Everybody Loves Saturday Night

It's funny--but it's really funny in conjunction with this:



Oh, if only my past weren't so shady. (Shadier than Bill Clinton's? I hear you ask. Well...hard to say. At least I know how to define things. Like "inhale.")

Thanks to Brainylady Alison for the links!


I don't know where to begin! How about, in honor of the cold weather, a picture of my new cowl? I followed the pattern provided by the fabulous Bonne Marie, modifying slightly because the Rumba is best knit on US 10s--or even better, 10.5s. Here's a close up that shows off the gorgeousness of the yarn (and the wee bit of snow-related glistening). I'm glad I scooped up as much of this as I did, because I'm going to make myself a hat (I don't care if I get fucshia strands in my hair!) and, perhaps, mittens. I love this yarn. LOVE this yarn. So much so that I don't really want anyone else to have it. So back off.

You know I'm kidding, right?

Seriously, though. It's all mine.

Moving on...OK, so the other half of Banff was on the make-shift blocking board Wednesday afternoon, and I was getting nervous. Scout hadn't slept on it yet. Did he disdain the sweater as not comfortable enough? Could such a thing be possible? Is Banff not Scout-worthy, and how bad a thing is that? By the end of the afternoon, however, I found this:



Whew. I should have labels made that read "This garment has been Scout-approved." Or, better yet: "Inspected by Scout 19."

By the way, the color of the Banff pieces is fairly accurate. I hope to have the time to put the sweater together today or tomorrow.

And, finally, here's my first Must Have Sleeve:





I had a hard time getting the cables to come through in the photo--this is the best I could do, but take my word for it, it looks a lot better in person, as does the yarn color. The techie details: because the largest pattern size is a wee bit too small for me, and Kate's upsized version would be too big (I feel like I've typed that before--sorry if I'm repeating myself), I opted to simply add a few stitches on either side. I realized about half a sleeve into it that I had mistaken Irish moss stitch for seed stitch (an easy mistake to make, I think), but I like the way the sleeve looks anyway.




But here's the really weird part: I had intended to increase to 91 stitches before the armhole shaping, and even though I'm pretty damn sure I made all the increases on the right rows, I wound up with 85, which means I skipped increasing on three rows. I have no idea how that happened. The funny thing is I usually count the total number of stitches every so often to make sure I'm on track, but I think I was so mesmerized with the pattern that I was content to just make sure that the number of stitches for the seed pattern matched up on both sides. 85 stitches still gives me enough room in the arm, but I don't know how I'm going to duplicate that for the second sleeve. Would spacing out the increases more give me two very differently shaped sleeves, or would it all work out as long as the lengths were the same?


That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!

the family of black cats playing in the snow across the street from my office. Thanks to the past couple days, there is a lot of snow for them. I hope they have a home to go to when it gets too cold for them--but then, if they've survived so far (and two of them are young'uns), then I would imagine they have a pretty good person looking after them.

I'm also currently loving the snow. I love the peace that a snowfall at night brings, as though everyone in the city is awestruck.

I don't particularly love the way whoever in charge of shoveling sidewalks decides that pedestrians only need a footpath the width of a single foot.

I'm sneaking this in in the last hour before classes. I haven't had much time for substance the last couple days--I've got a bunch of pictures on my camera waiting to be uploaded, including one of the Rumba cowl, and the very recently completed Must Have sleeve #1. Banff is blocked and ready for seaming--it was a hard choice last night between putting Banff together or finishing the MH sleeve. Lately, the cables have been winning.

I am going to have my first batch of papers to grade this weekend--they're only supposed to be 2 pages so I'm hoping I can get them all done before Tuesday. I could get a lot of the grading done during the Super Bowl which, since I have no ties to either team, I will be watching strictly for the commercials. But then, I could also get a lot of knitting done during the Super Bowl. Here's where the deal-making part comes in: I tell myself that if I can get 8 papers graded before the Super Bowl begins, then I can knit the rest of the evening.

I broke down and got yarn for Rogue. Now I'm second-guessing that choice (Cascade 220) as too lightweight* and looking to see if I can score some really great bargain on a different yarn. I don't even have the pattern yet, as PayPal decided I needed reauthorization or enhancement or something that requires my credit card company to give me a number to give back to PayPal. The last thing I bought on my PayPal account was Bonne Marie's ChicKami pattern, and that was back in...June or July, I think. I don't like using PayPal but it is expedient when I want something NOW...but then, I don't exactly get the thrill of instant gratification when I have to wait for my credit card company to send me my statement (I know I could probably get this online, but I get a little paranoid about hidden charges for that kind of thing).

The lack of links in the previous paragraph is brought to you by this incredibly slow computer in my office. I shouldn't complain because I at least have an office and computer access but just to give you an idea--I responded to a friend's email and by the time I clicked my way back to my inbox, her reply to my reply was sitting there.

I am spending too much money on yarn for this semester's budget. Or at least, I should really wait to see what my monthly budget is like to decide what I can spend. Because I'm eyeing that Rowan Magpie. Baby, am I eyeing it.

* I know Cascade 220 says its 4.5-5sts/1" (Rogue is 4.5/1"), but I'm using 8s for the Raglan pullover and getting 5 sts/1". I don't know why I didn't think of that before. I was too color-oriented, I think, focusing on the perfect color for Rogue (I settled on an extremely pretty faded blue, thanks to much help from Rob (his addy I know by heart). Then again, I'm working the legwarmers (or WAS) on 9s without much substantial difference in drape. I think it'll be OK. I don't know why I'm so flighty these days.

No sooner have we recovered from the Golden Globes than the Oscar nominations are announced! Granted, there wasn't much to recover from, but still...a few surprises in the list of nominations. The appreciation I have for the way the Globes separate out comedy from drama hits me with full force when I see that Bill Murray is going up against Sean Penn and Ben Kingsley and Jude Law and--can you believe it?--Johnny Depp! How awesome is it that Johnny Depp got nominated for an Oscar? The other cool nomination? Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider. But why leave off Evan Rachael Wood (Thirteen) or, for that matter, Scarlett Johansson? Are they not allowed to nominate more than one young person?

So what do you think? Who's going to clean up this year?

Oh, how I adore the Golden Globes. I used to be one of those elitist Oscar fans who poo-pooed other "lesser" award shows...and then Emma Thompson won a Globe for her Sense & Sensibility screenplay, and read her acceptance speech as though Jane Austen had written a letter to her sister about attending "The Golden Spheres" soiree. Pretentious? I'll grant that. Perfectly rendered? Absolutely--which for me makes the pretentious factor moot. I fell in absolute love then--with the divine Ms. Thompson and with the award ceremony that accommodated such a wonderful speech. And when I became the TV junkie that I am today, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why I love a show that brings movies and TV together. That separates the comedy from the drama, so that Lost in Translation isn't up against Return of the King. Lost in Translation is a comedy? Hmm.

