Boo for DST

I've lived my entire life in a state that's never sprung forward on DST during my lifetime until last year. Losing an hour of sleep doesn't feel any better this year, either. Yuck. Only two benefits to DST that I can see, later hours for dog parks that close at dusk, and later sunsets so I can take yarn pics with waning sunshine.

Cherry Tree Hill Potluck sock yarn from Windsor Button

Progress on Hubs' Socks
Using Madder Rib pattern over 80 stitches

Elegant Ribbed Stockings
Looking very unelegant covered in dog fur


That's better.
Pardon my pasty calf; I'm semi-translucent this time of year.

Boston: There and Back Again

I'm all settled back into regular life here in Indiana. The trip home was much less dramatic and nauseating as the trip to Boston. Though I did find the irony in the fact that the airline was having data integration problems with a new system as I was coming home from a data management conference.

Thursday night was great. I met up with some Boston Knitties, ZantiMissKnits, Stariel, and Caflygrl for a yarn crawl around Boston. It was bitterly, coat piercing cold, but it was great fun to see several LYSes, Lush, and have dinner at Trident. Pics of the potluck Cherry Tree Hill yarn I picked up at Windsor Button will be coming this week.

This weekend was crazy busy, too. My mom and Chelsea came to visit Friday night and Saturday. Chelsea attended a girls' conference for careers in technology, science, and math. I was so happy that she was very enthusiastic about what she learned when we picked her up Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, getting her exposed to the sciences this early, she'll have a good base know what courses to take in high school and college.

I've tried knitting since I got back, but I seem to have misplaced my knitting mojo. Within 7 stitches of picking up the North Star Scarf, I frakked it up. *grumble* I unknit more than I knitted on the Elegant Ribbed Stockings. I did successfully work on Hubs' socks while on the plane though. I'll give it a try tonight over a few episodes of Rome to see if my knitting mojo can be found.

Day Two: Now With 100% More Vertigo

1 Flat-Land Dweller + 2 Flights at 35,000 feet + 1 Hotel Room on 20th Floor = 1 Awful Case of Vertigo

I now sing the praises of Bonine anti-nausea, motion sickness medicine.

Boston: Day One

Subtitled, Oh How I Hate Flying.

Hubs took me to the Indy airport this morning at 5:45 AM, and we thought I'd have plenty of time for checking in for my flight at 6:45 AM. We stood outside in the freezing cold with my 70 pounds of luggage (yeah, I'm only gone for 6 days, never know what I'll need!) waiting for the "convenient" curbside baggage check. The desk said "US Airways", the little luggage tags said "US Airways", but the attendant informed me when we got to the front of the line that this check in was only for US West flights. We go into the terminal only to see a HUGE line of folks checking in baggage and getting boarding passes. So, I do what any unseasoned, newbie traveler does - my eyes filled with tears and I started to nervously shake. Kris kept a calm head and spoke with an airline employee who informed me that I'd all ready missed the flight. Great. I was able to get on a flight to DC and make a connection to Boston from there. No problem!

I said good-bye to Hubs at the security point then had to unceremoniously remove my shoes for scanning. Apparently, something looked "funny" in my carry-on laptop case because the x-ray machine attendant ran my bag through twice and laughed and pointed the second time. Maybe it was the massive jumbles of cables and chargers, Hubs socks on the needles, or my in-flight book selection of "Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers"? My purse was also ransacked; I'm surprised that my forgotten black velvet, skull emblazoned dicebag wasn't questioned.

The flight to Washington was on the smallest plane I've ever rode; my mom informed me that it was a DC-7. It had 3 seats per row - one seat on the left side, an aisle, and two seats on the right side. To say that the flight was shaky and turbulent is an understatement. I had a deathgrip on the armrests on the descent. I made my connecting flight with no problems, and I was finally feeling a bit of relief.

The flight to Boston was pretty uneventful - much bigger plane so it was a much smoother ride. However, I realized that I made the WORST choice of in-flight book reading ever. Chapter 4 is entitled "Beyond the Black Box" which goes into detail about the gruesome details of what happens when planes crash. As I'm reading about the likelihood of surviving a drop from 35,000 feet into a body of water, I looked out to see we were circling above the Atlantic Ocean. Even worse, I read the comforting fact that most crashes occur during descent, take-off, or on the ground. Just as the plane made a big dip into the descent. I closed the book following that...

