Everybody Loves Saturday Night

mrmph

Michelle's Rules of Dishwashing, Part the First:

All coffee-making equipment and tools must be clean and dry by 6:00 AM.

This is especially necessary after a night of wine drinking.

B is for "baaaaaa"

I have another "B" in mind, but this will do for now:

This, dear readers, is "furniture." At least, I spotted it in the window of a furniture store in SoHo--the kind of place that's open by appointment only. And truth be told, this was not the strangest thing in the window. Don't get me wrong, I think as a piece of sculpture it's cute and lovely, but I don't see it working in someone's living space.

I am all down with accessorizing one's space with sheepy items--love the sheepy doormat, the sheepy mugs (I especially love my sheepy mugs, which will appear in their own post soon enough), sheepy pajamas and robe and bedsheets, but having a big ol' sheep sculpture thing in my living room? I'm not sure, but I think that crosses some kind of line. Or maybe that line is completely subjective, and one fiberista's sheep sculpture is another's sheepy sheets.

Sheepy sheets is fun to both type and say, by the way.

Also by the way, I like that this reflection shot makes me look thin.

Or maybe this is a lawn sheep? Would it be appropriate for a nursery, maybe?

I really wonder what it feels like.

It's definitely the most interesting thing I've seen in a window in a while.

oh, crap

SHOULDHAVESTARTEDWRITINGBBBBBBBASSOONBASTHISHAPPENEBDTHISISWHATITLOOKSLIKEWHENBBBAKEYBOARDSTARTSTODIE

I spilled coffee on my keyboard. Again. Mac keyboards don't generally recover from that, but this one seemed to be working sorta. Then the space bar went. Then everything I typed was in caps. Then the B key went on a rampage. And then it died completely. I saved what I just wrote and then switched to my work laptop. (thank goodness for working from home.)

(B is for ... B?)

I feel very foolish. This was my second keyboard in three years--the first meeting the same fate as the second. I should have bought that plastic keyboard protector thingy when I bought the second keyboard. I will for the third, because I can't stop drinking coffee at my desk. It's unthinkable that I would.

So another $30 for a new keyboard, even though I've been saving for a new computer to buy later this year. I wonder if I should just shell out for the new computer now. I probably shouldn't, since it's going to be a bit lean here for a few months, and we also need a new DVD player (the one we have is over 8 years old and now either refuses to play perfectly good/brand new DVDs or makes really cranky noises when it plays them). And $30 isn't so much for something to tide me over until later this year.

Just, crap. Crap crap crap.

famous last words

I think today is going to be a relatively light work day. Perfect for working on the fingerless mitts I've been meaning to finish. They've taken the top priority spot, considering this morning I gave Michael a good morning hug and he made a startling(ly) funny "you have cold hands" noise/grunt. (He's a slow waker-upper.) (The application of cold hands does speed the process some.)

So maybe I won't finish a pair of socks this month, but I'll have two pairs of mitts done. A comparable achievement.

There's not much else to say. The weekend was very relaxing and mellow. Despite my endeavor to post something every day, I find that staying away from time-gobbling Web sites on the weekend is not a bad thing--gives me more to read and do on Monday!

Blargh, I'm boring myself. I suppose the one downside to a relaxing mellow weekend is that there's not much to write about after it.

everybody loves caturday, right?

Office cat says, "Go watch TV or something. I'll stand guard and make sure no work gets done."

"Perhaps you did not hear me. No work today. Back away from the laptop."

let's try that again

Here's the sock I wanted to show you yesterday:

I am about to start the ribbing, so I should have a finished sock by the end of the day. Provided no crises occur . . .

how things are made

Yesterday I took a trip to a printing facility in Pennsylvania. Job related, but it felt like a field trip because I've never seen how magazines and books actually get printed. And it's really cool, too, with robots and everything.

OK, not robots as in "I, Robot" or the Terminator series or even Lost in Space, but still--machines that are programmed to perform tasks and do so in a fraction of the time it would take a human or group of humans.

