Knitting for the Knursery

While KZog undertakes the necessary repairs and renovations to the nursery, my fewer-than-8-weeks-to-go belly and I have logged some serious couch time, indulging in various iterations of BBC/PBS Mystery! as I knit cute and likely unnecessary items for LZog.

If knitting anything in Texas, especially during the hottest part of the year, strikes you as knutty, bear in mind that I haven't quite figured out a practical way to haul all of my sewing accoutrements into the living area and run a machine while kicking my feet up. Knitting, in other words, proves far more mobile than sewing machine projects.

Sometime last year I first attempted knitting animals, which I found more difficult than first imagined. Hence taking a year to finish them. Knitting up the separate pieces - arms, legs, head, ears, body - took little time. Piecing them together on the other hand . . . Eh. One ear would end up on top of the head and the other on the side. Or, the legs looked like the bear would have a pronounced limp if it could walk. Charming? Perhaps, though the mismatches aggravated me more than anything. Finally I evened the bits up enough to present a passable bear.

LZog's First Bear

Since I needed practice putting them together, LZog's bear has a twin in Louisiana that lives with his cousin, EMit, who turned one year old in June.

EMit's Blue-Eyed Bear

Yes I have made leg warmers. And yes, if LZog is a boy, he will wear them. Even the mauve-ish pair.

Ready for Flashdance

In theory, I suppose it matters on which side one places the buttons and buttonholes depending on whether the article of clothing will be worn by a boy or a girl. When looking at the piece, a "boy" sweater should/would have buttons on the left; a "girl"sweater, on the right. A cursory search gave me little to go on, though the response offered from website Stupid Questions Answered seems at least plausible. Several of women's fashion cycles have favored styles that required others - servants/slaves/relatives to dress them. Think corsets, cage/hooped skirt, and tight bodices (and no knit fabrics!). To fully dress, women's clothing had buttons on the left, as those dressing them would likely have been right-handed; whereas, men dressed themselves. Now, I've watched enough period dramas to know that this doesn't totally jive with the portrayals of, say, the English upper class, but it satisfies my curiosity for now. Unwittingly I have made this sweater for a boy, but I don't know that I would put any stock in this accident as somehow psychic. I have only to finish the sleeves and find some little silver buttons so that I may put it away until the weather cools enough for LZog to wear it, sometime in November if we are lucky.

Girl Sweater? Boy Sweater? How About Just a Cute Sweater?

I found all of the patterns used on Ravelry.com, a fantastic site for knitters and crocheters that boasts thousands of free patterns and many reasonably priced ones as well. The bears I based on Theodore the Teddy Bear; the leg warmers, Free-Range Baby Legwarmers; and the sweater, the Sunnyside Cardigan.

Here's to distracting myself over these last weeks!

XO,
JZog
For LZog's BabyList, Click Here

For the Family

Some of you reading this know the depressing realities of the current academic job market either because you have wrestled with it or know someone who has. Though I would still very much prefer to land a tenure-track position in a small liberal arts college (or SLAC in academic-ese) in the Midwest or South and focus on teaching while still working through my research projects, this prospect dims somewhat when I consider a number of factors: the proportion of jobs to job-seekers (I don't have the statistics in front of me, but they are not good); my stubbornness/persistence/refusal to move for an adjunct or temporary position; and the daunting pace of the publish or perish imperative necessary to obtain tenure. I understand that some may argue that beggars cannot and should not be choosers, but between LZog's pending arrival and a lifelong commitment to doing things my way, I feel little compulsion to sacrifice my soul to the academic gods.

That said, I neither regret the years I have spent pursuing the PhD nor believe that I cannot identify alternative avenues for the skills and talents I have cultivated over the past seven years. I refuse to assume a vitriolic position towards my lack of a tenure-track job immediately following graduation (or ever) and the vagaries of the job market.

