I keep all my knitting in these little storage cubes in the living room. My active projects go in this basket under the end table for easy access (since the cubes inevitably have tea, food, dog toys, remotes, books, etc. on them). Back in October I finally bought knitting needle cases and bought/”borrowed” from Mom a bunch of nifty knitting supplies –stitch holders, more stitch markers, needle holiders, etc. I finally feel like a real knitting!

As all crafters inevitably do, though, I’ve accumulated so much random yarn. I purchased a book of one-skein projects a few months ago specifically to start burning through all these random yarn balls I’ve collected over the years (most of which I’ve stupidly lost the labels for so I don’t even know what they are).

I’m finally putting Project “Use All The Yarn” into action. I’m currently ¾ of the way done with Baby Blue Pine Forest Blanket. I also started a super cute Pink Baby Blanket that will go into storage with the blue one. Originally I had planned to give all baby stuff away, but after realizing I’m sentimentally attached to the blue one, I’ve decided it’ll be sort of cute to have a boy blanket and a girl blanket tucked away so that, in the new few years, when it’s time, we’ll have the fun of pulling them out!

I’ve also got a generic brown scarf in the works that I’ll probably be donating. I’ve also got plans for leg warmers, two pillow case covers, another scarf for Frank, dish rags, and some cute stuffed animals. I don’t know enough for there to be rapid progress on any of this, but it’s fun to list it out now. Because I do love lists.

Also just found out that multiple people I know are expecting babies so . . . looks like I’m back to making booties and bonnets! Good thing baby yarn is such a pleasure to knit with! Vanna’s Choice Baby gives my fingers knitting goosebumps, I love working with it so much.

Here are some work in progress pictures! (Also pictures of the pink booties I FINALLY finished and added buttons to, almost a year after I actually finished them. I’ve made two sets now but I’ve still got TONS of baby yarn, so expect more!)

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I’m trying to knit more now (more on that later) so progress will slow, but I still work on it 1-2 times a week while watching documentaries or movies or whatnot. Can’t ever do just one thing at a time, you know!

My goal last year was to read 100 books. I’d decided to try doing one dedicated goal rather then the 3-8 New Year Resolutions everyone always does, which are inevitably lists of all the things we don’t actually do.

At the end of 2011, I’d finished 101 books. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

It’s not a challenge I’ll do every year, but maybe every 2-3 years. It’s nice to have a reason to force yourself to keep reading and to pick up books you might not have before. I read so many more recent books that are generally not part of my interest because when you’re plowing through books so quickly, you don’t really have to worry about wasting time or some bad book dragging on.

The downside to this sort of challenge is that you have to really scoot. Some books are fine to be digested in a couple bites but most books benefit from taking time to savor, think, and reflect. Often I’d finish a book in a whirlwind and be left wondering what just happened.

It also directly influences the types of books you read. I didn’t eliminate long books all together. The Three Musketeers was probably the longest book I read. Wicked and the Devil in the White City were both pretty dense reads too. But I did find myself frequently, sometimes without even realizing it, pushing off some of the longer books I’m interested in reading, or grabbing for shorter books when I felt overwhelmed by deadlines. In the end, it all evened out to probably an average of 300-400 pages a book. But I am entering 2012 with 10 500+ word books at the top of my queue (Moby Dick, Bleak House, Adam Bede, Les Miserables, Harry Potter 4, Little Women, Game of Thrones, The Bone People, 20 Years Later, Of Human Bondage, Autobiography of Mark Twain, etc.)

I set myself a new goal this year to finish 50 books, just to give myself the opportunity to track again. I also set a mini-goal of reading 100 short stories. That shouldn’t take a year, but I’ve been awful the past year about not reading them and figured I could use the motivation. I definitely enjoy novels more but as I’m hoping to write more short stories, I need to read more short stories!

If you’re on GoodReads, feel free to friend me on there! Sometimes I post book reviews, if I feel inclined, and I’m always up for a good book discussion. Mostly, though, I just like spying on what other people are reading!

On any given evening, I have to choose between knitting, cross-stitching and reading. This is assuming that I’m not in the mood to play any of the half dozen half-finished video games I’m needing to beat. Also assuming that I’m being a bum and not writing (which I’m having a hard time getting myself back to work on), or making blog posts, or redesigning a website for the dozenth time. I’ve abandoned every online social group I’ve been a part of, because there’s just not time. I also have to find time to cook, clean, and take care of my dog. Plus, particularly because I’m part of this weight loss challenge at work, I need at least an hour of working out time in the evenings –unless it’s one of the evenings I have Irish Dance or fencing, or am doing a particularly active volunteer event. Let’s not forget that I’ve let my photography skills get downright rusty. My “need to sew” pile is a mile high, and I still haven’t done the odd jobs around home like reupholster our dining room chairs or make curtains for the dining room.

