January One -- Miscellaneous

February 09, 2008

Tiger Beat

Some people think they have the Tiger Beat set covered. I beg to differ!

This song came up on our cable music. Baby and I were rocking out! Who else remembers taking the plastic cover off the Tickle deodorant bottles and using it as a microphone? Not to mention my brother on the (flash) lights while my sister and I choreographed our dances. Ahh the 70s!

Posted by Cara at 01:06 PM | Comments (32)

February 03, 2008

GO BIG BLUE!

Incidentally, I started a new project. ;-)

Have a SUPER Sunday!

Posted by Cara at 12:21 PM | Comments (11)

December 25, 2007

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Posted by Cara at 12:00 AM | Comments (17)

June 28, 2007

Cleanliness is next to...

Well, dirtiness, if we're going to be honest. The bathrooms are clean, as of 10:30 PM last night. I took lots and lots of breaks. No knitting though, unless you count casting on a new monkey sock. I knit 2.5 rounds too.

These are the products I currently LOVE:

-- Mr. Clean Magic Erasers
-- Anything and everything called KABOOM
-- Tilex (ROCKS!)
-- Anything and everything called SWIFFER (especially the dusters - those things are AWESOME!)
-- Windex
-- The attachments on my kick ass vacuum (Which I bought INSTEAD of a Dyson. Real life reviews turned me off, even if it looks nicer. I've never looked back.)

I cranked the radios all over the house and set to work. It sucked. Please don't tell me about environmentally safe cleaners - I know they're out there and this is the stuff I like. Besides, there's nothing environmentally safe about the disgustingness that is my house.

Do I feel good about what I did? I guess. Except now I don't want anyone to ever use the bathrooms again. They look so nice and clean. I think I would be happier if the rest of the house wasn't awful and I didn't have so much work to do. But, such is life. Georgie asked me if I wanted something special for dinner because I worked so hard and I said YES! PIZZA! So while I completed the task I set out for myself today, I totally blew the diet. And I felt sick after the pizza (even though it tasted great while I was eating it.) Should've gone with a Lean Cuisine instead.

A couple things I wanted to point out -

I feel incredibly guilty that I received so many supportive emails in the last week or so and I haven't responded to ANY of them (at least you can't say I'm playing favorites.) Please know - I got your email and I appreciate it so much I can't tell you. I could send out a cut and paste email, but that's not what I really want to say, and I'm afraid if I really start answering them I'll never get up from my computer. Thank you thank you thank you! I'm not sure I can say it any better than that anyway. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your taking the time to reach out. (Doesn't really assuage the guilt, but it helps a little. Trying to be grown up here people.)

Last night I bought the most expensive pattern I'll ever buy. Right here. Annie Modesitt, a popular fiber artist, is offering her Red Carpet Convertible pattern as a way of accepting donations to help offset the costs of caring for her family and her husband, who's been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. I do not know Annie. I've never knit one of her patterns. But I know all too well that cancer sucks harder and longer and not in the good way than anything else out there. Consider downloading the pattern. The minimum donation is $4.50. That's not asking much from us, and it's a small price to pay to help give peace of mind to this family while they try to heal. (Thanks to Deb for the heads up.)

And then there's Liz. RIP. Thanks for making a great pair of pants and for giving me my dressing room miracle.

Back to work. One day I'll knit again, maybe even for reals and not just in my mind.

Posted by Cara at 08:15 AM | Comments (41)

April 07, 2007

Snakes on a Pyramid

or...Part This Muthafucka!





Happy holidays everyone!

Posted by Cara at 07:32 PM | Comments (38)

March 06, 2007

Crop Circles

The other day Margene had a contest asking everyone to reveal a little secret about themselves. (I think the contest is still going on, by the way.) I revealed this:

My secret is that I've been probed by aliens and I have the anal fissures to prove it. Ann says she has a cream to help me, but honestly, how can we believe her, er, I mean him?

Dudes. My ass has been mighty twitchy lately and I think I've discovered why!!! The aliens are sending messages in the form of CROP CIRCLES! [Click for bigger photographs.]

I am FREAKED! As some of you may know, I live in the swamps. My apartment looks over a beautiful field of reeds leading into the Hackensack River. We get gorgeous sunsets. One of my favorite things in the world is watching a storm roll across the swamps. All of the many windows in my apartment face over these swamps and I can get lost staring out the window. If I didn't have these swamps, I can guarantee I would've looked for a new place to live a long time ago. My view is one of the few things I'll miss when we do eventually leave.

You can understand, then, why I was horrified to see that the reeds had somehow been mowed over or destroyed or cut in such a way as to write out SURRENDER CARA! I tried to find some comparison pictures of what it looked like BEFORE the aliens came and ruined it:

I'm not sure if you can tell from those pictures what a lush wonderful landscape I've been enjoying over the past 15 years. Now I've got this catastrophe:

I spent the day calling many high ranking officials in my local government and the NJ Meadowlands Commission and no one knows what the hell I'm talking about. One guy at the Meadowlands Commission actually said the words: Crop Circles. I laughed and said that IF I was crazy, which I mostly certainly am not, that is EXACTLY how I would describe it. I senthim the pictures and hope he'll get back to me soon. My worst fear is that someone is going to build something - which I find really hard to believe - I think it's all protected land - and that my glorious view will be gone and I'll have to move ASAP. I refuse to live here without my view.

Thanks for all the suggestions on the Katharine Hepburn Cardigan. I understand what a lot of you are saying about how knits stretch and ease and all that stuff. I don't want a fitted sweater. I don't like fitted sweaters. While I have been blessed with a lovely girly figure, I don't like to call attention to it and I can guarantee that if I make the sweater at 40.5" I will be uncomfortable. It might look fabulous to you, but I won't feel good. The fact that the designers/editors thought it was okay to have 5.5" jump between sizes is preposterous to me. The last two sweaters I've made have been the 43" size and the 44" size - and I'm quite happy with both of those sweaters. Last night I cast on my modified pattern - probably around 44" - and my plan is to knit the 40.5" shoulders and sleeves. I'm not done tweaking yet, so we'll see. Oh and I decided to do the thing in pieces instead of the body in one piece. I was all set to do it in one piece and I had a lengthy discussion with Ann about structure and whether it would work without a real seam (we decided it would because we'd have two cables and two purl stitches where the seam would be) and I cut and pasted and photocopied the pattern and calculated the number of stitches needed: 309. It was then I decided pieces would be best. There was no way I was casting on 309 stitches. It would take me FOREVER to knit and I would get bored and it would get tedious. So pieces it is. And this way I can figure out the sizing if it needs to change much more easily.

Okay. Off to wait for the Mother Ship.

PS - Heather is running a drive to provide books to kids in South Africa. You can donate money and/or books and there is YARN to be had! Heather has INCREDIBLY offered up yarn to everyone who donates at least $20. The girl is NUTS! Please go visit to learn more about this very worthy cause. Literacy is EVERYTHING.

Posted by Cara at 11:38 AM | Comments (29)

March 01, 2007

Oh to be stuck in the middle with you....

Today Lene wrote about how happy she is to be in the middle of her projects. To say I'm jealous doesn't even begin to describe how I feel. I'm not in the middle of ANYTHING. Not work, not a book, not my knitting (well, technically that's not really true, but...), not my spinning. Blah. Which has left me in an icky mood and I'm not sure what I want to write about so I'll tell you some of the options:

-- I could write about the socks I have on the needles that are just not doing it for me right now. I could talk about how I think about starting fifty bazillion NEW projects, like the Anemoi mittens, about a thousands times a second and then I get too tired thinking about it to even LOOK at the yarn, let alone wind it up.

-- I could write about how I did too much work the other day and now I'm in between processing shoots and how my computer is making me nuts (just when eveything was finally working great) and it's taking forever to get things going on the next job. I could write about how I was feeling like I had so much work going on and now I don't have any on the horizon and how in about a half an hour I'm going to start panicking that no one will ever hire me again. I could also write about how I'm about to embark on a whole new work project that will hopefully do great things for my business and how I'm working with other people on this so I have to wait for them and spend lots of money and how I dream about how good it's going to be but then I get scared that it won't work and I'll have wasted money and this business stuff is really scary. I'm finally getting to a place where I sort of kind of know how good I am and the potential there is for my business but I don't know all the things I should do to grow it and then I think I'm a fake after all and it's quite overwhelming and exciting sometimes!

-- I could write about how I'm trying very hard to knit Am Kamin. I'm trying hard to love it and everytime I try to knit the freaking swatch I feel like a complete idiot because I'm trying to read the charts which aren't even in Japanese, they're in KNIT, which is a language I'd like to think I can speak but so far I can't even tell which are the right side rows and which are the wrong side rows. Positives: I love the yarn I might end up using. I know how to do a tubular cast on now. I can make great photocopies of charts. Whoo HOO!

-- I could write about how the Am Kamin thing is really depressing me because I NEED to knit another sweater and all signs point to this one but it's just not working out and I think I should move on to something else but what else is there and then I could write about how there are 87,419,532 sweater patterns out there but I don't like ANY of them.

