Listen, Peeps, I'm Not Sorry

Just because I've been gone for more than a month doesn't mean that you can judge me. So what if I haven't been posting? I've got reasons! I've got excuses! You can't just say that it's laziness or a failing on my part.

Well, none of you have said that, technically. In fact, I'm sure most of you haven't even noticed I've gone missing other than saying to yourself, "I haven't heard much about any Slytherin scarves recently". FINE! So you're saying I've been avoiding my own blog out of shame for no particular reason?!

Here's what happened. In my last posts, I was going to visit Paul in Massachusetts where I was going to knit like mad during the Olympics. That was a success. Then, I got home, and was preparing myself to finish up my scarf during the second week of Olympics when Nathan came down with a cold.

As some of you might guess, this was not a small thing in which my baby clings to me for a few days and I nurse him with juice and soup. This was warfare on my part. See, Nathan is prone to asthma attacks and ear infections while sick and his last three colds had ended in hospital stays. With this cold, I promptly went on the attack right back at it with regular doses of nebulized drugs and warm steamy baths and humidification of his room and baby Motrin. This meant that approximately two hours of any given day was spent holding him while I gave him breathing treatments. Another few hours would be holding him while he watched television or played with trains. I was sleeping approximately five hours a day, broken into hour or two hour sections. After approximately ten days, Nathan was better, and I was sick and the Olympics were over and I knew I wouldn't finish the scarf in time for the end of winter.

This is when I gave up hope of ever knitting or sewing or cross stitching again. (Remember, I was sick and delusional.) I laid around, coughing, and watching season one of Psych. By the time I was better, I was also bitter at the world for making me fail at Ravolympics. I decided my time was better spent reading and playing Final Fantasy XIII.

So, it's only within the last week that I've actually pulled out my knitting again. As it turns out? I'm about twenty rounds from finishing this scarf. See, I didn't buy the second skein of grey yarn like I thought I had, so this scarf will only have thirteen unlucky striped sections before I finish it. If I manage to knit tonight, I might actually get this scarf off my needles in time for the eighty degree weather we're having this week. Awesome.

Anyway, welcome back to my blog. I'm sorry I avoided you and tried to pretend you didn't exist. It was me, not you. I'd spend more time chatting you up and getting a feel for where you are, but I've been avoiding my Flickr account and my Facebook games and I need to go make up with them too.

Kiss Me, I'm A Quarter Irish!

One of the strangest things I have found with raising Nathan is cultural identity. If this sounds strange, let me elaborate. I was raised by a mom who was one hundred percent Korean. Though I speak little Korean and do not associate with an all Korean social group, I often culturally identify myself as Korean or Asian. Sure, I'm one hundred percent 'American', but almost any person you talk to in the States can discuss their parentage in some detail, giving you fractions of where their grandparents or great-grandparents came from. I cheer mainly for Korean in the Olympics. I prefer receiving Korean boutique clothes for Nathan. I watch Korean dramas. I like Korean manhwa. I own hanbok, as does my son. I am fifty percent Korean by blood, and those fifty percent count for a lot. My father wasn't around when I was being raised, so my mom's culture has strongly shaped my own.

However, when it comes down to it, Nathan's only a quarter Korean, and that's not that much. I mean, I'm a quarter Irish and you don't see me freaking out about St. Patrick's Day or cheering for Ireland in anything. I don't know much about Ireland. I don't want to visit it that badly. I barely acknowledge that I am Irish other than to curse my fair skin and uber-freckled face. And due to luck, Paul's a quarter Irish too, which makes Nathan a quarter Irish. He's as Irish as he is Korean. He's got the same pale skin I have, and, most likely, he'll freckle over the next couple of years like I did.

I know that due to his exposure to my mom and myself, Nathan will probably tend to favor his Korean heritage when it comes to what he considers his heritage, but I'm still weirded out sometimes.

Weekend Randomness #7 - Street Lights

About twice a week (or more often lately) I notice a street light flare up and turn off over top of my head, either while walking or driving. When I drove back from MA last time, it happened three times. When I drove back before, it happened five times.

I know there is a logical reason for it, given to me from Helen, but it still freaks me out.

By the way, the picture above is of the street light that was outside my childhood window! The only way I could love it more is if were Narnian.

WIP Wednesday: Featherweight Cardigan

I'm obsessed with the color pink. I don't mean to be. It just happened. Not just any shade of pink will do. In fact, basically only this one.



I have been working on a scarf (and by "working", I mean, I have not removed it from its needles) for over a year, and it's just not getting done. Reason? The pattern was too complicated for me to knit while drinking wine and chatting. Since I basically only knit at knitting now, and I spent several weeks running tearing out all the stitches I had just put in because I messed something up, I decided to switch to something... simpler.