The flight on the puddle-jumper was only a precursor to how bad riding in a taxi (my first taxi ride!) turned out to be. I rode in a shuttle van with several other travelers from the airport to downtown Boston. I counted four times that I thought we were going to crash into other drivers including one spectacularly close near rear-ending, two ran stop lights, and crossed over two lanes of traffic to turn right on a red light. I will never complain about Hubs' driving again, and I will never drive in Boston. :)

To say I was relieved to get to the hotel for check-in is the understatement of the year. I have a beautiful view of the Charles River from my window.

View right after check-in

View after evening conference session

Dinner was wonderful; I went with friends from work to Charlie's. Their chicken marsala was very tasty and the chocolate cake was faboo!

I'm pretty much running on empty now, so time for me to head to bed!

Boston Bound

Tomorrow morning, long before my usual weekend waking-up time of noon, I'll be on a plane bound for a business conference in Boston. I'm a bit uneasy; this will be my first flight since I was 17 and my first solo trip. The more I talk with folks that are more travelled than me, the more I realize that I should be traveling with one of those "Unaccompanied Minor" signs hanging around my neck to excuse my stupidity. I had no clue that baggage can be checked with the hotel prior to checking yourself into the hotel, that the maids should be tipped to get better service, and that taxis line-up at airports to pick up travellers. I feel like such a newb! On the other hand, I'm very excited to have to opportunity to learn all about new technologies and trends. :)

My schedule will be really packed with seminars, exhibits, informational sessions, and schmoozing events. I do have a little chunk of time to visit the surrounding area though and meet up with Kris'Aunt Samantha for dinner. Within a few blocks of the hotel are two local yarn stores and a Lush store.


I'm dragging Kris' laptop computer and a digital camera with me, so I do hope to squeeze in some blog posts and pics while I'm gone.

Thoughts/Prayers Please

I'm absolutely terrible about showing my caring side of my personality on this blog. But, please, send some good thoughts or prayers out to my stepmom, Betty, and her family. Her father is having some serious health problems. Hopefully, we'll know more tomorrow, but it's a scary situation. :(

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Please refrain from answering or placing cell phone calls from public bathrooms. It compels people like me to flush the toilet repeatedly to let the person on the other end of the phone know exactly where you are. ;)

Love Is

Using your long-hoarded Socks That Rock yarn for socks for your beloved. What, you didn't expect me to say something profound, did you?

Tonight, I'll cast on a bigger version of the Madder Ribbed Socks for Hubs from STR "Beryl". I love the colors of this yarn, but they're manly enough for man socks. Means I'll get to buy more Socks That Rock to replace this skein, right?

Also actively on the needles is an Elegant Ribbed Stocking from "Favorite Socks" that my SP sent me. I'm using Dale of Norway Heilo in navy blue. I only have one of the three sets of DPNs required to make these socks, and I got to the point where I'll need the size 7 DPNs. Cheap excuse to go to the yarn store this week. My attempts to photograph my progress thus far were really poor, so no pics tonight.

Should I be concerned that all my finished objects so far this year have been socks?

Movie Musings Monday: The Prestige

"The Prestige" popped out of the DVD player just in time to make my Movie Musings Monday post.

If you like twists and turns and intrigue, GO RENT THIS MOVIE. I love movies that make me audibly gasp, and oh, how this one did. Plus, it has a killer line-up: Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, David Bowie, Scarlett Johansson, and Michael Caine. I fully plan on purchasing a copy of this movie on DVD.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Gobsmacked Stars. Really, go rent it!
Knitting Rating: 3 out of 5 Skeins. While very visual in nature, stockinette or ribbing in the round is appropriate. Lends itself particularly well to knitting vintage Victorian era patterns. Be on the lookout for beautiful lace knits!

My Socks

Last night, I finished a second pair of socks for me. This is the first pair I've kept for myself since my first pair I completed last winter. They're mine, all miiiiiiiiine! *cackle*

See how well they match!

Ignore the pasty white legs and focus on the socks

Project Specs
Pattern: Oak Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Needles: US 1 Lantern Moon DPNs
Yarn: Opal's Rainforest Line in "Fish"

I enjoyed this pattern, even though I did screw up the heels. The Opal yarn didn't seem splitty and was pretty easy to match to each other. I was pretty paranoid about breaking another Lantern Moon DPN, but they all stayed in one piece. I liked the way this toe was worked over 28 rows with a series of K2TOGs. No sloppy SSKs on the toe of my socks :) They kept my feet nice and toasty today, too!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

or, "How I Plan to Take Over the World".

Simple plan using a simple tool, really.