-- I could write about how my 20th High School reunion is this May and how there's a website that I check a few times a day (which, by the way, I don't think makes me obsessed. I know that each and every one of you - if there was a website where people you went to high school with were posting pictures of themselves now and telling you how many kids they had and whether or not they're married and what they do for a living that you would be looking at it a few times a day too!) Yesterday I put myself on there (I used a picture from the CPH photoshoot) and how I have incredibly mixed feelings about the whole thing. I don't speak to anyone I went to high school with and save for one friend, I never talked to ANY BODY after I left home the summer of graduation. So I'm pretty sure I'm not going to the reunion. I'd love to be a fly on the wall but unless they knit, after the obligatory what have you been doing for the last 20 years? I really don't have anything to say to any of them. But the whole I'm 20 yrs out of high school - how did that happen because I still feel the same inside - albeit wiser and happier - as I did then thing is kind of freaky. Time flies, huh!

-- I could write about the fact that I'm so not in the middle of anything that yesterday I washed the sheets on my bed, folded laundry, and vacuumed the disgusting carpet in my dining room. Yes. I did housework. Ann wanted me to check for alien probe entry points.

I hope you're in the middle and it feels oh so good!

PS - Tell Margene happy blogiversary! Three years and counting!

Posted by Cara at 09:47 AM | Comments (43)

February 27, 2007

Looking for Love

Thanks everybody for your nice comments about the yarn I made. I'm very happy with it. As to what I'll knit with it? I don't know. I haven't really spun up that much yarn, and only once did I have a project in mind while I spun. When I was spinning up the yarn that became my Seraphim Shawl, I absolutely KNEW the yarn would be a shawl. It made the spinning much different for me, honestly. But the yarn I just made? It almost feels like it's finished - I don't need to knit it up. In fact, when I was done smelling it and loving it, I threw it on the top of this basket:

This lovely basket sits utop my yarn bureau and it's got mostly handspun in it - not just my handspun, but all of my Sock Hop yarn as well. And maybe a half a skein of STR. It's a beautiful burst of color in my otherwise neutral bedroom. Eye candy in every sense of the word. I like the idea of yarn as the finished product - yarn as art. Maybe I'll submit it to The Yarn Museum.

Anyway, I have no plans to knit with it just yet. I will, of course, show it to you if I do. In the meantime, I'm looking for yet ANOTHER sweater project. I think I had a dream last night that I was wearing Short Rows and someone complimented me on it. I've had incredible luck of late in picking sweater projects - Ariann, CPH - but I don't feel like I'm done yet. I've been knitting away on the mates to the J-One/G-Rocks socks but I'm not feeling the sock love. I need something to SINK my teeth into. It's funny - I've read like five books since I started Ariann and knit two sweaters - and now I'm on the look out for another book AND another sweater.

I actually started a swatch for Am Kamin. But I haven't gotten farther than the twisted ribbing. Although I did make beautiful copies of the charts and such. I just need to start knitting the actual cables. Most likely this won't be my last swatch for this project so I better get going. I just want to be IN THE MIDDLE you know? All this prep work can be so tiring. It's why I don't like to cook. I'm too impatient for the prep.

I wouldn't be surprised if another sweater bites me in the ass before this swatch is off the ground. Just sayin'.

Posted by Cara at 09:10 AM | Comments (32)

February 01, 2007

Easy Does It

Enough with the knitting drama already, no? I started the CPH sleeves but you don't really want to see them, do you? I'll wait until I'm a bit past the ribbing. It's just ribbing. Thank you all so much for your support of my tutelage. It's nice to know that I can spread the knitty love. Win one for the blogs - I never would've fixed that miss crossed cable the way I did if I wasn't writing and reading knitting blogs. I hope none of you will ever need the fix - but if you do - it's there.

Some random tidbits this afternoon:

Blogless Rachel H. has let me know that some librarians with ties to the knitblog world have weighed in on the whole Bridge to Terabithia movie thing. You can go here to find out what they have to say. Apparently the screenplay was written by Katherine Patterson's son. While that may save the movie, I doubt I'll ever see it because that book has a very special spot in my brain and I'm not fucking it up. Anyway - thought I should pass that along.

By the way, I just finished reading The Westing Game and I am astounded at how well it's written - as an adult and a writer. READ IT. And then go read The Goats by Brock Cole. Another fantastic YA book. This one's really killer. I'm not sure it's actually appropriate for children to be honest.

Two commercials that make me hot in a cheesy soft porn kind of way:

DUDE. I am a SUCKER for a good kiss. Seriously - ever since I was a young pre-pubescent I have LOVED the kissing scenes. The easiest way to my heart is to make out with me. Craziness. (The pictures on the Rembrandt website are even better than the commercial.) Gotta get me some of that! Toothpaste, I mean.

The second one is for the new personal lubricant - World of Intrigue. (Oh my god - the website is TOTALLY cheesy!) I couldn't find a YouTube link to this one which surprises me because it's absolutely porn. Maybe this is saying too much about me? Who cares....

The last thing I want to say today is that tomorrow is the Blogger (Silent) Poetry Reading. I did it last year, and I'm going to do it again tomorrow. Thanks to Julie for reminding me about it. Get out your poetry books and pick a good one!

L, C

Posted by Cara at 03:39 PM | Comments (19)

November 06, 2006

Money Talks

But it don't sing and dance and it don't walk.

Guess what though? Kay talks and sings and dances and walks. While I've long loved Kay for her many talents, she is definitely my new favorite traveling partner. Here are the reasons why:

- On the ride down to Stitches East, Kay indulged me in my spastic adolescent squealing about my love of Bootleg Bruce. She even sang along at times and participated in an almost intellectual discussion about Bruce's musical merits. This alone makes her one of my favorite people in the entire universe. Some people would have made retching noises the second I put the CD on. Kay may have actually gotten a few spine chills herself. Are YOU ready to Prove It All Night? Kay is.

- Kay thinks it's perfectly normal when you pull over at a rest stop on the highway to demonstrate knitting techniques.

- When you actually get to Stitches East, Kay thinks it's okay that you think peeing is a priority over meeting THE Fiona Ellis in the ladies room. Swear to god. We walk into the bathroom and I hear Kay going Cara, Cara come here and I was already peeing. Dude. When nature calls. Fiona Ellis was super charming and when I gushed she didn't seem flustered at all. I'm still on that Short Rows high.

- When you go to drop off your superfabulous blanket at the Blue Moon Booth, Kay doesn't make fun of you when you bury your face in the blanket to smell it just one more time. Or when you end up buying more Socks That Rock, because, you know, you might not have enough.

STR Lightweight: Sherbert, Lover's Leap and 24 Karat


STR Bambu in Banded Agate

- When you buy a couple of shawl closures at the Moving Mud booth because you can't decide which one is more beautiful than the other, Kay voices an opinion but doesn't judge. She also doesn't judge when you walk away just a little bit smitten with the beautiful Sarina, glass maker extraordinaire. Man that is one gorgeous woman.


Shawl pins that end up being too big for my shawls. But oh so pretty!

- Kay is the kind of friend that buys you french fries to share. And when you come back for said fries after checking one more booth, she tells you that she had to throw them away because they were really really awful. ;-)

- When you go to buy a really cool Lexie Barnes knitting bag only to find out it's really a diaper bag, Kay calms you when you get all superstitious about buying baby stuff before there's actually a baby and offers to take the diaper pad for you, so, you know, you're not tempting any fates.

Lexie Barnes Superstar bag in the Makiko print
T-shirt from Modern Yarn

- Kay thinks you're kind of cute and not annoying in any way when she listens to your spiel about Spin Out for the 100th time.

And finally, when you consider going for the Nesquik Milk Shake from the vending machine at the rest stop on 95, Kay stops you and says when it comes to chocolate milk, you gotta go with the original. Oh how right she was!

Thanks Kay! Next time I end up driving 6 hours to spend 3, You're THE One!

PS - If you haven't already - make sure you go over and wish my favorite Cheesehead a Happy Birthday! GO! NOW!

Posted by Cara at 02:46 PM | Comments (31)

October 25, 2006

You Can Have Too Much Fun

All weekend long my throat was tickly and I started losing my voice. I thought it was from all the laughing and screaming and the perpetual draft I was feeling from the AC cranking. (That's what happens when you travel with three peri-menopausal women - I'm sitting in the backseat with every article of clothing I own wrapped around me shivering to death and the three of them are fanning themselves in their bras and underpants complaining about how stuffy it is in the car. You think I'm kidding?!)

Anyway. I'm sick. My throat no longer tickles, it flat out hurts. This is the worst time for me to get sick, as my weekends are booked through November with multiple photography jobs. Parents don't like it when you're sick. Hopefully I won't be a drippy mess by the weekend when I have to work again.

And I feel like I should be in full Hazmat suit around my husband. We've finally scheduled his surgery for late November and god help me if I get him sick. Can you imagine the guilt? So we're staying away from each other. Which is kind of sad because I'm really missing him.

I haven't taken any pictures of my haul yet - but I will for tomorrow. Tomorrow is sort of a kind of maybe special day and I will finally take pictures of all that I bought to celebrate. It really wasn't that much and I pretty much like it all and am happy about my purchases.

On the knitting front, I've been feeling guilty about the fact that I might not actually finish a pair of socks for Socktoberfest. I'm just about to the heel on my second green Koigu knee high and yet I'm completely infatuated with my Pomatomus sock. Even though I hate ribbing and purling in socks - I'm loving this pattern. I finally figured out the yo purl on the first stitch and I wonder how I ever had trouble with it - the pattern's memorized and I'm sailing along. I've got half a repeat left before I get to the heel flap. But I really should finish the knee highs before October is over.

