The Whining Procrastinator

Very Interesting Video Stuff

2011-04-10T16:22:00.002-04:00

If you use Google's Chrome web browser, this music video is quite, well, disturbing, actually. Put in an address and be prepared to feel considerably less private. I didn't put in an address that actually connected to anything personal of my own, but of a location I've known for years, and was quite disturbed by it.

The Wilderness Downtown

Disturbing in a different way, here's a mash-up of a video belonging to one decade and a song belonging to a completely different decade.

Justin Timberlake Ice Ice Baby

Enjoy!

Geek Sock-Knitter's Heaven

2010-09-29T22:43:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow night I will watch a live video stream of the IgNobel Prize Ceremonies.

From today's Mini-Air:

2010-09-05 Ig Details

Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners will be announced. Almost all will be at the ceremony. Several Nobel Laureates will hand them their Ig Nobel Prizes.

The ceremony will also include...

Keynote lecturer (for 60 seconds) RICH LOSICK.

24/7 Lecturers NEIL GAIMAN, TOSHIYUKI NAKAGAKI, MARY ELLEN DAVEY.

The premiere of "THE BACTERIAL OPERA", about the bacteria who live on a woman's front tooth, and about that woman. Features a cast of trillions.

Musicians EVELYN EVELYN, AMANDA PALMER, JASON WEBLEY, NICK CARSTOIU, and DEBORAH HENSON-CONANT.

Past Ig Nobel Prize winners TOSHIYUKI NAKAGAKI and ATSUSHI TERO (slime mold can solve puzzles); ELENA BODNAR (invention of a bra that converts into 2 protective face masks); DON FEATHERSTONE (creation of the plastic pink flamingo); KEES MOELIKER (homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck); and CHRISTOPHER CHABRIS (people can overlook anything - even a woman in a gorilla suit)

... and much more.

DETAILS: http://improbable.com/ig/2010

WHO'S WHO: http://improbable.com/ig/2010/ignitaries/index.html

OPERA CAST: http://improbable.com/ig/2010/ignitaries/index.html

What does this have to do with sock knitting?

Ah. Well, there's the video with the only partially misleading title:

And the article.

Jonathan Coulton Rocks Northhampton

2010-07-23T09:16:00.011-04:00

Last night Jonathan Coulton rocked at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA. You should go to tonight's concert. Before he gets too big and you can't get tickets for love or money.

Somerville Theater – Somerville, MA
Friday July 23 at 7:30 PM
Tickets

The new music is really great, it rocks, and his band is absolutely top-notch. I think I could make out most of the words and the songs seem to be up to his standards, as well. I look forward to getting my hands on the album so I can enjoy the lyrics and hear the nuances in the music. It would seem to be all there - the whole Coulton package.

I'd really like to know how the band liked having a room full of people sing, "All we wanna do is eat your brains" at them. That might not have seemed too odd to John Flansburgh, since he might be a giant. But the other guy, Chris Anderson, was both a truly fine musician *and* really funny. (There was some ribbing about sweating on stage, and he played his part just right.) I have no idea what he thought of a room full of zombie singers - it would've been neat to get a reaction.

So here's the thing. If I could tell him what he should be doing with his stage show as he busts out into the really big time, I'd tell him to be more like Garth Brooks and less like Weird Al Yankovic, even though I'd bet his music appeals more to the Weird Al fan than the Garth Brooks fan.

Why do I say this?

I will never go to another Weird Al concert without earplugs.
Garth Brooks talks a lot more between songs *and to the audience* than Weird Al.

(If Garth Brooks played his concert as loud as Weird Al does, you couldn't hear the commentary anyhow, so there would be no point.)

Maybe I misunderstood him, but I thought he was telling us he wished he wasn't talking to the audience so much and that he wants to ditch his acoustic guitar completely. He wants to ROCK. And he's good at it. He could do exactly that.
But if you look at Garth Brooks' career, you have to see that a musician doesn't have to go the all-music very-little-intro route to whip an audience into a glorious, happy, screaming frenzy.

JoCo is on the verge of the big time and I'm cheering for him. I want him to get his rock-n-roll dream. He deserves it, and his music is considerably better than most of the stuff out there on the charts. He's not going to disappoint me, even if he never writes another song like one of my favorites, "I'm your Moon." I'm just afraid he's going make me miss him when he's standing right in front of me.

He's so great. You gotta go see him.

Cooking Fail

2010-06-20T22:54:00.003-04:00

So, I joined a CSA this spring and spent a silly amount of time trying to figure out what to do with a bunch of beets a week.

I got all giddy when I picked up a bunch of fresh basil in May.

And I even got good at making stir-fry to use the garlic scapes in my share as well as the huge pile of garlic scapes in my own garden. (I decided I'd better eat them or sell them when I noticed them for sale at $2.50 per quarter pound at a local farmer's market!)

Tasty, I must admit.

But my one downfall is the pot luck. It just kills me every time. If I have a successful delivery of food, it has still taken the life out of me.

This time I brought a dip - it was supposed to be a salad.

Allow me to explain.

I started with a recipe in Saveur magazine. Someone recently brought baked beans from a recipe out of the magazine and they were so good, I decided I'd subscribe to the magazine for one year only so I could get some interesting recipes. This was a successful strategy by most counts.

But, you know, I couldn't find the tabbouleh I needed for the tabbouleh salad I wanted to bring, and since I really needed to use up the mint in my garden, I figured the recipe would be good as a couscous salad, so I forged ahead.

The basic idea of the recipe is 1/3 parts fresh mint to 1 part fresh parsley, finely chopped. Add the same amount of finely chopped chives. To this they add cinnamon, allspice, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. This is mixed into the cooked tabbouleh. This is very similar to a recipe I've used for couscous in the past, but I didn't have much time this time, and I tried to use the food processor to mince the herbs.

In retrospect, I suspect my problem was that I was trying to use the small food processor, but I'm not sure. In order to get it all to actually process, I ended up throwing in the couscous. If I'd just thrown in the olive oil and wine vinegar (no lemon juice in the house either), it probably would've worked just fine. But I threw in the couscous as well and ended up bringing a rather heavily olive-oil flavored dip.

It wasn't bad, actually. It just wasn't what I was trying for.

I really ought to stick with picking up a batch of brownies at the grocery store. They're always such a hit...

I should know better

2010-03-24T22:54:00.004-04:00

I have a good life. Although I'm feeling more than a little behind the eight-ball at the moment, I love my job, my family, and my friends.

And sometimes I do things I have learned the hard way that I do not want to do. I'm talking about clicking on that link at the top of blogger blogs that says "next blog."

The last time I did that, I ended up at the last post of a blog of someone who was blogging his cancer experience. His sister was kind enough to let the world know how horrible his last twenty-four hours had been. And I had to read a little more to see for myself just how a person's psyche deals (or doesn't) with having the body disintegrate.

But that was several years ago, and I got curious, so I went random blog surfing. After the first few blogs filled mostly with pictures of craft projects and photography I dropped in on a blog belonging to a woman who was recently unemployed (again), going through a nasty divorce and had recently discovered a bomb under her car. Of course I had to read all the details about how the county doesn't have much money, so the bomb won't be checked for fingerprints for about six months, since she was neither killed nor injured. I don't know - something about the whole thing just made my brain go bbbbzzzzzzpt. You'd think I was looking for something disturbing to read.

As a matter of fact, I get plenty of disturbing stuff by just passively opening my email. Here's a link to a really creepy guy that a friend sent me. Ugh!

But there is some really good stuff on the web. Stuff that makes me feel better. Stuff that makes me laugh.

Franklin has been having experiences at O'Hare Airport. I'm feeling much better now. In fact, I feel a little bit as though I just ate some chocolate.

I think I'm going to go check up on my friend who's knitting his first scarf. That makes me smile too.

Some Days I'm too Geeky for Words

2010-02-21T22:46:00.007-05:00

This guy has figured out how to use his theremin to play the voice part in Guitar Hero.

This guy talks about how the theremin works using a different style of theremin.

Ah, fascinating stuff!

And all I did was start off looking to send this one to a friend...

What's Up?

2010-02-21T12:40:00.006-05:00

Since my last post I've had another birthday. This is a good thing. People I cared about started dying shortly after my last birthday, starting with my mother. I feel as though I'm getting a fresh start. As far as I'm concerned, the rest of you are alive and likely to stay that way. Please don't disillusion me. I prefer you alive.

For my birthday, my sweetheart got me The Orange Box . This is because he knows I wouldn't get it for myself, and because he knows I'm quite taken with the whole idea of the portal gun. He also knows I'm a fan of Jonathan Coulton, and would really love to understand all the references in Still Alive (shown here playing his own song in Rock Band with a most incredible line-up of co-conspirators when they only get to 99%!).

My sweetheart also got me instructions to make my computer stop crashing all the time while playing the game. And he dug out a mouse for me. And so far, he's just amused that I'm playing a first-person shooter game. And sometimes I need to go to Strategy Wiki to find the door to get out of the room. I have no problem with the concept of shoot all the bad guys. It's just sometimes I can't find the exit door after I've killed everyone. And now that my computer doesn't crash every time I go from one room to another, well, I'm not always so sure I'm in the middle of a puzzle or between puzzles. Until someone starts shooting me, that is!

Anyhow, I'm also half-way through a very strongly-recommended book on HTML. Literally, I am at the half-way point - I've completed seven of fourteen chapters. I have finished with HTML, the one chapter on XML, and am now about to finally learn some CSS. I really, really need to be able to write CSS instead of being able to read it well enough to understand what's going on. After I finish this book, I plan to start on Python.

Mind you, what I really want to do is finally get my head around Prolog. Although, in truth, I don't suppose that's really what I'm after. What I think I really want to do is be able to write my own inference engine. I should probably go find myself someplace that teaches what I'm looking for and just sign up. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it? And there are too many other interesting things to learn along the way.

Anyhow, I'm knitting another Clapotis. This one is in Artful Yarns Broadway. Oh, and yes, I'm knitting socks, too.

Bent Objects

2010-02-15T14:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, he has a blog.

The Alka Seltzer Interview didn't embed well.

Two Book Trailers:

In My Bedroom

2010-01-23T22:39:00.007-05:00

Back in July of 2006, I promised to whine here if my self-watering planter project failed to work as planned.

And you haven't read any whining, have you? Heh, heh. I only really have one thing to complain about - it turns out that those nice Rubbermaid totes aren't UV-stabilized. My sweetheart pointed this out to me, but I had no idea what he was trying to tell me until they just sort of started disintegrating in the sun. I'm not sure I mind so much. If I have to re-engineer them every couple of years, I figure I can make other improvements to the design.

And so the last-remaining self-watering planter is in my bedroom right now, with three jalapeno plants and a couple of Thai basil plants. I've got a few nice cherry-red jalapenos that need harvesting, and an unfortunately fairly healthy infestation of aphids for which I've released lacewing larvae.

Which brings me to what's flying around in my bedroom right now.

I actually feel rather bad about this. After all, there's nothing for them to eat in my house. I have no flowers giving nectar. I hardly expected a half-dozen or more to survive to adulthood, and now these pretty things are starving to death.

For a much better photo, follow this link to a BBC "This Day in Pictures" and select photo number 8.

Secret Pal 15 Questionnaire

2010-01-10T20:43:00.005-05:00

Secret Pal 15 sign ups end January 18. I'm a bit concerned, since there are only seventeen members and it's January 10. I don't know how many people they need to run it. There are 111 people in the Ravelry group, though. I hope more of them sign up before the deadline.

So in hopes that it runs, here's my questionnaire:

What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely not like?

Favorite: Wool. Soft, squooshy yarns that feel like butter in your hands and are really elastic when you do a knit two purl two ribbing.
Secret Desire: Something Interesting. An interesting blend or an interesting texture.
Can't Handle and Why:
Ladder yarn - seems to be too slippery. I have quite a bit of it, and in different brands, but I can't seem to actually knit with it.
Chenille - increases my blood pressure for no good reason. I tried. It was a very rewarding learning experience and I intend to never repeat it.
Red Heart Acrylic - if only it didn't feel so indestructible. There are a lot of acrylic yarns out there that are soft and washable. If I ever lose all feeling in my fingers, I bet I'll still be able to feel this stuff enough to knit with it. I'm not there yet, and I'm not stashing the stuff, either!

What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I sprang for a circular needle case a few years ago - that was totally worth it. I could definitely use some kind of case for my straight needles, but I get by with keeping them in drawers and in a pen-holder from Staples. My Knitpicks Harmony interchangeables came in a case that I haven't destroyed yet so I'm perfectly happy with that!

How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I'm intermediate to advanced in socks and stitches, but beginner to intermediate in color work and sweaters.

Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Yeahbut. I don't tend to take stuff off the list when I get it. (Truthfully, I have to be careful not to get something twice, because I'll shop for something for six months and then forget I got it.) Tell you what, I'll do a blog post wish list and link to it - usually when I have an item on my wish list I have a particular reason for my desire, so you can come up with something similar but not exactly it and still make me really excited!

What’s your favorite scent?

I like lavender, citrus, rose, mint, rosemary.

Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Dark chocolate is my favorite. I like nuts in my chocolate, but I don't like anything that sticks to my teeth or any fut in my chocolate. I am also a fan of SweeTarts!

What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

When I'm not too lazy, I'll do something fun. Today I covered a plastic container with photos cut out of magazines so I'd have a pretty container on my desk to throw my used tissues into. So instead of having an empty Maidenform container on my desk, I have a National Geograhpic Cruises container on my desk!

Under duress, I do plumbing. I've also been known to help build a computer from parts. I once designed and built my own bookcase. I've also built self-watering planters. I'm just as happy to hire a plumber, buy a fully-assembled computer, knock together a bookcase from Ikea and hook up a Vertigro or Aerogarden. Just because I can doesn't mean I can always be bothered.

I crochet, I tat (a little - maybe I'll actually make a bookmark one of these days), I've learned to spin. I have grand plans to haul out my sewing machine and turn some sweaters into market bags. I cook and I garden and I generally make a mess.

