Ordinary Time

After D. graduated from college last spring his plan was to get a job, work for a year, and apply to grad schools. And he did all that. He and P. have been sharing an apartment in Chicago, and D. spent the fall applying to grad schools. After the new year, the response letters started to arrive. As is usual in the school application game, some were acceptances and some were rejections, but he had enough acceptances that he needed to choose between them. He went to each school tour and then had to make his decision.  A couple of the schools were in Chicago, and while we would love to have him here, I think he made a very good decision. I'm very happy to share that in August D. will be heading off to Troy, New York to start a PhD program in chemistry at Rennselear Polytechnic Institute. We are thrilled for him and extremely proud of his achievements. We are also going to miss him terribly being so far away.  I know everyone always asks what kind of chemistry he wants to do. It's...

I got in late last night after a really lovely trip to visit my mom. It was a lovely visit despite the 108° temperatures. We went out to eat. We cleaned out boxes. We went fabric shopping. And I saw a good number of friends that I don't get to see nearly enough. Plus, I read four complete books.  The first was an N. K. Jemisin book called The City We Became. I checked it out from the library because I liked her trilogy that begins with The Fifth Season so much. It's speculative fiction and for the first third I had to just keep reading despite not really having any idea what was going on. It was very much a matter of trusting the author. The book is very much a love letter to New York City while at the same time being a pretty sharp social commentary. If you appreciate speculative fiction, I recommend this to you. I have the sequel sitting in my pile waiting for it's turn.  Then I read a book on animal communication followed by The Correspondent by Virginia Evans which I t...

As I was talking with my friend yesterday, we realized that most of the people we went to elementary school with lived in families who had lived in Arizona for a while. Many people had grandparents who also lived in the area. The Phoenix area was not the city of transplants that it is now. As my mother and I have visited various friends today, I realize that they, too, are all long time residents. My friend, who still lives in the valley, says it is very rare that she comes across people who didn't personally move here. I'm not even sure where I'm going with this except to note the phenomenon.  I've also been helping my mom go through some boxes that have been stored since my grandmother passed away twenty-five years ago. A couple of them included some family history which has been interesting to look at. One picture shows my great-grandmother and my grandmother (on my mother's side) when my grandmother was eight, standing on a train platform about to leave Chicago ...

I spent the morning at the Desert Botanical Garden with a friend I've known since first grade. We actually spent more time catching up than paying attention to the gardens, but I did take a couple of pictures for you.  This is one of the many Palo Verde trees which were in bloom. And another picture from the butterfly garden which has only species native to the area. The rest of the day was spent with my mom visiting other friends and helping her sort through ~13 boxes which had been stored in the garage.  Today's high temperature was 108° F (42° C). It's not spring, it's summer and it feels exactly like the summers of my childhood. I've never felt nostalgic about the summers of my childhood temperature-wise. In true form, the weather back home was very pleasant and my family was in t-shirts. At least it is still cooling off at night, so the mornings aren't bad. 

This morning when I headed outside to feed the horses, it was 10° F (-12° C) with a wind chill of -3. It's not really the weather one wants to see in March. Tomorrow night I fly to Arizona to spend the weekend with my mom. I always look forward to this trip which often has the added perk of warm weather to tide me over until spring finally arrives here.  So there's warm and there's hot. It seems the Southwest is going to be having a heat wave while I'm there, with temperatures around 102° F (39° C). While I know that the first few days will feel lovely after that ten degrees business, I also know that by the afternoon it won't exactly be sit outside and read weather. I'm not really complaining. I grew up there and know that 102° in March is actually pretty manageable. But it does seem a bit extreme to experience a hundred degree temperature difference in 48 hours (if you start at that wind chill figure.) I will say that it is better than pouring rain which has a...

I am so close to being done with the making the actual skirt I have been drafting the pattern for. Here's what I have done. The front: Notice the fly zipper. I have made so many fly zipper over the past two weeks. I think I all paid off because I'm happy with this one. The front has pockets with a nice lining.  This is the back. You can tell where I left off sewing today. I'm finishing the seams where the yoke connects to the panels which is why this hasn't been pressed yet. It will lie flat once I do that.  The back also has went pockets which I drafted to fit my phone. Here is the pile of 14 (!) pattern pieces I had to draft in order to make this skirt. I'm not sure I realized how involved my first drafting project actually was. That's probably for the best.  Tomorrow I'll finish the yoke, see the side seams together, do the waistband, and then hem it. It shouldn't be too hard to finish. I would love to be able to pack it for my trip to Arizona to visi...