A Dialogue, No tags, Completely made up by me

Two speakers, twenty-something man and woman, at work.

-Are we friends?

-Of course we’re friends. Why would you even ask that?

-We don’t have anything in common except for this job. We only see each other at work.

-So?

-So. Aren’t we just co-workers? Don’t friends do things together sometimes?

-Like what?

-Like. Just hanging out. Like you and Mike.

-Mike and I have known each other since we were in diapers. And the only thing we hang out doing is playing video games.

-Yeah?

-Yeah. So. you don’t play video games.

-Nobody ever asked me.

-Dude.

-Ok. Ok. How about parties?

-Neither of us has parties.

-No, but we’ve never been at someone else’s party at the same time. No friends in common.

-Neither of us even goes to parties.

-Why is that?

-Because we’re too busy.

-Maybe.

-And we never hang out anywhere else because we have no money.

-True.

-The real truth is, I spend more time with you—here at work—than anyone else I know—

-Except Heather.

-Even Heather! I’ve seen you more this week than I’ve seen her.

-We should have a party. 

You Can Change My NaNoWriMo Novel, or Watch Me Be Irrational About My Writing

My total word count as of yesterday is 20,028. I wrote almost 4,000 words yesterday.  Which was great for yesterday, but my brain has turned to mush today.  

Last night I had the urge to take this piece of Mainstream Fiction and drop in a fraternal alien-twin for one main character and a liberal sprinkling of the word ‘ovipositor.’  Is this my subconscious telling me I want to write science fiction?  Or is 4,000 words too many for one brain in one day?

I was disappointed to receive absolutely no additional suggestions to yesterday’s 10 Things You Can Drop Into Your NaNo Novel post.  Giddy, I suppose, and unmotivated to write according to the plot I scratched out on this sheet of graph paper in front of me, I’ve decided to shake things up a bit.  

Here is the really boring short synopsis of my novel:

Jill and Carlos work at the same busy video store. They’re friends, but only at work. They don’t get married, or date, or even like each other That Way. But sometimes they talk to each other about the important stuff.

I’ll admit it, my original suggestions yesterday for things to drop into your NaNo were pretty tame.  In the spirit of generating creative absurdity, I will consider all suggestions for throwing wrenches into a NaNoWriMo novel from now until the weekend.  Whichever one I think is the most outrageous will go into MY NaNo.  I have no prizes to offer.  If I choose your outrageous suggestions, you’ll have the satisfaction of know you have f—ahem, um, TINKERED with my creative process.  

Only Rule: No Brutality.

Do your weirdest.

The Christmas Post

I hope everyone has had some good cheer in the past few weeks, or that good cheer will be coming your way in the next few.  

We had a lovely Christmas, though the general level of enthusiasm (and consumption of spirits) was dampened by an uninvited guest.  RSV, for those who don’t know, is a nasty little bugger, and I would highly recommend that you avoid it if at all possible.  

There were many lovely presents all around, and, thanks to my father’s shredding machine and his mad packing skills, there was snow.  Paper snow.  In the living room.  Despite our best efforts at snow removal, it can still be found drifting and swirling in the corners and under the furniture.  The snow is likely to persist until June at least.  

The invited guests have all returned home.  Two of them absconded with all of our children, leaving Partner and I in our snowy house with our stuffy heads and more food than should be legally possible for two people to consume in a month.  For the next week we will try to figure out what to do with our temporarily-childless selves.  

No, don’t worry.  We’ll find something to do I’m sure.  At the very least, we will work up some masquerade costumes and some pastries for the New Year’s Eve party we’re attending next Wednesday.  Our first grown-up New Year’s Eve party for nearly ten years.  I’m dizzy with excitement.  Or perhaps that’s the cold medicine.  Either way it’s a strangely nice feeling.  

A photo of me from Sonar X4’s birthday just to show that I’m not yet as round as my matryoshka representation.  And yes, those are candles, Christmas lights, and a snow globe in the fireplace behind me.  I’m not sure why we have a fireplace because, trust me, you don’t want to light an actual wood-burning fire in the fireplace here, even on Christmas.  Not even for the atmosphere.  Which reminds me of a tiny rant about people here who want a fire in the fireplace so bad that they run their air conditioners to offset the heat produced.  But I’ll spare you that little bit of vitriol in honor of Christmas, and also in honor of not being rude to those of you who live someplace where a fire in the fireplace would not only be a lovely cozy thing but also a necessarily heat-producing thing.  

Now, I’m off to begin fulfilling my agenda, which begins with an important item:  hibernate until virus leaves.  

I have a tendency to Over-Do

In case you hadn’t noticed.  

I over-do with knitting, and sewing and teacher-gifts and occasionally cooking.  A couple of months ago, I declared this ridiculous to do list.  Look, here’s another thing finished! (The socks, not the child)

 

Those are the new, Hogwarts-inspired, Sonar X3 socks.  I finished one of the shirts mentioned in that post, the other is half-finished.  The other two were cancelled due to a glut of long-sleeved dress shirts.  The Partner Hoodie is done.  The three stealth projects are done.  

