Sucked away

I'm sorry I haven't been around, and I'm really sorry if I haven't answered you. I haven't checked my email for days. I've got 5 minutes this morning before a dentist appointment so I have to be quick. There was:

• Met Michelle on Thursday evening. She's really cool.
  
• Work is frantic right now.
  
• On the spur of the moment K & I decided to go to the beach this weekend (K's aunt and uncle invited us out). The cat is annoyed at us for leaving her alone.
  

Now I list it, it doesn't sound like much. It'll be better when work calms down. The problem with self-styling yourself jack of all trades is that you have to LOOK UP EVERY FLIPPIN' THING because you can't remember how to do it. ARgggh.

Anyway, gotta go. Hope you all had a nice weekend.

Pointless

The NY Times suggests I should make friends with thin people. But the paper don't state the obvious conclusion that I would only bring them down. Or up, to be more precise.
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Cat adopts baby chicks. Yeah, you read that right, baby chicks. Tasty little cat snacks, adopted as psuedo-kittens. I got this off of Cute Overload.
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Maybe I should get myself one of those gifts that keeps on giving. "Easy to swallow! No ill effects!"

Fluff

Not Me.
Not Yet.
Not that bad

(link from the Knitting Troll)

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WEBS is having a sale on a buncha Jaeger. So far...resisting.

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Everything seems irritating today. S'probly the summer cold I think I'm getting (damn kids! where are my Cold-Eez?). K and I discuss: just what word is the opposite of achey?

short irritation list

• the word "furbaby"
  
• using "an" in front of "historic" without dropping your 'h's British-style.
  
• news announcers too wussy to pronounce "harass" correctly
  
• stupid misogynist action novels masquerading as science fiction (bastards. Read some Iain Banks or Alistair Reynolds instead.)
  
• Tom's of Maine is discontinuing their fluoride Cinnamint toothpaste. Screw that, I'm never going back to Crest. I'll stockpile whatever I can get my hands on. Does toothpaste ever expire?
  
• Skin products salespeople urging me to use moisturizers. Ha. Hi, my face is so oily I have to wash it twice a day. Twice A DAY. More moisture is the last thing in the universe I need.
  
• My in-laws cannot pronounce "Oregon" correctly. Tip: it does NOT rhyme with "polygon".
  

happy sunny rainbow unicorns things that don't suck list

• The Historian on CD which I checked out randomly and is proving surprisingly engaging (so far. One disk down. 23 to go)
  
• Amazon still has Tom's of Maine Cinnamint toothpaste in 6-packs.
  
• Cracker ("You remember me, I crashed your wedding / with some orange crepe paper and some Halloween candy")
  
• Parentheses
  
• The restoration of Digit
  
• coconut chocolate chip cookies from the Paradise bakery
  
• Friday
  

Tepid light of morning

Wooo! Being drunk is fun! Except when it isn't!
Sorry for all that maudlinness. I'm usually a happy drunk, but sometimes I go all woe is me. WOE! bah.

A quick garden tour. Lots of stuff is blooming (let's forget the marjoram I mostly killed last week by forgetting to water)
Echinacea purpurea out front (not dead yet!)

Lucky shot. I have yet to get one of the hummingbirds.

Daylily. They aren't joking, the blooms really only last a day.

More daylilies. This one is Stella d'Oro, an old standard. I hit a garage sale where they had landscaped their yard to sell the house and they had a bunch of extra plants for el cheapo. I bought 5 of these and some geranium that's still going strong.

oriental lily. These are new for this year, K's cousin sent us a box of bulbs for Christmas. There were 3 of these and they're the most ungainly looking plants, all tall and spikey, but the flowers are pretty. There was one yellow, one white, and one pink.

Gotta go, Frances is demanding I shut off the rain so she can go out and poop in comfort.

Ferns, beads, strawberries, yarn

Random fact Tuesday! Video Kill the Radio Star was actually the first video to show on MTV. Ha.

This Saturday we went hiking. There were many birds, several shy chipmunks, one tremendously not-shy deer and ferns. Lots of ferns.

Heading into dusk at Oxbow Regional park

This is for Kristen: Frances the cat is healthy and well and shedding everywhere (as usual). It's been a little cooler lately so she's back to sitting on her peeps, especially when they're trying to sleep.


Sunday I was useless but I did some weeding, so I wouldn't feel like a total blob. This is the finished shot. These are the Great Parking Strip Reno' of 2007's ground cover plants: alpine strawberies (Fragaria Chiloensis, var 'Lipstick'). They seem to be pretty happy so far.
all those offshoots are new

Lately I've just wanted braindead knitting. No thinking, no figuring, no worrying if it will fit, no gauge freakouts. Just the lace and books on tape, thanks. Lump o' lace:

What, you want to see the pattern? Picky, picky. Is this better?
The background is interesting, it alternates K2tog with knit&purl into the same stitch. I haven't seen that in any other pattern. The yarn's Jaggerspun Zephyr in bottle green. (I've been on a serious green kick lately. Faina: green. Silk lace stole: green. And now this. Hmmm.)

