Weird Bird in Love

I had a feeling the miniature quilt thing would come around in my head somehow, in spite of my initial lack of inspiration. I didn’t expect it to be quite this last-minute, though, I confess. I just spent the final hour and a quarter of my two-year-old son’s nap whipping up this doggie play quilt – which probalby just barely qualifies as a miniature quilt, loosely defined (it’s about 18 inches by 10 inches, and slightly machine-quilted…), so I’m sending it in to the Whiplash competition…. (hoping that another month I’ll manage something more planned and well-presented!) It’s meant as an airplane quiet play toy. Two little plastic dogs are sleeping in the dog beds (I have a third spare tucked away… maybe I should grab a fourth?).

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We’re leaving town Friday morning to head to Minnesota, where we’ll visit Tilt’s family for a week, then attend my brother’s graduation from Carleton College, conveniently located 45 minutes south of Tilt’s hometown. Thus I will most likely be away from my blog for the next week and a half. There’s a remote chance I’ll log in if I really have something to get off my chest, but I probably won’t resume transmission till sometime the week of the 11th. In the meantime, keep circulating the tapes…

I got the Thritch yesterday – Kristin’s word for that feeling that something, out there, wants me to buy it. Or maybe it’s just that I’m feeling the need for more summer shorts/capris/casual skirts, and hoped I’d find something. As soon as Tilt got off work, I handed him the baby (metaphorically speaking; I think the baby was actually wandering around crying despondently about something mysterious) and rushed out of the house and over to the Central Square Goodwill. I spent a happy and unencumbered hour there. I struck out on the summer-clothing project, but I found the above item: an English pub-style darts cabinet, with green griffins on it. Very, very cool. I called Tilt and told him, “I’ve found something that would be a perfect present for Zag’s 13th birthday, and I need you to tell me I can’t buy it.” Then I told him what it was. He said obediently, “You can’t buy it.” Then he paused for a minute, and asked, “How big is it?…” (more…)

 

Yesterday was our Zag’s second birthday. A good time was had by all. (more…)

Tilt and I have been having fun this weekend exploring historical documents on www.ancestry.com, which is offering special three-day free memberships in honor of Memorial Day and the fact that they’ve just added a huge collection of newly-digitized military records. We both find it’s kind of addictive, tracking down our grandparents and great-grandparents and farther back still. The image above is my great-grandfather Earl’s draft card from World War I. I love that he describes himself as “stout”, and spells his own name “Erle”, and that he’s very adamant that he should not be drafted because he has a wife and three children. (My grandmother, Elaine, wasn’t born yet in 1917.) Among other treasures, I’ve also found my grandpa Jack’s immigration records – he came over from Cornwall with his family as a four-year-old – and, indeed, I found both his parents in the census records of St. Just, Cornwall, in the late 1800s. Thomas, my great-grandfather, is listed as a tin miner at age 16. No wonder he wanted to give America a try. The super-cool thing is that you can look at, and save, high-quality scans of the original documents. (I compressed Earl’s draft card quite a bit to put it up here – the version I have has much more detail.) There’s something really amazing about seeing the names of your ancestors, in some census worker’s handwriting (or their own, in the case of the draft cards), with their ages and places of origin and occupations all listed – a little glimpse of the objective reality of the people whom we know only as family memories.

Our friends JBC and E are expecting a baby pretty much any minute (though let’s face it, it’ll probably be another two weeks, or more… ). They asked us, ages ago, to share our thoughts on co-sleeping, sleep sharing, or the family bed – various terms used to describe having your baby sleep in your bed. I hope Tilt will augment this with some thoughts of his own, since daddies often have different questions/concerns about this than mamas, but I figured I’d go ahead and rush some preliminary thoughts to the presses. The four main areas in which people seem to have questions and concerns about co-sleeping can all be summed up with S-words: Safety, Sleep, Snuggles, and Sex. This is a long post – read on if you’re interested! (more…)

I finally have a picture of a divine vintage thrift store item to post! I found this peculiar object at Savers, down in West Roxbury. I had an evening event down in that general direction, and since I was going out without the boys anyway, I left an hour early and made my first Savers expedition. (more…)

I have a high school reunion coming up this summer. (Yes, 14 years is an odd time to have a reunion.) I’m trying to decide whether to go. I went to a small high school – around 150 in my class – so I knew most people, at least vaguely, and I have a certain curiosity about what everyone’s turned into. Plus a high school reunion is one of those archetypal events, you know? Plus I’m pretty happy with my life, so it’s tempting to go show off. If my parents still lived in town it would be a no-brainer, but they live two hours away from my high school now… do-able, but not convenient. I’m really torn about whether to try and go, or not. (more…)

Zag and I stopped at a Marshall’s today. (We didn’t buy anything, and the trip strengthened my resolve to give up non-thrift clothing stores. I have more fun thrift shopping, and get better results.) We cruised several areas of the store. Zag was surprisingly patient, especially after he spotted a board book about heavy equipment and large vehicles, in the kids’ book section. He browsed that while I headed over to boys’ clothes to see if I could find any socks for him. On the way, we passed a rack full of fluffy tulle princess dresses. Now, y’all know I love to girlify my boy a little, just to counteract the gender conditioning from the culture. This scene ensued:

Me (pulling out a pale green dress with cream roses on the sash and a huge tulle skirt): Look at this, Zag. Isn’t it pretty?

Zag (looking at his book): Gacko! [That's "backhoe", to anyone who hasn't been keeping up with my posts.]

Me (pointing out the cream roses): See the flowers? So pretty!

Zag: (barely glancing at me): Gacko.

Me (replacing the green dress and grabbing a purple tutu/tiara/wand set): How about a nice tutu for your birthday party?

Zag (pointing enthusiastically at a picture in the book): Gacko!

I take some comfort in the fact that the other mommies at the library toddler storytime say that their little girls love construction equipment and big trucks, too. I guess the challenge is to keep all their interests open, instead of encouraging the gender-appropriate interests and ignoring the others. Girls’ interests in trucks and backhoes usually get channeled into Barbie Corvettes and suchlike… whee.

This platter belonged to my maternal grandmother, who had us call her Gram. It’s one of those enameled tin plates they give you injera on in Ethiopian restaurants, though not as big as the standard restaurant variety. The plate is one of the tokens I carried home with me after helping my mother clear out Gram’s house, after her death nearly three years ago. (more…)