Vis Major

Thoughts about 2011

2011-01-18T12:37:00.000-05:00

My husband Tony is a person who dreams & sets goals, and then pursues those dreams & goals with a great deal of focus and determination. If he dreams it and has even a small measure of control over the outcome, his dream becomes reality. He's a great motivating example in that area.

Tony has a nice habit of asking me, "Are you excited?" I reply, "About what?" and then he answers, "About anything." For too long, I've answered "no" and meant it. I haven't been excited, and it's time for that to change.

I've been thinking about living more in 2011. Somehow, I feel like I've gotten out of the habit of actively living & have been doing more subsisting... just getting by... existing day to day. I'm such a creature of habit that I've allowed my world to get smaller & smaller due to a variety of reasons: fear, comfort, complacency, financial worries, being inside my own head too much, being unsure of my place in my small world & the world at large, being unsure if anything I do has meaning or purpose or an affect whatsoever... just being unsure in general.

The older I get, the longer the days are - they're so often filled with tension & stress & fatigue - but the years pass with a blur until I'm unable to distinguish 2007 from 2008 from 2009 from 2010. I want to make an adjustment before another blurry year flies by.

So far, I've:

accepted a small work task that I would normally pass on
made arrangements to meet an online friend in person
signed up for a design class
looked into amateur singing lessons

All small steps, but steps forward nonetheless. The next time Tony asks me if I'm excited, I can say "yes."

Sound Advice?

2011-01-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

The other day, I (jokingly) informed my boss that he might want to start looking around for my replacement since I was considering committing murder & would therefore be incarcerated.

His demeanor became very calm as he advised, "It's times like this when you need to step back... take a deep breath... and plunge the knife in so hard & so far on the first thrust that [she] never knows what hit her!"

Ooh, I laughed and laughed. :)

Five Below

2010-09-06T17:19:00.000-04:00

Five Below is rapidly becoming my favorite not-yarn-store spot for small-scale retail therapy. Why? Because today they had...

a t-shirt of one of my favorite posters
a t-shirt featuring a chicken, and egg, and both of them shouting "I was here first!"
a magnet of poo wearing a sombrero & a long curly mustache... Poo-quito!
a magnet of Mr. T-style poo... "I pity the poo!"
a magnet of Tracy Jordan's iconic poster from "30 Rock"... Who Dat Ninja?!
a magnet of three ninjas participating in knitting, painting, and writing... Mixed Martial Arts (and crafts)
iPhone cases for the fellas
candy & mystery gum
a ball for Zoe

Good stuff.

Quickly, quickly

2010-08-09T11:21:00.000-04:00

Today, my brain feels as though its encased in amber or molasses. I'm not too quick on the uptake. Not even a wee bit of coffee helped out, and since too much coffee (caffeine, really) would almost certainly induce a migraine, I feel stuck like this. Blergh.

We haven't heard anything more about Tony's alleged staking/hacking activities. Well, we haven't heard anything official from anyone official. Apparently, the dude in Missouri has continued to contact the security office of Tony's employer; those security officers have reportedly continued to direct the dude to law enforcement officials. It's driving me nuts, this waiting for it to get wrapped up. I cannot stand limbo.

Another thing that's contributing to my molasses brain is the lovely skein of sock yarn sitting on my desk. I keep looking over at it & daydreaming about what it should be... socks? a shawlette? a cowl? something else? A normal person would put the skein in a drawer - out of sight, out of mind - but it'd be a shame to put such a beautiful work of art in yarn form into a dark drawer.

Maybe a quick walk around the block will help.

Hey weirdness, you can stop now...

2010-08-02T09:52:00.000-04:00

Friday afternoon, Tony received a call from the security office at his workplace. Long story short, a husband & wife in a completely different state from where we live accused him specifically of being a stalker & a hacker. The couple has talked to Tony's employer as well as law enforcement officials.

Tony's also talked to law enforcement officials to let them know he didn't do anything of the sort, doesn't know who these people are, and will cooperate in whatever ways he can to get the whole mistake cleared up.

We're both freaked out & wondering WTF is going on. The simplest explanation is that since he has a fairly common first and last name, it's just a case of mistaken identity. The weirder, conspiracy-theory explanation is that there's something deliberately malicious afoot against Tony and/or this couple.

Either way, I've had my fill of weirdness & drama lately. Enough already. I want this new weird, wrong thing to wrap up quickly & get gone.

Wrong is wrong

2010-07-24T14:49:00.001-04:00

This morning, we were on our way to the park for a run. We were behind an elderly couple - the man was driving & the woman was the passenger. No one else was visible in their car. The woman punched the man in the eye, while he was driving. She appeared to be ranting at him. She kept hitting him periodically in the face, slapping him, while he was driving. He never raised his hand to her, at least not that we could see. We decided to follow them in case the man needed help.

We followed them to a public library, where the woman hit him again when the car was stopped. He exited the car & was so downtrodden it broke my heart. I confronted her while Tony called the police. I don't remember exactly what I said to either of them; Tony tells me that I kept telling her she couldn't hit him... she wasn't allowed to hit him... it wasn't right for her to hit him. I remember her telling me he was her husband & she'd hit him if she wanted, that he was a stupid retard. I wanted to throttle her. When she said she was going to hit me too for being nosy, I wished for it: I wouldn't have hit back, but I would've pressed charges against her. She kept telling me it was none of our business, and I insisted that wrong was wrong which made it my business as a good Samaritan.

Eventually the police came & dealt with her; the man kept calling me Miss and asking us to leave it alone, to stay out of it. It was horrible. I still feel so badly for that man. If I had to guess, I'd say the man had been mistreated for so long that he couldn't see anything else. He had the demeanor of a cowering whipped dog. I hope he doesn't live like that every day, but even once in awhile is too much.

I'm considering the possibility that she could have some kind of illness that made her act that way, but she was so lucid & so mean that I think it was just her personality. She radiated anger & hatred, if that makes sense.

How do you know when it's right to get involved? Isn't being nosy just a matter of perception? I mean, if we had come across that same couple in a different circumstance - say, they were broken down on the side of the road & we lent assistance - they wouldn't perceive that as being nosy, right? They'd probably perceive that as being helpful. And the woman saw it as nosiness today because she didn't welcome the help we were trying to give to the man.

What's right when things are so messy? Aren't we supposed to stand up for others when they're being mistreated?

Success!

2010-04-14T12:02:00.002-04:00

I believe I've gotten my blog to successfully move from its old home to its new Blogger/Google hosting. Things seem to be in order, but please email me if you find any wonkiness.

Blog Migration Troubles

2010-04-13T10:49:00.002-04:00

Since Blogger is discontinuing FTP publishing on May 1st, I'm trying to migrate this blog to a Blogspot dealie. But, the migration has stalled with an error at step three out of four. Hard to tell when my migration will be completed, so I seem to have posts at vismajorblog.blogspot.com & back at vismajor.net.

Ah, technology. You are often my friend, but in this case, you are rotten.

Back on My Feet Midnight Madness Race

2010-04-01T11:23:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone,

I registered for a fund-raising run with proceeds benefiting Back on My Feet, and I hope you'll consider sponsoring me.

The third annual Back on My Feet Midnight Madness Race is Philadelphia's only glow-in-the-dark run, which takes place on Saturday, July 17th at Midnight (technically Sunday morning). The 8.4-mile race starts and finishes in front of Lloyd Hall in Philly's Art Museum area and is open to 525 people this year.

Back on My Feet is a nonprofit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of homeless populations by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem. The organization does not provide food nor does it provide shelter, but instead provides a community that embraces equality, respect, discipline, teamwork and leadership. There are no labels, no stigmas and no stereotypes. At Back on My Feet, all members - regardless of race, education or socioeconomic status - join together to move their own lives forward as well as the lives of their teammates (more info about Back On My Feet's Philadelphia chapter).

If you'd like to sponsor me, my fund-raising page is: http://www.active.com/donate/3rdAnnual20in24/AMcClen6

The contribution website is secure, fast and easy to use. You'll be able to choose an amount to donate and receive email confirmation of your tax-deductible donation.

Thanks for reading! :)

Current Running Playlist

2010-02-19T12:38:00.004-05:00

I really like seeing music playlists from other people; so, in case anyone finds it interesting, here's what I'm running to these days... just put it on shuffle & go.

* AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
* Aerosmith - Rag Doll
* America - Sister Golden Hair
* Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want
* Beyonce - Single Ladies
* Black Sabbath - Paranoid
* Blondie - Heart of Glass
* Cars - Just What I Needed
* DMX - Ruff Ryders' Anthem
* Eagles - Life in the Fast Lane
* Eagles - Take It Easy
* Electric Light Orchestra - Don't Bring Me Down
* Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
* Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
* Glee Cast - Gold Digger
* Glee Cast - Hate on Me
* Glee Cast - Somebody to Love
* Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
* Jay-Z - 99 Problems
* Jay-Z - Run This Town
* John Mellencamp - Hurts So Good
* Journey - Wheel in the Sky
* Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
* Kool Moe Dee - I Go To Work
* Lady Antebellum - I Run to You
* Lady Antebellum - Need You Now
* Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
* Lily Allen - Smile
* Lo Fidelity Allstars - Battle Flag (feat. Pigeonhead)
* Ludacris & Shawna - What's Your Fantasy
* Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
* Michael Jackson - P.Y.T.
* Moby - Extreme Ways
* Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
* Offspring - Come Out And Play
* Pearl Jam - Evenflow
* Queen - Killer Queen
* Rob Zombie - Never Gonna Stop
* Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar
* Rolling Stones - Start Me Up
* Roots - Boom!
* Roots - Don't Say Nuthin'
* Roots - I Don't Care
* Roots - The Mic
* Roots - The Seed 2.0
* Roots - Thought @ Work
* Roots - Untitled (from The Tipping Point)
* Roots - Web
* Seven Mary Three - Cumbersome
* Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion
* Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock
* Snow Patrol - Shut Your Eyes
* Stealer's Wheel - Stuck in the Middle With You
* Steely Dan - Do It Again
* Steely Dan - Hey Nineteen
* Steve Miller Band - Rock N' Me
* Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
* Styx - Renegade
* Sublime - The Wrong Way
* Them Crooked Vultures - New Fang
* Tilly and the Wall - Pot Kettle Black
* Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
* Wang Chung - Dance Hall Days
* Weezer - Everybody Get Dangerous
* White Stripes - Icky Thump
* White Zombie - Thunder Kiss '65
* White Zombie - More Human Than Human
* ZZ Top - Tush

Action Heroine from the Future

2010-02-11T09:53:00.002-05:00

I dreamed about Sarcasmo last night. In the dream, she was an action heroine who could travel through time. The dream was very much like a big-budget Hollywood movie: lots of action without a plot that made sense. :)

But, it was great to spend time with her again even if it was only in a dream.

