Thursday, March 20

When they tell you your pizza is hot ...

... don't be surprised when you get a blister when the topping falls off the crust onto your chin.


Ouch.

Tuesday, March 18

A couple of links for you to follow

Visit MyMiniCity. It's cute.

VitaminPalooza is going well, except I forgot to take them this morning, and Saturday night. Oops! I do think they're starting to make a difference, so that's a good thing. I committed to another month of VitaminPalooza.

My mom and I went to 10,000 B.C. on Saturday (then out to dinner, which is why I missed my vitamins that night. She did too). It was a pretty good movie. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't quite it. For instance, there's a love story. And lots of sand. It was what was in the lots of sand that I really didn't expect. But I won't spoil it, if you'd still like to check it out. I'd give the movie 3 1/2 stars, I think.

Oh, and check out this Peep Show. It's really hot. And safe for work.

And I've been reading a fun web comic called Questionable Content. Check it out.

And yes, Biddy Love, she is. She is cute, has at least one kidlet, and bats for the opposite team.


Edited to add: Sometimes I have difficulties discerning the difference between coffee and tea, olfactorically speaking.

Monday, March 17

For the leaping greenly spirits of trees

There are days when certain song lyrics ring true, and today is one of them.
Garbage — Only Happy When It Rains
I'm only happy when it rains
I'm only happy when it's complicated
And though I know you can't appreciate it
I'm only happy when it rains
You know I love it when the news is bad
And why it feels so good to feel so sad
I'm only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me
Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me

I don't mean to sound like a sad sack, as after the first line it sounds pretty emo when you're just reading the lyrics out. But it is grey and dreary today and I absolutely love it. More often than not, drizzly days energize me. I know lots of people get dragged down by the weather; I usually feel about snow the way most people feel about drizzle. To me, rainy days seem to have more secrets, and more adventure.


I finished Tudora yesterday before church. (My mom asked me to sing a descant yesterday, so I went.) Tudora's a neckwarmer, and today was a perfect day to wear it. (So was yesterday, for that matter.) And bonus! It's got green. Perfect for everyone's favorite verdant holiday.

Tudora Finite


Pattern: Tudora by Cheryl Marling, Winter 07 Knitty (Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in dusty olive
Needles: US 6 Boye Balene 16" circs
Cast on: March 8
Cast off: March 16

And for the record, I did wear a lot of green today. Crocs, earrings, squirrel necklace, a shirt, Koolhaas and Tudora. Bam. And I got a green-frosted cupcake from a co-worker. Mmm.

My only problem now? I'm out of Malabrigo.

Thursday, March 13

New girl in town

We have a couple of new faces at work. At least, I thought they were both new faces. It turns out I went to high school with one of them. The other day she came up to me and said, "I think I might have your senior picture. Did you graduate in 2000 or 2001?" And I said, "Yes, I graduated in 2001." She proceeded to say that she had just moved to town and was the "new girl," which is why I didn't exactly remember.

Interestingly, our office has a few of the yearbooks from the local high school — the one which the new girl and I both attended. I covertly looked her up yesterday afternoon, because I felt bad I didn't remember her at all. Sure enough, there she was: class of 2000. And then I had a sudden flash of being in the auditorium, me doing whatever it was I did junior year, and she rehearsing for her part in "The Taming of the Shrew," which was the play we did that spring.

She's very organized, and is cleaning and rearranging the office. And she showed me how to use the new laminating machine. Whee!

Tuesday, March 11

Koolhaas is finished

I don't know that I mentioned when I posted yesterday that I finished Koolhaas on Friday.

Koolhaas hat
PhotoBooth, how I love thee!


Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood, IK Holiday '07 (Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in dusty olive
Needles: US 6 Boye Balene and US 8 aluminum (both 16" circs); US 8 Clover bamboo
Cast on: February 26
Cast off: March 7

But what's really distracted me on Ravelry today is the thread on Mystical Creation Yarns. I've finally caught up with the train wreck of a thread which, at 2,137 posts, is a marathon to read. (There were nearly 200 posts to catch up on from what I'd read last night.) The thread concerns the poor business practices of the owner of said online yarn shop. This person has now allegedly faked her own death. It's sad, gossip-y, and really hard to look away (hence "train wreck").

