Back from England; had a really good time, ate tons of crawfish, drank good beer, and generally enjoyed myself. Also, being entirely objective on the matter, I have to say that my pseudo-nephew is, in fact, the cutest baby ever. See?

Before most major trips in recent memory, I have engaged in an ambitious sewing project. There have been ball gowns, experimental sort of cocktail dresses, and most recently, a fancy winter coat. None of these were strictly speaking necessary - I did need such a garment for each occasion, but in all cases, I already owned something I could have worn. And in the case of the fancy coat, I really probably didn't need a dressy coat so much as a functional coat, and I did already have one of those, making the coat-production of even more dubious necessity.

Before the sewing projects . . actually, in between the sewing projects, also . . there was the artwork for sale at WriterCon, which required printing and fixing and matting and such.

In each case, I was up until some ungodly hour of the morning for the two nights before the trip frantically attempting to finish the project in question. I arrived at my "vacation" destination wanting nothing so badly as 2 days' solid sleep.

Before this upcoming trip to England, I was sewing shirts - everyday-wear kind of shirts for myself, and I attempted a skirt - and baby clothes. And I made a resolution: I was not going to be sewing/matting/doing-any-sort-of-project the night before. I would start early, I would set reasonable goals, and if the deadline started to loom close, I would scrap whatever project / aspect of project could not be completed without compromising my sleep. And, wonder of wonders, I actually stuck by this. I did not complete my skirt; I discovered that I fail at making appliqued baby blankets and decided to just go with baby stuff I knew I could complete successfully. I was quite proud of myself.

It is 2:16AM the day before my departure. I don't fly out until 9PM tomorrow, but I have to be at work 9AM to roughly 2PM. I still have a little bit of packing to do, but not much.

. . . I just finished repotting a tree.

Before that, I repotted several violets.

I'm contemplating going out and catching and relocating the baby dragonflies now (they need to get out of the wheelbarrow, as parents want use of the wheelbarrow while I'm gone) by flashlight - all that's stopping this plan is that I don't know where in the heck I put the fishbowl.

What do trees, violets, and dragonflies have in common? They all really could have been re-homed tomorrow between when I left work and when I need to leave for the airport. I've got 4 hours, and I'm 90% packed.

What do overly-ambitious sewing projects, artwork in need of matting, violets, trees, and dragonflies have in common? They're excellent ways to occupy one's brain when one can't get one's brain to stop spinning. It seems that I was putting the cart before the horse in terms of the cause and effect of my recurrent pre-trip sleep deprivation; I simply cannot sleep for about 2 days before a major trip. I discover boundless reserves of frenetic energy. I could build you a small bridge out of chewing gum and toothpicks, right now.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, all that just seeps right out the soles of my shoes the minute I actually set foot on the plane. Pre-trip, I am extremely productive but also extremely anxious - in hyperdrive mode, and unable to snap out of it. Get me up in the air, and it's like flipping a switch. No matter what I've forgotten, left unfinished, or possibly messed up - no matter what catastrophes may be brewing in the world down there - I am several thousand feet in the air in a glorified tin can, and nobody and nothing can reach me.

I love flying. I really, sincerely, truly do.

So I've been quiet here - I promised a review of my new camera and that didn't happen. It's still not going to happen, because I'm much too busy today to pull out the camera (a Pentax Optio S12) and get into detailed analysis of all its nifty functions. It is quite nifty, though - I am entirely pleased with it. I took these with it:




There are depressingly few bugs outside anymore, but I am waiting until the first hard frost before taking off for the insectarium (mostly as an antidote to getting totally depressed after the first hard frost). I'm also waiting until I get back from my upcoming trip - I will be leaving this Saturday to go visit my good friend E, her husband M, and their highly adorable, new offspring, J. I will be testing out the camera's use for taking pictures of slightly larger creatures, i.e. the baby. I don't know if I'll be posting those pics here or not, will have to see what E and M think on that.

I have been sewing a ridiculous amount - mostly baby clothes. I will take pictures of those, to be posted after they've been given to E, as I don't want her to see what I've made ahead of time. It'd ruin the surprise. :)

I've also made myself a couple nifty shirts. I'm presently very in love with large, billowing sleeves with small, gathered cuffs. They're just nifty.

I'm considering getting some manner of sticker for my car - not a political type sticker, but just something pretty to personalize it a bit. I like this: http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/pentacle-seasons.jpg . . and this: http://www.purplemoon.com/Stickers/firefly.jpg

. . the firefly sticker is fairly nondenominational, apolitical, and generally inoffensive to most people, I'd think. I'm a little more nervous about the idea of the pentacle sticker. I've yet to find a label that fits me well on . . well, any subject or aspect of life, really . . but religiously, I most often refer to myself as an agnostic pagan - which really does make sense, I swear, but is difficult to explain in less than an essay and is not the point of this post. Point is, I am not a traditional sort of neo-pagan (though the words "traditional" and "neopagan" are sorta funny to put in the same sentence to start with), and this makes me a little bit wary of using traditional neopagan symbols, however much they appeal to me and fit what I believe. I don't want to appear to be representative of something that I am not. And I'm very not open about my religious beliefs at work. I don't exactly hide anything - I mean, I've taken the summer solstice off for two years running now, surely someone has noticed this, and hey, making this post on the internet under my real name - but I do not discuss religion at work, period, the end. And I have a feeling that if I stick this sticker on my car, I will be discussing (explaining, maybe justifying) my religion at work. I don't really want that.

. . but it's a very pretty sticker and I don't particularly like the idea of not buying it solely for that reason. That feels a little closetish.

Anyway - back to sewing and packing and generally losing my mind.

