Exercise? Grr!

Do I exercise? Not much. Not nearly enough.

But in the last several months I've started taking walks in the evening. Sometimes once around the mobile home park (15 minutes when I started, closer to 10 now unless I wind in and out of all the cul-de-sacs.) Sometimes across the schoolyard behind me and around the long block. The last couple of times I've explored some of the sidestreets around here. I've been thinking that I need to do "field trips" now and again and go walk along Santa Rosa Creek, or in one of the parks. I've found it feels good to move, and I get a lot of thinking done.

I've got a lovely "bribe" set up for it too. Every time I walk, I drop fifty-cents into a pretty glass bowl I have by the phone. When I've walked enough, I'm buying an iPod - and walking some more! The bowl says I've taken 48 walks so far. I was looking at iPods (my sister Kelly and her husband have a pair and several accessories) and realized that I'm never out of reach of a CD player - one in the car, one in the living room, one in the computer. The only time I'd use an iPod would be outside the house. So the deal is, by "earning" one by walking, I'm proving that I actually have a use for one. And I'm looking forward to it - I bought a cheap portable CD-player to tide me over, and if I start walking too fast it skips. Besides, the geek in me really likes the iPod-as-gadget!

I found the local Scottish country dance group online and they take a break for the summer. So I'll be joining them in September for socializing and exercise - to some of my favorite music! And while the style may be very proper, I know I'll be working up a sweat glow! A good Scottish reel is a lively dance!

And my sister Kai has started at Curves and invited me to join her. It's not in the budget right now but maybe soon.

So, I'm doing more than I was last year, and maybe I'll be exercising even more soon.

Laughter - All in the Family

We held the June Celebrations at Mom & Dad's this weekend - Norma's birthday, Devon's birthday, Sydney's birthday, Father's Day, Kelly's birthday and Kelly & Mike's anniversary. (Mind - the only people who get individual parties are the ones with birthdays in Dec/Jan!) Kelly only had Patrick there - Garrett was off at scout camp, and Meagan had been invited to a party/sleep-over which sounded like more fun. But Kai's son Devon is up for the summer, so we had two boys about.

After presents and before dinner, Mike, Patrick and Devon started roughhousing on the lawn. Now, Patrick tends to put his head down and charge (and gets scooped up, flipped over, and tumbled!) Devon, on the other hand, takes a more strategic approach. He convinced Patrick that if he (Devon) gave him (Patrick) a push, he'd have more speed and be able to take down Mike! So, Devon was "launching" Patrick at Mike, and Mike was "bowling" Patrick back to Devon. Kelly and I were standing on the deck, trying to take photos and laughing like crazy!

So - here's Patrick's approach, followed by Devon's!

Coffee Rating

Well, if you change "coffee" to "chocolate" this might apply! Except that chocolate is not a breakfast food! I do not like chocolate cereals, chocolate donuts, chocolate pop-tarts, chocolate chips on my waffles. Chocolate milk or hot chocolate are possibilities, but not favorites by any means. (For breakfast! Any other time of day, they're more than fine.)

The way I deal with mornings is to ease into them - several swats at the snooze button (the one where the lettering has worn off!) then hit the computer and catch up on email and DSP. Then breakfast. Then maybe I'm ready to face the day.

I can, when absolutely necessary, be out of the house in 15 minutes, but I'm much happier if I can take 45 minutes to an hour to prepare myself.

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Naming Names

I don't even remember the first time I got to name something. I was 3 when Grandpa gaves us the basset hound, and I named him Snoopy. (My guess is that's the only dog name I knew!)

When I was in 5th or 6th grade, we had a lovely calico cat move in on, I mean with, us. Happens she was extremely pregnant! I named her Lady, but someone else named her Hobie-cat (we were very active with the local sailing club, and a Hobie-cat is a catamaran.) When she had her five kittens, we got to name them too. I named the little calico Honor (it gets involved - if her mama was a lady, that would make her the Honourable Miss - therefore, Honor.) And I'm pretty sure I picked Treasure for the golden tabby. We got to keep those two. We found homes for Hobie and the other three kittens. The other kittens were Scamp (named after the b&w Tramp that Grandma Skold had had), Jack (the grey tabby - one of his eyes opened before the other so he was One-Eyed Jack for a few days), and Patches (a little tabby, a little calico, a little?)

