I have no ideas of my own, so I ganked this meme from Joshilyn (prounouced like Jocelyn) Jackson, the BEST WRITER EVER. I interviewed my kids. Am now considering trading them in for more cats.

For those who are just joining us, Ignatz is 14. The Sniglet is 8.

1. What does your mom always say to you?

Ig: Empty the dishwasher
Snig: I should clean my room

2. What makes mom happy?

Ig: When I empty the dishwasher
Snig: When I’m cleaning my room.

3. What makes mom sad?

Ig: When I don’t empty the dishwasher
Snig: When I don’t clean my room.

4. What does your mom do that makes you laugh?

Ig: Well, you’re a tickler.
Snig: Tickling? That’s the only thing. Because
very much good jokes you don’t have.

5. What was your mom like as a child?

Ig: I honestly can’t imagine.
Snig: Not like me, because you didn’t find very many friends and I’ve got about 17.

6. How old is your mom?

Ig: 38
Snig: 38

7. How tall is your mom?

Ig: 165cm
Snig: 170cm
(the real answer is 167.6)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

Ig: Knit
Snig: Knitting!

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?

Ig: Read blogs, knit, do chores.
Snig: Knitting!

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

Ig: Knitting some really really big thing.
Snig: Knitting the most.

11. What is your mom really good at?

Ig: Knitting, doing chores, typing
Snig: Knitting!

12. What is your mom NOT very good at?

Ig: Playing Need for Speed
Snig: Making jokes.

13. What does your mom do for her job?

Ig: Design websites and stuff like that
Snig: Correcting English titles and making websites.

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?

Ig: Butter chicken
Snig: Spaghetti.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

Ig: Good with computers and can cook some good
stuff
Snig: that you are the extremest knitter

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

Ig: Mrs. Incredible, Elastigirl, whatever her name is. Helen Parr
Snig: Daisy Duck

17. What do you and your mom like to do together?

Ig: Watch tv
Snig: Watching movies

18. How are you and your mom the same?

Ig: We’re forgetful and have problems concentrating on stuff.
Snig: Eye color.

19. How are you and your mom different?

Ig: I like to play computer games and you like to do other stuff on the computer and um, cuz I’m all lazy and you can at least get some stuff done that you don’t want to do.
Snig: I don’t like reading and it’s very hard for me to sleep and you’re the best in the family at it.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

Ig: Because she cooks and lets me have a room in the house and every now and then she does something with me like going to the movies.
Snig: Making food for me, washing my laundry, and you brought me into the world.

21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?

Ig: Munich
Snig: Umm, somewhere where other knitters are?

22. Where is your mom’s LEAST favorite place to go?

Ig: Swimming
Snig: Outside

Amy, Kelly, Melanie, you are so totally tagged.

2009 New Years Questions
Ganked from Sandy at Momisodes, and updated (this has actually been in my Drafts folder for a little over a year).

Here’s the rule: Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8-10 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify him/her in his/her chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. At what age do you wish to marry?
Pfft. Look, my parents divorced when I was 2, my dad’s second marriage was stormy and ended when I was 8. My mom never remarried. I had no good examples of marriage before me, so I never intended to get married. Kids, yes. Husband, no. Growing up the way I did, I wasn’t really sure what a dad was for, but when I got pregnant I did think that the baby’s father had a right to be involved, if he wanted to. Turns out, he wanted to, and since we were citizens of different countries, we had to get married for me to get health insurance and for him to have any rights to his child. We are not paperwork people, and if we hadn’t had the citizenship problem, we probably still wouldn’t have gotten around to it. I love him a lot, but for me, that doesn’t logically connect to the idea of going into an office and signing a piece of paper.

On the other hand, I occasionally hear people gritch about how they want partner benefits without having to get married, and I think sheesh. Just go into the office and sign the piece of paper. It’s not that difficult.

2. What color do you like most?
Okay, here’s what you do. Go up to Seattle on a really sunny day, and take the ferry across to Bainbridge. En route, look down at the water. That deep greeny-blue? That’s my favorite color.

