Tuesday Project Roundup: Big Enough For A Sixpack And A Sock Monkey

I decided to revisit the cotton knitted bag pattern that turned out too small to hold anything except a tomato, and the result is I overcompensated, ran out of yarn, used up some odds and ends to finish, and ended up with a bag that’s big enough for a watermelon and looks like a sock monkey*:

The bag stretches a lot; it could probably hold TWO watermelons. But it’s useful and it’s finished. I’m so tired of knitting with cotton, though–it’s time to break out wool and start planning fall projects.

*Monsieur Le Singe, Guiseppi Tomasi, was something I made in high school. Because I was cool like that in high school.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Werner Herzog, the crazy German filmmaker I studied in a college film class, has made a film about McMurdo station in Antarctica. My uncle is returning for another six months in McMurdo in August, so it would be cool to see what a crazy German filmmaker has to say about it in Encounters at the End of the World. The Salt Lake Tribune review can be read here.

2. My latest favorite TV-on-DVD show is Mad Men, which has yet to make me feel angry or used the way Battlestar Galactic did. I started watching it for the costumes and to see how it compared with agency life today, and now I can’t get enough. Season 2 starts Sunday.

3. I somehow ended up reading about what you should have in a chicken first aid kit and a story about raccoons trying to kidnap Tickle Me Elmo online this week. I love the internet!
In the middle of one night we were awakened to the sound of Tickle Me Elmo laughing his little head off. Upon investigating we found Elmo stuck in the cat door unable to stop laughing and vibrating. The raccoons had abandoned him when they couldn’t squeeze him through the door.

Why Is Today Special?

Because it’s the birthday of Amelia Earhart and Zelda Fitzgerald and my friend Tiffin. It’s also a day after the birthday of Raymond Chandler, the best detective novelist ever, and a day after the birth of a yet-to-be-named cria at Blue Moon Ranch (I’d call him Nero):

It was also pretty special to go four blocks out of my way on my ride in this morning to avoid the crowds of pioneers.

The Garden

I’ve finally stopped complaining how far behind and puny my garden is, because you can’t really do that if the tomato plants are as tall as you. The ripening is still a little behind schedule, but at least the plants look healthy, if not completely out of control.

I planted mostly tomatoes:


And some zucchini, because about 85% of vegetarian recipes involve zucchini.
I have a feeling I will regret the zucchini in a month, but right now I’m still excited.

Dear Emmylou Harris

You are awesome and I’m sorry I didn’t realize it until the concert last night. I knew you sang backup for some good Neil Young albums and I remember seeing you in Heart of Gold recently and thinking, “Whoa, plastic surgery!” But I really didn’t know what you sounded like on your own, and I have been missing out. I’m going to go find “Orphan Girl” on iTunes now.

Also, your dress and boots were great.

Best,

Karen

PS: I really shouldn’t have taken your advice from the encore: “Two More Bottles of Wine.”

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Wednesday I made my best riding time to and from work so far: 12 minutes to get there and only 20 minutes to get home. Now I’m pretending I’m competing for the maillot vert!

2. Wednesday also marked the 63rd anniverasary of the first nuclear bomb test in Los Alamos. I’ve known that Oppenheimer said, famously, “I am become Death, destroyer of worlds” but I didn’t know that he was quoting from the Baghavad Gita:
“If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.”

Something else I didn’t know: That Kenneth Bainbridge, the site director of the test, retorted, “Now we are all sons-of-bitches.”

Indeed.

That’s A Nice Farm You Got There, Little Lady

So the NY Times has a feature about women farmers up online. I read it because I, too, am a woman. And I like farms. (And because it’s been slow at work this week. I’ve been reading anything.)

The article…left something to be desired. Do you think a journalist would use the following sentence when talking about a male farmer? “[She] flits effortlessly between trimming vines and fixing the tractor, a farmer at heart.” Um, wouldn’t the fact that she’s trimming vines and FIXING A TRACTOR make her a farmer in actual PRACTICE, too? Seriously, “flits”? Come on.

And get this sentence from the intro:
“Whether raising heritage livestock, combing the woods for exotic morsels or coaxing delicacies from the ground, these women forge new bonds between field and table, strengthening the connection between things we love to eat and the stewardship that makes them possible.”
Awww, who knew farming was so nurturing? And did you know WOMEN are good at NURTURING and these are LADY FARMERS we’re talking about? God.

I would expect this from, well, a women’s magazine (with a little sidebar about “Get The Farming Look!” telling us to buy an Hermes headscarf); but not from a newspaper. Farming is hard work. I bet any of these little ladies could have told the reporter that.