fermented to sleep

Posted on 4 Feb 2012 at 09:38 in

Fermentation Family (kdrama 2011–12, 1–4 so far of 24 eps) is idealistic, gentle, and boring in the way that only stereotyped grandmothers—not most real ones—like, with a rather aggressive message promoting 한식 = hansik, [traditional] Korean cuisine. At 24 episodes, it’s also 150% the length of the usual kdrama of similar cast size, which lets the writer show every possible scene in sequence, without leaving the viewer to infer anything. Several aspects make this show watchable for me despite that: relatively homely food pr0n, in contrast to Gourmet or the imminent Feast of the Gods; hansik represented as something that people under age fifty understand how to prepare properly and enjoy eating, even if the conflict is really caricatured here, because I have inherited my emigrée mother’s “conservative” pre-1970s preferences (I don’t get why people like tteokbokki with gochujang or cheese, heh); Park Jin Hee (Pak Jin Hŭi), who even when phoning in her role gives her character liveliness and warmth.

(For the record, the nearest kdrama-watching grandma passed over this for Ojakgyo Brothers.)

Nutshell: Continue reading fermented to sleep …

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opposites pertain

Posted on 1 Feb 2012 at 11:35 in

We have simultaneous wordless “Mama, don’t put me down” and “Mama, don’t hold me—move your hand” on day four of Reason’s miserable cold. My neck is out, not because I’ve been holding her extra, though I have despite the physical cost; it slipped when I tried sleeping on my left side as advised for reflux, &c. Out, and damp on its surface because of sad cuddles.

This toddler cold has a clear etiology: playing on Saturday with another toddler, the niece of a friend who hosted a party we dropped in on. :( Both playing and not playing with the other little kid at the party (who had a slow faucet-nose drip) are candidates for poor parenting, and I didn’t anticipate (how could one?) that this cold would last so long; daycare colds occupy Reason for 1-2 days. It’s the first time in a year, almost exactly, that she’s been this ill—which is not soooooo ill: only a cold, miserable for its snot-generation and cough but with no earache, significant fever, or wheeze.

This isn’t really a post, you know. I’m talking to myself.

At roughly what age do kids understand the concept of nose-blowing? Reason comprehends that when the little cloth comes towards her face without warning, mama means to grab her nose and squeeze gently—comprehends by taking evasive action—but she’s not ready for the idea of exhaling on demand. She does hold still if I say “gentle wiping” upon approach and dab under her nose. Passive language acquisition is awesome; so are the cloth wipes that we’d meant to use alongside cloth diapers and that, after careful cleaning, have served instead as toys and napkins. Kleenex/similar is so much meaner to skin than cloth! Fancy handkerchiefs—if we had any—would be so much less suited to the volume of snot that even a pint-sized person produces!

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maybestyle

Posted on 29 Jan 2012 at 12:13 in

One can, or at least I can, browse online foreeeeeeeever without finding things on which to spend money. In dribbles across the past few days, I’ve been killing time on yesstyle.com, which carries garments made for sale in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In the US and Germany, most things are too big across the torso and hip; in East Asian sizing, most things are too narrow in the shoulder, but YesStyle (like Boden) obligingly shows garment measurements most of the time. (Everything everywhere is too short in the sleeve, so I’ve given up on that.) Perhaps the internet can facilitate the having of nicer things that don’t hang on me. There’s no risk that I’ll don frilly chiffon or sequins—YesStyle carries quite a lot of chiffon—but something about having weaned a little person has forced me to realize that yes, okay, I have been wearing jeans, cotton slacks, tees/turtlenecks, and the occasional buttondown shirt almost nonstop for the past 25 years—including to friends’ weddings that haven’t required formal attire. (At one friend’s February wedding on a misty hillside, I was the only woman dressed comfortably . . . in my teaching clothes.)

The last bout of horizon-stretching got me a few casual-office suitable pieces from titlenine.com, btw. And yesterday, alarmingly, I pseudo-impulse-purchased a lightweight wool suit jacket and matching slacks at Banana Republic: pseudo- because I’ve been meaning to buy a suit for years, given that the last time I got one was in 1995, and impulse because I stumbled upon BR’s sale while nearby to exchange a winter gift Reason received from a relative (warm-clime sleeveless dress becomes windy-clime cozy hoodie, in one step!). Though BR and I have our differences, suit separates are great when one’s upper and lower halves are 2.5 sizes apart.

My father recently got it into his head to send an xmas gift for the first time in over a decade. Kind of him. For me he sent a wrap-around skirt and a cropped jacket, both made of really lovely embroidered cotton. This is sad because neither piece can be made to fit me unless I reengineer them. I’m saving the jacket for Reason, who seems not to have my wide shoulders, but we’d be moving heaven and earth to adjust for me a heavy skirt whose fasteners expect a 40″ waist. That’s a lot of shaped fabric.

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2012-jan producing

Posted on 28 Jan 2012 at 09:01 in

Not being completely devoid of common sense, I have not tried this month to restart regular attention to my own work. (Such a restart was my failed goal in December.) Storing up rest instead, and eating within the restrictions imposed by first Prilosec, then Zantac. One’d think that that ought to go into the “consuming” post, but I am doing my best to produce a healthier weight, since I’ve spent the whole month (really, some months, plural) below it. Gentle reminder: no advice, please.

The simplest thing with visible results to do while resting, then, is to knit; and since I have been knitting mostly for other people, to begin a second thing for myself. I’ve completed a few repetitions of a half-sized clapotis, essentially a scarf, then, and reduced to use exactly the single skein of Schaefer yarn I purchased circa 1996 and never knew what to do with. Two birds. It’s surprisingly difficult to find something plausible to make from 400 yds = 366 m = 227 g of variegated aran-weight cotton in a long-discontinued color, a skein for which one paid a fair bit of money.

What happened to the cardigan pieces I knit in November, one may wonder—the first thing for me. I’ve used some open/close stitch markers to piece together one edge that needs seaming, but the seaming and the remaining edges await more focus and, if possible, space on which to lay the pieces out properly. I can stand and knit while watching Reason play because there’s a chunk of kitchen counter for lodging a sock-sized project, and I can knit a little at my desk (numbered days, given her ability to pull things easily off the desktop), but it’s hard to seam stuff at night and it’s hard to pin edges together while Reason’s awake. Haven’t figured out a solution yet. Once the weather warms up, putting away the space heater will free a bit more counter space.

Meanwhile, in lieu of an actual sock project, Reason’s toddler hat proceeds slowly as well.

I have come to realize that, at least for now, having something to knit or crochet (less so to embroider) is more useful than finishing any given project. Some projects come with deadlines, granted, but fibercraft constitutes an acceptable tinker-with-hands release of stress, and my joints don’t complain much yet unless I spend more than ~90 minutes total in a given day. As long as I don’t let unfinished projects pile up, it’s beneficial to have slow-going ones.

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