I thought this year's ceremony was pretty tame--the only people who *really* embarrassed themselves were Brittany Murphy and whoever that guy was that was with her. Well, I thought Al Pacino's acceptance speech was a little too rambling--Al, baby, how could you *not* think you were a shoo-in for winning for your portrayal of Roy Cohn? Seriously. That was a lock if I ever saw one.

I don't think an award was given that I really disagreed with. I know that Shannon thinks that Ben Kingsley should have won Best Actor/Drama, but I'm happy that Sean Penn got recognition. I'm thrilled that Lost in Translation won so many awards, and also thrilled for Peter Jackson. Man, the Oscars are going to be tough.

The movie awards were fairly easy to guess--although I honestly wasn't expecting Peter Jackson to win Best Director/Drama. Given that the actors in Mystic River both won, I was thinking it would be Clint Eastwood--or maybe Anthony Minghella. Then I remembered--this is the Globes! But the main surprises for me were in TV: I never would have thought 24 would win, and I was equally--but pleasantly--surprised that Anthony LaPaglia won for Without a Trace. I like the show, even though I'm not blown away by it. I like Anthony LaPaglia more than the show itself, I guess--but still, I wouldn't have picked him to win. Otherwise, knew that The Office was going to win Best Comedy Series. Knew that Angels in America would win almost everything--and in fact I think it won everything for which it was nominated. You go, Mary-Louise Parker!

It was a bizarre tribute to Michael Douglas, who got the DeMille award this year. I thought it was off and fairly disrespectful, actually. I'm not a fan of Michael Douglas, but I hardly ever begrudge anyone their lifetime achievement award. Besides, Romancing the Stone and Wonder Boys are worthy enough for any award. His acceptance speech was incredibly gracious and made me like him for those five minutes. But Danny Devito? Oy. Bad form, buddy.

And now, the fashion report (because I am that shallow):

My favorite dress? Three-way tie: Cate Blanchett, Marg Helgenberger (both of them were wearing what looked like the same shade of burgundy--soooo beautiful) and Uma Thurman. Dang, she looked HOT. I love that Renee Zellweger looks healthy again.

The bad? OK, I didn't get what Sarah Jessica Parker was wearing, but I thought she looked good anyway. I really didn't get what Nicole Kidman was wearing, and I didn't like it. I'm getting a little tired of Sharon Stone dressing down. Gwen Stefani looked like an alien. Eva Mendes' dress was the most unflattering.

None of the men stood out to me in terms of looking particularly good or bad or unexpected (i.e., I would expect David Cross to wear a large furry emerald green coat). I do think Elijah Wood gets more adorable every day, however.

Would you believe: a 3 and a half hour show and I'm STILL not done with the back of Banff? Gah!

Friday night I went to see Suitcase: or, those that resemble flies from a distance, which just opened at Soho Rep. I went to a reading of the same play almost a year ago, intrigued by the subject matter: two women, living in the same apartment building, each working on her dissertation (ahem), who talk to each other by phone--and their well-intentioned boyfriends who try so hard to be supportive yet don't quite understand what's going on with their girlfriends, or why. A play? About dissertation writing and the isolation/frustration/angst that goes with it? Can you say "cathartic"? I knew you could. Oh, and Colleen's in it, so you know I would've been there had the play been about stock market analysts or tax law consultants.

Oh--people in NYC and those who are planning on heading out here within the next four weeks: go see this play. It's written by Melissa James Gibson, who also wrote [sic], which I didn't see but which won several OBIEs, which I take to mean it's pretty damn good. Suitcase, admittedly, has for me that which it might not have for others--a very wry, very very funny perspective on this pinnacle of academic pre-professionalism--the point at which the academese with which a doctoral candidate is expected to write filters through into everyday conversation, rendering the doctoral candidate perplexed and torn between consciously and explicitly enjoying sounding so fucking smart and feeling rather embarrassed about it, which is further demonstrated by either slight self-deprecation or ridicule of others. Or both. You can read an excerpt of the play here (Colleen plays Jen).

The most interesting aspect of the play for me was the main reason I wanted to see it in its completed form, with sets and blocking--the idea is that the characters all have minimal physical contact with each other. Throughout the duration of the play, the two women never leave their desks--they talk to other characters over the phone or through the building intercom. The two boyfriends do talk face to face to each other, but I got the sense that they don't really know each other very well, and are thrown into the acquaintance because each is dating the other's girlfriend's best friend. There's a wonderful quartet three-fourths of the way through the play, in which the boyfriends are trying desperately to talk to their girlfriends, who have--deliberately?--made themselves emotionally unavailable ("I really don't have time for feelings right now"). The boyfriends show up, the women are on the phone with each other, confused and torn between wanting to see the boyfriends and wanting their space--what results is a couple minutes in which only each others' names are spoken, and it's fun and amazing to see/hear how expressive it is--entire story arcs begun and completed with only proper names uttered aloud. Go see this play.

My moment of verklemptitude occurred before the play started. Colleen mentioned me in her bio in the program. It's the first time I've gotten a playbill shout-out, and it really touched me. Later, I met other friends of hers who came to the play, and one of them asked, "Oh, are you the Michelle in the program?" Hee.

Not much else to report. I've been working on school stuff, grading some short journal entries, making notes to myself to mention on Tuesday that it would behoove everyone to PAY ATTENTION not only to what's going on in class, but what's written in the schedule for what assignments are due on what day. Haven't gotten much knitting done, although I did whip up a cowl out of that fabulous Rumba and I did start the back of Banff. I know I'll get some prime knitting in tonight during the Golden Globes. C'mon, Lost in Translation!

I'm somebody!

Things are going to start happening to me now.*

Actually, many exciting things have happened in the last couple days. First, the cat food brand my cat enjoys has come out with a new seafood flavor. YES, that's exciting. I mean, it's not as exciting as getting this book from the wonderfully generous Annie, which happened today. The other exciting mail item today was an envelope full of amazing yarn. I've got four hanks of that black and fucshia Rumba (a Koigu yarn) that Rob mentioned on his blog, two hanks of Lorna Laces in the Vera colorway--this gorgeous beige/olive/copper/magenta combo that is just to die for (there's a picture of it on Rob's blog somewhere), and the last hank of Cascade 128 that I need to complete Banff. I heart Threadbear!

In fact, I've got half of Banff (that practically rhymes, hey) blocking right now, trying to speed up the process of finishing so I can wear this baby as soon as possible, now that we've gotten back to frigid weather again.

But you know, I gotta Rumba first.

* I do this every time. I stick to the classics, I do.

...is the 31st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Today is also very very close to the month mark for Mike (again with the alliteration). That would be a month without cigarettes. I am unspeakably proud and impressed with the remarkable ease with which he is getting by without nicotine--he's able to withstand the cravings much easier than I did, and he had smoked far more than I did.* We figured out that in this month alone, he's saved about $100, and that's going by discounted cigarette prices (which are still more expensive here than in most places). I just wanted to give him a public "whoop whoop"--hope he doesn't mind. Give it up for the non-smoking yet still smokin' Mike, yo.

