WC - 2nd leg FINISHED

Woah.  Seriously. Woah.  Just a lot of a lot of things happening lately.
But with my chicken scratch from last weekend and a good half hour tonight I finished the second leg of the challenge.  Well, kind of anyway.  I totally failed the photo opportunity.  The only picture I wanted was of my cat lying on my with her sweet little face snuggled on top of mine to sleep.  But as I was already in bed and movement of any kind would have ruined the moment I forwent the camera in order to enjoy the snuggliness.

Here is one of four pages.  As I have no sketches, merely scratchiness I am not posting photos of all the pages (although I will if anyone dares question me ;p)

I hope you will join us, Leonie and Beth and I, on our travels into the inner thoughts and lives that occur in our minds with our without our approval.

Mini Holiday

 Our mini holiday has been filled with exactly what mini holidays should be:

family, too much food, migraine, drugs, 12 hours of straight sleep, crafting, conscience effort to curb consumerism,
friends, new crafts, naked child, sick child, middle of the night vomiting, lots of telly, setting up for christmas, crackling logs in the fire place, soft glow of twinkle lights, lots of felt and stitching, a little fighting, a bit of remembering, a bit of crying, laundry, middle of the day snuggles, hot showers, and all day pajama wearing.

Turning some owlies into wine bottle covers :)

Also set up the house for Buy Nothing Day (on Friday).  Which means tables in the front room, stations of trash bins and re-useable scrap bins.. paper, stickers, buttons, felt, rotary cutter, etc.

Can't wait for our big craft day!

The Continuing Saga of the WC

Please visit Beth and congratulate her on taking on this challenge seriously :)

My meager update is I have sribbled two sentences about another character, perhaps given my fourth character a name, written two more chapter summaries and a long paragraph about what I want the end result to be.

No photo time yet.  Hoping Thursday and Friday will allow for some daylight hours (yes night would be nice but it's bloody cold).

Plan on writing out a bit more before I count my words (the drawback to word minimums on paper).

As always, don't forget to swing by Leonie's and see how she's doing.

What's Hot & What's Not

Thank you, as always, to the delightful mistress of WHWN Loobylu who helps bring so many of us together.  It's so fun to find new friends!

HOT

no snow: well, there was a small flurry of snow this morning [and really I mean Sunday morning, but I was prepping in advance for this post], but thankfully it melted away.  I don't like snow.  I don't particularly like cold.  I hear the arguments all the time about how it just isn't the holiday season when there isn't snow.  But I grew up spending my beloved christmas holidays in San Diego.  Christmas should be with sandy beaches and swaying palms.  And lefsa and krumkake, of course.

ncis: I adore it.  It doesn't really matter how oft I've seen the episodes.  I just can't get enough.  The recent episodes are enough to make me yell and scream and thank goodness my family is used to my crazy reactions to things such as books and the telly.  If you haven't watched NCIS you should.  You will love it.  I just want to take all the boys home and coddle them. Or something.

Brooches:  I never thought of myself as a brooch kind of girl.  In fact, the one brooch I owned (only one until recently that is) I would pin onto a necklace and wear it about.

It is superbly sparkly and comes with a matching strand necklace, bracelet and clip earrings and they belonged to my Grandma Jinny

When my Grandma Ellie recently passed away I acquired some of her jewelry and have put them to good use as necklaces as well

Brooch wearers of the world will be delighted to hear I have begun ALSO wearing them as meant.  I have a cute black jacket with simple pleat ruffles which the starburst looks delicious against.

And then there is the fun of MAKING brooches.

 

Shrinky Dinks are no end of fun.  The two center are my fun designs and the outter two are gifts from the lovely Rebecca (the wordy one is about wearing many hats and she chained a cute little hat to it so it dangles)!

And this weekend I created my first FELT brooch (along with my first attempt at flowers) - it really may have been too many first attempts, but I think I like it nonetheless and will wear it as soon as possible.

 Success in writing: I am sure if you follow this blog you are well aware of the writers' challenge (if not please peruse the links on the upper left).  I am so excited to be writing.  And cannot wait to work on the second part of the challenge!

