Over a million!

Yesterday I finished and posted my comparison of jacquard looms on the website, as well as individual pages on Digital Weaving Norway’s TC-2 and AVL’s Jacq3G. Total word count for the three pages was 3,398, which (according to average page counts), is seven pages single-spaced on a regular printout, or thirteen pages in a paperback novel. (That’s just the text; the actual printout would be significantly longer because of the many photos.)

Anyway, that got me to wondering (oh, the idleness!) just how many words were on the website. How much have I written in the last 12 years of blogging? So I dug out a WordPress plugin that would tell me, installed it, activated it, and….HOLY SMOKES!! I’ve written 1,107,569 words in the past twelve years, just for the website/blog. That is an average of 250 words a day, every day, for the last twelve years. It’s also 4,430 pages of the average paperback novel (one per day), meaning I could have written seventeen 300-page novels, or two copies of War and Peace. I’m flabbergasted.

What is more impressive to me is that I’ve actually met two people who have read the whole thing. One of them is Mike (that was an act of true love!), and the other is a friend who helped me co-found Weavolution many years ago. I’m quite honored, in both cases.

Of course, those numbers don’t include the missives I write to mailing lists, of the words I write for magazines, personal emails, etc. If you add that in, the numbers would easily triple, I suspect. No wonder I’ve learned to type fast! (And a good thing, too.)

Speaking of writing, I’ve gotten back to the book after a month or so “off”. I had minor arm surgery on Tuesday, and while the recovery has been pretty quick and smooth, I haven’t been able to use that arm much for the last few days. So I’ve been working on the book instead. I’ve now completely rewritten the introduction, and am plowing ahead into the “Creative Cycle” chapter, which is now the first chapter of the book. I had written and semi-polished it, then realized that it really needed to be the first chapter, and therefore needs to be completely rewritten. *sigh* The life of a true writer never did run smooth.

My mom is also in town, and we’ve been having fun! She has been visiting her many friends in the Bay Area (she lives in Maryland, but has friends all over), and picking fruit from their backyard trees. (This being California, practically everyone has some sort of fruit tree in their back yard.) Most of them are citrus trees, so she’s been hard at work zesting them to make limoncello, arancello, bergamocello, tangerinecello, and just about any other citrus-zest liqueur you can imagine. (You can see that I come by my excessive crafting behavior honestly!)

We now have a cooler full of zest-less citrus fruits, and I’m planning to squeeze plenty of orange juice for breakfast. Today we’re headed up to the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market to buy (what else?) some more citrus, this time lemons for more limoncello. After that, we’re meeting up with an old family friend to go to the Exploratorium, followed by an early dinner.

And then, tomorrow, we’re making fruitcake! Yes, it’s that time of year again. Fruitcake only takes about three months to make, but it gets better the longer it ages, so making them four or five months ahead of the holidays produces wonderful treats. (Assuming you are making “real” fruitcake, the kind you make and then drench in liquor, that is. I wouldn’t try it with the liquor-less versions that are sold commercially.) So I have been digging through my stash of candied citrus peel, and selected seven to go into this year’s version. The flavors for this year are bergamot, citron, Meyer lemon, lime, Rangpur lime, Cara-cara navel orange, and Seville orange. Plus home-candied sweet cherries and candied sour cherries.

This is why I don’t worry about imitators, of course. What makes my fruitcakes special is the wide range of home-candied citrus peels in them. They are far more aromatic and tasty than the commercially candied citrons you see in stores (which bear a strong resemblance to cardboard IMO). Since nobody but me would be crazy enough to candy all those citrus varieties at home, and they’re not commercially available, my fruitcakes are guaranteed to be uniquely fragrant and tasty. (But if you are that nuts, and want the recipe, I’ll be happy to send it to you. More excellent fruitcake in the world can’t be a bad thing!)

Finally, since the rest of this blog post is curiously devoid of pictures, here’s a feline bonus for you – two cat photos! (The pawparazzi have been exceptionally active of late.)

Tigress, as you know, has a luggage fetish. She loves sitting on luggage – any kind of luggage. So when my mom appeared, she instantly overcame her natural shyness. Here she is, about two seconds after my mom walked in the door:

A few seconds after that, Fritz arrived on the scene. And, of course, Tigress had to defend her position. Here she is, preparing to pounce on Fritz:

In case you hadn’t noticed, I absolutely adore Tigress. She is a wonderfully intelligent and inquisitive cat, with a very sensitive nose that she just has to poke into anything new and different. And, as Ruth pointed out in a comment on my last post, she is also wonderfully rebellious and playful. And social – she’ll bring her toys over and drop them at your feet, asking you to play with her. She is on super-awesome cat, and I feel lucky to have her.

I adore Fritz too, of course, but in a totally different way. He’s more of a lap kitty – he loves being petted, and those belly rubs! And he loves smelly old shoes, and drinking from a dripping faucet. He’s also a hellacious jumper – loves to explore the tops of closets and other high places.

All in all, they’re a wonderful pair of cats, and we’re quite lucky to have them.