implosion explosion

everybody plays tag

2008-12-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged! Oh crap!

The rules:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are six random things about me, in the order in which they occurred to me:

1. I have done enough of these "random things about me" memes now that I think I'm starting to repeat myself. For example, the first thing I thought of (because I currently need a shower) is how I am infamous for taking really long showers. But I know I've told the internet that particular fact before, and frankly I feel I'm too young to be boring you all with repeated accounts of the same story like somebody's grandpa talking about the war. However, because of my undying affection for Amy, who tagged me, I shall endeavour to think of five more never-seen-before random things.

2. Oh, here's one. I have always had a freakishly large head. One-size-fits-all hats don't. When I was ordering my cap and gown for college graduation, the lady doing the head-measuring told me that the caps were running large and most girls were taking small or extra-small. Then she measured me and said, in that it's-nothing-to-be-embarrassed-about tone that people use at the doctor's office, "well, now, you would take a large or an extra-large." So imagine my confusion when trying on snowboard helmets a couple of weeks ago and discovering that I should order a women's small. It arrived today. It fits. In fact, it's a little loose side-to-side (thanks to the long-and-narrow cranium I inherited from my dad), leaving me with the terrifying, inescapable conclusion that my head is shrinking.

3. Staying in the cranial region, my hair is much thicker and has more texture at the nape than at the crown. I am actually pretty self-conscious about it because my hair is not really thin, but because it's fairly light and fine, light shines through at the hairline in a way that I think makes it look thin. And yet, whenever I get my hair cut, the stylist runs his or her hand through the back and gasps, "oh, it's so thick!" WTF, genetics?

4. I am awesome at driving in reverse. This is because my dad, who used to race cars and dirt bikes (like, a light motorcycle, not BMX) and is a great driver, taught me to drive backwards first. I went around and around the block, which is a horseshoe loop with three blind hills, in reverse about seventy trillion times before he finally let me drive forwards. I have occasionally been tempted to use this power for evil rather than good. I am an undefeated backwards racer.

5. I am nearly incapable of not raising my right eyebrow in pictures. It is an effort of will not to. Every official photograph I have of me features a popped right brow. My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all do the same thing. Neither of my sisters does.

6. My right leg is a little longer than my left leg, just like Rivers Cuomo. Because of this, I have scoliosis, and my legs are visibly different, muscle-wise, because my short leg works harder than my long leg. Unlike Rivers Cuomo, I would never get my short leg surgically lengthened, even if I got a brilliant album out of it. I cultivate my weirdness.

Okay, I think those are all relatively novel. I tag Jody, Madalyn, Beverly, and Michelle.

i might not be around much

2008-11-30T15:53:00.000-08:00

The season's begun.

Two hour snowboard clinic in the rain = wet, cold, happy.

Less stupid. More awesome.

2008-11-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

Awesome: I got picked by my boss at the mountain to go to a women's snowboarding clinic in Vermont. The mountain is paying for the hotel room and everything.

Stupid: My infuriatingly vague and pompous professor had scheduled two dates for our portfolio presentations for this hellish program I'm so glad I'm almost done with. He then decided we didn't need both and of course cancelled the one that doesn't coincide with the clinic.

Awesome: I never would've thought to ask him if I could present on a different date if I hadn't been encouraged to by my mom and another professor, but I did (after all, there's a football player in my program, and he got to miss class for practice all the time!), and he said yes!

Stupid: Instead of just letting me present my portfolio on the other date he had originally scheduled, my professor picked a date two weeks in advance of those two original dates. So instead of a month to finish all the papers and assignments for the entire semester and prepare my portfolio, I had two weeks.

Awesome: I am almost done with everything...

Stupid: ...except that he keeps giving me back assignments with the recommendation that I revise them. Which I wouldn't need to do if the assignment had been sufficiently explained in the first place. AND I am working on an assignment right now that he describes in the syllabus thusly: "grading plan." Yep, that's all. I don't know what the hell that means. I've googled it and I was working on something similar to what I found, but then I got a reply to my desperate-cry-for-help email to my fellow studets, and discovered that instead of a plan directed to him, the professor, I am supposed to write a plan directed to the students and parents. The semester in a microcosm: Well, if that's what you wanted, you should have said so!

And here's the capper.

Awesome: My best friend, who lives in Dallas (and whom I've seen three times since we graduated from college in 2001), is going to be in the area right after Thanksgiving.

Stupid: On the same damn day as the snowboarding clinic that I rearranged heaven and earth to attend.

Oh, wait, one more.

Awesome: The same boss that gave me this clinic opportunity also picked me for a pro form (a card with a PIN and a password that entitles you to massive discounts from the snowboard company that issued it).

Stupid: Even though I need a new board--mine's six years old--I can't afford anything because I couldn't work this semester because I was doing this ridiculous, overrated, completely disorganized and unstructured program. (Bitter much?)

yarn theory

2008-11-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

It's gonna be years before I get into that theoretical knitting stuff.

I finished a sock! Woo! Now before I cast on for the other one, I'm doing a sleeve of my Plain Jane Raglan (which, just to refresh your memory, was supposed to be my Ravelympics project, back before I become obsessed with mittens). Check out my sock and my incredibly flat feet:

snow day!

2008-10-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

...and I'm giddy as a schoolgirl! Snow before Halloween! This bodes well for the coming winter-- at least I hope! Blurry cell phone pics of my drive to school:

The school parking lot--note the snowplow piles--where I ran into another teacher and discovered school had just been canceled, which explained the odd lack of buses in the other lot:

And a church that I passed on my way home:

And because we're crazy about photos here at implosion explosion today, here's my sister's Christmas mitten taking a bath. I love how you can see the reflection of the lace curtains in the surface of the water.

And because we're also crazy about other people's photos, check out the Library of Congress's 1930s-1940s in color photo set. I do wish, however, that random jackholes were not enabled to put notes on them, like this one for example, or this one. Why aren't assy comments enough? Why mar the actual photo with an assy note?

odds and ends

2008-10-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

1. Rehire meeting at the mountain yesterday. I got to see all my snowboard-instructor buddies and plot this winter's adventures (upside) and remember what a gossip factory the place is (downside). I may be going to a women's clinic in Vermont in December and taking my AASI Level 1 in New York in January. Yay! And better yet--I'm supposed to be getting a Burton pro form, with which I can order massively discounted stuff! I love my old board and its spray-paint customization (see my avatar), but it's a little stiff and I want a new, shorter, poppier one. I'll save the old one for teaching (kids are always running over your board, grr) and rocky spring days.

2. Restarted the Herringbone mittens with some Paton's classic merino and finished the first one, with kind of a weird thumb that I refuse to fix. These will be going to my older sister for Christmas and will be the only gift I knit. (Famous last words.)

3. I am teaching all this week--from my own lesson plans, I mean; my mentor teacher has been letting (making?) me teach since the first week of school. So I'm not too nervous, but now my professors will be coming to observe me. So that's going to be a bit tough, but then, I passed my six-month observation while teaching in Japan with flying colors even though I was nervous as hell, so hopefully this won't go too badly.

4. And speaking of Japan, today is the anniversary of the day my company filed for bankruptcy protection. I'm not marking the day with anything special, just noting. It's satisfying to think about how far I've come. Then: miserable, directionless, angry, broke. Now: happier, directed, ...still broke. But the semester will end and the season will start, and I'll be riding (hopefully on a new board!) every day again.

5. Dinner's ready. Gotta go.

finding a balance

2008-10-20T19:06:00.001-07:00

I just ripped out the Herringbone mittens I had started because a) I screwed up and misread the thumb chart and b) I decided there was too much contrast between the white and dark blue yarns. Even though I like all the finished products in black and white and other high-contrast schemes on Ravelry. For some reason mine just looked bad. Possibly partly because my gauge was a little loose and it all looked sloppy. I don't know.

I forced myself to take a knitting hiatus after finishing my Endpaper mitts to try to force myself to get some schoolwork done, on the theory that I can't type if I'm knitting. You know what I ending up doing? Nothing. I know it's a cliche to say that knitting is meditative, but I got nothing done for a whole weekend. I managed to bang out a really crappy conclusion to a paper and that's it. Then I started some mittens and all of a sudden, I was back on track. Thought up a really great activity for a lesson plan, thought of a couple of sources to use for a resource anthology, etc. It's so funny to have it brought home so literally--all the jokes we knitters make about knitting to stay sane, etc. Although isn't that the definition of dependence? That you can't get by without it?

My name is Cari, and I am knit-dependent.

playing with my layout

2008-10-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

I have a wide screen, so I don't know how this all looks on a normal square screen. Is the picture (of the mug/endpaper mitts) on the top right too large? Is it all out of wack? How's it lookin'?

In other news, I have decided that, rather than taking my attention away from schoolwork, knitting helps me to concentrate. Last weekend, after I finished the bulky pom-pom hat, I made myself not knit. Instead of getting tons of work done, I got absolutely nothing done, despite my hands being free to type. I just stared slack-jawed at the laptop as I perused the internets. So now I am going to try to knit in moderation. I started these herringbone mittens (ravelink) last night and can't decide if they look totally wack (that's my word today, apparently) or not. I'll have to knit a few more rows and see, and then maybe try it with different yarns, because I think the contrast between the two colors is too great. I love all the versions I've seen on the Rav, so it must just be me.

note to self: chunky knits go fast. do these more.

2008-10-11T09:07:00.001-07:00

FO: One-day chunky beanie, loosely based on Knittingdropout's Really Warm hat (ravelry link).
Yarn: Cascade 128 tweed in cerulean.
Needles: 10 1/2 dpns, which I think they should make longer. It's pretty hard to keep all those chunky stitches on such short needles.
What I was supposed to be doing instead: writing a paper on motivation, which I am ironically unmotivated to finish.

"you look like woolly madonna"

2008-10-10T07:10:00.001-07:00

That's what I was told by a classmate yesterday, on account of my Endpapers. I'm taking it as a compliment.
I took them for a test hike last night, followed by test wine drinking.
Woolly Madonna strikes a pose:

Woolly Madonna's hard-partying lifestyle gets the better of her:

stick a fork in 'em

2008-10-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

they're done. FO: Endpaper mitts by the awesome, awesome Eunny Jang. The orange is Dale Baby Ull and the grey is Paton's Kroy sock yarn. The gargoyle mug is a high school graduation gift (yes, an eleven-year-old mug, having survived roughly eleventy-billion different apartments and houses) made by an art professor at the local university who's a friend of my mom's. (I should see if she has a website.) I can't wait til the second mitt dries so I can wear them EVERY DAY.

Oh, and you guys--it's really, really hard to take a picture of your own hands when no one else is home. I had to hit the "take" button with my chin. Next camera I own will have a self-timer.

dammit.

2008-10-07T08:42:00.001-07:00

The skein of orange leftover from my Anemois, which I am using to make some Endpaper mitts, just ran out with only six rows of colorwork to go on the second mitt. I do have another skein, but was hoping to return it for store credit. Now I'll have an almost-full skein of orange sock yarn. Well, I'll figure something out. It will come in handy sometime.

I dug through the many, many boxes of books and pre-digital photos in my parents' attic yesterday and found my 1,000 Great Knitting Motifs, and am now plotting a follow-up to the Endpapers. I'm trying to decide between a pattern that looks like a wave, bunnies, or hearts. Yeah. I'm thinking if I go with the hearts, I'm just going to be super-obnoxiously girly and use red on pink, or pink on red. Depends how much pink I have left, of course, since I'm ALMOST DONE WITH MY ENDPAPERS and ran out of orange. Dammit.

ETA It's done and blocking! Wheeeeeee!

it's mitten season

2008-10-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

When I was sixteen, my cat died five days before Christmas. Around New Year's we started looking for a new cat. (I know, so soon, we're heartless etc.--but the house seemed so empty without a cat.) Multiple pet stores and the SPCA told us "It's not kitten season." Which we thought was ridiculous the first time, but after the fourth or fifth time, you start to doubt yourself, like maybe cat fertility is seasonal after all, and you'll just have to wait until spring or something. When the cats come out of hibernation and start pollinating. Or something. Finally my older sister bought a kitten on the spur of the moment, out of pity, from a dirty, ill-kept pet shop. She was so skinny that petting her was like playing the xylophone and she had mange and all kinds of gastrointestinal issues. She had been a Christmas kitten who'd been taken from her mother too young and given to a family with small children who didn't know how to treat a pet. So that's why it wasn't kitten season. All the kittens, regardless of age, had been sold for Christmas presents. (We named her Amelia, and she is now an old lady, even if she doesn't know it.)

All that was to explain the title. Mitten season, kitten season. Yeah. Give me a break, I'm having a tough semester.

I took my mittens and my friend Candice hiking yesterday. We took a bajillion pictures of the changing leaves, some of which actually came out, and complained about school. It was awesome.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

2008-10-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

That visual squeal of excitement translates to: they're done, they're done, they're done! My Anemois are finished! I can't believe I knit something a) so complicated b) in such a short time--less than a month, even less if you subtract the two weeks in the middle when I didn't work on them at all c) during such a difficult semester d) without going insane.

