Joining Kat and friends. Go see what the others are up to.

Knitting.

The baby blanket is finished! It needs to be blocked and perhaps washed and dried in the machine, but the knitting and weaving in ends is done. Now to wait for the potential, possible baby…

I went to dig up the Big Red Blob and found this: a Baby Surprise Jacket, nearly done! I remembered that I stopped working the i-cord binding when I got to the shoulders because I needed to sew those two shoulder seams, and I was not in the mode. But now I am in a finishing mood, so I hopped on it. (I had to overly tweak the saturation in the photo to get the color of the sweater right; ignore the yellowed washer and glowing red yarn bra.)

I suppose this BSJ will be for that possible/potential baby mentioned above. Why not? I was considering making one; now I am ahead of the game. Yikes, I hope I am not jinxing the whole thing…

Reading.

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Knocking Myself Up / Michelle Tea. This is the humorous memoir of the gay author who decided at age 41 that she wanted to experience pregnancy and have a child to raise. Lots of lezzy stuff, but not too much. 4★

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When Women Were Dragons / Kelly Barnhill. This is the book my book group is reading. I look forward to our discussion tonight. I loved this book.

(from last week’s Unraveled post) The author dedicated this book to Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who testified during Brett Kavanaughs’s Senate confirmation hearing. That tells you all you need to know about the author’s point of view in this book.

Women will occasionally turn into dragons, leaving behind their families, and after — if their husband was a particularly awful person — eating their spouse. The media largely ignores this dragoning, and word of mouth is labeled “inappropriate”. Even the Mass Dragoning of 1955 gets little notice after it occurs. Censorship and self-censorship are rampant concerning this subject. Talking about dragons is considered in the same league as discussing menstruation or pregnancy, inappropriate.

But censorship does not eliminate the thing it censors. Dragonings continue (just like gays in Florida). I am halfway through this book, so I do not know how it ends, but I am looking forward to finishing it tonight. 5★

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I started to listen to this book in audiobook format, but the prose — even though it is in layman’s language — was too dense to absorb. So I got the book from the library. It still requires me to read many paragraphs over (and over), it is more my speed.

I have always been fascinated by relativity and astrophysics and quantum mechanics. In eighth grade I wanted to do a science project on relativity for a science fair, but was dissuaded by my science teacher (who was also the football coach, not to belittle coaches, but he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer).

Back in the 80s or 90s I took a six-week evening class from the University of Minnesota called something like “Relativity and Quantum Mechanics for Non-Scientists”. The description was clear in saying no math or physics background were required. At one point in the quantum mechanics section a person in the audience raised their hand and asked, “Is this stuff really true?” because it was making all our heads swim. The instructor said that, not only was it true, it was in everyday use in the electronics industry. I would love to take that course again (and again). The instructor was a physics professor who embodied Einstein’s saying that any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple. 

Listening.

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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Such as fascinating book. I suspect it would be even better if I were reading it in physical form; audio weakens it a bit. Reid has become one of my favored authors.

It is tempting to equate Evelyn Hugo with Marilyn Monroe, but really, the character is an amalgam of many starlets who managed to endure over the decades — Monroe, Liz Taylor, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, etc., etc. Hollywood is not a kind place. 3★

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Watching.

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Suits. I am midway through season 8. Mike and Rachel are gone to Seattle, and there is a new partner in town — Izzy from Grey’s Anatomy. Since there are nine seasons of Suits, I will be seeking a new series, probably Seven Seconds, since I have already watched the first episode (twice).