Fat Tuesday and What sets us apart from Other Mammals

My thumb is killing me but it will just have to suck it up and deal because apposable thumbs? Indispensable.

Your Hidden Talent

You have the power to persuade and influence others. You're the type of person who can turn a whole room around. The potential for great leadership is there, as long as you don't abuse it. Always remember, you have a lot more power over people than you might think!

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Ha. If I had it, I'd abuse it.(Shamelessly lifted from Lynne aka Yarnivorous)

Oh, and this is timely. (Also shamelessly lifted, this time from Dalai Mama.) It's the Monday the 27th post, about the fearsome Al-gebra movement.

More to come later, when I agonize online about what (if anything) I should give up for Lent. Desserts? I did that a couple of years ago and managed to lose about 15 pounds painlessly, but should I use Lent as a diet? It seems wrong. I could give up coffee, but I fear for people's lives. Also? Withdrawals. I admit it. I am a Coffee Junkie. I'm already working 24/7 10ish/7 and since I keep wanting to read, watch TV and knit, I seem to have given up sleeping, but since I'm snapping people's heads off, it seems shortsighted.

Argh.

Later. Must. Work. Well, I must, but when there are quizzes like this around, what's a girl to do?



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Other than cry when Wallace Shawn is my alter ego.

And edited to add the All Important Television Viewing Schedule tonight because nothing is more fun than Not Working because I know you depend on me:

8pm
CBS: NCIS. Maybe the new Director will die in a blaze of glory or during one of the horrible, horrible Paris flashbacks and we’ll find out that Lauren Holly was the tragic lost love of Mark Harmon’s life and he’s hallucinating her now. Whatever it takes to get her off my screen.

(PBS) Nova: Artic Passage Two expeditions, one tragic, one triumphant, to pioneer a passage through the Northwest Passage. I love watching expeditions from the comfort of my comfy, warm bed.

History Channel: Risk Takers/History Makers. John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) explores the Colorado River and Grand Canyon for 3 months in 1869. With him are three other people I’ve never heard of (but probably should have). Can you imagine the Grand Canyon over one hundred years ago? It must have been fabulous.

9pm
Scrubs! (NBC)
No House :(

10pm
Boston Legal. I like this show every time I watch it (I miss Keen Eddie) but do I watch it all that often? No.

If you're up at 11 (which, please, I won't be), watch The Daily Show. It's on at 8pm too, but I never, ever catch it then. Why couldn't "They" have left it at 7pm? Why?

Cheese. That's an idea, Peeve.

The Dream, The Glory, The knitting!

The Dream
by Aleksandr Pushkin

Not long ago, in a charming dream,
I saw myself -- a king with crown's treasure;
I was in love with you, it seemed,
And heart was beating with a pleasure.
I sang my passion's song by your enchanting knees.
Why, dreams, you didn't prolong my happiness forever?
But gods deprived me not of whole their favor:
I only lost the kingdom of my dreams.

And the Olympic Knitting Event comes to a close. Wow, you guys that participated have done some amazing work! Congratulations to everyone who participated. Now I can stop feeling like such an unchallenged slacker. It's been awe inspiring looking at your WIPs.

Stitchmarkers! Jennifer of Craftylily made me these for my Adamas Shawl. And yes, I did pose them in many, many settings. Trust me, there are more pictures.









This is the turquoise scarf so far........and, incidentally, more stitchmarkers from Jennifer. It's a kind of polka dot pattern from one of the Harmony Stitch Pattern books. What? It's totally not a new project. It's uh......something else.




Was that great about Drew and Cheryl winning Dancing With the Stars or what? (Quit muttering "or what." I can hear you, you know.) I loved that Jerry Rice placed second. Go Jerry!

Final episode of Bleak House on PBS last night. I had to breakdown and buy the DVD today.

Tonight The Apprentice returns! Too bad The Donald is being such a twit about Martha's Apprentice show. I liked her show better, which is probably why they cancelled it. The tasks were more geared towards actual work they might do.

