Blanket 11

The Punky Brewster Blanket:

This was during the blowout sale of the house brand yarn at Michael's.  I was pulling some brighter colors when I realized they had the entire rainbow.  I had never seen that.   I planned to outline it in purple, then reconsidered.  The corner:

I wonder if this wouldn't have looked better with yellow in the middle.  Loops & Threads Impeccable Yarn in Claret, Pumpkin, Butterscotch, Kelly Green and Royal.

Checking In

I have had a crazy, crazy week. 

Stuff was happening at work from the second I got in Monday morning.  Wednesday was my usual gig at the Rescue and after that, I went to a meet up at Starbucks for Project Linus where they sent me home with enough fleece that I have become one of those crafty people that have crafty stuff spilling out of the closet.

On top of that, I am exhausted from staying up for the playoffs.  I was watching the Bulls gamecast from the Library last night, in between helping customers and pricing new donations and trying to knock out one of said fleece blankets.  I got home in time to see the 'hawks score the first goal.

In addition to setting up on Crowdrise.com, I have signed on to the Living Philanthropic Year Two Challenge:

"I pledge to donate at least $1, volunteer, or do a random act of kindness every day for as long as I decide to challenge myself. I know I can follow and join the LivingPhilanthropic team projects at Crowdrise: http://www.crowdrise.com/livingphilanthropic."

The "every day" was a bit intimidating.   But between fostering birds and making blankets, I probably have that covered. 

So I realize that I have not been all that online, but I have at least three blog posts for the weekend!

Kindness

I was reading an article in USA Today about two young girls throwing an event - a sleepover party - where their friends produced pajamas for a shelter and holiday decorations for a hospital.  I love these stories.

My fondest little dream is that my nephew might grow up to be one of those kids that writes, "In lieu of gifts..." on his birthday party invitations.

Then I saw a link on the page.  It said Kindness.  USA Today has an entire section featuring stories about volunteering and charitable giving.   This newspaper, once known as the periodical for people that only read the headlines, (ok, it is still known as that) is also the place that has some good news.

I can get behind that.

Sigmund: Then and Now

I decided to use pictures of Sigmund, the African Grey parrot I am fostering, to feature my Crowdrise project for the Rescue.   It struck me then, how much progress he has made.  This pic is labelled June 2010:

And I took this last night:

You can see he is still over grooming.  And he will pull feathers when freaked out.  But wings!  And tail!

Crowdrise

As I have become more active volunteering, I am more aware of how much time, effort and money are required to keep charitable organizations going. I am not good at this fundraising stuff – this asking for money.

At the same time, my family has gotten better at charitable giving. My grandfather in particular has made an effort to make Christmas less commercial. When, for my birthday, I asked for dontaions to the Refuge, he was very happy to contribute. But two things went wrong:

1. Whatever P.O. Box my mother sent him was no longer active; and
2. The Refuge, as an all-volunteer organization, isn’t exactly speedy in acknowledging gifts.

Such that, if not for the first problem, I wouldn’t have know the gift existed. Enter a new tool:

Crowdrise.com is a website that is part social networking and part fundraising tool. I can set up all of the groups that I support and point people to it if they would like to sponsor the efforts. This is particularly awesome for me because I rarely have an event like a walk/run (although the Refuge is trying to pull one together for this year) or a food drive as an excuse to spread the word around. Crowdrise spotlights the efforts of the average volunteer. They also run contests and have some kind of point system for the competitive people. So that’s fun.
I like that one can use a credit card to make a donation, and get immediate documentation.  And I as the participant can also record donations that I receive offline.

I set up my page, which you can find here. I have some more building out to do, but I think this is a good start. If you are using it, please let me know so I can check out your profile!

White Jazz, by James Ellroy

Book 25


I like Ellroy a lot, but I have to take him in small doses.   You know how long it took me to finish this book?   Nearly a month.  We might blame the fact that this was my "carrying around" book.  Lunchtime, coffee, standing in line at the grocery store..  But also, there were times that I would read two pages and something so crazy would happen that I would have to put it down.

So.  1958 Los Angeles.  It seems that all of the cops are on the take and the Feds  are trying to take them down.  Our "hero" Dave Klein, a Lieutenant, has been a mob enforcer for years.  He gets caught in the middle of some burglaries and murders and side jobs with Howard Hughes that start to intertwine until he is totally screwed.

