My trip to City Hall

Yesterday afternoon I chanced to read an email from Green City Blue Lake, a local non-profit promoting sustainability in Cleveland and beyond, and I found out that there was a meeting today of the Cleveland City Planning Commission to allow public input on a proposed ordinance to allow (and regulate) the keeping of small livestock within the city limits: chickens, ducks, rabbits, bees, etc. Because this issue relates so closely to our food supply, I knew I had to attend, and I am so glad that I did.

I haven't been downtown too much since I moved to the Cleveland suburbs about 5 1/2 years ago, so just getting dropped off at City Hall by The Professor was enough of a new experience. The security at City Hall is not at all intimidating: a guy looked in my bag. Feh, no big deal. My only other municipal building experience in Cleveland was at the Police Headquarters where I went to fight a parking ticket (broken meter), and they had sent me through a metal detector and my bag through an X-ray, then confiscated my knitting needles. This time I took a crochet hook, and I got a fair bit done on a little project bag during the course of the meeting.


The City Hall building was beautiful and stately, with a huge atrium and broad stairways, and I wished I'd had my camera with me to take a picture of the beautiful marble water fountain I passed. When I sat down at the meeting, I noticed that I was feeling quite jittery. I think municipal buildings make me nervous, or maybe it's being anywhere near the workings of government, I am not sure. I was glad that I had some yarn to keep me calm.

I was surprised at how many people stated their names and then copped to owning illegal chickens and bees. I suppose that as of today their flocks are probably legal (depending on the size of the flock, because the ordinance did have some restrictions), but still, yipes. Actually, I think that was what had me so jittery, now that I think about it. Even though they said many times during the meeting that these ordinances are enforced on a nuisance basis (like, they aren't driving around looking for illegal henhouses and busting the owners, carting them away in the paddywagon; if you keep chickens and you don't keep their area clean and your neighbors complain, someone comes out and... I don't know, but you get in trouble), it still freaked me out.

At the very end of the meeting, I finally screwed up my courage, with the help of the guy sitting behind me to whom I confessed my fear of speaking at the meeting and who vetted my whispered version of my input and told me "Yeah, they need to hear that." My input was simple: I just thanked them for considering more liberal legislation for livestock ownership in the City because they would be setting an example for the region and leading the way for other areas, our suburb for instance, to follow suit. Now I just need to find out who, if anyone, is leading the charge to get a similar revision to the ordinance in front of our City Planning Commission.

[We'll] dance to anything

Anyone else remember the Dead Milkmen's Instant Club Hit? There's a little homemade video on YouTube with some bizarre and non-sensical-to-anyone-who-doesn't-know-the-maker visuals, but it does have the song, if you want to enjoy a little walk down Memory Lane with me (I'm looking at you, Chris and Dave). There are two YouTube videos, so if you want to hear the whole song, pick the one by lamers1111.

Moving right along, the reason for the title: It was quite an eclectic little dance weekend for us here. Friday night The Professor and I kicked things off by going to Viva Dance Studio for the monthly swing dance. I am embarrassed to say that Friday was my first visit to Viva, but it definitely won't be the last. Of course the marvelous Loreto and his wonderful DJ skills made for a delightful time, but my highlight was dancing with Eddie (sigh), and hey, neat, just realized he used to live in Philly. Anyhow, we had a lovely time, and I will definitely get my butt out there again next month. I even got some work done on a new crochet project in between dances.

Saturday evening we walked to a nearby church about a mile from our house for some contra dancing. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. It was a small crowd because of a competing special event in Oberlin, but we were actually glad to dip our toes in the water of a smaller pool. It was fun, but we left on the band break because we were tired from having spent the day working in the front yard, disposing of some shrubbery.

Before:



After:


Before anyone gets all but-they-were-so-pretty on me, that's about 100 sq ft of prime real estate freed up in our south-facing front yard for growing things we can eat. Plus, at a recent lecture about landscaping we attended, there was a woman complaining about some bushes or a hedge or something in her front yard that she had disliked since she moved into her home 20 years ago but had never bothered to take down. I already endured those bushes for almost 5 years, and I did not want to be her in another 15. They were even worse when I first moved in, before I bonsai-ed them. Here, have a look:


I did rip out the ivy on Week One at the advice of the home inspector. Nothing growing on the house, a pretty sensible rule. But still, I let the pine loaf remain until I had a better plan. Now The Professor is planning a series of little keyhole garden areas, and he's even started to build a path. I'll get some good photos of that soon and share them.

But back to the dancing! Last night was the cherry on top, we got to see Anti-Flag at the Agora. It wasn't so much a dance event, but the music was great as it always is when these guys take the stage. High energy, the crowd going wild; it is always such a joy to hear them rock out. And even though I haven't been to a show since the last time they came through town and played at the House of Blues, the familiar movements of hands thrust deep in pockets, elbows locked, swaying back and forth from left foot to right, the bobbing of the head in time to the music, all came back to me with ease. Alas, The Professor was not feeling it, and he did not join in even when #2 said "Everybody jump!" or "Raise your hands in the air!" He even remained motionless for the grand finale of Drink Drank Punk. I don't know how anyone could stand still during that song; I was almost ricocheting off our little back corner (I'm old enough to know I don't belong in the mosh pit anymore). And now that I've had time to listen to their new album, I'm definitely digging many of the songs, and it was great to hear them live. I think "Good and Ready" is my favorite, with the title track following close behind. But the whole album is great. If you haven't gotten a copy yet, what are you waiting for?

