When I opened the black-out drapes this morning, I gasped. My arms immediately flew up to cover my eyes as I stumbled back from the window. For what did I see but miles and miles of blue sky! Nary a cloud in sight! Behold!THE SUN!
Click for fabulous bug details!
May your pool open with fanfare and warmth!
Have a great weekend!
Man, I hate when I’m a stupid ass.
Yesterday, I was so upset about that damn TV show, I posted something on the Internets (a board I used to frequent, but don’t anymore, precisely because it upsets me) and I didn’t get the reaction I was looking for. Well, DUH! That’s why I left in the first place. And then I just proceeded to get more and more upset. There’s nothing I hate more than stupidity – especially when practiced by moi. Nothing. Drives me batty.
Luckily, Jen saved me (as she does more and more these days.) She called and asked to run some errands (I hope D liked the chair!) which included buying some of these (which I proceeded to just about finish when you left – vomit much?) and watching this. At first I was putting together some cards, but quickly moved to knitting. I managed to drop three more stitches on Clap-o-TEE (my goofy spelling for the person who asked. Nothing wrong with a little goof, I always say.) I’m about done my fourth hank of silk, and I’m STILL not sure how long it is. But I think I’ll finish this and maybe drop one more stitch for good measure on the next hank and then start the decreases. I’d like to finish it up this weekend. I’m done with it. Don’t get me wrong – it’s beautiful and I love the pattern, but I’m bored. I want SHORT ROWS!
While she was here, Jen finished seaming a cutie pie raglan in Calmer – so super cute! And it was her first finished sweater! I was honored to be there for such a momentous event. I see lots more in her future.
So Jen left and I ate myself into sickness. What’s wrong with me? Basically, I just can’t have the stuff in the house. If it’s here, it’s like I have to eat it all until it’s gone. If it’s not here – I don’t think about it. Insanity. My middle name.
Anyway, it’s still cold and it’s still raining and it’s still crap. I need to watch a good movie and put cards together – my life for the moment. I don’t think I have much to complain about, so why am I still here? Have a great day – whatever you’re eating, whatever the weather.
May 24, 2005. Mark the date. A momentus day in the history of Georgie and Cara. Yes, folks. The rumors are true. We actually went to the movies.
And, honestly, it wasn’t that bad. For those keeping count, the last time we went to the movies was to see Bend It Like Beckham. The movie before that was My Big Fat Greek Wedding. (Which, surprisingly enough, were both out in 2002.)
Anyway. My point being, we NEVER go to the movies. NEVER. EVER. We HATE going to the movies. But, you know, it’s Star Wars and all. At first, Georgie wanted to go to the theater where he saw the original but thankfully the times were bad. I’m pretty sure they haven’t renovated it or anything. We’re talking a lot of wear and tear on the seats people. So he came home from work a little early and we hit the 5:40 showing. The first nice surprise? That’s a matinee! It only cost us $9.00, for both of us, instead of for one ticket. Next nice surprise – when we took our seats there were only three other people in the theater. Three. Sorry George Lucas. (When the movie finally started, we agreed there were fifteen people total in the theater – including us.)
The seats weren’t bad. We were smack dab in the middle, a little closer to the front than the back. The theater was on an angle so people’s heads didn’t bother us. And you know, the movie ROCKED! Georgie’s favorite part was when Anakin asks where he can learn these super duper new powers and Palatine turns to him and says, “Not from a Jedi….” mwahahahahahahahaha! Yoda kicks ASS! SPOILER ALERT!!!!! Apparently Samuel L. Jackson told Lucas that he was fine with dying as long as he went out cool. And it was DAMN COOL! I didn’t think they used the Darth music to its full potential. I mean, c’mon, that’s why I was there! Padme was just a vessel to get us Luke and Leia. (almost wrote Laura! Hahahaha!)
My favorite parts were anything having to do with Anakin turing into Darth – although I thought he was a bit naive, especially considering he’s supposed to be the chosen one and all that. Anything with Yoda. And I love Ewan McGregor as Obi-Won – there’s a picture in the little playbill book they gave out in the theater that shows how McGregor’s face has the exact same symmetry as Alec Guiness.
What did I learn during the movie? That I don’t like going to the movies. I had to pee the whole time. My seat gave me hemmorhoids. I was dying – DYING – to rewind – it was driving me crazy! But all in all it was a wonderful date – we had a very nice dinner after – and I’m happy we went to see it. In the theater.
The best part though was coming home and popping in Revenge of the Jedi and watching Darth Vader die in baby Luke’s arms. Very, very cool. So in the end, I’m thanking George Lucas for endless hours of entertainment. We had fun!