Nice weighted piece of thick black leather

What's it for you're asking? (No, Zoe and/or Phollower, it's not for that purpose.) Behold!

It's a book weight (That's Genetics for Dummies if you're curious.)

Now I can knit a simple sock and read at the same time as it holds the pages down hands-free. I've been slacking a bit on reading as I've been all-consumed with knitting socks. Now, I don't have to choose between knitting and reading. So my words of wisdom for this week, if you're a knitter who reads, invest $10 in one of these bad boys, well worth it.

Surely, this makes me a candidate for world domination, no?

I Me Me Mine

Knitting progress this past weekend was all about me. I did brave the snowfall Saturday morning to mail Grandmom's backup socks. Other than that, my knitting time was all about me, for me.

Hubs put the brakes on my late night shopping spree for solid color sock yarn from Knitpicks. Instead, I'm working through some of my stashed sock yarn which happens to be mainly earmarked for projects for myself. First up is a pair of Oak Rib socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. It's Opal Rain Forest yarn in "Fish". My attention was pretty lacking when I knitted the heel and heel turn and was 4 stitches shy of the pattern. Eh, design feature as long as I can duplicate it on the second sock.

Eh, not so fishy really.

Saffron Cables afghan also got some knitting time attention.

Up to row 41 on the first pattern repeat

Apparently, there's a mispring in the pattern. It calls for 3 75 row repeats, but it needs 4. *sigh* That means I'm only 13% completed on the cabled section. I could really have used a bulky weight wool/alpaca blanket this winter. I think I've opened another cream-colored blackhole!

Tonight's Bandit cuteness!

Bandit hanging out under my desk

A Moment of Silence

Stunned silence, then overwhelming anger. The fake DVR which held countless hours of TV shows deleted everything on its hard drive sometime between last Tuesday night and tonight. Gone is the second season of the new Dr Who, the only once shown Gencon special on X Play, scads of Battlestar Galactica episodes, and the brand spanking new episodes of Rome for which we actually bought HBO to see. Some of them were well past their prime while others were much too young to go. A pox on DishNetwork's crappy DVR. Tonight, my head hangs in sadness of the loss of those precious hours of TV gems. *sniff*

Movie Musings Monday: "The Marine"

Because everyone chooses a bad movie rental every once and awhile - even Hubs. Historically speaking, the title of "Worst Movie Chooser" has been mine since Hubs and I started dating. I take full responsibility for "Nacho Libre", Dean Koontz's "Phantoms" (which was NOTHING like the book!), and a slew of bad Christopher Lambert movies. With his recent selection of "The Marine", Hubs now is the holder of that dubious title.

Before the movie began, I had it pegged as a bad movie when the WWE studios logo was shown. And HOW did this movie deliver the cheesy badness. Ridiculously large explosions, horrible acting, and random chick fights were de rigeur. Highlight of this movie is its relatively short duration - long enough to finish 4 rows of my Saffron Cable afghan.

Overall Rating: No stars for you! It was that bad.
Knitting Rating: 2 out of 5 skeins.

Ah, yes.

Proof I am still knitting.

Second Pair of Madder Ribbed Socks

Surprise, surprise. As soon as I finished my first pair of Madder Ribbed Socks, I started another. This pair was completed using Lucy Neatby's Celestial Dream Merino on US1's (back to my trusty Crystal Palace DPNs). These are destined for Pennsylvania for my grandma. They were started as a back-up pair in case her first pair were lost in the mail. :) All the packages that I send will have tracking on them from now on. Can't be too cautious with handknits!

Wii've been enjoying the we. :) Some of the mini games can give you a hell of a workout!

Kris playing Raving Rabbits tonight

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Heed your own advice. For example, the Words of Wisdom Wednesday post I made last week, clogs aren't good foot apparrel in the snow. I slipped on a pair of clogs this evening to check the mail. Completely forgetting the several feet tall drifts in our driveway and yard. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm an idiot now after fishing out a clog that slipped off and got stuck in a snowdrift.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from all of us to all of you! Stay warm!

Blizzard of Aught Seven

No way in Hades will I go out in today's weather. The fact that we're under a BLIZZARD warning in central Indiana sealed the deal for me. Weather.com is listing the Indianapolis area as having "Unknown Precipiation". That roughly translates to "Shit-pile of snow and toss in some ice, too just for fun".

View from the Office Window
Note the snow drift that's parallel to the base of the window

View from the Back Door
Can't see crap through the built-up ice and sleet on the door

Stay safe and warm!