(In case you're wondering, the answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE. I rock!)

The only problems I had were curbing my to-hell-with-the-pattern tendencies enough to make sure everything was done right, and my tension. I loosened up a lot as I got better at fair isle. The second mitten turned out MUCH bigger than the first, and floppy. You know how I hate floppy knits, so I was sad. Then I decided to try to shrink the mitten in the dryer to make it match the first, which is a little long but perfect width. This sounds like the beginning of a tale of woe, doesn't it? But it isn't!!! It actually worked! And, bonus, the mitten is now dry (hence the name "dryer") from its blocking and ready to wear when I go hiking with my friend Candice this evening! Cue Preston Myers: "It was like everything was falling into place... as if it were fate!"

Naturally, my camera battery just died, so I'll leave you with this tiny snippet of an Endpaper mitt, which I cast on for last night as soon as I broke the yarns at the tip of the second Anemoi thumb. (I am voracious for fair isle. Fair isle is my anti-drug. Ooh, that's good, I should've saved that for a post title.)

the headless scarfwoman

2008-10-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

Long-belated FO post.
Last summer, I completed a Tivoli. Elated, I wore it to work to show off. It stretched. It stretched like a mofo. It was embarrassing to wear. I did not admit to anyone that I'd made it, and that's saying a lot, considering I usually say, "And I made it! Don't believe me? Here's where I made a mistake!" No, it looked baggy and saggy and awful. (The yarn, by the way, was Knitpicks Shine sport. This was my second great mishap with cotton. May it be my last, for I have learned my lesson.) So, weeping, I frogged it as I knit it in a long, skinny Clapotis. (Yes, another Clapotis.) And you know what? I still don't like it. It's heavy, but yet has no substance--it's floppy and droopy and generally in need of fiber-Viagra. (This photo was preceded by significant "fluffing," as they say in show biz. And by "show biz" I mean p0rnogr@phy.) And it's slippery whereas I prefer my yarn a little more on the grabby side. I like my scarves to put up some resistance to the forces of gravity, so that they don't slide further and further into the chokehold position--not only because it's dangerous to my air supply, but because it visually shortens the neck. So unflattering. (Don't believe me? Ask Tyra Banks!)
And the best part? I still have half a Tivoli to frog! I should've made this wider, but I was afraid I wouldn't have enough! And here it is, long enough to wrap around twice and still fall past my waist. Maybe if I double-stranded it and knit at a pretty tight gauge, I could get it up (heh) to my desired level of sturdiness...

In other news, my Anemois are so close to being finished! I just have to close the top of the second mitten and then do the thumb. Yay! Warm, insanely-bright mittens just in time for October! And in other other news, I've decided I need to get back to bringing my camera with me everywhere. Taking the back way to school today, I crested a hill and saw the most beautiful sunrise-on-valley-fog, complete with fall foliage and whatnot, and I thought how very, very important it was to share that with my blog readers, probably with a significant portion of it blocked by my big head making a silly face.

new! improved! now with 75% less sinus infection!

2008-09-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

FO: finals socks
Yarn: Mama E's C*EYE*ber Fiber in colorway Mermaids
Needles: size 1 dpns

I wish the ankle/leg area were tighter on these, but there's no way I'm going back to fix them now. Next time I'll know to cast on fewer stitches.

In other news, I was sick, but now am feeling better. This post is riveting, I know.

so it's just plain anemois, then?

2008-09-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Awww, you guys have no flava! All right then, I'll get over it and call them Anemois. I'm taking a little break from them right now though. I did the cuff of the second mitten and then decided I really need something I can knit while I read (so, not the Anemois) and something that's portable (so, not the Plain Jane raglan). No, of course I didn't make this decision while standing in a yarn store fondling delicious purple sock yarn. Why do you ask? Did Steve tell you that? Well, what kind of a rap name is Steve?

a mitten, a vote, and some advice

2008-09-16T09:40:00.001-07:00

Since apparently the Anemoi are the wind gods, I thought it would be more appropriate for my color scheme to call these mittens... what ever the fire god(s) are called. I thought about it (i.e., I googled) and remembered (a.k.a. found on a website) that the Greek god of fire and metalworking is Hephaestus. So I uploaded some photos to flickr, all, "check out my hephaestus mittens!" and then I read the wikipedia page about him. It was this part in particular: "...Athena refused a union with Hephaestus, and that when he tried to rape her she disappeared from the bed. Hephaestus ejaculated on the earth, impregnating Gaia," that gave me pause. I just don't want to name my mittens after a rapist, you know? So--Hestia mittens? Prometheus mittens? Pele mittens? Get over it and just call 'em Anemoi mittens?

And now for the advice segment of our blog post. It has been noted by many before me that drinking and stranded colorwork do not mix. However, I thought I could just have one casual lunchtime beer and keep knitting. I did keep knitting. I did not keep knitting according to the chart. Which, with stranded colorwork, is kind of essential. In fact, it's kind of the point. I didn't frog because a) it's my first colorwork and I like that you can see the learning curve, b) I kind of just want to get them done and c) the whole thing is supposed to be stress relief for my busy semester, so I'm not going to make it more stressful by insisting that it be perfect. It's actually pretty hilarious.

p.s. I've decided the aged picnic table on my parents' deck is the perfect backdrop for knitting photos. It's a neutral shade, but not boring, doesn't have to be set up (like draping a table in a beige tablecloth would, for example), it's in natural light, and it's right out the back door.

flickr meme, or, playing with big huge labs to avoid homework

2008-09-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

(edited to, you know, ADD THE ACTUAL PICTURE. GOD.)

Saw this at my knitting and me, whose Deep V Argyle Vest I admired on Ravelry:

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Cari
2. What is your favorite food? pizza (don't know why this photo was tagged pizza, but liked it)
3. What high school did you go to? Pocono Mountain
4. What is your favorite color? red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? David Benedek
6. Favorite drink? Yuengling (photo of cavelike area on brewery tour)
7. Dream vacation? Chile
8. Favorite dessert? cheesecake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? teacher
10. What do you love most in life? snowboarding
11. One Word to describe you. dreadnought
12. Your flickr name. safety dance

Here's the links, so you can give props to the OPs (the last one is especially worth checking out, I think, since the key to the graph is cut off).

1. Cari Pizzalolo, 2. Just a Perfect Day, 3. DWG - Pocono Mountains (1), 4. Autumn walk, 5. n40106817_30265402_5986, 6. D. G. Yuengling & Son Brewery Tour Caves - Pottsville, PA, 7. Lago Pehoe Panorama, 8. cheesecake for Lianna!, 9. Teacher in environment, 10. Face Shots, 11. Clipper Ship "Dreadnought", 12. Song Chart

i heart eunny jang

2008-09-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

This pattern is, as I hoped, keeping me sane during this difficult semester. Just one row and I feel better. I'm about one-third of the way done, I estimate, with the first mitten, which means I'm one-sixth of the way done with the pair (relax! here at implosionexplosion, the math is done for you!).

Also pictured: my new love, my Skullcandy headphones purchased in anticipation of the snowboard season (ipod earbuds tend to fall out), which will look totally awesome with the new jacket I scored a couple weeks ago for $62. Yay summer sales!

I can't wait to finish this and walk around wearing just one mitten yelling, "HEY! I totally made this!" Because that's what I'm going to do.

I lied!

2008-09-05T07:18:00.001-07:00

I'm posting again almost immediately! Here's the corrugated ribbing of my first Anemoi--so far, so good! I can't decide if this is an insane, eye-bleedingly ugly color scheme or awesome and bright and fiery. (The orange is not quite right on the screen, but the red is.) I'm just going to push onward and see how it looks when I get into the swirly pattern.

three knitting-related items, no pictures, very dull title

2008-09-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

1. My mom is working on prayer shawls with some other ladies from her church. While she was teaching some of them to knit, she put her own shawl down for a minute, whereupon another lady picked up it and said, "Oh, what are you working on?" and started knitting! On her project! My mom's reaction, to me: "I mean, that's like using someone else's toothbrush!" Awesome, and true.
2. I know I said I was tired of colors and wanted to work on something natural and brown for a while, but I have lost momentum on the Plain Jane Raglan and, in the midst of school-related frustration this afternoon, decided to knit some Anemoi mittens. My theory on this is that they will drive me crazy and give me something else to focus my frustration on, so that I don't go crazy from school.
3. I went back to the notorious LYS that I said I wouldn't go back to. Well, I continue to be unimpressed. I was holding some Trekking XXL Pro Natura and said to the shop lady, "do you have any sock yarn--" and meant to continue "--that's less expensive, and comes in a wider variety of solid colors" but she interrupted, "that's sock yarn!" I continued with my sentence, and she pointed me over to the Dale section, which I had missed. I looked at the babyish colors of Baby Ull (well named!) and fumed for a minute, because... doesn't it say "sock yarn" right on the label? Did she think I couldn't read? I'm sure she gets lots of idiotic questions, but couldn't she let me finish?

So yeah, next post (so... next month, or maybe next year) I should have some pictures of the almost-finished-yoke of the PJR and my nascent Anemois, which I've already ignored some instructions on--I cast on long-tail instead of tubular, because I'm a rebel!

Oh, and I began student-teaching. Seventh grade geography, what what! On the first day of school, my mentor teacher was telling the kids what to expect this year and said we're going out to the swamp and we'll all get muddy and someone will probably fall in. Probably him, or maybe me. And this kid in the front room looks at me and says, "Wear heels."

the miracle of blocking

2008-08-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

nataliedee.com

In other news, I have finished my finals socks (although I have yet to take an FO photo), and I have cast on for a sweater. And no, I still have not finished the horrible acrylic Tomten Jacket I was making for my best friend's daughter. And no, I probably never will. And no, it's not because EZ is not a genius. It is because horrible yarn is still horrible whether or not it is free, and whether or not the recipient is a small child who wouldn't know cashmere from snotty Kleenex.

The sweater is the aforementioned copycat raglan--the Plain Jane, I'm going to call it, since I'm using no-nonsense sturdy brown Fisherman's Wool. I have to say, the FW smells fantastic. Very rustic and natural and sheep-y. It feels good, too. If you like rustic things, I mean.

And in other other news, I somehow went to the outlet mall today, during some kind of out-of-body experience (because I would never go shopping on purpose when I'm supposed to be saving money!), and bought three sweaters. THREE sweaters. And I already own upwards of twenty sweaters. And I am knitting another. And yet, sweaters.... mmmmm. I love them. I miss them all summer. Well, I don't miss the cotton ones, because I'm too busy wearing them. But I wear one nearly every day, all winter. I mean, I'm back in the northeast now. I need sweaters! Right? It's not MY fault I live near a GAP outlet. And a J Crew outlet. And Ann Taylor and Banana Republic outlets. That, despite the fact that I live about 2 miles from my work, somehow all manage to be right there, between home and work. It's clearly my parents' fault for buying this house. So when they come home (they're out of town) and they notice the addition of two more summer sweaters to the rotation (in addition to the other, warmer sweater I bought today, and oh crap... the one I bought on a whim online yesterday in a sudden hope that I might become a turtleneck person), I'll tell them. Yes, I own HOLY CRAP I JUST COUNTED THIRTY-EIGHT SWEATERS plus the online turtleneck makes thirty-nine sweet jebus I think I have a problem.

I'm going to go lie down with a cold compress over my eyes. Well, either a cold compress or my new hunter's-orange v-neck. Whatever.

kick out the jams

2008-07-23T10:48:00.001-07:00

People, we have strawberry jam. Repeat, we have HOMEMADE strawberry jam. Twenty-seven jars of it. Beautiful, beautiful jam.

I was at work and didn't get to help, but my sister Katie and my mom did some serious jamification, and I will now be reaping all the benefit. PB&J every day. Awwww yeah.

indecision! help.

2008-07-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

So I went to the craft store to get the summer Interweave because I was lusting for the Apres-surf Hoodie (which some people on ravelry keep hilariously insisting must be made of cotton, because wool at the beach just doesn't make sense, as if one can't decide that it's going to be one's apres-snowboard or apres-apple-picking or apres-cherry-blossom-party hoodie instead), and I ended up bringing home some plain old Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool in Nature's Brown with me. Because in addition to lace, I also am suddenly really into natural (or at least natural-looking) wool and simplicity and am craving a simple raglan that, once knit, I don't know how I ever lived without. I blame Elizabeth Zimmerman. Well, also, I must blame the yarn choices in my last two projects--my dad's Illini socks in very, very contrasting orange and navy and my finals socks in very, very bright pink and green. Good colors, lovely yarn, but damn, my eyes are tired. I want some lovely natural brown.

Anyway, I am now torn between two basic concepts for my plain jane brown sweater. Either something like Knitty's BPT (possibly with buttons instead, since I feel about zipper insertion the same way I feel about seaming, i.e., very very negatively) or something like knittingschooldropout's scottish tweed raglan with deep green or dark red buttons.