And I'm LOVING knitting with STR again. You know, a lot of people said stuff to me at the festival about the lines at The Fold and when/if it was rumored they sold out. I'm not feeling the least bit guilty about it. I LOVE THIS YARN and will make no apologies about how I feel about it or how much I happen to have in my house. (By the way, the new alarm system will be installed next week so don't get any ideas.) I thought the line was GREAT!!! FANTASTIC! AMAZING! How many of you met new people and had a lovely time talking about knitting and the festival and blogging while in that line? I know I met quite a few of you just walking by - it was great! I didn't see anyone pissed off in that line. Really I think everyone should knit with this yarn. And I was totally heartened to see so many people trying it out. Do I think you should all wait to buy it at Rhinebeck or another fiber festival? Not at all. That's why I told you I buy directly from Blue Moon. I understand wanting to see it in person before you buy it - I really do. But sometimes that's just not possible in this fantastic world of yarn we live in. There are a number of yarns I'd love to try that I can't get anywhere around here. So I decide to trust my knitting friends and jump in. Or I don't. Most yarn sellers are incredibly easy going - if you buy it and hate it they will usually take it back or exchange it. And for all of you that emailed me and told me they sold out of lightweight by 10AM - that's just a rumor. Toni never had lightweight for sale. Trust me on this. She only sells mediumweight and heavyweight. Another reason I buy directly from Tina. Although I did pick up a little something from Toni on my way out the door Sunday. But that will wait for tomorrow.

Just my two cents. You can hate this yarn or that yarn - you can love this yarn or that yarn. That's ultimately the beauty of our community. Free will and an open pocketbook keeps EVERYONE happy.

Okay. I'm crotchety and sickly and I'd really just like to jump back into bed but unfortunately stuff has to get done today. So have a good one. I promise pictures and fun and HAPPY tomorrow.

Posted by Cara at 10:50 AM | Comments (62)

October 16, 2006

FYI - YARN RECALL

A yarn store I've frequented, The Knit With, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, sent out a notice today of a Yarn Recall. They are recalling the following yarns:

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino
KFI Cashmereno DK
Noro Amagi
Noro Cash Iroha
Noro Lotus

The Knit With states in their letter that after expert analysis of these yarns, it was found that they do not have the stated cashmere content. It should be noted that KFI, the distributor of the above listed yarns, does not agree with their findings. The Knit With is accepting returns of the yarns listed above, regardless of when you bought the yarn or if you've used it or not. A store credit will be issued for the net price paid plus 10% of the purchase price on top of that. The letter they attached is very heartfelt - they seem deeply disturbed by their findings.

The letter and recall are available here.

I've closed and deleted all of the comments on this post. I hate to do it, but honestly, I don't really want my blog to become a debate arena. I posted the recall because it came to my inbox and I thought it was important to pass along to my readers. Clearly there are two sides to every story and it's up to all involved to do what's best for their businesses and purchases. Personally, I've knit with and don't like the yarns listed, so it doesn't matter to me whether you sell it, buy it or make it. Thank you for reading.

Posted by Cara at 08:05 PM

October 13, 2006

Oh Crap.

I'm bored again. No. That's not really true - I'm more like...disinterested. Yeah. That's it. Snow was talking the other day about blogging becoming a chore and while I don't feel like the blogging has become a chore, I do feel like I'm completely off my rhythm. I like to blog. I like it a lot. I like waking up in the morning and reading my emails and a few blogs and all the while churning up a post in my head. Some days are easier than others, but there's always something to say.

Breaks are nice too. Don't get me wrong. When I'm in my routine, I'm a M-F blogger and that can get tiresome (not just for me, I'm sure) so it's nice when I get a few days during the week to ignore bloglines and emails and just not worry about writing something smart and pithy. But it's been too long since I've been out of the routine. I feel like I lost my blog mojo a bit. I'm determined to get it back though.

And the knitting. Oh god don't get me started on the knitting. I am so freaking bored I don't know what to do with myself. And dissatisfied. I'm thisclose to finishing a project I started a long long time ago and it's anti-climactic to say the least. I'm fatter than I was when I started it (which is a whole other issue and one that I'm very very upset about. Do I get off my fat ass? NO.) and it doesn't fit as well as I'd like it to and well, I'm just not feeling the love. Which is sad.

Knee socks progress and I still love them, but stockinette is finally getting to me a bit. But I really don't feel like making a different kind of sock and I like these and I want them finished. And there are like fourteen more to finish as well. Blah.

What I really want to do is finally make the Am Kamin* sweater. BUT, that will require some major swatching because I don't know what yarn I'm going to use and I just want to jump in and DO IT but I have to have patience and then I have to order yarn and I just pulled a piece of skin off of my cuticle and it freaking hurts and is bleeding and when I think about all the work I have to do just get STARTED with this sweater it makes me exasperated and I go back to knitting knee highs. And then I get bored. Fucking circle of crap.

This is supposed to be my favorite time of year and I'm tired and I have a lot of work to do (the busy season has started for work) and all I want to do is crawl in to bed and watch 87 hours of Another World (which my DVR decided to stop taping for two days - that and Gilmore Girls. Is my DVR judging me? It didn't have any problem taping Grey's Anatomy or Studio 60.)

I want my routine back. I want to wake up and sit at the computer, blog a bit, go out for a nice run, come home and eat my NEW FAVORITE BREAKFAST (thank you forever Annie!) and get my work done and end the day next to my favorite boy knitting away on a fabulous project.

And to top it all off? They stopped making my favorite tampons. Tell me that doesn't fucking suck.

Happy Friday the 13th. Sorry for the rant. Better day tomorrow.

* The Crossed In Translation blog is still down. I inadvertently deleted it from the server and I have yet to get it back and running. One of these days I'll get it back up. I'm sorry. Please be patient.

Posted by Cara at 11:35 AM | Comments (63)

October 04, 2006

Pencil me in.

I'm home. This time for good. Or as good as five days. We'll see.

In those five days, I hope to blog about the following:

-- An ode to the socks I have knit and will knit and are knitting in honor of Socktoberfest 2006. (Although that seems redundant already, no? What's there like 80 million people knitting socks? It's all good though.)

-- Annouce the winners of the Haiku contest. I'm so sorry I'm so behind. I'll add extra winners because of the guilt. Promise.

-- Talk about Shannon Okey's new book, Spin to Knit! This will actually happen on October 7. I'm part of a BLOG TOUR!

-- Show you FO pictures from Seraphim.

There may be some other stuff thrown in there too, but I'm feeling like I have no time for any of this and I want to do all of it and bear with me please. There is more dirty laundry in my house than I've seen in my life. (Where have all these clothes come from and who are the people wearing them?! Only two of us live here - last I checked.) There are errands to run and a house run amok (didn't I just clean this place?) and I'm still freaking tired. Who knew jetlag from the left coast could be so bad.

Oh and for the record: I do NOT feel bad about not knitting for charity. It's my time, my decision and I'm more than willing to hand over money to a cause I believe in. What I do feel slightly bad about is the handknits for the niece and nephews. I'd absolutely hate for one of them to think I loved them less because I didn't knit anything for them. That would make me sad.

Posted by Cara at 09:21 AM | Comments (33)

September 19, 2006

Teaser

I've got some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?

Okay - the bad news is that starting tomorrow I'm going to be scarce for the next week and a half. I go to Philly tomorrow for Rosh Hashanah at the end of the week and then G and I are taking a little vacation and then I'm back to Philly for Yom Kippur. So I have no idea when and if I'll be posting during that time. I know. You are so so sad. ;-)

BUT!! Here's the good news!! To kick off the New Year, the New Season and the New Socktoberfest, I'm going to hold a nice big CONTEST! SOCK YARN FOR EVERYONE!!! (Well, not everyone, maybe like three or four of you? Gotta check the stash.)

Look for the contest - and it will be a good one - I'm trying to think of ways to make you work for this - sometime between today and tomorrow. Mwahahahahahaha!

Posted by Cara at 09:27 AM | Comments (26)

September 06, 2006

WTF?! It's Wednesday!

Time to get random....

See this boy? Is he not the cutest boy in the universe? Today this sweet boy had tubes put in his ears. He's on his way home now, everything went fine, but think good thoughts for one of my favorite kids in the whole wide world. THANK YOU!

The inaugural YARNIVAL is here!!!



Eve did a FANTASTIC job with the first issue - I encourage you all to head over and read it. Really nicely done. AND she's accepting submissions for issue 2. So see what you've got and SUBMIT!

Crazy Stitchy not only has a new crazy book, but she's come up with BLOGGER BINGO!!!

Are you going to Rhinebeck? Then you NEED to know about this. And what better way to fill up your squares then at the BLOGGER MEET-UP! That's right. I'll be organizing my now infamous (move to the other side of the grass damnit!) blogger meet up. Same time, same place as last year. Details to come, but keep it in mind. Saturday. 1ish. Side of the main barn.

I played tennis again with G and kicked his ass. Okay, really only on like two or three points but they were legitimate winners. REAL WINNERS. Not him half-assed running to the ball and saying "good shot babe." He ran to the ball and tried to get it back and couldn't. There was cursing. DUDES. I was FORCING ERRORS. I also twisted the same goddamn ankle again, but it's okay and we won't be playing at all this weekend. Although there will still be tennis: we're going to the Open tonight. Oh and boo hoo hoo Gagassi. Never ever liked him. I'm a Pistol Pete girl. (C'mon! It's well known I've got a thing for Greeks!) I've seen Agassi play a million times. Been thisclose to him when he was practicing at the hotel I was staying at out in Palm Springs. Eh. I don't know who we're seeing tonight, but I know I'll be wishing I was playing instead of watching. Kind of new for me.

