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!

bardot? or bettie page?

I took the "which pinup are you" quizilla from Leslie's myspace page, and depending mostly on where I'd like to vacation and what did I with my date's hand at the movies, I was either Brigitte Bardot or Bettie Page.

Speaking of which, a bunch of us met at Match for drinks & I got to see Leslie & Erin, which was great. Match, as Marcie put it, was very New York. But not even really good New York. The slider/mini burger was greasy but good; combined with the massive onion rings it was still yummy. Yet, even worse than Chinese food, I was hungry and hour later and I felt like I'd eaten a package of hot dogs. At least the pricey martini drinks packed a punch, but it was still kind of...eh. The company was the best part of the night! And happy birthday Nicole! ^_^

Took my first morning commute from the South Shore yesterday in the 'van, and it was only 45 minutes. Not too shabby, but definitely not something I'd like to do everyday. I also found that a tape cassette adapter is how I can listen to my iPod over the radio, and the speakers are still in good shape. Not too shabby.

Currently reading: Thanks to William Gibson's blog, I found this neat book about George Appo. He was a famous Chinese/Irish pickpocket in New York in the late 19th century. Of course, the same day I bought it, my request for Children of Men came in for the library. So I hustled through the rest of Blood & Chocolate (easy & fun read, not too sure about the movie).

OK, now I have to figure out what is going on with Battlestar Galactica. I've seen the same episode from different parts, and it's kind of confusing.

catching up

We've been so sleepy lately. Maybe it's the cold finally come to bite us. Maybe it's staying up too late finishing Christmas gifts. Owen doesn't want to get out of bed and is super clingy.

I finally made myself a pom & vanilla vodka & it was just what I needed tonight...
Owen wanted one too, and laughed when I called it a cocktail. Of course it's funny. So I just gave him just the juice, and he liked it better than when we gave it to him the other day. 'Cause it's better when mom's drinking with you, too.

My girlfriend Ilona always gives us fun liquor from her travels, and christmas was no exception. She sent us a nip of Cuandole Marzipan Sahneliqueur from Germany. Yes, it's yummy. How can almond flavored liqueur not be sweet & delicious? Even when it's mixed with coffee liquer. I'm almost embarrassed to say all I could find in the house is the Starbucks liqueur, which is surprisingly good--and also a Christmas gift last year from my future brother-in-law.

Speaking of weddings, we found a bridesmaid dress. Angie, Jason's sister, liked the dress that Katie, my mom & I liked. So we're doing the same dress, different colors (Wtoo, #352). Mine will be "midnight" (dark blue), and Angie's will be powder blue. Now we need to figure out all the shower stuff. Wish me luck.

Currently reading: Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block.

maiden voyage

Ok, not the greatest photo of our new wheels, but there it is. I got the plates & insurance Tuesday, my dad took it to get a sticker Wednesday, and yesterday dad & mom drove it in before they left for FL. It did shockingly well on emissions for a 1994 Caravan that's 16.9 mpg. For its maiden voyage I drove it to...South Bay Center. That's right: Target, Stop & Shop, Old Navy, etc. Not very exciting, but it was great not having to wait for the shuttle & get on the train when it takes 10 minutes to drive. Owen loves riding in it too. Of course, Zipcar now has Subaru Outbacks in its fleet, and I won't be giving up my membership just in case. But this'll give us an idea of how often we'd really use a car now that we have one at our disposal and don't have to rush to return it by a certain time.

On a separate note, I love having a Google account for a reason I'd never thought: two of my favorite authors' blogs--Neil Gaiman & William Gibson--on my front page. The quick link to post on my blog is nice too, but I'd much rather read about how the movie version of Coraline is coming or see Gibson's Xmas gift from Thomas Pynchon.

comic geeks rejoice!

My friend Pete LePage just got a mention in the NYTimes today for the "Comic Book Club" production he & his friends put on at the PIT in NYC. Yay Pete!

happy birthday to me

We just got back from the weekend in NYC and it was great. We hung out with Tak's, and got to see our pals in Brooklyn (always fun). Thanks to the grandparents, we were able to go out New Year's t0 Dan & Sarah's, which was so awesome we were still a little out of it New Year's Day. Came home this morning afternoon, with the delightful bum smell still on my jeans from the subway this morning. Now I'm off to go food shopping & clean out the fridge. Woo-hoo.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 41 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

the day after

Christmas was really fun this year. It was all about owen and his trains. We went & saw Santa at the mall, who offered the O-man some good advice about being nice vs. naughty. Owen was pretty good when my parents had people over both Christmas eve and Christmas night, except that the noise from the grown-ups talking got to him after awhile. My cousin's daughter Zoe pushed him around and grabbed his trains, but he took that pretty well. The hightlight for him was a shiny electric train that went in circles and sputtered real smoke. It was hard to tear him away from that for long, and he's spent the last two days mostly in his jammies. Pretty mellow.