Today we have officially entered the Year of the Monkey. I am not a Monkey by birth, nor am I one of those ubiquitous Rats. I'm a Boar, or Pig, which doesn't totally thrill me--but then I'm an Aries, so it all works out.

And speaking of birth, we're at the two month mark to my birthday. I got a little countdown thing goin' now.


* Actually, now that I think about it, it was easier for me to cave to the cravings because he was still smoking when I quit, so cigarettes were always available.

You know what's fun? Watching Bush's State of the Union address in a bar full of tipsy liberals.

"...certain provisions of the Patriot Act will expire..."

"GOOD!"

By the end of the speech, I think we were all in love with the one soldier the cameras kept cutting to who was clearly not feelin' it. Actually, the cameras cut several times to people who looked either bored, shocked, pissed off, or were simply asleep (it was hard to tell with Ted Kennedy). I guess they do that with any President's State of the Union, but I can't remember. This is actually the first time I've sat through one of Bush's speeches, and honestly, a glass of wine and snarky people were the only things that got me through it. He infuriates me. Howard Dean is now being criticized for snippily stating that Bush is "no neighbor of mine" (in response to an Iowan man's question about why Dean isn't nicer to Bush), and while I think his response is indicative of one of the things that ultimately hurt Dean in the Iowa caucus* (18%? Ouch), man, I tell ya. Yeah. He's no neighbor of mine either. He's not even close. We're not living in the same country, even. It's too bad we can't send him to Elba.

Highlight: when the Democrats applauded the pending expiration of Patriot Act provisions.
Bizarre moment: you're talking about steroids why? because all you really have is the war on terror and you can't talk about that for 40 minutes?
Best rhetoric: spinning those who opposed the war in Iraq into those who opposed the "liberation" of a people. I'm so using that in class.
Otherwise, I think his speech writers are pretty lousy. They are not using the English language well at all--that speech was, for the most part, nothing more than empty rhetoric that would have sounded false coming from Paul Wellstone, may he rest in peace and oh, how I miss him.

I also think Tom Daschle and Nancy Pelosi could not have looked more wooden in their responses to Bush.

~~~~~~~~~~

Adieu, Mr. Gephardt. You are an admirable man and I look forward to your return to public service in some sort of Carter-esque capacity, because I think you will rock at it.

~~~~~~~~~~

You know you're becoming a political junky when you start developing a crush on Mark Shields.

~~~~~~~~~~

I dreamt of yarn shopping last night. Massive sale in a department store of the Dayton's/Marshall Fields variety, where sweaters were displayed and then in drawers behind them you could get the yarn with which to make the sweater. I wound up buying a bag of 20 balls of a light dusty pink angora that I had to have even though the color would make me look washed out.

Then all of a sudden I was sitting on a curb with the neighbor's three ugly dogs.

What the hey, it's far more intriguing than the snarfing-banana dream.

~~~~~~~~~~

My first day of class was one of the more enjoyable first days of my teaching experience. I do have many returning students in my two sections--in fact, one section is dominated by students from last semester (10 out of 15). I gave them a little in-class writing to do, as all comp instructors had been instructed to, and I have to say--their responses just totally blew me away. I would share them if it were ethical to do so, because damn. These guys are so smart. I love the beginning of the semester, when everything is fresh and no one's screwed up yet.



* Because we're NICE in the Midwest, donchaknow. We like the nice, you betcha.

(except for the sweaters)

But thank you for them, most sincerely. I have a hard time accepting compliments, anyway--but I think I've gotten better about this in the past year (it was, in fact, a resolution made on my birthday--which is, by the way, a mere 2 months away. And two days, to be specific). It is easier now to hear something positive about something I've done (knitting, writing) and ignore the impulse to say, "well, it's really nothing" or "hey, it's so easy anyone could do it" (even if that's true) or otherwise downplay the achievement.

It was a busy weekend of getting things together for the first week of teaching, putting last minute touches on the syllabus and even--would you believe--preparing for the first three classes! I still want to get the first couple paper assignments hammered out. I'm working ahead so that I will have more time during my days off to continue working on ... you know. I can't even type the word right now. I didn't work on it at all over break, and I am ashamed of myself. I am letting it, in its unfinished mocking form, intimidate, humiliate, triumph over me, when I know in my more lucid moments that if I hunkered down (oy, I never want to use a word like "hunkered" again) and wrote through all of the BS and wrote consistently and every day, or even every other day, I would be finished within a month. Perhaps it's that idea that's keeping me from doing it, that procrastinating, "oh, it's not going to take that long, I don't have to start yet" attitude. The fact that it's still hanging over my head drives me crazy and yet I feel unable to do anything about it, and yet I don't know why I feel unable. And this, despite working through all these issues over the past three months, this, despite going through it countless times, I keep coming back to this spot, this Square One, unable to see what I've accomplished, unable to accept that I've come this far, unable to see what's just beyond, unable to push through the gauze, ignore all the little doubts and just fucking WRITE IT. It's frustrating and yet one would think I prefer being frustrated.

I recognize now that I'm going to have to make some changes in my daily schedule, at least until I get back on my feet and start feeling productive again. One thing that's helped a lot, as I hoped it would, is this new diet. I mentioned in a brief footnote that I was hoping to take the post-smoking weight off, but the details are thus: we went on the South Beach Diet. Please, no laughing. Or if you must, laugh at the fact that this was Mike's idea--everyone who knows him is bemused by the idea that he's on a diet and indeed, I'm starting to fear he's going to disappear, but he insists on calling this a lifestyle change, so we'll go with that. Yes, it's one of those low-carb diets, but it is not no-carb (like I could live without bread. Pa-leez) and, in fact, has been fairly easy to follow. The first two weeks, which ended last night, are meant to jump start the process and is the most restrictive: no bread, rice, pasta, and no fruit. The no fruit thing is easy--I'm much more a veggie person (although last night I dreamt I snarfed down two huge bananas, which under normal circumstances would be fodder even for those who HATE Freud, but I digress) but the no bread...especially when I received a jar of olallieberry jam from sweet-as-jam Rachael...was agony for the first few days. Wait, I'm losing track of my train of thought. OK, so--there are two bottom lines here: I've noticed a definite change in the way my clothes fit (there are some items that are still tight and while that's a little discouraging, I'm going to think more about the stuff that's now loose. I'm not weighing myself so clothes fitting is how I'm gauging my progress), but more importantly, I've noticed a definite change in my energy level. For the months of November and December my eating habits were absolutely appalling--we were ordering take out half the time, eating double portions of everything, downing nearly entire bags of chips in a sitting (you know what? Sometimes it was the whole bag), is it any wonder I was writing entries about how exhausted and drained I was? Sure, it was the crunch-time end of the semester, but surely the massive carb comas I was putting myself into weren't helping. The other major thing I've noticed since starting this diet is that I no longer need that afternoon nap. I don't find myself on the futon or bed, reading, and drifting off to sleep for an hour or two. I'm still alert around 11pm--a full hour later than a couple months ago.