What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

What I'd really like would be links to places like last.fm to check out an artist.

What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?

This is such a hard question to answer. Probably because I'm a little nuts. If I am by myself in a yarn store, I will avoid reds, browns and oranges. I will also avoid anything even remotely neon. I shudder when I see photos of the 70s because I really detest those color combinations. I've bought stuff for other people and thought, "Gee, if I liked orange, I'd love this yarn." I've also knit with colors I hated that were a part of a blend and wouldn't want the finished product without that splash of color I usually avoid.

Also, if I get a gift of yarn that I don't really like very much, I'm more likely to try to come up with something creative ASAP. If I really like it, I often hoard it. So I have several pairs of socks made from gifted yarn that I don't really like all that much, but boy do I get compliments on them. I've also got some beautiful yarn that I take out and look at before putting safely away.

Told you I'm a little nuts.

What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with my sweetheart. He only has one flaw - he doesn't knit. It's not much of a flaw, since it means I get ALL the yarn for myself!

Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear hats and gloves. I considered wearing mittens this year because it has been so cold, but I vaguely recall getting fed up with them and switching to gloves, so I couldn't find any in the house. I wear indoor scarves more often than outdoor scarves. And I can't imagine wearing a poncho - but I'm sure that's because all the ponchos I've ever seen were 70s colors or granny-square based.

What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I rather compulsively knit socks.

What are you knitting right now?

Socks. I'm about to re-start a sweater for the third time. I'm failing to figure out the instructions for the Elizabeth Zimmerman baby surprise jacket. Hey, look, there's help on YouTube! Oh, look at that, I need to rip back to row 2. Hmmm.

Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes, thank you.

Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I think every kind of needle has its uses. I have a lot of aluminum and two sets of circulars. I think I only have one pair of shorter straights. I sometimes find myself looking at the shorter Harmony straights thinking they'd make nice scarf needles.

Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Yes. Thank you. They're wonderful!

How old is your oldest UFO?

I have a couple of projects I've finished knitting but never put together. One is a sweater circa 2007 or 2008. The other is a small purse circa 2005.

What is your favorite holiday? What winter holiday do you observe?

I'm not really all that into holidays. I have very little family left and I was never into all that cooking. My birthday shows up 3 days after Valentine's day, so I really enjoy getting discounted Valentine-themed chocolate (really, I prefer he get the bargain)! I also get all excited when I can get the egg dyes on sale after Easter. (I've really got to do some dyeing this year.)

Is there anything that you collect?

Well, I seem to like small containers. If you spent a couple of months eating Altoids and sending me the empty tins, I'd be quite thrilled. I also seem to have a thing for giraffes. I don't have any kind of extensive collection, though. Just a few items.

Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I subscribe to Knitcircus, Vogue knitting and Interweave Knits. Last year a friend gave me her unusable Knitter's, which I really enjoyed but that's over now. Stashbusting ideas are really what I need. I have quite a bit of Farmhouse Yarn in one-off colorways that I would like to use up. I need to make room for more yarn!

Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?

I've recently learned to spin with a drop spindle. I can already see why they bothered to invent the spinning wheel!

Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I am a compulsive sock knitter.
foot length - 9.5"
ball circumference - 9.5"

When is your birthday?

February 17.

Are you on Ravelry? If so, what’s your ID? Yeah, I'm Procrastinatus.

A couple finished objects for the New Year

2010-01-07T23:19:00.000-05:00

I went to the big knitting do this year - Stitches East. It was held in Hartford, CT, so I felt like I really had to do something to support it. So I took one short class and that was it. I had such a good time, I do plan on more in the future. The scarf project I signed up for was the knit one below scarf from this book.

I made it out of two balls of Farmhouse Yarns that I picked up when Carole Martin was running an incredible sale. I think I had a good experience with both the yarn and the pattern. Don't you?

I also needed some mindless knitting. So I made a simple scarf in knit 2 purl 2 out of something called "Smania." I just wanted a little something to go around my chilly neck.

Ah, it's so hard to blog when I'm busy falling into YouTube.

Joe Bonamassa and Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall:

Go ahead, fall in. This is the good stuff.

Does Anybody Else Notice?

2009-12-27T20:13:00.003-05:00

This morning I caught my sweetheart muttering irritatedly about a spam he received from a somewhat local not-for-profit and the ethics of an exempted organization blatantly ignoring every last one of the provisions of the CAN-SPAM act.

What I found so fascinating about this email, when I looked at it, was that the email clearly instructed the recipient to delete the email unread.

The sender of the email sent the email from his work address to his home address, using the bcc option of his email account to send the email to who-knows-who. The bottom of his email contained his company's standard disclaimer: "If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please delete."

Now, the more I think about the content of the email, the more certain I am that his employer wouldn't have approved, even though his employer would be the beneficiary of any business he managed to scare up. (I mean that literally - he was using scare tactics.)

It just boggles my mind.

I Wonder

2009-12-20T14:17:00.006-05:00

Yeah, we just had a major storm. It's incredible. Three whole inches of light, easy-to-move snow. What is the world coming to?

It's enough to make me wonder what became of these guys:

Yeah, that's twins, nibbling insufficiently at the invasive species under my backyard pine tree. About a month later, we never saw two together for the rest of the summer.

Ah, yes, hiding in the invasive mint. That will teach me to let a portion of my garden go fallow for a season.

Stay warm. Monday is the shortest day of the year. Spring is just around the corner, as all the gardening catalogs would like me to notice!

Quoth..?

2009-12-05T15:59:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure which of the two amaze me more. This amazing review, or the amazing price of the item.

I'm staggered.

AT&T - The Rant

2009-12-01T22:53:00.003-05:00

I get a lot of sales literature from AT&T.

Nobody. Absolutely Nobody sends me such elaborate, fancy, expensive-looking sales literature.

Why would I want to purchase products from a company that has to keep the prices high enough to send all this expensive sales literature to badger their own customers?

It's an ostentatious waste of their customers' money.

If I could switch my land-line to someone else, I would. Unfortunately, VOIP would go down every time the cable goes down and the only DSL provider in my area is, you got it, AT&T.

Neil Gaiman is So Good

2009-10-28T21:47:00.000-04:00

My Day Off

2009-10-23T21:16:00.005-04:00

I'm taking my use-it-or-lose-it vacation on Friday for the rest of the year. Apparently, the purpose of this is going to be so I can exhaust myself.

We got up this morning (slowly, to be honest) and I finished reading the book for our book group. The meeting is tomorrow afternoon. We finished the book, finally. Our first meeting on this book was in April of 2008. And it looks like we skipped the first chapter! Oops! I'll have to point that out tomorrow. I bet we were originally planning to read the first and last chapters together.

We then went to work, on my day off, in order to get our flu shots. This was by far the best injection I've ever had. Usually, they tell you, "You're going to feel a little pinch," and it's a big pinch. This time, she said, "You're going to feel a little pinch," and I felt NOTHING. The needle had some kind of spring-loaded return that scared me when I heard it go off before my turn, but I think it really made it easier.

Then we went to Kizl's for pierogies. Yummy!

Returning home, I changed into gardening clothing and headed outside. First I harvested my few small mis-shapen kohlrabi and filled in a section of garden I had dug up about a month ago. Then I planted my garlic. I had purchased the smallest bag, and I had 60+ cloves to plant plus a dozen to eat early. (I don't bother planting the very smallest of the cloves. There's so much garlic there, it's really not necessary to plant every last clove.) Then I planted my bulbs. I had to have had over 200 bulbs of various types to put in the ground. I've been planning this for some time, so I had tried to re-claim a fallow section of my garden over the last month or so. So even though the ground wasn't too hard to work because I'd dug it up recently, I was so exhausted when I came inside that I napped for forty-five minutes before dinner.

My sweetheart made chicken stew in honor of the kohlrabi. The ingredients were chicken, barley, carrots, onion, garlic, celery, kohlrabi, pepper, bay leaves, marjoram and thyme. It was really yummy, and I'm chasing it with a Guinness.

I will sleep well tonight.

Finally, here's a funny story for you from a blog I always enjoy. Have a great night!

Aerial Acrobatics

2009-10-22T22:22:00.004-04:00

You know how you go on YouTube and one video leads to another?

This is amazing.

Yes, We Have NO Flu Vaccine

2009-10-18T14:26:00.004-04:00

Apparently, there is no flu vaccine available anywhere in my immediate area. Everyone seems to be sold out. Well, that may not be true. Today is Sunday, so I won't know the situation on the ground at my doctor's office until they're open when I call.

Of course, I didn't get the flu shot earlier this month because I wasn't feeling too well. Since deciding to try to get a jump on my employer-sponsored clinic, I've had bouts of the sniffles and headaches, the standard allergy-induced misery of the season. Ah, I just don't want to have to drive to work in the middle of the day on a vacation day. As my co-worker says, I'll just have to "suck it up, Buttercup." Because I'm not skipping it.

Ok, Interesting Stuff?

2009-10-06T23:30:00.005-04:00

1/ Via the Mind Hacks blog - "[...] the authors suggest that, because love activates a long-term perspective that elicits global processing, it should also promote creativity and impede analytic thinking. In contrast, inasmuch as sex activates a short-term perspective that elicits local processing, it should also promote analytic thinking and impede creative thinking."

2/ Lots of Free Music.

3/ If you were wondering, I can hardly tell that I burned myself now. It's a little numb, but the skin feels like real skin and everything.

4/ This guy is really funny.

5/ Did I mention I saw Jonathan Coulton live at Toad's Place last week? Thanks to Chris for knowing about it *before* it happened.

Hmmm. ArchivemessagesR has run. That means I'm up past my bedtime. Oops.

Can You Tell I'm Not in a Swap?

2009-10-05T22:01:00.004-04:00

When I participate in a swap, it usually includes the requirement that I post at least 3 fiber-related blog posts per month.

That requirement helps, becuase usually I think of the perfect blog post while I'm driving. You never get those. You've never gotten one and you probably never will. They come, they occupy my mind long enough for me to decide they're absolutely brilliant, and then I lose them in traffic forever. Trust me, you're not missing much.

You also don't see the thoughts that go through my head when I'm trying to puzzle something out. This is because those would look something like this:

Let's see. It turns out I was wrong, we don't have:

a -> b
b -> c
c -> d
d -> e
e -> f

Really we have:

a -> b
b -> c
c -> c
c -> d
d -> b
b -> e
e -> f

Now, how am I going to figure out this chain? I'm going to have to use the timestamp. But that means I can't make this into a generic case, and I'm dealing with about 40,000 rows. Hmm...

I haven't shown my knitting in a while. That requires me to take photographs. I actually don't like taking photographs very much. I probably should take a class in photography. The homework would make me take the time to learn some theory and actually improve a bit. And if I took better photos, maybe I'd enjoy it more.

Yesterday, I thought about blogging about having burned my finger. I accidentally poured some boiling water over the back of my right index finger while making jelly. I have three apple trees in my front yard, and my grandmother always used to make jelly from them, so I find myself compulsively making jelly once every decade or so. This, however, is the first time I burned myself in the process.

Last night I thought I probably wouldn't be using my right index finger for a couple of days at least. I followed most of the instruction from the Mayo clinic and immersed it in cold water and took an ibuprofen. Then I ordered a glass of ice water at dinner to hold my finger against between bites and ended up soaking my finger by the end of the meal. So when I went to bed I found I finally had a use for the rather long tubular gauge swatch I had knit in preparation for my first successful sock. I used it as an ice-pack cover. I set the covered ice-pack on top of my hand and was surprised that I slept really well. This morning, I was thrilled to discover the finger didn't bother me much at all. I can even knit with it! (Ok, I'll admit that I knit continental. If I were using that finger for tension I wouldn't be quite so enthusiastic.)

It's a funny-looking ice-pack cover. I wanted to decide what size needles to use to knit a sock and the pattern called for 66 stitches in the round. So I've got about 2.5 inches of ribbing done on a size 0 needle, four inches of stockinette done on the same needle, another 2.5 inches of ribbing done on a size 1 needle, another four inches or so of stockinette done on the size 1 needle and then somewhat less than 2 inches of ribbing on the size 1 needle. By then I'd had enough so I cast off and threw the thing in the wash to see how it would turn out. I think it fit my leg snugger than it fit the ice-pack, but who cares? Now I've got a use for the funny-looking gauge swatch I couldn't figure out what to do with!

And the jelly is good, too.

Sticker Shock

2009-09-12T12:48:00.002-04:00

A couple of years ago (oh, maybe four, or five, or six, or more...time just flies by these days) I braved a severe case of sticker shock and purchased a pair of storage containers so we could purchase twenty-five pounds of flour at a time and have a place to store it.

I very nearly choked on the price.

A couple of years later, we decided that we needed another one, and when I went to buy it, they had run out. So I bought two of the next smaller size.

And still had a hard time with the price.

But we were very happy with these purchases. And they've been very useful. And whenever we've had less than ten pounds of flour in the house, we've discovered additional uses for the large storage container that wasn't being used.

The large storage container is back in stock, and we need more. So I just steeled myself and purchased two more.

So if you see me wandering around looking like I just helped someone pick my pocket, well, it's just sticker shock.

Yarn!

2009-09-10T23:18:00.002-04:00

30,000 years old!

Sarah Palin: 1, Senate: 0

2009-08-13T22:11:00.005-04:00

Well, Sarah Palin must be feeling pretty powerful. The Senate has decided to withdraw the section of the health care bill she claims she hates the most.

I read that section of the bill this morning, before it disappeared. What they need to do is put that section in one bill, give it a number, and name it something that states its purpose. And it should be required for everybody, regardless of who's paying for their health care.

Here's my nomination for the title: The Terry Schiavo Memorial Advanced Directives Communication Act of 2009.

As I said, I read the offending section of the bill myself this morning. If that act had been in place for Terry Schiavo, that whole fight about what Terry's wishes would have included a consultation with Terry herself.

