I’ve just received a package of books that had been highly desired by both myself and Ken.  Mostly because it contained the missing Ai Yori Aoshi (manga series we’re reading) which the previous book indicated was when things really start to get exciting.  I’ll be reading it this afternoon.

Amazon, as usual, had a deal on and to take full advantage of free shipping and a free book I ordered 2 others: Wuthering Heights (an old favourite of mine), Vanity Fair (looked interesting when I saw the first few minutes of the movie so I stopped watching and figured I’d read the book instead – quite a long book, it seems!), and Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac.  Now, I expected to jump right into Wuthering Heights or Vanity Fair, but I’m thinking the Knitter’s Almanac will be the read of choice.  It’s not a typical pattern book (wherein you have a few photos and knitting instructions), but rather more like a bunch of letters, written monthly, that include instructions for knitting specific things.  She’s got a very down-to-earth, personal style of writing and I think I’m going to enjoy it.

I’ve recently found a great online source for Asian foods – especially the difficult to find (for me) stuff. I figured I’d share with you Asian Food Grocer. They have realistic, grocery prices and if you go ground shipping it’s stunningly affordable (I had a large order and shipping was only $8!). They carry stuff that I never hoped to find, affordably, online. They.have.hojicha!

There’s something deeply unpleasant about a day when I can’t expect to start or end it with Ken. He left in the wee hours this morning and will be gone til late tonight. I slept poorly last night; anxious, I guess, about him being gone. Why is it we worry more about our loved ones being harmed when they’re further away? You’re just as likely to be in an accident regardless of where you are, right? After Ken left I tossed and turned for almost an hour until I rolled over to his side of the bed and promptly fell asleep.

Victor woke me up in the slightly-more-though-not-enough wee hours this morning, and though he’s gone back to sleep I’m up and showered and waiting to spend a day trying to pass time. I’ll be ordering some bento stuff today off ebay. I finished my hat last night (I’ll have Ken take a pic tomorrow) so I’m on to the next project. I asked Ethan if he’d like me to make him some slippers like Mommy’s, yesterday, and he gave a resounding “Yes!” so I could work on that. I’ll have to disassemble the pattern and rewrite it for his foot size.

I’ve got some little’s cuteness to share, to help you spend some time…

One of Victor’s dance moves (7.4mb). Lately, also, he’s been channelling Stompin’ Tom (4.4mb) (go here for you American folks who don’t know who I’m talking about and are curious).

This morning Ken pointed out how nice it’s been, the past few days, to come home when the sun was still out. Yes, there’s snow on the ground but it’s not much. I’m receiving seed and plant and nursery catalog’s in the mail, now, and my ever-planning brain has the vegetable garden all arranged and is working on more landscaping stuff.

I can see the waterfall (window) out the back of the house (that’s out the back door – it’s the white blob next to the green blob). You can’t miss it since it’s completely iced over. I went out to snap some pics this morning. Closer and the Waterfall’s View of our house. It’s still frigid outside, but I feel like I can sense the change in the air is just around the corner.

I’ve been doing some thinking about how to proceed with the soap making process and I’ll be picking up more scents (pure ones, not mixes, though I’ll likely still use mixes for my own usage) and a wider variety of raw ingredients and making more soap.  Ken needs to build me some drying racks and molds, first.  So that’s on a brief hold.

Life, otherwise, has been good.  I’ve finished TWO knitted things so far this year.  A pair of socks for Ken and the fingerless gloves I was working on.  Within the next day or so I’ll be done another hat pour moi, aussi.  I’m a knitting machine these days.  I’ve discovered the socks I’d started for Ethan won’t work (not enough yarn) so I’ll have to start up another pair for him.  I’ve also discovered, to my very great dismay, that my lovelywonderfulperfect slippers have holes in the bottoms. *weep*  Damned carpets!  So I’m thinking another pair, this time with leather-lined bottoms (take THAT, berber!).  Not as washable, but maybe I can still run them through and air dry.

I’ve been going a little crazy with Ken’s Bento’s, especially since I got that book last weekend (though a Christmas present book helped get the ball rolling).  To which end I’ve realized that Ken needs at least one more bento, if not several (so that I can pack tomorrow’s when I make it up today while he’s at work – surprise is a big part of the fun for us) – no worries, they’re relatively cheap – and some bento making supplies (also cheap).  I’ll be doing that, likely, Saturday evening because Ken’s running away to join the circus.

Well no, Ken’s going to NH to a model train show with his Dad.  Ken’s been really getting into robotics lately, and wants to see if anybody makes anything wee enough for him to use, plus he’s helping his Dad design a circuit board of some sort for his Dad’s train set up and to sell to other model train geeks.  He’s driving up (4hrs ea way) so he’ll be back late – well after I’ve done my ebay’ing.  Kinda sucks that I’ll not have a day off this weekend (since, therefore, Sunday will be grocery day instead of stay-home-and-be-a-lazy-bum day).  Ahh well, I know they’ll have a great time.