The downsides: although I was assured repeatedly that I would not go hungry while on this diet, I find that this is not true all the time. During the day I can have healthy snacks and that's fine, but I still get very hungry around 9 or 10 at night, and I don't know if it's because I'm not eating enough for dinner or if it's because my body is still adjusting to normal-sized portions. I admit to not really knowing what normal is anymore. In fact, I don't know if what I'm feeling is hunger or cravings. It doesn't feel like the hunger I'm used to--no stomach growling, just a bizarre kind of empty feeling. It may or may not be tied to a more disturbing development--I've been waking up in the morning feeling rather woozy. Yesterday was worse--I was making coffee and all of a sudden got flushed and needed to sit down, while this morning it was more manageable. I'm guessing this is a blood sugar thing, but it passes fairly quickly and before I've actually eaten something--although eating definitely helps (there's a no-brainer). The wooziness isn't accompanied by extreme hunger pains, either--I can remember waking up some mornings and being so hungry it felt like nausea, and that's not what this is. I don't get it. It's intriguing and a little scary, but maybe it's not that scary. Maybe I just need to eat more at dinner? Eat dinner later in the evening? Break down and have that 9pm snack?

Today will be an exciting grocery shopping trip, because we're now on the second phase of the diet (pardon me: "new lifestyle") and can start adding back what was once verboten. I've heard tell of a bread-like substance that's not made with white flour (a big huge no-no because it's the easiest to process--the most basic principle of this diet is that the more processed a food item is, the easier it is to digest, the faster the sugars get released into your system--you want slow-releasing carbs, the hard grains) and is filled with grains and good stuff, and I can't wait to buy it, bring it home, tear off a chunk and put a little of that olallieberry jam on it. What a treat.

So, that's it. I don't want to make this a weight loss blog so I won't be writing about this again. It seemed appropriate given the previous entry about the way I feel about my appearance in photos--really, it's just photos. I do have a fairly positive self-image, or at least I did before I couldn't fit into my clothes. It's just that my self-image and pictures of me rarely jibe.

Knitting news: a little bird informed me that more Cascade 128 has arrived and should be on its way to me shortly, so I've started working on Banff again, and am about halfway up the second sleeve. With all due respect to the designer, I think this is going to be a fabulous sweater to wear, but after working through cables of Cafe Bastille and the Vogue sweater, I'm finding the actual knitting to be rather a yawn. It's become my mindless knitting while I read Proust.

I've got one sleeve of the grey pullover done, and have started the second. This is going to be a simple in-the-round raglan from the bottom up. I got measurements and dimensions following the EPS system as it is presented in Jacqueline Fee's Sweater Workshop. Also rather a yawn, but I'm plugging away at it because it's my make-up sweater for Mike after realizing that Cafe Bastille doesn't fit him.

Speaking of the Vogue sweater, I've taken it off the works-in-progress list. Problem #1: it's too small (I did finally try it on). Problem #2: the yarn doesn't match. I am really, really pissed about this. What happened was that the yarn store didn't have enough of the raspberry at first, so the proprietor ordered more. I went back a couple weeks later and the yarn was in, but Harrisville had changed the name of the yarn from Soft Spun to Orchid Line, and had sworn to the yarn store owner that the dye lot was the same, that evreything was the same, just the name had changed (a rose is a rose is a rose). I had all the yarn wound up and went home--this was all three months before I started the sweater. I discovered when I started (I just never mentioned it before now) that although the dye lots are the same--there is no change in color--the new yarn has little flecks of white in it that the old yarn doesn't. If I continued to make the size I have now, I don't think I would need to use a lot of the white-flecked stuff. I started the bottom geometric pattern with it, because it's in use with another color and hence not as noticeable, and I was going to use the old yarn for the top portion. But now that I know I need to make it a bigger size (which will involve some serious tweaking of that pattern for everything to work out), I guess I'm going to have to do one of those alternating every two rows thing so that it's more uniform, and the sleeves will just have to look slightly different (they're already done, in the old yarn--and they fit, so they're staying). The yarn is unreturnable, as it is already rolled up. Irritating.

I also started the Must Have Cardigan and have become totally addicted to it. I'm using Sierra from the Peruvian Collection in Chestnut. It wasn't my first choice of colors, or even second or third, but Elann was out of my original choices and as I knew I wanted this particular yarn for this particular sweater, I went back to the little samples I got in the mail and realized that the Chestnut had a lot more going on than I had previously seen. It's a beautiful and rich golden brown, with undertones of gold, red, and even a little blue. It splits rather easily and isn't as soft as I had hoped it would be, but the cables are showing wonderfully and I know this is going to be the singlemost versatile piece of my wardrobe for a while. The large size, at 41", is cutting it too close for me, but Kate's wonderful upsizing for the pattern is going to run too big for me, so I've opted to simply add a few more stitches to work in moss pattern on either side of each piece. I'm experimenting now with the first sleeve and so far so good. My camera battery needs recharging so I will post pictures later.

Finally (my this was a long'un), I missed noting the actual birthday, but on the day of national observance let me just wish everyone a healthful and peaceful Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

yawn.



I must be jutting my shoulder out or something, because my collarbone looks insanely huge. Bad picture of the sweater. Best picture of the sweater I could get (there's an extra one in the portfolio, showing me attempting to hold a philosophical conversation with the cat, who seems far more interested in the deconstructed (Threadbear) box that he used to play in and is now being used as a makeshift blocking board), and it's a pretty sucky picture of the sweater. This is the best one I could do:



The quilt: my grandmother was an amazing craftster/artist, well-skilled in all kinds of needlework. She turned to quilting late in life--although she might have always done it. I just remember her on a quilting binge when I was in high school (large bins full of fabric in the basement). She started a quilt for me when I was a senior in high school, and continued working on it through my first year of college. She'd send me polaroid shots of the work in progress enclosed in long letters about how she and my grandfather were doing (these were the grandparents I lived with growing up)--do not think I do not see the parallel. I still have those shots somewhere. The quilt she made me is not the one you see on the bed. That's the one she made for herself, the one that I unabashedly coveted. Look at these details (not the best pictures, but I should apologize for not being a professional?):





The background used to be more of an emerald green, but years of absorbing the sun through her bedroom window turned it olive, which I actually prefer.

When my mom, aunt and I were going through my grandparents' house several years ago, the first step in getting it ready for sale, I think I actually did something as childish and insensitive as calling dibs on this quilt. It's also possible that my grandmother, knowing how much I loved it, had always intended it to be mine, or that my mom, knowing the same, intended same. What I know for sure is that I expressed the intent of finding something with which to hang it up, and my mom stopped me cold and told me that my grandmother never made anything for display (aside from the needlepoint chair cushions we were never allowed to sit on).

