Sunday, June 27, 2004

Can You Stand It??

This is what I've been doing for the last 2 days at my parents' house. This is my niece Stella dressed like Lady Liberty. My nephew is marching in a 4th of July parade on Saturday with his Boy Scout Troop and since my sister is involved with the troop, she's marching and she wanted Stella to march too.

Of course you can't march without a costume...



My sister doesn't do sewing, so she talked me into "helping" her. She's so damn cute, I can't stand it.

Friday, June 25, 2004

It's that time of year again...



Strap yourselves in folks, the Tour starts in less than 8 days. July 3-25 - I'm glued to the live feed from OLN during the day and watching the coverage on OLN at night. Woohoo!! Go Lance!

Friday, June 18, 2004

Will I get Little Big Man's teacher's socks done in time? No. I knew I wouldn't, but I did give it a half-assed attempt. Here's my progress:



It's a lovely colorway of Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I love this yarn. It's yummy to knit with and I can see myself making lots of socks from this stuff.

This is the other thing I've been working on:


It's basically a big swatch that's going to be a scarf when I get more yarn. It's Fonty Velourine (I never heard of it either), but it's 54% cotton and 46% viscose. A cotton chenille with a synthetic binder. Not a worm in site and it's lovely to work with.

What's in this package?



Ask Jillian later. Sassy decorated the package for me (how very Martha Stewart). I had no cute little gift bags and she said, "Mommy, I can make one!" So, there it is. Isn't she talented?

This is my favorite tree in the whole world:



It's a catalpa tree in my back yard. When we first moved into this house (12 years ago) I said to Hub, "We're going to have to take that dead tree out. It's going to fall on the house." He said, "It's not dead, it just takes a long time to leaf out." He was right. It is always the last tree in the yard to get leaves, but then it's gorgeous. I especially love the white flowers.

Lastly, I treated myself yesterday.



Aren't they lovely? Big thanks go out to June for showing me the value of a pedicure!

Friday, June 11, 2004

Reviews

It's Friday, and I don't want to be at work. Technically, I shouldn't be at work. See I work on a research project that's government funded (even though I work for a university). Since all government workers have been given the day off, I should have the day off too. Technically...yeah, it didn't work with my boss either.

So anyway, I thought I'd share my opinion on the 2 movies I've seen this week. The first one was this:



The best part was, we have an IMax screen pretty close to us. We got to see Harry Potter on a 65 foot tall screen! Sassy grabbed my arm several times (and nearly cut off the circulation) to tell me she was afraid. The werewolf scenes bothered her the most. I have to admit, it was a pretty scary werewolf. The three teens who play Harry, Hermione, and Ron are certainly growing up. They get better every film. I will say that Michael Gambon (who played Dumbledore) did an admirable job, but I really miss Richard Harris. He was the quintessential Dumbledore and anyone who comes after him has very big shoes to fill. All in all, we'd give it 2 thumbs up.


Wednesday night, I took the kids to see this:



Okay, I really wanted to see it too. I liked it better than the first one. There was more for adults in this movie and I enjoyed the inside humor. Little Big Man is old enough to "get" most of the jokes (nearly peed himself when the knights pulled the catnip off Puss in Boots). Sassy was just along for the ride - but she laughed as loudly as Little Big Man in some spots. A friend told me, "See it with another adult so you can laugh at the jokes with them." That was good advice, so I'm passing it along. Very enjoyable film, and another 2 thumbs up.


I also recently finished this book:



A couple of months ago I was bored with everything I was reading and asked for suggestions. I think it was Carolyn who suggested this book. It was hysterical. I was laughing so much reading this book that the Hub stole it from me when I put it down for a minute. He chewed through it in 2 days...and then taunted me with the knowledge.

Many years ago, when the Last Temptation of Christ came out, my mother and I had a huge debate about whether Jesus would have suffered from temptations at all. Her argument was that he was god and therefore above the sins that tempted human beings. My argument was that he was sent down here to be human - not a god. Therefore, he had to be tempted by everything that humans are tempted by; only in that way would he know what it was like.


