Spinning sprinting.

Last Saturday, someone in a group I'm apart of on Ravelry challenged the group at large to pack their spindle of choice as full of singles as they could manage. Since I decided that I wanted to get more spinning done, I took up my spindles and go to work. I then thought why not expand upon this. Thus, I set the goal for myself to spin as much as I could between last Saturday and the first.

So, the picture to the right is what I had done on my little supported spindle over the weekend. I then wound that off onto a paper tube bobbin and I have done up more. The supported spindle is a cherry and rosewood piece. It weights four tenths of an ounce. The fiber I'm using is undyed Shetland wool roving. I started out with carding it into rolags because I thought it would be easier to use with the supported spindle. I was wrong and then went to using the roving as it was.



The picture to the left is what I did on my lovely drop spindle with the clay whorl. I honestly have no idea what the weight of the whorl is. I'm half tempted to step on the scale holding it and do a little math to figure it out. And then I realize what a terrible, terrible geek that makes me and I reconsider the prospect. I'll be honest, I think I enjoyed using the drop spindle more then the supported one.





I'll be submitting both pictures, as well as a picture of what I have done between yesterday and today this evening. I'm really glad that someone gave me an idea for how to correct the problem I was having with my spinning trying to work its way off of the support spindle. An adjustment to how I was winding it on and I have pretty much doubled what I had loaded on there.

Belated Valentine for my Husband

Beloved,

Please, let me make plain the depth of what I feel for you. The deeps of the ocean are but a thimbleful of water compared to my love for you. If the infinite vastness of space were translated into depth, it may begin to demonstrate how dear you are to me. I fear that all the tongues of man are not enough to express this great and all consuming passion I feel for you.

It is beyond my ability to express my gratitude for how you have supported and loved me through all of life's storms thus far. You are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have had times where I honestly doubted my abilities and strengths. You have never once questioned if I was strong enough to endure the slings and arrows of life's torments. Indeed, you have always exhorted me to keep hope and encouraged me to press forward in realizing my dreams.

Some days, I am in awed silence of the devotion you have shown to me. What pure heart is it that burns with such love that can endure the whirlwind that has been my life? The four years that I was away at college felt to be an eternity, yet you remained as faithful as sunrise. When rumors threatened to split us apart, you turned a deaf ear to them and cleaved to the truth of our relationship. Indeed, even as tragedy has come into our lives, you have remained my constant companion.

The last ten years have been the happiest of my life for I have been wedded to you. It feels as though it has been a short time that we have been married. Then I look at our sons and realize that we have been married longer then a bare four years. I have had days where I have struggled and I have had days where things were terribly confusing. I would not exchange even those difficult days for all the world. In the end, I still have you by my side.

With you, I have realized my dreams. I am honored to be your wife and I love you with all that I have, am, and will be. Happy Valentine's Day, love.

Most Faithfully Yours,
Your Adoring Wife

Current blanket in progress.

I'm making blankets as our yule gifts this year to Moo and Sophia. This is Moo's. The colors here are what I'm going to be doing for this project. On the outsides will be bands of the 'petal pink' and then alternating sections of pink camo and 'bonbon print' until it is wide enough to fit a twin bed. On the outermost sides of the blanket, I will have two rows of half double crochet in gold. I'm debating if I want to do that all the way around it or not. I'm still undecided, to be perfectly honest.

Because Moo's favorite color is pink, I am using colorways that feature it heavily. The gold is just because it was what I had on hand when I started.

You can see here that I'm not only alternating colors here but also stitches. I'm doing nine rows of wattle stitch followed by nine rows of granny stripe. At the beginning of this, I chained 300 stitches. Then I worked my two rows of half doubles.

I'm thinking that I may want to name this thing when it's done, but I honestly have no idea what to name it. I think I am approximately a quarter of the way done here.

Februrary Beer Tasting: Blueberry Ale & Apricot Wheat Ale

This month, I forgot to post earlier when I sampled some of Ithca Beer Co.'s Apricot Wheat ale. I also had a bottle of Blue Point Brewing Company's Blueberry Ale. I'll start with the Blueberry Ale.

When you open up the bottle, it has a strong scent of blueberries. The color is a nice golden hue and it doesn't have gobs of foam to it when you pour it out. (Which I prefer over really foamy brews, it seems.) I tried a sip of it warm and it was ok. I then chilled it, which was superior to the warm sip.

The first thing that hits you when you sip this is the flavor of fresh blueberries. I was surprised by how well they captured that. It was totally unexpected. The blueberry flavor then melted into the crisp, clean tones of the ale proper. As far as ales go, I can't say that this is my new favorite but I would be willing to drink this with out giving the person handing it to me a funny look. I had it with hamburgers and it went surprisingly well. The suggestion of fruit was balanced well with the fresh veggies that I put on my burger.