Can't Blog, I'm Wii-ing!

No Movie Musings Monday post today; Hubs found a Wii for my early Valentine's present.

From the Book Friday

Today's excerpt for From the Book Friday is sharing my LibraryThing. With my goals of organizaation this year, I decided I better get a handle on my bookshelves, piles, boxes, and general mess of books. More fiction will be added; however, all my knitting books are represented for your perusal. :) See random books from my shelves on the widget to the ummm....right side of the screen.

Good Mail Day

I received a call from my grandma this afternoon; her surprise birthday socks I mailed last Tuesday arrived safely at her house today. Both of us and my mom were convinced that their vile neighbors nabbed her socks and were wearing them. I even started an emergency back-up pair of socks to send to her if the first pair were lost in transit.

I returned home to a big surprise sitting on our snowy front porch, a package from my Knitty Secret Pal. My SP is fabulous!!! Look at the pretties!

A very cute card, Spring '06 issue of IW Knits magazine, Favorite Socks with 25 sock patterns from IW Knits, a chocolate/mocha bar, Gold Mine bubblegum, bath fizzies (I love bath fizzies!!), and a wee pack of Nutella. (Which as I was writing this post, Bandit STOLE and ATE my Nutella, the little ass!)

Look Bandit, this is for you, but not my Nutella!

Bandit decimating his cookie; he LOVED it!

Oh, and what's this?

Wildfoote Sock Yarn in "Symphony" Very soft and beautiful colors!

Thank you very, very much Fab4Lkmanitou!! :)

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

When the forecast calls for snow, be prepared. Not prepared in a raid the grocery store for canned goods, bread, and toilet paper way. Prepared as in wear appropriate shoes for walking in show. Unexpected treks in through 5 inches of snow happen. For example, after a rough day, the battery in the garage door opener dies and you have to walk through snow drifts in sub-zero wind chills wearing CLOGS. >.<>still cold.

Feeding the Stash

Blech! Today sucked. Here's some pics of new fodder for my quickly dwindling sock yarn stash.

Tofutsies! Sock yarn with added chitin; there's crabshells in there!

I'm hoping that I'm not allergic to shellfish!

Regia Cotton, looks like it should self stripe

Movie Musings Monday: Flyboys

Up for review this week is Flyboys. A movie about a squad of American volunteer WW1 fighter pilots who flew for France. There's also a rather weak love story that's half in mumbled French with no subtitles and typical male buddy movie themes. The highlight of the movie by far were the dogfight scenes. Well filmed and excellent effects.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars. I'd recommend it to fans of other war movies.
Knitting Rating: 2 out of 5 Skeins. I kept bugging Hubs with questions on which character was on the screen as it was really hard to knit and keep track of character faces with aviator goggles and helmets on.

Cut that Meat!

Big ol' congrats to the Colts for winning the Super Bowl. Wonder what Indy will be like tomorrow; it's been a mad house for the past few weeks. (Just as I typed that someone blasted down our quiet subdivision road honking their horn. Bandit's doing his celebratory barking now, too.) I finished up a pair of socks during the third quarter.

Celebratory Socks Watching Commercials

Madder Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks

I tried to match the striping, but these are fraternal twins. One of my fancy Lantern Moon DPN was sidelined permanently after a snap late in the toe. Damned SSKs were too tough for rosewood. I've heard that Lantern Moon has very good customer service and should send a second string replacement. I really liked the simple ribbing used in this pattern almost as much as I like the wide heelflap. The swoopy, pointy toe, not so much love. I think my next pair of socks will be for Hubs or myself, but don't quote me on that. :)

Definition of Lame

Hubs and I rented Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom a co-op RPG for the PS3 this week. Last night, we sat down to create our characters and start the game. First, I was miffed that the warrior class only had a male character available, so expressing my inner crabbiness at the lack of female characters, I named him "Bitch Tits". However, anytime my character's name was on screen it was a censored out garble of symbols. Censoring mild curse words on a game rated "T" for ages 13 and up. *insert eyeroll here*

However, on Viva Pinata, a game approved for all ages for the Xbox 360, has allowed me to name my pinatas and stupid helpers very colorful names - Dipshit the Watering Helper, Dumbass the Harvesting Helper, and a herd of horse pinatas all named a variant of "ass".

Clearly, XBox 360 is winning the next-gen console war in the "No Lame Censoring" category.

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

No matter how deeply engrossed you think your significant other is involved in a video game, he/she will pick up on the words "hit the garage with my car yesterday morning" out of your conversation. Several strenuous minutes will ensue.