Remember those movies when the rats or bunnies or hamsters would mutate and become giants and take over the world? I SAW ONE OF THESE MUTANT RATS IN PERSON!

This picture doesn't do it justice. We were at a small local zoo with the kids last week and we turned a corner and THERE WAS THIS GIANT FREAKING RAT! Scared the hell out of me. My nephew said look at the cute giant hamster, but this baby had RAT written all over it. It was one of those things that fascinates and terrifies all at the same time - you know? It's technically called a Capybara and it's the largest rodent in the world. They can get up to 175 pounds!!!!! Giving me nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares, last night G and I watched the first two acts of Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke. You should all see it if you can. It's heartbreaking and shameful. And so far I don't feel an agenda being played out. Only once has Spike made his presence known and it was actually kind of funny. I'm not a big Spike Lee fan, but this is very well done - honest, stark, brutal. G and I are going to New Orleans tomorrow night for a three day weekend. I feel like I want to DO SOMETHING while I'm there, but I'm afraid being a tourist may be all I can do. Very scary stuff.

Thanks to everyone who purchased yarn yesterday in my stash sale!! I'm going to leave the few items left up for the day - if they don't sell by tomorrow I'm taking them down and I'll rethink the kit. If anyone is interested in any part of what's left - send me an email (address at bottom of this page) and I'll figure something out with you. THANK YOU!

Have a GREAT day!

PS - My site STILL looks like crap in IE. Anyone know a whole lot about CSS and IE compatibility? I tried changing the font codes to px instead of small, x-small, which I have now and it helped with the font size, but IE is still not recognizing the padding on my img borders and it messes up the fonts regardless when it appears after the image. Any and all help is appreciated. I generally use Firefox to view my site, but it bothers me to no end to know that it's out there not looking how I wanted it to look. THANKS!

Posted by Cara at 10:24 AM | Comments (42)

August 17, 2006

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

NOT!

I woke up this morning from a bad, bad dream. I was writing bad checks all over the place. Fun times. Add that to the list of things I hate. I immediately went and paid all my bills.

Oh yeah and I found something even more boring than spinning the second 4oz of singles. PLYING the second 4oz of singles. But I know now that spinning really IS zen if you can get past the monkey brain. Have you ever tried meditation? I've only done it a few times, but I could never get past the spot where all the thoughts good bad and uglier than ugly just run around in your "empty" mind willy nilly causing trouble. I think I did it twice and realized NOT.FOR.ME! I need to be active in some way or else I'll go crazy. My mind can never be empty - or emptiness leads to OCD which leads to insanity. Spinning is like meditation - not quite as bad because at least you are doing something physical, but once I hit that groove - right tension, right treadle speed, etc. I got the monkey mind. I think if I was able to get PAST that it might actually be zen like but for the time being it was a bit too much and I stopped.

And then I started to knit. I managed to knit the short row shoulders on the back of my BW Top Down Sweater and looking on in the directions I can visualize what I will have to do for the front as well. I'm quite excited about it. It only took me three tries to get the short rows right which is nothing short of embarrassing since not that long ago I was Short Row QUEEN. But alas, it is true: USE IT OR LOSE IT.

Today there will be LOTS of knitting. Mostly on the knee high which I hope to have finished by the weekend. Pictures tomorrow. I'm excited to see how the pooling does or does not match up.

Boring I know. Thanks for all the comments yesterday. I found it funny that a lot the comments were about the people who let their dogs off leash AND that those comments were mostly from dog owners. They say all you need is love but I'm not so sure about that. I think all you need is RESPECT. We're sorely lacking that in today's world. So go on out and respect someone today. Go ahead. I dare you!

Posted by Cara at 08:47 AM | Comments (19)

August 16, 2006

Hate is just another four letter word.

Like L-O-V-E.

I've been accused of loving everything - actually becoming obsessed over everything - and it didn't feel very loving when it was said - but I'm here to tell you that it's just not true. I can hate blindly and deeply along with the rest of you.

To prove it, I'm giving you my very own Stephen Colbert ON NOTICE list that I originally saw over at Julia's. I don't think my post will match the brilliance of hers (and by the way, she stole all the things I hate) but I'm going to give it a go.

People who let their dogs off leash
See here. There are places where you are allowed to have your dog off a leash. Go there. I could give two shits that your dog is so well trained you taught him to shit on cue, keep him on a leash. Oh and my god there's a special place in hell for those of you who HAVE the leash, in hand, but don't put it on the dog. Poor little doggies. It must be just awful to live with you.

Slowpokes in the left lane
(Not to be confused with Snakes on a Plane. Those are okay.) PASS on the left. PASS. Not PASS OUT. Move the fuck over.

Islamojewchristianhindufascists
Orginally I had islamojewchristianhindubuddhistfascists but G said that was taking it a bit far. I mean, who ever heard of a buddhist fascist? (Richard Gere doesn't count.) Also it didn't fit. Here at January One, we're all about equal opportunity hatred. I don't care who you are and what god you might happen to subscribe to - if you kill, maim, disparage, torture, discriminate against, or do anything other than love and respect those that do not believe what you believe IN THE NAME OF YOUR GOD, then you don't deserve a place on this fine planet. Nuff said.

Party Poopers
You know who these people are. They have something to say about everything and more likely than not it's negative. You know what? My life isn't so great all the time, but I CAN CHOOSE not to dwell on the negative. Or at least try not too. It's going to rain (when the sun's up in the sky.) You're doing it wrong (my way or the highway.) She's happy all the time (walk a minute in my shoes.) GET OVER YOURSELF. If you don't have anything nice to say, then find another Party Pooper and go to it. There is so much negativity in this world why perpetrate it? And THERE IS SO MUCH DIVERSITY it's paralyzing sometimes. SO IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I/WE/THEM ARE DOING - GO FIND SOMETHING ELSE!!!

The smell of your cooking
Dude. It might be your favorite dish in the whole freaking world and your grandmother's secret recipe from the old country and I'm happy for you that the recipe survived three wars, two marriages and a boat ride across the Atlantic BUT I DON'T WANT TO SMELL IT IN MY BEDROOM. Please turn the fan on in your kitchen. That's why you have it.

Humidity
I'm rendered speechless by the hate.

Entitlement whores
Ah. One of my favorites. I should be able to drive any car/truck I want regardless of its damaging effects on the enviroment and the safety of others because THIS IS AMERICA GODDAMIT! My kid should be able to push your kid around in the sandbox without repercussions because kids will be kids and THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY GODDAMIT! My problems are the most important problems in the world and must be attended to this instant because THAT'S WHAT DEMOCRACY STANDS FOR! I want it NOW. I don't want to wait. I don't want to work for it. I WANT IT THE WAY I WANT IT BECAUSE THAT IS MY RIGHT UNDER THE GOOD OL RED WHITE AND BLUE. What happened to this fine country? I'm all for individual freedoms and rights and the pursuit of happiness but we all still have to live together. Whether we like it or not, sometimes that means doing things for the greater good. We're not all perfect, but we can try a helluva lot harder to RESPECT. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me.

Pain
Emotional pain. Mental pain. Physical pain. Psychic pain. Pains in the ass. I'm against it all. But especially the pain that my love suffers through every single day. That pain I hate more than anything.

Whew! That felt good! I encourage you all to try it. Thanks person who was so judgemental towards me! I appreciate it!

Yesterday I spent all day fixing up things around here. If you'll take a moment to notice - I cleaned up the sidebar. There is now a drop down hierarchical topic list for better navigation, as well as a search bar. I hope it makes your reading easier and more efficient. Also, I moved all of the Spin Out information over to its new home: SPIN-OUT.ORG! Getting things ready a bit early for Spin Out 2007. I had a bit of trouble though and accidentally erased the blog for Crossed In Translation. Eventually I will get it all back up - it's been very very slow for awhile anyway, so I'm not going to kill myself, but BE CAREFUL. Back up your blogs and my god check like eighty times before you hit that delete button.

My back is feeling better - thanks for all the suggestions. I had a really weird episode with a chiro once (had nothing to do with back cracking and everything to do with being half naked in an exam room and being seriously creeped out) so I won't be going back anytime soon. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, I rested it good yesterday (read: no knitting or spinning) and that seemed to work for me. The other night I did cast on for my BW top down sweater - which meant CROCHET. My god that provisional cast on is fiddly. But I did it and then started the short rows for the shoulders but didn't like the way I was doing it on the purl side so I ripped and I have yet to go back. I did do some work on my STR Knee High number 2 - I'm past the ribbing so it's SMOOTH sailing from here on out. Maybe some plying on tap for today. We'll see.

Have a FANTASTIC DAY!
L, C

Posted by Cara at 09:57 AM | Comments (44)

August 08, 2006

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Blah.

That's about it. I got nothing exciting. Nothing exciting at all. There is SO MUCH to do around my house that I'm paralyzed. There is SO MUCH going on in my brain - not much of it good - that I might actually attempt some of the stuff around the house as a way of trying not to think. It's still hot.

We had a nice dinner last night - G was very happy. I was happy because he was happy. But still. Blah.

I think I'm going to attempt some stuff this morning and spin away my afternoon. I got the wonderful heel/toe roving from Teyani yesterday and I want to finish up some stuff before I spin it. I may start another knee high. Or my Barbara Walker sweater - although I read through the instructions AGAIN and I still can't make any sense of what she's talking about. Makes me feel stupid.