The apricot wheat ale is definitely one I would have again. I had a sip of it warm and it was pretty good. Cold, it was almost as good as the Lambic that I first had. (I haven't found anything that has supplanted Lambic Peche yet. That stuff is fantastic!) Another light colored ale, I found it had a bright flavor.

The apricot was one of the after notes. While it wasn't the same as biting into a fresh apricot, it was still pleasantly potent. I had this by itself, so I would be at a loss for ideas as to what it would be good paired with. Given the fruit elements, I would probably have it with something else that helps play that up. That final hit of sweetness after the sharpness of the other flavors is really delightful.

Long day.

I'd like to say that I accomplished a lot today but I don't feel like I did. I knit a few more rows on the kerchief that I am making. I managed to keep the kitchen clean despite making meals (dishes are not my friend). The kids played relatively well. We even went outside for a little while in the afternoon.

Right now, however, I feel like I am about as useful as a bump on a log. I am more then a little upset with this writer's block that I'm struggling with. I don't know what to do about this contest for Amazon. I keep trying to put together a pitch for my novel and it keeps coming out like garbage. It makes me want to pull my hair out with frustration, to be painfully honest.

I am somewhat dreading tomorrow. I have two appointments back to back. I worry that I am going to be late to the second and that this will be problematic. I suppose, however, that is life and if I'm late, then I will be late. I will do my best to keep a cheerful outlook on all of this.

Look for the positives and all that. Who knows how well this is going to work out.

Conservative values bear strange fruit.

Over the course of the last week, I have seen more and more evidence that the political movement of 'conservatives' has become ethically questionable. Indeed, I see that there are many who have become down right repugnant. I try not to think about the vitriol that gets spewed about by people in the increasingly polarized political climate of the USA. It makes me heartsick, gives me heartburn, and at times makes me nauseated all at the same time.

I've got a real problem with people who seem to think that their First Amendment rights absolve them of responsibility for their actions. I think that Phil Robertson was given an appropriate response by A&E when he said what he did. They had to send a clear message to him that his actions, as a public figure and de facto representative of A&E, were not appropriate because they were not inline with the views of the corporation. If you walk around waving your fame as a television star, you should expect that you are going to be viewed with more scrutiny then your neighbor down the street.

A wise person would conduct themselves in such a manner that it doesn't reflect poorly on their employers *ON NATIONAL TELEVISION* and in major media outlets. If Phil Robertson had said what he did in a private conversation, it would be an entirely different ball of wax. He said it as a public figure conducting an interview. The cameras were on. If they were off and he said it off the record, it would be the same as if he said it in a private conversation. Then, in those circumstances, I would have been inline with the folks saying that A&E was in the wrong to take the actions they did. But he didn't do that.

I've a problem with people who seem to feel that their religious beliefs must be the law of the land. I have a BIG problem with that. When a "religious freedom" bill that is designed to perpetuate the discrimination against a minority population in this country is waved around as how people are going to be practicing those religious beliefs, that's wrong. Let's look at this from two separate angles.

First, the Constitution of the United States has this one little section that a lot of people keep forgetting. That First Amendment that those Conservatives I'm speaking about love, they're as selective about that as they are about their Bible. Because if you take a moment to read the bloody thing, you'll notice something really big here. For all y'all who don't have it easily accessible, here's the text:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

That "religious freedom" bill and related ephemera that is getting thrown around in the halls of the legislative branch in damn near the entire nation, it is taking a value set from a religion and making it law. This is a clear violation of the separation of church and state.

Now, there's one other angle to keep in mind here. This kind of proposed law is a blatant violation of civil liberties. You know the ones that say that people can't be discriminated on the basis of gender, creed, etc. Yeah, those rights that people want to wave around when it keeps them all cushy and comfortable but don't want to extend to those people who they find unsavory... You know who I'm talking about. I won't even mention the C- word here.

One other big thing that has been bothering the hell out of me, when an advertisement on nationally syndicated radio says that they're going to inform us about what the "bible says about interracial marriage" that tells me that we've got a big problem with discrimination. What color your skin is doesn't determine if you are a person. Attitudes that there is something somehow wrong or questionable about interracial marriage shows that you're a bigoted asshole.

Additionally, when I am out and about in public and I over hear casual conversations wherein people don't think anything about saying "not that I'm racist or anything, but so-and-so is a Jew and you know how they are" or that people of Arab descent are "sand niggers" I get torn between the urge to verbally eviscerate the person who dropped that kind of comment and to go off into a corner and quietly vomit. Who in the name of Hel has decided that this kind of behavior is 'ok'? You'd be fighting mad if someone was talking about you in this fashion or your race.

And then there's the topic of sex. I could rant on that one for a while. But I want to narrow my focus on one specific incident. Maybe you haven't seen this news story yet. I'll warn you, it's disgusting. A 5 year old girl is raped. The mother is told 'boys will be boys' by the county attorney's office. This is wrong on so many levels I have no idea where it would be best to begin. Let's start off with the fact that a KINDERGARTENER was raped. Not 'merely' molested, but raped.