Actually, the more I look at the Scottish tweed raglan, the more I remember how much I liked it when I first saw it and how I dreamed of a life we could have together. Snuggling in front of the fire, hiking in the mountains, the two of us, my sweater and me... It's love, it really is. This sweater could be the one! Time to break up with my dad's stalled Sweater of Misery so I can free up my Addis. Forward to a brighter yet more natural-colored future!

adventures in lifeguarding

2008-07-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

Among the many things you learn as a lifeguard, number one is, you have a better body than you think you do. Seriously. Look around you. Damn, girl. Next to these people--especially the lady with the hairy chest--you are SMOKIN'. Have you been working out? Number two is, any operation that orders the lifeguard swimsuit without the built-in shelf bra because it's a few dollars cheaper is an operation owned and operated by men. And number three is, people really do not appreciate help. The Good Samaritan was lucky he didn't get punched. People would apparently rather drown than suffer the humiliation of being helped by a lifeguard. My sister Katie is working with me this summer and we've been hoarding stories of the ridiculous things people (including us) say and do. Here's a choice selection.

Katie: Sir, I'd like you to stay behind the 5-foot line. Man: What? I can swim! All Puerto Ricans can swim! We surrounded by water!
A man sits down on the back of an inner tube, rather than in the hole in the middle. Me: Sir, can you slide forward into the hole, please? Man: Ooooh, I think she comin' on to me!
Someone vomits on the wave pool beach; lifeguards blow whistles and clear the pool. Me: Clear the pool, please! Stand up and walk out of the wave pool! Ma'am! Stand up and walk out of the wave pool. [Awkward pause as I realize she is still sitting in the water because she only has one leg.]
Weird kid: This pool is soft! And comfortable!
Different kid: Hey, is it true that if a lady is having a baby and she let go of it in the water, that it's gonna be a good swimmer? Me: It's certainly possible...
Man with thick German accent at the top of a waterslide: Is it compulsory to scream all the way down? Me: Well, it's not compulsory, but it is strongly encouraged.

i'm a hot new topic. i'm all the rage.

2008-06-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

Check it out, I'm (for now) a hot new knitting topic on Craftster. My dialogue-spurring post:

It will be a cold day in hell before I pay to knit in your shop.
So I moved recently, and I just checked out my new LYS, and I have to say I'm disappointed. The shop employees were perfectly nice and the selection was fine, if small. But when I asked if they knew of any local knitting groups, I was told that they have a group that meets twice a week, in the shop, and it's $5 per person.

@#$^#$^^#$#$^#$$%^$^!!!!

I understand that a business has a perfect right to charge anything they please for the use of their premises, and they did mention that help is available during those times, but... but... Maybe I'm just spoiled, coming from an LYS that gave help anytime for free and allowed my Stitch n Bitch (which met in a coffee shop, which only charged us for our food and let us sit there as long as we liked) to post fliers, and the employee who came to our SNB to give out business cards. It's perfectly legal and acceptable business, yes, but it's not exactly the open-arms customer service response you'd expect from a brick-and-mortar shop in the dot-com age. I think I'll be sticking to knitpicks and ebay and looking elsewhere for my IRL knit community (because as awesome as craftster and the blogiverse are, I still want one).

Thoughts?

tuition = totally worth it

2008-05-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

Because this is what I did in class today.

No, seriously.

Okay, it's really cool and all, but I am so glad to be done with this class. I did learn a lot in it--I learned that it's really cruel to give vague assignments and zero feedback. (Me-ow!) Oh, and I learned that I like green tea with pomegranate. (Yum.)

In other news, tomorrow is the anniversary of the day I left for Japan. My Japaniversary, if you will. I know I will, because I love nicknames. I'm not sure what I'll do to celebrate--hunt the local grocery stores for green tea ice cream? clean something? organize something? engineer something? I don't know, I'll have to figure it out. Now I can no longer bitch and moan inwardly about how I'm not even supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be in Japan. Which means a) closure, and b) I'll have to find something else to bitch and moan inwardly about. Fear not; I'll find something.

[eta: I just realized it's really hard to read the speech bubbles in my little comic. It says "I know I appear normal, but.../Finals week has made me caraaaaazy!/First I banged my head against the wall until it looked like this/and then I temporarily lost my eyesight./Then I came up with a solution!/I GLUED ON ANOTHER FACE."]

it's amazing what you can accomplish via procrastination

2008-05-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

This is my finals knitting, begun while writing a paper and worked straight through another one and two exams. I have another exam tomorrow morning, for my least favorite class, and then for some bizarre reason my Wednesday night class is meeting even though we already presented our final projects last week. I really don't want to go, but I'm afraid if I don't, it'll turn out to be something really important, and since that professor is totally quirky and unpredictable (I would mean that in a good way except that she's grading me, so I'd like to be able to count on something), that could very well happen. So I am trying to focus on the subject matter of my studying for this last final (not actually redundant, but sounds like) and not the towering rage I feel toward the professor, who is a lazy slob (and when I say lazy, I mean lazy--he comes to class late EVERY day, and then takes ten more minutes to shuffle his papers and make small talk before he actually begins teaching. He also makes inappropriate remarks about his wife, women, Jews, nuns, etc., with the occasional Democratic-primary-related diatribe thrown in--he's for Hillary, which shows his incredible broadness of mind given his remarks about women and their ridiculous ways--and spells new/foreign names/words instead of writing them on the board, because he's too lazy to get up. And he spells them WRONG. Ratemyprofessor, here I come.), and just get this all over with, so my summer can start. Wow, longest parenthetical EVAR.

I got a nice compliment yesterday. My teaching professor said he thought I would be a good teacher because "you've got that creativity." I never handle compliments well, but I really didn't know what to say. I certainly have never attempted to show creativity in that class. I was mostly thinking about how much I had to learn (most of the other students are teachers already) and hoping everyone didn't think I talked too much. So that was really nice. This sock is entirely creativity, by the way. No pattern, no math, just estimates and tryings-on. I did cast on too many stitches the first time and had to start over, but this yarn is so pretty and soft, and I'm avoiding work so hard, that I don't care. It's Mama-e's C*Eye*ber Fiber in Mermaid, and it's spectacular.

christmas in april

2008-04-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

That's right, I finally finished my Christmas knitting. Jaywalkers for my dad in Scout's Illini colorway. He said they were comfortable and warm and that he will actually wear them--on select occasions. (I should have thought before I bought the yarn how very unlikely it was that a guy who owns only beige, brown, and black socks would enjoy these, alma mater notwithstanding.) He actually paused in the midst of a busy Saturday of gardening and deck-power-washing to try these on for me, so I can't complain about the quality of the photographs. Can't pose while time's a-wasting. (The picture on the right was his idea--GIANT FEET--and I must say, I love the effect of the giant fern-slash-tribal-headdress. That plant has been the punchline in many a family photo.)

I am making a resolution now. Mark my words: I will knit a sock pattern OTHER THAN JAYWALKERS. It's going to happen. (Oh, sure, I made those Log Cabin socks, but those are slipper-socks. They don't count.)

hello internet, i am 29

2008-04-24T10:58:00.001-07:00

Milestones deserve random lists.

A year ago this month:

1. I turned 28. (Duh.)

2. I had just said goodbye to my life in ABQ and thus,

3. I was trying to get used to a much more bland diet.

4. I was staying with my parents for the month of April because

5. I was leaving for Japan on May 8th.

6. I got to take the train into NYC to get my visa taken care of at the Japanese consulate.

7. I was looking forward to riding trains every day.

8. I was looking doubtfully at my scanty "professional" wardrobe and wondering how I would survive a year in it.

9. I had no plan for my life beyond my year(s) in Japan.

10. And I liked it that way.

This year, this month:

1. I turned 29. (Like the title says.)

2. I am eager for May 8th, so I can stop thinking about how I'm still supposed to be in Japan.

3. I finally got reimbursed by the Japanese government for my unpaid back wages (well, 80% of it anyway, minus another 20% for overseas remittance tax, since I couldn't leave a bank account open in Japan, being a foreigner and all).

4. The money should cover my summer and fall tuition,

5. Since I am now a grad student (again), working on an M.Ed. Because you can never have too many master's degrees.

6. I said goodbye to the awesomest job ever (at least until next winter).

7. I trained for my summer job--lifeguarding! I rescued a 250-lb. man who was lying on the bottom of the deep end (9'5", you guys!)--THREE TIMES! So I got a "special facilities" license and will totally guard the wave pool. I rock.

8. I am finally get used to my current situation and taking a deep breath. Which means I'm knitting again. Today I finished up an Everlasting Bagstopper and am preparing to cast on a Tomten Jacket with that red skein there. (It's Red Heart, but what does a 4-year-old know from yarn quality? It's machine-washable, and it was free!)

9. I miss my overseas friends like mad. Yesterday I was IM-ing with my roommate from Japan, now back in England, about how we plan to open a mad hip tea-shop in her hometown in Cornwall. (...Well, one can dream.)

10. I am gearing up for the end of the semester. Finally.

This month next year:

1. I will turn 30. (Duh. Again.)

2. I will be student-teaching. Scary. But also exciting.

3. I will be finishing my degree and looking for a job. I have no idea where--I have been toying with the idea of staying in the area, for a few years anyway. But who knows. I'd kind of like to move north and live in a quirky New England town with a craggy, mossy landscape and a great LYS. Or work on an Army base in Germany.

4. I will (hopefully) be a certified AASI Level I snowboard instructor. I could have taken the course this year, but decided to spend my dues money on new bindings instead.

5. I will (hopefully) have converted my parents to eating food that has actual flavor. I mean, nobody loves a nice bland pita chip like I do, but variety is the spice of life, no? (...Well, one can dream.)

bad blogger. no cookie.

2008-02-13T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well, actually, I'm totally eating a cookie RIGHT NOW. Despite not having posted, or read anyone else's blog, for two months. My current excuse is my insane schedule: I work four days a week as a snowboard instructor (hello, dream job, my name is Cari, let's make love.), am taking twelve credits at my mom's university (not that she owns the place, just that she teaches there) toward my M.Ed., and have a ten-hour-a-week graduate assistantship at said university, working for some of my mom's lovely colleagues who totally intimidate me for two reasons: a) they are friends of my mom's and thus must not be let down, and b) they are middle-aged second-wave feminists, who may wear twee cat-motif brooches on their sweaters but are made of steel and will totally cut a bitch. (They are really nice though, and however demanding they may be, they always say thank you.) So my life is full to overflowing right now and the only thing keeping me going is the aforementioned dream job, which pays peanuts in actual hard currency but big bucks in all the intangible, meaningful ways. Naturally this means that I am getting enormous amounts of exercise and following it up with healthy doses of beer, which then takes a toll on the homework situation, which then takes a toll on the sleep situation, but I figure I can sleep when the snow melts.

Yesterday's all-day dumping made for a rare occasion in PA--actual powder. After my last lesson of the day I went free riding with a revolving assortment of fellow instructors (all of whom, well, most of whom are pretty fucking awesome) for four hours. Don't tell the rangers, but we poached some closed trails--it was the kind of indescribably great experience that makes me speak in all four-letter words because there's just nothing else strong enough. The phrase "better than sex" was tossed around. Several fucking times. Afterwards I could not stop smiling. (Well, not until I got home and had to shovel the driveway, since my dad is out of town and I dislike and distrust the snowblower.) I had to bust out the facemask, which is why you may not recognize me from the little cell-phone portrait there.

I don't have much time to knit, sadly. I'm still working on my dad's Christmas socks but I needed a break, so I started a Quant with some heinous self-striping Paton's Merino that I liked on the skein and now am hating. I'll have to get some pictures up and get some feedback, but the combination of the colors and the shortness of the stripes and the entrelac is just... no.

think responsibly

2007-12-10T21:05:00.001-08:00

So in the aforementioned care package from Jessa, I received the following:

Rap Snacks. (You know you want to click on it, don't lie to yourself. Don't skip the intro.)

Acting responsibly is one thing, but what the hell is thinking responsibly? I mean, you don't have to be responsible for your thoughts if you don't act on them. You just have to keep the crazy ones in your head. Like, "I wonder if you could put out a fire with ice cream." Okay, great. Interesting thought. Just don't test your theory. Or, "I wonder how many times I could poke the guy in the line in front of me before he totally snaps." Curiouser and curiouser. Let's just imagine it, though. "I wonder how these chips taste." Hmm, interesting question. Let's keep it in the realm of supposition, though. But just because I want to keep them forever and forever. Rap Snacks is love.

mystical math?

2007-12-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

Someone found my blog by googling "mystical math." Isn't that a contradiction in terms? I mean, you can worship numbers or the Five Perfect Solids if you want, but really, math is not mystical, you are. Other recent hits include "mom foot," "cool knots tied with one hand," "Japan open container laws," "random facts about the Home Depot" (????), and my favorite, "hipster dinosaur robot."

