Leveling up

Sewing has been *the* project for me this winter. I wanted to complete all my unfinished projects, so I devoted my weekends to fabric and even turned the former renter's bedroom into a sewing room. In the process, I think I have leveled up. On the most recent garment, everything just clicked. When I read the pattern, I (almost) always knew what they were talking about. Ease the collar into place? No problem. French seams? No sweat. Even buttonholes, which used to terrify me, went smoothly. 

A 1960's blouse, with much lace trim, and a lined summer skirt.

1940's pajamas. They are super comfy, and I love the enormous WW2 era shoulders. These are pajamas that are ready for military action, even if I do not know how the models in the drawing looked so svelte in this pattern. While taking these photos, I discovered that there is no way to look elegant in flannel.

 

Thank goodness this is all done, because warm weather is nearly here and then I will not want to do anything besides play in the garden dirt.

Things That Make Me Happy (or Evidence of Completed Projects)

Although it is January, it is not all gray and gloom at my house. We just finished my team's biggest project, a conference for 1500 people, which was (of course) virtual this year. My summary: everyone had a good time and learned a lot, and I hope I won't have organize another virtual conference for a very long time to come. So here are all the good things that are happening.

A selfie with Millie Dresselhaus for the conference webpage.

Another frozen bike ride. I have fairly good cold-weather gear, except for my feet which are ice at the end of a three-hour ride. I am getting some wool socks to see if sheep have solved this problem.

Part my project, and part my father's project: I have successfully installed a bike rack so that I no longer have to cram the bike inside the car. My father designed and welded a the license plate holder  onto the bike rack, and I learned how to drill out rusted bolts and tap threads. 

Darwin the dog has recently taken up residence with my brother's family, far from his original birthplace of Turkey. Seen here, Darwin demonstrates that street dogs learn skills quickly. That stuffed toy didn't stand a chance. 

 

Ups and Downs

 I have a job that is pretty meeting-heavy. In a typical day, I have between three and ten meetings. Today, all three of my meetings were cancelled for different meetings and I had an entire day to work without needing to talk to anyone. This hasn't happened since April 10th of last year! (I had to go very far back in my calendar to find that.) It was delightful, and I hope it happens to me again in another eight months. 

I am glad that work is going well because my DIY life is going terribly. I keep starting projects, and then when I get utterly stuck, I take a break and start a different one. Currently I have a car to which I cannot attach a license plate, a nearly-complete blouse that is sewn for someone two sizes larger than me, window blinds that do not attach to the window, and the car back seat that is detached from the car. Stay tuned for next weekend to learn if I actually solve any of these problems, or just start something else...

Christmas in the new normal

Interstate travel is pretty limited right now, but my parents and I found a way to make it work. We all quarantined for two weeks (following rules that we agreed upon and wrote down, because I am nothing if not a project manager) and then I drove straight through to Ohio one evening. I changed my trip timing to avoid some winter storms, which turned out to be a good idea although I hate driving in the dark with a passion.

My mother and I took a walk almost every day. There are real advantages to owning 42 acres during the Covid times. It's easy to social distance when the only living creatures you'll run into are squirrels and deer.

Covid also led to a new family activity - haircuts for all. I cut my mother's, and my mother did the rest of them. I was so relieved that she liked hers, and I've never cut a woman's hair before (other than my own, and I am forgiving of myself :) I had my heart set on an authentic vintage cut. I was ready for a change from pinning my hair up every day. I was lucky that my mother was up for it, since it required repeated viewing of instructional videos and two hours of cutting with careful use of a ruler. Pretty much no one gets this particular haircut any more, even though it was *the* haircut of the 1940s and 1950s. This haircut, known as the Middy, looks good when you set it into pincurls, and only in that case. If you ever get lazy and wear it straight, it's a mullet.

Other than that, we cooked, ate, fixed things, and did a video Christmas gift opening with the rest of the family. Considering the times, it was a great holiday.

Everyone, together, at least in spirit.

 

Marking time

Like many people right now, my life seems to be an autopilot, without differentiation in my day. I get up, I work, I stretch out on the couch and read a book or hang out with Star Trek friends on Zoom, go to bed, and then do it again.

Only when scrolling through my pictures from the last month can I see I've actually been doing things.

I finished another sewing project, a fully lined summer skirt. I have never sewn slippery fabric before (needed for the lining), and it gave me the excuse to buy lots of new sewing equipment.

My father welded together a custom flame sensor to solve a long-time, intermittent furnace problem for me. Alas, we didn't plan correctly, so I can't install it. I'll bring it back to him at Christmas and hopefully we can alter it.

The Star Trek Christmas tree is up. Worf says, "Qapla' and Merry Christmas."*

From the seat of my bike. They close one of the roads through the parks on weekends, and that makes a good, decently-long ride.

The woods are pretty, even in winter. It's more fun biking in the cold because there are fewer pedestrians to dodge and I never overheat.

 *I always have to look up the spelling of qapla'. For the record, I tried to learn Klingon for about fifteen minutes one time and realized it is really, really hard to learn.

New furry friends

I've been missing pets, but not wanting the commitment, so I'm suddenly a cat foster parent. Things I've learned so far: cats are in short supply and foster cats like people. With the pandemic, lots of people are looking for pets, and each of these was adopted within a week. My job is to keep them healthy, give them a bit of love, and write a great dating profile. The potential adopters see the photos and bio I provide, and then meet the pets by video, when I talk up all their cuddly traits.

In other news, both of these cats snuggled me more in one week than Wesley the cat did in a year. He really was a lovable curmudgeon, who tolerated me until his real family came back for him.

 

Bicycling

Early on in the pandemic, I broke my long-standing rule that bikes should only be used for transportation. I don't have a problem with other people running or biking around for fun, but I prefer to have a destination. However, there were many weeks, especially at the beginning, when there was nowhere you could go, so I just started taking long(ish) bike rides. I can now manage 20-30 miles (30-50km). This isn't very much for a serious cyclist, but it's farther than I've ever managed before. 

The past few weeks have been quite stressful at work. I'm doing all the right things to get through it - lots of sleep, eating well, avoiding news and media. But the best thing has been doing physically exhausting things. So I took a vacation day today and went cycling along the C&O canal, so named because it connected the Chesapeake Bay and the Ohio River. It was beautiful, fairly isolated, and a good respite from work.

My trusty bicycle, a youth bike imported from Germany. (My legs are too short for adult bikes.) If I carry more than 25 kg of groceries,  I would be over the weight limit, but if I carried more than 25 kg of groceries, I'm topple over, so it's not a big limitation. My goal is to have a bike that looks trashy, so that no one will want to steal it. Thus, the classy tupperware strapped on as skirt guards, and the patches of reflective tape. Some day I may even add duct tape to bring it down a notch.

My normal bike path, close to home, follows the tributary system of the Anacostia River. It's a mix of forest, wetland, and river path, but it's usually pretty packed with people since it stretches 20 miles from downtown DC into Maryland.

The C&O. It's about an hour's car drive to get there, and it's gravel rather than pavement. But the views of the river, canal, and Great Falls were spectacular, and I listened to crickets and rushing water instead of traffic. I'