Awesome!

2009-11-30T13:48:00.003-05:00

I've recently become aware & enamored of the website 1000 Awesome Things. People, there are some seriously awesome things going on out there around you. Here are some of my awesome things for today:

Christmas albums from my childhood: John Denver & The Muppets, The Chipmunks, and Charlie Brown. AWESOME!

Not one... not two... but THREE colleagues brought me samplings from their Thanksgiving tables. AWESOME!

Someone told me they liked me today. AWESOME!

I saw pictures of my sister's baby belly going up against my dad's beer belly for supremacy. Made me laugh and laugh. AWESOME!

I ripped back a scarf that I've been knitting for two years, off & on, because I wasn't 100% happy with it. I'm retasking the yarn for something else. I wouldn't have attempted such a thing just a few years ago. Gaining new skills & confidence in something you love to do? AWESOME!

I know there's more, but having this many awesome things rattle right off the top of my head is pretty cool.

Go check out the 1000 Awesome Things website. I bet you'll recognize lots of their awesome things.

I Got Things To Make

2009-10-05T19:33:00.002-04:00

I need more time. I got things to make! In no particular order, they are:

Socks for Sam, in trade for a lace shawl he's making me. Lace. I hates it, Precious. He likes it & rocks at it, so we're swapping. Clever!

Baby stuff for my not-here-yet nephew. I'm thinking blanket & socks & hats & maybe some legwarmers to go with the onesies.

Groundhog's monkey. Kinda stalled on that.

My Halloween costume. There's a definite due date on that thing; either have to get to work or revise my costume plans.

My Christmas knitting stuff. Holy cats, Christmas is just a few weeks away. That hurts.

A sweater. For me. I freakin' love sweaters & have yet to make myself a single sweater. That's pitiful!

A beet for Dwight Schrute. Yes. We're making beets for Dwight. No, that's not weird. Really, it's not.

The cashmere scarf. Really need to decide if I'm continuing on with it as a scarf or frogging it and making other things with that yarn. I'm pretty OK with the idea of frogging it: Re-knit all that cashmere? Really? Yeah, twist my arm. :P~

Crossing the Finish Line

2009-09-02T11:24:00.002-04:00

Yesterday my husband, an avid runner, registered for the Philadelphia Distance Run. This is noteworthy because it's his first race since 2006, when he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. The short version is that rheumatoid arthritis is an incurable autoimmune disease where the body's immune system turns on itself & attacks joint tissue; people living with RA can be treated with different medicines that mask the symptoms, but the disease's progression can't be stopped... only slowed.

(He's been writing first-person accounts of his experiences with RA on his blog; have a look if you're curious.)

I won't ever forget how helpless I felt watching him try to live a "normal" life while in so much pain, or how awful & cruel it seemed that something he loved so much - running - was next to impossible for him due to his traitorous immune system. I won't ever forget how at times it seemed so hopeless that he'd ever feel better, and that a simple thing like getting out of bed or using the stairs could be done without pain. It was terrible to watch him flinch in pain when someone shook his hand or inadvertently stepped on his foot. It was tough to not hold my beloved's hand as we walked down the street because that caused pain at worst or discomfort at best.

Most of all, I won't ever forget the first visit we made together to his current rheumatoligist. The young male doctor reviewed Tony's charts & past RA prescriptions and announced it was long past time for more aggressive treatments. He was so confident that Tony would start feeling better under his care, but I was skeptical; Tony had suffered for so long that it seemed unlikely that this man - no matter how confident - could make a difference through medicines. When Dr. Rheumatologist stated in the same visit that he saw no reason why Tony wouldn't be able to run again, I started crying. Hard. It was too much to hope for, that Tony would get back so much of his life *and* also be able to pursue running again. I didn't want to be greedy; I would've settled for days without him being in constant pain. I can't speak for him, but I bet he felt similarly.

Now, here we are. It's taken time, but Tony's running again. It's incredible... the best icing on the best cake. He'll cross the P.D.R. finish line on Sunday September 20th 2009, and I'll be there - crying with joy - as he does it. On Monday the 21st, I'll send a note (with a picture of Tony crossing the finish line enclosed) to his rheumatologist, thanking him for making a difference.

Auntie

2009-07-02T19:42:00.002-04:00

What does one do when one is overflowing with happiness?

One tells the internet.

So, Internet, you should know... I'm going to be an Auntie! My beloved sister & her fantastic husband are expecting their first child. I can't wait to support them however I can during their journey as parents.

I also can't wait to spoil & love the hell out of my future niece or nephew. ;)

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, 2009 Edition

2009-05-03T15:29:00.003-04:00

I bought more than I wanted to this year, but I blame two factors: a) this was the first year I waited in line to get into The Fold [the vendor who sells Blue Moon Fiber Arts' Socks that Rock] in the morning when the stock is most plentiful, and b) I'm a sucker for rich, saturated color.

Clockwise, from top left:

1. Meadow Medley Dragon's Stash superwash sock yarn - 1 skein
2. The Barefoot Spinner superwash sock yarn - 2 skeins
3. Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock, Mediumweight - 3 skeins of mill ends
4. Tess' Designer Yarns Supersock & Baby - 2 skeins
5. Still River Mills Cashmere - 1 skein
6. Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock, Lightweight - 6 skeins
7. Gale's Art roving sampler pack & a drop spindle - I think the spindle had a name of its own (trindle?); it was designed by a high school physics teacher to spin longer. The shaft is black wood, the center bead is wooden, and the edge beads are pink glass. This is my first foray into spinning, and thus far... I'm finding it more difficult than expected. :)

Upcoming things

2009-04-07T16:30:00.002-04:00

I feel a need to list out what I have going on in the near future.
* Neko Case show this Friday
* Ten-year anniversary next weekend
* ladies' weekend in the Poconos the last weekend in April
* Maryland Sheep & Wool festival the first weekend in May
* town-wide yard sale & a wedding the second weekend in May
* family wedding in Atlanta the third weekend in May
* friend's comedy show in NJ the fourth Saturday in May
* Memorial Day weekend
* my birthday in June
* friend's wedding in the Catskills the first weekend in August

Pshew! April and May will be busy.

Ray at the Tower Theater

2009-04-06T08:35:00.002-04:00

Saturday night, I saw Ray LaMontagne & his talented band play at the Tower Theater outside Philadelphia. He was fantastic just as I expected, and he played a really good mix of songs from all three released albums. I also found a new group to enjoy: the opening act, The Low Anthem, was right up my musical alley; I already bought the three albums they have available in the iTunes store.

What I *didn't* like was how jerky so many people around me were acting. Talking through songs, taking many flash pictures, shouting at the band during songs rather than just between songs, repeated trips to the bar for more beer... ugh. There was even a fight of some kind that disrupted one of the slow-tempo songs (my favorite one, naturally). A fight! At a singer-songwriter show! I mean, I could understand & overlook a fight at a rock show, but his music just isn't that way. There's no mosh pit at this kind of show. Grr. I know, I know... You kids get off my lawn!

Oh well. I had a really good seat (~6 rows back from the stage, in a curved section, on the aisle so no one was directly in front of me) and the sound seemed really good to me. At times, it was fiercely difficult to be there without Star, but I'm glad I went.

Friday night is Neko Case's sold-out show at the Keswick Theater; that should be another excellent show.

Springtime Socks

2009-03-31T21:36:00.003-04:00

I finished the first of a new pair of socks for myself; I didn't use a real pattern but instead used a recipe that'd fit my foot & a cable stitch pattern from a dictionary. It's probably the most complex & prettiest sock I've made yet, and I can't wait to design more. Next up will be a pair for Mom for her birthday & Mother's Day; I think I'll create a design instead of using a dictionary or a pattern.

Side view:

Top view:

Close up:

Another way in which the internet is odd

2009-03-25T22:36:00.002-04:00

Those of you who know me realize that I have a... thing... for knitting. Love it. Seriously, love it. Love it so much that I read all I can about it when I'm not actually doing it.

There's a lady in the knitting world known as the Yarn Harlot (aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee); she's been described as the "Michael Jordan of the knitting world" so non-yarnies can get a sense of how wildly popular she is with the yarnies.

Anyway, I've been following her blog & books for years. When I started reading her blog, her nephew Hank was young enough that she was knitting him dragon mittens. Now, Hank has just turned nine.

This fact is relevant to my blog post's title because when I read that Hank was turning nine, I thought to myself "Wow. I can't believe Hank is nine already."

How odd that it would make me stop & pause for a moment that a kid I've never met and never will meet is older than I expect him to be, and that I remembered when he was wearing dragon mittens. I mean, I have moments all the time where I'm struck by how mature & grown the Young Sir is, but that's to be expected. I live with him!

But to pause because Hank's turned nine? AND, I'm not the only one! I skimmed the comments for the post where Stephanie mentioned Hank's birthday, and lots of people were struck by the same thing.

Is the world really this small now?

Here I come, Maryland

2009-03-09T13:16:00.003-04:00

I've been wavering about taking the delightful & comfortable & super convenient bus from Rosie's Yarn Cellar down to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival this year. Should I go at all? It's not like I need more yarn. Do I want to take the bus, which leaves before the nighttime parties start? I mean, last year I missed the Ravelry nighttime party and was sad. Some Pantsers are talking about getting together at Rhinebeck, which I haven't attended yet... should I go to Rhinebeck instead?

Screw it. I booked my seat. I love going to that festival, so by gosh... I'm going. I'll deal with Rhinebeck decisions later. Maybe it'll work out so I can go to Rhinebeck for the whole weekend & go to nighttime parties there.

I wish I could have been there

2009-02-13T09:35:00.004-05:00

Our CEO sends out daily Thoughts on a variety of topics; some are anecdotes while others contain important company news; because I never know which it'll be, I make sure to read them all.

Today's was about stopping to appreciate beauty; it featured a true story about the master violinist Joshua Bell playing complex classical pieces, incognito, in a Washington Metro station for 45 minutes. He played on a Stradivarius created in the 1710s during the height of Stradivari's proficiency.

If I had been there, I know - I *know* - I would have stayed for the whole concert. Even if I were on my way to work... I would have lied and said I was late because trains were late or something. I wouldn't have recognized Joshua Bell, but I would have stayed.