The Democrats really need to learn a few lessons from the Republicans. The first and most important is that every bill has to have a catchy patriotic or heart-wrenching name. Patriotic is better than heart-wrenching when you're trying to hide something. Make sure you call something a restoration act if it's taking something away. That kind of thing.

And it's time they started using Sarah Palin's inflammatory language. Because if you think our current system doesn't include secret panels of insurance company employees figuring out how to deny legitimate claims, you haven't been paying attention. You know, like death panels. Secret death panels. Maybe Sarah thinks they're ok as long as they're secret and done by the private sector, so that investors can profit.

Well, as long as she keeps herself in the public eye, she'll never have to worry about her insurance company "accidentally" denying to pre-approve a contractually covered service. A lot of people with Down's Syndrome need heart surgery or other expensive care or interventions. Whatever insurance company is covering that family is not happy about it. I guess she knows that as long as she has a wide audience, she doesn't have to worry about being treated like an ordinary family that nobody listens to even after your child is dead.

Must be nice to have power.

The Law Of Diminishing Returns, or Cash for Clunkers for Dummies

2009-08-08T17:31:00.006-04:00

Years ago, when I drove a Honda Civic that got 40 miles to the gallon, I dreamed of a car that did better. In fact, I once had a car that got 23 mpg and I never forgave it. This was because my very first car was a diesel VW Rabbit which got 55 mpg no matter how badly I drove. (Ok, I used to like to park the jerks who thought they were going to use a left-turn-only lane to pass me at stoplights. Did I mention I went through my first clutch pretty quickly? That was definitely not cost-effective.)

So one day I whined to an engineer friend that I missed my Rabbit because my Civic wasn't as good on gas. He tried to explain to me the law of diminishing returns, and I couldn't buy it.

So when the Honda Insight came out, I built myself some spreadsheets to see how long it would take me to save the price of the car. I was horrified to discover that I never would. Not unless I could get 80mpg or the price of gas went up to $4/gal. and stayed there for the life of the car.

I bought the car anyhow and I've never been sorry. In fact, I now own one Insight (lifetime mpg 61.3 and fast approaching 200,000 miles) and one Hybrid Civic (no lifetime average - usually does better than 50 mpg on a tank and just past 50,000 miles).

If the law of diminishing returns doesn't mean anything to you, consider the following spreadsheet.

	Cost to drive 10,000 miles
		dollars per gallon
		1	2	3	4	5
miles per gallon	10	$1,000	$2,000	$3,000	$4,000	$5,000
	15	$667	$1,333	$2,000	$2,667	$3,333
	20	$500	$1,000	$1,500	$2,000	$2,500
	25	$400	$800	$1,200	$1,600	$2,000
	30	$333	$667	$1,000	$1,333	$1,667
	35	$286	$571	$857	$1,143	$1,429
	40	$250	$500	$750	$1,000	$1,250
	45	$222	$444	$667	$889	$1,111
	50	$200	$400	$600	$800	$1,000
	55	$182	$364	$545	$727	$909
	60	$167	$333	$500	$667	$833
	65	$154	$308	$462	$615	$769

So, at $1/gal, my old Civic cost me $250 to drive 10,000 miles. My Insight would cost me $167 to drive the same distance. I would say over the life of the car, gas has averaged a little over $2/gal. So, old car math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $500 * 20 = $10,000 spent in gas over 200,000 miles. Insight math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $333 * 20 = $6,660 spent in gas over 200,000 miles. So over the past 200,000 miles I've saved $3,340.

Now, let's just say you decided to participate in the cash for clunkers program. Let's say you turn in a car that gets you 15 mpg for a car that gets you 20 mpg. Let's say you drive this car for no more than 50,000 miles. Old car math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $1,333 * 5 = $6,665. New car math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $1000 * 5 = $5,000. So in 50,000 miles you've saved $1,665. In 50,000 miles you've saved more than half what I saved in 200,000 miles. And the government will pay you another $3,500. $3,500 + $1665 = $5,165. Not bad, but compelling?

Let's say you get greedy and want the $4,000 rebate from the government. (Actually, I think it's more than that. I can't be bothered to look it up.) And you want a pretty sporty car, so you only get a car that gets 25mpg. Old car math stays the same over 50,000 miles. $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $1,333 * 5 = $6,665. New car math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $800 * 5 = $4,000. So in 50,000 miles you've saved $2,665. $2,665 + $4,000 = $6,665. That's starting to look really nice.

Then there's my friend Jim. He's looking at a hybrid. That will get him 45 mpg. I think his old car gets 15mpg, so we'll go with that. Old car math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $1,333 * 5 = $6,665. New car math - $2/gal price of 10,000 miles = $444 * 5 = $2,220. Over 50,000 miles he can save $4,445.

But that's not where the real savings comes in. The real savings comes in when you look at the price of gas over time. Gas isn't $2/gal. Gas really cost over $4/gal not all that long ago. Consider the following and think of your monthly budget.

How far can you drive on a tank of gas?
		size of tank in gallons
		10	20	30	40	50
miles per gallon	10	100	200	300	400	500
	15	150	300	450	600	750
	20	200	400	600	800	1000
	25	250	500	750	1000	1250
	30	300	600	900	1200	1500
	35	350	700	1050	1400	1750
	40	400	800	1200	1600	2000
	45	450	900	1350	1800	2250
	50	500	1000	1500	2000	2500
	55	550	1100	1650	2200	2750
	60	600	1200	1800	2400	3000
	65	650	1300	1950	2600	3250

		How much does a tank cost you?
		dollars per gallon
		1	2	3	4	5
size of tank in gallons	10	$10	$20	$30	$40	$50
	15	$15	$30	$45	$60	$75
	20	$20	$40	$60	$80	$100
	25	$25	$50	$75	$100	$125
	30	$30	$60	$90	$120	$150
	35	$35	$70	$105	$140	$175
	40	$40	$80	$120	$160	$200
	45	$45	$90	$135	$180	$225
	50	$50	$100	$150	$200	$250
	55	$55	$110	$165	$220	$275
	60	$60	$120	$180	$240	$300
	65	$65	$130	$195	$260	$325

The savings isn't huge, but the higher the price of gas, the less the increase hurts. And that, my friends, is why I'm so glad I bought my hybrid, even if it hasn't saved me all that much.

At the Doctor's Office

2009-07-30T15:05:00.006-04:00

So, I drove my father to an appointment this morning and picked him up after his procedure was done. This gave me ample time to go get blood drawn for my own appointment next week, eat breakfast, and sit in the waiting room for a little while. What I witnessed in that waiting room was nothing short of disturbing.

I'm sure I was the youngest in the room. Most were white people over 50. There was only one black woman in the room.

The way the room was set up, not everybody could participate in the conversation. I was one of those sitting in the wrong place to participate.

One of the women was diabetic and afraid she'd lose her current health care. One was unable to qualify for Medicaid and seemed unhappy about it, but certainly didn't think a public option would solve his problems. One guy used to have some kind of gap or additional insurance, but the policy wouldn't let him renew for some unknown reason. At least two of them didn't see why they should be providing health care from those people who come across the border. You know - immigrants. Nobody specified if they distinguished between the legal and illegal ones. (Did you know that legal immigrants pay taxes? Taxation without representation. There's a concept for you.)

At one point, the black woman indicated surprisingly gently that she was under the impression that the target audience for this public option was the uninsured, not immigrants or to take away people's current insurance.

At some point in all of this, the receptionist had had enough. She slid the glass window shut fairly forcefully and moved away from my view and got someone else to sit there right behind the glass.

I had enough, too. And of course the conversation soon moved on to something else. But I had to wonder which part of the whole scene infuriated the receptionist the most? It infuriated me, but that's because it seems that nobody seems to know where the money's coming from right now.

When someone goes bankrupt with high medical bills, how does the entire system deal with right now the sudden non-payment of all that money? Who do you think is paying for it? Where do you think the money to deal with the uninsured is coming from right now? If you lost your job today, could you afford the COBRA payments? Do you stay at a job you hate and work for an employer you despise in order to keep your health insurance? When you go shopping, do you think you pay for that disgruntled employee with your purchases or not?

Now, I live in Connecticut. In this state, if you go to a hospital with a life-threatening emergency, it's illegal to refuse to treat you. I know they can refuse to treat you if you can't prove you can pay in Florida. It was that way when my grandfather had a ruptured appendix fifty years ago, and it was that way when my friend called me at 7am a couple of years ago begging me to let her give a hospital my credit card number while she got her mother's insurance information together so the hospital would treat her. I will never live in Florida. At least, not unless I have my insurance information tattooed on my forehead.

Wait, isn't that supposed to be the Mark of the Beast?

Oh, man, I'm just too wound up about this...

Two Guinness to the Wind

2009-06-13T22:30:00.008-04:00

He he.

With two Guinness in me, I think I've come up with an excellent and unique use for twitter.

A knitting pattern distribution method.

Imagine the following set of tweets:

(NOTE: the user name tipsyknitter did not exist on twitter as of 10:48 pm EST on Saturday June 13, 2009.)

tipsyknitter Hey, I made a scarf! Wanna KAL? Pattern follows!

tipsyknitter with bulky and large needles, CO 20 sts [Edited to note this should be 19 sts. Obviously, this is one of the big reasons tweeting patterns wouldn't work.]

tipsyknitter knit 4-6 rows, start wavy pattern. Wavy pattern is next 20 rows.

tipsyknitter R1 (RS): k3, [p1, k1, Right Twist]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R2 and all even rows (WS): k3, [k1, p3]3x, k4

tipsyknitter R3: k3, [p1, Right Twist, k1]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R5: k3, [p1, k1, Right Twist]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R7: k3, [p1, Right Twist, k1]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R9: k3, [p1, k3]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R11: k3, [p1, Left Twist, k1]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R13: k3, [p1, k1, Left Twist]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R15: k3, [p1, Left Twist, k1]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R17: k3, [p1, k1, Left Twist]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter R19: k3, [p1, k3]3x, p1, k3

tipsyknitter repeat above 20 rows until desired length.

tipsyknitter Knit another 4-6 rows to finish.

tipsyknitter add fringe if desired.

tipsyknitter send me some pics!

Did I mention I was knitting while drinking the second Guinness? Maybe I should have mentioned that. That might explain why my megalomania did a knitting/twitter mash-up. Well, it explains the knitting, not much can explain the twitter.

I mean, really, this wouldn't really work in real life, would it? You'd have to be the Yarn Harlot to have enough people following you to be even noticed, right?

(I'm still sure I could do a sock pattern in a series of tweets.)

Fascinating...

2009-06-07T16:05:00.003-04:00

Not only could I not do this, I probably wouldn't trust my date if he could.

Still, fascinating.

My inner sociologist wants to know all about people who can and can't stomach it.

Now I'll go back to reading my unread blogs. I'm working on back-posts at improbable.com, could you tell?

Too Much Nothing to Say

2009-05-30T21:38:00.008-04:00

I'm more than a little overdue to post, and everything I have to say is either not organized well enough to open my big mouth or, well, or something else is wrong with it.

You know, like no supporting evidence, no photos, no time to organize my thoughts, certainty that nobody cares - or certainly nobody *should* care.

So, here's a list of stuff. Just ... stuff. Hopefully the universe (that's you) will find it amusing rather than pitiful. 'Cause, you know, those are the only two options when looking at my life.

I made an impulse purchase. "Impulse" here means that I desired this thing for some time, but never got around to actually buying it. But I actually bothered, after several months of really, really wanting this thing, to go down a different aisle in Target than I usually do and actually pay $9.95 for a CD in person - instead of watching Amazon for it to be under $5.00 and paying shipping, or even spending the current rate of $6.09 + $2.98 shipping. ... What did I get? The Airborne Toxic Event's self-titled album. I put the rest of the music I'm interested in my music wish list at Amazon. It will be interesting to see if that link works, since my sweetheart couldn't find it in the wish list directory.

I helped a friend with his website. I found out why his last "webmaster" quit before even beginning to set anything up for him.

I worked over Memorial Day week-end. I actually worked 8 hours on Memorial Day. This sounds like a bad thing. It was exhausting, but it was a good thing. It gave me an extra day to carefully accomplish an upgrade. It went well.

On my to-do list - send instructions to a co-worker about how to go about getting the new encryption key to the database without either sending him the key in plain text or talking to him on the phone and just giving it to him. Also, I have to remember to tell him that we're not going to stick with the version of the software he's installing, and he should have the user call me mid-day to switch it for her. And she won't notice any difference, because the new software fixes something that's failing silently behind the scenes. Which is why we didn't notice it sooner - like before we started the upgrade. Grrr.

Also on my to-do list - plant kohlrabi. I vaguely remember this vegetable from my childhood. When I phoned my father and asked about it, he confirmed that his mother used to serve it sliced thin in a white sauce. We then spent fifteen minutes on the phone while I looked up a kohlrabi recipe in her cookbook, read it to him and had him translate it for me. My grandmother's cookbook is in German. I can read German just fine - I just don't understand it very well. My father can't read it, but he can speak it. So, of course I have the cookbook and can read it to him to find out what it says. It didn't have her recipe in it. The more I read recipes out of this cookbook to him the more convinced I become that she never used it. This is the book, only her edition is much, much older! (Ok, it's mine now, but you know what I mean!)

I've been planning a bit of a contest for this blog. I have a photo of myself and I need to know what emotion this photo shows. My problem is that I can't figure out what to give as a prize. Suggestions?

I have been greatly enjoying my knitting needles and my sample subscription. I'm not going to re-subscribe, but it's been quite a bit of fun.

I've been looking at submission guidelines for free on-line knitting magazines. Mag Knits is gone. But I know of three others. Knitty, Knotions, and the Anti-Craft (NOT safe for work). Do you know of any others?

See, I've said a lot of nothing. But you can see I'm still alive and am keeping myself busy.

Amazing - At Least To Me

2009-05-14T23:28:00.002-04:00

I'm amazed that anybody actually bothered to do this study. I was raised in an alternative-medicine household. That so much of that dogma has become mainstream and taken on a kind of public orthodoxy that you can't disagree with has saddened me, because all along there was too little study and too much belief. And here is a careful study that questions what happens and draws an unexpected conclusion. Fascinating. (If the study abstract is too full of jargon to follow, the title is clear enough to make the point.)