I've encountered a little problem with my EZ saddle-shouldered sweater for Dad. That problem, for once, is not gauge. My gauge is PERFECT. What is not perfect is... my laziness. I asked my mom how big my dad's chest was, and she estimated 36" and said that a 40" sweater would be fine. It's true, he's not a big guy, but my chest is bigger than that. I should've asked her to measure (and him to pretend to forget... oh, who am I kidding, this cat is 40 miles down the road from the bag and hasn't stopped running yet), because when I finally broke down (under the desperate, consuming need to know--did I do all this stockinette for nothing?) and asked him if I could measure his chest, I came up with the horrifying, terrible number of...

42.

That is two inches LARGER than my perfectly-on-gauge(-for-once) sweater, people! I may be able to block it bigger, but how much bigger? I don't want my dad walking around looking like a sweater girl! It's got to have some ease! Why did I do this to myself? WHY?

So I've put the sweater aside for now, to be rethought later, perhaps for Father's Day '09, and started on a pair of socks with some of Scout's Illini sock yarn (click on it, her photos are much better than mine!). I bought it ages ago, with my dad in mind (he and my mom met at the University of Illinois, 40 years ago this week, actually), but hadn't used it because based on what I've seen in the laundry room, all of his current socks appear to be black or dark brown. This may be an interesting experiment: will my dad actually wear anything I knit for him?

p.s. I got MAIL today: a care package from my best friend! Which she meant to send me while I was still in Japan, but hey! Snail mail is love, whenever it arrives! Included was Craft magazine, cover story Japan Style. Awww. I also got a ton of actual, frameable, non-jpg photographs and some candy corn. Which is already gone, unfortunately, or it would've made a nice addition to my very orangey photo. Check out her new baby decked out in his care-package-from-Japan bib, you guys!

tradition, hoooo!

2007-11-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

My Thanksgiving was pretty great. It involved my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and three cousins as well as ye olde nuclear family; my grandmother told us the story of how she and my grandfather met (the long version... again...), and my uncle and the boy cousin showed us all how you can make an awesome soda-pop volcano with Diet Coke and Mentos (seriously, try it--our best one shot up 7 feet!), and I introduced the whole family to Japanese television personality Hard Gay. The last of which resulted in our gathering around my uncle's laptop watching youtube clips for over an hour and then ending all of our sentences with "HOOOOOO!" for probably another hour. I really hope that becomes a tradition.

An already-established tradition is that of me starting my Christmas knitting in July or August, going like gangbusters, and then stopping for some reason and waking up mid-November realizing how little time I have left. This year it's a sweater for my father, an Elizabeth Zimmerman saddle-shoulder in Cascade 220, sort of a slate-grey color. And this year's reason for stopping was the aforementioned disaster. For almost two months before I left Japan, we were pretty sure that the end was near, but hoped that it wasn't. Our mid-September paychecks were late, and I just gave up, because I didn't want to knit the fear and indecision and general negativity into my father's sweater. Well, really, I was too depressed to have the energy to keep working on it. So I have barely touched it in almost two months, and it's just this torso-tube, and I can't find more than two size 7 dpns to start a sleeve, and I braved the Christmas-shopper traffic today to go buy some with my dwindling funds, and the craft store didn't have any. I mean, come on! Are they unaware that I've just been through an international unemployment incident? Do they know it's Christmastime at all? Won't somebody please think of the children?

So I've rooted around and somehow come up with a couple of fives and a couple of sixes, and I'm going to cast on with those and see if they'll get me through the ribbing, after which I can switch to a hat-sized circ.

Hope your Thanksgivings were as full of joy, food, sugar explosions, and hip-thrusting as mine was.

let's do this organized

2007-11-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the nice supportive comments, guys. It means that much more since I haven't been able to keep up with your blogs/lives since I've been computerless.

Today and yesterday I tried to ignore my jet lag and get some things done. I exchanged money, which took an hour in my small-town branch bank, because they don't do it that often and had forgotten how, and because Linda (the teller, whom the whole town apparently knows) had to chat to everyone who came in, and because everyone who worked there had to come over and see what yen look like (for which I really can't blame them because foreign currency is pretty interesting). I drove around alternately soaking in the fall colors and being outraged at the pace of development ("Oh my GOD, the LAST time I was here this was all TREEEEES!"). And today I am alternately IM-ing my old roommate, who is still in Japan, and freaking out over grad school applications. Later, if I ever get out of my pajamas, I'm going to visit some temp agencies in an attempt to alleviate my extreme poverty.

But hey! What I don't have is poverty of experience! Today's photo is a subway station (obviously). Totally original observation: Japan is the cleanest, most organized place I have ever been. You can see your reflection in the floors of the subway cars. I went to one of those horrible big-box discount stores with my mother to stock up for Thanksgiving and found myself wishing it were as clean as a Japanese subway station bathroom. And that it smelled as good. I can't believe we're going to eat food we bought there. The little feet in the picture are where you line up. The dark bar on the ground is where the door opens, every time. It's so orderly. Unlike, say, CHICAGO O'HARE.

It is totally weird having culture shock in your own country. (Hey, check me out, I'm going to be one of those people who, for the rest of their lives, is like, "Well, when I was in JAPAN...")

this is the ceiling

2007-11-15T04:23:00.000-08:00

in the main area of Terminal 1 at Narita Airport, at which I stared for hours on Monday. I took the midnight bus to Tokyo (it actually leaves at 10:50pm but "midnight bus to Tokyo" sounds so much better) the night before, arrived at the airport at 6:30, and had to wait til 11:45 for United's check-in counters to open before I could ditch my overweight suitcases. Literally overweight, I mean, I had to pay extra. So I had plenty of time to watch the shadows on the beams change and contemplate the disaster and my future. I'd been trying not to think about either. But now I have to. I'm at my parents' house in PA, a jet-lagged charity case.

But at least I got six months.

oh hey, don't I have a blog?

2007-10-08T04:06:00.000-07:00

...but not a computer? It's been back in PA at my parents' house for two weeks now while HP avoids our calls. I've never been less impressed with a company's customer service.

It's a shame to whine while I'm doing something as exciting as living in a foreign country but without my computer to record everything, how will I remember anything? And I don't care if this is cheesy--I want to share my freakin' experiences with my family! Nothing counts if they don't know about it. Plus it would be nice to be able to keep up with their lives, too.

Anyhoo,

have some rice.

Forget me not, for I remember you, although it may not seem like it because HP is a slightly unhelpful company

2007-09-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

My computer is totally, completely, stone-cold dead.

I bought it in March. It started having problems in May.

I'm furious.

I have to send it back to the U.S. on my own dime, wait for them to fix (or, given how things have gone so far, "fix") it and ship it to my parents, and then wait for them to ship it to me. The frustration is threatening my health, seriously, so I just try not to think about it. If it weren't for my amazing email-capable Japanese cell phone and my awesome technologically generous roommate Amy (whose laptop I'm currently using), I would have no communication with the outside world whatsoever. I'm in a country where I can't even read street signs, so you can imagine how completely out-of-touch I feel. It would be different if this were back in the day, before email and blogs and craftster and tvlinks, and if I were thus mentally hardened for the ordeal, but it's not, and everyone around me is so freakin' connected, and asking if I've heard about some senator who did something, as if I could possibly know any news that isn't part of Sendai's only English-language news broadcast...

oh, I know, poor, poor me. There are starving children in Africa who don't even have computers. But imagine! Seriously! Imagine running your life without a computer for three months! Now imagine doing it from a foreign country! Where the internet cafe has for some reason blocked some functions of web-based email such as the REPLY and NEW MESSAGE functions which are the MOST IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS. For fuck's sake.

Now if you haven't gone into a dark room to lie down after that horrific scenario has played itself out in your mind, I'd like to apologize for not answering your email/checking your blog/noticing your death.

On the upside, I taught someone the words "brewery" and "distillery" today, and I finally finished my Tivoli. Pictures... someday, if I don't suddenly become a Luddite out of conviction rather than necessity.

wish you were here

2007-08-02T03:52:00.001-07:00

legs on beach
Originally uploaded by safety dance.

Wish I were still there, too.
Nobiru Beach

three things that caused me nearly to wet myself

2007-07-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

1. Someone found my blog by googling "dance song that goes-doo doo doo doo doo".
2. I've been perusing engrish.com this evening and wish I could find this hat. It would be a fantastic Father's Day gift.

3. And, so as not to go photo-less into that good night, some Engrish I saw on the street:

just me?

2007-07-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

...or is it really rude to ask someone if they regret getting a tattoo? Like, in casual conversation? I mean, you would never ask someone if they regretted having a baby or not going to college. Or, say, gaining weight or wearing Uggs. I'm just sayin.

akiu

2007-07-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

hot hot heat

2007-07-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I went to an onsen with my roommate Amy today. It was a co-ed onsen, but because the main onsen was men-only until 7 pm, the only other people there were women and a little boy who was really not happy to be there. There were both indoor and outdoor onsens, so of course we chose the outdoor, mostly because we're both northern girls and, hey, did you know, hot springs are REALLY hot? It was really pleasant to sit on the rocks with your feet in the onsen as it started cooling down in the evening, though.

It was really unpleasant to get out of the onsen and walk down to the bus stop and wait for the bus in the rain, however. Then as we tried not to fall asleep on the bus we realized neither of us had eaten since last night. We got off the bus, onto the subway, and finally to the yakitori (aka kebab, aka food on a stick) place right by our subway stop.

This is where it gets fun, because two men and a woman were having a big night out and were enjoying watching us eat our baked potato with chopsticks, and one of the men came over to talk to us, and he asked what country we were from. Amy said she was English, and the man said, "Ah. [gesturing to his friends] We are Japanese!" and everybody cracked up. I'm still laughing. They bought us some ginger and wasabe yakitori, clearly anticipating the eye-watering and mouth-fanning, but even Amy didn't think it was that hot. Although our sinuses are quite clear now. As we left, one of them yelled, "next time!" which has caused Amy and I to start a "he LIKES you" war.

Pictures soon--er, not of the onsen experience, but of the beautiful town the onsen was in.

It felt like I was on a boat

2007-07-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I felt the earthquakes yesterday. The first one was during my first lesson of the day and lasted maybe fifteen seconds. When it stopped, we just continued the lesson like nothing had happened, although I was totally thrown off my game (and I assume the students were much more so--after all, on this whole continent I have only myself to worry about). All the local news is in Japanese, of course, so we had to wait for the Western world to wake up and report on it before we knew what was going on. Just as we were going to bed, we felt the second quake. I was lying in bed and watching a downloaded episode of Heroes, and the shaking was gentler than earlier but it went on for more than a minute. When it finally subsided I got up and consulted with my shaken (heh) roommates. We checked the internet for updates, but even forty-five minutes later there was still nothing; we tried finding some coverage in English on TV, but to no avail, so we gave up and watched a few minutes of a learning-English game show. The contestants had to fill in the blanks of a English sentence after listening to three or four native speakers say it. It was pretty amusing, but not nearly as good as Japanese commercials, of which my current favorite is the Kirin ad featuring "We Will Rock You."

(We're far enough from the epicenter that there doesn't seem to have been any local damage, but there are thousands homeless in Niigata. I'm trying to figure out how to donate or volunteer to the Japan Red Cross, but so far haven't found it.)

I don't knit lace on the train

2007-07-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

Not since I had to frog the beginnings of my Orangina. Don't ask me why, but suddenly, about two years after the Orangina craze, I suddenly, out of the blue, decided to knit it the other day, bought the pattern, and found some Japanese yarn. I don't know what fiber it is exactly--it says 70% something, 30% something else, and neither things are the characters for cotton or wool... It says SoftRamie on the front of the ball band, and I'm fairly sure the 70% is the katakana for acrylic. But it feels nice enough and it was on sale, so I went with it.

So, my dad taught me to use chopsticks when I was a little girl. I promptly forgot and devised my own way. He has since told me I do it wrong, but I'm so good at doing it my way that I didn't have patience for learning to do it all over again the right way. Well, the other day I went out for soba with some friends. It's pretty cool, actually--you order using a vending machine outside on the sidewalk and it gives you a ticket with your order on it, and then you go inside and hand the guy behind the counter your ticket and tell him what kind of noodles you want (soba or udon), and in a few minutes you've got yourself bowl o' noodles. It's a standing restaurant, too--no chairs. So anyway, I'm standing there trying to eat noodles with chopsticks, which involves slurping, which is totally polite in Japan but which I still cannot force myself to do, and which is actually really difficult to do anyway, without making the noodles fly all around and fling sauce on your shirt, when these three late-middle-aged businessmen come in and stand next to us and start... observing how I eat my noodles. They found it very amusing. I wasn't terribly embarrassed or anything but it made it that much harder to eat with grace, knowing that I was being watched. So then one of them tapped my shoulder and said "wrong," while pointing to my chopsticks. Disconcerted, I said, "...oh?" (Brilliant international communication! We will reach understanding!) He grabbed a pair of chopsticks and said, "sample, sample," showing me by example how to hold it so that the lower chopstick stays still and the upper chopstick moves (just like my very American dad does it). Well, it's hard to overcome twenty years of chopsticking, so I made some mistakes and got some more sauce (which is clear, but also oily, so it still leaves a stain) on my shirt. But at least I provided them with some amusement. I'm sure they have traveled for business to the U.S. or had to interact with foreigners for business, or they wouldn't have remembered (from their school days) enough English to talk to me, therefore they must've been the embarrassed party at some point, so I didn't mind so much, but sometimes it's hard to tell when people are laughing with you and when they're laughing at you, so it wasn't exactly fun.

