Simply Curious

Travel Safely: Create your own DIY first aid kit for the road | Gadling.com

I've been thinking about the last few trips I've been on in preparation for our next cruise. The bad thing about a cruise is you can't always find some essentials, like when I developed a canker sore. I could find deodorant and mouthwash in the souvenir shop on board, but nothing for mouth pain! I was recommended to the ship's doctor, and wound my way below decks to the clinic, just to discover it was unmanned, and gave up. I also neglected to bring a watch, and Brian didn't have one either, and neither one of us wanted to turn our phones on. There were watches for sale on the ship, but they were either REALLY expensive, or the most horrible over-sized impersonations of watches I'd ever seen. Cruises are lovely, but expect to feel a bit isolated from the comforts of society and CVS.

I've been eying 'first aid kits' when I come across them in the stores, and have been increasingly appalled at their lack of content. Several different sizes of (latex) bandaids and a single handiwipe? No good. I need to make my own, then! I've been mentally creating a list of things I want in my own kit, and then came across this useful blog. I'll need to adapt it to my own needs, of course.

First, non-latex bandages, and neosporin.
Possibly petroleum jelly -Vaseline's lip Therapy should work well in a travel kit. It's good for keeping germs out and bandages from sticking to wounds.
Benadryl for allergy attacks - ones you can take without needing water. ( I was going to try to get an epi-pen for my husband, but research and his own experience suggested that the epi-pen is just a temporary solution to get you to the hospital so they can give you benadryl. I HAVE accidentally peanutted him before, and his reaction is slow enough that I think it'd be sufficient to just have it always nearby in my purse.)
Pepto Bismol and Tums, because we have sensitive stomachs that like to complain.
Painkillers. I like buying the travel sizes because they come in awesome tiny tubes that are great for reusing.
Hand sanitizer.
Nail clippers/nail file, because a torn nail IS an emergency! And, well, handwipes. And Ambesol. And a watch. And a bandanna.

I think some of the things on the blog list are a good idea, but they're not particularly something I would want to carry with me on a regular basis. Bug spray and sunscreen are only useful when spending long periods of time outdoors in sunny, buggy areas. I'm thinking I should split these up into 'items I should keep in my purse', 'items to go in my suitcase', and 'items to take on an adventure.'
I also need to figure out (hopefully flat) storage because I like to keep a tiny purse, so I can stick it in my backpack for school. I don't want to get carried away, although I do admit I like being prepared. My favorite moment of preparedness was the last time Dad and I went to the movies together. He sighed and complained about the loudness of the speakers and wished he had earplugs. I whipped a pair out of my purse and handed them to him. he just goggled at me, but I felt awesome. (I then had to explain that I had them because the machinery in the editing room at work was so loud that it was driving me batty.)

Lots of ideas here, and I need to get started. I'm hoping it will involve eating the M&Ms sold in the tube packaging . . .

I think I've been planning this ever since we had the house painted.  I know how I wanted it to look, but it took well over a year to get it produced!



I found the fabric at JoAnn's, and fell in love.  I was even more excited to discover that it would work well with the color in the master bathroom.  It's a kind of greeny blue that I can't describe and can't photograph accurately, but it feels a bit beachy.  These photos are a bit too green, and my attempts at photo editing do not produce the proper results.  Just imagine more blue. 

Finding the fabric was the easy part.  Patterns produced nothing close to what I wanted.  I think I bought half a dozen 'this might do' pattens before I found what I was looking for in those do-it-yourself books.   I found that for 50 cents at the thrift shop.  Thank you, whoever decided to weed that from your sewing library!

I've never made full sized curtains.  I've mastered hanging them at this point, but always started out with well-researched draperies.  It's nearly impossible to find curtains in the stores that aren't plain rectangles.  Thank goodness for JCPenney and Burlington Coat Factory.  Making them was . . .  an experience.  Math was involved; actual patterns were not.  I may have memorized the instructions trying to understand them.  I'm pleased to say my math was accurate.  Cutting and sewing in straight lines?  Not so much, but fortunately this design was very forgiving in that respect. It was a bit ornate - if you were to turn it around, you would discover actual rigging with a dowel, plastic rings, and cording.  The instructions even made them adjustable - all's I would have to do is pull a cord once I set up the 1x2 spaced with screw eyes - but I settled for tying them off at the top. 

