I was thinking about ritual this morning. I used to smoke, and I think one of the strong attractions to doing it (besides addiction) was that so much of the behavior was ritualistic. The new pack of smokes, pounding them against your palm with the rhythmic 'thwak, thwak, thwak', and the regularity of it, the unvarying insistence of it. And of course, now I have my morning ritual of making coffee, a caffe latte, actually. It's something I do every morning and I enjoy doing all the steps in order (fill the resevoir with water, fill and tamp the grounds while the wand starts to steam, froth the milk). I enjoy the feeling that it is a necessary part of my day- something that I choose to do- that I need to do (or suffer the caffeine withdrawal headache). Ah well, it must fill some deep inner need. What rituals do you have?

Anyway, I've been reading "Moby Dick" and last week I read Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejuidice". While I was reading P and P I kept thinking in that sort of way they speak-- can't do it now, of course, but it was all proper and polite. What a crazy book. It's all about vanity- I think it's Elizabeth in the novel who makes the distinction between pride and vanity- pride is how we feel about ourselves, and vanity is how we are concerned with how others perceive us. Maybe this is a 'no duh' kind of thing for you, but I always think of vanity as someone looking at themselves in a mirror, thinking how beautiful they are. But if you think of it as impression management, then it's a whole 'nother thing. And I've never read "Moby Dick". I like his style of writing, very storyteller-like. But the whole 'native as exemplar' thing I don't buy, so that wears a little thin (like man in his natural state is naturally moral and 'gets life right').

I've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning these past few days. Whoever cleaned the apt. before us did a terrible job, I must say. Not to mention that it was neglected for a month or so. So I've been taking pride in my hard work, but we'll see how long that lasts. After the first blush wears off, then I'll probably just hate having to vaccuum all the time and consider it drudgery. Maria Montessori really emphasized what she called 'practical life' in her method for the education of the young child- all the children in my classroom know how to sweep up a spill, dust the shelves and wash the tables. We have child-size brooms and cloths and brushes and everything. When I took the training (3 years ago) we read about how she always cleaned her house herself, even in situations where she could have had others do it for her, because she felt that it was an intensely human (and good) thing to do. So I've been trying to have that outlook on it. Cleaning is good.

Now I have to go clean the car for our long road trip to Tennessee. The windows get all scummed over with this film- really wierd. So last Spring and now this one, I get out the Windex. Makes me wonder what I'm inhaling into my lungs... Freon leak, anyone?

So I'll be back Tues. or so. Maybe I'll have the neverending shawl done by the time we get back. We've got the "Lord of the Rings" on CD (it's the BBC version, something like 60+ hours long!!) and the shawl is all I'm allowing myself to take so we're set.

Oh ya- and I'll be sending out my 7 things so be checking your mail, ladies. Woo hoo! Fun things in the mail. I can't wait.

So I thought I'd log on and blog on :) this morning while I'm drinking my coffee and before the day starts. This weekend was pretty nice-- very relaxing. We went to DQ yesterday and it was in the 80's. We took this job as caretakers of our apartment so I've got to clean clean clean this morning before I head out for work. And tonight we have our school picnic with all the parents so I'll be there late tonight. I am so AR that I cleaned the cleaning closet before I even cleaned anything else. And guess what I found? A millipede, mouse poop, spiders. Yea me. Actually, I had my husband come down and trap and throw outside the millipede. They're fast little buggers, aren't they.


Anyway, I was all set to redo this blog- move it to my own space, new template, install Tagboard, put up everyone's buttons, but of course it didn't happen. I'm reading Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejuidice" (I should underline that, I guess, but I'm too lazy to find how to, and I know that somehow I misspelled prejuidice, I think).


On Friday we're going to see friends down southish. I keep thinking it's Kentucky or Georgia but I know it's neither of those. Duh. 18 hr. drive. I WILL be bringing my knitting along. I may try and get Tues. off too.