The fact that it was done by a teenager really doesn't excuse the matter in any sense. For the county attorney's office to take such a cavalier attitude towards this kind of case is beyond reprehensible. This is a crime that has, quite possibly, caused this little girl physical injury that she may carry with her for the rest of her life. Why? Because her body isn't as developed as an older child. To put it plainly, she's built smaller so the act of rape will have greater likelihood of causing tearing within her body. And let's not forget the psychological effects this will have. And those will last for a very, very long time.

Next, when sexual assault is lumped together with consensual sexual activity and viewed as something to be moralized in the same fashion, you start to see things like this happening. People take the word rape and assume that on some level the victim wanted it or it wouldn't have happened. We have had people on the floors of Congress go so far as to say that the body could reject the semen of a rapist if it were a 'legitimate' rape. (Which completely defies logic and biology, but we will just let that lay because we've got bigger fish to fry here.)

Consensual sex is worlds apart from sexual violence. The 'rape culture' that people talk about, this is what the attitudes of 'boys will be boys' comes out of. This is where the question of what the rape victim was wearing comes out of. This is where the question of if the molestation victim orgasmed came from. Rape culture ignores the fact that a person has been victimized and instead focuses on diminishing their humanity so that culture doesn't have to feel icky about the idea that anyone could be victimized.

No one asks what the victim of a robbery was wearing. No one asks if the victim of a beating was drunk. No one asks if the person who was knifed enjoyed it. These are questions that no one would dare to ask such obviously victimized people. But the double standard that sex crimes are fair play for these kinds of questions is beyond the pale. To have people in the position of power and have the capacity to get justice for a victim of such a crime be so dismissive is beyond my ability to express bad.

Circling back to that video I linked at the beginning here, I just have to say, for people who claim to have the values of this nation at the core of their political ideology, these Conservatives are doing a damn bad job of it. We just went backwards fifty years. You know what was going on then? Lynchings. Murder for being black in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

We should never as a nation go back to that. It was and still is wrong.

Keep calm and carry on.

I've been spending some quality time at my altar praying today. It has been a particularly trying time over the last few weeks for reasons that I'm not entirely comfortable talking about here. What I can share, however, is pretty big stuff all on its own.

I may or may not have mentioned it before now, but I am diagnosed with Bipolar II, social phobia, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. With all three conditions, the more stress I am under, the more problems I have with them. Over the last few months, Beloved and I have had more then our share of stress to deal with.

Some of the stress is just the run of the mill nonsense that goes with being a parent and dealing with the current economy in Western New York. (I swear bread and milk get more expensive every other week.) Some of the stress is from the challenges of getting the boys appointments taken care of.

As a result of all this scheduling and running hither and yon, we now have a diagnosis for Cuddle Bear. He's been diagnosed as autistic. This will, in theory, make it easier for the professionals to help him out with stuff at school. At his parent-teacher conference a little while back, they were telling me how they are lobbying for him to get a 1:1 aide. I'm hopeful that this diagnosis will help them obtain what additional supports he needs.




 All of that said, I'm scared.

I'm scared that the developmental delays will become worse as time goes on. I'm scared that I am somehow contributing to their problems by trying to compensate for the difficulties that they have.

Most of all, I am scared that autism means that my boys are going to be developmentally disabled for all their life. The doctors tell me that Cuddle Bear is on the moderate to high functioning end of the spectrum. This should give me hope. For some reason, though, I only feel dread and fear right now. Thus, I pray.

New novel in the works.

I'm working on the third installment in my fantasy series. So far, I am 3,675 words in. I kinda feel like what I'm writing at the moment is just fluff. However, I felt that way about the whole thing when I wrote The Red Chair.

I did some crafting this morning when I was waiting for my coffee to finish brewing. It is a little ninja, in case you couldn't tell. I kinda like the way he came out looking like a stick figure. As a proof of concept piece, I think it came out pretty cool.

I'm considering making a few more as key rings or jewelery. I'm not decided yet.

Dreaming of Spring.

In the midst of putting out the recycling this afternoon, I looked at the corner of the front yard where I have been attempting to do a bit of gardening and the spot where I was trying to put in a flowerbed last year. I felt kinda bad because of all the weeds poking up out of the snow.

I recognize, however, that now is not the time for ripping weeds out. Now is the time for planning. When the kids go to bed, I think I am going to pull out the graph paper and my colored pencils.

I want to attempt vegetables again and I want lots of flowers. I also want to grow some strawberries. I realize that the lighting conditions of the yard is going to make some elements of this challenging. As much as I would love to be able to grow stuff like tomatoes and peppers, I am going to be severely limited in what space I am going to have available.  A lot of the plants that I really would love to have are full sun and I simply don't have the space for that.

Thinking about that burn pit that I want to turn into a flower bed, I think I'm going to start stockpiling newspapers. Then, when the weather gets nice, cut the dead weeds down and put a solid layer of paper down before I do some manure and then some top soil. While I could theoretically get some manure from my folks (they're raising pigs on the farm) I think I am going to go with buying bagged stuff. Two reasons for that. One, it will be easier to transport. Two, it won't make the car smell awful.

