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When I'm not here, you may find me wandering the pages below. (If I'm a regular visitor to your site and I've left your link off or mislinked to you, please let me know! And likewise, if you've blogrolled me, please check that my link is updated: thisroamanticlife.blogspot.com. The extra (a) makes all the difference!)

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Body: in sickness and in health

I won't lie; this body and I have had our issues with each other for many years. Body image -- sure. Physical and mental overextension -- comes with being a Type A kind of girl. I still struggle with these things, so they show up from time to time in my writing.

More recently, illness, pure but not simple, has added itself to the mix in a multi-system sort of way. And the challenges in figuring out exactly what's gone wrong are many. As problems have revealed themselves in the last few years, beginning with reactive hypoglycemia in late 2008, I've documented them here, partly to gain a little clarity on managing complex conditions but mostly to give voice to vulnerabilities I feel but don't normally share with anyone face to face. Better out than in, they say, right? (Oh yes, humor is one way I deal.)

The links below cover the different angles I've examined (and from which I've been examined) within that experience.

Travel: neither here nor there

When the person you're married to lives two time zones away, you log a fair number of frequent flier miles. And if you blog about commuter relationships, you log quite a few posts en route too.

Since we're no longer in separate places, I blog less often from airports. But we do travel -- together now! -- which is much more fun to write about. So in addition to thoughts on our years of commuting, the links below cover the places we've been as a pair and, in some cases, the adventures that have happened on the way.

Writing: the long and short of it

Why do I do it? Good question. Maybe it's not so much that I like to write but that I have to write, even when the words refuse to stick to the page. Believe me, I've tried doing other things like majoring in biochemistry (freshman fall, many semesters ago). Within a year, I'd switched to English with a concentration in creative writing and wasn't looking back.

After graduating, I taught English for a few years and then worked as an editor, which I still do freelance. In 2007, I applied and got into an MFA program at a place I like to call Little U. on the Prairie. I finished my degree in 2011 and have been balancing tutoring and writing on my own ever since.

The following links cover the writing I've done about writing: process, content, obstacles, you name it. It's not always pretty. But some part of me loves it, even when it's hard. And this is the result.

Heart: family and friends

I'd have a hard time explaining who I am without being able to talk about the family I grew up in as well as the people I've met beyond its bounds. But even with such context, it's not easy! In the simplest terms, I'm a first-generation Asian-American who has spent most of this life caught between cultures. That, of course, doesn't even begin to describe what I mean to, but there's my first stab at the heart of it all.

That's what this group of posts is reserved for -- heart. The essential parts of my life whose influences I carry with me, for better or worse. The links below cover what I've written as I've learned how these forces work within me, for me, against me, in spite of me. They anchor me even as they change me, and they keep life interesting.

Recommended reading

What do I do when there's too much on my mind and my words won't stick to the page? I escape into someone else's thoughts. Below is a collection of books and articles that have been sources of information, inspiration, and occasional insight for my own work.

Monday, November 30, 2009

And now, back to doing this*

Not totally, but for the time being.

I got a call back from the GI doctor's office a week ago, following up on the abnormal liver enzyme stuff. The good news is that nothing requiring immediate, invasive intervention is necessary. The bad news is that there is no short-term way to address the problem. Basically, for the next seven weeks, I get to abstain from alcohol and all anti-inflammatory meds, see what my enzyme levels look like in mid-January, and then reassess the situation. Which means I get to do the craziness of holiday season without the two things I was kind of counting on to help me get through it: good wine to calm my frazzled nerves and painkillers to put the kibosh on tension headaches (family get-togethers involving Troubadour Dad will do those things to a person). Oh, joy!

Oh, help.

I am going to get through this just fine, I assure you, but it may not be pretty. However it goes, I'll try to make it entertaining here. What's a stressful holiday without finding some way to laugh at it?

I will also be indulging myself in very good coffee flavorings for the duration of this no-alcohol thing. Torani, I'm looking at you and all your tasty sugar-free syrups.

* Photo courtesy of Marketing Sis

Sunday, November 29, 2009

A cozy weekend

I wish my sisters and I lived nearer to one another. We had such a wonderful time over Thanksgiving just catching up on sister-news, getting giddy on sister-humor, and sharing sister-time. Did I ever mention that my sisters and I are close? We are. And that's why it's so hard being on opposite coasts.

