Things that rock...

Happy freakin birthday to ME!! BBE got me the coolest stuff for my grand ole 34th.

Some books...

Yesh! My fave from the paper...


Can you believe I didn't have it yet?? Neither could BBE!

Some tunes...

I love me some chill & lounge!

BUT THE BEST... was my sweet, sweet new shuffle.



See, I LOVE my iPod. It has 80G of space and currently has almost 8,000 songs on it. Also, it is kind of bulky. I have had some near-disasters when clipping it to my running shorts, on accounta how it is a bit heavy. Ifyouknowwhatimean. Andithinkyoudo.

So my Best Boyfriend EVER got me a sassy lil number in my favorite color of late, orange, that holds just enough music to keep me running or walking or whatever, for a couple weeks without having to swap for new songs.

How great is he??



In honor of my new lil shuffle, here's another iPod meme...

Here's how you do it, you shuffle your tracks and write the first line of each of the first 20 songs. If anyone can get them all (you are on your honor to not Google) I will send you a groovy prize of some sort. Heck, I'll even say if anyone can get 12 or more of them... (I did have to cheat a little 'cause I have a lot of world music in languages I can't understand, and I hadda skip those.)

1. Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you
2. Bre-e-e-athe
3. Some store, I'm not going back there anymore
4. In pitch dark I go walking in your landscape
5. They found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed
6. My gal is red hot
7. Well they call me Hanging Johnny
8. Well nobody wants to burn in hell, but everybody's got a soul to sell
9. You fill up my senses like a night in the forest
10. Well ask if we can have 6 in, if not we'll have to have 2
11. Pain is good, it's all I know
12. No petrol in the car, no pennies in the jar
13. The horizon breaks to pieces
14. This is the story of a famous dog (for the dog that chases it's tail will be busy)
15. Freezing, rests his head on a pillow made of concrete
16. What do you feel when you look into my eyes, baby?
17. The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling
18. Following the silent hedges, needing some other kind of madness
19. Oh so all my lovin' goes
20. I've heard the sound of my dear old Mama cryin'

I feel pretty safe on this one, I gotta tell ya.

Today

What do the following things have in common (answer in Black and White at the end of this post).

1. Selenium
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. Kansas
4. Location of a 1947 Christmas Miracle
5. The ninth biprime (and 9th Fibonacci)
6. Istanbul's Traffic Code
7. Me, today

Give up?
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<

This week

Has had few flowers... I am so busy lately that I haven't snapped a single flower picture. How sad am I?

But luckily, Vicki is posting them. And her first one was an oldie but a goodie, so I decided I would do the same.

Here are some flowers I loved from my MD days:







Some great stuff has been going on, I will try to brag about it in a future post. In the meantime, here are some great pics from the last Arts n Drafts...







And my BBE and I hanging at a recent show:

Anyone up for another flower week?

It has been a couple of years since we did a flower week... Anyone up for it, what with the May flowers and all?

I am going to start next Monday (5/21). I will do my best to find and snap a pic of a flower ever day for 5 days. Who's with me?

In knitting news it has been a whole week and tonight is again Arts 'n' Drafts at Rio Rita's! I can hardly wait.

As promised, here is a pic of the progress on the crocheted Blizzard shawl:


From the book Scarf Style by Pam Allen

I am using Rowan's Polar, which doesn't quite knit up to gauge, so is producing a more manageable shawl (I hope). The versions I have seen in the blogosphere have been ginormous.

Also, I haven't finished laddering up the sock w/ the pesky dropped stitch, but luckily my anal process for socks allowed me to pick up the defective socks brother and get busy:



Lastly, in almost new house news... (That's another story that isn't funny yet, so I am letting it age.) I have been looking for a new couch. My sweetest BBE finds it very tiring work:

Pirates, bikes, and enabling

The weekend started off right with some pirate action. A friend of mine is a CSI in Austin, and this last week was "city employee appreciation week." She was a doll and invited me and a few other friends along to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest in Zilker Park on Friday evening.



On Saturday, I rode the Danskin bike course with my training group. We had to be at Decker Lake ready to ride at 7 am.


(this is what "way too early" does to my otherwise poised and polished look (bwahahahaha))


Here we are, halfway done, getting some advice on our anaerobic capacity and how it relates to the hill coming up (short version: it will kick our ass, so be prepared).

After the 12 mile bike ride, Rachel wanted to bounce some ideas off me re/ her clapotis. (Isn't the yarn LOVELY??)

On Saturday afternoon, I started to fix this:

I dropped a stitch about a mile away from the current progress. Should I ladder it up or just tack it down w/ some spare yarn? Any thoughts?

Sunday was for swimming. There will be NO pics of that. But I did get a good workout in, and then at home w/ my BBE I started a new project. Which is RIDICULOUS. But I will post pics of that tomorrow.

Between swimming and startitis, I made a quick trip to my LYS to help a new knittin pal get some gear for two new projects. Maybe she will post about them in Ravelry (hint, hint, if you're out there, R). I showed remarkable restraint at the wall of Koigu. Also in the bins of angora. Side note: I would REALLY like a bed made of a silk/angora blend.

ipod meme

I love my ipod. When I saw this meme on Jenna's blog ages ago, I couldn't wait til I got all my cds in to try it. I still have about 20 compilations to get in, but I have 30 gigs, so the random factor should be ok... The deal is, you put your ipod on shuffle and "next" through to answer each of the questions. Thanks, Jenna!

