Our Tivo seems to have fixed itself. Not entirely sure how this happened but I turned on the tv and it was working. Maybe that last attempt at hard rebooting it by unplugging it from the power strip did it. The little internal tivo modem seems to be working fine despite what the tech support woman said. So that’s good. Clearly we really desperately missed the Tivo since it hasn’t worked since June and might have been working for the last two weeks right?

I don’t do much tv watching in the office so hopefully when Mr. Man wins the tivo for his City of Heroes movie I can get one in the den and use it a whole lot.

Last night they showed “My Own Private Idaho” then “Napoleon Dynamite” on Cinemax. Connection? They both take place in Idaho - well some of MOPI takes place in Idaho but it also has scenes in Rome, Portland, and Seattle. It’s kind of fun trying to figure out what kind of themes are in programmers’ subconscious. Or maybe this was a planned theme? Who knows.

I’ve always believed that my ideal job would be writing the movie synopses for Direct TV and movie guides. Anyone know how one goes about getting this job?

Does anyone else feel like demanding they have their old A&E channel back? I thought it was supposed to be television for history and architecture nerds, not people who enjoy watching drunken fools try to board airplanes and bounty hunters with terrifying hair. I see no Arts or Entertainment in watching employees of a mortuary make repeated failed attempts at quitting smoking, I did enough of that on my own before finally succeeding (so far). And while I’m on the subject I don’t see the biographical relevance of “Murder She Wrote” so why is it on the Biography channel? I know this is silly but goddammit I want my America’s Castles back! If I wanted to watch reality tv I wouldn’t be paying sixy plus bucks a month for satellite tv, I’d be watching locally broadcast channels wouldn’t I?

Oh and I was reading a series of posts on fun fur hate and entertained myself for fifteen minutes by ripping off the old pro-choice bumpersticker and making a few buttons.

To be honest I don’t get the fun fur hate. I’ve used it twice and have a bunch waiting to be made into little hedgehogs, and believe me, fun fur is perfect for making little hedgehogs. But apparently there are lots of people who just love to hate on the fun fur. And it’s annoying to me with all the snark about it everywhere that I have to feel defensive over what kind of friggin yarn I choose to knit with. That’s just silly!

I understand that people have their different tastes in yarn - for tactile and aesthetic (not to mention financial or allergic) reasons. And hey, they have every right to pick and choose what kind of yarn they’re going to use. It’s their hobby and they should enjoy what they’re doing. But that doesn’t mean they get to dictate what other people do with their time and money.

I took this hobby up because I wanted it to be fun. I don’t plan on joining the knitting olympics and have no intention of knitting for anyone’s approval. I probably will submit a few things to the NM state fair just for the hell of it. And, egads, it might even be a funfur hedgehog in the toy category.

I just don’t understand this tendency for people to feel superior to others for what yarn they use, what food they eat, or, for that matter, their comparative body fat ratio. It’s fine to have personal standards, I can understand that but why the need to force yours on other people? To me it smacks of insecurity in the same way that people who are insecure in their religious faith feel the need to force it on others.

If you were really secure in your weight, food habits, yarn choices, or religion you wouldn’t really need to discuss other peoples’ would you? Just a (cranky) thought.

Now, feeling superior to people for their political beliefs or intelligence? That’s another matter! Just kidding. Mostly.

While similar to being a cute animal dork I consider being a hedgehog dork a different thing. Anything involving hedgehogs makes my heart go “squee!” Especially when it involves kittens too.

And yes that is the Every time you masturbate God kills a kitten Cliche Kitty!

bahahahaha!

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

I wouldn’t exactly consider myself ambitious.

This is probably a good time to mention that there have been moments when reading the series that I’ve imagined him to be a tall deeply-smoothly voiced well-dressed sexy kind of villian. Like in a Lestat (the book and Stuart Townsend version not the travesty that was the Tom Cruise sans any kind of French accent version) kind of way. Or really more like the bad guy in The Crow: disturbing, but sexy. I have to also admit that try as they did getting Alan Rickman to be slimy his inherant sexiness still comes through Snape.

