Knitzo Librarian

A Book So Good It Gave Me Chills

2009-03-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

I just finished (as in, closed the cover 30 seconds ago) a truly great book. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski. It made me laugh out loud, it made me sob and it gave me chills on more than one occasion. Seriously, read this book. Especially if you are a pet owner. This is an amazing novel about a boy who is born mute, living on a farm in rural Wisconsin in the 1950's. His family has a kennel where they raise their own fictional breed of dog. Edgar trains the dogs using sign language and teaches them to do amazing things but the crux of this story is really relationships--between Edgar and his parents and shadey uncle Claude, between Edgar and the dogs, relationships among the dogs, relationships with nature and the list goes on. The last two days I've gotten so caught up in the story I nearly missed my bus stop! Just read it. It's 560 pages of fabulous story-telling and I think it could become a classic (it was an Oprah's Book Club book, afterall :)).

Why Wasn't I Shown This in High School?

2009-03-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

Check out this video from 1946 which describes what a librarian does. We've sure come a long way...

Swapping Out Presidents and Yarny Goodness!

2009-01-20T20:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, what an amazing day! I watched the swearing-in and speech in my office's kitchen with a handful of my coworkers--all trying to hide the tears in our eyes. Does anyone else feel buoyed with hope today? I know things are bad in this country but I just feel better, reassured that things will get better from here on out...

And then I came home and found a package waiting for me from my swap partner. I'm part of the Mystery Book Talk Group on Ravelry and we are doing a round robin mystery book swap--mystery novel, knitting pattern, yarn and other goodies tied (at least loosely) to the book or to the knitter recipient's interests. This was my first time participating in a swap so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

First, here's what I sent my partner:
The first novel in the Aunt Dimity series--Aunt Dimity's Death which features a ghost who communicates by writing to the living in a periwinkle blue journal--another item I threw in. The pattern is Boo! Toe-Up-Socks available on Ravelry and I added some beautiful purple yarn called "cosmos" for the socks. Added some tea to accompany this mystery set in England. Threw in some candy from the UK, or so I thought. Turns out Cadbury has been licensed to Hershey so the candy bar I sent my swap partner was made about an hour from her Pennsylvania home and not across the pond. Also included some Milky Ways which my swappee added as a favorite treat.

And here's what my swap partner, Moonchick, sent me--I was blow away with all this wonderful stuff! Beautiful sock yarns, a cute sock pattern, knitter's balm, two mysteries & a "book thong" bookmark, chai tea, Godiva chocolates & coffee--how did I not know Godiva made coffee? And two of my favorite fruity candies--starbursts and skittles! And a raven which the lovely purple card said would make sense once I started reading one of the books--for now the cats find it extremely interesting! Thanks again Cindy/Moonchick!

One Christmas present down....like 20 to go?

2008-11-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, time is just speeding along and somehow we're halfway through November--not that it feels like it since it's going to be in the 90s today but anyway... I'm trying to pretend it's at least "fall-like" by buying apple cider and pumpkin items at the grocery store this morning. It's hard to knit with wool when it's hot enough to wear shorts but I shall continue as Christmas is only 40 days away. Crazy. Well at least I finished one knitted Christmas present this week--socks for my father-in-law Dave. It's the Rockin Strat pattern I found on Ravelry.

Socks to fit a Men's shoe size 11 foot, made of Knitpicks essential in grass on size US 1.5 needles. Didn't take too long though, suprisingly. I started them October 20th and finished them up at the West Hollywood Stitch 'n Bitch on November 13th. Ok, now to get cracking on the rest of those gifts--before it gets too hot for knitting! Here's a preview--a blanket that's about halfway done, well almost halfway anyway. Those dark brown things are knot holes--I'm going to add echoing lines in brown to mimic wood grain. Well, that's the plan anyway but we'll just have to hope it works out because I'm making it up as I go along.
In other holiday prep news, the Christmas cards I ordered from the Humane Society just arrived today and they're pretty cute. I've also been cleaning and getting the house ready for a Silpada silver jewelry party tomorrow afternoon--if you want to stop by and knock some Christmas gifts off your list, just let me know and I'll give you the details.

Stay cool this weekend if you're in CA and stay safe if you're in the path of those fires in Sylmar and Santa Barbara. I was watching the breaking news coverage last night around midnight and the fires looked like molten lava--very scary. But for those of you not in CA, don't worry because I don't live close to those areas so Tristan and I (along with Amanda, Samantha, Magellan, Pierson, Post and Epstein) are just fine.

Ok, this elf has to get back to the workshop now--peace out!

WE WON!!!

2008-11-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

What's that lovely scent in the air? Victory? Hope? Faith in the populace? Nope, a delightful blend of all 3. Barack Obama is our next president! This is history folks, history. Ok, I'going to cry now--I've been holding it in all day and need to let the tension and joy spilleth over. I got up early today, got to the polls at 7:05 (stood in line for an hour and 10 minutes) and cast my vote for the first African-American president of the United States.

While I was waiting in line an elderly African-American woman made her way slowly down the sidewalk, leaning on a cane, her head bowed down. As she got closer she looked up and tears were steaming down her face. The woman in front of me asked her if she was ok, if she needed some help and she said "I'm just so happy. I never thought I'd get the chance, in my lifetime, to vote for a Black man for President!" and then she did a little jig with her cane and shook with joy. God, it was a beautiful thing to see! Ok, I'm kinda crushing on this country of ours--after years of thinking we needed to break up.

Oh happy day!!! Now how am I going to sleep tonight--especially not knowing how these Propositions are going to come out?

Happy 30th Birthday, Danielle--you are missed

2008-11-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

Danielle, you would be 30 today. Do you remember how far away 30 seemed when we met at age 19? You should be having a grand old party celebrating 3 decades on this earth (and ribbing me about having to do the same next month). You should be celebrating the end of a great year--a year that saw you earn your Masters in Social Work in May and mark your first anniversary with Geno in June. All this you should be celebrating but an undiagnosed brain aneurysm cut your life short and you never got to see 29, never got to finish your Masters and never got to marry and build a life with that wonderful Geno. Well college roomie, I'll try to live mine up and tell you all about it when next we see each other. And so I leave you with a song:

Thank you for being a friend.
Travel down the road and back again,
Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant.

And if you threw a party
and invited everyone you knew
You would see that the biggest gift would be from me
and the card attached would say
"Thank you for being a friend."

You'll always be the Blanche to my Dorothy. I love you and miss you.

Danielle Marie Berger
(November 2, 1978 - January 19, 2007)

Reason #7,688 to vote NO on Prop 8...

2008-11-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

Tristan and I attended a lovely backyard wedding in Santa Ana on October 19th. The couple is very much in love and had a wonderful, simple ceremony surrounded by friends. LeAnn & Tiff, may you have many many years of happiness together!

You might be an obsessed crafter if…

2008-10-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

So last night I was up late reading the second in a series of vampire books written for teenagers by author Stephanie Meyers. The first one was Twilight which sucked me in. They are sort of like a cross between The DaVinci Code and Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret but set in Washington State and without the "we must, we must, we must increase our busts" episode. The first one had me up late reading it and last night I found myself in the same predicament with the second book, New Moon. I was only 75 pages from the end of the almost 600 page book and I considered staying up past midnight to finish it but, alas, my heavy eyelids made the decision for me. Anyway, in the book there are 3,000 year old vampires and do you know what my first thought was when I read that? "Wow, how many knitting, quilting and cross-stitching projects could I make if I had that kind of time?" Yes, seems I would sell my soul not just for the promise of immortality and super-strength but because it would give me more time to craft. Honestly.

Hmm, maybe I'm only having these thoughts because I can't quite seem to get started on my Christmas knitting yet--too many other little projects here and there that I need to wrap up first. That will hopefully change by next week. I sent off a box to Socks for Soldiers with the never-ending black socks that I finally finished (forgot to photograph though their image is indelibly ingrained in my brain). Hoping to ship off a box to afghans for Afghans tomorrow for their youth collection--a vest, a pair of socks & a sweater made with scrap yarn (resulting in 10,000 ends).

And I hope to get some bath poofs finished by Sunday night so I can throw them in a box with some makeup and toiletries to send to a battered women's shelter on the Pine Ridge Reservation for their "Diva for a Day" event. Volunteer hair and makeup professionals come in and give the women at the shelter a makeover and they pass out goody bags of makeup, hair and body products. They are still collecting through Oct 22nd if you'd like to contribute. Once those are in the mail Monday I can turn my attention to presents, although I may be distracted by calls for Christmas mittens and socks for kids or something. How is it already a week into October?

Since the holidays are approaching, I decided I'd better book our airline tickets to PA last night and because we voluntarily got bumped to a later flight at Easter (and were given $400 vouchers each for compensation) we only had to pay an extra $50 each per ticket. Woohoo, both of us LAX to Reagan National for a total of $100. Also, the prices seem to go down on Mondays--they were $150 cheaper than when I looked at them Sunday night, exact same flights. Go figure. At least that's all set. Let's hope there's no snowstorms in Cincinnati since we'll be flying through there both going and coming...and if there has to be one, let it be the on the 22nd when we fly out because at least I could finish up the Christmas presents that I will inevitably be scrambling to finish and not on the way back when I'm totally sick of knitting and just want to read.

Ok, back to sewing in the ends of that afghans sweater...

How I spent the last 6 months...

2008-07-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, I've been neglecting this blog for far too long... I've been working like crazy and mired in the details of everyday life. But I have had some fun since January.

For Easter, Tristan and I took a trip to Georgia to visit his Dad and his Uncle Ray and his wife Karen. I had never met Ray and Karen so I was very much looking forward to it. Tristan's Dad, Dave, lives a little bit north of the city, which is where our hotel supposedly was located, according to the travel site where I booked it. When I saw the coverage of the tornadoes that hit downtown Atlanta, I was like, "well, I'm glad we're not staying downtown." Except that when we arrived we discovered the travel site totally lied, we were 8 miles from Dave's apartment and smack in the middle of downtown...which looked like a war zone since all of the streets around our hotel were blocked off to prevent looting. We arrived at 9 PM and drove around trying and trying to get to our hotel which was on Peachtree. Oh, that's another thing, Atlanta seriously lacks imagination in its street naming because everything is Peachtree--Peachtree Place, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Center...ugh!! We finally had to go down an alley and then the wrong way on a one-way street to reach the hotel. Such a nightmare. Each time we left the hotel we had to go about 8 blocks out of our way just to make it to the road that would take us to Dave's! We stayed at the Ellis Hotel which was nice but the room was rather small and the restaurant in the building was crazy expensive so we only ate there the night we arrived. Here's a picture of our room with its ostrich leather headboard--the bumps totally freaked Tristan out (it was a bit like looking at a skinned chicken but without the sliminess!)

In addition to visiting Dave, Ray & Karen (who I completely neglected to photograph, bad me!) we went to the Georgia Aquarium which is the largest aquarium in the world--they actually have Beluga whales in tanks there (but, alas, caviar is not sold in the giftshop--not that I've ever tried it or have any desire to eat it). And the day we went there we got snowed on. In Atlanta. In March. Crazy!
My favorites were the otters and penguins.

In June we went to the Pr ide Parade in West Hollywood with one of Tristan's coworkers and her girlfriend. It was a blast even though the day was very warm. I actually saw assless chaps on a person for the first time but did not have my camera at the ready to snap a photo, sorry! :)
It was very cool--they had the attorneys who worked on the CA gay marriage case there and it was just a week or so after that victory--history in the making folks! I was proud to be there and cheer them on for the work they have done. Check out the photos here

I've also been hard at work on quilt which is a gift so I can't tell you much about it yet but I finally basted it this weekend and have started the quilting, which I have about 5 weeks to finish! It's about 90" x 98" pre-binding. I've been working on it off and on for 2 years. It was machine pieced but I will be hand quilting it. Here it is, pre-basting:

The cats were worried the layers wouldn't stay together unless they sat on them...

Finally shooed them out of the room..

And a closeup view. I'm quilting catty-corner through the chain of squares and then around each star with muslin colored thread. Cross your fingers that I get this sucker done in time! I will post pics of the finished project, promise!

Quilting a queen+ sized quilt is not a normal 4th of July activity and I don't recommend it unless your spot on the couch is directly below the air-conditioning vent, like mine is!

Happy 4th everyone!

A Few of My Favorite Things...

2008-01-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, so winter has arrived here in SoCal--rain, rain and more rain. This chilly rain makes me want to cuddle up on the couch with a few of my favorite things (or least favorite things of the moment):

1. a cup of Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla roobios tea (caffeine free but a whole lot of flava'). It someone manages to taste "thick" like a latte or something, very strange but in a good way.

2. a cozy fleece blanket

3. a cat or three--preferably ones that just want to sleep and not pounce on my toes

4. either a quaint mystery (like any book from Nancy Atherton's "Aunt Dimity" series) or an engrossing novel (just finished The Kiterunner--amazing!)

5. Trader Joe's Belgian Chocolate pudding or Trader Joe's Mediterranean hummus & organic white corn tortilla chips, or both so I can switch off and get both the salty and sweet tastes 'cause I like that kind of thing--I think one of the most perfect foods is the chocolate covered pretzel.

6. My knitting (you didn't think I would leave that out, now did you?)
Currently I'm working on a baby sweater from a Pingouin book I bought on
Ebay--says "automne-hiver" (Fall-Winter) but there's no year. I'll post pictures
when I get a little more done.

How do you like to "weather" the rain?

Stay warm & dry out there people!
Ok, back under that blanket I go...

A Sad Day...

2008-01-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, Australian actor Heath Ledger was found unconscious today in an apartment in New York. Paramedics tried to revive him but they weren't successful and he passed away. So sad--they think it was a drug overdose. He was only 28 and had a two-year old little baby at home. I personally thought he was talented and had quite the sexy hint of a smile kind of face. And of course I'm a sucker for an exotic accent (ok, so Tristan's California accent isn't so exotic but I'm from the East Coast so it sort of maybe could be). You can view that sexy smile in a photo montage put together by the LA Times. Brokeback Mountain was probably his most famous movie but I've also enjoyed him in 10 Things I Hate About You, The Patriot and Casanova. I wonder what he would have done in the future...

And an update--have you seen what that awful Westboro Baptist Church sent out today? Makes me sick.

2007--a Knitting Retrospective

2008-01-06T15:23:00.000-08:00

A year in pictures...well, most of the year anyway. I don't always remember to take photos of my projects, particularly some of the smaller things I send off to various charities...

January: Shawl for my boss's birthday in green variegated fingering weight 100% alpaca purchased on ebay several years ago, followed by a close up of the fir cone stitch
Socks for afghans for Afghans youth items' campaign, followed by a close up of the slipped stitch check pattern from the Reader's Digest knitting and crochet stitch compendium. Used up some yellow & green scrap wool.
Close up of the check pattern (sorry for the flash blur):
February: I know I made a few more items for afghans for Afghans and a pink stuffed elephant for a friend's baby but I failed to take pictures of them...will do better in 2008!

March: Bunnies for Easter Baskets for the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation. Friends Darcy and Claudia came over and spent an afternoon helping me to stuff the "baskets" (the pink Easter bags seen in the background (had some blue & purple ones too)) with treats and small toys in addition to the bunnies--I think we made up 36 bags in all...Used various white acrylic yarn--mostly Simply Soft and leftover pink and purple acrylic for the ears (the fuzzy ones are some pink mohair leftover from another project) Also crocheted a baby sweater and some bibs for a baby shower but again, no picture!
April: Baby blanket for afghans for Afghans made from Mission falls wool purchased from Supercrafty. Love that yarn--so soft! Crocheted in a very simple pattern from where else but the Reader's digest book.
May: Purple sweater for my friend April. The top back and panels are made of a lovely cotton hand-dyed yarn (possibly from Blue Heron???) purchased during a Black Sheep sale. The solid purple used for the sleeves and the spider-web type lace at the bottom is 100% corn yarn called Cornucopia purchased from Compatto in Santa Monica. I was very excited--this sweater was completely my own design--1st time not even using another pattern for a "start"-- and it actually fit my friend perfectly!
Close up of the i-cord edging and the lace detail...
June & July : I know knitted several things during these months but darned if I took a picture of them! I did one pair of Big Black Socks for Soldiers but the rest are a blur....I think I was doing some quilting since it was too hot to hold yarn...

August to September: Baby blanket for my friend Claudia made from the now discontinued Cotton Angora (purchased during Black Sheep's sale). The blocks are from Debbie Abrahams' book 100 Afghan Squares to Knit and include a triangle, a hexagon, a heart, a circle and a square. Several of my coworkers wanted to learn to knit so we started a Friday lunch knitting group and in October/November we used these same patterns to make a baby blanket for afghans for Afghans using Mission Falls wool purchased from Supercrafty (the pictures are on my computer at work--I'll have to dig them up)

Close up of Triangle Block--I also added a pair of crocheted baby booties as a "garnish" for the wrapping...
October: did some more knitting for afghans for afghans--several pairs of mittens, two children's vests and two hats--thought I took pictures but I can't seem to find them.

