Kat with a K

Wednesday randoms, on a Wednesday, even!

Aren't you proud of me? Yeah.

* I keep expecting it to be warm out. It isn't. It's sunny, unlike yesterday, but that vague thought we had of eating at the tables outside Panera? Yeah, not so much.

* The Yarn Harlot event at Webs was great. I have pictures, even. I'll try to post them tonight.

* I'm moving! I think I keep forgetting to tell you. Just a few towns over, so not a huge move in geographic or life-changing ways, but I'm beyond stressed about the actual moving process. Dewey and I will have one human roommate, three feline roommates, and two Roomba roommates. It should be an adventure.

* After many recommendations from you guys and others, I finally got Danskos. I heart them muchly. I should have listened to you all much sooner.

* Dude, seriously? They're up to PC3-10600 on SDRAM ratings now? I had no idea. And in case you were wondering, Wikipedia tells me that DDR3 DIMMs have the same number of pins (240) and are the same size as DDR2, but are electrically incompatible. Okay. Moving on.

* This article about teen girls "customizing" their religious beliefs sounds really interesting. Interesting enough to make me buy Cosmo Girl!? We'll see.

* Can we discuss the whole door-holding issue for a minute? Sure, it's nice to hold doors for people. I am not convinced that it's nice to hold doors for people who are still halfway across the building, so they feel dumb and pretty much run to the door because oh my gosh you're holding it for them and what else are they supposed to do? People! Stop it!

* I'm slightly embarrassed by how thrilled I am that new TV episodes are back. I'm loving Bones and Gossip Girl, and I thought last week's Grey's was enh but the clips I've seen from tomorrow's look really good. And I have last night's Women's Murder Club on the TiVo to watch tonight. Wheee!

* Remember when I had that race with my friend to see if I could finish a baby blanket before she gave birth? (I lost, that time.) We're having the race again. I'm even knitting the same freaking blanket (in a different color). I'm about 25-30% done with the blanket, and she's already, what, 36 weeks? So I have a feeling I will lose again. But I'm going to try.

Wednesday Randoms (3/26)

* Today's forecast? "Snow, with a high of 50." I freaking love New Hampshire.

* Is it just me, or does it seem like sometimes random songs are suddenly played on the radio constantly? Not new ones, either. This week, for me, it's been "Come Sail Away," "Sultans of Swing," and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart." Seriously, every other song that comes on the radio is one of those. What's going on?

* There is a "Tea Bar" opening up near work. I'm not entirely sure what this will consist of, but I'm excited. Yay tea!

* Look! My friend wearing the shrug I made her at her wedding.

* I'm making cupcakes tomorrow for a work thing. What kind should I make?

As always, I feel like there were a whole bunch of other things I was planning to post about, until I opened this up and actually started writing...

Random Friday

It's nowhere near Wednesday, but that just makes it more random, right? Right.

1. Girl Scout cookies have arrived! Yay!

2. It's snowing. Again. Can we please have spring soon?

3. A little bit of follow-up on the holding doors post... I think that a few of the popular theories are correct in this case - that he was trying to show that he was old-fashioned and polite, and simultaneously to make sure that I would not object to said manners. (Which I wouldn't. I just don't think it's necessary to discuss ahead of time.) But in this case, I decided not to meet him for other reasons. I've explained a bit more to those who have commented, but if you're really curious, leave a comment. I just don't want to go into too much detail here.

3a. I had dinner with a guy* the other night and he held doors and it all seemed fine, so that reassured me that I'm not actually too weird about the subject. :)

4. I'm going to post knitting pictures this weekend. I promise.

5. Anyone watching Cashmere Mafia? I'm sort of hooked in spite of myself.

6. I know I've been posting about politics kind of a ridiculous amount. It's partially because I've been thinking about it a lot, obviously, and partially because when I'm busy, it's easier to make a list of links than to string together decent sentences. But I'm going to try for a better balance, because I do thinking about things other than politics, I promise.

* My age-ish and single, but not a date, if that matters to the subject at hand.

Wednesday Randoms

1. Do you ever get those "knitting emergency!!" messages? I love those. My lovely cousin (hi Liz!), whom I taught to knit a few months ago, sent me a text message last night, along the lines of "I don't know what I did to my hat! Call if you're awake." I called (of course I was awake. It's the week before Christmas. I was knitting.), but I think her hat is a bit far gone for over-the-phone rescue. I'll help it in person when I go to her parents' Christmas parade party on Saturday. (Christmas parade party! Doesn't that sound like fun? I'm excited.)