My Christmas was spent mostly knitting, which was just what I wanted to do. I finished a "capped" mitten (a fingerless glove with a hat for your fingers=mittten), and am almost done with Owen's other mitten. I hardly "got" anything from anyone, which for once I'm OK with. It seems like so many people had a hard time figuring out gifts. I did get the dustbuster I asked for, and K & J got me an iTrip for our "new" car. That's right: I am almost in possession of a vehicle, a 1994 Dodge Caravan. The funny thing is that my dad has been having fun driving it in the last few days that I'm not sure I'll get it. ^_^

Wiley's pretty happy to see us after the last few days, although we're going to NYC this weekend and he'll be PO'd all over again. He did break a Mexican tablet that my mother-in-law got us that gashed our floor, but at least he didn't throw up. Tomorrow is back to work for all of 2 days. Have myself a nice little work week...

Merry Merry!

I think we may be almost ready for Santa. Tomorrow we head to my parents' house, and the O-man will get a haircut, write his letter in time to get to the North Pole, and go to the local mall to see Santa. Should be fun.

Here's what the cat thinks. Enjoy the holiday!

getting in the spirit

Finally! The craft fair is done, I sold a few wine charms and reinvested the cash into my co-workers pockets I got a cute pair of citrine earrings and a sachet that the cat decided to take over.

Last night I worked super-late to get stuff done, and then I crashed out. I absolutely refused to start the various Christmas gifts I have on my plate. The other night I joked to my girlfriend that people would be getting swatches wrapped up! I've also decided to knit sweaters, one for the boy and one for me, after the holidays. I had a coupon from the Knit Out for free shipping at Webs that had to get used. And because I live in Massachusetts, it arrived within a week. More yarn! Yay!

I still need to do the bulk of Christmas shopping, and find the hanger for the wreath on the front door. We're still torn whether to get a real tree, or if the fiber-optic disco tree will come home from the Dig office. At least we have the Christmas cards, and those will go out over the weekend.

Tonight was the Dig party/benefit at the Cyclorama/BCA. Fun to see people & meet new ones. Weird to say that I used to work at the Dig, weirder to define myself as so-and-so's wife. Oh well. We missed ice cream from JP Licks, but the open bar was good, and the music was manageable. At least you could have a conversation without shouting for very long.

One of my new favorite things are the CVS knockoffs of the Ponds' Cucumber exfoliating facial cleaning wipes. One side is bumpy for exfoliating, the other is smooth to take off all traces of caked on glitter eyeliner and mascara. They smell nice, don't leave a greasy residue, and are $4.99 for a pack of 30. They are probably packed with unpronoucable chemicals, but the tiny Trader Joe's I go to hasn't been carrying the Comodynes Oatmeal ones. I think they're $2.99 for 20, but I don't like the oily feel on my face & hands, although they're the right price and I don't go to bed wearing my makeup. Now if I just had a box of the On-the-Go disposable toothbrush finger condoms, I'd be all set.

domestic goddess

Last weekend I had a bit of a yarn attack at Michael's craft store, and managed to gobble up a bunch of $2 novelty yarns. All for a good cause though, because they're going towards stuff for the craft fair. We'll see if I can get enough knit in time! I'm starting to freak out about it. Hence, no blogging lately.

Let the bake sales begin! I baked 3 bowlfuls (several oven batches) of strawberry or lemon cookies. The recipe came out of my company's Employee Cookbook, so I can't take credit.
Lemon Cookies by Adele Carew
1 box lemon cake mix (or strawberry cake mix)
1 8oz tub of Cool Whip
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until they make a big sticky ball. Use a tablespoon (or small melon-ball/ice cream scoop) to drop doughballs onto a greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper). Bake 10-12 minutes, or until golden. Dust with confectioner's sugar.

Now, you can use Fat Free Cool Whip, and the cookies come out fluffier and the batter was more liquidy. Disgusting fake nasty stuff, yes, but the cookies taste yummy. But Extra Creamy Cool Whip mixed very quickly. It took several trips in the oven for a bowl to be emptied because I wanted the cookies to be nice and round, spaced far apart on the cookie sheet, and not bake into one big cookie. I also have a new appreciation for parchment paper!

I'm off to bed to knit & watch something other than guys beat the stuffing out of each other on UFC.

passing the torch

First: I finally watched the show Heroes last night, and I love it. I only saw two whole episodes, and Mr. Man is catching me up on some of the backstory. It's been awhile since I've seen a really good TV show. (sniff, sniff, Firefly) Now I just need to get caught up on Battlestar Galactica.

Ok, now catching up: Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It seems so long ago, now.

We went to my parents and ate ourselves silly. I dropped the apple pie my mother & sister made taking it out of fridge #2 in the garage. It fell on the floor and the glass plate shattered, making the pie inedible. That pie is part of the family tradition, and it was weird not having it. However, there were two other pies, and by the time dessert rolled around we were all stuffed.

My knitting aunt has not been herself (due to various medical conditions I won't go into here), and she brought over the bulk of her knitting supplies for me. One of books is a gem from 1953 (it has patterns for shrugs!) I shouldn't ever need to buy circular knitting needles again.

