I’m off to see the children today – bowling party on Sunday for Max’s Fourth! (If you’ve never bowled with small children – you don’t know what you’re missing!) His birthday’s in January, but since he was lounging on the beach in Nevis at the time, the party is this weekend.

See how their arms are open wide?
They’re both running to give Aunt Cara BIG, big hugs!

Have a great weekend everybody!
L, C

Georgie and I are laughing our asses off! Everyday, without fail, someone hits my site looking for big boobs. big heavy boobs. All because of this post.

It’s pretty fucking funny. Those poor lurkers – so disappointing for them I’m sure.

Beforewarned, this post will have little to no new knitting news. That’s right folks. I’ve got nothing. No progress, just inertia. The best I’ve got is that I’ve decided on a pattern for the baby blanket I’m knitting for my new niece or nephew. Actually, despite my best Stephen Wright impression, I’m exceedingly happy about the choice. I look at the picture everyday and think this will be perfect! Oh, yeah, here’s the pattern.

I’m going to use the All Season’s Cotton mentioned here and I’m going to try to find some kind of variegated silky acrylic type stuff for the border. I can just imagine my future favorite baby all wrapped up in it. I’m excited. I really am.

So what’s the problem you ask – since I’ve got 24 skeins of the aforementioned ASC. No needles. I don’t have DPNs to start it. I don’t have needles for anything these days. I lost two of the DPNs I was using to knit the sock, so the KBS hasn’t gotten any air play – no needles, no knitting. (Besides, now I really want to make these socks in the same colorway. I’m really loving both the retro rib and the Koigu color.) I’m awaiting my Flower Basket Bag yarn shipment – but it won’t matter because, you guessed it, no needles. [they just called from the lobby, I have a package – bet you it’s the yarn!]

But Jen is saving me. Today we’re heading up to Handknits and I will hopefully have a nice long shopping list. Needles, for sure (Jen – DON’T LET ME WALK OUT WITHOUT THEM!) and yarn. I want to buy some yarn. Because it’s not like I haven’t spent a shitload of money on yarn lately. But I want some red yarn for valentine’s day. For this and for this. And maybe some blue Koigu, if they have it, for those retro rib socks.

In other news, my class is kicking my ass. They are a very smart bunch – with lots of good criticism. They write long though, and I try to be very precise with my critiques. We’re halfway through, so that’s good, but I always feel very hungover the next morning. (This morning.) Takes me a day to get going. I don’t feel like thinking at all. So I watched TV this morning. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I really, really like The Gilmore Girls. It’s corny I know, but I look forward to seeing it everyday. (They show the re-runs on the ABC Family channel – right after the 700 Club. Blech.) They’ve got some kick-ass knits on this show – anybody every notice? Someone on there is a knitter because these are not your run of the mill knits. Anyway, saw a good episode this morning. Made me cry. Happy tears. I’m such a sucker for love.

I’m done now. Thanks for hanging. And as a reward for my legions of faithful readers, (you two know who you are! 😉 ), I’m starting a contest. As of the writing of this entry, I have received 332 comments. I will give a fabulous prize to the 500th commenter! (Prize details to come as soon as I figure out what it will be.)

So get going.

My feeds aren’t updating, so I’m posting this as a test. If you have had a bloglines update today, and want to drop me a note, thanks!

Back to regularly scheduled programming.

Apparently the crisis was averted. My feeds are updated, thanks in no small part to Cassie (she will claim that she had nothing to do with it, but I know it was her magic email that turned the bloglines updating machine back on!)

Thanks everyone for letting me know they were working for you!

At Kerstin’s insistence…

1. The last movie you went to see in a theater:

Bend it Like Beckham. Which is pretty funny because it was Georgie’s idea to see it – he thought it would be all about Soccer and it ended up being something of a chick movie. We liked the music though.

I should mention that we rarely, if ever, go to the movies. We used to go – when we could agree on something to see – but in the last five or six years I can count the number of movies I’ve seen in an actual theater on one hand. I used to go all the time – especially by myself, in New York City, to all kinds of artsy fartsy movies (read subtitles). Somewhere along the way I began to hate the noise and the people and the fact that even when there’s only three people in the goddam theater the whacko weirdo guy STILL has to sit two seats away from you so that you can’t concentrate at all on the movie – all you can think about is the psychokiller next to you. So I stay home and watch on my big TV and knit and pee whenever I feel like it and eat whenever I feel like it. Thank god for Georgie – he’s always so sweet about picking up the candy wrappers on the floor.