November: worked on the baby blanket with my knitters at work and started my Christmas presents but spent most of my time finishing up my graduate e-portfolio (I barely got any sleep for most of the month and promptly ended up with acute bronchitis and a double ear infection after Thanksgiving which meant a week and a half sick in bed--still trying to recover as the cough continues to linger and I am still soooooo tired).

December:
Pink Snowflake sweater for my sister from the Spring 2007 issue of Knit It. The yarn is a wool/cashmere blend (you got it--purchased during the Black Sheep sale) but the only problem was that I bought it in the summer and when I started to work on it in November I thought I had originally wanted to make it just like the pattern--substituting purple for the grey at the bottom and using the same pink for the top. Realized when I was about a quarter of the way through the sleeves that I apparently had originally planned to switch the colors--so that's why there are purple stripes on the sleeves, as I ran out of yarn and couldn't find the stuff anywhere! Oh well, my sister liked it. Tracking down a zipper (and sewing it in) also made this a challenging project but at least I have figured out a way to knit with both colors at once for the snowflakes, using my regular knitting style and a modified continental style for the color in my left hand--much, much faster than dropping one color and picking up another! I also shortened the sleeves and took off about 2 inches of the length to make it more suitable for a petite.
Knitted Tam for Tristan's Aunt Marilyn (from Knitty--it's Tam "C"). Used some off-white wool/alpaca blend purchased on ebay last year and some rainbow Koigu. Only took about half a ball of each so I'm thinking of making myself one too! The knitty pattern is for worsted weight so I did some crazy math and modified it so I could use my sock weight yarn and do it on size 2s (ribbing) and size 3s (pattern). It only took one weekend day to knit and then another day and a half for it to dry over a dinner plate (stretched it out to the perfect size!).
Ties for Tristan's Uncle Ken (Ellen & Natalie--I too was inspired to make knitted ties! Well, the green one is knit and the blue is crocheted--pattern calls for an "E" hook but I only had an "F" hook or larger so F it was). The green is a Cascade wool/cotton blend and the blue is an alpaca/wool blend purchased on ebay.Close up of the stitches. The blue one needed a tie tack but I couldn't find one I liked so I used a small vintage rhinestone pin (and told Ken he didn't have to wear it but could pass it off to Marilyn if he wanted to, instead!)

I still have one more Christmas project that's not quite finished (yes, I do realize it is now January but what can you do?) so I'll wait to post pictures of that one. I'll try to keep up with the pictures, posting my projects at least monthly because now I can't remember where I got half of the patterns for the above items or the name of the yarns that I used. I also bought myself a handy dandy notebook from the Socks for Soldiers Cafepress store so I can keep track of all my project schematics (so I have a better shot of recreating some of what I've made). I'll let you all know how that works out. Happy New Knitting year!

Resolutions...also known as "decisions"

2008-01-01T17:03:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year! Ok, so it's just another day, right? There are very few years when I actually feel that divide between old and new on New Year's Eve. This year was not one of them--Tristan was sick and I pulled something in my neck while stretching to reach a skein of Koigu on the top shelf of my closet the day before...so it was a quiet evening at home, catching up on movies and working on an afghan that should have been mailed out before Christmas. Oh well.

My quiet evening also gave me time to think about things I want to do differently this year or do at all, now that I have all of this free time. Oh, you didn't hear? I finally finished my Masters in Library and Information Science so now I'm looking at about 30 extra hours of free-time a week. Somehow I don't think I'll have trouble filling that time as my to-do list is about 2 1/2 years long. Anyhow, maybe if I post them for all the world to see (meaning the 2 people who actually stop by to see this blog since I haven't updated in months) then maybe I'll actually keep them this year. I need to borrow some of Tristan's thinking. He refuses to call them "resolutions" because you can resolve to do something but not really, truly commit yourself to do it. He prefers the term "decisions." So, I have made the following "decisions," in no particular order:

2008:
1. I will read more books this year (made it to 79 this year, aiming for 104 next year)
2. I will call my sister more often--not just on her birthday and major holidays
because her laugh just can't be heard in an email.
3. I will exercise more (or really at all)--gonna wear that pedometer even when it doesn't match my outfit.
4. I will lose some weight and fit into those expensive wool suits I bought in Boston 3 years ago (hopefully as a result of #3)
5. I will try to finish some of my UFOs, particularly the ones for me (selfish, I know):
Black mohair beaded sweater (bottom left)--started it about 3 years ago to wear to a holiday party but every year it gets bumped out of the running by Christmas presents for other people
Brown skirt--really, I think I'm only 1 or 2 pattern repeats away from finishing it
Hexagon Skirt--I have all the yarn, Rowan 4-ply Tweed, now discontinued so lets hope I ordered enough! (still available on ebay, though!) Blues, greens & purples separated by charcoal grey
Brown coat from Rowan's Vintage Knits book (Rowan Tweed chunky--also discontinued...)
6. I will knit at least one item for charity each month, rotating between the following (and any others that strike my fancy):
afghans for Afghans wool children's items, afghans etc.
Socks For Soldiers
primarily big black socks but they also take beanie caps and washcloths for those who
don't do socks
Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation many different groups--last year crocheted 13 bunnies for
Easter baskets
Native American Support warm items like mittens, socks & hats for children & adults
Stitches From the Heart items for premature babies
7. I will make an effort to get to Stitch n Bitch more frequently--I sure do love the WeHo Group!
8. I will try to blog more (aiming for once a week)
9. I will not eat anything from the vending machine in the kitchen at work
10. I will eat more vegetables and fruit (and carrot cake muffins do not count)

Ok, that's my head start. I'll probably think of some others but those can wait until Chinese New Year's.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday and let's hope 2008 is a better year.

Stay tuned for pictures of my 2007 knitting projects--I promise!

Best Books of 2007!

2007-10-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, actually this is a list of my favorites that I've read so far this year. I'm posting the list early so you have time to get them all read by December 31st! :) I got mine from the LAPL--even had it shipped to a library near me for easy pickup but in case you are not so fortunate as to live or work near an LAPL branch, I've included links to Amazon.

1. These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy E. Turner
This is actually the first in a trilogy (with possibly more to come) about a girl who's family moves from the East Coast to the Arizona Territory in the last half of the 19th Century. It's a great book full of emotional relationship and the descriptions show an amazing amount of research on the part of the author. It is based in part on true stories of Turner's great-grandmother. I also read the follow-up Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden which was just released this year.

2. City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling
Clearly this was the year of the saga, right? This is a hefty fast-paced fictionalized history of Manhattan from the time it was Nieuw Amsterdam up until the Revolutionary War. The major events are all true but some of the characters are pure fiction. If only high school history could have been this fun! There's also a sequel, City of Glory, picking up after the Revolutionary War and continuing up through the War of 1812.

3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
This book has been reviewed everywhere. It's descriptions are great and transports you back in time to 1930's carnivals far better than HBO's Carnival ever did. The animals in this book are characters in their own right.

4. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Caution, this Southern Vampire Mysteries series is highly addictive! This is a unique blend of mystery and fantasy with some very real human emotion thrown in. Sookie Stackhouse, barmaid and mindreader finds herself romantically involved with a vampire named "Bill" shortly after vampires came out of the coffin, er, closet and had begun living opening in society, following the invention of synthetic blood and releasing them from the need to feed on humans. Just a great series, I practically run to the library as soon as I finish one! One more book and I'll be all caught up and will have to wait a year for the next one, such torture! Definitely check out this supernatural thrill ride! And, according to IMDB, HBO is currently making it into a TV show called "True Blood with Anna Paquin starring as Sookie.

5. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Ok, so I couldn't let a year go by and not read any "knitting fiction," right? This book surrounds a knitting circle in New York. The book is just beautiful--terrific descriptions of female friendships. I highly recommend having tissues at hand for the last few chapters, though!

Stay tuned for the second installment. Sorry I can't write more right now but I'm in the middle of one of Sookie's adventures!

More to come-- promise!

2007-04-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all, long time no post! I bet I've been deleted from everyone's daily "blogs to check list" right? Anyway, things have been just nuts lately. Add to that the fact that I can't find the cord to connect my camera to my computer and it equals no blogging. If it makes you feel better, I haven't even had time to call my mom in the last 2 1/2 weeks so....

I will order a new camera cord this weekend, I hope, so I can get you some pictures of what I've been doing--knitting-wise and socially (ha! Like I have a social life these days. Well, I think I did leave the house once or twice in the last 4 months...).

My job at the law firm went full time in February so that's kept me busy, on top of taking almost a full load of classes this semester and still working (well, sort of) at the Skirball part-time doing their cataloging. I'm almost at the end of my semester--May 15th is the golden day! Only two huge papers, 2 small papers, 2 discussion posts and an oral presentation stand between me and summer vacation...oh wait, that's right, I'm taking a class this summer too. Just one though! It will be my last official class and then in the Fall I put together my e-portfolio and then I graduate. I totally want to have a party in December. Is that totally lame, to throw yourself a graduation party? I mean I'm not asking people to give me money like its a high school graduation party or anything, I just want people to come have a good time. And I saw some totally fun graduation party supplies in the Oriental trading catalog. But I have to buy them fast because the ones with the year on them seem to disappear forever by mid-June. What about all the people that graduate in December? They never have grad party stuff available then. So unfair. What's even more unfair is that my school is too cheap to have two graduation ceremonies so I can't "walk" until May. Not that I really even care about the ceremony but my mom seems to want to fly out here for it. I'd think she'd be sick of seeing me in a cardboard hat by now--this will make graduation number 4 if you count high school....

Tristan got a full-time job as well in March. He is teaching math to a bunch of juvenile delinquents at a continuation school in the suburbs east of LA (I'd say the name but I don't want to get slapped with a defamation suit since I called them delinquents and all). More on this later--he's got stories for days...

Anyway, sorry to be away so long and next post I'll talk about my adventures in knitting (which I try to do every night to relieve some of this crazy stress!)

How is it December?

2006-12-01T03:03:00.000-08:00

Yes, just to get it out of the way, I suck. I haven't been blogging. But for the record, I haven't been doing other things I like such as sleeping or even charging my cell phone. Same old story--school and work are kicking my ass. I actually found time to type this only because I can't sleep and my school's virtual classroom is currently down for its nightly maintenance, otherwise I'd be doing schoolwork. But the end is near--after December 8th I'll be a free woman until the end of January! Well, I'll still be working 2 jobs but at least I won't have any schoolwork to worry about. How will I fill my days... Oh right, with the 17 bazillion Christmas presents I have to finish. I must say that I am doing better than last year (last year I had to give people parts of gifts, like sleeves or the front of a sweater which I then took back to finish about 10 minutes after they unwrapped them). I actually finished a few things so far and I am well on my way with a few others. I totally do this to myself each year. I know that Christmas comes the same time each year and I should start on the presents in February. But you know what, it seems like in between Christmases there are a bunch of birthdays and weddings and new babies to make crap for so really, it's not like I have that much extra time.

Aside from working on the presents, I'm having a tough time getting into the whole Christmas spirit thing. I love Christmas--this is the time I look forward to all year. I like the flowers and the smell of spring but it usually only feels like spring for the last few weeks of Spring semester so I spend them attached to a computer instead of napping in the green grass. I love Fall, well Fall on the East Coast with the changing leaves, crisp air and rainy afternoons perfect for sipping tea. I totally hate summer and as a kid when we would go to the beach in July or August I'd lay on the hot sand slathered in SPF 45 and think of snow and Christmas carols and cider and people being nice to each other for approximately 25 days straight (aside from the people at Toys R Us fighting over the last Cabbage Patch or Tickle Me Elmo). But you know, now I'm living somewhere without snow, where they string lights on PALM TREES and it's 90 degrees (well, it was last week, anyway). Last year at least I was going home to Pennsylvania for Christmas so I could get excited about that. This year the flights were no less than $500 a ticket and Tristan and I can't really afford to lay out $1000 to go home for 4 days. It totally sucks. We couldn't go back for Thanksgiving either because of our work and school schedules. So you know what, we're celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day with my family (my very pale family of German and Swiss abstraction). My mom has invited all the cousins over to recreate Christmas dinner that weekend and they are buying a fake Christmas tree this year because my mom was worried that the dog would drink all of the water in the base of a real tree and it would dry out long before we arrived on January 13th. The upside of this arrangement is that I get a few extra weeks to finish their gifts! And I will probably see some snow. Oh well, being with family is all that matters, no matter the actual date that you visit them. I promise you all some photos in a few weeks, when I have time to find my camera.

Well, I really should make another attempt at the whole sleep thing. Lots of schoolwork to do tomorrow and Tristan wants to go chop down a Christmas tree--he "knows a place" where they give you a saw and let you have at it. This could end in a trip to the emergency room but it wouldn't be the holidays without someone getting injured!

I'm looking forward to returning to the world shortly--and I'll be doing it as a 28-year-old. Yep, that crazy B-day is coming up on the 16th. I actually forgot all about it until Tristan's aunt asked me what I would like as a gift. Seriously, I want to tell her a secretary to remind of things like MY BIRTHDAY. Oy! I'm thinking this year I'd like to do something fun, maybe dancing or some totally drunken karaoke. Anybody in?

Oh Baby, that was a bad idea

2006-11-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

Last night I decided to take the night off from schoolwork and veg out on the couch. It was also a good opportunity to catch up on the 7 bazillion catalogs I've received in the last few weeks when I've been too busy to really sort the mail except to pull out the bills. Catalog number 7 was a makeup catalog that I have no idea why I get--can't say as I've ever actually ordered anything from it but it has been following me around the country on my various moves. It offers a variety of discontinued and hard to find brand name cosmetics--including a few "relaxation tools" for women that seem a bit scandalous when juxtaposed with wrinkle cream and eyebrow-shaped wax strips. They also have a huge selection of perfumes--mostly of the "old lady" variety. But there was one that flashed me back to middle school--Love's Baby Soft. I had no idea they still made this stuff. When I was about 12 or so every girl in my class had a bottle of this stuff, in one of its variations--I think there was a blue one, a green one, the original pink one and a yellow one. I had the green which I think was called "Rainforest Rush" or some other such nonesense. At the time, we all thought these were so cool but looking back I really wonder about this perfume. See, Love's Baby Soft smells like baby powder, like a baby's behind if you will. I suppose it was fine for adolescent and prepubescent girls to wear this stuff and maybe that's the age group they were marking it to. But really, did any woman of dating age really wear this stuff? Picture a lovely date and at it's end, the guy leans over to kiss his date and she smells like BABY! Wouldn't that send most men running away in a panic? She's got a kid! Or she really wants a kid! Something along those lines. Doesn't seem like a good way to get a second date. Totally ridiculous train of thought, yes, I know, but I'm too burned out to tackle the important issues at this moment in time. I am voting on Tuesday, though. I might be up all night cramming with the voter book that explains the propositions just so that I can pick the right ones on Tuesday morning. Don't forget to vote! Because if you don't vote you don't get that cool "I voted" sticker which means people won't look at you as "an informed, politically active intellectual" which we all aspire to be, right?

As one departs, two arrive....

2006-09-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye...

I am so sad. My friend Michele is moving to Pittsburgh, this weekend! We haven't had much time to say goodbye but we did have a "going-away dinner" Wednesday night at McCormick & Schmick's where Michele used to be a server. It was a fun evening, despite the occasion. But we know she'll be back. One or two Pennsylvania winters oughta have her running back here to sunny California (at least we hope so!). Who is going to catalog the things that suck about LA with me now? Michele and Darcy were the first people I really met here in LA that a) gave me the time of day and b) didn't think I was too weird or too "girl from rural Pennsylvania" to hang out with. Seriously, the night I met you guys at SnB I came home and told Tristan "I think I made friends!" Something that I worried might not happen so thank you!

Here's Wednesday's gang:

Back row: Me, Michele, Christian, Emily and Mike
Front row: Sarah, Sam, James (also Annie in the second pic) & Mike

We dressed up for fun--see Michele's blog for more info. I'm wearing a dress that Tristan bought me about 5 years ago when we first started dating. Since it still fits, I had to wear it (overlooking the fact that it is made of stretchy material, mind you).

Christian, Michele & Me. Christian was at a swank Louis Vitton party. Quite dapper in that hat, no? Doesn't Michele look great? Pardon my cleavage...

Saturday we are off to Runyon Canyon. I've never been and I'm glad I have one more chance to say goodbye...to Michele, not to Runyon Canyon although since I go hiking like, once ever 15 years it might seem like that.

I am so sad to see Michele go and I will visit her next time I go home to PA. Only a 45 min flight from Harrisburg or 1 hour from Lancaster (thats Lanc-astor, not LAN-castor like you crazy Californians say)!

On a happier note:

Tristan and I added to our family in the last few weeks. Magellan needed a playmate so we went to look at some kitties up for adoption at our vet's office (Laurel Pet Hospital in West Hollywood--awesome vets, by the way). These kitties had been brought in when they were 3 months old and relinquished to the vets. They are now 8 months old--5 months of living in a little cage together! Well, we wanted just one when we left the house but they were obviously bonded and if we took them both they would neuter them for free so we got them both. Yes, we are officially CRAZY CAT PEOPLE. That's 5 cats. But the two older ones spend most of their time under the bed or in the closet so it's really like we only had 1 to begin with...