Over the past year I have begun to tell people that if the professorial world rejects me, I will turn to writing historical fiction. Funny, every time I say it, the idea sounds better and better - and sometimes even more feasible. Though certainly no more stable or easier to manage than a career in academia, I may research whatever I want and publish on my own timeline. And I could make stuff up, which has appreciable appeal after some of the drudgery that I executed in the name of the dissertation. I aim to, though, err heavy on the historical and light on the fiction. Using family - facts and figures, legends and lore - offers me a fruitful foundation for future research.

Really I have several prospective projects, but over the past week I have focused on the Zogs and their entrepreneurial origins in St. Louis. By taking advantage of my waning weeks as a student, I accessed the most circulated paper in the area between 1911 and 1922, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,  from the university library. Covering the years from the establishment of this Zog venture through the last year available in this database, I dug up some gems that lend some sparkle to Zog history.

Advertisements for their business, the Star Dyeing and Cleaning Company (spelling in context), comprised the bulk of what I found, but even these suggest a cheekiness true to both the time period and all the Zogs I know today. In 1919, they ran contests for the "Star Sayings" that accompanied many of the ads and informed potential customers of their "up to the minute equipment, long experience and extreme carefulness" that made "STAR SERVICE so successful - so satisfying" (May 27, 1919).

St. Louisans learned a little of the family roots from an ad that appeared in the July 29, 1918 edition. It declared that Star possessed "the best dyer that ever came out of Holland, but has been too modest to say so." I confess that I did not realize that Holland prided itself on its clothes dying traditions.

Modesty may/not have missed the mark as a genetic trend, but pronounced - and sometimes misguided - patriotism clearly began early, likely at least in part a reaction to American involvement in World War I. In 1916, an article titled "Warrants Charge Two With Using U.S. Flag in 'Ads'" explains that one FZog (KZog's great or great-great grandfather - we cannot confirm which) refused a request to remove a flag shield emblem emblazoned with the company name from their wagons. Another similar article followed the next day, though we have no indication of whether or not the authorities convicted FZog of the violation, which carried a fine of $100 or 30 days in jail for each offense (August 5 & 6, 1916). Advertisements later in the war focused on cleanliness as a patriotic duty.

My favorite find, however, remains the long-time slogan: "Our Proposition Is a Clean One".

To what ends will this work come? Who knows?. All the same, it gives me a productive project for the family in the meantime . . .

XO,
JZog
For LZog's Baby Registry, Click Here!

Texas Sate Time Trial Cycling Championships

During our morning puppy parade two weekends ago, KZog and I encountered the Texas State Time Trial Cycling Championships. Conducted this year by the North West Cycling Club, they chose to organize the ride to begin and end in our little town. We knew nothing of the event before we saw dozens of cyclists corralled in the parking lots of the middle and high schools near our house.

Why the middle-of-nowhere? Or, at least, why our middle-of nowhere? The race organizers actually made a solid selection in their 40 kilometer route, as the powers that be had this particular road recently resurfaced; it also has light morning weekend traffic, save for the occasional farm implement.

As many know, KZog and I met at a bicycle shop and have spent many a mile on the road/trail together. We enjoy watching races as well, and what better venue that practically one's own backyard?

KZog loaded up Pepperoni Pizza and a cooler, and we drove about one third of the way from the start to set up our vantage point. As an "out and back" race, we caught riders both near the beginning and near the end of the race. I took the opportunity to practice my camera skills on moving people/objects. Although I appreciate the convenience of the auto setting, I have found that I typically take better - clearer, more carefully framed - photos if I take the time to focus and choose my settings manually. I figured snapping photos of cyclists traveling upwards of 35 miles per hour would offer sufficient rehearsal for taking photos of a mobile LZog.

In the meantime, I still take lots of pictures of my current favorite subject:

Roni Rearin' to Go

Roni So Over This

Stationary wildflowers prove good for honing focusing skills, too:

Texas Summer Wildflowers

Texas Summer Wildflower 

We watched the team time trial, hence the tight packs of four riders. Some of the teams really whizzed down the road, sounding more like cars on the highway than two-wheeled human-powered machines.