If I had a pickup truck, I wouldn't worry much about it. I'd just throw the manure in the back with a tarp over it. That, however, isn't what I have to work with. I can only do so much with a little hatchback. I have been dealing with the gardening itch by talking to my houseplants. At some point in the near future, I have to repot several plants. That should help soothe that urge.

I am going to do my 'indoor gardening' when the kids are off at school. Last thing I need is little hands getting into stuff and making an utter mess of it all. It's one thing when we're outside and I don't have to worry about getting mud out of the carpet.

Week One: Success!

Today's vegetarian lunch consisted of a salad with baby carrots, kumato, 'zesty' sprouts, and a combination of cottage and mozzarella cheese on a bed of baby mixed greens. I topped it all off with some balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  On the whole, it was fairly tasty. I found myself feeling full after about two thirds of this tasty dish. Not too shabby for throwing it together on the basis of what I had left kicking around in the fridge.




I didn't snap pictures of yesterday or the day before's lunches because those were made by Mark's Pizza. Tuesday was just random stuff I had in the fridge. Nothing terribly attractive there. My salad for Monday, however, was pretty good. Another kumato, more baby carrots, 'zesty sprouts, and baby greens topped with some italian dressing.

That is some peppered tofurky. You can't really see it, but there is some mozzarella on this salad too. Again, fairly tasty and quite filling.




Sunday's lunch was a twice baked potato with sour cream and cheese. I also had some broccoli with it and some of those 'zesty' sprouts. (I got through most of the package before I hit any of those radish sprouts in there. I was kinda disappointed with that.) The tofurky here is the hickory smoked variety. It was ok but I think it was better with some kind of dressing or mustard on it.

All in all, I am pleased with the progress I am making on sticking to this healthier diet.

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Veggie burgers are not that bad.

For lunch today, I had the remainder of my veggie calzone from Mark's Pizza. When I finished it, I was still hungry. Since I finished the last of my tofurky, I decided that I was going to try out the veggie burgers that I picked up. I put a little bit of the left over marinara sauce I had from the calzone on it. I have to say, this was really a good decision. I actually think this would be something that even Beloved would enjoy.

I don't have a picture of my lunch from the last few days. I want to start documenting what I make myself for my vegetarian lunches. Partly because I really don't have enough pictures on this blog and partly because it helps motivate me. It is now a full week into eating vegetarian lunches and breakfasts everyday. I think it is part of the reason why I have a bit more energy, to be honest.

I don't know if I have lost any weight doing this. Next week I see my therapist. While I'm at that appointment, I'm going to borrow their scale to check my weight. Starting next Monday, I am going to be doing fifteen minutes of exercise every day. The weather is just too cold for me to be going out and walking two miles a day. When it warms up, though, I am definitely going to start doing that again.

I want to drop fifty pounds by the end of the year. That makes a little over a pound a week. I have been looking at different strategies for how to do that. I like the idea of little changes that accumulate to big ones. I remember reading that if you lose your extra weight gradually that it is more likely to stay off. That is my goal.

I figure stuff like veggie burgers for lunch will help me lose that weight and possibly lower my cholesterol. I have a fairly low cholesterol diet to begin with but I really want to knock that down lower. The family history of high cholesterol coupled with the fact that I had my gall bladder out really means that I don't process it as well as other people.

When I eat foods that are high in cholesterol they don't agree well with my stomach. I'm adjusting my diet and trying to do the 'eat like your diabetic' thing. It's been kinda rough because I get the urge to snack fairly regularly. I think I still need to adjust my grocery shopping habits to take that kind of thing into consideration. I had way too much junk food yesterday and I want to avoid that.

I want to make that delightful bar of chocolate that I have sitting in the fridge last me until next week. That is one of my little goals right now. I figure if I can wean myself off of high sugar content foods, that can only do me good. That, however, is what I'm up to right now.

ChocoLOVE!

The little grocery store in Livonia, NY, near where I live, carries this brand of chocolates called Chocolove. I figured that chocolate is chocolate. That said, I was in the mood for some when I stopped there in the course of running all over the countryside doing errands today. I have learned the error of my ways.

Chocolove is more then the Hershey's Special Dark. Imagine something like the fancy imported chocolates for the prices of a Special Dark bar. That's what this stuff is. It says on the package that they use Belgian chocolate. I have to say, you can really taste the difference. This stuff is amazingly good.

I'm half tempted to take Beloved's bar and hide it so that I can eat it later. I am not going to do that, however, because I love him and I want to not create marital strife over a bit of sweets. My goodness, this Chocolove bar is wonderful. It's just what I needed after the whirlwind today was.

