We stepped outside this morning to take this photo and there was a cool breeze blowing. Nice change of pace to the hot weather we’ve been subjected to most of the summer. The summer is over and I’m glad to see it go. I’d like very much now to settle into [...]]]> And Liza starts preschool tomorrow.

We stepped outside this morning to take this photo and there was a cool breeze blowing. Nice change of pace to the hot weather we’ve been subjected to most of the summer. The summer is over and I’m glad to see it go. I’d like very much now to settle into a boring routine for at least six months.

She was unimpressed with her fittings up until she had to go outside one morning and it was below 50°. My dog sister was slightly more [...]]]> I’m still making hats even though I made my 50 hat goal. But I took a break this weekend to make a couple of sweaters for my mom’s dog, Lola.

She was unimpressed with her fittings up until she had to go outside one morning and it was below 50°. My dog sister was slightly more impressed with my mad crocheting skills after that.

While my mom was here, she also helped me finish a bag I crocheted on my trip to Austin a while ago. She made the lining and I think it made the bag look awesome! (Thanks Mom!) It’s a birthday gift I’ll be mailing tomorrow.

Bag Pattern: Sarahbell’s Bag

Two: if that’s not enough for [...]]]> One: the band C-mon & Kpyski, from Utrecht in the Netherlands, created a simple video for their song “More is Less” and asked fans to film themselves duplicating the duo’s motions. They then spliced frames from the fans’ contributions into the original video. The result is hypnotic and utterly engaging.

Two: if that’s not enough for you, how about the Japanese band Sour? For their song Hibi no neiro, they choreographed a video with their fans in which…well, it’s best that you just see the whole thing. And I’m not kidding about the choreography part.

Sometimes, in response to efforts like this, people dismissively sneer, “Those guys have too much time on their hands.” I humbly submit that, if the results are as innovative and fun as these videos, the contributors need more time on their hands.

It’s GET LAMP, Jason Scott’s awesome documentary about text adventures. Liza is modeling the coin that comes as a feelie with every copy of the movie, and let me tell you, that is one high-quality coin. I know the trouble Jason went through to get them minted, [...]]]> Look what I got, two days after my birthday!

It’s GET LAMP, Jason Scott’s awesome documentary about text adventures. Liza is modeling the coin that comes as a feelie with every copy of the movie, and let me tell you, that is one high-quality coin. I know the trouble Jason went through to get them minted, and they were absolutely worth it. As I’ve mentioned before, the documentary is worth seeing if you love passionate people explaining why they love what they do.

We’d gone out shopping on Sunday because it was tax-free weekend and I needed pants. How could I resist the lure of tax-free pants? On the way back from pants, we stopped by Michael’s so Misty could buy some yarn to knit Liza [...]]]> It happened when none of us were looking, and it was my fault.

We’d gone out shopping on Sunday because it was tax-free weekend and I needed pants. How could I resist the lure of tax-free pants? On the way back from pants, we stopped by Michael’s so Misty could buy some yarn to knit Liza an amigurumi animal that will certainly look nothing like Hello Kitty, a product of the fine Sanrio corporation.

Come to think of it, maybe it was Hello Kitty’s fault.

I stopped outside the store, entranced by wooden dinosaur kits. Misty came back outside to find me, trailed by Eli and Liza. The next thing we knew, Liza was wailing loudly.

Misty picked her up from where she fell, and I took Liza from Misty. “Oh, you’ve cut your lip,” I said, looking at the fine line of red just above the right side of her lip.

“There’s a lot of blood,” Misty said.

“I hope her teeth are okay.” I gently lifted her upper lip and quickly realized that, one, there was indeed a lot of blood, and two, that was because the corner of one of Liza’s teeth had gone all the way through her upper lip. The cut I was seeing on the outside was where her tooth had poked through.

The pediatrician confirmed that we should go to the ER and get some stitches. Every time I said the word “stitches” or “hospital” on the phone, Liza went into hysterics. Not even her beloved Ellie the elephant could calm her.

Huntsville Hospital has a pediatric ER, which means that there are old Playstations in the lobby and Disney Channel on the TVs. Two efficient triage nurses had us in a room in five minutes. A short time later they taped a cotton ball to her upper lip with a numbing agent on it. I was excited. “This is going fast,” I said.

Two hours later, I took Eli so he could get something to eat and I could return with food for me and Misty. That meant, of course, that I missed Liza getting her stitches. Misty and a nurse held her down while the doctor sewed and Liza screamed. I imagine it was a lot of fun.

She calmed down immediately after, since they gave her a small teddy bear and a popsicle. When I got back to the hospital with a cold, greasy bag of Moe’s burritos, Liza saw me, ran to the car, and promptly fell on her face again.

You know, I think I’m going to blame this on her feet.

For entertainment, I’ve been telling Eli and Liza stories of me versus various objects. There’s the story of me versus the manual typewriter, in which one-year-old me fell and split my head open on my dad’s typewriter in his office. There’s me versus the air conditioner, in which I scratched my stomach on a corner of the air conditioner. There’s also me versus the curb and me versus the street. Now Liza has a story of her versus the sidewalk. At least she waited more than two years longer than I did before having her first ER-worthy accident.

P.S. Her stitches had tiny ends on them that stuck out of her lip, which led to us calling her Liza Cat. She played with them all yesterday. This morning one of them popped loose, so Misty trimmed the long end. Evidently even that wasn’t enough for Liza, as she showed up for lunch saying, “My stitches were bothering me so I took them out.” Indeed, she now has no stitches.