I have finished one Deployment sock.  BIL has commenced to being less than familial, and as much as I’d like these socks to be about his service and sacrifice and not about his contribution to our family…. Well, let me just say that a lot of my emotions (and time) go into the things I make for people, and when I’m feeling particularly Not Good about someone, let’s just say that it makes it hard to knit for that person.  But that is one seriously cool sock.  There is a chance that a joke I made about finishing them for Partner, rather than for BIL, was recently misconstrued. But I digress.  

The Mystery Stole is about 1/3 finished.  I love it.  I love making it.  But it requires quiet and concentration, both of which have been in short supply here lately.  It goes on, bit by bit.  

The Urban Aran, Cardiganized is still in the dreaming stages.  

That shopping bag, though not on the list, also managed to sneak into the knitting queue.  It is, as mentioned in a recent post, finished.  

I cast on Kilt Hose *this morning* in the vain hope that I can finish them by early to mid-November.  I’m using Chasing Bunny’s very lovely pattern for Professor Moody’s Kilt Hose (because we just can’t seem to escape dear Harry around here, ever).  

The sanity of that November goal is in question, especially since, right now, I’m in the midst of Halloween Crafting.  I love Halloween.  I think it is a good opportunity to let your imagination run wild and then see if you can make some reality out of it, even if it’s only an approximation.  The educational institution that the elder two sonars attend has, rather cleverly I think, for several years held a Storybook Character Parade on October 31.  Children are invited to choose a character from a book, dress up as that character, and sashay around the campus before the flashbulbs of an adoring set of parents, books in hand.  Various literary and pseudo-literary activities ensue.  This allows any Halloween controversies to evaporate.  

The Sonars, being such imaginative little buggers—er, I mean, darlings, have come up with several lovely ideas.  

Sonar X8 has been inspired by Cornelia Funke’s When Santa Fell to Earth to be, well, Niklas Goodfellow (you might know him better by another name, ahem, Santa).  I dug around in the cupboard and came out with several yards of red felt gifted by a neighbor a while back.  He now has a coat and pants.  Also in the cupboard, some black and red neoprene and fleece, which became spats to resemble big black boots.  Hat will follow.  There will be no beard.  

Sonar X5 had toyed with Animalia by Graeme Base for some time, hoping first to be a Great Green Gorilla Growing Grapes in a Gorgeous Glass Greenhouse, then later to be a Zany Zebra Zig-zagging in a Zinc Zeppelin.  Thankfully (I wasn’t looking forward to using or approximating fur, or stripes) we later came across Enigma, by the same author, and a fascination with a magician has ensued.  It’s going to take me just as long to put this costume together, but it’s a bunch of small things rather than one big complicated (hot) costume, and it can all be done with fabric I have that isn’t a pain in the butt to sew with.  A vest and pants (done).  A bow tie (awaiting tying).  A cape.  A hat (half-finished) complete with “bunny” trick).  

Sonar X3 also started with Animalia.  He was totally fixed on being a Lazy Lion Lounging in the Local Library.  I have made a lion-ish suit before.  A simple lion-colored hoodie with great loops of felt sewn to the hood.  Unfortunately we no longer have it.  Still, it wouldn’t have been too hard, especially after I found half a bolt of upholstery fabric in another neighbor’s trash that was just about the right color to be a lion-y.  But then, we started talking.  We started looking at books.  We started looking at patterns.  And lo, we will soon have the White Rabbit.  Yes, That White Rabbit.  Before you start hyperventilating about fur rearing its ugly head again, know that I’m making only the rabbit’s head, and with white double-nap flannel rather than fur.  And no, it won’t cover his face.  He’s three.  I don’t think that would be wise.  Or cute.  To go with this wonderous head, there will be a vest and of course, a pocket watch.  

What?  For me?  Well, I don’t have much reason to wear a costume, except that there *is* a home football game on Halloween night here.  And I think it would be a shame to pass up the opportunity to do some small thing.  So there’s a very good chance I’ll break out my pink Hallowig and put on the Hawaiian dress.  If it’s not too windy.  Pictures will surely ensue should that take place.  

We bought a few apples yesterday.  Six different varieties to be exact.

Drip, Drip, Drip, Goes the Water

That’s a Chumbawamba song, from the Tubthumper album.

Anyway, during my first hour of measuring, my fancy pluviometer measured about 20 mm of rain.  That included at least two waves of rain bands.

The second hour saw both a lull in the rain and an increase in winds, and I measured only about 3 mm of rain.  The blusterier it gets, the less accurate my delicate fluviograph.  

Hours three and four, trace.  Maybe one mm.  Maybe.

Hey look! Watermelon!

This beauty was 36.5 pounds and grew at the family compound in Central Texas.  Lovely.