New "blog"

You can find the new husband and baby here:

http://ellisandco.tumblr.com/

An (almost) finished project

Many babies are arriving at my friends' homes over the next few months, and I am determined to turn out a half-dozen tiny garments. Tiny garment #1, a Crayola-colored baby sweater, is missing only the buttons. (This is a simple Fiber Trends pattern knit with Lorna's Laces washable wool.)

I've got rhythm

While I anticipate starting law school next year, I've been teaching English as a Second Language at an adult learning center a few blocks from my house in Pilsen. I enjoy it: the students are a lot of fun, and the school does an excellent job of providing tuition-free classes for hundreds of people, mostly from Mexico with an occasional Salvadoran or Honduran in the mix.

The problem with working at a place that serves a Latino population is that inevitably one must attend the ritual fundraising event involving salsa dancing. Sigh. Luke was a good sport, but as you can see we spent most of the evening focusing intently on our feet.

Mabel's elephant

I've been meaning to post a picture of the little stuffed elephant I knit my niece for Christmas. The pattern is from Joelle Haverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It came out really well, although I knit too slowly for it to be a truly "last minute" project.

meme

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:30.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Mostly silver and plastic.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Volver
4. What is your favorite TV show? Desperate Housewives
5. What did you have for breakfast? Oatmeal, as always.
6. What is your middle name? Jennifer, pbbbt.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? tough one...California contemporary?
8. What foods do you dislike? Black licorice, marshmallow peeps, gummy worms. Are those foods?
9. What are your favorite chips? Tostones from El Milagro tortilleria
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza
11. What kind of car do you drive? 1995 Toyota Camry. Actually, the "y" fell off so now it's a "Camr". Sadly, the driver side door lock recently ceased to function, so I have to unlock it from the passenger side and walk around. Other than that the Camr is going strong at 140,000 miles.
12. Favorite sandwich? Irazu's Costa Rican steak sandwich
13. What are characteristics you can't stand? Weak knees and painful feet. (Sorry, did you say "stand on"?)
14. What are your favorite clothes? My boyfriend's giant grey sweatpants
15. If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would it be? Ecuador--maybe this summer?
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Luchesse cowboy boots.
17. Where would you want to retire? Somewhere warm, with good food. South Carolina?
18. Favorite time of day? 11am
19. Where were you born? Helena, Montana
20. Where have you lived? Montana, Wyoming, Indiana, New Hampshire, Chicago, Brighton (UK), and Los Angeles...with brief three-month stints in Kenya and Spain.
21. What is your favorite sport to watch? bicycle racing
22. Coke or Pepsi? I do love the bitter aspartame aftertaste of Diet Coke.
23. Beavers or ducks? Huh? Um, beavers. Definitely.
24. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Afternoons are nice.
25. Pedicure or manicure? That reminds me that I haven't clipped my toenails in about three months. Gross.
26. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? Got into law school. Bought a ticket to Brazil.
27. What did you want to be when you were little? A country singer like Crystal Gayle.
28. What is your best childhood memory? Mom reading us A Wrinkle in Time.
29. Piercing? Screams, occasionally.
30. Ever been to Africa? Yup.
31. Ever been toilet papering? Yup.
32. Been in a car accident? I gently rear-ended an Escalade once. The Escalade was unscratched. The Camr required extensive body work.
33. Favorite day of the week? Tuesday
34. Favorite restaurant? Sultan's Market, Mundial
35. Favorite flower? Anything orange
36. Favorite ice cream? Pistachio coconut chocolate chip
37. Favorite fast food restaurant? In-n-out Burger
38. How many times did you fail your driver's test? I've actually never taken one.
39. From whom did you get your last e-mail? ComEd's billpay service. Sigh...
40. Which store would you choose to max out your credit? Hogeye music
41. Bedtime? 11:30PM
42. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? hmmm...
43. Last person you went to dinner with? I ate pozole at my roommate's cousin's house to celebrate the cousin's marriage. I understood nothing anyone said (in rapidfire Spanish slang), but the living room had some truly fabulous jungle decor.
44. Favorite color? brown
45. How many tattoos do you have? 0
46. How many are you sending this Email to? none, I don' t forward things.
47. What time did you finish this e-mail?8:25 PM
48. Favorite magazine? Cook's Illustrated

home redecorating

I have been gently urging (okay, arm-twisting) Luke to fix up his condo since pretty much our first date. Let me clarify that the decor of said condo is really none of my business. I do not live there, nor do I pay the mortgage and condo fees. I am perfectly aware that I should keep my mouth shut and allow the poor guy to dwell peacefully in his disheveled bachelor pad, where he seemingly got along just fine for five years without my "help."