But the kittens are just so damn cute. And they lay (ly? lie? never did get that right in English class) together so much that it's really like we just got one large, 2-headed cat. We named them Pierson and Post. It's a law school joke. The first case that just about everyone in law school reads is Pierson v. Post, about a guy (Post) who is tracking a fox through woods and valleys for hours only to have another guy (Pierson) step out and shoot it as it went past, having expended zero effort to actually hunt it down. The question was "who owns that fox?" The court decided that the guy who shot him had dibs. Yeah, that's exactly how they said it too. Anyway, Tristan and I met in Property class and we joked a long time ago when we first started dating about getting two cats and naming them after this stupid case which is really a hallmark of the law school experience. So here they are. See, 2-headed kitty...
Close up of Post--who is a bit more skittish than Pierson. He is more grey with very pronounced black stripes. He is also very sweet and likes to eat my hair. When scared he runs and sits in the litter box. Ew! But he makes up for it by doing this very Stevie Wonder head rolling thing when he is puzzled by something that is just adorable.

His wiley brother Pierson (see why we didn't name him Post?) waiting to pounce on his brother's tail. He pounces on everything. He's especially fond of biting my kneecap through the comforter which hurts even more than you imagine it would. He also gets confused by our sheer curtains and on more than one occasion has tried to leap through them to get from the windowsill onto a nearby chair, bringing down the curtain rod, the curtain and a floor lamp or two. He finds that this activity is best undertaken at 3:30 in the morning.
Two sleepy kitties. That's Pierson in the front. He is more of a brown-grey and has white tips on 3 of his paws.

Close up of Pierson. He had to inspect the camera's zoom....See his black mouth? I think he's sort of Goth.

And here's Post after I'd taken like a zillion pictures. He figured he'd better just pose and get it over with. Doesn't he look like he's about to say "are you quite finished?" I think he has a Bitish accent though I can't explain why...
Just to give you an idea of how big these boys are. They are only 8 months old and their paws are huge....and they are lying on a king size bed. We may have to move to a bigger condo in the next year or so just to accommodate them.

Well, I have other fun things to tell you and I promise to do so soon. I got a new job, we just had to make some major, super fun emergency home repairs which might mean some fine dining on Ramen until, oh, about Christmas and I have some finished knitting projects and works in progress to share with you all...

But now I'm going to go get some sleep so I can get up early to do my homework. Because, um, tonight I had to watch Grey's Anatomy and stuff and all the things I thought I would get done are still, um, not so much done (or, ahem, even started).

My newest obsession

2006-08-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Tristan and I were shopping for a new dining room table so we decided to go to Venice Blvd and see if there was something suitable at Levitz or one of those other furniture stores in that area. We parked across the street from the store and when I got out of the car I turned around and fell in love. No, I'm not leaving my husband. I fell in love with a car.Yes, you read correctly, this girl who HATES to drive fell in love with a CAR. But not just any car. No it was a pristine white Karmann Ghia. A who with the what-now? Yeah, that's what I said when I read the name scrolled near the tire.

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

It is just too cute. Really. Don't you think I'd look cute in this car, tooling around town or zipping down the coast? I just have a few things to do before I'm ready to buy one:

1. Figure out how to drive a stick. I've never tried it but how hard can it be? I multi-task a thousand times each day, surely I could handle driving with both feet...

2. Learn about car repair because apparently these babies need a lot of TLC but like human children, they look so damn cute that you forget about the bodily misfunctions and the disconcerting noises....

3. Pick out which color I want and then try to find one on ebay. Preferably find one in a city close to where friends or family live so that I can squeeze in a visit when I fly out to pick up my new car (see multi-tasking yet again!)

4. Pick out a fabulous scarf and big dark glasses (should I decide to go with a convertible)

5. Think up a plucky yet lady-like name for my new transportation

6. Stop hating driving (this may involve moving out of LA but it's a small sacrifice to pay for a pretty car)

7. Graduate from school, get a full-time job and finish some of my knitting/crafting projects before I pick up this new "hobby."

Oh, the best part? They are starting on ebay for between $500-$1000 and most are selling for less than $5,000.

Good night all, I'm off to dream about myself behind the wheel of a sporty little number....

30 Days and this is all I have to show for it?

2006-07-26T01:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, yeah, so it's been 30 days since I updated ya'll. Mhhmm. Yeah, I'm not sure what I was doing, probably just sitting on the couch eating bon-bons and watching Lifetime. Oh wait, that's the dream I should be having right now, if I were actually sleeping--which I should be. But no, I'm wide awake and sitting in my dark kitchen typing on the laptop (trying to save some electricity--of course I do realize that this laptop takes way more juice than the floor lamp to my left but whatever, I'm trying...).

Let's see in the past month:

1. Went to my sister's wedding. Yep, my baby (and only) sister got herself hitched to a wonderful boy (I suppose I should call him a man since he's married and stuff...). I took a bunch of pictures which you can see here. And, before you ask, I'm only in a few of them because I WAS TAKING THE PICTURES. Rest assured, other people took photos as did the photographer and I'm pretty sure I got into at least a few of them, which I will share with you when I get them. Feel free to comment, particularly if you can think of titles for the last 10 pictures or so--I uploaded them pretty late at night and I just can't be witty after midnight unless I've been drinking. And no drinking after midnight on a Weds, unfort.

The wedding was beautiful, the couple was happy and in love and it seemed like they got a pretty good haul in the gift department. And so did I--well not really, I actually just HAULED the presents from the reception site to the car and then from the car to the house.
It was hot in PA but not as hot as it's been here in the last few weeks. The wedding was at my parents' church and the reception at the local Jewish Community Center (as an aside, when I was home in May I went to the JCC with my sister for a final look-see and casually mentioned that I worked at the Skirball in LA--Yeah, I got the full-on tour after that!). Other than a few minor mishaps--seriously, I don't think it would be a wedding without some tiny, last-minute crises--everything went just wonderfully. I had a few dress issues though. The bridesmaid dress was in junior sizes and apparently my hips and bust (ha! yes, feel free to laugh, I am aware that the only bust I have to speak of is courtesy of Victoria's Secret and their well-placed wires and elastic) are not in "junior proportions." I vaguely remember mentioning this to the saleswoman back in December but she apparently didn't hear me.... So the dress was a bit tight. Well, actually it was so tight that I was worried I wasn't going to be able to take a deep enough breath to get through the one-page reading I was giving during the ceremony. And I only ate about 2 bites from my plate at the reception before my dress hit maximum capacity. I was complaining about the boning in the dress and how it was cutting into my hips when my cousin goes " is it maybe too tight because you're expecting?" Ha! I said "oh that is so definitely not it." It seems that when you have been married for 2 years, people expect you to start popping out kids. Sorry folks, no popping here anytime soon. And by soon I mean never. Seriously, I do not have the energy for children.

2. I've been working. Two jobs. At the same place. I've been both an Administrative Assistant and a pseudo-librarian for a few weeks now. It's been fun. No really, I have enjoyed it but I'm phasing out the Admin work as the library project heats up. Each day I think I breathe in about a pound and a half of dust just moving the books around--or at least that's my explanation as to why none of my shorts fit. I've found like 20 books I want to read as I sort the books but I'm not sure how to squeeze them in....

3. Yep, I'm still in school. Well, actually I'll be out of school in about 3 weeks but then two weeks after that I'll be in school again. I know, hard to keep up. Just assume that I am in school until I say otherwise. I've had some marathon reference scavenger hunts for my research class. The good news: I finally went to Central Library and it is beautiful. The bad news: I had to miss a day of work, walk about 6 blocks in the heat and then spend 5 hours in the library, running from floor to floor looking for the answer to a very important question: "What is the most landed on space on a Monopoly board?" Well, thank god I found the answer because I don't know how anyone would have slept if I'd have failed my mission. But YOU have to wait until my next post to find out what it is...

4. CNN-crafting news nuggets:
a. I've been working on this brown skirt forever and still not done. It's for me so it merely gets a purple flag (ha, ha, office joke for those of you who are regular users of Outlook).
b. I finished a purse for my mom for her birthday--first time I crocheted something without a pattern--I'll put pics up soon, I promise.
c. Crocheted a hat for my friend Grady's birthday. And of course I forgot to take a picture of the hat and him in the hat. I am so bad at that! I hear he's been wearing it a lot so one of these days I'll corner him and snap a photo.
d. Finished a ladies small size sweater for the Afghans for Afghans drive, unfortunately not in time for their current deadline so it will be going in the closet until their drive at the end of September.
e. I'm still working on some other projects--I have a few things I'm doing for people at work or as I keep saying "I'm taking in piecework to supplement my income"
f. I just started a pair of mittens for the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation--I found them on yahoo groups. Check them out, they are looking for a lot of different things and not just wool, like the Afghans for Afghans, which can get to be expensive.
g. tried to get to SnB, but not as much as I'd like to!

5. Went to a Flaming Lips concert with Michele, Mark & Darcy. Loads of fun even if it was hot and sticky at the Hollywood Bowl. Check out Michele & Darcy's pictures on their blogs because I am so lame--I totally thought cameras would be verbotten.

6. Sleeping--I'm gonna get on that one right now! She says as two cop cars go by her house and a helicopter shines a giant searchbeam into her kitchen (Damn, did Tristan not pay that parking ticket he got in May?) Oh, gotta love LA and their stupid car chases. I swear this happens at least once a week...I have got to update more frequently--it's so hard to squish everything into one post.

G'night!

Nocturnal Amiss....

2006-06-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we'll add another anecdote to the "only in LA" category. Last night I'm lying in bed reading a novel (about a ghost that helps her niece solve mysteries--quite cute and very British!) when I hear this gigantic BOOM. My first thought--somebody had a ginormous accident on the 101 (which is about, oh, 50 yards from my bedroom window). I listened for sirens but didn't hear any and the traffic seemed to keep flowing. So not an accident. Oh, I know!! It was gunshots. Oh my god, someone got shot near my house. Two minutes of panic and still no sirens. At this point, Tristan comes to bed and says "hey, did you hear that thunder?" Yep folks, apparently I've been living in the big city too long because I no longer recognize the sound of THUNDER. Or maybe it's because it doesn't rain here during the summer and I was subconsciously aware of that fact--thus my brain thought it couldn't be thunder.

I've been experiencing a lot of things that go bump in the night lately. Most of it has to do with the construction on Cahuenga. Ok, so they can't start their jackhammers until a civilized 7:30AM (whatever, that is still WAY too early) but they can drive their HUGE dumptrunks and earthmovers and other digging machiny-things made by Caterpillar (shout out to PA) past my house at 5:30 AM. I hear their air brakes as they stop at the stop sign and their backing up alarm noises as they realize they cut the corner too short and can not possibly make the turn onto the next street. I want to write to the city and complain. For a week and a half I've been awakened a full hour and a half before I have to get up (on work days) and about 4 hours before I have to get up on non-work days. That's precious sleep that this busy girl can't afford to lose, people!

As if the trucks weren't bad enough, we've got some nightingales living in the tree outside our bedroom. Well, they might be finches or some other bird creature, I don't know my birds. All I do know is that they are night owls--hee-hee--who chirp incessantly like it is dawn at 2AM. They call out to other birds, they chat it up and they sing--which I'm sure to themselves is a beautiful noise and if I were hearing it at 3PM instead of 3AM, I might just agree. But how do you shut birds up? I thought maybe we could shine a huge search light directly into the tree, thus mimicking the sun which should send those bird-brains straight to bed, right? The problem, that tree is directly between our house and the building nextdoor which might not be so thrilled to have a searchlight shining in their window. But then again, maybe they are bothered by the birds too....

Lastly, all the scantily-clad, drunken club goers park on our street to avoid having to pay for parking or to tip the valets. But they don't just go to their cars and leave, no they mosey down the street to their cars, usually treating us to an off-key rendition of some ridiculous club song that's most likely made with computers and was never intended to be mimicked by the human voice. When they do get to their cars, they have a nice little chat, about thirty decibals louder than normal speech because they just blew their eardrums out dancing in front of the club's speakers. I do get to live vicariously through them as I get to hear "I can't believe she did it with that ass, whatever, she's got no standards..." yadda, yadda. On tuesday I actually heard someone say "foshizzle." I kid you not. I thought the only person who said that was Snoop Doggy Dog--or maybe it was him, the lighting is a bit dim down there....

Oh well, I'm off to PA tomorrow for my sister's wedding so maybe I'll get some sleep there. Or maybe not. I'm hoping to get some knitting done, though. Hmm, maybe I'll knit myself a eye mask and some cotton earmuffs before I return home....sweet dreams, ya'll, I'm taking a nap.....

Completely Unforgiveable...

2006-06-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

So yeah, it's been, um, AWHILE since I've posted. Funny right since I'm finally done with school. Oh wait, no I'm not. I'm in my second week of summer semester. Woohoo. I'm also planning my fall class schedule. I'm hoping to graduate next spring so that I can FINALLY have a summer free from studying. See, I've been going to school during the summer since the summer of 1998. Three years of summer classes in college, three years of year-round law school, studying and taking the Massachusetts bar exam in 2004. After I passed that exam I thought, that's it, I'm done with school and studying. I figured I'd just go get myself an attorney job and that would be the end of it. Until months of job searching failed to turn up anything--anything at all. I wasn't being picky, my only requirement was that it not be insurance defense because I really don't need a one-way ticket to Hell. Not that I believe in Hell but if anything was going to send you straight to burning brimstone (do not pass go, do not collect $200) it'd be doing insurance defense work.

So then we moved out West, like true pioneers (I our U-haul truck and thankfully no wheels got mired in mud and we never had to form a circle with other moving vans for protection in the Holiday Inn parking lot) to seek our fortunes, or at least enough to live on. But what to do once we were here? Well, sticking with what I knew, I decided to study for and take yet another bar exam. Yep, I decided to take the July 2005 Cal bar exam. So yet another summer spent sweating over an open book instead of working on my tan (er-freckling actually since I use SPF 45 and I DON'T TAN). Then I started working on my library science degree and here I am again, taking classes during the hottest months of the year. It seems that from September to May I forget how hard it is to concentrate when you brain is melting. Seriously, it is that hot. Yesterday while waiting for the bus in the Valley, my plastic sandals (vintage 60's? or 70's? They were my grandmas) actually melted onto my foot. Yeah really, it sounded like velcro when I tried to pull them off after I got home---ew!!!

So I've been working and going to school now and I promise to try to write more. In between everything else I'm doing since in July I'll sort of be working 2 jobs for the same museum while I continue to go to school. Well, I hate to be bored. Although I suppose this post is sort of boring but after like 45 days of silence, this is sort of the chit-chat leading up to the meat of the conversation, if you will. I've also got to remember to bring my camera with me when I go places. Like to PA or just downtown to the Fashion District with Darcy (we went on Tuesday to buy ribbon and stuff for my sister's wedding--Thanks Darcy for trudging through the heat with me in search of variegated pink fading ribbon in pale, petal and fuschia!)

In crafting news...I've been working on a project that I can't talk about because it is a present and it is not knitted, it's some other crafty thing I do. More details to follow ...see how I got you to come back? Other than that, I have about 8 inches of a brown skirt knit in a pattern from the free patterns section of Elann.com

Ok, back to that schoolwork--gotta be at work early tomorrow!

School + Work = NO SLEEP, NO BLOGGING...

2006-04-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hey All, I apologize for the lack of updates. I'm in my last few weeks of school and things are a bit crazy--oh wait, haven't they been crazy ALL semester? No matter, they are even crazier now as deadlines loom in the near future. I'm also still working. Yes, I know I said I'd be done soon and I will be, temporarily. See it turns out that the person I'm filling in for won't be back from maternity leave on the day she's supposed to because she had the baby late and the doctor won't let her. Well, I definitely need time off during my final week of the semester and I'm flying to PA May 11-17th for my sister's wedding shower so I'm working until May 5th and then doing my thing and then going BACK to work May 19th-31st. Yep, I will be working through my vacation from school. Sigh. How do I get myself into these things? Do I carry too much personal guilt? I can't understand why, I'm not Catholic or Jewish but I got the guilt thing down pat. Middle class guilt maybe? Although I'm not sure there even is a middle class anymore in this country. Anyway, I didn't want to leave them in a bind. It's not like I was going to go anywhere over semester break because Tristan is still in school (he's on quarters and won't be on break until the middle of June). And I'll only be working 3 days a week so maybe I can tackle those lingering boxes in the crap, I mean the craft, room.

OEN (Other Exciting News): One of my two very bestest friends from way back (since we were 12!) called me this week to tell me she's pregnant! You know what that means, I finally get to use those baby patterns I've amassed since no one I know has gotten knocked up since I started knitting. Yeah! I hope she has a girl because there are so many cute girl patterns out there--and I'm pretty sure I'll be better at knitting butterflies into sweaters than I will be trying to do a fire engine. Not that girls can't have sweaters with fire engines on them, but you know, it's harder to do. I'll get to see her when I go to PA because her brother is getting married that weekend. And my other best friend from way back will be up that weekend too. I'm so excited, I get to see my two oldest friends together for the first time since last February.

