Absolutely nothing much to note. Really so few things of interest are going on these days it would just bore you to read about it.

We had an unbelievable storm during Tuesday’s stitch n bitch. Driving back up Greigos from Rio Grande Blvd the street was so flooded we weren’t sure the car was going to make it at some points. Good thing we have a tall baby suv type car. Later we saw there were watermarks up to the bottoms of the doors though. Skeery.

I went to get my glasses fixed at the optomotrist who reminded me that I haven’t been there since March 2004 so it’s time to get my eyeballs checked again. And we’re almost finished paying off the criminal dentist.

In knitting I’m about to finish the sixth scarf for the Think Pink charity. They’re all fuzzy and acrylic because I’d used up my wool pink yarn for the warming grace squares. I think that’s all I’m going to do. I’m impatient to start new socks.

For lack of anything else to write about I’m going to make up some lists.

How I feel right now:
lazy
tired
sleepy
ambitious
nauseated
hungry
hopeful

Movies I’ve watched the last few weeks: (bad ones and all)
Bewitched
Stage Beauty
Monster-in-Law
Invincible (2001 Werner Herzog not the 2006 one about football)
The Carpetbaggers
Deuce Bigelow European Gigolow
de-Lovely
Notting Hill
Kiss Them For Me
Walk the Line
Heaven’s Gate (director’s cut)
The Skeleton Key

Books I’ve read the last few weeks:
Blue Shoes and Happiness
The Moviegoer
The Tiger in the Well
The Shadow in the North
The Ruby in the Smoke

Things I’m going to go do when I finish this post:
eat
watch something on the Tivo
take my medicine
sleep (wish me luck)

Cody may or may not get one or more of the following things for my birthday on Sunday:
Needles
The new KnitPicks needle sets with all the additional options looks good. They’re backordered for a few weeks though.
I’ve been lusting after these handmade wooden needles for months. Aren’t they pretty?
Or maybe a set of needles with lights inside?
If these stretchy circular needles came in sizes other than 2 I’d want them too.

Bags
I’ve been eyeing this lemonade bag at Discount Yarn Sale for about a year.
But I love the new designs on the Lexie Barnes bowler bags
Or maybe I should get a Jordana Paige bag, like this cute black and pink tweed
I like this imitation Jordana bag too.
Although I’d be really happy with a cute matching set of an Acadia Backpack or Empire bag in black sushi material with a matching Denise needle set cover from Boogie!
Or maybe this cute sushi purse?

The Usual Etsy Suspects
The Morrigan Necklace
Assorted cute handmade hedgehog stuff

Fibery goodness
Maybe something from my favorite handspun fiber shops?
Hello
Material
Luxe

Today I was thinking about what I was up to this time last year. In June 2005 one of our cats, Melon, was sick. Very sick. In fact at one point I thought she was going to die in my arms right then and there. It was terrifying and in the end very expensive.

We saved some money by getting the medicine, shots, and subQ fluid accoutrements and doing the treatments myself. Force-feeding her thin wet food every four hours, putting needles under her skin to get some fluids into her, giving her vitamin and antibiotic shots, getting pills down her throat. The house was vibrating all day from some earth tamping machine for the construction behind us. It was bad.

All it took was stamina and having a stronger will than hers was to just go lie in the corner and die. With that particular illness that’s really what the best cure was: having a tenacious will and the time to feed and force pills and fluids. Those are two things I have in spades.

I found out just how tough I was. And how buoyant Melon was too. After a few weeks she started eating on her own. We experimented with all kinds of foods: baby foods, tuna with supplements, raw fish from the deli. We started buying weird crap from the exotic foods aisle and hit on a winner she would consistently eat: tinned kipper snack. Blegh that stuff is gross. But I don’t like fish unless its sushi anyway.

This morning, a year later, I woke up and she was making her little “meh” sounds at me, saying “It’s time for the wet food, Mom!” At first I was annoyed and wanted to do other stuff first - like get some damned coffee. Then I thought how great it was that she was here, bugging me for food like nothing had happened last year.