Almost Dr. Sis arrived on Tuesday with her boyfriend (such a sweet guy!). I picked them up at the airport and got them settled in our newly crown-molded guest room with bonus new light fixture (we replaced the old one right before they arrived as it was missing a cover for the light bulbs -- kind of ugly). Marketing Sis got in the following evening.

We had already done much chatting over e-mail to determine what we wanted on the menu (besides the 20-pound turkey we got from Safeway). In the end, we made farro with goat cheese and butternut squash, roasted herbed potatoes and pearl onions, cranberry sauce spiked with rum, D's great-grandmother's cornbread, and stuffing. It was epic. I am pleased to say the turkey was juicy and flavorful thanks to the amazing broth-and-butter seasoning method Almost Dr. Sis recommended from a cooking demonstration she got to see. We also spatchcocked our bird to shorten the roasting time. Even so, it took three hours to reach the proper temperature since it was so huge, but it was worth the wait. Here's a look at the feast in its final stages from stove to table (thanks to Marketing Sis for the photos):





Now all our visitors are gone, and I'm feeling a little sad about that, but overall, I'm still enjoying the memory of a really lovely gathering. I think Troubadour Dad is hoping we don't turn this into a regular thing (sisters-only for Turkey Day), so it will probably be a whole-family event next year. But we are definitely going to pick a holiday to do on our own at least once yearly. It was too much fun not to make it a tradition.

Work calls -- I've been away from the thesis over the holiday and my advisor wants another installment by the end of the weekend. I'd much rather be doing what Simone seems to love (see below), but that'll have to wait. More news shortly ...

Friday, November 27, 2009

Distraction successful!


This girl is keeping us quite busy. Updates on her and Thanksgiving visitors and such very soon, but I just wanted to post a shot of our new foster. Meet Simone. She's a lovebug.

Friday, November 20, 2009

If I pretend I'm not listening, it will all go away


Not the best approach to every problem, but at the moment, it's the only one I have, going into this weekend.

I had some blood tests a month ago that came back abnormal -- liver enzymes elevated. Mind you, these were done right after our housewarming, which was a wine- and beer-soaked event. Instead of my usual one glass of white, I had more like two and a half. You can laugh; I know I'm a lightweight. A little goes a long way. Or so I told myself.

My doctor instructed me to abstain from any alcoholic beverages for two weeks and have the test repeated. So last week, I went in for another blood draw. Yesterday evening, the doctor's office left a message for me that my results came back abnormal again and that I should follow up with my GI specialist, to whom the data would be faxed.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Unfortunately, my GI person is out of town and won't be back till Tuesday, so he won't be able to review the test results till then. Which means I'm now going to try to forget about this little bit of news since there's nothing to be done about it for the next 72 hours.

Good Things I Can Distract Myself With:
  • The issue with my lady parts that showed up on the CT scan is a non-issue. Yaaaay.
  • Almost Dr. Sis, her boyfriend, and Marketing Sis are arriving on Tuesday and Wednesday for Thanksgiving.
  • We got our foster kitty (pictured above) adopted this week.
  • We're picking up a new kitty to lavish with affection tomorrow morning.
There, that ought to do it.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Making do

That's sort of the way we've been approaching the crown molding project this week, namely from a lack of fancy equipment. And despite some hitches, we've made good progress.

What we were missing was an (expensive) electric table saw. Instead, we had the kind of saw that you use arm power to run and a guide (see photo) you can mount on your workbench to keep your cuts straight. Only we had no workbench -- just a lightweight table with a particle-board surface. It was left behind in our laundry room by the previous owners of our house, and we had no use for it, so we figured, why not?

It's really hard to saw anything if your entire workbench jiggles.

Enter the Two-Person Weighted Sawing System. One person sits on the table while the other person saws. Easy solution!

Well, not quite.

In the photo, you see D positioning a piece of molding on the guide, which is screwed down to the table. Note that the molding has to be cut at a 45-degree angle through its cross-section (or so I'm told), which requires it to be held at the tilt pictured. There is no way to secure the molding with the clamp that came with this guide unless the molding is lying flat (as in, parallel to the table surface). So in order to accomplish the proper cut, one person has to hold the molding firmly while the other person applies the saw. Hmmm.