I will spend the next several days wandering in and refluffing them.  I am very grateful there's only one window.  My next project will be redoing the sheers.  This window is an odd shape - roughly 4 feet square - so I will have to do some trimming.

Everybody keeps reassuring me that it's OK to not totally decorate a room/house all at once.  Sometimes it takes time to find that right piece, and to just relax and keep my eyes open.

Lately I've been concentrating on the bedroom.  It's a big room, fairly bare, and yellow.  Very, very yellow.  Daffodil yellow, in fact.   I hate it.  Mostly what I'm trying to do is make it seem less yellow.  I tried to tone it down with browns, but it hasn't worked too well.  Now I'm trying whites and creams to soften it.  I was fortunate in finding a great deal at Burlington Coat Factory.  A soft creamy colored damask set of panels that have an attached valance.  It's got a pretty, unusual drape of sheer fabric attached, too.  Best part - only $20 a panel.  They replaced the dark maroon curtains I bought when Brian first got sick.  He didn't even HAVE curtains, and I figured he'd have a better time sleeping with room darkening/noise dampening panels.  They worked well until we painted the room and bought the fancy bedspread, when they took on a primary color aspect.

The bad part about the new curtains is that they weren't lined.  I had to get blackout liners, and again lucked out, this time at Wal-Mart.  Shockingly, they were on clearance at $10 a panel, and turned out to be eco friendly, which meant no smell!  Boy do they work.  It's actually kind of unnerving to have it THAT dark in the room.  The LED on the fire alarm is annoying now.  I did have a problem with light coming up between the top of the panels and the wall, but solved that with a strip of cardboard wedged between the curtain rod and the wall.

Having new curtains also meant new curtain rods.  I wanted something fancy, and while I couldn't match the flame finials on the bed and the monster chest-of-drawers, I did find an oval shaped finial that mimicked the reeding on the bedposts and details on the chest and nightstands.  I'm still working out how to use holdbacks.   They sort of push the curtains away from the wall, which doesn't look so good.

Since my attention has been devoted to that room, I started thinking about other areas and what I wanted to do.  The new curtains actually make the room look bigger, or at least that wall farther away.  I was afraid that the absence of dark color on that wall would make the chest of drawers loom even larger, but it seems ok.  I turned instead to the bookshelf that stood on the opposite wall from the chest.  It's not quite as tall, and actually looks kind of small and sad.  I thought a vase of flowers would help - something to look at while in the room, plus add height and balance.


With that in mind, I wandered into Michaels to see what they had pre-made.  (More luck - a big floral sale!)  I found one sample on display that I liked, except for the bright yellow tiger lilies in it.  I didn't want to add MORE yellow to the room, and frankly, I have an aversion to tiger lilies.  I know it's weird, it's just they have an awful smell, and it makes me dislike even the fake ones.

So I looked around, and started picking out stems to design my own arrangement.  I found some cream dogwood-like florals, and some big flower things - possibly gardenias? - that matched.  I added some green leaves to the bottom, and also some tall stemlike bits with berries hanging off.  I matched it all with a metal vase made to look like wood - matching the mahogany of the rest of the room. 


I've never really done much floral arranging . . . just a lackadaisical arrangement in my bathroom: pink and blue flowers shoved in a Snapple container.  I enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure out how it should look and how to solve what I felt was missing.  The gardenias made it cohesive, the berries added dark bits of interest.  The greenery was a bit too much, and I still need to mess with it a bit to get a better balance.  I couldn't figure out how to easily take pieces off without resorting to cutting them.

I'm very pleased overall.  Now I'm thinking about wall decorations, as there's nothing hanging on the walls at all.  That could take ages, so I made a side trip and am now working on curtains for the master bathroom.  I've had the fabric since last summer, I think.  It's just taken me all this time to figure out the instructions.  I'm used to one inch scale curtains, where I can just glue them on the wall.

I admit, I have lots of tools.  Not just screwdrivers and hammers and glue guns and my don't-call-me-girly yellow DeWalt drill, but little tools, scissors, and X-Acto knives, and tools that really aren't tools, but I use them to create things so they're now designated as tools. 