Heading Out

Flying Tight 

Catching Up

Happy weekend, all!

XO,
JZog
Click Here for the Herzogenrath Baby Registry 

A Nursery Project and the First Special Deliveries for LZog

As anyone who has talked with me for more than ten minutes realizes, I am a person of many projects. Even though I have only today wrapped up the final edits to the dissertation for submission to the thesis office, I have several somethings at various stages of progress in preparation for LZog. Hats, leg warmers, blankets, newborn gowns - all begun but very few finished. Though my focus has mostly settled on wearables,  it seems one of the first questions anyone asks (following "When are you due?" and "Is it a boy or a girl?") involves the theme of the nursery.

Theme??? I find it funny to respond with something like: "Sure! The theme is 'This is where LZog will sleep, along with some guitars and other random stuff that won't fit in a closet.'" Most people - women AND men, I should add -  have not shared my cavalier attitude on the matter.

In fairness, I should explain that we do have a couple of factors that prevent us from adopting a whole hog approach to decorating. First, of course, we do not know how much longer we will stay in this house. It does not make sense to emblazon the walls with jungle murals only to have to paint over it in the next six months. Second, which bothers other people more than it does us, we have decided not to discover or divulge the sex/gender of LZog. According to any baby store and many people who have had babies, this is the deciding factor in how one decorates a nursery. Nonsense, I say.

While I have refrained from fully capitulating to slathering a theme all over the nursery, I have developed a couple of ideas that I plan to incorporate into LZog's room. The one of which I am most proud involves creating an area dedicated to baby photos of the immediate family. Not only will this keep the family close, but we will also see: from whom exactly did LZog acquire that nose/eyes/hair/expression? We think there lies a contest in this as well - whoever LZog favors most wins the privilege of a year of diaper changing, courtesy of LZog . . .  Maybe?

So far our quest for photos has proven successful, but we have a few more to collect before I begin organizing them.

In other baby news, yesterday LZog received their first special delivery! Aunt DBom and Uncle GBom (a branch of the Missouri Zogs) sent the adorable Snugabunny Bouncer, to encourage a restful LZog, and a Banana Brush (toothbrush), to help keep LZog's teeth clean. Thank you, thank you!

XO,
JZog
Click here for our Baby Registry

It Takes a (Virtual) Village

As most already know, I have returned safe and sound to the US from Doha. My time there has officially ended and now KZog and I have settled into a mad, mad mode of preparing our current house for sale and considering where we will settle down in anticipation of LZog's (Little Zog) arrival and my entrée onto the academic job market for fall 2015.

As we move into LZog's third trimester, many have asked if someone will host a baby shower. While some have offered, because of the far-flungedness of most of our friends and family, we have decided instead to hold a sort of ongoing virtual baby shower. KZog and I very much want everyone, near and far, to be involved in LZog's life and found this the best option for us at this time. Though some websites exist to formalize a virtual shower as an event, we will keep everyone updated through the blog. Each week or so, I will share the wonderful ways in which you all have helped create our (virtual) village for LZog.

Rather than registering at Target and/or Babies 'R Us (I have to confess, that place sends me into a panic - one cannot possibly need all those things. . . . right?), we have chosen to use BabyList, an online registry that allows us to compile products from across the web. At the click of a browser button I may add that fantastic book sling I found at Bed Bath and Beyond as well as our preferred diapers from the Honest Company. If interested, click here for the Herzogenrath BabyList Registry.

I'll admit that I am not the biggest fan of "baby bump" photos. But, our 20 weeks coincided with Easter, so we have some photos of me rounding out for those who require proof. Suffice it to say my roundness has become far more pronounced here as we approach week 28 . . .

Sassy as Usual - Will it Run in the Family?

Squinting, but Smiling

                                        
   

XO,
JZog
Herzogenrath BabyList Registry