Yes I always preferred Gargamel and especially Ariel to the Smurfs too. And I think it’s amusing that in some ways Mr. Man has a very similar profile to a serial killer - with the major exception that he possesses an almost superhuman amount of empathy. And I like that my dog kind of scares the shit out of people at first but is actually floppier and goofier than a three month old puppy. But is still quite protective of her mommy.

It’s all about layers, ladies and gentlemen.

from two of my favorite quiz sources: SnarkyStacy and PsychoAmy

For those of you just joining me: Finished Object Friday is a thing I made up where I show photos of something new that I knit or crafted in some way.

Why I chose to make this on Fridays? No idea really. I think I just liked the alliteration. And people often associate Fridays with good things.

Feel free to join! Grab one of these buttons, or not. Or make your own. (if you send them to me I’ll put it up here I’ll even host the image for ya!)

You can link to me or not. If you do I’ll be able to find it and will be excited to see your stuff too. Or post your FO or link to your blog in the comments. I’ll add your links to the posts too.

It’s not about cliquiness or anything. It’s just about being proud of your creations and sharing them with nice people.

That said. On to my FO of the week.

I’ve been sticking to the quicker, simpler projects lately for some reason. Things like last week’s little booties, hat, and flower pin. I’ve been enjoying having a “project a day”, makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something. But they’re little projects, so small that by the time I think about adding a project to the “Currently knitting” list on the sidebar that I’ve usually finished it. But I don’t always remember to update my sidebar things, as you can probably tell.

Even though I have several finished projects today I’m only going to show two FOs today though. Gotta save the others for the more ambitious weeks when I don’t have anything else finished by Friday.

FO one: A seriously funky hat.

How friggin cool is this thing? I feel like Huggy Bear. It makes me want to have big white girl dreds so I can shove them inside and have some dangling down. It is the perfect funk music dred sack. And it’s in a wool blend so it’ll be warm in the winter!

And cute ON Winter!

The brim is stiff because it’s felted. And don’t let the photos deceive you the crown is BIG and STRETCHY!

There are a lot of other photos in the flickr set.

The details: This was knit using two skeins of Lion Brand Landscapes in “Desert Spring”. I got the pattern from Stitch Diva Studios. It’s one of three great hat patterns in their Girly Couture Collection. And it only took a few hours. The most time was waiting for the brim to dry. The knitting was really easy. Sewing the brim on was a bit of a challenge but once I worked out the best shape and place to sew it on and got it safety pinned on it was fairly simple using some clear nylon thread.

The other FO: another felted bag with bamboo handles. I consider the hat and purse a set since they’re from the same yarn.

I used the same JoAnn pattern I did before. Here’s an interesting photo of the old finished purse with the new one before felting.

And after felting.

As you can see I knit this one a little bigger than the first one - which measures about six inches tall and eight inches wide.

A lot of people don’t like the way Landscapes felts because it’s 50% wool and 50% acrylic but I like the weird little slubs of color. It adds a unique texture but still has the thickness and durability of felted wool.

I used the clear nylon thread to finish this one too. And added another tacky and funny lining from Joann’s fat quarter sale stacks.

Other things I finished but won’t show yet: finished the fiesta shoulder scarf, a weird neck tube in my grape kool aid yarn, and I’ve also been knitting some dishcloths for Cody’s great aunt who we’re going to visit on her farm in Socorro next week.

So what do you think of today’s FOs? You want my hat don’t you?

I have been a cute animal dork as long as I can remember. I am unable to see cute photos of puppy tummies on my computer without doing little virtual tummy pokes by placing my cursor on the photographed tummy and clicking while saying “poke! poke! poke!”

I am now a yarn dork. I actually saw this yarn then put my hand up on the monitor to “pet” it.

Just wanted to drop a quick note thanking you for always being so pleasant to us and not verbally speculating on the stranger regular contents of our cart.