If you subscribe to or purchase the upcoming edition of People Magazine (Heath Ledger is on the cover--someone stayed late at the People Mag office on Tuesday to do the obit and cover layouts), then I saw your copy being put together. It's a really fascinating process, not least because I now know why sometimes I get a magazine that's missing pages, or has pages that aren't cleanly trimmed, or has pages that still have the little color bar thingy at the top.

I brought my spiral sock along for the trip, considering that I was going to be a passenger for a total of 4 hours. I didn't get much done, but I am almost at the ribbing point. Just about an inch and a half to go.

[This is where the picture would go if I could upload it, but Typepad seems to be experiencing some kind of glitch.]

In the back of my mind I'd thought I'd be finished with the pair by the end of the month . . . if I focus solely on the sock for the next week I should be able to pull that off.

*sniff*

How sad is it about Heath Ledger? Damn. Though I loved his work in "grown-up" movies--especially Brokeback Mountain and I'm Not There--and I think he's going to be brilliant as the Joker in The Dark Knight this summer--the image that first pops into my head, the scene for which I will forever love him, is his serenade in 10 Things I Hate About You.

bird in hand

I've been casting around for an appropriate "B" picture for the ABC Project and thinking, "B? What's a B?" Boy? Bugs? Batman? Brew? It wasn't until I typed in "Bird in Hand" that I realized "bird" starts with B. I should probably go back to Sesame Street (Bert starts with B!).

So, yeah: I started the Bird in Hand Mittens (Ravelry link). But I don't think this should count as my B picture--not until the bird part is complete.

And let me tell you, taking pictures of red-on-purple is like trying to thread a very small needle after two glasses of wine. I took somewhere around 30 pictures, playing with the various (limited) settings on my camera, and eventually got this.

Yes, I realize that choosing a red background only made it more difficult. Even so, the purple came out a little too blue and way too bright.  But you can at least see that the red matches my coat, and Birch (how I managed to find a coat that matches the shawl I finished in July I have no idea. Lucky, I guess).

(Birch starts with B!)

The yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Hyacinth and Cranberry, from the stash.
The needles: US 4
The pattern: absolutely perfect and lovely in every way.

I wish I could remember which setting yielded that shot.

the good news

Twist does an admirable job keeping my torso warm when the heat goes out in the apartment.

It's true what they say about people in New York holding on to apartments in the most dire of circumstances. Not that what happens here is dire. It's an old building with an old heater. The hot water goes out every so often, but the heat hasn't been a problem until this winter. And the guy in charge of fixing stuff is very responsive and the heat gets fixed ASAP. So it's not (this is mostly for my family members who worry) like we have a crap landlord who doesn't turn the heat on or doesn't care that it goes out. The only problem is that we don't have an on-site super, so the ASAP part sometimes takes several hours.

And unlike the last time the heat went out in the building, this time I remembered our space heater. That, plus Twist, plus a blanket, and I was set to sit on the couch, knitting, catching up on last week's TV. Which I'm still not done with yet, because of two things: 1) I'm reviewing the last 3 seasons of Lost in preparation for season 4, and 2) I'm kinda off TV at the moment. Things get recorded and I won't watch them for days because the thrill is sorta gone. Last night's football game was the first thing in months that I can remember watching "live"--and even then I kept having to get up and do other things. This has also something to do with the strike, which has sucked all joy out of my TV watching, knowing that in a few weeks there won't be anything left but "America Gladiator," "American Idol," and A&E's new show, "Parking Wars." Yes, the trials and tribulations of parking cops and their prey. The promo I saw for it made it seem like there was a dash of "Punk'd" in it--like people would get bogus tickets and the camera would film their reaction, but really, that there's a show out there called "Parking Wars"? This is what it's come to?

Now a mash up of "American Gladiator," "American Idol" and "Parking Wars," in which young hopefuls with voice pipes try to bash each other down with actual pipes while trying not to be too "pitchy," all on a 30-minute timer? Tell me that wouldn't rake in the ratings.