Neglect.

Wow. Have I truly not posted at all this month? Well, let's get back on track.

Firstly, I want to share SuperBaby's first handknit sweater, the Offset Wraplan, designed by Fyberduck. It turned out so well, I almost wanted to keep it just so I could admire it. The sweater is a bit on the big side for SuperBaby right now, as you can see.


A touch big for him ...

It was knit in red Rowan Felted Tweed (wool and alpaca), and has little blue fish buttons that I found at Jo-Ann's. I hope he has some time to wear it before it gets to be too small for him, not to mention unbearably hot for Iowa. (We have strange weather here. I swear I heard the weather man say the temperature will climb to 80 by the end of the week!)

Let's see ... what else is new? I've really been enjoying Dollhouse and Castle, and I read the other day that Project Runway will be back on the air this summer; season 6 will finally be aired (on Lifetime, which I'm still not sure about), and they're putting out casting calls for season 7. So glad to hear the show didn't get flushed entirely. I was really beginning to be concerned about my Tim Gunn deficiency.

Also, I discussed starting up a community musical theatre group with a few former classmates. That would be kind of fun, I think.

As for what else I've been up to, let's let some crappy camera phone pics do the talking.



Watching your parents playing tic-tac-toe with straws and fake sugar at Perkins on a Friday night is always a great way to beat boredom while waiting for your nosh. (Note: this is before I got pulled over for speeding. With the parents in the car. At midnight. Talk about awkward. Good thing I only got a warning, or as my mom said, "That was almost a really expensive dinner." But we got pie, and ate it last night and it was delicious.)



I discovered this gem, a store version of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, when I was making grilled cheese for lunch yesterday. It was sitting innocuously in my parents' fridge, and cracked me up. When I commented on it later, my mom got very defensive and there was a five-minute discussion on how often my parents got real butter during their childhoods. I think I might draw a question mark on the packaging, because the phrase is really screaming for one.



And finally, the forsythia is starting to bloom. Spring is really here. (Of course I could have told you spring was really here yesterday; I was woken up by a chorus of every chirping bird in town telling me that the sun was going to come up soon. Ah, the woes of being able to sleep with the windows open at last.)

Superbaby!

It has been nearly two weeks since my last post, and though I have thought about blogging rather a lot, that probably counts for bupkis.

The most exciting thing over the past two weeks happened last Thursday: I became an aunt.


I got to hold Superbaby!

As you can see by the way my arms envelop the little guy, he's quite tiny (as babies tend to be). As I've heard tell many times already — my mom's very talkative — he came out flying. Bounced off the doctor a little even, hence his nickname, Superbaby. I suspect his tale will be told many a time at that hospital.

Ii don't recall if I said a whole lot about my brother Brox becoming a father. He turned 20 earlier this month; a few times I saw the deer-in-headlights look on his face and I could almost hear him thinking Holy shit, what have I gotten myself into? But I think he will be a good dad.

Being a proper knitting auntie, I have already queued up a number of knits for Superbaby, not limited to something World of Warcraft-related and a peepee teepee (no, really!). Chiefly on the list, though, is a sweater with a detachable cape, fitting his aerial entrance into the world.

To justify the WoW dorkiness, I'll tell you that, in addition to some thicker clothes, Superbaby's leaving-the-hospital outfit included an I (heart) Star Wars beanie and a onesie that read I'm the first in a clone army! (And I'm very impressed with the Etsy seller WeROnesieful who managed to fit that all on a onesie.)

So. Eventful.

Also, on the way back from lunch, I saw this, er, interesting yard art:


Wow.

That's a soldier with a rifle kneeling at a noticeably-smaller-than-the-gun cross. Scary.

That's all she wrote, folks. I've got stuff to do.

Look! Her face could launch a thousand ships ...

Last night's choir rehearsal was an exercise in Making It Up As I Go Along. The rehearsal began with me coming into the sanctuary with a ton of photocopies (so the choir could at least try to learn the praise band's music for this upcoming service), and ended with a little "choral-ography". I'm not even joking. They decided it would be fun to start the anthem at the back of the sanctuary and process up to the front during the first refrain. It worked surprisingly well, and I was really pleased that rehearsal hadn't been a big explosion of Lame. (That was a valid concern, I feel.)

