Category: Golightly Oddities

The Saws-All (the most fun tool name to say, evah!) was on the deck overnight to give the Snake an opportunity to make a break for freedom. 

This morning Neal noted he was still moving about in there.

No other option but to open the Saws-All and help Sam (yes, I named him) to his freedom.

I’m sorry to report that Sam had sustained horrific Saws-All related injuries.  Neal did the noble thing and brought poor Sam to his final resting place for a mercy killing. 

I had such high hopes that Sam’s story would end well.  Ok, Scout, I promise no more snake-talk.  You can read my blog again.  I promise.

Today is a festive day for my family.  My oldest nephew’s birthday is today (happy birthday, S.!).  He was the first baby I’d ever held and now he’s a man starting his career.  I couldn’t be prouder of him.  It’s also my second brother’s wedding anniversary.  Happy anniversary, C. & A.!

The new bathroom tiles are down and look great.  When I find the camera (I can access the back room now, I just couldn’t locate the camera in the chaos), I’ll snap a photo of the black and white goodness.

I’m watching the farewell show for That 70’s Show.  I don’t like much tv, but during last winter break as I knit Christmas gifts for hours on end while Neal was at work, I watched a marathon of this show.  I kept wanting to turn it off because I’m snobby that way about entertainment (I’m woman enough to admit it), but the show kept me laughing.  I don’t go out of my way for it, but I never turn it off if I stumble across it.

We spent yesterday scrubbing the house and today I am just loving being home.  It feels so good to be in a smells-like-Murphies Oil-and-bleach-with-hardly-any-dog-hair-anywhere house. 

I baked a peach crisp on Friday and today I baked apple cake. Fall is on its way, and I’m loving my urge to nest and nurture.

Interested in knitting content?  Ok, ok.

The Scissorina’s yarn swap is in two weeks, so I went through my yarn stash today and pulled out about six skeins of good stuff that I’m just not likely to use any time in the future.  There are rumors of goody bags at this swap.  What’s better than a crafty goody bag?

I also pulled together some yarns for my muff (stop it, Mona) for the muff-along.  I’m going to use a soft alpaca for the lining, my first handspun (from my class at Village Wools) and a variety of pink yarns. 

There were a few funky yarns in there that may work out for my Funky Scarf Swap.  Here’s a hint about what I’m doing: hairpin lace.

Finally.  A Bitchin’ Mitten confession: I’m not going to have a pair.  I had an idea; it’s actually a cool idea.  I never started them, though, and I won’t make excuses here.  That doesn’t mean I won’t make the mittens I planned, though.  Someday.

Ok, I’m done being random for now.  I’m off to play with yarn.

Oprah is probably gathering all her favorite things for that big giveaway episode of hers, but I can’t wait any longer to reveal one of my most favorite things:  my Bonjour Caffe Frother Turbo.  My sister coerced me into buying at the Tuesday Morning in Albuquerque.  It was about $5, but I had just closed on my house and was an impoverished graduate student.  Five dollars was a meal.  I resisted, she insisted.  I bought it.

I. Love. My. Frother.

I’m newly re-smitten with it because it has gotten cold enough in CT for a mug of hot chocolate or creamy chai in the evening.  And let me tell you this.  Hot chocolate or chai made with skim milk tastes FABU if you froth it up a bit prior to sipping. 

Go get yourself one.  I promise it will make you happy.

What’s one of your favorite things?  Not the big ones like your spinning wheel or laptop or dog (oh, wait, that’s me), but one of the little ones that just makes life a little more fabu for you?  C’mon, share.

If she were still alive, my Gram would be 100 years old today.  This picture was taken on her 90th birthday, after she’d had a stroke. 

My Gram was a heck of a lady.  And I mean lady.  Shoes and purse always matched (see that’s why I need so many shoes and bags), and she was always tidy and well put together, right until the end. 

As a child I was a little afraid of Gram.  She was a tough bird, with good reason.  She didn’t like excessive giggling, which always made the older siblings giggle more (and the balloons flying and squealing around the house?  Not my doing!), but worried me.  She loved her grandkids so much, though, and always was glad to see us. 