Lamb had the ring of truth for me. Who knows what Jesus' childhood was like, but I really liked this version of it. He struggled, he made bad choices, in short, he was a human being. The book tells the story of Jesus' life, through the eyes of his childhood friend. Christopher Moore had a piece at the end of the book where he talked about the research he did and I think it shows in the reading. I was raised an Episcopalian and remember some of my Sunday school lessons. I did consider digging up a Bible and reading through it, just to catch some of the things I missed. It was an entertaining read and I highly recommend it whether you're a believer or not. I have a short list of reasons why you should read it.

1. you find out where the Shroud of Turin comes from
2. you find out what the "H" stands for in "Jesus H. Christ."

Go forth and read.






Thursday, June 10, 2004

Knitting?

Yes, I have been, thanks. I just haven't been talking about it. Last week was the week from hell - the last week of school. Plus, my sister-in-law (the normal one from Colorado) was in town visiting. What that added up to was something going every night, followed by 2 hours of chit-chat.

Sister-in-law just returned from a trip to Italy. Did you know that limonata is lemon soda? I do, after she told me 15 times in an hour. After the first 2 hour chat I looked at Hub and started bitching. He put his hand up and said, "Would you rather spend time with the normal one or the crazy one?" I couldn't argue, so I put up with it. She only comes once a year, so I guess I can be nice for a week (although it was a stretch).

Here's what I worked on:



That's my new orange sock from Skacel Trekking XXL. It's 75% wool and 25% nylon (I think). This was the sock yarn I bought in DC from Knit Happens. I'm working it on US 2s and it's been a little splitty with my Inox needles. They will be a welcome addition to my knit sock drawer when they're done. I'm at the gusset decrease on the second sock.

My next project is...socks. Little Big Man decided to leave the charter school he's been at for the last 5 years (stealing from me the pleasure of sobbing at the 8th grade graduation next year). Anyway, I've been in denial for the last couple of months, thinking that he would change his mind at the last minute. This left me with nothing to give his primary teacher at the end of the year. LBM picked some nice yarn from my Mountain Colors Bearfoot stash for the gifting socks. The teacher is leaving in 3 weeks to work in the slums of Bankok for 6 weeks. Will he want to take wool socks to Thailand? I don't know, but I plan on having them to him so he can make the choice. There's nothing like crunch knitting to get me going.


One more thing...Reagan - enough. He sucked when he was president and now he's dead. Bury him already.

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

As promised

Here's the new yarn I bought on Friday with Jillian:



The Interlacements is stretched across the left side of the photo. The pink looks electric in this photo and I guess it is a bit bright, but not quite so shocking.

The new Maggi's Irish Yarn is in the 12 o'clock position. Maggi's Rags followed by Maggi's Linen (cotton/linen blend). I can't wait to get started on this yarn. It's going to be fun to work with. The tag on Rag says to use US 10 and the Linen says to use US 8. I think I'll be combining these in the same project and I'm going to be switching back and forth between the 2 needles - this should keep the gauge similar. Any thoughts?

Last, but certainly not least, is the new Koigu. It's one of the new colors (in the 800s). I'm getting quite a stash of this yarn. This is a good thing.

Had a fabulous weekend! We really did nothing but socialize, eat, and drink all weekend long. Okay, I did knit. I've been working on a gorgeous little Miss Bea's cable sweater and all the pieces are finished. I'll be seaming it up and I'll post a picture when it's finished. The baby's not due until July - I guess I'm early with this!

Also got Hub to help me stain the pieces for my new desk. I bought a 2-drawer file cabinet and a CPU cabinet with 3 drawers from Naked Furniture and they came in last week. My plan is to get rid of the old metal/rusty file cabinet and dining room table I'm currently using as a desk. So, stain is finished, 2 coats of varnish to go.

Lastly, I'm officially the parent of a teenager. Little Big Man turns 13 today. I can't believe what a whirlwind trip it's been so far. Strange times still ahead.