Whoah, that ear infection last week was really nasty. Ear infection=nasty. So now I'm on antibiotics and I have, of course, gotten women's most dreaded side-effect of taking antibiotics. Can I hear you say, yea acidophilus? Yah, that's about it. So I should do the Monday thing-y. Be right back.

PromoGuy's Monday Mission 2.21

1. What happened this weekend that made you smile?

Hmm, it's gotta be something my cat(s) did. Gah, I'm that boring. Let's see... Penelope was trying to jump up to the window and totally fell. Sorry, that's about as good as it gets, folks.


2. Did you make someone smile today? If not, will you try?

Not yet-- my husband and I usually find ways to make each other grin, so at some point later tonight I will probably try and make him laugh. I do not forsee myself telling a funny anecdote in front of a group of parents at the picnic our school is having. Mine is more of the wry, dry type of humor. Heh, I made a rhyme.


3. Have you any clothes or accessories you love to wear but just totally embarrass the person you are being seen with?

My cat.

4. What was the catch phrase you said the most in High School?

Oh ack, I know there were some... Probably some morbid inside joke I had with my best friend Rebekah. Something sarcastic.

5. Who are you remembering this Memorial Day? (or for those not celebrating it, tell me about someone worth remembering)

Umm... all the people who gave their lives to make this country free? No one I could say I really knew personally.

6. Do you think you are a good friend?

Yes, I am loyal and faithful and truthful. I am a good listener.

7. (continued from MM 2.20) That outing tonight was a blast ... but that was last call. I totally over did it and shouldn't drive, anything we can do while I try to "dry out?"

Play dice. Play hangman. Play war (a card game).

BONUS: Do ya love me, now that I can dance?

Aaah, what?

More Minnesota news!! I didn't hear about this when it happened, but it's interesting to see how it all turned out...
Mall of America couple 'doing marvelously' 02/24/01

Wow, yet another reason I'm glad I'm a vegetarian!
Thanks for the link Celtic Fox!
Veggies unite!
Is the meat, poultry and fish you buy as fresh as you think?

The Friday Five!!

1. What's the last vivid dream that you remember having?
Something about giving my kitten away and then having to buy it back for $300-- and I did it!! No, wait, that was my husband's... I don't often remember my dreams.

2. Do you have any recurring dreams?
I've had a dream in which I'm up in the crabapple trees in our yard when I was a kid and the monsters from Sendak's book "Where the Wild Things Are" were helping me get away from some of the more scary monsters in the book.

3. What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had?
Probably that one.

4. Have you ever written your dreams down or considered it? Why or why not?
I have thought about it, but I'm not sure how it would aid me except when answering questions like these...
I think that my mind will remember if my mind is trying to tell me something. Mostly I just think that dreams are a way of working out unresolved stuff from the day and I figure if I'm not remembering them, the dreams must be doing their job pretty well.

5. Have you ever had a lucid dream? What did you do in it?
Lucid dream means that you are up and about and dreaming, right? No, I haven't.

Oh, how rude of me-- sorry. I forgot to add that the questions came from Theresa . And, SHE was the baby who was colicky ?sp?. Yea crabby babies.

1. Where were you born? What do you know about your own birth? (time, circumstance, etc...)
I was born in Racine, WI. I was shortly thereafter transferred to a hospital in the big city, Milwaukee (where I later went to college and lived for some years after as well). I don't know the time, I do know it was C-section (ugh) and I was a itty bitty preemie. I'd have to go hunting about in my dad's basement to tell you any more...

2. Do you have a baby picture you can put onto your weblog? If not, tell us what you looked like as a baby.
Yah, I do have pics, but I probably won't put them up onto my site at blogspot because it is such a huge hairy deal to do so. I had this crazy red bump up on top of my head, about the size of a half-dollar, I think and raised approx. one quarter inch. So that was wierd. I think I was born with hair.

3. What kind of a baby or toddler were you according to the people who were around when you were young?
I cried and cried, with colic, like another knitblogger who I now inconveniently cannot remember...
I think as a toddler I was pretty happy and easy going.

