Wednesday, November 19, 2008
QOTW - 2008/11/19
Whoops! I didn’t have time to do this on Monday, and kept meaning to get to it yesterday but kept getting sidetracked. So… the tardy Question of the Week is…
Monday, November 17, 2008
Who’d like to scoop cat poop for beer, cookies, and/or yarn?
Tim and I are going away for a few days next week and we could use some help kitty-sitting. Neither Bridgett and Corwin (the dogs) or Chili (the evil cat) will be here. Duties would include feeding the remaining four cats, making sure the water bowls are full, poking Rembrandt to make sure she’s still with us, scritching Brindle and Buddha on the head, making sure Tavi knows you’re ignoring her, and (:shudder:) cleaning some cat boxes. Prizes will include yarn (if you’re a knitter) and cookies or beer (if you’re not a knitter) (or both yarn and cookies, if you’re a knitter with a sweet tooth). And access to our cable TV and beer fridge! And our undying thanks! The kitties would love it if you could come by every other day-- on Monday 11/24, Wednesday 11/26, and Friday 11/28. (We also have the house booby-trapped to explode so if you think you’re coming in to rob us while we’re gone, think again! Nine out of ten windows are rigged to shoot you in the face… are you feeling lucky? Punk?)
Anyway. Give me a shout if you’re interested in mostly thankless poop-scoooping loving kitties showering you with attention! We would be grateful!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Awesome! Let’s all get drunk and have sex with sheepherders!
Your result for The Greek Mythology Personality Test...
Pan
67% Extroversion, 33% Intuition, 100% Emotiveness, 57% Perceptiveness

You are Pan. You’re an extremely creative and fun-loving individual. You have a predisposition to acting and performing, and you enjoy it. You’re very outgoing, and you are genuinely interested in other people. You probably have a pet parakeet, play an instrument, write poetry, tell jokes, love parties, have lots of friends, remember people, names and faces, paint, and have a righteous social conscious.
You’re very good natured, but can be naive and exploited by less good natured people. You’re mischevious, but in a usually harmless way. You don’t have much use for structure and routine, and your appetite for sensation and immediate gratification can cloud your judgement regarding the future consequences of your actions. You like to improvise more than you like to plan.
You look on the bright side of life. Even though you’re highly optimistic, you can be predisposed to bouts of angst when presented with negative possibilities or outcomes. In combating dire circumstances, you can become dismissive and resort to over-simplifications of the situation. Although most people love to be around you, the more analytical types (Atlas, The Oracle, Prometheus, and Hermes) will take issue with what they perceive to be your lack of foresight. The main drawback to this is that they will become rigid and stubborn in conflict, and you will take this personally, becoming stubborn and inflexible yourself.
Regardless, you have a capacity for connection with other people that is unheard of in the other personality types. Your main strenghts are your flexibility and artistic and sympathetic abilities.
Famous people like you: Franz Joseph Haydn, Dr. Suess, Bill Cosby, Sandra Bullock, Oscar Wilde
Similar Personality Types: Orpheus, Aphrodite, Dionysus
Stay clear of: Atlas, Hermes, Prometheus, The Oracle
Friday, November 14, 2008
More on my upcoming holiday knit-a-thon
I’ve narrowed the sock knitting down to the following three yarns -
The Christmas colors will be a simple stockinette sock; the brown will be Conwy (Ravelry link) and the Sunflower/Daisy yarn will be Faceted Rib Socks (Ravelry link).
However, I’m still on the fence about the sweater. I sort of, a little bit, most want to do a cozy boxy sweater in Yarn A; but I think my best chance for finishing it soon (possibly even on the trip) is if I go with a top-down raglan using Yarns B and C (all below).
Any thoughts...?
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A manly pair of knucks
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Sockotta
Needles: Size 4 DPNs
Pattern: Knucks (pattern link; Ravelry link)
Notes: Another Christmas present crossed off the list!
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Friday Photo
This was a birthday gift, but you can get your own!
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Aaaaa! I missed Quinn’s birthday!!!!
How did I do that?! How did I miss the birthday of THE ONLY PERSON WITH WHOM I WILL WILLINGLY TALK ON THE PHONE WITH FOR HOURS?! How did I not say, yesterday, happy birthday to one of the most fabulous, caring, generous, strong women I know? Help me out here, Interwebs-- wish Quinn a WONDERFUL birthday!!!!
Sweet Lime Waves & Piers
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Bamboo/Merino/Nylon in “Sweet Lime”
Needles: Size 2 DPNs
Pattern: Waves and Piers (Ravel it)
Notes: Done!
It’s like an episode of Wild Kingdom around here
We got Corwin a backpack, to see if toting it around on our walks would make her a little less pully, a little less interested in chasing squirrels on walks, and just maybe a little less spastic on the leash.
I think that she’s either had previous backpack experience, or used to be walked on a halter, because when I brought it out she immediately sat down and stayed sitting down while I futzed with the straps. She didn’t seem to mind wearing it at all, and it even slowed her down just a bit. We’ve had a couple of good walks with it on, now, and she does pull less. She still pulls… but it’s much less.
Also it amuses me to no end that there’s a mesh pocket into which I can put bags of poop, making her carry it. I must be twelve, because I can’t stop giggling over that.