3. Where is the place that you want to go the most?
Changes daily. Today, Valencia.

4. Which part of you do you hate the most?
My vast array of stupid, baseless fears.

5. When you encounter a sad moment, what would you do?
Cry. And my nose gets all big and my eyes get all red. So attractive.

6. What are you afraid to lose the most?
My kids, of course.

7. If you won $1 million, what would you do?
Pay off this house. Buy one in Utrecht. Then probably go back to college and get a degree I can actually use to find a job.

8. What’s your wish for the year ahead?
A job.

9. How did you celebrate the New Year?
Our neighborhood was pretty dead, so we went to our old neighborhood with fireworks and champagne, and set off fireworks with our former neighbors.

10. Till now, what is the moment that you regret the most?
Umm, I have a lot of regrets. I don’t really think about them enough to have ranked them. That way lies madness. I spend enough time kicking myself already, thanks.

11. Which type of person do you hate the most?
Anybody who preys on people weaker than they are. Bullies, men who beat up women, adults who hurt children, governments who “get tough” on the poor and sick instead of the fatcat corporate freebooters who line their pockets at the expense of said poor and sick.

12. What is your ambition?
What I have now, only better. I’d like to be a better mom, better wife, have a better job. I love my house, but I could be keeping it cleaner instead of sitting at this computer all day…

13. If you had one wish what would you wish for?
Just to keep my family happy, healthy, safe and together.

14. Name one of your body parts your hubby or boyfriend tells you he adores:
He doesn’t really articulate these things, but judging from where his hands keep going, probably the boobage.

15. What is the best gift you can give someone this year?
I can get a real job and start contributing financially to the household.

16. List two of your Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions.
* Get fit. The muffin tops make me sigh when I see them in the mirror, but the real goal is a healthy heart and lungs, and a strong back.
* Get out. Start talking to people and making an effort to be friendly. I’m such a social zero.

17. What is the craziest thing you’ll do or have done in 2009?
Move to Utrecht, I hope. If I don’t, then not-moving will be the craziest thing.

18. What is the best thing you did last year?
Elect a Democrat.

19. What was the best lesson you learned in 2008?
Stop waiting for the right circumstances and get on with it. Dammit!

20. In this very moment, are you doing what you thought you’d be doing at this stage in your life?
Nope. At this point I should have been living in an apartment above a dry cleaner’s in Portland, helping my only daughter navigate junior high and working some practical yet low-income job like teaching or nursing. But what I have now is okay too.

I don’t actually like tagging people, so I’m going to make that part optional.

Song du jour of the day: I Feel It All, by Feist.

Ganked from the Diva, who was only just the best Secret Pal in the history of Secret Paldom.

So, a day in Port Townsend! Bring some good comfy walking shoes.

1. Dogs-A-Foot for lunch. John and Sai sell hot dogs (as well as chili dogs, tofu dogs, chips and lemonade) from a trailer in a gravel lot and you sit outside with some very creatively dressed cloth dummies and enjoy the sunshine. Bliss.
2. For dessert, the Elevated Ice Cream Company right across the street! I loved it even before I worked there, so this is not bias speaking. It’s just the best place, with the best ice cream, made right there onsite, and if you click on the virtual tour link in the gallery section of the website, you’ll be able to see (somewhat blurrily) how cute Ignatz was when he was four.
3. Now let’s walk off all that food by wandering over to Point Hudson and following the beach up to Chetzemoka Park to look at the flowers.
4. We can follow the beach further around to Fort Worden, or walk through Uptown and out Cherry Street. It used to be a military base, so we can look at the Officers’ houses or visit the lookout tower. Centrum’s there now, so we might be lucky and catch the Blues Festival or FiddleTunes, or any of a number of art, music or dance exhibitions or workshops.
5. A nice wander through Uptown, to look at the many spiffy Victorian houses dotted here and there and mostly serving as B&Bs now, because a normal family can’t really afford the upkeep on the old creakers. But they sure are pretty to look at.
6. The Bell Tower.
7. The Post Office. Not to see to any postal needs, but because it’s a fairly imposing (well, in Port Townsend Terms) gray building at the top of the bluff, with a nice view out over the water.
8. Ready to sit down a bit? We can take the ferry to Keystone and back, to get a view of town from the water, and also to spend some time on the water. You have to spend some time on the water in Port Townsend, it’s part of the local religion.
9. For dinner we should go to The Fountain Café. It’s yummy, but teensy, so we should get there early if we want a table. Their desserts are good, but Melanie tells me there’s a pie shop right near there that is fantastic. If it’s open, we should go there for dessert. Yes, dessert twice in one day. It’s a special day.
10. Let’s catch a movie at the Rose Theater. It’s cute and very close by.