Oh, and my new favorite radio station is Capitol 106.3, because when I turned it on this afternoon the song playing was Tori Amos' "A Sorta Fairytale." (And for the record, I turned it on when I got home for lunch at 3:30. Three-freaking-thirty.)

Monday, March 10

Spring forward? Not me!

Owing mostly to the fact that I left neither my house nor my pajamas yesterday, I also neglected to set all my clocks forward. Luckily for me, my work hours are generally pretty flexible, so it doesn't so much matter. So unlike all you DST-abiding citizens, I got an extra hour of sleep. Mua ha ha.

And now for a Vitaminpalooza update! I was going to post this comment last week, as it was slightly more relevant then, but who am I to be telling stories that are relevant.

On day eight of Vitaminpalooza (last Tuesday), I had some intense nausea about five minutes after I had breakfast. I was so confused; it is a rare day that I actually have breakfast. When I say intense nausea, I mean this close to vomiting: I'm already in the bathroom and ready to pay penance to the Porcelain God.

I read the box. I am 95% sure I saw something somewhere that said "best if taken with food." Here I am, sacrificing my time-honored tradition of ditching breakfast, and what do I have to show for it? Potential loss of vitamins via toilet bowl. What's with that?

Well, being a vitamin virgin — except for those Flintstone ones back in the day, and some really cool ones that looked like suns and moons — I just went for what seemed appropriate: food first. It turns out I've got the order all backwards. You're supposed to eat a bit and then pop the pills. Especially if you're taking something with iron, which can — get this — upset your stomach. I am such a dolt sometimes.




I went to The Spiderwick Chronicles Saturday evening with my mom. Having never read the books, I thought it was pretty cute.

Also, I finished some books yesterday for the Ravelry Book Challenge. (Yes, books plural. It pays to ignore DST ...) Firstly, I finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I think that's the third time I've read it. It's still my favorite book of the series, and it still makes me (dork alert) emotional. Despite all the death, destruction and chaos. (Brownie points to whoever knows what movie that's from.)

I also finished Freakonomics yesterday. It was one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. And I don't usually have glowing reviews of non-fiction literature, because I usually fall asleep reading it. It is the most interesting take on economics I've ever seen. (I'm not a huge fan of economics, personally, because it falls into the math category in my brain and me and math ... aren't bosom companions. We've learned to get along, is all.) I'm incredibly glad my cousin recommended the book to me, and I must send him a note saying so.

With that, dear readers, it's time to do a little work.

Monday, March 3

In which I actually post photos! OMG!

I thought you might enjoy seeing what my bruised leg looks like today. Thanks to the new iMac, the fantastic program Photo Booth, and my willingness to show a little leg at work ... here's an accurate representation. To be polite to those of a more delicate nature, I'll put the technicolor artwork bruised leg photo at the end of the post. To delay the moment of squeam, I'll distract you with a headshot.


See how long my hair is? See how long my roots are?


Watch as I ponder the red minion, guardian of my desk.


Other than taking pictures of my technicolor leg, I've been working a bit on my Koolhaas hat, although I had to frog almost three repeats of the eight-row chart, due to the fact that I completely omitted the third row all the way through. While it looked cool, it just didn't have the effect I wanted, so now I'm ... one repeat in to the chart.

Aside from that, I've finished The Wee Free Men for the Ravelry Book Challenge. I started both Freakonomics and Talk to the Hand yesterday, the former to the suggestion of my well-read cousin and the latter because I enjoyed the author's first book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

And now, dear readers, I depart, leaving you the ghastly picture of my leg to haunt your dreams. Mua ha ha.



Check me out! I'm wearing pretty excellent pants today, though you can hardly tell from the picture.