My own lovely tabby came to me, from my boss, with the name of Austin. I changed that to Austen in honor of Jane Austen.

I don't have any children to name, but I've named myself a few times! I worked as a Girl Scout camp counselor for three summers and my camp name was Sonoma - the county I grew up in. It had a nice soft sound to it.

When I started working at the Renaissance Faire, I needed a good English name so I chose Constance Parker. I wanted a first name that was period but not too common, and the last name is the most English of my ancestors' names.

When I joined the Irish, I needed a new name yet again. I chose Neassa (pronounced Nessa) because it was uncommon, because if you saw it written you had a fighting chance of being able to pronounce it (unlike, say, Maeve which is traditionally spelled Medh) and because it has a great story behind it.

There was a widow-woman named Neassa who had a son. She married one of the Irish kings, and when her boy became a man, she convinced her husband it would be a grand thing if he let her son be king for a year. She wanted to be able to say her grandsons were the sons of a king. Well, she got him to agree. And then spent the entire year whispering in the ears of all the nobles, "See what a fine, strong king he makes! See how devoted he is to the task. He wouldn't give up the responsibility of the kingship to any other man." And at the end of the year, the nobles supported her son, and her husband had lost his kingdom. Mother love at its strongest! I can never remember the son's first name, but he was called MacNeassa after her.

Fortunately, I really like Neassa, because most of my Faire friends call me that all the time. That first year in Irish there was another Kristen and another Kris in the guild already, so Marnie decided I should always be called Neassa for clarity's-sake. When I left the Irish and joined the Inn, I kept Neassa and added Parker back to it. We're part-Welsh at the Inn, so a Celtic name is plausible. And while I tried to use Great-Grandma's name for Dickens Fair, I could never, ever hear Hannah-Maria so I'm Neassa there as well. My "sister" answers to Ariadne, so clearly Mama was a romantic.

Fun with Static

I just thought of this and decided I'd best capture it before it flitted.

Growing up, we'd go up to Redding to visit the grandparents several times a year. Two of the trips were usually winter trips: once in early-mid December for Grandma's birthday and to get the Christmas tree, and once in late February to celebrate Granny's birthday.

Now, it wasn't unusual for a good strong North wind to be blowing. Not only did this clear the air so that you could see everything, it also generated a tremendous static charge everywhere. We'd shuffle through the house sock-footed, and then touch each other. We'd build up enough charge to give a good snap!

But what I really remember is that after going to bed, we'd play with the sheet and blanket. If we pulled the blanket straight up in the air quickly not only could we hear the crackle, we could see the sparks! And sometimes we could get the same effect from our nightgowns.

I haven't thought of this for years, and try as I might, I can't follow my train of thought back to the last station to figure out what triggered it today.

Since I Turned 40, I Have...

1. Gone back to school. This is apparently a Big Deal for me - I keep mentioning it{g}! Well, and it is.
2. Taken up crochet again. I learned when I was in elementary school then played with it again when I was first in college. But I picked it up again last Fall and I've finished (what a beautiful word - Finished!) two baby afghans since then.
3. Started working for Phyllis. I deliberately put myself in a position to be asked to be her assistant. Knowing that she is an incredibly creative, active, outgoing, unorganized, egocentric Wonder. I had a blast. (Well, actually, this started a little before my 40th, but it leads to step 4...)
   
4. Stopped working for Phyllis. I recognized that 18 months with her was enough. I found her a replacement, and turned in my notice. This was important because I didn't let myself get caught in "what will she do without me?"
5. Started teaching classes at DSP. I like to help people and I like to be an "expert" - so this is perfect!
6. Vacationed in Hawaii! It was never on my list of places I wanted to visit (the British Isles dominate that list) - but it's now on my list of places I want to go back to!
7. Gotten my handwriting fontified by Suzanne. There's good reason why DSPKristen is described as a great font for journaling "tweens" - my handwriting hasn't changed/improved significantly since 6th grade! But I decided that I should include my writing in my layouts sometimes, and if other people find it useful - great! I'm not trying to hide it anymore.
8. Been interviewed on tv and in the paper! Pure fluke - apparently showing up at events in costume will get you noticed{g}! Once at the Commemoration of the 1906 Earthquake, and once (with Mom) at the Re-creation of the 1906 Memorial Day Celebration.
9. Held - and scanned - an old family photo album that included photos of our Civil War soldier! Mom & I had no idea this album even existed, until one of her cousins brought it over.
10. Visited Disneyland with my sister and her family. Not as big a deal as if we lived in, say, North Dakota - we do live in California, and though long, a drive is possible. But still, only the second time we've taken the kids and it'd been 5 years since the last time. We had a wonderful time!
    

