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So I was totally going to write about Becka's birthday party this weekend and how awesome it was (it was awesome) and how cool her friends are. But now I have another story to tell.

After the party, I went home with my boyfriend, Daniel. He was planning to visit this week anyway (we live about three hours apart) so it made sense for him to take me home. We've been having a lovely visit, naturally, though I was very tired on Sunday from staying up all night at the party! Today we decided to go to the park--we'd planned to at some point and last night he said he wanted to go today, so we did. I gave him my stuff to hold onto while I drove, naturally, since what else is a boyfriend for?

When we got there, I put on my little backpack that I use to carry stuff when doing serious walking (as opposed to wandering around a mall or something). It was wet, and I discovered my water bottle cap wasn't on all the way and was leaking. I found this very odd, as I was sure I'd put the cap on all the way, and as I was pulling out my things so they wouldn't get too wet I said to Daniel "You didn't mess with the water bottle, did you?"

He said, "No, all I did was put that in."

The thing he indicated, and which I next picked up, was a small, black jewelry box. Inside was a ring.

I think I just sort of stared at it for a few seconds, then I kissed him. He said "That's an engagement ring." I said "I know." He said "Will you marry me?" and of course I said "Yes." Then we kissed a lot more and he put the ring on my finger. It has a square cut emerald in the middle, with a white sapphire and four tiny diamonds on each side, with a white gold ring. It looks just right on my finger.

He'd apparently had a plan to get down on one knee in a particular spot on the creek, but when we got to that spot the bank was washed out and there was a tire sitting in the middle of it, so he decided it was okay that I'd found it in such a random and silly manner. And really, I think the random and silly thing suits us.

We have lots of plans to make now, of course. We're not really sure where exactly our lives are going to take us in the next few years. He's still finishing school and thinking about the Peace Corps, I'm thinking about teaching English in Japan or just getting my teaching certificate. But right now, we're really, really happy.

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daniel,
happiness

If there is one person or more on your friends list who makes your world a better place just because they exist and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

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memes

Recently I saw someone on another site mention a book I'd heard of, and I wanted to ask her if she liked it, but then I realized that wouldn't tell me anything. I had no idea what other books she liked, and no idea if our tastes were the same at all. Then I thought of how my mom and I have some trouble recommending each other books, because while our tastes overlap (in the realm of fluffy fantasy, mostly), they are anything but identical. I also thought of book recommendation communities I've seen and how they never appeal to me--partially because I rarely feel like I have to look for new books to read (there are so many!) but partly because I don't trust the recommendations of random strangers.

So basically, that gave me an idea for a book recommendation community. In this community, members would post a list of favorite books when they join--reasonably narrow and divided into genres for easy skimming. Then users would recommend books (with a short description) and either link to their original favorites post or tags would be used so others can see what else that user recommended and what their favorites are. They could also include in the post other books that the recommended book reminds them of. That way you could easily find people whose tastes are similar to your own and through that, new books you would probably like.

What do you think? Would anyone be interested in such a community?

Today my parents and I went to the farmers' market at our CSA (it's actually in the city). Besides the market, there was also an adoption event--one of the local shelters was there with a few dogs and a cat. The cat had been starving on the streets until they found him three days ago. He was just laying in his cage (it was pretty warm). He had food and water and they said he'd been eating healthily for the last three days, but he was so incredibly skinny and he was drooling. It completely broke my heart that I couldn't take him home and fatten him up. Shelter animals always break my heart, but this guy was so pathetic and sweet. I petted him (so did an adorable little redhaired boy) and he seemed very happy for the attention.

Sigh. At least it seems like a good shelter and I can hope he gets someone good to take him. I'll just console myself by hugging my four feral-born cats and shelter-adopted dog and bunny. And maybe sending the shelter a donation when I get my next paycheck.

It's almost June, and the rest of you knitters know what that means: time to start thinking about what to knit for Christmas. Last year I planned knitted gifts but didn't get many done in time, so hopefully I can do better this year. Here's what I'm thinking so far.

Sister: Doll clothes again, this time not made out of crochet cotton. Actually her birthday is in September so I'd better get on that pretty soon. I'm planning to use the laceweight bamboo I just ordered for a shawl--I'll have a lot of yarn left over.

Mom: Lace scarf. I bought the yarn for this quite some time ago, actually. Just have to knit the scarf.

Dad: No idea. Hopefully I'll find something non-knitted to get him before it's too late to start knitting something, because it's hard to find something for my dad!

