six years in the making

No real excuses for the time it took, but at least it's done: voila, Mark & Amy's wedding quilt.


It's a quilt based on Hegel's philosophy (of course). Here's the diagram: link.

Click on the timestamp of this post for more pictures.

The System of the Universe:


Philosophy of the Classical Antiquity: the Ancient Greeks (apparently I didn't take photos of the rest of the Philosophy of the Classical Antiquity):


Detail where I succumbed to embroidery. I now note there's an M (upside down) right there.


World History:


The Judgment:

The Syllogism:


The title:


Wouldn't rotate for some reason:


Wedding date (yes, 5 years ago):





The quilt back, kind of wrinkly, but done, anyway:


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dancing and other helpful things

Dancing guy:



50 things everyone should know how to do

via things to do today.

amazing video on how jeans are made

via TrueUp

I just found this out

Protestants believe in saints, but they believe that the way that the Catholics pray to them and request their interceding assistance is necromancy.

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Whoops!

I forgot the obligatory picture of Lulu. This one was about how tiny she can roll up, but she unrolled a bit right before I took the picture.

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obamicon

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too long

For some reason I have stopped taking photos and posting to this blog. So I will now attempt to rectify that. I like photos. I should take them. So here are a few from the past few weeks in reverse chronological order.

I made this hat for one of my colleagues at work. It is a great, rich brown color and I can't remember any more details than that. It is all ribs (k3, p2) has a cool decreasing sequence not particularly evident here but clear in the pictures with the pattern. Here's the pattern.





This past weekend, MLKJDay, and Inauguration Day were spent with my brother, his wife, and their dog. Once again, few photos were taken, but here's my brother with his wovel.



LTM in his Xmas apron. The apron was constructed according to this terrific pattern. The ties are adjustable so it should fit all manner of folks. I have no idea where the fabric is from--I just found it in one of my overflowing tubs. The green is a heavyweight and the blue/white used to be a tablecloth. Now it comprises the tie and the somewhat haphazard decorative patches.



Here, cutting up the best duck I've ever eaten.


Two weekends ago, SAH (I think those are her initials? hmm, can't remember), ARP and I attended the Benson Bunnies/Omaha North Vikings high school basketball game. The Bunnies and the Vikings are big rivals, I'm told. The Bunnies did well in the first quarter, and although their play deteriorated a lot in the following 3, they still managed to pull out a win. No doubt, I am obsessed with the fact that they are called the Bunnies. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the t-shirts that said, in scary font, BEWARE THE HARE.

The Runnin' Rabbits:


Bunny Pride:


SAH and ARP:


The tough-guy strangely-dressed-like-Rocky Bunny mascot:


Home of the Bunnies:


My brother's Xmas present. The pattern, modified in length and width for a tall, broad-shouldered guy, is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ribwarmer. The yarn is Paton's Classic Wool Aran. This is the first time I've knitted an attached i-cord border and I think it worked out pretty well. I still need some practice in joining the end to the beginning. I attached an old tag with his name on it that I found in one of my mother's sewing boxes and would have posted a picture of it here, except, well, it has his name on it. It was also my first time blocking something and I wonder how people do it without getting those little waves where the pins are. They are especially noticeable along the bottom.



The Mystic Valley Band, my new officemates:



In other news, I have a terrific new roommate. Perhaps she too will appear here soon.

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Ipod dock from binder clips

via not martha.

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if only we could all age so gracefully

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everybody celebrating Obama's victory

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Africans celebrating Obama's victory

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coolest headline ever

Obama Wins Omaha, NE Electoral Vote

Obama, President, Fondateur

From this site.

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Obamaha

Obama might get Omaha's 1 electoral vote.

I'm so proud!

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netflix and beer

now has "watch instantly" movies for mac.

in the good-idea-that-didn't-occur-to-me-category: drinking draft beer is greener than drinking bottled.

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I Voted Today

I stood in line for an hour and a half to vote in Precinct 38 this morning. It was my first time to vote for President actually in Nebraska--the other three times I voted absentee. I could have voted early, by mail or by going to the commissioner's, but I wanted to do it in person, at the polling place, I wanted to stand in line. When I left, there were still as many people waiting to vote as there were when I got in line--I estimate 60. At 9:45 am, I was the 89th person to vote , and at the last election, at my precinct, a grand total of 160 people voted. For some reason, Precinct 34, which also votes at the AV Sorensen Center in Dundee, had a very short list of registered voters and no line whatsoever.When I get in the booth, I always get nervous that I'll accidentally vote for the wrong person. I'm pretty sure I didn't.