I’d be happy to explain what all those cans of unsalted green beans, tins of kipper snacks (of which I believe we are probably the only purchasers), the twenty dollars’ worth of ten cent each kool aid packets, all that yogurt, the oven mitts, and the disposible rubber gloves were for.

But you never say anything to us about them, nor do you comment on why we make our major grocery shopping trips around six or seven in the morning. You just seem to be happy that we’re so much peppier and more polite than the usual early morning shopper.

And you were so nice about how we were keeping up with the Kroger worker’s union negotiations.

Just thought you should know that I really appreciate it.

~~Noelle

a quizmeme on a weekday! I (arbitrarily) rebel against my own (arbitrary) rules!

In other words, just enough to (mostly) know what my husband is talking about. And Mom and Dad too. And my sister. I’m in a family of geeks I fought it as long as I could.

Found at Stacy’s

So the great two-color dirty blondish foil job I got while I was in B’ham over Christmas is long, long faded and the insidious grey hairs were showing again. I picked up some stuff at the walgreens yesterday and dyed my hair last night. I kept it on for about 40 minutes since I wanted it a little lighter than my natural tone. Going lighter seems to blend with the greys better. The color was called “firelight” and it’s pretty auburn-y.

I had the camera on zoom when I was trying to get a shot of my hair so I got some amusing extreme closeup self-portraits. And photos of a silly hat I bought from a cart in the mall Saturday night. Yeah, errands included the semi-annual trip inside Cottonwood to get a bunch of handsoap. I figure if I’m going to be using this stuff upwards of thirty times a day (between pet food handling, gross tinned kipper snack serving, hairball cleaning, and the usual potty breaks it really is about that) I’m going to use a soap that makes me happy.

Phunq was looking very cute on the sofa blanket so I had to get the camera for that. He’s an excellent poser (but never a poseur).

Noticing that someone else was getting attention Melon had to put a stop to that meeped at me (well, more like ee-ed at me) until I took photos of her posed on the sofa arm. It was when the photo was loaded into the computer that I saw this photo had supernaturally exposed her true origins.

As you can see from the non-satanic origin exposure photo that the shaved bands on her legs are regrowing her fur nicely. As is the spot on her neck where a huge clot of fur fell out and the places they shaved on her inner thighs. She’s still only eating disgusting tinned kipper snack and some Science Diet Sensitive Stomach dry food but seems to still be doing fine.

Mr. Man has definitely fixed the swamp cooler now. It’s actually getting cold in the house at night, like where I want to put on clothes and get under a blanket!

Since she’s pretty cold natured one of Winter’s favorite summertime activities is lying on the floor in the afternoon sun.

The dog bed in the den got too ratty to keep so for now she gets to use a Haring blanket ironically given to me by my in-laws for Christmas one year. Ironic because the in-laws aren’t exactly gay friendly folks and they wouldn’t know Keith Haring, iconic pop artist who donated a great deal of his art for aids activism and research and who eventually died from aids-related complications in 1990, from a Modligiani. And I’m fairly sure it came from Wal Mart which makes me wonder if this was licensed or an outright ripoff. In any case, Winter likes it because it keeps the carpet from rubbing her elbows.

I realized the other day that she’ll be four years old next month and got kind of sad that some senior dog foods say they’re for ages five and up. But she’s still a puppy!

Who waits very patiently for her greenie in our tacky orange kitchen.

Then eats it in forty-five seconds flat.

What the hell do they put in those things?

Well I finally found the time to sit and read the whole damned book. And the character I thought might be the one whose death we were all warned about did indeed die. And I still teared up because I’m a big SAP who takes very very long baths.

I’ve been listening to Spinal Tap a lot lately. These guys are geniuses. On our way to the in-laws dinner (at an Italian restaurant called Zios that is probably a chain but is still pretty tasty so you can stfu ye chain snobbies out there) we decided to “gird our loins” by listening to “Workin on a Sex Farm”. Put me in a great mood and politics only really came up once! Yay!