This is the quilt she made me. It is also beautiful and I love it and I alternate between them:



Here's a close up. Note the black and pink cats.



She made sure to choose fabric that reflected me in some way. Other fabric pieces are from the curtains and bedspreads that my mom made for our room. And the border is fabric I loved for its dark Victorian busy-ness.

I have a very clear memory of learning to sew strips of fabric together to make a log cabin square for some Brownie or Girl Scout project, but that's as far as my grandmother's quilting tutorials went. My mom's on an embroidery/cross-stitch binge right now but I have a feeling that the quilting instinct is going to kick in soon, so maybe she can throw a few pointers my way. It's definitely in my future.

Back to sweaters. Café Bastille also proved to be difficult to photograph so that both the color and the cables came through. And on a day like this when the windchill is negative a lot (again, I ask, where AM I?) I ain't goin' outside for nuthin. So here is a bleh picture of me but a good picture of the sweater:



You know what? I hate having my picture taken. I really do. I am never satisfied--well, rarely satisfied--with the way they come out. It's a little bit vanity, always wanting to appear my best, but mostly it's the visual equivalent of hearing my voice on tape: I don't really look like that, do I? I feel so disconnected when I see pictures of me, except for the rare one that I think really does look like me. My mom's been bugging me for recent pictures of me for years, and Mike's mom (hi!) has been asking for pictures of us...there's something about posting online that's different, probably because the focus is on the sweater. Still, could I be any more short-waisted? It's 2004 and I'm still neurotic.

Here is a bad picture of the sweater but I have to include it because Scout wandered in unbeknownst to either of us. My homage a Weather Pixie:



So, this was to be a sweater that both Mike and I could wear. He picked out the color, and I made the size that suited us both. But it doesn't fit him. It's too short and too small. The hilarious part about this is that he is way, way skinnier than I am. So, oh well, the sweater's all mine. Ha. To make up for it, I am making the charcoal grey pullover right now and specifically to his long-waisted skinny proportions, and if it doesn't fit me, oh well. (but it will. I'm making the chest width big enough for me. Shhh.)

Today was a fantastic mail day! I was interrupted while writing this by the mail carrier, who had two Netflix movies (Raising Victor Vargas and Spellbound--not the documentary but the Ingrid Bergman/Gregory Peck Hitchcock film), the new Entertainment Weekly (Halle Berry as Catwoman, with what looks like diamond-encrusted fingernails), the Must-Have Cardigan pattern AND the yarn I ordered from Elann for the cardigan. My weekend is all set. Enjoy yours.

Note to female family members, living and dead: no quilts were harmed in the blocking of this sweater. There's cardboard sandwiched between towels to absorb the pins.

It's also possible that my computer is protecting me from buying too much yarn, since I can't seem to get online without ordering more.

I'm still having connection problems and I am *this close* to heading someplace else (but where?). I know Microsoft is the devil but truthfully, the devil has served me rather well these past few years, and the thought of packing up and moving everything over to a new network isn't thrilling me right now. I think this has something to do with the new upgrade and I hope that if I keep sending annoying "Why is this happening" messages over to their support staff, it will resolve itself. The problem seems to happen when I have too many windows open, so I'll try to play it safe for a while. Couldn't find any Norton patch to download.

My syllabus is done and scheduled up to the end of February, which is new, since I usually don't have a firm schedule of assignments and class activities past a month. I am notorious for switching things around. I got over the whole "we need to stick to the schedule" thing really quickly--if something is not working, or you need more time, or the students need more time, give it to them. Rearrange. It's much easier to fill in the rest of the semester's schedule once you get a sense of what/how students are doing than it is before you even meet them and give them the first assignment.

I finished the second sleeve of Café Bastille last night, while watching Angels in America, courtesy of Rachael, who mailed me the tapes like the awesome person she is. Ooh, it's good. It was nice to finally see a rendition of what I've read several times on the page. I'm putting the sweater together this afternoon and will then post pictures. I am well aware that I still haven't posted Lazy Sunday pictures, so you could quite possibly get a fashion show later, depending on how the pictures turn out. Does anyone else experience post-knitting depression? I'm actually not all that into LS anymore. It's too bulky; or rather, the thick-thin quality of the yarn makes the sweater feel lumpy and uncomfortable. I should have made it absolutely HUGE so that it's not so close to my skin. The other problem is not the sweater's fault. It's too goddamned WARM in my apartment to wear anything other than shorts and a T-shirt (no lie--it's only supposed to reach 14F degrees today and I am wearing my beloved Brooklyn Cyclones t-shirt and a pair of cutoff sweats). The good news? It's snowing, peacefully, quietly. There are drifts on my windows. There is little traffic outside. The semi-truck repair place is not open. I have heard exactly one horn in the last hour (apparently people in my neighborhood are incapable of the short toot, but instead lay on the horn for a good 20 seconds--this is a long time to be hearing that kind of noise and you know how in the cliched romantic comedies set in New York you'll inevitably see a scene in which Romeo stands in front of Juliet's apartment and yells up at her until an older woman in curlers and face cream opens her window and screams, "It's four in the morning, I'm calling the cops!"...yeah, I fantastize about throwing open my window and threatening the horn honkers, but I know they couldn't hear me) and so far (knock on wood) no car alarms. And it's gloriously snowing.

Well, so it looks like Carol Moseley Braun is going to end her campaign and support Howard Dean, according to this NY Times article.* Did you all hear the story about how Dean, while governor of VT, got himself entangled in someone else's domestic abuse case? So, back in 1997, the head of Dean's security detail was accused by his wife of domestic abuse, and divorce proceedings ensued. What I don't understand, or think is pretty shady, is that Dean wrote an affidavit praising the guy accused of abuse as a good parent, and a "firm but gentle disciplinarian." But when questioned about whether he knew about the allegations of abuse before he wrote the affidavit, he said, "I don't think it's my business as an employer to rummage through anybody's divorce papers." Check out the ABC story. I'm not sure what to make of this. Is it as unusual and weird as one guy says for Dean to get involved? Or, to quote David Letterman, "Is This Anything?"

* There is a pretty obvious grammatical error in the second paragraph of this article. Par for the course for the Times, but it really ticks me off. Could they not hire more (better) proofreaders?

How many times a day am I to face screen freezing and getting kicked off line? I just upgraded to MSN 9 and downloaded the "Dial-up Accelerator," but I gotta tell ya, it ain't acceleratin' nothin'. I've experienced three "MSN has experienced an internal error" messages, one bizarre random disconnect, and two freezings. I'm going to send off an angry message to MSN and uninstall this so-called accelerator.

Oh, and Norton Security? What up with letting pop-ups through, all of a sudden? You're treading dangerous ground.