I have a hard time keeping them organized due to their widely varying shapes and sizes.  Now that I have a big work space, I wanted to reorganize what I had so I didn't have to keep opening various boxes.  Craft organizers didn't meet my needs.  My favorite easy-action Fiskar scissors were so top-heavy that I couldn't store them upright, and I had lots of little items that needed to be within easy reach.  I poked  around on Etsy and eBay, hoping for ideas, but only one thing stood out.  It was a fancy cardboard sewing box with lots of reach-in compartments.  It wasn't what I needed, but it DID remind me of the cardboard suitcase box my grandmother gave me for my birthday a few years ago.  It had done its service in storing ALL of the accouterments for my Archaeologist's Study when I moved, and was quietly sitting empty on top of the bookcase.  I did a little thinking, scrabbled through my stashes, and came up with something I hope will work.


The ruler, the knitting needle, and the dental tool are held on using clip-on earring backs.  The long razor, tweezers, nail file, and doll sewing needle are held on by a magnet.  The compartment with the sculpting tools and pencil was the lid to a small gift box.  The long, narrow pincushion is simply the cotton from that gift box rolled up tight and glued into some extra fabric.  The fancy box is what I use to store my X-Acto knives and blades - I try to keep those as safe as possible to avoid any more damage to myself than necessary.  There is plenty of room for my scissors, wire cutters, and anything else I might need in there.  The glue box has a false bottom to keep the bottle semi-upright.  I glued fancy ribbon to the sides to hold the lid up.  I'm fervently praying that the hot glue I used holds.  I hate that stuff.  If I lay the glue bottle down flat, the entire thing can be closed and moved about by the handle on the front, just out of the photo.  I haven't tested this too thoroughly yet, but I'm pretty sure that everything will stay in place - except maybe the doll needle.  It's metal, but doesn't like to stick to the magnet too well. 

So far, I'm pleased, but I haven't yet had time to do a project and test it out.  Of course there's plenty of other things I can think of to put in there, but I can't put in EVERYTHING.

And here's the finished doll! 

Inspiration Gown

She decided she wanted to be called Igraine.  Not after King Arthur's mother, but the time period is hopefully about right.

Her hair gave me some problems, and is still giving me some problems.  The doll had a hole cut out of the top of her head so you can use it for hanks of hair, but I couldn't get it to work right.  I stuffed it with paper and some extra hair to fill it up and just went on without it.  I still need to fix some overly loose strands, and take better pictures.
I think I need a tripod, as I just can't hold a camera steady.  Although, as Harvey would tell me, a monopod works perfectly well.  AKA, get a tall stick.  I have a fancy light box my Dad gave me a few years ago.  On my 'things to do' list is retaking photos of all of my dolls using it.

After ages of not doing any miniatures, I've finally been able to  finish one doll, Jane, and have started another.  Both dolls have been heads that I have owned for many, many years.  Jane I sculpted by hand, and the current project was the medieval doll kit I bought from Swallowhill Dolls, my first porcelain acquisition.  (sadly they seem to have gone out of business.)  I've tried for years to dress her but could never get the look I wanted. 

The process changes a little every time.  Yesterday I went feet first, and then made the body.  I got my inspiration from a gown on Arm Street, but the particular doll I had in mind had old fashioned heels on her porcelain feet.

My attempt to disguise this turned into a strange wedge shaped heel, while the shoes appear to be made from burlap.  The nice thing about a macro feature on the camera is that you can see a lot of detail.  The bad thing is you can see all the BAD details, too!    I can see now that I'm going to have to go after some glue.

Inspiration Dress from ArmStreet

I rarely take unfinished photos of my dolls, but here's one so you can get an idea of what's underneath the clothing.  Generally - a big mess.  Since these dolls rarely get their outfits changed, the whole point of the underneath is to support the layers of clothing.  Since the fabric isn't to scale, you have to make adjustments to the body to compensate for the thickness of the cloth in order for it to appear 'normal'.  It's why fashion dolls have tiny waists - imagine making a skirt out of carpet - the gathers would take up a lot more room!  Yes, I took a few shortcuts this time, and the bust on the doll is so narrow I'm having a hard time getting it to fit on the body.  In the end, though, none of this will be seen. 

I'm still debating over her name.  Mentally she's been Lady Hannah for years, but that doesn't seem to be a name that would go with her dress.  I'm considering Hannelore or Rosalind.  Maybe I should let her pick.