We may be adding to our own family as well--no I AM NOT PREGNANT!!! Just wanted to clear that up--we're thinking of adding another cat. Magellan really needs a playmate and since Tristan will be working this summer and I will probably be working at least part of the time, he won't have any humans to play with during the day. We went to www.petfinder.com and found a kitty named Franklin who loves to wrestle and play--Magellan tries to wrestle with Amanda but she wants none of it! Franklin is a black and white kitty about the same age as Magellan. We're going to go see him sometime this week to see if he wants to come live with us forever.

Knitting News: Since I've been cleared for knitting by the doctor (only an hour or so a day and I get up to stretch periodically) I've started working on my green sweater again. I'm almost ready to begin the neck shaping so don't worry Darcy, I'll finish it soon! I'm hoping to get it done so I can wear it in PA but I'm not counting on it with all the schoolwork I have to do.

Well, I gotta go break up a cat hissing contest. Samantha is behind the TV making a sound that sounds like a fork that got stuck in the garbage disposal because Magellan is blocking her escape route. Oh yes, and I really want to be a mommy for a fourth time? And then back to the drudgery that is my current project.....

**addendum added 5/8/06---um, it's actually my sister's wedding shower not baby shower that I am going to, talk about putting the cart before the horse! Sorry Mic, didn't mean to imply that you're having a shotgun wedding or anything....

At least we got to go for pancakes....

2006-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday night Tristan and I went to see "The Black Rider," a musical written by William S. Burroughs and scored by Tom Waits, at the Ahmanson Theater dowtown. Tristan is a huge Tom Waits fan and bought the tickets months ago, as soon as he heard that a Tom Waits play was coming to LA. I had no idea what it was about when we got there--and neither did Tristan. I figured it would be a bit "out-there" because, come on, the man wrote songs called "Chocolate Jesus" and about pianos that have been drinking...Well, this was even more out there than I anticipated. It was so far out there that I think it may have been in Orange County. The story line itself is sort of Faustus-like, a man sells his soul to the devil for magic bullets so he can shoot some game and win the approval of his sweetheart's father so that they can get married. The songs were good--they are off of the album with the same name but the rest of the play was pretty otrocious.

First of all, the tickets were $60 a piece and for that price we were way up in the balcony, so high up that I had a few moments of vertigo when we first sat down. We were also getting a bird's eye view of the top of the actor's heads for part of the performance. This was opening night and at the beginning of the play it was announced that this was the first run through of the play, that in fact the last 4 scenes had only been practiced "ONCE" on the stage. Hmm, didn't inspire confidence in me, let me tell you. The play itself is a lot of stilted dialog punctuated by a motley of various sound effects--ticks, pops, clangs etc. Except, that since they hadn't done a dress rehearsal, the sounds didn't match up to the actions and there was about a 2 or 3 second delay. Then there were the shooting scenes when deer fell over before the gun went off... Little things, people, but very key. I worked the sound board at a Children's Theatre when I was about 13 and we managed to get this kind of stuff down before opening night...

Also, the dialog is hard to follow and there are foreshadowing scenes except it's really hard to figure out if what's going on is a dream or if it's really happening or what. During intermission I was standing in the lobby trying to figure it all out and wondering if I was the only one who didn't get it when two guys walked out the theatre exclaiming "WTF?" So I guess I wasn't the only one. Perhaps I'm not artsy enough to get it. It felt sort of like a Tim Burton animated movie with real people and hokey sound effects. There was also a soliloquy near the end by some character, who's name/part in the story I did not understand, who uses three different voices and talks about a contract and movies and other stuff. A few people in the audience laughed but I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE GUY WAS REFERRING TO! Everywhere I looked in the theatre there were sets of two head together--one person who thought they got it explaining it to the person next to them who was shaking their head in agreement but whose frowning face clearly indicated they had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Afterwards we walked out into the misting rain and got back on the Red Line. We got off at Sunset and Vermont and walked up the street to Fred 62. I got a Cherry Coke and some apple pancakes. Tristan had fried mac n' cheese balls (which were pretty good--doesn't get more American than frying cheesy pasta!) and a fish sandwich. We then thought we'd catch the 217 Bus home, since it was raining, but after about 30 minutes of waiting we decided to walk home in the mist---for about 2 miles--so glad I went for the sensible and not the cute shoes! We got home around 1:30am and crashed.

I spent all day yesterday working on projects for school and then doing a little quilting during Sopranos and Big Love (east coast feed so it doesn't conflict with Desperate Housewives and Gray's Anatomy--gotta love satellite). I was a bit bummed that Desperate Housewives and Gray's Anatomy were little catch up thingys for people who couldn't be bothered to watch this season. So ABC forced me to do some more schoolwork before going to bed.

I'm so happy that today is finally here--I get to knit again! But only for one hour. Medium had better not be a re-run or heads will roll!

Hippity-Hoppity Easter dinner...

2006-04-17T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yours truly decided last Thursday to make an Easter dinner this Sunday. Yes, I am aware that most normal people don't plan a holiday meal 3 days before the holiday but I've never claimed to be normal. It wasn't so much that I wanted to celebrate the religious aspects of the holiday, I just wanted to eat ham and mashed potatoes. Luckily my friends were free on short notice so there were 8 of us for dinner yesterday. Tristan pitched in with the cleaning and the house was actually looking presentable--well except for the office but all the crap had to go somewhere....I was making stuff all day but I still didn't seem to time it right and dinner was not on the table at 5pm as planned (more like 5:45?). Anyway, at least we put out a bunch of appetizers so there was no coup! Our group, clockwise from the left--Tristan, Darcy, Mark, Michele, (picture Grady's girlfriend Yumiko in the empty chair--she came after I took the picture) Grady and Grady's brother Randy.
Here's the spread. I was so excited to use some of our wedding gifts such as the placemats, napkins, the dragonfly napkin rings and the red goblets. I thought we had 5 yellow plates and 5 red but somehow we only have 7 altogether now so I got a purple plate. We had ham, Tristan's chicken enchilada suisa, mashed potatoes (which Darcy mashed with a whisk because I stupidly cooked them in a pot that was so deep the hand mixer couldn't reach the bottom--whoops! Thanks Darcy!), green beans, corn and biscuits. Michele and Mark brought lovely pink tulips, baked beans and some cheezy au graten potatoes--yum! Darcy supplied us with chocolate mouse cakes for dessert. We also had key lime pie and a strawberry pie and Yumiko brought these fabulous deserts that were little works of art. Pear tarts, chocolate tarts with little crepes, and a few other pastries that were all hand made and yummy!

In preparation for company, we decided to have Magellan and the other kitties "sheathed" with soft paws so we could roll out the rug we bought last Saturday and rolled up again the next day as the cats had attempted to destroy it overnight. Tristan picked orange to match Magellan, and of course Samantha & Amanda had to have orange too because you get like 40 in a pack. They are little vinyl things that you glue onto the cats nails. Don't be horrified! It's all edible. The cats can eat the glue and the claw covers and be just fine! We had to clip their nails first then you put glue in the little claw thingy and stick it on. Tristan came up with a way to hold them down--straddling them on the bed without sitting on them while I filled the things with glue. I think Tristan was more scarred by the whole experience (literally) than the cats were. They licked at them for a while but now they don't seem to care that they are on. They all look like they had their nails done. It seems to be a good alternative to declawing your cat which is cruel and should be illegal. And our rug is still intact!

Since the house was actually clean, I decided to take some pictures of our living room for you all to see. Especially my family and friends who keep asking for pictures. And yes, curtains are on the "to do" list. I'm thinking whispy gold sheers on either side of a taupy suede-like roman shade. I'll probably have to make it myself which means it will be up some time in 2008 when I have time....

This is a shot looking into the dining room. Once I finish all the dishes from yesterday, I'll take a shot of the kitchen/dining room. You'll have to wait for the other rooms because they still have a ways to go.... and no knitting updates because, since my shoulder has practically imobilized me, I have been forbidden to knit. I know, it's been awful. I don't know how to keep my hands occupied while I watch tv. I've done a little bit of quilting instead because it consists of smaller movements and doesn't involve my shoulder muscles as much. Oy! maybe I'll feel better once school is finished for the semester--only 5 weeks left!

Only in LA....

2006-04-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Our city actually hires a whole bunch of goats to eat the grass off of hillsides to avoid summer fires. The news advertised it as great family entertainment, parents take the kiddies to watch the goats stuff themselves on weeds! And they say Pennyslvania is full of redneck simple folk--I don't remember ever going to see a bunch of goats eat, unless you count the goat pens at the county fair but that was really just a shortcut from the games' booths to the cotton candy seller...

Knitting is in my blood, well almost...

2006-03-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my new friend and carpool buddy Claudia, who is from Germany, pointed out that the German word for knitting is "stricken." Today I looked up "knitter" in an English-German Dictionary and in German it is "stricker." Apparently it seems that I was fated to be a knitter since my last name, Strickler, is only one letter off and I am of German descent so it is entirely possible that my forefathers (and mothers!) were knitters. Fun little trivia for me. Now if my mother's maiden name turns out to mean "one who talks too much" then I know I was meant to be who I am...

If it's not mad cow, it's the bird flu...

2006-03-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

Woo boy is it raining today! I left the house this morning with an umbrella, got halfway to the train station and the wind blew it inside out and broke 3 of the metal bars so it refused to stay up. I then got on the train, got on my first bus and was waiting at the corner for my second bus (that's right a train and 2 buses to go like 8 miles because it's like that here in LA) when it started to pour. And this bus stop, oh yeah, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE TO TAKE COVER. So that 5.5 minutes I spent blowdrying my hair this morning were a total waste. I was soaked when I got to work. I finally dried off about 3:30. Of course Magellan doesn't really care what the weather is like outside so long as it's warm and toasty behind the computer monitor.

Tristan was reading an article a few days ago about the bird flu and how it's coming for us. As we talked it over, we decided that maybe we better stop eating poultry, just to be on the safe side since we are so close to Asia and everything. Then we remembered that book Fast Food Nation that we both read which talked about how the meat industry grinds up chicken beaks and feeds them to cows. So we thought, hmm, we better stop eating red meat too, just to be on the safe side. But we will continue to eat fish and seafood because, um, what are the chances that a sick bird dies over the ocean, falls in the water and gets eaten by a tuna? Ok, so that could totally happen. But really, I can't subsist on pasta and cheese alone--wait, could there be bird flu in the cheese??? NO! I will not sacrifice the cheese. Because, to paraphrase Bush, if I give up cheese then the bird flu has won. So we will try to be vegetarians--after we finish all the meat that's in the freezer. We're a little concerned about the cats though. I'm not sure that they will adjust well to tofu....

In knitting news:
I finished off 2 pairs of newborn baby socks for Afghans for Afghans. I was working on the striped ones on the bus last week when a man offered me his seat saying "oh, jeez miss, take my seat." I was delighted and slightly shocked, thinking, there IS a civilized man left alive! Then I looked down at my knitting and realized that he probably thought I was pregnant because I was knitting a baby bootie. I decided then and there never to wear that particular pair of pants again because obviously they reinforced this guy's notion...

In other knitting news, Darcy and I are progressing on our knit along. Well, Darcy is anyway. I've finished the back and have about 4 inches of the front done but Miss Darcy is just about finished!

I'm technically on Spring Break this week but I have too many papers and projects to be working on to really take time off. I declared last Friday and Sunday Spring Break for me. Except I got sick Friday night and couldn't go bowling with our friend Daniel. I felt terrible, since it was his birthday celebration and all but I thought I was going to keel over, and not just from the thought of wearing those funny looking stinky shoes. Luckily I recovered by Sunday and was able to go to Al Gelato's with Tristan, Darcy, Michele and Mark. I had some yummy gnocchi and then some pear sorbet with a "taster" (i.e. a 1/2 scoop) of cabernet sorbet on top. Heaven! The pear was delicious. I know, it was a healthier choice when compared to the gelato flavors containing cream and I apologize for that but I had eaten gnocchi for dinner which are delicious little pasta rocks that land in your stomach and don't leave much room for rich desserts. Darcy came back to our swanky (read: somewhat less messy than last week) new pad for some knitting and Sopranos watching. But alas, the weekend is over. Back to schoolwork and regular work. I'm gonna go change into pjs now, grab my knitting and cozy up on the couch to catch up on Ti-vo'd "Knitty Gritty" episodes before I read another chapter of my Information Retrieval textbook (works better than a nightcap). Stay warm and avoid the rain--just remember it only does this like 10 days a year here!

Ashes, Snow, Sand & Silliness

2006-03-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Darcy's Birthday so today Michele, Mark, Tristan and I took Darcy to Santa Monica for a birthday celebration. Our original plan was to see the Ashes and Snow exhibit at the pier and then have dinner at Ye Olde Kings Head on 2nd Street. But we were all "famished" (just for you, Darcy) so we opted to have our fish and chips and THEN get a little culture (well, I had the mushroom and chicken pie which came with a pastry thing on top that looked like a conch shell, no lie). Darcy got her picture taken and a weird fruit/custard thingy with a candle in it. They give you your picture in a little "frame" with a history of the restaurant on it--very cute. Next time we go it will be my birthday (or somebody's because they didn't check Darcy's ID and we all decided we want pictures too!) We walked down to the pier and Mark thought he saw Aaron Spelling--but none of the rest of us did (guess we just missed him....). Luckily, Michele, Tristan and I had student IDs so we got in for $10 instead of $15. The photos are amazing and the film is good too, but just a warning, it is an HOUR long. So if you go, muscle your way to the handful of seats up front, and maybe drink some coffee before hand because the music is so soothing it just about puts you to sleep.

Afterwards we took a walk on the beach and snapped some pictures, because it was sunny and we all have blogs to fill with stuff.

Michele, Darcy (birthday girl!) and Me

Mark, Michele, Me and Tristan

Tristan and Me

Michele and Mark looking so cute!

The Guys bonded over discussions of computers, electronics and Bill Maher.

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, Mark entertained us with an authentic Irish Jig, performed in the cold, cold, water of the Pacific... No pictures of all 5 of us though, we had trouble finding someone who was close by who didn't look like they'd run off with our cameras...Ok, now back to schoolwork. Gotta get all my stuff finished so next Sunday we can go to Al Gelattos!

Flowers, chocolate and scary nature...

2006-03-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

I've been quite the busy little bee the last few weeks and my husband got this bee flowers last week! Tristan's not really the romantic type, which is fine with me because I'd rather he clean the bathroom (which he also did) than feed me strawberries by candlelight. But last week I was just so tired that I kept falling asleep while doing my reading for school and then hubby went out to have dinner with a friend and came home with the pretty bouquet above, just because. Brightened my day considerably. And, because he knows me so well, he also brought me these:

Nutty Bars are one of my weaknesses. Tristan has really been helping out quite a bit since I started working--doing the dishes, cooking dinner, going to the grocery store, cleaning the cat box and even dropping my library books off for me. Sometimes I really hate being an over-achiever. I thought of course I can work 3 days a week and take 3 graduate classes and move and finish those Christmas gifts I just haven't quite gotten around to (those ones from 2005 that haunt me from their tote bags each time I pass by them...) and a million other projects I have in my "to do list." Afterall, in college I managed to complete two bachelor's in 4 years, be president of our women's caucus, vice president of the Circle K volunteer service fraternity and participate in weekly service projects, write for the student newspaper, maintain active memberships in three honor societies and two major-specific clubs and have a social life. How? I don't know. I look back and think perhaps I had one of those crazy time thingys that Hermione (had to look that up on Amazon because I had no idea how to spell it) used in the newest Harry Potter movie, so she could go back and forth in time and appear to be in two places at once. Or maybe it's because I'm not 18 or even 21 anymore. Does old age start at 27? Whatever the reason, I just can't handle as much activity as I could when I was young. It doesn't help that I decided to move and start a new job all in the same week, about two weeks before my midterms. So if you see me soon and my eyes look a little glazed--believe me, I want to pay attention to you but about 1/3 of my brain might be sleeping--it's taking shifts.

In knitting news---well, there isn't any. I made one washcloth for the yahoo group Loves Many Cloths and one pair of newborn socks for Afghans for Afghans, which is having a drive to collect 100 hats and 100 socks/booties for newborns by the end of April, if you've got any soft wool to spare. Other than that, I haven't had time. I manged to work on those two things on my lunch break at work and while I waited for journal articles to finish printing. Oy vey! One of these days I will be all caught up and even ahead on my school work and my house will be all unpacked and clean and my taxes will be done and the Siamese will give up her most recent hobby of peeing on things...and Magellan will finally be able to get that grasshopper who's taken up residence in the flowerbox outside our living room window.... yeah right.

Which is scarier--this grasshopper or Laurie's square watermelons?