One of the things I miss most about taking violin lessons was the private concerts; my teacher was the concertmaster for the local symphony orchestra, and he was Good. Before my lesson would start, I'd talk him into playing pieces he was working on for the symphony as inspiration for me. I'm pretty certain he saw though me, but he'd play anyway. It was inspiring & powerful, but I also knew that no matter how much I practiced, I'd never make the instrument come alive like he could. Eventually, I quit trying.

I wouldn't have been able to leave Mr. Bell's social experiment of a concert because

"Most people, they play music; they don't feel it," Tindley says. "Well, that man was feeling it. That man was moving. Moving into the sound."

I would have been drawn to that kind of powerful music.

PawPaw Retires

2009-02-12T21:41:00.001-05:00

My PawPaw made the local paper today; my sister (thanks, Sissy!) scanned and emailed the article. He's so cute. I can hear him saying the things he's quoted for in the article. :)

Savina's Socks

2009-02-07T21:54:00.005-05:00

I finished the socks I was making for my lovely mother-in-law; they took just 15 days of SEPTA (~1 hour each workday) and 2 statistics class (5 hours total) to complete. Each sock has ~5500 stitches for a total of ~11,000 stitches. They'll go in the mail on Monday. I hope she likes them. :)

Whew

2009-02-03T10:09:00.002-05:00

I bought my ticket to see Ray LaMontagne at the Tower in April. Just a single ticket, but I think I'll have a good time anyway. Maybe she'll be with me in spirit.

Evolution

2009-01-23T13:50:00.005-05:00

One of my very favorite things, musically speaking, is creating a playlist of a prolific artist's music and sorting it by release date. I love hearing the evolution of someone's music throughout their career; if the artist is a singer/songwriter, so much the better - both the music & the story has the potential to evolve.

I'll give you a perfect example: Suzanne Vega. Go create yourself a playlist featuring all her studio releases & listen to all the songs in order by album release date. The shift that always punches me in the proverbial gut is when "Nine Objects of Desire" changes to "Songs in Red and Grey." One minute you've got the silkiness of "My Favorite Plum" and the next (well, technically 2.5 minutes later) you've got the tempest of emotions of "Penitent" followed by "Widow's Walk." "Soap and Water" can make me ache. The transition to "Beauty and Crime" is also powerful, but not as much. For me, anyway.

Listening to this playlist is like re-reading a favorite book - oh, here's the part where the character does this or encounters that. When my character "Suzanne" hits that wall of "Songs in Red and Grey," I experience a visceral reaction. I enjoy the tumult, but I look forward to the release from it when "Beauty and Crime" comes around.

I hope her story isn't over. I hope she adds other chapters to my playlist-book. She's a fascinating character & I want to know what happens next for her.

I really, really love powerful music.

XKCD comic

2009-01-19T09:02:00.004-05:00

Hahaha! Ha! This XKCD comic references my very favorite joke!!

(I'm always happy when I "get" the more obscure ones. Makes me feel a wee bit smarter.)

Mermaid Socks

2009-01-17T14:46:00.004-05:00

The damn mermaid socks with their damn "picot" edging are finally finished. Oh, how they vexed me with their not fitting their intended recipient, which left me no alternative but to come up with a Plan B. The upside is that I have a new pair of socks, unless they get claimed by my mom or sister, both of who (whom?) could wear them. :P~

(Now that they're done & blocked & not vexing me any more, they're really quite cute.)

Little Bo Peep

2009-01-15T12:43:00.002-05:00

I've been going about this sheep & alpaca thing all wrong. It's not practical for us to have sheep or alpaca or goats where we live (no matter how much I might want to pass them off as really odd dogs), but it is practical for me to consider supporting a fiber farm via Community Supported Agriculture programs.

This one is reportedly the first, but I wonder if I could find a fiber CSA closer to where we live? So that I could go see "my" sheep/alpaca/goats? And maybe see the lambs pronking in the spring? That'd be awesome. :)

Things I've Done

2009-01-11T17:14:00.004-05:00

Yep, it's a meme. What sorts of things have you done? The things I've done are bolded below. Not too shabby, but there's so much more to do. :)

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
10. Sung a solo (In a play & I was terrible)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (indoor)
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted (ink & pen rather than paint)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (caught, dressed, and ate fish)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

Snow!

2009-01-09T11:30:00.002-05:00

Snow is predicted for tomorrow & possibly Sunday morning. Please, Universe, please give me a decent amount of snow. I do so love chilling out at home with my sweetie & our critters, knitting on stuff & watching movies & drinking hot chocolate. And I'd like real snow, please... none of that "Oh, I'll just flurry a little then stop."

No.

I want *real snow* this weekend.

That's all.

(I might have doomed myself to sickness, though. At first I typed "please give me a decent amount of snoT" and then hastily corrected it. Just for the record, I do not want the Universe to give me additional snot.)

Don't wanna go

2009-01-04T22:18:00.004-05:00

It was such a great holiday break. For me, the best part was visiting with my sister & brother-in-law. I love spending time with them, but it's always sad to say goodbye. I hope that someday we live within a reasonable driving distance of each other so I can see more of them & the rest of my family.

It was also great to be offline for nearly the whole vacation. This means I'm far behind on Ravelry, Twitter, blogs, and everything else... but I'm OK with that. I don't think I'll try to get caught up.

Tomorrow starts my regular work week. I'm happy to have had so much time away from work, but it's going to be a real bitch getting back into the habit of going to bed, getting up, slogging through public transportation & crowds, working, and repeating without any real holidays in sight. Our company has a desert of holidays between New Year's and Memorial Day at the end of May. Blargh. Oh well, there's always my lottery plan! :D

Christmas Tidings

2008-12-25T14:34:00.002-05:00

It's been a great holiday so far.

Yesterday, the Young Sir (TYS) and I baked cookies all afternoon. We mixed up dough for three kinds: candy cane for me, chocolate chip for Chico, and sugar for TYS. We were successful in all but the sugar cookies; my recipe lacked guidance on how large to make each ball of dough before baking or how many cookies the batch should make, so the cookies were twice as big as they should've been & just didn't turn out well at all. But! The candy cane & chocolate chip cookies rock the house.

Then, we all went to the movies. "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is not the best movie I've ever seen. Blurgh. Next was PJs, hot tea, knitting, and "It's A Wonderful Life" to bridge the late hours of Christmas Eve to early Christmas Day. Next came sleep, followed by Christmas morning.

All gifts given were received well; even our four-legged friends were happy with their stocking gifts. Santa brought:

> motorcycle parts, a sweater, homemade chicken tamales, a laptop case, a comedy DVD, a scarf, a movie theater gift card, and man body care products for Chico

> many clothes, a dirty joke book, wireless headphones, and Guitar Hero World Tour (game & guitar) for TYS

> sewing supplies, fruit tea, a boardgame, a book, the Wall-E DVD, and a combo purse/project bag/messenger bag for me

Now we're settled in for the day after talking to faraway family members & eating a light lunch. Christmas dinner has been started; there'll be turkey with all our favorite side dishes. I see a nap with the cats in my near future. Sissy and KC arrive for a visit early next week, bringing their lovely company and food from Home.

Life is good!

I am a High Nerd!

2008-12-24T13:18:00.001-05:00

Bow before my awesome nerdy powers.

Book Meme

2008-12-11T11:28:00.004-05:00

Taken from various friends...

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well, let's see:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Two Years

2008-12-10T16:51:00.003-05:00

It's been two years today since she died, and this year is oddly harder to deal with than last year. I had plans with Jill & Dan & Neil, but all I really wanted to do was sleep the day away... avoiding it. I got up, kept to my plans, but couldn't handle the whole day so I bailed. Avoidance.

I wish there were a physical illness that accompanied loss. It's OK to take yourself off to bed when you're feverish & suffering from the flu, but people look at you askance & worry if you take yourself off to bed when you're miserable & grieving. Maybe there could be an over the counter loss remedy that suppresses symptoms until you're feeling better?

My sweet friend Jen sent flowers today; they were waiting when I got home from seeing Jill & Dan & Neil. I'm touched & thankful she acknowledged today and what it means for me.

I'm tired & wishing it were time for bed. It should be; it's dark outside.

Diner politics and guilt

2008-12-02T14:22:00.003-05:00

I must be the silliest person alive sometimes. Allow me to explain.

There are two diners across the street from my office: one serves strictly American food (diner A), and the other serves American as well as Greek food (diner B). I used to patronize diner A exclusively because I became friendly with the staff; when diner A would close for 2 weeks or more for vacations & whatnot, I'd drop into diner B but wouldn't feel any obligation to do so.

Sometimes I'd feel like a Greek salad or dolmades for lunch, which required going to diner B. If the owners of diner A saw me going into/coming out of diner B, they'd comment in that trying-to-be-funny-accusatory way, and I'd explain that I felt like Greek food that day. Then I'd feel guilty inside as if I'd "betrayed" them.

Sometime over the summer, diner A closed for a month. I started to visit diner B more often, and then when diner A opened back up... I didn't go back. Don't tell diner A I said so, but the food is better at diner B. AND! The Greek lady at diner B calls everyone "honey" and "baby" and "sweetie" in a way that warms my heart. AND! The Greek lady is either genuinely interested in what I knit when I wait for my order, or she fakes it really well. I can be working on a plain stockinette sock in self-patterning yarn and she'll exclaim over it like it's the Best Thing Ever. AND! They feed me sample bites of cakes & baklava, perhaps because they know just one bite is all it takes to tempt me to buy an unplanned sweet.

Now it's December, and I don't feel like I can go back to diner A *ever* because they'll give me grief for not showing up earlier. Why do I feel guilty about choosing to patronize a different diner?

Because I'm the silliest person alive sometimes, that's why.

Whoa!

2008-11-15T20:58:00.003-05:00

Casey, code monkey extraordinaire for Ravelry, has made it so the progress bar API now shows project pictures where the photos aren't hosted by Flickr. Cool!

What else...

Yarn.com (what I consider Mecca for fiber enthusiasts... warehouses! of! yarn! and! roving!) rolled out a new site & new features. They offer wishlists now; did I create one? yes I did.

Last Sunday's "Family Guy" episode (starts off with Peter & the guys pretend to be Jackasses) was one of the funniest they've had in a while. We laughed our asses off during the last scene Stewie & New Brian shared in the kitchen. Poor Rupert!

Cluck (aka Roxy) is settling in nicely; when I pet or play with her, she only bites me 50% of the time now. Progress!

Bumper stickers found in the USMC catalog, Sgt. Grit, are... just a little different than what you'd find in a civilian catalog.

Pizza & beer for dinner. Thinking about taking a bath & reading a book or maybe watching a movie & finishing my aunt's fingerless gloves. Life is very good.