In the end, we revised the TPWSS slightly -- D sawed while sitting on the jury-rigged workbench and I became a human vise for the molding. I do not recommend this approach unless the person sitting on the workbench is heavy enough to make jiggle practically nonexistent. Otherwise, your thumbs will hurt A LOT.

So last night, we finished cutting the last piece for the guest bedroom. This weekend, we're going to get everything mounted. We had originally planned to make do with a hammer and nails. Fortunately, one of D's colleagues owns a nail gun, which we are definitely going to borrow!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Don't spill the beans ...


... because that's exactly what's in these brownies.

I got the recipe from this blog a long time ago but hadn't had the chance to give it a try. So last week, D and I pulled out the baking pans (which sadly don't get a lot of use around here unless they're holding meat-based dishes) and went to work.

The result was delicious! Moist, melt-into-fudgy-heaven delicious. With minimal impact on my blood sugar readings. And I say was because there are no more brownies left. Which means it's time to make another batch.

We've actually been testing several recipes over the last few weeks to include in a cookbook we're planning to give D's mother for Christmas. She always asks us what she should make for us when we visit, but because we've got these pesky dietary restrictions, it's not always easy to come up with a request she has a recipe for. Since this year has given us plenty of experience in creating new recipes and modifying old ones so that we can still eat real food (and have it taste good), it seemed like a good idea to pass our hard-won knowledge on.

In other news, the primer is up in the pink bedroom, all except for a thin stripe we left unpainted just below the ceiling. Because now it's time to put in the crown molding! Nope, we've never installed it before, and I have no woodworking skills whatsoever, but I can take direction pretty well. So as long as D tells me what he needs me to do, I'm there. Well, okay, me and a stepstool.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

It's prime time

Yep, the next stage of painting chez Troubadour is about to start, which is very exciting. But before we can pick proper colors for the two bedrooms we're going to tackle, we have to cover up the stuff that's already there. And it's not going away without a fight.

To whoever thought it would be a selling point to paint one of the bedrooms Wal-Mart blue and the other Pepto-Bismol pink: it's not at all charming. Here's what each room looks like with a patch of primer (two coats):



The gray-tinted stuff seems to be quite effective on the blue, but the white is hardly affecting the pink (can you even see where it is?). D's added another coat of white this evening; hopefully that will be enough. Tomorrow, we'll test out some color samples.

To Almost Dr. Sis and Marketing Sis, who will be staying here over Thanksgiving: we promise the guest room will be dry before you arrive in two weeks. But you might have to leave the painter's tape in place -- we're not expecting to get to the actual top-coat color until after Turkey Day, given how slowly this is going ...

Monday, November 9, 2009

When all else fails, try the bathroom

I mean it; it works. See?


We received this Tiffany rose as a housewarming gift from a very dear set of friends, and we'd had it on an end table in the living room where it could get light from the long row of windows there. But it refused to thrive -- by its second week at our place, it was dropping leaves faster than I've been losing my hair (and THAT, if you know me, is kind of alarming). No worries, I'm not going bald, just adjusting to some recent prescription changes. But we were definitely a bit panicked about the fate of our little plant (which did not help with the hair loss).

So I did what my mother has done for years: I put the rose in our bathroom.

There's something about the extra warmth and moisture from our daily showers that seems to help. My mother has reared orchids and other notoriously finicky flowers with great success in her bathroom. Now I see why. Check out those new leaves!

Hopefully our plant will make it through the winter without further trouble and we'll be able to get it established outdoors at the beginning of the growing season next year. For now, I'm enjoying this little bit of life by the edge of the tub.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Are you bummed in yet?

That's what D asked me a few nights after I got my response from my advisor about a thesis extension. (He was hoping I was no longer bummed out that she'd turned my request down. Yes, this is why I love him.)

Unfortunately, I guess I am still kind of bummed out. Basically, the way my advisor's reply went was, "I think it's going to be hard to get your committee together then, and everyone reserves that time for their own writing, and I'm trying to finish a book. So the best I can give you is an extra month; you can defend during finals week. That's assuming everyone else is okay with that time."

Sigh.