My friends suggested that next time I should just shake my head and claim, "Korean style!"

Never mind

2007-07-01T09:46:00.001-07:00

no, really...

I mean, thanks, Blogger, for realizing that I'm in Japan and maybe I read Japanese, but hey, maybe I don't, and you know, maybe I'd like to DELETE A POST you know, and I can't figure out how the hell to do that. But whatevs, that's cool, don't even worry about it. Peace.

p.s. AND ANOTHER THING!! I can't change my template. Grrr.

I knit on the train

2007-07-01T09:22:00.001-07:00

jaywalkers numero tres
Originally uploaded by safety dance.

My first Japanese FO: another pair of jays.

pattern the ubiquitous Jaywalkers

yarn contest prize from strangelittlemama--she dyed it herself! Thanks, Carole!

needles size 1 Susan Bates dpns

mods made the legs shorter because I didn't know how much yarn I had--turns out there was plenty

started May 6, 2007, in the US of A
finished July 1, 2007, in the land of the rising sun.

yeah, I crossed that bridge

2007-06-30T03:16:00.000-07:00

I went hiking today at a place called Oku-Nikkawa. I filled up my memory card but a lot of the photos didn't turn out because it was a bad day for lighting. Oku-Nikkawa is barely a town, just a train platform and a couple buildings, but it has a camping area and a few trails, and from the train platform you can hear the rushing of water from the valley below. It was fantastic to get out of the city and get away from people. (It was less than fantastic getting back on the train soaked in humidity and sweat and rain, and go back to Sendai Station where all the businesspeople were commuting home in their suits.) I discovered that the "river walk" actually goes THROUGH the river and it was just too cold and the bottom of the creek too rocky to keep wading, so I headed up to the mountain trail instead.
The train passes over the trail at a couple of points, but I forgot that when I went down a little side trail back down to the creek. I was crouching at the edge of the water taking my usual super-fascinating close-up photos of moss and lichen when I heard thunder, and thought, "that's weird, I thought Japan didn't get thunderstorms--hey, sounds like it's getting closer--oh my god ROCKSLIDE OH MY GOD oh right it's just the train." Turns out there was a bridge almost directly over my head that was concealed by the thick vegetation. At least I was alone so there was no one to see me jump up and overreact like a moron. Except for how I just, you know, told the whole internet.

Oh, and today I taught someone the difference between "she's wearing a bikini" and "she wears a bikini." Not a big deal? Think about the difference between "she's drinking" and "she drinks."

Matsushima, ah!

2007-06-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's all the Cocktail Partners, but I just have nothing to add.
Matsushima

now try it with one hand tied behind your back!

2007-06-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

Think it's a pain in the ass calling tech support in your own country? Try doing it in a foreign country! That's right, fans and friends, I have just spent two hours testing my patience. It's amazing--I don't consider myself a patient person, generally, and especially not in traffic, but the knowledge that I am the outsider in the situation, the person for whom special consideration is being offered, makes me capable of putting up with an awful lot. Or maybe the fact that my support person (supporter?) spoke little English and I (still) speak next to no Japanese made it easier--everything was said very slowly, clearly, and deliberately, with no extraneous chit-chat or nonsense, and although it took ages, I did resolve a few things. I'm still not quite up to full speed, possibly because of a virus (yay!), but I'm working on it. I must say I am really enjoying spending my whole day off on it, too, when I could be at the beach or in the mountains. Whatever, HP, that's cool.

More pictures, less bitching, when all my problems (well, at least my computer problems) are resolved.

p.s. I finally got my gaijin card the other day--I'm officially a resident alien now.

wizened

2007-06-02T04:31:00.001-07:00

wizened
Originally uploaded by safety dance.

I took a rainy-day walk up to this temple that overlooks the city. Since it was a rainy Thursday, I was the only person there, alone with the screaming birds and the ashes of people who've been buried there. It was lovely.

You never don't have space for a garden

2007-05-30T21:38:00.001-07:00

You never don't have space for a garden
Originally uploaded by safety dance.

I'm so impressed by the creation of privacy and use of space in Japan.

(Which I then invade.)

my local neighborhood shrine

2007-05-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it was lit up for exactly--some kind of matsuri, announced on red banners all up and down the canal, but of course, I can't read Japanese.

So far, I'd say that teaching conversational English is about as interesting as you want to make it. I've had some great students and some weird students and some students who were only there because their parents make them go, and I've gotten some really great questions. I'm getting better at defining or exemplifying succinctly words like just, even, and still; and nuances like "on top of" as opposed to "on." (I had to think about that one--it seems like we usually say "on" when referring to something that usually has stuff on it, and "on top of" when referring to something that doesn't, as in, "I put it on the table" versus "I put it on top of the refrigerator.") Looking at my notes from today, I explained "modest," "archaeologist," "glacier," and "monsoon." Of course, it gets a little repetitive, but I think that's true of teaching in general. So far, so good.

seven random facts

2007-05-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

Madalyn tagged me for a seven weird things meme. It fits in perfectly with my new plan to not actually think, just make lists, so here goes. Here are the rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I am infamous among my family and former roommates for taking really long showers. My record is one hour and forty-five minutes. (That was my freshman year of college, and my excuse is that, having moved from my parents' quiet, peaceful house in the country into a dorm full of three hundred shrieking women, the shower was the only place I could be alone.) I try to keep it down to a normal, non-wasteful ten minutes or so, but every so often I just forget and realize I've been standing there thinking about nothing for half an hour.

2. I believe in all that birth-order stuff. Strongly, embarrassingly strongly, given how completely scientifically unsound it is.

3. As a child, I was so terrified of the dentist that I had to be given liquid sedative in the morning before school, another dose when my mom picked me up for the appointment, and then laughing gas when I got there. And I was still nervous.

4. I have a math tattoo. I am not good at, nor do I particularly like, math. (I meant to showcase it when Scout's tattoo meme was going around, but I was too busy. I'll have to do that sometime.)

5. I am very monogamous, perfume-wise. I've only worn two scents in the last twelve years, and I only switched because they stopped making the first one. (And now they've stopped making the second one. Fear not: I stocked up when it was on sale.) My mom has worn the same perfume as long as I can remember, so maybe it's genetic.

6. I moved to Japan speaking exactly six words of Japanese. Smart!

Let's see... I tag Jodi, Noelle, Beverly, Jaime, Carole, Ramona, and Molly.

(Oh, I had my first real day of work today. I was exhausted by the time I got home, but guess what? Japan apparently has no open container laws. My supervisor and I stopped at the convenience store and had some beers on the train. Always a silver lining.

6.

five things I have discovered about Japan.

2007-05-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

Wisteria over the canal along my street.

1. It's humid. Dear god, is it humid. I'd forgotten what it's like to leave home with wet hair and then arrive at work with hair still wet.

2. Black coffee is called American coffee; medium is M-size.

3. Produce is expensive. I just had my first piece of fruit since I left the U.S. It was an apple. It was heavenly. It should've been, it cost me a dollar.

4. The 99 yen shop is a godsend. Right next to the subway station, it sells everything from beer to makeup to (overpriced) produce.

5. Every store has its own little theme song that's stuck in your head for hours after you leave.

(My new job is a little overwhelming right now so I apologize if you've been waiting with bated breath for fantastic photos of Shinto shrines or anything. Haven't had time yet.)

Thanks, blogger, but I can't read Japanese

2007-05-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

I'm in Japan!
It's 9:47 am here, and I've been awake since six and up since seven, and neither of my roommates has stirred yet, unless they got up and left before six, which seems awfully early since we all went to bed at the same time, and the one has the day off and the other doesn't work til 1pm. So I'm tiptoeing around trying to be quiet, but the hardwood floors are creaky. My luggage should be delivered shortly, so I should put on some clothes to go down and get it, and then I can go out and start my day--I have to register for my alien registration card and find an adapter for my laptop power cord. The plugs/sockets are the same as in the U.S., but all the sockets in my apartment have two holes, and my laptop plug has three prongs.

I talked to a flight attendant, who coincidentally is from Rio Rancho, and who was knitting her first sock. I was knitting (yet another) Jaywalker. I started it Sunday night, just to have something on the needles when I went through security, and am already on the gusset decreases. Go, sleeplessness!

No pictures or amazing cultural insights or anything yet--most of the time I've spent in Japan so far it's been dark out, and I've either been sleeping, showering, or struggling vainly not to look like I'm struggling as I stagger from airport shuttle train to bullet train to local subway to apartment. My apt building is on a one-lane street along a canal. Our balcony overlooks something that's either a cemetery or a tombstone store. My room is tiny but I'll just have to become neat and organized and not buy a lot of unnecessary stuff. It has a window, through which, all night, I heard this bird that sounds like a person yelling. There's no screen, and we kept the balcony door open all night, so apparently flying insects are not a problem.

Oh, and Blogger and Google have translated everything handily into characters for me, so I have to go by memory which thing to click on... hope this is "submit"...

I'm published

2007-05-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's only on my dad's website, but still: I reviewed the 2007 Suzuki Reno as a favor to him, and also to avoid driving my own car (on which I have greatly reduced the insurance coverage, since it's just going to be parked in my parents' garage while I'm in Japan, thus making me paranoid about getting into an accident right before I leave) to visit Katie in West Chester last weekend. (If this is the kind of thing that interests you, or someone you know, my dad has written a few books; his latest is 365 Cars You Must Drive, with Matt Stone.)

Oh, Katie and I discovered that, absent campfire, you can make smores over a candle.

yes.

2007-05-02T14:26:00.001-07:00

I spent all day at the outlet mall, stocking up on (ugh) pantyhose and crap like that, so what's more natural than to come home and take an internet quiz on my last words? I swear, this afternoon, I figured they would be "Excuse me, there's a line."

Your Famous Last Words Will Be:

"So, you're a cannibal."

What Will Your Famous Last Words Be?

unintentional keyhole neck

2007-05-01T14:03:00.001-07:00

unintentional keyhole neck
Originally uploaded by safety dance.

I don't think I've blogged about this project at all, although I did work on it my last night at ABQ SNB (sob). I saw that Andean Silk Twist was on sale (apparently because it's being discontinued) a few months ago, 1 ball for $1.99, so I ordered some. I wasn't sure I liked when I got it, but I dove in and started knitting. Well, I'm still not sure I like it, but here it is. Self-designed almost-an-FO, colorway sunset, which looks gorgeous close-up, but which from far away is just a muddle. (This is probably why Andean Silk Twist is being discontinued--the colorways were, um, not great. Good idea in theory, though. Maybe they'll come up with some new Twists!)

I've blocked the crap outta this mofo and still, when I pin it to mimic how I want the buttons to go, it's all gappy! So I'm going to leave it like this, find a really cool button or pin to put right at the top and a dark blue cami to wear underneath, and call it a keyhole neck. Totally on-purpose design element! Totally!

Charles Has A Licking Problem

2007-05-01T09:19:00.001-07:00

Daily dose of pug.

FO post later today, maybe... I somehow wove in all ends but one, so I need to remedy that and get some buttons and make myself presentable for the camera. Like Charles.

quickly

2007-04-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

I found out today where I'm being assigned--Sendai, City of Trees! I leave in less than two weeks. I can't believe I'm actually doing this, and I mean that in a good way.

this would have been a photograph

2007-04-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

...but I'm a spaz. I heard a shuffling noise in the woods and looked out the window, and a lone wild turkey was meandering across my parents' backyard. I grabbed my camera and headed for the front door, since it looked like it was headed for the front yard via the driveway. Unfortunately, the camera's batteries were dead. I changed them quickly and went out to the front yard, all congratulating myself for saving the day with my speedy battery-action, and turned on the camera and the damn thing was in setup mode and I couldn't remember how to get it into picture-taking mode. The turkey, which had indeed crossed into the front yard, saw me out of the corner of its beady little eye and started "running." Despite how incredibly slowly a wild turkey runs, it was still out of range (by which I mean camouflaged with underbrush) by the time I got the camera sorted. Although actually I could still hear it. You wouldn't think something so slow and defenseless should be so noisy and, well, not extinct yet.

Anyway, there would've been some authentic PA wildlife to accompany my official announcement that two weeks from today, I will be on a plane to Japan. Well, first to Detroit. But then, Japan.

CPHoenix: ashes reconstructed

2007-04-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Central Park Hoodie is dead. Long live the Phoenix!

When I finished this sweater in February and tried it on, I was crushed to find that through some mysterious quirk of gauge it was both too short and too tight. One or the other might be bearable, or both if it were 100% natural fiber. But I used Woolease, so obviously blocking it larger wasn't a solution. Fortunately for me, rather than rip this yarn from its second sweaterly incarnation, I have a shorter, slimmer sister to whom I owe a sweater (see Skully, Christmas '05).

