sunday in the apt with scout
I took these pictures a couple weeks ago but didn't get around to putting them up.
Clicking on each one will make it bigger. If you think you can handle that much cat.
See if you can spot the narrative thread.
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« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »
snap
Comments for Carolyn, because they've been piling up.
1. Dude, I freaking LOVE The Big Easy. I was just thinking about snatching it up on DVD, too, but I wonder if they'll come out with a special edition version. But if you don't want to wait to find out, Amazon has it for under $10. You know. FYI.
2. Not crazy about the John Grisham-based movies or the books, but my secret confession is that I kinda wanna see the Da Vinci Code movie, even though I have no desire to read the book.
3. Speaking of "fat girl pajamas," this morning I thought, "muumuu. A muumuu would be soooooo comfortable to wear today, and probably the only thing that would fit me right now."
4. Mmmmm...caramel frango brownies... (again: muumuu.)
5. I can relate. Sometimes I get cramps so bad they literally floor me. Really. I drop to my knees because I can't take it.
6. This remains the funniest thing I've read this week.
7. I don't like the redesign, either. It seems that every few years EW has a redesign that makes me think they're dumbing the magazine down.
8. Ooh! I know! I know! The BOOKS will make you happy. Although I'm sure the brownies also made you happy while you were eating them, I'm guessing the pants situation later on did not make you happy. Unless you went out and got yourself a muumuu, in which case, no harm done. Except that I doubt muumuus are acceptable work attire where you are.
9. I was wondering what you'd thought of Black Swan Green, and now I'm going to have to read it. But not care about the new Superman? You totally lost me there.
am i the only one who has these moments?
This morning was one of those mornings. You know, when you hop on the subway and only then ask yourself, "Wait--did I remember to put on a shirt?"
(I did, by the way. In case you were concerned.)
Just what the category says.
One of those days in which it feels I have absolutely nothing of consequence to say. My fingers feel extra clumsy and leaden. My brain feels sepia-toned.
My photography skills (if you can call them that) have also been suffering. Not pictured: the boo-boo on my finger covered by one of Jenn's pirate bandaids. I cut myself yesterday, not deep, but enough to warrant a covering of some sort. I couldn't find the First Aid box at work (which does not bode well), when Jenn remembered, "I have pirate bandaids!" And I am apparently the first one to wear one. It made me feel very special. Of course it fell off in the shower this morning.
Also not pictured: the chocolate mice I received as part of a gift box of chocolates. NO, not chocolate-covered mice. Chocolate in the shape of itty-bitty mice, with a shiny piece of yarn attached as a tail. The chocolates came from L.A. Burdick, as a thank you from a vender I recently worked with. Nice, eh? I already get a lot of perks from this job, but no one's sent me artisan chocolate before. And now I'm wondering why the hell not.
I am about to graft the toe of the second Trekking sock. Well, not "about to," I guess. I'll probably wait until I get home. I will miss knitting these socks.
It's probably good that I'm getting all this out of my head. I have a big writing assignment, which is exciting, but it's nearly impossible to really concentrate in the office, with everything going on and people coming over and calling and I'm never very good at 4:30 in the afternoon as it is and I should probably just start fresh in the morning except that the whole office environment starts over in the morning, and it will be one interruption after another and I won't get anything done tomorrow either. I need to put in to work from home, I think, or I won't be done on time. But at least I feel a bit less sepia-toned right now.
everybody sneeze!
The office today is conducting a symphony of upper respiratory functions. I play the sinuses.
I think what I have is one part cold, two parts allergies. I have therefore taken two different kinds of medicine, in the hopes that something will take. So far, I feel capable of mindless work. Anything more than that is asking too much.
Though I haven't been blogging about it, I have been knitting April's socks (the March socks, like much of March, just got away from me. I call a do-over on the whole month of March, actually). In honor of spring, I went with Trekking #107, a light, gardeny colorway that I am just in love with. Ideally, pictures of these socks should be taken outdoors. In a field of tulips.
Many sock knitters have expounded on the delights of Trekking, and for me it's the beauty of the way each color melts into the next. The color changes are so gradual that it's a complete surprise to realize that I'm suddenly no longer knitting green but red. Of course, I'm usually not paying attention. I'm knitting on the subway, either uncaffeinated or exhausted from the day I've had, and I'm just concentrating on the music playing in my ears in an attempt to drown out the surroundings. And unlike self-patterning sock yarn, I have absolutely no idea what's coming next. There's some patterning, but it's definitely not a regular stripe pattern.
