Thinking about love and marriage

So New York State has finally legalized gay marriage. Finally people who love each other can get married and have that union be recognized and protected.

Made me think of the Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia, decided on June 12, 1967, that made interracial marriage legal. This was decided before my husband and I were even born and thus by the time we got married, it was not a legal or social struggle.

I also woke up to the news on Saturday that a friend's husband, dealing with cancer, passed away. As a wife who really, really loves her husband, it broke my heart to think of my friend without hers.

And so happy that I got to spend all of Saturday with Husband. I tell him everyday that I love him, that I think he's the best part of my life, of how much I appreciate what he does for us. As I think about my newly-widowed friend, it breaks my heart all over again.

Sibling Reunion 2011 and Buffy rewatch

This month, Brother One came to the US from Taiwan for a visit. As a legal permanent resident but not a citizen of Taiwan, he is required to leave Taiwan once a year. As a citizen of the US, he decided to come to the US. He's stateside about 3 weeks and staying with me and friends in Atlanta for about 2 weeks of that time.

It was also Brother Two's birthday this Monday, so we all met up at Sister's place in the DC area. Brother One and I drove from Atlanta to Sister's. Brother Two took the bus from NYC to DC and Sister picked him up.

Sister lives in a one bedroom 800 sq ft condo with her husband. It's a good thing we were only there 2 full days.

Much of that time was spent eating (Korean BBQ, Papa John's pizza, Popeye's fried chicken, Maryland blue crab -- things Brother One missed about the US) and playing mahjongg while eating snack foods and drinking beer. It was great.

Sister's husband was working.

On the drive up, I borrowed Ananci Boys by Neil Gaiman on CDs to listen to in the car. I had also loaded American Gods by Gaiman onto my iPhone, but that didn't work so well.

When we got back to Atlanta, Brother One and I unwound by beginning the Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatch, by watching the first 2 episodes of Season One: Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest.

Topics of conversation during our reunion:
sexism, gender discrimination, the Supreme Court decision striking down the sex-discrimination case against Walmart, what our parents are doing, racism, comic books, air guitar (Brother Two has been competing), and of course, eating.

Sister and Brother-in-law's first anniversary is coming up so I offered to knit them a blanket. I took a Knitpicks catalog to get their input about colors. They (really, Sister) choose medium blue, dark red, and cream. The pattern and size I will figure out. I will start with using the superwash worsted weight that I have set aside for the Babette Blanket and then fill in from there.

We also went to Uniquities yarn shop in Tysons Corner. I got Brother Two a skein of superwash worsted weight yarn from Lorna's Laces in blue, green, black to make him a scarf, and one skein each of superwash worsted weight yarn in light grey and tealish blue. Not sure what I'll do with it yet, but they were so pretty together.

Since we were driving, I packed a lot of yarn. Half my luggage was yarn: for Husband's City Quilt blanket, a brimmed sunhat for me, and my portable-ish shawl.

All in all it was a great reunion.

Carnaby skirt

Pattern: Carnaby skirt from Knitty.com
Started March 1, 2011, finished June 13, 2011.

Modifications:
It's written as a mini-skirt, but I lengthened it. Cast on 120 stitches instead of 80.
Used fingering weight linen yarn held double on size US 5 needles, instead of worsted weight on US 8.
Yarn was from a former friend's mother's stash.
Used all 18 (?) skeins of yarn, including the swatch.
Added a draw string, to help keep it up.
The button holes were 4 stitches wide, but should have been 3.
Wooden buttons bought from Hancock Fabric.

#YAsaves

So yesterday, there was an article at the Wall Street Journal called Darkness Too Visible that complains that contemporary young adult novels have too much violence.

There are so many things wrong with this article. My thoughts:

1. Violence, depravity, bullying, abuse, molestation, cutting, child prostitution, exploitation, incest -- it all does happen to kids. Writing about this and showing how kids can, or might not, survive it is a good thing. Not writing about it doesn't make it go away.
2. There's a tweet explosion using the #YAsaves, where people tweet about how young adult fiction has helped them cope with the issues in their lives, or giving them compassion for others. There's a slideshow of them at the WSJ site.
3. The Hunger Games = the daily survival of bullying, abuse, and/or poverty that millions of kids deal with in real life.
4. Judy Blume, who the article author holds up as a good example of YA writing, doesn't support the article's premise.
5. There's a sidebar of books the article writer does approve of, and it's offered as a list of books for boys and a list for girls. headdesk.
6. The kids reading these books lived through Sept 11, 2001. They know bad things happen.

