Cylon mittens will destroy you!

BacoKnitter's pattern for Battlestar Galactica mittens is about to become a priority, I will tell you that right now. Look at those mittens! Things of beauty! The backs ("So say we all") might have brought a little tear to my eye.

The fact that I am truly terrible at intarsia gives me pause, but... what the hell, I might as well give it the old college try. Better yet, the old art school try! One great thing about having gone to art school is that you become quite fearless about crazy, impossible projects. Intrepid, even!

At practically this very moment, I'm trying to convince a couple of friends (you and you!) to do a little mini-knitalong with me, for support. Of course, I'll understand if they opt out; that pattern* be crazy, yo!

Another day, I'll provide updates on things like My Mysterious Abdominal Pain and my baby's sleeping habits (I know, can you even wait?). For today, I'll leave you with a photo of mommy's little Cylon:

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* Search for it on Ravelry. The pattern costs three bucks: the deal of the millenium.

Untranslatable

"Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable." --Auden

Although we've decided to keep the baby's name to ourselves until she joins us in the outside world, Ben and I are enjoying being able to refer to our girl by name. (She just kicked me as I typed that.)

As I've mentioned elsewhere in the archives, we'd probably still be at the drawing board had we learned that we were having a boy. Don't get me wrong, we would have been just as overjoyed to get that news, but we didn't have a name waiting in the wings, and Ben wasn't convinced about either of the only two boys' names I find acceptable -- so, in that regard, we got off a little easy.

The process of choosing a name is such a funny and onerous one. Early on, I provided my husbeau with a verbal outpouring of the many girls' names I'd been filing away since approximately the age of 20: Esme, Willa, and Winifred, for example. Nodding politely, Ben came back with names like -- wait for it --

Caitlin.

Stunned into silence, I felt quite sure that my normally pensive, sweet, and brilliant spouse was either pulling my chain or putting absolutely no thought into this... otherwise, how could he insult me by suggesting a name like Caitlin? Who was this man I married?! And how were we ever going to reconcile our two vastly different naming aesthetics? But, you know, in the face of the tribulation that was Caitlin, I concealed my "that is never going to happen" expression (as he kindly did when I proposed Minerva). And honest to god, before long we came across a genre of name -- and, indeed, a specific name! -- that somehow met with emphatic approval by both of us. It kind of happened out of the blue, taking both of us a little by surprise, and we basically shook on it right there and then. And so our girl has a name.

Cutest cup of cocoa ever

I'm embarrassed to show you that it's in a disposable cup... I didn't have my mug. Very sorry, planet! In other news:

1) My Junior Review is over. That's where a panel of illustrators looks at your work and tells you if you're good enough. Update: It took forever to find out I'd passed, because they put the letter in the wrong mailbox!
2) I have a week off next week and intend to do some serieux spring cleaning.
3) Ben's parents are visiting for Easter! I'm excited. I even bought a big chocolate bunny from my favorite vegan chocolate shop for the occasion.
4) I saw my doc today and things are good! I won't get into detail, but my precarious health seems less precarious lately.
5) Ben might get laid off (vocational paradigm shift), so is looking for something new. That is stressful for both of us.
6) We really are moving back to Seattle in about a year and a half! That's what we've been wanting to do, but we weren't sure how things were going to turn out. Now it looks like we might actually pull it off. I have mixed feelings about yet another cross-country move; we have moved so much during our adult lives that on one hand it's old hat, and on the other we're pretty fkg sick of moving. And now we have more Stuff than ever, since I insisted that we buy a bed when we moved to Minneapolis, to replace the mattress on the floor. (We've acquired a few other Grown-Up pieces of furniture, too, that we would want to take with us. Another potential drawback is that I think it would be easier for me to work as an illustrator here in Minneapolis, since I have no relevant connections in Seattle. And, worst of all, Seattle is really far away from family. But, there are so many pluses: that's the city we love the most, and it is beautiful and full of life, and we have friends there, and we've both missed Seattle desperately for the last handful of years. So we'll be happy to be back in Seattle despite some drawbacks.

That's all the news for today.