I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up after a few hours of sleep and then was wide awake for several hours. It wasn't stress keeping me up. I just couldn't fall back to sleep. When I finally did get back to sleep, I had some weird dreams about reliving my childhood as an adult. It was strange and for some reason involved zombies and bloody plants. As in, plants covered in blood. It was gruesome but not terrifying.

I'm sure if I wanted to, I could pull all kinds of meanings out of that. I'm not going to, however, because I feel like bragging about the sheer volume of stuff I got done today. I washed a mountain of laundry, resolved the storage issue for the recycling stuff, and took care of some housekeeping related stuff with my Etsy shop. I also mended what has become my favorite pair of jeans.

I stuck to my diet today, even in the face of the temptation of McDonald's. I will confess, however, I was a little bit wicked and had some cheap chocolate as I was waiting for the laundry to finish drying. Out of my choices, though, I did pick the stuff that had the highest amount of good for me stuff to it. I blame Beloved for turning me on to the chocolate-peanut butter combination. I did surprise myself because I couldn't get through the whole candy bar. Perhaps this whole dieting thing is working.

My plan is when I go to see my psychiatrist next month, I'm going to weigh myself. I figure if I do a monthly weigh in, I won't obsess over the number and focus more on putting healthier habits into place. Right now, I'm focusing on portion control and what type of foods I eat. Next month, I'm going to start adding in more exercise.

15 min turned into 1.5 hrs

 So, FlyLady's Flight Plan for today included a mission to clean 15 min in the zone of the day, which is the living room. Specifically, the mission was to pick up things that didn't belong in the living room and put them where they were supposed to go.

I did a bit more then that. To the left are the before shots of the main spaces of the living room. I picked up some of the toy cars before taking the first one and then remembered I wanted to start documenting my progress with FlyLady.

 This is actually an improvement over how the room was a few days ago. With everybody being sick most of the last few weeks, all of the cleaning piled up. I think the living room was the worst offender, to be honest.

So, I snapped a few pictures and then put on some music and set to work. I started out focusing on picking up one corner of the room and working my way around the room counter clock wise. Widdershins to banish the mess, why not, right?

 I paused for a little bit to eat a quick lunch (that ultimately proved insufficient with all the cleaning I was doing). I didn't bother snapping a picture of my lunch because I was pretty much eating all the veggies that were left over from dinner over the last few nights.

The corner toy storage area is improved, though looking at this picture I realize that I missed some stuff. I think, however, it will be a simple matter of telling the boys now they need to 'help' clean up before they get to play with the blanket fort.

 I still have laundry to fold and put away, but that is no big deal. I am more then a little bit confident that the laundry will be a fairly straight forward affair this afternoon.

Tomorrow's laundry run, however, is going to be a lot of work. I didn't get the wash done this weekend and just wasn't up to doing it this morning. So, tomorrow is laundry day. If I had enough laundry baskets, I would fold everything as I took it out of the dryer.

The days of being able to fit all our laundry into two baskets, however, are long gone.

How the 'Manosphere' is a problem.

Perhaps you have heard of the Manosphere? It was started via the Return of Kings site and has grown to include over 20 listed pages on the Best of the Manosphere. There are countless other less advertised sites espousing similar sentiments. A quick review of Return of Kings' beliefs statement, it is immediately apparent that misogyny runs rampant through the group. A terribly heavy emphasis is placed upon the value of women on the basis of their sexual performance and Return of Kings even states directly "A woman’s value is mainly determined by her fertility and beauty. A man’s value is mainly determined by his resources, intellect, and character."

Such a front-loaded position makes clear that women are not viewed as equals. Reviewing the material on Return of Kings and other Manosphere blogs, this repetitive dismissal of women as little more then sex objects is blatant and receives no greater consideration then the function of gravity. The target audience of the Return of Kings and its brother blogs is not the enlightened men of the 21st century. No, the target audience of these sites are men who yearn for an imagined past where rigid sexual roles defined how men and women interacted.

It is easy to find articles upon these sites that describe women who do not fit their ideal as damaged goods. More disturbing is that these are not just circulating within some dark corner of the internet. No, they have been found on outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and other major social networking media. Part of the rising popularity of these sites are from the people who share the outrage that they feel and include a link back to them. Another part of the appeal of these sites is that there is a significant population of men who feel intensely threatened by the cultural shifts that are taking place.
 
As such, these men react by lashing out with their words to belittle and denigrate those who do not fit what they believe are the correct mold of behavior. Derogatory comments as to the quality of a person with respect to their gender have reached near epidemic levels on the internet. Sites that make up the Manosphere serves to perpetuate this behavior when we should be decrying it. When women are declared to be flawed on the basis of the length of their hair, it is apparent that they are not being considered upon the merits of their intellect, efforts, or other personal qualities that are being applied to men.

Actions such as this deny women their humanity. Indeed, Return of Kings even has an article talking about how women 'train' men to rape. This type of mentality is dangerous for society at large. It dis-empowers women just as racism dis-empowers people of color. Repetitively teaching one group that the other is valueless or inferior to them, the message spreads to the other group by way of inference and context cues. These are the unspoken elements of language that can be found in both written and verbal communication.