Okay. Now I’m about to get really, really upset. Really upset. So be forewarned.
Speaking of people who provide entertainment, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY THINKING!!!!!!!! NBC is bringing out a new show called Inconceivable. Here’s the description they provide for this bit of entertainment (and when you say that, say it like you’re saying FUCK YOU! WE DON’T CARE ABOUT PEOPLE – ONLY MONEY!)
This delightful ensemble drama concerns one of the most complicated questions: to conceive or not to conceive. The doctors of the Family Options Fertility Clinic are on a noble quest to help desperate couples give birth. Except these doctors are often distracted by their personal quests involving sex, deception and secrets. Navigating through ultrasounds and super-egos, missing frozen embryos and impending malpractice suits, it’s positively clear that life inside this clinic is anything but sterile. [Bold emphasis mine.]
(Please, make sure you watch the preview for the ultimate in fuck yous.) It’s about, get this, the fun to be had in a FERTILITY CLINIC! Clearly, and I mean this sincerely, no one, not the crew, not the maintenance people, not the writing staff, not the producers, not the actors, NO ONE INVOLVED WITH THIS SHOW, has EVER dealt with infertility. Since when do pain, misery, hurt, shame, guilt, frustration, heartache, anger (should I go on?) make for enjoyable television? Oh, yeah, when you can make jokes about implanting the wrong embryos, having sex and I’m sure getting pregnant when your patients can’t, and completely mis-educating the public about infertility. I’m laughing, this is so stupid. If you’d like to email NBC – do it here: nbcshows@nbcuni.com. I’ll be sending an email, but I think I need to let the anger steep a little before it’s good and ready to write what I need to write. I’m dumbfounded.
And if that doesn’t get you upset, check out their new show, Thick and Thin. NBC. Must Offend TV.
Thanks for the link from Karen, via mamacate.
On to happier subjects, here’s a mean ugly spider I hope bites Jeff Zucker in the ass:
Actually, this is for my rebel friend Kathleen who declared this week bug week. Who am I to argue? Look for a cuter, more friendly bug tomorrow! (Don’t worry about Ann, Kathleen, I got your back!)
Yesterday I did something I haven’t done in (literally) years.
I read. All day. For hours. In fact, I read so much I finished my book. The Time Traveler’s Wife was completed at 5:36 PM after reading off and on since about 10:30. I read about 400 pages. And I didn’t fall asleep once (in fact, I was strangely energized.)
I’m not going to say much about the book, because I’ll save that for the discussion over at K1R2 next Monday, but I cried my eyes out. The book, overall, was disturbing, and I don’t think it was terribly well-written, but it certainly was captivating, and it certainly evoked a powerful reaction – which is pretty much what you’re hoping for when you write. So I’d say it was a success.
For many, many years reading was my only obsession. I was the kid with the flashlight. I was never without a book (used to bring them on dates – kind of the way I do with my knitting now). Not being in the middle of a book resulted in crankiness and irritability. Even BUYING books was cause for celebration.
Things change, and in the last few years, especially since I’ve gotten so involved with my knitting, you could take the above paragraph and change books to yarn and you’ve got my life. So I’m very grateful to Audrey Niffenegger for giving me a taste of my past. I’ve missed it.
I did manage to knit a couple of rows on Clap-O-TEE AND, get ready, hold onto your handknitted socks, weave in a few ends on Short Rows. It was getting awfully crowded on the side and there was just NO MORE ROOM to weave in another end, so I tied a knot. Is that terribly, horribly awful? Just ONE TINY knot. It won’t take away the complete and utter integrity of the piece will it?
I also did a bad bad thing. After I saw Meredith’s spanking new fabulous purple socks, I had to have the yarn. So I bought two skeins – one in the to die for purple, and one in light/dark blue stripes. The yarn is Regia Cotton Surf and it is SO soft. I’m loving the idea of cotton sock yarn too. The problem? I’ve been wanting to try two socks on two circulars and they’ve given me ONE skein for two socks. And Meredith’s stripes match up so nicely – I’m afraid to split the skein in half to have two balls, so I can do two socks at one time. Crazy, right? I should just do one freaking sock already! And Jen? Where were you? You’re supposed to STOP me from buying sock yarn!!!
What I’d really like to do today is knit Clap-o-TEE until my hands fall off – I want this done so I can go back to Short Rows. I’m really missing it.