Before I Turn 50, I Will...

1. Go back to England again. Ideally, with friends and family who are as fascinated by the history as I am.
2. Finish the Book! Any book, really. A romance, or a scrapbooking book, or a cookbook. I've got notes and chapters and ideas for all of them.
3. Get another cat (or two.) Since I'm determined the next housecat really will be a house cat (not an outdoor cat), this is waiting on...
4. Getting my house in order. I'm fluttering quite slowly a la FlyLady and matters are not progressing much at all. I have a lot of "stuff" I'm not ready to label as "clutter" and I have issues with routines. Other than that, I'm doing fine!{g}
5. Get a piece of paper from an institution of higher learning. Right now, I'm working on certificates from the local junior college. And then get work in that field! Websites and databases - grand fun!
   
6. (Start and) finish the Chatham and Skold heritage albums. Mom and I are getting everything scanned, but I haven't even started to think about the albums. I need to trick Dad into telling some of the Skold family stories when I have the digital recorder in my pocket{g}
7. Get curtains on all the windows and recover the sofa. (I looked up at the windows by the computer - one is draped in a huge flannel sheet (sort of curtainish) and the other has a bath towel blocking where the setting sun wants to shine on my monitor this week. The curtains just need the rings stitched to them and one more hem finished.) The front windows all have blinds, so I just need something decorative for *my* side. When I can get close enough to them to do something (see step 4.)
8. Learn to knit and make myself a sweater. Although I crochet, I'm almost the only one in my immediate circle of friends who doesn't knit (including a couple of the guys). I've decided it's time to remedy this.
9. Get published in a magazine. A layout, an article, a review - anything. Grandma Skold was regularly published with short stories in children's magazines and historical articles in all sorts of other magazines. I can do this too.
10. Start dancing again. At one point I was dancing weekly - Irish, Scottish and English. When I moved back to Santa Rosa, I fell out of the habit. I know there are contra and Scottish groups up here - it's time to find them. I ran into an old morris dancer friend, who must be pushing 70 by now - he's still going strong!
    

I'm a Student Again!

Okay, technically I was a student again on Monday, but that's an online class so it didn't feel special. Today, I got up much earlier than I usually do, managed the parking thing, was only a little late (both the city and the campus are in the throes of major "remodeling") and sat in an actual classroom, listening to a real live teacher!

The blog topic about school a few weeks ago got me thinking about this. And the pain of job-hunting convinced me that some upgrades to my web development skills (and a certificate or two) might be a good idea. So this summer I'm taking Telecommunications I and Beginning Dreamweaver and by next Spring I should have my Dreamweaver certificate. All the better to find a job that doesn't involve the phrases "Cash or credit?", "How may I direct your call?" or "Do you want fries with that?"

Starting to Scrap

My sister Kelly got into scrapping before I did - then again, she's the one with the kids! I started scrapping digitally first, though, and she's just starting that.

I began to think about scrapping when we cleared out both sets of grandparents' houses within about 6 months and I ended up with the photo albums and stuff. Funny - except for the memory album my sisters and I created for Grandma Skold's memorial service, I really haven't done anything with all of this. Mom and I have gotten lots of it scanned, but scrapped? I can't get a handle on it yet.

Most of my scrapping, like most of my crafting period, has been given away. We made the memory albums for Dad and Aunt Roz. Kelly and I and a friend have scrapped albums for Renaissance Faire and Dickens Fair - and given them to our guildmistress. Designing by committee is a very interesting way of doing an album! But we did each have our specialties - and we took turns pushing each other to handwrite the titles and journaling (unless I could convince them to let me do it on Kelly's computer!)

I have several half-done albums lying about - both paper and digital. That issue with finishing things, again...

20+ Years of Computers

I first played with computers in high school - we had a brand-new computer lab with Apple ///s. But I ignored them all through college except that the last paper I wrote at UCI was on someone else's computer. I decided them that being able to make changes to the first paragraph when you came up with a great idea when you reached the last paragraph was pretty cool.

Somewhere in the late 80s I inherited my sister's Apple IIe when they upgraded to a MAC! I puttered with using it for writing, but didn't find it very user-friendly. And I got really frustrated when I tried to play games on it.