How am I feeling today?
Paranoid – Black Sabbath (hahahahaha)
Will I get far in life?
Scatterbrain. (As Dead As Leaves.) - Radiohead (um.
this is a no, maybe?)
How do my friends see me?
Just Can’t Get Enough – Depeche Mode (well, really.
who can?)
When will I get Married?
Is You is or is You Ain’t My Baby? – Dinah Washington
(i think this one is maybe about when i WAS
married...)
What is my best friend's theme song?
Let Him Fly – The Dixie Chicks (awwww. so sad!)
What is the story of my life?
Sweet Young Thing Ain’t Sweet No More - Mudhoney
(hahahahaha)
What was high school like?
Nearly Lost You – Screaming Trees (let's see,
melodramatic? check. grungy? check. sounds about right
on.)
How am I going to get ahead in life?
Sweet Soul Music – Arthur Conley (cause sweet soul
music is the answer to pretty much everything)
What is the best thing about me?
So Far Away – Carole King (the best thing is that i am
far away? AWWWW)
How is today going to be?
Can't Stop the World - the Go-Go's (i have had a lot
of those days lately)
What is in store for this weekend?
Soba Violence – Beastie Boys (um. i would like a
do-over on this one please)
What song describes my parents?
Desert Heat – Nitin Singh (they DO live in Phoenix...
eeeeerie!)
What song describes your grandparents?
Don’t Ever Leave Me – Connie Francis (i just might
cry.)
How is my life going?
Idea Machine – Trans Am (yeah. lots of ideas, very
little follow thru)
What song will they play at my funeral?
The Way You Want It - Keane (hm. i think i wanna
do-over on this one, too)
How does the world see me?
Jumpin’ Someone Else’s Train – The Cure (hahahahahaha)
Will I have a happy life?
Even the Losers – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (see?
even the losers can be happy)
What do my friends really think of me?
Hollywood Swinging – Big Boys (cause that's how i roll)

Arts n Drafts!

There's a new crafty meetup in Austin: Rio Rita's Arts and Drafts!

The best part about it is that ALL crafts are welcome... And they really do show up! Last night, Trey was sanding down steel handles that he had welded for his handmade barbeque pit! His friend, Shanti, was crocheting an afghan, 4 or 5 of us were knitting, Donya was weaving a basket, Mimi was doing needlepoint... Other visitors have taken a seat and started beading, quilting, or even printmaking (on a Gocco).

Here is my very blurry shot of Donya showing Shanti how a basket handle is made...


And here are Ramona, Rachel, and Mimi very engrossed in their needlearts:


Ramona is making a basketweave scarf out of Rowan's Polarspun, Rachel is making a Kitty Pi from some Noro, and Mimi is needlepointing a small stocking in multicolored thread (it is gorgeous). You can see my Clapotis on the edge of the table. I am working it in the undroppable Brooks Primero.

So far, it is impossible to just "drop" the stitches (rather, one must sort of fling them) and it sheds so much that I may never wear it. But it is fun to knit. The yarn is gorgeous, the pattern is easily memorized and even picking stitches out of mohair has its meditative quality.

Anyone else ever knit anything functionally ridiculous (and love every minute of it)?

Appletinis, crackers, and pie: a MDS$W recap

First off, I bought some stuff. But overall I did a pretty good job of sticking to my budget. One of these years I am going to go w/ cash and see how I really do.


Some Brooks Duet


The dreamy Tess Laceweight... what a great marketing ploy: gradient grab bags!


Of COURSE some sock yarn.

Other items that didn't make the photoshoot: Some festival schwag, a Sheep to Shoe kit (damn you, Jess, for saying they aren't available online... I was *so close* to not buying any fiber... but thank you for saying it, too, cause I love love love my colorway), a nostepinne for my drop spindle work (can someone please tell me how to pronounce that), and some gifts for friends. I love to enable.

But the fiber (imho) isn't even half the fun. It's the people.

1. Mini meetup part deux, 2. Awww. A lil breakfast kumbaya, 3. Ladies, show me your socks!, 4. Rossana and Lara get down w/ some lamb pita, 5. Lara, Paula, and Betsy at Bob Evans, 6. How many blog pics are being taken here?, 7. That's what friends are for, 8. Betsy and Jess at Breakfast, 9. Spinning right off the rabbit

And the VERY best part? Getting to hang with my best knitty pal:


(Maybe you had to be there...)

I can't wait for next year!

Not even gonna try to catch up

I know, its been ages. I heard all about it from at least one someone while at good ole MDS$W.

Yep, I made it out there owing to a carefully-timed last-minute work trip. I have the usual host of funny pics and new stash... But I won't be throwing them up today.

I have also finished a couple of things...


The Short n Sweet from the Happy Hooker


Some new wristers based on my ribbed mitts pattern (but without all the ribs, so the colorway gets center stage)


A new pattern, my Valentines fingerless gloves. I am not sure if I will ever write this up nicely, but if I do, I might want to sell it here... Would anyone out there pay $3 for a pdf of this saucy lil number?

So, I am moving (still in Austin) and doing Triathlon again this year, and travelling a LOT for work, and blah blah blah... All of these things have kept me from the blog. But there is a new toy in town that will maybe get me BACK to the blog...

RAVELRY!

It really is great, but it still isn't completely wide open for sign ups. I know this is a drag, but Jess and Casey have other jobs, and it wouldn't be so very great if they weren't devoting every minute of their spare time to it already. Please be patient with them... Trust me, the party will still be going on when everyone gets there. In the meantime, shoot me an email if you have any questions about the site. I am not an expert, but have been spending a bit too much time there already.