2. I got an e-mail from MoveOn yesterday with a subject line along the lines of "Bush defeated on illegal wiretapping." I totally read it as "illegal giftwrapping." Hee.

3. On Tychus - do we think it's worth it to do a provisional cast on and then graft it, instead of seaming? Discuss amongst yourselves and get back to me. Thanks.

4. I started a Banff a few months ago, to be a big "pull on over anything and wear around the house" sweater, and then put it aside to do the Christmas things. This morning, I was thinking about how I was looking forward to getting back to it in January, but then I suddenly became very worried about all that ribbing on the bottom. I am not sure I will actually want to wear something with that much ribbing. Do we think it would be okay with the whole thing stockinette? (Yes, I know it would roll, but I'm not convinced that would be bad in this case.) Just a little ribbing? Other thoughts?

5. We're getting yet another snowstorm tonight! I'm particularly excited because Thursday mornings are when I usually volunteer at a local elementary school. It's not that I don't want to go tomorrow, but it's been so long since being able to check for a snow day actually meant anything for me!

6. Six days. Status update on the various Christmas stuff later.

7. I'm venturing to the post office at lunch. Wish me luck.

Sleepy Wednesday Randoms

1. Blah, sleepy. Oh well. This week is crazy busy and it's not going to get better any time soon. My big dream for the day is that I might have time to stop for milk on my way home tonight. Yeah.

2. Speaking of sleepy: I got a surprise transcription job last night. The good news is that it will about cover the tires I had to buy last week. The bad news is that there goes most of my knitting time (and a bit of my sleeping time) for the next week or so.

3. My Christmas knitting list is scaring me. My goal is that by the end of this coming weekend I will have fewer projects to finish than days left. We'll see.

4. I have at least finally purchased all of the supplies and tools I need for holiday gifts. I think. Of course, as soon as I post this I will realize that I need another set of needles or something.

5. I want to make fudge. (Because obviously I don't have enough to do.) Anyone have a favorite recipe?

Wednesday (Holiday-Themed) Randoms

1. Elsewhere in my state, it snowed 11 inches yesterday! Okay, it was on top of a mountain, but still. I have been haunting weather.com for any hint of snow for days now. Actually, my iGoogle weather widget seems to think it might snow here on Friday, but I can't find any corroboration of that anywhere. Hmm.

2. Dewey and I are still struggling with the time change. This morning I managed to stay in bed until six and not feed him until almost 6:30, so at least we're making progress...

3. Anyone have any leads on non-girly tam patterns? I have Mary Rowe's Knitted Tams, and it looks very interesting and I promise I will read it, but Christmas is quickly approaching and I don't have time to read a whole book in order to knit one present.

4. Speaking of which - ack. Christmas is approaching really quickly. Later today I'll try to face facts and post a list of exactly what I'm trying to knit by then.

5. This weekend will be a knitting marathon - but not even of Christmas stuff. I'm knitting a shrug for a friend to wear with her wedding dress, and she has a fitting next Thursday, so my practice version needs to be done by Monday so I can get it to her in time. It's about 3/4 done, so it shouldn't be too bad, but I shouldn't even think that because then something will get horribly messed up. Sigh.

6. Anyone have ideas for affordable, kitten-proof Christmas decorations? A tree is out of the question, obviously. I'm thinking a few wreaths and a few strands of lights around doorways or whatever will substitute nicely. And I always turn my bulletin board in my living room into a collage of cards as they come in.

7. I'm currently arguing with myself about when it's acceptable to start with Christmas books, movies, and music. My godmother's rule, which I've mostly adopted, is that it's okay to listen to Christmas music once you see the first snowflake. But I'm having trouble holding out. But I don't want to get sick of it by Christmas, either. Hmm. Anyone else have traditions about this?

Blah Wednesday Randoms

Yay, Wednesday. That means the week is almost over, right? Hah.

1. I've had some sort of lingering change-of-season cold all week. I feel slightly better today, but not much. I'm just trying to make it to the end of the week, and then I'm planning to spend the weekend cleaning, reading, knitting, and watching TV. Hopefully that will miraculously cure me.

2. Find of the week: Burt's Bees Pomegranate Lip Balm. I like it even better than the regular Burt's Bees lip balm, which is saying a lot.