Cat People v. Dog People

2006-03-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

So have you ever looked at someone and thought "he's a dog person..." or "oh she's definately a cat person.." ? Since I now often take public transportation and I have a job that puts me in frequent contact with all sorts of people, I've felt the psychology major in me seeping to the surface of my conciousness. Yes, I admit it, I've been theorizing. You see, I'm a bit of a chatty cathy and I often end up deep in conversation with complete strangers who feel compelled to tell me about their kids, their jobs and even their pets. Most times though, I don't need them to even tell me what kind of pet they have or prefer because I CAN JUST TELL.

Just a warning, what I'm about to say may be offensive to dog people. I'm sorry, it's just the way things go---not everyone was thrilled with Freud's penis-envy stuff so really, you can't please everyone. To better understand my theory, I ask you to picture in your mind someone you know who owns a cat (or cats because cats seem to be like potato chips, you can't have just one) and a separate someone who has a dog--leaving out for the time being those persons who own both types of animals. Still thinking, ok, I'll give you a minute, I want to break into that Take 5 bar I have in my purse anyway...Ready, ok moving on.

Ok, now think about the stereotypical characteristics of dogs. Dogs need lots of attention, you have to walk them and take them outside to do their business (not to mention pick it up and carry it around til you find a trash can) and you can't leave them home alone when you go on vacation. Also, dogs are continually amazed and overwhelmed that you actually come home to them each and every day--there's barking and tail-wagging and a plethora of sloppy wet kisses (and if they had aposable thumbs I'm sure there would be "welcome home" banners). Dogs also constantly want to play fetch or play with toys, usually involving their humans in the game. Dogs must also be registered yearly and get shots yearly and .....well, you get the picture.

Alright, shift gears just a bit and consider the attributes of cats. Generally, cats decide when and if to show you affection. They don't need your assistance to go to the bathroom--although you do have to clean their commodes eventually. You can go on vacation for a few days if you leave out enough food and water and not have to worry about them. When you come home, the cats might even be asleep and really they don't care all that much that you have returned, so long as you feed them. Cats generally entertain themselves by pushing fake mice or the plastic things from milk carton lids, no human required. And you don't have to take cats for shots very often nor do you have to register them with the city.

Ok, you're thinking yeah, yeah so that's what dogs are like and that's what cats are like but how does this relate to those people I've got hanging in my mental picture frame? My theory is that some people who prefer dogs are seeking to fill a void in their childhood. Perhaps they didn't get enough attention or affection or maybe they were never really given responsibility and were allowed to do whatever they wanted as a child. They may need to feel needed and appreciated and a dog is more than happy to provide those experiences.

Cat people, on the other hand, seem to me to be more well adjusted. They don't need effusive displays of affection when they return home each day. They are happy when their cats snuggle with them and ok when the cats decide to sleep on the other end of the house, under the bed, for hours. Cats and their humans can be together without doing something together. Ok, I am tremendously biased and this is not so scientific a theory and I have no real means available to test it but it's just a wisp of a notion I've been pondering recently...

And for those people who have both--they might be even better off because they don't need constant affirmation of their cat's love but they do have the patience and attention to give to their dog. Of course, this theory is based on sterotypes. All cats and dogs may not behave the same. For instance, Magellan is usually waiting for me by the front door when I come home at night and he likes to play fetch with me.

Just something to mull over. I wish I'd thought of this 6 years ago when I dated a very clingy guy--guess I should have just bought him a dog instead of moving out of state to put some distance between us...

No, I didn't move to Swaziland, I've just been busy...

2006-03-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

It feels like I made this lapghan about a million years ago but turns out it was just last month. In case you all didn't hear, we moved on February 17th from West Hollywood to Hollywood. There are still boxes everywhere because that week I also started a new job. Oh, and I'm taking three Master's classes and so is Tristan and...we can't afford to hire someone to unpack for us so lots of stuff is still trapped in cardboard. I'm slowly making dents here and there over the weekends but it might be April until I get some pictures up here. (Hey Michele, if the gnomes are finished with your place, could you send them over here?)

In the mean time, I thought I'd post pictures of the afghan I finished a few weeks ago but didn't get up on the blog because we had no internet--story for another post! Anyway, I did this crocheted afghan in Rainbow colors of Sugar n' Cream yarn that I bought from createforless for cheap! I sent if off to a friend of mine in North Carolina as a birthday present--only about a month after her birthday, surprise! I did the traditional granny square, starting the squares with different colors, doing 6 rounds per square using an H hook. It took about 3 balls of most colors but 4 for the purple.

I laid them out like this: (the color is the first starting round in the inside of the square)
R=red, O=orange, Y=yellow, G=green, B=blue and P=Purple

R O Y G B P

O R O Y G B

Y O R O Y G

G Y O R O Y

B G Y O R O

P B G Y O R

I tried several different ways to join them but nothing seemed quite right. I wanted to have some black showing around the squares to sort of frame them. So I made up my own way. It's fully reversible and I honestly can't decide which side I like better. The photo on the left is the "right side" and the photo on the right is the "wrong side." Squares will be joined first into rows and then the rows will be crocheted together, followed by a border.

1st: Hold two squares wrong sides together and line up the corners.

2nd: Slip needle under corner space of square closest to you and do one single crochet.

3rd: place hook under corner space of other square, making sure that wrong side is facing you and do one single crochet.

4th: turn work slightly so that you can comfortably slip hook under the corner space of the first square and do another single crochet.

5th: turn work slightly again to whatever angle works for you and do one more single crochet into the corner space of the 2nd square.

6th: slip hook under the first stitch after the corner space on the 1st square and do one single crochet.

7th: turn work slightly and make one single crochet under the first stitch after the corner space on the 2nd square

8th: keep alternating back and forth from one square to another, making sure that at the end of the squares you do 2 single crochets into the other corner spaces but keep them alternating so you don't end up with holes. You will be making one stitch into each chained arch too, not just into each double crochet stitch from the previous round

Joining the rows:
1st: do the same thing that you did to join the squares, line up the rows with wrong sides together.

2nd: Alternate from one side to the other doing single crochet, making sure that you do two stitches in the corner spaces at the beginning.

3rd: when you get to the point where you joined the squares together, make sure that you are doing 2 alternating stitches into each corner square so that you actually have 4 single crochet stitches over the black yarn that joined those particular squares before you start doing stitches on the colored yarn. Again, make sure you keep alternating to avoid holes.

To finish, I used the "Shallow Scallop Edging" from the Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches (p.311) just to give it a little more pizzazz (sp?) except that I just picked up the edge and did a row of single crochet to start as my foundation instead of working the edging as a separate piece and then attaching it as it is pictured in the book.

Today, March 7th is Magellan's birthday. He is one today. I can't believe my baby is all grown up. He got extra treats as a birthday present but I told him he'd have to wait at least another year for that pony. At least now we are living somewhere with flower boxes so he can watch ladybugs to his heart's content... from the top of the vacuum cleaner box that mommy still hasn't opened--guess you know I haven't done any vacuuming recently....

Calgon, take me away!!!!!

2006-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

Who needs reality TV when I've got lots of drama right here? Since Thursday morning I've:
--skipped with glee
--discussed paint chips and painted "virtual" rooms at the Behr paint site
--signed paperwork that has obligated me to pay a large chunk of change every month for the next 30 years
--discussed, with an air of longing for simplier times, the merits of various Nintendo games (um, that's the first Nintendo--Duck Hunt, Super Mario
Brothers, Tetris etc)
--ate crepes at IHOP
--tried to get my own money out of the bank for our downpayment and subsequently:
--screamed in a public place
--swore at several people I don't know
--expressed a building sense of homicidal rage growing within me (justto Tristan so no charges will be filed or anything)
--took 3 buses and a train to get to a job interview that lasted 7 minutes and then took 2 buses and a train home...
--cried in a bank lobby--sobbing, crying--it wasn't pretty
--won a $500 library scholarship
--AND, spent 3 hours last night in the emergency room with my husband after receiving a call that he had ploughed head first into the back of an SUV that swerved in front of him on the road and yes, last night he was running late and forgot to grab his helmet!!!

Thursday: Oy! so Tristan and I closed on our condo--well we signed all the paperwork. Then we went to IHOP for a breakfast celebration (I actually skipped part of the way because I was so happy). Then onto the bank, the Bank of EEEVILLL, to get our downpayment wire-transfered to the mortgage company so that we could close and get the keys to our new home on Tuesday or Wednesday. We get to the bank, we wait in line for about 10 minutes because none of the customer service reps would meet our eyes so we could get their attention. We get up to the teller who tells us we have to go fill out this form and then get back in line to talk to someone. I have never sent a wire transfer before and let me tell you, that form was confusing--beneficiary, beneficiary bank's account number the mortgage number etc. I filled out what I could and then we got back into line. We sat and waited for another 10 minutes for a "customer service" person to see us. He pulled up our info and said, "oh you're an out of state customer, we have to verify you account, it'll take about 10 minutes."

Because, see even though we moved here a year ago and changed our address with the bank and have been doing all our banking in CA, we are still considered "out of state" because we opened the account in MA. Hello, they are a national bank! Why would you have to close your account and open up a new one with them when you move? However, having had past dealings with the Bank of Evil, we anticipated this being a problem. Three weeks ago, Tristan called their customer service number and explained to them what we wanted to do, that we had opened the account in MA and that the amount was several hundred thousand dollars so we couldn't just get a cashier's check. Their response: "you'll be fine, just go into the nearest branch with your driver's license, have a nice day!"

So here we are 3 weeks later, trying to get the money out. Turns out, that they can't actually access our account info because the states aren't hooked up to one another through the computer system. "Could you please go sit over there so I can help the next customer while we wait for your previous branch to call us back?" Half an hour later, we are talking to a different rep who tells us that we can't get our money out without a copy of the "signature card" we filled out when we opened the account 5 years ago and that this piece of paper is not scanned into the system and can only be gotten from the branch where we opened the account. And said branch closed at 4pm Eastern time on Thursday and we were informed of this about about 4:30pm Eastern time. "Sorry, you'll just have to call back tomorrow. We'll TRY to get that bank to look for the card, but other than that there's nothing we can do. Now I need these seats for our next customers...." As a side note, I just finished reading "Talk to the hand: the Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door" by Lynne Truss on Wednesday, perhaps I can collaborate with her on a sequel...

Friday: I go off to my interview in the morning--and I missed the bus that goes to that town because it was 25 minutes early and the electric sign on the front of the bus was malfunctioning and only displayed 2 letters and absolutely no bus number so I had no idea that was the one I needed to flag down... So I had to find another bus that went part of the way there and then wait for the next bus. Craziness. I got to my interview on time, was there for 7 minutes and then back out on the next bus home....

While I was riding all sorts of public transportation, Tristan was on the phone with the bank trying to get them to call Boston. He finally ended up calling the branch manager in Boston himself who said "I don't have time to talk to someone in California. I have to take care of my customers here." And then he hung up. Tristan kept calling back so he could explain that we could LOSE OUR HOUSE if this transfer doesn't go through and that, in fact, we would be losing our apartment too since it is already rented and we have to be out of it by Feb 20th. Finally the CA bank called the guy in Boston and he started looking for the card 5 minutes before he closed (again, at 4pm--what kind of bank closes at 4?). And nope, he says he doesn't have it.

Saturday: 9am, the CA branch manager's office. Tristan was supposed to take the CBEST test today so that he could become a substitute teacher while he works on his masters. But we had to straighten this thing out so he forfeited his registration fee and now he has to wait until the end of April to take the test which means he can't get on the teaching list until next Fall. Again, the manager's like,"I don't know what we can do." We have to have that signature card to verify who you are. I said "you need verification of his identity, won't this do it?" And I proceed to dump an entire folder of crap on her desk: passport, birth certificate, marriage license, taxes going back 5 years, copies or our leases from here and Boston, old checkbooks full of carbon copies from when the account was opened and other official documents. And guess what, this couldn't prove who his is to these people--only that little piece of paper could. That piece of paper that THEY lost.

Their proposed solution: How about you just write a personal check? Which will take 10 days to clear and force us to put our stuff in storage and live in a motel and possibly stay there for over a month if the seller decides to back out of the deal and we have to find a new condo to live in, go through the escrow and so on... The branch manager was on the phone with customer service while Tristan said, "if you can't get this straightened out today, I'm flying to Boston on Monday, getting the money out in person and you will pay for my ticket and hotel!" I sat there and imagined the worst: that our seller would back out of the deal, we would be thrown out of our apartment, we'd have to rent a storage unit and live in a cheap hotel for God knows how long. I couldn't stop myself, I started bawling in the lobby of Bank of Evil, in front of all their other customers. The branch manager looks at me and says, "wait don't get upset. I'll just authorize it myself. Let me make copies of all the IDs you brought with you and I'll put it through on Monday morning. I'll take personal responsibility for it." So apparently folks, the only way to reach the human beneath the Bank of Evil alien employee is to CRY! Sobby, snotty, hiccuppy crying.

Sunday: Still worried about the transfer. Hoping it will go through. I was watching a 60 minutes segment about severe head wounds and thinking I would follow Darcy's advice and just take a hot bath and go to bed after it was over when the phone rings. It's Tristan's friend Grady and he's telling me Tristan was just hit by a car while riding his bike, that he hit his head and there is blood pouring from the wound. Can I grab the bike rack, throw in the car and pick him up so we can meet Tristan at Ceder-Sinai's ER? So that's what I did and on my way out the door I see Tristan's bike helmet, laying on the table. Three hours and 12 stitches later, Tristan is good to go home. No broken bones, just a bunch of bruises and a Harry Potter scar on his forehead to remember this accident by. He is very lucky. He was riding down Hollywood in the right lane behind an SUV that slowed down like it was going to turn into a parking lot. Tristan moved over to the left lane to pass it and at that moment the guy swerved into the left lane and slammed on the breaks. Tristan tried to stop but couldn't and his bike wheel locked up, he flew over the handle bars and slammed forehead-first into the SUV's huge bumper, hitting the round hitch for dragging a boat or whatever. Luckily, no sign of a concussion. The guy felt really bad and drove him to the hospital (with Tristan bleeding all over his expensive leather seats) and offered to pay his medical bills. Our insurance will most likely cover it all so no worries there. Tristan has promised that from now on he will wear the helmet I bought him as a wedding present (just like Lance Armstrong's helmet, by the way).

Monday: Tristan's phone/pda got smashed in the crash and they are replacing it for him and he's excited because his model is now obsolete so he's getting the improved version which apparently has more megapixels and blinking lights or something. The wire transfer finally posted and I am taking the day off from worrying about anything but packing and some schoolwork. UGGH! I thought weekends were for relaxation....

In Knitting News: Darcy and I have been working on our knit along project--the short-sleeved Michael Kors sweater from the Holiday 2005 issue of Vogue. Yep, so far we've done the ribbing and the first 11 rows. Tonight Darcy and I will be tackling the first decrease row and it's all downhill from there, folks!

So that my crochet skills don't get too rusty (it has been about a week, appalling, yes!), I made up a square to send to Drew the Crochet Dude who is collecting 12 inch squares for afghans for Heartmade Blessings. You can see all the details on his blog. And yes, I do realize this isn't quite square--I was watching the Olympic figure skating pairs and my eyes were focused on the Russians who were skating a perfect program instead of on my stitches and...I lost count somewhere on the second to last row or thereabouts. OOps! Hopefully someone will be able to finagle it--put it on a corner, Drew!

I'm going to try to score some Valium (kidding!) and some more boxes (not kidding!) and then chill our for the rest of the afternoon. So everyone, take your drama someplace else, cuz we're all full up here!

Oh the places I've been....

2006-02-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

I actually found this map thingy when I looked at Michele's friend Amy's blog. Pretty cool. Though I must admit, some of these were places we stopped to use the bathroom on our cross-country trip--but only a few, the rest we actually did stop in and look around!

create your own visited states map

Looks like I need to do more international travel--glad I just renewed my passport for another ten years--I've only visited 4% of the world's countries!

create your own visited countries map

Where have you been? Where should I go next?

I'm reading a book right now that is set in China so maybe I'll have to plan a trip there--guess I better start clipping coupons if I have any hope of saving enough money...

The book is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (It'll be back at the LAPL in about a week if you don't want to buy it!). I'm about 1/3 of the way through and this book is not for the faint of heart. There are several chapters that discuss footbinding in painful detail--describing bones breaking as she walks etc. Why anyone thought having a foot that was only 7 centimeters long was a necessity, I'll never know. Oh, of course, it was to keep women in their place--they certainly couldn't run away from abusive husbands or even engage in business or anything else that requires you to walk more then ten steps at a time. For those of you who are metric-challenged, like me, my shoe size is size 6 and my foot is 22 1/2 centimeters long. Yeah, so 7 cm is like ridiculous. Yet again, I can never see this happening if men were the ones supposed to be bound. Same with the whole abortion issue--there's no way the government would even think of telling a man what to do or not to do to his body...ok off subject but I got all fired up watching the State of the Idiocy, I mean, Union, address the other night. Turns out there was a sizeable anti-Bush demonstration in Hollywood that night. I guess I should have gone there instead of yelling "ha, you liar!" repeatedly at the TV all by myself.