Communicating the inferior status of another group escalates the potential for violence against that group. It encourages a negative position with respect to someone from the scorned group at the outset of any exchanges, irregardless of the actions taken by that person. The Manosphere may claim they do not condone violence against women but the attitudes that they espouse and express are frequently used to justify abusive behavior, sexual assault, and subtle second class person status behaviors, like the refusal to pay equal compensation for equal work.

The solution to the problem presented by the Manosphere is not simple. While one could theoretically create a demand for these sites to be taken down, these sites would simply come back. People who ascribe to this misogynistic approach and are especially vocal in their efforts could be simply ignored. This works on a small scale but once one moves out of the scale of individual interactions, it becomes far more difficult to remove their audience. It is more effective to create an alternate message and disseminate it with intensity and vigor.

A combination of spreading an alternate, more balanced perspective and shunning of those who are particularly virulent has a significant chance of success. A counter message that informs and educates women and others marginalized by the Manosphere how to respond to the scorn heaped upon them is vital. Encouraging the people in charge of forums such as Facebook or Twitter to apply their decency standards equally and to discourage hate mongering is also an effective tool.

If the community of the internet comes together and publicly denounces the sexism and related precepts espoused by the Manosphere, it would be a major step forward towards a public forum where people are not verbally assaulted for their differences.

January Beer Tasting: Edmund Fitzgerald

I had been curious about this particular beer for a while. Namely because anything named after a tragedy makes me go 'wait, what?' I realize that was part of the marketing ploy and I tip my hat to Great Lakes Brewing Co. on their cleverness.

On the bottle, it is labeled as a porter. I honestly don't know what that means. According to BeerAvocate, a porter is a blend of three different types of ale (old, new, and weak). The label describes this as a complex flavor with a bittersweet 'chocolate-coffee' taste.

The hops are present in this beer. It isn't as overpowering as it was in the IPA that I tried earlier in the month. After the strong influence of the hops, there is a subtle smokey quality. There is some after notes that could be described as bitter chocolate/coffee. It was a surprise, because I totally didn't expect that. I

I tried my first sip at room temperature. It wasn't terribly exciting and the hops were much more potent. After I chilled it down, the more subtle tastes of the beer came out. It went fairly well with the beef stew that I had for dinner last night. That little bit left in the glass was left as an experiment. After being allowed to sit in the fridge until about dinner time today, I can honestly say that the coffee flavors are much stronger.

The subtle chocolate qualities in this were enough that I came away from drinking half the bottle wanting to have some chocolate ice cream. Strangely enough, this beer paired surprisingly well with Chocolate Therapy ice cream. It was honestly the last thing I expected. While this isn't entirely my style, it was still a relatively pleasant beverage.

On Tofurky and other things.

From Here

Day one of intentionally eating vegetarian for breakfast and lunch was a bit of a challenge. I spent most of yesterday on the run. I was tempted when I was at Wegmans getting groceries to pick up some of the meat sushi but I got the vegetable instead. It was quite tasty, though the seaweed salad was not to my liking. When I got home with my groceries, I found that I was hungry again. So I busted out my noodle salad left overs from Thursday and ate that up.

A few hours later, I was ravenously hungry again. I was bad and I bought a jumbo sized rice krispy treat. I ate the whole thing in the time it took for me to drive from Geneseo to Lakeville. I am not proud of this. I considered my lesson learned and have had more protein today.

Today's breakfast was boxed cereal. I'd feel a bit guilty about this except for the fact that it was literally the easiest thing I could manage with the kids bouncing around like crazy this morning. Lunch was a tofurky sandwich and a bowl of curried lentil soup. I didn't expect it, but the tofurky sandwich filled me up enough that I managed a few spoonfuls of the soup. I have put it into the fridge to either have tomorrow for lunch of dinner tonight.

From Here

It smelled really, really good. The taste wasn't quite up to what the scent advertized but it was good. I'm thinking that next week, I'm going to make a big batch of chickpea chili. I forgot to get ground beef but I can chop up some of that stew beef that I purchased in my little food processor. I picked up a bunch of veggies for me to use in my lunches this week. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that I had most of what I needed for dinners in my pantry already.

I walked out of Wegmans with the smallest weekly shopping bill that I have ever had shopping somewhere other then Aldi's or Save-A-Lot. It was $110. My menu plan for this week is pretty much the same as what it was last week. (Look below the jump for my menu. Breakfast and lunch are planned for myself. Dinner for everybody.)

Vegetarian?

It struck me today that a possible route for me to go in my efforts to lose the 15 or so pounds that I want to is by changing my diet. Most days, I am on my own for breakfast and lunch. As such, I could eat what ever I want. I feel a bit silly realizing this so late, but it was a delightful thing to realize.