Not

the ever bi-polar mini-person who also lives in this house (although her tantrum might be worth it just for this delicious picture)

 

Frustration to the point of tears: being blamed for things outside my realm of control (in fact, in an entirely different position's/department's realm of job duties).. but somehow when things go wrong I get the nasty emails and phone calls.  And the best is they never have any suggestions on how I should better perform MY Duties to make the people screwing up catch THEIR mistakes sooner. They would much rather just yell at me and move on while I'm left with the frustrations of feeling like I should be creating yet another system to help catch other people's mistakes before they are beyond fixing.

Grr... I think I look at the lovely brooches again.

Joining the Ranks

Our numbers are increasing!  We hope this also motivates you to participate.

The lovely Beth has taken on the do-able! And we hope when you join you take her simple route and copy and paste rules and links.  What ease.  Our whole challenge is about ease (and not looking like a plunker in front of really cool people).

Take a peek at the wonderful Leonie and Beth to see how they are doing.  For any past info follow the links in the upper left hand corner.

OH and oh my goodness!  See how well Beth is doing!

Challenge Part Deux

We did it.  We really it!  Miss Leonie and I!  Geniuses in our own right, I say.  Wouldn't you agree? 

We even exceeded the challenge goals and are excited to try some more.

Miss Leonie has formulated thoughts for this next portion!  Another 1,000 word due by next week.  These words can be in order to flesh out characters or chapters.  Leonie has also aspired to make our craft all encompassing and we shall attempt "story boards" for moods, characters, photographs, sketches, etc. 

This sounds quite fun!  As I am working on taking photos (as well as write) I'm quite taken with this idea and hope to run across some inspiring photographic moments in my everyday life. 

For further background on this challenge make sure you visit the links on the upper left hand of this page.. which also appropriately link back to the co-author of this challenge in motivation. 

Don't forget you can jump in at anytime. Make sure to leave your comment in any of the pertinent posts to let us know and we'll link to your pages as you finish up each section.

FINISHED Outline

Per our little beginning your fiction challenge here and at Miss Leonie's, I have put my thoughts to paper!

I have 4 characters (only three named) and their small summaries as to appearance and a bit of personality.  And I have 5 chapter summaries

                                                                                   

Woot, woot, woot!  I think I may just have myself a drink tonight to celebrate.

Now, Miss Leonie.. how do you feel about the results and do we continue?

For my part, I love writing.  I loved the odd things which occurred to me as the pen flew over the paper.  Things that had been forming but hadn't clicked, or didn't make so much sense until I gave it the blood life of ink. And ideas for five whole chapters?! Wow!  It seems long and yet only just a beginning.

I can't wait to flesh them out and get into the heart of it.

My Place and Yours: My Collection (s)

I have so many things I love
 and can't help picking up..

so please enjoy this overwhelming amount of photos of lovely things

First, I love old things (whether it be antique or just vintage) and as I have no money I can't buy big pieces of furniture or art.. but I do have a bit of a beverage obsession and history thing.  So I like tea cups (which I purchase individually not full sets) and mugs.

(yes you do see that lovely smurf mug recently from Australia. Two of my other favourites my new seasame st. mug also from Au. and my Edward Gorey mystery mug are currently in the dishwasher.. which was running)

This is my china cabinet which was my Grandma Jinny's (maternal).  It houses some of my tea cup collection (not all because I filled the bottom two shelves with her Lily of the Valley china and other passed down items) which also includes an odd amount of sugar and creamer sets - because depending on which tea cups/mugs I use I like to have matching sugar and creamers.

See, I told you I like my beverages (I'm not even including the wine goblets, pitchers, shot glasses, and empty tequila bottles so you should be happy)

---

In my front room I have many of the old photos I've collected (from our family).  I hope to acquire some of the Balmer/William's family (my paternal side) someday (you would be amazed how much I look like my great grandma Olga).

 

The Center piece is my great grandma Grace (Aurora Grace's namesake). 

The two smaller gold framed underneath it are real photos of her; the first being the photo from which the sketch was made.  The two black and white on the right in the silver frames are my Grandma Jinny. 

The large oval is my step grandma Lea (my namesake).

And the embroidered pieces were done by my Great Grandma (I also have two piano chairs she covered).

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And now for my lovely books. Many years ago I had much more, but I pared down when I had to move in a hurry.  So while I still consider my collection to be small I have also run out of bookshelves and hope to someday have lots of built-ins.