3. Speaking of "things I like even better:" I think I like David Boreanaz even better as Booth (on Bones) than as Angel, and I REALLY didn't think that was possible. I'm almost done with season one, and then will race through season two while the beginnings of season three are kept on the TiVo. So I should be caught up in, oh, a few weeks. :)

4. Okay, speaking of fall TV: What's everyone watching? I'll probably do a separate post with my list in a day or two.

5. I'm trying a new sort of rotation thing with my knitting, because I have way too much going and way too long of a Christmas knitting list and just need to get some stuff done already. So, my new method: work on Project A (in this case, the Crochet Project) until I can't possibly stand one more stitch. Switch to Project B. (Yes, so far this is pretty standard.) But when I am thoroughly sick of B, I have to go back to A, and then B, before I can work on C. Et cetera. Even if "as long as I can stand" is only one row in some cases, this should at least help me make visible progress and maybe even finish some stuff.

Sunday Evening Miscellany

It's just that sort of evening...

1. I seem to have come down with some sort of cold/sore throat/general ickiness thing. Right in time for the long weekend. Lovely. Of course, it meant that I could justify spending most of the day on the couch reading and knitting and getting some freelance stuff done, so it's not all bad.

2. The weather is all lovely and cool, but it's going to be 90 again next weekend! That is not acceptable.

3. They're making a new Ballet Shoes TV movie!!! That's one of my favorite books ever, so I'm VERY excited. AND this led me to discover that there was a 1975 version too! I know what I'm Netflixing next...

4. Speaking of favorite books, I am totally in a "reread old favorites" mood. Although I'm also in the mood to read new things, so I guess I just want to read all the time. Which is different from me normally how? I don't know. Sometimes it's more severe than others. :)

5. And speaking of Netflix, have I mentioned how much I love Foyle's War? Love love love it. I'm about to start series two.

6. Does anyone have any tips for getting kittens to stop destructive habits? Say, just for example, eating the carpet?

Rainy Wednesday Randoms

1. Apparently this is the day of not being at my desk. I have a "walk around and help people" thing from 10-10:30, meetings from 11:30-1 and 1-2, a celebration for a coworker's upcoming wedding from 2:30-3, and another meeting from 3:30-4:30. Sheesh. The 11:30 meeting includes lunch, so let's hope it's something vegetarian-friendly.

2. I got a massage on Monday. It was amazing. Things that had been hurting for weeks or months aren't hurting anymore. Between that and the air conditioner, I've been sleeping much better the past few nights.

3. This week is suddenly crazy busy. I have things to do every weeknight, and three nights (so far) next week. I think on Saturday I'll do some errands and then spend the rest of the weekend relaxing, reading Harry Potter, knitting, and catching up on chores. Oh, except I'll probably manage to leave the house for knitting group on Sunday. :)

4. I discovered last night that the correct length of sock for myself (up to the toe decreases) is the span of my outstretched hand, from thumb to pinky, minus the thumb nail. I feel very clever.

5. I. Just. Want. To. Knit. I mean, I always want to knit, but I'm in one of those knitting-obsessed moods. It's nice because I'm getting a lot done, but it's somewhat driving me crazy at the same time.

6. The Holiday Knitting list? Very very long. As a friend said yesterday, "If you're at the point at which my mom is on your list, you must be planning a lot." Um, yeah. We'll see how that goes.

Way Too Hot Wednesday Randoms

1. Is it fall yet? Please?

2. Since it isn't, I think I have decided to buy an air conditioner. I am somewhat bothered by the cost (both in money and energy) of this, but if the alternative is not sleeping all summer... well. That's not really a workable option.

3. I'm also buying a new computer. Very soon. Then I'll be able to show you pictures of knitting and Dewey again!

4. I do not seem to be appreciably less busy now that school is over. I have yet to figure out why this is.

5. I am gardening. It's exciting. (And yes, that's undoubtedly what's taking up some of the time.) I'll show you pictures of that soon too.

6. Seriously, I have had enough of the hot weather. Can we petition to make it stop?

Wednesday Catch-Up Randoms

1. I am starting to feel like I might, some day, catch up on sleep. Not yet, but some day. It's an improvement.

2. Sorry for the deluge of book reviews recently. I'm already posting SRP reviews on the SRP page, so I'm trying to catch up here. Hopefully I'll be caught up within a week or two. (Not too late to join the SRP. Comment if you need the link again or the password/help joining.)