So over the holidays I decided to branch out into an area I feel more comfortable with - making cookies. 
Growing up, cookie making was a major part of the winter celebrations.  We'd go all out, turning the kitchen and dining room into a production site, playing Christmas carols, or watching related movies as we worked.  Mom had given me several recipes that I wanted to try and/or perfect. 
I was fortunate in that I had discovered that Bloom carried two vital products that would enable Brian to eat my cookies without getting sick.  The first was Enjoy Life's soy/peanut free chocolate chips.  The second was Earth Balance's soy free margarine.  While the debate is still out there regarding butter vs margarine in both health and proper cookie science, I felt a bit better knowing I was using margarine, particularly in regards to cholesterol count.  Along with Trader Joe's sunflower seed butter, I felt set.

First up, of course, was Mom's egg free chocolate chip cookies, from the cookbook Bakin' without Eggs.  These are the favorites of  most of the family.  Brian had requested that I make them smaller so he could pop them in his mouth all in one go. (having to bite into a cookie results in crumbs, and we can't risk losing out on eating any part of the cookie!)  Fortunately Enjoy Life's chips were mini, so they baked up nicely.

Secondly, I made Nestle Crunch Snowball cookies.  As I couldn't use actual Nestle crunch bars (Thanks a lot for your peanut compromised factories, Nestle!) I attempted to make my own.  I used chocolate chips and crisped rice (found some designed for candy making) and poured it into the bottom of a gladware container.  Unfortunately I got it too thick, and it was too difficult to break up into chunks, so I just started randomly dumping the various types of chocolate chips I had around the house into the mix.  They turned out rather well.  The second time I made them I discovered that Enjoy Life made their own crunch bar and used those.  Again, they were a bit too thick to easily break up, and the food processor managed to make a mix of big chunks and fine dust.  I'm going to invest in a chocolate bar shaped candy mold and see if I can't get this right one day. 
There is a LOT of butter/margarine in these cookies, and the dough comes out looking and feeling like stiff cake batter.  I have to stir by hand because it chokes the mixer!

Thirdly, I made the colonial sugar cookies, using the Christmas cutouts my grandmother had given me the year before.  I never got around to attempting icing, so they weren't all that wonderful, but looked festive!

A few days later I attempted to make Rice Krispie treats.  I remember only doing them once before and it being really difficult to stir, but I had no problems this time around.  I pressed in the chocolate chips on top and they came out great. 

Fourthly, I was determined to make Peanut Butter Blossoms.  I love them - I'd even eat them without the kiss on top!  I used the 'easy' eggless recipe from Betty Crocker and the sunflower seed butter.  They turned out great!  I'm so pleased that the sunflower butter works and acts the same way as peanut butter.  Brian was able to eat one, but didn't like it.  I got the rest! 

Finally, last night I tried Muddy Buddies, again with the sunflower seed butter.  I made a mistake and didn't buy enough Chex, so had to cut down the rest of the recipe.  I'm pretty certain I miscalculated, as the finished project had more of a peanut butter than a chocolate taste.  I guess I'll have to try again!

I am so very grateful to Earth Balance and Enjoy Life for caring enough to make these allergen friendly products.  It really made my holidays and gave me a little confidence boost in my kitchen attempts.

What are the first words you learn when you study a new language?  Yes, no, thank you, hello, sir, ma'am, numbers and colors, right?  And you're EXCITED to be able to use them.  I know how to say something without having to think hard! 

So here's my rant.  In movies and on TV, whenever you encounter a 'foreigner,'  he speaks perfect English, except for those basic words!  "Si, Senor, the ruffians absconded with the assets.  Will you pursue them?  Gracias!"  Characters pretending to be foreigners can get away with this, too. 

 I'm certainly not going to get into the old Native American movie jargon, where they appear to be unable to produce proper English grammar, in spite of hearing it regularly.

 I realize it's just a simple, quick method of establishing a national identity, but . . . but . . . it shouldn't work!

When we bought the Monster Bed, there were a few issues we encountered.

Issue 1:  Height.  It comes up to my waist.  I had problems getting in it, and was reluctant to step on the side rail for fear of weakening it.  Solved by tracking down bedsteps.  Most annoying part?  The influx of bedsteps available in stores/catalogs AFTER I stopped looking.  It's like they were just waiting for us to give up.

Issue 2:  Bedspread.  It seems that almost all bedspreads these days are designed for beds without bedposts or footboards. Our Monster Bed, of course, is a four poster.  This problem was pretty much ignored, and so the corners stick out kind of funny.  However, purchase of bedspread led to

Issue 3:  Bedskirt.  The bedspread came as a set and included two pillow shams and a bedskirt, which was naturally too short for the bed.  I liked it.  I wanted to keep it.  It matched.  So I sat and pondered how to make it work.