4. Know any cute baby-related quotes?
I think I ate cat food once, but everyone does that, right?
I will just answer this question by a few tidbits.
I had curly curly hair. And once in a walker in our garage, I fell down the stairs and gave myself a big 'ol scar on the chin which looks like this +++ because I scratched the stitches out. Silly baby.

Wow! Crazy Japanese toys!! I was looking for Domo Kun and found this! Doesn't Squib like Kogepan (scroll down) or something? Oooh, ooh! I found a link for the reward, I suppose I should hold onto this one, but nah...

Do you like Muffins? I know I do!! I especially like 4,5 and 7 . Number 11 is a French Muffin Film. Who knew?

Whoops!! Scratch that last post, people! My bad-- it's pixel squares...
I mean, maybe you'd be into that, too! But it's not *real* quilting, so sorry...

Hey, Kate and all you quilters out there, here's a quilting site that you might be interested in...
t h e * q u i l t i n g * b e e

Evil Cats!!

Bad,
bad kitties.

Just in case you have a hard time waking up...
No, it's no joke and maybe I should get some for my husband .
ThinkGeek :: Shower Shock Caffeinated Soap

So, knitting. Well, I finished the headkercheif and used a yellow ribbon woven through the eyelets to be the ties. My friend said it looked Swedish or something. Hm.
I guess I really am a geek. This here blog is just turning into a load of my favorite dippy links and really less of a journal let alone about knitting. Ah well. I would aspire to be as some of the greats here in this ring but I just don't have the patience to document my projects or offer up tutorials or whatever. That would be great, but I'm not sure it's really going to happen. Can I be the geek of the ring, please, please, please?!?! And I promise I will try to tell you all about any knitting I do. There, that's all I can offer, I guess... some amusing, perhaps interesting links and once in a while a post about my life and/or knitting.

My best friend (one of three) called to tell me she's pregnant!!! They're not telling anyone much until the 3mo. spot but I figure there's not much chance of anyone knowing and (duh) esp. if I don't really give out any details, huh? Of course, it was sort of hard. Again, I think that because I am an only child, I didn't learn at an early age that SOMETIMES OTHER PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DO MAJOR LIFE EVENTS FIRST. I was jealous when she got married and now I'm jealous because she is having a baby first. That sounds terrible, so please remember that I am as happy for her as I am jealous and we human beings can have complicated feelings all jumbled up at once. I'm still not really sure what the reason is, perhaps it is at base selfishness and not trusting God to provide and take care of me. I had a talk Sunday with Steve, a friend of my husband's and mine and he is possibly (hopefully, I think) going to get engaged to a woman who has a ?5? year old. The little girl is jealous and her mom tells her that when she has that attitude, it shows that she really isn't trusting God to take care of her and provide for her. So I need to apply that to my life. Hopefully I can come to some sort of peaceful place with this (it's not SO huge and horrible, but I do know that something's askew in my heart here) before I go to visit said friend. Anyway, I just need to be patient both with myself and the situation. Just as before when I was single and I wondered and prayed about if I would ever be married I felt like the uncertainty was so hard, so it is again now. Sometimes we just have to live with uncertainty and make friends with it somehow.

As I was surfing around the ring, I noticed some of you Blogspot people are down...
Here is the official deal and a suggestion to get yourselves back online...
Status.Blogger.Com

just for old memories sake...
did any of you ever play those computer games before they had graphics? well here
DNA/HHGG Infocom Adventure you go. It's the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy game on thier webpage. Good luck getting out of the bedroom-- I sure couldn't.

A ha! Now we know...How GoogleTM really does it.
Google Technology

More for you twitchy people...
Pentix - The Art of Pen Spinning (updated 05/18/2002)

Here's a neat trick to show all your friends...
$20 Bill Commemoration of 9/11

What's big and pink and rhymes with rock?
Culled from frankgumola.