And in knitting news: I'm one row away from completing the granny-square afghan and I'm exploring decorative edgings to give it just a bit more "ummph." I've also started working on a pair of alpaca socks--another Spring birthday present. However, I seem to have misjudged the amount of yarn necessary so I will be substituting some other AIS alpaca (Already In Stash, people) for the heel and toe so all should work out in the end. The yarn is Classic Elite Inca Alpaca from The Knitter's Studio--purchased during their sale a few weeks ago. It is beeeuuutiful--all different shades of green from lichen to olive to a muted chartreuse but they're gonna have chocolate brown heels and toes. And if you recognize the pattern, I'm doing the same cable pattern from the orange socks I made a few months ago...but on size 7's instead of 2's so it is going much faster! I'm actually reading for class while I knit, except for the cable rows.

Also, Darcy and I have started our own little knit along project. We're both doing the short-sleeve sweater from Vogue Knitting's Holiday Issue--they've taken down the picture from the website since the new issue is out. I'm doing mine in Tahki cotton classic in a pretty Avocado green color (the one that's displayed in that link) and Darcy is doing hers in Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride in a very pretty oatmeal-type color (not sure exactly what it's called). So far I've just swatched and done the ribbing on the bottom back. Pictures to follow when I've done more...Or if you're in the area, come to the Farmer's market tonight at 7pm for the WeHo SnB and you can see how both of us are doing...

And did I mention my Christmas present finally came? It's a Scunci steamer--I am so totally excited. However, I haven't finished anything yet since it arrived last Thursday. Some good motivation for me to finish something quick, just to try it out!

I'm it!

2006-01-31T02:13:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Carla (sappmama) and because quizzes are much more fun than reading or packing or sleeping:

Four jobs in your life: (best to worst)
1. Legal Researcher at the Tobacco Control Resource Center in Boston
2. Yarn store sales clerk (up until the paychecks stopped coming in...)
3. Fine Jewelry Sales Associate at Walmart (I was in high school, way before I realized they
were EEEVILLL)
4. salad bar girl at the Ponderosa steakhouse (chickpeas and thousand island dressing, folks!)

Four movies you could watch over and over:
1. Sleepless in Seattle--I'm a sucker for a good love story!
2. Tootsie-don't know why I always feel compelled to watch it when it's on
3. Forrest Gump
4. Dances with Wolves

Four TV Shows you love to watch:
1. Lost
2. Medium
3. Scrubs
4. Ghost Whisperer (don't laugh, it's interesting--if you ignore all the Jennifer Love Hewitt boobage, unless you like that sort of thing..._

Four places you have lived:
1. Dallastown, PA--if you know where it is you were probably either born there or you car
broke down and you were stranded with no hotel in sight....
2. Shippensburg, PA
3. Boston, MA
4. West Hollywood , CA

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Hawaii (Honeymoon, is that considered a vacation too?)
2. Paris
3. Belize
4. Toronto

Four websites you visit daily:
1. the SJSU mlis site for my class stuff
2. elann.com--gotta see their newest updates
3. www.thebreastcancersite.com--to click their daily "fund a free mammogram" button
4. All my friends' blogs

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Gnocchi--yummy, yummy
2. crab cake subs from Roma's Pizza in Dallastown PA
3. Fontina or Port Salut cheese and Trader Joe's woven wheats wafers
4. Pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream

Four places you'd rather be right now:
1. Maui
2. my new home--moving in less than two weeks!
3. in bed (but I'm not sleepy and its 2:30 AM...)
4. My parents' kitchen--because I'm hungry and they have more food on-hand than we do...

Four bloggers you are tagging:
1. Tami
2. Michele
3. Darcy
4. Mark (you may regret giving me your blog address, walrus!)

It has been 13 days since my last confession...

2006-01-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Don't adjust your computer monitors--this is not a warehouse, it is my spare room/office! Well, half of it. The other half has so much junk piled and awaiting boxes that I can't even get to it. Indeed, there is so much stuff in here that I couldn't even back up enough to get you a shot of the whole cardboard tower that stretches nearly to the ceiling (or at least another foot and a half above my head--did you just say we must have low ceilings? for shame, I'm not that short--wait, yes I am, moving on). Lest you think I've only packed up like 15 boxes, here's a shot or our living room:

Yes, there is a fireplace in there somewhere. A fireplace that we've never lit in the 10 months we've lived here and will probably not light before we move because, hello, huge pile of flammable materials within inches of the gassy-fake log goodness. There are 2 chairs in there too, I think. We'll know for sure when the movers come on Feb 17th. We've decided to be relatively cheap with this move. Our initial cross-country move and the April move from Covina set us back about 2 semesters of SJSU tution. We're going to take over as many of the small boxes ourselves before the movers get here and then have them take the rest over with the furniture. It helps that we are moving, like, 10 minutes from where we live now. For anyone who is thinking about moving, don't get your boxes at U-Haul, get them through Used Cardboard Boxes. They have pickup sites across the US. They collect usable sturdy boxes from companies and people who have moved and you can buy them to use for your move at less than 1/2 what U-Haul charges. We opted for the 1-2 bedroom house unit which gave us 45+ boxes, 2 rolls of packaging tape, a huge roll of bubblewrap and a box cutter for $65--have you seen what U-Haul charges for their boxes? Oh, did I mention they gave us lollipops too? And when you are done, you can take your boxes back to them and they recycle the ones that are too damaged to use again and the others they sell to other customers.

We are using the Delancy Street Movers again for this move. We used them when we moved from Covina to West Hollywood and they are awesome. Reasonable rates and they really were very quick and careful with our furniture. You can find the LA phone number and address for them here. The Delancey Street Foundation was founded in San Francisco and provides training and housing for people with substance abuse problems, repeat felons and the homeless among others. They give them marketable skills, such as learning to be experienced movers so they can start their own moving companies or earn a living working for another moving company. They are definitely doing great things.

In between packing I've started on my schoolwork. Yes, I'm FINALLY back in school. I quite enjoyed the long break, even if I did spend it packing and signing paperwork. I had my first trip of the semester to Fullerton yesterday. This was the first time I actually drove there. Last semester my classes were on weekdays so I took the Red Line to Union Station and then took the Metrolink to Fullerton station and after a 10 minute bus ride I was at the campus. I much prefer public transportation to sitting in traffic. Gives me time to read and knit and eat breakfast! I lucked out in the morning, no traffic but the ride home took twice as long because there ALWAYS seems to be traffic on the 5 and the 101 once you get into the city.

Last night we went out to dinner with Michele and Mark and Darcy. Michele and Mark will be living in our apartment when we move--they were nice enough to take over so we don't lose a whole month of rent because of the move. We went to El Compadre on Sunset which has yummuy Mexican food. Usually when we go in there, the place is pretty quiet but apparently Sunday nights at 7pm is El Compadre's rush hour. We opted to sit out on the back patio which was fairly empty and quiet (until a bunch of kids came with their parents and they all decided to wait for their table on the patio--more proof that our decision not to procreate was a good one). Great food and great conversation!

I've been crocheting too--trying to finish a granny square blanket for a friend's birthday. I'm putting the rows together now so stay tuned for a picture of the completed blanket later this week.

I've gotta run--I promised myself I would pack up at least one more box today before doing a few more hours of school work. I'm trying to work ahead because I'm sure that when we get the keys to the new place on Feb 9th, it'll be much more tempting to unpack and paint than it will be to read and write papers.

Oh yeah, and as you look at the pictures above, let me know if you see a cat--I may have accidentally packed one up with the pots and pans. Magellan,where are you?????

Good Morning and don't mind the meows!

2006-01-17T18:24:00.000-08:00

Gratuitous cat pictures! Ok, I just really wanted to post some pictures and since I forgot to take pictures of the knitting I did this weekend, this is all I've got. I spent the weekend working on 5 hats for the Afghans for Afghans kids' wool hat drive. Unfortunately I ended up doing the last 13 rows of hat 5 at around 2:45pm--the mailman comes around 3 so my fingers were a flying' to get it finished. I was in such a rush to get them into a ziploc bag, into an envelope and down to mailman before he left our building that I completely forgot to take photos of them. You'll just have to use your imagination: 3 were basic striped hats in reds, browns and greens with a 1-inch seed stitch edge, 1 was a jester type wedge hat from the winter Interweave knits magazine and the last one was a ribbed-edge hat using a slipstitch ladder pattern from the Reader's Digest Book of Knitting and Crochet stitches. Or ask Darcy, she saw me working on one.

Magellan (above) made this face because I showed him some of the bazillion pages of forms we have to read and sign for our new condo. He was so amazed by the amount and complexity of the documents that his tongue fell out of his mouth and he was bored into a deep slumber. It is unbelievable the number of trees that had to die so we could have a place of our own (huge contribution to The National Arbor Day Foundation as soon as we pay off the mortgage, in like 2046). I have signed so many papers and read so many things that are too confusing to understand even on the fourth read through that it is possible that I have not only agreed to pay a pro-rated share of next month's homeowner's association dues but that I've also agreed to give Oprah Winfrey and the Devil equal and non-severable rights to my soul, my first-born and my key lime pie recipe. This attorney can't remember the last time she read such convoluted crap referencing other pages of crap in separate, yet equally long and obnoxious, documents.

This beauty below is Amanda. I don't know what kind of kitty she is--any guesses? I refer to her as the long-haired brown one who is nice but skittish and I really need something shorter. She made one of her rare appearances downstairs yesterday so I just had to memoralize it in non-existant film.

Today, however, she and the Siamese Samantha spent the whole day under the bed. It had to do with a visitor we had this morning. They refuse to come downstairs when there is a stranger in the house. Both yesterday and today I was awoken before 9am by a 4 ft 4 in Asian man waving a paint brush and gesturing at my door. It seems our building is getting a face-lift. Last week they painted over the horrible color that was stuck somewhere between silly putty and pepto-bismal and replaced it with cream and a nice sage green trim. They said they'd give advance warning before they painted the apartment doors but I guess they forgot. So yesterday I asked the man to come back tomorrow because well, it was a holiday, I had just woken up and was wearing pajamas with little moons and stars on them and I really was not in the mood to herd 3 cats into the office with their litterbox, food and water where they would have to stay until the paint dries enough to shut the door. Because frankly, they would kill each other and I would likely go insane from the noise.

So he went away. Last night there was a paper on our door saying that the apartment doors will be painted on WEDS JAN 18th. Thinking I was off the hook, I slept in. Again, at 8:55am I had to open the door to the man waving the paintbrush. I said, can you give me 5 minutes to get the cats locked up? I turn around to start looking for them and he says "oh, cat" and throws the door open and stars slathering it with paint. At that very moment, Magellan saw his moment of freedom and began making a quick bee-line for the door. I almost had to tackle him to keep him inside. I picked him up, threw him in the office and grabbed the litterbox which I also put in the office/guest bedroom as quickly as I could before he realized he was about to be caged up for awhile. I kept him in there while the man was painting and as soon as he left, propping the door open so it wouldn't latch I made up a little cardboard box deflector and put it in front of the door to prevent an escape. I then let Magellan out (who was practically hoarse from 20 minutes of intense meowing) and then spent the rest of my day with one eye on the door.

Well I was playing prison warden, I started looking at some of my school stuff because classes start next week. I've been trying to ignore the reminders to sign into the class website etc... My classes are mostly online so we have to post pages about ourselves and do little "getting to know you" exercises since we won't meet face to face until April. One of the assignments is to list 3 websites that are either entertaining or library-related that you particularly enjoy. Ok, the websites that I frequent are: ebay, knitty.com, elann.com and other knitting blogs. Oh, and I check the LAPL website frequently to see when my books are due. Yeah, so I have to find some websites to make myself seem more interesting fast!

I googled "librarian websites" to see what I came up with and I found Spinster Librarian that is somewhat entertaining. And it had a link to an internet quiz. Which is fun and a good way to avoid packing and other stuff. It was the "The Obnoxious French Slang Test." Turns out I'm 72% fluent in French slang. Yes I did have about 6 years of French but my high school textbook was full of people wearing side ponytails and leg warmers so I'm sure my "slang" was a bit out of date. In fact, I'm sure that when I met my French penpal in Arles, France in 1997 I sounded like a kid from the French equivalent of the Cosby Show or Saved by the Bell.

Maybe I'm a bit of a nutter today or maybe it's just the paint fumes....

Half-way Grown-up, sort-of!

2006-01-12T01:17:00.000-08:00

This has been one crazy week! I thought my month-long school break would be a time of relaxation--of reading novels, eating chocolate, knitting and watching netflix movies. Huh, yeah Lori--great call on that one because the dream, as usual, is so far from the reality its scary...

The reading novels...In anticipation of this extended break, I put myself on the waiting lists for quite a few books at the LA Public Library. If you're not familiar--it's a great system where you just add your name to the books catalog list online and then they send it to your local branch and email you so you know to go pick it up. There were several books on the NY Times bestseller list and a few LA Times book review books that I wanted to read and they had gigundo waiting lists (you are number 344 and there are 40 copies available for borrowing etc) so I put my name on those lists in November. Then I went on in December and added some other books that were less in demand. Well, be careful what you wish for folks because I now have about 20 books to read before Jan 27th--when they are all due. And, since they are in demand I'm not sure I can even renew them...

So I've been using the bookstand and doing some knitting while I read. Because, um, I still haven't finished some Christmas presents....Yes I know it is January. And no they are not for next year. They are the 2005 edition. I'm aiming for Chinese New Year, maybe--that's in February right? One present I did finish on time was that plaid wrap I've been showing you bits of over the last month. I'm quite pleased with it--so pleased that I may have to make one exactly like it for myself...In like October 2007 when I finish all my current projects. I gave it to my husband's aunt on Saturday when we had our "Christmas."

Also, I've been trying to work in a few wool hats for kids. Afghans for Afghans is desperately trying to gather 500 wool hats for children by January 20th. They received a donated airplane trip or something of that nature and would like to fill it. Check out their website. Even if you don't have time now to knit anything up, they will be collecting wool hats, mittens and other items later in the year. Even with the new postage hike, one wool hat doesn't cost much to ship in an envelope!

Speaking of that Christmas get-together with Tristan's Aunt Marilyn and her husband Ken... Ken lived in Alaska for a while and he bought a beaver pelt at some market there--fresh off the beaver folks--and commissioned someone to make him a hat out of it. Only it turns out it takes 2 beaver pelts to make a hat-who knew? So now we know for next time. This is Tristan modeling said hat...Hey folks, don't judge, I only married into this family...

So when I haven't been knitting or reading or dining with relatives, I've been packing because...drumroll please (or eggroll, those are tastier, uumm, eggrolls)...we bought a condo. Yes it is official, I own property--and a mortgage. Does this mean I am a sort-of, almost grown-up? Next thing you know I'll have a Roth IRA and an investment strategy. Wait, no I won't--we have to pay the mortgage.

The condo is in Hollywood but close to Weho and eveything important--it's in a 1950s building with only a small number of units. It's a huge 2 bedroom and 2 full bath and it has a huge kitchen, hardwood floors and a woodburning fireplace. It is actually big enough to have dinner parties--whoohoo! So now I have a month to pack up the apartment--escrow closes Feb 10th. At least I was able to watch "Out of Africa" while I packed up the living room. I've been packing the breakables first--surrounding them with yarn and quilting fabric, so much more environmentally friendly than packing peanuts! Magellan has been helping me by making sure there is nothing in the crates and boxes before I try to fill them up. He is so helpful that way...So exciting but now I've got lots to do before my classes start Jan 25th. If I actually know you, email me for pictures of the condo--don't want to put it up on the 'internets' while someone else is still living there....

Oh, I have been eating some Stauffer's chocolate holiday stars--a real Central PA Christmas treat--dark chocolate covered graham crackers shaped like stars and sprinkled with white non-pareil dots.

Resolution Solutions

2006-01-05T02:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm a bit late. Yes I do realize that January 2006 is five days old already but I've made some resolutions that will hopefully be the solutions to unfulfilled wishes and dreams of last year, not to mention the minor vexations and the all-too-familiar "oh great Lori, just great" whispered under my breath. No, this year is going to be different. I will not give up on my resolutions by the end of February. Tristan suggested that I look at them not as resolutions, but as decisions--things I have decided to change about my life. He also suggested not writing them down because if I fail to keep one, I might become discouraged and feel guilty. He said "just decide you're going to do it right before you do and then do it." Sounds simple, right? However, I am a person who delights in lists, as does Crazy Aunt Purl, so I must write them out. Well, that and I can't remember anything without writing it down. Plus there's the "cross-off accomplishment factor"--funny how a check mark or a skinny black line drawn through a to-do item can give a person such satisfaction...

Here they are in random order:
1. eat healthier--this means eating at least one thing a day that did not come out of a can, box or shrink-wrap (with the exception of plastic-wrapped leftovers)

2. plan out weekly menus and shop for food once a week--no more monthly stock-up trips that result in 4 boxes of pop tarts, 3 bags of chips and absolutely nothing that could pass for a decent entree

3. Get to know my surrounding environs by walking more--other than my usual routes to the Farmer's Market (for Stitch n Bitch thursday nights), the library and the grocery store (added bonus of exercise!)