And I want to get back to log cabinning. That makes me happy. But it's big and tedious now. Blah.

I would love to take some pictures. LOVE IT. But it's still too hot to go outside and I'm feeling paralyzed by the ABC-A-Long in that I can't think of an L that I like. Sure there's love and laughter and all those sappy sentimental L words. Give me something good. That will stretch my creativity.

Seriously. Give me an L. I need an L. Any L. It can be a thing or a concept or anything. But just don't give me Light. I've already had that one floating around in my head.

And while you're giving me an L - give me a book to read. I need something good - something I can sink my teeth in that's not too depressing - not too mainstream (re: Grisham, et.al.)

Go to it. Help a girl out.

Posted by Cara at 09:50 AM | Comments (121)

July 18, 2006

Tuesday means

Saturday SKY!

Sandy - I was thinking of you! Here's the view from our room on Saturday. We weren't alone in the sky though:



Apparently big ass ugly spiders LOVE the sky scrapers. Who knew?! They didn't bother us though - but at one point there were like six of them on the windows. They must be really sticky! Go Spidey GO!

We had a great time (Well I did. G worked a lot.) We went North:

We went South:

And in between met some great people and did a bit of fiber shopping. I'm beat though - we got in last night - and I'm HOT. It was pretty funny - everyone in Chicago kept warning me how hot it was - it was like they thought I lived in Alaska or something. This is what I came home to:

STAY COOL! More about Chi-town tomorrow! Now go say happy birthday to my favorite NORMA!

Posted by Cara at 12:52 PM | Comments (16)

July 12, 2006

Chicagoans - what do you think?

Does this look good? Should we meet up there? Lemme know. THANKS!

Posted by Cara at 07:40 PM | Comments (5)

ardomn

Since it's Wednesday and my life is all about the random, LET'S GO!

Member how I said something about bad numbers and my trepidation about keeping up with this random thing? Yeah. THERE ARE NO BAD NUMBERS! This thing is totally random - I swear on my STR Stash that I haven't cheated AT ALL and it looks like it was completely meant to be this way and is totally perfect and oh my god I can't wait to make my next one! I swear I could NOT come up with anything better than this if I tried for all eternity. RANDOM IS GOD!









The perfect garter stitches are like pearls, plucked from a juicy oyster in the South Sea. FANTASTIC! Right now the piece measures about 16x20 - and I'm no where close to running out of yarn. I'm going all the fucking way!!! My plan right now is to knit until I run out of a color, since they won't be used evenly, and no matter what the number for that section, I will end the row and then I will continue with the remaining colors until they run out, etc. I'm feeling like there will be great balance in this project. Great and perfect, carefree balance.

And in the "you're never the first with your brilliant ideas so get over yourself already" department, I saw this link to Pixelated Knitting over at Kellee's. She's taken this whole random thing about a gazillion steps further and is doing Sudoku Knitting. And she came up with it way back in April. Very, very cool.

What else? Well, you saw the fun we had packing boxes over at Kay's but that's not all the fun I've been having. Firstly, let me say thanks for all your suggestions and concerns about mailing out many packages. I think to get USPS pickup you need to weigh the boxes first and pay for shipping and I don't have the means to weigh the boxes, so I will use the cart my apt building supplies and pile it high then go to the PO around the corner. No biggie. Besides, I love the girls at the Post Office - they are very nice.

Now, on to the fun! I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this or not, but my sister and her husband own a bunch of Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops (no - they never have freaking ice cream in the house. It's pathetic!) around and about Philly and South Jersey. Saturday night was a HUGE partay down at The Borgata in AC to celebrate the big opening of their store in the food court there. We stayed overnight, had a FABULOUS dinner, lost $$$ way too quickly (the losing doesn't necessarily bother me - I gamble for entertainment - the part that bothers me is that I lost quicker than I usually do and I could literally be at the craps table ALL NIGHT. So the fun was over there way too fast.) and DANCED the night away! We had a great VIP Suite at the HOT HOT CLUB (which is very nice for us geeky nerdy completely UNCOOL types who can't get into clubs at all.) I DANCED AND DANCED with my husband, which I love - he can rock out with the best of them - and my sisters and I had FUN!

This is me with my sister right after I came off the dance floor. I'm sweaty and gross and HAPPY! One of my favorite parts of the evening was my outfit, believe it or not. When my sister was here we shopped and shopped with three kids, the oldest being 5.5, looking for a HOT outfit to wear to the club. Nothing. We are not hot. We are old with kids and fat and ick. But somehow, on Saturday MORNING, right before we had to leave to go to the shore, I found a great pair of jeans, a tight black sleeveless top that allowed me to wear a bra and didn't show my back (I don't like my back) and wasn't obscene, and a FANTASTIC pair of shoes.



I LOVE the shoes! Nine West outlet, $30, comfortable! I wore them all night and at 3:30 AM I was a little bit crippled walking back to my room, but I had worn them since 6:30 and boogied my little heart out so I say BRAVO!

Another thing I received Saturday and which looks dirty and wrinkled in the following picture is my fabulous shirt(s) from Urban Yarns!

I saw them first over at Lauren's and immediately went and ordered a long sleeve and a short sleeve! I have barely taken the short sleeve off. I ordered both in the XL and the short sleeve could use a bit of shrinking in the length (and a little in the body) and the long sleeve could probably be a smidge bigger across the bust. Just so you know. I love them!

CHICAGO! Chicago is fast approaching. We're leaving Friday morning and practically go straight to WRrigley Field (FUCK! You think they'll let me in now? I've been up since 6AM! I'm sorry!!!) when we get there for an afternoon game - against The Mets for pete's sake. I hate The Mets. GO CUBBIES! I'm free the following times - Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning/day, Monday day. WHO WANTS TO ENTERTAIN ME? I'm more than willing to "host" a little get together at my hotel either Friday or Saturday night. We're staying at a swanky joint so the lobby/bar area should be really really nice. Don't let me be lonely in a city of such fantastic knitters! ;-)

Have a randomly great day!

Posted by Cara at 11:36 AM | Comments (35)

June 22, 2006

Wet T-Shirts

See, now, this is why I shouldn't do housework. Wet. Soaking wet. Although they've been sitting there since last night so now they're probably moldy and wet. Normally G does the laundry. He's kind of particular about it and apparently I'm just not up to snuff so he does it. Of course, I'm perfectly capable of folding all of the said laundry which is totally a cop out. I mean how hard is it to throw clothes in the washer then move them to the dryer? The folding is where all the skill lies. But I digress. We generally do laundry on Sundays - which is a holdover from apartment living when you had to lug all your clothes down to the basement and save up all your quarters and try not to get grossed out by the other things living down there. We have our own washer and dryer now - in the kitchen under the counter - so why limit laundry to Sundays? Anyway, yesterday was NOT Sunday but somehow we had missed laundry on like the last two Sundays so I was desperate for clothes and thought I'd do a nice thing. I got through the dark load and the white load okay fine. But the delicates (I don't know - ask G. It's his system!) didn't fare so well. I really stuffed the washer, but they made it through that fine - it's the dryer where everything fell apart. I cleaned out the lint compartment and then went to set the cycle timer and that's where I think things went bad. The freaking machine won't turn on. Can I just tell you? ALL MY CLOTHES ARE FREAKING DELICATE! I literally have nothing to wear. Sure, sure, what about all the clothes in the closet? Very funny. You see I'm fat and it's summer so I have like one pair of pants and two shirts that fit and I feel comfortable in. You know what I'm talking about. And now they're wet.

I completely blame G for this. When the stove blew up, he kept saying things like "I wonder if everything's going to start to go bad now. You know it's been nine years." JINX JINX JINX! I told him to SHUT UP! Like NINE is the magic number when all your appliances stop working? Is that true? I thought these things are supposed to last forever. When we moved in here all the appliances were from the Stone Age. I swear there was a little fairy or something rubbing two sticks together in the back of the oven. We got everything new then anyway because it was all supremely gross and the cootie factor was enormous. But c'mon? Is everything really supposed to stop working now?

I'm never doing laundry again.

Posted by Cara at 09:03 AM | Comments (32)

June 21, 2006

Pay Me My Money Down

First off - the quiz was broken but now it's fixed. Basically I had to start a new one - if you've already taken it, please don't take it again. Thank you! (Over a hundred of you took the quiz - is it the chance at free yarn, or bless my heart, do you all really want to learn about my religion, BruceSpringsteenOlogy - where it's okay to take any drug you want?)

I don't know where to start, really. I'm exhausted. We got home about 1AM and had something to eat then went to bed. But I was up at like 5:30 still thinking about the concert.

I expect a lot from a Springsteen concert. I expect to be transported to another place - a place where everyone pumps their fists in harmony. No, really, I expect to be lifted by the words and music. I expect the bass to pound in my throat and to be thrown into a frenzy and get extremely emotional. And I am RARELY disappointed. Last night was no exception. For the most part.

This time around Bruce is touring with a HUGE band - like 3 or 4 guitarists, bango,back up vocalists, piano, drums, a horn section, two violins, stand up bass, an archordian - there are A LOT of people on stage. And while the sounds of his new album verges on country (which I really don't like) or hootinan, the horns save it! The horns are everything. (I may be in love with La Bamba!) (OH MY GOD! La Bamba and I went to THE SAME HIGH SCHOOL! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!) The whole concert feels like you're at a New Orleans funeral. And the songs aren't his - they are mostly songs that have become part of the fabric of America - old Negro Spirituals, protest songs, ballads. In the liner notes most of them aren't attributed to any one person - they just are. But the presentation is pure Springsteen - it's rousing and fun and playful and serious and heartfelt and AMAZING.