3. I'm going through the UFO challenge participants to make sure I have recorded in which month(s) each has participated. When I finish, I'll post the names and months, and you can let me know if I missed something.

4. I really have been knitting, but still can't upload photos. (Yes, I tried.) Starting tomorrow, I'll do periodic State of the Knitting posts sans pictures, just so I'm saying something about it...

5. I'm trying to catch up on all of your blogs, but it's slow going. Work has been crazy. I miss you all!

Wednesday Worried Randoms

1. Dewey is sick. :( I don't think it's serious, but of course I'm worried. Vet appointment at 4:30.

2. The prognosis on my laptop isn't looking great at the moment. Sigh.

3. Veronica Mars is over. I can't believe it. The finale was awesome, and set up next season perfectly. Except that there won't be a next season. Why are the networks so dumb?

(3a. I am not so upset about Gilmore Girls being over, because I love it but I think it ran its course.)

4. Shouldn't I have more time now that graduation is over? It doesn't feel like it.

5. Grey's Anatomy season finale made me mad. We'll see how they do next season...

6. I'm trying to catch up on book reviews. I'll try to post one a day until I'm caught up. And I've been reading lots, so I'm not sure how long that will actually take...

And apparently that's all I've got at the moment...

Random Wednesday: "Done with School" Edition!

1. First of all, thank you all so much for your kind comments for me and my family.

2. As of 9 pm yesterday, I am DONE with school! Done done done! I'm still in shock, mostly. It hasn't really sunk in.

3. So who's going to help me celebrate at NHS&W on Sunday? (Come on, I'm practically begging to be enabled here...)

4. So give me a little while to decompress and sort my mail and clean out the fridge and catch up on laundry, and then I'll work on becoming a halfway decent blogger again.

5. I have been knitting, actually. Lots of new things. Lace. Not much to see yet. Soon.

6. I'm DONE! Just in case you missed that. DONE!

Random bits of news

Oh, hey, it's even Wednesday! Lovely.

1. Graduation is in 31 days. My final presentation, which will be the last piece of actual work I have to do, is in 20 days. This is simultaneously very exciting and terrifying, given the amount of work I have left to do.

2. Last night I successfully wore a nightgown without having it or my legs attacked by Mr. Dewey as I was walking around. This is a milestone. Perhaps someday we'll move on to actual skirts.

3. The flooding you might be hearing about (and seeing elsewhere) is indeed in my area, but I haven't been too affected, at least so far. My roof is leaking, but only a tiny bit (and yes, the landlord has been called), and last I checked 3/4ths of the routes to my house were closed, but I'm hoping at least one will be reopened by tomorrow.

4. I'm joining the SCA. I'm not sure whether I've mentioned that.

5. I quit the part time bookstore job. I don't remember whether I mentioned that either. I am ridiculously pleased with the notion of two days off each week.

6. I am planning to attend both NH Sheep and Wool and the Yarn Harlot event at (near) Webs. Anyone else?

Tuesday Random Happy Things

You know, like a combination of Monday Happy Things and Wednesday Randoms? Heh. Anyway.

1. The assignment from hell, which has been eating my soul for the past few weeks, is done done done. Will be handed in tonight. Woohoo.

2. The milk I bought yesterday has a "use by" date of two days before graduation. I cannot express how happy that makes me.

3. For those of you complaining about a lack of knitting talk - I have actually finished something, albeit something small (a baby hat). I just have to weave in the ends and then I will take a picture. I promise.

4. I was going to say "it's starting to seem like spring out," but now it's not, again. Oh well.

5. I am ridiculously busy this week, but a lot of it is fun social stuff, some with people I don't get to see enough. So that is happy.

Annoyed Wednesday Catch-Up Randoms

1. We're testing a new application at work, and let me tell you, this is up there on the list of least fun things I have ever done. The application itself, the process, some of the people I'm working with... I just want to scream.

2. Okay. Other than that, things are pretty good. I'm glad February is over. I don't know what was going on, exactly, but I just couldn't seem to find the time/emotional resources to post. Sorry. I think I'm back now.

3. There hasn't been much knitting going on recently - partially because I just haven't felt like it, and partially because Dewey is not terribly compatible with knitting at the moment, as his two modes are "attack anything that moves (or doesn't)" and "cuddle with Mommy."

4. Speaking of which, Dewey is doing very well. I have been taking pictures, albeit not posting them, so you'll get some soon, I promise.

