Knitting Nation + Hugo Cabret = Great Day

A wonderful day, in fact a wonderful two days, but the best thing of all is that now it's the weekend, and I get another two days. Fantastic!

This morning my knitting friends and I went into Boston, to see Phase 8 of Knitting Nation at the ICA. That's the Institute of Contemporary Art, for my fellow philistines (I'd never been, myself).

They moved to a new building on the waterfront, and the outside of the building is to my eyes unexceptional, while the logo reminded me of the IGA grocery store chain logo:

What do you think?

The building might not be much, but the site is right on the water, with beautiful views. In fact, I caught a glimpse of the airport across the harbor, marked by the figure that as a child I called "the giant with a golf ball on his head".


And the views are also good from inside, where the knitting performance was going on.


Eight knitting machines, cones of yarn, piles of fabric ... very rhythmic, very meditative. I'm not usually a performance art person, but knitting is a way to get me in the door. Click on the photos to see bigger.


They had t-shirts, though I decided not to get one. And fortunately, since I'm not a size small, I didn't want to spend $100 on a t-shirt with added knit sleeves, presumably added by the artist. They were very cool, though.


(I took a short video of the machines in action, about 90 seconds, but given that it's been an hour and a half and it still hasn't finished uploading, I give up. I'll try it again tomorrow.)

We sat for quite some time, watching, and of course three of us were knitting. The artist had a photographer there to capture the event, and she took some shots of us, too! Pretty funny: the line between performance and observation. It was a great way to spend some time.

Then tonight I went with other friends to see Hugo, the new movie based on The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and it was excellent. I even approved of the 3D, which I usually am not a fan of. Some of us had read the book and some had not, so I have no qualms in recommending it to everyone.

Two days of good fun, and it's only now Friday night! This is my idea of a weekend.

Thankful Things

Behold, the clichéd but sincere list of some of the things that make me thankful today. I am thankful:

• That I could go to the grocery store and buy everything I wanted, without counting the cost.
• That I could sleep in this morning, and for the next three mornings.
• That when I woke up this morning, I was able to grab Miri, AND trim her way-long claws, without drama. She didn't like it at all, but there was no escaping, no blood, and no falling into trash cans.
• That I could sit on the couch this morning, Carlos sleeping on my lap, and knit while watching the Macy's parade (the coverage is seriously flawed [more below], but the parade itself is such fun).
• For Carlos. Period.
  
• For my traditional Thanksgiving morning breakfast, including the fried egg whites and pineapple juice which mean I made angel salad last night (angel salad takes egg yolks, and you drain the juice off the pineapple, leading to my own little breakfast tradition).
• That the Bruins won last night, their TENTH GAME IN A ROW. Sorry, I don't usually shout, but that warrants a little caps-lock. Ten In A Row. Nice.
• For a crazy chaotic friendly delicious Thanksgiving meal with friends. Fourteen at the dinner table is a crowd, but it was all good.
• For still being full, a few hours later.
• For heavy plans of an evening, involving the couch and (if I plan well) Carlos on my lap again.
  

This doesn't belong in the thankful list, but I was flipping between the two stations covering the Macy's parade, which were equally awful. It's good to have both so that when one goes to commercial, or shows a song I don't like, I have options. I want to see the parade, while they seem to think they're being a morning show about the parade. Let's go to celebrity chef John Doe in his kitchen for ideas on using up Thanksgiving leftovers! Let's not, I say; let's watch the parade. But I must be in the minority.

And I did get to see the Discover/NHL float, and Cam Neely on it! So that was exciting. But the bonehead announcer, who I know has to talk constantly for hours and is going to make mistakes but still, said that the game tomorrow is between the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Brewers. Come on, can't you read off a monitor better than that? Some other errors:

• Changing "Madison Avenue's" into Madisons Avenue's
• Changing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" into "Boogie Woogie Boogie Boy"
• Referring to the NYPD marching band as being "compromised of officers" instead of "comprised"
  

And that's just what I noticed and remembered. Sigh. Editors of the world, unite: you have nothing to lose but your fear that no one else cares about these things.

Do you need a palate-cleanser, too? Well, check this out. Cats, Mozart, synchronized ... something-ing. It's good.

Isn't that something?

Happy Thanksgiving. Or Thursday, anyway.

Time to Make the Angel Salad

Having enjoyed my bonus afternoon off, it's now that time.