Turbo Tax? I'm ready for my new CD-ROM.

Employers of 2003? I'm ready for my forms. Look, I know you have until the end of the month but, like, everyone else I know has their shit already and, you know, even though for the past three years now I've waited until April 14 to get it all done, I think that if I had everything in one place right now I'd get filed by mid-February, so, you know, like, help me out, k?

Car alarm manufacturers? Go to hell.

Elann.com? Like most things Canadian, you're all right in my book. In fact, I think I love you. I cannot wait for your Peruvian Collection Uros line to come out. You know, the 50% highland wool/50% llama? The colors are just gorgeous and I'm having a hard time figuring out which one(s) to get. Sigh.

OK, that's enough. I've been working on my syllabus all day and I think I've got it. I realized I have 27 class periods of 50 minutes each in which to cover a research paper of 6-8 pages, four other formal writing assignments of 2-3 pages each, two of which need to develop arguments and all of which should be revised beyond the basic sentence level. Can it be done? I've decided that students will write their research paper arguing about a controversial issue in either science/technology or U.S. governmental practices. I've also decided that one formal writing assignment will be a two-page prospectus for the research paper, and another formal writing assignment will be a presentation of research thus far, and both of those will be revised into the research paper itself, thereby taking care of the revision requirement at least in part. I'm also working on one paper that asks them to analyze a visual text like an ad or a photograph. I've done the advertising thing before and I think it would be interesting this time to require them to look at photographs only--we can do the ad analysis in class. As for the fourth paper, oof. I've got them reading a couple essays about abolishing grades and standardized tests, and I'm toying with the idea of having them come up with a grading/evaluation plan and defend it--another argument paper of sorts. But I can't seem to get beyond that point. I start school next week. I get one day off in March (Purim!) and three classes off in April (Passover!) and I'm done the first week of May, save the 30 research papers to grade. It's going to be a rough semester, especially considering the amount of writing I have yet to do.

Café Bastille proceeds apace. I finished the back and should be done with the front tonight. I got one sleeve done and another started so I am on schedule for finishing this before the end of the week. Rock on.

I found a picture of you



What hijacked my world that night
To a place in the past we'd been cast out of
Now we're back in the fight*

I got my replacement needles/cables in the mail yesterday. The body of Bastille has begun again. When I started, I did the math and wrote down the row numbers for each repeat of the trellis pattern--so that row 1 of the pattern is also rows 17, 33, 49, 65, and so on. I did the same thing for the twists on either side of the trellis. When I had to stop working on it, I wrote down the row I was on, so it was simple to get back into the swing of things. I left off with just over two inches to go before the armhole shaping so I'm basically halfway there. Although I haven't been able to get Madame Glitchbane's Approximator page to open correctly (it comes out all jumbled. Should I be using Netscape? Because Netscape doesn't work for me anymore either), I shall now predict that I will be done with this sweater by the end of next week. I will cancel other obligations if I have to. NOW wants me to speak about the position of women in the academy? Sorry, I'm knitting that night. So next Friday is the 16th, and I go back to school on the 20th. Ooh, guess what I'm wearing on the first day of school.

I've also been jonesing for more Kureyon. I've been tempted so many times by pictures of other folks' top-down raglans, but Iris's put me over the edge. It just looks so edible. So I went back to the KFI chart and rediscovered #90. I must make a sweater out of #90. But then, as happens every single time, I get seduced by the other colorways. I want 74, 124, 115, 126, 92, 87...to see if I could save a little bit of money, I hopped over to eBay to see what Kureyon was on special there, and wound up bidding on 10 skeins of 74, and I'll get #90 from Threadbear at some point (sooner if I don't win the auction). Perhaps 74 would make for a good Rosedale United? But I already have a Rosedale. Would it be wrong to have so many Kureyon sweaters? Or am I just expanding my options for daily wear, which at this point is a good thing because my regular, boring, store-bought sweaters are lame and old? And P.S., am I alone in being able to recognize not just that a certain knitted thing is Kureyon, but the colorway as well? Check out Rob's blog if you haven't recently: Vogue Knitting is still on the scarf kick, but the pictures Rob's posted are pretty cool--I especially like the basketweave one (I believe that's #40 there), especially since I was thinking of attempting a hat like it.

Sigh. Let's not forget the Manos, either. I've got great plans for that Manos.

Do you ever watch a movie and are really diggin' it, and then get to the end and are rather let down by it, and then leave the theater thinking that the director had originally chosen to end the movie where you wanted it to end but then test audiences weren't satisfied with it? Such is Big Fish. We had thought about seeing it on New Year's Eve, but opted to stay in the neighborhood instead. So we went to see it last night for Mike's birthday, at the Lowe's on 3rd and 11th. Not my favorite theater, I've decided. There isn't much room between seats, and the guy in front of me kept bouncing backward and hitting my knees with his seat. The movie screen was also in need of serious cleaning--it looked like someone had thrown a cup of soda on it. Actually, even though I know that's what it was, it looked more pornographic than that. I was fighting some serious urges to yell out during a quiet moment, "Could we get someone to mop that up, please?" I keep seeing movies that I'm not totally blown away by, but I guess that over the past year I have seen plenty of movies that have completely blown me away (Return of the King [natch], Lost in Translation, American Splendor, and I'll even put Finding Nemo on that list), so I shouldn't complain. But oh, what a world it would be if all the movies I saw were that good. Big Fish is worth seeing, however. I loved the storytelling, loved the fantastical elements, bawled my eyes out a couple times (of course, I cry at movies at the drop of the hat), and if it had ended where I thought it should, it would have been perfect.

* For a long time, this was my theme song. Still one of my all-time faves.

My guy is one year older today. Announced, "I have now outlived Keats."*

Eight projects at once? Hardly. The Corset Pullover has been lingering in my pile for a while, sleeveless and lonely, but now that I've found my other US 8 16" circular needle (it was on my desk, natch. See below), I can work on the sleeves, which I will do when spring approaches, as it is a spring-ish kind of sweater. I only hope I have enough yarn to finish. I really hope I do. The Pin-up pullover is essentially done and just needs to be seamed together, but I think it's going to be too small for me and so I've been avoiding it.** Purple Rain? Also sleeveless. And boring. Not working on it at all at the moment. The other Vogue sweater? Not happy with the way the geometric part is pulling in on the body, which I'm doing in the round, and I can't bring myself to a) try it on to see if it fits (see "Pin-up") or b) rip it all out and start over with flat knitting. Legwarmers: now that it's wicked cold, I should work on them again, but I am also bored with them. So, you see, I'm really only working on three things at the moment: Café Bastille, Banff, and a pair of socks for my stepdad (much belated Channukah gift. I am SO over socks right now). I am still waiting for my replacement needles/cable for the body of Bastille, I am going to run out of Banff yarn soon and Rob tells me it will be in next week, so these projects are ready to get stalled as well, at which point I will turn to a different project (but not a new one. I do want to finish most of what's here before I start another one).

