So here I am on a Sunday night catching up on my blogging.  It's about 1230 and I have open lessons tomorrow so I need to get to bed soon, but I had some pics I wanted to post.  Plus I slept in a lot today, since I didn't go to SnB and I was sick.

What goes first... here.  Yesterday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, so the Seoul SnBers had a bit of a celebration.  I didn't take my camera, but I will share some of the amazing-ness when it is posted somewhere else.   We all met up at Seoul Arts Center, and we knit, and took pics, and traded yarn and did a fun quiz and Nikki gave away hand-dyed yarn.  She and Carson showed off their spinning, and I'll be damned if it didn't look cool and I wanna try.  But I have enough projects on my mind right now without adding more.  Might start spinning later when I design this shawl and need some appropriately colored laceweight.  (Yeah, I wanna design a lace shawl. So what? :P)

The trading was awesome - I got rid of a bunch of yarn I had leftover from projects/stashed and didn't want.  And I got some new stuff!

Yes, that is rainbow neon sock yarn.  It's amazing looking. I have no idea what I want to do with it, but I had to get it.  It was the only yarn I did get yesterday, even though I came up with some ideas for formerly un-decided stash.  Here's a closeup

We're also knitting a blanket, and raffling it to give the money to a charity that works with victims of sexual violence here in Korea.  ('cause they don't know what it is, for the most part) it's going to be patchwork, with all of us knitting squares.  I decided to put together various things that I knew I would never use for anything else (Yes, you, Lion Brand chenille!) and make up some squares.  I have til the end of the month to finish them, but here are two I did last night.  I'm really proud of them - I think they will make great additions, besides being a tad too big.  Oh well, gives them character. 

One is blue chenille and sparkly eyelash yarn, and the other is some black acrylic held with a black/gold sparkly thing the woman at the Gangnam store gave me.  She likes to give stuff like that when you buy things, so I thought I would put it to good use.  Both of them look surprisingly good - just normal garter, but nice.  I have some more I'm thinking of, and will probably do another one tomorrow.

Did I mention I started my first sock a couple weeks ago? Yeah I know I am slow - I've been working on it in bits and pieces, cause both my shirt and my shawl are nearing their ends.  I found a crochet edging for the shawl and I am about to cast of the sleeves for my shirt.  I need to get some beads... have to get up and go to ddm some saturday.  Anyway, here is the sock!

granted, it doesnt look like a sock the way I am holding it here, but it looks awesome on my foot.  I should be starting the toe tomorrow. 

And then when I got home, there was this waiting for me. 

yes, that's a bra strap.  Yes, it has been chewed in half.  You have no idea how pissed I was.  The other day I came home to see my sock pattern, which had been left on my bed, looking like this:

Just in case you can't see from the picture, the paper was in a plastic sheet protector.  And he shredded that to get to the paper inside.  He's been doing this a lot lately, and so I went and got him some new toys and chewy things to help out with that.  No dice, apparently.  Now he's sleeping all cute on my bed, but last night, he stayed in the bathroom for a good few hours before i decided to let him out.  UGH!!!!  I'm really not sure what to do.  It's not like he doesn't have things to chew on, or toys.  I know he gets bored, but there's not much I can do about that - I leave the door open for him to play on the balcony during the day.  I could leave him in the bathroom, but that would be mean.  Still, I'm not sure what else would work.  I probably shouldn't leave stuff out, but hell if I know what he's going to try chewing on next. 

Okay, and now it's 1 am and I need to get to bed.  I still have planning to do for Thailand/Ashley's wedding/home trip tomorrow, and parents to impress as well.  Oh, and I need a shower before work.  At least I don't have to worry about my car payment anymore.

 Yeah, take that, Donald. :P  (Donald is my Scottish co-worker who ridicules me for the use of the word 'awesomer.')