Quite a lot of stitching

2008-10-29T13:28:00.003-04:00

I love to knit, but this is C-R-A-Z-Y. I can't imagine how many stitches went into this video; the counter near the end suggests there were ~720 panels created:

New Music Tuesday

2008-10-14T09:06:00.002-04:00

Sarcasmo's death still hits me hard & at unexpected times.

I had the pleasure of accompanying her a few times to live music shows around Philadelphia so she could review them for Phillyist; one such show was to see Sarah Blasko and Ray LaMontagne at the Merriam Theater. It was a fantastic show: both performers were amazing, and despite never having heard either of them before that night, I quickly became a die-hard fan of both artists.

She & I liked to share our imaginary musician boyfriends - we weren't greedy with the goofy pre-teen-like affection we had for excellent singers - and Ray became our shared imaginary boyfriend Right Away. That man can sing my grocery list and I'd pay rapt attention.

He released a new album (CD? they'll always be "albums" to me) today; it's his first release since she died. His first release that she (presumably) can't hear, that we can't discuss over hot chocolate or coffee or red wine. He's on tour to support the release, and while he scheduled a stop at an intimate local venue, I couldn't bring myself to go without her: I didn't want to go with anyone else but her, and going by myself would've made me feel her absence more than usual. So, I just didn't go. I both want to download my pre-ordered copy as soon as I get home & wait until... I don't know what, but just wait.

Dammit. I miss her so much.

Some stuff

2008-09-02T21:44:00.003-04:00

1. My dad & grandpa are ahead of their time. They've always worked with sheet metal, and have always had horrid cuts from the sharp edges of that sheet metal, and they've always used their always-handy Duct Tape as bandages. Now there are bona fide Duct Tape bandages. Check it.

2. My current favorite free iPhone app is "More Cowbell!" Really, it's because of apps like this, a free cowbell, that the iPhone & iPod touch were invented.

3. The Young Sir has a half day of high school tomorrow. Young Sir. High School. Those concepts are just not computing for me. I used to read the kid stories, and help him get ready for bed, and wrap Christmas toys from Santa for him. High School. WTF?! How do these things happen?

4. Everyone has gone to bed for the night except Toby the Bad Cat; he's keeping me company while I hem the Young Sir's school uniform pants. When I'm the only one awake, it's easy to imagine I'm the only person alive. Such a weird thought.

5. I'm considering eating some of the cheese I bought for Chico, and maybe having a glass of wine to go with it. Sarcasmo would approve - wine & cheese make everything better. But, I'll indulge after I finish hemming the pants; no kid wants to start high school with pants hemmed by a slightly tipsy mom.

HIGH SCHOOL?! Again, WTF?!

Freaking out a little here...

Japanese Pattern Books, take 2

2008-09-01T11:06:00.002-04:00

The Young Sir asked me today why I had Japanese knitting pattern books; his theory (and it was a good one) was that I'd ordered them online, expecting English books, but received Japanese books by mistake.

Chico piped up that I went to a local store & bought them on purpose. The Young Sir's bemused look spoke volumes. :D

But! Interpreting them may not be as bad as I first thought: the instructional pictures are translating well into the stitches I know, and I can use the Japanese characters next to the how-to instructions for matching instructions in the patterns & charts. Shouldn't be terrible.

(And, if I get really stuck, I'll ask one of Chico's coworkers/friends who understands Japanese to help me out.)

In which I am an ambitious, international idiot

2008-08-31T20:10:00.005-04:00

I sort of had a falling-down in my desire to go on a yarn/pattern/needles/accessories diet. I completely blame Ravelry & Stacy.

Ravelry enabled me to buy two skeins of German hand-dyed sock yarn; the colors are unbelievably rich & vibrant in the pictures, so I can only imagine what they'll be like in person. There were about 20 other colors that appealed to me, but alas - international shipping & the weak dollar-to-euro relationship were strong deterrents. But, before long, skeins of Bogey & Dragon Fire will be mine. With patience, I'll also acquire skeins of Army of Orcs, Fairy Garden, Rainbow, Minotaur, Pegasus, Basilisk, Sword of Fire, River of Wishes, Earth Magic, Fire Magic, Stone Magic, and Magic Rose.

But! That's not even ambitious idiocy - that's just fiscal irresponsibility. The ambitious idiocy comes in the form of two new pattern books. First, Rosie's Yarn Cellar blogged about Japanese pattern books; I was able to resist from afar. Then Stacy (store manager of RYC) had to bring one of the books to yoga this morning, and that sealed my fate. She called Kate & had one held aside for me. I headed to the store after yoga & brunch and left with two Japanese pattern books (!!!), one needle felting project book (tiny! needle felted! animals!), and yarn for 2 pairs of socks.

What the hell?! I don't speak or read Japanese. Sure, the patterns are inspiring and have what appear to be great instructional charts, but... I can't even tell what the names of the books are¹! I have the green-mitten & grey-gloves books from Rosie's blog post. Thank goodness for Ravelry; I can probably find some kind soul to get me started.

¹ Edited to add: Thanks to the site YesAsia.com, I now know that my green mitten Japanese knitting book is named "Scandinavia's Kawaii Knitting." I haven't yet found the grey glove book's name. This is important to no one but me. :D

Chico for President?

2008-08-29T20:57:00.002-04:00

Hold on to your pants, America... Chico is running for president.

Hausfrau Silliness

2008-08-28T23:29:00.004-04:00

Scoring:
0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)
25-41 - Poor
42-58 - Average
59-75 - Superior
76+ - Very Superior

As a 1930s wife, I am
Average

Take the test!

New celebrity crush

2008-06-28T17:00:00.002-04:00

I've developed a new celebrity crush. On WALL-E.

It'll never work out: he's animated, I'm live... he's far in the future, I'm right now... he loves EVE, I love Chico... he's a robot, I'm human...

But I love him just the same.

Civic Duty

2008-06-24T19:26:00.002-04:00

Dudes! I was selected for jury duty *again*! This means I have a 100% success rate of being chosen for jury duty. I'm on another criminal trial, but at least this one isn't a murder trial.

The judge expects we'll begin deliberations tomorrow & that the trial will conclude tomorrow. We'll see.

I'm a cog in the wheel of justice! I'm serving my county and neighbors!

Oh, and if ever you're at the Delaware County Courthouse, about to order lunch from the cafeteria, do yourself a favor and do not get the Grilled Cheese Hamburger. You might be intrigued by the title. You might want to see for yourself how a Grilled Cheese Hamburger differs from a plain old cheeseburger. They are similar, but not the same. I wasn't impressed by the Grilled Cheese Hamburger.

Recent Happenings

2008-06-20T09:38:00.005-04:00

It's hard for me to believe that the year is about half over already; the past few weeks have flown by especially quickly. Here are some recent happenings:

Sissy and KC (her husband) drove out for a visit; we spent two weekends together, with them exploring Canada and upstate New York while we were working. We visited the Statue of Liberty & Coney Island the first weekend, and we went to Rittenhouse Square for WWKIP Day, followed by a trip to Circus School, the next weekend. At circus school, I learned... I need more practice at circus school.

We also ate cake & fought zombies with Ivano, Peccable, TrackerNeil, and Amy F. That was a good time. Peccable & TrackerNeil have big things going on; I'm so pleased for them. They're delightful separately, fantastic together, and I love them dearly.

Chico received a bonsai tree for Father's Day. It was well-received.

Roxy, the new Bad Cat of the house, decided it would be a Good Idea to break through one of the window screens in pursuit of a bird outside & stubbornly spent some time on the roof. I'm not sure I like having the humans outnumbered by the animals, but we're such suckers for homeless animals.

I'm an entrelac-knitting fool these days. Once Baby Burno's blanket is done, I'm going to rip back Baby Eriksen's blanket & start over with this entrelac pattern.

We have a boatload of things we need to do this weekend, but all I really want to do is make a light picnic and spend time out in a park.

I enjoyed this daily fiction story quite a bit.

Tomorrow, I will be 0x24 in hexadecimal.

I have jury duty on Tuesday; I don't mind going to jury duty, but I hope I'm not selected for another murder trial. I didn't care much for having that kind of responsibility for judging someone else's life.

Next Friday, we're going with a whack of people to see the Camden Riversharks play baseball. I've gotten so spoiled by having a minor league team so close; I love going to their games.

Birthday

2008-06-10T08:30:00.002-04:00

Happy birthday, Pal. I wish you all the Capogiro you care to eat, all the books you care to read, and all the music you care to dance to.

Entrelac!

2008-06-04T23:43:00.004-04:00

Man, who knew that knitting entrelac was so freakin' cool?! I didn't, until tonight.

I cast on for this blanket for a baby due in July, and I like the pattern so much that I may frog the other baby blanket on the needles & make another of the entrelac blankets instead. The yarn is a lovely variegated superwash merino from Artyarns in the cappucino colorway. If it weren't so late (and I wasn't so tired), I'd stay up later to make more little diamonds.

Plus, entrelac is fun to say. Give it a try... entrelac! Entrelac! ENTRELAC! For maximum fun, say it in the spirit of Valerie the witch from The Princess Bride saying "Humperdinck."

OOH! Or maybe go a little wild and say "Entrelac Humperdinck!"

Something that sucks

2008-06-03T11:35:00.004-04:00

Chico's & my Raleigh bicycles were stolen from our garage late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. We'd only had them for about 10 months and took excellent care of them. The rat bastards were "kind" enough to leave the Young Sir's bike behind; whoever stole ours must have known that Raleigh bikes are more expensive than Trek bikes. We invested in quality bikes, thinking we'd have them for a really long time.

Chico filed a police report while I called our homeowner's insurance agency. We can file a claim, but after our deductible & the 3-year loss of our "claim free credit" the cost would be higher than what we'd receive from the claim.

So. If we want to replace our bikes, we'll have to do it at our own expense.

I'm so angry at the person or people who stole them. You know, we do the right thing and don't bother people, we save our money so we can buy things for us to enjoy, we do what we're "supposed" to do, and some asshat comes along and steals what we earned & enjoy as if the asshat were somehow entitled to do so.

The asshat has deprived us of the enjoyment we got from riding our bikes. Deprived me of the fun of riding down a hill after the work of riding up the hill.

I don't want to hear any nonsense about how our bikes were just material things, and I shouldn't be attached, and maybe some "poor soul" stole the bikes so s/he can ride back & forth to work. Screw that.

They were our bikes. We worked for them. We bought them. They were ours. No one else's. Unless the universe drops some kind of gift into our laps, we can't replace them.

