Gosh, I *heart* Jack White.

It's chilly and grey today! Yay!

I overslept, though, that's no good. It's been really hard for me to get out of bed for like 3 weeks, now. Monkeybutt. I am progressively later and later.

Ann's knitting a sock.

Suddenly, Bush's pleasure at meeting with Putin (despite Putin's not volunteering troops to help occupy Iraq) becomes clear:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3150592.stm

PPPS- What is wrong with this sentence?

"He celebrated quintessentially American communal activities such as corn husking, cranberry picking, and maple sugaring, yet he also made pictures of intimate moments in the lives of women."

Them as gets it right--well, I love you.

Doot doot doot. Friday at 5, and I'm still here. Could be here for hours, but I'm not going to be, ha ha ha.

The week in review: I was hassled for dropping a cigarette butt (littering!) by someone who commutes 2 hours a day in a car (I'm still biking in). That's like favoring gun control and working in a nuclear arms factory, I swear.

Also, I love the way that blogger is now advertising Sweater Vests up in the ad bar.

Q. Have you heard about the new pirate movie?
A. It's rated AARRRRGGH!
Q. And do you know why?
A. Because of all the booty!

And here shall it languish, for forever, just because I don't want to do the 1/1 ribbing around the neck and armholes.

It's three o'clock. Do you know what your adult children are having for lunch? That's right--generic oreos and V8 at their desks.

Well, you tried.

Look! It's a high-tech illustration of the progress on the vest I am making for my Daddykins! (Red bits are finished.) When I finish (in a month or so) I shall slap up a photo of the real deal--proving that I actually do knit.

PS-here was my quiz result:

You, baby, YOU are [Ms./Mr.] Pro-Choice America 2003!

So. I like how my last two posts seem to completely contradict themselves. (In reality they don't, of course; pirates were verrrry into dressing up and crafting. Think matchsticks in the beard, beads in the hair. And a bone in yer nose, ho ho.)

Now for substance (ha!): I hate how Friday afternoons always find me cranky. Friday I'm in love with being a right bitch, myself.

The ladies who run (and are the sole full-time employees of) ReadyMade magazine were here yesterday. We got peanuts to eat; it was awesome. They are verrry young, arr. Like 28 or something. I feel like a loserrr.

But all the piratical (sp?) frivolity isn't enough for me anymore. I don't want to make a fluffy magazine.

Here's a how pro-choice are you quiz, fellow Americans, and there's a petition associated with it that you ought to sign: http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/genpcquiz. Tell you what, I am appalled by the way things are going in this nation. It's frightening enough that I've been hiding out and weeping silently a lot--but no more, I tell ya. I have got to get politically active again.

I am ...

VERY PIRATE

according to the rebelsnail.net Pirate Assesment. How Pirate Are You?

My last five bookmarkings:

Sashiko
Pysanky
A Sweater
Shawls
A Knit-along

Craft obsessed, what can I say?

I want one.

You know, fantasy is so much more fun than most grown-ups give it credit for. That's why I knit--I can focus on the work in my hands and pretend. That I am a super fashionista designer and artist. Or, as I have been imagining lately, that I live in a world where there's a warm kitchen for sitting in, sweet houseplants at the sunny windows, dinner in an oven, a barn full of contented animals outside, a garden in its last summer bloom, and a beloved someone hurrying home or already at an opposite chair, reading.

The new Knitty is up, y’all.

I had horrible nightmares, locked myself out of my apartment this morning, and I’m proofing patterns. *Not* an auspicious beginning to the day.

"Thank you for flying Frontier Airlines. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."

I'm not kidding--she actually said exactly that, including the italics.

Also, I saw Dustin Hoffman!!!

Oh, Johnny Cash, no.

THE FLEA.
by John Donne


MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

Saturday I'll be in Santa Monica; yay, Pacific Ocean, here I come!

Y'okay, on a lighter note.

Tweed Stitch is awesome. And I got my paycheck, and we had a birthday party for a nice lady downstairs. And it is one of the most beautiful days I've ever seen outside. And here is a knitting joke:

This woman is knitting as she drives (which is totally unsafe, and I don't advocate it). Pretty soon, her speed has crept all the way up to 95 mph--and she passes a parked police car. The car gives chase--Officer Bob turns on his sirens--but the woman, oblivious, doesn't notice him. Finally, he pulls up alongside her truck and yells, "Pull over! PULL OVER!"

She looks at him, looks at her knitting, and yells--

"NO! It's a CARDIGAN!"

Heehee

So. Tomorrow is the 11th, and I need to decide what would be the most appropriate thing to do. Pray? Treat the day the same as any other, giving no nods to the hype? Write some letters? ….

Alone in the office again--it's so dang difficult to focus in the afternoon, with tons of afternoon stretching before you, when nobody else is around. They're all out gallavanting with their families and running errands and whatnot.

I am dreaming up major cable-fun projects to excuse my new ring--it arrived yesterday, and I'm wearing it today. And I've been wandering around, getting coffee every half hour.

Saw Open Range this weekend--Kevin Costner, I really didn't expect much, but I needed to get out of the apartment. The film was mostly just very poorly edited. A black cat popped out of some bushes before me as I was walking home, and I'm ashamed to say that I did scream a little bit. My superstitiousness is a comfortable hum in the background, for the greatest part, but every once in a while....I had a painful adrenaline rush, anyway.

Fascinating!

Also, I talked to my Aunt Penny last night--she won a red ribbon for her bread-and-butter pickles and a blue ribbon for her fairisle hat at their county fair. Yay, Aunt Penny!

It's funny how many things 'st.' can stand for:

Saint
Street
Stockinette
Stitch

Willfully misconstruing the intention of the abbreviation is entertaining me this morning.

My parents live south of Stockinette Louis.
I live on 16th stitch.
Work 26 streets in pattern; work 12 saints in garter stockinette.

Excellent.


You are espresso. Subtle, complex, with a rich
crema and just the right amount of bitterness.


What Kind of Coffee Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Here is my major self-indulgence of the year: the ring I've bought from Mary Snyder (but not yet enjoyed). It's a thumb ring to hold a cable needle (that's the pointy bit with the peridot). Gonna have to get back on them big cabled sweaters!


Also, Nifty Link O' The Day, courtesy of Susan.

Okay, Davy Jones dressed as Elvis. I really don't know what to think about the world anymore.

Feeling beloved of man and blessed by God—I’m glad I went home for a bit.

I am enamored of Kansas, because they have fabulous jingles for every little business—the MRI center, the siding guys, the local convenience store. And I am also enamored of autumn—it is definitely cooling off out here.