The beautiful stitch markers are from the lovely and talented Kristen, and you can own some of your very own if you like. These are the smaller size - the needle I'm using is uh, um. 3.25 mm/US 3? Either that or a 3.5mm. The markers work great. Thank you Kristen!

I did go to the bead show on Saturday. It was overwhelming, like the first time I ever walked into a good yarn store after I started knitting, only even moreso. I've never been to Stitches or a big fiber festival, I imagine it must be like that. Thousands, MILLIONS of beads. I didn't have a lot of time so I skipped mostly of the findings and metal beads completely (sigh). Beads seem like hifi equipment or kitchen gadgetry: if you want to spend the money, there are people who cater to the insanely rich/obsessed.

I got some dyed deep-red pearls to make myself a necklace and um, a few other things. Resistance is always so low when I'm just getting introduced to a new craft. Walking around gawping at all the displays, I had an realization that one of the reasons I took up knitting and crochet was that I wanted an excuse to have and touch yarn. I saw all that gorgeous stuff and even bought a few skeins, but I didn't have a use for it (yes, I admit, I bought yarn before I even knew what to do with it. Go ahead and laugh.) Beads seem to be sucking me in similarly.

Dear Brain

I would really, really appreciate it if you would stop running the song "Side by Side... by Sondheim!" through my head. I realize that I keep triggering that particular set of neurons since I'm reading a gazillion vaguely helpful to useless webpages on MSDN about the particular Windows feature of the same name, but I just can't take it much longer. And replacing it with your standard earworm "Walking in L.A." is not going to cut it. See this wall? You will be meeting it soon, violently, if you don't comply quickly.

"Agony," indeed, sucka.

No beer & no TV make Homer go....

That title has nothing to do with anything, but it sure was a great Simpsons episode.


Reasons I'm scattered today.

Because it is Friday.
Because some people are having a hard time right now.
Because it rained a true summer thunderstorm last night (we NEVER get that here. NEVER. I haven't seen one since I last was in New Mexico. We stood on the porch and watched it pour down, and the sky flash, and I enjoyed it immensely).
Because the new echinacea I planted not only has survived, but is blooming.
Because tonight we are going to a kickass dinner by the fine, fine people who catered our wedding and truly, it was worth every single penny. Every one. I still think about that salmon.
Because there is a Bead Faire (be sure to pronounce it "bead fairy" for maximum snarky entertainment) at the convention center this weekend and I have become heavily addicted to the bright bead shininess.
Because Vista & I are not on speaking terms right now and SxS can kiss my asphodels.

When I think of the beads, I think of this:

The 3 stages of Denial:
1. Not me.
2. Not yet.
3. Not that bad.

I fought the (in)Law and the (in)Law won

Thanks so much everyone for being so funny and understanding. I see I am not alone in my occasional-visitor experiences. I wish dearly I were I more into clean-ness, because then it wouldn't be so annoying to clean the shower-bath. You can see through the glass doors now, I consider that a victory.

Really, I love my in-laws, they're good people. I just am bad at feeling completely responsible for other people having a good time and I've got far too much of the Perfect Daughter-in-Law complex. We did had a good time when they were here, sitting around and talking and drinking. Galivanting about seeing stuff I hadn't ever seen. And my mother-in-law is a hell of a lot more fun to shop with for clothes for my neice/her granddaughter than K is ("uh, whatever.") I allow myself to get my cute on when it comes to baby girls, even letting a little pink out (but please god no fuzzy bears or cute embroidery. I cannot take the embroidery).

Frances the cat says: it's too damn hot.

It's 12:08 am and it's 80 degrees outside (probly 85 in the house). It got to 102 today. Bah. We don't have air-conditioning (in the same way as most of older L.A. doesn't have heat). This is when I miss the desert, which COOLS DOWN AT NIGHT.

The cat is hilarious in this weather, she'll walk about 10 steps and just flop down on her side. This is a floor shot of her yoga impression - when I'm back from the gym and doing crunches and stretches, she'll just throw herself down next to me and look cute and intimidate me with how flexible she is.

There is knitting, but it is lace and I am too hella lazy to stretch it out for you tonight. And some Monkeys for the road. It's supposed to cool off enough for me to brave going upstairs by the end of this week. Time to get off my ass and work out the Raglan of Doubt.