Nana: Hopefully, the Rose Lace Vest from A Gathering of Lace. My mom has informed me she is unlikely to wear a lace scarf or shawl, which would be my first choices (she's my nana, she deserves something really nice and complicated), and the last two years I haven't succeeded at making her a lace vest. The problems are a) it's a lace garment so it will take a long time and b) it takes a lot of yarn. And I'm kind of poor. Though it just occurred to me that I could check Knitpicks, and it will only cost me about $35 for enough CotLin to make the vest, so that's probably what I'm going to do. Hmm, but now I'm seeing that maybe the yarn is listed wrong and it should be laceweight, not DK... but that's even easier, I can get one of WEBS' yarns--bamboo or tencel--for it.

Aunts & uncles: I'm thinking of two options for them. I thought I could make beaded scarves with the white fingering weight bamboo I have, but I can't just make presents for my aunts! So maybe I could make regular scarves for my uncles with yarn that matches the beads in the scarves for their wives, but that could be tricky, finding matching yarn and beads. My other thought is to get some kind of scrubby yarn--maybe the Aloo that Woodland Woodworks has in their recent catalog, that's made out of nettle and is kind of awesome--and make washcloths and bath scrubbies or something like that. I feel like that's too similar to the potholders I once made as gifts, but that was a really long time ago so probably no one will care.

5-year-old cousin: I've never actually given her a personal gift before, but Knitty has so much adorable stuff for little kids. I'd like to make her a dress. And the plus for her is that we never see her family until a few weeks after Christmas/Hanukkah, so I have extra time.

Tags:

knitting

Here is an update from my Dreamwidth journal! I am going to try to get in the habit of posting semi-regularly about my life so my friends can find out what's going on with me. This should be cross-posted to my LJ and IJ as well. I won't cross-post everything, but I'll try to cross-post any "life"-type posts.

So, why don't I cover the last week? On Monday I went to my chiropractor, and drove straight from there to Daniel's house (for any new friends reading this, that would be my boyfriend, who lives about two and a half hours' drive south of me). We spent a lovely several days together, cuddling, making each other laugh, and all that good stuff (yes, some very good stuff). We only get to see each other once a month or less, so our time together is pretty focused on enjoying it!

On Friday I got up early and drove the ~45 minutes up the Beltway to my old college, where 2009's graduation was happening. It seems like most of my friends graduated on Friday rather than last year with me; certainly 4 of the 5 different people I've lived with (counting my freshman year roommate, with whom I haven't bothered to speak since sophomore year) graduated on Friday. Actually it's kind of interesting that both of my actual roommates were super-seniors. Anyway, congratulations, you guys! I wish I hadn't worried so much about getting there on time, since there were four people getting honorary degrees and they all had to make speeches. Also, I got sunburned. But the actual commencement speaker, Azar Nafisi, was wonderful, as was the student speaker.

I didn't get to say hi to as many people as I would have liked, but I saw most of the important people. Cyan's parents took us out to lunch, which was tasty, and I had a good time even with her crazy family. It was nice to get to hang out and talk to her again. As much as I love Philadelphia, I am seriously considering moving to Baltimore when I move out; it seems like the vast majority of my friends are there or in the area. Of course, who knows how long it will be before I have money to actually pay rent, let alone things like healthcare and food, so things may change by the time that actually happens.

After that lunch, I drove home, put vitamin E on my sunburned spots, and, I believe, just sat around the rest of the night. Yesterday I knitted, took my bunny out to play, and went grocery shopping with my parents. We have some cool stuff from the CSA we joined this year, so I'm thinking I'm going to cook sometime this week. I've been knitting the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl (link goes to Ravelry; don't bother clicking if you don't have an account), which is fun. I've wanted to do a mystery shawl for a long time (for those unfamiliar with such things, it's a lace pattern that is only released a piece at a time rather than all at once, so you don't know what it's going to look like until it's done), and I've also wanted to do a Goddess Knits shawl, so this is obviously the perfect opportunity, even if I did have to buy new yarn. Clue 2 came out yesterday but I'm still working on Clue 1.

By the way, I have two more Dreamwidth invitations, so if you want one, let me know!

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"I don't believe in writer's block. You're either tired--in which case, go to bed--or you're not reading enough." -Ari Berk

Comment on this post saying you want to play, and I'll give you five things I associate with you/want to know more about you. Then you post them in your journal and elaborate.

My dear friend