Blah... I'm sick.
I will lamely now post some other people's Star Wars reviews;
Richard's Dish regarding how 'the kiss' comes too early in the movie and how a scene could be rewritten...
and
Day Old Bread Store
in which it is proposed that it is not unlikely or even unreal that Senator Padme should love Ani (I only disagree with her statement that what's her face needs a boob job, myself being small in the boob area as well as well as a vegetarian)
and finally,
The Weekly Standard in which it is argued that the Empire is not evil (scroll down)- kind of a long one, but interesting...
methinks some people take this somewhat seriously.

It's the amazing singing Eugene!!!!eugenemirman.com

Is this you?

backupbrain has 7/8ths of the Hugo nominated stories linked at their site. This one's pretty good;
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" by Mike Resnick

Any smokers out there? Any twitchy, can't keep your hands still smokers? Here you go...
Zippo Tricks Bound To Impress And Amaze

And just to get you in the mood if you haven's seen the new Star Wars yet...
TheForce.net - Star Wars Humor Caption #35

Maybe I was wrong about Jar Jar...
Take some time to rethink his role.

via Creative Soul ConfessionsCheck out these hats!!!

...what I meant to say was
I just ran around the ring and found great encouragement in Fillyjonk's FO! It was a shawl for her mother and it sounds like she too was at that point where the end rows just seem to take forever. Let's hear it for the knitblogs ring-- it's great to hear about and get ideas from one another's projects.

Just ran around some more of the ring and it sounds like

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Hey,
well, last night and Monday I did get some knitting done. Working on the shawl I've switched to garter st and the new sts are sort of pooking and being all wavy like because garter st is wider than stockinette. So I could go down in needle size (ha) or I guess just live with it. What I'll end up with is a lace pattern that starts at the neck and goes down to around my elbows and then starts pouffing a bit and stretching waaaay more and I'll see how long I can plug away at this and that will be the length of said shawl. It's the Elizabeth Zimmermann Pi Are Square shawl which means it's a half circle with two triangles on each half that start thin and get wider and when worn sort of make lapels. So that's good. It was fun to knit and talk- if I'm home here I just tend to surf and surf on the internet crazily collecting odd links and such until the wee hours. We don't have a TV so this is sort of my entertainment.

The lime green washcloth I was making for a friend turned was frogged and started again, but this time with a garter edging and stockinette on the inside, started diagonally, and will be a headkerchief so said friend can keep her unruly locks tamed. Have I told you my cat fetches?
I have yet to figure out how I am going to make the ties for it. I-cord, I suppose. Doesn't that seem bulky, though?

And about all these links, well, I'll get it all out of my system eventually. I think I'm 'finding my voice' on this here blog so you may have to put up with wierd links to civet cat poop coffee for a bit. Kate has generously emailed me with tips on how to move my blog (woo hoo! no more ads at the top!) and we'll see about that on the weekend. Oh yeah, gotta go see "Attack of the Clones" or whatever it's called, the new Star Wars. We'll see, I'm not holding my breath. I know Jar Jar is still going to be in it somewhere.

I'm Peony Hamwich of Buckleberry Fern
Thanks The Hobbit Name Generator
squib is also a Peony. Hoorah!

Ummm, this is scary...
Simulaids - Life/form® KERi Complete Nursing Skills Manikin

My Hair Is So Crazy - By Jamie Allen

Just so you can stay on top of the lastest in textile trends
Thinking Putty, Fabric of the Future!

The Life of Flax
The Flax

Accommodation: 4 – 6-bedded flats in the farm, or in the mediaeval villages of Anversa and Cocullo.
I WANNA GO NOW!!!
Facilities: laundry, independent heating, kitchenette - crockery, fireplace in every flat.