Song du jour of the day: City of Dreams, by the Talking Heads.

Elemmaciltur tagged me LAST YEAR, and had it checked in Bloglines so I wouldn’t forget, but lo, I did anyway. Never underestimate my abilities in that area. Okay, a bookmeme:

You have to open the book you’re currently reading on page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag with…

Book I’m (re-)reading: The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde.

Quote: “It was entitled ‘Rime II – The Mariner Returneth’ but no one had been fooled.”

Comment: Hee. Hee hee. This book just cracks me up every time.

Tagging:

Ummm, anybody who hasn’t already done it? And wants to?

Song du jour of the day: The Last Mile of the Way, by Sam Cooke.

I borrowed this from So That Happened… because heh. And I am tagging everybody.

The BAND meme:

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

2. www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

So here’s what I got:
1. Herkinorin. It appears to be some kind of painkiller.
2. no ‘y’ in it. That’s nicely cryptic. Um, sorry, I mean, er, mysterious? No, um, murky? Damn. Oh I know! Enigmatic. That doesn’t have a ‘y’ in it. Man, that was hard.
3. Click here.

Song du jour of the day: Maxilla, by Herkinorin. Okay, I made that up; there is no such song.

Kelly tagged me ages ago, and I forgot about it because I suck. Well, better late than never, eh?

4 jobs I’ve had:
coffee jerk
movie theater projectionist
webmaster (thankless, that one)
library page

4 movies I love to watch over and over:
The Princess Bride
Galaxy Quest
Sense and Sensibility
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

4 places I have lived:
Columbus, OH
Port Townsend, WA
Östersund, Sweden
Munich, Germany

4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
Yeah. I wish.

4 places I have been:
Tokyo Narita airport
Leningrad, when the USSR still existed
Tacna, Peru, surrounded by shouting taxi drivers
the Greyhound station in Amarillo, TX

4 websites I visit daily:
guardian.co.uk/
toytowngermany.com
chorewars.com
Astronomy Picture of the Day

4 favorite foods:
This potato thing I keep meaning to post the recipe for
Chocolate mousse
crackers with stinky cheese
spaghetti with tomato sauce I made myself

4 places I would rather be:
Well, since it’s November,
Australia
New Zealand
Tucson, AZ
Chiloé

I can’t think of four blogs to tag, so I’m leaving this open for volunteers, perhaps NaBloPoMo people who find themselves running low on inspiration, 26 days into it…

Song du jour of the day: Te Dejo Madrid, by Shakira.

Kelly tagged me back. Oddly, I did not see that one coming. So okay, here are 8 things about me that you may or may not know:

1. I count laundry. While I am flinging it into the dryer I count each piece. It keeps me from losing my mind at the monumental tediousness of the task. For the record, a load of laundry at casa alala generally contains 41 items. Sometimes as many as 51 (curse these children and their tiny garments).

2. I don’t like seafood. In the Pacific Northwest, people get very huffy about this.

3. I never needed orthodontia or glasses. My brother needed both. I consider this terribly unfair. (I imagine he does too).

4. People think I have a talent for languages because I pick up accents really fast. Unfortunately, this talent does not extend to grammar and vocabulary.