Well, perhaps it is for me.  I've seen some news articles recently that make it seem as though life will be sucking more for women in Afghanistan.  Here, look at this:

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Karzai: Afghanistan to review criticized sharia law

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/04/afghanistan.womens.rights/index.html?iref=topnews

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Amid mounting pressure from the West, Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his government will review a recently approved version of a law that critics say legalizes marital rape and the U.S. president has called "abhorrent."

"We understand the concerns of our allies in the international community," Karzai told reporters Saturday.

The minister of justice would study the draft, he said.

"If there is anything that is of concern to us then we will definitely take action in consultation with our [religious clerics] and send it back to the parliament," Karzai said. "This is something that we are also serious about and we should not allow."

Karzai's news conference was in response to a series of news reports by Western media since the president signed the law last month.

He specifically mentioned a March 31 story by London-based The Independent, which called the law "a massive blow for women's rights" and cited critics who said Karzai "rushed" the bill through parliament in hopes of appeasing Islamic fundamentalists ahead of August elections.

Human rights groups and news reports consistently refer to a report from the U.N. Development Fund for Women which reportedly stated that the legislation -- a piece of sharia law, or Islamic law -- that affects the Shiite community in the predominantly Sunni nation "legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband" by allowing men to force sexual intercourse on their spouses.

Shiites make up roughly 10 percent of Afghanistan's population.

Western leaders attending a NATO conference Saturday also signaled their disapproval of the legislation.

"I think this law is abhorrent," U.S. President Obama said in Strasbourg, France. "We think that it is very important for us to be sensitive to local culture, but we also think that there are certain basic principles that all nations should uphold, and respect for women and respect for their freedom and integrity is an important principle."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed, with the latter saying, "We very much hope that the draft piece of legislation is to be withdrawn."

The law was drafted by Afghanistan's conservative lawmakers after spending more than a year off and on the parliament's daily agenda. Shia Muslims have been practicing their form of Islam for centuries in Afghanistan, but this law allows them to preserve their identity among the majority Sunni population, one parliamentarian said.

Among its provisions are that women must ask a male relative to leave the house.

"What my fear is, women and children of Afghanistan are always the victims of political games," Afghan lawmaker Fawzia Koofi told CNN in a recent interview. "I mean, they don't have a gun to fight, they cannot create a mess."

Koofi, and other critics of the law, hope that the supreme court will rule that the legislation is at odds with the Afghan constitution, which promises equal rights to all citizens -- male or female.

Still, despite the international outcry against the bill, many in Afghanistan remain unaware of it. Support can be found among those who do, especially the Shiite population.

"Shia people are in Afghanistan," Shia resident Mohammad Zahir said. "They are a part of Afghanistan and there needs to be a law that they go by and follow."

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So, thoughts on this article.  For one, the first thing that bothers me about it - nowhere does Karzai say that they are reconsidering this law because it's detrimental to women, etc.  No, he specifically says that it's because the international community has problems with it.    Which, yay for the international community's opinion making a difference, but really?  Come on, should the rest of the world have to tell the president of a country when he's legalizing rape?   I feel like he either needs to be paying more attention to the bills he's signing, or think more carefully about them.

And the other thing that I'm not too sure about here- what does the Sunni/Shia divide have to do with anything?   There's comments about how this law lets Shias preserve their identity - so that comes down to,"They're the ones who can rape their wives," or "They're the ones that have to be told not to rape their wives because it's bad."  Either view doesn't make them look good.  Personally, I think having a law like this would be kind of embarrassing - it's like, oh yeah, even though the Prophet says we should respect and honor women, we still have to put it into a law that you aren't supposed to rape your wife.  -sigh, shakes head-  Muhammad, where are you and why aren't you laying the smackdown on these people?

And then there was this other article about racism, but I don't feel like writing about it right now.  I have etsy orders to fill!! Yay!!  and some stuff to make as well. and then i think I am going to have breakfast for dinner. or yogurt-rice, not sure which. 

Breakfast for dinner is also apparently completely American, and I have been mocked for that too. 

But hey, I've pretty much recognized that I failed NaBloPoMo and also, I accidentally took the wrong train and ended up on the other side of the purple line.  So that's my excuse.