Camping, recreational and free-time activities: 5 tent beds, 5 camper caravans, animal watching, agricultural activity guide, herbalist courses, cheese-making courses, walks in the mountains, woods, Park, 1 km from the Natural Reserve, 1 km from riding school, 8 km from lake, 8 km from fishing grounds, 15 km from skiing grounds, 60 km from the sea. BIOAGRITURISMO LA PORTA DEI PARCHI - Anversa degli Abruzzi - Aq - Italy

And, you can go there!! and learn how to dye and weave! Aaaah, can you imagine, to be there when they are lambing and to be able to eat and relax and live on a beautiful Italian farm...
BIOAGRITURISMO LA PORTA DEI PARCHI - Anversa degli Abruzzi - Aq - Italy

Just in case you were wanting to adopt a sheep
BIOAGRITURISMO LA PORTA DEI PARCHI - Anversa - Aq - Italia

And, in a cautionary vein, I bring you...
The Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning-Man and Family

In case you had a hankering to go to a library with a cat, here you go.
Library Cats Map

- - - > PromoGuy.net Presents: Monday Mission 2.19
And, even though it's a little late...
here's my first Monday Mission 2.19

1. Have you ever given someone a present you just KNEW would be "da bomb" and when they opened it you could tell they just hated it? What's the story there?
I don't know if I'd say 'hated', but I have had the experience where I built up how wonderful something would be for someone and then it was, of course, anti-climactic. Can't think of any specifics, though.

2. What do you do that you would prefer that Mother never finds out about?
Well, my mother won't find out, I don't think. Sometimes in the past I have smoked.

3. Ever get in any arguments with your mother? What was one of the worst?
I have vague memories of an argument I had with my mother shortly before she died. I had been to Eastern Europe and I didn't get some gifts for relatives and I, of course, didn't care, but she was being thoughtful and I, being a teenager, thought it was a fake keeping up with the Joneses kind of thing, anyway, that was the last thing we fought about. I was a terrible teenager.

4. When was the last time someone special hurt your feelings? Did you tell them or keep it to yourself?
I am usually pretty good now about telling someone if they hurt my feelings, especially since most of my relationships I would say are pretty healthy. But, I guess I probably wouldn't really tell my dad, because I'm not sure what good it would do. Maybe I would.

5. Has your mother ever laid any guilt trips on you or made you feel like you can't do something good enough?
I always felt that my mom wanted me to be the best I could be, even if that meant that it came across as disapproving or that she wanted me to be different. I think that personality wise we were pretty different. I bet that if she still were alive, if we had been able to work through all that, that we would be much closer now that I am an adult. (aagh, I can't believe I just said I'm an adult!!!)

6. Looking back on your life, was there ever a point you see as the "crossroads" where you made a decisions that changed the course of your life? A path you did not take? What was that path, and do you ever daydream about what your life would have been like on the "road not taken?" Tell me about that.
I came to a point when I could have chosen a life of bitterness or I could forgive. I had just embraced my faith in God in a whole new way and I was presented with the choice to forgive someone who had hurt me very much (an ex) or move on in forgiveness and I can clearly recall a point when, as I was thinking about it, that I saw two roads lying ahead of me and I knew (we all know people who live their lives in bitterness, right?) that I wanted to take the road of forgiveness. Even though the other person didn't (and probably hasn't) said "I'm sorry" etc. It took the Lord's help for me to walk on that road and stay on it and I thank Him for it.

7. That was an awesome picnic basket you put together, let's stroll out by the lake as the sun sets. A cool breeze blows off the lake as the orange and red reflects off the ripples in the water. I can tell something is on your mind and I ask you. You think about how to reply but finally you say ...
It's important to grapple with where you stand before God.

BONUS: What do you think will come of that? The above? Hopefully only good. I'm assuming #7 is asking said blogger to talk about what they consider one of the most crucial issues in life (that's how I'm interpreting it, at least) and so I do believe that only good can come of grappling with these big questions. It's been good for me, at least.

Last night I went to the knitting club- it's a bunch of moms who know each other from somewhere else and I just go for the knitting. It's really fun and stuff- it makes me sort of want a house, I just live in an apartment. And kids, even thought they are like, wow, kids are a lot of work etc. etc.