Not to mention the long list of things that I meant to do but then didn’t –learn Spanish, practice piano, practice guitar, brush up on my French and German, improve at ASL, update our photo albums, teach Nellie a new trick.

Between NaNoWriMo, the 11th month of my “100 books in a year” challenge, the weightloss challenge, friends visiting, Thanksgiving, my two jobs, my first month of doing Fly Lady cleaning, ISD and fencing, November’s going to be an even busier than month than October was.

And I don’t even have kids to juggle! How do people LIVE with only 24 hours in a day?

The transformation into my mother is almost complete.

Also, I was making lunch at work and I told Frank, “I have a plan. We’re going to start spending 15 minutes a day cleaning the house.”

His response, “I’ve heard this plan before.”

What a jerk.

He’s cleaning the sink tonight.

At first we tried the “whoever doesn’t cook” does the dishes. But I usually cook, which means he would mostly do the dishes. Except he isn’t as bothered by them piling up in the sink, which meant I would have to do them anyway.

Then we tried the free-for-all method, but that generally wound up with no one doing them.

So after a year of this, we broke down and purchased a countertop dish washer.

PRO: It will wash the dishes for you. CON: Except when it doesn’t (frequently) and you have to wash them by hand again yourself.

PRO: It is portable and fits on the counter so we can take it with us when me move. CON: We don’t have counter space. So at first we balanced it on the washing machine, but that meant we could only do dishes OR laundry. And since the dishwasher weighs 50 pounds and is heavy to move, that meant we didn’t do laundry.

PRO: It attaches to your kitchen sink! CON: When it’s attached, you can’t use the faucet (duh.) Also, we had to take the cool nozzle off because it just fits on the regular spout. Boring and lame.

PRO: It has a nifty little pull out rack to accommodate several sizes of items. CON: It’s still small, so our large plates don’t fit, and it’s not worth running an entire load to wash a single pot. This means we still end up washing all the medium-to-large stuff by hand.

PRO: It has like 5 settings! CON: They all take at least 35 minutes. Generally it’s quicker and more cost effective to just wash by hand.

Moral of the story? I was SO excited to get it, and all my friends who’ve bought one said it was the best $260 they ever spent. But all I can do is kind of sort of sorely regret it.Occasionally it’s nice. But for the most part, it doesn’t do big enough or a large enough quantity to be worth the hassle and increased electric bill. It’s an eyesore in the kitchen.

And, as you can see, it’s not exactly limiting the dishes in our sink.

I’m trying to decide whether we should just bite the bullet and sell the thing . . . Talk about one instance where online reviews and friend recommendations led me astray! Basically we paid $300 for a cup and silverware washer . . .

However, one thing that has put me off when I’ve thought about it before was my inability to reliably commit to something each week. With all the job and joblessness chaos of the past 8 months, and then starting a new job with an unknown amount of travel ahead, I didn’t want to sign up for something only to have to cancel.

Fortunately, I found BostonCares.org . This organization helps bring volunteers and opportunities together –several hundred opportunities each month! The events vary in day, time, mission, duration and focus, meaning there is literally something for everyone. You sign up only for what you want and what fits your calendar. For me, this is perfect.

I did my first event two Saturdays ago, spending my Saturday morning working at the Harvest Food Bank in Cambridge. I helped organize food and put together vegetable bags before the event, then ran the clothes closet during open hours, and helped clean up afterwards. I didn’t directly change any lives, but it just felt so good to be doing something to help other people, knowing that there was nothing coming back to me in return.

This feeling of worth, this “helping high” that people get after some form of sacrifice (in this case, my Saturday morning) was a constant topic in my philosophy classes. Can we honestly say altruism, that selfless people, exist when in fact you get a very real, very wonderful emotional reward after doing good?

I don’t have an answer to that, but I do know that I left feeling bubbly and more useful than I’ve felt since graduating college. Sure, I do awesome, fun things through work, but I get paid to do that. It’s not quite the same. In college, I was dedicated to making myself a better, more intelligent person, which felt like a worthwhile pursuit. Since then, I’ve generally felt pretty useless. But volunteering just one time instantly made me feel better.

So this weekend, I woke up at 6:30AM on a Saturday morning (yikes!) so I could make it out of the house by 7:30, to make the hour long trek down to Dorchester, where I helped clean up a park for a few hours.  Totally different type of work than my first volunteer experience, and yet I was equally happy. I actually wanted to stay longer, even though my job was INSANELY tedious.