I curse whoever stole them. I hope whoever stole them gets violently, vomitingly, disgustingly ill every time they hear one of their top 20 favorite songs, for the next 850 months.

My stash is now a little scary

2008-06-02T10:40:00.003-04:00

Not that long ago, I cleaned up... organized... purged... whatever... my knitting yarn stash. I vowed that I was going on a yarn diet because a) I was running out of space to store new yarn, and b) I've got a lot of yarn. Not comparatively, mind you. Lots of knitters have stashes much, much larger than mine; but, I discovered during that cleaning that I already had lots of lovely yarn that I couldn't wait to knit into lovely items for myself & others. Hence, the declared yarn diet.

I completely blew off that diet, like many dieters do, I suppose. I mean... just completely. First there was a Ravelry yarn crawl with other local knitters, then it was Maryland Sheep & Wool, and then a "few skeins" of sock yarn for Chico since most of my sock yarn is pink (for me!), then it was Koigu mill ends at Rosie's Yarn Cellar. Those activities, coupled with the axiom "sock yarn doesn't count as stash," just killed that diet. I mean, I slayed it.

So yesterday, I re-organized the stash. I didn't purge anything though, because it was all (all!) Good Stuff. Holy cats. I packed all the synthetic & cotton yarns (my least favorites, not that there's anything wrong with them) into one of those plastic zippered bed-in-a-bag bags and... moved the huge-ass bag to somewhere outside the main stash.

I now have yarn stashed in two (two!) places in our home. The second mini-stash is out of site, but... I'm a little surprised at myself & a little ashamed. Yikes. I have a lot of yarn, by my personal standards.

I'm reinstating the diet, and I vow to be completely serious about it this time. Girl Scout's Honor¹.

¹ I use "Girl Scout's Honor" as a pledge, as this lady does.

Alpacas of Gettysburg

2008-06-01T16:46:00.001-04:00

Chico took me to a suri alpaca farm yesterday as a belated anniversary present. The farm is about 3 hours away in Gettysburg, but the drive wasn't bad... I knitted some of the way there & back.

The farm's name is Alpacas of Gettysburg, and the owners (Larry & Helen Hornbake) are wonderful & really nice. I learned all about their farm, got to feed the alpaca, and even "kissed" the alpacas who didn't mind kissing.

My Flickr photos are here if you're interested. And, if you're interested in visiting the farm or buying suri fleece for handspinning, contact the Hornbakes - they welcome visitors.

I had a great time.

What the hell?!

2008-05-27T21:28:00.004-04:00

So I'm making my first ever pair of toe-up socks; this method is good if you have a limited or unknown amount of yarn - you knit the important bits first (the toe, foot, and heel) and then keep going up the leg until you run out of yarn.

I've done everything you're supposed to: I've read through the pattern to make sure it makes sense to me, I've checked for errata, and I've assembled all my materials.

And now this damn method is as odd to me as... as... I don't know what, but it's pretty damn odd. I just can't see how what I'm doing is going to make anything vaguely sock-like.

I guess I'll trust the pattern & the hundreds of Ravelers who've made socks from it, but... damn, it's so freakin' weird.

ETA: Ah, I get it now. I trusted the pattern & just went with the instructions, and I found myself with the toe of a sock. Whoever came up with this method is pretty freakin' smart.

A Walk in the Cities

2008-05-27T13:23:00.002-04:00

I often read the day's Everyday Fiction story over lunch; they're short and often pretty darn good.

I especially enjoyed this submission, A Walk in the Cities by David Macpherson.

What'll fit in an Aveo hatchback?

2008-05-20T20:17:00.002-04:00

Our car, a 2005 Chevrolet Aveo hatchback, is the perfect size for us - it'll seat 4 comfortably and is still easy to parallel park in the city. Today it held: 8 wooden folding chairs, a folding table large enough for 8 people, a box of 12 wine glasses, a queen-sized bed-in-a-bag set, 8 placemats, 8 regular bowls, 11 dinner plates, 8 dessert plates, 1 large serving bowl, 1 chip-and-dip server, 2 outdoor candles, Chico, and me.

Plus all the nonsense we normally have in the trunk.

Shelly is a great car. :)

Things which are good

2008-05-15T09:22:00.002-04:00

Today is my Friday; we're driving down to Washington DC tomorrow to attend a friend's USMC retirement ceremony & party afterwards.

And! Earl Allen is driving down today to spend the weekend with us.

Ravelry user Sayga created sweaters for some chickens. They're completely awesome.
Sissy and her husband might be coming out for a visit this month! That'd be really great, but I won't get my hopes up too much until it's confirmed.

It's a gorgeous day outside; it smells like a school field trip day.

International Towel Day

2008-05-14T09:04:00.002-04:00

Here it is, 2008, seven years after Douglas Adams' passing, and I'm only now finding out about International Towel Day. From the Wikipedia.org article:

Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams. The commemoration was first held in 2001, two weeks after his death on May 11, 2001. On this day, fans carry a towel with them during the day to demonstrate their participation and mourning of the author. The towel is a reference to Adams's popular science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The official Towel Day website is here.

Sheep & Wool 2008

2008-05-08T16:07:00.003-04:00

I haven't had a chance to post my finds from Maryland Sheep & Wool here yet; I did take pictures of my finds & add them to my Ravelry stash, though. I didn't go too crazy this year, for a few reasons: I'm already at SABLE levels (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, meaning I have more yarn than I can reasonably knit given the limited free time I have now) and I didn't find too much stuff that I could only find at the festival. As more and more beautiful yarns and needles find their way online (hello, Etsy!), the uniqueness of festival-only items seems to be diminishing. I'm not complaining, mind you; it's great being able to support smaller-scale artisans year round.

This year, my main focus was on attending meetups rather than on buying yarn. The Ravelry meetup Saturday afternoon was *packed*. It was so great to meet Jess & Casey in person. They were swamped like the rock stars they are! I also got a chance to meet most of the Ravelry helpers who showed me the ropes when I first received my invitation; that was also supercool.

From the Ravelry meetup, I moved on to the Knitter's Review meetup as hosted by the super smart & friendly Clara Parkes. If you're considering working with a new-to-you yarn or want to learn more about yarn in general, Clara's your lady; she's the author of the wonderfully informative book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn. Clara's write-up of the festival can be found here; evidence of my profound non-photogenic-ness (as well as my new cowgirl boots & hot pink socks) made it to the write-up. :)

I was very saddened to learn of the thefts & vandalism at this year's festival. I know crime is everywhere, but come on. Can't there be one little oasis of safety and goodness out there?

My job, in video form

2008-05-08T13:27:00.000-04:00

Professional Cat Herding.

Imagine me squealing...

2008-05-02T19:46:00.003-04:00

...in a pitch that only dogs and dolphins can hear.

Despite starting off rather craptacularly, the day is winding down quite nicely:

Chico, the Young Sir, and I had a great dinner at our favorite local restaurant.

I'm all set for Maryland Sheep & Wool tomorrow. Aieee! Aieeee! It's finally here!

The summer issue of Interweave Knits arrived today.

So! Did! My! Ball winder! I already have my swift, so now I can wind hanks into yarn cakes with style and verve!

I found a jumbo size box of Bottle Caps candy at Target the other night; I'm eating only my favorite flavors - cola and root beer.

Tonight, I'll play with some yarn while winding it into cakes and then take a nice bath; I've got some great Lush bath bombs to choose from, some red wine to drink, and a new knitting magazine to peruse. After that, it's off to bed early and then onto a bus filled with other fiber freaks to spend a whole day amongst My Kind. As if the yarn and animals weren't good enough, there'll also be lots of Ravelry people to meet.

AND! My super awesome mom will be here in just ONE WEEK. One week from today, from right now, she will BE HERE.

Ah yes, life is quite good.

Need to feel some sugary emotional happiness?

2008-04-29T13:12:00.000-04:00

Go read this prose. Go on, read it.

In which technology enhances my dorkitude

2008-04-28T23:10:00.003-04:00

I'm preparing for the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival; last year was my first year attending and I just sort of winged it.

This year, I've added web clips of the fairgounds map, vendor list, and event schedule to my iPhone.

I took it a bit further and scanned a laminated yarn requirements guide I have, cropped & saved each topic (sweaters, vests, hats, socks, etc.) into separate PNG files, saved the images to both my website & my iPhone's photo library, created an iPhone-friendly HTML page with links to the different images, and created an iPhone-friendly icon for the page so I could save it as a pretty web clip.

That's pretty dorky, even if I am quite pleased with myself.

Balance

2008-04-16T14:08:00.003-04:00

I currently have two tattoos, and both are on my right side. I've been planning to get a third one of something in particular on my left side but hadn't given much thought to what I'd get as a fourth to balance me out.

Then Aerenchyma comes along, with her contemplation of getting a knitting tattoo, and that strikes me as a Good Idea.

Naturally, I just did a Google & Google image search for "knitting tattoos." Most were of the ball-of-yarn-plus-needles variety, but one very striking one was of a star filled in with stockinette stitches. I bet lots of stitch patterns would make good tattoos - cables? lace? Another one that caught my eye had a Japanese-style cat hugging the ball of yarn & needles.

I need to look around a bit for ideas. If I see any really cool ones at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (aside: It's only Two! Weeks! Away! Yeehaw!) I'll ask the tattoo-sporter if I may take a picture of it for inspiration. ;)

Nerds are Funny

2008-04-14T11:56:00.003-04:00

Do you have a nerd in your life who mystifies you? Or, are you a nerd who likes to read things about your kind? If so, check out the Nerd Handbook. It's pretty accurate.

And, this one section describes well why Movie Night was often one continuous stream of Funny:

Nerds are [redacted] funny. Your nerd spent a lot of his younger life being an outcast because of his strange affinity with the computer. This created a basic bitterness in his psyche that is the foundation for his humor. Now, combine this basic distrust of everything with your nerd’s other natural talents and you’ll realize that he sees humor is another game.

Humor is an intellectual puzzle, "How can this particular set of esoteric trivia be constructed to maximize hilarity as quickly as possible?" Your nerd listens hard to recognize humor potential and when he hears it, he furiously scours his mind to find relevant content from his experience so he can get the funny out as quickly as possible.

Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt

2008-04-04T15:58:00.002-04:00

I have an account with ThinkGeek.com, my personal favorite internet source for geeky/nerdy/dorky items. Each year on April Fool's day, they send out a "product" newsletter with bogus stuff - I completely fell for it the first year, but now I just look forward to what their imaginations come up with.