Donnamay

2009-05-02T10:39:00.004-04:00

Last Sunday, my friend and co-worker died. Donnamay had been ill since before I met her 12 years ago. It wasn't cancer and it wasn't HIV, but it might as well have been some kind of combination of both, since the treatments sounded like some kind of mild chemotherapy that suppressed her immune system and made her susceptible to anything that could infect her. If she were alive, we'd all be worried for her about this swine flu.

There was nobody like Donnamay to talk to when you were having a hard time with something. She had seen a lot of life. When she said, "I know it's hard, honey," she knew. And somehow that just made it a little easier to bear. She was taking care of family and friends right up to the end. She made our department into a family and was a wealth of information and knowledge that's going to be very hard to replace.

It's been a beautiful and temperate spring so far. Beautiful, temperate, and deadly.

Harrumph.

The Problem with Mother's Day

2009-04-24T20:18:00.005-04:00

Well, I guess it's pretty obvious, isn't it? Mom died. This time of year, every thing's, "Give your mother ..." And it's a beautiful day out there. Mom would've loved it.

*sniff*

I'm not alone. Years ago, I learned that a friend of mine had lost a baby at Christmastime. Every Christmas was just a little painful around the edges because of it. Holidays are funny - sometimes you celebrate them out of duty but once a person is attached to them they take on a different meaning and a special poignancy when that person's gone.

Mom didn't care much about her birthday, but she cared a lot about Mother's day and her wedding anniversary.

I have a lot to say. But somehow, I'm a little stuck on Mom, even though it's been over a month now. It's just a sore spot, you know?

Life goes on. Somehow that doesn't seem fair.

Alive So Far

2009-04-05T15:30:00.004-04:00

Every year I try to save some plants over the winter. This year, I had three different varieties of hot pepper, a sprig of rosemary, a sprig of basil, several beets and a few eggplant. They suffered a nasty winter. First we had an infestation of little white flies, which were wiped out by a nasty infestation of spider mites. My order of lacewings went in too late, and I still haven't received them. Until I learned, in February, that you could control spider mites with isopropyl alcohol, I despaired that I would lose them all. I only managed to save one of the eggplant, and I lost several of the peppers, and I only managed to keep 2 beets out of 8 alive. But I seem to have saved more than half.

And I have an eggplant. Do I sound a little bit giddy? I can't declare it saved until after Memorial Day. Until then, it (and the peppers) shall be at risk of my not bringing them inside on nights that freeze. I'm trying to cut down on the buggies by moving these babies outside for a few days. We'll see how it goes.

And I have a venue and a date and a plan for Mom's memorial service. That was so hard to do. I had to take a day off from work just to find a place and make myself make the phone calls. It's much easier to go through Mom's clothes than it is to deal with this. Today I'll make the invitations. They have to go out early this week at the latest.

And I've started to knit Nothin' But a T-Shirt in Berroco Echo in the color identified on the web as "ranch hand."

I am betting that I will not have enough yarn. This "enough yarn" business makes me insane. This is one of the reasons I like to knit socks. I've got the amount of yarn nailed.

And I started my taxes.

I have so much to do and so little get-up-and-go. Except when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.

This Is Really Difficult

2009-03-25T21:30:00.003-04:00

You know, this whole get-up-and-go thing is really hard. This week-end, my sweetheart jokingly suggested that he should get me some eggs so I can brood properly. (He's quite a joker, my sweetheart.) I'm excited when I sleep well a couple of nights in a row.

What's interesting is that I'm not turning to knitting for solace at this time. Instead, I've turned to reading and watching Foyle's War. I'm not sure I could stand to watch House now, though it's one of my favorites. I'm also really enjoying a lot of TED talks.

When I'm not brooding.

I Tried to Blog on Thursday

2009-03-11T22:39:00.008-04:00

while my mother was still alive.

I had a little report about how she was getting a little better and how I thought this was going to be a long drawn-out recovery. I reported that I was re-arranging my life to be with her through this long drawn-out recovery and how I wasn't going to have time to go to any knitting groups for quite a while.

I then started to give a "show" of finished objects. I didn't even finish getting one written up and I saved my post for later, when I had a little more heart to do so.

And the pneumonia got worse and she died yesterday afternoon, Saturday, March 14. She had been 71 for exactly three whole months.

There are no words, really. None at all.

I understood in the past couple of weeks, that my communication with her had to be through touch. When I could, I held her. I kissed her. I stroked her hair, her hand, her arm, her leg, her shoulder, her face. I cleaned her glasses. I sat in the room with her. I left her alone to rest.

People who come back from a low-oxygen event tend to report pleasant, floating, god-meeting experiences. I hope she had a good trip. She deserved some happiness and peace at the end.

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-02-17T21:59:00.005-05:00

So, due to twitter, I learned that LeVar Burton's birthday is the day before mine. And he's older than I thought he was. I'm surprised but shouldn't be, since I know I'm no judge of age.

Which is good, because I'm now 40.

This week-end, my sweetheart took me to see Coraline in 3D. We had sticker shock. At a matinée. It was fun, and the kiddies in the theater were well-behaved. No screamers.

I finished an Argosy today. I need to weave in the ends and take pictures. This was Secret Pal yarn - it made a nice scarf. I may be spreading the Argosy meme at work. Bwa ha ha ha!

In the past month I've also learned to spin. With a drop spindle. Make yarn from fiber. Yeah, I had been ... avoiding it. Yet something else to become addicted to. It's very rewarding and slow going at the same time.

I am also making a "rib warmer" from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop. You will hear here whether or not I had enough yarn. It is going to be very close. I've turned the last curve and I'm garter stitching up the final piece. If I don't have enough, I'll have nearly enough. I won't be more than a couple of rows short. I've weighed this thing no less than six times.

Apparently turning 40 makes me more likely to take a chance at working really hard for nothing. I used to do that by accident and kick myself; now I realize it's likely and do it anyhow.

I've also taken to hoarding things I like. I used to devour limes on sight. Now I put them in the fridge and take them out to look at them from time to time. I have chocolate chips that I could just eat out of the bag, but I'm saving them for something special.

And yet ... I can still get worked up over nothing.

And I'm still madly in love.

Can't beat that.

One Thing Leads To Another

2009-01-22T21:52:00.007-05:00

A friend sent me a link to a story about yarnbombing at the Telegraph.

There was a link at the bottom of the page to a gallery of signs. This one made me think of Neil Gaiman's Stardust (book and movie). How could it not?

But some of them were more fun than others.

This one just struck my funny bone. Never would've thought of such a problem.

And this one is obviously there just for me.

I'm not sure why this makes me laugh so hard.

On the other hand, I know why this one is funny.

Do they really mean this?

Blast From The Past

2009-01-21T23:46:00.005-05:00

I just sent this link to a friend.

When I go to blogs I used to read and there's silence, sometimes I worry a little. One day I went to a blog and there was a post to let everyone know that the owner had died. Bloggers are friends - people who talk to you and you don't have to talk back, but you can. You miss them when they're gone.

I've been together with my sweetheart for something like fifteen years now. I cherish the time we spend in a car just breathing the same air, unable to think of anything to say that we haven't bored each other with yet.

I hope most silent blogs are like that.

The Noro Hat

2009-01-11T13:51:00.011-05:00

I had to make another of these.

I mean, come on. What else would I do with the rest of the yarn, eh?

The hat on top has been worn frequently for a couple of weeks. It stretches to fit like a glove.

Anyhow, Mom wants whatever hat I'm wearing. She hasn't seen this one yet. When she sees it, she'll want it. Right off my head, just like all the others. Whether or not it fits. She'll give it back when it doesn't fit. After she's worn it a couple times.

Of course, it's also possible that she'll lose it.

In any event, I've knitted this twice, so maybe it's time to write it up.

I've done this with size 8 and size 9 needles. The hat comes out the same. I'd say it's size "adult" and leave it at that. The whole point of it was that every time I made a hat it wasn't quite perfect, so this time I decided to run the ribbing all the way up to the crown.

I make a commentary in here about making the hat 1.5 inches longer than the length of the recipients hand. I tend to use my hand as a measure around here and I make no guarantees about how well this will work for you. But it works really well for me.

Yes, this is based on (or inspired by) the Noro Scarf pattern and it's entirely in the public domain as far as I'm concerned. Do what you like with it.

The Noro Hat Pattern.

Needles: Size 8 or 9 either double-pointed or circular.
Yarn: 2 skeins Noro Silk Garden in two different colors.

Cast on 72 stitches with one color.
Join being careful not to twist.
With the same color, Knit 2 Purl 2 around once.
* Switch balls of yarn and Knit 2 Purl 2 around twice. *
Repeat from * until piece is approximately 8.5 inches long OR until piece looks like it's probably 1.5 - 2 inches longer than the length of the recipient's hand.
Decrease for crown - stitch count at end of each row.
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 2 Purl 2 around once (72)
Knit 2 Purl 2 Knit 2 Purl 2 together around once (63)
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 2 Purl 2 Knit 2 Purl 1 around once (63)
Knit 2 Purl 2 together Knit 2 Purl 1 around once (54)
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 2 Purl 1 around once (54)
Knit 2 Purl 1 Knit 2 together Purl 1 around once (45)
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 2 Purl 1 Knit 1 Purl 1 around once (45)
Knit 2 together Purl 1 Knit 1 Purl 1 around once (36)
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 1 Purl 1 around once (36)
Knit 1 Knit 2 together Purl 1 around once (27)
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 2 Purl 1 around once
Knit 1 Purl 2 together around once (18)
Switch balls of yarn
Knit 1 purl 1 around once (18)
Knit 2 together through the back loop around once(9)
Cut yarn leaving about 12 inches of yarn. Draw yarn though all 9 stitches and pull to close the hole.
Weave in ends.

NOTES:

If you pull too tight when switching balls of yarn, your piece will have one vertical line that behaves differently from the rest of the piece.

I try to carry the unused yarn behind the work. I've goofed a couple of times and can't see any real difference in the final outcome. You should doe whatever makes the most sense to you.

When I weave in the ends from the cast on, I weave them in on the outside of the piece, because that will be hidden when the brim is folded up.

That's it. Have fun!

Said Without Whining

2009-01-01T18:34:00.003-05:00

I was going to whine about this. But Dan Gilbert says it better ... he doesn't whine about it, like I would.

He looks at it from the perspective of happiness. I look at it from the perspective of watching people make themselves miserable.

Funny how the perspective makes such a difference.

Brownies

2008-12-25T23:37:00.008-05:00

Last night, we bought the ingredients for chocolate truffles, one of which was Cool Whip. I have never bout Cool Whip before. I was going to make the truffles this morning, but discovered that I should have left the Cool Whip in the fridge and not the freezer.

I did not have a plan B for what to bring to dinner.

In desperation, I whipped out a book a friend gave me a couple of years ago: The Little Black Book of Chocolate. I have enjoyed reading this book over the years, but I've never actually followed any of the recipes. I read through the book, desperately searching for something I could make with ingredients I had in the house. I finally settled on a brownie recipe.

I've never attempted a real brownie recipe before.

My co-workers are starting a "biggest loser" competition. I can't bring these to work until it's over. I may have to wait until after Eastern Orthodox Lent, just to be fair to everyone. But I will bring these brownies to work some time this year and I will be considered a chocolate goddess. They were amazing. I can't believe they came out of my kitchen.

Even if I didn't notice the instructions that said, "do not over beat," until it was obviously too late.

It didn't ruin the recipe in the least.

Oops. They're on to me.

2008-12-20T18:43:00.003-05:00

I mean, come on. Even though I like them both, I prefer Ugly Overload to Cute Overload. So the results of this quiz is no surprise...

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Cthulu Spawn You are really an alien thing, aren't you? I can't describe you because you are beyond. We say "left field" and you say "Krn Grth Thchrang." You are the wild card of the bunch, the unknown quantity
Incubus/Succubus
Sorceror
Werewolf
Vampire
Ghost
Demon
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

It's a shame lolthulhu hasn't been updated in ages.

Hats

2008-12-20T15:38:00.007-05:00

This is my contribution to the 2nd annual baby-hat project.

I knit most of them during the trip to England over Thanksgiving. I knit a very small percentage of the total hats knitted by my co-workers.

I like participating in this. In case you hadn't noticed in a previous post, I get tired of the request for money. Money seems to be spent begging for more money. By knitting a baby hat, I know exactly what my donation is going to. It's very satisfying to know exactly what my donation is doing. In fact, even if my donation were stolen, it wouldn't bother me. You steal my money, you're probably going to spend it on luxuries. You steal my baby hat, well, what are you going to use it for? A baby? Go ahead. Make my day!

Anyhow...

I also wanted to make the Noro scarf. Unfortunately, the scarf wasn't too happy about this. I had inconsistent tension up the two sides of the scarf. I couldn't get excited about the colors. I started and re-started it a couple of times. Finally, I realized what was wrong.

The yarn didn't want to be a scarf. It wanted to be a hat.

*Sigh* Pushy, pushy yarn.

Too Funny

2008-12-14T10:58:00.003-05:00

Yes, I found one of these on Cute Overload. I don't want to lose it, though, so here it is...

No loop - kittens playing on a slide:

Set to music - as seen on Cute Overload:

Need a Laugh?

2008-12-11T21:48:00.004-05:00

This may very well be my favorite blog post of all time.

I just accidentally re-read it.

At least, I think I'm laughing because it's so funny, and not because of the drink.

If you don't laugh hysterically upon reading, you need to put more oatmeal into your life. Yeah. That would do it. Right.

Mice in England and America

2008-12-07T10:48:00.005-05:00

Sad but true, my life seems to develop short-term themes. Last year it was plumbing. I replaced a sink and faucet at home in the U.S. and replaced some parts in a toilet in the U.K.

This year it was mice.