I had to stop at Seaport Yarn the other day, which is now a lot more convenient to get to than it was when I lived in East Willie. They were holding yarn for me, but there was so much static electricity in the place that I wound up attracting a whole lot more yarn. The sock yarn is easily explained, because we all know how socks like to attach themselves to things like the inside of dryers, so it stands to reason that sock yarn would like to attach itself to knitters. But I'm not sure how I managed to walk out with all that Euroflax, bamboo and--yes, really--cotton.
The Mason-Dixon ladies have worked their mojo, that's for sure. Talk about synergy: just as I move into a new place with all sorts of potential for home decorating, this book comes out with all sorts of nifty ideas for homey knitting. I already have one dishcloth on the needles, and that's really saying something for me. I have never before even entertained for a second the idea of knitting a dishcloth. I was too advanced a knitter for that, I thought. But they're actually quite fun. And there's something maniacally enjoyable about knitting one.
--What are you making now?
--A dishcloth.
--Why?
--Because I can.
I believe I am going to declare this summer the Summer of Small Projects. Socks, of course. Towels, washcloths, dishcloths, baby things. I've already scoured my stitch pattern collections and I think I may need more. I'm becoming more entranced by the notion of damask knitting--simple knit and purl stitches in ornate designs.
The one big project I may undertake is a lace tablecloth out of the multiple skeins of linen that I picked up from School Products years ago. It's a beautiful medium pearl gray color, and I think I have enough for a tablecloth and a nice set of napkins and placemats.
And there are curtains to make as well.
So that's what I'm doing this summer.
for joe
Clinton-Washington stop, G train.
bad little pill
My birth control pill got away from me this morning. Jumped off the palm of my hand and skittered, cackling, to some kind of blind spot between the wall, bed, and lamp. I might have imagined the cackling.
I haven't licked whatever it is in my system that's making me feel like I'm on the verge of the stomach flu. I just want to crawl into bed, and I probably would've stayed home today had it not been for a bunch of meetings that have to happen TODAY because we're off tomorrow.
Construction going on right next to the office.
I forgot my umbrella and it's supposed to storm today.
Seriously, though, it's the dropped pill that really bugs me. I drop things all the time, it's true. I'll be fumbling with my keys to get the right one for the front door, and I will drop them. I have been known to drop my hair brush as I'm brushing through my hair (I have an overdeveloped sense of follow through). At this point my mom is dying to tell you all about the time I dropped an entire bottle of ketchup. And about the time I dropped an entire bowl of potato salad.
(mmmmm...potato salad....)
I have also dropped things, picked them up, and promptly dropped them again. Like, again, keys. Somehow I just can't hang on to keys. I've never lost keys, but I can't seem to actually hold them.
But I don't drop birth control. I am known for this. "Michelle? Wow. I could tell you a lot of things about that woman, but the thing you really gotta know is that she really hangs on tight to that birth control." So much for my reputation.
At least it's near the end of my cycle. If I had to waste a whole month's worth of pills because I lost one of the first days...oooh, I'd be so mad. But the period's coming in five days (and it IS coming, so stop snickering, youse) so I'm not that upset. Though I may be later.
Williamsburgh Savings Bank
There, that's better.
I've been snapping pics around the neighborhood, mostly along the route I take to the subway in the morning. Like this one, of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, as seen from Lafayette and Cumberland:
Click to enlarge
I'm not sure I can explain why this building makes me happy. When I saw that the brownstone apartment that got away from us had an unadulterated view of this building, I nearly swooned. Now I have to walk a couple blocks in order to get this shot (but the apartment we did get has a winter view of another important building, and that's for another post).
It's a landmark building (read about it on Forgotten NY), tallest in Brooklyn, featured prominently in Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude...if I took a cab home to Williamsburg (the 'hood), I could see the Williamsburgh (with an 'h') Savings Bank clearly from the bridge from Manhattan. It may be that it's an old, tall, building, the most prominently displayed piece of Brooklyn history west of Coney Island. It has a clock tower. It's awesome.
And it's now undergoing renovations to transform it into One Hanson Place, offering luxury condos and ground-level retail shops.
Ugh.
But still: awesome building.
More Fort Greene pics, and more pics in general, can be found on my flickr page.
Oh, and also?
I forgot to mention--my coworker has herself a blog. She's callin' herself Kid Silk Haze, like she's a yarn boxer or something. Heh. She has a very cute pug, though, who will no doubt be featured on a regular basis. Read all about the brains behind Merv here.