It's somewhat self-designed, as in, I took someone else's shaping and sizing and modified it heavily. This is based on my old friend, the Hourglass Sweater from LMKG, with embossed twining leaf leace from Vogue Knitting on the sleeves. I added ribbing with baby cables to the hem and just plain ribbing (because baby cables are too fussy to keep making) to the neckline, which if I'm totally honest I think is too big, but I actually really like with a t-shirt, tank, or button-down underneath.

I used the embossed twining vine leaf lace pattern from Vogue Knitting. I also originally wanted to make the raglan lines stand out, but couldn't figure out how to do it; I wanted the appearance of a seam, to make the stockinette body and reverse-stockinette sleeves look like they'd been sewn together from other sweaters. But I like the little purl channel I made instead. Instead of decreasing ssk, k1, k2tg, I did ssk, p1, k2tog. I'll definitely be using that again.

Now to go outside and enjoy the last sunshine before this 20-year storm they're predicting...

Huh? The circus is where?

2007-04-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

Finally finished my circus-freak jays.

Pattern: Grumperina's Jaywalkers, of course

Yarn: Regia Something. I've lost the ball band. Whatever this stuff is, though, it's awfully splitty. I won't be using it again. If, uh, I can remember what it is before I buy it.

Mods: Made them shorty-socks because I felt lazy. Only 2 or 3 inches above the heel instead of 7.

Started/Completed: March 2006/April 2007. The longest-running UFO I had. And I finished it! Now I'm going to tackle my Picovoli.

back in PA

2007-04-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

...where it is still not spring yet. Right after I took this picture, it started snowing. I squealed with glee.

My drive cross-country was, well, long. I stopped in St. Louis to see my aunt and her family, saw her photos from her honeymoon in Japan, attended my first-ever Boy Scout meeting, and got some Japanese culture tips. I thought I would be able to do the next leg all in one day, and should have been able to, really, but I got up late, lingered over coffee with my aunt, got stuck in traffic outside St. Lou, got a speeding ticket in rural Illinois, and then drove through a violent storm the entire width of Indiana. I had to wait part of it out at a gas station, under the roof, because it was starting to hail and I had my snowboard on the roof and my bike on the back. By the time I passed Columbus, OH, I was done. I checked into a hotel, assisted by two extremely perky ladies named Mary Lou and Mary Kay, like they were hired as a matched set, then dragged myself to Cracker Barrel for a lovely greasy, fattening dinner. The next day I had a nice nostalgia attack as I drove across PA; having gone to college in western PA, I drove I-80 countless times during those 4 years and have a bunch of silly rituals to perform at certain landmarks--singing a song I made up about Dubois, only stopping for gas at Snowshoe, yelling "we're all gonna die!" at the first sight of the cooling towers of the Berwick nuclear power plant, etc. (You have to understand, most of those countless times I was alone, and had to entertain myself somehow.)

So now I'm marking time here until May. I had dinner with my niece and nephew the other day, and tonight my sister Katie is coming up for the weekend, and my parents have threatened to put me to work in the garden if it ever gets warm enough, so I'll have plenty to do. Besides unpacking and repacking everything I brought/sent home as I try to figure out exactly what I can't live without in Japan.

2007-03-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

So far, this move has required 14 trips to Goodwill, 5 trips to the post office, 1 oil change, 2 trips to the attitude-laced used book store, 1 argument with a lady at the bank, and 2 edge-of-a-nervous-breakdown phone calls to my mom. Because I can't get anything more done until I can get to Target for more trash bags, and because I live near a major intersection that's always hell at rush hour, I'm taking some time out to do a meme, seen at Gee You Knit. If you're reading, consider yourself tagged.

Directions: If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?
1. Open your mp3 library
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool. (no worries here, as I'm extremely uncool.)
7. Don’t skip songs.
My Movie:
1. Opening credits: Serenade #13 in G/Mozart
2. Waking up: Gerbil/Filter
3. First day of school: The Movement of a Hand/Bright Eyes
4. Fight song: My England/Lady Sovereign
5. Breaking up: Ten Minutes/The Get-up Kids
6. Happiness: Mine's Not a High Horse/The Shins (who will be in town April 10th, and I won't be here! Dammit!!)
7. Life’s okay: Bridge Over Troubled Water/Johnny Cash with Fiona Apple
8. Mental breakdown: Candy/Morphine
9. Driving: Voices Carry/Til Tuesday
10. Flashback: Don't Make Me Ill/A.F.I.
11. Getting back together: Silver and Gold/Dolly Parton (yes, really. LOVE her, been to Dollywood.)
12. Wedding song: Once Again/Slick Shoes
13. Birth of first child: Jesus Walking on the Water/Violent Femmes
14. Final battle scene: Go!/Long Shot Hero (my sister's band! what what!)
15. Death scene: The Company Dime/The Get-up Kids
16. Funeral song: Two Crooks/American Steel
17. End credits: The Difference in the Shades/Bright Eyes

It's almost 5:30 now, so I suppose by the time I'm ready to walk out the door, traffic will be bearable. I better stop killing time and actually get things done.

Tuesday randomness

2007-03-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

1. One of the hardest things about packing for a big move is deciding which of your short-sleeve v-neck black t-shirts is the definitive short-sleeve v-neck black t-shirt, and which of your many pairs of pajama pants are the only pair you really need.

2. I can't stand when people take your clothes out of the washing machine because they just can't wait the additional minute and a half for you to get there and they're just too lazy to walk down to the other laundry room.

3. I really, really hate the word "gal." To me it's the verbal equivalent of not taking off your hat indoors. I don't suppose that makes sense to anyone else, but whenever I hear that word I see that guy in the cowboy hat from the old Smuckers All-fruit commercial bellowing, "couldya please pass the JELLY?"

tent ROCKS!

2007-03-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

As part of my farewell tour of New Mexico, I went hiking at Tent Rocks today with my friend Wendy. Too tired to say anything interesting about it, but I took a lot of photos.

A Very Merry I Quit My Job Day to You!

2007-03-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

Japan here I come! Well, my departure date is May 8th, so not yet, actually. But at least I don't ever have to go back there! Well, except for Monday when I go in to sign and fax my last time sheet. But I'm done! I'm finished! I'm unemployed and loving it!

I think I'm going to treat myself to Coldstone and then sit outside and work on my dad's cycling aran--new and improved on smaller needles!

I can't think of a clever title

2007-03-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

So I didn't get tagged, but I'm doing this meme anyway, seen at Ramona's: Describe your life in five-year intervals counting backward from 2007. So that means every year ending in 2 or 7.

1982: I was three. We lived in Reisterstown, Maryland; we had a long-haired cat named Fuzzy; my mom was pregnant with my sister Katie. My older sister and the boy down the street cut off my pigtails. I think we were co-flower girls in a wedding. I went to pre-school and learned to swim this year. The parents in my playgroup nicknamed me Bubbling White Sugar, which if you ask me is not much of a nickname since it's longer than my actual name.

1987: I was eight. Fuzzy died when I was seven and we got a new cat, Heather, who was a one-person cat. And I was her person. She slept on my bed every night and came when I called her and even met me at the bus-stop after school. Heather died when I was sixteen and I still get all choked up about her. My teacher this year was Mrs. Gede, who is my favorite teacher ever. She had to teach us a health unit and said that she could choose between teaching us about nutrition or about drugs. She chose drugs, because her teenaged son had been an addict and killed himself. It was pretty heavy stuff to tell third-graders, but I liked that she did it. As a teenager, whenever I misbehaved, I felt like I was letting down Mrs. Gede as well as my parents. So I didn't misbehave much.

1992: I was thirteen. Yuck. I played field hockey and read a lot.

1997: Like Ramona, I had a car with a name. Mine was Frankie the Ford Festiva, named after Frankie Avalon. I took a notoriously bad curve a little too wide one day, hit gravel, overcorrected, and shot across the road and off the other side and into a garage owned by, as luck would have it, my fifth grade math teacher. Frankie was totaled. Because I hit a building.

2002: I was 23 and had lived in New Mexico for one year. I was in grad school and hating it. That summer I spent on an archaeological survey at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert, hottest place in the U.S. I got paid the best hourly rate I've ever gotten to hike and look for artifacts in temperatures upwards of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Needless to say, I was in the best shape of my life. And dammit, I have no pictures!

2007: I'll be 28 next month and I'm leaving for Japan May 8th. I'm sorting through all my belongings trying to figure out what I like enough to ship home to store at my parents, what I love enough to ship to Japan, and what I just don't care about and can give to Goodwill. I have a a 20 x 20 x 12 inch box of yarn and WIPs to be sent to Japan. And I'm still buying stuff--I found my 2006 birthday present from my friends Amy and Shamsi, a gift certificate to Village Wools, and I had to run up there and spend it. I spent wisely though--I got yarn for a Hello Yarn Cycling Aran for my dad and for Grumperina's Shifting Sands scarf for my brother-in-law-to-be. Because the more Christmas gifts I can finish before I go, the less I ultimately have to pay in shipping.

doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

2007-03-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't. In two weeks I'm leaving Albuquerque. It's been five and a half years. I hated it when I first moved here. I wasn't used to such a wide-open, treeless space, it was way too hot, and the eternal sunshine was frustrating. (I know that's weird, but I'd been living in the Great Lakes region, and each rare sunny day is like a holiday to the point that college girls will lay out in bikinis if the temperature rises above 50. So for me the sunshine was less "what a beautiful day!" and more "I can't believe I have to sit inside ALL DAY. What a waste.") Anyway, now I like it. (Well, most of it.) But I've been treading water the last two years or so, knowing that what I moved here (grad school/archaeology) is not the thing for me, and it feels good to have made the decision to move on to something else.

You may be asking yourself, what is that something else? Well, even if you aren't, I'll tell you. I'm moving to Japan for a year. I'm going to teach English and experience a new culture and eat a lot of vegetarian sushi. Before I go, I'll be spending about a month at my parents' house in PA, since I won't be coming home for the holidays. I'm very excited and a little scared. I've never lived in another country (or even been to one, besides Canada and Mexico), I don't speak any Japanese (well, I can count to five), and I'm allergic to fish. Plus, I hate moving. But still, I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, in the spirit of closure, I give you Six Things I'll miss about New Mexico (in no particular order) (I tried to make it five or ten but six just felt right)
1. Green chile and cheese on everything, fantastic salsa, breakfast burritos... well, all the food really
2. the mountains--besides the hiking and the snowboarding and the amazing views while you're up there, it's so great to look up from a traffic jam and be reminded of the sublime.
3. the dry air. I hate humidity.
4. Albuquerque Stitch n Bitch, although it's not like I ever get a chance to go anymore
5. the relaxed dress code--I swear, dressing professionally is going to be harder than not speaking the native language, I've gotten so used to jeans being acceptable pretty much everywhere.
6. my friends. Good peeps. I hope I have visitors in Japan. (Although I'd rather they finish their dissertations first. Priorities, you know.)

feeling scottish

2007-03-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

That's what my dad called it, and we can say that because we are Scottish. Well, part. I'm queasy because I just spent a ridiculous (for me) amount of money. I just ordered a new laptop, or notebook, as the kids are apparently callin' 'em these days, and because I'm going to use it to replace my desktop entirely I dropped a pretty solid chunk of change. I know it's (probably) worth what I'm paying, but I don't have it in my hands yet and can't play with it and haven't even tested the keyboard. So I feel like I basically just threw my money away. Ugh, I hate spending money. My dad's more-sympathetic-than-its-sounds response? "Wait 'til you buy a house."

I'm going to try to stop thinking about it now. The whole time I was clicking around the internet checking out notebooks (look, I can be taught!), I was working on a new project: an entrelac (look, I can be taught!) scarf. I'm really frustrated with the Phoenix (nee Central Park Hoodie) because I apparently stretched it out while measuring and it is at least two inches too short, hem-to-armpit, for me. It's also too tight, and since it's Wool-ease I don't know if I can block it big enough to be comfortable. I'm not a fan of short or tight, and definitely not short AND tight. So while I decide whether I want to try to undo the cast-on edge and knit down, or just give it to my slimmer, shorter little sister, I've started Knitty's Danica for my older sister's birthday. I'm fairly sure she doesn't read this, so I'm safe posting it here. Besides which, this may not be its final incarnation yet. I hate skinny scarves, I prefer fat, wide, almost-a-shawl scarves, so this just isn't enough scarf; I don't like scarves that have a wrong side, so I'm either going to have to line it (ugh) or rip it and knit it as a tube; I may have to buy more yarn, I may turn it into a Clapotis out of sheer laziness, etc.