The folks behind me--a mixed race couple and their voting-age son--provided an enjoyable eavesdrop, until they realized that they were in Precinct 34 and could skip to the front of the line. The mother, who was white, was exhorting her companions about how important it was to vote, and how she had seen on tv that Bush had stolen the past two elections and she wasn't going to let that happen again. The woman's son kept warning her that she should be quiet, because the Republicans might "jump" her, a possibility she viewed with enthusiasm. When the son said that he wanted to go home and have a bowl of cereal, or at least go sit in the car and wait, his mom told him that too many people had died for him to get the vote, and besides, "Can't nobody come get you when it's time."

I think the mother, along with several other people in line, distrusted the election officials. The guy who kept coming along and inviting Precinct 34 people to jump the line was met with skepticism. At least one person told him he was perfectly happy to wait in line. And the first time the guy came along, the son behind me asked his mother if she knew where they were supposed to vote (hoping that they were 34 folks)--she bridled in response and said, "Of course I know where we're supposed to vote! Right here!" It was only the second time that the guy came by with his Precinct 34 speech that she got her card out to check.

All very exciting. I don't know how I'll concentrate today.

Folks waiting to vote, view from inside the polling place.

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bushels of acres

Also in the potentially helpful I-had-no-idea category:

How much is a bushel? I was envisioning a bushel as one of those baskets you put apples in at apple-picking places. Not so. It's much bigger: 2,150 cubic inches, which is about as helpful as "a bushel". More helpful, if you're a baker: a bushel is approximately 42 pounds of flour, so if you imagine 42 of those 1-pound sacks of flour, you can see that a bushel = a lot. All this information comes from this site, which notes, helpfully: "The average person may never actually measure anything in terms of a bushel, but having a basic understanding of this form of measurement may certainly help city folk during that next visit to the orchard or farm." Also it will helps me understand the $19.99 for a bushel of apples sign on Leavenworth St. (a lot of apples: 42-48 pounds-worth). This is confusing, because it appears to be both a volume metric and a weight metric, but I guess 44 pounds of apples takes up approximately 2,150 cubic inches. I think it would be cool to start measuring things in terms of bushels, say, when moving: I guesstimate (my favorite form of math) I have about 150 bushels worth of stuff, give or take. Next time I move, I'll try to remember to measure it.

And an acre? Well, I was interested to discover that an acre is a measure of area and therefore does not require a particular shape. Similarly, a "square foot" need not be one foot by one foot square--it could be a rectangle with some fraction of a foot on one side and a foot plus a fraction on another side--or it could be a nonrectilinear shape altogether. An acre is equal to 43,560 square feet. For you sports fans out there, it's about 76% of a football field, or 100% of a football field minus the end zones and about 9 yards from one end. A square 40-acre parcel (e.g. "40 acres and a mule") is 1/4 mile by 1/4 mile. The other way to get a good idea for this is to go on to your county assessor's website, look up a property you're familiar with, and see if the acreage is listed.

Happy measuring.

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loan v. lend

This is something I did not know. Lent is the past tense of lend. Loaned is the past tense of loan. I always hesitated at lent, believing loaned was proper. Lend-lent has a bring-brang, mend-ment tend-tent, feel to me, I don't know why--it's not like there isn't send-sent, bend-bent, rend-rent, or that I thought lend-lended was right. But loan, the verb, is historically incorrect (although it's considered correct in the US now). Here are the rules, from bartleby.com:

USAGE NOTE: The verb loan is well established in American usage and cannot be considered incorrect. The frequent objections to the form by American grammarians may have originated from a provincial deference to British critics, who long ago labeled the usage a typical Americanism. Loan is, however, used to describe only physical transactions, as of money or goods; for figurative transactions, lend is correct: Distance lends enchantment. The allusions lend the work a classical tone.

Happy Tuesdays, all.

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p.s.

as you can see over there in the corner, I'm trying to rebuild my een per dag habit.
If you want me to take on a weekly theme, let me know, and feel free to suggest themes. I guess we'll see if anybody's still bothering to read this ol' blog.

DIY

I am now the world's foremost authority on troubleshooting thermostats. I still don't have a working one, but I have determined that fault is in the thermostat, and not in the installation. And I know how to put one on upside-down, even.