about the vocational nature of this degree. Like I said in my application, "It's amazing how many people these days are not hiring English majors with minors in Middle Eastern Studies." My BA got me jobs as a Barista, a nanny, and of course a stay-at-home mom. This is like going to mechanic-school or something. When I get out- I'm a mechanic! Or a librarian as the case may be.
- During our joint blogging lapse, Wren turned One! She's walking (running, really) and climbing and excelling in torturing the dog using her increased mobility. Yesterday she turned herself over in the laundry basket and bit the inside of her upper lip. She actually bit off that peice of skin between her lips and gums. Go ahead and say it- I hear the screaming chorus anyway (BADMOTHERBADMOTHER...) Anyway, since she was bleeding so much I called the Dr. and he said to go to the ER. What a drag- by the time they saw us she was giggling and needed a diaper change. The Dr. said, "She doesn't really need the flap of skin, so I'm not going to stitch it back." umm.... okay? And then he wrote a prescription for suppository antibiotics. Tell me again about those super-viruses? I don't think I'll be filling it. He also said to give her only clear liquids for 2 days. Yeah, right. Go ahead and try. Wren would start eating grass and would probably move on to Ramona. She does not do well with fasting. She's totally fine today.
- My cousins visited. That was rad. We went to Disneyland and it was GREAT. We went to Seaworld and it was laaaaaaaaame. Jeez those Seaworld people were mean and the freaking beluga exhibit was closed. However, the manatees were a definite high point- We had to hold Lazlo back from the tank. He wanted to commune with "the gentle beasts".
- Lazlo's making A's in grad school and still loves Fuller. We'll be saying goodbye to the Col., Arkay, and some other friends who'll be graduating and that sucks but we're happy they're doing their stuff.
- My mom came to visit. It was wonderful to see her and I was overcome with guilt for seperating her from the obvious love of her life. She and Wren were pretty much frenching at first sight. They snuggled every morning and dined by candlelight every night. Frankly it was gross. Ramona and I were left looking through the window at their perfect communion.
There's the update. Obviously it's a bit unbalanced, a little overemphasis here and there. Lazlo's planning a trip to Joshua Tree next weekend and I'm looking forward to camping for the first time with Wrennel. I'm not sure if after this sebbatical we'll really get back to blogging for real. I kind of doubt it. Oh well.