As such, I could start eating a more vegetarian diet. I think this would have a lot of healthy effects. I am more then a little bit sure that it would lower my cholesterol. Getting more fiber would be good for my digestive tract. If I do it right, I could possibly even manage to work myself to eating the correct amount of calories to be at my ideal weight (150 lbs) for the lifestyle that I have right now.

Today, quite by accident, I did just that. I had my usual morning breakfast of oatmeal with fruit and a bit of maple syrup. I blame McDonald's for getting me hooked on that combination. I'm not using instant oatmeal or artificial maple syrup for this. I do the refrigerator trick with quick cooking oats (I tried using steel cut and it just didn't work). To cut down on fat, I have been using just plain water for it. I must say, I prefer it this way. It could be because I'm a closet oatmeal purist but I doubt that. When I remember, I chop up half an apple and throw in one of those mini-boxes of raisins and a mini-box of dried cranberries.

This afternoon, I was feeling hungry but I didn't want to do much cooking. Then I remembered that I had ramen. Ramen cooks up fast and I will confess, I enjoy it far more then I rightly should. As I was boiling the water for the noodles, I realized that I had some veggies that I was going to cut up for a cold noodle salad last week. The clover sprouts that I was going to try turned questionable. So I tossed those, but I chopped up some celery, a tiny cucumber, and half of a small zucchini. Once the noodles were cooked, I drained them and rinsed them with cool water. Then I tossed everything in a medium sized bowl with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

I ate about half of this. It probably was more then I really should have but it tasted SO good I couldn't help myself. I put the rest into a container and stashed it in the fridge. Because it is something vegetarian, I know that Beloved won't be terribly interested in it. As for the boys, the container is not see through, so I won't have little food bandits pilfering my noodle salad. Huzza for that, am I right?

Upon some consideration, I like the idea of eating a diet that is more vegetarian then not. One reason why is because I think it may help me control my PCOS related blood sugar issues. When I was pregnant with the boys, I was eating a diet that was low in processed foods, high in vegetables, and meat only when I craved it. I think I must have kept the grape producers hopping with how much I scarfed down. I found that when I had cravings, it wasn't for stuff like junk food. (No pickles and ice cream for this momma!)

I think the closest I came to craving junk food was when I wanted popcorn. (That's a whole story by itself. I'll tell it later!) I suspect that if I go with that kind of diet that I accidentally did while I was pregnant, I'll lose a few pounds all by itself. Throw in some increased exercise (I've been bad about that one) and I may see even more improvement. But, that's what's on my mind right now. I thought I'd share. :)

First of the Yule projects.

This is the beginnings of Moo's yule gift. It is 300 stitches long. The edge is worked in double crochet. I then worked 9 rows of wattle stitch. I'm now doing 9 rows of granny rows. I'm debating if I should then do a row of double crochet followed by 9 rows of inverted shells or if I should then do 9 rows of wattle stitch.

I'm going to be alternating colors. I have this petal pink that I'm doing right now. After I get 18 rows done, I'm going to switch to the pink camo. Then I'll do 18 rows of that and switch back.

Flammable objects, Mjollnir, and a bit of insanity.

This week has been challenging. My psychiatric health issues have been making it difficult to get much done. Feeling exhausted all the time didn't help very much either.

I picked up the crochet hook and started working on a simple project to help me keep my wits together. It sort of worked. I think as I continue forward and deliberately put time aside for this kind of thing, I will get more benefits out of it. I am pleased with my first 'sanity' project of the year. I call it the Buzzy Bee Bag.

Beloved and the bag

I wrote up the pattern and posted it up on Triond.
We'll see if it gets a bunch of views or not. Right now, I am just pleased that I finished this project with out running out of yarn. I was a little bit worried that I was going to run out of the black before I got near to where I wanted the top of the bag was supposed to be.

I had planned initially to have two stripes of black on the yellow flap but I didn't have enough for that. I'm not going to be grumpy and upset, however, because the bag looks good either way.



I mentioned flammable objects. One object was intended to be flammable. I took up the wax that I had sitting around from old candles. I melted it into a glass container with a pre-made wick. Thus, I created for myself a candle out of 90% recycled materials. I dedicated it to Dea and burned it for my little Full Moon observance. My plan is when I meditate, pray, or otherwise focus on Dea, I will burn this candle for her.

My habit of burning jarred candles has me acquiring a good number of jars. Because I don't trust them to be food safe, I have been working on coming up with alternate uses for them. I picked up a package of chalkboard labels that I slapped onto half a dozen jars. I think I am going to sell the clear ones on Etsy. The ones that are made out of pottery, I am going to keep. I have a plan to use one for buttons. I haven't decided what I will be doing with the other. I will figure something out, don't you worry!

I have been looking for a little over a month now and having no success for a crochet flat Mjollnir. I have been attempting to make one but I am not pleased with the results thus far. The first attempt here was based off of altering a cross pattern. Beloved and I have made several cracks about how it looks like a mutated form of Yoda from Star Wars.