-sudden snort- Oh man.  I just watched Gizmo try to rush in the door from the balcony and hit her head on an open drawer.  Orange though she may be, not the brightest crayon in the box... -sigh- At least she's entertaining.  Kinda vaguely reminds me of a comment Julie once made about not adopting kids - "At least if they're yours you know you won't end up with a dumb one."  The same seems to apply to kittens, I've noticed.  All the ones that I had that I knew their mothers were very intelligent.  But the ones that I get out of nowhere (which are usually orange, in another strange coincidence) are usuallly... entertaining. Not in that, 'oh, aren't you so smart you do cute things!' way but more in the 'you've got the same IQ as my pillow, isn't that hilarious?' vein.  As my mom said, at least she's sweet. 

So also among tonight's adventures - Thanksgiving dinner (it was meh), accostment by a Christian proselytizer on the train (Robin and I got off, after several not-so-subtle hints that we weren't interested), and taking the wrong train (ended up talking to a guy who was apparently an interior designer).  oddly enough, I was stopped by a girl last night too, who wanted to tell me about God the Mother.  Which made me think about the point of religion in general, but that's a longer discussion.  Now I'm home and going to finish progress reports, since I slept most of the day anyway.  This weekend is going to be quiet - Tim and I talked about going to Dongdaemun and hitting on that guy again (which reminds me I need to backpost) but I think I want to stay home till I go up to Hyehwa for SnB on Sunday.

But before I go - A Thanksgiving-themed article. Sort of.

SPACE.com -- Space Age Technology Makes Tastier Thanksgiving Ham

No urine jokes, please.   The article isn't really amazing, talking about the water content of ham and how people are obesessed with it in Spain.  No, what more interested me was the idea that there are people who spend their lives inspecting ham.  I mean, I guess whatever puts food on the table, but still.  You gotta wonder what their kids say on Career Day. "This is my dad.  He inspects hams for water content."  Still, this is important to Spain, probably almost as important as the ape rights that GinBaby posted on a while ago.

And though this is an entirely random thought for me to have fixated on, it was really what made me click the link, and the reason I couldn't focus on the content (which wasn't really interesting anyway) - who the hell eats HAM for THANKSGIVING?  That is, in my normal/entirely-unoffensive-to-mentally-disabled use of the word, retarded.  Everyone knows that turkey is for Thanksgiving.  No one draws a pig with their handprint for Thanksgiving in kindergarten.  (At least, not that I know of.) Ham is for Christmas, and then you use the leftovers for black-eyed peas and rice for New Year's.  Now, you can have both, and turkey is acceptable for Christmas if you want to have ham only on New Year's (although I wouldn't recommend this option cause it's a lot of leftovers), but there should be no substitution of ham for turkey on Thanksgiving. That's just wrong.

I'm not sure why I feel so strongly on this matter.  I just do. 

Now that's done with, I'm going back to writing progress reports, attempting to like The Glass Passenger, and trying to teach Gizmo not to lick the inside of my nose. Srsly.  She doesn't seem to get it, unless I actually snap at her when she does it.  -sigh- the joys of kittens.

Well, today wasnt as bad as I thought it might be, considering my sleeping pattern last night.  I got up and was at work on time and everything.  Lunch was good - I always love kimchi nabe.  But the weather - omigosh it was so cold today. Douglas said the weather forecast said possible snow, and it certainly felt like it could, but the only thing blowing in the wind was all the leaves.  I'm going to have to break out my wool coat soon if this keeps up.  Still, I had my little fleece cropped vest that I got in COEX the other night. It's super cute. See?  Even the really hot Korean salesguy said so...

I wanted to get the cream-colored one that matched my bear mittens, but when I went back to the store with cash it was gone, so brown it was.  And I wear enough stuff that matches brown that it doesn't matter.  I think though that I definitely want to go to uniqlo and get myself another fleece from there, cause the one I had last year was a lifesaver, and much easier to wear than my big coat.