 

 When it comes to book the best are always expensive *sniff*

But I do like to have hardback and paperback of my favourites. So I'm still working on getting all the Harry Potter series in paperback, getting Gabaldon's in hardback, etc.  I have a few copies of Pride & Prejudice since I read it so often.

A big thank you to Meet Me At Mikes for the Meme (so visit for lots more of very interesting collections) and the lovely Lady Kate of Fox Lane

Gearing up for the weekend

I've been a busy bee lately.

Wednesday night worked an event, Thursday night book club, tonight crafting party, tomorrow night dinner with friends. 

Tonight Aurora is staying with her Papa Dennis and Grandma Deb, and I am headed to a co-worker's house.  This means lots of girl time, wine (in her and other's case), beer/margaritas (in my case), movies, music and random craft projects.  Let me tell you right now this is not always the best form of crafting. 

I could show you proof if I posted pictures of our first attempt (oh and last) with epoxy.  I can't post the disasterous finished projects, however, as I'm a bit of a bad mouth wanker and mine all spell out childish curse words which make me giggle and I have posted on my fridge.

BUT since I will just be bringing some crochet projects I shouldn't be able to mess anything up too much.  I know this because I can't follow patterns and everything I make from scarves to wristies to afghans are all just simple double-stitched rows.  Yea for me.  Sometimes having simple craft ambitions are a comfort to me and my bottle of jose.

Tomorrow! I begin work (oh I know, cringe, BEGIN) on my outline for the lovely challenge with Miss Leonie.  I have a few reasons why this is a last minute attempt. 

One, I believe I have two firm foundations for characters (okay, one character, with two plans) to meet my 3 character requirement.  

Two, I also think I have at least three of the five chapter ideas.

And three, I am and always have been a horrible procrastinator - which is why Tuesday and Wednesday I read my book for Thursday book club rather than this paper.

Do you know I wrote a philosophy paper the evening before it was due with the theme of procrastination?  It was the only A I received in the class (thanks Prof. Maz ;p )!

And now that I have admitted this to the world I feel confident in my ability to write an outline with which I am pleased (although I'm not sure it can be as fun to look at as Leonie's)

Creative Space

Being on the opposite side of the world from a lot of the lovely bloggettes joining in on Kootoyoo's lovely "Creative Space" meme (and boy oh boy are there a lot of them) also makes me feel dreadfully behind.. as she already has her Friday post up and here I sit posting my Thursday evening addition.

I think I also get double fail points for NOT having an image of a creative space.  Why?  Because I have not crafted this week.  Yes, I will give you a few minutes to recover from shock



Instead I have been reading a book for our Alumni Book Club.  "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy.  Wonderful read. So my creative space will be this short offering.

Like reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Roy's imagery and delicious phrasing is like entering ones own dream.

It is a sad story full of loss and pain.  The daughter-mother story was heart wrenching.  And I felt in some instances to be both Rahel (daughter) and Ammu (mother) at the same moment in the story, just as I occasionally look into the mirror to find my mother looking back.  Roy's perfectly framed feelings were often like a small knife piercing the skin.  That sharp prick in the heat of the moment and followed by the long lasting sting of regret.

But if you are looking for a thoughtful and image-filled short read I recommend "The God of Small Things".

---

And now for my big SQUEE.. and this might also be cheating (oh I am full of them today, aren't I). Visit Carol to see HER Creative space and MY Honourable mention!  I am dancing in my chair right now. 
Thank you thank you, Carol, for your kind words..

For those of you reading this wondering WHAT in the hell I'm talking about..... I want to start my own organizing business and have recently begun putting things to paper and putting names to a business, etc. 

I love ordering things.  And when Carol sent out a call for help at last week's Creative Space (with helpful pictures) I asked if I could send her some beginnings of my checklist and suggestions.  She politely accepted my craziness and.  And. Yea.

I am so happy to see her organizing paying off.  It is not so much about having someone tell you what to do as allowing you to focus on one thing.. as we all know one thing leads to another.  I am sure her craft space will evolve (and continue to evolve) as projects and priorities change.

