I Feel Like A Kid In December!

Only one week left until MDS&W!! I am so excited. I've printed out the map of the fairgrounds, I've collected coupons, I've marked my map up for the booths I really want to hit, I'm pulling together my tote bag. I can't wait! Of course, come Saturday evening it'll all be over for another year. But that's Christmas, eh?

Dull weekend. Saturday wasn't bad...we went to Atwater's for lunch (yum, yum) (And I even had my camera and didn't take pictures) and went to Daedalus and did some shopping at the market. Today...nothing.

And tomorrow...back to work.

But oh boy, look out next weekend!

I'm Inordinately Fond Of Stupid Things Like This

1. Do you like bleu cheese? Yum...yes, I do. Especially in salad dressing.
   
2. Have you ever smoked? (Ummm...we're talking tobacco here, yes?) Nope. Saw an anti-smoking film in third or fourth grade. It included a cartoon sequence of a nasty little monster running around your lungs injecting them with nicotine so that they turned all green and drippy. No way I was letting anything poke needles in my lungs! (I had a thing about hypodermics.)
   
3. Do you own a gun? No.
4. Favorite type of food? Oooh, I don't know if I can decide this....something oriental I think...Japanese, Chinese or Vietnamese.
   
5. Favorite type of music? Tough one. Indie rock? Rag time? Classical? Baroque? Ballet? Gregorian chant? Any of those, as the mood takes me.
   
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I think they are made from reject meats and I don't want anything to do with them...except about once every three years when I really, really want one.
   
7. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Carol (the one with George C. Scott)
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Usually a diet soda...I know, I know...it's a terrible thing to drink.
   
9. Can you do push ups? HA HA HA ha ha ha ah ha ha ha HA HA HA....
10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? I have a fair amount of jewelry (nothing really pricey...just costume stuff mostly) and I like a lot of it but I really can't say I have a favorite. Though I guess for sentimental reasons I should say my wedding band. Which I am very fond of actually...Mr. Pointy Sticks bought it for me on my 40th birthday as a replacement to the very, very dainty one he married me with. And when the saleslady handed it to him, he slipped it on my finger and kissed me. And all the salesladies went "Awww!"
    
11. Favorite hobby? Reading, knitting, playing computer games, birding, beading.
12. Do you have A.D.D.? No.
13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? Glasses. Wore contacts for quite a while but couldn't wear them and do cross-stitch with them, so went back to glasses...which I've been wearing since I was born, it feels like.
    
14. Middle name? Linn. It was my mother's maiden name and almost all the girl cousins have it as their middle name.
    
15. Name three thoughts at this exact moment: Wish it was Friday...Should I go upstairs and watch Mad Men when I finish this?...What am I going to wear to work tomorrow?
16. Name three drinks you regularly drink: Diet Coke, fruit juice and seltzer, water.
17. Current worry? Getting Rachel situated for the summer, one place or another.
18. Current hate right now? Republicans.*
19. Favorite place to be? I love Sanibel.
20. How did you bring in the new year? I think I was asleep before midnight..
21. Someplace you’d like to go? I'm not much of a traveler, really.
22. Do you own slippers? Yes, I have some scruffy corduroy slippers and the toe of one of them is split...they really need to be replaced but I can't find any I really like.
    
23. What color shirt are you wearing? Blue
24. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? No.
25. Can you whistle? Yes, though I don't do it very well.
    
26. Where are you now? In the computer room with two sleeping (snoring) cats.
    
27. Would you be a pirate? No, I don't get all the pirate love...probably have something to do with Johnny Depp who does nothing for me.
    
28. What songs do you sing in the shower? I make up songs. The latest one was (sung to the tune of Tonight from West Side Story): "Sham Poo! Sham Poo! I only use Sham Poo. I don't use real Poo on my hair!..."
    
29. Favorite girl’s name? Oh, as soon as I write something here I'll think of another name I like as well or better. I know I should say Rachel, and I do like that name, but really it was a compromise. I like Laura a lot. And Tamar. And Ann.
    
30. Favorite boy’s name? Jacob, maybe.
    
31. What is in your pocket right now? Some snotty tissues. I took the interesting stuff (money, cell phone and keys) out as soon as I cam home..
32. Last thing that made you laugh? Watching the Daily Show from April 19th..."Those F@#king Guys!"
33. What vehicle do you drive? An old Camry...an older Volvo.
    
34. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Broken toe?!
35. Do you love where you live? Eh. It's okay. The house has no character, the neighborhood is dull...but it's okay.
    
36. How many TVs do you have in your house? Three.
37. How many computers do you have in your house? Working? Five, I think.
38. If you changed your job, what would it be? Someone independently wealthy?
    
39. If you had three wishes what would they be? That the people of the world would wise up and just get along. To see intelligent life from another planet. Long and happy lives for everyone I know.