I could almost hear the frazzled notes rising in her voice. I understand her reasons for saying no, but muscling in the parts about how the rest of the group would feel about the situation (on an entirely speculative basis) seemed like it was done defensively. A simple "No, I have a book deadline to meet," would have felt less to me like she thought I was being a pain in the butt. I get it, really I do.

So now I feel like I've been a pest when all I'm trying to do is give this project the room it needs to grow. And I'm so bad at brushing this kind of thing off. Being made to feel like a nuisance is so much worse than a form-letter rejection.

But I do have that extra month, if the rest of the committee can make it work. Here's hoping the next three e-mails I have to write don't get the same kind of response.

On a different note -- as promised, instructions on how to make compound eyes! Any questions, just post them in the comments and I'll try my best to help.

Compound Eyes

Materials:

Two hollow styrofoam hemispheres
Shimmery fabric (preferably without sequins)
Superglue (this is the kind we used)
Stapler and staples
Scissors
Wide elastic headband or headwrap
Needle and thread
Chalk or other fabric-marking implement

1. Place fabric wrong side up on flat surface. Then place one hemisphere round side down on fabric.

2. Wrap hemisphere in fabric and mark the width of fabric required to cover hemisphere across its widest part. Add an extra 4 inches to this number.

3. Mark two squares on the fabric with sides measuring the length calculated at the end of step 2. Cut out carefully.

4. Place fabric square wrong side up. Place first hemisphere, round side down, on square. Here's where it gets interesting: imagine that your hemisphere is a compass. Make sure the square's edges are matched to the north, south, east, and west points on the compass (i.e., make sure the square's corners aren't in those positions).

5. Fold the north edge of the square at its midpoint around the northernmost point on the hemisphere. Glue the fabric at this point only (i.e., do not glue the entire edge of the square, as the fabric will overlap and get bulky). Reinforce with staples.

6. Fold the south edge of the square at its midpoint around the southernmost point on the hemisphere. Glue and staple in place as in step 5, making sure fabric is tautly wrapped around styrofoam. Repeat with remaining two edges of square. Allow to dry.

7. Repeat steps 5-6 on second hemisphere with remaining fabric square.

8. Now you're ready to fold in the corners of the squares. Take the northwest corner of a square and fold around northwesternmost point on the hemisphere. Glue the fabric at this point only. Reinforce with staples.

9. Fold the southeast corner of the square around southeasternmost point on the hemisphere. Glue and staple in place as in step 8, making sure fabric is tautly wrapped around styrofoam. Repeat with remaining two corners of square. Allow to dry.

10. Repeat steps 8-9 on second hemisphere.

11. Here's where it gets tricky: you are now going to cut the fabric to accommodate the curvature of the hemispheres. To do this, turn each hemisphere round side up. You should be able to see where the fabric is not pulled taut over the dome. Choose one of these areas to begin cutting.

12. Snip fabric from underside of the hemisphere toward the top of the dome. You should now have two flaps of fabric. Make sure each can be pulled taut around the edge of the hemisphere without causing the fabric over the dome to buckle. You may have to cut further to adjust the flaps accordingly.

13. Pull one flap taut and glue and staple in place. Then pull the other flap taut, overlapping the first flap as necessary, and glue and staple in place.

14. Repeat steps 12-13 with all remaining areas where fabric is not pulled taut over the dome. Allow to dry.

15. Place hemispheres round side down. Trim any excess fabric in the hollow of each one. Glue all fabric that is not secure along underside edges of hemispheres. Allow to dry.

16. Have the person who will wear the compound eyes put on the elastic headband. Position one hemisphere over each ear and mark where the top edge of each hemisphere touches the headband. This is where you must baste the hemispheres to the headband.

17. Have your model remove the headband. Stitch each eye to the headband, as indicated, by picking up a little bit of the fabric from the hemisphere and a little bit of the headband fabric with each stitch. Reinforce as necessary (I sewed a double row to make sure the eyes wouldn't come off).

And that's it! Sorry I don't have pictures of my compound eyes in progress -- that would have made writing these directions a bit easier. But I'll leave you with a picture of the model for my costume:

Sunday, November 1, 2009

And the reveal

We had nearly 200 trick-or-treaters last night.

I kid you not! Between 6:30 and 7 p.m., which seemed to be peak time, there was a veritable parade of small children up and down our front walk. At one point, I think D opened the door to a group of ten -- and that's if you don't count the parents who were there as well.