Hey! Has everyone seen Margene’s Nothin’ But A T-Shirt? A more perfect garment (especially for the owner) has NOT been knit. Go on over and show her the love! 😉
Oh and speaking of showing the love, I want to thank everyone for their comments and emails about my photographs. Your appreciation of my work is beyond appreciated. It’s hard to put yourself out there in the world – really hard. And the feedback is so encouraging. So, thank you!
It’s amazing how much fun you can have with some knitting software and excel. I basically ended up making up the symbols for the twists and cables (I copied the ones from the Harmony book – it’s what I’m used to) and I’m pretty proud of my chart. Georgie thinks I’m crazy. (But hey, he was playing TENNIS all weekend, so what does he care what I do with my time? 😉 )
Even more fun than charting? Knitting up the swatch!
I changed some things from the last swatch, namely, made the small cable (the one in the middle that breaks up the two larger cables) a CB4 instead of a CB6 and there are now only two purl stitches between the big cable and the little cable. (Isn’t it so convenient that the cables are small, medium and large!?!) I’m VERY happy with the third cable – the new one that everyone was SO HELPFUL with Friday night! I couldn’t have done this without you!
And in true geek fashion, I’ve cut out a bunch of component pieces, if you will, so I can map out my plan for the back, fronts, sleeves. It’s like a big puzzle!
What else, what else? We did a little more taking back the house, as G likes to call it, by cleaning out our little front closet with 451 gym bags. Now we only have 401 bags. Sentimental value and all. And while we were moving all the TVs around (because the big one in the living room is still broken and probably will be forever, unless the kind Sony people come on Wednesday and tell us that it really will be broken forever and then, I guarantee you, by midnight Wednesday night we’ll have a brand new big TV) we watched this incredible storm roll through. We have windows in every room, big windows, all facing west. We also live in the middle of a swamp, so we get to see these great sunsets, and clouds, and storms. Well the storm came in about 7PM on Saturday and the clouds were amazing – you know how the air smells wet, before it even rains, and the gray light makes everything look clearer? The amazing thing – the sun was still out – far off on the horizon. The rains brought lighting and thunder and wind and all the while the sun was boldly setting. I didn’t get the camera out because I don’t think I would’ve captured it really and besides, I didn’t want to leave the window where Georgie was hugging me and we were watching nature be poetic.
I also read a bunch of The Time Traveler’s Wife. From a craft standpoint, this book has some serious flaws (what’s the conflict, really?) and the author made one of my DREADED description mistakes on p. 175 – a mistake I love berating my students about. Want me to tell you what it is? The author uses a brand name as an adjective – for instance, a character is describing a room and says “It looks like an ad from Pottery Barn.” There’s only one way to describe this people – LAZY! The author is using “pottery barn” as an easy way out of describing the room, because she assumes that her readers will know what this means. Not only is she being lazy, but she’s also damning her book to lose relevance within time. 100 years from now, no one will give a shit about Pottery Barn and an instant room will not pop into their minds so what are they to make of this? USE YOUR IMAGINATION writers! I understand how hard writing is, truly I do, but that’s no excuse. If you’re going to put your blood sweat and tears into this – don’t take short cuts.
Okay. Rant over. Truly, I am enjoying the book. I easily read over a hundred pages in one sitting yesterday – something I haven’t done in a long time. So it’s all good.
Enough already. Back to your day. Thanks for stopping.
Thanks Chelsea for a great idea and a great week! And thanks everyone else who participated. Flower Picture Week was oh so pretty and loads of fun!
Violets are blue,
Cables could suck
Without help from YOU!
Thanks for all the awesome chart help! Have a fantabulous weekend!
I found the cable I want to add to my pattern – it’s perfect and the EXACT number of stitches I’ll need for the saddle sleeve. What’s the problem you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
I found it in the Barbara Walker Treasury #3 – the one with no patterns just charts – and I can’t for the life of me figure out the pattern! I’ve read the chapters on reading charts a million times, looked at all the little stitch icons and all I see now are squiggly lines in front of my face. I’m desperate.
So here’s the deal. I will give yarn and sheep cards (or flower cards, your choice) to the FIRST person who successfully translates this cable pattern for me. I can give you a picture of the cable, and a picture of the chart, but I can’t give you all of the stitch icons. What I’m looking for is the pattern written out.
It’s the cable on the right – called the Long Swinging Cable.
(Long Swinging Cable my ass!)
Don’t you think it will be perfect with the other cables (see entry below)? Oh – it’s on p.90 – Third Treasury.
Oh and all you Aran experts out there: it’s normal that my dk weight yarn – which should give me about 5 stitches to the inch is giving me about 7.5 over the cable pattern, right? I think this is good – it should take more stitches – especially because of the twists.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