So, yay.

Some other things on my mind: Joss Whedon's new show on Fox, Dollhouse. I'm really getting into the show. Tomorrow's episode will be the fifth of the season. It seemed a little slow going at first, and I kept thinking there was no way Fox would keep it on the air. (Incidentally, last week's episode was the first I was able to watch in its entirety on tv. The others I've had to catch on Hulu. I'm really glad they're going online, just in cases.) Anyway, the fourth episode has been my favorite so far, though I'd like to go back through and watch them all again, because I keep feeling like I'm missing tons of the clue-like stuff Joss always throws in.

I'm also on iTunes right now, chasing Holst. Specifically, The Planets. By far one of my favorite orchestral works. I started poking around yesterday, and my dad said I should look up Tomita's version, which is his favorite. But I'm also fond of the Berliner Philharmoniker, which is who I went for when I purchased Bizet's L'Arlésienne. To illustrate the difference between the two, I present them via the Tube.


Isao Tomita: Jupiter

Pretty trippy, right? Now let's have another version.


Berliner Philharmoniker: Jupiter

Now you understand why I couldn't resist adding both to my iTunes cart. The only copy of The Planets my family owns is a cassette, and I don't have a cassette player any longer, except in the minivan.

Oh, and I added a little PDQ Bach to my cart as well: Please, Kind Sir and Variation V: Foghorn, Bell, Kazoo, Gargle (for which I couldn't find a video on the Tubes).

Anyhow, that's all I've got for now. I'm working on one shawl now, and a mystery stole pattern. Chart three will be released some time tomorrow; I'm about halfway through chart one. There's a small amount of catching up to be done. Off to the needles!

Take to the sky

... or at least have a good look at it.

I just saw a beautiful image on today's Astronomy Picture of the Day. I recommend that you click through to catch the photo in its not stolen full glory, as well as catch a few tidbits offered by the crew at APOD.



The photo is of Comet Lullin, which is quite visible tonight, with a pair of binoculars or a telescope. A little more information can be found here (via @scifri).

I'm quite fond of stargazing. I used to want to be an astronomer, until I learned how much math was involved. (I can do math, but I don't particularly love it. Words and languages are, for the most part, friendlier.)

When I was little, my dad used to take the family out to some dark location, hauling his binoculars, a tripod and a camera with a long-exposure attachment, in case he decided to take a photo. (Once I got in trouble for opening the car door, activating the dome light, while he was taking a photo; I'm pretty sure I not only ruined the exposure but got a little yelled at as well.) We've gone comet watching on a few occasions, and I think this would be a nice opportunity to do so again.

I want to be a mad scientist.

I attended a ten-year-old's birthday party on Saturday. A mad science birthday party. I can't even begin to say how cool it is to have a science party. The mom even had a "mad scientist" come for an hour. (Also, I just checked out their website, and they're hiring. How much fun would that be?) You better believe I wore my Dr. Horrible t-shirt to the party.


My mom and I doing the wave, green "slime",
and an incredibly cute hedgehog.

(That scarf the hedgehog's wearing is my handiwork: just a quick double crochet with fringe.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch: work has been driving me crazy. (So much so that I've been moving a number of my more important files to flash drive, which I should have done before.) Maybe I will apply for a mad scientist job.

I'm home!

I had a really fun weekend in Iowa City. I tried to tweet occasionally via my mobile. Some of them didn't make it through, unfortunately. I'm going to pull the texts from my phone (though if you want the Twitter, it's here).

Road trip! Iowa City, here I come. 1:23 PM Feb 13
Just saw a license plate that read EAT KFC. 2:18 PM Feb 13
Cocktails at I.C. Ugly's. 6:29 PM Feb 13
Playing Bingo at a gay bar before a drag show. 9:28 PM Feb 13
I might turn into a pumpkin in a minute. I rarely stay out so late. 1:04 AM Feb 14
Willis & doodleberries. Bwa ha ha. 10:27 AM Feb 14
The best thing about gelato is the tiny shovel. Well, and the taste. 3:01 PM Feb 14
Sushi fills you up so much. Five pieces and I'm spent. 11:23 PM Feb 14
WTF. Techno line dance? 12:48 AM Feb 15
A song about IKEA is almost as good as going there. 12:53 PM Feb 15

So yes. We had lots and lots of fun. Hopefully those photos will end up on Facebook so's I can steal them away and show you.

