Mercury’s last hurrah May 31, 2009

It’s been noted by a lot of people lately that Mercury is currently in retrograde (in other words, it appears to be moving backward through the sky). According to astrology, which I don’t entirely believe but also can’t deny it rings true pretty dang often, mercury being in retrograde causes issues with travel, technology, and communication, but a lot of people seem to find that just everything goes wrong. This retrograde started May 6 and ended yesterday; today is the day that the planet appears to hold still before resuming its normal course.

Today, in other words, was Mercury’s last chance to get a few shots in until the next retrograde in September. It managed pretty nicely.

• I was kept awake by a nocturnal roommate of Nicole’s and two very very noisy ceiling fans until 5am.
• I finally got to sleep, only to wake up at 7.
• Got up around 8:30 and got online, only to find that my cousin’s cat passed away last night.
• We got the first coat of stain/poly combination on the wheel, and quickly realized that the stains (oak and walnut, supposedly very different colors) were basically the same dang color after all.
• After the first coat dried we were dismayed to find that the finishing product we used had pooled and gummed up and dried weirdly on a few pieces, the worst of which was the wheel itself.
• Just as we decided to do a rough sand and refinish on the wheel part, we noticed it was getting very windy and grey outside and had to move everything into the garage before it rained.
• In the middle of building a box fort in Nicole’s room, my camera (which I stupidly did not name) broke. Yep- and guess what? IT WAS THE MANUAL ZOOM AGAIN. Luckily I did get the no-holds-barred warranty, so supposedly all I have to do is walk into best buy and say “it broke, gimme a new one” and they will do just that.

Before you ask- yeah. I did get photos of the fort before the camera broke. No worries.

Diaper bags and fake blood May 31, 2009

This has been a long, interesting, and varied day.

Cory and I  spent the early part of the day getting a birthday present for my niece, who turned 2. We got her a couple of accessory sets for her baby dolls– a snacktime set, with some fake food and dishes, and a diaper bag set, with everything you’d find in a diaper bag, including her favorite part, a cell phone. She wouldn’t put the thing down, and when she did for a moment and I put it in the bag for safekeeping, she started looking for it with her hands up on her head, going “my phone! My phone!” in a very worried voice. She sounded like me (and a lot of other people I know) when I can’t find my phone.

After going to the hardware store to buy supplies, Cory dropped me at Nicole’s place to start work on refinishing my spinning wheel, Peter. Peter is an Ashford Kiwi, named after a character of Nicole’s, a grouchy kiwi bird accountant. After disassembling and sanding the wheel, Nicole woodburned the treadle kiwi (already present) to look like Peter, and then also woodburned dancing kiwi birds around the wheel itself. So. Freakin’. Cute.

In contrast to the cute now decorating my wheel, while she worked on that (and I knit on that bathrobe) we watched Deadliest Warrior. Yep. It’s on Spike TV, the man channel. There’s lots of fake blood. LOTS of fake blood. All you need to know about this show is the title of one of the episodes…

William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu.

Yep.

I wasn’t kidding.

Not again. May 30, 2009

Darn it, what is with me lately? I can’t believe I forgot to blog again last night. I guess I’ve just had such a lack of material to blog about that I just haven’t felt inspired.

I suppose it’s just as well, though, so I can give this piece of news while it’s still fresh in my mind.

I just found out that my aunt Kit passed away yesterday, after a battle with cancer. This is the same side of the family as my aunt Reeny, who lost her husband a few months ago, so it is doubly difficult. I never got to meet my aunt Kit, but I always wished I could. It’s hitting me rather hard considering we’d never met.

There’s hopefully going to be a “memorial barbecue” eventually this summer, and I’m hoping against hope that we’ll be able to go. I want to see the rest of my family while I can.

There’s not really much else to say, after that. I will be going to my niece’s birthday party today, and then to Nicole’s to start refinishing my wheel. I’ll be there all weekend. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to blog; if not, I apologize, but considering my spotty record lately I’m not sure you’ll be surprised. Heh.

