No Resolutions

I used to have a MySpace account.  I started my blog there.  But after I had a few too many technical difficulties, I moved the blog here.  I have since closed the MySpace account.  I hate to lose all of my blogs from that time, so from time to time I repost them here. 

This one was originally posted on January 2, 2007.  I was just thinking about the new year and resolutions, so I figure that this is the right time to repost this.  

I don't make New Year's resolutions.  I'm against the whole idea.

This is the time of year, of course.  Everybody starts talking about New Year's resolutions.  It's all about what they want to change about themselves in the new year.  And as we all know, in about three weeks, most of them will have given up.  So, why bother?

I don't understand it.  Well, maybe I do.  It's a new year, so people feel like they have a "fresh slate".  Start a new year off right.  Okay, I get that.

What bothers me is that these people are waiting for a new year to start something new.  Why?  Why must we wait for January 1st to begin something?  Why can't we start something on February 2nd, Arbor Day, or on our birthdays?  I mean, birthdays would make more sense.  It's the start of a new year of your life.  That's the best time to start something.

The thing is, I hate the idea of investing January 1st (or any day, for that matter) with so much baggage.  It's supposed to be fun.  (Well, December 31st is fun, January 1st is for recovery.)  Why can't we start something new when we want to?  Why can't we make a "resolution" to make a change when we're ready for the change?

So, I refuse to put the pressure on myself.  New Year's Resolutions?  Bah!  I have the power to make a change in my life at any time.  I will make changes when I am ready, not on some arbitrary start of the year date.

And yes, I still feel this way.  I have made no resolutions, and I plan to make none.  

Shopping for Calendars

I had a whole other topic planned for today, but this day kind of got away from me.  I went out in search of calendars.  I do this every year around this time.

It was the perfect day for it.  The sun finally came out after days of rain (although, I hear that we're supposed to have another storm coming in a day or two).  So, I was able to drive all over town.

First, I hit Borders.  It's the closest.  They had a pretty good selection, and the store wasn't very busy.

I was surprised by one woman who was there with purpose.  She was frantically looking through all the planners.  She picked them up one by one, looked through them, and put them back.  I found it best to step back and get out of her way.  I thought she might knock me down.

The lines weren't too long, and I got out of there quickly.  But they didn't have one calendar that I buy every year.  I thought about it.  The sun was warm.  I figured I might as well drive to Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble was a different story entirely.  They had a bit less of a calendar selection, and there was a major crowd.  However, they had the one calendar that Borders didn't, so the trip was worthwhile.

And as long as I was in that shopping center, I figured I might as well hit the yarn store...

My calendars have been purchased.  It is safe for 2011 to begin.

Avoiding the Crowds

I managed to avoid most of the crazy busy holiday shopping this year.  I got done way early (yeah!).  I only braved the mall once (not for my shopping but as the shopping buddy) on Saturday.

It was dark out and raining, and I could tell that the mall had been packed earlier in the day.  The stores were trashed.  But going out after 6 PM really made an impact on the crowds we saw.  They were very much thinned out.

Yesterday, I went to see my dad.  We braved Trader Joe's to get something to fix for dinner.

Finding what we needed took under 2 minutes.  The line at the register took a bit longer.  Then it was time to leave.  There was a line of cars 5 deep waiting to get out of the parking lot.  We turned the other direction, hoping that the other exit was less crowded.

Just as we turned, an elderly lady started to cross towards her car.  She must have been over 80.  She had an older gentleman (who appeared to be her son) with her.  And they were basically crawling across the parking lot.

I laughed so hard.

Eventually, the lady made it out of our way, and we were on our way.  Of course, by then the 5 cars had already exited the parking lot.

Why is it when you want to move quickly, something has to appear to slow you down?

The Naming of Things

I have a terrible time naming things.  My novels-in-progress aren't titled.  I spend forever coming up with character and place names (and those are changed as soon as I come up with something better, which isn't hard).  If I had to title the chapters, I'd really be sunk.

Naming the items in my shop is a nightmare.

I know I should come up with something cute, clever, or at least creative.  What I end up with is more descriptive than anything else.

I wear my earrings to school.  Why make jewelry if you ever wear it?

One day, I wore my favorite furry earrings to the continuation high school.  Normally, no one comments on my attire.  That day, everyone did.

At least some of the comments were complimentary.

One girl told me what my earrings reminded her of: "You know, one of those things that grows in grass.  You pick them, and when you blow on them they go all over the place."  I did know what she was talking about.  Dandelions.

It occurred to me that this was the perfect name for them.  Dandelion Earrings.  So, I used it.  (You can see them here.)

I have to take the good names when they appear.  I can't seem to come up with them myself.

Stuff We'll Never Ever Need

I used to have a MySpace account.  I started my blog there.  But after I had a few too many technical difficulties, I moved the blog here.  I have since closed the MySpace account.  I hate to lose all of my blogs from that time, so from time to time I repost them here. 

This one was originally posted on July 2, 2007.  I think it's apropos as I'm about to make another batch of these cookies (in a day or two).    