Sut mae. Sut dych chi?

Afternoon, friends. (Or better: prynhawn da.)

I decided to start learning a new language by means of podcast, so I clicked through the language directory on iTunes. I ended up choosing Welsh, via the Learn Welsh Podcast. I've listened to the first episode a couple times now, and the vocab is slowly starting to stick in my head.

What I really like about this podcast is that Jason, the host, puts out a PDF with each episode so that you can have a visual idea of what you're saying (or trying to say). Having come across Welsh only very occasionally (reading and re-reading The Grey King by Susan Cooper, which takes place in Wales), I find the pronunciation to be a bit ... strange. (Of course, I'm used to Spanish, German, ancient Greek and Latin.) I think my main problem thus far is putting the sound together with the spelling. So I'll keep with the practicing.

I'm going to eastern Iowa tomorrow to spend time with some friends I haven't seen for quite a while. Hopefully it won't start snowing (at least not too much) before I leave. That would be sad.

Peace out, yo.

Tweeting around in my head

Twitter. I do not use it. However, I have recently started subscribing to certain RSS feeds of certain Twitter users, just so's I can follow their tweets.

It started innocently enough, with Felicia Day and Dr Horrible. Then I saw that Unclutterer has one, which I call TwUnclutterer. And then Ravelry and Amy over at Knitty got Twitter. And then Felicia made a list of authors who use Twitter. I learned that Neil Gaiman has Twitter, as do Stephen Fry, John Cleese, John Lithgow, and Wil Wheaton.

As I was skimming tweets Monday morning, I noticed that Wil Wheaton had sent a tweet to Brent Spiner, and then somehow I got to Levar Burton. I have a Trek trifecta! How fantastic is that? (I'm such a dork.)

But I'm still going to stick with the Plurk.

Edited to respond to binerman's comment: I have a clan of knitters on the Plurk. And FYI: xamonster.


Foremost in my mind today, however, are two phrases: "President Barack Obama" and "former President George W. Bush". Tuesday was a good day for the country.

In which my toes are a little cold.

As I may have mentioned previously, I feel that Neil Gaiman has a way with words. Let me once more demonstrate:

Oww. Windchill. Cold like knives cold.

Twitter from neilhimself

Concise, yet accurate as always.


I also learned last night that I am, in point of fact, a bad person for wanting to de-claw my cat primarily because he keeps making holes in the window plastic. I would make him duck tape mittens, but he would just gnaw his paws off. Ah well. Patchwork Window Project continues. More photos ought to follow.

Also, I have finished my January Charms project, Urchin. Expecto patronum!



Nice, eh? Now back to your regularly scheduled cold air, which is probably causing hell to freeze over again.

In which I share someone else's content

You might know that I enjoy reading books that Neil Gaiman has written. I also enjoy reading blog posts he's written. I would like to share bits of a couple recent posts with you.

Firstly, something about the new year, which I enjoy most particularly for the photo (which is completely and thoroughly hijacked from Mr Gaiman's blog post At the turning of the year).

...to mark the passing of Edd Cartier (and the nearly-done-ness of 2008). Of all the pulp magazine artists of the 30s-50s, including such masters as Virgil Finlay and Kelly Freas, Cartier was my favourite, particularly his work in Unknown Worlds. Marvellous stuff. If I had known he was still alive, I suspect I would have written him a fan letter. Instead, I discovered the other day, from Locus, that he (and James Cawthorn, who was, with Mal Dean, the definitive Moorcock illustrator) had just died, and now I know that Mr Cartier was alive, it's too late.

The other post I want to share (Another year) has a couple different fun bits. The first celebrates the knighting of author Terry Pratchett, and the doffing of caps.

Let's see. The biggest and the best news of the day is that Terry Pratchett is now Sir Terrence of Pratchett. Hurrah.

I shall doff my cap the next time I see him. It will be the best-doffed cap in the land.

I shall buy a cap first, specially.