2. The last movie you watched at home:

Ooh. Tough one. With the advent of cable, it’s incredibly easy to watch 864 movies in a day and never see a whole one. The last movie we actually sat down to watch, together, as an “event” if you will, was Spiderman 2. I dropped like a million stitches trying to knit in the dark.

3. How many movies do you own?

A decent amount. Not sure of the number though – maybe fifty? We always buy a couple of flicks before we go on vacation for DVD watching on the plane. Who can forget the cross-country flight watching Dr. Strangelove? Classic. Or the time we luckily turned off Mulholland Drive right before the Sapphic scene – I bet the Mom with the kid behind us watching the movie would’ve been pissed! Also, since it’s so freaking expensive to go to the movies we tend to have the “it’s cheaper to buy the DVD and watch it in the comfort of our home” attitude – so we buy them. I also have the complete collection of Scholastic DVDs – they are the greatest videos ever. Puts the Disney crap to shame. And I have two Rugrats movies. So sue me.

4. Got Netflix (or a similar service)?

Yeah, it’s called digital cable with a gazillion stations and lovely On-Demand. We don’t even have a decent video store nearby – so no, no Netflix or a similar service.

5. List five movies you adore (or mean a lot to you.)

[Warning: Carolyn accused me of being very sentimental in my music meme choices – so if you disapprove of sentimentality – turn your head here. 😉 ]

In the they-always-did-it-better-in-the-old-days department:

Gone With the Wind. I could’ve easily chosen Casablanca or Rebecca or Laura or Dark Victory or Now, Voyager or Mr. Skeffington or Rear Window or ….but I’ll stick with GWTW. Why? Because for my eleventh birthday my father gave me the book and I loved it like only a very imaginative romantically blossoming eleven year old can. When I first saw the movie, I loved it almost as much. Rhett and Melanie in the nursery after little Bonnie dies and Scarlett and Rhett after he rapes her and she’s so happy (my god – what was I thinking). The movie is perfectly cast and when the fiftieth anniversary came around and they showed it on the big screen at Radio City Music Hall and I was living in New York, I bought myself a ticket. Went by myself. I’ll never forget it.

In the quirky-only-I-love-it department:

Baby It’s You by John Sayles. Set in mid-60s Trenton, I love this movie for its teenage romance, that Rosanna Arquette falls for the big, bad Sheik (I did the same thing once), that the one and only sex scene is awkward and awful and still endearing, that I have a huge crush on Vincent Spano. I didn’t say anything about the Springsteen soundtrack because I may have loved this movie before I loved Bruce – but clearly it must be mentioned that when Spano walks into the cafeteria and Hard To Be A Saint in the City is cranking in the background we have the Best. Movie. Scene. Ever.

In the comedy must-have-every-line-memorized department:

Beetlejuice. School of Rock may replace this someday, only because it’s gotten much more air play as of late, Flirting With Disaster is on the list and Midnight Run holds a very close second – but in the end I have to go with Michael Keaton as the ignoble, irrepressible, grotesque Betelgeuse. Love the Harry Belafonte. Catherine O’Hara is fabulous as Prince Valium’s bride. Who can forget Otho? Dick Cavett makes an appearance and Winona is brilliant as the depressed, suicidal teenager who’d rather be dead than live with her step-monster. Never trust the living.

In the banished-from-the-US-for-sex-crimes department:

Frantic. Roman Polanski’s masterpiece (okay, maybe I’m the only one who thinks this). The best movie ever where Harrison Ford gets to say “With an S, for shithead” and “You’re talking about my wife, but you must be thinking of yours.” I’ve discussed this movie before, so I won’t go into it here. Let’s just say I can’t turn away. Ever.

In the Merchant-and-Ivory-couldn’t-have-done-it-better-if-they-tried department:

Sense and Sensibility. I saw it in the movies with my sister and we cried and cried. Then for her bachelorette party we got big thick milk shakes and rented it. And cried and cried. How about when Willoughby
comes down and sweeps Marianne up on her horse. Or when Eleanor cries to her sister that even she can produce evidence of a broken heart. Let’s not forget the scene when Edward Ferris’ sister gets into the fight with Lucy. And oh my god Alan Richman is, I don’t know, so noble in this movie! The whole thing is just lovely. Really and truly lovely. I just love this movie.