Now all three eat the canned Iams food and have access to two different dry foods that they snack on as well. They’re probably overweight. In Melon and Kurry’s cases, having both been through scary illnesses where I could feel their spines they were so skinny, they can eat all they damned well please.

In knitting news, I knit two skinny pink scarves for think pink yesterday. I have an interesting variety of pink yarn for several more. Yes there is glittery fun fur. But she said any size any material.

I’m out of materials to finish the baby hunter’s cap so that’s on a break until I have the time to get more plush yarn to make a lining for it. Lining the ugg booties went really well! I even learned the magic loop for the second one. Easy peasy. I can see the benefit of it but I think I’m going to stick to two circulars for right now.

*Holy crap I just quoted a song from Cats

I’m not going to do the one word meme that’s been going around. Because to be honest I’m afraid of the one word people would use to describe me.

But I found this other meme and it looks fun, if a little similar to one I’ve done before. But I can’t think of anything else to write about today.

Closest Blue Book Meme
1. Grab the nearest book with a blue cover.
2. Open the book to page 86.
3. Find the first full paragraph.
4. Post the text in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find, just the closest blue book.

This book was sitting flat on my desk within about four inches of my right hand so it was easy to find.

“She really knows how to write from instinct & innocence. Few women can do this. Joan Kerouac… a new writer on this old horizon. I see me & her cutting around the world in tweeds, yass…Mierschom {sic} pipes with youknowwhat in them, he he.” —Jack Kerouac

from page 87 (page 86 just has a photo) of Women of the Beat Generation

Also, this is a huge list of book titles mixed with band names.
My favorites:
Charlie Daniels and the Chocolate Factory
Horton Hears a Hoobastank
Of Mice and Men at Work
Bare Naked Lunch Ladies
The Agony and the XTC
The Scarlet Pimpernelly Furtado
Life, The Universe and Everything But the Girl
A Tale of Two Bay City Rollers
Green Day and Ham
One Fish, Two Fish, Hootie and the Blowfish
Tesla of the d’Ubervilles
Motley Crüsoe
Doctor ZhivaGoGo’s
A Kraftwerk Orange
Midnight Oil in the Garden of Good and Evil
Oliver Twisted Sister

I’ve been getting all kinds of cool mail from Mama E this week.

Firstly, I got my blue installment of sock yarn. Gorgeous as always. I really should buckle down and knit with it. Actually I’m thinking about not knitting socks with her project spectrum yarn but knitting this really cool blanket using all of it. I think? I could always use a new project I don’t have nearly enough going on.

The second mail from Mama came tonight. An email about something I never would’ve bet money that I’d be interested in but find myself really excited about: A Sock Cruise up the Pacific Coast. How fun!!!

It’s set for next April and will be going from LA to Vancouver and stopping in San Francisco for a day - at Embarcadero - like right by where Jocelyn works and..right near ArfFibers! Yaaay!

There are lots of plans on the boat for us - color theory, sock classes, and a bag of Mama E goodies included! The price isn’t that bad - 475 per person double occupancy need 200 for a deposit. I’m totally going. Just have to sell enough yarn to pay for it. I need to get back on the spinning wagon anyway I really miss it.

Let’s see if Cody wants to go too! Barry’s definitely on board with the idea.

Remember how I mentioned not needing more projects? I’ve been in a finishing mood this week. Last night I stayed up really late and finished that gypsy scarf made from a bunch of yarn I picked out at ArtFibers. It wasn’t that hard to do and strangely I think it’s one of the best things I’ve made. I love that it’s like a souvenir from my big day alone in the city. This thing looks so cool. I’ve got to get back into photographing stuff but no photos will do it justice. Really.