The second bit of the post shares his wishes for the coming year.

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

Neil truly makes me smile. Now back to your regularly-scheduled Tuesday.

On French taunting and gifts

I had a really nice holiday. I got some cool gifts (including Wii Music!) and got to see Spamalot at the Civic Center in Des Moines.

The show first: it was a riot. My mom got the tickets for the family as a Christmas gift. There was a 2-for-1 price for the show on Christmas day, so eight people ended up going (the parents, both of my brothers and their girlfriends, my "third brother" [who is really just one of those random hangers-on, but we love him anyway], and I).

It was a nice way to spend the evening. The cast was extra funny, and there was a lot of ad lib going on. A couple different performers stuck Christmas songs in the middle of their pieces, and the insulting French guard said, "I will taunt you a second time. I throw shoes at your president." We all cracked up at that one. If you get a chance to see Spamalot, I highly recommend it.

Gifts: My mom's a rock star. She got me some nice things for the house that make life just that much nicer. One thing she found is a tension rod shower organizer. The best part is that the baskets and hook are adjustable and can be whatever height you need. The chief reason she got the thing was for the hook. When my bathroom was re-done, the landlord installed a curtain rod that has a 90° turn in it, which is great except for one thing: it sags from the weight of the curtains. The hook on my new organizer eliminates the problem and works a treat. Yay!

Another cool home thing I got was a curtain rod that has a hinged elbow piece, allowing it to hold a curtain at an angle. I have a very heavy lined curtain separating my upstairs bedroom from the rest of the house, which helps keep heating costs down. (For some reason there are no heating vents upstairs, but only a return.) To stay warm at night, I have an electric sheet. I had always had issues with getting the curtain to stay; it was always just too short to fit the gap. Now the curtain turns the corner and fits pretty much perfectly. (In truth I am amazed at just how nice a job the thing is doing. Just 20 minutes after having hung the curtain on the new rod, there was a noticeable difference in temperature between upstairs and down.)

I also received an iTunes gift card, a Target gift card, and a book, as well as a random assortment of chocolates. I used the Target gift card already and bough some new in-ear headphones for my iPod and a copy of Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii. (I have been wanting a new AC for ages, and now I finally have it! I'm so excited. My new town is called Growly; my character is Xa and my brother's, Rawr. We are silly people.)

That is all I have for now. If I don't post again before Thursday, then I'll see you next year! Here comes 2009 ...

On finished knitting and broken scrapers

I have managed to finish a couple projects since last I posted. Firstly the Whovian Fish Hat, which will hopefully be a good compliment to my dad's Dr. Who scarf. (You know, the really long-ass scarf that he never wears.)


Won't this be sexxy on someone's head?

I also finished a gift for (my brother) Brox's girlfriend. She told me that she's often cold, so I designed a pair of armwarmers for her. They're made of worsted wool, and have cables. I intend to post the pattern to Ravelry. They're called (at the moment) Not Fancy Cabled Armwarmers.


I am testing them at work today for ... quality assurance.

I think there are a couple adjustments I might make (like not as many thumb increases, or using twisted rib instead of regular ribbing), but all in all I'm very happy with them. Hooray!

In other news that's not related to yarn (except for all the knitted things I was wearing at the time), I managed to break the ice scraper while chipping really thick ice away from the van. Oops! That's the second scraper my family has broken in a week — my mom broke her new one chipping through ice last Friday. That's crazy.

Needless to say, I had to walk to work this morning. And I had to deal with Frosty Scarf Syndrome (which is when your exhalations leave a cold, evil residue on your scarf and then it presses against your already frozen face).

I'm done with winter.

Two photos of frosty windows, and lots of words besides

I'm pretty sure Google has gone crazy, because my computer is displaying it in Spanish. It seems my IP address changed (although I don't know how, as I have had a static IP for a long time).

Anyway, what I really want to show you is proof that I will indeed have patchwork tape windows.


Cat Attacks Window, Leaves No Sign Of Struggle

WTF? My windows are not made of catnip, last I checked. Ah well.


Awesome swap package!