Time to make the angel salad!

*****
Have you ever contemplated the terducken and wished for a dessert equivalent? Wish no more. Behold the cherpumple (CHERry, PUMpkin and apPLE pie):


And ... words fail me. Except to point out that the "recipe" calls for frozen pies and cake mixes.

*****
I feel sure that I linked to a regular version of the Muppet Show clip for Mahna Mahna at some point, but I can't find it, so whatever. To enjoy this version of it, you have to understand that Dion Phaneuf is a hockey player. That's all.



People are so weird and creative, aren't they? I love it.

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans. Happy Thursday, everyone else!

Brief and Superficial

Despite a solid night's sleep last night, I am tired, and planning to go to bed early tonight, taking advantage of an off-night for the Bruins (they won last night: nine in a row!). So I will be both brief and superficial here.

Look at this picture (via Puck Daddy):

This is Vancouver Canuck Chris Higgins. The Bruins played the Canucks for seven games in June, and his name barely registers on my NHL radar. But there are two things about this picture.

On the one hand, what is he doing with his jersey, blowing his nose? We'll hope he's just mopping up sweat, but it looks dubious.

On the other hand, look at those abs. Oh mah gah.

Tired, Busy, and Work Stories

I slept badly last night. Part of it was that I didn't get home until 9*, by which time I am usually winding down and getting into my pjs. Instead, I was kind of wound up, and ended up reading for a while (what, doesn't everyone do that when they're wound up? perhaps I should define "wound up" here as "surprisingly able to stay awake"), and didn't get to bed until almost 11. I slept for a few hours, but then woke and tossed and turned most of the rest of the night.

*It was totally worth it, I had a great dinner with half a dozen good friends, but oh, zzzzz.

In fact, it was one of those exasperating times when I thought I was awake more than I really was. I know this because when my alarm went off at 6, I awoke with a vivid "memory" of deciding to change the time to 6:30, then having awful trouble working the setting on the clock, where it kept flying past the time I wanted, and I would go back and whoosh too far, over and over. Dreams should not be both vivid and irritating that way.

Tonight is a unisom night, obviously.

And even though I'm tired, I got a ton done after work. Here's the list:

• stopped at the library to pick up a book on hold
• stopped at Ocean State to return a defective thing and pick up a few things
• went to stitch and bitch to hang out and knit, and make plans to see this at the ICA on Friday (knitting at a museum! knitting performance art! how cool is that?)
• went to the grocery store, and can I say that I tried to take a more direct route from SnB to the store and I ended up totally lost but remarkably calm, until I was driving over a "road" (and I use the term loosely) that was as level as a cheese grater, and at the end of this surface from hell I went down a steep what-is-this-a-driveway and was ... exactly where I'd been trying to get. only I could not retrace that route for a million dollars. weird.
• stopped at another library to pick up more books on hold
  

And finally I was home, ready to collapse and watch the Bruins game. I will say that of all times in the week before Thanksgiving to grocery shop, going when the Patriots are playing Monday! Night! Football! is an excellent choice. You know the game is a big deal if I heard about it, and the store was totally reasonable. I loved it.

Work Nuggets
Today I went to the second meeting of a team I've been added to, and one person who was not there last week was there this week. This isn't someone I've met before, and the strongest waves of hostility were coming off her ... as though she was there against her will, thought it was completely stupid, and wanted everyone to know. After the meeting one of the other people at the meeting came to my desk to quietly ask if I had noticed, so it wasn't my imagination. Hostile! Weird.

*****
(Don't read this next part if you're eating.)
My nearest neighbor at work has been minorly sick, what you might call working sick, since sometime in October. One result is that when she blows her nose, it tends to sound ... extremely productive. (I just went back and added the pre-paragraph warning. You're welcome.) Now, first off, I sympathize with her not feeling well (she certainly didn't choose to be this way), and second off*, I blow my nose a million times a day so who am I to cast stones.

*Why does that sound so odd, when "first off" sounds perfectly normal?

Still, the sound turns my stomach. I swallow hard and think repeatedly, "It's not her fault, it's not her fault." I do hope she gets better soon. (She went to the doctor today, but all he said was rest and soup. Thanks, doc.)

*****
If you are one of those people in an office who sighs, "Oh, I have all this vacation time I have to take before the end of the year," like it's some great chore, please shut up. Think before you speak. Chances are, someone within earshot has no more time off, and would love to have your problem.