My most recent attempt is on the bottom and it looks vaguely closer to
what I have been seeing people craft out of wood. I'm starting to think that this is going to be more challenging then I had initially thought. You'd figure from looking at the image that is popularly used for pendants that it would be fairly simple to create a flat shape like that in yarn. This is what I get for thinking it would be simple.



Now to return briefly back to the matter of flammable objects. My stove caught fire again. It happened as I was attempting to boil water. (This seems to be a theme. I attempt to boil water and something catches on fire. It's almost funny, if it weren't so damn annoying.) Now, the last time this happened, the drip pans (which I had thought were matte black finish) were so caked with grime and debris that they were a fire hazard waiting to happen. Seriously, the things were actually supposed to be shiny aluminum.

Apparently, they had NEVER been cleaned. I first attempted to clean them. When this ended poorly, I broke down and bought new drip pans. We didn't have any problems until last night. Now, let me first preface this with I regularly clean my drip pans (every month, and after I cook something greasy). When I was baking earlier in the week, I smelled something a bit burned. I thought it was the scones. When I took them out of the oven they looked ok, so I figured that it had to be that some batter had dripped down into the bottom of the oven and I paid it no more mind.

How does the baking relate to the attempt to boil water, I hear you asking. Well, it is very simple. Let me present you with exhibits A and B.

To the left, we have exhibit A. There's a little bit of mess from a few things splattering. All of which is easily wiped up with a warm, damp, soapy cloth. This does not look like it would be a fire hazard.

A touch messy, but not terribly dangerous (unless you're compulsive about cleaning.)

The drip pans are clean. There is no debris near the burners.

To the right, we have exhibit B. This is the space under the range top and over the oven proper. This is what caught fire last night. This is what it looks like after a good scrubbing by yours truly. It looked worse.

The truly disturbing bit about this is not the mere fact that it is utterly filthy under here. It was the fact that it was bolted down to the rest of the oven. Not only that it was bolted down, but the fact that ALL of the areas under the burners look this bad, if not worse.


The gods were watching over us last night. It is the only reason why I can think of that the whole bloody thing didn't catch fire. It is making me seriously think that I should move my bakers rack with books and such on it. I was too stunned to laugh in the property manager's face when he brought me a fire extinguisher. His solution to this mess: give it all a good scrub down.

Let's forget the fact that this area has at least one hole in it (note that gap in the center of the circle area with the scorch marks around it, that's what was burning last night). Let's forget the fact that this is not the first time I've had this problem with this stove. He brought me a fire extinguisher and basically stood there, pointed at it and said 'well, THERE'S your problem.'

My friend Lily is strongly encouraging us to take the cost of the cleaning supplies off of our rent check. I've already decided that if I can't get this bad boy clean, I'm going to demand a new stove. It has been almost a year now that I have been dealing with this nonsense. I am at a point where I am honestly questioning the safety of my stove. What other problems are lurking with this damned thing that aren't going to show up until I'm attempting to cook dinner?

Do I need to be worried about my home burning down just because I'm trying to make something to eat?

Crochet stuff.

Crochet for sanity's sake is underway! To the right is the messenger bag that I am making. It is just freehanded, no patterns involved at all. I'm using up some yarn that I had sitting in the project room. I am more then a little bit certain that there is not enough black yarn to make the rest of the bag black, but that's ok. I figure I'll do a few more rounds with the black and then switch to the gold. When I get near the top, I'll alternate between the gold and the black a bit.

To the left is the sock I am making with the Adironack sock pattern from Interweave. I am using Lion Brand's Sock-Ease yarn in their Toffey colorway. I'm not completely thrilled with the yarn but I like how the pattern is working up. I think if I'm going to do this again, I will be making it up with the Cotton Candy colorway. The dark blue and the occasional sections of slate colored yarn makes it hard to see the stitch definition under normal indoor lighting.

I have started the process of acquiring the yarn I need to make blankets for the Danger Duo. I have also begun looking over patterns. I am drawn to the Moorish Mosaic afghan pattern. I really like the way it comes together. I have also been considering taking the quilt pattern Grandmother's Flower Garden and adapting it for a crochet blanket. Along the lines of adapting a quilt pattern for use, I have been considering using the Log Cabin block too.

One blanket is going to be heavy on the shades of pink. The other is going to have more purples in it. I just can't decide what I'm going to do for these. Either way, the blankets are going to be modular so that I can carry sections with me to work on them. I don't want to be lugging around a huge blanket when the weather gets hot.

Oh, speaking of quilt patterns, I have decided that I am going to make another needlepoint sampler. This one is going to be like the one that I made years ago and had gotten stolen. I will be drawing on the canvas several traditional quilt blocks and then stitching them in. I'll be posting up pictures of these projects as I work on them. Right now, I am still in the planning stages. I figure in about a week or two, I should have these planned out and be ready to start working on them.

I have no idea what I'll be doing for the other girls. I'm sure I will figure something out. I'm crafty like that. And I have the whole year to think of something.