This year's newsletter featured a product that wasn't so weird as to be outside the realm of possibility - the Personal Soundtrack Shirt. I clicked through only to be told it was a fake item, but I really expected it to be a real thing lumped into the fake stuff, so no one would buy it, and *that* would've been the joke.

But! Apparently, they've gotten overwhelming demand for it so now they're going to really make one. Heh.

That's what you get, ThinkGeek! You had to expect this eventually. You can't expect to keep giving us awesome fake products every year and expect us to leave you alone.

Heh.

Danger Man

2008-04-04T10:14:00.003-04:00

Do yourself a favor and go read my friend RJK's post about how he's a Danger Man. I'll give you a little preview as a further incentive:

I've waited until "9" in my dad's 10 count to discipline.

You know how when you get together with someone, you usually get all their detritus - friends, family, pets, baggage, quirks, etc. - as part & parcel of the deal?

Well, I got RJK via my relationship with Chico, and this pleases me a great deal. He's a cool cat, that RJK.

Why People Do What They Do

2008-04-03T13:32:00.004-04:00

Ever have those moments where you hear or read about something that you already know, but the way the thing is presented finally crystallizes it for you?

People follow their strongest impulses. It's pure luck of the genetic and environmental draw if your strongest impulses are socially acceptable.

This crystallized, for me, why people do what they do. It's something I already realized in a more nebulous, hand-waving way but now the concept is firmly locked in my head in a much shorter, more succinct way.

Please forgive the shouting, but...

2008-04-02T17:15:00.003-04:00

HOLY SHIT! MY MOM IS COMING OUT FOR A VISIT!

You don't understand. My mom is FREAKIN' AWESOME and I see far too little of her. She just up & bought her plane ticket as a surprise.

She'll be here the second weekend of May. If she had chosen the first weekend of May I would have either a) missed the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and the Ravelry meetups that go along with that, or b) dragged my Mom with me to the festival.

You all know me pretty well. I think you all know what would have happened. Fortunately, I think my mom would've gotten a kick out of the festival - she likes animals - but we don't have to test that theory.

HOLY SHIT! MY MOM WILL BE HERE SOON! I CAN'T WAIT!!

(Now I have to arrange to see my Sissy soon, too.)

Troublemaker(1)

2008-04-01T21:28:00.007-04:00

Ravelry's lone Code Monkey, Casey, loves us all so much that he gave us several April Fool's Day pranks:

Hats for all! Every avatar received some kind of hat or thing on their "head." There were chef hats, folded paper hats, bishop's miters, magician's hats, cowboy hats, angry purple monkeys, WWII-style helmets, penguins, witch's hats, cat-in-the-hat hats, knitted hats, pilgrim hats, top hats, Uncle Sam hats, parrots, and one halo. I received a witch's hat. Appropriate, no?

Some of us (*ahem*) were labeled troublemakers. I'm completely mystified as to why *I* was labeled a troublemaker.

My friend Bubbo's forum posts were all timestamped in Clown Pants Time. There are 10 pants on the clown clock. No, I don't expect this to make sense to you. Yes, it makes sense to me. Yes, I'm mostly writing this post so I don't forget all the silly things we received today.

Our library shelves contained two new books: "Champion," featuring Fabio, and "The Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller. Clicking on the crochet book took you to the actual crochet book, while clicking on the Fabio book took you to his fan club's site.

Forum posts have 5 buttons/tags under them: educational, interesting, agree, disagree, and love. All of the buttons skittered away from your mouse when you tried to click them.

A celebrity knitter joined our ranks today; in her profile, she's promoting a little yarn-related movie that she's working on.¹

The most popular yarn was changed from something good to something... a little hideous.

It was a fun day. I can only imagine what Jess & will come up with next year. Maybe fake moths in our stashes?!

¹I didn't care for the book, so I don't think I'll care for the movie. Normally, it's one I might watch on DVD but I'm considering going to the theater just to see all the knitters & hookers turn up with their projects and headlamps/lighted needles.

Bad Toby Rides Again

2008-03-30T23:45:00.002-04:00

Regular readers know that our black & white cat, Toby, received the dubious honor of being nicknamed "Bad Toby" because he acted so badly. Notable incidents include: knocking a glass of orange juice into my Apple Sunflower iMac (which was really my fault, because liquids don't belong near computers especially when the "guts" of the computer are on the bottom of the lamp-like base); knocking over & shattering a large decorative clay pot (while I was trying to revive the poor sad iMac from the orange juice incident); napping in the shards of the large decorative clay pot; repeatedly climbing onto the top of the refrigerator & leaping over to the bookshelf that held my yarn when it was a wee tiny little stash; strewing the stash yarn from one end of the apartment to the other; ruining a sweater in progress & two balls of $12 Malabrigo yarn; and shredding a new suit Chico bought to wear to a wedding before Chico had a chance to box it up for safekeeping.

Bad Toby did all this before he was two years old. It's a miracle he lived to see three. He's very sweet and loving, but he was also Very Bad.

Now that he's older, he hasn't pulled any shenanigans for a really long time. Frankly, I thought he'd grown out of his badness completely (but I still call him Bad Toby because you don't pull all those stunts and then lose your nickname after a while of behaving).

I spent Friday night formatting & refilling my iPod. I heard what can only be described as a ruckus but didn't think too much about it; it sounded like Toby & Zoe chasing each other around the living room. Eventually, Chico came downstairs and said in a cautious or halting tone that he thought I should come into the living room. There's a particular tone of voice he uses when there's yarn-related trouble, so I knew that was the basis.

Bad Toby had gone into my purse/knitting bag... dug the ball of sock yarn out *without* disturbing anything else (namely, my nearly-completed sock)... and had strewn the ball of hot pink yarn all over the living & dining rooms.

All I could do was laugh - he'd left the important thing alone, the yarn wasn't too expensive ($4 for the ball), he didn't snag or ruin the yarn, and he'd obviously had a good time.

Frankly, I'm happy he hasn't forgotten how to play. I'm not going to tempt him by leaving a sweater unattended, but it won't bother me too much if he unrolls other balls of sock yarn... just as long as he leaves the sock in progress alone!

Hodge-podge

2008-03-26T08:43:00.003-04:00

I don't have anything substantial to say in this blog post - what's new, right? - so here are a few things on my mind.

I may have a sickness/obsession. I've been trying very hard (and succeeding) to not buy yarn from the internet unless I've worked with it before; too often, the new stuff would arrive and not be exactly as soft as I would prefer. But, I read about a merino/cashmere/silk blend in this blog post and made impulse buy (I know, I know... self control out the window and all that nonsense) after asking via a comment if it was as soft as I'd expect and the blog author commenting back, "Yes, super duper soft." How could I not, when the blog author described it thusly?
It's called Milan. It's from Tilli Tomas. It's hand-dyed. And (here's the really evil part) it's made from Merino, Silk and Cashmere. Yes, cashmere. Kinda like Koigu meets cocaine. Except legal, safe and socially acceptable.

It finally (finally!) arrived on Monday. It's the softest most soft sock yarn that's ever been soft. It is special. It is My Precious. I held it and smooshed it while I was reading in bed Monday night; Chico caught me and was, I think, bemused and a little afraid for my sanity. He banned yarn from the bed, and I summarily ignored him. My three skeins of Peonies are a little bit of heaven.

You might be asking me, "But wouldn't just 2 skeins give you a pair of socks? Why would you buy 3 skeins?" to which I would reply, "You be quiet. If you must know, two skeins are for socks and one skein is for just in case & fondling. Also, shut up."

I bought a digital kitchen scale for use in the kitchen. If Chico tells you I bought it so I could weigh yarn & evenly divide single skeins into multiple skeins (which is useful if you have one skein of something yummy and you want to make some toe-up socks so as not to waste even a little bit) - and in fact he witnessed me doing that just last night - then he is lying. While other people (knitters, crocheters, spinners, and dyers) may use *their* digital kitchen scales to weigh yarn to create even balls or find out more info about unlabeled skeins, I am only using mine in the kitchen. For kitchen things. Like cooking.

Our Yoga class leader was a little deflated on Sunday morning. I asked if all was well, and she replied that it was just drama in her life weighing on her. The drama must have been catching, because we had some drama of our own. Yeah, there's that thing about how you can't control anyone else - you can only control your reactions - and it's true. But still, unwelcome drama sucks even if you are trying to be all Zen about it.

In the course of resolving the drama, I discovered a new-to-me sandwich shop. The owner is from Milan, which makes sense given that sandwich choices were very European in nature. I chose the Tris: prosciutto, sliced tomatoes, olive paste, and brie toasted together on some kind of not-too-soft, not-too-hard, kind-of-sweet bread. I'm thinking of going back today. So, discovering the shop was a nice side effect to resolving the drama.

Anyone who does not have my sister as their own sister - which is all of you and not me, ha! - should be jealous of me. Sissy sent me a pink t-shirt from the best burger joint in the Whole World, Stoplight Diner in Festus/Crystal City, just because she knew I'd like it. She will receive some socks as thanks, even though she didn't ask for anything in return (she never does - she's a selfless giver, my Sissy).

I am making socks as if it's a moral imperative to do so. Progress on other things? Meh, not so much.

I burned an MP3 cd of The Roots last night to keep in the car, and darned if I didn't leave it at home. Dammit.

I especially like this Exploding Dog comic named "I made you a mix tape":

No! I like it in here.

2008-03-21T09:56:00.002-04:00

I had forgotten how much I love this movie trailer until it came up tangentially in a work conversation.

The voice-over guy is Hal Douglas, not to be confused with the other voice-over guy Don LaFontaine.

What's that got to do with it?

2008-03-19T14:14:00.002-04:00

Funny story.

The Young Sir and I both really like Irish Potato candies around St. Patrick's Day. A guy I work with makes fantastic Irish Potatoes, knows I love them, and was kind enough to bring me some that he & his daughter had made.

I took some of them home for the Young Sir, who quite happily scarfed them down. Afterwards, Chico looks at the Young Sir and states his amazement over the Young Sir eating Irish Potatoes since the Young Sir professes to not like coconut. The Young Sir looks at Chico and asks, "What's that got to do with it?"

Chico and I look at each other, look at him, and then explain that coconut is the main ingredient in Irish Potatoes. He didn't believe Chico (because Chico teases us & makes up stories so often) but he believed it coming from me after I showed him an internet recipe for them.

I'm curious to see what he'll do next year around St. Patrick's Day - he used to eat granola bars like they were going out of style until he realized they had nuts in them. Since he decided he was "allergic" to nuts, he was immediately & suddenly "allergic" to granola bars as well.

Silly kid. :-)

Don't go big, go BirBig!