D had a lot of fun scaring the people who came to our place. Whenever the doorbell would ring, he would open the door very quickly and shout a gleeful "AH HA!" This was highly entertaining for the parents and somewhat startling for the kids. Most, after they recovered, got a good kick out of it. But the two-year-olds remained a bit nonplussed, and one younger kid was so thrown off that he said "Merry Christmas" instead of "Trick or treat"! D now claims that he frightened the poor guy into another holiday ...

Oh, what fun D's going to be when he has kids of his own.

Our pumpkins were a hit too. In fact, half the time when D threw the front door open, the trick-or-treaters weren't actually standing directly in front of him -- they were peering into the library window to get a closer look at what we'd carved.

So now, the part you've been waiting for: the costumes we wore to the Halloween party.

Here's D in his bald cap. He was Hitman from the game of the same name. The bar code is actually from a UPS return shipping label -- already adhesive!



And here I am, as a dragonfly.


Props to Good (Enough) Woman for guessing that I was a fly -- she couldn't have gotten closer without knowing the exact shape of the wings. The sparkly hemispheres were my eyes, which I stitched to the headwrap.

We also used binder clips to attach an iridescent scarf to the back of my halter top (see below) to mimic the colors you might see on a dragonfly. Yep, we're all about minimal sewing.


So there you go! I will post directions on how to make compound eyes soon. Also some news on what my advisor had to say. It wasn't exactly what I'd hoped for, but it wasn't a total no either ...

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Monday, November 30, 2009

And now, back to doing this*

Not totally, but for the time being.

I got a call back from the GI doctor's office a week ago, following up on the abnormal liver enzyme stuff. The good news is that nothing requiring immediate, invasive intervention is necessary. The bad news is that there is no short-term way to address the problem. Basically, for the next seven weeks, I get to abstain from alcohol and all anti-inflammatory meds, see what my enzyme levels look like in mid-January, and then reassess the situation. Which means I get to do the craziness of holiday season without the two things I was kind of counting on to help me get through it: good wine to calm my frazzled nerves and painkillers to put the kibosh on tension headaches (family get-togethers involving Troubadour Dad will do those things to a person). Oh, joy!

Oh, help.

I am going to get through this just fine, I assure you, but it may not be pretty. However it goes, I'll try to make it entertaining here. What's a stressful holiday without finding some way to laugh at it?

I will also be indulging myself in very good coffee flavorings for the duration of this no-alcohol thing. Torani, I'm looking at you and all your tasty sugar-free syrups.

* Photo courtesy of Marketing Sis

Sunday, November 29, 2009

A cozy weekend

I wish my sisters and I lived nearer to one another. We had such a wonderful time over Thanksgiving just catching up on sister-news, getting giddy on sister-humor, and sharing sister-time. Did I ever mention that my sisters and I are close? We are. And that's why it's so hard being on opposite coasts.

Almost Dr. Sis arrived on Tuesday with her boyfriend (such a sweet guy!). I picked them up at the airport and got them settled in our newly crown-molded guest room with bonus new light fixture (we replaced the old one right before they arrived as it was missing a cover for the light bulbs -- kind of ugly). Marketing Sis got in the following evening.

We had already done much chatting over e-mail to determine what we wanted on the menu (besides the 20-pound turkey we got from Safeway). In the end, we made farro with goat cheese and butternut squash, roasted herbed potatoes and pearl onions, cranberry sauce spiked with rum, D's great-grandmother's cornbread, and stuffing. It was epic. I am pleased to say the turkey was juicy and flavorful thanks to the amazing broth-and-butter seasoning method Almost Dr. Sis recommended from a cooking demonstration she got to see. We also spatchcocked our bird to shorten the roasting time. Even so, it took three hours to reach the proper temperature since it was so huge, but it was worth the wait. Here's a look at the feast in its final stages from stove to table (thanks to Marketing Sis for the photos):





Now all our visitors are gone, and I'm feeling a little sad about that, but overall, I'm still enjoying the memory of a really lovely gathering. I think Troubadour Dad is hoping we don't turn this into a regular thing (sisters-only for Turkey Day), so it will probably be a whole-family event next year. But we are definitely going to pick a holiday to do on our own at least once yearly. It was too much fun not to make it a tradition.