In the I’m-adding-an-extra-movie-because-I-can department:

A Little Romance. Because Diane Lane was oh so beautiful and because her character was smart and sassy and Daniel was French and romantic and had a temper and because Laurence Olivier was old and frail and charming and just a little bit scary and because the music was beautiful and the scenery was beautiful and everything was beautiful. And most of all, because, when my sister and I both went to Venice, separately, with our husbands, we believed that if we kissed under the Bridge of Sighs while the bells tolled at sunset, we would be in love forever.

6. What’s in the Netflix queue?

Well, since I don’t belong to Netflix, I’ll give you a list of the movies I’d like to see, but will wait until they’re out on DVD or whatever format they’re using when I get around to watching them: Sideways. Hotel Rwanda. Meet the Fockers (even though I heard it sucks.) Million Dollar Baby. Closer. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Whatever Crap Shows Up On Cable.

7. Name three people you are going to send this to:
I’m going with the J’s today:

Jen
Jo
Juno

While we were driving back from the Canon Service Center (details to come), my best friend said to me:

her: I’ve got some bad news.

me: What?, I said, my heart starting to beat wildly.

her: The poncho. It’s toast. The neighbor dog got to it.

me: Oh thank god!

her: I cried. Delenn cried. We all cried.

me: Did you bury it in the backyard at least?

I can honestly say I was slightly ahead of the poncho fad. I made the RetroPoncho pattern, available in the Summer 2003 issue of Knitter’s (the one with the uncomfortable looking guy on the cover) for my best friend’s daughter, in the Summer of 2003 – the end, more like Fall. I used Patons Classic wool and it was the first project I made that included knitting in the round and increases. It was actually my first wearable project. Delenn had grown out of it, but my best friend’s younger daughter had taken to wearing it everywhere with her Disney princess shoes.

Here’s a picture of Delenn and the poncho when it was brand spanking new:

Doesn’t she look so happy!?! Rest in Peace RetroPoncho. May you wear well in knitty heaven.

In response to RP’s untimely death I’m going to make both girls new sweaters in Artyarns Supermerino! I’m also going to make my best friend a scarf (which she requested) using the famed Clapotis pattern. She can’t wear any kind of wool, so it looks like it’s silk for my best friend! (I’ve got time though. I was informed that spring is just around the corner in Las Vegas, so the sweaters will be for next fall. The Clapotis will be for my best friend’s May birthday!)

Pity Party’s Over, Thank you very much!

Thanks for all of the pick me ups. Seems I was a tad premature in feeling sorry for K1R2 – the converstation is hopping.

The camera will be fixed for free, by the kind folks over at Canon. I have to say I was a tad triumphant. The guy intimated that maybe, just maybe, they would try to get it to work and it would be fine. Happens all the time, he said. Ha, Ha, I told him. The shutter’s shot! This baby ain’t working for no one no how. And I was right. The shutter’s shot. They will be fedexing it back to me when it’s all better.

[Full disclosure: I was kind of hoping they’d say it wasn’t fixable (like they’d do that!) I wanted another brand new baby. I know. Gluttony never looked good on anybody. But it’s a WORK thing. It’s my JOB! wink wink]

My best friend and I then headed back to my house where she so wonderously indulged me by listening to all my knitting adventures. After I had pulled out all the stash and shown her all the intended projects I asked her: “Do you really want to hear all this?” She, in her best best friend voice said, “Of course I want to hear it because it makes you so happy.” A better best friend has yet to exist. Thank you, thank you! I miss her so much since she moved away.

Then it was off to dinner in the big city. We had a marvelous meal at Gigino’s in Tribeca. The food was great, company even better. After dinner I dropped her off at her hotel and said goodbye! Thankfully Georgie was home for lots of cuddling last night. I needed it.

But I feel refreshed today. It’s off to the shrink and needle shopping at Purl. Maybe some red yarn.

I’ll be back later – Kerstin tagged me on the movie meme. (Can someone please tell me what exactly a meme is? I looked it up in the dictionary and can’t find it. Is this the answer?)