We will be the caretakers of our apartment real soon. That means we get to vacuum.

So the knitting club thing-y has been the only place I've been knitting at lately. It's nice to have that one time in the week that I will for sure knit during. There is talk of doing it every other week, though. But I guess that would be fine. It's a good time of girl talk and the women there hold various and sundry opinions about everything, mostly different than what I think, so it's been broadening. After a year of settling into marriage with Dan, a year in which we mostly saw each other, it's good to start making girlfriends and such. That is another reason I enjoy the Knitblogs webring- it's a chance to make friends and hear about other's lives. I really think girlfriends are important, and mine are all in Milwaukee, WI, about 6 hours away, so that stinks.

I subscribed to 'wanderlust' but I haven't put the link up on my page yet!! Will the wanderlust police come and get me?!?! I am a bad blogger.

Aaaaand, in the coffee vein again (I am going to get around to joining that coffee clique) here is today's Too Much Coffee Man cartoon. Check out the archives if you get a chance!

It's This or That Tuesday!!
Here are my answers for your perusal...
1. Chihuahua or Great Dane?
Great Dane- small dogs suck.

2. Skyline or countryside?Countryside.
Gotta have lots of room for that Great Dane to roam. Plus the sheep, goats, llamas etc. I'd love to have someday...

3. Wrestle or box?
Wrestle- pain freaks me out.
Wrestling seems like there's some skill to it. Bear in mind that I'm talking about the kind of wrestling you did in high school, so it's not wrestiling ala WWE.

4. Monkey bars or slide? Slide.
I always stunk at the monkey bars; not enough upper arm strength.

5. Stars or stripes? Stars.

6. Ashley, Wynonna, or Naomi Judd?
Uuum. I really don't know much about any of them. Isn't Naomi the oldest?

7. "The Cosby Show" or "Growing Pains"? Growing Pains.
I thought the Cosby Show was sort of fake-y.

8. Giggle or chuckle? Chuckle.
I will on occasion give even a good guffaw.

9. Would you rather: walk in front of a crowd in your birthday suit, or eat worms?
Hard one, probably walk in front of a crowd. Hey, I do have a blog that complete strangers can read, right?

10. Charismatic or gregarious?
Gregarious to me sounds like friendly, and charismatic has connotations of cult leader etc. etc. so I'll go with gregarious.

And here's another coffee link to get your monday started right...
INeedCoffee - Coffee Enema. I didn't think this was for real, either, especially when I read that Janet Jackson uses them for depression, but hey, there it is. So if you believe everything you read on the internet...
Actually, I can buy someone doing this, somehow...

Now, just so you won't think from the past 2 links that I hate coffee, no, I don't hate coffee. I have an espresso maker at home and make myself one every morning without fail and if we're out of milk I get upset. So there. I also drink chai after work when I get home, but I think it interferes with my sleep patterns (i.e. I can't get to sleep) so I'm trying to cut that back.

Just in case you thought that civet cat coffee poop was a joke...
Kopi Luwak is the world's rarest gourmet coffee beverage and it's available from Raven's Brew Coffee.

Friday we went geocaching!!!. But we did not get the cache (pronounced 'cash').
Not yet. It got tooo dark. And from the look of things, our final destination was/is going to be the river, so we decided to call it
a night and go back later.
Have you ever knit an egg cozy? Well I did, and if I were ambitious, I would go and find the link for you... hold on...
chicken egg cozy
anyway, one of the cache items is a wind up bunny ala Easter findings at your local Walgreen's
and the egg cozy fits perfectly over it! So it is a chibbit and into the cache it will go...
So any of you in the MN area going to Minnehaha Falls, the challenge is on! Go and get the Chibbit!
For the rest of you, maybe I will post pictures later. Ta.

Happy Mother's Day!
I hopefully will become a mother some day.
Mother's Day is kind of bittersweet for me as my mother died when I was 17.
I was going to wear the velvet rust blazer I wore to the funeral to church this morning, but I found
that I had, in a fit of industrious simplifiying, simplified it out of (my) existence.