When I was 19 she joined my folks and me on a road trip to Ohio for a family reunion on my dad’s side. During the long car ride, Gram taught me to crochet.  She was by no means a natural teacher, in fact, my mom says that’s why she doesn’t like to sew or do needlecraft.  But, I was stubborn and wouldn’t let her do the crochet for me; I forced her to let me learn it.  And by the end, I did.

During that reunion it was fun to have my two grandmothers at the same place at the same time.  My dad’s mother was pleased that I’d taken up crochet and gave me her mother’s yarn carrier.  It’s a tin canister, black with little pansy boquets all over it.  So, yeah.  Crochet reminds me mostly of Gram, but also of my Grandma A.

Every now and then on the face of one of my sisters, my cousin, my mom or aunt, and sometimes on my two goddaughter neices, I see the teasingly disapproving look that Gram would give when amused and pretending to be shocked.  She was, after all, the ultimate lady.  I’m sure I give out that look too.  Cause we women descended from her have something strong in us, something that can take a little shock with humor, take a lot of sadness with dignity.

Thanks for being a great example, Gram.  And thanks for the crochet.  I’m giggling now just for you.

For supporting Jessie in her Race for the Cure today:  Gary of jickymcjickster.

And.

Meet Purl.  I thought this was a fellow, and I loved a lot of the names, but Purl seemed just right.  Thanks for the suggestions, and congratulations to Heide of But Mom…

Thanks to everyone who played along with me, and especially for the generosity of my knitting posse:  Scout, Gary, Heide, Sheila, Noelle, and everyone else who donated to Jessie’s Race, someone else’s race, or is running the race.  Jessie raised $365, and $90 of it was through this contest.  You guys are great!

Noelle and I met at Flying Star for an impromptu, two-hour SnB.  I was back home by 9:30 and set myself down on the futon to dig into my end-of-semester projects.  I’m writing a discourse analysis paper about how to shift from shorter to longer fiction.  Fascinating.  I know you want to read the paper, but you’ll have to wait. 

So here’s the big moment.  I decided I needed to keep working on the Sockapaloooza socks.  I also needed to skim through a book of essays to see if anything useful was buried in the pages.  Without thinking about it I began to knit (stockinette in the round–sock feet) and read at the same time.  Do you understand?  I KNIT and READ AT ONCE!  I’ve been griping deep in my heart for ages about how if I could just knit and read simultaneously I would be good to go.  Carole once said she just tried to knit while watching a movie (you know, without looking at the knitting) and found she could do it, and I’ve been secretly jealous since then.  Granted, I’m skimming, not studying, but it’s a start!

Back to the books and needles.

Thanks, Sheila!  My Whoopie Pie arrived today.  I popped it in the fridge as I like them cold, then enjoyed a sliver (I’ve got to make this baby last!) with a glass of my new favorite drink, pink grapefruit soda from Trader Joe’s.  I’m nuts over this soda, which is a little strange since I generally avoid soda.  Sure, I love me a ginger beer or ale, but that’s my limit.  Carmela brought a divine lemonade to the last Crafty Friday, and I’ve been trying to find it.  I bought some lemonade at TJ’s, and said "what the heck" when I saw the grapefruit soda.  The lemonade didn’t turn me on, but yowza!  Just sayin’. 

Speaking of yummy, you might have heard:  Scout has opened an Etsy shop!  I longed for Pinky Tuscadero when I met her at SnB last night, and this morning she became mine.  LOVE Scout’s colors.  Superboy is still available if you can’t wait until she gets her next lot up for sale.  He’s pretty adorable. 

Tonight I finished turning the heels and picked up the gusset stitches on my Sockapaloooza socks.  I really like the look of the eye of the partridge heel flap (although if someone can give me the etymology of that name, I would be grateful).  My pal is overseas, but I’m going to use international priority mail and ship out on Tuesday along with everyone else.  This means that I have about 9 inches of knitting to do in the next four days.  I plan to knit in my seminar tomorrow night, so as long as no one is offended and wants me to stop, I should be able to get a few inches done. 