5. I have been reading a fair amount. Must catch up on those book reviews...

6. Also? Totally obsessed with Buffy. I'm on Buffy season four/Angel season one. (Yes, alternating episode by episode. I'm that obsessed.) How did I not watch this until now??

7. I'm glad everyone's doing so well on the UFO Challenge. I'll try to catch up on the administrative stuff soon. I'll let you know. Thanks for your patience.

More soon, I promise...

Wednesday Randomosity

1. Hey look! A Tardis USB Hub!

2. Thanks for all the compliments on the Deweykitten. It's interesting that you all say how big he is, because it's harder to notice when I see him every day.

3. Today is the deadline to sign up for the UFO Challege. But remember - if you sign up today, you have to work on/post about your January project today. Please only sign up/comment once. I don't have time to go through and approve all the comments every three minutes, but that does not mean your comment didn't go through.

4. My semester started last night. Cataloging! Whee! It's nice to be back.

5. Everyone should read this article by Michael Pollan about food and nutritionism. Very interesting.

6. I have two book reviews and an FO post that should be coming up soon. When I have time. Right.

Wednesday Randoms!

1. It's actually seasonably cold out! Thank God.

2. I'm a little behind on the UFO challenge sign-ups, so if you don't see your name there yet, don't worry. I'll catch up tonight.

3. The back of Arwen is thisclose to being done. Tonight, I'm determined to finish it and start one of the fronts. Wheee.

4. Remember that license plate thing I was doing? I hadn't mentioned it recently because I'd been stuck for a few months with just a few left to see. Well, yesterday I saw Montana! Wheee!

5. I don't know what I did to my back/neck/shoulder/something, but OWW.

6. Please tell me I'm not the only one practically counting the hours until the new Grey's Anatomy tomorrow night. (Well, I know I'm not the only one, Christine, but...) So excited. The teasers are killing me. (29 hours.)

Wednesday Randoms

1. It's the 20th? What? How did that happen?

2. Even though I only have one holiday knitting project this year, I'm still struggling to finish it. Bah. Must finish by Saturday. About half done.

3. Dewey kitten has been home for almost two weeks now. In some ways, it seems like he's always been there, but we are definitely still adjusting. The past two nights, he has decided that the best way to get me to play is to attack my head all night. Any tips on discouraging this? The vet, whom I liked in general, was unhelpful on the "attacking at night" issue - he just laughed and said to hope Dewey grows out of it.

4. Another kitten question: Dewey and I will be going to visit my family in CT for a few days over Christmas. Any tips on traveling with a kitten?

5. I'm sure you've all seen this, but Yarn Harlot is running another fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders. Go check it out.

6. Also, as I've mentioned, you should be listening to Lime and Violet. But if you're not, you may not have heard that they're trying to raise money for Violet's medical expenses through Lisa Souza's "Violet's Pink Ribbon" colorway. It's pretty. Go order some.

7. And again: Come join the Yarn Life 2007 Crafting Challenge! It'll be exciting. I promise.

Wednesday Randoms!

1. Thanks again for all the compliments on Dewey. We had a great night - I'm starting to learn the best way to deal with a very active kitten when I'm trying to sleep. (It involves pretending to be asleep and interacting with him as little as possible.)

2. Today's the last day of my semester! I have loved this class, but the break will be nice. And I have the same wonderful professor next semester!

3. I know I said I was going to start some exciting lace when the semester ended, but I'm going to be a good girl and finish my Secret Santa scarf first. It's almost half done.

4. The kitten is making me into a better housekeeper, because I want to keep things tidy so he doesn't hurt anything or get hurt by anything. This is good, but time-consuming.

5. Speaking of time-consuming, thanks to Cate, I am now hooked on WeffRiddles. Except that I'm stuck on level nine. I feel like I'm overthinking it. Hmm.

6. Nevermind, got it.

7. Is Christmas really in 12 days? Seriously? How did that happen?

Wednesday Randoms!

How about some good old fashioned Wednesday randoms? Wheee!

1. An article I wrote for Knitty a while back is suddenly being linked everywhere. It was on a LiveJournal community the other day and now it's in the comments of a Fark thread. Weird.

2. My hair has apparently lost its mind. (Yes, I know hair doesn't really have a mind. Shush.) In the winter, I shower at night, which means I often go to bed with my hair at various stages of damp, and sometimes there are interesting results. But today I woke up with ringlets. Ringlets. WTF? Of course, they were somewhat uneven ringlets, so I brushed it out, which means that now it's mostly just... fluffy. But still odd.