I took the last three days off of cycling (we've just been cycling indoors on the trainers) because
I was tired. Maybe I am 'overtraining'. I slept a ton on Saturday.

Friday we went The UnMuseum - The Mystery Pit of Oak Island aka How Human Curiosity Sometimes Leads to Human Suffering.

Here is a link to a Slashdot story commenting on a Salon story. You know all the talk lately about putting all the nuclear waste in Nevada at Yucca Mountain? Well, the PDF file linked here has lots of info about how we might go about marking the site for 10,000 years so that no one in the future will drill there. At the bottom of the article are the reports by 'team a' and 'team b' which I skimmed. Team A has a bunch of appendixes detailing how to make this area stand as a warning and look foreboding and unhospitable. Things like 'field of thorns' and 'ring of rubble' 'leaning spikes' and 'black hole'. Wow. This all reads like a sci fi novel and raises the question, how do we guarantee that future generations will not disturb this area?
Lots to read if you click on the PDF file!!

Sheep are not stupid!!
the not-so-stupid-sheep-Sheeptales.com

Here is a game for you...
SheepGame

Culture jamming, anyone? Fight Global Warming Big Game SUV Hunting

Did you know that WD-40 stands for Water Displacement (formula)- 40th try? More than you ever wanted to know about WD-40.
Welcome to WD-40 * About Us: Our History

Here is the story of
Hiroo Onoda.

My attempt to sort of involve some kind of knitting/weaving link hereabouts...
You probably have heard this (unless you've been living in a cave on a remote Phillipine island ha ha) BUT Did you know he wove his own clothes? (Scroll down)

If the beautiful people are getting you down...
Are You Smarter Than Miss America?
I got 4 out of 8. Waaaaah.

Here is a story for you...
Monsters by Kristen: The Birthday Goober, an Illustrated Story

Have some fun with these Faces 420 (set2)

Bwah ha ha...
Fact or fallacy: Sexy tree too much for some Westside neighbors By DAN WHITE SENTINEL STAFF WRITER May 8, 2002

Just in case you were inspired by the previous post...
How to Dance Gothic

I found this article to ring true to my experiences in high school and it was pretty amazing to see it all laid out neat and clean. Makes me long for the good old days (grin)...
Spatial Boundaries, Etiquette and Interpersonal Interactions at a Gothic Club

I want one!! If you want a cool credit card, you might want to take a look at this

Do most movie reviews make you just feel like "It's just a movie, jeez, could you summarize more and less with the philosophizing?" Well, these reviews get my thumbs up.

And here is a monster for you. A new one every day! Rawr!

Apparently, I should have patented my, now theirMethod of exercising a cat (US5443036). What happens when you make patenting too easy. Easy enough for a 7 year old?. Let's hear it for Minnesota.

Do you want to hear about my wonderful honeymoon?!? We went to Banff, CA to a castle there and it was like a dream...
No, you don't? you want to write a beatnik ramble?
oh, well. What am I going to do with you people?

Oh, also...
went to knitting group tonight, so I got about !3! rows of garter stitch done on my shawl. Did I mention it's killing me?
I'll have to take a picture soon so you all can see what I'm talking about.
Note to self; move on up to bigger needles.

Finally fixed the time zone thingy so now you can truly see what actual time it is that I'm posting. It's late.

I found an article about this parrot that Douglas Adams wrote about that's making it's way off the endangered species list.
aaaaand,,,

the world's stinkiest (and biggest) flower is blooming. Ah, spring.

Monday, May 06, 2002

Aaaaaw! I always like these kind of things. Previously
I have found sites like this documenting the travels of a gnome, now it's a teddy bear! See where he's been.

It's late...
I cannot sleep.
Nothing much to say. Lots of thoughts running through my mind, though.
'night.

