aw, shucks

Thanks, you guys for being so supportive. Really, I wasn't fishing for compliments. I know I am not a bad knitter, and I wish I just had more time to practice.

Where I failed in Police tickets (so far), I succeeded in Loreena McKennit tickets. I'm taking my mom. So psyched.

I did end up finding the Departed at Borders--a couple days after it came out. Everyone probably bum-rushed the stores in case we got a ton of snow. (We didn't, but it was cold and messy.) We still haven't watched it yet. I know, I know... Infernal Affairs is great, so it's not like I don't know what happens. We are going to the movies on Sunday, and it's still playing in Boston. Or we might see Children of Men (thanks Bob!). Or Letters from Iwo Jima. We'll see.

Taking a break with Terry Pratchett (thanks Liz!), and reading a vaguely trashy British mom lit called Yummy Mummy by Polly Williams. It's awful and totally engaging, like the Shopaholic books. What's even funnier is that I know a Polly Williams, and this is so not her.

Tak is doing a talk tomorrow at UMD, so what did I do? Shop for yarn like an imbecile. Like I need more? Actually, I've been seriously coveting this Lexie B. bag in Baja, and was debating whether to buy it from WEBS or kpixie. I'm hoping kpixie has a store front so I can go look at it, because I am NOT going to Webs (yet). Now I'm just waiting for Owen to wake up to come in the big bed.

Note: links will open in a separate window. Hope that's OK. I lost my sticky note with the code so links do not open in a new window, and I'm too lazy to hunt through blogger's help menu. thanks!

will knit (poorly) for Police tickets

I had it in my head to call this post Driven to Tears, but I have better things to talk about than being one of the many to not get Police tickets. But still...I've seen Sting live on his first solo tour, and Stewart Copeland with Animal Logic at the Living Room in Providence (with Bob), so it would be nice to see them all together with Andy Summers. And ticketmaster is being stingy (sorry, it's a really appropriate word) with tickets. The shows aren't sold out, but tickets are not available now. oops, I'm kvetching. Onward & upward...

Coke & Nestle have come out with a new line of calorie-burning drinks called Enviga. I tried the green tea one, and it was OK at first but very quickly went bad. Blech. Maybe it's a calorie burner because it upsets your tummy so you don't want to eat anything else. And it has enough caffeine in it that now I'm wide awake.

Tak asked me to knit some little hats & scarves for an upcoming photo shoot for the Dig, which was a ton of fun. I got to test drive my Valley Yarns from Webs & my new ebony Lantern moon needles.

Since I've been knitting for a whole year, I've come to realize that although I like it, I'm not very good. Not that I let my ineptitude stop me. And I'm still trying to learn more new things--like cables, which are still not so easy for me--and continental style.

No knitting tonight, though. Work has left me feeling achey in the mouse-arm and leg joints, so I'm going to try to sleep. Thin Mints didn't help the achiness, but they did help my upset tummy. And yay! to Edy's ice cream for not only making Girl Scout cookie ice cream, but using "Samoas" instead of "Caramel deLites." They will always be Samoas to me.

How do I love thee?

Happy V-day everyone! I know I should probably do something gushy, but... I'm at work. Here's the best news, though, that I can finally sort-of broadcast since it's been leaked via Angry Asian Man: Tak's comic is in the process of going daily.

Just finished Terry Prachett's Wee Free Men, and I'm hooked. Good Omens is one of my all-time favorite books, and this is my first (and successful) foray into Prachett's Discworld.

The Departed came out yesterday on DVD, and it seems to be sold out everywhere in Boston. What a shocker!

Yet another reason to love Google: Its weather is currently describing the weather here as "light ice pellets," which is the most accurate one I've seen today.

Enjoy!

NO... Sleep...for Cranky

We watch quite a bit of Thomas the Tank engine at our house. The other day I got out a DVD from the library with the story about Cranky. It doesn't even matter now what it's really called, because once we sang the title to the tune of "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn," that's what it'll be known as now. Owen ran around the other night yelling "NO... SLEEP...for CRANKY," and he hasn't even heard the song yet.

leopardmonster

I was going to wait until Wiley's birthday, when he and his sister Cloud turn 12! If you want to see more photos of Wiles, click on the flickr button, and he has his own public tag. But I found this link in an old email, and it's too funny not to pass on. It's the site for a Swedish Bengal breeder, who translated something...into leopardmonster and leopardkatten. Now, I don't speak Swedish, but I can guess that this means leopard cat.
www.bengaler.com/jungle_cats.htm

Here's the original text, which has since been taken down. (It looks like German, but I did a lookup on the country code for the breeder, and it's in Sweden.) Bengalen är resultatet av en korsning mellan den Asiatiska leopardkatten och tamkatten. Det utmärkande för Bengalen är att den har en ultramjuk päls med leopardmönster i form av rosettliknande spottar eller tvåfärgade spottar och ljust färgade magar.

They've since updated the site to include English text, but the FAQs are just funny. The photos are beautiful. Ja!

yay librarians!

Well, actually, yay to the supervisor at the circulation desk. I was a dummy and left this photo in the copy of Children of Men when I returned it to the library. After one call to ask them to look for it, and another call to see if they had found it, I was told that it had already gone back. If I wanted to find out more I should come in ask for a supervisor. So I did. Luckily, the really nice circulation desk person got me the supervisor on duty, who was AWESOME, and after looking in several places and checking the computer, came back with it. I think he was going to offer some marriage advice, but was called back to duty. Thank you! Thank you, BPL circulation desk supervisor, for finding a photo of me as a blond and Tak with a mohawk from Halloween '93.

Children of Men was a good read. Took awhile to get into it, but it was very satisfying. I'll see the movie eventually, which I've heard takes some liberties (as most movie versions do). Also saw A Scanner Darkly, and I was surprised how true to the book it was. The animation made it better, too; although I'd be curious to watch the live action footage that was used for the animation. We got a babysitter to check out Pan's Labyrinth, which was amazing. The fairy tale part had the otherworldly quality needed, and the "real life" is gritty. The effects & makeup are incredible.

Yesterday's brouhaha over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force stunt in Boston is all over the news--and I haven't read/watched much of it. Luckily it didn't snarl my commute, but I can't imagine the gigantic inconvenience to those whose day was wrecked.

On a closing note & back to yay! librarians, Lydia, who's a librarian, used to write for the Dig in the early days. Check out her site renegade librarian, which has lots of cool links. She's got a Bengal kitty, too!