Speaking completely hypothetically, of course.

The Lost Weekend

Looking back on this past weekend, all I remember was a lot of episodes of CSI and lots of knitting. Stressful week demands that I have a weekend to unwind, and that's exactly what I did for three days.

First off, I finished a pair of socks. I really tried to get these two socks to match up perfectly, but wasn't as lucky as my last attempt with self-striping yarn. Ssshhhh...these are a present that will be going in the mail tomorrow.

Plain ol' stockinette almost-matching socks

I realized Saturday night that I have a sock addiction. As soon as I kitchener stitched the second toe shut on the previous pair of socks, I casted on a new pair. Stitcking with the general grumpy, stressed-out mood I was in last week, I chose the Madder Ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. I'm using my new Lantern Moon DPNs on these and am enjoying them quite a lot. Definitely grippier than the Crystal Palace DPNs though.

Grrr.....Madder Socks

Sunday, I reserved a big chunk of time for knitting for me, myself, and I. Since it was 12° outside, the motivation for knitting a thin lacy scarf wasn't there for me. However, I did resurrect my Saffron Cables Afghan from the depths of the WIP basket. It was definitely bulky weight wooly afghan weather, and I was able to crank out 10 new rows of knitting until my hands felt like they were falling off.

Ready for Row 25, only a bajillionty left!

MMMMM...cabley goodness

Movie Musings Monday: Gamerz

With a title like "Gamerz" how could I pass by this movie?

Gamerz is the quintessential niche comedy for role-playing game players. The premise of the movie is that regardless of drudgery and crappiness of everyday life, they could find an escape in gaming. Add in a love square (not a triangle) and shadow animated RPG character depictions for the in game storyline, and that's the major gist of Gamerz.

Several of the major gamer archetypes are portrayed very well, too. The over-invested in his character player, a walking rule book player, street-wise strategist, and disgusting habit gamer are all represented. Including a player which shows why most D&D books come with a first page worthy warning that the contents are purely fiction. Many times throughout the movie, I was able to relate the scene to occurrences in gaming sessions I've had. The writers must be gamers, too. :)

On the bad side, while I realize it's a low-budget, indie film, the wobbly camera work left me nauseous in the first 15 minutes of the movie. Also, I could have used subtitles since the dialogue has a strong Scottish accent. (Though, I'm a lamer who needs subtitles to Trainspotting, too.)

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars. I really wouldn't recommend this title to non-gamers though. There's a lot of humor found in the nuances of gaming that may be lost if you've never played an RPG before. If you play RPGs, watch this movie!
Knitting Rating: 3 out of 5 Skeins. I was able to work on a sock and still catch most of the dialogue. Bonus, there is a knitter shown in the movie. :)

From the Book Friday: Say Thanks

Today's theme from "No One Cares What You Had for Lunch" is to say thanks. This afternoon, I'd like to extend a big thank you to Bandit. After spending several hours working from home, he quietly demanded that I spend time with him. Sometimes, when life has me all stressed, it's too easy to forget to sit back, relax, and spend time with loved ones.

Winter-Een-Mas Eve

Twas the night before Winter-Een-Mas and all through the house
All the controllers were charging, but not my mouse (it's not wireless)
The games were laid out with much care
In hopes that Winter-Een-Mas soon would be there.

Tomorrow evening, I'll celebrate my first Winter-Een-Mas. It's a week-long holiday dedicated to all the facets of gaming. I'm planning on playing some Viva Pinata, Oblivion, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Magic, and some board games. Let the games begin!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

I have an updated version of the old adage "The cobbler's wife has no shoes". Newly updated to "The sock knitter has only crappy socks."

Today's the second day within the past week that heels in my store bought socks have had major holes develop. Friday, my poor crummy old socks blew out clear to my ankles. So glad I wore pants that went to the top of my foot. Today's heel mishap was confined to the bottom of the sock's foot and less conspicuous.

One of these days, I'll buy some more socks for myself. Just one of those things you shouldn't put off too long :)

Making Headway

I started working on my New Year's resolution to get organized this weekend. My poor knitting supplies were strewn all around the house, and I couldn't find where I hid them all. Saturday, Kris, Chelsea, and I hit Bed, Bath, and Beyond looking at different storage options, and we hit the jackpot.

Needle and Miscellaneous Storage: WIPs in top basket, needles in top drawer, patterns and other tools in second drawer, and leftover yarn on bottom.