And what could be simpler than a sweater, except for perhaps my first sweater? But Hannah Fettig's featherweight cardigan is nearly all stockinette. I counted all my stitches just now, and I didn't mess up, or miss any along the way. And it's fingering weight yarn on size 4 needles, so the stitches look all sweet and delicate. I can't wait to wear it, and at the rate I'm going, well, summer 2011 is looking like prime time for pink sweaters.



Remember, folks, pink is the new black!

Weekend Randomness #6 - Keep Walking!

Any time I go on vacation, I lose anywhere from three to five pounds. This is not because I suddenly stop eating and start exercising like mad. This is because Paul and I walk from sun up until a short afternoon nap and then we wake up and walk again until bedtime. On our trip to London and France, I managed to injure myself due to the amount we walked. Because, besides walking a lot, I like to do it in shoes not intended for extended amounts of walking. I love to walk in sandals or ballet style shoes, but never sneakers.

You can't tell in the photo above, but I was limping when we went to Normandy. I could only stroll very slowly and I was mostly almost in tears anytime a longer walk was expected or required. However, I kept walking even more. I tried to walk through that pain and it worked.


When we went to California, I was pregnant with Nathan, so I swore I would take it a little easier. Only, I didn't. I again walked until Paul was asking me to stop for the night. I would often consider asking him if we could go back to our hotel and rest but then I would remember how much we weren't seeing in San Diego because I was a weakling! Luckily, San Diego isn't much of a walking city, or I probably would have suffered a collapse.

Do you find that you can't actually relax when you go on vacation and you must see the sites until you nearly drop? Or are you completely unlike me and able to just lay back and tan?

Wordless Wednesday #6 - Niece

Weekend Randomness #5 - Black Thumb

I'm the absolute worst at keeping a garden or plants. There's a number of reasons including forgetfulness, but the main problems? I have a terribly crippling fear of bugs, worms, and dirt. Due to this, in previous years, my mom has come by our house to plant flowers and mulch and do other things I grimace just thinking about and which Paul finds annoying to do.


However, this year? Paul wants to do a vegetable garden, and I'm psyched to 'help'. I plan to do things like water the garden from a worm fearing distance and eat the food that comes from the garden after having Paul thoroughly search the vegetables for bugs.

I also plan to help by contributing tiny little strawberry plants. My cousin Talena gave away a tiny strawberry seed kit with Lilly's birthday favors, and I planted them and they are really growing! I didn't forget to water them. I didn't overwater them. I didn't kill them! This is a first since high school when I managed to successfully keep a cactus for two years.


So next summer? Expect some updates from me on whether Paul, Nathan (and his tiny gardening set), and I managed to grow vegetables for cooking. If we do, I plan on giving some to Helen for her food blogging, to keep some for myself, and to give some to my mom. Also, if I manage to make raspberries take over my backyard, I'm totally throwing a raspberry party, and you're invited.

Do you like gardening? Do you have a garden or are you a plant killer like me?

Your Olympic Knitting Plans

image from s.yume

You guys? Are you ready? It's time for the Olympics! And you know what that means? I mean, do you know what that means besides gorging yourself on coverage of figure skating, speed skating, cross country skiing, snowboarding, bobsledding, hockey, and other fantastic sports? It's time for the Ravelympics, in which you try to knit a challenging project while the Olympics are on.

image from janusz.l
I've decided that I'm going to do the WIPS dancing event in a hopeless attempt to finish my stupid Slytherin Scarf! I'm probably going to join either Manic Purl's or Never Not Knitting's team since I am not part of any knitting circle either in real life or online.

It's time to be an Olympian. (I want to put a Greek god joke here, but I'm kind of floundering trying to think of one. Let's just end this on a classier note.) Pick out your project and event, join your team, and wait for the opening ceremonies!

Tell me if you plan to compete and, if so, what event.


image from Never Was An Arrow II

Wordless Wednesday #5 - Snow

WIP Wednesday #2 -- Rose of Sharon

I know -- is there any progress since my last update, you ask! Well, there is, but not much. However, it's several hours worth of progress so I will blog it anyway. I admit, I love this design, but it's probably going to be over a hundred or more hours of my life by the time it's done. That's precious time I could be giving to knitting, blogging, baking, or playing Final Fantasy! However, I'm sure it'll look gorgeous on my craft room wall when done. I mean, it's not going to be done before we finally move and get a bigger house, right?

By the way, love my non-natural lit picture? This is what happens when your husband is working in Massachusetts and if your son gets five minutes to himself, you come back to find him with an uncapped marker in his mouth, while holding onto a watergun. I'm the best parent ever.

Lastly, I'll be taking a small trip next week. Unless Helen blogs her sweater, it's very likely that we'll miss WIP Wednesday! That's right, Helen, I'm calling you out.