The first four songs were a blast. I wore a smile so big my face hurt. I was bouncing around like a kid presented with a puppy - complete with squeals and clapping hands. I was sweating and dancing and singing at the top of my lungs! I WAS IN MY GLORY! I had Bruce and my man by my side and nothing could go wrong.

The next part of the story I'm a bit ashamed about. But I'll tell it anyway.

I'm not much for public sharing - i.e. movies, concerts, theater, sporting events. I'm acutely aware that there are many people out there just waiting to ruin public experiences for me. No, I'm not paranoid (much) to think that they are DELIBERATELY out there waiting to ruin things for me, but they are there. Waiting. It never fucking fails. I go to the movies and even when it's empty someone sits next to me and talks the whole freaking time. I go to the theater and someone talks the whole freaking time. So I avoid these situations. I rarely, if ever, see movies in the theater. I'd rather watch at home where the only person who can ruin the experience for me is myself.

Inevitably this happens at concerts as well. Especially Bruce concerts. Bruce's fan base is such that there are many people stuck in 1984 (the year Born in the USA was released and Bruce became MEGA.) These fans feel it is their god given right to see Bruce in New Jersey whenever he performs, get shit roaring drunk and scream out THUNDER ROAD every opportunity they get. Doesn't matter if Bruce is alone on stage playing acoustic. Doesn't matter if it's the E Street Band. They come and they drink and they scream. It's really quite a shame because in the end (if they remember anything) they don't like the show because they don't get Thunder Road and they don't get arena rock and still they come. One of my favorite concert moments ever was seeing Bruce at the Beacon Theater in NYC - a very small venue. He was on the Tom Joad tour, which was a solo acoustic tour, and he started the show telling people that he needed quiet to sing these songs and please help him out and still there was one asshole - no doubt from Jersey - who wouldn't stop yelling out Thunder Road. Bruce stopped, in the middle of the show, and told him in no uncertain terms to SHUT THE FUCK UP. If you don't believe me - I've got it on tape. ;-)

Last night, the first four songs were SPECTACULAR! I heard my favorite of the new album - Oh Mary Don't You Weep, which was followed up by a nothing short of astonishing version of Atlantic City. Really - blew my freaking socks off. I was dancing I was singing I was deliriously happy. It was GLORIOUS. And then this asshole and his girlfriend bogarted their way into the seats next to us. Now, I know when you buy tickets to a concert it's a crapshoot who your neighbors will be. That's the price you pay (along with your first born to Ticketbastard.) BUT when assholes show up next to you WHO DON'T EVEN BELONG IN THE SEATS then you have every right to be livid. Don't you? So these cocksuckers show up and they're plenty drunk and the girl is holding one of those extra large beaker bottles filled with beer and she kept her bag on her shoulder the whole time so the beer bong thing is swinging around and her bag is swinging around and they're dancing like drunken fools they are and they have friends two rows up who they keep high fiving with over this poor older woman's head who wisely stayed in her seat the whole time because really she probably would've gotten sucker punched if she stood up. In between songs, when Bruce is talking about the homeless and the death penatly and war, this fucker next to us is shouting "Who loves you Bruce? Philly loves you Bruce! New Jersey loves you Bruce! THUNDER ROAD!!!"

Now I understand full well that this is a concert. People are allowed to dance and SHOULD dance and people are allowed to scream and SHOULD scream (hey I can BROOOOOOOCE along with the best of them - and I do) but the drunken disorderly-ness is UNACCEPTABLE. I will never understand why people pay A LOT of money to come to a concert to get shitfaced. Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to stay home and drink that six pack in front of the tape player? You can yell all you want there. It's just so obnoxious and ignorant and base. And yes I think I'm better than this guy. I really do. Because at the end of the night he's going to get in his car and drive home drunk and I can only hope he was arrested.

The worst part of all of this? I let the guy ruin my night. I HATE THAT. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT! I tried so hard to be all zen and say that it was okay and I was there and the music was good but I was so freaking aware of his spastic moves and that his drunk ass girlfriend was thisclose to hitting G in the head and that they yelled through the quiet songs and screamed during Bruce's talks and that there was nothing I could do about it because anything action on my part of G's part would've ended in a fight and I HATE IT! I LET THE FUCKING DRUNK ASSHOLE WIN!

Really, though, in the end I don't blame the asshole. He's an asshole. He has no choice in his life but TO BE AN ASSHOLE. He's not smart enough to know better. (Or maybe he was - on the drive home I said to G what could that girl have possibly seen in him and we both commented on how we observed that when the girl left (to go buy more beer) the guy became completely normal. He stood there quietly - even sat down. As soon as the girl got back MR. ASSHOLE returned. It was really quite hysterical.) Anyway, I don't blame the drunk guy. Put beer in front of him, he's going to drink it. He has no self control. And I really don't blame the venue either (which was quite nice - Tweeter Center in Camden) - they're trying to make a buck. I blame Bruce. On the Devils & Dust tour, he made it tour policy that as soon as the lights went down and the concert started, all concessions stands closed. And yes, people were drunk because they spent all day drinking in the parking lot, BUT THEY DIDN'T GET DRUNKER. They got more SOBER as the night went on. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences ever. And while I don't expect this at every concert - maybe half way through you cut people off? An hour in? SOMETHING? I can't believe you enjoyed the THUNDER ROADING any more than I did. In fact, I know you didn't. So Bruce, my love. Do something!!!! I'm with you all the way, but please. No more.

Whew! That felt good. You may ask why I still go to Bruce concerts when inevitably there will be assholes nearby. Because my friends, those first four songs - when the asshole wasn't near us - were some of the best moments of my life. And that's worth all the assholes in the world.

Back later with some good stuff. And if you're interested, AOL is showing 18 Nights of Bruce - a live clip from each of the US concerts. Last night's My City of Ruins is already up. ENJOY! (I promise - no assholes.)

PS - Oh and so far no poison ivy. But I'm still itchy - although it's kind of an all over body itch so I think it's all in my head.

Posted by Cara at 12:54 PM | Comments (26)

June 15, 2006

Swimmin' with the Pugs

If you need me today, I'll be over here. In the meantime, I'm totally co-opting this cool meme thing I saw over at Kimberly's:

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me — it can only be one word long. Then copy and paste this into your blog so that I may leave a word about you.

Go to it chickies!

Posted by Cara at 12:01 AM | Comments (111)

June 14, 2006

My Tongue Hurths.

Thomething happened to my tongue yetherday and it really really hurths. I think I burned it. But not on the uthual tip - on the thide. Tho everytime it toucheth my teeth it hurths. FUCK!

Thanks for coming out yesterday to cheer on this grand experiment! What I love best of all is that the marjority of the comments were from people I don't know - which is FANTASTIC! Out with the old in with the NEW! I've been trying to respond back to everyone in one way or another, so bear with me. If you get an email from me like six weeks from now you'll hopefully understand. I'm slow sometimes. And no, Lucia, I don't think that knitblogging is over. Not by a long shot - I do think that the lull these days is caused by a seasonal thing - the kids ARE out of school. The weather IS hot. We're all feeling a bit gin and tonics on the porch-ish. (Although make mine a lemonade please.) Add to that the normal ebb and flow of knitblogs and there you have it. God help me if the knitblogs go away - how else will I fill the time avoiding deciding whether or not to try to get pregnant? (Did I just say that out loud? Shit. I kid. Kidding. (hahahaha - kid - when talking about trying to get pregnant?!) I PROMISE I am taking my medication. It's Summer. I always go crazy in the Summer.) Change is good, or so I try to tell myself as I grasp onto the last bit of normalcy with my fingernails turning white and my hair blowing around as the winds of change try to knock my "normal" into oblivion. Change is good.

Did you know that there are no original ideas? I was all psyched about my Log Cabin Knits idea that I went out and bought the URL and everything. Then I come to find that there's a KAL here and there was one here which I guess got folded up into this one. So, of course, I thought, does the world really need another log cabin knitalong? And suprisingly, the answer I received from the universe was a resounding YES! That's the beauty of this thing - there's room for EVERYONE! (Also I paid for the freaking name and by god I'm going to use it.) I'm working out some technical stuff, but I envision something with lots of white (sort of like this blog) with Show & Tell Fridays and a very, very loose format where you can post if you want or don't want and share inspiriations and books and websites and people who inspire you and where it's all about the LOG CABIN in every form you can think of. Just want to knit endless squares and never put them together into anything? This is the place for you. And while my log cabin was of course inspired by Mason Dixon Knitting, the log cabin's of my future (I've got like 87 planned out in my head. It's very full in there these days.) are inspired by many many many different things. Therefore this KAL will NOT be associated with MDK (which the others seem to be) except in that it bows at the feet of Ann & Kay with reverence.

What do you think? Am I being an ass trying to reinvent the wheel? Or should I just go with my vision? I would just hate to step on any toes. Opinions welcome. Thank you!

