The shirts came in really nice boxes. Boxes that I can't bring myself to throw away.

And you open them to find....

The sweater is my favorite though.

I am totally outing Mike though...until I made him, he had never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey or War Games. War Games, come on! He was pretty glad he had seen it by the time he read Ernie Cline's Ready Player One. I guess that's how geek marriages work...we complete each other's repertoires. And we talk about the geeky stuff we saw on the Internet. Like Felicia Day's new YouTube channel, Geek and Sundry.

And my favorite new song, "I'm the one that's cool."

Speaking of books, I just finished Haruki Murakami's newest book, 1Q84. I have never read any of his stuff before. It was interesting, but not something I would read again. I might read another of his, as I like his style.

Right now I am reading The Forever War. I love it. It has just enough detail to set my imagination going but not drown me with every little thing.

I think 11 months of commuting has finally sucker punched me. And now that I'm waking up at 5 am to commute with the fork of bacon, and don't get home until at least 6 pm...I haven't had time to do anything, much less pack, or do any of the things I like to do.

But hey, I bought a Marimekko shower curtain for the new apartment! We figure we'll be there 6 months while we look for a house. And not drive. Molly the car broke 35,500 today.

(Noun) conveys. (Noun) does not convey. Does not convey what, exactly? Fridge conveys...a sense of fullness? Coldness? Doom? Has anyone ever decided to buy a house based on what a fridge does or does not convey?

And since Mike just accepted a job in Albuquerque, house hunting is closer than ever! We've visited a realtor, have a couple of improvements scheduled (yard clean up, house painting, etc.) so we can sell our current house. We've never been house shopping before...we fell in love with this house, and everything worked out nicely...but yeah. Never actively looked for a house before. So now we have to figure all kinds of things out. We've got a couple of areas scoped out, since they're close to where we work.

I figure I want a biggish kitchen, area for entertaining, and some kind of patio. So I can have big brunches once a month for all my friends. And a clothesline. Which means no HOA. Enough garage so I can make furniture would be cool too.

FRICK! THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!

I'm pretty chuffed about the attachment that came with my acceptance letter:

"Overall, this submission is a well-organized, well thought-out essay. I think the ideas are
relevant to writing center tutors and directors, so I believe it will be well-received by
members of the academic community.

The section breaks are logical and help the reader who may be a novice to these to
concepts (technical communication and educational theory) understand how the two ideas
can inform and strengthen each other.

The visual images are effective and appropriate. And the conclusion appropriately leads
to questions for future research.

The writer has a good strong voice and obvious command of the material. The ideas are
clear – not too full of jargon, but yet show that the writer has a very clear understanding
of the two fields of study and how they can work together.

I think the overall content is worthwhile and the article would be a great addition to the
Xchanges Journal."

Hey mom! I think you should print this out and put it on your fridge!

Right now, we're gearing up to move north. We want to sell this house, and then buy one up there. All while we're both working, and I'm commuting. I think we're going to need some help.

Speaking of commutes...I've been reading a lot lately. Sometimes it's reading sometimes it's listening to audiobooks. Okay, it's more audiobooks than reading, but whatever. I thought I'd share with you guys what I'm reading and how much I like it. I'm always looking for new series to delve into.

I just finished 11-22-63 by Stephen King, and it was GREAT! So I suffered from the usual book depression...you know, when you finish a book or series and you're all bummed that you're finished? Upset that you can't unread it and experience it all over again? So I decided to try Terry Pratchett again. Fail. I love his jokes and his writing, but his books aren't enough to suck me in for hours on end. They're more like...marshmallows. I can't sit with a bag and just eat them one after another. I need big, meaty books. I need mental protein, something to really sink my teeth into.

I poked around, and saw ta-da! Connie Willis! Doomsday book! A little bit of time travel, mixed with pandemics? Set in England? 35 hours? Hook me up!

Oh, and now the number of times I have purchased Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss? I'm up to 7 times now.

I'm very slowly rationing the last book in the Mistborn trilogy. I don't want it to end, so it's my before bed book. I remember being unhappy that I never had time to read while I was in college, now it seems like that's all I have time for. I kinda like it.

I have a problem with stranded knitting. I've never been that good at it, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Thankfully, I have a little stash of Knitpicks Palette, from back when they sold their first sampler. I tried knitting Spillyjane's Swedish Fish mittens once, but had forgotten the increases...fail. These ones are coming along much more famously, and I am having a really hard time not buying all the rest of Spilly's patterns. I would already own them if I didn't have grand designs on moving to Albuquerque in the very near future.

These are made with asphalt heather Knitpicks Palette and Pegasus Knitpicks Chroma cut up to get quicker transitions.

I am not sure if I will be porting the entries I've made as deltafine to date. I will make that decision later. Until then, I hope to be posting much more regularly than usual.