Before we left for England, we realized we had a mouse in the house when we witnessed one running across the top of the garage door. A brief, depressing debate about how to deal with this ensued.

It turns out that the "humane" catch-and-release traps are actually not that humane. Consider: mouse is stuck in a small box until some human comes, takes him to a place he's never been before, and releases him. Lock yourself in a closet for six hours and then go to the middle of some foreign country with no resources and see how long you'd last. At best, the mouse usually gets eaten - at worst, just dies of shock anyhow.

So, even though we concluded that "kill it quickly instead of torturing it" was a more humane method of dispatching said mouse, the first trap we came across was a catch-and-release style, so we went with it.

As did the mouse.

And the mouse chewed his way out within about six hours. Time to go to the hardware store (instead of the grocery store) and buy a real mousetrap.

Now, I was taught to be afraid of mousetraps. My family went out of their way to make sure that I didn't play with them when I ran across them. So when I was presented with two styles of trap - one traditional snap and one like a clip, I went for the clip. When you dispose of a mouse from the clip, chances are you won't have to touch the little corpse. That sounded like a better option to me.

Ha ha. I had a very quick disappointment. We baited the traps with a little cheese and the mouse investigated, but the traps snapped mouse-empty. Back to the store with us. We then picked up two traditional snap traps with a fake-cheese integrated bait and set them along with the clip traps. Voila! We got a mouse - in one of the clip traps.

So, over the course of the next week or so, I set the traps in lots of different places around the house and switched to peanut butter as bait. I dispatched several mice, and at no time did I ever suffer a bait-snatching incident. I concluded that this was the product of an overactive imagination:

Then we went to England where, one afternoon, we came face-to-face with a very alert-looking little unwelcome house guest.

Now, we knew there were mice in the house. He'd left his calling card everywhere, and in fact, when we ran across him, we had already vacuumed up a couple of nests and had been setting traps for several days.

This mouse could steal bait off a snap trap. In fact, he was really good at it. He could also steal bait out of a rocker catch-and-release trap. We didn't catch him until the last day there - using a clip-style trap (which he had managed to set off without incident a couple of times already) which had come pre-baited with - you got it - peanut butter.

Eight days of being outwitted by ONE mouse ... English mice would seem to be smarter than American mice. Just sayin'.

Am I Depressed?

2008-12-05T13:16:00.003-05:00

Or just disheartened?

I have supported various charities over the years. Some I support regularly, and some I support as part of a larger fundraising event. Since I can't afford to give generously to every charity that I like, I give a little bit to some and more to others and leave it at that.

For instance, I have participated in the Yarn Harlot's Doctors Without Borders challenges. Since then, they have sent me a letter in the mail at least once a month and have taken up calling me to ask me for more donations. I am sure they have spent the entire original donation I sent them trying to get another couple of dollars out of me.

When my friend married her partner, the cancer survivor, they asked for donations to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. They haven't used up my donation looking for the follow-up yet, but they're working on it.

Clearly, I need to stop giving the smaller donations. I really don't want to. I want to be able to give a one-time donation to a worthy organization and not hear from then for maybe a year. I don't mind them reminding me of their existence, but they come up with these campaigns. "Don't you care about X? We're working on that right now. Couldn't you give us a donation toward that? You do realize that the world will end if we can't get enough people to chip in on this, don't you?"

And don't get me started on the fake surveys. Or the "Will you send a letter to all of your neighbors? We'll mail you a kit and you can just mail the letters to your neighbors, collect the money and mail it back to us." Or the ones who call or write to people who haven't lived at this address for over fifteen years and get all huffy when I point out that they've wasted perfectly good money on a worthless list. Or the ones that send out a "gift" of a cross or an angel or return address labels or holiday cards in advance thanks for your generous donation.

I work for a not-for-profit. And we're not really good at raising money. We don't contact our donors every single month by mail and phone with some new emergency they just have to cough up some money to support. We do hold occasional events to raise funds. I think we could do better if we joined the rest of the charity world and pestered people more often, but I'm really glad that we don't.

So, am I depressed or just disheartened?

Inside Out

2008-10-31T21:20:00.004-04:00

So I actually finished Kiri. Just in time for winter. Now, if I start another one, perhaps in something a bit more sensible for winter than the linen I knitted this one in, I'll have something too warm for spring - which would probably be when I finish it.

This shows the real problem with the blocking board I made. It's much too big to deal with, and too small to be useful. If this had been a full-sized Kiri, it wouldn't have fit on that board. Instead, it's barely large enough to keep a little bit of chill off in summer.

Oh, and if you think it looks funny, you're right. It's inside-out.

No Knitting Content - Avoid if You Don't Like Political Statements

2008-10-14T21:49:00.010-04:00

I voted for John McCain in the Republican primary. Not because he was a "maverick," but because even though he caved in the end he stood up and said that torture is wrong and had good reasons why America's participating in it is a bad idea. I could respect him.

Now, it has been explained to me that I'm just jealous of Sarah Palin.

You know, I think there's something to that. Consider the following:

She started out knowing what she was talking about. But as soon as she was asked something outside her talking points, he had no personal knowledge and so she had no choice but to rely on her beauty-contestant training.

There have got to be a bare minimum of a dozen better-prepared Republican women John McCain could have chosen to be his running-mate. You know what? I personally don't like Ann Coulter - but hands-down, she would've been a much, much better-prepared choice.

A choice I could have at least respected.

The Almost Final Thank You

2008-10-02T21:24:00.006-04:00

At the end of the Secret Pal swap, you're supposed to say who your secret pal was.

My Pal did everything right - right down to including a card in the last package with her blog address and her name. Which I promptly misplaced.

I also sent an email a couple of days ago to the address that she's probably not checking any more in which I pointed out that I am a complete idiot.

So, here is my thank you to my still no-thanks-to-me secret Secret Pal.

Oh, sometimes I just hate being me.

Isn't that a beautiful package? I think it's beautiful! That picture shows a pair of Regia Silk in color 0184, some beautiful Lana Grossa Meilenweit bosco in 3513, some scrumptious Hill Country Yarns Instant Gratification sock yarn (100% superwash merino) in a colorway called cowboy, and finally 3.4 ounces of Freckle Face Fibers 100% blue faced Leicester in a colorway called caravan. This just might get me to learn to spin - with the boring plain wool I got with my spindle first and then this. It's really lovely.

Secret Pal 13 signups start October 15. I was a horrible pal this time around. I think I'll sit the next one out, since I'd have to keep up with it during the holidays, which I don't do well to begin with. I'll be following along, though!

Almost Done with Kiri

2008-09-22T23:48:00.001-04:00

I'm out of yarn for Kiri. All I need to do is cast off and block.

And take pictures.

Details, details...

A Little Bit of This and That

2008-09-05T21:04:00.007-04:00

Biblionomatopoeia. Really, it's brilliant.

Why I haven't posted my knitting in progress: I'm knitting Kiri.

Not much to look at, all scrunched up like that, eh?

I'm also nearly done with a pair of socks I plan to submit someplace - anyplace. I'm going to have to ask for test knitters once I've written it up.

It seems that I have one project for each place I knit. I have the by-the-bed sock, the traveling sock, the next-to-the-computer Kiri, etc. It's going to be a long time before I finish anything at this rate.

Oh, I just have to link to an Indexed cartoon here. Indexed is often brilliant. This one is timely and to the point. The comments are pretty interesting, too.

My Complaint and My Solution

2008-08-31T15:58:00.006-04:00

"Contraception to be re-classified as a form of abortion by the Bush administration."

I received this link in an email from a friend.

Now, I am the person who receives chain emails from friends with the question, "Is this for real?" This is because I can remember the names of the websites to check, the most popular being www.snopes.com.

So I read the letter included with the above link, and then I read the page that the link opened up, and I poked around on the MoveOn.org website and finally sent them a letter complaining that their campaigns don't have dates on them.

But this didn't satisfy me. In fact, I became quite suspicious when Snopes didn't have anything on the issue. So I went poking around the internet and finally found this. Pretty obviously, this article, dated August 11, 2008, is the one referenced by the website for the petition.

This, however, is a much better tool than the MoveOn petition. It's clearer, enumerates the problem, and even has a date on it. It's still pretty poor.

So here is the link to the actual draft. Yes, it's a PDF. You could find it yourself if you knew enough to use "Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices In Violation of Federal Law" as a search term in your favorite search engine. The same search would have brought you to this site. (Of course, selecting the appropriate set of words to search for is only possible after you've found what you're looking for.)

And it is in that actual draft that I found all kinds of information about leaving comments - including the extraordinarily important dates. I quote: "Submit written or electronic comment on the regulations proposed by this document by September 25, 2008."

I would really have appreciated it if MoveOn or Planned Parenthood had given me a link to the actual proposal. In fact, I really would have appreciated it if the Houston Chronicle had given me a link to the proposed rule. The BBC always includes links to related sites. In this age of unsubstantiated claims, anything less looks like an attempt to manipulate or deceive.

And it's only going to get worse as election season continues, isn't it?

Me Too!

2008-08-30T23:44:00.005-04:00

I've been reading the "Booking Through Thursday" questions for a long time, but I've never managed to answer one here, even though they seem easier to answer than the SP12 questions.

If you’re anything like me, one of your favorite reasons to read is for the story. Not for the character development and interaction. Not because of the descriptive, emotive powers of the writer. Not because of deep, literary meaning hidden beneath layers of metaphor. (Even though those are all good things.) No … it’s because you want to know what happens next?

Or, um, is it just me?

I wouldn't admit this in a literature class. In fact, it's not always true. But when I ran across this I was so happy to discover I'm not alone that I must admit it's true most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I like a good characterization. When I find a book that has incredible characterizations I really appreciate it. But mostly that's why I read.

Dear Idiot

2008-08-30T14:37:00.004-04:00

Dear Idiot.

YouTube does not work well on a dialup internet connection. If you must, try www.getmiro.com. Do not call your dialup internet provider and complain that it's too slow. Go buy broadband. From someone who will shut you off when you don't pay your bill. Now. Go away. Especially since you just bought a brand-new computer running Windows Vista. Or did you steal that, too?

Plurk

2008-08-23T18:53:00.004-04:00

I have (a while ago) signed up on Plurk.

I haven't quite figured it out yet.

But if you're curious, I'm here.

There's a widget down to the right, if you're really bored!

Overdue Photos - Thank You Secret Pal

2008-08-20T21:25:00.008-04:00

I generally have a rule for myself. I may not use anything from my secret pal packages until I've taken photos.

That's an absolutely unbreakable rule for candy.

I thanked my SP for the package off-line and promised photos.

Well...it was 6 balls of yarn, not a scarf and 4 balls of yarn.

Really. She would not have stolen from me the pleasure of knitting that scarf. The yarn I turned into Harlot's one row scarf is two skeins of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) on size US11/8mm needles. That was lovely yarn. It made great airplane knitting. I almost finished the whole thing flying one way from Hartford, CT to Las Vegas, NV.

The other lovely yarns are Patons Kory Socks and something I'd never seen before - Debbie Mumm Traditions. Debbie Mumm appears to be the JoAnn Fabrics house brand, and it looks like it's meant to be a Noro knock-off. Um, Noro is nice stuff, but I've never gotten my hands on any Noro that was as soft as this. (Oooh! An excuse to go fondle a skein of Silk Garden! Nope, not as soft.) And this is superwash. I like it!

Thank you Secret Pal!

Stuff

2008-08-15T21:33:00.008-04:00

Yes, I'm alive.

For some silly reason I thought I'd blog from Vegas. Don't ask me what I was thinking. I have no idea. I spent the week at a conference and had a great time.

I owe you pictures of the second box I received from my Secret Pal. I sent a thank you and then knitted two skeins of yarn on the plane despite my intent to never use anything from my package until I've taken pictures. So when the photos eventually arrive here, there will be four skeins of yarn and a scarf, instead of the actual package contents of six skeins of yarn.

If that doesn't show I liked it, I don't know what will!

We had no power at my house for several hours this week. A local road was closed while they took care of the tree that was jealous of the phone poles. You have to enlarge this photo to actually see the tree - it's between the two utility vehicles. What you see in this photo is actually a leaning phone pole next to the tree. It was closer to cleared up than not when I took this photo.

I'm still re-setting stuff on timers. Since I got a battery-powered alarm clock, I haven't had any nervous nights over potentially missed alarms due to mid-night power outages.

I'm two questions behind in the SP12 questions of the week.

Question #9:
Have you ever entered your knitting (or anything else) in the fair? Would you ever consider it?

Well. Let's see. No, I never have. We don't have a fair in this town, but we do in the town where I grew up (one town over). I think if I were going to enter my knitting in a fair I wouldn't do it there - I might do one of the larger regional fairs. If a bunch of friends were doing it, I might be more likely to bother. I don't generally go to fairs. Fairs are OK, just not the first thing on my list. I've never regretted giving a fair a miss.

Question #10
What Olympic event would best describe your knitting/knitting style?

In order to come up with some sort of answer to this, I really am going to have to think waaaaay outside the box, aren't I? Gaaaah. This is why I am not a successful writer. I'm too literal. I can knit pretty quickly, but I'm not up to Olympic speeds, so I guess that leaves out swimming, the luge, speed skating, ski jump, etc. Sometimes I do cables, so I guess that would be gymnastics? But what's lace? Javelin? And I rarely ever do colorwork, which maybe is more like couples ice skating? I have no idea how to answer this question. Obviously I should've surfed everyone else's answers and come up with something utilizing everyone else's creativity!

I'm sure there's more to say. I just have no idea what that might be at the moment.

SP Question of the Week #6 & 7

2008-07-26T21:29:00.005-04:00

Yes, I missed one...

What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?

Socks. I wouldn't so much say it's my favorite project as the project I pick when I can't decide what to do or want to be able to do without having to learn something new. It's more complicated than a scarf, smaller than a scarf, more portable than a scarf, but about the equivalent of a scarf for me.

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit?