____________

* This is sort of a gross blanket statement...there are some Republicans I know of who seem like decent guys. I just dislike (because hate is such a strong word) the loud-mouth, obstructionist, lying, idiotic Republican congressmen and spokespeople....(Palin, I'm looking at you, you evil person)...

Hello, Socks!

So, I got a new sock book this weekend....and with Charlene Schurch's name on it, you know it's going to be good.


(Not that I have anything against Beth Parrott...I just don't know her. She looks nice.)

And oh, there are some nice socks in here. There are 23 different patterns, all of which were originally patterns sent out for sock clubs or various sock knit alongs. Really there's only one pair that I can't see making for myself...they are lace-up-the-back knee highs. I just don't think I have that much sexy left in me. Plus when I showed them to Mr. Pointy Sticks and asked what he thought, he said he thought they were strange.

Here are the ones I love, love, love....


Look at those colors. Okay, most of the reason I love these is the yarn...I mean, look at those colors. They are knit from special gradient yarn from The Unique Sheep.

There are socks by names you'll recognize, I think, if you're a sock knitter...besides Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott, there's Debbie O'Neill, Judy Alexander, and these lovelies by Anne Hanson.


There's a pair that looks a lot like Monkeys and another pair that looks a lot like Jaywalkers but most of these socks are pretty and different. Some pretty cables, a pair of pretty mosiac socks, some openwork.

But the things that makes this book different is a section on how to re-size socks...by adding pattern repeats, changing gauge, changing spacing, changing elements with patterns, etc. Lots of good information here.

I'd give this book an A.

More Early Morning Thoughts

I woke up at 1:59 a.m. this morning and had a terrible time getting back to sleep. (On the plus side, when I did finally fall asleep, I had a nice dream about Popoo (my grandfather). We were sitting in someplace I didn’t know, sitting on a sofa I’ve never seen before, talking with and about a 3- or 4-year-old great-grand-daughter that Popoo never had (Amelia? Really?) but it was definitely my grandfather. I was holding his hand…he had, even though he worked outdoors, the softest, smoothest skin on his hands. Anyway, it was nice.)

Anyway, some more random night-time thoughts:

Wouldn’t it be handy if our arms were longer? I wonder why we haven’t evolved longer arms over the years. I mean, if our hands came down to our knees, say, it would be easier to pick up things you had dropped, easier to grab things off high shelves and (since I have a perpetually itchy back which is perhaps this is why this train of thought left the station), easier to scratch your own back all over.

And what if farts, instead of being stinky, were wildly colorful? Would we all be proud of them? “Whoa! Look at that shade of purple Abercrombie just produced!” Try to claim them in the elevator? Would we experiment with our diets for particular colors? Definitely some sayings would have to change, “She’s so snooty she thinks her farts are all pink!”

Fortunately for all of us, I fell asleep then.

And, completely unconnected to all that….people are funny. Someone on a forum I visit said in a discussion that a relative had “left her husband and taken another woman’s husband away from her.” Subsequently, this relative had been punched both by her ex and the ex-wife of her new man. And, asked the poster, “isn’t this violence terribly inappropriate?” Well, yes. But so is stealing another woman’s husband, something no one in the following discussion mentioned (perhaps because they didn’t want to get punched).

My May Red Scarf is bucketing along. I have less than one skein left to go. I have dug out another pair of semi finished socks to see if I can’t get them off the needles and onto my feet. I am sensing a return of the sock mojo…in part because I got a great book on Saturday. Perhaps I’ll do a little review of it this evening.

Don't all hold your breath, now.

Saturday Afternoon in the Yarn

Got up this morning, listened to my shows (Car Talk and Wait, Wait), had a little lunch and headed up to The Black Sheep for the afternoon. Ah, what a nice time. I knitted on Rachel's sleeves and on the Red Scarf and then I wandered around and took some pictures. It's such a pretty shop.

A bucket full of Misti Alpaca sock yarn...gorgeous colors....


A basket full of...dang, I can't remember what company this is...but yummy lace yarn.


Another basket full of assorted sock yarn....


The mouthwatering Wall O'Noro...


A bin stuffed full of Aracaunia Aysen....a scrumptious yarn....


Finally...would anyone like a cup of yarn?


Me please, with a side of needles.

What?! It's May Already?

Well, no, it's not. But I seem to have started the Red Scarf for May.


I think the colors are a little truer in the top picture. But you see the bright yellow, obviously wrong, stitch about ten rows down from the top of the scarf on the left hand side in this bottom picture? Looks like a yellow dash? Well, that's a place where I purled instead of knitting the last stitch...and I didn't notice it until lunchtime today, after I had knit...oh...30 more rows. It bothered me and bothered me so finally I dropped that end stitch all the way down and carefully picked it up again all the way up. Whew. Looks better.

I'm into my third (of five) skeins. Huzzah!

Brother, Can You Spare A Quarter?