2008-03-16T17:35:00.002-04:00

My favorite comedian, Mike Birbiglia, has a newly-greenlit pilot in the works for CBS.

It might we weird to be proud of someone you don't really know (we've emailed back & forth a little, and he kindly donated stuff for Sarcasmo's memorial auction) but I don't care.

I'm proud of him & really hope he makes it big.

DO NOT WANT

2008-03-10T20:59:00.004-04:00

I don't want these so much that I'll shout it again. DO NOT WANT.

Scissor spiders, courtesy of Uncrate

Good Day

2008-03-07T19:34:00.002-05:00

You know how some days are really crappy and make you wish you'd never bothered to get out of bed?

This is not one of those days.

The Young Sir did well on his interview for the high school we'd like him to attend, so he's officially been accepted. +1

The Young Sir is with his mom this weekend, so Chico and I have an adults-only weekend. +1

Our department went out to lunch to send off a co-worker with style, and we had great food and a great time. +1

I got to deliver good news to a direct report today, and I love doing that. +1

There's cold beer in the fridge and more in the basement when the cold ones are gone. +1

A friend's pregnant girlfriend had a health scare that required a trip to the hospital's emergency room, but mom and baby are doing well. +1

I received two new knitting pattern books and one new knitting magazine in the mail today. +1

Chico picked me up from work so I didn't have to get rained on. +1

My beloved Ravelry site is getting major notice outside the fiber world and is really doing well. +1

I'm making good progress on my mom's socks. +1

Dudes. I left a comment on the Yarn Harlot's blog (she's Hot Stuff in the knitting world - trust me) and *she emailed me in response*. The closest comparison I can make is leaving a comment on a movie star's site and having that movie star send you an email in return. Crazy! +100

As you can see, I'm pretty far ahead today. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!

Vicuna

2008-03-04T10:44:00.009-05:00

Cheese and crackers! I didn't think there was any yarn in the world more expensive than qiviut, which is made from the downy under-wool of the arctic muskox and sells for $82.55 a skein at YarnMarket.com. Each skein is 218 yards, for a per-yard price of $0.38. It's so expensive because of a) its low micron count (between 15-20), and b) how difficult it is to gather the fiber. You don't just walk up to a wild muskox and shear it like a sheep. No. You wait for it to fall off or get caught on trees & whatnot and then harvest it.

Anyway, I was wrong. There is more expensive yarn out there in the world.

A 217-yard skein of laceweight vicuna yarn is $299.85 from YarnMarket.com; that's $1.38 per yard, or $0.04 per inch.

Ever touched 100% cashmere? Know how soft it feels? That's because its micron count¹ must be less than or equal to 18.5; as a comparison, average merino wool has a micron count of 20-22, while fine merino wool has a micron count between 18-20. And, merino wool is nothing to sneeze at - it's soft, durable, and not itchy at all (unless you have a wool allergy in general).

The vicuna's micron count is reportedly 8 to 13. That makes it the softest, most soft fiber that's ever been soft. Holy cats.

Poor little vicunas were hunted to near extinction until strict guidelines for fiber collection were imposed. I'd love to see a herd in the wild. Guess I'll need to add a trip to Peru to my fantasy travel roster!

¹ A micron is one-millionth of a meter; it refers to the width of single fiber of fleece. The micron count is the average measurements within a fiber sample. Essentially, the smaller the micron count the softer the fleece & vice versa. Fibers with low micron counts, such as cashmere, are more expensive.

Mom's Birthday

2008-03-03T14:58:00.002-05:00

So March is my mom's birthday month. She's reached a point in her life where she's got darned near everything she could want, so I asked her if there was anything special she wanted the birthday fairy to bring her. Naturally, in the way of moms everywhere, she told me to save my money. I told her that the sock fairy might not have her socks finished in time for her actual birthday but they'd probably go in the mail some time in March.

She replied, "I would much rather have something that you made, than anything store bought anyday! I am glad that you both branched out from popsicle stick art though."

She's so cute. Now I have to make her something with popsicle sticks, just as a joke. I'll get Sissy involved too. Maybe her kindergarten class could help out?

Two-Step

2008-02-29T14:29:00.002-05:00

My head is stuffed with black pepper and my chest is filled with ice, but I have a nearly overwhelming urge to do the two-step. The fact that Brooks & Dunn are currently playing on my iPod is almost guaranteed to be responsible for this urge.

Damn, I miss line dancing. The next time I get up to get something off the printer, I'll do the two-step instead of walk.

Gordon Synergy

2008-02-28T12:33:00.003-05:00

I have a picture of a young me with Sesame Street character Gordon Robinson (the actor is Roscoe Orman, who's played Gordon since 1974).

I'm attending this year's Free Library Festival because Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (better known as the Yarn Harlot) will be there.

Who else will be at the Free Library Festival? Yes! Roscoe Orman/Gordon Robinson! I don't know what I'm more excited about: seeing the Yarn Harlot again, or possibly getting another picture taken with Gordon.

Zombie Brain

2008-02-28T10:40:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty sure this flu has killed me and I'm now "living" as a zombie. I dreamed last night that I was a spinner in addition to being a knitter, and now I'm listening to Kelly Clarkson.

Yep. All that's left is me coming after your brains. Don't worry though, no one's gonna eat your eyes.

Squash Cancer

2008-02-27T08:59:00.002-05:00

A new friend, Jennifer, plans to walk in the Philadelphia 3-Day Walk organized to fight against breast cancer. She must raise $2200 before she's allowed to walk. Her donation page is here; can/will you send a little donation her way to help her out?

The Breast Cancer 3-Day is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. Net proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust, funding important breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment.

Weekend Update

2008-02-24T23:06:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, Chico & I bought his motorcycle. It's pretty nifty. It'll be even niftier when we get it registered so he can actually ride it. If it's driving me nuts just sitting still in the garage, I can't imagine how nuts it's driving him.

Today, I went on a yarn crawl after yoga with three other lovely Ravelry members (Jessica, Dana, and Natalie). I'm very proud of myself; I showed unprecedented restraint and only bought materials that were tied to specific projects (hand-painted sock yarn for gloves, my first Koigu for socks, feltable wool for a bag, and yarn for a hat or scarf).

Also, we are sick. Avoid us. Chico's much more sick than I am, but I'm sick enough now to sign off & go to bed. Feh.

When will spring be here?

ETA: Here are pictures of Chico's new motorcycle.

Way too cute

2008-02-21T21:11:00.001-05:00

Blog, meet Bob. Bob is the Official Ravelry Mascot and deputy code monkey.

Quick Updates

2008-02-19T12:11:00.003-05:00

I'm giving my brain a rest in between writing database queries that will dump non-standard test data into a standard format for import into another database altogether, so here's a quick update.

I feel like the yoga class Chico and I attend on Sunday mornings is starting to pay off for me regarding my goal to be more flexible - this past Sunday, I was able to do some weird lizard pose thing and a majestic-looking shoulder stand. No one told me my shoulder stand was majestic, but I feel that it was. (The Sunday class on their website isn't accurate; our class runs from 10am - 11:45am and is led by Victoria.) I'm a little surprised by how much I enjoy the class & don't want to miss it; I had tried yoga in the past, at home, and didn't see what all the fuss was about. Our class' leader, Victoria, projects joy and seems to be a radiantly good-natured person; her corrections to my poses are always kind and not judgmental, which I appreciate.

We're investigating a used motorcycle for Chico and will drive to see it this Saturday. I hope it'll fit the bill; he's wanted one for a few years now but he's a picky, picky soul who must have perfection in nearly everything. Good thing he wound up with me, since I'm perfection in Womanly Form. Just kidding. I'm only near perfect. Whoo, I crack myself up!

Ravelry continues to suck up my time. In addition to regular knitting, I'm now doing charity knitting and swapping handmade greeting cards with other Ravelers.

There's a yarn crawl next Sunday, after yoga, that'll let me meet more Ravelry knitters & crocheters. The ones I've met thus far have been delightful. And, for the first time, I'm considering attending Stitches East in hopes of meeting lots of Ravelers as well as Jess & Casey, the Ravelry creators. Stitches East isn't until November 2008, so I have a while to decide, but I'm already thinking about it. Obsessed much? No, why do you ask?

And while we're on the subject of fiber arts, I wish I knew how to crochet for the sole reason that they're known as "hookers" or "crotch-a-teers." "Knitter" seems so tame in comparison.

I bought a whole whack of Anna Hrachovec's impossibly cute toy patterns from her site, MochiMochiLand.com. My favorites include the ninjabun & tubby patterns, but they're all fantastic.

The Young Sir will be 14 years old on Sunday. I am O-L-D! He'll be with his mother this weekend as scheduled, but we'll do a little something when he gets home Sunday night.

Chico's medication seems to have his rheumatoid arthritis under control, for the most part. This is a very good thing.

In a really weird turn of events, my sister's husband KC also has a rheumatic disease named ankylosing spondylitis (which I can now spell without looking up). He'll be taking the same injectable medicine, Humira, that Chico takes. Freakin' weird, I say.

Alas, I again did not win anything in my company's annual raffle. It's an interesting setup: employees receive a set number of raffle tickets to award to coworkers for exhibiting the company's values, and then there's a drawing for prizes where the giver's comments are read aloud to the entire company. While I would like to have won a prize, I really wanted to win something/anything so that one of my ticket giver's comments would have been read aloud for all to hear - he wrote "You are the spit that keeps all the cowlicks down around here!" Really, it would have been awesome for our CEO to have awarded me a fabulous week-long vacation/trip on the basis of that comment. And yes, that's a high compliment from the person who awarded me that raffle ticket.

Ever get the feeling that you're molting? Maybe it's the upcoming spring that's the culprit, but I'm contemplating the things in my life that are and are not working for me at this time and am thinking about doing some... pruning... for lack of a better term.

As of right now, my lottery-winning-early-retirement plan has not come to fruition. This is mostly due to the fact that I don't play the lottery. That tiny fact does not stop me from daydreaming about how I'll wisely spend my mega millions once I win them. Odd, but staying grounded in reality was never a strong point of mine.

That's all I have. Back to my attempts to standardize some non-standard data.

Late to the party

2008-02-14T10:17:00.002-05:00

I'm probably late to the party & everyone already knows about FutureMe, but now that I know about it, I'll need to start sending emails to my future self.

I imagine I'll remind my future self about good but inconsequential things that happened throughout normal days.

Like today, for instance. Chico gave me a tiny, tiny tiger flash drive as a present because he couldn't give me a real tiger like I've requested. I think I'll remind my future self of how much I liked receiving it.

