martinimade

actual knitting content: more mitten fail

First, the good news. These mittens* are a real pair, that is there is a left mitten and a right mitten. Wonders will, in fact, never cease.

The bad news: the ribbing effect is completely unintentional (and annoying) because I can't seem to get my tension right when doing stranded knitting on double-pointed needles. Le sigh.

 

Unlike the last pair of mittens, which are still on the shelf of shame, these will be worn by me all winter because they are warm. I will do my best to ignore my failings and encourage you to do the same, should you see me wearing them. 

One day, I'll get it right. But that day is not today.

* Details: Double-Thick Mittens designed by Adrian Bizilia from Clara Parkes' Knitters Book of Yarn. I used leftover Shetland Spindrift in "Purple" (2 skeins) and "Yellow Ochre" (1 skein) from my Mary Tudor. 

qotd, gaiman again.

From Neil Gaiman's journal:

It looks like the CBS Sunday Morning profile on me is going out this Sunday, the 8th, 9:00-10:30 AM, ET. According to this website:

Correspondent Serena Altschul visits author Neil Gaiman -- the tender-hearted master of the macabre -- whose books, including Coraline and The Graveyard Book have topped best-seller lists for 25 years.

.. which left me wanting to go "I am NOT a tender-hearted master of the macabre, I am in fact VERY SCARY INDEED," but I suspect I would convince nobody.

on giving oneself permission to do nothing

I'll endeavor to keep the grousing to a minimum. However, I need to put the grouses somewhere to expunge them from my mind. Skip at will.

Grouse 1: I had to pick the Boy up from preschool yesterday afternoon because he had a mild fever and a headache. By bedtime, he was mostly OK, like 80 percent of himself without any Motrin in him. This morning he seemed perfectly fine, so we sent him to school, completely unaware that they have a 24-hour fever exclusion policy. Which makes sense, really, but threw a wrench into works. He's currently on the couch watching Diego and eating an apple. 

Grouse 2: While I don't have much of anything that absolutely has to be done today -- the last few weeks have been deadline-apaloza -- I really really really should be working on a book proposal. I seem to be unable to let myself take this day to do nothing more engaging that flopping on the couch to read the rest of A Thousand Acres (so good) while the Boy recuperates. 

Grouse 3: If I were sensible, I would realize that sometimes a break is what one needs, especially since I'm not feeling stellar myself nor is the proposal. But, my monkey brain say that I must work. Oh, monkey brain. I appreciate you but wish you would just STFU sometimes.

Grouse 4: I knitted another pair of FAIL mittens. A minor fail, granted, but, still, FAIL. Pixs soonish, once they are done drying. (um, the mittens are done drying, not the pixs.)

Grouse 5: I'm not certain there is a grouse 5. So that's something, yes?

Feel free to list your grouses (grousi? grouseaux?) on the comments. Maybe we can collectively purge them that way.

many things make a post

* Oh for fuck's sake.

 * Rules for my unborn son. The Boy, who has been born, needs to pay particular attention to #388.

* I miss "On the Road With Charles Kuralt."

* This Vanity Fair piece by Nell Scovell about female comedy writers just breaks my heart. It's almost 2010 and we still can't get past this. 

* This photo story about the history of birth control arrives too late for Halloween but will still scare the heck out of you. As much as I might gripe about living when I do, I wouldn't trade modern conveniences like reliable and safe birth control for much of anything in the past.

* Just when you thought the story had run out of leg: Another foot found on the B.C. coastline.

* Another use for cheese.

* The Diva is on a pomegranate kick, which makes this tutorial on how to juice one even more handy than expected.

* There are things one can't unsee. You have been warned that this site, which is full of really creepy photos of child beauty queens, is one of them. 

* I need the tissue pillow.

* How liberal sarcasm challenges the elite. Between this and the thing with the 33 CT Republicans (read the story to feel the full outrage) makes me want to hop up and down while yelling at them to just shut up already. I know that adults shouldn't do this. And, yet, here I am.

the 'ween that was

And, so, on Saturday, a Red Riding Hood and a wee bee wandered through the neighborhood begging for candy.

 

The rain made it more of a damp trial than one might hope. But the kids had fun, which is the important part. Oh - and this might be the last year for the bee costume, which Maddy wore when she was a toddler. As Scott pointed out - the bee hat has now become a bee yarmulka on the Boy's head. 

One of the benefits to a spouse who works in a theater is the prop room. This year, he borrowed some gravestones that had been handcrafted by undergrads for some purpose I am no longer clear on. So we did the front porch up right scary.

 

 

Cory, of course, borrowed my camera.

 

Scary.

Oh - and I offer these two images as proof that McGregor is fitting right in.

 

Those orange things are his feet. And please ignore the blankie and the thumb. She might give them up in college. I am Letting This Go.

In the "it's always something" department, the muffler fell off of the car as I was driving it to work this morning. Yes, I did circle back around to get it out of the road. No, I don't think it can simply be re-attached since it is full of rust. We are now reaching the point with this car where we are doing the cost of fixing something every few months v. cost of a new-to-us vehicle. Woo.

qotd, money, honey.

"...if I have learned anything about money in my thirty-seven years of living, it is to ignore it. It just scares you. It's like, what if you had to add up all the meals you would need to eat to keep yourself alive for the next forty years? What if you had to sit and calculate all those sandwiches and potatoes and all those pounds of broccoli an all the trips to the store to buy all that stuff and all the time it would take to cook it? Well, you'd be too exhausted to eat. You'd be too worried about how in the world you were going to accumulate nineteen thousands pounds of chicken.

Same way with worry, in general. You take it one meal at a time, and you put your faith in digestion."

-- Jeanne Marie Laskas, Fifty Acres and a Poodle

he's being stealthy

So here I am, diligently beavering away on writing stuff -- yes, that is the technical term -- when I look up and see this from my second-story office window:

 

That would be Barney.

 

He doesn't seem to want in. Just wants to sniff the roof for birdies and bats. Or a squirrel. A squirrel would be lovely.

And then he was off again.

 

This could very well be the most excitement I have today.

shameless self-promotion, 323 in a series

From Upstate Life, the quarterly magazine published by the almost daily: Fall is a great time to get on a horse.

 Also, and unrelated, a Canadian friend of mine once lambasted me for the fact that Fox News is the most watched news network in the US. I didn't have a great response for her. Scalzi does, tho. I defer to him.