To mourn the loss of any more Dead Like Me episodes I got season one and two on dvd. I can live with that.

Our Tivo broke sometime in June and I finally got around to calling tech support last week. Turns out our modem got fried. The only damned thing in the office without a surge protector. So we get to shell out 50 bucks and get a replacement shipped from Direct TV. But it’s better than 250 at Best Buy. Now I just have to get around to calling them back to order the actual replacement because I said I had to talk with Mr. Man first.

The Life Aquatic was ok. Not Rushmore and certainly not The Royal Tennenbaums (still haven’t seen Bottle Rocket) but, as always, Wes Anderson movies grow on me over time and get me obsessed with whatever music is on the soundtrack. In my defense, who wouldn’t love Portuguese David Bowie covers, or Nico, or The Faces? But do I think Owen Wilson’s absence in writing the script in Aquatic shows.

Oh yeah, and
BIG BOTTOMS, BIG BOTTOMS
Talk about Mud Flaps MY GIRL’S GOT EM!

Since I still haven’t gotten the baby sweater to the cousin in-law and I had a whole ball of the sirdar baby yarn leftover I decided to knit a few extra things. I’m probably going to set the organic cotton layette stuff aside to give to another pregnant cousin. I’m surrounded by them these days so I know I’ll have to wrap something for another shower present soon. This one’s still getting the peepee teepees though since they’re pretty sure it’s a boy.

The booties and hat are from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Both patterns are easyeasyeasy and look great.

The booties were made using an interesting double knit pattern where I alternate slipped stitches and knit stitches for about two inches then put the alternating stitches on two different double pointed needles then it just opens up into an inside-out toe. Nice way to knit in the round with just two regular needles. And I think it might help me get over the hurdle that’s causing my current sock knitting hate too.

The hat is a basic pattern with several options you can add on. To match the sweater I chose the garter stitch brim and since it looked a bit big for a newborn I made a small cuff. But it’s not sewn in or anything just folded that way.

The flower pattern just came to me because I’ve been seeing crocheted flower pins all over the place and since I’m still not really getting the crochet method I wanted to find a knit pattern. And I *still* had half a ball of yarn and thought this might finally use it all up, which it pretty much did. I found this cute knit flower pattern and made one really big version of it and one about the size of the pattern. Then sewed on a smaller wooden button that matches the huge one on the kimono and attached it to a pin I’d bought at Michael’s the other day. Voila! A present for the mum as well.

To be honest I have no idea whether she’ll like any of it at all. This is a very tiny, very young woman (20 if she’s a day) and, well, let’s just say she has a decidedly different fashion philosophy from mine. So handknit nubby neutral English yarn is likely not her thing. But I can’t help reminding myself that her husband’s mother is the one who took the time to show me how to cast on and do a knit stitch, which started me on this knitting odyssey so this is really for that aunt.

I also took photos of the rest of the birthday presents and added them to the birthday photo set. It’s mostly carefully arranged still lifes with yarn, or as I like to call it..yarn porn.

I also took an artfully arranged photo of the my kool aid yarn in pretty balls.

And a few photos of Meg teaching Jenny how to spin at the most recent Knit Night. Meg has posted some photos as well (including me in my blue sweater!) and hopefully Jeannie will post the ones she took too. We all remembered our digicams this time

Sort of a busy weekend again. A few errands to run, I’m going to try dropping by another knitting group I’ve heard about on Saturday and there’s a twice-delayed birthday dinner with the in-laws. And there’s much kool aid and undyed yarn to be introduced to each other too.

The swamp cooler seems to be fixed. It needed a new fan belt. Seems to be but it’s certainly not working up to it’s potential with this crazy humidity in the 20s. lol I know everyone in the more humid climes are laughing their asses off now. But dammit. This is the desert, most of our coolers use waterlogged pads and a big ass fan to cool our houses. When there’s humidity and almost 100 degree heat our little evap coolers just make our houses into very large steam rooms.