Oh and I want to send some big, fat, suffocating hugs to all of you out there surviving the infertility torture test that life sometimes surprises us with. It sucks more than anything could possibly suck. To the root, to the core, to the depths of our hearts and minds. Hug your mates really tight and be kind. To your partner and to yourself. Be truly, necessarily kind.

Love, Cara

[crackle crackle static crackle] Hey, can you hear that? [crackle static crackle crackle] I’m on gasp dial-up! That’s right – no cable in my town. At all. Anymore. [crackle crackle static] They say it will be fixed soon. [static crackle] Has anyone stopped laughing yet?

Have no fear, I managed to find 24 skeins of All Season’s Cotton in the lovely Tapestry color at Jimmy Bean’s Wool and Yarnia. At closeout prices to boot. I also picked up both a Bouton D’Or and an Anny Blatt layette book for the new baby, who will be stylin’.

If you do nothing else today, please read Aharon Appelfeld’s editorial on the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

Okay. Back to the cave.

PS – This post cost me $468,359.87 on AOLs trumped up connection. See how much I love you?

Mrs. Pilkington tagged me – and how can I refuse such an ambitious knitter with such an adorable Cocoa Pebbles?

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:
10.6 gb in the file called Music. But there’s other stuff hiding out – especially lots of Bruce bootleg files.

Most of the stuff is from the good ol’ Napster days. And then we had a hard drive melt down about a few weeks back and most of the stuff I ripped on my own is completely messed up. I don’t have the energy to re-rip, but it’s such a bummer. Basically, the song starts out good and then gets completely corrupted in the middle.

2. The last CD you bought was:
Two at the same time: Maroon 5, Songs About Jane and the self-titled album by Los Lonely Boys. Honestly, both are still in the wrapper.

[Actually, this may not be correct, but I’m not sure about the dates. I was out with Georgie and Melanie one night and we went to see our friend Gus play. His band played an amazing version of Superstition by Stevie Wonder (made even more amazing since they’re all super white boys and they were playing in a very Irish bar.) We just had to stop by Tower on the way home and pick up some SW Greatest Hits. It was a funkalicious ride home through the Lincoln Tunnel that night!]

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
Cake, “The Distance”

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

You’re kidding right? Five songs. Ridiculous. Okay. Here goes.

1. For You, by Bruce Springsteen. I chose this because Georgie and I have been fortunate to hear it every tour we’ve been to over the last ten years. Really. We don’t go every night of every tour (I’m mean we’re freaks, but we’re not FREAKS!) so I pick and choose the nights we go very carefully. It just so happens I’ve picked the night Bruce plays “For You” on a fairly regular basis. And every time we hear it, we both go crazy and hug each other really tight then remind ourselves to ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE SONG, then are breathless for a least three songs after. I have actually been known to cry. (Okay, maybe I am a FREAK – I generally cry throughout the first three songs regardless of what they are anyway.) I love this song, but it could easily be switched out with Prove It, The Fever, Drive All Night – the list of Bruce love songs is endless.

2. The Very Thought of You, Tony Bennett Version. For our anniversary, right after we moved into our new apartment about seven years ago, I bought the sheet music to this song, our song, and had it framed. It’s the only thing to adorn our bedroom walls.

3. Lovely Day by Bill Withers. This song, yet another song introduced to me by my beloved, DOES NOT EVER fail to put me in a better mood. I recommend it as a remedy to work-induced nausea. It should be the wake up call to the workers of the world!

[By the way, “For You” just popped up on I-Tunes! Fate or what? I ask you….]

4. I’ve Seen That Face Before/Libertango by Grace Jones
This entry says it all.

5. Bad Sneakers by Steely Dan. This was the song I played in college a gazillion million times – basically every time I thought I was going crazy. Can easily be interchanged with Nik Kershaw’s Wouldn’t It Be Good.

One more for good measure:
Best of My Love by The Emotions because it just came up on I-Tunes and I can’t help but dance around and think about how much I love my man! I’m sorry, I’m missing him today – coming home from vacation is hard.

5. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?

I’m going to choose three people I don’t know very well, but would like to get to know better.

1. Colleen
2. MJ
3. Carrie

Hopefully they’ll be happy about it! If not, please, please forgive me!