Katie found her wedding dress. Yay! It's gorgeous (of course). Now we just need to find bridesmaid dresses. Bella Sera, the shop we went to Middleton, MA, was down the street from Richardson's Ice Cream. This is probably one of the best ice creams I've ever had. The low-fat frozen yogurt was creamy and amazing. The farm is right behind the restaurant, and you can go back and see the cows. AND there's mini-golf next door, too. The place must be insane in the summer. I can't wait to bring the little guy here.

sister of the bride

So, my sister is getting married next spring in Bermuda on the beach, and I'm one of the bridesmaids. My mother blurted this out last spring before my sister could ask me, so because there wasn't a nice to-do around it, I think I may even be the Matron of Honor. OK, who's the genius that came up with that title? It makes me feel a gazillion years older than I really am.

Anyway, we went dress shopping today, and on the whole it went well. For a woman who didn't want a strapless dress, Miss Kate found one she loved, and it just might be her top choice. We'll see...she's doing more shopping tomorrow, and hopefully remember to bring her digital camera. I actually found a couple dresses I wouldn't mind wearing either, so that takes some of the stress off. Oh yeah, and having my nutty aunt talk keep on asking me to tell Kate to lift her boobs up higher into her bra? Yeah, that was a treat too.

On a totally different note, my proud moment of the day was while making dinner and throwing together something to put on pasta because we're out of sauce. I sauteed an onion and a clove of garlic in olive oil, threw in a can of diced tomatoes "Italian Style" with basil & oregano, another can of no-salt diced tomates, and a handful of chopped parsley. Surprisingly, it was light, flavorful, and complemented the balsamic vinegar sauteed onions, peppers & chicken sausage really well. Woo-hoo!

health roofie

Yeah, that's right: sneaking in super healthy things into your kid's food. Like cold pressed flaxseed oil into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Popping a hole in the capsule & squeezing out the oil makes natural-style peanut butter easier to spread right out of the fridge. Next stop: investing in some flax meal and adding it to oatmeal or yogurt.

The boy has also taken a liking to celery, mostly due to the Wonderpets TV show. The whole show is in musical-theater form and is pretty entertaining.

My health roofie this week has been falling asleep with Owen at 9ish. Tonight I was lucky to wake up at 11 to blog & knit, and now I've been sucked into the second half of Once Were Warriors on IFC. It's one of my favorite movies, and even though it's depressing, I can still watch it again (unlike Grave of the Fireflies and Dancer in the Dark).

We've been reading lots of Dr. Suess, and I can't wait to read the Grinch, hopefully this weekend. I've been catching up on the Series of Unfortunate Events books now that it's over. I'm on book #12 and I can't wait to read The End.

links of note

Torn between Count Olaf and Tyler Durden:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/politics/mock_the_vote.php

needles & stitches

So I haven't written lately because Mr. Man has needed the computer at home. He's been working on a deadline and getting stuff together to get trademarked (finally!), which is very cool, but frustrating for me since I really don't want to blog at work.

But today Owen's school is closed to celebrate Veterans' Day, and he squeaked into back-up daycare at the last minute when I'd planned on taking a personal day. Tak is bringing in Owen so I can do "stuff around the house" before I go into work. Of course, this includes blogging in addition to cleaning and bills. And I have to say, it's a pleasant change to leisurely have a cup of coffee in the daytime and blog, instead of slipping in a half-assed bleary-eyed blog at 1AM.

Anyway, the upside to the computer being unavailable is that I've been knitting more. Presents (hence the lack of pictures) are coming together, and I'm working on my first ever pair of mittens made with Double Pointed Needles. They are for Owen (so it's OK if they're not perfect--yeah, yeah, I know), and they are red. Working the thumb is tricky! I also signed up for my department's craft fair, and I'm making sets of the little wine glass/coffee mug handle scarves/charms and hopefully matching coasters. The wine glass scarves are nice because they go quickly (unlike knitting something on DPNs).

Stitch update: Owen got his stitches out last Saturday, and he was a trooper! He stayed still and didn't cry at all while the doctor cut the stitches (well, I guess you would too if you had a pair of scissors in your peripheral vision). The cut still looks wide, but clean. He really liked the blue lollipop afterward that turned his lips, tongue and teeth blue. The bruise that he had before the gash (in the same place, no less!) is finally fading, so it looks less scary. Now if he & his classmates can keep their fingers off of it, it should heal nicely.

happy halloween

Happy Halloween, a day late. It's been a crazy week full of meetings. Monday night was a parent meeting for the Nature Center preschool.

Tuesday, Owen fell into a wood coffee table at my mother's house, gashed his cheek, and had to go to the doctor's for stitches (6 total). He's mostly OK (so is my mom), and the best sign was that after 3 hours at the pediatrician's, he still asked to go trick-or-treating. So we went around the block for about 15 minutes, which was just right. He still got candy and go out at night, we got to see our neighbors, and my hard work Saturday night sewing his costume didn't go to waste.

Tonight we had a condo association meeting, and ended up having dinner with a couple other owners. We as condo trustees have some issues to go through, but we're in OK shape.

Now I have to get some things together for my parents to bring to the Science Center for their fundraising yard sale on Sunday. There's gotta be some stuff we can donate that someone else might buy.