A few weeks ago, PetSmart stopped carrying the cat litter I previously used (a biodegradable, environmentally-friendly paper-based product). I bought several bags and resolved to find it elsewhere. Except, I think it's possible it no longer exists. At least, I did not find it elsewhere, and after attempting to buy it online and being told by the PetSmart webside that they had one bag in stock, I decided I was just going to have to find a new litter.

I tried enough varieties of litter when Oliver was a kitten to know what I didn't want (anything corn-cob or wheat-based was out, and I definitely wanted scoopable). I really, really wanted to find something else biodegradable . . but I found nothing that seemed like to actually work, in that catagory.

So I figured in for a penny, in for a pound, and bought a major brand regular-old-clay scoopable litter, designed for small spaces (the small space shared by me and my cat did require some highly frequent litterbox maintenance in order to keep things breathable, with the old litter).

The litter itself works beautifully - better than the old litter (*sigh* - I am such a sell-out). However, it comes in these big old Rubbermaid-like plastic tubs. I didn't even really think about this in the store, but then I got home, and put it in the box, and had an empty tub that looked suspiciously like something I could buy in its own right for about $10 at Walmart. Huh. I tried, momentarily, to figure out what I could use it for . . before I realized I was going to be acquiring a new one of these about once a month.

I do not need 12 tupperware tubs a year. I really, really don't.

I tried to see if I could buy this litter in more sensible packaging - I recalled seeing other types of litter made by this same company on the shelves in larger cardboard boxes, or bags. But no - not the small spaces litter. The small spaces litter only comes in packaging designed to clutter your small space.

So I wrote to the company, and complained (politely) about how wasteful and unnecessary this was, that I did not want to be contributing 12 rubbermaid tubs to a landfill per year, or to use the energy that would be required to recycle them (they're heavy-duty plastic).

Company replied with a form letter apologizing for the fact that I found their packaging inconvenient and assuring me that my concerns had been passed on to the folks who did packaging research (Dude, there are people who research how to package cat litter? Really?). Also they promised me coupons. I saw no evidence anywhere in this response that my letter had actually been read, but oh well - I suppose I can put whatever money I save via the use of my exercise-in-futility coupons towards saving for a less-small space. And then I can buy the litter that comes in the cardboard box.

In the mean time, anybody need plastic tubs?

So in about 4 minutes (less by the time I post this, most likely), my local township will be spraying my local park for mosquitoes. My father got a phonecall a little under an hour ago informing him of this, and that we're apparently local enough to the park that we may get hit with some drifting of sprayed chemical, depending on the winds. Per the nice township phonecall, this poses "minimal" risk to people and pets.

I'm more than slightly peeved; IMO I ought to get a vote in what gets sprayed on my property (or at least my parents should, being the legal owners of said property - still, I am a tenant, I do live here, I am affected by toxic stuff sprayed in the vicinity). I know they are concerned about West Nile, but I do not want the rest of my insects killed off, and I have a population of dragonflies that controls my mosquitoes, and I have ethical and religious objections to the indiscriminate use of insecticide, and in general there is no aspect of this that does not make me want to go stand in front of the park with a pissed-off type sign. (I won't actually, mostly on account of an hour being too little time to come up with something really witty to write on said hypothetical sign). I don't recall any such program of insect control ever being put to a vote, at least a vote in which I was included or of which I was notified . . . I suppose that's what we have representatives for, but still, I feel disenfranchised and unamused about this.

I caved; a Pentax Optio S12 is winging its way to me via Amazon as we speak (well, actually, it's sitting in an Amazon warehouse because I opted for the free shipping, and ergo it won't ship out until September 2nd; but the process of its eventually reaching me has been set in motion! Just . . no actual motion type motion yet.) I tried and tried to find a store that had one in stock so that I could try it out before I bought it, but nobody within 25 miles seems to stock them - and sadly, gas prices being what they are, it's really not worth driving farther than that as opposed to just returning it if I don't like it. And Amazon had it on really, really ridiculous sale, so there you go.

I will post a review when it arrives and I've had a chance to try it out. I'm kinda bummed that it's not likely to arrive before the holiday, but oh well.

This was brought about in part by the optical zoom on the currently-owned Pentax Optio S7 dying an untimely death on me. I can't blame the camera - I've taken upwards of 15k pictures with it in the last 18 months. It's done its duty. But, never the less, I have a camera that shuts itself off if I try to use the zoom outside of macro mode (yeah, I know, I work almost exclusively in macro mode, but still) and is threatening to give up the ghost entirely. Even in macro mode, the focus is not what it used to be - sometimes it works, sometimes it gives me a big blur. And the summer's not over. This is decidedly not cool.

But I got this one before it started to go wonky on me. This is entitled, "No, Pixar did not make me up, I swear."

Today's Topic: Is The Author Insane?

Yes, I was about 3" away from these guys. Yes, they did notice . .

. . . though not as much as these guys did. The yellow-jackets above were actually remarkably complacent about bright lights being flashed in their proverbial windows. They stared, but it was a, "Huh. That's weird. We'll keep an eye on that," sort stare. These guys above, though? Not. Pleased. There was annoyed staring, there was agitation, there was some vibrating of wings. That was when I decided to leave them be.

The location of either of these is being kept undisclosed, as I suspect it would not contribute to the longevity of the residents if I made their existence known - and they're really not hurting anything, they're out of the way and, obviously, not that aggressive. (Protecting your sources - not just for reporters!)

Look at its eyes. They're striped. How cool is that?

I know this is rather blurry at full size, but it's staring at me. Its expression was just too nifty not to post.

. . and another in the series of bugs with challenges; this guy's only got one back leg. He was getting around just fine without it; I even saw him make a short jump. How in the heck he can get an accurate trajectory, I don't know, but he landed where he was looking, so I think he can.