I spent my morning picking up glass from around these large rocks that are right by the playground. Dozens are beer bottles have been broken around the area, and it was my job to find not only the large pieces, which frequently were mostly buried, but to also toss out the teeny tiny shards. I’d work on one section for half an hour, feel satisfied, and then the sun would hit it and I’d see sparkles. More glass. Well crap. The same thing would happen if you stuck a shovel in. A little bit of dirt would turn over and there you’d have a whole new layer of glass.

Tedious, for sure, but it was a nice day, and it felt good to be outside, cleaning up this beautiful park. I’ve always loved outdoor work and being in the dirt. Even Frank is thinking about joining me for some of these outdoor volunteer events, though with winter fast approaching, I won’t be doing so many more outdoorsy stuff until the spring.

I’m hoping that volunteering throughout the winter, though, will help stave off the bad winter depression I get every year. I spend so much of my time worrying about money and where to get it and how to pay bills when I don’t have enough, it’s nice just to do something in my life that doesn’t revolve around money. It’s like a last form of rebellion against the idea that all that matters is money and how to get it.

Here’s my bag of glass. That’s several hours of work right there. Doesn’t look like much but it was a better use of my time than just sleeping in!

Irish Dance Class was last night, and I’m torn. On one hand, I love class more than I ever have before but on the other hand I’m bored and frustrated.

For some unknown reason, about five weeks ago, Irish dancing finally just clicked for me. I did this type of dance competitively in high school, and while I wasn’t stellar, I was good. When I picked it up again last year after a 4-year hiatus, I was awful. I started in the intermiediate class at my new teacher’s suggestion, but occasionally wondered if I should go back to beginner. I couldn’t remember steps I’d just danced a few minutes before. My dancing had no cohesion. I frequently left class mortified by my own inability to manage even simple dances.

Then suddenly five weeks ago, after dancing again for almost a year, something suddenly clicked and I’m suddenly dancing better — possibly even better than I did in high school. This is great for my own enjoyment and sense of accomplishment, but terrible for the class I’m in. I suddenly improved, but the rest of the class remained the same. Now spending three weeks going over the same step leaves me feeling bored and frustrated by our slow progress. In high school, we’d learn a new dance in 2-3 weeks. Now we take twice that to learn simple dances.

I’m not sure what suddenly changed.  My hard shoe dances are steady and loud –two things they weren’t even when I danced in high school. I’m able to do weird little embellishments in both hard and soft shoe. I’m losing weight but I’ve danced while I was lighter than this. I’m not as determined as I used to be, and I don’t even practice outside of class (nowhere to do it) like I did in high school. When classes started this fall, I was shocked by myself at the first dance class because I looked and felt like a totally different dancer and I’m unsure why.

I’m still not an amazing dancer, and no one would watch me and think ‘Oh man, what a dance genius.’ But I’m better than I’ve ever been, and in a really sudden turn of events, one that’s leaving me bored and frustrated by my current class. But I’m not quite good enough, I don’t think, to join the small advanced class.

My teacher is doing a “Percussive Dance Ensemble” class starting on Mondays that I’m interested in. I can’t really afford to do both classes (each is $90 for six weeks and money is really tight right now). Part of me is happy to abandon my current class for this new one but the other part of me doesn’t want to miss out on what’s become a Wednesday night tradition for me. Not that I’ve really made friends in my current class, but at least they’re familiar faces, and I’m trying to make social connections in Boston (after living here for five years . . . ) where I can.

Also, I’ll admit, I really, really do miss competing. If I was at least performing, that would fill the void. But the intermediate class only performs once a year, at the studio showcase, and the school doesn’t send dancers to competition.

So without further ado:

Initially we planned to go a couple weeks ago, but a mixture of rain and an excruciating sinus headache made us reschedule to Monday, Columbus Day and therefore a holiday from work. We’d rented a Zipcar beginning at 8:30am so we could swing by Pearl Vision to get Frank’s glasses adjusted before heading off to the country.

As soon as I started up the car, a warning light came on to check the tire pressure. I got out and checked but the tires looked and felt full, so I drove around the block, thinking the light would turn off. I pulled over about 30 seconds later because it hadn’t and called Zipcar.

The woman I spoke to told me to just put more air in the tires. When I said I wasn’t really comfortable with this, she told me just to find someone at the gas station to help me. So Frank and I went to the glasses place, then went to a gas station and I filled the tires up.