This book is ugly.  With the violence and the racism and the sex (read as: prostitution, rape and incest) that I don't even want to talk about.  And let's not get started on my issues with wondering just how close to any reality these police stories may be.

The reason I read this stuff is the trying to figure out, among all of these bad guys, who The Bad Guy actually is.

Another reason that this took me awhile is style that Ellroy employs.   Klein has this clipped sort of train of thought when he is working things out.  By the end of the novel, one gets used to it, but it is slow going to follow at first.   He has a theory, shoots down a theory, remembers something someone said, runs through the options.  In a few dozen words.  I'd have to read some passages three times to put the thoughts together in English.

I will need at least twelve months before I pick up another Ellroy.

But that was fun.

Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough

Book 24

This biography of a young Theodore Roosevelt, has been in my library for some time.  I picked it up after a conversation with my friend Jamie at our last book club.  He said that he was reading one of the Edmund Morris biographies of TR.  Then, with a scrutinizing look, he said, "I bet you are a fan of Ted."

Why yes, I am a fan of the old boy.   Being a fabulous president, practically hand-picking a successor, then deciding the bloke was doing it all wrong and starting a third party?  That's just good stuff.

I have read a non-zero number of books on the family, but Mornings on Horseback goes into some great detail.   And I really do love McCullough.

Roosevelt came from a very tight and very New York family.  You may think Edith Wharton, as she was a childhood friend.  Ridiculously privileged, but I can't hate 'em for it, because as a whole they made some good use of themselves.

A good part of the book talked about his early health problems, and how because and in spite of them, he very much valued being in the Great Outdoors.  Also connected to that is the time he spent in the Dakotas after the death of his first wife.  The better part of three years as a "ranchman".

I could have done without the descriptions of every poor beast the man ever shot.  But the book could not have done without them, because they are so very Roosevelt.

I don't have to like everything about the guy.

In the end, I think it is his sincerity that makes me like Roosevelt as a person and a politician.  Dude had a temper.  Dude could change his mind.  Talked rather too much.  But if he ever lied, it was only to himself and that is worth a lot.

Another Project Linus Shout Out

Carlo Garcia, whose blog I have mentioned, is closing in on the end of his year donating something to a different organization every day.  For Day 355, he chose Project Linus.

It seems those Bloomingtonians stick together.

Lists

The Blog of Note today on iGoogle was Ah the Possibilities!, written by Sarah.  She is a list maker and when a friend accused her of being "bossy" with her To Do List, she asked for opinions.

Her commenters were almost all list-makers.  I feel that I must speak for the minority:


OK, I do them sometimes.  When I feel like I have too much going on at the same time and I don't want to miss anything.  When I want to feel like a responsible grown up.

But they are.  so.  boring.

I tried for awhile to make lists to go grocery shopping.  I seem to recall it was advice in a "How to Save More Money" column.  No kidding, I would leave the lists in the car.  I could remember to bring my reusable shopping bags, but the grocery list?  Forget it.  Then I tried putting the list in my bag before leaving the house.  I would walk around the grocery store with a list in my bag and not take it out even once.

When I returned to the office from being on the road, I made a To Do list.  That was two weeks ago and it isn't finished yet.  Perhaps I am rebelling against The List.  Once a task is on The List, it becomes a chore.

Through the whole of my childhood, I don't remember my mother ever giving me a To Do list.  (Maybe I have blocked it out.)  But at the same time, she is the type that will plan ahead for the route she will take to drive to the gas station.

I have done several personality profile things that call it by different names: Low Systematic, Unstructured, Spontaneous, Perceiving (as opposed to Judging), Cluster Thinking.   It is preference.  I still get to work every day.  I meet deadlines.  I am not late for appointments.  I just don't like lists.

So.  Do I think list makers are bossy?  No.  Not unless they are trying to get me to use one.

Blanket Ten

Just as I was finishing that last blanket, Michael's had a serious sale on its house brand of yarn.  So I am going to be doing this stuff for awhile:

"What the heck with the pink?" one might ask.  Two things:

1. All of the yarn was on sale.  I had to mix it up somehow.
2. That variegated yarn?  It is actually called "Neapolitan".  As in ice cream.  I stood in a store and chose to buy yarn so that I could make "the ice cream blanket".  That's just good marketing, folks.  This is how the corners turned out:

So.  Neapolitan, Aran and Soft Rose.  Loops & Threads Impeccable yarn.