Medium w/Patricia Arquette at 10pm on NBC. It's not just her cute husband and the detective that's saddled with her that makes this show so good. The family interaction is so.......family. Psychic, but family.

Save a Printer. Blog.

Really, it's the program I want to heave out the window, but the printer is easier. Who programs something that you can't collate? Automatically? After a fruitless, frustrating, curse filled hour (and incidentally, being directly responsible for the death of a forest), I finally stopped trying to collate it myself and printed it out. One. By. One. Over the years I've gotten so that I can tell someone over the phone on how to assemble an individual return because more people than I would have believed possible, go home, take out the staple and then apparently start flinging the papers about in either wild abandon or rage. Maybe both. But these forms? Argh.

Anyway. Thankfully the Olympics are over tomorrow because I am a) jealous of the amazing work done in an incredibly short period of time b) bored because you all are knitting and not blogging and amusing me (while I'm supposed to be working, but still) and c) uhhhh, that covers it.

What else is going on tomorrow? I get my stitchmarkers! Dancing With the Stars finale is at 8pm! I'm going to start the Adamas Shawl! Finish The Vest! Work! Join Exclamation Mark Over Usage Anonymous!


I finally figured out how to get a copy of this. Save As. Did I ever claim to be technologically competent? I did? I was lying. Someday I'm going to make it through their password system and get the T-Shirt. I'm not sure where I'll wear it, I don't actually tell people I've got a blog. My best friend pried it out of me and it's not like I don't tell her everything anyway, or post anything all that interesting.

Case in point. We're going out for dinner in.....about an hour. So what did I just do? Ate a vanilla yogurt w/wheat germ. Not that I was hungry. Not that the yogurt was the good-for-you non fat kind (it wasn't. It's Brown Cow's Cream Top Vanilla and it. is. yummy.) Did you know that a serving of wheat germ is two tablespoons? I, uh, sort of poured half a cup in it. I like wheat germ.

See? What could be less interesting?

Yarn related: I bought some Elsebeth Lavold (or however she actually spells her name) Silky Wool and Silky Tweed yarn to make a twinset from a 1997 Knitter's Magazine I suddenly came to realize I couldn't live without. (The yarn. I plan on being finished with it sometime in the 2000's. Any year that starts with a 2 sounds doable.) The jacket is going to be orange (because I was jonesing for orange yesterday) and the shell'll be a dark brown w/orange flecks. When the Silk Tweed yarn gets delivered, I'll show pix of the lot.

This was the tense scene in the garage yesterday morning. Huh. There is actually a black cat standing nonchalantly in the doorway, just happening to be passing through the neighborhood, checking out.....something........ right outside the door...... (you might have to click on the pic. Apparently a black cat doesn't show up well against a black sky at 6am. Never mind. You can't see him even if you do click on it.) [picture deleted]


What? Could there be Science Diet food that a certain picky gray cat has scorned? Or really, more to the point, just how long has that laundry been sitting there?











Due to the aforementioned gray cat having, literally, a hissy fit, while sitting calmly in my lap, I didn't get a pic of him taste-testing her food for her either. All of it. It's a difficult process.

Here's a shot of an eensy part of my ongoing project pile and the oversized knitting and quilting "booksheves". The jeweled purse hiding in the corner my mother made in the 60's. I'd carry it around but the handle is some weird hard, hard iron form of plastic. Currently it's holding my regular knitting needles.















My cursed Norwegian socks are probably going to get ripped back to the beginning of the heel. Somehow I got off pattern (which I could live with) but the gaping instep hole will do me in. But as Lyssa says, "Finishing is for quitters. UFO's are forever."

Jennifer has my stitchmarkers for the Adamas Shawl ready! Due to hideous work conditions, I can't get them until Sunday, but I can't wait.

