I hate making lunch.

I don't mind grabbing breakfast or making smoothies, and I make dinner for my whole family most nights, but I hate making lunch.

I hate stopping what I'm doing because I need to eat. I hate having to think of what to put together. The meds I take suppress my appetite, so I don't even want food, and that just makes the hate worse. Some days I forget about lunch entirely, and sometimes that works out, and sometimes I feel like crap and I don't know why until I glance at a clock and notice that it's 4pm, and then I have to eat a late lunch, which runs the risk of ruining my dinner, and just makes me grumble more.'

I buy lunch items and cute bento things in hopes of enticing myself to make lunches, maybe even make them in advance, but it seldom works, and I just fall back into my usual routine of ignoring it until I have to eat.

Can I just get a nutrient pellet now?

I'm in a Russian Culture through Film course this year, and we have some extra credit films that we can watch on our own, one dealing with men's issues, and one dealing with women's issues. We don't have a film dealing with Russian GLBT issues because as far as my teacher knows there isn't one. It's still a very touchy subject over there, so if there are any films, they may be underground.

Does anyone know of any?

I need toys for my nieces. The nephews are easy, anything shiny will do, but the nieces are special and need toys that will be safe for them. The first is a 6yo kindergartener with Downs and the second is a 4yo Autistic preschooler. Both need toys that are both sturdy and engaging and are safe to possibly be bitten. And in the case of the autistic child, safe to be thrown at her mother's head. Yeah, they have that relationship already. She's Daddy's Girl.

Any ideas? We're going to a hand-craft market on Saturday, and I'm hoping to find something then, but ideas would at least give me a general direction.

I need help finding places to get Russian language films, preferably from English sites as I'm on about a Sesame Street level of Russian, and not confident enough to give a Russian site my credit card number. Films from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks would be great, as they're familiar and relatively simple. THANKS!

So, holiday shopping. Have a pretty good lead on it already, which is unusual for me. Only missing gifts for about five people at this point.

The sister in law, who is very sweet, but I barely know her, so inspiration isn't coming. Librarian and art history major, painter, into Yoga.

The Dad, normally very easy, books, books, and more books, but he's said his TBR pile is too big now, so plans for replacing his Ayn Rand collection have been scrapped. Will get him the new StarTrek DVD, of course, but wanted to do a bit more than that.

The Childhood Best Friend. What do you get the young, gay, republican, petroleum accountant who has everything? I presume he already has the new StarTrek DVD, and that it has taken up residency in his pants.

The CBF's Boyfriend, an elementary special needs educator. Like him a lot, but like the SIL, I barely know him. He made CBF blush scarlet and choke on his own tongue at the first party he attended, so would like to get him something cool. ^_^

The Lifepartner, surley, snarkey, not a goth, programmer who doesn't like anything. In the 14 years I've known him, I have yet to figure out a good gift for him.

Don't you think The Doctor looks tired?

After six weeks of ADHD style knitting, I have finally completed the first stripe of my Doctor Who scarf. ;-p 8 rows of worsted-weight aubergine purple in Knit Picks Swish DK, 80 stitches long on #5 harmony needles. ^_^

Some cats in southern California are needing to be re-homed. If you are in that area and are willing/able to help, please see This Post for details.

I am posting this here because I know that a few of you on my flist are lawyers. I have unfortunately stumbled upon some sources of child pornography today, real photos of real kids, mostly young boys under the age of ten or twelve. Where should I report this? I've already reported the users to the owner of the website in question, but since these are real kids, some of whom look really unhappy, I think I should take it to the authorities. Should I start with my local police or move on to something like fbi.gov?

So, I'm a knitter. Mostly for pleasure and therapy, but occasionally to make gifts as well. Fairly casually, I don't live with a pair of needles in my hand. So, as you can probably guess, I don't like spending a lot on supplies. I DO have a very nice set of needles that I spent good money on, but needles can be used over and over again. For yarn I try to keep the price low and the quality high. I don't want to spend more on yarn than I would spend on a finished item, but I also won't knit with junk that I wouldn't want against my skin, so no acrylic or nylon. Craft stores tend to be a bust since they mostly stock junk and finding the good stuff is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Small local yarn stores are nice, and it's MUCH easier to find good stuff, but then it costs way too much. When yarn costs $14-40 a skein, I'm unlikely to make more than a one-ball project, or buy it at all. Knit-Picks and other online sources are a god-send, and I use them a lot, but sometimes I really want to look at a material in person before I buy. I want to see the color with my own eyes in different lights and feel the weight and quality with my own hands.

The point of this post: I know there are other knitters and crafters out there. What do you guys do to find your materials?