Tuesday, December 28, 2004

I am never home

At least that's what it feels like this month. I was in West Virginia for three weekends in December, and tomorrow I leave again for Minneapolis for the New Year.

So the drive from Chicago to Morgantown last Thursday (the 23rd) was extremely frustrating. It fell short of traumatic by just a smidgeon. We were driving through Dayton, lucky us, after a record-breaking snowfall. The previous record was 12" in one day; this was 16" in 24 hours, plus eight more on top of that. The roads weren't too bad, but apparently no one in Ohio understands that. I-70 was just shut down with traffic. We thought we would run out of gas idling, with all the exit ramps blocked by snow and/or sideways semis, but we found a plowed U-turn and drove the twenty miles or so back to Indiana. Twenty miles, three hours, half a tank of gas. Ugh!

The next day the roads were better and we eventually reached home.

I am still working on a birthday present for Miss F! Oh, will the Frances Dances ever get to prace into Kansas? At least I can show her the progress even if it's not done in time....because I will see her!!! And all my other Mippelus homies! Rock rock on.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

A very merry Solstice!

It's a few days late, but JEEZUS it is winter. I know, I know, I ignored all the warnings about how hard a Chicago winter is, but I thought that four years in Minnesota would toughen me. Alas! It is all that Minnesota was plus wind. At least there are wonderful coffee shops and heated buses.

I'm driving home with Charlie tomorrow for holidays with Me Folks. It is going to snow all the damn way there. Yippee.

I am still finishing a couple of knitted gifts (including one BIRTHDAY gift for a certain lady who was born the very last day of 1980), but what are nasty car rides for? Drive, Charlie, drive!

I just got a yarn swift and ball winder in the mail. Naughty chicken that I am, I shall have to soon wind up all of my un-wound yarn skeins. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you won't truly appreciate it. Suffice it to say that without this stuff, I relied on the back of the chair and the mercy of the kitties. Thank you Joann's for coupons.

Soon I will add some photos of finished knitted projects and works in progress (WIPs, y'all uninitiated). Or you can say FOs for finished objects and...UFOs...for unfinished ones. I like that a lot. Knitting lingo is nearly as ridiculous as all the abbreviations at Carleton!

Think of it: "Did I leave my UFO in the SCIC or the Arb?" (One would be more traumatic than the other. You decide which one.)

Thursday, December 16, 2004

A low-fi sort of thing

Well, I wanted to learn fancypants HTML and get all kinds of buttons and doohickeys on here, which kept me from updating at all.

It's not a good excuse, but it's true. Frances AND Amanda agree. Also others. Hannah, mayhaps.

So, I have heard a request for funny websites, or perhaps merely the ones I visit. Now I must admit that I have become a sick, sad frequenter of Ebay as well as discount yarn sites such as Elann and "stash sales" on Knitter's Review forums. These are not recommended for people on tight budgets. Oops!

However I am making so much kick-ass stuff that my friends will forget to comment on how sunken my eyes look and how my hair is falling out from malnutrition.

A warning to everyone who is thinking of having a bachelorette party any day soon: I will make you one of these. It is only necessary.

A very good webcomic is ending December 31. Goodbye Wigu.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

I...did it!

Well, I gave in and began a blog. Partially it's so I can show off my knitting projects...and my kitties...but also just to have a good way to get out of mass email. No but seriously, let's philosophize later, shall we? First things first. What is a lorikeet, and moreover, a Laurakeet?

A lorikeet is a parakeet-looking bird that lives in Australia. If you've ever been to the San Diego wild animal sanctuary or zoo, you might have fed one nectar from a cup. I did, years ago, and just recently I put together the similarity of the bird's name to my own. More on lorikeets here.

It gets more complicated but not more interesting. Mostly, I like to think...beautiful plumage! (Yes, it's a Monty Python reference. Eat my shorts. [That, of course, being another reference. Gah.]) And parentheticals to ETERNITY!