Work calls -- I've been away from the thesis over the holiday and my advisor wants another installment by the end of the weekend. I'd much rather be doing what Simone seems to love (see below), but that'll have to wait. More news shortly ...

Friday, November 27, 2009

Distraction successful!


This girl is keeping us quite busy. Updates on her and Thanksgiving visitors and such very soon, but I just wanted to post a shot of our new foster. Meet Simone. She's a lovebug.

Friday, November 20, 2009

If I pretend I'm not listening, it will all go away


Not the best approach to every problem, but at the moment, it's the only one I have, going into this weekend.

I had some blood tests a month ago that came back abnormal -- liver enzymes elevated. Mind you, these were done right after our housewarming, which was a wine- and beer-soaked event. Instead of my usual one glass of white, I had more like two and a half. You can laugh; I know I'm a lightweight. A little goes a long way. Or so I told myself.

My doctor instructed me to abstain from any alcoholic beverages for two weeks and have the test repeated. So last week, I went in for another blood draw. Yesterday evening, the doctor's office left a message for me that my results came back abnormal again and that I should follow up with my GI specialist, to whom the data would be faxed.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Unfortunately, my GI person is out of town and won't be back till Tuesday, so he won't be able to review the test results till then. Which means I'm now going to try to forget about this little bit of news since there's nothing to be done about it for the next 72 hours.

Good Things I Can Distract Myself With:
  • The issue with my lady parts that showed up on the CT scan is a non-issue. Yaaaay.
  • Almost Dr. Sis, her boyfriend, and Marketing Sis are arriving on Tuesday and Wednesday for Thanksgiving.
  • We got our foster kitty (pictured above) adopted this week.
  • We're picking up a new kitty to lavish with affection tomorrow morning.
There, that ought to do it.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Making do

That's sort of the way we've been approaching the crown molding project this week, namely from a lack of fancy equipment. And despite some hitches, we've made good progress.

What we were missing was an (expensive) electric table saw. Instead, we had the kind of saw that you use arm power to run and a guide (see photo) you can mount on your workbench to keep your cuts straight. Only we had no workbench -- just a lightweight table with a particle-board surface. It was left behind in our laundry room by the previous owners of our house, and we had no use for it, so we figured, why not?

It's really hard to saw anything if your entire workbench jiggles.

Enter the Two-Person Weighted Sawing System. One person sits on the table while the other person saws. Easy solution!

Well, not quite.

In the photo, you see D positioning a piece of molding on the guide, which is screwed down to the table. Note that the molding has to be cut at a 45-degree angle through its cross-section (or so I'm told), which requires it to be held at the tilt pictured. There is no way to secure the molding with the clamp that came with this guide unless the molding is lying flat (as in, parallel to the table surface). So in order to accomplish the proper cut, one person has to hold the molding firmly while the other person applies the saw. Hmmm.

In the end, we revised the TPWSS slightly -- D sawed while sitting on the jury-rigged workbench and I became a human vise for the molding. I do not recommend this approach unless the person sitting on the workbench is heavy enough to make jiggle practically nonexistent. Otherwise, your thumbs will hurt A LOT.

So last night, we finished cutting the last piece for the guest bedroom. This weekend, we're going to get everything mounted. We had originally planned to make do with a hammer and nails. Fortunately, one of D's colleagues owns a nail gun, which we are definitely going to borrow!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Don't spill the beans ...


... because that's exactly what's in these brownies.

I got the recipe from this blog a long time ago but hadn't had the chance to give it a try. So last week, D and I pulled out the baking pans (which sadly don't get a lot of use around here unless they're holding meat-based dishes) and went to work.

The result was delicious! Moist, melt-into-fudgy-heaven delicious. With minimal impact on my blood sugar readings. And I say was because there are no more brownies left. Which means it's time to make another batch.

We've actually been testing several recipes over the last few weeks to include in a cookbook we're planning to give D's mother for Christmas. She always asks us what she should make for us when we visit, but because we've got these pesky dietary restrictions, it's not always easy to come up with a request she has a recipe for. Since this year has given us plenty of experience in creating new recipes and modifying old ones so that we can still eat real food (and have it taste good), it seemed like a good idea to pass our hard-won knowledge on.