Anyone catch Drew & Cheryl's inspired freestyle to "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" on Dancing With the Stars last night? They should win. They were great. It was two hours! I'm so mad because I taped the normal hour and a half so I don't have them on tape. Grrrrrr. Season finale Sunday at 8pm.

Best Buy has a two for one sale on seasons of Stargate SG1, FYI. *IAC. I do, but then I have a love affair w/TV right now. And it's on tonight. (Time/space/dimension warping! My fave thing, next to Alternative Universes.) Along with Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. I'll be at a crab feeding stuffing my face.

That book meme is great. I love all the comments and reviews on it. Also? Seeing everyone's shelves. I did have tasteful bookcases in the living room, but they gradually moved to the wall in my room. If there's an earthquake in the night, I'm going to go out the best way possible. By book.

*If Anyone Cares

Book Meme! Awesome.

Lifted from *Chris:

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and (place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of).

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
{Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell}
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway - Hated it.
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - Never actually finished it.
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert

I used to keep my TBR books on their own little section but since it threatened to take over the world, they got slotted into their respective categories, since I tend to read categorically anyway. Or whatever is available/portable/too hard to put down.

No knitting news, other than my stitchmarkers are ready! I'm so excited. Adamas Shawl, here I come. After I finish The Vest. All these FO's are mocking it and I can't have that.

*Who also told me what to google for to learn underlining and strikethroughs. Too cool!

In Truly Important News:

I found my ruler!!! Thankfully. It tried to hide from me under the calculator (successfully for a week) but I found it! At last. I've been using some floppy bogus ruler.

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way, I
doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

That would be Hezekiah telling me "Talk to the Tail". Or contemplating the road not taken. Me? I should have taken the other road. Idjit. Really, hindsight doesn't even enter into it. Common sense alone should have forewarned me. But alas.

But lookie! Multiple finished socks (hey, two is a multiple) posing on various chairs in the house.











Look at how darn close I am to finishing those darned Norwegian socks! Actually I thought I'd already knit the heel flap and after staring at it somewhat dumbfoundedly when it wasn't there, I remembered that I'd gotten about 3 checks into it before completely losing track of the whole 3 stitch two color, 3 rows sequence thing and ripped it all back. Honestly. Three is a very hard number to keep track of. Evidently.

Fixing Wool-Ease yarn sucks. The yarn squeaks, for Pete's sake. The white is nicer than the green for some reason but I wouldn't throw it out (unlike the crappy "chenille" yarn I picked up for .50 a skein) but it's not wool. I love wool. I need to move out of the Bay Area. Even with snow (see the pic? Look close! That's not just fluffy clouds....) it's still around 40 degrees when it is C-O-L-D.





Now that I've finished (almost) two pairs of socks, one immeasurably old, I'm in a frenzy to cast on a new project. I'm eyeing a twinset from Knitters Spring '97 (because I'm hotter than blazes in this ofice and my office mates aren't) and the bobble berry cloches from Knitter's Summer '03. What's a wool hat with bobbles doing in a Summer issue?

No, no, the question is not why am I thinking of making something so.....ah, whimsical. It's the Summer/Winter conundrum.

The reading in church Sunday was from Isaiah "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" If that's not a sign for me to start a new project, I don't know what is. (Hmm. It might be a sign that I've taken up Bible cracking (evidently you pick up the Bible with a question and wherever you open it to, there's your answer, a practice that sounds specious at best and dangerous at worst. What if it's Leviticus? Have you read Leviticus? They would be hauled off en masse by PETA and hanged and good for PETA, I say. All that horrifying animal sacrifice.)

House was on LAST night. LAST Night. Monday. I am so mad. I didn't even get home until 9pm much less tape it. Stupid American Idol. Season Finale of Dancing With the Stars Thursday! (To be followed by a no doubt, 2 hr show on Sunday). Battlefield Britain is the fight between William of Orange and James II for the throne Thursday night at 10pm. Tonight on Nova (PBS) at 8pm are new scientific theories of evolution and the 10 o'clock show looked good too, but darned if I can remember what it is.