It’s national tv turn off week.  I haven’t had tv since 1992.  This past year I’ve been catching up on my Sex in the City via Netflix, and I watch tv when I’m at Neal’s (it’s going to be weird to live full time with a tv for the first time in 14 years…), especially UCONN Huskies men’s basketball.  I kind of like the quiet of my world sans tv, though.  Too much of it, and I start to feel numb.  I’d rather listen to music or podcasts!

Thanks for all of the nice comments about my first yarn dyeing attempts and the Madison bag.  I’m just so pleased with the bag…I sometimes feel like my crafts turn out looking less than lovely, that I have so many problems with my knitting that I’m always fumbling through.  So it felt really good to sew up a good pattern with nice fabric and to create something I’m really proud about.  What creation (kids excluded!) are you most proud of?

One of the ways I’ve learned to look at writing, at stories, is to imagine them as both horizontal and vertical.  Personal essays, for instance, tend to the vertical–an examination of a subject from a variety of levels up and down along a plane.  So when I saw this meme on Creative Little Daisy, I thought, yes, that suits me right now.   Here’s the deal.  Go to Wikipedia and do a search for your birthday, month and day, sans year.  Pick three events, three births, three deaths, and list them.  Consider yourself tagged if you read PoMo Golightly!  Here are a few tidbits from 9 February:

Events:

1775 – American Revolutionary War: British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show

1969 – First test flight of the Boeing 747

Births:

1404 – Constantine XI, last Byzantine Emperor (d. 1453)

1960 – Holly Johnson, British singer (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)

1952 – Mookie Wilson, baseball player (and fellow alum of my alma mater)

Deaths

1450 – Agnès Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France (b. 1421)

1881 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (b. 1821)

1955 – Albert Einstein, American, Swiss physicist, (b. 1879)

Crazy Aunt Purl’s horoscopes are back, and here is mine:

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18)
A couple of years ago a friend and I worked at a company where we were both miserably unhappy. We had no idea what the buckwild crazy management could possibly want from their shackled and browbeaten employees. The requirements seemed to change from day to day, minute to minute. Eventually we entertained ourselves with devising a resume for the perfect employee at Insanity, Inc. Skills included "Will bend over backwards … and forwards….." "Proficient in ass-kissing, ego manipulation and general sucking-up" and "Able to blurt 50 flattering words a minute!" "Can multitask: ability to both move and bury bodies." This month you have that little red Mars in your work house, and your days will be busier than they have been in months. The good news, though, is that you will not at any time be required to bury a dead body. Kissing up, however, is totally optional.

Yeah, my days are busier than they have been in months.  Would you like to join the pity party for a moment?  It’s BYOB.  Get a load of what’s lurking all around me:

1.  Gotta sell my place.  Have a Craigslist ad, have some responses.  Hopeful.  But this will hang over me like a big dark New Mexican cloud until it’s a done deal.  And really, it’s out of my control.  Like so much else. 

2.  Mid-term due on Thursday.  In Discourse Analysis.  I’ve developed three five-question heuristics with which to examine two drafts (the original short-short and the current 30 pp drafts) of my story "Queen of the Tobacco Field."  ETA: finished, 12:02 a.m., Thursday.

3.  Comprehensive exam bibliography due to my chair on Friday. ETA finished 12:30 p.m., Friday

4.  Thirty-three paragraphs about my character’s life due on Thursday. ETA: finished 11:12 a.m., Thursday.

5.  The random lesson plan. ETA: finished for a few days at least…

6.  Revision of my newest essay, "labyrinth" (yes, that’s the one about the demise of my marriage) due on Tuesday. 

And…I’m trying to get my darn Sockapaloooza socks knit, all while finishing up a super secret gifty for someone.  Ok, pity party is over.  I won’t wallow here for long.  No time for it.

I am looking forward to Crafty Friday this week.  If you live in the Albuquerque area and would like to join us at my place for a festive evening of crafts, food, and drink, leave your e-mail, and I’ll send you directions.

Yes, I’m supposed to be grading student work.  I will, I will.  I just had to show you this .  Does anyone tape or tivo this show?  I would be eternally grateful for a copy of it.