In other news, the primer is up in the pink bedroom, all except for a thin stripe we left unpainted just below the ceiling. Because now it's time to put in the crown molding! Nope, we've never installed it before, and I have no woodworking skills whatsoever, but I can take direction pretty well. So as long as D tells me what he needs me to do, I'm there. Well, okay, me and a stepstool.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

It's prime time

Yep, the next stage of painting chez Troubadour is about to start, which is very exciting. But before we can pick proper colors for the two bedrooms we're going to tackle, we have to cover up the stuff that's already there. And it's not going away without a fight.

To whoever thought it would be a selling point to paint one of the bedrooms Wal-Mart blue and the other Pepto-Bismol pink: it's not at all charming. Here's what each room looks like with a patch of primer (two coats):



The gray-tinted stuff seems to be quite effective on the blue, but the white is hardly affecting the pink (can you even see where it is?). D's added another coat of white this evening; hopefully that will be enough. Tomorrow, we'll test out some color samples.

To Almost Dr. Sis and Marketing Sis, who will be staying here over Thanksgiving: we promise the guest room will be dry before you arrive in two weeks. But you might have to leave the painter's tape in place -- we're not expecting to get to the actual top-coat color until after Turkey Day, given how slowly this is going ...

Monday, November 9, 2009

When all else fails, try the bathroom

I mean it; it works. See?


We received this Tiffany rose as a housewarming gift from a very dear set of friends, and we'd had it on an end table in the living room where it could get light from the long row of windows there. But it refused to thrive -- by its second week at our place, it was dropping leaves faster than I've been losing my hair (and THAT, if you know me, is kind of alarming). No worries, I'm not going bald, just adjusting to some recent prescription changes. But we were definitely a bit panicked about the fate of our little plant (which did not help with the hair loss).

So I did what my mother has done for years: I put the rose in our bathroom.

There's something about the extra warmth and moisture from our daily showers that seems to help. My mother has reared orchids and other notoriously finicky flowers with great success in her bathroom. Now I see why. Check out those new leaves!

Hopefully our plant will make it through the winter without further trouble and we'll be able to get it established outdoors at the beginning of the growing season next year. For now, I'm enjoying this little bit of life by the edge of the tub.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Are you bummed in yet?

That's what D asked me a few nights after I got my response from my advisor about a thesis extension. (He was hoping I was no longer bummed out that she'd turned my request down. Yes, this is why I love him.)

Unfortunately, I guess I am still kind of bummed out. Basically, the way my advisor's reply went was, "I think it's going to be hard to get your committee together then, and everyone reserves that time for their own writing, and I'm trying to finish a book. So the best I can give you is an extra month; you can defend during finals week. That's assuming everyone else is okay with that time."

Sigh.

I could almost hear the frazzled notes rising in her voice. I understand her reasons for saying no, but muscling in the parts about how the rest of the group would feel about the situation (on an entirely speculative basis) seemed like it was done defensively. A simple "No, I have a book deadline to meet," would have felt less to me like she thought I was being a pain in the butt. I get it, really I do.

So now I feel like I've been a pest when all I'm trying to do is give this project the room it needs to grow. And I'm so bad at brushing this kind of thing off. Being made to feel like a nuisance is so much worse than a form-letter rejection.

But I do have that extra month, if the rest of the committee can make it work. Here's hoping the next three e-mails I have to write don't get the same kind of response.

On a different note -- as promised, instructions on how to make compound eyes! Any questions, just post them in the comments and I'll try my best to help.

Compound Eyes

Materials:

Two hollow styrofoam hemispheres
Shimmery fabric (preferably without sequins)
Superglue (this is the kind we used)
Stapler and staples
Scissors
Wide elastic headband or headwrap
Needle and thread
Chalk or other fabric-marking implement

1. Place fabric wrong side up on flat surface. Then place one hemisphere round side down on fabric.

2. Wrap hemisphere in fabric and mark the width of fabric required to cover hemisphere across its widest part. Add an extra 4 inches to this number.

3. Mark two squares on the fabric with sides measuring the length calculated at the end of step 2. Cut out carefully.

4. Place fabric square wrong side up. Place first hemisphere, round side down, on square. Here's where it gets interesting: imagine that your hemisphere is a compass. Make sure the square's edges are matched to the north, south, east, and west points on the compass (i.e., make sure the square's corners aren't in those positions).