I am planning on baking some chocolate chip cookies.  (You know which recipe.)  It was suggested to me that to streamline this time-consuming activity that I should do the pan cookie variation.  I thought that this was a good idea, so I looked into it.

The recipe calls for a 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan.  First I had to figure out what a jelly roll pan was.  Once I realized that I had one I measured it.  It's 12 x 17 inches.  And this is where the math came in.

Okay, so first thing: I double the recipe.  That means that this will fill two 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pans.  So, the recipe fills an area of (10 x 15 = 150) 150 square inches.  Double that--300 square inches.  My pan has an area of (12 x 17 = 204) 204 square inches.  So, too big for a single batch, not quite big enough for a double batch.  What to do now?

I went searching for a smaller pan to make up the difference.  I had a small cake pan, but that would only give me 45 square inches more.  300 - 204 = 96.  That was not quite half.  And then I found the pie pans.  Oops.  Now I have to remember the area formula for circles (actually, not an issue--I just hate bringing pi into the equation).

Right, so the pie pans give me roughly 33 square inches (not an exact figure because of the previously mentioned pi).  I have several, so three should do the trick (or at least make it close enough).

Sigh.  Baking should not be this complicated.

I sub for math classes a lot.  And someone always complains: "We'll never need to use this stuff."  I have told them otherwise, but they don't believe me.  I've given up the argument.  But they are wrong.

Lining a Purse

It's a rather dreary Monday.  It's been raining for days.  Days, I tell you!  (This is So. Cal.  It's only supposed to rain for a couple hours at a time.)  The grayness is starting to get to me.

I have to go out later and buy bright orange fabric.

I've been working on a purse for a while now.  After I finished my Christmas knitting (which got done very early this year), I had time to work on something for me.  I had this pattern in a book I got for Christmas a couple years ago.  I'd been meaning to make it for a while, but until now I hadn't had the time.

I got through the knitting easily enough, finishing it in about a week.

But then how was I going to put it together?  I could either whip stitch it or crochet around the edges.  And it needed to be lined.  

I've been contemplating this for nearly a month.  I made a strap (because I hate I-cord, there was no way I was making the strap of the pattern).  Last week I cut lining fabric and sewed on pockets.  Yesterday I assembled the whole thing.  And I discovered that I hated what came out.  

I don't have a picture yet.  I'll photograph the thing when it's done the way I like it. 

The main problem is I hate the lining fabric.  It's a beautiful bright orange, but it's way too heavy for the purse.  It was what I had on hand from a previous project (a superhero cape that I made for my nephew).  I was trying to avoid a trip to the fabric store.  

Last night I went through my button collection to find a fastener for the flap.  I didn't find one that worked.  At least, I didn't find one that I liked.  So, I might as well go out.  

In the rain.  

Oh well.  I have to get groceries anyway.  (I'm out of eggs and milk.)  

There's no reason to make myself a purse that I hate.  If I hate it, I'll never use it.  What is the point of that?  

A Little Knowledge...

I put up the outside Christmas lights the first weekend of this month.  I tested them before putting them out.  They lit.  No problem.  I thought that was the end of it.

My Christmas lights are the white ones in that mesh-type thing that are designed to decorate a bush or some shrubbery.  I pull them across my balconies.  It's a quick and easy way to light the balcony without twisting a single strand of lights around the railing (which I did for a couple years, but I did not like).

The night after putting up the Christmas lights, a section of them went dark.

The next day I went through and made sure all the bulbs were in place.  After touching one, the lights all came back on.  I thought I had fixed it.  I had.  For about 20 minutes.

During daylight hours, I went back to the lights to find which bulb had come loose.  It turned out one of them had burned out.  It was easy to find as the bulb had turned black.  I replaced it, and again I thought I was done.

That night, that section stayed lit for about 20 minutes.

The next day, I went to replace the burned out bulb to find that it was the same one.  So, I watched it.  When the lights were on, I could easily tell which bulb burned out as it was the brightest one on the strand.  And, of course, it burned out again.

I realized that I was going to have to replace the whole thing, because that one spot was going to continue to burn through bulbs.  But I'm kinda lazy, especially about the Christmas lights.  Having to take the whole thing down and put a new thing up was not my idea of a good solution.

What I needed was a way to bypass that one spot on the strand.

That's when it occurred to me.  What I needed to do was to somehow connect a wire through that one spot so the rest of the strand would stay lit.

I found that I could pull the bulb out of the holder that put the bulb in the strand.  I needed a wire to go across that holder to keep the electricity flowing to the rest of the strand.  This wire would bypass where a bulb would have been.  It would have been silly to sacrifice a bulb every night for 20 minutes of a fully-lit strand.

I found some old twist ties, removed the paper, cut a wire to fit just over the holder, and glued it into place.  The next day (the glue needed 24 hours to dry), I put the holder into place.  It lit.  Hooray!

I did this on Wednesday.  So far, the lights have remained lit.

This is a fix for this year only.  Next year, I'm going to have to replace that whole strand.  (Maybe next year I can find some colored lights that blink.)