Tonight I’m going to finish knitting some fuzzy liners for the ugg baby booties. I decided they were really too big and instead of knitting icords for ties or creating a corset effect on the back of the shoes with extra suede yarn (both are cool solutions) I wanted the inside to be fuzzy. So I picked up the stitches at the top and have been knitting little fuzzy socks out of Berroco plush to push inside the bootie. I just finished the first liner and after following a full sock process - heel flap, gussets, toe decreases, I’ve discovered it’s just as easy to just knit a tube and stuff it in there. I’m halfway through finally watching Heaven’s Gate tonight. Kris Kristofferson is in it. Anyone that was in The Highwaymen kicks ass.

Speaking of another Highwayman, I watched Walk the Line last night. Ok. Now of course I liked the ending (yes I cried like a leetle girl) and OF COURSE I liked the music. Reese Witherspoon was great. Yeah everyone said so and it was true. But not for one second could I forget that was Joaquin Phoenix. That was a surprise. I mean, I never thought I’d get over the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio was playing Howard Hughes but I did (although I’m still afraid that I’d giggle at his beard throughout Gangs of New York so I haven’t seen that). I certainly expected to have that suspension of disbelief with Phoenix but it never happened. I just kept comparing them. He did the best he could but no. Not the same. I also kept hearing him say that line about every time he watches the weather he has to..well…if you’ve seen To Die For you know what I’m saying. I’ve never seen Gladiator and I’m pretty sure that’s for the best.

I did get a big kick out of the two small scenes with Shooter Jennings playing his dad, Waylon Jennings (yet another Highwayman). If I ever have a kid I’m totally naming it Shooter - boy or girl. The other one will be Schmuley. Schmuley and Shooter. That’s ok I used to want to name them Vincent and Thor. Aren’t you glad I’m probably not having kids now?

When I was watching the ending of the Walk The Line I was misty eyed and wondering if Cody and I could ever sing together. He’s a great singer and a pretty good guitarist. Very low voice. I decided he’d give me too much crap about my pitch and I would give him crap about what songs we played. We’re a much better programming duet. At the same moment, when the credits started he was thinking about me at work and called. I love our weird married telepathy.

I watched a live Johnny Cash performance from Montreaux in 1994 on PBS last week. That was fun. They sang Jackson.

I had such bad cramps today that I actually had to get on the big ottoman to assume a birthing position and push. I’m not even frigging kidding. Then I got in a hot bubble bath (a lovely new honey bubble bath from The Healing Garden) and read The Moviegoer for a few hours. I haven’t read that book since junior high. There are fun parts to it - New Orleans, movie references, quirky southern female characters, ennui, existentialism. There are bad parts to it - casually ingrained racism, some elements of misogyny (both of those are reflections of the time and region but they’re upsetting nonetheless), quirky southern female characters, misinthropy. The cramps are better now but they’ll be back soon I can tell.

I was thinking though..a lot of knitbloggers have been complaining about pms and cramps this week. Do you think we’re all getting on the same cycle? That’s known to happen with women who live together. Wouldn’t that be weird if it happened over the internet through daily blog reading?

Hell all the women on my dorm floor my freshman year got on the same cycle by early spring. They actually had to start getting housekeeping in to empty the garbage cans on the weekends because there was an odd smell that people just complained about it until I pointed out that we were all on the same cycle and it was the garbage in the bathrooms that smelled. You can imagine how those little Southern sorority riri’s reacted to my pointing out the fact that they had natural human functions like menstration. Oh the horror!! So, yeah housekeeping came in on the weekends and the smells were taken care of.

What’s funny is the college where that dorm is located is mentioned in The Moviegoer. Not that surprising really because Walker Percy was born in Birmingham. But fun to run across anyway.

So back to my odd thought. Like I have any other kind. Wouldn’t that be weird? If all the knitbloggers somehow drifted to having the same menstrual cycle just like we tend to do when living together? Kind of neat really. The interesting female commradery moon cycle magic of it or something.

