One Down

Well, I have two essays to write for the NYC teaching application, one of which is finished (mostly). This means, for those of you playing at home, that I still have one more to go. There's definitely something surreal about being 39 years old and writing essays on job applications again. That being said, here is what I've been doing instead of actually writing essay #2:



Don't you judge me.

And Just in Time for Spring

Actually, the way this spring is going, they may actually come in handy. My mother's birthday was waaaaay back in January, and as I couldn't figure out what a good present would be, I asked her if she would like me to knit her something. She had seen the Endpaper Mitts I finished during Miss Serious' illness, and decided she would like a pair:


Now if I could just remember to bring them to her, she could enjoy them as well!

And Now For Something Completely Different

I for some reason decided this week (hmm...can you say procrastinating? As in, not wanting to write job application essays? No, no, that can't be it...) that because I uncluttered and got rid of about 700 bags of junk, I needed a new hobby to help fill up those all-too-temporarily empty spaces:

The internet is an insidious and evil thing; there are way too many interesting sites of people's videos and galleries of things they've made, all designed to make us start buying art supplies we don't really need to make cards we also don't really need.

Especially since I seem to be unable to not only send out a birthday card on time, but the e-version rarely gets sent on time either. Obviously, any reasonable person would decide that the cure for this deficiency is to actually make the cards that won't get sent out on time. Obviously.

Still Alive

No, I am neither dead nor trapped under something heavy - I've just filled my brain with too many items, and something will invariably lose out; in this case, it's the blog. The kids have just finished their spring vacation, so a few brain cells have become available.

Even though I've been silent (at least here...) we've been busy. During the break, the kids and I hopped to and fro, desperately trying to pretend that it is actually spring, even though the weather keeps trying to talk us out of that crazy delusion. We went to the LI Children's Museum with cousins, and had a really wonderful time (no good pictures for the blog, I'm afraid); we went to the orchid show at the New York Botanical Gardens, which could not have been more stunning:

the kids hunted for Easter eggs:

and just generally enjoyed themselves. I've been subbing a lot, which is great, and have been working on my resume, which is less than great. I don't think anyone enjoys the job-hunting process (maybe there are some sadistic souls out there who do, but I am certainly not one of them), but it's one of those necessary evils, I suppose. I've applied for a couple of things already, and it's still a bit early for postings. We'll see.

Now that everyone is back in their routine, I hope to get back into mine, such as it is. Now if spring would just try a little harder....

Fun in the Sun

There's been a lot of nonsense and distractions going on here at Chez Necessity, thus causing my brain to shrink down to about the size of a sunflower seed and not allow me to get much done. I have decided that, as so much of this situation is out of my control, I will focus on the positive.

Thus, our vacation to Florida! Last week we took a trek down to Florida to visit my grandparents. They moved down there full-time several years ago, and though we promised to visit, we hadn't yet done so. We decided that enough was enough, so we booked our tickets and started packing.

We had a wonderful time, and the weather couldn't have been better. We saw the Red Sox having batting practice (spring training) and the kids got three runaway baseballs, one of which they got signed. The Professor stayed for the game, but the rest of us hightailed it for the pool. We went to the beach, played some mini-golf, visited some relatives we haven't seen in ages, and had a really wonderful time.

Our plane made it safely in both directions, and even arrived early. I'm not a great flyer; I am ok once I'm up in the air and can knit and watch my little t.v. and basically try to pretend I'm in my living room, but there is absolutely no way to keep up this little pretense when the plane is either climbing up or down 30,000 feet. Luckily, I discovered how to finally drop those eggnog pounds - the fear of flying diet. Worked like a charm, and I got to enjoy Florida to boot!

St. Patrick's Day Lesson Learned

Just a quick shout out of advice to those of you with a child who is prone to vomiting - when preparing a fun St. Paddy's day breakfast, it's probably best NOT to color the milk and butter on the toast of said child a delightful shade of green.
Ask me how I know....

Happy St. Patrick's Day anyway!

Put off by offsets?

The Professor here, guest blogging for Mother Necessity (MN). We're getting ready to take a trip, so MN is frantically in pack and prepare mode.

As her loyal readers know, MN has a lot on her mind. There's knitting, of course, family events, the ongoing saga of work and where one can find it, and our efforts to live frugally and sustainably as bottom-feeders among the upper crust.

About our trip... We're traveling by jet. Big Trouble and Miss Serious have never flown before and they are uber-excited. We're all looking forward to the trip, but I confess that I'm conflicted about the flight. A lot of our life choices around these parts have green roots. And here we are getting on a plane that will burn massive amounts of what's basically kerosene in the upper atmosphere. Feeling a little hypocritical? To quote Sarah Palin, "You betcha."

This leads to the interesting/confusing topic of carbon offsets. The idea is that you pay some amount which leads to a reduction of CO2 emissions somewhere in the world, canceling out emissions for which you feel responsible.

The first bit is great. You do something that creates renewable energy, increases energy efficiency, captures CO2 or methane, etc. Beautiful. Simple. Do something good. Where I struggle is the second part where it "offsets" your bad behavior. In it's most dubious form, it's a greenwashing get-out-of-jail-free card.

This sounds like the indulgences of Martin Luther's day. You paid the church so that the sins of those near and dear to you who didn't quite make it to the pearly gates could be paid off. "When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs." Do whatever you want, so long as you have the moolah to pay the fine.

We finally did buy a carbon offset for our trip. Click on the Native Energy logo below to go to their website and learn about what they do. Native Energy makes an honest effort to assure you're not just taking credit for an already existing project. You are actually adding something new and good to the world.

So are we fooling ourselves and simply buying a modern "indulgence?" I don't think so. First of all, I doubt the coins in the coffers of the church back in the 1500s were actually accomplishing the good they promised. This investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency will have some real payoff. Secondly, we should probably just ignore the offset part. We're not doing this to make our trip OK. We're looking at it as an investment in renewable energy.

If we still feel a bit guilty, maybe that's a good thing.