The Best $0.99 I Ever Spent

2008-02-02T18:37:00.000-05:00

When we lived in our old apartment, we had two cats - Rosie and Toby. Chico asked if we could take in a stray cat found in West Philadelphia. I was against it since we already had two cats in an apartment; I didn't want to be the crazy cat people or be outnumbered by animals. I told him it was OK with me as long as the new cat, Clancy, wore a bow tie all the time.

Well, we adopted Clancy without the bow tie, largely because I never found a cat bow tie. And, he's firmly part of the family now.

We went to the store this afternoon to get clothes and science fair supplies for the Young Sir. Lo and behold! The store carried clearance-priced cat accessories.

One of which was a shirt collar. With a tie. A flowered-print tie.

Did I spend the $0.99 to buy this accessory for Clancy?

You bet your ass I did! The best part is that he doesn't even mind wearing it; he hasn't tried to take it off once.

Doesn't he look fantastic?

Edited to add: I submitted him to I Can Has Cheezburger.

Chico and Mii

2008-01-29T23:07:00.000-05:00

Psst. Don't tell Chico, but I'd love to get him custom made Mii figures of the two of us for Valentine's day. Geeky and somewhat romantic, no?

(You can also order a non-wedding themed Mii. Check out his process page and then look at the corresponding Mii gallery. Wild!)

Changes

2008-01-26T15:26:00.001-05:00

I'm making some changes to the site, and my web skills are rusty, so kindly ignore anything wonky for the time being.

First Go-Rob-A-Bank Day of 2008

2008-01-15T13:50:00.001-05:00

(Otherwise known as Macworld 2008 Keynote #1)

Oh Steve, you rascal! You have me drooling over the 1TB Time Capsule, the 160gb Apple TV, and the impossibly beautiful MacBook Air.

The new iPhone updates aren't bad, but would it have killed you to throw in MMS support? Don't get me wrong - being able to SMS multiple people will come in handy. But dude - even really old camera phones can send MMS messages. Maybe someone will take the SDK (still released in February) and make that happen.

All in all, a really exciting keynote. Way to go, Apple!

Thoughtful

2007-12-26T18:11:00.000-05:00

There's a few forum threads on Ravelry about how well/not well crafters' handmade gifts are received and whether or not it's worth it to gift non-crafters with handmade items. The posts are interesting to me, but I haven't had much to contribute to the discussions: I've been fortunate thus far with matching knitted gift items with recipients. It doesn't hurt (for me) that I'm more of a process knitter than project knitter, so as long as I'm making stitches, I'm happy. I don't make handknits for adults unless the person specifically requests something & is involved with the complete process from choosing the pattern & materials to the fittings. I offer handknits to soon-to-be-parents and let the parents say yes or no; it doesn't hurt my feelings if the parents say no, but I do like knitting for babies. Might sound silly, but I like the idea of something made by my hands possibly turning into a Blankie that the kid will tote around long past the blanket's shelf life.

About a year ago, I gifted my first ever baby blanket to a couple of friends expecting their firstborn. I planned to have it finished in time for the baby's birth, but when it was 90% completed I realized I'd mistakenly screwed up the pattern about 10% into the project and had to decide if I wanted to a) deliberately screw up the pattern again to make it look as if my mistake was deliberate, or b) rip back and do it over "right." Chico swore no one would ever know, but I knew that *I'd* know... so I ripped back, re-knit, and gave a belated gift.

I didn't hear much about the blanket at all, but meh - I'd gotten my enjoyment from making the stitches, so if the recipients were also happy with it, so much the better.

Fast forward to this past Friday, when I received a holiday card from the parents. They'd taken the time to write a very sweet & belated thank you inside the holiday card; they wrote that the blanket perfectly matched the baby's stroller, it went everywhere with them, and they were very appreciative that I took the time to create something personal for their baby. Their thanks was more than enough, but they also included about 20 custom made "Handknit by [My Name]" labels for me to sew into future projects.

I gotta tell you - that thoughtful gesture on their part made me teary eyed. :-)

No one in my house...

2007-12-10T09:23:00.001-05:00

...can complain about the amount of yarn I have *ever* *again*. Ever.

Check this out.

Now that is a serious yarn stash.

World Travelers

2007-12-08T13:15:00.000-05:00

I just finished making two knitted toys for a charity drive: a local doctor will be traveling to Botswana in January to continue his work with an AIDS clinic and orphanage. A Philadelphia-based Ravelry member put out a call to other Philadelphia knitters and crocheters:

The program also serves an orphanage where 90% of the children are "AIDS orphans." Some of the children have been placed there before their parents are dead because one or both parents are too ill with AIDS to care for their children. Remarkably, only 15% of the children are HIV-positive themselves. Because the clinic has good supplies of medications, prenatal treatment has prevented the transmission of HIV to most infants. I asked him if the children needed anything like socks or blankets and he said "YES!" Dr. [Redacted]'s only request was that the items be brightly colored.

So, here are my contributions - a knitted Tony and a knitted Amy. I hope our counterparts enjoy their journey to Botswana and make some children a little happier.

Secret Santa?

2007-12-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I received a lovely glass ornament by surprise. I thought for certain it had been sent by my aunt, as it's just the sort of thing she'd choose: unusual but pretty, handcrafted, pink (my favorite color!), and from a cooperative gallery named Craft Alliance on Delmar in St. Louis.

When I wrote to thank her for it, she said she hadn't sent it. Huh. Maybe I have a secret Santa! The alliance doesn't seem to have online shopping, so the person who sent it must have arranged it in person. Sissy and Mom are my next guesses. Maybe Dad or Jane too. Hmmmm.

Whoever sent it, thanks very much - it's delightful.

Scrubbing

2007-12-04T20:57:00.000-05:00

Today, I was alerted to the fact that some people I work with know about my blog. I mean, I knew that some people I work with knew about the blog because they're people who also blog and who I hang out with socially. These *other* work people live in the great state of Nebraska, so I don't see them much.

I found out they know about my blog because one of my other-office-in-PA-that's-not-Philadelphia friends (Chipotle!) called me on my way home just to make sure everything was OK, and that I was having a good holiday season, and that I'd be working for my current company next year. I was completely confused until he explained that someone called him to tell him they'd read on my blog that I resigned. It was a little awkward for me to explain that the whole thing was a setup for me to take a picture of a toy sitting in my chair, as if the toy were doing my job.

Then, another friend (this one in Nebraska) ~~texted~~ laid down the law that I wasn't allowed to scare the bejeezus out of him any more because his coworker read on my blog that I'd resigned. Cue the awkwardness of again explaining that the whole thing was a setup for me to take a picture of a toy sitting in my chair, as if the toy were doing my job. ;)

Positives are a) two people I like and respect were concerned and seemed upset over the thought of me resigning, and b) I totally messed with their heads even though I wasn't trying to do so.

Anyway, now that I know work folk might be checking out my blatherings, I came straight home & read through my complete archives to make extra sure I wasn't completely inappropriate here. The following conversation occurred:

Chico: Whatcha doing in there?

Me: Scrubbing my blog.

Chico: With what?

Me: (pause) With AJAX*. Bwahahahahaha!

I kid you not - I cracked my silly self up with that one. Anyway, I didn't find anything objectionable regarding work - no references to the company name or anything identifying (I think). What I *did* find was that I crack myself up. A lot. I also found that I want a lot of products from the internet. And that the Chuck Norris Facts were heretofore thought of as the Bestest Thing On The Internet.

But! That was before some Philadelphia office mates and I went bananas with the ElfYourself and ScroogeYourself sites. After normal business hours, of course. Ahem.

*For my family... why that was a punny joke: AJAX is an acronym for "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML" and is a web development technique used for creating interactive web applications. Which is what I do for work. Well, I also PhotoShop people's heads onto things where they don't belong and turn add my boss' head to a dancing Scrooge, but the web development stuff is what I get paid to do. :)

Resigning (Not Really)

2007-12-04T13:05:00.000-05:00

Based on today's events and meetings at work, I have decided to resign, effective immediately. My successor will be my homunculus, Tiny Knitted Square Amy; the pink toy in my chair is the knitted representation of me.

Edited to add: No, I'm not resigning from my job. The whole thing was a setup so I'd have an excuse to take a picture... of my knitted toy... sitting in my office chair. The idea of a pink knitted toy taking over my job cracked me up.

Holiday Movies?

2007-11-26T10:56:00.000-05:00

I love lists, and I love holiday movies, so this list of top ten family Christmas movies was right up my alley (even if I don't entirely agree with the list selections).

Naturally, that leads me to make my own list of top ten Christmas movies. In no particular order, I present the list of movies I must watch at least once each Christmas season (and woe to you if you mock them or interrupt me as I'm watching them):

It's a Wonderful Life

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated 1966 version, not the live action 2000 version)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The Family Man

All the Rankin & Bass stop-motion animation TV specials (such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin' To Town, and The Year Without a Santa Claus) and other animated specials (such as the one whose title I can never remember, about the town that builds a Christmas clock to bring Santa back after a town mouse writes a letter that makes Santa mad enough to stay away from the town).

Miracle on 34th Street

A Christmas Carol

Home Alone

The Polar Express

While You Were Sleeping (This is only loosely categorized as a Christmas movie, in that it starts out over Christmas, and I watch it all year long)

Love Actually (Also loosely categorized as a Christmas movie, and also one I could watch all year long)

What movies do you watch every holiday season? And, if you celebrate Christmas, what kicks off your Christmas season?

My personal season officially kicks off during the first weekend of December; that's when it's OK to put up the tree and other decorations. The tree goes up while holiday music plays & hot chocolate is drank, then other interior decorations go up, then finally the exterior decorations go up.

Incidentally, my Christmas season officially ends by New Year's Day - all traces of Christmas must be put away no later than January 1st.

Doing good

2007-11-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

I forget sometimes how great it feels to do good for others. I set the wheels in motion for a do-good project in a community I care about, a whole boatload of positive & like-minded people got involved, and now the people benefiting from our project are really happy about it.

I feel like I could walk on air today. :)

Apple Pie

2007-11-21T21:23:00.000-05:00

I made an apple pie today, from scratch. Well, not the crust - I don't have a rolling pin - but the filling and crumbly toppings are all me.

It tastes so terrible that I'm going to have to eat the whole damned thing myself, just to spare Chico and the Young Sir from its horrible, horrible apple-y pie taste.

(To any family members reading this: I was not kidnapped & replaced by an imposter. Nothing caught on fire, and the smoke alarms did not go off. I didn't cut myself with the paring knife while peeling the apples. This is shocking stuff, given my past exploits in the kitchen, but it's all true.)