So this pink thing that’s been going on. It can pretty much all be traced back to the pink ipod. No, I did not win it from Gratis networks. I tried but in the end got impatient and started feeling, well, kind of dirty for even asking for people to sign up to get me one. We all have our odd ethical boundaries and that one was just one toe over my line. Funny, I have no qualms about affiliate programs and ads out the yinyang but for some reason asking for free stuff was was more than I was comfortable with. Go figure.

Anyway, when Cody got a bonus at work for a program he wrote he bought me a little pink ipod and even took advantage of the Apple store’s free engraving to get a line from one of our songs engraved on the back. It felt a lot better getting it that way and he had enough left over from the bonus to treat himself as well
I haven’t had the opportunity to use it much the last two months. I know, I’ve been really bad about not going to the gym don’t remind me. But it really came in handy on the planes and at my parents’ house at Christmas though. I’d tagged all the holiday music and brought a small pair of speakers that had a headphone jack connection (I believe Cody had bought them for ten bucks somewhere) and we got to listen to a pretty nice shuffle of holiday tunes during dinners and while we opened our presents. I’m not much of an audio snob when it comes to quadrophonic stereophonic sound (Seriously, I don’t need a big bassline it usually makes me kind of queasy) so the cheap speakers work fine for me rather than the little white 175 dollar jobbies sold to match the ipods.

Last night we had to go back down to Los Lunas to work on a computer that’s been giving an aunt some trouble and I remembered to take my little pink ipod along for the forty minute ride. We use a simple tape player converter that was originally bought for a cd walkman to listen to our mp3 players in the car - that whole fm transmitter thing just seems to be more trouble than its worth when this works just as well without the signal issues.

I know it doesn’t hold as many songs as a regular ipod or photos and stuff like the media one. But I love my little pink ipod. And I do not feel dirty for telling you about this: I saw a promotional thing going on where if you sign up at my lancome you might win one of 90 pink ipod minis. Apparently they’re giving ten away every day for the next nine days. I don’t think you have to buy anything - just create a membership there. Now I have no idea what the odds are or anything but I figure if you really want a pink ipod it’s worth a shot. And I’m not going to sign up because I already have one and I just don’t think I need another one. So there’s one less competitor anyway
More girliness

The aunt we were going to see is the official crafty aunt of the bunch. She’s the one that always gives lovely handmade gifts at the annual girls’ ornament party and is always working on some kind of project or another. In fact the last time I’d seen her was in November during one of Cody’s grandfather’s health scares (thankfully he’s doing better these days) and she was crocheting a big blanket in the waiting room at the hospital.

So I brought my little bag of knitting stuff in the hopes she’d teach me how to do this thing.

I’m so jealous of all these knitbloggers! Last January I’d bought a little kiddie “learn to knit” kit when Cody was out of town but just couldn’t figure out the right moves on my own. There’s something about the depth of field in the drawings that just wasn’t coming across to me. And I find that I get really anxious about putting my hands just so and doing it exactly right. But without a three-dimensional reference for it I just couldn’t help second-guessing how I was doing it. My grandmother was a quilter so I have a funny instinctual knowledge of how to quilt, and mom had us making all kinds of crafts when were were kids. But I just never learned to knit. I’d gotten Stitch n’ Bitch and Stitch n’ Bitch Nation from Cody for Christmas. He seems to really want me to learn to knit - he’d even read up on what I needed for a beginner’s kit and helped me pick it all out when we went to the store last week. Apparently he wants to wear a big ugly sweater. Hehe no he just seems to think I’d really enjoy it. Jocelyn and I have designated this condition as oddly sweet.

Even with the great descriptions in Stitch n Bitch I still just wasn’t getting it. I knew that I’d have to have someone show me in person and last night was a perfect opportunity. Apparently the aunt hadn’t knitted in years but she took a few minutes with the Stitch n Bitch book (a name she loved by the way) and after refreshing her memory she showed me two very important things: how to cast on and the basics of knitting a swatch. And I got it! Once I felt how to do it correctly - not worrying too much about where to hold the yarn but just to see and feel how it’s supposed to go together - it made perfect sense! Yaay!

And my latest netflix movies got in too! So today I’m going to watch the final dvd of Brideshead Revisited and Wimbledon (trying to fight the urge to slap the shit out of Kirsten Dunst) and knit a really long scarf-looking thing. I don’t know how to bind off or anything about purling but by gum I wanna practice what I can do and make sure I never forget! Man, if only I’d thought of this before I quit smoking! I’m very excited though! I get to be a punk rock femiknitter!