I guess I get bored easily. Restless might be a better way to put it. I finished Rosedale in record time for me because I was just so in love with it, and I'm not exactly in love with any of the other things I'm making. I like them a great deal, but they're not as moving as some of the other things I've been working on. They're the "I'd still like to be friends" projects, and perhaps they resent me for that.

Speaking of finished things, however, could you check to see whether the link to my "Knitting Portfolio" works (it's in the "finito" list***)? I'm making use of the 30MB of space I get from MSN Groups, and I think I've set it so that you don't have to join the group to look at the pictures. It should take you directly to albums which have been organized into socks, sweaters, and misc. I also cleaned up the finito list--starting over for the new year. If this works, I'll open up a Legwarmers album to post pix of the finished knitalong legwarmers. I just want to use this for pictures, not anything else. It's the best I could come up with.

In other housekeeping news, I've been slowly updating my blogrolling list, but it's a slow process because it's the one thing that I can't seem to keep in my head. The thing that I can't seem to get into my head at all is to clean up the pictures in my archives, so that I free up space for new pictures. This blogging biz can be tricky.


* Those of you keeping track will remember that Mike's a poet. The geeks amongst yourselves will either know or research how old Keats was when he died and will therefore know that I am a cradle robber. Thas' right. Uh-huh.
** Avoidance: my response to anything that's going to make me feel bad about myself. A footnote is a good place to announce that I am dieting to lose the quitting-smoking weight I've put on. I've made it 6 months without cigarettes (with the occasional lapses) and now it's time for my clothes to fit again. So, with luck, the pin-up pullover will fit. Eventually.
*** I only just realized that "Finito!" is how Carolyn designates her finished pile, so I want to go on the record to say that it's surely where I got it, but no plagiarism intended.

It's not like I'm deliberately forestalling the internet debut of Lazy Sunday. There just hasn't been a good time to take pictures.

Yesterday was a massive day of cleaning. 'Member when I said my office was a mess of behemoth proportions? I'll let you figure out which is the "before" and which is the "after" picture:







[can you hear my mom from where you are?]

I'm not showing you: the area around my computer (to the left), the area under the desk, all of which are now clutter-free. The area under my desk now has a couple boxes of yarn--ah, the stash, she creeps. And no, all the crap on the desk in the "before" shot is not shoved under a rug, or the bed, or the closet. It's either in the file cabinet (that gets reorganized later) or on the shelves in my closet.

Oh! And yes, that's the finished Café Bastille sleeve on my desk--I can use my desk for measuring now, how about that?

[yes, yes yes, I will also be using the desk for working.]

Here's a somewhat better look:



And while we're at it, here's the front of Banff:



I love that folks have been leaving their insights about the Democrats. And that's right--I'm not supposed to like Edwards because he hasn't "paid his dues" and appears to be using the Senate to launch himself into the Presidency. I remember now.

Do you think more people would get interested in this campaign if it were hosted by Jeff Probst?

At the movie on Saturday, just after the previews and just before the "feature presentation," the theater showed an animated short. It began with an explanation: back in the 40s, Walt Disney and Salvadore Dali had begun to collaborate on an animated work, but it never got finished. Well, it's finished now, and it's quite spectacular. Beyond description. Read a little bit about it here. If you have RealMedia, you can watch some clips. I can't remember whether I think RealMedia is evil or not. I seem to remember getting sucked in by some "free download" or whatever, only to find out that I had to install a bunch o' other stuff, including things that made my computer susceptible to pop-ups. I can't remember if it was RealMedia or not.

Commentary commentary: both were OK, but not excellent. I'm a little spoiled, I admit. The very first DVD I bought was Sense & Sensibility, and the commentary by Emma Thompson and Lindsay Doran (producer) is just fabulous.

Yes, Billy Elliot is definitely on my list of feel-good British movies.

Did anybody watch the Democrats debate a couple nights ago? Was it even on TV? I've been reading through the transcript, courtesy of the Washington Post, and I gotta say...would it be so hard for the press to give more credit to Carol Moseley Braun? I know she's had a rocky time of it with that embezzlement scandal or whatever it was, but damn, the woman is smart and articulate and answered all her questions directly--unlike Dean, who was asked quite specifically what tax relief programs he would implement for the middle and working classes, and dodged his answer completely and rather obviously. The other candidate that impressed me was Edwards. I seem to recall something about him that I'm not supposed to like, something about the way he announced his candidacy, perhaps? Anyone know what's wrong with him or his platform?

Basically, so much attention is focused on Dean right now that I fear we're not getting enough information about anyone else. And all that information isn't necessarily about his platform or positions--it's about his temper, or the way the other candidates went after him at the debate but he held his ground...am I supposed to glean useful information from that? (yes, I realize that I'm in part contradicting my previous entry about Dean. Just trying to sort all this out, folks.)

In other news...Lazy Sunday has been reblocked and is now long enough (that is, if it hasn't sprung back in shape). I've got to run out and do errands, but perhaps I'll have pictures this afternoon.

Have I mentioned that I'm a DVD commentary junkie? The first thing I do when I start watching a DVD is check to see whether there is commentary? That several times I will finish a movie and then immediately start it again with the commentary track? Imagine my excitement upon receiving Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from Netflix (it was time to watch it again. I also just finished watching Pee Wee's Big Adventure--so many fantastic moments that I had completely forgotten about) and discovering that the commentary is provided by the people who played the children in the movie. I am so in front of my TV this afternoon. I also have the Johnny Depp commentary for Pirates of the Caribbean to listen to.*

I went to see Calendar Girls last night with Colleen. Another solidly good movie. I said afterward that the British have totally cornered the market on the warmhearted comedies (Waking Ned Devine, Greenfingers, Saving Grace, etc., etc.)--they're not all of them as funny as the next, but they're all pretty enjoyable and welcoming movies. The comparisons between this movie and The Full Monty are appropriate--Col and I got into a great conversation about gender codes and class, the differences/similarities between working-class men stripping and upper-middle-class women posing nude, where one is more a transgression against masculine forms of beauty and one is more a transgression against feminine forms of propriety. What I loved most about Calendar Girls was the way the issue of older women's bodies is treated. I mean, we've also got Something's Gotta Give, whose preview features Jack Nicholson walking in on a naked Diane Keaton and doing the Jack equivalent of "My eyes! My eyes!" which pretty much turned me off of ever seeing this movie. In CG, the issue is much more "what will people think" than "my boobs are too saggy for this" and whatever humor comes out of their nakedness is the kind of natural and gentle self-deprecation that a lot of women do when they go shopping for clothes.** You know what I mean, right? There's a two-minute montage of the women doing things like tanning and working out, as opposed to a major subplot of FM about body image. If nothing else, it's a great movie to watch if you love British TV and movies, because the whole cast has been in some Masterpiece Theater production or another. I spent much of the movie trying to figure out where I'd seen some of the women before. And Helen Mirren's husband is played by Ciaran Hinds, who played Captain Wentworth in Persuasion a few years ago...sigh. He's also--ahem--eight years younger than Mirren. Score another one for the Brits.