I really am enjoying the entrelac though, and the Patons SWS I'm using is surprisingly lush and soft for yarn that came from Michaels. And when my laptop gets here, I can fashion it some fun plug-in devices like these. I saw someone on craftster make one out of a $1 bathtub toy from Target and some carefully-applied superglue.

this life one leaf

2007-02-09T13:37:00.000-08:00

The ashes of the Central Park Hoodie continue to reassemble themselves. I'm finished with the body up to the armscyes (ahh, stockinette in the round, so boring, so restful) and am now trying to decide what I want to do with the sleeves. I've decided on this embossed twining vine leaf lace from Vogue Knitting. My first swatch attempt was in the round, based on instructions for knitting flat. I tried to mentally switch those odd-row k's to p's and vice versa, but damn, that's a lot to keep straight while Sayid's running around in a wifebeater, flexing and stuff. So I knit a flat swatch first, then once I'd decided I liked the results, I typed out an in-the-round version of the lace pattern. This is really my first lace. Exciting!

Also exciting? Hanging around at home on your day off because you've got a gash in the sidewall of your tire, and you've ordered new tires (online, that is, because it's so much better for the blood pressure than talking to car-parts salesguys--I may be a woman, but I know which tires I want, thanks) but they haven't arrived yet. At least I'll make some headway on the first sleeve. It's perfect porch-sitting, beer-drinking weather.

I'm a skullcatcher, actually

2007-02-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

Only in New Mexico can you go shopping for a birthday present for your mom and find an assortment of animal skulls at reasonable prices. I'm not against hunting, being from Pennsylvania which has a massive deer overpopulation problem and all, but that's because the people I know who hunt deer eat deer. Venison sausage is a staple of the PA church brunch. But I can't imagine being a coyote trophy-skull hunter. (I texted my mom and asked if she wanted a coyote or an otter or maybe just a tiny weasel, but she seemed sort of... unexcited about the prospect.)

So I've given up on the Central Park Hoodie. I hate seams, and I was just too frustrated to try to fix the disaster I created when I snipped the wrong yarn trying to undo the bad shoulder seam in poor lighting. So it's becoming an in-the-round bottom-up raglan based on ye olde favorite, the Hourglass Sweater; the body is going to plain but I want to do either a lace panel or a cable panel on the sleeves, which I'm planning to make 3/4 length. I'm calling it the phoenix sweater, because I'm obvious like that. I'm already nearly through the body up to the armscyes because I've been Netflixing my way through Lost: Season 1. I didn't start watching it when it debuted in my usual, "oh God, that's like, so overhyped" fashion, but having seen a few episodes of season 3, I am now a) crazy to know what the hell's going on (not that I'll find much enlightment from watching back seasons, my sister tells me) and b) totally hot for Naveen Andrews, and stockinette in the round is the perfect accompaniment to drooling.

Doooooooooooooooooom.

2007-01-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

So today I was determined to get back on the Central Park Hoodie horse. I've finished knitting the fronts, back, and sleeves and had already sewn the shoulder seams, and then procrastinated for four or five months because I hate seaming. So I just spent an hour sewing one of the side seams, because I'm slow like that, and because I was determined to make the neatest seam ever seen by human or animal. And then I realized I had twisted it. The crappy flash-in-mirror picture is the only one I took, but you can see what I mean--see the twist in the front?

I took a few minutes to calm down, and then decided to undo the shoulder seam, since it was shorter and messier. And somehow I snipped the wrong damn yarn and now look.

I am giving up.

I don't have the strength to fix or frog it right now, but I swear, I am never making a seamed sweater again. From now on I'm knitting only in the round. I was so close. So close!!! And now... Dooooooom.

My other project is sucking hardcore right now too--my maximized minisweater is not working out like I hoped it would. It may still be salvageable, since it's just that the shaping isn't working out, probably because my math was wrong. But I don't feel like working on it at all now. I was so close to finishing a project, I don't want to backtrack. I just want to finish something and hold it up and say, "Man, I rock!" But I can't, because I don't. All in all, I'm pretty much completely discouraged right now. Ugh. Maybe I'll take up woodworking.

ew. and also, yay.

2007-01-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Last week I took the week off and spent a lot of time sleeping, snowboarding, and hanging out with the fabulous Auntie Maim, who came to visit. Back at work yesterday, I was sitting at my desk and this guy, who is either funny or creepy, I hadn't decided yet, stuck his head into my office and said, "You're back! I missed your smell."

So now I've decided... creepy.

I didn't do much knitting. In fact, after a really great day at Ski Santa Fe on Friday, Amy and I were sitting around watching Foyle's War, and I picked up my modified minisweater, knit about 10 stitches, and let it drop into my lap. I was that drained. It had snowed on and off all day, but what really took it out of me was the wind. It was ridiculously windy, especially on a couple of exposed trails. But we had a good time and if Shamsi ever uploads the photos, there should be some good ones. Hint. Hint. Ahem. But I'm bringing it to work, because I feel (irrationally) like I haven't finished anything in ages.

2007-01-04T16:59:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there are advantages to working for an enormous corporation. For example, did you know that washing your hands can prevent disease? No, really. It has something to do with germs. Bird flu, the coming epidemic that’s going to destroy civilization as we know it, is transmitted via germs. Therefore, if you wash your hands with an alcohol prep pad like the one I received in the mail from my employer yesterday, you can avoid the bird flu and keep our megacorp happy and productive.
Seriously. They mailed us all alcohol wipes. My company is awesome.

In other news, you may have heard Albuquerque got some snow. One night, while it was snowing, I parked under a tree. This is what I found the next morning. (Don't worry, I just backed out slowly and the tree was fine.)

But on the plus side, Sandia Peak opened, and since it’s only 40 minutes from home and I start work at 12:30pm, I got up early on Tuesday and went snowboarding for a couple hours. (It was definitely the better way to start the day than how I started Wednesday. I found a frozen bird on the steps of my work that was unearthed in the shoveling-out that morning.) I started wearing glasses a few months ago and so far this winter I'm on the fence as to how much I need them for snowboarding; I guess if I need them in traffic, I'll need them for tree runs, but I'm dreading the expense of prescription goggles or the discomfort/dorkiness/potential for disaster of wearing my glasses under my goggles, which some people apparently do. For now I'll just squint. Attractive, no?

I haven't been knitting much lately; I'm recovering from my last-minute Christmas frenzy. I knit the toes differently on both pairs of the parental Log Cabin Socks. I can't believe I did that. I frogged back on my mom's shorter sock and extended it, on Christmas Eve, but I left my dad's the way it was, trusting in my mom's assertion that he would never notice. Well, I hope not. But I am working, in stops and starts, on an extended-length Glampyre boobholder/minisweater. (Maxisweater? Ugh... no.) I started it before Christmas, because I'm insane and like to start improvising away from the pattern and trying my WIP on repeatedly right before a major gift deadline, the run-up to which I know I'll spend sitting in airports, possibly weeping with frustration and fatigue. You know, instead of just making sure all the presents are finished and look good and match far enough ahead of time to actually relax.

I saw my best friend from high school, whom I haven't seen or spoken to (unless you count finding each other on myspace) in a couple years, while I was home. She had a gift for me and I did not have a gift for her. I hate when that happens. She crocheted me a sweet lacy hat and scarf (I especially like the hat, it's very Roaring Twenties) that I don't have any pictures of yet. So now I have to make her something. Fortunately for my purposes, she works in upstate New York at a brat camp, where they make the kids sleep outside. Which means they sleep outside. No tent, just a tarp. In upstate New York. All winter. So basically, anything that warms any body part would be a great gift. I'm thinking Fair Isle mittens or Norwegian stockings or something. I've never finished a Fair Isle project that I actually liked and that fit, so this will be a challenge. Any pattern recommendations?

mom's foot, RIP

2006-12-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Farewell, old friend. You'll be missed.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but my mom broke her foot yesterday. She and my dad had driven out from PA to St. Louis the day after Christmas for my dad's best friend's dad's funeral, and then to Chicago to visit her sister, as long as they were in the neighborhood (the entire length of the state of Illinois being a "neighborhood" when you're already that far from home), and on the way my mom tripped over some uneven pavement in a gas station parking lot and skinned her hands and knees. She didn't even realize she had hurt her foot until they got to my aunt's house in Chicago and she tried to get out of the car. So now she has a temporary cast on her foot and is at a Chicago orthopedist's office for a follow-up as I type. My poor mom, who's very independent and dignified and hates asking for help, is hobbling around on crutches nine hundred miles from home. I know my dad's taking good care of her, but I wish I were there to help.

The picture is her Christmas gift, the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays, in Cascade Pastaza. (And her skin isn't actually gray, she's just wearing black pantyhose under the socks.) She refused to let me get a better picture. She was busy with the roast beef she wouldn't let anyone help her cook. Aw, Mom.

Clapotis revisited

2006-12-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

Thus begins my Christmas gift round-up. It won't take long, I wised up and only knit three gifts this year. Gift the first: the world-famous Clapotis for my sister Katie. She admired mine, so I subtly, delicately investigated what her color choice for such a piece might be (i.e. I sent her a link to the Andean Silk page at knitpicks and said, "What color do you like best? I mean, if I were to knit you a scarf or something"). She picked olive, which is nice on the screen but gorgeous in person. My only modification was to omit one repeat of the increase section to make it a little narrower. I liked the drape of my Clap post-blocking, although I know Kate Gilbert says not to block it, so I blocked Kate's too. She models it fabulously on one of my parents' notorious vintage plaid couches; it goes with her new ipod.

Can I just take a minute to rave about Andean Silk once again? It feels thicker than it is, if that makes sense, it's so soft, and just look at that drape. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be sumptuous--accurate, but also, a word you don't get to use all that often. And if I had to use only one word to describe the picture below, it would be... spectacular.

Get it? She wears glasses.

people, I love this weather.

2006-12-20T23:53:00.000-08:00

I have to scrape off my car. The sidewalk is icy. Albuquerque drivers are insane in the snow. And I'm doing a mental Charleston of joy. I can't help myself, I just love winter. It's visceral. The first little snap in the air in the fall is like an alarm clock. No, wait, I hate alarm clocks. Well, whatever, I'm loving it. The downside is, I have to work. I can't bring myself to call in sick to go snowboarding, because I'm such a goody-goody. Dammit.

Anyway, it's sweater weather, so today I wore my LMKG Hourglass and my fabulous new Scout's Swag panta, color Orchid. Look, pretty!
This is, sadly, the best FO pic I have of the Hourglass. I meant to get someone to take a good one at Thanksgiving, but I forgot my camera, and I'm the only one who ever takes pictures. But I will remember to take it home for Christmas. Although, sadly, it'll be a much smaller crowd--no cousins, no aunts, no nephew. But my sister Katie and I need to get a picture of ourselves in our matching Dinosaur Vice Principal t-shirts, and I want to get pictures of all my Christmas knitting being enjoyed by its recipients. Just in case it's the last time they ever enjoy it. (That sounds like there's going to be a Christmas massacre or something. I don't mean "last time" like they're going to die, I mean they may not wear it if I'm not around. In which case I will have to kill them.)
p.s. peep my bloodshot eyes, yo. They match my panta.

cheeseless vs. cheesefree

2006-12-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

Long time, no blog.
So earlier I had a craving for my mom's cheeseball, for which I have the recipe, at which I've never looked. I dusted it off and went to the grocery store, struggled through the crowd of people who apparently all had the same idea--"I'll just stop by the store after work"--got my sharp cheddar, bleu cheese, cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and onion, and brought it all home. Only then did I read further down the recipe, where it says, "let cheese soften outside fridge 1 hr" and "best after setting for 24 hrs." So starting right now, it's 25 hours before I can eat cheeseball! And I bought two varieties of crackers and everything! And I'm exhausted from the grocery store, where I (stupidly) did not buy anything else but cheeseball supplies! I can't go back there! I can't face it again! I just can't!

I've decided to take charge of this situation. Instead of being cheeseless (i.e., a sad, passive victim in a situation beyond my control), I am declaring myself cheesefree (i.e., a take-charge grrrl with a strong sense of her own agency, who doesn't want any damn cheeseball!). I decide my destiny, and for the next 25 hours, I am cheesefree!

In other words, I'm going to order a pizza, and make the cheeseball while I wait for it to get here.

December, yo!

2006-12-01T06:50:00.000-08:00

Not only am I close to finishing my mom's first sock, finished with my dad's socks, finished with any sisterly knitting that may or may not have occurred, and any other Christmas shopping necessary, the yuppie water feature at my apartment building is now an icy pond. Winter is here, bitches! (Sorry, but it's my favorite season and I get a little worked up.)

In other news, I'm about to take an oath never to knit flat again and rip out my Central Park Hoodie because I hate seaming so much, I knit a hat on the plane, I love my hourglass sweater, and while taking Thanksgiving family photos, instead of "cheese," my 85-year-old grandmother yelled, "sex!" Awesome.

what's a holiday without a hat?