There's MORE STUFF TO GIVE AWAY over at SPIN OUT Central. Teyani of Crown Mountain Farms has upped her prize contribution from two skeins of SOCK HOP Yarn in the never before seen colorway Love Me Tender to include one skein of superwash merino fiber (in Sock Hop Colors), one set of GORGEOUS handmade Asciano rosewood knitting needles and a handmade Jenkins turkish drop spindle. Thank you Teyani and Klaus! Morgaine from Carolina Homespun is sending us a generous prize package including learn to spin kits and fiber! Thank you Morgaine! And last but not least, Patty and Maureen from Green Mountain Spinnery in Vermont are sending in a Painted Hat kit which includes the pattern and two colors of Mountain Mohair and a carry bag. The best news though - THEY'RE COMING DOWN FROM VERMONT FOR THE EVENT! Can't wait to meet you! THANK YOU THANK YOU!

I also heard from Heifer International yesterday - we're like the poster child for amazing things you can do with a registry. They are very very grateful for all you are doing. Thank you from them and thank you from me.

That's still really nice, isn't it? Damn. Where the hell'd my MOFO go?

Posted by Cara at 10:35 AM | Comments (23)

June 07, 2006

Crapshoot

aka Random Wednesday.

- Please go watch this video. It has given me immense pleasure this morning. I've watched it no less than ten times. Seriously. I just watched it again and it's fantastic!

- Yesterday I waited for my new stove to be delivered. They were supposed to come between 1 and 5 PM. My building has strict rules - deliveries HAVE to happen before 5. At 4PM I called dispatch and said, um, remember how I told you the delivery had to be before 5, well, um, where's my stuff? They said they'd be there. At 4:57 they called and said they'd be late. Can we try to deliver anyway? I said sure but the building will turn you away. At 5:32 I got a call from the delivery guys saying they were turned away. Can they come today? Anyone want odds that I'll be cooking tonight? ETA: THEY'RE HERE!

- Actually, I can tell you I won't be cooking tonight because G and I are taking my sister out to Brooklyn to finally move her stuff into her new place. She's been staying here and for the last three nights we've gone "shopping." I put the word shopping in quotation marks because even though we've spent hours in a handful of stores trying on hundreds of garments I think she bought like one pair of pants. Or maybe more than that but she's returning everything but one pair of pants. My baby sister, bless her heart, can't shop retail. She can only shop thrift stores and New Jersey, Valley of the Damned Mall, doesn't have many thrift stores. Or at least none that I know of but I'm strictly a retail girl. I've learned a lot these last few days shopping with my sister. Mainly that I'm old and fat. It's been really really disconcerting watching her try on clothes. She did point out that when I was 24 my body didn't look like it does now (Thanks. Thanks a lot.) but I know my body doesn't look like it did when I was 24. What bothers me is that for every size 4 she tried on it seemed like someone had a bycicle pump attached to my belly and was pumping pumping pumping me up. And this is the week AFTER my period, when I'm supposed to feel all deflated and everything. I'm not going to even get into the fashion. It's like I've been living under a rock. I look at her clothes and think my god she's got a strange sense of style - I mean she wore a cowl neck thingy to work today that I swear to god I had in seventh grade - and then I go to the stores AND THAT'S WHAT THEY'RE SELLING! I was shocked! And the brands! I haven't even heard of half these brands. All I want is a nice pair of jeans that fits me and doesn't cut in my crotch doesn't show my ass crack and doesn't flare out like a freaking parachute at the bottom. Is that too much to ask? Throw in a bit of stretch and you've got yourself a deal.

I have never really felt old. In my mind I'm a much more mature, oh, let's say, 20. 20 was a good year. But these last few days I've felt like my sister's mother, waiting for her outside the dressing room, all dumpy and gross in my baseball cap. So not fair. Before you tell me to stop wallowing and get off my fat ass, I have been. Last week I got on the scale and I had tipped my threshold weight. You know - the spot on the dial that you swear YOU WILL NEVER GO OVER? Yeah. I went over. But instead of waddling into to the kitchen to open the new bag of chips, I strapped on my sneakers and got out and ran. I've been running for a week, I guess. Today was supposed to be a run day but it's pouring outside and I have to wait for the freaking oven guys anyway. Hopefully tomorrow. I hate the way I feel right now.

- Knittng has been nonexistant and I really, really miss it. I haven't been bringing it with me while I've been out shopping with my sister which is just so stupid really. I mean, I could've been relaxing with my shit while she's been trying on clothes and I just know it wouldn't have been so awful for me. Don't ask me why I haven't brought it with me - I don't know. Maybe I want to feel sorry for myself? My squares yarn came and it's great and I found my size 5s I thought I lost and I should just sit on the couch all day today and knit but I started cleaning yesterday and it felt kind of good to see the floor again so I'll probably keep going with that. And I have some work to do too. Bleh.

- Have I mentioned I hate Summer? It doesn't matter if it's rainy and cold outside, if the calendar says Summer my brain goes into hyperdrive. I'm already sick of myself and it's only June 7th. Maybe you should reconsider sticking around. Don't say I didn't warn you.

- There is some GOOD news around here! First up, WE HAVE AN OMBRE WINNER! The MDK girls picked

A Very Brady Ombre (or "Groovy Ombre") by PBnJ: Avocado Green, Burnt Orange, Harvest Gold, and "Paneling Brown." Apprently, 1971 was Harvest Gold year for both of them! Congratulations PBnJ!

Also, we're at $4846 in the Heifer Registry! YAY! And some new fantastic prizes came in yesterday: Paula and Kate at Woolarina are pitching in some yarn and stuff. (Go tell Paula CONGRATULATIONS on her wedding this weekend! YAY PAULA!) Allison from the Simply Sock Yarn Company has some fabulous Toasty Toes to send us. Lori Lawson, fiber artist extraordinaire, from the Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio in San Juan Capistrano, CA, is putting together a generous package of hand painted fiber and yarn for us. And last but not least, Cecil Miskin from Buffalo Gold has donated a huge gift of buffalo goodies: fiber and yarn and fiber for felting! I can't wait to feel the buffalo! (Oh and be sure to check out the contest Buffalo Gold is sponsoring over at Wild Fibers Magazine - you can win $1000 shopping spree at Buffalo Gold!) THANK YOU ALL!

Posted by Cara at 10:11 AM | Comments (27)

May 01, 2006

Thank you thank you thank you!

Not one person said anything to me about my shawl at the wedding, but WHO CARES!!! YOU GUYS ROCK! Way to inflate an ego. The next time my husband tells me I'm pretty I'm going to tell him he better repeat that like ninety times or else I'm coming here! Although, honestly, I hope I don't disappoint anyone at Maryland when I show up in my stained jeans (the only pair that fits) and a t-shirt and Merrells. I'll try to put gel in my hair, but I'm not promising anything. ;-) Seriously, thank you all so much for your comments on the shawl and on me. Truly appreciated - I was feeling all warm and fuzzy everytime I checked my email.

So, my hair looked GREAT. Really great. Thanks Jen for telling me not to cut it. And my dress looked good. The two pieces of cherry pie I had for breakfast really helped it cling. The shawl was gorgeous, natch. And the shoes crippled me. Hopefully not permanently. Who knew you had to stand so long at a Greek wedding? By the time the ceremony was done I was a mess. Hobbled. Limping is being generous. I calculated the exact amount of time I'd have to be standing - maybe 15 minutes at the Church - half an hour at the cocktail part and then I get my seat at the table and I never have to get up until it's time to leave. Nope. I stood for an hour at the wedding alone and that was it. I keep getting shooting pains up my leg and occassionally my pinkie on my right foot spasms. But I looked GOOD! That's all that matters, right?

It was a nice wedding, as far as these things go. G was feeling bad for me because no one said anything about my shawl. He's so sweet. When I got out of the shower and was getting dressed I told him that I'd had this fantasy that I left the shawl at the table while I was dancing and someone STOLE IT! Georgie - you don't think anyone will steal my shawl do you? Thank god he loves me because the look I got had divorce lawyer written all over it. At one point during the wedding he was talking with a friend and I got up to go to the bathroom and I gave him my purse and threw the shawl over his shoulder. When I got back and wrapped it around myself he told his friend that I had made the shawl and his friend was appropriate in his response, even if it did look like he was on round 42 of 100 Bottles of Beer On The Wall when he said it. My Georgie! He tries.

On the drive home I was just sad that I have no where fancy to wear the shawl again and G said it would look great with a pair of jeans. So maybe next time we go out to dinner. Thanks again for all your beautiful comments!

On Sunday I did a lot of stuff. Knitting wise. I finally re-tackled the collar on Short Rows and I've got it where I want it. Now all I have to do is sew the seams. And fix a couple of holes that appeared at the seams of the sleeves when I was ripping and re-ripping out the collar. I have no idea what happened - a couple of stitches on the edges became INCREDIBLY huge and loose. As far as I can tell the stitches aren't dropped or anything just gaping. So I'm going to twist the back and tack them down. Luckily it's the navy blue part so no one will be the wiser - and it's on the seam. To say I'm sick of this sweater is being kind. I hope to have it finished by the end of the week, but it's taking all the energy I have to sew a sleeve up, so I'm not making any promises.

I've been incredibly inspired by all of you! Here's a pair of socks I've started - I think I like it the best of the four socks I have currently on the needles:

I first saw this sock over at Susan's (April 6th entry) - I'm calling it the January Sock because it's taken from the January 15th stitch pattern in the 365 Stitch Pattern Calendar. The yarn is STR Spinel in lightweight. I started these socks on Addi 1s (2.5mm) but switched to 0s (2.0mm) and I like them so much better. On the 1s the stitch pattern was getting lost - not enough stretch, but 0s should work great. I've decided that 1s are my favorite sock knitting needle size. They feel just right in my hands. My 2s feel clumsy and dull on the edges and the 0s I feel like I'm going to break and they keep bending. Oh well.