Instantly the front left tire deflated completely. So we backed into the parking space and I called Zipcar again. The woman I spoke with this time (who was possibly the same woman) asked if I could have a friend drive me to pick up a tirejack so I could change the tire myself. When I asked if there was any way to extend my reservation, she said I could do that if I wanted to, but didn’t offer to extend it for me the way Zipcar usually does if there’s any problem. At first she told me the car was booked right at 2, but then figured out she could extend my reservation because it was only going in to be serviced. Oh, but the extension was on my dime. I went ahead and told her just to book it for 24 hours then since it would cost the same.

No. Dummy. If I had friends with cars, I wouldn’t be renting a car.

So she called roadside assistance and said they’d be out in about 45 minutes. Of course, she also gave them the wrong address, telling them I was in Boston instead of Cambridge. The guy arrived and was extremely nice and helpful. He struggled at first to get the lug nuts off, complaining that they were on WAY too tight (there’s no way I would have been able to get them off if I’d even tried; this guy was HUGE and struggled). He put the donut on and checked the tire, finally figuring out that it was the valve itself, meaning someone (probably the driver before me) got hit or scraped it against something.

I immediately called Zipcar and told them what he’d said, as well as explained that I didn’t hit anything and I called immediately to report the damage because the last thing I want to do is pay for a new tire thanks to the previous driver. This guy said that was fine and apologized for the inconvenience and gave me two hours of free driving credit. It’s something.

Talked to the roadside assistance guy a little more and he reminded me that you can’t drive with a donut on the highway, and really you shouldn’t even drive with a donut on in Somerville’s  crappy streets. So I called Zipcar again and told them I needed a new car because the whole reason I rented this was to go out into the country. Finally, someone who seemed genuinely empathetic that this whole thing was ruining my day and wasn’t even my fault. Because of the idiot driver before me, I spent 2 hours sitting in a hot car with a flat tire and had to pay to extend my reservation because of it. She asked if I needed to extend and I explained that I’d already paid to extend since that cost the same. She also discovered that the nearest car that would be immediately available was 2.6 miles away, which would mean we’d have to cab there and back.

But get this. She seemed to have read Zipcar’s “How to be a nice customer service person” manual and actually demonstrated the above and beyond customer service I expect from Zipcar. She comped me half of my reservation (apparently the most they can comp) and also said they’d comp me for the cab rides if I just emailed them pictures of the cab receipts –both to the car and home from the car. I thanked her profusely and accepted. We then carefully drove the car back to its original location and set off for Smolack Farms, 2.5 hours after we’d intended to.

The thing is, it’s not Zipcar’s fault that I reserved a car that had a flat tire. This sort of thing is bound to happen, particularly with this style of out-in-the-world automobile rental. This sort of delay is the inherent danger of being a customer. It’s all in how the company handles delays like this that make a customer who’s experienced an inconvenience come back. When I talked to that first woman, she should have said, “If you’re uncomfortable driving the car, I can see if I can change your reservation to another car.” Then the flat tire would have been discovered since the car was getting serviced that day anyway. The second time I called, the person played by the book but offered only the bare minimum. The third person was finally offering to help and the final woman was the one who finally nailed it and had me leave a really annoying, crappy morning feeling a bit better.

So . . . at long last, off we drove to Smolack Farms. And, to be honest, Nellie was pretty awful.

I don’t mean she misbehaved, but whereas last year she was content to stay by us and hunt for apples, this year she wanted to go run and play with kids. While Frank bought us a couple Apple Cider Donuts from the Farm Stand, I stood out with her while one kid after another came to pet her, and she loved it. But by the time we got into the orchard and were picking apples (off the trees this year! not the ground!), she wanted to just go run around. It probably didn’t help that it was actually pretty hot outside.

We picked from the Antique Orchard (which has 25 varieties of apples!) instead of the Standard Orchard this year, and got a ½ bushel basket because I wanted the basket (it’s going to hold my scarves in the porch room!) We got WAY better apples than last year, but Nellie wasn’t that interested.

We got pumpkins this year too! I’d meant to last year but for whatever reason we didn’t. This year we wandered around the patch, let some more kids fawn over Nellie (she definitely preferred this to hunting apples this year), then packed up and headed home, swinging by the Sonic in Peabody.

It would have been nicer if the day was a little cooler and Nellie was a little more interested in the apples and a little less interested in trying to tug us along to go chase kids. But we got better apples, awesome big pumpkins, and the picking from trees was more fun than scavenging from the ground.

Got home too late in the day for me to do any baking yet, but next weekend I’ll probably make apple chips, applesauce, apple bread and maybe apple butter? We still have quite a bit of apple butter left over from last year, though; we rationed it way too successfully!