Ahem.

I know, that sounds bitter. It's just that I don't really understand people who don't use up their time off, and really I think it's better for you if you do take time off. Certainly it's nothing to brag about that you haven't. And especially if your absence is going to make other people have to take up the slack, just hush. Either take it as unobtrusively as you can, or don't take the time. I know, you'll lose it if you don't take it! Don't whine. The rules have been in place all year. You knew.

*****
One drawback to working at a company that does medical-related work is that they want you to believe that NHL stands for non-hodgkin lymphoma. Everyone knows that NHL is the National Hockey League. And CCR certainly does not stand for Clinical Cancer Research. Ahem.

*****
There was a little excitement at work. when at 4:30 the lights went flick-poof and the whole building lost power. And, it turned out, the building to either side (well, one is a gas station, but still, no power). We sat around for a while waiting to see what would happen, but the answer was not the power returning, so we were released at ten to five. So that was nice. Especially since there were some piercing beeps coming from various computer-back-up-power things (forgive the technical term), which were really grating on my nerves.

I suppose we probably will have work tomorrow, but hope springs eternal. Especially since I just tried to log in to my web mail to see if there's a message about it, and I couldn't get in. Maybe because the building still doesn't have power? Cross your fingers for me!

Disjointedly

Remember how my new socks turned my feet stripey? Well, want to see what happened when I washed the socks?


I think most of the excess dye is now out ... but only time will tell!

Cute kitty in the house:

The paw under the chin makes this picture for me.


Have you seen this video of the big cat playing?



Does it strike you that any day now, he'll realize how close he is to the top of the fence?

Contented Cats

It's been a pretty quiet day around here, and not just for me. I looked over a little while ago and saw that the princess was conked out:


Next to her buddy, of course.

And when she hit the volume on the purr, I had to grab the camera again. Can you hear her?



Wishing you as peaceful a day.

It's Late. I Don't Have Much.

Between rounds of trying to herd me to bed, Carlos is skidding around after a milk-jug ring (he's newly a fan of them; Miri has loved them forever, and is especially fond of chasing them under the closet door and then looking lost). It's late, and I'm tired, but it's Friday night, and I don't have to set the alarm. So there is good.

And that's about all I can summon. So we enter the list of items tagged to "blog about", ruffle through the options, and present this:


As it says where I read about it, "Perhaps the weirdest opening sentence in a NY Times article ever." That is indeed one hell of a sentence, no two ways about it.

Quickly, A Stripe Story

Keeping it brief again tonight, as I have an exciting new book fresh from the library AND a Bruins game tonight, but this is something I had to share with you all. After I shut the computer down last night, I started to get ready for bed. Putter, putter, here and there, and oh let me try on the socks I got at Kohl's (yes, I bought socks! but they're over-the-knee socks, I wanted to try them). I sat down and pulled off one of my new socks, which were on their maiden voyage yesterday. (I spent part of a meeting yesterday admiring my feet surreptitiously.) I pulled the sock off ... and burst out laughing. Why?

Well, when you didn't notice any dye transfer while knitting, you don't expect the yarn to bleed, but that doesn't mean it won't. And if the yarn in question is striped, you see this:


Striped feet! I could not stop laughing. You see where it came from.


Anything for a laugh, eh? I wonder how blue the water will turn when I wash them?

Also, just for some random, I found myself driving behind a schizophrenic yesterday. I noticed the Bruins plate first, and smiled, but then I saw what was at the top of the window.


How can you be a fan of the Bruins and the Red Wings at the same time? Unless it's two different people ... I had a friend who was a NASCAR fan, Dale Earnhardt variety, and her race-going friend was a Jeff Gordon fan. You can imagine those two stickers on the same car confusing others.

Got to go!

Turned Out to be a Quickie

It's raining again tonight, and as I ran some errands on the way I home, I wondered how come I keep doing this to myself, running non-urgent errands* in the rain, which complicates them so. But when I made a list earlier in the day of the places I "need" (meaning want) to go, I came up with eight** without even working at it, and that does not include the grocery store, which I will need to visit before next Wednesday unless Walmart has heavy cream for the angel salad*** (which they probably do, but anyway).

*There's very little that won't wait another day, when it comes down to it. Being out of milk is probably my most common have-to-stop item.
**Granted, two are libraries.
***Remember angel salad? I wrote about it in 2007, and mentioned it in 2008, 2009, and 2010, if you want to time travel.