Cedar and Canvas Sweater Storage: Afghan yarn on top, miscellaneous worsted weight on next shelf, crammed sock yarn on third shelf, hand spun on fourth, lace on fifth, and stuff I'll never use on bottom.

My next organization project will be the bookshelf in the spare bedroom. Hopefully by putting the fake pumpkins in storage and chucking long dead VCRs I can make room for my knitting books.

I've also made progress on the second set of socks for my mom. The first sock is finished and the second is on the needles.

Finished the first sock Saturday night during a Ghosthunters DVD marathon

I stopped by a LYS tonight after work intending to get a second set of Crystal Palace DPNs. Unfortunately, they didn't have any of the size I wanted in stock. Instead, I bought a set of Lantern Moon rosewood DPNs in the size I wanted (at over double the price.

Aren't they purty?

Some sock yarn decided to follow me home. Lana Grossa self striping, same type of yarn as the pair I'm currently making.

It followed me home. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

This shot shows the true colors. Think these will be for a pair of socks for my grandmother's birthday at the end of this month. Belated of course. :-/

In Memoriam

I am constantly amazed by the relationships with others that I have forged online. Nowhere have I felt more at ease than with my guild, Immortal Crusaders, in the online game, Dark Age of Camelot. I have not logged into the game for well over a year; yet, I maintained a pulsepoint on the comings and goings of the IC family through our guild's message boards.

We received the news today that one of the members of our little online family has untimely passed away. Though we never met him in person, we're still very saddened, especially for his family's loss.

Farewell, D. You are sorely missed. :(

Movie Musings Monday: The Illusionist

The Illusionist outpaced my expectations by a mile. I honestly do not remember seeing any in theater commercials, and I rented it on a whim at Blockbuster. What I got was one of the best movies I've seen in quite some time (and have since purchased on DVD). The underlying star-crossed love plotline wasn't contrite nor overly mushy; romantic movie watcher I am not. Seeing the lead character, Eisenheim, use his knowledge and skills learned from his tradesman family to challenge the tyrranical prince of Vienna was inspiring. I tend to like movies that depict characters rising above adversite to stick it to "The Man". Excellent movie with stunning visuals.

Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars. Excellent movie.
Knitting Rating: 2/5 Skeins. Best suited for mindless stockinette in the round. The visuals distracted me from a relatively simple, repeated pattern.

Ahem!

Go Colts!!! They're going to the Super Bowl!!

From the Book Friday: Fessin' Up

This week's From the Book Friday prompts me to fess up to one of my shortcomings. (No, this post will not be about my relative lack of height...)

One of my biggest shortcomings is my inability to keep any vegetation alive. Apart from the funky pink mold noodles I grew in the fridge over the course of two months. No signs of a green thumb can be found on me, not even a green pinky or toe. I affectionately blame my routine killing of plants in my care on my Thumb of Death.

New hearty poinsettias, 20 year old cacti, and most of the lawn have all fallen victim to the Thumb of Death. It changes its preferred manner of attack on a random basis - killing it with kindness, neglect, overwatering, incorrect sunlight. I vowed my freshman year of college to keep a poinsettia alive beyond the month of December. I named it George and even took it home over Christmas vacation with me. (Looking back, I really needed a pet of some sort through college.) One sunny post-Christmas day, I set George on the enclosed backporch to catch some rays. And forgot about him until hours later. George was frozen, damn.

Again, I'm tempting fate with a mountain laurell my mom brought back from Pennsylvania in November. It's transplanted to our front lawn area (taking the spot of Bandit's beloved dead pee bush) and is hibernating in a flake of hay and a burlap sack. Hiding it is, from my dreaded thumb of plant doom!

Oh Yeah, I Do Knit

I started a few new projects this weekend. First onto the needles was the North Star Scarf from Arctic Lace.

Start of the North Star Scarf

I'm being such a diligent knitter with this project. The pattern came from a book I received as a Christmas present (Thanks Dad & Betty!), the yarn is from my Spooky Secret Pal, and the needles were even on hand. This is my first project where I chose the pattern after I had the yarn on hand. No waiting for a trip to the yarn store with this project. The pattern grabbed me; a lace pattern that wasn't too frou-frou for my tastes. The picture doesn't capture the true color of the yarn, it's a very pale blue Alpaca Cloud from Knitpicks. It's so soft and cuddly!

Big surprise, more socks!