To dream the impossible dream May 28, 2009

If you listen to the podcast, you might remember that we discussed the idea of doing some exercises from the AlterKnits book. Well, today in the podcast ravelry group, we opened the discussion with our listeners, and asked them to describe their dream knitting day (no boundaries, no limitations, no money or travel constraints, and you can have anyone with you that you want). I’m fairly pleased with what I came up with, though I think with more time I could do better.

“I think my day would start much like Betty’s, knitting with a cup of tea, watching the sun rise over the water, but I’d be on the coast, in Scotland, with mist over the water and green hills. I’d have breakfast with a few close knitterly friends, someplace with really fresh, good quality food. We’d knit over breakfast, and magically be in Toronto.

We’d go on a yarn crawl, and the owners of the shops would have every yarn there is and let us try everything before we bought it. We would have a picnic lunch and go on a hike (with portable knitting projects, of course!) in some breathtakingly gorgeous untouched piece of land.

Then we’d all meet up with the famous knitters I want to meet, like Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Amy from Knitty and Cat Bordhi, and have dinner in a really extravagant restaurant that had everyone’s favorite foods. We’d go back to a big plush house somewhere, and knit away the evening talking and listening to great music. Most importantly, though the whole thing, my hands and wrists would never get tired.”

The followup question is to think about whether or not any elements of your dream are attainable, immediately or otherwise, and then think about having an event that includes some of them. Anyone up for a yarn crawl/picnic/dinner/sleepover? Can’t promise any famous knitters will attend, though

What’s your dream knitting day?

The best laid plans May 27, 2009

Well, I was wrong about today; we didn’t have craft group after all, as Janelle and I would have been the only attendees . So, we stayed home and played the sims, and I didn’t get any more knitting done. I did get a couple of rows in while I was at work, so it wasn’t a total loss knitting-wise.

If you’re wondering why I have been playing the sims so much lately, there’s a simple answer. Sims 3 is coming out on Tuesday, and I plan to get to Target as early as possible that day (I have it off from work) to get a copy. Because of that, I’m kind of trying everything I can think to try in the Sims 2, as I probably won’t play it much, if ever, again. So I’ve been making vampires, werewolves, families that have twins, families with vacation homes in various places, and even trying functions like the “rage” toggle, where if someone does something really bad (cheats on their spouse, for example) the slighted person gets “rage” toward the cheater and stays as far negative in relationship as possible for a week. They will generally, if not attack on sight, at least yell and fight verbally with the person whenever they see them.

In any case, I have some seed stitch calling my name. I’ll leave you with a macro photo I took today of part of a neat picture frame we own.

Um, oops? May 27, 2009

Yeahhh, so apparently last night my brain shut off about 4 hours earlier than normal. I was playing the sims, got distracted by the excitement of new members and posts in the Knitscape ravelry group (they like us! They really like us!), and somehow completely forgot to blog. So, uh, sorry about that.

Tonight is craft group, which means I can’t ruin my good intentions to work on the bathrobe by sitting in front of my computer and “unintentionally” getting absorbed in the internet or the sims. Hopefully I’ll finally get to the stupid 2nd decrease tonight. Looong way to go. Honestly, I’m getting used to the seed stitch now, so the main issue with the thing is how long it takes to see any progress. Really quite frustrating.

I also haven’t done Macro May in nearly a week… So much went on this weekend, and I was just so bleah yesterday (did not want to go back to work) that I haven’t really been on the ball. I will endeavor to kick myself into shape over the next couple of days here. Hopefully that will mean I won’t forget to blog again.

Zzzzzzzz May 25, 2009

Oof.

Late one tonight. It’s already 11:22 (note: I am normally in bed by 11 at the latest) and I am just now blogging. We recorded episode 7 of Knitscape tonight, and with the long recording, editing, finding music, uploading, and now starting a Ravelry group, I didn’t realize how late it was getting. But dang I’m tired!