4. Try out the stationary bike in the fitness room--at least 3 times before calling it pointless

5. start my Christmas gifts for next year in FEBRUARY

6. Clean more frequently--pick a day of the week and stick to it

7. Keep in touch more, especially with friends in faraway places

8. Do not buy yarn until my yarn stash has been reduced by at least 1/3

9. Read 15 more books next year (2005 total: 58)

10. Quilt more often

11. Call my parents more frequently

12. Stop beating myself up for not completing every task on my daily to-do lists--I'm too ambitious and set myself up for failure

13. Watch less tv (movies without commercials, even though they are on tv do not count)

14. Try to finish my library school assignments at least one day in advance of their due dates

15. Make time for charity knitting

16. Take a Spanish class

17. Make an earnest attempt to declutter

18. Take more pictures

19. Give sushi another try

20. Be less of a hermit--several people remarked to me at Christmas "how come you aren't tan? are you really living in California?"

Of course there are a thousand other things--like filing bills in the filing cabinet the day we get them instead of adding them to a "to be filed" stack on the coffee table until the pile threatens to topple over and smother one of the cats under 13 lbs of dead tree. Ooh, that's another one, use less paper....

Really, it could go on forever but 2006 only has 365 days (well only 360 as of today)in it so I can't be too ambitious.

As a side note, if you happen to have a copy of the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health, take a look at page 33--an article I co-authored as a law student was just published. Now my resume can have a 'publications' section, not that that will do much to get me hired...

Knitting Karma

2005-12-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yes folks, that crazy guy wearing the hawaiian shirt and sporting an afro is my husband. Tristan decided to play open-mic night at the Karma Coffee house on the corner of Cahuenga and Selma in Hollywood (in the shopping center with the chinese place--Big Wangs, I kid you not). We got there around 7pm so Tristan could sign up and get a spot--they go fast! There are lots of big comfy couches and leather chairs. I found one by a great table light and pulled out my knitting (what? You didn't think I would spend 3 1/2 hours in coffeehouse without knitting, 11 days before Christmas did you? No, I didn't think so).

I've been to open-mic nights before. Usually there is one or two (or 6--really bad memory) really obnoxious poetry readings from some chic's hello kitty journal, hoping to be the next Jewel. But this was totally different. The performers were so amazing. Really unique, original music sung by people with fantastic voices. Lots of just guys and guitars and a few girls with guitars as well. Oh, and they have a house bongo player too!

There was a performer, Extreme Janine, who changed the lyrics of songs by Al Green, Crystal Waters and Tom Jones to words about loving women and being a lesbian--very funny and upbeat. There was also a guy who called himself the "Minstrels of Decency" and who was (supposedly) a right-wing fundamentalist nutcase but you could see he was just actually making fun of those people!

Then there were several guys with amazing soulful voices who sang wonderfully original heartfelt songs. One guy sang a song he wrote for his Grandfather's 80th birthday called 20th Century Man--I got a bit teary-eyed, really, it was lovely. A friend of a friend performed, Benjamin, and he did a song called Ballad 90, I think, written by a friend of his that gave me chills, 3 times!

Tristan's stuff is a bit different. Well, have you heard of Weird Al? Tristan likes to spoof famous songs--Eric Clapton's classic, Tears in Heaven, becomes "Working at 7-11." He also played an original song he wrote about finals week in college which is very funny. Oh, and he got to be on internet radio. The people who sign up for the 9-10pm slots are broadcast on Internet radio (link on their website, if you ever want to listen). People were yelling, encore, encore when he finished--they didn't yell that for anyone else! I'm so proud!

They have open-mic every Wednesday from 7:30pm-11pm. We might just make this a regular thing--after we get back from visiting my folks in PA for Christmas. Next time, though, I'm gonna drink less coffee. I was nervous for Tristan and that combined with the bazillion cups of coffee I had yesterday made me so shaky that I was having trouble holding on to my cable needle in addition to the two I was knitting with. Oy! Next time I'll stick to herbal tea. But seriously, check it out. It was like a free concert. It's just up Cahuenga from Amoeba Records. Oh, and I knitted about 8 inches of a sweater vest. Success all around.

Coffee contamination! Code Red!

2005-12-14T13:43:00.000-08:00

So today I am sitting here sipping a delightful cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee from Quilter's Coffee- a delightful online store with lovely flavored and normal coffees. The beans are so aromatic and oily. The coffee is smooth and divine but lurking beneath the calm brown surface is a history of violent conflict. You see, this coffee is special. It is the first pot brewed in my coffee-making exile. No, no, let me start at the beginning....

As a single woman, I often enjoyed a cup of flavored coffee--delightful aromas of cinnamon and vanilla or mocha and spices would play about my nose. Equally perfect when savored while reading the Sunday paper or slurped from a travel mug as I stood in 20 degree weather waiting for the bus. Then I fell in love and moved in with a man who HATES flavored coffee. HATES it! He is a coffee purist. The beans must be oily and fresh and of course he grounds each pot immediatly before brewing (at least he hasn't made the move to using bottled water in the coffee maker yet--the fancy $80 coffee maker that has its own special water filters in addition to the paper ones, non-bleached natural ones from Trader Joes, that is). However, I continued to make flavored coffee occasionally, usually when he wasn't home and I'd be sure to wash out the pot and the filter basket to remove the evidence.

But 4 years later, I got tired of thoroughly scrubbing the coffee pot after each use just so he can come downstairs and make a pot of "his" coffee an hour later. So one day, one day 3 weeks ago to be exact, I DIDN'T clean the pot. I rinsed and returned. I dumped out the filter and put the filter basket back in the maker with nary a rinse. He made a pot of his coffee a short time later and proclaimed that it was contaminated and that it all tasted like cinnamon. I said, no way could cinnamon survive your double-strength Starbucks crap. But he insisted that it had.

Later that same day he went to Target. He came home with a 4 cup coffee maker and a pack of filters and the rest is history. Should I desire flavored coffee, I must use the little white coffee maker instead of the big fancy silver and black one (it was the reason we bought a silver and black microwave and a silver and black toaster oven--we had to match the coffee maker, just so you know how important it is). I've become so accustomed to making 8 cups of coffee and drinking them myself. Now I make a whole pot in my new coffee maker and it gives me a mug and a half. I suppose I can always make 2 pots....and use the thermal carafe he bought just for that purpose--so that my extra flavored coffee would not sully the "good" carafe that we use so the coffee doesn't get bitter from sitting on the hot plate. No, that carafe is for "regular only, please."

I suppose he sensed that I was feeling like an exiled patriot in a foreign (and smaller) land because yesterday he came home with a bag of coffee, coffee just for me....cinnamon hazelnut.

Well, they say marriage is about compromise, right? Don't get angry, just buy her a damn coffee maker of her own!

Freshly caffeinated, I return to my knitting....

A rolling knitter gathers no moss....

2005-12-13T16:46:00.000-08:00

Whew boy, I've been knitting so much I might just need a new shoulder joint for Christmas (you know, like a hip replacement but except in my shoulder). Magellan has been keeping me on task and helping me decipher patterns:

Someone posted a query on the SnB discussion list, asking what they could do with one 250 gram ball of recycled silk. Here's what I did with my recycled silk from the breast cancer site store--made a scarf in double moss stitch:

Here's my pattern for the scarf which is 5 1/2 inches wide and about 54 inches long:
Using size 8 needles:

CO: 20 sts--I used the cable cast on b/c I think it makes a neater edge
knit 3 rows of garters stitch
beginning 4th row:
Row 4: * K2, P2 repeat to end*
Row 5: * K2, P2 repeat to end*
Row 6: * P2, K2 repeat to end*
Row 7: * P2, K2 repeat to end*

Repeat Rows 4-7 until you are about an inch away from the end and then do 3 rows of garter stitch and bind off. Very simple but it gives just a hint of texture to this shiny yarn.

I also finished a pair of socks that are a birthday present that someone will get at Christmas because I just didn't finish them in time. Don't look too close, I messed up on the cuff. I did one in October, improvising a bit on a pattern I have but then I didn't start the other one until November and I forgot to look at the first one before I started. I followed the ribbing directions in the pattern and ended up with a K1, P1 rib. At around the heel flap, I thought to look at the first sock and, um, realized I had done a K2, P2 rib on the first one--whoops! I was not about to rip out 9 1/2 inches of cabled sock done on #2 needles to fix it! So now the recipient knows which one is for the right foot and which one is for the left...yeah, that's what I'll tell 'em. I used Brown sheep wildfoote in shades of rust, brown and olive. They are big boot socks, heading for a chilly climate. I really should invest in some sock forms....Close up shot of those never-ending cables. ...

Oh, did you notice the photos are better? Well, that's because I got my birthday present early (it's on Friday)--a new Canon Powershot. It's so slim it fits into even my smallest clutch purse (I had to try it--you know, in case I ever go to the opera and want to take pictures). It's gonna take me about a month to figure out how to use all the settings (it has a "foliage" setting and a "beach" setting--this may just be more exciting than the "baked potato" button on my microwave!).

Ok, back to playing with sticks!

Getting to know you...

2005-12-07T19:50:00.000-08:00

I got another email survey thingy and I thought I would just share it with all ya'll instead of sending a bunch of copies into cyberspace. Plus you guys may need some distraction at work and reading through this could be just what the doctor ordered.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Blah! definitely hot chocolate--the stuff made from milk, not the water & mix and not the kind with the marshmallows already IN the mix!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Depends when santa finishes knitting them....

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White on both
colored lights on the tree. No lights on the house if you can help it but if you just can't, go with the white and absolutely NO LAWN ORNAMENTS such as that obnoxious blow up snow globe they have at Lowe's

4. Do you hang mistletoe? NO

5. When do you put your decorations up? Day after thanksgiving--need the motivation to finish the gifts

6. What is your favorite Christmas dish (excluding dessert)?
the ham! or maybe the green bean casserole

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child? sitting in front of the fire on christmas morning opening gifts

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
hmm, kindergarten or first grade? The news had on a report that Santa's sleigh had been spotted by their news chopper and I announced I was going to tell everyone at school the next day that santa was on his way. My parents told me to spare the embarassment

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? yes--usually gifts from my grandma but sometimes Tristan can't wait and has to give me at least one!

10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
none but I bet he would love an Irish coffee and some snickerdoodles

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
LOVE IT but probably won't see any now that we live in SoCal

12. Can you ice skate? Um, no. Tried it once and ended up in a very unflattering position on the ice

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? the barbie house my dad made for me as a kid

14. What's the most important thing about the Christmas for you? spending time with friends & family, singing Christmas carols (I sing them at home other times of the year but it just isn't appropriate)

15. What is your favorite Christmas Dessert? cookies!!!

16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? going to midnight service and singing silent night by candle light--gives me goosebumps every year

17. What tops your tree? the saddest angel you have every seen. We need a new one

18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? GIVING, most definitely. I almost don't care whether I get anything myself, I get so excited about everyone else opening up the gifts I gave them!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? O Holy Night

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? yum--but not the weird pina colada flavored ones or whatever

Ok, your turn...

Too fast, too furious, too flustered?

2005-12-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

Only 19 days until Christmas so the needles are a' flyin. I've been mostly working on presents but it seems everytime I see a news story about Toys for Tots or how the survivors of Hurricane Katrina are coping with the coming holidays, I feel the need to do some charity knitting. The piece above is destined for the Pine Ridge Reservation, and hopefully I can finish it in time for it to be a Christmas present at the teen center. I like the orange and yellow tahki cotton classic yarns together and I have some fizzy little yarn to use as fringe at either end that is shades of yellow and orange.

I spent some time yesterday working on the plaid wrap by Annie Modesitt from the Vogue Holiday issue. I just started the third pattern repeat and the wrap has 6 repeats total. But it's going fast and I love the colors. My hope is that I can finish it by like Saturday and then focus my attention on the two sweaters, one sweater vest, 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of mittens, a scarf and 9 golf club covers that I need to finish by Christmas. Thank goodness I'm now unemployed. I loaded up the netflix queue with good movies and I'm all set for two weeks of non-stop knitting and crocheting.

I made a few clothsforkatrina this week too. I wanted to try out some crochet patterns (including some free patterns from Drew the crochet dude's site--but I butchered the black round one, turns out I doubled the number of stitches on the last round so it has ruffles, but they're not supposed to be there) and, um, make room for "new stock" that I just ordered. I got a box today from Createforless.com---some plastic canvas that will be the brim of some newsboy-style hats and sugar n'cream yarn for a birthday present that I will be working on AFTER the holidays. Sugar n cream for only $1.49 a ball, minimum of 6 per color and a one pound cone of white for $10.49. So much fun in a box, don't ya just love it? And the boxes that they use are recycled boxes--they reuse ones from their suppliers to reduce waste!
My birthday is coming up soon and hubby informed me that my present is on its way--a new digital camera so hopefully I can post pictures with actual stitch-definition (and without taking 8 shots just to try and get one decent one!) Tonight I have to work on one final project for school then I plan to spend at least an hour or two on that beaded cardigan.

Congrats also to Tami who has joined the world of blogdom.

Count down to, um, everything?

2005-12-04T03:07:00.000-08:00

Laurie, Crazy Aunt Purl, posted an "internets" quiz on her page a few days ago and I've decided to take it since my finals this semester are actually all papers and maybe I have a little lack-of-test anxiety? Anywho...

Ten random things you might not know about me.
1. I hate to throw out coffee left in the pot
2. I will microwave yesterday's coffee and
then promptly forget about it until I go
to microwave something else,
hours later
3. I was once a model in a fashion show at a mall
4. I won a college scholarship from the NRA BUT
I abhore guns (will take their money though...)
5. I can sing "Silent Night" in Japanese
6. I only paint my toenails in "Firehouse Red"
7. I sometimes interrupt myself when I'm speaking
8. I love to straighten-up/clean other people's
houses but hate cleaning my own
9. I want to retire to a cabin on an island off
the coast of Maine and do nothing but knit,
spin yarn and bake zucchini bread while
singing folk songs all the live long day...
10. Sometimes I wish I smoked just to make
conversation with people when I go out "to
get some air" at parties

NINE places I've visited:
1. Monaco
2. Switzerland
3. France--once as a pseudo-chaperone!
4. Belgium
5. The Bahamas
6. Belize
7. Cozumel
8. Hawaii
9. New Orleans--and hope to again someday soon...

EIGHT ways to win my heart:
1. Make me pancakes!
2. Drive me places--I too HATE to drive, Laurie!
3. Vacuum my house
4. join me for an impromptu ice cream run
5. Not laugh at my silk scarf fetish
6. ask me how my cats are doing
7. tell me "I don't mind if you sing along with
the radio"
8. email me silly animal pictures

SEVEN things I want to do before I die
1. Visit Angor Wat in Cambodia (I had a dream
about it once)
2. make a baked alaska
3. finish my own wedding quilt (still in squares
and I've been married a year and a half)
4. be someone's doting aunt
5. drink coffee in the original starbucks and
remark, loudly, that the coffee is sooo much
better at the Starbucks around the corner from
my house...
6. make a little vegetable garden where onions and
peppers are verboten
7. Take my dad to Germany and visit as many cuckoo
clock shops as he wants...

SIX things I'm afraid of:
1. earthquakes
2. running out of kitty litter when it's too hot
to leave the house
3. losing my teeth and having to get dentures
4. that my sister might be better at something
than I am
5. that Tristan will die first
6. that Ben & Jerry's will stop making Chunky Monkey

FIVE things I don't like
1. big honking SUVS
2. bigots
3. peppers and onions
4. people who feel it is necessary to own more than
one home when so many people live in cardboard
boxes...
5. the book Wuthering Heights--only time I ever
resorted to Cliff's notes

FOUR ways to turn me off
1. be bitter and cynical
2. force your religion on me
3. swear in front of children
4. eat veal

THREE Things I do every day
1. Knit (well, I try to)
2. Read a book before bed (at least one chapter)
3. open the fridge at least twice without taking
anything out and I then get a glass of water
instead

TWO things that make me happy:
1. when Tristan makes me "movie popcorn" in
our popcorn popper (even though he knows I'm only
pretending I don't know how to make it myself)
2. going to get the mail--there's always hope that
there will be something great in that little box!

ONE thing on my mind right now:
1. how good does my paper (that's due tomorrow) really have to be to maintain my grade for the class? Should I be working on it or sleeping right now?

