Vis Major

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.