Janelle and I did not, as we thought we would, go to the WWII reenactment/ceremony today, as we found out it wasn’t free, so instead we drove around for a few hours. It was nice to wander around a bit, and see parts of the city I’m not familiar with. We tried to go to Minnehaha Falls, but the park was overrun, so we ended up popping by my brother’s place to say hi and then heading home. Didn’t get much done besides the podcast, but at least it was a nice relaxing day.

Alright, I’m off to bed. Nodding off as I type, here. G’night.

Memorable May 24, 2009

In planning our anniversary celebrations this year, I ended up asking the good folks over at Ravelry for ideas. The responses, while all congratulatory and sweet, mostly had one thing in common; a reflection that the poster’s first anniversary had been a. low-key, b. cheap, and above all c. not memorable at all. Many of them didn’t even remember what they’d done. I decided that whatever we ended up doing, it had to be memorable. The first anniversary is kind of a big deal, really, so I wanted to make it a good one. I think we succeeded.

We spent the morning lazing about, and I made eggs benedict (sans meat) for breakfast. Around noon, we picked up some lunch and went to Valleyfair.

Yes, I took this photo. It took a few tries to get us both in the shot at all, so our expressions should be excused.

Valleyfair is, for those that don’t know, the big local amusement park. Cory and I both love rollercoasters and other thrill rides, so we had a fantastic time. Also, previously unknown to us, there is an IMAX theater there and they were showing a very cool 40 minute video on cave exploration and how it can be useful to science and medicine. It was funny, actually- when we went into the movie, it was grey and kind of chilly outside, but when we got out the sun was shining and it was plenty warm to tackle the park’s other major draw- the waterpark, complete with new wave pool! I ended up getting a bit of a headache from the chlorine (waterslides + tubing + wave pool = lots of chlorine in the sinuses) but a bit of ibuprofen and a rest (while Cory went on the waterslides a few dozen more times) and I was fine.

Around 7, we went home and changed for our evening amusement- The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant.

The bartender took this photo while we were waiting for our table to be ready.

We took a taxi both ways, which was kind of new and fun. That allowed us to get a bottle of quite good wine, though I don’t exactly remember the name. We got a cheese course and a chocolate course, and had a great time there as well.

It was an absolutely fantastic day, and frankly, I think we’ll remember it for a long time to come.

Anniversareve May 22, 2009

That’s right- tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary. I can’t believe it’s already been a year, honestly! So much has happened, but it also went surprisingly fast.

Because tomorrow, we won’t be home all day (and we’re having fondue so we won’t want more dessert) we decided to have our year-old frozen wedding cupcakes a day early, with a nice bottle of wine.

What do year old, frozen and then thawed cupcakes look and/or taste like, you ask? What about freezer burn, and the fact that you moved with them and they probably thawed and refroze more than once? What about the fact that stuff got stacked on top of them several times while they were in the freezer?

Well. See for yourselves.

Evidently the internet is, occasionaly, correct! Wrapping cake in plastic bags, then tinfoil, then plastic again, then tinfoil again… equals perfect cake, even a year later, even after being thawed and refrozen, and even after being crushed.

They were delicious, and so was this.

And the winner is… May 21, 2009

None of the above!

That’s right, people. Here were the final numbers:

1. 0

2. 1

3. 4

4. 3

5. o

6. 1

Since number 3 was the favorite, and it also happened to be the one I put in as a joke because it is really more of a PORN name than a wrestling name… I decided that I also get to cast a vote. My vote for number 4 puts 3 and 4 at a tie, and thus I have decided to combine them.

That’s right.

My wrestling name… is El Huracán Coco, or THE COCONUT HURRICANE.

Aw yeah. How’s that for intimidating?

Those of you that voted for Molly Coconuts, I think you misread the requirements. The name has to be CPaA, but also awesome. You guys… you guys didn’t quite get the “awesome” part down. I am not an 80s softcore porn starlet. I am a hulking, menacing wrestler, about to enter that ring and show several WIPs who is the boss.