In restaurants and at conferences and meetings. I don't knit at work work meetings very often, but occasionally I'll either be very ... agitated ... and since everybody knows knitting calms me down, I'll knit through a meeting once in a while. But it's rare to find me without knitting at any other meeting! If I had a TV, I'd knit while watching all the time.

I don't knit in bed as often as I used to due to recent abdominal issues. I'm not sure my sweetheart has reason to find this an improvement.

What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

Someplace comfortable to sit and either a presentation or conversation.

Coming soon: a picture of why I just ripped back and re-knit a sock in a yarn that I don't particularly like.

Secret Pal Question of the Week #5

2008-07-13T22:06:00.002-04:00

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?

We quite enjoy Portland, Oregon.

2) Where is one place you’d like to go?

The moon. Mars as a close second. I'd be quite happy to settle for the International Space Station.

Hey, you asked!

Obligatory Fiber Post

2008-07-10T21:37:00.007-04:00

I've been doing my weekly blogging to the questionnaire put out by Secret Pal 12 and failing to admit that I have, in fact, been knitting. Occasionally, I even finish something. Well, almost. I still need to finish making the ends disappear on this. Look, a whole pair of socks.

These are made from Tofutsies. I decided to do afterthought heels. I think I've done these before. In any event, they were a great success in this case.

Part of what made me decide to do the afterthought heel was the problem I had with the yarn. I found a rather large section of yarn that was twisted differently from the rest if the skein at about the point where one of the socks got near the heel. I had a lot of time to think about how I was going to deal with this, and ended up deciding on the afterthought heel.

The lace pattern really wasn't the right pattern to use for this yarn. Still, I'm happy with it. I'm making another pair in plain yarn, because you really can't identify the pattern here.

My big disappointment was the too-loose bind off. But when I tried the sock on, it would appear that the sock isn't going to fall down and nobody is going to notice this. Unless you look at this picture.

I'm a little tired of Tofutsies, but I still have another skein. And I seem to have a lot of this one left over. Ah, well. What's a stash for but to save yarn for a rainy day?

SP Question of the Week #4

2008-07-04T21:54:00.003-04:00

1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?

I have no bulky yarn. Occasionally I think I might like to make a scarf out of a bulky yarn, but I don't have any. And by the time I go shopping, I forget that I wanted bulky yarn, so I never get around to picking some up.

I'd also like to try out Louet Gems one day. And I'd like to maybe knit up a scarf in a skein of Manos del Uruguay. But I've got stuff in my stash that will keep me happy when I start thinking those might be nice. My lack of anything bulky leaves me ... kicking myself for never thinking of buying any bulky wool.

2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

Sock yarn. Superwash wool. At the moment it feels like I have too many multi-colored skeins and not enough single-color skeins. I knit socks and fingerless gloves for quick projects I can use to play with stitch patterns. Socks keep me out of trouble.

I have no idea if this will work

2008-06-29T10:06:00.003-04:00

Or if I'm going to keep this post up once I've tried it out.

Let's see what we have here.

SP Question of the Week #3

2008-06-28T14:44:00.003-04:00

What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

Well, that's a tough one. As soon as I want to make something and don't have the right yarn for it, I don't have the right amount of stash. I suppose for me content is more important than quantity...sort of. I guess the perfect stash would be enough to make a sweater out of everything ... so that I could make a bunch of smaller items with the leftovers. Right now I find myself wishing I had more solid colors, because I'm playing with my Japanese knitting books, and cables and lace seem to show up (show off?) better on solids than variegateds.

On the other hand, define stash? I think for me it's more than just the yarn. It's the books/patterns/sources of assistance as well as the tools. I'd consider my Ravelry account to be a kind of stash, since it's a stash of everything from organization to inspiration. The yarn stash is too much with nothing to make from it. And it's too little - or just wrong - if it doesn't lend itself to being made into something.

So I suppose I don't think there's such a thing as a perfect amount of stash. I think it's a perpetual work in progress. And like anything else tightly tied to an attempt to foresee the future, occasionally you have to go through it and decide if it's something you want to keep, use, or find a new home for.

Maybe the next question will be a little easier? Nah. I think too much.

Thank You Secret Pal!

2008-06-26T23:06:00.005-04:00

I'm showing this package in two parts. First the fun stuff:

That's a Japanese box for small stuff, a notepad and some cute buttons, a very cute postcard, a kitty cat bell, airplane-safe scissors (I could've used those last week!), a pair of charmed needle-holders, a multi-yarn separator, and a reminder to use my bookmooch account! More of that stuff is Japanese than I mentioned - and she told me where I could get more! Oh, that's tempting.

But there was more in the box. There were to balls of Bernat Matrix in a nice silver/black combination. And a well-filled-out bag. A Sephora bag? That's a very luxurious bag, about the right size to hold a sock project. So I peeked inside and was surprised to find a pair of balls of Patons Kroy! And what a nice color combination!

What a great package! Thank you Secret Pal!

The Game

2008-06-22T22:51:00.004-04:00

Click on the photo to get to the photo credits.

This photo meme is called, "The Game".

The concept:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

I decided not to give the answers to the questions. The questions are really just a way to narrow the selection of photos. My flikr name was the most interesting one - I had only two photos to choose from (and a mosaic, which wouldn't import into the mosaic.)

Please tag yourself if you like this meme. Thanks to earthchicknits for interesting me in this one.

The SP12 Question of the Week

2008-06-22T11:44:00.004-04:00

So, the question of the week is: As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

Endless hours reading, bicycling and programming on my father's TRS-80.

It's funny, during the period that I'm thinking of, I wasn't knitting much. Actually, I never knitted much as a kid, but I did go through phases when I'd knit stockinette squares and tubes. I didn't actually make anything until my late teens.

But I remember my grandmother worrying that I'd ruin my eyes from all that reading.

At my grandparent's house, where I actually spent most of my time, I didn't have a bicycle, so I did a lot of reading. Their house is now mine, and I still don't do any bicycling to speak of - my grandfather built his house near the top of a rather steep hill. So did my father, but we were located on a fairly flat part and there was a small, sparsely-populated block with a slight rise where I would go back and forth for hours. I never much liked exercise, but I'd put up with pedaling uphill so that I could turn around and coast back down it.

But on rainy days, when I was with my parents and not my grandparents, I'd spend hours in front of the computer, writing programs in TRS-80 Basic level 1 and then later level 2. One year I even got to go to computer camp. I was never so happy as I was that year with all those other kids (you know, they were mostly boys?) who were as addicted and even more addicted to making the computer do stuff than I was. It was really great.

It was kind of like last week.

I Can't Believe I Got Anything Working

2008-06-19T20:01:00.003-04:00

Zowee. Today was the first day of a Master Class we signed up for.

I have done a wee itsy bitsy bit of programming in Perl since I took the introductory and advanced classes from Stonehenge back in ... 2001. That's right. We returned from Oregon the Sunday before 9/11. No kidding.

First of all, I brought my own personal tutor. Secondly, I've spent the week attending workshops where the presenter essentially read Perl code to me. Thirdly, I've gotten Perl working on my own computer (hah, wrong version) and gotten a couple of little (beginner) programs working.

But the amazing thing is that I'm actually doing ok. Not great, but ok. I'll work really hard to get some version of perl 5.10 working on my computer and get the last of the Catalyst examples working before I go to sleep tonight.

And I'm not getting any knitting done. Fortunately, I'm not falling asleep, either.

Unfortunate Knitting Content

2008-06-17T18:29:00.004-04:00

I am having a great time here at YAPC. I'm learning quite a bit (that I don't have anyplace to implement, of course) and I'm getting insights to ways to solve problems - mostly because my brain is in neutral with regards to my work, so answers to existing problems are just presenting themselves as people show models that solve vaguely similar but totally unrelated problems.

But I'm falling asleep.

This is, of course, because I got a cold. I'm not sure if I picked it up last week-end in DC, or if I got it from my sweetheart, who seems to have blown through a very similar cold in two days just before I started displaying symptoms. But between the after-lunch sleepiness and the cold, I've been nodding off in the middle of sessions.

Except when I've been knitting.

Which is unfortunate, because when I knit enough to stay awake, I pay attention enough to the presenters to screw up my knitting. I have managed so far to knit my two socks together once, and have had to tink back several rows three times so far.

And I got to lunch with a knitter today. One of the things we discussed was Rails vs Catalyst. Why would I mention that here? She explained to me that Rails is behind Ravelry. Catalyst is marketed as an alternative to Rails, and I'm here to learn about Catalyst.

Not that I'll probably have any use for it. Right now I'm trying to learn Zope and Plone in my spare time. But instead of learning, I seem to be sleeping. When I'm not knitting.

Very unfortunate.

Notes To Self

2008-06-16T18:49:00.006-04:00

In case I manage to lose both copies of the pattern, the sock I'm making is using pattern #154 from the 250 Knitting Patterns book.

I need to find an open source or free SmallTalk distro. One is called GemStone? Also investigate SeaSide.

We could always use perl2exe to free up our perl distro for upgrades. On the other hand, it's not like they do anything that's going to stop working ... until we hit perl6. I think.

My programming instincts were just identified as good practices. Great. And all the places where I didn't pay attention to my instincts in practice are predictably causing exactly the problems the gurus say they will. Whoopee.

Investigate mechanize.com.

Investigate donor.com.

Go through notes for other stuff to investigate.

Most importantly: In the future, if we're going to bother to check one bag, we might as just check anything we don't need to carry on. Leaving a sweater home (because it wouldn't fit in my carry-on) has led me to be the person in the conference wearing my towel around my shoulders. What's really scary are the ones who don't realize I got the idea from the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Well, actually it was a combination of that and having nothing but a towel to huddle under on a freezing Connecticut Limo ride once several years ago.

Yeah - so now I'm the one wearing a towel and knitting a sock. Oddly enough, I fit right in.

I'm too lazy to do this right

2008-06-14T11:40:00.003-04:00

I got my act a wee bit in order. Not in order enough to put this where it belongs - in the sidebar. Later. After I come back from my vacation during which I will try to re-learn enough Perl to keep up with everyone else and make sense of the master class we're attending after the main conference has ended. (I'm going to YAPC. I'll be the idiot knitting. You won't be able to miss me.)

Anyhow, "this" is my Amazon SP Wish List. I now have more than one wish list - I used to have one in which I mixed up books people had recommended to me with books I really wanted but didn't want so very much that I had run out and gotten them yet, so I really wasn't so keen on publishing it for my pal to shop from.

Speaking of things I really wanted and ran right out and got them, I'll post a full library of Japanese knitting pattern books that I've splurged on. Later. When I get back. Or you can check out my LibraryThing list in the sidebar.

Favorite Summertime Drink

2008-06-12T20:42:00.006-04:00

Well, Secret Pal 12 is off to a bang, to say the least. We've got our matches and we've got our first question - what is your favorite summertime drink?

If there is one thing I do, it's over-analyze. Does this mean alcoholic? We don't really drink anything special in the summer. What do I drink the most of anyhow?

In truth, I guess the answer really has to be water. I prefer carbonated water, but still, it's water. My favorite all-time drink is coffee, but in the summertime when I'm thirsty I'll go for water. I like it with no ice, and maybe some lime, lemon, or a dash of something else for flavor. We've flavored it with extracts imported from Sainsbury's (yes, a grocery store in England), with such exotic combinations as lime and ginger. But it's important that it not be overly-flavored and even more important that it not be too sweet. If I'm going to satisfy a thirst, the plainer the better.

How dull, eh?

[I edited this post because the first time I published it, I let the spell checker trick me into calling the grocery store, "Salisbury's." Oops.]

Washington DC Travel Advice

2008-06-08T22:40:00.005-04:00

I have just spent three nights in Washington, DC. I have some travel advice for anyone who is going to DC. I am not going to spend much time telling you what went wrong because the stuff that went right was so very good to know.

If you are driving, do not drive into DC if you can help it. Parking is expensive, if you can find it. Last time we went to DC we witnessed some on-street "touch" parking, and were amazed that the nearest parking businesses near our hotel (it had 17 full spaces in the back) charged $10/day and you had no access to your vehicle for 8-10 hours each day.

This time, we decided to find out what commuters do. The Metro website is absolutely what you need. Click on a stop on the map and mid-way down the page is a link to Google. Zoom out once and you can easily drag your way around to nearby metro stations. Search for hotels on this map and get one close to a Metro station. If you have an AAA card, see if the hotel you've chosen offers that discount - it's usually good for about $10/night savings.

Park at one of the stations that has a car on the Metro map. Leave your car there for your entire trip. Let me explain how that works. They will charge you to leave the parking lot on week-days. The one we parked at was $4.95. We thought, Ok, we arrive Thursday and leave Sunday - that's going to be two weekdays at the very least. Wrong. If you park on Monday and leave on Thursday you pay ... Thursday. If you park on Wednesday and leave on Sunday you pay ... nothing. They charge you to leave the parking lot on week-days. So if you always plan your stay to leave the parking lot on a Saturday or Sunday, your entire parking experience is free.

That was such a wonderful surprise! Thank you, Washington DC!

On the down side, we were near the White House. Very few businesses are open in the area outside regular office business hours. We had to find the Starbucks and McDonald's in the neighborhood to be able to breakfast on Sunday for less than the hotel $14.95 breakfast buffet! This is not the case all over DC. But this time, we had a hard time finding food!

SP 12 Questionnarie

2008-06-02T23:54:00.000-04:00

Possibly more important than the answers to the questionnaire may be a bit about my personality.

- I like to play with yarn. If I got a couple of balls of yarn every so often I'd be quite happy. One ball of yarn is usually not quite enough to do anything with, even though I bought that One Skein book.

- I like gadgets. Don't assume I have them all. Those little inexpensive extras, like those blunt plastic needles to darn in the ends, are the things I misplace.

- I do not need things to be brand new. I participate in freecycle. I like used books, CDs, DVDs, etc. I was CHARMED when my sweetheart bought me clearance chocolates after Valentines Day for my birthday (three days later). An email with a link to your top-ten favorite free internet patterns will MAKE my day.