If you're looking for a little help in organizing your cupboards, closet, craft space or desk let me know.  I'd be happy to help point you in a comfortable direction.

what's hot & what's not

Hot

No fights this morning: a lovely morning with Aurora which included dressing and hair styles and even makeup with NO traumatic screaming on either side

Enjoying an evening with friends

Getting ready for Buy Nothing day: Here


Not

..... a friend who is leaving work (but this is essentially a hot as she is going some place she will love much better)

---

loobylu  queen of the What's Hot

Writers' Challenge update

I have been honoured with a mention (in TWO different posts) in Miss Leonie's Blog. 

I must admit to grace the site of such a lovely writer has given me a few moments concern - those moments where my brain completely went blank and forgot to tell my lungs to expand and contract.

Her wonderful and creative addition to my rudimentary post here really is a must for anyone feeling like they need a little inspiration.

We struggle in a time of poor economy & have lived with generations of over-consumption. In our climate of thoughtfulness we find ourselves asking during holidays:

What is the reason for the season

Should I work more to buy more?
What would Jesus buy?

Is Santa owned by Coca-Cola?

You are invited to spend Buy Nothing Day (BND), formerly known as Black Friday, away from the hordes of angry shoppers maxing out the little credit left on their cards.

Join us at The Burrow as we create homemade gifts, share crafting ideas and bask in a warm fire with friends and family.

If you plan to participate we ask you prepare in advance (even gas and milk purchases count against the grassroots BND efforts).

If you attend the event at The Burrow some crafts will be available. If you are working on a project please feel free to bring it.

Please bring Thanksgiving leftovers & beverage of choice (tea & coffee provided)

Craft List at The Burrow:
Felt ornaments (limited number)
Scrap paper for gift tags
Holiday stickers
Fine-tip Sharpie Markers
Assorted Paper for cards
Craft books for ideas

Suggestions to bring:
Old holiday cards to recycle
Knitting/Crochet project
Stamps
Ideas and craft books
Holiday DVDs for watching

If you live too far away I have invited you in hopes that you will be interested in participating in BND in your own town and in your own way. For more information about the movement around the world visit adbusters.org.  If you live in the vicinty of Idaho and would like to attend but don't know where to find The Burrow please email me at crzyquin@hotmail.com.

Nicer thoughts

Today was a bit overwhelming at work.  Just when I think I have a handle on things the universe likes to remind me I'm not in charge and throws a few things my way just to watch me cringe.

So, instead of thinking about work... let's think about this evening.  Two hours with Aurora and not a fight (yet) She is currently playing trains and "hammering the entire country".  She found an owl nestled in one of her plastic train set trees which neither of us ever noticed but we both jumped up and down at her cleverness for finding.

She will be four next month.. her wretched behaviour the past week or two tells me she should be turning 13.  So I am back to focusing on my patience.  Oh, and trying to get ready for her birthday party. 

I still have invites to make for my "Buy Nothing Day" crafting party.  Which I really should have out by Friday! I think I'll work on that tomorrow at lunch.. as my evenings are going to be filled (after Aurora's bedtime) with reading "The God of Small Things" for Alumni Book Club.

And on that let's leave the evening with views from my craft room on Saturday.

Have a wonderful evening filled with cozy thoughts and toasty toes

Tuesdays

I received my lovely winnings from Two Tuesdays, all the way in Australia, today!  They are even more delightful in person!

and some DELIGHTFUL kerchiefs. I think I'm going to stitch them onto pillows.

My Place and Yours: My Front Door

we don't use our front door. But it serves as a wonderful spot to warn visitors to our home, which we have christened "The Burrow" - and for clarification we reference more the JK Rowling's Wealey home then Tolkein's Baggin's residence.  

Our two outdoor kitties, Blaze and Riddick, race through the alley and scale the fences to walk with us up our small sidewalk to the back door. Our back door is cluttered with cat dishes and leaves; the leaves inevitably trail in on our shoes and leave a less than lovely crunchy track into the kitchen. My Alley Cat is usually waiting to fill the air with her squeaks when we enter.