Buying a second one was apparently out of the question, as it only came in a set.  I couldn't put it underneath the box springs.

Eventually, staring at the way it currently hung on the bed, I realized that the side rail would block the view of the top of the skirt if it were at its proper location on the floor.  All's I had to do was add fabric to the TOP of the bedskirt rather than the bottom!

I took a sham with me to the fabric store and ended up buying a basic brown cotton fabric.  I had to cut off the bedskirt from the white cotton that goes between the mattress and the box springs, as it had been overlocked, and I didn't want the fabric to come ungathered.  Then, I took the white cotton and added about 10 inches of brown cotton to three sides.  This fabric covers the box spring entirely so you don't get any glimpses of white between the wooden side rail and the edge of the bedspread. 

I ran into one problem at this point.  The side rails are attached to each other by means of three metal bars which run crosswise under the bed - the box springs and mattress sit on top of these.  They interfered with the bedskirt hanging down.  To get around this, I decided to use velcro.  I cut three slits in the bedskirt where they would meet the bars, and attached velcro to the bedskirt and the brown cotton.  Then I attached the bedskirt by bringing it up under the side rail and the metal bars, while the white cotton and the brown cotton cover the box springs.  I am explaining this very carefully because of the blank looks/huh? comments I am getting when I try to explain it in person.  I may have to resort to drawings.

It took a while to figure out how to do this and then get the nerve to actually carry it out.  A side problem I ran into is that a king sized mattress is REALLY HEAVY.  I needed to check my measurements every once in a while, and of course I had to take it off to sew.   I had decided to sew the bedskirt to the brown cotton along the foot of the bed, and today I ended up doing that by hand because I wanted to check and be sure that everything fit properly before I attempted to permanently attach it.  I didn't feel like wrestling it on and off the bed again and really wanted to get the whole project done.  (I think it's been a year!) It's just as well, because I cannot sew in a straight line by machine. 

I think this might be my first full scale decorating project.  (I don't count hanging things.)  It's a little strange to walk in the bedroom and not be able to see under the bed.  I'm imagining all the stuff I can store under there now. There's so much space I could even rent it out.

Oh yes.  I found a site only two days ago that sold extended length bedskirts.  I had a backup plan.

So far, I'm grateful to say, my kitchen experiments have been edible.  I've even managed several cakes and cookies.  Brian and I have been sharing meals back and forth.  He's more interested in heavier meals with it getting colder out, and I'm not very good with big hunks of meat.  I did help to make beef stew in a preparatory sort of way, although the little shallot onions thought it would be funny to attack my eyeballs.  I had tears streaming down my face, and couldn't see a thing through the burning sensation on my eyeballs.  It was totally unexpected, as I'd never had this problem with regular onions!  

I had mastered chicken in a skillet, but wasn't too certain about other types of meats.  Brian had bought a pork tenderloin in anticipation of making it with spaetzle, bread and a veggie, but his rough work schedule this past week made him ask me to do it instead.  I admit to balking and whining.  I know nothing about pork or how it should look, and have never done more than wash a roasting pan, and had almost no time to research.  I squeezed it in after class and an unpleasant shopping trip at Wegmans (oh how I hate that store!  I could rant for quite a few paragraphs about it)  and then Giant to find bread without a peanut allergy warning on it. 

Brian's instructions had been 'throw it in the oven and cook it til it's done.'  This, as my mother well knows, is not a good thing to tell me.  Years ago, when I was a teen, she needed to run out around the time she wanted to put a casserole in the oven.  She had it all made up, left it on the counter and told me the same thing.  'All's you need to do is throw it in the oven, I'll be back before it's done.'  I obediently did so.

I'd like to point out that no mention had been made about removing the saran wrap covering the dish. 

I'm not sure if this event led to my OCD need for detailed instructions or if it was something that I've always required, but I have a need to do lots of research before I attempt to do something.  So upon coming home I rushed straight to google.  It turned out to be a bad idea.  There are lots of pork recipes out there, although a lot of them kept getting mixed up with pork loin recipes, which is a different thing.  Many of the recipes called for a marinade, which I didn't have time to do.  It also took me some time to find a web site that properly explained what a roasting pan was and how it worked.  With pictures, because I wasn't sure how it went together, or if what I had WAS a roasting pan and not something else. 