In other pet news, all of the cats are fired-- a bird got in the house the other night, and scared the pants off of me by hiding in the bedroom. I had gone in to go to sleep, and in pulling the covers back noticed that the blanket had a number of random bird feathers on it. I figured that what with not seeing a bird, it was toast; I changed the bedcovers and as I was digging for my other quilt, I heard a rustle in the closet above my head. Imagine my surprise when a bird started flying around the bedroom! I believe it was a Carolina Wren because it was brown, with white stripes above the eyes. We put the cats away and opened the doors to the house and Tim managed to maneuver it out of the bedroom, down the hall, through the living room, and out the front door.
So.... how’s your week going?
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Oh, baby, that is some hot Chocolate!
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted in “Chocolate”
Needles: Size 7 circs
Pattern: From Sweater Wizard
Notes: From my notes on Ravelry: Pattern is from Sweater Wizard for a shop class on top-down raglans; then I modified that by decreasing just under the bust, and going with 3/4-length sleeves. Good call on that sleeve thing too because HOLEEEEE CRAP did this thing ever relax after blocking! (Why can’t I relax like that?!) The sleeves, which came to just past my elbow after knitting, now come about halfway down my palms, after blocking. I am in! love! with this sweater! It’s going to kill me to keep this on display for a year before wearing it! :eyes stash with plans to immediately make another:
Pixie Stix
Fiber: Uhm…
Colorway: Pixie Stix
Yardage/Weight: 122 y/77 g, 107 y/77 g, and 88 y/68 g
Roving From: Black Bunny Fibers Fiber Club
Xmas 2008 hat #11
Yarn: Plymouth Happy Feet
Needles: Size 6 circs
Pattern: Based on Cookie A’s “Monkey” sock pattern
Notes: Next time I say I want to make 12 hats over the course of the year, remind me not to do them all in November.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Eclipse
Fiber: Romney
Colorway: Eclipse
Yardage/Weight: 51 y/54 g and 53 y/61 g
Roving From: Spunky Eclectic Fiber of the Month Club (July 2008)
Xmas 2008 Hat #10
Yarn: Opal Mosaik
Needles: Size 4 circs
Pattern: Threw in some basket-weave to break up the tedium of the hat factory which I have become.
Notes: Next time I say I want to make 12 hats over the course of the year, remind me not to do them all in November.
QOTW - 2008/11/10
And the Question of the Week is…
Linkdump
Woman dressed as a cow gets a month in jail.
officers say, Allen smelled of alcohol and swore at them
Really? She was drunk? Shocking.
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Fun with souvenirs (this is totally something I would do...)
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Ask Cecil: How would the U.S. military fight a zombie army?
The living dead have no fear of fire, which makes it a great weapon. Zombies engulfed in flames will not only not put themselves out, they’ll continue to wander around, possibly setting other zombies alight. Electricity will paralyze zombies but usually not kill them outright unless it also sets them on fire and so isn’t advisable as a first line of defense. You might think that nuclear weapons would be a good possibility if a city were 100 percent infected, but the downside is that any surviving zombies will be not only shambling horrors but radioactive too.
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Speaking of zombies, how about this $2000 Dead Fred Zombie Chaser? On the other hand, the owners of Death House across the street are having a hard enough time renting out the place… this might scare off potential tenants.
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more animals
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Sunday, November 09, 2008
Thermograph
Fiber: Blue-Faced Leicester
Colorway: Thermograph
Yardage/Weight: 126 yards/109 grams
Roving From: Spunky Eclectic Fiber of the Month Club (August 2008)
Saturday, November 08, 2008
On knitting selfishly
Most of my knitting is done for others. I love to give handmade gifts, I love to knit, I’m always knitting, I always have someone I want to give something to. It’s really a perfect match. But sometimes I need to recharge and focus only on myself for a few days, kind of like taking oneself to the spa… knitting only for me as a treat to myself. A few times I have used our annual trip to South Bend at Thanksgiving as “knit for myself" time, and that seems to work really well. The thought of using that time for me was reinforced last year when I had three projects with me for other people and wound up having issues. So this year on our Thanksgiving trip I am going to (:gasp:) go back to being selfish and knit only for myself for (:gasp:) nine whole days.
And like any knitter, I have an over-inflated idea of what I can accomplish in those nine days. Now granted, four of the days are going to be spent in the car driving… making for a good 40-50 hours of knitting time right there (Tim always does the actual driving; I do the passengering).
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Thursday, November 06, 2008
Puppy play date
On Tuesday, Bridgett and Corwin and I met friends and dogs at the dog park-- Sharon with Monty and Schroeder, Becca with Bella and Wolfgang, Jen with Chloe, Connie and Jen with Zoe and Kaylee, Tessa with Ruby-Roo… there was much sniffing of butts, much peeing, and much, MUCH running around and having fun. IT WAS AWESOME! I almost didn’t bring Bridgett, but she seemed to be feeling a lot better (though she was moving slow towards the end of the fun) and Corwin was in hog’s heaven running and running and chasing and running and being chased. You’d think she would have been tired out after that, wouldn’t you...? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH not.
I can’t wait to do this again-- and neither can my pups.
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Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Pets in the HaldeCon house vote for more snuggles!
And it looks like that resolution passed… more snuggles, it is!





