5. I get headaches from some red wines, but others. I’ve never been able to figure out why.

6. Besides knitting, I can also sew, crochet, and embroider. I don’t do any of them often, but I can.

7. I consider eating a terrible nuisance and waste of time. I only do it because I have to.

8. I need to live near water. An ocean, a river, something. I don’t need to get in it or on it, but I need to know it’s nearby.

And the buck stops here because I’m pretty sure everyone has already done this one.

Song du jour of the day: Fred vom Jupiter, by Andreas Dorau und die Marinas.

Today I chopped a big hole in my workday to go on a yarn-crawl with Elemmaciltur, and met some really nice women. He has such great friends. It was a good day, and I was extremely virtuous: I didn’t buy any yarn! Erm, I did buy yet another circular needle. But I neeeeeeeeded it!

Ganked from Elemmaciltur, in lieu of writing a real post, here is my knitting-list:

‘bold‘ for stuff you’ve done, ‘italics‘ for stuff you plan to do one day, and ‘normal’ for stuff you’re not planning on doing. I would like to add signifiers for things I am currently doing and things that I might do, but plan is maybe too big a word. But I won’t add them, because I am lazy.

Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl (wrap?)
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit well, I tried, anyway.
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit (again, I tried, really hard. Does that count?)
Bobbles
Knitting for a living (man, wouldn’t that be nice? But it’s desperately unlikely, so I won’t bother to italicize it.)
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backward
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Song du jour of the day: Take You on a Cruise, by Interpol. Because you could get in a lot of good knitting time on a cruise.

Probably not gonna correct the typos this time, sorry. A Thing I haven’t mentioned, is that my monitor screen has a… an echo, or a shadow – everything is repeated, palely, ten pixels to the right. A blur? I don’t know what to call it, but I’ve had this computer for about three months, and for about two months, I’ve had tense-as-hell trapezius muscles, and an unshakeable headache, most days. Today it occurred to me to wonder of the two facts are connected. Tomorrow I’ll call the computer store (thank Jehovah we bought local this time) and see if something can be done about it. No threat to the blogging, since I have several other computers to fall back on, though of course all my Stuff is on this one, so photos will be limited.

Which is why I’d better get Laura’s meme up. It’s a tricky one, because we are a booksy household, and I could photograph about a dozen bookshelves for you. Sadly, many of them look like this:

And I love you, truly I do, but I’m not going to type all those titles out. I just don’t have the time.

Here’s one you can read. It’s the shelf right next to my computer, and holds all my current career-relevant books (and some other stuff), but probably wasn’t what you meant when you thought you’d like to see my books, as it reveals only one aspect of my no doubt fascinatingly complex character. Yes I am too complex, and mysterious, and deep. And stuff. Just look at all those categories in the sidebar there!

Okay okay, one last try. This is one of the shelves in our living room, which actual public people sometimes see, so I’ve tried to keep the confusion minimal there. These aren’t exactly pre-filtered, much, they’re just the ones I unpacked first, when we still thought we’d have time to move in like organized people. The first picture is what happens when I unpack in a hurry and then a bunch of other books arrive in the mail and I jam them into whatever space I can find and swear I’ll organize them someday.

I signed up to Flickr just so I could post these, and they don’t show up as big as I want them. I’ll see if I can figure out how to fix that. This meme has kind of inspired me, and if I can ever get the camera charged, I may just scamper around the house photographing all our bookshelves, so you can see how terribly spoiled for choice I was. Egad, we have a lot of books. We also spend a lot of time complaining that we don’t have nearly enough books. It’s very sad.

Snape update: my 11-year-old nephew says he thinks Snape is evil. I think… I think JKR wants us to think he’s evil, maybe so that at the last minute she can whip a benevolent Snape out of a hat and surprise us all. Or, maybe, because he is evil. And as she has been obliging enough to write some very good books for us, I think I shall be obliging in return and believe what she wants.

But I really want him to be a good guy.