I hope that helps. Here's the questionnaire.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

It depends on what I'm making, but basically I prefer stuff I can throw in the wash. That said, I really like the feel of real wool. Man-made fibers are ok, as long as they're not the standard Red Heart acrylic or similar.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I've got a nice circular needle holder, and the rest are in ... drawers and a pencil holder.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I learned young - by the age of 10, I'm sure. My grandmother taught me to knit continental, as she was from Germany. I consider myself intermediate - but that's patchy. I'm having difficulty putting a sweater together and I'm knitting fancy lace patterns out of my Japanese knitting books. So I knit scarves and socks mostly.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

My Amazon wish list is a bit odd - it's full of stuff that other people recommended to me and I haven't gotten around to. In fact, much of it I may end up borrowing from the library. I'll go on there and put up a knitting-related wish list and post a link to it from my blog. I'll also get my rear in gear and update my librarything list with all the knitting books that I already have.

5. What's your favorite scent?

Rosemary, Mint, Lavender, Rose, Cinnamon.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I will admit to really liking SweeTarts. And chocolate.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

One of these days I will learn to spin. I garden, but not well. If I'm trying to unwind and I'm not knitting, I'm reading.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I've recently started hanging out at last.fm where my username is procrastinatus. I would like some recommendations of artists to check out. I started out listening mostly to Neil Gaiman's radio, most of which I like, but I've branched out to playing similar artists streams. I've recently enjoyed similar artists to: Snow Patrol, Jonathan Coulton, James Blunt, Coldplay, Dido. I was thrilled to find the Arrogant Worms are available on their site.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I do not get along with orange or coral, unless is as a complimentary color in a mix. If I have a huge pallet of colors to choose from, I will avoid brown and red, as well. I actually am quite fond of black, as well as blue and green and violet and even sometimes yellow. I really like lemon yellow. Mmmmm, lemons.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I am currently without pets. I have been considering rabbits and/or chickens. I think I will spend quite a bit more time thinking before I do anything. I may take up vermicomposting again - that's essentially raising earthworms.

I am engaged, which is quite a surprise, as I had decided that I cared too much for this guy to marry him when we moved in together fourteen years ago. A friend of mine informed me just today that the main character in a television show (I've never seen it) called Foyle's War bears an uncanny resemblance in humor and mannerisms my sweetheart. I don't know if that's true, but if so, I'm sure I'd like the show!

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Scarves - sometimes. Hats - all winter. Mittens - rarely. Fingerless gloves are cool. Ponchos - never.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Socks. Each time I go to a new section of the sock, I'm sick of the last one. It's perfect for my short attention span.

13. What are you knitting right now?

Socks. I'm about to frog the Mystery shawl back to my last lifeline and get on with it. And a scarf. The scarf is so I can play with a pattern out of my Japanese pattern book.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I was in love with my Addi Turbo circulars until I got my hands on the Knitpicks circulars. They've got pointier ends. It turns out, I'm a circular needle person. People who used to know me would be shocked.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Actually, Yes!

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Two years? Three years? It's a purse - I've got to block it and sew it together.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

I don't think I'm particularly partial to any of them, really. We're actually attempting to create a new one, though. Beagle day. It's a bon-voyage party to be held for the H.M.S. Beagle, which left port on December 27.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Giraffes!

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I subscribe to Vogue Knitting, Interweave Knits and Cast On (the knitting guild one). I just let my subscription to Piecework expire.

I will admit I've been eyeing the Harmony circulars at KnitPicks. A long circular somewhere in the range of 0-4 would be really nice.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Yeah - finishing. How Garment Shaping Really Works. I also don't like the DNA pattern on the classic DNA scarf, so I keep failing to develop a DNA pattern that I do like. So I keep knitting swatches (scarves and socks) to get a better idea of exactly how all these stitch combinations work. I can't seem to get my brain around what I'm trying to do ... someday.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

foot length - 9.5"
ball circumference - 9.5"

23. When is your birthday?

February 17.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?

heh heh...I'm procrastinatus. Whiningprocrastinator was too long.

If you scroll down to the bottom of my blog - under the weatherpixie (which may or may not work anymore) on the right hand side here - I have links to my answers to SP8 and SP9. I'll eventually get around to moving them higher - and I'll see if I have another set of answers - I thought I participated in SP11, too. And I'll update my wishlist and put a link there.

But right now I'm going to bed.

2 FOs

2008-06-01T21:46:00.005-04:00

Well, let's see...really, this post is mostly about ripping.

I'm in the middle of the foot of a pair of socks and I realized I have to frog because the twist in the yarn changed and it looks hideous.

I finally picked up my Mystery Stole 3 and realized, after figuring out where I was and putting in another lifeline, that I need to frog back to my last lifeline. So instead of being at the beginning of clue 4 I will be back at the beginning of clue 3.

While looking for my camera I unearthed, again, the sweater I have to take apart so that I can finish putting it back together.

But my dear sweetheart spotted my camera and I have photos. I put them up on Flikr to show him how nifty Ravelry is. After showing him how easy it is to add a photo to a project, I discovered that at the moment there's a bug that's making it impossible to use stash yarns on a project. Even so, he did wander off a bit overwhelmed by the amount of programming that's gone on over there.

If his point of view seems odd, I might add that we'll be at YAPC this year.

But I do have two finished objects to show you. Let's see if I can figure out how to do the Flickr photo thing here.

Fingerless gloves in Schaefer Anne:

Socks in Regia Silk (I only made one sock blocker for photos):

A close-up of pattern #76 from my Japanese 300 knitting patterns book:

Humor Dissected

2008-05-23T20:27:00.010-04:00

I saw this quiz on a blog last night. I was browsing through my back-log of unread favorite blogs, so I have no idea which one I found it on, or I'd give credit/blame where it's due. Feel free to go through my blogroll to the right and fail to find it yourself. There's plenty of really interesting stuff in there. Or at least I think so.

Your Score: the Comic

(42% dark, 38% spontaneous, 47% vulgar)

your humor style:
VULGAR | COMPLEX | LIGHT

Yours is the most versatile and also the most popular kind of humor. You'll crack a joke about just about anything, but you're not mean-spirited or intimidating, so you can get away with it--even when, for example, you bust on Mexicans.

You appreciate a good dirty joke as much as next person, but, over all, you've got a brainier approach to humor than most. Now just go out there and write up a routine; it's likely you'd be good at it.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Dave Chappelle - Rodney Dangerfield

The 3-Variable Funny Test!
- it rules -

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

(edited to clean it up a little. I couldn't get it to fit in the area provided, though.)

Pot Luck

2008-05-20T22:59:00.008-04:00

I have an irrational dislike of pot lucks. I have unpleasant memories of digging into what appeared to be perfectly innocuous dishes only to discover that they were horrible and I had to eat them, lest the anonymous but present cook notice and be insulted.

When I have to cook for a pot luck, I usually cook too much. I panic if I have less than a huge pot of food, just in case - what, I'm not sure.

I've solved my pot luck dilemma by distracting myself with a challenging task: cook vegan. (My sweetheart just piped up, "Not an actual vegan, you understand. Just something that they'd actually eat." He has the sense of humor I lack. Sorry.)

So, I found this great website: http://www.vegan-food.net/. I pick a recipe, substitute a couple of things because I'm on the other side of sensible, and take it with me, terrified that there won't be enough.

So I ended up modifying a recipe from that site. Warning: this has a lot more smell to it than it does flavor.

Approximately 2 Tablespoons olive oil
Approximately 2 chopped onions
Approximately 1/2 chopped dried ancho pepper (Not enough. This was a substitute for 1/2 teaspoon cayenne. I should've thrown in the whole pepper)
Approximately 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder (This was supposed to be two tablespoons but I didn't have that much. I'd encourage you to add more)
1 can chickpeas

Saute the onions in the oil until golden. Add the pepper and dried mustard. I didn't add enough. At this point, I threw it in the fridge overnight. The next day, I put the sauteed onion mixture together with the rinsed and drained can of chickpeas, added 4 cups of water and simmered for an hour. It was fine. Next time I'll throw in more seasonings and see if I can manage to have any vegetable broth on hand.

Oh, yeah, the recipe called for cilantro. I can't stand cilantro. If I had any parsley on hand, I would've thrown some in.

It was a little watery, but good.

Murderers and Secret Pal 12

2008-05-16T23:20:00.004-04:00

First I want to ask you to help a friend of mine, who's a mystery author. This week she was the featured blogger on her publisher's site and she did something a little different from what they wanted her to do. You know, marketing departments want you to push your books. She wanted to muse about murderers. As you may know, comments are king in the blogging world, and she needs all she can get. So if you find the topic interesting, please go put in your two cents worth!

Secondly, Secret Pal 12 has opened for sign ups! They're doing things a little differently this time. I hope it works better for them. If I read the blog correctly, sign ups close on May 30, and I think they're limiting participants to 300.

If you're still reading, let me tell you how I've recently wasted a lot of time - go to You Tube and search on Derren Brown. Watch as many as you can in any order that strikes your fancy. He's addictive.

Bizarrely Addictive

2008-04-28T22:42:00.002-04:00

Too Many of Me

2008-04-20T10:24:00.004-04:00

I think this is an understatement:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
512
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

The town I live in has two of us as it is!

But if you add an 'e' to the end of my first name (which is how I started getting someone else's email and gained a friend in London, England), I get an additional group of people to add to my same name count.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
64
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

I still think there must be more of us.

Oh, and I've finally settled on a pattern for my Regia Silk socks. Now I just need to get off my duff and take some pictures...

Yes, I'm Alive and Knitting, Sort Of

2008-04-14T22:43:00.003-04:00

My health problem has been pretty much resolved. I'm not quite back to normal, but I'm feeling much, much better. I also managed to lose the 5 pounds I put on over the holiday season. Maybe a little more. I do not recommend being ill as a way to lose weight, even though it has been quite successful for me twice now.

The problem is, being ill is bad for my brain. Last week I discovered the back of a sweater that I think I had started to work on in the beginning of January. I had completely forgotten all about it. I had gotten to the armpits and just completely forgotten about it.

I've also caved and started another pair of socks. I can't seem to help myself - they're brainless knitting.

In other brainless knitting, I'm knitting a scarf. I'm going to have to give this one away. The yarn doesn't suit me and I didn't feel like coming up with anything special to do with it - I wanted some ultra-mindless knitting. It's been that kind of month.

I finished a pair of fingerless gloves as a gift, except I've got to weave the ends in on one of them. I keep telling myself it's too late to give them, but I know that's not true. My friend is going to have really cold hands in the air conditioning this summer. I need to just finish these up and give them to her. After I take pictures of them for you.

I've gotten rather distressed about my sweater. I'm talking about the one that started out as a skirt. I think I've decided that I'm going to sew the sleeves in with a sewing machine. I know how to set and sew sleeves with a machine. In any event, I'm still having a hard time with the sleeves.

Spring is here. Time to kill some perfectly innocent plants.

I'm alive, but not knitting much

2008-03-16T17:55:00.007-04:00

I thought maybe I ought to admit that I'm alive, just in case anybody actually reads my blog. I haven't been well lately, and I haven't felt much like knitting recently.

I am, in fact, almost done with a pair of patternless fingerless gloves made out of Schaefer Anne. In the past two weeks I have almost managed to pick up all the stitches for the thumb. I have also started and re-started a scarf several times now. But I haven't really touched that in about two weeks.

I have, however, been reading like a fiend. I have re-read both 1984 and American Gods. American Gods is available to read for free on-line. Of course I had to see how the on-line book thing works, so I started it and had to go get my paperback copy to finish it. It may be possible to convince me to read a book on-line in bed. Maybe. I am not reading a book on-line in the bathroom. No.

I am not feeling well. Although my doctor wanted me to come back and see him in three weeks after giving me some free pills (whoopee - he really expected that to excite me to no end) but when I called and asked if I should be concerned about a fever he decided that the free pills might not be the perfect thing for me after all and referred me to a specialist. If I'm comfortable by next week-end, I'll knit on Thursday.

There you have it. Free pills = fear that my doctor is a drug-company pusher. Free book = sucker. You know what? I think that's how it ought to be.

When did this happen?

2008-02-24T21:44:00.006-05:00

Go Here.

Don't Miss This Part:

"Consistent with The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, we will adjust our mailing services prices each May. By law, these prices can increase on average no more than the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. We plan to provide 90 days' notice of the new prices each year, to help mailers prepare for the change."

I do a mailing every month. We purchase pre-printed stamped envelopes from the USPS because it is an incredible pain to stamp envelopes and when they pre-print them, the price is actually pretty competitive. But whenever their prices change, I end up having to stick extra postage on all the pre-printed envelopes.

And you can't get "forever" pre-printed envelopes.

GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

A Gift and Finished Objects!

2008-02-13T20:31:00.009-05:00

I came home one day last week and my sweetheart asked if I wanted an early birthday present. Ok, my photo is a little fuzzy. It's a Cue Cat. It makes Library Thing much easier to use. I love it! Thank you, Sweetie!

He also got a quick-release post so we could use our cameras with our new tripod. Well, new to us. I took him to a Goodwill store and we found a really high-end used tripod for $2. I think the post cost him $10. He's been in America for over twenty years and this is the first time he'd been to a Goodwill store!

Meanwhile, I did finish two things. One was a pair of socks. These are really simple Knit 2 Purl 2 socks. I needed almost mindless sock knitting after my last two lace pairs. I also finished another clapotis. I have only made two of these in the full size and a bunch of little ones. I made this one from a ball of (I have to go to Ravelry to look it up, hang on...) Stacey Charles Ritratto dye lot 0010. 28% Mohair, 53% Viscose, 10% Polyamid, 9% polyester. I would not recommend to anyone making a clapotis with mohair, but it worked out ok in this case. There's only one way I can think of to describe this: warm fuzzy bling!

Finally, I seem to have disabled the blogger spell check. It just doesn't seem to work for me. Unless, hmm, lemmetrymisspellingsomething. Nope. Nothing happens. I have to copy my post into a word processor to spell check it. Hmm. I wonder what I did. OH LOOK! It's a known bug! I cause those all the time at work. Hey, at least I searched help before whining!