After work I went to Seoul Station to meet Han's aunt and uncle who are visiting here for a few days. We had dinner at Bennigan's, where I had the strangest sandwich.  It was called a monte cristo - normal ham/turkey/cheese sandwich.  but for some reason the chef decided that this particular sandwich of the ones on the menu wouldn't cause enough of an arterial blockage. SO - they battered and fried it and sprinkled it with powdered sugar. Yeah, like a donut. Or a funnel cake.  I swear, it was so strange, like eating your main course and dessert at the same time.  it didnt really add to the flavor or the sandwich.  And as I was walking out of the restaurant I saw the sign where they advertise that they specialize in healthy fusion food.  Well, it was definitely fusion.  I wish I had had my camera...

They asked if I wanted dessert or anything, and I pointed out that not only was I full, but I felt like I had already eaten dessert.  So we walked around the department store there for a few minutes and then got some coffee at Dunkin Donuts.  I don't like coffee, but they had something that looked intriguing - chrysanthemum tea.  Thus, today's Korean word(s) of the day.

Kukhwa = chrysanthemum
Cha = tea

Technically, I already knew 'tea', cause of my kids.  Sometimes I bring my mug of whatever I happen to have that day, and since the kids know by now that I don't like coffee, they try to guess what I have, cocoa or tea.   Incidentally, the word in for 'coffee' is 'coppi', so the kids think it's really funny when I have to go make copies of a book or paper. 

On the way there I finished my scarf, and also discovered that I can walk and knit at the same time - I was binding off as I was transferring lines, and so I just kept going as I was walking.  I'm not sure if I could do more complicated stitches at the same time.  I even managed to walk up the stairs and everything.  So now it just needs to be blocked, and then it will be finished.  It's supposed to have crocheting on the ends, but I don't know how to crochet, so we'll just leave it as is.  I've also got that stuff that I promised to ball for Kate, and plenty of lessons to plan this week.  Plus, I have a pokemon date with neechan, andI think i want to trade her some of my current ones before i start an entirely new game and get the other starters.  btw, nick - i can play/trade with you too (and I'm sure jessica would love to as well), if you're not too busy with zelda. another thing i need to play. let's not talk about that though. I think I won't worry about starting my next gauntlet/Tim's scarf till the thursday meeting in Gangnam.

Now I've had my shower and I'm tired... I really wanna go to bed.  I guess typing my thursday adventure will have to wait again, as will the superblogpostofdoom. and I have other things- some more progress reports to finish, a bank transfer to do (tomorrow)... blocking the scarf.  ah screw it, those will wait. I'm going to bed.

so weird. not that I have been near a computer.  class, lunch, song practice, more class, planning, nap for an hour, dinner, concert with the kids.  Then Lily-teacher and So Jin and I went to McDonald's for ice cream and talked for a bit.  We manage quite well, all things considered.  And we're going to have lunch and ice cream waffles next week!  It should be so much fun. 

The concert wasn't horrible.  Once the kids were settled down, they were fine.  They were so cute on stage, but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera.  Afterwards, Douglas hightailed it, but I stuck around and watched the rest.  It was fun, despite me not understanding a lot of it.  They sang "You Raise Me Up", and there were some mediocre songs/dances and a play about the meaning of thanks.  Amy came and sat on my lap, and Jennifer, Nancy, and Hyou-na came and sat next to me.  Amy gave me a kiss too, though it was kinda sloppy, cause she is fairly young, but it was still cute. 

So now I'm home, and even though I have all these email I'm putting off, I want to take a shower and read a book or finish the last few inches of my scarf (three more to go then the border, yah!!!)  I need to call my okaasan too.  Also, Ice skating tomorrow! Yay!

Did I mention I ate one of my pomegranates today? It was so yummy!! I haven't had any since I was in Tokyo.  Btw, I did actually post yesterday, or rather, I wrote a post while I was out but haven't typed it yet. I'll get to that tomorrow.  Also this weekend - cast lists for plays, 6y/o progress reports, and fixing the 3LP play.  Fun fun.