My voice is almost gone but I feel great. Now I get all sorts of sympathy. Oh well, now I can appreciate it.

I will be so glad when the Knitting Olympics are over! It's so quiet out there!

EDITED TO ADD: Just once. Once. One little time, I would like to post after noticing the bizarre use of non contractions, misspellings, typos and weirdly worded sentences. The weird content I'm afraid is just me.

A Week With Medication or Seven Days Without

In Praise Of A Contented Mind~

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it exceeds all other bliss
That world affords or grows by kind.
Though much I want which most men have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.
~~~~~~~~~~
No princely pomp, no wealthy store,
No force to win the victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to feed each grazing eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall.
For why my mind doth serve for all.
~~~~~~~~~~
I see how plenty suffers oft,
How hasty climbers soon do fall;
I see that those that are aloft
Mishap doeth threaten most of all;
They get with toil, they keep with fear.
Such cares my mind could never bear.
~~~~~~~~~~
Content I live, this is my stay;
I seek no more than may suffice;
I press to bear no haughty sway;
Look what I lack my mind supplies;
Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
Content with that my mind doth bring.
~~~~~~~~~~
Some have too much, yet still do crave;
I little have, and seek no more.
They are but poor, though much they have,
And I am rich with little store.
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.
~~~~~~~~~~
I laugh not at another's loss;
I grudge not at another's gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
My state at one doth still remain.
I fear no foe, nor fawning friend;
I loathe not life, nor dread my end.
~~~~~~~~~~
Some weigh their pleasure by their lust,
Their wisdom by their rage of will,
Their treasure is their only trust;
And cloaked craft their store of skill.
But all the pleasure that I find
Is to maintain a quiet mind.
~~~~~~~~~~
My wealth is health and perfect ease;
My conscience clear my chief defense;
I neither seek by bribes to please,
Nor by deceit to breed offence.
Thus do I live, thus will I die.
Would all did so as well as I !
~Anonymous~

* ** * ** * *** *
Isn't that lovely? I wish I did as well as Anon. But in other news, I'm cured! Wow, what a vicious little cold. But the old adage is true, takes a week to get rid of it with medication or seven days with nothing. I still have a bit of a cough, but phhht. I was almost certain is was about to turn into wasting sickness, but nope, almost gone.

I went to a Bat Mitzvah today! My first. It was my mother's college roommate's granddaughter's Bat Mitzvah. Me and J, the middle generation, used to be penpals when we were in school. It's always so strange to me how moving most ceremonies are, and this one was particularly.

Snow fell last night. Here! I tried to get a shot on the way down, but it mostly looks like freeway. Look very closely on the mountains and you'll see what we consider the Snow Storm of the Century around these parts. Or not. Blogger doesn't want to co-operate. Hopefully it will be there tomorrow (faint hope!).

So how was Stitches West? I was going to try to slide down there since I was in Pleasanton anyway (about 25 miles north) but..... the Market closing at 6pm cut it a little close..........and I really, really, really do not need to buy more yarn. On the other hand. Need? What's need got to do with it? But I contented myself by picking up a copy of Secret Life of a Knitter: Yarn Harlot and the new Sandra mag. And, like Scarlett O'Hara said, "There's always tomorrow."

Pics of the Ugly sox tomorrow, and possibly, pix of the...........well, closer-to-being-finished Norwegian sock.

The Plague continues to plague me

........but it's morphing into consumption, if by consumption you mean suddenly choking, coughing, hacking, possibly a furball but it feels more like tonsils attempting to escape through the mouth and nose simultaneously. Harumph. Yes, er, lovely image. At least not fatal. Except to appetites everywhere.


Pretty country road, eh? Kirker Pass between Concord and Pittsburg by whatever the Concord Pavilion is called these days and the home of the White Witch of Nortonville. Not taken today. It's raining! Weird. I was sitting in the back yard in the sun on Tuesday. Now I hear it's snowing on the Altamont Pass, but that's a bit south of us.