After that - the big break-through! Grandma & Grandpa Chatham gave us each a good chunk of money one Christmas in the early 90s and I bought a used car and a Mac Powerbook. I was working graveyard at a motor inn and was bringing the computer to work with me. I got online with AOL (or as much as you could get online with AOL then!) I found the romance writers group and the needlework group. (Funny thing - I was a moderator for the needlework group - still have the t-shirt, even! See a pattern?) Then I discovered webpages. And that you could write them yourself. The tools were barely more than plain text, which gave me a good solid understanding of html. My first site was A Regency Repository, a directory of anything of interest to Regency Romance writers and readers, posted at geocities. It's still out there, several revisions and a move or two later.

And learning html lead me to go back to school and specialize in Multimedia Studies. I sold my laptop and bought a Mac 7200. In the labs at school, I learned to work on PCs too, which was very good, because my first job as a web developer was for a company that worked on PCs. So I added a PC to my collection. It's since been replaced with a newer, more powerful Dell.

Currently I have my Dell, and the iMac and PC from the web design company. Friday (after 4 phone calls and 2 tries) a local company that recycles computers came and picked up the Apple IIe, 3 antique Macs, 2 printers, and a box of software for the IIe. I'm slowly, very slowly, decluttering - and I haven't touched any of these in years, even decades. I kept thinking I'd get the IIe up and running, just to see if I could, but it never happened.

Teacher, Teacher

I had lots and lots of great teachers all through school but, considering what I spend my days and night doing, the most influential was Capt. K - Mr Koppelman, who taught geometry and established the first computer lab at Santa Rosa High in 1980. We had Apple IIe computers. I learned to run the crossword puzzle-making program, and also programmed a pair of computers to play the Masterpiece Theatre theme in harmony. I didn't follow up on it immediately, because Computer Science required much too much of the wrong kind of math. But when the Mac came out, I was ready to experiment. I knew computers could be fun, because I'd had so much fun in Capt. K's classes. He didn't steer me wrong!

I was just thinking - I was a History major in college but my history teachers in jr high and high school were probably the worst teachers I had. I was just that determined to learn more.

First Memory

This is still fairly fresh - I just journalled it for the current Book of Me challenge.

It's a odd little snippet, that Mom doesn't remember at all. I just very clearly remember reaching up and cutting my hand on the lid of a green plastic trash can at the side of the house on Yulupa. Which would make me about 3 1/2 because we only lived there a short time while our house in Rincon Valley was being built.

Other early memories are Pamela the White Rat at nursery school, and taking my baby sister to kindergarten for Show-and-Tell. Pamela was incredibly patient, to deal all day every day with 3- and 4-year-olds. And I remember we all sat in a circle in kindergarten and Kelly crawled around on the carpet. Not quite so early, but another great show-and-tell time - I got to bring Grandpa Skold's bearskin into my 3rd grade class. That would have been 1972-73. Can't imagine doing that now! Mom, spoilsport that she was, wouldn't let me keep it for my bed.

Favorite Childhood Book(s)

I read so much as a child, it's hard to say I had a favorite. The first books I owned were from a horse book club - Misty of Chincoteague, etc. I need to see if Mom still has them and if Meagan would be interested.

I read Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys checked out of the school library. Also, a series of biographies written for grade-schoolers. I remember reading about Dolly Madison (First Lady,) Luther Burbank (Plant Wizard,) Daisy Lowe (founder of Girl Scouts,) and Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross.) I still read a great deal of mystery and history.

I read my first fantasy novels in elementary school - it's an easy shift from fairy tales to tales about the Fair Folk. And in junior high I followed several friends through the school library there. The check-out cards with our names were always in the front of the books. If Clare, and Kathy, and Winnie had read them (especially if they read them more than once!) I knew I had a winner. I discovered JRR Tolkein, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, and Andre Norton there. I still read Tolkien and Norton, and I'm giving my sister's kids Cooper and Alexander (and reading them again myself when I visit!)

