Dainty Kitty

To Carry Your Body Parts...I Mean, Groceries

I'm re-posting this tote that I stenciled a few months ago so that I can link to it from Ravelry.  You might have seen it before on my old DK blog but I didn't want to link to the inactive site!

Booga Bag - My First Felting Project

I started the Booga Bag last night with some of the yarn Jake bought me for my birthday.  There was a certain lack of sunshine by the time I got home last night so I still haven't taken photos. The photo to the left is from the pattern - mine will be a pretty mottle of blue, black and brown. 

I've never felted before so I'm pretty excited.  I've got 60 rows to knit and I'd really like to finish it, get it felted and block it to dry tonight so that I can carry it to London this weekend.  I don't see that happening and it doesn't match my dress so I'd only be carrying it if we changed when we go out after the wedding on Saturday so...no pressure, I guess.  I would like to get it finished and blocked by the time I leave, though, so there's no conscious waiting around for it to dry.  I'm very much like that little kid in the Disneyworld commercial: "I'm too excited to sleep/wait for my purse to dry!"*

It's nice to try something new - like the gloves (they're on vacay until I finish the bag...thumbs, shudder).  I can pick up stitches now - hooray!  After learning the basics, I got intimidated.  If it wasn't knitting straight, back and forth, or knitting in the round, I wasn't going to try it.  Sure, I could increase and decrease but beyond that...I was afraid...but I'm finding now that some of the techniques aren't that hard.   Seriously, I'm trying socks next.  Well, after I make one more felted bag.  If you join Go Get Your Smock, they'll send you a cute pattern for their Trinket Bag.  Finally a use for the jade disc that my dad brought back for me from China a couple of years ago!  It's very much like the Booga Bag with the exception of a trinket closure and its size but the instructions are great for a first felting project.  Heck, I used it to figure out how to make i-cord (I really thought it would be harder to make than it was) - that's how novice I am - and I'll use it to felt the Booga Bag, as well.   

*Has anyone seen the latest Mastercard "Priceless" commercial with the three grade school kids dancing to "We've Got the Funk"?  I guess it's been out for a few months but I saw it for the first time last night (a half dozen times and I still love it).  Gah, it's so cute!

I Am Dating a True Geek

I had to get this down before I forgot it.  While he was in Kansas, Jake bought be two giant skeins of hand painted yarn from a shop there (pictures to follow) for my birthday.  Anyway, I was sitting on the couch with his laptop looking for a good felted bag pattern while he caught up on Veronica Mars (I'm a disc ahead). At one point he paused the DVD to say,"It was so cool watching them wind that yarn."  He then proceeded to explain the device to me. "It was so freaking cool.  I can appreciate that technology."

Too funny.

Emily at 10 Months

I’ve had a pretty good birthday so far - “so far” because who knows what could happen in the next three hours?  :-)

Extra special smooches to Delly and Elizabeth (I wish you still blogged, woman) for making my day so much brighter.  You guys rock!

And now I'm off to settle down with the birthday cake my parents brought and finally watch the oh so sexy Alan Rickman in Perfume...I've saved the best for last!

From Now On I'd Like to Be Addressed As...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Marchioness Emily the Potential of Chalmondley Chumleyton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Bush v. The Zombies

I was very happy to find that even Mr. Bush is aware of the possible threat of a zombie invasion.

Lack O'Pictures

Why is it I find all sorts of things I want to take photos of when I don't have a camera?   Sunday night I spotted a beautiful yellow and orange moth on my rear window as I was pumping gas (moments after I'd discovered I'd left my camera in Jake's pocket) then there's my thumbless fingerless glove, the unbelievabley gorgeous chopsticks my dad brought back from China for my birthday and today - my pretty red nails.  I stopped biting them again and decided last night they were long enough for a homemade manicure. 

Jake leaves for Kanasas out of Columbus (an hour or so away) at six-thirty tomorrow night and flies back into Columbus at ten-thirty Sunday night.  He couldn't possibly miss more of my birthday weekend but the pity party is, indeed, over.  So I'm going with the plan I came up with Monday night.  I have a couple of Netflix movies queued up to arrive tomorrow including Perfume with Alan Rickman (if I can't spend the evening before my birthday with my boyfriend, I'd say Mr. Rickman is a very close second choice...although I'd also take Alton Brown if anyone was offering).  Saturday night is going to be take out chicken wings and dvds and Sunday morning is going to be spent around the pool with mimosas until a.) the complex kids show up or b.) it's time to get ready for my parents to pick me up to go to the German Picnic. 

The following two weekends are packed with a wedding in London, Ontario next weekend and the AleFest the following weekend (I'm going to take lots of pictures this year)...maybe I'll just postpone my birthday until September. 

33 Year Old Child

The older I get, the more excited I am about my birthday.  It's like I hit a point in my mid-twenties when they really didn't matter and now I'm on the upswing.  It's odd but true.