No? Good, cause I need to pick your brain(s). There are so very many different types of soap I can make it’s completely staggering. If I’m going to do this as a business-type-thing, I need to know what people want. People like you! Yes, you. And you in the back, also! So help a girl out…

1. What type of soap are you looking for? (bar, cream, moisturizing, deep-cleansing/scrubbing, nothing-fancy-but-smells-nice, face, body, baby, husband)
2. If it’s a bar soap you want, what size/shape would you look for? (square, rectangular, fancy shaped, same size /bigger/smaller as standard soap)
3. Do you care much about packaging? (fancy vs “earthy” looking)
4. Would colour/lack of colour affect your purchase decision?
5. Would scent affect your purchase decision?
6. What scents do you like? (for you or others)
7. Would you buy for yourself or as a gift?
8. What price range would you be willing to pay for, say, a single bar of soap?

I really appreciate as much input as possible!

I did the testing and the cutting and did some hand-washing testing and it is… soap.  The smell is lovely, the texture is good, the bars aren’t pretty (really, I used a milk carton as my mold… you can’t expect too much!), but they lather and clean and wow do they moisturize!  I’ve got it hardening in the basement, but I left the tippy top sliver that was all lumpy from the pour for me, tomorrow, in the shower.  We’ll see how this puppy does in the real world.

So now that I’ve successfully made soap, what’s my plan?  MAKE MORE!  Well, first I’ll be handing out a few samples to some specific people for real world testing and feed back.  I will say, though, that despite all the work it was really exciting and fun realizing I’d made soap.  From scratch.  And nice soap, too!  Now I just need Ken to get his butt in gear to make me some drying racks and molds.

…Maybe I should also find out if people would be willing to buy soap, too?

Lately it’s been a love/hate thing between me and the boys (well, mostly me since they adore me and I have a much more stressful life than they do). Ethan’s a darling/Ethan’s the Spawn of Satan and completely unreasonable I mean seriously! Victor’s adorable/Victor’s going to get himself tossed outside. This, however, is all normal little kid stuff. It’s a phase with them both and it, too, shall pass.

I’m ever grateful, though, for their boyness. I don’t know about little girls, but little boys seem very capable of amusing themselves a good bit of the time. This fits perfectly with my no-cling style of parenting. Attachment, yes, cling, no. Boys are wonderful because you can stop almost any unhappiness with a silly noise. Silly noises ROCK. As do cars and anything with wheels and just wheels in general. The stroller wheels? FASCINATING! (watch for fingers!) Bless the inventor of Matchbox cars (3 and up, my foot!). I’ve become a “Mom of Boys” in that play tends to always include tickling, rolling on the floor and getting something (finger, fist, limb or toy) shoved into my face and/or eye. I toss them around like sacks of potatoes. I’m most especially ashamed that, it seems, I now laugh on occasion at “fart noises”. *le sigh* That one I’m most dismayed at but won’t sugar-coat this “having little boys” thing. They’re constantly doing things I don’t understand in the least. Right now they’re running around screaming “just because”. Going outside to play ends up, every.single.time, with a strip-down before entering the house and a bath.

They are, without a doubt, abso-fricking crazy.

These things, though, make the sun shine more brightly. When they’re sweet it tastes extra sugary. When they’re gentle you marvel that much more.

Today’s the day I try. I’m nervous that I’ll fail miserably or that I won’t like the soap or that I’ve built it up in my head too much and I’ll be disappointed. I’m excited, too.

Edit: I’m done, and though it took so.very.long to set up and do the clean up afterwards, I’m completely unharmed, everyone is still safe, and I’ve a small batch of soap…. soaping… downstairs in the basement. I’ll know tomorrow if it “worked” and will be popping it out of the mold tomorrow night and testing the pH. If everything goes well it’ll be cut into bars and set out to dry for the next few weeks.

Edit #2:  I’ve brought it upstairs (it went into the basement to do it’s thang in privacy) and it’s hard (as it should be by this point) and currently sitting on the kitchen counter, seducing me to let it out.  I shall prevail, though, and wait until tonight to release it to the world and do my testing and slicing.  After this, assuming it passes the tests, it’s back down to the basement to languish in the cold and dry for the next few weeks to harden.