Oh and a knitting update:

I found a yahoo group, clothsforkatrina, that is collecting knit and crocheted facecloths/handcloths that they are sending to Hurricane Katrina survivors, along with soap. Since I had some extra Sugar 'n Cream laying around I decided to make one as a "reward" for finishing yet another page of my paper. I used Drew the Crochet Dude's free pattern "sunshine dishcloth" from his blog. Thought I would make yet another forray into crocheting, just for fun. I'll snap a photo tomorrow. Also, I started the daisy mohair cardigan from the Vogue Knitting holiday issue (the picture where the chic is wearing a teal satin dress and a huge black feather hat). I strung 250 black beads onto the Karabella lace mohair and made 2 pattern repeats so far. It looks pretty cool so far (photo tomorrow as well-I'm too tired to get out the camera). Also, saw on the Knitzilla email list that there's a new yarn shop opening up on Franklin in Los Feliz, a block east of Vermont called The Little Knittery. Maybe I'll have to go check that out this week, since I lost my #3 circs and I need them to finish a project.

Maybe I'll just type one more paragraph of that paper before I go to bed since it is almost 4 AM! only 4 more days in the semester, yikes!

In the land where yarn is my slave....

2005-12-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

I have spent the past week hard at work on my papers. Or maybe this is just something I tell myself. Because you see, I still have so much more to write but I don't know why because I've spent hours in front of the computer since Monday. Yes, strange things have been happening because suddenly I have three emails from three different websites telling me my orders have shipped, and what, are they all yarn? that I ordered? Why yes, they do appear to be of the fiber persuasion. The furry little beauty below was a free gift from the knitting gods. (Ok, it was a free give-away from mary maxim that I sent away for a few weeks ago). I have no idea what I'm going to do with it--a scarf for charity perhaps? It is brown with gold flecks and furry-eyelashy, not my usual milieu but it was free, n'est ce pas?

I have also decided that I am the Ruler of the Yarn in my stash and I can make it take whatever form pleases me. The form this time: crocheted flowers that will somehow be strung into a 12-flower placement. Yes, I said crocheted. Up until Tuesday, I didn't really do crochet. Oh sure, I did edgings a few times, snuck a few crochet cast-ons on the side but that doesn't make me a crocheter, does it? Well, I decided to expand my skills (and put off yet another paper) and voila, this is the result. Now I just have to finish this one and make, um, 7 more sets of 12? At least it is faster than knitting....
Samantha the (perhaps somewhat evil?) Siamese disapproves. She tells me to get back to my papers. Ok, ok just a few more comments...
Laurie is collecting some toys for her internet friend Haji who is currently in Afghanistan. The soldiers and other people on the military base would like to give toys to the children of the village who have basically nothing. You know you have toys laying around too that you'd love to throw her way. I however, cleaned out all of our stuffed animals before we moved from Boston except for two, which Magellan claimed and now they are constantly covered in happy cat drool. So, I decided to make a pink elephant from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book. I'm using double-stranded Blue Sky Alpaca (which I got at a 75% off sale, thank you very much). I just need to finish the head and trunk and stuff the little guy with polyester fiberfill (or "flufferfill" as I saw on the Blick art supplies site--isnt' that a funny word? I keep saying it over and over again...)
Ok, ok, Samantha, geesh, I'll get back to the darn paper (hate to swear too much in front of her, she is only 12, you know). At least after Dec 8th I'll have nothing to do except knit up the Christmas presents because I quit my job this week and my papers and the semester will be over!

A Thanksgiving without Turkey...

2005-11-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

Today was the first Thanksgiving that I've spent without a turkey, relatives or even a greenbean casserole. Hubby went to Atlanta to visit his Dad but with term paper deadlines looming in the very near future (read: next week), I stayed home (I'm with them in spirit though--I used the "Georgia" font for this post). After dropping Hubby at the airport this morning, I fully intended to spend a long day in front of the computer, typing up a paper but, alas, I got sidetracked.

I'll just eat a muffin, drink some coffee and watch a little of the Macy's parade, I thought. Three hours later, I'm still on the couch, the coffee pot is empty and what do I have to show for it? The back and one side of my Grandma's christmas present; a pink wool cabled cardigan. The pattern is from an old Spinnerin magazine and the yarn is the highland wool from elann.com. Soft and yummy!

Oh yeah, I did make up the title page and the reference page for one of my papers. But the rest of the afternoon, I was watching movies on the Hallmark channel, usually involving women who have sworn off love and find themselves swept away by men that are totally not their type. Quite predictable which made it easy to concentrate on the stitch pattern:

I also thought of a few things I am thankful for:

...a darling husband who is doing much better at getting his socks into the hamper
...old friends that I don't get to see nearly enough of
...a great family (and not just because they are 3,000 miles away...)
...a beautiful baby boy (kitten that is)
...a city nearly devoid of traffic since everyone went to Grandma's last night
...a yarn stash big enough to keep me from getting bored (and clothe half of the world)
...one more month to finish the Christmas presents
...a semester that is almost over
...and too many other little things that I take for granted each day that I really shouldn't

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, by the way, my "Thanksgiving feast" consisted of some potstickers from Trader Joe's, a mini-bottle of wine and half a pint of New York Super Fudge Chunk (I swear, the Macy's parade made me crave it!) but I did use the oven mitt that I won at Crazy Aunt Purl's get-together on Saturday to take the potstickers out of the microwave. I won't tell you what word I had to say to get it, but it begins with "vi" and ends in "brator." Yes laurie, I did think of Monkeys today!

Top 20 of 2005--part two

2005-11-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

So I was originally gonna give you a list of 25 of my favorite books I've read this year. However, some of the books I've read are so lame that I'm embarrassed to recommend them to you so we'll just go with Top 20 instead.

11.Middlesex--Jeffrey Eugenidies
*my mistake, this should have been about #3 on the list. It's a fantastic story of a person
struggling to figure out whether they are male or female and goes back several generations to
incest and family secrets. Incredible book, really.

12. Rita Will--Rita Mae Brown
*autobiography of author Rita Mae Brown who writes the set of cat mysteries starring Mrs.
Murphy. She was also a leader in the early lesbian rights campaigns in the 1970s. Quite an

interesting life. And she was born and spent part of her childhood very close to my hometown in PA.

13. The Design of Everyday Things--Donald A Norman
* a fascinating examination of everyday objects and ways they could be made more user friendly. For instance, a door has a vertical handle on it so you try to pull it towards you to get out but instead you actually have to push on the door to exit the building. Very, very interesting and so commonsensical

14. Katherine Graham: The Leadership Journey of an American Icon--Robin Gerber
*This biography of Katherine Graham focuses mainly on her management style as publisher and then CEO of the Washington Post company. It is incredible the hurdles she had to overcome in her personal life and simply as a woman executive in a man's world to make it to the top. Easy read and very inspiring

15. The Rule of Four--Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason.
*It is similar to the DaVinci Code but with more emphasis on the characters' emotions. Set on the Princeton campus, it is the story of Princeton seniors who are trying to decipher an ancient book that will supposedly lead them to a great treasure. Not as exciting as the DaVinci Code but still a good read

16. French Women Don't Get Fat--Mireille Giuliano
*This is a different kind of diet book and it has a bunch of recipes that seem interesting--I haven't tried any of them out yet. A great way to examine the way we, as Americans, eat.

17. The Three Miss Margarets--Louise Shaffer
*the story of three elderly women living in Georgia who are guarding a deep and tragic secret. This book was so engrossing I carried it with me everywhere--I even read it in line at the grocery store!

18. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents--Julia Alvarez
* A Cuban family relocates to America and their daughters struggle to both assimilate and maintain their cuban culture. A great coming-of-age-story.

19. The Fairest Among Women--Shifra Horn
*This is the story of an Israeli girl whose family is forced to leave their home because of violence and terrorism and how they overcame the daily challenges of being refugees in a foreign country

20. Quaker Silence: an Elizabeth Elliot Mystery--E. Kirsten Peters
*This mystery, set in Cambridge, MA, has a very skillfully-crafted plot but it is also explores the Quaker religion and associated religious practices. Not knowing much about Quakerism (despite being from PA), I found it very enlightening.

Ok, the other books I read this year were either for school or they were cozy little mysteries to clear my mind before bed. I'm hoping to get some more reading done as I have about a month break between semesters coming up. So, read any good books lately? I'd love to hear about them.

Put down the knitting and read!

2005-11-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, you can read AFTER the holidays...Borders emailed me their Top 25 of 2005 booklists and after glancing at their lists, I thought I would make my own. So these books weren't all published in 2005 but they were READ in 2005. Yes folks, like every good librarian/nerd, I keep a book journal where I write down the titles, authors, type, month read and a few brief comments to remind myself what the book was about because I have difficulty retaining both book titles and book plots within the same memory slot in my brain. So here it is, my Top 25 of 2005, well the first installment. My apologies for the plethora of mystery novels--my life this year was very "thought intensive" so I kept my bedtime reading on the ligher side. Maybe when I'm retired I'll be able to give War and Peace the brain energy it deserves.

1. The Danish Girl--David Ebershoff
*a Danish painter transitions from life as a man to life as a
woman in 1930s Europe while staying married to his American
wife. Powerful book and who knew they could do sex-change
operations in the 1930s?

2. Run with the Horseman--Ferrol Sams
* terrific story of a boy coming of age in the South during the
Depression. Honest and poignant and wonderfully simple
storytelling.

3. Unprofessional Behavior--Will Manley
*a funny take on life as a public librarian

4. A Year of Past Things--M.A. Harper
* a ghost story/mystery set in New Orleans. Wonderful
descriptions of the French Quarter and the Garden District.
Also deals with the pressures and issues facing blended
families

5. Angels and Demons--Dan Brown
* I thought it was just as thrilling as the DaVinci Code

6. Jane Austen in Boca--Paula Marantz Cohen
* Pride and Prejudice set in a Jewish retirement community in
Boca Raton--very funny

7. Mercy--Jodi Picoult
* I love her books. Deals with euthanasia issues, extremely
emotional.

8. Sullivan's Island--Dorothea Benton Frank
* a divorced woman starts over while working through her
family's past on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina.

9. Aunt Dimity's Death--Nancy Atherton
* Very cute mystery--stars a very helpful ghost!

10. To Shield the Queen--Fiona Buckley
*unusual mystery--the main character is a handmaiden to Queen
Elizabeth I

Read on. And knit on--get a book stand with a horizontal elastic band to hold the book open for you and you can do both at the same time (stick to the easy projects though, I don't recommend reading and cabling at the same time)

Procrastination Aids...

2005-11-14T01:41:00.000-08:00

So you are at ______ (home, work, starbucks, jail) and you really don't want to ______ (wash the dishes, type up that office memo about refilling the paper trays in the copier, read that biography for class, polish your shiv) well here you go, two things to do that mean absolutely nothing, have no real redeeming value and allow you the freedom to put off whatever you are putting off for another 2-3 minutes (or more if you read slowly or take coffee breaks). Have fun.

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I am a greedy fiber hog.

2005-11-13T12:55:00.000-08:00

So I was watching 20/20 the other night and they are doing a series looking at the seven deadly sins and how they manifest themselves in today's world. I just happened upon the segment about greed. I think greed is probably the most appalling of the deadly sins because it seems, to me at least, to be the one that affects the greatest amount of people. The other six mainly just hurt the person engaging in them (sloth and gluttony are the obvious self-destructive ones). Yes, wrath and pride/vanity can hurt people too but the greed of others touches all of us. Look at the big oil companies--billions of dollars in profits made while the people on the Gulf Coast were living in shelters, their homes and jobs gone. Or Wal*Mart (I haven't seen the new documentary but I am hoping to soon--let me know what you thought of it, if you've seen it), which doles out an average wage of $8.43 an hour and recently stated in a company memo that they would be adding physical labor to every job description to discourage people with health problems from applying for jobs in an effort to lower their health insurance costs. Yes folks, greed is not a thing of the past, it grows in proportion every year as the gap between the super rich and very poor widens and lengthens into a great social chasm.

I myself admit to some greediness--look at my ever-growing yarn stash. I could do with a little less. But you know what, I'm going to take that stash and do some good with it. I like to do some charity knitting now and again but next year, I'm going to make it a priority. I've decided to pick 3 charities and break up the "crafting year" into 4 month segments, designating one charity for each segment. I know there are a ton of charities accepting knitted goods so to be fair, in 2007 I'll switch and do 3 different charities. I've also tried to figure out what items are needed when and to make up the schedule that way so here's what I've decided to do:

January-April
--squares and possibly completed afghans for Warm Up America, which is currently sending blankets to Hurricane Katrina survivors and other people across the country--acrylic or washable yarns only

May-August
--wool hats, socks, mittens and soft baby clothes for the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation located in South Dakota. Their winter starts as early as September.

September-December
--baby items for Stitches from the Heart
cottons and other washable yarns

Please join me if you have some spare time and spare stash!

Christmas present update: I finished a golf club cover for my soon-to-be-brother-in-law (it's ok, no way will he see this blog!) one down, only 9 to go to make the complete set...good thing I can read for school and do K2, P2 rib...The pattern is from Vogue Accessorize, if you are interested. It's done on #4s but I'm doing the magic loop method so it's speeding along and no seaming!! Gotta love it!

Can you HEAR the bagpipes??

2005-11-10T02:05:00.000-08:00

So I haven't been chatting on this brand-spanking-new blog because I've been, uh, knitting and eating and working and stuff. However, today I found a new and exciting way to give myself heart palpitations and I just had to share (And no, it's not because I finally took up that annoying hobby called "exercise" and yes, I still do not dare to enter the workout room in my building). No, today I opened up a calendar and actually COUNTED the number of days until Christmas.

Why did I do such an insane thing, you ask? Well, my new year's worth of planner pages came today and I just had to put them in the planner--well, just January because I have the pocket size and the poor thing can only handle 3 months at a time, which is fine because who really needs to plan more than 3 months in advance anyway? So I put in the 31 January pages and wrote in the important "dates to remember." And do you know what happened next? I began thinking how not so far away January is now and how it's actually that month after DECEMBER which is the month where Christmas lives and it's the month AFTER November which is, uh, NOW--and already 9 days old, I might add. And you know what, I found myself flipping to the 2-page monthly calendar for November and suddenly my pointer finger was no longer under my control. It began tracing its way across the page, back and forth, tapping each day as it went along (yes, it does that--makes me tap at things and say counting the numbers out loud--particularly annoying to others when playing board games or cards) speeding through November and before I could stop this monstrous thing it flipped to December and kept breezing from day to day, swishing over the lines too tiny to actually write anything on until it came to an abrupt halt on December 25th. Yep folks, Christmas is only 45 DAYS AWAY!

Now you may be wondering why I am so worried about an "event" that is 45 days away? Afterall, 45 days is a long time, right? It's longer than that flood that sent Moses out to sea and it's longer than most people go between haircuts. And there are lots of other things happening between now and then--like Veterans Day (that's tomorrow, folks) and 2 papers for my classes, and Thanksgiving and my final projects and my birthday (Dec. 16th) so why does that date loom in front of my like a cartoon ogre? You knitters know what I'm talking about. Especially if you are a knitter who feels compelled to make everyone she knows a handmade present (including the mailman who was so nice to bring my mail up to my third floor apartment last week when I was sick so I didn't have to put on shoes and go get it in the basement).

And since this is the second Christmas since the knitter has picked up her sticks she must find more complicated gifts to make--since most people already got a scarf last year. And of course, there is the added pressure of working in a yarn shop, which raises everyone's expectations of your knitting competency level. So Fair Isle sweaters and cabled socks on #2 needles it is. But I panic because even though I have already started a few projects, there are so many that I have to finish and even more that I have to both start AND finish. I'll keep you posted as I go along.

I did start a new project today--I picked up Vogue Knitting's Holiday issue yesterday and fell instantly smitten with Annie Modesitt's Plaid wrap. It is just lovely and I've decided to do it in fall colors of Crystal Palace merino frappe for its recipient (but I'm not going to say who that person is on the off chance said person should actually read this). After several false starts and 3 emails to Annie to clear up what was just a really stupid mind block on my part, I jumped into the project and completed the first 38 rows--only 394 to go! Luckily Magellan was on hand to keep the fabric from curling up on the circular's so his mom could take the picture. Thanks to Laurie for inviting me to a party at her home last month where Annie was staying during her trip to LA. I got to meet Annie and so I felt comfortable emailing her (remember me, the lady with the gold metallic bag at Laurie's party, sitting to your left and inhaling pizza?) and so I got pattern help directly from the source, so great!

She has arrived

2005-11-05T15:53:00.000-08:00

Ta da! I finally did it. I got a blog. It seems everyone I talk to has a blog and I'm tired of trying to explain why I, the loquacious being that I am, do not have a way of expressing my views to the multitudes in cyberspace. So here you go--you asked for it. It's not that I totally caved in to peer pressure or that I wanted desperately to be "in with the in crowd," it's more that I wished to give my poor darling hubby some peace and quiet. So I will talk to you, or rather at you if no one comments on my postings!
Ok ok, maybe I really decided to start a blog as a way of putting off a paper I'm researching for school. I tend to procrastinate except when it comes to the unimportant things (I started addressing my Christmas cards yesterday, for instance). But really, why research today when the paper isn't due for a month when I have a ton of Christmas presents to knit up that are due in, well, a month and a half? So you see, it is crucial that I work on the knitting today and the paper sometime next week, maybe--if I can squeeze it into my busy schedule of searching for Valentine's day cards and decorating the Christmas tree.