Eventually, hands still shaking from my Wegman's anxiety attack, I crept down to the kitchen to narrow my search options to cookbooks.  The only consensus I could reach was the oven temperature and the time, and worked myself up to a mental stage where I could, in fact, throw the pig in the oven and cook it til it was done.  Determined to make some sort of effort, I sprinkled it with minced onion & garlic and some thyme and stuck it in the V shaped rack in the roasting pan.  There was other metal bits of the pan that I couldn't figure out where they belonged, so I decided I was going to ignore them.  In went the tenderloin and I started the spaetzle on the stove, with easier directions.

Then, I ran into the thermometer dilemma.  I had forgotten to research how to use it.  Cookbook instructions just said stick it in the fattest part with no bone.  They neglected to say if I should remove the meat from the oven first.  So, again, I winged it.  Other instructions said to give it a slice and if juices ran clear it was ok.  It did, so eventually I stopped fussing.

In the end, Brian got home an hour later than normal so everything got reheated.  It turned out very tender, although a little heavy on the spices, but since I like garlic and onions, I wasn't too concerned.  He ate the rest, even taking some to work for lunch, and neither of us got sick, so I figure the meal was a success.

I hate doing things if I don't know if I can do a good job, and don't feel fully prepared.  I'm very detail oriented, even down to physically measuring out margins on custom stationery and labels.  I get very frustrated at recipes because they don't have the amount of detail that I require.  What kind of oil/butter/salt?  Can I substitute this?  How can I eyeball it, if I don't know what it's supposed to look like in the first place?  What does 'done' look/smell/feel like, anyway?  What kind of cooking utensil should I use?  A baking pan? a glass pan?  What's the difference between a baking pan and a cookie sheet?  Can I switch them?  I won't even get into nutrition here. 

In the end I suspect none of it actually matters and I'm some sort of paranoid control freak.  Maybe I should write a recipe book.  "Cooking Basics for the Confused and Suspicious."

I had a wild, crazy inspiration that won't go away. Isaiah Mustafa . . . on a pumpkin.  Sadly, I don't think I have the talent for it, but I did have fun doing this, at least. Following the very useful instructions on The Okuda Family website I was able to create a visual for my madness. 

A growing problem with my website is that it has been growing. For every new project page I add, I also have to add a link to a number of pages. On the plus side it means less clicking for my three visitors, but it's a lot of work on my part, trying to make sure that I've added the proper link to every page, particularly in the Miniatures section.

After conducting some research, I came to the conclusion that the ideal solution would be to have all of my links on one page, and have that page added, called, or whatever the term might be, to each web page. This way I could update in one place but have it show up everywhere. At first glance this seemed to not be doable in CSS, and I was afraid that I'd have to change the whole site over to PHP. Fortunately I found out about SSI, Server Side Includes. The only changes I had to make were to switch the .html files that would display the menu to .shtml files.

About halfway through the redesign it dawned on me that EVERY page in my website had a link to minis.html. I had a few seconds of horror and then decided that my quickest fix would be to do a redirect to minis.shtml. It seems to work. I'm very uncomfortable doing it that way, though. When I originally designed the site I thought for sure that those links at the top of the page would never change. Now I'm debating changing all of the files to .shtml and just having all the menus imported. Most likely I will just go through and edit the entire file list in my free time.

After figuring out that this was possible, I wanted to make one more change. One of the features I do like about this new blog is the menu on the right hand side, and being able to minimize portions. I thought it would be perfect for the miniatures menu. I wanted to split up the dolls by material, and of course I had the sections for links, houses, and random projects. Eventually I figured out the best way to do that - through javascript - and found myself a nice little pre-written script.

So yes, I totally blew the afternoon off, but accomplished a long desired goal. Go check it out. Try to break it. I don't mind. I need to know if things work, or don't work. I will fix the minis link above right after I publish.

Now we need to get our area to pass something like this.

I hate gyms. I feel like I'm on display, which is a guaranteed 'ok I'm leaving now' situation. I'm glared at by the older women, eye-rolled at by the permanent resident gym bunnies, ogled by the men, and peeping tommed in the showers by three year olds whose mothers don't bother to teach them any sort of locker room etiquette or to even stay by their side in public. I thought maybe going with someone else would help, but no luck. While I just want to turn on my music, shut my eyes and pretend I'm somewhere else, my husband wants to play games. Games that require me to look all around the room to come up with a thing for the other person to guess. Trust me, you don't want to look around a busy gym. Nasty, gross places and people. Ugh.