I finished my toe up two socks on two circs last night! Yay! It was incredibly cool to finish both socks at the same time. Vppt done! No second sock syndrome. Just a pair of socks. I’m too lazy to get photos of them right now. I still have photos from the walk on Sunday in my phone waiting to post. I’m feeling awfully sluggish right now. Focusing on the house and knitting. And faux labor on my ottoman.

When I’m at the computer I’m dealing with Dyeorama issues. Very happy with the results so far. We’re at 88%. 246 out of 277 people have sent their yarn out. Not bad really. The nagging emails will begin tomorrow. Oh yes count on nagging.

It rained all night. We really need that rain here. I woke up a few times in the night. Since Cody’s gone back to work Winter has been trying so hard to meld molecules with me when we’re sleeping such that she almost pushes me off the bed. You parents to big dogs and human babies alike probably know the drill: every time you turn over the kid inches just slightly closer to you so you inch just slightly back. As the night goes on you find you’ve moved a foot or more. Sometime Wednesday night I tried sleeping sideways on the bed with my back to the pillows. I got smooshed up against the wall. The really disturbing part is her spine is about as long as mine when we’re back to back. Big dog, short lady, using 1/4 of the big king-sized bed while the cats could get the rest but usually they choose to lie on the other side or right on top of me.

Frequently I’m a Phunq/Winter sandwich with a Melon on top and a side of Kurry on a big bed of linen garnished with a whole bunch of pillows.

Don’t tell me to make the dog sleep on the floor that’s just not happening with that sad face and our owner-dog-as-child-replacement codependency. Who watched last Sunday’s episode of Huff? Did you hear Huff’s mom talk about her ridgeback sleeping in bed with her? That was cool. I love ridgeback spotting. There’s one jumping up to kiss a man in a Sheraton commercial that’s been playing too. But you have to pause to see the ridge. That caught my attention as I was fast forwarding through the commercials.

Ridgebacks seem to be getting really popular now. I know the (good) breeders view this as a mixed blessing, as that means more people will be adopting them when they don’t know what they’re getting into or they’re more likely to be bred by people who are greedy or don’t care about the health and well-being of the breed in general or the individual dog. They’re good dogs but ridgebacks certainly have their own minds about things. And that usually involves food or their “person” but usually food. I love my dog but she’s terribly spoiled, like me, and, like everyone else in the house, needs to go on a diet. I could see people thinking they’re cute but returning them if they were too “difficult” to train. And that is always such a shame.

Other than waking up three times a night to make the dog move I’m doing fine so stop worrying you people who get worried when I don’t post often enough (you know who you are). I’m just in the mood to sit on the sofa and knit. I’m in the final stretch of my toe up 2 socks on 2 circs with koigu I got for my birthday last year. Just finished the heel and I’m on the cuffs! They’re very bright festive socks, making me want to call them The Birthday Socks.

And I’ve been making a big fun fringy gypsy stole out of the various yarn I picked up at Artfibers in San Francisco. I really enjoyed that place it was cool for several reasons. I think my favorite part (aside from the incredibly cool yarn at extremely reasonable prices considering the length and content) was sitting in the seating area with the windows open onto the busy street below. It felt very urban loft chic but the sounds of the traffic below was strangely comforting too. Like a different kind of white noise than the ocean. My white noise is usually a fan, various snoring beasts, and a familiar movie. Yep, my house is a mess, I let the pets sleep on the bed, and I sleep with the tv, you wanna make something of it?

Who knew knitting in public was such a big deal? On Worldwide Knit In Public Day, everyone is encouraged to go out into the world and knit. Knit openly and freely. Scoff at the granny-callers, threaten the obnoxious with your needles, tell them that no you won’t knit a sweater for them but you might make them a scarf of some mittens sometime if they ask nicely.

The Albuquerque branch is being cohosted by Scout and Erin and will be taking place at the Flying Star on Rio Grande (the usual meeting place for the SNB) this Saturday from 9 to 11 am. I’m hoping to catch a ride to it since Mr. Man has to work Saturday night.