2006-11-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas has Santa hats, New Year's has party hats, Halloween has... well, all kinds of headgear. Thanksgiving, according to my sister and me, has a Mexican Disneyland feel to it:

(I finished my dad's Christmas socks and started my mom's. Today, the ankle tube; tomorrow, the heelflap; the day after that or possibly next week, the world!)

this year I'm thankful for Cascade Pastaza

2006-11-22T00:32:00.000-08:00

because it is so soft and the colors are so rich.
I'm getting on a plane in a few hours and my mom's pecan pie is awaiting me. Oh yeah, and the rest of the dinner, and you know, my family. (The lineup this year, should you care, is two parents, one grandparent, two sisters, one sister's boyfriend, one sister's fiance, one nephew, one aunt, and two cousins, with another aunt and cousin coming the next day.) I'm excited. I love Thanksgiving. Besides the food and the importance of gratitude and (at my house) the inevitable game of Trivial Pursuit ("Ty Cobb! No, Babe Ruth! STUPID SPORTS QUESTIONS!!!"), there's a nice certainty to Thanksgiving. You know how at Christmas there's always a ridiculous public debate about whether it's okay to wish strangers Merry Christmas, since you don't know whether they celebrate it or not but at the same time the intention is not to offend but blah blah whatever I'm so bored of it and I actually celebrate Christmas. (I can't imagine how dull it must be to people who don't.) Well, you can wish anybody Happy Thanksgiving.

(Also, I thought you'd all like to know that while most liquids and gels are restricted to three ounces, you can carry on all the medically-necessary KY Jelly you want. Go nuts.)

panta!

2006-11-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Craftster's ubiquitous panta
Yarn: ? Leftover from a scarf I made last year for Christmas, and I can't find the ball band. I know where this yarn was stocked at Village before the move, but I don't remember the name, so I have no idea where it is now.
Picture: blurry, because my hands will not stop shaking today.
In other news, I picked out the bind-off on the neckline of my original LMKG Hourglass Sweater, having decided the neckline wasn't high enough and was going to fall off my shoulders annoyingly all day long (much like the very disappointing second Hourglass Sweater). I knit it up a big higher and bound it off in stockinette, so that it rolls a little bit, because I will be damned if I will sew down another hem. Handsewing. Blargh. It's blocking now. FO pics forthcoming. I think I'm going to wear it on Thanksgiving. Wish me luck not dropping any food on it. (That won't happen, but that's why I used superwash.)

are you sitting down?

2006-11-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Today in news that will shock no one: my love affair with green continues. The color of the yarn (more Cascade Pastaza, for my mom's Christmas socks) is pretty accurate; the color of the mug and the green chile packet is also; the color of my kitchen is totally wack. It is not yellow. My camera works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform.

er... yeah

2006-11-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you brag...
You don't knit for almost two weeks.
You don't blog for almost a month.
You glance at your WIP basket and shudder with guilt.
And still you do nothing.
I broke through the doldrums yesterday at SNB though--I'm halfway through my dad's second Christmas sock (and no, Molly, my parents don't read my blog--at least I don't think so! if you're reading, Dad, look away!--so I can safely post pics), and going to hit the Village tomorrow to pick up yarn for my mom's socks.
(I've noticed lately that I say "hit" a lot. It's funny because I tease my mom for saying "bop," as in, "We're going to bop over to the post office on the way to the grocery store" and sometimes, even worse, that "we're going to do a bop-n-drop," meaning go someplace and drop someone or something off. Well, I totally do the same thing with "hit." When I'm a grandmother, I'll still be using my outdated slang and kids will snicker--"she's going to hit the orthopedic shoe store?")

i am kicking christmas ass

2006-10-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

I probably just jinxed myself, but my dad's Log Cabin Socks (from Handknit Holidays) are going so incredibly fast. I started them around midnight on Wednesday and I'm halfway done with the heel flap. Three cheers for bulky weight socks! I'm using the recommended yarn, Cascade Pastaza, which I picked up at Village the other day. (New shop looks fantastic, by the way--light and bright and spacious. I spent about an hour there and could've stayed much, much longer if I didn't have to get back to El Crappo McJobbo.) Pastaza is soft but splitty; the colors are gorgeous and I had a hard time picking out just one. Cascade doesn't name their colors, just number, but I'm calling this color Pale Blue Eyes a la early REM song, which (not entirely coincidentally) are the kind my dad has.

I'm planning on making my mom the same thing, so they'll have a matched set; I have a major crush on some tweedy dark green, so we'll call that Hazel and continue the eye theme. In other news, it's a gorgeous fall day and I'm going to go outside and enjoy it.

since the movies came out, all the jokes have been done

2006-10-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

I had a good time at SNB last night. Got there late and starving, so had to wolf down a sandwich before I could get any actual knitting done, but I put a couple of inches on the second sleeve of my CPH, which I have been neglecting to get some Christmas knitting done. Today I'm planning on hitting the new Village Wools on my lunch break--everybody was raving last night about the space, the skylights, etc. So I'm dying to see it.
And just because:

Your results:You are Spider-Man
Spider-Man
90%
Superman
80%
Hulk
80%
Green Lantern
75%
Robin
70%
The Flash
70%
Catwoman
70%
Iron Man
70%
Wonder Woman
68%
Supergirl
58%
Batman
35%
You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have greatpower and responsibility.
Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

2006-10-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

48 Things
As seen around Blogland:
1. FIRST NAME? Cari
2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Baby Carrie (and for my full name, Ma) from Little House on the Prairie
3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Yesterday. Career- (or lack thereof) related.
4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? When I'm not rushed and get to pay attention to it, I do.
5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? turkey or roast beef.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I think so. I talk to myself all the time and I'm always cracking myself up. Plus, I know me pretty well, so I'd understand when I get moody.
7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? I scribble things down occasionally when I think of something I don't want to forget, but I'm not a diarist. (I like that word.)
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yup. Appendix too.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Probably.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? First of all, I hate cereal, like corn-flake, Cheerio-type cereal. I can't even stand people eating it in my presence. Secondly, if oatmeal or cream-of-wheat counts, then yeah, one of those.
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No
12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Enough, yes. As I'd like to be, no.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Black raspberry, strawberry, or coffee.
14. SHOE SIZE? 9
15. RED OR PINK? Both, together
16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I'm indecisive and sometimes shy. And I say I don't care about what people think, but I kind of do.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My granddad, who smoked a pipe, said "hubba hubba," and taught me to tie sailor knots with my shoelaces, all of which I've forgotten; and my parents and sisters, who I live far away from.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Well, if they do, their crush will call them in seven minutes.
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Blue running shorts, black long-sleeved t-shirt, no shoes. (Trying to psych myself up for the gym.)
20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Chocolate cake decorated to look like a cemetery, with shortbread-cookie headstones and little candy skeleton parts sticking up out of the Oreo-crumb ground. My friend Shamsi made it. I wish I'd gotten a picture.
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The gurgling of the "water feature" of my yuppie apartment complex outside my open window.
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red
23. FAVORITE SMELL? Summer in the woods.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? An automated voice telling me that early voting starts today. Actual person? My mom.
25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Shoulders, confidence.
26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Yes indeedy!
27. FAVORITE DRINK? Yuengling.
28. FAVORITE SPORT? Snowboarding! Wolf Creek opens next week! (That would make a good chant, if my favorite sport were cheerleading.)
29. EYE COLOR? Blue
30. HAT SIZE? Heh. When I graduated from college, I had to get my head measured for the cap, because I didn't know my hat size, and the lady said, "The caps run large, so most of the girls have been taking small or extra-small.... Ohhh-kay, now you would be a large or an extra-large." So yeah, I've got a big head.
31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No. I just got glasses though.
32. FAVORITE FOOD? Pizza. Good for all moods and just about any occasion.
33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Both.
35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Winter
36. HUGS OR KISSES? That's tough to say, because I hug a lot more people than I kiss, but I like the people I kiss best. This'll take some thinking.
37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Strawberry pie or plain cheesecake.
38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? ...
39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? ...?
40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brien, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker, re-reading Back When We Were Grown-ups by Anne Tyler. ...It just struck me, I haven't bought new book in ages.
41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE Pad? Rosie the Riveter.
42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? I didn't watch TV last night.
43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? wind-in-trees, snowboard-on-snow, laughter. Can I get cheesier?
44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Beatles, but it's a tough call.
45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Depends what you mean by "home"... if ABQ, then New England; if PA, then Seattle or San Diego.
46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? I'm good at talking people into things.
47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Baltimore
48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Found it on Bev's blog.

random

2006-10-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

1. I finished knitting my first Christmas present last night at 2 am. It's all over but the weaving and blocking.
2. A neighborhood strip club (heh) is having a "Nude Halloween Party" featuring a costume contest. [Edit: This is funny to me because there are only so many possible costumes for someone who is nude.
"What are you supposed to be?"
"A baby! What are you supposed to be?"
"Slim Goodbody! Um, with a tan!"]
3. I'm dying for a pumpkin spice latte right now.
4. I really wanted to stop by Village Wools today and pick up some yarn for my next Christmas project but forgot they're closed to move to the new location.
5. It's deliciously crisp outside. I'm busting out the puffy vest.
6. Wolf Creek opens (tentatively, weather-dependently) next Friday! My ecstasy cannot be expressed in words. I love winter!

first in the hearts of his countrymen!

2006-10-13T16:59:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were little and saw shapes in clouds?
These clouds I saw on the mountains a few days ago remind me of a powdered wig. Extremely clever viral advertising for that new Marie Antoinette movie? Or a patriotic moment?
Also, this is what I saw when I took out the trash just now. Ahh, October.

I thought that closest balloon was going to land in the next parking lot, but with a burst of flame they went up a little and continued north to Balloon Fiesta Park.

p.s. I'm halfway finished with my first Christmas knitting project. If I knew how to do one of those "pictures after the jump" thingies, and if I thought I could trust Katie not to click on it, I'd show you, but believe me when I say that the color is beyond gorgeous and I like how it's looking so far. Onward!

it's fall!

2006-10-11T00:27:00.000-07:00

(...and now I have "It's 5" by Architecture in Helsinki stuck my head. Warning, the link plays music.)

It was chilly enough to wear my new sweater (not handmade, from the Gap, and thanks for pilling already, by the way!) today. This fall I'll be cozy in my new newsboy. Slightly modified from the SNBN pattern, in Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran (and thus, because I still haven't learned my damn lesson and checked my damn gauage, a little too big, since the pattern calls for worsted, but maybe I'll just take the mesh out of the brim and call it a rasta cap), and believe it or not, this is the best picture I could take of it. I have a bit of a sore throat and think I may be coming down with something, which is why I didn't come to SNB tonight. I had a glass of OJ instead. Well, half OJ, half whiskey. Whatever works.

ETA: Oh yeah, it used to have a pom-pom. But not anymore. (See what I mean about "best picture"?)

saturday sky

2006-10-07T20:15:00.000-07:00

At the Kiwanis Cabin.
Fake yoga at the crest. (I should've taken my backpack off.)
My girls Shamsi and Wendy checking out the view--the red speck on the lower peak is the top of the Sandia Tram.I'm going to go start my Christmas knitting now.

CPH would never do that.

2006-10-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm trucking along on the Central Park Hoodie. I have the back, both front pieces, and one sleeve done so far, and I'm five inches into the second sleeve. If I can keep up this momentum I may be done by... nope, can't. Don't want to jinx it. Anyhoo, here's how it's looking so far. See if you can spot my totally obvious Grey's-watching, McSteamy-induced mistake, which I lazily decided not to frog back and fix. It'll be my badge of dorky fangirl honor.

hollaback!

2006-09-26T00:28:00.002-07:00

I can't say how awesome this is. I may have to invent a new word for it. I'll get back to you on that.

It's pronounced like "cup o' tea"

2006-09-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally, finally blocked this baby:

(Hopefully tomorrow at SNB I can get someone to take a better action shot. This is the best I can do with the bathroom mirror.)

Pattern: the world-renowned Clapotis
Yarn: Andean Silk, color slate
Mods: none.

squee!

2006-09-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to knit with my prize skein from strangelittlemama! Look how pretty!

ETA: WTF, Blogger? The colors look normal and fantastic on my screen until I upload them! ARGHHH!!! Sorry, Carole, I meant to show off your yarn artistry...
Okay, here's Carole's pic:

what I did on my day off.

2006-09-20T00:08:00.000-07:00

...and then I went to SnB. Good times! I can't believe I actually got to go two weeks in a row. I got my lovely prize from Carole, which I'm waiting for natural light to take a picture of, and I screwed up multiple times on my Central Park Hoodie but with a yarn needle from Ramona and some scrap yarn from Noelle, I made it work. I gave Noelle a ride home and got to come in and pet the kitty and the doggie, which is a treat since I'm petless, and check out her marvelously organized WIPs and projects-in-queue, which was pretty impressive. Girl's got the pattern and the yarn in a plastic bag, all packed together in a big plastic tote, like one of those "get organized!" articles in Real Simple that make you long to buy lots of big plastic totes and adorable little matchy-match stacking boxes, because then you'll really have your shit together. And I got some of her weeded-out stash to give to a friend who's a beginner knitter because the colors just screamed her name (like this: "SHAMSI!") (Now that she's read that I hope she ends up liking it.), and her gypsy-scarf pattern to go with it.
p.s. My Project Runway Season 2 Disc 2 came from Netflix today and I can't keep my eyes open long enough to watch an episode! At least that gives me something to look forward to after work tomorrow. All day I'll be saying, "How were your orders? Everything okay today?" but thinking "Where the hell is my chiffon?"