I gave Colleen her Xmas present last night, too. I felt strange about bringing a camera along to get her posing in stuff I'd made her ("dude, I am so blogging about this tomorrow") so I took some pix before I left. Here's one of the armwarmers (worn on my arm, because it looks totally bizarre when it's not being worn, and yes it's incredibly difficult to take a picture of one's own arm), made from Kureyon #131:



Another example of how yarn can look awful in a skein but knit up really well. I made mismatched armwarmers and thought, "wow, I should make a sweater from this."

I also made a hat:



I started the hat on New Year's Eve, taking it with me to the bar. I thought it would be fun to see if I could finish it before or by midnight, to give it that extra special something. When I got to the decreases I realized that I needed more concentration than I could muster in a loud and crowded place. The pattern is basically lifted from the kitty/devil hat pattern, sans horns or ears. I think this is my favorite hat that I've ever made and I might have to make myself one out of the leftover yarn.

May I also say that Col is the perfect recipient of handmade stuff? Not only is she incredibly fun to make stuff for, because she likes bright, fun, playful colors, but her exuberance is boundless. She immediately put on the hat and armwarmers and kept them on the whole time, despite the fact that it was like 50 degrees outside.


* It's no coincidence that I rented Willy Wonka and Pirates back-to-back. I am pretty sure I mentioned that there's going to be a Willy Wonka remake starring Johnny Depp (oh hey, and directed by Tim Burton, of Pee Wee fame...weird. THAT's a coincidence)--when I first heard about it I was incensed. Upon rewatching WW, I now think--if it's not too blasphemous--that a remake would be welcome. Gene Wilder is of course fantastic, but man, the movie is pretty...cloying. Johnny Depp is going to rock the house, man. Totally.
**One of my graduate school friends had me rolling on the floor one night upon announcing that she was going to write a book about things that happen to bodies after 30. #1: Back fat.

In the past hour, as I've been making my abbreviated rounds through the blogs and leaving comments, I believe I have typed "your" for "you're" about four or five times. Guh.

I think today is the day I finally tackle the mess of behemoth proportions that I've been loosely referring to as "my office." As soon as I finish Cabbage Patchin' to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl." OK, I think we've found not only my guilty pleasure song, but my guilty pleasure BAND. B'lieve, I was awash in goofy giggles when I opened a package from Col to find The Very Best of...* (thank you, Col!) And now I've got it on headphones (Mike worked the graveyard shift last night and is now catching up on sleep) and thrilling to the overproduced cover of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." I fear I have lost all possible street cred. Eh. Whatevs.

So, Howard Dean's got a temper:

The Burlington Free Press, for instance, reported about a meeting with officials early in Dr. Dean's tenure as governor where he responded to an unwelcome discussion about a local highway project by slamming his fists on the table and storming out of the room. At the close of one legislative session, television cameras caught the governor angrily jabbing his finger into a legislator's chest. He has compared congressmen to cockroaches, referred to opponents as boneheads and called Republicans racists.

I'm not on the Dean bandwagon--I'm not on anybody's wagon yet--but I admit, I find the "temper" issue rather endearing, not offputting, as his opponents are hoping. According to the people closest to him, it stems from speaking his mind without filtering it first, or from standing his ground in the face of disrespect. I can completely identify with that. To be honest, I haven't been impressed with what the Democrats have to offer for this election, and my goal for this year is to be more involved in this process from the Iowa caucus to November 2. I want Bush out of office (actually, I want what getting Bush out of office will accomplish: getting ASHCROFT out of office), but I disagree with the whole "anybody but Bush" mentality. No. NOT "anybody." It does matter. I think we're all a bit once bitten twice shy when it comes to politics, aren't we?

The DC rally is Sunday, April 25. Some info here. NARAL has a link to things you can download, if anyone's interested in that.

I guess that's it for today. Knitting pictures (including Lazy Sunday, promise) coming up, hopefully.

* And yet, the powers that be preferred to include two songs that only hit the Top 20 in place of "She's Gone." I'd completely forgotten about "She's Gone" until it was mentioned in the liner notes and of course now it's the one song I really really want to hear. Well, that and "Private Eyes." No lie. I am back in fifth grade, yo.

Tradition at Casa Em requires the playing of "New Year's Day" today. An obvious tradition, perhaps, but we like it here.*

I hope everyone rang in the new year with excessive amounts of fun.

What will 2004 bring?

1. A PhD.

2. My first publication.

3. A full-time job.

4. A new president.

5. Crap--I'm going to be 33. 33! I don't even know what that means anymore. I know, I know, it doesn't have to mean anything, but seriously--33? What the hell? Jesus, I just want to go back to bed now.

I don't even know what that's all about. Why am I bugging about this? (Why did I just type "bugging"?) Is it a product of guilt over what I haven't accomplished thus far in my life? Is it fear of mortality? Shame because of the other two possibilities (I should neither feel dumb for what I haven't done nor fear aging)? Impatience, because there's stuff I think I should be doing with my life and that all should start to happen right now--RIGHTNOW?

6. Michelle learns patience and the value of appreciating what she's got.

7. Ah! A trip to DC in April for the pro-choice rally.

8. A self-designed sweater.

Story: I wore a much-loved and much-fraying sweater to Cari's AMAZING house on Tuesday (oh wow...just wait for more pictures. The house is beautiful now, and it's going to be unspeakably gorgeous when the restoration work is done). I bought the sweater over a decade ago at Ragstock (all the people from the Cities say yeah!) and it is one of my favorite items of clothing, even though it's not much. It's most likely acrylic, and a rather dull shade of brown, but it's a leafy-lacy cardigan with garter stitch button bands and scalloped edges and should be fairly easy to duplicate.**

Let's see...in knitting news: I made it almost to the end of the first Banff sleeve and realized that it's too long, even for Banff. The sleeve is supposed to be 27" long, and I had 26" with 14 more rows of decreases to go. I still don't understand how I can get the exact same row gauge--the pattern is written by rows instead of inches--and be off by so much. I did some calculatin' and decided that the decreases needed to start at 16"--and I had started them at 19". Rip, rip, rip, rip. To avoid any more obstacles of this nature, I'm going to go through and convert all the rows to inches. I still think I'm going to need more yarn. When I'm done with this sleeve I'm going to start on the front--see how much half the sweater takes before ordering more. It's funny--I had over 2 full skeins left over from Rosedale, where others had just enough. Yarn is a mysterious groovy thing.

Remember to spend this day well: your activities/mood today foretell what the coming year will bring!


*That's the royal "we."
** That's the theoretical "easy."