5. Fold the north edge of the square at its midpoint around the northernmost point on the hemisphere. Glue the fabric at this point only (i.e., do not glue the entire edge of the square, as the fabric will overlap and get bulky). Reinforce with staples.

6. Fold the south edge of the square at its midpoint around the southernmost point on the hemisphere. Glue and staple in place as in step 5, making sure fabric is tautly wrapped around styrofoam. Repeat with remaining two edges of square. Allow to dry.

7. Repeat steps 5-6 on second hemisphere with remaining fabric square.

8. Now you're ready to fold in the corners of the squares. Take the northwest corner of a square and fold around northwesternmost point on the hemisphere. Glue the fabric at this point only. Reinforce with staples.

9. Fold the southeast corner of the square around southeasternmost point on the hemisphere. Glue and staple in place as in step 8, making sure fabric is tautly wrapped around styrofoam. Repeat with remaining two corners of square. Allow to dry.

10. Repeat steps 8-9 on second hemisphere.

11. Here's where it gets tricky: you are now going to cut the fabric to accommodate the curvature of the hemispheres. To do this, turn each hemisphere round side up. You should be able to see where the fabric is not pulled taut over the dome. Choose one of these areas to begin cutting.

12. Snip fabric from underside of the hemisphere toward the top of the dome. You should now have two flaps of fabric. Make sure each can be pulled taut around the edge of the hemisphere without causing the fabric over the dome to buckle. You may have to cut further to adjust the flaps accordingly.

13. Pull one flap taut and glue and staple in place. Then pull the other flap taut, overlapping the first flap as necessary, and glue and staple in place.

14. Repeat steps 12-13 with all remaining areas where fabric is not pulled taut over the dome. Allow to dry.

15. Place hemispheres round side down. Trim any excess fabric in the hollow of each one. Glue all fabric that is not secure along underside edges of hemispheres. Allow to dry.

16. Have the person who will wear the compound eyes put on the elastic headband. Position one hemisphere over each ear and mark where the top edge of each hemisphere touches the headband. This is where you must baste the hemispheres to the headband.

17. Have your model remove the headband. Stitch each eye to the headband, as indicated, by picking up a little bit of the fabric from the hemisphere and a little bit of the headband fabric with each stitch. Reinforce as necessary (I sewed a double row to make sure the eyes wouldn't come off).

And that's it! Sorry I don't have pictures of my compound eyes in progress -- that would have made writing these directions a bit easier. But I'll leave you with a picture of the model for my costume:

Sunday, November 1, 2009

And the reveal

We had nearly 200 trick-or-treaters last night.

I kid you not! Between 6:30 and 7 p.m., which seemed to be peak time, there was a veritable parade of small children up and down our front walk. At one point, I think D opened the door to a group of ten -- and that's if you don't count the parents who were there as well.

D had a lot of fun scaring the people who came to our place. Whenever the doorbell would ring, he would open the door very quickly and shout a gleeful "AH HA!" This was highly entertaining for the parents and somewhat startling for the kids. Most, after they recovered, got a good kick out of it. But the two-year-olds remained a bit nonplussed, and one younger kid was so thrown off that he said "Merry Christmas" instead of "Trick or treat"! D now claims that he frightened the poor guy into another holiday ...

Oh, what fun D's going to be when he has kids of his own.

Our pumpkins were a hit too. In fact, half the time when D threw the front door open, the trick-or-treaters weren't actually standing directly in front of him -- they were peering into the library window to get a closer look at what we'd carved.

So now, the part you've been waiting for: the costumes we wore to the Halloween party.

Here's D in his bald cap. He was Hitman from the game of the same name. The bar code is actually from a UPS return shipping label -- already adhesive!



And here I am, as a dragonfly.


Props to Good (Enough) Woman for guessing that I was a fly -- she couldn't have gotten closer without knowing the exact shape of the wings. The sparkly hemispheres were my eyes, which I stitched to the headwrap.

We also used binder clips to attach an iridescent scarf to the back of my halter top (see below) to mimic the colors you might see on a dragonfly. Yep, we're all about minimal sewing.


So there you go! I will post directions on how to make compound eyes soon. Also some news on what my advisor had to say. It wasn't exactly what I'd hoped for, but it wasn't a total no either ...