But that's clearly not realistic, is it? Just as the full moon begets the werewolf, walking through the threshold of this condo transforms me from my usually disorganized self into a less-apt but just-as-anal Martha Stewart wannabe, eyeing each closet and wall with a burning need to organize and decorate.

Luke has been accomodating of if a bit anxious about the whole Martha/Mr. Hyde deal. We succeeded in repainting the living room, dining room, and hallway with good results, replacing the horror show of pumpkin-and-gold sponge paint and electric-yellow crayon with more soothing green, blue and brown. I also recaulked a few windows, rearranged his furniture, fixed a couple of lights so that they could be turned off without unscrewing the burning hot bulb with one's hand, and sewed some curtains with the help of my patient mother (thanks mom).

The problem with the new paint was that one (one being me) now noticed the ugly furniture, particularly the stained green armchair that looked like someone with greasy hair had died in it and the scratchy blue-and-white couch, a hand-me-down from a friend's relative, that left marks on my face after a nap and did not go with anything. I largely obscured the former with a quilt made by Luke's mother. The latter, however, continued to goad me.

Frugal Luke has never purchased a piece of furniture in his life--unless a bike trainer qualifies as furniture--and refers to things inherited because his kin did not want them in their own homes as "family heirlooms". Thus a new couch was out of the question. I began to frequent the Target website, fantasizing about the perfect couch cover, a piece of fabric that could turn the scratchy behemoth into something almost tasteful. After scrolling through pages of loose-fitting waffle weave, I found it. Brown, non-scratchy, and snug-fitting--it hardly even looked like a couch cover. The problem was that it was not cheap.

I dragged Luke to Target on the pretense of shopping for a new board game. "Let's just walk this way...." and suddenly we were in the home decor section. "Oooh, this is nice. What do you think?" Luke rejected the couch cover out of hand. He was not about to spend $100 on a couch cover. "But it's the nicest couch cover I've ever seen! And it's only ten per cent of the price of a new couch!" My arguments were to no avail. We left the store with me casting wistful backward glances toward the slipcover aisle.

As the days went by, I could not shake my couch cover obsession. My friend Laura suggested a stop at Target after the gym, and I found myself again in the home decor section, clutching the plastic-wrapped bundle to my chest. I told my hands to return it to the shelf, but with a mind of their own, they instead placed it in the cart.

On a Tuesday, after Luke left for work, I retrieved the couch cover from the trunk of my car and carefully secured it over my sofa-nemesis. It fit perfectly. I left the condo and waited to see what Luke would say. On the phone that evening, however, he didn't mention it. I started to worry that I had passive-agressively overstepped my bounds. He must be really ticked off at me if he's not even going to mention it!

When Thursday came and went with nary a word about the couch cover, I was really worried. I resolved never again to interfere with other people's home decor. On Friday evening we went to the condo. I moved some of Luke's things off the couch and sat down. "Hey," he said. "Did you come over and put that on there today?" The fact that he managed to co-exist with a mysteriously-brown couch for three days without even noticing seems revealing, somehow. But I'm happy every time I get to lounge on it and watch TV without getting tell-tale couch marks on my face.

Weaving workshop

Last weekend I attended a weaving workshop given by my mom at Conner Prairie, the historical museum near Indianapolis where she works. It was a lot of work, but now I have a beautiful wool scarf made from yarn naturally-dyed by my mom and her colleagues on the prairie. Now I have to persuade Luke that he wants to let me turn his guest room into a loom room.

Wednesday, 3:45 pm (Caller: unavailable)

Hello?

Hey, what are you doing?

Um, not much. Who’s this?

Oh, you know who it is.

No really, I don’t.

You do so. I have a cold. Do you need a clue?

I guess I do.

Someone far away.

Uh, I still don’t know.

Tall, dark, and handsome.

Nope, no idea.

You have to know.

No, I really don’t.

Oh, c’mon, yes you do.

Well, perhaps you have the wrong number. Who are you trying to call?

This is Lindsay, isn’t it?