So I stopped at Kohl's and at Ocean State, and while the rain and umbrella thing was aggravating, at least it wasn't cold. It's been unseasonably warm recently, which I love, though it does feel strange to be leaving work in the dark and not be cold, two things that usually go together. I really miss the daylight after work; more light in the morning doesn't do as much for me. Well, one more month into the darkness and we start heading back to the light. And there's enough going on in the next month that it will move quickly, I know.

Like tonight went by quickly! How is it quarter of ten already? When time flies, aren't you supposed to be having fun? Not making dinner and ... well, whatever else I did tonight? Hmmm.

Tuesday. Knitting, Hockey, Cat

I started the new sock Saturday night, and here it is already.

(I've made so many of this pattern that the designer has added me to her friends on Ravelry. Now that's something!)

I love how quickly this goes for me. I've even been working on other things, and still look at it. Or look at another thing I've worked on:


Can you guess what it is? I know, it's odd. I'll give you more. With the addition of some of this:

I put it on this:
And it looks more like this:

It's a cover for a kitchen cabinet knob. Not my kitchen, but a friend's; two of the doors in her new kitchen are too near each other, and the knobs bang together. She lit the Knit-Signal*, and here I come.
*Like the Bat-Signal, only different. Maybe like this:
I do love to be called on for a knitterly solution to a problem.

I'm in my little "office" writing this rather than in the living room watching the Bruins game because it's making me seasick. New Jersey scores! Boston! Boston! NJ! Boston! NJ! I can hear the game from here, but the distance helps. Though I may have to go back in there, as his furry lordship is indicating that it's laptime. The things I do for love.

As it should be.

I'll close with the Quote of the day, via Gail Carriger's blog:

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it."
~ Unknown

Love it! In fact, I often feel like I live in that chasm.

But ... But ... It's November 14th...

On the way home from stitch and bitch, I glanced in the window of a house as I passed it ... and saw their set up, lit Christmas tree in the window.

It's a good thing I was close to home, and nothing unexpected happened in front of me the rest of the way, as I drove along blinking, asking myself if I really saw that, resisting the temptation to go around the block to look again, and saying, "But it's only November 14th..."

Seriously? Who puts up their Christmas tree this early? Do you? Does your mother, your sister, your neighbor? Can you help me understand why?

It has to be a fake one, right? Because a real one would be dried out long before Christmas (since it's still Six Weeks Away). So no needles to deal with. But otherwise? Bringing out lights and ornaments before turkey day? It just feels so ... wrong to me.

You?

Weekend, Knitting and All

So much of my recent knitting is for Christmas, and therefore not bloggable, but I'll show you what I can, and then I have some non-knitting pictures to share.

First, I finished the latest socks!

Two! Blue!

And of course I had to start the next pair at once, for one must have purse knitting. Socks That Rock!

This will be my ninth pair in the Skype pattern, and my fourth in Socks That Rock. I love this yarn! This is one of the skeins I got at Webs back in February (I just re-read my post about it; what a great day). I have another skein in reserve, from Rhinebeck, thankfully; I'd hate to run out.

All right, the rest of the knitting is secret, so what else do I have? Let's see.

I have a what-the on channel three (hire a proofreader already!):

I had a cat on my lap to watch the Bruins game:

His powers of concentration helped, I'm sure, and the Bruins won 6-2. Five-game winning streak! Thirty goals in five games! Ridiculous, but wonderful fun. Also, there was a very touching moment pre-game that you can see and read about here, it's well worth a few minutes. Also also, there was a really good new hockey commercial, featuring the Bruins even. We'll see if I get sick of it, but for now I like it:



I ran some errands Friday afternoon, and noticed something on one of the receipts afterward:

Play that number, right?

I also saw the perfect license plate for a small car:

And two good book titles that I didn't buy:

By the author of "Of Whales and Men"!

Of Cat, Hockey, and making use of space

I was going to write before the game started, but someone needed a lap, if you can imagine. I only bumped him off to go to the bathroom, and I'm sure he'll reappear when I go back to the couch.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Really, he's just supporting the team, right? You can see how earlier in the day, he was preparing hard for game time.

That's not a cat planning to jump down, by the way; that's a cat fast asleep, with his head over the edge.