I Won't Knit Socks This Cheap....

2008-02-09T11:19:00.000-05:00

Occasionally someone sees me knitting socks and suggests that I could make some money doing this on the side. Of course, nobody would pay me a "living wage" for a pair of hand knit socks.

But this site charges less than half of what I would, if I were going to go into business knitting custom socks!

Unplanned Post

2008-02-03T22:16:00.000-05:00

Well, I hadn't planned to do this. But why not? I'm not spending much time playing with this, but I'm playing with a WordPress blog here, and the content is the emails my sweetheart sends me entitled "today's news." He sends me a list of links with comments. Some are in-jokes or make more sense if you're a little familiar with Endland. Most of the links are to the BBC.

I've also been playing around with aggregators. Specifically, Protopage. I've made it a part of my desktop. Very interesting. What I like the best so far is that I can preview email on the page. So I have a gmail address with only one thing subscribed - State of Connecticut road accidents. This is working very well for me at the moment. We'll see how long I bother with it.

In knitting, I've decided that I must make Bloody Stupid Johnson. Just not right now.

A Thank You Is In Order

2008-01-23T20:59:00.001-05:00

First of all, thank you for all the kind words about the loss of my sweet cat. She got so sick so quickly that I'm still sort of taking it all in.

And last week I was a complete basket case. I realized how bad it was when I had a discussion with a co-worker in which I said I'd check on something and when someone else came to me to check the same thing the very next day, I suddenly realized that I had completely forgotten about it within five minutes of the original conversation. However, I'm happy to be able to report that I do not appear to have done anything stupid to the database. This is consistent with my skill-set. Wake me up at 4:00 a.m. with a nasty technical problem and I'm fine. Ask me to leave a coherent voicemail to tell people that something went wrong ... I find that extraordinarily difficult.

So you can imagine my confusion when I got a package from someone in Utah early in the week. "I don't remember ordering anything," I said to my sweetheart in a bewildered tone.

"Is that from your Secret Pal?" He remembered that I still hadn't found out who my Secret Pal was this round.

This pal had a special touch. She had sent me a couple of cheerful e-cards just to say hi and when she did they were really welcome. I had needed to be cheered up just when she'd sent them. Something had happened so she had been unable to complete the swap by the designated end, and I'd sent her an email to let her know that I hadn't asked for a savior. She hadn't abandoned me - she had even already sent me a package. Life had just intervened, and with her timing, I figured she'd contact me when I really needed a hug.

Wow. Talk about timing.

My amazing pal was Valerie. Above you see that she sent me some Hoops & YoYo post-it notes, a fragile little giraffe, some SweeTarts, a ladybug wind chime, a magnetic list pad, cinnamon whipped honey and vanilla whipped honey from Cox Honeyland of Utah, and a nice big skein of Rumplestiltskin Happy Feet Sock Yarn in exactly the perfect colors! Everything in this package actually has some sort of connection to something meaningful in my life or is just something I really like.

Thank you, Valerie. Thank you very much.

Goodbye Sweet Kitty

2008-01-20T09:36:00.000-05:00

When I was 23 and taking care of my dying grandmother and coming apart at the seams, a friend of mine pretty much tricked me into adopting a kitten. My ex-husband suggested we name her Edelweiss, since that's a famous German flower and my grandmother came from Germany. I was all for it, since I seem to lack the ability to name animals. Less than five months later, my grandmother had died and my husband had left and I was all alone with Edelweiss. For a while there, it felt like she was my only friend

And now, fifteen years later, she's gone.

Since I got my digital camera, most of the photos I'd taken of her were of her sleeping on my bed. I tend to throw stuff on the bed during the day to take care of before the end of the day. I'd often find her taking something over. But with all the stuff in this picture, you can see she preferred my knitting!

The needles didn't seem to bother her! She had odd sleeping habits. I would often come home to find her snoring loudly with her head in one of my sweetheart's shoes.

Ok, I'll admit I was rather miffed the night she vomited in a pair of his slippers as well as one of my high-heeled shoes. Miffed - but it was so outrageous that I'm still laughing about it.

At one point, I thought I had developed a method of reading a book and knitting at the same time. I put the book in a clear plastic bag and that held the book open. There were only two problems. The first was that it took a long time to turn a page. This was the second problem:

Most of her life, I didn't knit. But once I took it up again, I discovered there were times I had to have more than one project on the needles at a time.

She had expensive taste in yarn. That was the one skein of Ultramerino I got from my first Secret Pal.

I tried to make a nice, soft bed for her once. A pillow had come apart in the wash, so I got a good-sized box and put the stuffing down on the bottom for her to curl up on top of. She checked the box out and went somewhere else to sleep. Then it started to get really cold outside and I had the house set a few degrees cooler at night and I thought maybe this would make good insulation. My efforts weren't very pretty, but she approved.

Goodbye, sweet Edelweiss. We miss you.

The Tofutsie Sock

2008-01-06T16:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've got pictures, finally.

This is my Tofutsies sock. Oh, don't worry - I have a pair. I always make two at once on a long circular needle. I've even knit them together once or twice.

Here's a close-up of the top. I've twisted it a little so you can see the whole thing. It's a pattern from one of my Japanese stitch dictionaries.

I started this pair of socks five whole times. The first time, the pattern I used was much too slouchy and obviously wasn't going to stay up. I had turned the heel. I ripped and the re-winding was horrible, because I decided to split the skein into two skeins by weight, and one of my piles fell over. I spent a whole week untangling the mess I'd made. Then I tried again, with a cabled pattern that was so tight I couldn't get it over my heel.

I don't even remember what I did next. Eventually, I realized that top down wasn't going to work for me, so I worked toe-up. When I got to the very end, I dug through my books for a sewn cast-off that would work. The one I eventually settled on was called the tubular bind off and basically is sewn like a kitchner stitch, but you don't need to split your stitches on two needles first.

This sock fits me like a glove. One more stitch and it would be too loose. One less stitch and it would be too tight.

I hope they don't shrink in the wash.

I have another ball of this yarn in a black-and-white colorway. I'm considering making something other than socks from it. Perhaps fingerless gloves? I really haven't decided.

In any event, I'm now making a pair of socks with a nice, boring, knit 3 purl 3 allover rib. I needed something really simple after the Tofutsies socks.

A Funny

2008-01-01T22:43:00.001-05:00

The first video is one of the Sony Bravia ads. If you haven't seen it, you need to in order to understand the spoof after it.

When I first saw that, my first thought was that I hoped it was environmentally friendly paint. Research indicates that it was. Here's the spoof. The last couple seconds of it are absolutely priceless.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T15:03:00.000-05:00

Neil Gaiman is wonderful with words, and I'd like to share his New Year's wish with you, since I couldn't possibly say it half as well myself.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2007/12/as-i-was-saying.html

I found an old photo of my sweater. I've just cast off the collar and need to cast on the button bands. I might actually wear this thing this winter. Woo-Hoo!

I am in awe of The Harlot's argyle socks. I have no intention of doing that this year. Argyles don't interest me. But...boy is that neat.

And if you have any idea who my Secret Santa was, please pass on this blog post. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I purchased two things that I would not have without that gift card. The first, which cost much less than the amount on the card, was this wonderful collection: The Roald Dahl Omnibus. Then I used the last of the card along with plenty of my own money to buy this: The Absolute Sandman Volume 2. Did I mention that I'm a Neil Gaiman fan? I don't have Volume 1 yet. I'm unlikely to wait to get it as a gift.

Have a wonderful 2008.

Another Clapotis on the Needles

2007-12-28T23:55:00.000-05:00

I'm on the foot of another pair of socks, and I've given up and started another Clapotis. I have yarn that doesn't want to be anything else. It's quite irritating, actually. I'll swatch a yarn or knit something with it and not quite have the right amount of yarn and I'll throw up my hands and realize that the yarn just wants to be a Clapotis. Good grief. What did yarn do with itself before the Clapotis?

In other news, sometimes you juts gotta say HUH???? Case in point. If I say the name AOL to you, do you not immediately wonder how many "install AOL now with this free CD!" offers you received in the mail over the years? You do know that the software AOL uses includes an embedded version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer software, right? So, I wonder, is it just slightly possible that AOL might have been able to avoid this? Perhaps they could've shipped their own browser? Maybe?

And finally, the article I'm about to link to is not funny. But I dare you to read this headline and not snicker. I do hope everybody's ok.

This May Be a Bit Heavy

2007-12-22T17:54:00.001-05:00

I generally avoid saying anything on this blog about politics or religion. I would argue that both topics are difficult to do well, which is why there is so much spittle in the public conversation surrounding both.

But occasionally I get fooled into thinking perhaps, if I could invite a few people into my world, I might find that there are more people like myself than I realize.

Warning: If you get what I'm getting at, you will always be able to find an uncomfortable place in yourself after this. This looks like a religious question, but it's also about the famous "Human Condition" and the relationship between the self and the other. I'm not proud of the number of years it took me to figure this out for myself nor of the fact that I still catch myself behaving exactly the opposite of what I believe is right.

What is the difference between Righteousness and Self-Righteousness?

(Edited 1/1/08. Video had been removed, so I removed the link to it, since it was really ugly and cutting into my sidebar.)

Whine, Whine, Whine

2007-12-19T22:17:00.000-05:00

What a bizarre week. And it's not even over yet.

First, a very nice co-worker gave me a magnetized pad of paper. She put it on my laptop, which decided to forget how to boot immediately after.

I was able to switch my hard drives into another laptop chassis and I'm doing fine now. I was very fortunate that the magnet didn't affect my hard drive. One of our care managers accidentally erased his hard drive with a pacemaker testing device earlier this year. "Operating System Not Found" is not an error message I have reported to me very often. I was very happy that it didn't happen to me.

But the funniest/most irritating thing that happened all week was my cookies got stolen. I brought them in to share at our annual buffet, and the leftovers, which were about half the cookies I brought, left the building with a member of our cleaning crew.

I made more cookies tonight. Tomorrow I'll save half of them for a cookie swap and let everyone else enjoy them.

Still, I'm having trouble making up my mind, am I angry or have I just received a really big compliment? Those cookies were not the only food left in the kitchen. They weren't even the only cookies there.

Actually, I can't help laughing a bit. They were oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I wonder if he'll eat too many at once. Prevent colon cancer - steal these cookies!

Really great news - I got a Barnes and Noble gift certificate from my Secret Santa. It turns out you can use a gift certificate to pay for anything on the B&N site - including used books for sale from third-parties. That was why I wanted a gift certificate - I can get more books for my buck if I buy used, but nobody's comfortable giving used books. So this was perfect. Happy me!

Knitting news is sparse. I owe this blog a picture of a pair of finished socks; I figured out that I was sewing up my sweater in the wrong order; and I'm in the middle of yet another pair of socks.

'till next time....

I Suppose I Should Admit I'm Alive

2007-12-15T12:22:00.000-05:00

Actually, I'm alive and doing quite ok. I just have no pictures and my knitting has become very back-burner.

I just read Hamlet for class. Now perhaps I'll understand my ex-husband's beloved movie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I find myself compelled to find out.

Then there's the desire to read more of the author I just heard a reading from last night, Miguel Piñero.

I don't think I mentioned that I found the rest of the sweater that I blocked. The story is that I had started a skirt a couple of years ago, and decided, at the point when I attempted to give it a waistband, that it was both too bulky and too revealing. In short, it was a bologna-casing and greatly enhanced curves I didn't realize I had. I ripped it and knit the yarn into a sweater, blocked half the pieces, put them in a safe place and blocked the rest of the pieces. I was then stuck, because I had mis-placed the first half of the sweater. But I've found the pieces and I've got both side-seams and one shoulder-seam done.

Now I have to go do secret-santa and potluck shopping. We expect to be snowed in tomorrow. Maybe I'll take some pictures and brag about my Tofutsies socks then. After five false starts, the socks came out beautifully. I haven't had so much trouble with a pair of socks since my first pair. Non-wool socks are less forgiving of gauge approximations.

Fuzzy Sock Pictures

2007-11-20T10:44:00.000-05:00

I can never seem to get a good picture of these socks.
These are the sock savior socks I knit for Sockapalooza.
We're going to ship them from the country to which they're going - England!
But I decided it would not be a good idea to ring a stranger's doorbell and say, "Hi! I made you some socks!"
I'm just a wee bit too shy for that.

Ok, This is Cool

2007-11-08T22:43:00.000-05:00

The shortcuts on this site are really cool.

But I will not be turbo parking. I'm too cheap to pay for the tires.

Sucker for Kitties

2007-10-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

I found a blog post (which I've now lost) where someone posted her results for this internet meme test. I immediately gave in to the kitties and took the test myself.

Your Score: Lion Warning Cat

62% Affectionate, 54% Excitable, 37% Hungry

You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.

To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Yeah, Me Too

2007-10-19T22:34:00.001-04:00

If you have not been keeping up with Cute Overload, then you have missed the world's best music video.

My sockapalooza savior socks have suffered a nasty setback - I noticed a very bad error a whole pattern repeat ago. Somehow, I managed to truncate a half of a pattern repeat, so it suddenly looked really, really strange. I had to rip out about an inch and a half. Grrrr.

That's My Sock!

2007-10-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

I am STAR STRUCK!!!!

If you are on Ravelry (or if you're reading this after Ravelry has come out of beta), go to my favorites. (My ID is procrastinatus.) There is a photo of one of these socks in the hands of the Yarn Harlot herself, along with the wonderful pal who knit them for me.

And I've joined the Ravelry group "Knitters for Neil." I'm a wee bit addicted to his stuff.

Oh, and about the well pump. I ended up having the plumber come out anyhow when it looked like the pump wasn't holding a prime (there could've been something stuck in one of the jets, but I was afraid of a leak in the foot valve). The plumber had the ability to do a pressure test for me, which made the whole thing worth it in my book, since he was able to put the pump back together and reassure me that I don't absolutely need to dig up my well just yet.