I finished my Ugly Socks last night! Huzzah! I immediately put them on because wool is warm. I have high hopes of finishing my oldest UFO, the Other Norwegian Sock. You know, in this century. Possibly before the month or week is out. There! That should jinx it.

Too late to vote for Dancing With The Stars tonight, but as long as Jerry Rice stays in and Drew wins ultimately, I'm happy. Michael Buble is the guest singer tonight.

If, of course, you're not watching Stargate SG1. Then, of course, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.

Of course, of course, a horse that's hoarse, if ever a being could it would! Oh geez. I think I'm delirious. That's a little combo of the Mr. Ed theme song, something from The Wizard of Oz and of course, crazy.

How is this for gorgeous? Outside my office. Which I am working busily away despite the fact that I still have the plague, but mildly. Pretty cherry blossoms! It's supposed to snow tomorrow. S-N-O-W. Here. Of course, by snow, they pretty much mean not a chance. I scraped ice off my car this morning and that's winter snow to me. (Like fog, which for years is what I thought a White Christmas meant).

I need to find a cough medicine that doesn't double as cocaine. What do they put in that stuff? I haven't slept all week. It can't be legal, can it? I am almost to page 300 of Bleak House though, and I'm almost, almost, almost done with my Ugly socks. Next I will finish my Norwegian socks, since I basically only have the foot to go. Bleak House is surprisingly great so far. All those characters! When characters were characters, doncha know.

I watched LOST last night! First time since the season premiere. It helped that it had lots of Sayid and Clancey Brown was in it. Of course then I just brooded over the fact that they cancelled Earth First. I taped the year long all access camera whatsit special on the Windsor Family on PBS last night. I tend to like my royalty long dead, but it might be interesting.

Thanks for all the well wishes! It's hard to have the plague in this day and age. And yes, chitta'svrtti, you should sit in Powell's in the health section for me. It can only help, and Powells? You should go there whenever possible.



Hezekiah likes the polarfleece addition to her daybed.

I have the Plague. At least it feels like the plague.

At least now I'm mobile, fever free and I can swallow and actually digest liquids. Yuck. It just whammed me Sunday morning. I like colds where I have a nice hallucinogenic fever, everything is a little hazy and sweet, possibly a bit of a frog in my throat and I can lay in bed and read. I do not like illnesses (like the Plague that I have) where my fever is so high that I'm shaking with cold and have to take a bath because my unshaved legs are driving me crazy that then mutates into some hideous variant where I can't swallow, keep anything down, sleep, rest, read or watch TV because my head is pounding like a jack hammer.

Yeah, yeah, that's how I spent my Valentine's Day. It's not the worst one either.

How are the Olympics Going? I see some progress and some pacing problems, and frankly some knitting that makes me green with envy but..............it's still anyone's Gold right now!

In Honor of the Olympics - KAL's of course..

Hope' is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson
"Hope" is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I've heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of Me.

Cast on and cast off! Good luck, contestants! Don't forget to post your progress for those of us who are not participating because we are chained to our computers (supposedly working. Mostly working.)

Hezekiah brought me a mouse last night! Wasn't that sweet? I was honored. A little freaked, mind you, but honored. She brought me a live one, at that. I saved its life. Mice are cute. Besides it was only in the garage. Please, Mr. Mouse, do not repay my kindness by crawling into my house and feasting in the cupboards or running across my floors. Eeek. Sincerely, Carrie K.

In knitting news, last night I ransacked some old copies of IK and Knitter's for the chainmail sweater I think would make a great knitalong for Woman on the Edge of Time, but thankfully did not find it, because? I cannot start a new project. I already have new projects I want to start and am putting off. Plus? No time. I haven't even finished my ugly colorway mameluke socks yet and I'm practically done.