Second project to my needles is a pair of socks for my mom. A few days after Christmas, I got a call from her which started with a cryptic "Christina, I have to tell you something about your knitting." Luckily, that was followed by a request for another pair of socks because the pair I gave her for Christmas took a few days to dry, and she wanted a back-up pair. How could I say no to that? For this pair, I'm trying to bring together elements of different sock patterns to establish my own "easy sock recipe". I want to find the nicest looking heel turn, gusset decreases, and toe decreases because most of the ones I've done exactly from a pattern look like ass. Not picky, am I? :)

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

My final planned weekly blog feature is Words of Wisdom Wednesday. I'll share my wealth of knowledge gleaned from years of learning from my mistakes. Plenty of blog fodder with this topic.

Today's words of wisdom are this, "Let sleeping blogs lie." After moving to the new version of Blogger, I updated my blog's template. In my overzealousness, I altered my blog's name. Which caused my Atom feed to be completely FUBAR-ed. Atom feed issues equate to a non-functional site feed which you, dear readers, use to be notified of updates to Knotts Knitts.

I have a working site feed now, but it has a different address. If you subscribe via Bloglines or other feed aggregator, you can re-subscribe by clicking the nifty subscribe button to the site or manually add the new feed address, http://knottsknitts.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Biggest apologies to my 8 subscribers; I just had to try out all the new "features" of the new Blogger version. :(

Movie Musings Monday: Nacho Libre

Today marks the start of another new weekly blog feature, Movie Musings Monday. Since August, I've had a Blockbuster Online account. Couple that with an all-consuming knitting habit which works best with me in front of the TV, and I watch a ton of movies and TV shows on DVD. Of course, my reviews will have a slant towards knitting, so I won't be duplicating existing movie review sites. Without further ado, below is my review of Nacho Libre.

I confess to enjoying brainless comedies - the Griswold movies of the 80s, Euro Trip, American Pie, to name just a few. Nacho Libre tried very hard to have even the brainless-level of comedy and missed. Hubs fell asleep during our Friday night viewing; that's the first time in almost 13 years that I've known him that he's fallen asleep during a movie. I started a charted lace project, yet I did not miss any of the movie's plot. Under-appreciated, poorly stereotyped Mexican priest takes up wrestling to help the orphans that live at the monastery and falls for a nun. Add in an a village idiot tag team partner and some poop jokes, and voila, Nacho Libre.

Overall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars. I rented this movie with a free coupon, and still felt that I was due a refund.
Knitting Rating: 5 out of 5 skeins. Complex lace or cable charted projects are a perfect fit with this movie. Even with higher levels of concentration needed, you won't miss much.

From the Book Friday: Week 1

A few months ago, I bought and read the book No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason. Its chock-full with teasers to write insightful, coherent blog posts that (hopefully!) are enjoyable for readers.

This week's topic will delve into my irrational fears.

In all honesty, I could make an entire weekly blog feature on my irrational fears. I'd rather not get all Freudian, so I'll stick with the humorous and odd ones.

One of my fears that impacts me the most is my fear of house fires. My grandparents lost their home in the 70s while they were vacationing in Florida to a house fire. As a result, I grew up with a healthy respect for fires and was used to a routine of ensuring heaters were clear, water heaters were turned off, amongst others. As the old saying goes, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Here is where the paranoia starts for me. Every morning, I use a hair iron to straighten my hard to manage curly hair. The iron rests on my wooden vanity when it's not immediately in use. Correction, my slightly scorched vanity from a few days in 2004 when I was very distracted and forgot to turn the hair iron off. After I saw the stripes of burnt brown vanity top, I freaked. Now, every morning before I drive to work, go to bed, or leave the house unattended, I have to check that my hair iron is off. I even check it when I haven't turned it on that day. Guess I'm a bit OCD, at least it gives Hubs a good chuckle.

Redemption

Whew! As you can tell by the new look of my blog and the obnoxious spamming of XML updates to Bloglines, I've moved to the new Blogger. The move itself was simple and gives me access to labels. Look for lots of label usage. :)

Further redemption was found last night when I finished Grandpop's socks around 2 AM. I'm not a bad granddaughter after all.

Photographic Evidence of Finished Socks with CSI Season 1, never mind the pasty leg and pajama bottoms.

Pattern: Gentleman's Sock with Lozenge Pattern from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks
Materials: Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in Navy, 2.01 skeins used (broke open the third skein for the toe of the second sock. Crystal Palace US1 DPNs.