Hello,
well, we did go and see Spiderman and it was quite fun. Kind of a boobie-centric film, but maybe the teenage boy demographic is what they were aiming at.
maybe it was just me. I'd ask you all to comment, but after visiting YACCS I can't seem to get it going. Yet. I will persevere.

It is storming here, there was a little hail a minute ago and now the sun is blazing this crazy intense yellow as it sets and there is no sunset, just grey clouds all around it so it looks very freaky. You know how sometimes when it's storming all the light turns this wierd yellow...

No knitting news, I'm afraid. I think that shawl is killing me. That and I'm lazy. Did a lot of surfing yesterday. I'll go look up some links.

I changed my links color so that now you can find them. Good job, huh? Yes, I am here to please.
here is a new extreme New Zealand sport. I would like to go to NZ if anything to just Zorb and see the sheep. (I want a sheep, did I mention?). I was in NZ once, the summer before last, in fact, but alas and alack, it was only in the airport, so all I got to see of NZ was some jade and a lot of little kiwi keyrings.

Here are some more poem words for you;
Sherlock,
hemlock,
shamrock.

Pomander,
colander.

Ta.

Hey,
I am surfin' the web and I just found this link. Probably someone on the ring has found it first, but maybe not. I have not trolled the ring yet.
Fans of the band Slipknot are emailing the British knitting group, Slipknot and telling them to get off the web. ha.
The knitters basically said they'd ignore it. Double ha. here's the article. Found via pith and vinegar.

oh, ps
we are going to see Spiderman tonight. Ha, I am such a geek, and so is my husband.
Oh, and last night we went to Babani's which is the ONLY Kurdish restaurant in America or so they say
and they catered our wedding and it was so good so now I have yummy leftovers for lunch. Yum yum.

Hello again-

another post after an extended period. You know, after I posted my last post I was sort of mortified about myself
and so I think that's why I haven't posted. Plus, when you write something, it makes it real. And while, if say, I write
something quite personal in my hardcover journal I don't have to care about how giddy/silly/odd I sound, I DO care if I
know other's are reading this because I like to seem like a consistent, true-to-my-word kind of person. for example, if I say
"I want a baby." then I had better well not just go gallavanting off and never think about it again. Oh well, who can fathom...

Wheee! We are going to be the 'caretakers' of our apartment. So we get to clean a lot.
And today is show and tell. I will try hard to remember if any of the children say/show something funny. I try not
to laugh at the children, however, because I'm all about respecting children. Plus, I think that plays into why they like
show and tell, because it really is a platform for them to express themselves. You wouldn't want to express yourself
if all the other adults in the room started laughing, now would you. So.

I did a momentous thing- here's the deal, I have 2 projects going, a simple garter st eyelet bordered lime green washcloth
and this shawl I was working on all last summer when my husband and I did the Sunshine Coast
Trailin Canada. Well, I was stuck, stuck, stuck. The shawl I had figured out all the lace patterns and wrote out the pattern and everything, but
at this point, it's at about 300+ sts on a #5 i think needle (small, anyway) with laceweight yarn. So I took it off the needles after mulling it over for a long time
because I was just going to frog it completely and use the yarn for something else, like socks. But then I laid it over my shoulders and it looked
so pretty and light and warm and after talking about it with my husband, I decided to plug on. So I'm going to go garter all the way and just try to plug away
at it until it's a decent length and maybe even move up a few needle sizes so it won't take so long. Yay me. Must go make shawl.

my other project is this cute little frog bag that i will post the link to later- i just have to sew on it's eyes and it's done. pics to come later.
dude, getting the sts onto the needles again from that shawl was like doing brain surgery. I've never done brain surgery, but I'm sure it's like that.

Did you know Lance Armstrong's muscles do not start to burn (that's from lactic acid) like the rest of us mere mortal's do? He has some kind of higher
threshhold with that AND with the amount of oxygen he can take in. VO2 if I understand correctly, which I may not. I'm reading "It's Not About the Bike".

ta.