We (I) did have a brief moment of concern when we found out Justin hadn't put us on the list of people who could come backstage to say hi after the show, and I was worried I wouldn't get to give him the present I'd made him, but luckily that back corner we'd staked out was right near where Justin came to greet some other people after the show, and we caught his eye and got whisked down to the basement for a little visit. It was great to see him, though, and he liked the present. This post is getting too long already, so I'll post photos and a little write-up about that project later this week.

Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend, too. I'm off this morning to visit my cousin and her new baby. I might even ride my bike, because it looks lovely out and No Impact Man depressed the hell out of me again this morning. I'm going to try to hang on to the weekend's happy dance memories a little longer, though, and I think I'll go play that Dead Milkmen song again just for kicks. "You'll dance to anything by Depeche Commode..."

Pants Progress Post Plus

Before we begin our regularly scheduled program, I have a few highlights from the week. I skipped Ladies Who Launch Monday night to work on a crochet project. It's a gift, so photos and details will happen after it's gifted this weekend. I was sad to miss seeing Kim and Jennifer, but I hope to see them soon.

Tuesday was E4S, which was fantastic as always. I especially enjoyed hanging out with Victoria at the registration table and chatting with Bill about solar power. Talking to the guys from Fresh Fork was also fun (as was the small world moment earlier in the week of realizing I know someone else involved in their project).

On Wednesday, the Project From Hell was completed at the J-O-B. Happy dancing ensued. I am so glad to have that off my plate as I'd been working on it since September. I also started a new fun thing helping someone I know get his online business off the ground. We just had an initial phone chat, but I got to do what I love: cheerleading, problem-solving, and planning what to do next. Oh, and encouraging him to contact the brilliant Rachel to do his site (not sure yet whether they'll work together, but I have my fingers crossed).

Yesterday I made bread for my man. It's delish, probably the best yet. I wasn't using warm enough water before, and my yeast wasn't rising enough, so this loaf was lighter than previous ones. It's nice to get better at bread-making. I also got a massage and watched a cute movie; review to come over the weekend, but for now I can say: James McAvoy, swoon.

And now for our regularly scheduled program.

Today I finally got back into the sewing room. The Professor helped me move all the stuff up to the attic that was deleted from the room when I did the organizational fine-tuning in there a few weeks back, so no pile o' crap to trip over on the way into the room. The mending that had accumulated on the sewing table was tossed aside, the stack of muslin squares next to the machine got their edges overcast (using that spiffy new foot, which I love) so they can be safely laundered in preparation for The Great Dyeing Experiment yet to come. All is well.

I got sifted through the pattern, because I had the original pattern, the edited-in-'06 pattern (yes, I've been on this quest for a while), and the newly re-edited pattern all out. I put away the outdated versions and made myself a list of all the corrections to confirm and/or finish making to the current version. After getting the first few crossed off the list, I hit a snag. I'm going to put more detail into this post than the average reader may find interesting, and then I'm going to send a big SOS to all the sewing peeps that I know asking for help and guidance. Sewing peeps, if you are reading this, please help! Thank you in advance.

In the final meeting I had with Cynthia, she recommended on paper something that wasn't pinned into the fabric mock-up, an additional little 5/8" tuck under the butt at the outer leg seam. Kind of lack plastic surgery but using fabric-- adding shape to the garment to give shape when I wear it. The idea made perfect sense at the time, and I had this great light bulb moment of Getting It when she made that change. The instructions she gave me were to then add that length that the little wedge took out to the cutting line at the bottom of the leg. I thought I understood how to do that, and I'm realizing now, um, no.

Here's the pattern piece I'm using (blue arrows indicate the snag spot):


And here's a close-up of the area. See the slightly darker triangle where the paper is folded over itself and how the fold goes from the outer edge to that line in the middle of the pattern piece?


So I thought, okay, follow those same guidelines for figuring out where to put the extra wedge at the bottom of the leg:


But wait a minute, this result doesn't look right (green arrows indicate new cutting line):


Gah! What do I do now? Even if I taper the line all the way from the 5/8" addition to length at the outer leg seam to the unchanged bottom point of the inner leg seam, the hem is going to be a diagonal, and that can't be right. Do I just add 5/8" all the way along the bottom? I am, for the moment, stumped.

Well, now I'm going to start calling people I know (Anne, your phone will be ringing soon) and probably even emailing Cynthia, although I don't expect to hear back from her right away-- she's a busy gal! I don't understand why I get so hung up on these little things. I wish I didn't, but my sewing confidence is low. While I'm waiting to hear back on the SOS, I might try to do something easy to just get my confidence up. I've been wanting to make some flax seed eye pillows, that's about as easy as it gets, so maybe I'll go find some nice fabric scraps and try that.

Meanwhile, how can I expect to get any work done with this cuteness distracting me?