I joined an ornament swap for the Knit / Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. My package arrived yesterday from the UK, sent by the fantastic cmelvin, who is pretty much a rock star. As you can see, she sent some really cool stuff: an angel, a drop spindle ornament, a book plate, and a postcard, as well as a letter from Professor C. Melvin and a Christmas card. I love it all.

I sent my swap package off today, which heads to Florida. I hope the recipient enjoys what I made!

And now, before I'm buried in the ice storm and potentially lose power (seriously, they're projecting that the eastern 2/3 of the city loses power because we have above ground power lines and the rest of the city has buried lines), I'd like to share two more things. First, it's my kitchen window this morning. The frost looked kind of pretty.



And lastly, a local story from the Associated Press, which was shared by elisamatic over on Plurk.

Iowa town's roads well seasoned
ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Slush has never smelled so spicy. City crews in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny are using garlic salt to melt snow and ice on streets from Tuesday's storm. The salt was donated by Tone Brothers Inc., a top spice producer headquartered in Ankeny.

Public Works Administrator Al Olson said the company donated 18,000 pounds of garlic salt to use on its 400 miles of roads.

Olson doesn't have details, but he said the salt would have ended up in the landfill, so the company donated it. A telephone call Wednesday to Tone Brothers wasn't immediately returned.

Olson said the city mixed the garlic salt with regular road salt and it works fine. He said some road workers say it makes them hungry, but Olson doesn't recommend it to spice up lunch or dinner.

Really, Iowa. You just keep getting crazier. Now I want to go to Ankeny and see if it makes me crave Italian food.

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens.

My toesies, they are ice cubes

Now that the cold and snow are here, the value of knitted items has risen exponentially. I was thinking this morning, as the icy air went rushing up my bootcut pant legs, that the time has come for legwarmers. I kind of love Lusty Lady Legwarmers, mostly for the buttons. I'm pretty sure I can devise my own pattern, or do a quick search on the Rav and come up with a bajillion results.

Yesterday I wore a number of warm items: a list of what she wore today: knit hat, sunglasses (to keep out the wind), scarf from Turkey, mismatched knit mittens, knit armwamers, one oversize wool coat, two pairs of socks, two sweaters, two shirts, one cami and a pair of jeans. Yeah, I was ready for the chill.

Also, Winter 08 Knitty was released today, and their server is being dragged into oblivion. Already one of my co-workers has asked for Fish Hat, and the Miittens really crack me up, and I kind of want to make them for my brother.

And I changed colors on the blog and added a Plurk thing. Other than that, that's all she wrote.

Thankful, even for the snow (I suppose)

A few inches of snow fell overnight; the world is shrouded in the stuff. The streets are already slushy and brown (one of the chief reasons I dislike snow). The snow is light, but has been falling consistently. LOTR is on in the background, and it's the bit with the Ents. I'm eating the last of my smashed potatoes, left over from the big dinner Thursday. It's a lazy day.

We had fourteen people here for the holiday; even my aunt who had the surgery was able to make the trip. (I do not envy her five-hour drive with such new abdominal incisions healing. There were many times I caused her to laugh while she was here, which caused her a considerable amount of pain. We all joked that, had her doctor known how much laughter comes from this family, he probably would have advised against the roadtrip.)

We also put on the Shroud of Crazy and participated in Black Friday. One of the local malls was hosting "Rockin' Shopping Eve" and they opened at midnight (that almost seems like cheating). Our number dwindled as time passed, which was to be expected. We started with eleven people and were down to five by the time we left the last store. (We took three cars to ensure that those who needed to leave for sleeping purposes were able to get back to town.) It was crazy, but lots of fun. We'll probably stick with 4 or 5 a.m. next year instead of midnight.

All in all, it was a nice holiday. I hope yours was filled with lots of adventures and laughter. I was thankful to have spent the time visiting with family and friends.

Epic fail

I would say, "Bad blogger, no cookie," but that doesn't even begin to describe the fail that is me not posting since Nov. 5. (Also, that previous sentence had far too many commas, but I just wasn't comfortable with punctuation eradication.)

Some days I think I have something interesting to say, or have taken a picture and think Ah yes. Blog fodder. And then I go off and do something silly, like work. So here is what has happened since my previous post.