I am much less a fan of our home and much more a fan of what it holds. It holds my outrageous almost four year old daughter and all of her antics. It holds my kitty. It holds my old friends bound in well worn soft covers. It holds lots of paper for writing. It holds cozy couches for napping on. It holds my Fluffy. And it contains my love and frustrations and laughter and things thrown in my desperate alone angry moments and my dancing.
________________________________________
Brought to you by Meet Me at Mike's

The Writer's Challenge

Having found another friend, missleonie, through loobylu's What's Hot and What's Not meme and discovering our mutual brillance is confined only by our inability to put our thoughts to paper (or computer) we have started a small writing challenge.

why?  One, NaNo WriMo is too overwhelming for me (as wonderful as the idea is) and two, because we may not be (and by we I'm taking liberties) self-motivators, but I sure as hell don't want to look lame to someone who's cool enough to blog and follow Claire :)

So! The Challenge begins with the OUTLINE.

If you would like to follow along the rules (thank goodness missleonie suggested rules & regs or we'd be floating along with no clue) they are as follows:

You have one week to create an outline of your story.

Must consist of no less than 3 characters, 5 “chapter” ideas, and 1,000 words (either for chapter ideas, character summarys, and/or just random thoughts for research, etc).

… since we won’t want to give away our brilliant ideas please photograph at an unreadable distance your paper/screen/printout to post on your site… IF and ONLY IF you adhere to the rules of the challenge.

If you are going to participate (at any time you read this) post a comment and I'll highlight your accomplishment on this blog.

Glacial Fountain

well not really....

 

But you couldn't tell until you get close enough.. or you see the "ice" moving in the wind.
This is the fountain at the college where I work (the blue is actually from an accidental overdose of some maintenance product.. non-toxic) and the soap is from our lovely students in celebration of our big rival basketball game

My Creative Space

Still working on the ever present owlies. 

Here is a stack of templates... little bodies, eye backgrounds, wings and beaks.

and when finished they will look something like the rest of the owl family here at HGI.

For more clever creative spaces don't forget to visit Kootoyoo who put together this wonderful weekly event.

Stackhouse Series mini-review

It is getting late.  If my wishes came true my own vampire would be here already.  However, no matter how many times I've pleaded with the universe (since the age of 9), no vampire has ever come to my rescue.

I must live vicariously through characters such as Sookie.  The books are quick reads (I finished one or two a day.. one in the evenings and two on a weekend day).   I finished them off as quickly as Bill would a can of TrueBlood. 

They are enjoyable books though I think Ms. Harris' transitions lack detail due to the short nature of each individual book.  I consider myself a well read and intelligent woman who has little trouble retaining any number of details.  Ms. Harris' attempts to be mysterious, however, came across as confusing surprises.  I would much rather have a lead into something shocking and her random surprises sometimes felt superfluous and annoying (annoying in the manor that I would sometimes flip back to see if I had accidentally skimmed an important paragraph).

I have felt brain dead lately.  It is entirely plausible I was under par on my comprehension level while enjoying this series. 

Or perhaps I am simply too spoiled by my vampire upbringing by Bram Stoker and Anne Rice - details abound.

I think anyone looking for a little supernatural fix will enjoy the Stackhouse/Dead series.  I will recommend to do it in doses.  Maybe one a week if a quick reader.  The one a day made me a bit annoyed at the amount of violence Sookie finds herself in in a very short period of time (9 books to stretch over a years' time).

You will not find these books lacking in interesting characters.  Again, I think reading in doses will allow for more enjoyment in the number of supernatural characters and plots.
 

who wouldn't enjoy Paris

Visit Plushka and view the fabu giveaway of amazing Paris paraphernalia.  Journal, fabric, and lace... does anything say Paris more?

and to go with her comment questions... my favourite city:

I imagine my favourite city to be Edinburgh.  I have never been.  I want to go to Scotland more than any other place in the world.  I want to touch the stone of buildings and smell the green in the rain.  I want to sit in the corner of cozy bed and breakfast, wrapped in a shawl, drinking tea with just a touch of milk while writing letters.

What's Hot & What's Not - short list

A big woot for Wednesday and our weekly Wednesday is brought to you by the letter L and the Number 7 and the site Loobylu.

My shortened quickie list as I am in a training today and I have an event this evening.

HOT

Craft Room to share with daughter: The combo craft play room is really nice.  Aurora suddenly WANTS to go upstairs to work in our Office.

Having food in the pantry: We have been down to barebones for a while and Eddie finally said enough is enough.. took an advance and filled the cupboards so now we have food to cook.

Cooking dinner with Aurora: she is very excited and surprisingly helpful in the kitchen.  If only she were this lovely in the mornings.