Actually, my brother was by this afternoon and spared a penny.... (I was wrapping coins and needed one more penny to make a roll of 50.)

Anyway, it's getting to be that time of the year. Every year I save all the State quarters I get and roll them up to spend at the Maryland Sheep and Wool show. So I did that this evening and have $90 to throw away at the show...I'm sure I'll be spending more than that but this makes a nice little bit of treat money.

And I am hoping that over the next week and a half I can gather another $10 in State quarters.

So How About Some Pictures?

Just to prove that there really is progress being made here:

The April Red Scarf is finished...


The sleeves are growing...


The Rosy socks are also drawing closer to completion....


And this morning I even got twenty rows added to this:


Have I mentioned this before? I think I've written about it before but just to update....It's a wide scarf, or narrow stole, of Misti handpainted alpaca and Gedifra Angora. I tried knitting something out of the alpaca alone and the colors were just not working. I was in Webs on one of our MA visits and they had this angora in the perfect green. I thought it would help soften and blend the colors and I think it does.

MmmMMmmMmMmmm...soft.


Look at that fuzz.

Now I'm thinking I want to get a kid mohair and make big deep ruffles on each end. Wonder if I can find a matching green.

Once one has a blog, one begins to feel pressure to keep it up…can’t just let it lie fallow. It’s been a week since my last post and I actually feel sort of guilty about it. Stop nagging me, blog!

There hasn’t been a lot to post about…I have been knitting but there’s really nothing new to show…well, I’ve resurrected a three-quarter made pair of socks and there hasn’t been a picture of them. At least not for some time. And I’m about done with my April Red Scarf. (Actually, I bound off today at lunchtime. Hurrah!!) The sleeves…well, they’re looking sleevier and sleevier but hardly exciting. But I guess I could take some pictures this afternoon. Perhaps I could get in a picture of our little pear tree, which made it through another winter and is blooming nicely.

So not a lot to blog about and boy, have I been tired! I tend to drag through work, come home and glazedly play computer games until bedtime and then go to bed. (Okay, that’s not a lot different than usual except that I play the games very tiredly.) I guess it was the pneumonia or perhaps just spring fever. It’s really only been the last half of this week that I’ve started feeling not quite so much like a wrung-out washcloth. And, oddly enough, along with being tired, I’ve been having a lot of trouble falling asleep at night combined with a lot of nights of waking for no reason in the middle of the night and not being about to get back to sleep.

So here are some random night-time thoughts to tide the blog over until I can get pictures taken.

1) People grow bonsai trees…how cute would it be if they could grow bonsai animals? Rabbits the size of a quarter. Cats that could fit in your vest pocket and ride around with you all day. Teeny little German Shepherds the size of mice. You could bonsai a little park in a cake pan and take it into the office and your bonsaied pets could run around all day. Like an aquarium but fuzzier, drier, and more accessible.

2) And how exactly would heaven work if there were one? (I don’t mean to offend anyone who does believe in some sort of heaven but I don’t. Sorry.) But if there were one…how old would one be? What if one’s idea of heaven was being oh, 25 again…but your mother’s idea of heaven included you at age 8, because you were just so adorable when you were 8? And would one be able to age in heaven? If one had had a still-born child, wouldn’t one’s idea of heaven possibly involve being able to see that baby grow up the way he or she would have? (Or even better than he or she would have since this is, after all, heaven.)

And what if you knew and disliked someone who was really a good person…you just didn’t like them? If you died and went to heaven and that person was there too, wouldn’t that make your heaven a little less heavenly? Or would your dislike of the person be enough to keep you out of heaven?

And (a plus side), think of the amazing ancestors you could meet. I mean, I didn’t know my great-grandparents…but my grandparents did and they could introduce me! And back and back and back…all the way to that German baron we descended from (there better be a good translation service) and then back further.

It would be cool to introduce my daughter, who I love, to my grandparents, who I loved. But what if they didn’t like each other?!

3) Is anyone else mad that all the discoveries astronomers are making of all those planets and solar systems and galaxies out there just gives one more and more reason to believe that there is life out there and, chances are, none of it will be discovered before we die? As a science-fiction geek, I would so love to be around when we finally encounter life off Earth.

Mad About Those Mad Men

A few weeks ago my friend Elizabeth loaned me the first season of Mad Men. "I think you and [Mr. Pointy Sticks] might like this," she said. Well, we watched them...then we watched them with commentary...then we ordered season two...then we ordered our own copy of season one and the newly released season three. Love this show. It's nicely written and beautifully filmed, the characters are intriguing, and it is fantastic to see the sixties unfold.

We finished up season two this evening and are now rewatching some of the episodes with commentary. It's interesting to hear Matt Weiner talk about the programs. You get a lot of insight into things that aren't that obvious perhaps...and get to feel a little smug about catching some of the subtler things he points out.

Anyway...good stuff.