Yesterday I spent a good deal of time (and money) at a new, local Borders bookstore.  Oh how I love bookstores!!  I made myself a list of books we want, since I tend to get all excited just being *in* the store that my mind goes blank and I forget entirely what specifics I want.  So, list in hand, I wandered around happily browsing and choosing.  The international foods section had a few books, and one specific book that I’ve been wanting to increase my Japanese cooking book selection.  Bento Boxes is a thin book, but large, and stuffed absolutely full of beautiful, delectable photos of every dish in it.  Each page has a different bento shown (both different box and different foods) and the best part is that the instructions include the english names for most foods!  If you click on the “Look Inside” link on that amazon page and flip forward past the table of contents you’ll see a few pages that illustrate what I mean (though the photos of the book aren’t the best).  Ken and I flipped through it last night and both of us got seriously excited about trying some of this.  Even Ken, who’s fully against fish (despite knowing how large a part of Japanese cuisine it is) has conceded that he’s going to have to get over that since some of those fish dishes looked yummy!  TO HIM!  Even ones that included roe.  I’m stunned by that, and very pleased.  Next week I’ll be getting some more of the supplies I’ll need to make some of the dishes, but it’s going to be hard waiting that long.  YUM!

(as part of our desire to eat better, healthier meals, Ken’s been taking his bento to work with a wide variety of foods inside and has been enjoying it immensely and I’ve been enjoying making it)

Such negative connotations, that word.  Anyways for the past, oh, week I guess I’ve had on-again-off-again weepy, teary eye.  Just one.  It’s spontaneous – I’ll be doing anything and suddenly my one eye overflows with tears that streak down my face like I’m bawling.  My eye isn’t read or irritated (though the skin around it is from the tears and wiping) and it’s not been injured at all.  I’ve also had some minor but annoying sinus pressure/headaches lately.  Ken’s convinced me to try taking sudafed for a few days to see if it’s a sinus pressure on my eye thing.  Then he asks me to call the dr if it continues today because it could be an aneurysm.  Yay for worst case scenarios!  Actually, aneurysm goes right up there with glaucoma (another possible cause) since being blind would really make my knitting so much better!

Ugh.  For now the sudafed seems to be working, so we’ll see.  I hope it’s just some stuffed tear duct or something.

Don’t. Just don’t. We signed up for a package that had higher internet download rates (which we wanted) and digital tele (which went nicely with our new hdtv) and was bundled with digital phone. Allllllll the commercials and the sales people assured us that it’s great and you’ll never know! The hell. We’ve had so many problems it’s ridiculous! You’d think a phone call would be pretty basic and having a phone at hand is definitely something I take for granted – moreso than the electricity, even. However so many times I’ve picked up the phone to make a call and heard nothing, or a delay in when the line picks up (which means the digital phones don’t work since they don’t expect to have to pause and it’s a good thing I’ve still got a corded phone). I’m so damned sick of this thing and would have cancelled it months ago except that we’re bound in a contract. Not once it’s over, thankyouverymuch.

I have to go yell at my kids, now. Angry Thursday, indeed.

It’s Angry Thursday here, in PA (Ken’s having one, too, as are myself and the boys – all unrelated to each other).  Is it Angry Thursday where you are?

(because sometimes I just need to lay it all out before myself and evaluate)

Socks for Ethan – put on hold until I can weigh my yarn and see if there’s even enough to finish 2 socks, otherwise I’ll frog and save that scrap of yarn for a rainy day (or holy sock)

Socks for Me – first pair I’ve made for me in a lo-ong time and I’m just not enjoying it. I think the gauge is too tight and I need to use bigger stix.

Shawl – put on hold cause I needed the stix for something else – see “Fetching” (but a temporary “hold” since I’m really enjoying seeing it slowly take shape)

Fetching fingerless gloves (but a tad longer in the hand) – almost done #2, hoping to finish by today.

Socks for Ken – new yarn, loving it, just started #2 (would be done both but the gauge was funny and I ended up making and ripping back 3 toes, 2 heels and 2 leg sections before I got it right)

I-cord curtain pull-backs – work in progress as we have a lot of windows!

Want to starts

A Shedir hat (seen here) – too cute, love the cable intertwiny bit at the crown. Drawback being that Ken doesn’t like it (party pooper!) I might make it anyways… you can never have too many hats, right?

More Slippers! – just like the ones I made a while back that fit beautifully and are so comfy I never.take.them.off (except to sleep and shower). Seriously. That’s my feet right this moment. So I have this yarn from Kate (it was Austin’s Grandmother’s and is very much real wool and presumably very feltable – it definately has loads of lanolin in it still!) and I’m thinking I could make a couple pair of slippers, I think, but should they be the coral-y pink on top and brown on the bottom or vice versa? (if you’ve read all of this and answer that I’ll be stunned and impressed!)

That’s most of it. We’ll see how the winds of flight blow me as to what I start next…

Ken’s had a sore area for the past few weeks and thought it was a pinched nerve or something but it wasn’t going away so he went to the dr’s this morning and it’s a hernia. *deep breath* He’s ok, and it’s minor (she didn’t feel a bulge, but did feel some pressure) but she recommended Ken see a surgeon to see if it needs to be dealt with or if it will heal on it’s own. No physical restrictions, though, so that’s both helpful and a relief.

All the same…