NOT

Dealing with monster, previously known as my daughter, every morning

My Place and Yours - My Secret Weapon

My Place and Yours brought to you by Meet Me At Mikes and theme "My Secret Weapon" by My Bricole

MOVIES!  As a child of the electronic age I don't get much done without background noise.  So it's music, or audio books or movies.

I frequently play my Harry Potter audio on my phone which is handy as I can easily move it about the house when I switch from crafts to cleaning. And have listened to them about 3 times each (so that's a lot of crafting and cleaning hours).

And as we moved my craftiness upstairs yesterday Eddie asked how I would feel about not having the telly with  me.  But he was forgetting my trusty laptop (really the biggest pro to moving upstairs).

My favourites, as you can see, are NCIS and Pride & Prejudice.  P&P Colin Firth version.   (Olivier is too much truly Heathcliff and the outfits too ridiculous for me to get into that version and Knightly's version is too... how about twittery.)

The loveliness of movies is the ability to quickly change when it strikes me and also to have the familiarity.  I think I may have inherited this from my grandma Jinny who watched Silverado, North & South, Two Mules for Sister Sara so many times she wore her tapes out.

Other favourites include but are not limited to: Harry Potter 2-4, Step Brothers, Underworld and Underworld Evolution, StarDust, Cold Comfort Farm, and Monty Python's Holy Grail.

new craft home

Yesterday morning I moved my crafts upstairs to Aurora's playroom and made myself right at home!

I spent all day with movies running on my laptop and making new owlies, thank yous, etc.

So this is my new corner in Aurora's playroom

the ever present movie viewing apparatus and lots of beverages :)  Water and iced tea.

My latest felty creation (and first felty thank you card). In case it isn't obvious it is a coffin.  From the label you can see that it is Bill Compton's coffin.  And then I just cut a little piece of paper to slide in.  I think I might make some for cards for next halloween and just stitch the paper in.

I also cupcaked Rebecca's light cardi.  The cupcake on the left is to patch a small hole on the back and then I did one on each arm.  She loves cupcakes :)

And then a couple more mini owlie ornaments and some regular ornaments (the crescent moon and stars are a shout out for my gamma phi girls)

Inspired

to have a craft room!  kootoyoo weekly creative spaces made me fell a bit sad that I didn't have  "home" for my craftiness. 

And with Christmas coming my front room is quite full of furniture.. where the hell would I put a tree?

But NOW my desk is upstairs.  Aurora never uses her playroom because we're not upstairs in it.  But now! Well, I have a feeling she'll start getting crafty as well (and I mean in an artsy way, not just her usual crafty manipulative way).

Have almost everything upstairs now.. just some tweaking with the organizing.  Will post photos sometime this weekend, I hope.

my belated creative space

At least a hundred creative spaces brought to you by kootoyoo!

Long day yesterday. what i've been working on:

More owlies. I have 8 unstuffed to add to the bucket and the next are a couple of the felt ornaments I'm working on.  (god, bad photo.. definitely need to practice since I'm not much of a photographer).  Felties to sell at Dori's Winter Art Club fundraiser :)  So excited.  And now I have to run as I need to go to work

What's Hot & What's Not

As always, thank you Loobylu for starting this fun weekly archive

Hot

time off:  I didn't go anywhere far (20 minutes down the road to me mum's for housesitting) but I haven't been to work since LAST Wednesday. *Triumphant grin*

halloween sales: Picked up some fun items to include in Aurora's upcoming bday party and, of course, for next year's halloween decor.  So exciting!

out of date store decor: Target sells Skelanimals and they are adorable and they had a ton of store displays for them (which apparently you put your name and number down for and they call you if there are any left).  AND I GOT A WHOLE CART FULL!  They are currently residing in mum's car (since my two-door wouldn't do).  I thought I would get one teeny tree!  But they gave me the whole cart! - I think this was do to people not picking up the items they had signed up for, but that is their problem.  I will post pictures when I get them laid out

watching a loved movie: and I mean watch it!  I even put down my owl stitching! And as I'm house sitting and Aurora will be in school tomorrow she stayed with Eddie.  So no interruptions. 

Not

that heavy sigh i can't repress when i think of heading back to work tomorrow

finishing an enjoyable series of books: now what?

being so emotionally drained i don't know which way is up (and not knowing why)