I did find time to finish A Long Fatal Love Chase. I think LMA cheated and implied more mysteries than there were to Rosamund's parentage. But it was a fun romp.

In honor of Valentine's Day next week, I started A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh as it was referred to as a bittersweet - no, bitter - look at marriage. My kind of book.

If only I had told you all that Battle Britain was on at 10pm on PBS last night! I did not know. All about Harald and his roust of the Vikings and William the Conqueror's subsequent trouncing of Harald. Good times.

Tonight however, if you are silly enough to skip Stargate Atlantis for it, my favorite series, Secrets of the Dead is on at 9pm. This episode is about an archaeologist who finds the remains of a 2500 year old woman buried with war weapons in Russia, possibly the connection to the tales of the Amazon women. Later she links the remains to a 9 year old girl in Mongolia through DNA. How cool is that?

What am I saying? You will all be knitting feverishly tonight.

Sheba from a snapshot.













Cloud Brief (To One Unimpressed)

by Peter Kane Dufault

How sad! To deny it’s splendid —
that dazzling mass - just because
it isn’t a thing men did
and isn’t even intended
for profit or applause

though overwhelmingly there
by the hundred-mile, by the billion -
on buoyed on blue air
a feather, a leaf, a hair
would fall through...Can someone

resent that probability
might not apply up there —
only a purity
of form and radiance he
must look up to but can’t share





Quilt blocks that were supposed to be pieced into a wallhanging but I neglected to make sure I had enough fabric in one pattern to make a cohesive group, so there they hang, on my quilt wall. I love that thing.

Tell me that the first one looks like nestled hearts. My mother, to this day, cannot see that.

Really light on knitting content because zippo knitting has been done. On the bright side, zippo ripping.

I'm reading Louisa May Alcott's A Long Fatal Love Chase . It's an easy read and other than the few clunky expository transistions, LMA is keeping me on the edge of my seat.

The twists and turns, the wicked deeds! The poor wronged innocent. I confess. I can't empathize with Rosamund's problems. Thankfully. The book is so old fashioned. (Granted, not so surprisingly.) The whole masterful manner of the men and even the grudging obedience of the women is wild to read, it's so unlike our day and age. It's hard to imagine that it was the norm not all that long ago.

I can almost see all the March girls rolled up into Rosamund, but that could be projecting. Philip Tempest is so temptuous! Tempting!

Don't forget Dancing With The Stars tonight! Remember, one phone, one computer, 10 votes! Where else does this happen? Never mind. Not that I would want to sway your votes, but Jerry Rice could use a few.......[sway. sway. sway...]

Tom Sizemore is on The Big Idea With Danny Deutsch tonight at 7pm and 10pm. I have this sad fascination for TS. I have terrible taste in men.

Without A Trace. Anthony LaPaglia. Enrique Murciano. Possibly the Blue Velvet rip off episode.

If You Can Keep Your Head When All About You Are Losing Theirs

Chances are, you haven't grasped the gravity of the situation.

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

I've always loved that poem. My way of dealing with (any situation whatsoever - nothing is too trivial) is to go to the most catastrophic outcome possible, which gets me a lot of grief about being "negative" but whatever. At least when The Worst Thing happens, I'm prepared. And I get to say "I told you so." And if it doesn't? When then, we're all ahead, right?

I'm on a poetry kick. Did I mention I'm loving wandering the 'net and finding all sort of little gems? Did everyone read The Fall of Raven at chitta'svrtti's?



A view of the hills before they become completely overrun by houses and buildings. Close though, eh? Notice the sunny blue skies? 9am this morning.





Hezekiah again, spurning her lovely throne like lawn chair festooned w/pillows and towels for a bunch of plastic bags this morning. Notice her disgruntled look? I woke her up.













I dug out a UFO that I had forgotten all about:
It will definitely need to be blocked. Notice the lovely sock part of it is stuffed in? Ingenious. It kept getting in my way.


I almost forgot! Tonight is the terrible choice between House and Scrubs at 9pm. Hate network executives.

Lessons Learned

......mostly by eavesdropping. Vamoose is the singular. Vameese is the plural.