I did enjoy knitting these, but due to the 10 row repeating stitch pattern these were only knitted around the house. Much cursing ensued Wednesday night when I completely screwed up the second to last pattern repeat when I was too involved in a rerun of House. I love the re-vamped Essential sock yarn line. It's a bit thicker and much softer than the older skeins I used on the cabled socks a few weeks ago. These and Clapotis #3 will hit the post office tomorrow for mailing if I can get all the dog fur out of them!

Backlog

Er, backblog. Thus far, I'm falling quite behind on my blogging goals for 2007. Unfortunately, that's on par with the rest of my life this year. As of this week, I am:

• Out of my migraine preventative meds. My head reminded me of that fact on Monday to keep better tabs on the number of remaining refills I have.


• Around 800 miles overdue for an oil change. Trip out to Pennsylvania in November added miles I had almost forgotten. It goes in tomorrow though.


• Still in a Christmas-y house. After New Years finishes, I find our Christmas decorations get very stale. Hopefully, this weekend the tree will be put back into storage.


• Remaining a weakling with lifting restrictions post-surgery. I can't wait till the weight lifting restriction is lifted next Tuesday, and I can get started on my organizing goals for 2007.


• Have all my blogs on old Blogger. Can't wait to get these moved over to the new Blogger and use labels.


• Furiously finishing Christmas knitting. I'm a horrible granddaughter; Grandpop's socks are still on my needles and not finished. I have one completed and the other is almost to the toe. Saturday should be the big mailing date depending on my pattern reading skills.

Photographic Evidence of My Slow-Ass Progress. Kindly ignore the added dog fur.

Meanwhile,

• I've kept a busy social calendar. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend starting tomorrow though! Granted, it will be spent deChristmasing our house.


• We have a clean house. Though I'm starting to chomp at the bit to get stuff organized.


• In Viva Pinata, I have a level 30 Gardener and have unlocked 28 in game achievements. I think these in-game state are directly correlated with my increased number of delayed to-do tasks.

I truly feel the need to buckle down and get started on 2007.

Viva La Time Sink!

Since the day after Christmas, I've been hooked on an XBox 360 game, Viva Pinata. In a nutshell, it's similar to The Sims, but with a garden. The premise is to continuously improve your garden plot to attract new and improved animal pinatas as visitors and residents. On the first in game day, you attract worms and birds to eat those worms. The game just snowballs from there. Many, many in game hours later, one of my chicken pinatas hatched a dragon egg. I named him Trogdor. Now to attract a unicorn resident...

You Say You Want Some Resolutions...

Complete apologies to The Beatles for hacking "Revolution" lyrics to come up with a snappy title.

In no particular order, here are my resolutions for 2007:

1. Get organized. My knitting supplies and yarn are a mess, and I can't find a damn thing. DVDs have taken over our house since our DVD holder is very much past its maximum capacity. Get a new cabinet and organize console games and DVDs. Don't even ask about books, need to organize those somehow, too. My poor bookshelf is three books deep on some shelves. Time to get it under control.

2. Keep up on voicemail better. I'm a diligent (ok, addicted) email checker, why do I let voicemail messages linger for more than a week?

3. Be a diligent blogger. I created this blog on January 2nd of 2006, it's high time that I start a regular post schedule.

4. Prioritize. Know that family comes first and everything else can be sorted out. :)

5. Get over my fear of knitting sweaters. With "Knitting Without Tears" and EZ's percentage sweater patterns, I hereby resolve to knit a sweater this year!

2007: The Year of Karmic Balance

If today is an indication of how 2007 will progress, it will be a year of karmic balance. Hubs was awakened early this morning by Bandit wanting to go outside. He let Bandit out on a leash, noted that his paws weren't muddy, and proceeded to let Bandit off the leash. Bandit pounced right back into our bed, exactly on Hubs' side of the bed and settled in. As he did so, he smeared crap that was stuck between his toes on our sheets and comforter. :-/ Luckily, Hubs smelled it before laying back down. A few minutes of cleaning toes and starting a few loads of laundry later, all was well. What a shitty start to 2007! (Bad pun completely intentional.)

PS3 we picked up today and Hubs' Christmas present from me, an XBox 360.

After cleaning up the disaster area formerly known as our bed, we headed out for some light shopping this afternoon. My favorite local yarn store is having a big sale today, so I dropped Hubs off at Best Buy and started off for Westfield. Hubs called me a few minutes later, Best Buy had PS3s in stock. Needless to say, my yarn shopping was quickly canceled, and Hubs is in the living room hooking up our new toy.

Happy 2007 to One and All!