Kiss My Knits!

Emily’s under the weather, and has been for a few days. Mostly, she’s been staying quiet and playing on the computer, watching videos, reading and such. She doesn’t like being sick and wants to be better immediately. On Saturday, she told me, pointing at her face, “this hole in my nose is better.” So we learned the word for nostril. Hopefully she’ll be feeling better by tomorrow.

It’s interesting to see the ways in which the pink frilly princess desires butt up against the nerdy geeky desires. Last week, they read Beauty and the Beast. We talked about it some, and she asked, “How does the story end? They get married?” I said yes, and asked how she thought it ended. Her answer? “Beauty got abducted by aliens and was never seen again.”

Also, they saw a ballet based on Beauty and the Beast, which she didn’t like because Beauty’s sisters were mean to her and tore her dress. Instead, Emily says she wants to do a ballet based on the solar system. She will dance the part of the Earth. She has Elizabeth and Taylor act this out sometimes, with one playing the moon and one playing the sun.

I don’t know about you, but I’d pay money to see a ballet based on the solar system. Geeky and artistic, that’s my girl.

Went up to the post office this morning to mail Jayne hats – of course – and there was a woman there who spoke no English. This was a problem, because she had a question and none of the clerks spoke Spanish. There was another guy in line who spoke Spanish, but no English. D’oh! So I opened my big yap when they asked if anyone could help. My Spanish used to be pretty good, but it’s been about 12 years since I used it on a daily basis, freelancing for Canal de Noticias NBC. Well, any port in a storm, I suppose.

It took a while before I finally figured it out. She had a money order and wanted to know if it was important to have the address of the sender filled out. She had me look through about ten pieces of paper and I still wasn’t quite getting it. Finally she had a conversation with the other Spanish speaker in line, and from hearing what they said to each other, I finally understood. So I asked the clerk, the clerk told me, and I told her. Problem solved!

Even though I’m 99 percent sure I communicated accurately, I’m still paranoid that I may have somehow screwed it up. The money order was coming from or going to someone in a detainee facility in Atlanta, sooo… I really, really don’t want to make this woman’s day worse than it already probably is.

On the up side, now I will never ever ever forget the Spanish word for “address.”

For those playing – or attempting to play, given the system’s major technical flaws – the Dunder Mifflin Infinity game that is the online component to the Office, Dunder Mifflin Infinity has opened up new branches. After having such a frustrating experience so far, this seems like a good opportunity to start anew. The list of new branches is here.

I signed up for NC-Wilmington, down by the beach. If I’m going to have a booze cruise at my branch, I want it to be out at sea!

If you’re playing and you’d like to join my branch, my code for Wilmington is z0tm9uu7go .

Today, my calves, thighs, back, and feet are sore. The back is an intermittent thing, the legs I can’t do anything about, but I’m wondering if I need better shoes for the feet. Hmm.

My yellow yarn finally came. I ordered it in April, so yes, I am incredibly happy to see it. Now if we can just get the orange and the red to arrive.

The good news/bad news is that Brown Sheep is raising their rates again, meaning my costs for yarn are going up. I know I said this last year, but this year I really may have to raise prices. I hate to do it, so I’ll crunch some numbers and see how everything shakes out. On the up side, because this batch of yarn was ordered before the price went up, they’re honoring the old price. Yay!

Do you see anything in that picture that might give a hint as to a new Firefly-type product? Maybe something related to the keychain I made for myself so I won’t lose my freakin’ keys all the time? I need to finish up the item in question so I can show y’all properly.

In other news, my calves ache and it hasn’t even been 12 hours yet. I’m glad the “couch to 5k” program is only every other day. I’m gonna feel this in the morning.

Long, long post about fat, false starts, and fitness.

Cribbed from , who made it five whole seasons.

Your Score: 3 Episodes
( 53 Costs, 36 Reception, and 46 Cult Appeal )

Everything seemed to go wrong with you. You had high hopes and high expectations, and you poured the money into making sure it happened. But something along the way went wrong. People just didn’t tune in. And because you tried to go for the bigger mainstream audience, you didn’t inject enough innovative material to make the experts take notice. An failure in every sense of the word, FOX lets you go after a meager three episodes.

Wow. I didn’t think I’d do as well as short-lived FOX show The Tick but I didn’t even make it as far as short-lived FOX show Drive. Yikes.

Haven’t updated in a few days, so I reckon I oughtta. Unfortunately, while I do have a new knitted object, I can’t display pics of it yet because it hasn’t reached its recipient. And no, it’s not the Charlie Brown sweater. I don’t knit that fast.

Hat orders have plateaued. I’m unsurprised. The wait is currently up to eight weeks. That seems to be the point at which people decide to either wait to order or look elsewhere. Can’t say as I blame anyone; that’s a long time to wait without receiving something you’ve paid for. I predict the wait will probably stay eight weeks until after Christmas. I’m being very faithful in my Jayne hat knitting to try to get that wait down.

This morning, I’m finishing up the second of two charity hats for some Aussie Browncoats, who are using proceeds from their booth at Armageddon Expo to benefit the Motor Neurone Disease Foundation of Australia. It’s an organization focused on support and care. I’m glad that I’m in a position to help.

Brownies haven’t started up yet this year. We have a bit of a dilemma. There’s a new space we can use that’s much closer to our homes, but we have to be out by 5:45. This is actually more convenient for all of us moms, but our co-leader, who doesn’t have a girl in our troop, works uptown in a fairly demanding job. This would be a longer drive for her and she’d probably have to take off early. So, do we move to a place and time that’s more convenient for the parents and probably lose our co-leader? Or do we stay where we were last year and keep her? I’ve got an e-mail in to the co-leader to see how she feels about this, and then I’ll check with the other moms. I don’t want to throw anyone to the wolves. I’m on the fence about what’s best for the troop.

I got an e-mail from my mother last night mentioning that a little girl I used to babysit when I was a teen is now a knitter (among other things). She gave me a link to the young woman’s site. I left a comment on her blog, and she found me on ravelry. Looking at her FOs, she’s quite good! I wish I could take some credit for that, but I wasn’t knitting when I was babysitting her. It reminds me of how The Fabulous Jane Prater was my eighth grade English teacher, and now we both go to knitting guild together. Small, small world.

Finally, good news! A dear, dear friend will be moving from Maryland to Charlotte later this year. That’s her on the left in the white shirt. I am beyond excited about this. She was a college roommate and the maid of honor in my wedding. As an added bonus, her husband is a good friend of my husband, so they’re also pleased. I’m totally psyched to have another friend down here.

Wait, does this mean I have to clean the house? Yikes, I better start now.

Anyway. It’s a good morning, hopefully leading to a good day. I hope you all have the same!

I don’t know what the heck I did to my upper back, but it ain’t getting any better today.

This blows.

I finally figured out how to do spirals in Photoshop. Do either of these make you think remotely of Kaylee’s umbrella? What do you think should be changed? If you have a preference, which do you like better?

Thanks, guys!

ETA: The wearwithstyle.com will not be on the finished version.

Sweater pic, finished Regia bamboo socks, and all-too-typical story that happened to me last night.