A cat who can not believe I am showing you this photo. Really.

**********
If you have a few minutes, you should watch this (source here).



You don't have to watch the whole thing, but at least catch the first few minutes to see the amazing way they made this tiny apartment seem larger than it is. Now that's thinking outside the box!

Pain, Knitting, Hockey, Elevenses

I got a flu shot this afternoon--yes, I used part of my afternoon off work to get a flu shot, so stop saying I don't know how to party--and I got it in my right arm instead of the usual left. My thinking was that since my right shoulder already hurts, I should put pain with pain, and leave one side I can comfortably sleep on tonight. And I still think that was the right thing to do, but man, does my right upper arm/shoulder hurt. Ow.

Didn't stop me from knitting, though! Other than a few rounds on my sock while I was out, I've been working on Secret Christmas Knitting Projects. So far, knock wood, it's going well! Here's what we have so far:

• SCKP #1: done! Was all but done Monday at SnB, but I wove the ends in last night.
• SCKP #2: done! Finished it Sunday, and promptly started:
• SCKP #2A: done, as of tonight!
• SCKP #3: not yet started, but pattern printed out, yarn wound, and needles assembled.
  

Crystal clear, right? Then there are the non-secret things, plus I want to finish the sock of the current pair and start another (must have purse knitting, you know). Busy, busy.

The Bruins game last night was another entertaining one. Not only did it give them a four-game winning streak, it put them back at .500, which is a good thing. So is Seguin's hot streak, and that Tuukka's got his own 2-game win streak after way too much time getting no help from the players in front of him (like, all of last season).

Best of all, though, in my mind, is the number of goals scored and allowed.

• In ten games in October, they went 3-7, scoring 22 goals and allowing 25 (not a good goal differential).
• In four games so far in November, they are 4-0, having scored 24 goals and allowed 8. Wow!
  

So far, I like November.

Particularly when it looks like this:


Did you feel elevenish today? I was in a meeting at 11:11 this morning, and I expect I'll be asleep at 11:11 PM, but it's a neat day for a number nerd. We get another next year, but that's it for my lifetime. Pretty cool.

Happiness Thoughts to Share

When reading this blog post on The Happiness Project, I was much struck by this:

I also understand my own shortcomings, and while I wish I didn’t have them, it makes me happy to finally know how to deal with them. For instance I have learned over the years that I’m happiest if I don’t go out two nights in a row—that I just start to fall apart when I’m out in the world too much, without recovery time. When I am putting out socially, or on behalf of my job, I need an almost equal amount of time to recompose myself. (It always makes me think of Newton’s law that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.)

I imagine myself like ball of string, and going out into the world unravels the string, and then I need time to wrap the string back around the ball. Otherwise I keep unraveling and end up as just a mess of string, rather than something solid. I wish I didn’t need life recovery time or so much sleep or that I were more competent in certain areas in which I am hopelessly deficient, but it’s such a lovely relief to know and to accept these things and deal with yourself as you are. Phew.

Yes, yes! Not only is this specifically true for me as well, but the overall idea that as you get older you accept such things about yourself, learn the best ways to deal with who you are and how you are, yes!

A more specific happiness thought to share tonight is that I just made plans to visit my mother, in Florida, in February, with three great friends. Yay! These are the friends I went to Maine in August with, in fact. I clearly need a blog name for them, as a group. The Gang of Three? "I'm going to Florida with the Gang of Three" has a certain ring to it. Any better ideas?

Of Health and Cats

It's hard to type with fingers crossed, but I feel safe in saying that today has been a better health day than yesterday was. My head didn't hurt much at all; it wasn't quite in all's-right-with-the-world territory, but certainly better than yesterday. My digestive system was still very out of whack, unfortunately, and the back of my neck to my shoulder blades seems to have turned to stone, but I'm very grateful for the head reprieve.

I also didn't update yesterday about Monday's mystery finger ailment. Whatever it is, it's not nearly as bad as it was. Where bumping it or bending the finger on Monday drew gasps of shocked pain, yesterday it was just slightly painful, and today I would call it only sensitive. I can see it looks slightly weird, if I look at it, but it's actually possible to forget about it for long stretches of time, which is a vast improvement.

And now, to change the subject from the non-scintillating (even to me) topic of my ailments, let's have a few cat things, shall we? There's a feline did-you-know:



And then there's this:



How many do you see?