Having said all that, I readily admit that exercise is important and should be done. I also admit that I need to get back into it, especially since I discovered that all of my gym shorts are too tight. I'm not comfortable walking around the neighborhood (playing human Frogger is really not as fun as it sounds) so my concession is a small stairclimber. I would have preferred a treadmill, but they're really expensive and take up a lot of room. My stairclimber has a roughly 24 inch square footprint and can be shoved under the bed or in the closet if needed. It even came with arm poles for balance and arm exercise, but I could never get them tightened enough for proper resistance. It's a simple machine that even includes a timer, a step counter, and it calculates calories burned and other things. It took me a year to dig it out of the corner in which I first stuck it when I moved and place it upstairs for use, ideally 30 minutes a day, but realistically it hasn't happened yet. 30 minutes is about my limit, I get motion sickness on it and it takes a while to adjust!

Now that I am on it again, I'm back to my old problem - what to do with my brain in that half an hour. I get BORED. I tried television and just got motion sick within 10 minutes. I tried reading, which I could manage, but the books I NEED to read are my textbooks, and it's not a good combination. I finally turned back to my trusty iPod, and spend that half an hour trying to match songs to fit the beat of my feet.

That's right. I spend that half hour self DJing. I have a stairclimber playlist. I critique songs based on the speed of the beat, its consistency, and speed. I get excited when I hear new songs on the radio that I think would work well. And yes, I DO sing along and wave my arms about like a fool, because it's that kind of music.

I have certain requirements that need to be filled. If there's a long, slow intro or a slower interlude halfway through, it messes with the pace. The lyrics need to be upbeat and exciting. The song also needs to be fairly short - I don't have much of an attention span. Also, a few years ago I adjusted the length of the step and discovered that the songs I had been working out to no longer matched the beat! I think I managed to fix it and now I'm afraid to touch anything else on it.

I was rather disappointed that my swing music didn't work, but the beat is wrong. Dance music works well - Kesha in particular has been rocking my afternoons. Techno music sometimes works, but tends to be too long in length. I shouldn't have to touch my ipod during a workout. (I don't WANT to touch my iPod. The stupid shake-to-shuffle feature is a problem if I accidentally knock it.) I'm pondering posting this playlist in the hopes of getting even more suggestions.

The result of all this is that I'm actually enjoying myself. If I stay on the stairclimber just a few more minutes because I like the song, well, all the better! I'm getting more energy, and hopefully soon I'll be able to fit into those gym shorts again. I don't want to buy new ones.

I've never been much of a kitchen person. Sure, it was where the food was, but food never interested me all that much. I took a home ec course in middle school, and was generally around to help make desserts, but otherwise I had no interest in being in the kitchen.

Sometimes I wondered if it was just that the kitchen was not a place I felt welcome. Sure, my mom tried to encourage me to use it, but she turned out to be a kitchen tyrant. She hovered. She said, 'here, let me do that.' And eventually took over. I found it very frustrating, but I imagine she did, too. My mother had a system. It worked very well for her, and she didn't stray from her routine. Watching me trying to figure out step 1 when she would have been on steps 6 and 7 simultaneously must have been painful. I didn't end up learning very much.

While Brian was sick I realized just how helpless I was when it came to the kitchen. It was rather humiliating to not be able to cook for him when I came over to help him through chemo days. (not that he wanted to eat, but still!) After we got married, it was HIS kitchen and HIS routine that I had to learn. Yep, another kitchen tyrant, but this one had different food allergies and a primitive style to cooking. ("Measuring cup? I just eyeball it." "I'd be perfectly happy cooking over an open fire.")

The whole first year, I struggled with work, school, a ton of painful commuting, and trying to settle in to a bachelor's house and its subsequent renovations. I avoided the kitchen as much as possible. Brian cooked, or we ate out. I was too exhausted to think about it.

Now it's a year later, and I've left work to concentrate on getting out of school. I have more time and less commuting on my hands, and the insane whirlwind has slowed to a fresh breeze. I have hours alone at home so I can think without having hoverers nearby. I feel mentally ready to take on learning to cook, but it's taken me a long time to get to this point.

I have the feeling that when I'm done, I'll be yet another kitchen tyrant.

Yet another photo altering attempt.