Can't stop, clowns will eat me

In-laws are visiting, preceded by a frenzy of house cleanup. It wasn't all finished but at least the bathrooms are clean.
I'm so sorry, I haven't replied to email or comments for more than a week, please don't take it as an insult or neglect. I haven't even been online for several days.
Today maybe we will shop, maybe that will keep them and us occupied for several hours. I am not good at this entertaining thing. sigh.

Pretty pictuers

Oops. forgot the picture.
This is the calla lily that just comes up on its own by the side of the house. I dont know why or how, as it never gets any direct sunlight. The flowers are some kind of amazing though. I heart me some calla lilies, they're uncomplicated kinds of flowers, you know? No frills, all flower.

This title used to make sense to me but I have removed it because it not longer does

Late Sunday night and I really wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. Sigh. I did manage to get a copy of the Eyre Affair on CD so I'm ripping it right now (I rip it to the machine but I keep the CDs checked out from the library while I do so, and trash all files when I'm done. I really really really appreciate my local library so I don't transgress even implied copyright rights. Multnomah County Library rox. Highest circulation rate in the country).

But I have a question, what does "slightly abridged" mean? I am usually not a fan of the "A" word at all but I don't seem to be able to obtain the Unabridged version at all. Hmph. (But I also managed to get a copy of Sherlock Holmes short stories so it is taking the edge off in the meantime. But man oh man I had no idea that the world used to be so racist. Jaw-droppingly. How could anyone write "I betrayed my race in marrying him?" 'Betrayed your race' WTF does that mean?
Then again I forget that women have only been able to vote for a 100 years, too. I take too much for granted.)

My drunken list of 7 random things. As written by just about everyone by now. Although maybe not so drunken


1) at least partially chose my profession by how I'd be required to dress. Oh the ignomy! (oh the t -shirts!)

2) I didn't start drinking until I was 25. I kill only adult brain cells!

3) I'm really fucking lazy. Or I burnt out young (Perhaps both!). Pick your poison. I don't care.
Most of getting along in the world seems to be a lot of bookkeeping. I'm jealous of people for whom it's not.

4) People might say that I've squandered my intelligence. Probably so, but it's a lot more fun now. And it didn't invole 6+ years of bending over in grad school.

5) I'm just a tad bit paranoid. Or maybe it's just that I prefer to hedge my bets.

6) I'm not an early adopter. I have a distressing tendency to prefer the current state of affairs instead of change. This is good in some ways and bad in others.

7) I forget what 7 is for.

8) I spent the day gardening. Yes, ALL DAY. OK, with breaks for knitting and, uh, a trip to the nursery for, uh, another planter (and some more plants but really not that many just a few tray packs because I planted a bunch of seeds this year but for some reason only about 3 of them came and I dont' know why and my inlaws are visiting this week and OMG the front steps look terrible and the pansies in pots are grown out and look awful and I really really need to deadhead the roses OMG they come on Friday). I'm sorry, the old mostly-dead evergreen blueberry had to go. I hate ripping out plants that are still alive, it feels as if I'm giving up on them but this poor blueberry really needed a quick death. And the the planter was falling to pieces (there wasn't a bottom any more. Literally) so we got a new one and I threw in a daylily from a too-small pot, I got the plant from a neighbor a couple years ago. It's a very nice daylily (except it's pink but I generally excuse that quality in plants) and the poor thing was awfully root bound. It'll take a couple years for it to fill up this big ol' pot (about 25 gallons o' soil). That's ok. D aylilies are high on my alltime favorites list because
a) they seem to keep coming up every year without any intervention from me. Hallelujah!
b) they prefer more water but they're ok if I sort of forget it.
c) they're not poisonous, they're even EDIBLE. No need to worry about the kids next door keeling over from plant poisonings.
d) they survive the hideous clay soil (Oh the joy!)
Hemerocallus, you taste like cucumbers, how I do love thee.

9) it's probably for the best that I didn't become a librarian despite my inordinate interest in organization (I wouldn't say a fetish. Not quite that) because of I would probably look too much like one (see http://itgirl2.blogspot.com). Because I am kind of devoid in the piercings and anything in the body mod department. Uh, and the long hair. I dunno, it's not a statement, it's just how I am. I'm not good at portraying an attitude or idea so I don't even try. And of course I do anyway. It's not anything but laziness.

I really need to wash off this DEET off my legs because it smells BAD but I'd already gotten 2 mosquito bites on my feet (yes, feet, ARRRRGH) so I decided screw it and sprayed myself up. I do not have a sunburn though. Thank you, Neutrogina SPF 45 sunscreen. You work well even 10 days past the solstice.

Ack!, 1:17! I should go to bed. Be excellent to each other. Happy good night.