At the beginning of the month, my mom started her new job with a globally recognized company. She has since been out of state twice, which is really rather crazy. She will be back tomorrow from her latest excursion, which happens to be in Nebraska. (She is observing an installation of the sort she will be performing here in Iowa, once she has proper training.)

On Monday my aunt (my mom's sister) had surgery. It was suspected that she had ovarian cancer. Instead, the doctors found that she has a very severe case of endometriosis, which has been causing her considerable pain. (And by considerable I mean that she said the pain of surgery, with an incision all the way across her abdomen, was far less than the pain the endo was causing.) The doctors took some girly parts, and in a few months or so she will have the rest removed. There is much relief that it is not cancer; we were all very on edge.

In my show of knitterly support, I am knitting my aunt a womb. A blue one. A Blue Womb. Blue is her favorite color. I think she has enough of a sense of humor that she will laugh and know I mean it with love. I also plan to knit a large, chunky-weight shawl in a similar blue, as soon as I decide on a stitch and yarns.

Also, I am knitting a Project Which Must Not Be Named (on the blog until it is done and given). I'd like to say now that it is very important to read all of the details in the materials section of a pattern. For example, when a project calls for sock yarn and you decide on worsted because it's the right color, don't be surprised when it turns out to be ginormous. (I was surprised, so I had a gander at the pattern. Sure enough, it calls for sock yarn. Ha! That will make this project about 95 times funnier. It was planned to be a desktop item. It may well have to sit on the floor.)

Something else I fail at: NaNoWriMo. I have actually written words. I wrote 530 words of one story, then decided I hated it. I started a new story with a much cooler plot idea, and have completed a grand total of ... 40 words. Talk about epic fail.

Anyhow, I should go. Oboekönigin is coming to visit me this weekend. (And by visit I mean that I offer free lodging when she has teachery things to do in central Iowa.) I need to do a bit more laundry so my house doesn't look quite so dreadful.

I'll be back soon. Maybe there will even be pictures! (And a new blog layout. This one makes me tired. It's all narrow and stuff.)

In which I burble

Note: If you don't want to read another blog post on politics, then the first part of this post is for you. If you do, I wrote a little blurb for the end of the post.

As I mentioned last Wednesday, I joined NaNoWriMo. As of right now, my word count is 538. That's out of the 50,000 required to "win" NaNoWriMo. My problem is this: I chose a story idea that I came up with many years ago. The writing style is distinctively junior high, as is the setting of the novel. I cannot write in that style, lest I go insane. The voice is all wrong, and it's incredibly cheesy.

Thusly, I have decided to start a completely different novel. Hopefully I'll have a chance to write on it this afternoon. It's going to be a slightly different genre: fan fiction. I know that sounds strange, but apparently a few other NaNos are taking fanfic on as well. I found myself wanting to explore the backgrounds of the crew of Firefly, including that of Serenity itself.

I haven't done a whole lot of knitting yet this month. I have, however, been playing a bit of The Sims with my brother. We made a new family, whose surname is Possible. My character is Im Possible, and his is Un Possible. It's pretty funny. I also have a separate character on Get A Life (the one-player section of the game) whose name is Luna Lovegood. I'm getting pretty far, I think. I hadn't played The Sims in forever, so it's nice to derail like that.

Work is work, I suppose. Nothing new going on as yet. The choir's going pretty well, too. I've actually gotten compliments from the congregation. That's all I've got, unless you want to read about politics. Have a happy day!

Politics

I'm not particularly politically inclined, but I would like to share a few tidbits. I voted for Obama (or against McCain, if you prefer). Obama took Iowa. My county, however, was won by McCain. The most interesting part is the division of precincts. There are 10 precincts in my county, plus one imaginary precinct for absentee ballots (I call it imaginary because you don't go there on voting day; it does exist, in the county auditor's office). Of the 11 precincts, nine went to McCain. However, the precinct in which I would usually vote, W I, went to Obama. And the precinct in which my vote was counted — the imaginary precinct, because I chose to vote last Monday instead of yesterday — also went to Obama. The absentee precinct had Obama in the lead by 81 votes; the W I precinct had Obama in the lead by ten. How crazy is that?

Here ends my brief foray into politics and numbers. Hooray for democracy!