Another project I'm really excited about was completely inspired by MJ and Lauren! I bought a bunch of chocolate brown Rowan Calmer ages ago with the express intention of making a long-sleeve v-neck sweater - something casual and comfortable in stockinette. I also have some purple Calmer for trim and maybe some strategically placed stripes.

Both MJ and Lauren used Barbara Walker's directions for top down set in sleeves. I've had this book on my shelf forever and I've tried to read it a number of times and even though she says in the intro that she's going to use plain English and there's not a lot of math, I still get really jumbled up when reading it. But I'm giving it a go and both MJ and Lauren have both offered their assistance. I swatched the Calmer on size 8s and I like how it came out, so I'm going to take measurements today. We'll see what happens, but I think this whole top down sweater thing could be a revelation in my sweater making.

Thank you again for being so sweet! Happy MAY Day!!

Posted by Cara at 09:39 AM | Comments (40)

March 15, 2006

Dosh...or...Jonna...anything but RONNA!

Have I mentioned how much I love my DVR? I mean really really really really really love it? I've have just wound and rewound and re-freaking-round the KISS!!!! OH MY GOD FINALLY MY FANTASIES HAVE BEEN FULFILLED!

And while I'm on the subject of TV, can I just say that THIS is the way a series is supposed to end? Everyone wants Josh and Donna together, so now that the series is ending, we can put them together. And they can ride off into the sunset. UNLIKE Gilmore Girls - that show should've ended with Luke and Lorelei kissing and Kirk running out of the inn naked. C'mon. You SO know what I'm talking about. And you know I'm right.

Posted by Cara at 06:01 PM | Comments (14)

March 06, 2006

I'd like to thank the Academy....

I'm blaming it on PMS, otherwise I'm a big ass cornball, but I totally lost it during Reese Witherspoon's acceptance speech. She was so poised and beautiful and yet still retained her spunk. I feel like Ryan Phillipe isn't good enough for her - you know? And despite myself I like George Clooney. He's so Cary Grant, except not as effete.

Hi everybody! That's from Max, my nephew. He's sitting with me while I'm writing on my website. He wants to know when he can get his own website. We told him when he's ten.

y y h,ugyhhm M,MNJMM. (That's from Baby Eli! (Who's actually a big boy these days crawling up the stairs and standing by himself!))

I ripped the Embossed Leaves socks and started them over. This time I did a regular long tail cast on and simple 1x1 rib and they're so much better. The ribbing is nice and stretchy (on size 2 Addis) and I did the pattern on 1s, but it's all good. Most people say the Koigu stretches a lot so I thought sticking with 1s on the cuff was the best move. I've gone through 2 repeats and it's all good. I'm happy with them. It was the cast on and twisted knit ribbing that I didn't like - way too tight.

Thanks for all the good wishes about this weekend. I go by the "imagine the absolute WORST possible thing to happen then be pleasantly surprised" way of life. A lot of the time it works great and this weekend was no exception. It's still not an ideal situation - but it could be much, much worse. I'm down here until Thursday. I may be on everyday, but I may not. Thanks for reading. Pictures when I get back.

vbncFFCXXZSxggt6wxqsdbddadssvmbbcchggkhfmnvnjhfbmjk,kvhjuujkguil;lkjhgcfhgcfhgfcgfd
xcvb bvcxzb nbvghnjk.l,mnmmnbvczz fvjlkm.,mk ,m,.;l,kmjhngbfvdffghjkil oikujhgbhjuijuhnbvbgg

BY MAX

Posted by Cara at 12:46 PM | Comments (22)

February 28, 2006

The Aftermath

We're going RANDOM today - hold on for the ride....

So the Olympics are over. Huh. What now you ask? Short Rows. I am determined to finish Short Rows. DETERMINED. D-E-T-E-R-M-I-N-E-D. Don't ask about it though, okay? I don't need the pressure. I want that monkey off my back. Although I gained back all the weight I lost this Summer and now I'm scared it won't fit. But we'll deal with that when it's finished. AND IT WILL BE FINISHED.

I'm also going to start swatching for Crossed In Translation. Teresa came up for the party on Sunday and we had some quality time together. After making like 200 swatches for this thing, she can knit the sweater in her sleep. Which works out extremely well for me because I got a nice little tutorial on all the different stitches and now I am very confident. Although I'm also bummed because I would really like some Rowan Magpie. Theresa's swatch in that was really great. Anyone know where I can get a sweater's worth of Magpie in a pretty purply pink color? I will pay. Anyway, I will start swatching asap. Don't ask about it though, okay? I don't need the pressure. Speaking of PRESSURE, did you see that (the other) Theresa knit her Am Kamin sweater in SIXTEEN FREAKING DAYS!!!! It was her Olympic Project and my god she deserves like a PLATINUM medal. With diamonds and sapphires encrusted in it. And a tiara. Definitely a sparkly tiara. The sweater is absolutely GORGEOUS and Theresa is GORGEOUS and oh my god she's my inspiration. Please, PLEASE run don't walk to go tell her how magnificent it is - the accomplishment as well as the sweater. It's so good I'm linking to it twice.

More Olympic goodness: Have you met Maisie and her mom Rowan? They are too freaking cute for words. And I say cute in the best most grown-up sophisticated practically a teenager who probably hates to be called cute way. Maisie is I don't know, ten? Eleven? Speak up Maisie! I forgot how old you are! And she's an amazing knitter. I watched her knit WITHOUT LOOKING on her super tiny DPNs and I was in awe. She rocks. And she taught her mom to knit too. And Maisie made a sweater for her older sister for the Olympics which you can check out on the blog she and her mom write together and lots and lots of socks and she knit Phil an AWESOME sweater (because, really, she says curse SHMURSE!) And in one of my favorite closing ceremony party moments, Maisie and her mom had to leave earlier than expected due to the death of her older sister's guinea pig (and no, neither the dead animal nor Maisie and Rowan leaving were my favorite part) and Maisie exclaimed that ALL her sister's pets died and the drama in her voice was all MARSHA MARSHA MARSHA and I felt so bad for Maisie having to leave and wanted to tell her that she rocked even if her sister's pet died and Rowan showed that she's an awesome Mom and girls I'd hang with you BOTH anytime. Any time. Thanks so much for coming to the party!

These are the only pictures I have from the party:

Where are all the pictures? I know people took pictures? Where are they? Please leave me a comment or email pointing me to pictures. I want to see them!

Guess what was waiting for me when I got home?!?

My latest Better Pal gift! Yay! Jan from Be*mused was my Better Pal. In this package I got the BEST stuff! Some Rowan Wool Cotton - one of my favorite yarns. Some (more) of Lisa Souza's GORGEOUS Biffle, which happens to be what I have on my wheel at the moment. EXCELLENT coincidence, Jan. Just great. I'm so glad to have more of this fiber. I love it! Of course, some more caramels. (It's a good thing I got a clean bill at the dentist!) And a super special KIT KAT from Japan. It's CHERRY BLOSSOM flavor and it's a Special Edition. Do you believe that? Special Edition Kit Kat. Awesome. Thanks so much JAN! It was a great Better Pal exchange.

My pal was Dalai Mama Liz. She's a hoot and a half and I tried to knock her socks off with my gifts. I think I succeeded, although at the beginning I thought I gave myself away. Apparently that wasn't the case because she bought a crapload of STR a couple of weeks ago. Silly girl! I had to call Tina and change all the colors I ordered for Liz at the last minute because she bought them herself! Thanks Liz for being such a great giftee!

I don't think I ever showed you the GREAT contest win from Danielle.

It's all silk and silk blends and it's soft and GORGEOUS and G was really taken with it. No plans for it yet. I love looking at it though and I think it will have a special place in the yarn cabinet. Beautiful stuff. Danielle dyed it all herself too. She gives great contest, so check her out!

Ready for another KAL? Check out Kris, Miyon, and Scout's new endeavor. A Rockin' Sock Club KAL! Did you join the BMFA sock club? Now you can knit the patterns with other members. Check it out!

Speaking of socks, I'm almost through another Jaywalker and Jenn asked the other day about the Embossed Leaves Koigu socks I started. I hate to admit it, but I'm barely through the ribbing. They'll be getting a boost soon!

That should be random enough! Have a great day!

Posted by Cara at 02:56 PM | Comments (25)

February 22, 2006

Exorcism!

NO CAVITIES! YAY! None for me, none for Georgie! Safe for another six months. Whew!

I'm writing this Tuesday night because tomorrow I'm going to meet Ann and Daughter#2 (hey Ann - will I have to call her Daughter #2? Or does she have a more conventional name?) to give them the oh my god its been 15 years since I graduated from college tour of NYU. I hope I don't forget all the good score corners at Washington Square. There will be lunch and there will be yarn shops in the mix. Even though I didn't knit when I was in college. Ann canceled on me because she's hacking up a lung and was generous enough to keep her Avian Flu away from me. And she more than made up for it with this photograph. Please, PLEASE go read her post. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. Oh my god I LOVE YOU ANN!

This post, though, is about exorcism. (That should be good for the google hits!) You all know about the sideboard brouhaha, and in order to put it all past us and load up that baby with yarn, I felt like I needed to exorcise the evil karma that came along with my mistake. I've been thinking about what I could do and this morning I said to G I should burn the directions and he said that was perfect. So I did it. (G wasn't home when I actually did do it and I think if he saw the amount of FIRE produced he would've changed his mind in