Okay, not so much lessons as lesson. And not so much eavesdropping as passing by on the trail and overhearing. Another exchange:

Kid: (excitedly) "Look at the plant I found, Dad!"
Dad: (deadpan) "I think that plant is poisonous, son."

I love all the Silent Poetry of February 2nd. What a great idea. It's fascinating to see all the different poems and people.

clarelight-ly was listing her On The Needles projects - I don't think she's as unusual as she thinks. I've got

Nancy Bush Norwegian socks. One done, one to the heel turn.

Nancy Bush .....not malamute socks. One done, one to the instep.

Pink Cabled Scarf - will be done around the end of time

Valentine Stole - will I frogged it back to where I forgot the garter stitch part and reset the stitchmarkers, so it's about half way done.

The Valentine Tank Top. Mostly because I am an idiot and when it said, work same as front, I finished the neck binding and then.......bound off. Without doing the shoulder bit.

Oatmeal cable sweater. All but the back done and I might just frog the whole thing anyway because 3 years for a wool yarn and cable that I love but the pattern not so much? Too long.


A white and gold striped tank from Knitter's. Hmm. I need to dig that one out and see how far I am.

The Vest That My Dad Will Get Someday - someday, somewhere, somehow. It's so close too.

Now I'm a'feared to look to see what yarn I have. I buy it just because it's pretty too, not that I have any idea of what I'll make out of it. It knows. Hopefully it will share.

How lame is it that I'm dreading my first Valentine's Day without Sheba? I never missed any of my ex husbands. Maybe because I had Sheba? And she was better than all of them combined? At least Sheba never rifled through my purse or slept with my best friend. Whoops, yes, I think she did sleep with her. But I believe her when she said they just "fell asleep".

My Days Are Swifter Than a Weaver's Shuttle.....

...but since it's a quote from Job, it ends "....and they come to an end without hope." Much the way I feel about these socks. Which, mind you, I am to the heel shaping of the 2nd one! But only because I talked myself out of starting a new project.
"............so I have been allotted months of futility and nights of misery have been assigned to me."
Job and I are like this [crosses fingers].




I think I'll finish these by the time Bleak House is over tonight. Part 3 of 6!

Also notice how tightly I'm stranding the gold color - y0u can barely see it there after the stripes. Then it's undoubtedly too loose and then I got bored w/the beigie-ish color and switched the colorway. What the hell goes through my head when I pick out sock colors?


So, anyone watch the game? Oh, who cares? Not me. I did walk around Lafayette Reservoir this afternoon - 2.7 miles, thankyouverymuch. I used to do it everyday when I lived down the road. This was after buying the circs I need for the Adamas Shawl (again, mind you, without looking at the price - who knew needles could be $25?).

Anyway. The Reservoir: This is from the other side. Where it's too late to turn back and soooo far from the car. Uphill both ways too. Really.




Sensational Knitted Socks might have hopped in the purchase.....That would be....how many sock books do I own? Off the top of my head.....Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. Vogue on the Go Socks. Knitters magazine's sock book. A booklet or two.......and how many completed socks? Three pairs completely knit and ready to wear, one pair actually wearable (felting and anklet, respectively) and two socks completely done, only sadly, not even close to being a pair to each other.

The Scarf is 15 inches long! Go scarf! That's exactly one fourth the length I want. I hope it's a cold, cold, summer.

Saturday! The 6th Day of Work.

Another picture from San Gregorio Beach. At the moment, my footsteps should be leading directly into the ocean, except for my terror of drowning and of sea creatures. Worst vacation EVER was on a cruise ship in December. It was storming, I couldn't see land, the waves were crashing over the windows of the stateroom - I just wanted to get on land. I didn't fare much better on the ferry from Port Angeles WA to Victoria, BC. Once I can't see land, I start picturing really, really mad sea monsters, whales, octopusses, mermaids, whatever, capsizing the ship and eating us all.