Song du jour of the day: Why Do Fools Fall in Love? by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.

For I am Isis, yo. Oh hell, where is that thing? Oh right – here:
Isis

Honorable, straightforward and idealistic. Active and self-confident.
Colors: male: white, female: blue
Compatible Signs: Osiris, Thoth
Dates: Mar 11 – Mar 31, Oct 18 – Oct 29, Dec 19 – Dec 31
Role: Goddess of motherhood, women, and magic; goddess of the South (y’all); protector of Imseti (the son of Horus who watched over the canopic jar containing the liver)
Appearance: Woman wearing the hieroglyph for “throne” on her head
What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign?
Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock’s Quizzles and Quandaries

Ganked from Kelly, who is not Thoth, or if she is, she’s the ibis, not the baboon.

This is in lieu of a real post, because I am too durned busy. No, not packing, just scrambling to finish up everything before I go, stock the fridge and wash everything in the house to ensure that the kids have enough to eat and don’t have to go to school naked. DrBob looks skeptical. Sure I trust you honey, I’m just trying to… lessen your… your burden! While I’m gone. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Tomorrow I have to talk to the Sniglet’s teachers at 10 a.m., and Ignatz’s teachers from 4 to 5 p.m. Not expecting a lot of fabulousness here, as other people don’t seem to place the same value as we do on laser-sarcasm and a lightning-quick attention span. Did you see Over the Hedge? We did, twice. We love Hammy the Squirrel, love. him. Because we are Hammy. Teachers don’t seem to appreciate that enough.

Song du jour of the day: Tony Zoulias (Lustful Life), another one from the new Mando Diao, yes I am obsessed. Also, distraught, because they played in Munich on the 17th and I missed them. AAUUGGHH!

Dread Pirate Roberts

Letting people think you are a billy bad ass keeps you in business but when it comes down to it, you’ll do the right thing every time. You are a good person at heart and just can’t help being the hero.

Dread Pirate Roberts – 100%
Captain James T. Hook – 100%
Mary Read – 100%
Captain Jack Sparrow – 100%
Sinbad – 100%
Black Beard – 92%
Long John Silver – 75%
Captain Barbossa – 42%
Morgan Adams – 33%
Will Turner – 33%
What kind of Pirate are you?

My existence as a blogger, validated by the Goober Queen!

Seven things to do before I die:
1. Live in a city again.
2. Exercise regularly.
3. Work for a nonprofit outfit.
4. Make the pilgrimage to Santiago.
5. Work for a publisher or bookstore.
6. Get organized.
7. Get (and stay) on top of the housework.

Seven things I can (or will) not do:
1. Take up jogging.
2. Learn to play a musical instrument.
3. Skydive.
4. Give up coffee.
5. Stop fidgeting.
6. Get over myself.
7. Be consistent.

Seven things that attract me to my spouse:
1. His smell.
2. His shoulders.
3. His muscles.
4. His faith in me.
5. His sense of humor.
6. His hands.
7. His…um, no, sorry, that would be TMI.

Seven things I say most often:
1. You should be nicer to me.
2. Bummer.
3. This is my skeptical face.
4. You’re so cute.
5. I dunno, you decide.
6. *SIGH*, Boys! (or Germans!)
7. Because I’m a bad mother, that’s why.

Seven books (or series) I love:
1. The Narnia books
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Amelia Peabody series
4. Lost Horizon
5. Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series
6. Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
7. The Miles Vorkosigan series

Seven movies I watch over and over again:
1. The Princess Bride
2. Muppet Treasure Island
3. The Fifth Element
4. Casablanca
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Galaxy Quest
7. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Seven people I want to make suffer would love to see play along (yike, do I even know seven people who haven’t already done this meme? Probably not…):
1. Kel, who is way overdue for a blog entry anyway.
2. Camellia, who is too.
3. Linda
4. Kimberly Di
5. Ignatz, see #7 on the Things I Say Most Often list.
6. Vicki
7. Jeneane