Of Quidditch, weddings and spinning

I saw a link for Muggle Quidditch the other day and thought it sounded interesting. I popped in my email address and thought, well, it says it starts Oct. 15, so I should expect an email a little before then. But nope — here's what I found in my inbox over the weekend (links intact):

Friend,

Serious trouble is afoot and Muggle Quidditch 2.0 is in danger...

How did the goblins find my trail so quickly?  When did the Ministry begin monitoring the Muggle Interwebs?  What does this mean for the future of this project?  And my future…?

Alas, there is so much to be done, and so very little time.  I have reason to suspect that any or all electronic owls I send may fall into the wrong hands, so I've encrypted my instructions and dispersed a series of clues across the globe.  Yours is below:

Part Three of my Domain
This riddle's answer does contain:

An ancient brigade, strong and true
In battle we gained our name.
As deadly Arrows around us flew,
Not a single man was slain.

So tread softly, and carry your wand at the ready. We need everyone we can get to join our cause.

Good luck, and Godspeed.

-L

Post Scriptum:
Five of five, together achieve
What one alone could not perceive.
A gambler's word, the safest bet:
Play your part on the Muggle's Net.

So clearly, this is a test of wits. I, not feeling terribly witty on a Monday such as today, copied my bit of the riddle and Googled it. My first result was this bit o' pretty, wherein I found a link to another discussion. Curiouser and curiouser.


Other than all that, the wedding singing went well. The rehearsal on Friday evening was nice. The one song I had a chance to sing then (as it was the bridal party processional) felt a lot lower than usual; I guessed my mom had forgotten to transpose it up a couple steps, which I had decided to do a couple weeks ago. (I didn't want the notes coming out all crap and growly.) So Saturday rolls around, we're getting ready to start the ceremony, and my mom switches on the keyboard and whispers, "Ok, I've got you transposed down two steps." And I looked at her, all panicked, and said,"Down?! I need it up two steps!" So crisis averted, just in time. And all was well with the world.

Finally, I did a little spinning last night. It's not the fanciest, most even spin ever, but I'm fairly pleased with it. Have a look:


Top whorl is the way to go.

Now all I have to do is finish up my crafting for the Firefly swap. I feel woefully behind on it, though I don't think I am, really. I just need to fix up my sewing skills...

Shoes.

I got new shoes last night, because I wanted my feet to look cute while I sing at the wedding tomorrow. I've got the music down, I think, though I'm going to sing with a cheat-sheet. I'm too chicken not to. Just a lyrics cheat-sheet, though; I can visualize the pages enough that it will be fine. Still a little nervous, though.

Also, I have nothing else, because I have to go deposit a newly-fixed car at my dad. He's having nicotine problems, and I have to bring his cigarettes. *headdesk*

Bordering on arachnophilia

(Note of hysteria prevention: links in this blog post will contain photos of spiders.)

My house has become a spider house ... but only on the outside.

Seriously. I have two, and now perhaps three, spiders living by my front door. There's a brown crab spider with a lovely huge web going from the east side of the house to the trash can. The only reason this makes me sad is that when I take the crash to the curb tonight, the pretty web will be broken. (Here's a link to a picture of a crab spider, xysticus, though not mine in particular.)

The spider that lives on the east side of the door is a funnel web spider. I know this because there is a web there, shaped like a funnel. Sometimes, if it's not afraid (which is rare), it will come out of the funnel-y bit and wait on the web for some food to wander by. I haven't seen this one, whom I've been calling Remus as I initially thought it was a wolf spider (before I remembered wolf spiders don't spin webs), for a few days.

I did, however, see an actual wolf spider today, near Remus' usual hiding spot. (I know it's not Remus, because Remus was missing one of its legs; the wolf spider has all eight.) Actually, I think this wolf spider is a rabid wolf spider — Rabidosa rabida.

I don't really mind spiders, apart from if they crawl on me. If I happen to spot one in the house, I catch it in a glass and let it outside. (After all, they take care of all the nasty bugs I don't want in the house.) I think probably the only spider I would have problems with would be a huntsman spider, also known as a clock spider, because they're fucking huge and scary.

I probably shouldn't go on too long about spiders, as I'll just scare Oboekönigin away from my house forever.