The two books that stand out, though, are two that I can't find. Or rather, one I still can't find and one I finally did. The one I found at long last was a children's picture book Mom brought home from the county library once when she was helping the school librarian with reading hour. It was about a dog who thought he was too plain and ordinary, so he started to wish he had the neck of a giraffe and the trunk of an elephant, etc. And when he got his wish, he got chased away from the house and ended up in the circus. He finally managed to wish himself back to normal and got home to his boy. The other book is one that belonged to my mom. It had four fairy tales in it and the most gorgeous illustrations. The stories were Cinderella, a Chinese tale about a couple who wished for a baby and got a moon princess, Rose Red and Snow White, and one about Roland. I can even remember the verse from the Roland story:

Withershins left, withershins right,
Withershins open Dark Castle tonight.
Sun in the East, Moon in the West,
Open the door for Roland the Guest.

The book was probably published in the late 40s or early 50s. I can't imagine that Mom gave it away, but I haven't found it in my stuff, or Kelly's, or at Mom's.

Cousins Party

I'm over at Mom's right now, and the cousins just left. They're actually Mom's cousins, plus one of her aunts. We got together to share and scan old family photos, tell stories, and not have any husbands or kids hanging over our shoulders going "Can't we leave yet?"

I have over an hour of story-telling on digital audio - I have absolutely no idea if I'm going to be able to get anything useful off it, since we had eight of us here talking all at once! Aunt Betty and her three girls were here, as well as Auntie Regina's daughters Lyda and Myrna. So we got a lot of sister-chat: "That didn't happen!" "Do you remember..." Also cousin-chat: "Auntie Elma would never have let us get away that!" Lots of fun!

Last night Mom and I carefully dismantled a Victorian photo album and scanned all the identifiable photos. The newest photos were 1890s - the oldest were tintypes from 1859 and the Civil War. Someone, alas, had carefully taped them in place, and labeled them by writing in ballpoint pen. On the upside - they did almost all get labeled so we know who they are, and the photos are still in good condition.

I scanned lots more photos today from the albums they brought. We picnicked out back, and Gail made strawberry shortcake in honor of her mom Betty's birthday. We're already planning the next get-together, probably in Sacramento this time.

Once and Future Student

For my 4th time around (you've noticed that I've mentioned a problem with finishing things, right?) I'd like to finish the Multimedia degree I started the 3rd time around. That was going on ten years ago, and so much has changed so much during that time. (No broadband, so websites needed to be very simple. No Flash animations. Certainly no video!) I've kept up with most of the advances, but it would be nice to know I'm up-to-date on everything.

Beyond that, I want to take lots of hands-on classes.

• Cooking - I'd love to know a great deal more than I do right now.
• Sewing and design - I took a one-semester class in high school and everything else has been self-taught.
• Photography - a natural for a scrapbooker, I think!
• Drawing, painting, calligraphy - I don't think I have any natural aptitude for any of these (especially the calligraphy since I'm left-handed) but I'm curious.
• Almost anything else crafty - polymer clay, stained glass, quilting, knitting, lace-making.

And at some point I'm going to go back and finish the History degree I was working on Rounds 1 & 2. It never occurred to me, and no one thought to mention it, that not all college history departments offer lots of classes in all eras of history. Neither college I attended had a good English History department. I'll have to be more careful the next time - even if it means moving for a while. But this won't be any time soon.

I Got Tagged!

Faery-wings tagged me, so here we go!

5 things in my fridge:
2 gallons of milk (this is for just me!)
Enough spaghetti with meat sauce for 5 or 6 more meals (happens when you start with 1lb of ground beef and are only feeding 1!)
2 lbs of strawberries (one for eating with breakfast, one for experimenting with an Elizabethan sweets recipe)
3 half-empty bottles of wine from various cooking projects, since I cook with wine but don't drink it
1 jar of bread machine yeast which needs to come out to play next week - it's been too long since I've made bread last

5 items in my closet:
closet organizer system - finally installed one last year
sheets for a mattress size I haven't owned in 7 years
parts to 3 different historical costumes
a briefcase (hand-me-round from a sister) that I've never had a job that required it
5 pairs of shoes I wear and 15 pair I don't

5 items in my purse:
chocolate (although this is getting potentially messy as the weather warms up)
kleenex
table-top tripod (it's about 6" high)
owner's manual for the work lights I bought for Suzanne's Home Studio Lighting class
receipts from the last 3 months of grocery/book shopping

5 items in my car:
candy wrappers
CDs
something under the driver's seat that rattles occasionally and probably should have gone to Goodwill early last year
more than one paperback
my corsage from Shannon and Giova's wedding (it's pinned just above the rear-view mirror)