I have not suffered any of these terrible things that the children and teens in these books survive. I think the article is more about parents wanting, wishing they could shield their kids from bad things; parents wishing the world wasn't a place where bad things could happen to their children.

Afterall, the article doesn't even interview actual young adult readers.

Seattle

Last week, Husband and I went to Seattle, Washington. I was very excited about going, since I had never been to the Northwestern United States. Other reasons: catching up with friends who live in Seattle, including my friend Natasha who writes the blog Maven on the Move, see sidebar. And there's yarn shops! Lots and lots of yarn shops.

Above is the the Seattle Space Needle seen from the base. Note the characteristic overcast sky.

Husband had to be there for work, I was there for fun. When Husband was doing his work thing I walked around the downtown area. Which is very hilly. That's Elliott Bay in the background, steep Yesler St in the mid ground, and a balustrade in the front. Ooof.

Now I know where there are so many Starbucks and Seattle's Best Coffee on every other corner. So you have a place to sit, rehydrate, and catch your breath. It's a very pretty city, with little pocket parks too to sit and enjoy the sun which it does come out.

After lunch, Husband and I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. That's the Space Needle on the left, the downtown on the right, and the ferry wake. It was a lovely sunny day for a ferry ride. We didn't even get off the ferry, we just rode back and forth. And we saw a bald eagle fly over us, so that was really cool.

We had dinner at a kosher Indian restaurant with Husband's old college roommate who is now Orthodox Jew and my friend Natasha and their kids. Very nice to catch up with everyone.

The next day, Natasha and I and her kids (3 yo and 17 mo) went on a yarn crawl/tour of Seattle. It was a lovely, sunny day too. We went to Tricoter where I got the Fiesta La Boheme rayon/mohair yarn, Peacock colorway, which they wound for me. For lunch we went to a Vietnamese restaurant then went to the Weaving Workshop where I got the Manos and Cascade Heathers yarn. The Fiesta will become a scarf or trim for a shawl someday. The Manos and Cascade will be a cropped shrug someday. Natasha's kids were pretty well behaved but they have their limits so after that Natasha took the scenic route through the Queen Anne neighborhood before dropping me off at the hotel.

While I was off gallivanting with Natasha, Husband took a ferry ride to Bremerton. Husband grew up on a lake and loves the water. So it was a fun afternoon for all.

Husband and I wandered Pike Place Market. But for dinner we went to Elliot's Oyster House on the pier. We gorged on raw oysters, accompanied by martinis. It was so yummy. My favorites were the Sunset Beach oysters: sweet, big, meaty.

Next time we go, whenever that is, we will have to go to the Experience Music Project / Science Fiction Museum. They had a Battlestar Galactica exhibit! And a Sci-fi Hall of Fame! Oh well, next time.

All in all, it was a lot of fun.

It's about power, not sex

So the chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been arrested for sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

Here's my take: he's a man of immense power, with the ability to mess around with entire economies. He's also got a reputation of being a "great seducer" with a history of messing around with women.

People say "but he's so smart and rich. Why would he be so dumb/not hire a prostitute?"

It's not about sex, it's about power. He's probably so used to him say jump and people, including other people with money and power, ask how high? Plus, being smart about one thing (economics) doesn't mean he's smart about other things. Especially if he's not thinking with his big head.

So I say good for you, hotel maid, for standing your ground and saying "I may be paid to serve you in some ways, but that doesn't mean in all ways."

Drawing cartoons

Meet June. She's not a dog person.

And here's Wonder Woman, in her new uniform, taking a break. I imagine she's flying around and saw a little pond and decided to take off her blue jacket, take off the black boots, the silver cuffs, and rolled up her pants to relax a bit. And the golden lasso of truth and headband double as hair accessories too.

I'm a self-taught drawer, so I'm really happy about how Wonder Woman's hand came out and I think I draw good legs and feet. The face in profile needs more practice. In looking at other cartoons and comix, I think the key is stylizing how the face looks. It's not important to look realistic but rather it's a cartoon, so it should be kinda stylized.

I'm using Prismacolor markers, the prepackaged 12 primary and secondary colors. Then I got a marker in the Sand colorway for the skin.