This used to be a sleepy, sleepy little road with horse stables and a few old cabins. Now it's practically a freeway, there are houses all up into the hills (with a charming view of a rock quarry, niiiiiice) but it's still pretty.

No knitting progress. At least none that is visible to the naked eye. Slow and steady, I've decided. Let's see how doing a little bit every day works out.

I saw a scarf pattern that knits the length of the scarf and at the end of the row, you cut the yarn and start a new yarn, so it ends up self fringing. That sounds easy and fast.

Oh, and just an FYI. When you walk into a salon and ask if they take walk ins, and they do, ASK WHAT THEY CHARGE. It was actually pretty much the going rate for salons, except I'd been going to the quickie cut places since my hairstylist moved away. Big diff. On the plus side, I really, really like my hair. I might even let her highlight it. Last time I had it "highlighted" I thought I was going to have to take up smoking, get a job in a diner back in the 50's and start calling people 'toots' or 'dearie'.

And in sad, sad news, Tia Carrere was voted off Dancing With the Stars last night. And I am so very happy that's my sad news.

What to watch this weekend? Enh, who knows. Book TV. No, not the SuperBowl. Bah.

Bah, again. I can't get that link to Book TV to work. I think it's good on the sidebar. They always have something worth watching and even the authors that make me want to heave books at the TV set are usually worth a listen. People are strange, you know? Although I should talk. I'm an Evolution Believing Lutheran.

The World Is Too Much With Us

And my contribution to the poetry posting (see Grace's Poppies blog) is one of my favorites by William Wordsworth:

The World Is Too Much With Us (1807)

The world is too much with us; late and soon;
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

*****************************


Although Mary Jo and I always (or frequently) recite Edgar Allen Poe's El Dorado whenever we get together because we had to memorize it in our 4th grade class and it speaks quite dramatically (particularly when we perform it, being hams).

El Dorado

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow
Had journeyed long
singing a song
In search of El Dorado.

But he grew old;
This knight so bold
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow -
"Shadow!" cried he,
"Where can it be -
This land of El Dorado?"
"Over the mountains of the moon,
Down the valley of the shadow.
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied,
"If you seek for El Dorado."

*******************

And in other news.........nada. Did another half inch on the scarf, a few more rows on the socks, continued to completely ignore the almost finished vest, did discover that I have no room for the yarn I bought and maybe I should clean out a dresser and use it as central yarn storage, but it would involve getting rid of stuff and that is just not possible. I come by my packrat genes honestly, when my grandmother died at the age of 94 years, she still had my dad's elementary school drawings, report cards, schoolwork, music sheets (Dad plays the piano).....

Stitches West is in two weeks! Not many classes left either, but then, it's all about the Market for me anyway. One of these years I'm going to take a class.

Don't forget Dancing With The Stars tonight! Keep Tia Carrere in!

Finally February!

Like I've been waiting for it, or something. But it does have a few good things to recommend it. For one, National Elisa Thinks Stuff Month which was way fun last February, and for another, Grace's Poppies, who has suggested a Post Poetry on Your Blog on February 2nd Day (but is more likely worded much more gracefully). It's the Jan 8th post, if you're interested, since I'm not sure how close my link will be to the invitation.

In knitting news, my scarf continues to be well hung at 12 inches but not much of a scarf yet. The sock is all the way to the instep portion and since I'm following Nancy Bush's pattern more or less religiously, this time I hope it won't be a) too big. b) twisted at the toes/instep/ribbing, etc. c) frogged relentlessly. Ah, too late. I have a hard time following directions. Lace? Yes. I am lost without guidance on lace. Socks? I seem to be under the impression that I can knit them from memory. A groundless impression, I assure you.

What's on TV tonight? CSI NY.

This is an old pic of Adobe Books in SF (and not one of mine - I didn't get out to see it in time) where they arranged the books by color spectrum. Goes well with Lolly's Project Spectrum KAL, eh?