Whether or not I get to go I made a few buttons for the event. Yes I made that image myself as the founder requested. Feel free to take them.

I will also be walking with Ramona, Laurie, and Carole in the Susan G Komen event this Sunday. I’m hoping I can make the whole walk but I’m not kidding myself. Let’s hope we won’t be hitting 101 degrees like we did yesterday!

Only one day left in Cody’s vacation but we’re doing a lot of organizing and stuff. We’ve lived in this house since October 1998 and both tend to be slobby pack rats. So you can imagine how things build up. I’m also hell bent on fixing up the back bedroom into a proper studio craft room. I’m getting a lot of inspiration from this Flickr Group. But for right now we’re working on our closets and fixing up our shared bathroom a little. I have two big garbage bags of clothes for The Arc and will probably have at least one more by the time they come to pick up stuff next week.

Friday
Flight out of Denver was late. In my experience this is a matter of course. Oakland airport is kind of ghetto.

The look of utter and complete surprise on Jocelyn’s face when I came in the door after Chris was priceless. She had no idea. And they had spent a lot of time fixing up the guestroom for random future guests. Chris done good.

Saturday
Adela’s yarn store - damn those women were rude. I’m submitting an essay about my experience to any and every place that will take it though. I really hate thinking about how they treat people, particularly newbies who are already insecure. So I’m going to spread the word. First stop is Knitter’s Review Forum. Then the shop reviews at Knitting.about.com. To spread the good word as well I’m going to submit my great experiences at the other shops I visited in the area. In any job involving customers there’s no shortage of complaints, but the compliments can be rare so I try to send my compliments when I can too!

My first day in California and we went to a mall. I’d forgotten to bring a jacket of any kind (hey, it’s hot here at home!) and there was a 50% off clearance sale at Torrid. I found some fun things that would keep me warm in breezy San Francisco. And I got to see a hhttp://www.sephora.com store!!

We went to dinner at absolutely the best sushi place ever ever. And dudes, I’ve been to Japan. Really interesting combinations of tastes - nice fusion style which didn’t come off as pretentious that’s quite a trick. Peanut butter and jelly rolls. Holy Crap. I happily ate them while singing the peanut butter jelly time song in my head. Peanut butter jelly peanut butter jelly.

Sunday
Took the bart into SF (I was staying about thirty minutes away in Castro Valley). Saw Jocelyn’s office. Walked around the artisan markets in the Embarcadero Ferry Building. Ate crab cakes for lunch.

ArtFibers was closed. Booo.

We went to the MOMA. I saw an Eames chair, Eva Hesse sculpture, a few Ana Mendietas, Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, a particularly frightening de Kooning portrait (which is saying something), one of my favorite George Braques paintings. So many. At one point I was going around a room looking at the paintings not paying attention to what was in the center. When I came to the placard for it it said Marcel Duchamp, Fountain. I turned around and damned if the that urinal readymade signed R. Mutt wasn’t sitting right there. Fun! The exhibition on the top floor about Painting Masculinity was interesting as well. I bought some small art book toys for the ‘phew’s birthday. Which I need to mail today.

We went to Japantown. Mostly because I wanted to go to the Japanese dollar store I’d heard about (here). I’d been to Chinatown when I was a kid and apparently Chris had been there throughout his childhood since his grandmother lived there so Japantown was a different and more interesting area for us to see. That’s when we took all those photos of Barry as godzilla and stuff. It was fun. Bought some tchotchkes. Including washcloths with hedgehogs on them. For some reason there was more French Engrish than actual Engrish on the stuff there. Is that Frengrish?

We took a taxi to Fisherman’s Wharf so I could see the sea lions. Called Cody on my phone so he could hear them barking. Ate dinner at a mediocre and overpriced Italian place that overlooked the sea lions. Great mineral water and garlic bread. And at first the food would seem like it was really good. But eventually we would realize that it was bland and we were just really hungry. Took a very long ride on the bart back to their townhouse.