1. Oh good, it's not as heavy as I expected.
2. So that's what new sewing machine smells like. It's not at all like that new computer smell.
3. Ooh, shiny. Ooh, accessories! Wow. Lots of accessories. Look at all the feet! and needles! and bobbins! And what the heck is this? And that? Oh boy, a seam ripper!
4. Instruction book! Nice instruction book. Impressive. In order, from diagrams to threading to troubleshooting. Well laid out. I am in awe. Someone, somewhere, knows how to write a manual!
5. OMG IT HAS A NEEDLE THREADER! That is so . . . so. . . cheating. But clever! Look how it works! I push this and that moves down and this tiny metal bit actually goes through the eye and then the thread goes this way and you let go . . .*pushes lever over and over*
6. *Tucks accessories neatly away in the storage compartment and tries the cover on for size*
7. OK, must attempt first project. I've got an apron pattern and some fabric for it. Can't get much easier than that, right? It's mostly straight lines!
8. Crap, I need to iron the fabric. *long interlude of dealing with iron, ironing board, and a stubborn crease*
9. Wow, pattern pieces are huge. I'm used to miniature clothing!
10. Whoever folds up patterns and puts them in the envelope is sadistic and twisted.
11. I wonder if you get a special prize for successfully returning a pattern back to its envelope?
12. Uhh. I need one of those cardboard thingies. This piece of foamboard will do for now.
13. Selvage edge. . . selvage edge . . . I KNOW this, I swear I do. But am I right?
14. Fabric Grain. That aligns with the selvage, right?
15. Why am I questioning all this? Go grab your iPod touch and look it up on the internet!
16. Rock on. I was right both times.
17. Wow. pins certainly expand when you open the box.
18. So . . . when it doesn't specify on the layout map which side is up, is it automatically right side up? Considering everything is pretty much symmetrical I don't think it matters in this case. I'll research next time.
19. *pin pin pin* Is it still flat? *smooth smooth smooth*
20. OK. Cutting time! These scissors are awkward.
21. I appear to be unable to cut in a straight line.
22. Yes, I KNOW I intentionally picked fabric with too big a pattern to be useful for miniatures. Stop trying to reuse the scraps for once!
23. OK, step 1! pocket!
24. Wait, must thread machine first.
25. No, must plug machine IN first.
26. Ok, we have power! Right? The light came on, but no other noise? Where's all the . . . oh, maybe it's just Mom's fancy machine that does all the extra self checks. Ok, it works, I'm good!
27. Is the bobbin winder going to stop on its own? Is it? Is it? That's looking pretty full . . . whew!
28. Yes, I cheated and used the needle threader, just for the novelty, I swear!
29. I need sharper thread snips.
30. DO NOT THROW THREAD ON THE FLOOR! That's Mom's bad habit, don't make it yours!
31. Am I channeling my mother? *eyes the floor warily for pins*
32. OK, next step, make the pocket. Edge stitch? Edge stich? *grabs iPod* see topstitching. Oooh. ok.
33. Crap, I have to iron AGAIN? Maybe I'll finish this tomorrow.
34. *goes to bed*

This bears investigating.

A few years ago, Brian, in a fit of creativity, built a storage ottoman out of plywood. He wanted it padded and covered in navy blue canvas, with a big padded lid. We accomplished both, eventually, but a slight miscalculation led to the bottom of the ottoman slightly wider all around than the lid. (he forgot to allow for padding in the dimensions between the lid and the box.) Another miscalculation in the thickness of the foam padding for the lid meant that it was too tall to comfortably use when sitting on the sofa. We ended up buying a leather ottoman for that spot, and the poor blue ottoman was banished to odd corners of the house.

I felt bad. I WANTED to make it work and look good, so I sat and thought about how I could go about fixing it without taking the thing apart. I finally came up with a cover, somewhat like a tablecloth, out of a heavy enough fabric that it would fall evenly over the lid to the edges of the box. Coming up with a proper look took a little longer, but I decided to make it look like a map, and rim the edges with a ropelike trim. I set about looking for the right kind of fabric. The closest I could find was almost perfect, except for the fact that it was emblazoned with words like "Tommy Bahama" and "Couch Potato Bay" and suchlike. So I turned to the next best thing and bought plain tannish canvas fabric. I'll draw my OWN map on it.

Mom and I got the cover made, and it works! The ottoman looks, well, normal. I just need to decorate it now. Fun new creative project!



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