I turn thirty-three on Sunday and was very excited about my birthday weekend.  Other than dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant, Akashi, on Saturday night and mimosas on Sunday morning, we didn't really have any plans but it was still going to be fun.  I mean - hello - it's a birthday!  It has to be fun!

Ahem, not true.  Notice the use of the work "was".  Birthdays don't have to be fun.  Not if you find that you're probably going to spend it alone-ish.  Jake has to go home for his aunt's funeral on Friday and isn't sure when he'll be back.  Maybe Sunday some time.  Maybe.  I know that makes me sound like a complete greedy bitch but she lived to be eighty-nine and had full mental capabilities...that's pretty good and I'm sure she'd agree. 

It's my birthday so I'm allowed to be a little sad and selfish on my very own blog.  And I also feel pretty bad about feeling this way so it evens out. 

I already knew my parents were going camping this weekend but I called my mom and asked, "Can I be sad for a minute?" and told her the news.  I wanted someone to be sad with me, dammit.  She told me they're getting home around noon on Sunday in order to go to the German picnic and asked me to go with them so at least that's something. 

You know, part of me wants to either throw myself a little pity party or just forget that it's even my birthday this weekend...postpone it for two weeks or something (we're going to London, Ontario for a wedding the following weekend).   But writing this has kind of made me realize that it doesn't have to be that way.  I guess there's no reason why I can't celebrate my birthday by myself as sad as that sounds. I could call Wendy (we met for drinks last Thursday and had a good time) and we could go out...but going dancing and drinking just isn't my bag any more.  But there's no reason why I can't get take out on Saturday night and watch a marathon of Emily's Favorite Movies (something with Alan Rickman in it like that new movie, Perfume, Sliding Doors and maybe Harold & Maude for irony's sake).  There no reason why I can't mix up a batch of mimosas, throw them in a thermos and lay by the pool reading the new issue of Glamour Sunday morning (I was so happy to see Mariska Hartigay on the cover)...other than the thought of it just makes me sad.

I've spent enough time being sad and sorry for myself today, though.  Time to grab a Trader Joe's Lime Floe (my newest favorite summer treat) and sit down to watch The Rage in Placid Lake.  Woo-hoo.

/end pity party

Mad Notes

You don't know "Jungle Love?" That shit is the mad notes. Written by God herself and sent down to the greatest band in the world: The mother-fucking Time.

- Jay, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Our theme for the year here at the office is a jungle theme complete with vines everywhere, stuffed snakes, monkeys and tigers...and a CD of any song we could think of that has anything to do with the word "jungle."  It gets played twice a week - Monday and Wednesday - to gather reps for the morning meeting.  Today we finally got to my contribution, "Jungle Love" by Morris Day & The Time.  For weeks we've heard "Welcome to the Jungle," "Jungle Gym" (Jack Johnson), and Steve Miller's "Jungle Love" over and over and over...finally someone skipped ahead!  What a great way to start a Monday morning!

I finished one Kolenya this weekend...except for the thumb...I need to do some research on that.  I did put in the bridges but if I were to make them again I'd probably leave them off - not because they were hard - they were easier than I thought - but I'd leave them off for comfort reasons.  I'll have pictures here in a few days...I accidentally left my camera at Jake's last night. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Insert Clever Scrabble Pun Here

The 2007 Scrabble Players Championship has come to Dayton, Ohio!

Jake and I went downtown to Thai 9 for dinner Friday night and spotted several players carrying their black and red tote bags (I’d love to have one of those – I can’t explain why but I would). I’d loved to have talked to a few of them but it wasn’t very convenient and I didn’t want to appear to be a Scrabble groupie or anything. I just thought it might make for some interesting conversation. I told Jake that I really wanted to write seven random letters on a piece of paper and ask them what they could come up with. 

As we were waiting for our check, a pair of players walked by and I realized that Joel Sherman had been sitting two tables away from us the entire time we’d been eating.  And who is Joel Sherman, you ask?  Why only the man who won the tournament featured in the documentary Word Wars!  He’s the one on the bottom left on the DVD cover.

On our way out I stopped, briefly, at a table of players and wished them luck. They thanked me, a bit stunned, and one of the older men pulled it together quick enough to wish me luck as well just as we were walking out the door. Oh I love a good game of Scrabble and got a great score once for the word “zen” and also won a challenge once when someone said you couldn’t use brand names…I had spelled the word “sprite.” Ahem. But it takes a special kind of person to play in a tournament.

Oddly enough, we had already had one brush with celebrity that night…we walked around the Oregon District for a bit while waiting for our table and exchanged pleasantries with Tom Archdeacon and his wife/significant other/lady friend. Mr. Archdeacon is a human interest sports writer for the Dayton Daily news – his articles are about the only thing I might read on the sports page.

And to end on a Scrabble note: I found this photo while looking for a picture of the Word Wars DVD. Very cool.