Monday (Memorial Day)
I slept late. Oops. After running some errands we drove down to San Jose to meet Nathania and Emy @ Commuknity. I’d heard about this shop from a variety of sources and Laurie had loved it so much I had to check it out since I was so close by. It was a fairly short drive. (This seems to be the major benefit of Castro Valley - it’s roughly 30 minutes to most places in the area).

Commuknity is HUGE with golden natural light and friendly people. Who are also nice enough to leave you to wander around by yourself to absorb the wonder but they’re nearby to answer questions in a friendly way too. Most yarn stores I know and love have a clausterphobic feel to them, which can be good when you feel like you’re being cuddled by all the yarn, or it can be bad when there are a lot of customers elbowing each other over the koigu. But Commuknity was open and somehow simultaneously warm.

That place has a great variety of yarns! I’m guessing every yarn in the Rowan catalog? And I got to see Bee Sweet yarn in person. I’ve been wanting to get my grubby hands on that. I’m such a sucker for the socially conscious southern hemisphere yarns. There’s a cozy sitting area around a fireplace with big comfy sofas and lots of books. And a separate room for classes - which is something I’m looking forward to when Village moves. I always feel so guilty skulking around the people taking lessons in weaving and spinning in the middle of the store.

It was really cool to meet new people who are participating in Dyeorama and find out how their experiences have been. Emy’s been SO GREAT about answering questions on the group blog. This idea of people helping each other was really what Scout and I had in mind when we went to the trouble of making everyone who signed up able to post to the blog. We wanted a place for people to share ideas and experiences so it was really nice to thank her in person.

This was the perfect antidote to the poison from Adela’s Yarn I really needed to spend some time in a good, friendly yarn shop and I couldn’t have asked for a better place.

Unfortunately, Jocelyn and I were too late to go by the crazy Winchester house so we went across the street (this is in a charming little shopping village in San Jose) and drank coffee and chatted for a while. Then we went back to her house and Chris grilled some tri tips for us while Jocelyn cooked my favorite “mushroom thing” over pasta. This is sort of a vegetarian version of beef stroganoff made with sauteed mushrooms, yogurt, and a TON of butter that she made up when we were roommates in college. I’ve never really been much of a cook. Even then.

Tuesday
Was my big day alone in the city. Jocelyn had to work (which is a bummer because this was her birthday) and I really didn’t want to spend the whole day sitting around their house. So I rode with her on the Bart train and got off at the second exit to the City - sort of near Union Square. But I’m going to write a whole separate post about that because there’s a whole lot to say about that day.

We did end up going out to dinner at a nice new French restaurant and I gave Jocelyn her two presents (a purse and wallet from Etsy don’t look Joce there are prices!).

Wednesday
I bummed around the house, took a jaccuzi bath (so jealous of this), did a load of laundry, packed. Jocelyn took the second half of the day off to drop me off at the airport. We got a bit lost but I made it to the plane. Got really delayed coming out of Denver again. Didn’t make it to Albuquerque until very, very late.

Cody’s been off this week so we’ve been doing a lot of organizing projects around the house. And a lot of sleeping and cuddling with the pets. Seems I was missed a lot.

I’m still working on the post about my big day by myself in San Francisco!

Yep we are home. Poor Barry is sooooo tired and his little stumpy legs hurt from all the walking. We’re not used to that much walking. But I’d forgotten how cool it was to be in a city with good public transport. And I hadn’t been to SF in twenty years - when I was fourteen. Of course the main focus was on just hanging out with Jocelyn but there was lots of yarn store visiting too. I had some great suggestions from Scout’s readers on where to go. I’m working on a big post about everything I saw but, as they say on Cute Overload, soooo tie-tie.

Also, my parents are visiting in a month to be here on my birthday so there’s some preemptive panic cleaning going on.

The flight home