3. My second to last assignment for the semester is almost done. (There are just a few things I have to look up on campus before I turn it in today.) Then I have one due in two weeks, and my penultimate semester will be done. Yay.

4. What is with this weather? My friends in Tennessee and Oregon are getting snow, but here in New Hampshire, we're having record heat and rain. Lots of rain. It is almost December. I do not approve.

5. I smell cough drops. Yum. Please tell me I'm not the only one who really likes the taste of Halls. Mmm, mentho-lyptus...

6. There was some interest in my idea of either resurrecting or ripping out one abandoned project per month in 2007. I'll host some sort of knitalong. Stay tuned for details. Do all knitalongs need blogs these days, or do we still like the "links on the sidebar" method? Hmm.

7. A grad student is doing research about how long it takes memes to get around. Post about it and then ping Technorati. I've seen it a bunch of places now and don't quite remember where I saw it first. Sorry.

8. Knitting update: Shedir is eking along, slowly, about a few rounds a day. I think I'm on round 36. Must hurry up. Gah. The second Knit Unto Others scarf, on the other hand, is going even more quickly than the first. It's going so quickly, in fact, that the guys in my D&D group, who are normally fairly oblivious to what I'm knitting (with the possible exception of The Magpi's husband, who is perhaps more used to being expected to pay some attention to such things), even noticed and were amazed. I'm glad it's going quickly, because I'm more or less hating every stitch. Remind me not to buy Baby Clouds again.

9. I would like to go home and knit now. Please? Thanks.

Better Late Than Never

My ISP has been having issues this week, so I'm a bit behind. This week's Sunday stitching update:

Yeah, I know, not too exciting. That's why I wasn't too worried that I couldn't post it on Sunday. I'm going to wait and update my stitching pages this Sunday with both weeks' updates.

Now some non-Wednesday randoms:

1. I started Shedir last night. Well, by "started," I mean that I cast on last night and knit about half a round this morning. I'm using Jaeger Roma, and so far it seems a bit splitty but sooo soft. Although perhaps a bit more suedey than I anticipated when knit up. This is definitely a "pay attention" knit, though, so I will probably be starting a simple scarf for Knit Unto Others this weekend as well.

2. NaNo update: Still behind, but not irredeemably behind. At 17,000-something. My goal is another 10,000 between today and Sunday, which will still have me behind, but less so.

3. My copy of Victorian Lace Today is waiting for me at the bookstore. I'll get it tonight. Wheeee!

4. The local oldies station became "Boston's Holiday Music Station" yesterday. I'm actually happy about this - I love Christmas music. I'm just a bit frustrated that it has to be the one oldies station in the area that transforms. Why couldn't it be a station I don't normally like to listen to? Where am I supposed to get my oldies fix now?

5. I've been going crazy the past few days because they've been beta testing a new application in the empty cubes across from me. Which means they've been loud, and periodically standing in my cube, and plugging things in to my power strip, etc. But I think they're finally gone. Whew.

6. Have you listened to Lime & Violet yet? No? What are you waiting for? I'm rationing myself - one episode a day while I catch up. I can't believe it took me this long to find them.

7. Another recent podcast addiction: the BBC Radio Newspod.

I feel like there were a million other things I wanted to say, but of course I can't think of any of them. Hmm. Oh, I did want to make sure that you all were aware that I'm blogging over at Yarn Life now too. And please, if you have any ideas for Yarn Life, let me know!

Wheee Friday Randoms

It's been an odd week. All yesterday, I was convinced it was either Wednesday or Friday. In this context, I was convinced it was Wednesday, and all set to do randoms, and then I realized it was Thursday. And then I signed up for the reading challenge and posted about that instead. Which is a long way of saying "Hey, how about some randomly timed randoms?"

1. Thanks for the comments on the scarf. Blocking. Huh. Hadn't occurred to me. (Really.) For those who asked: pattern here, yarn here.

2. What's next? Last night I started some wrist warmers, and I hope to have them done by the end of the weekend. (A friend and I are planning a lot of TV/movie watching and crafting.) Then I'm making a Shedir hat for a friend who's having brain surgery next month. Then... I'm going to start a sweater. And then I'm going to FINISH a sweater. Because, as we all know, I've never actually done that. What sweater? I'm still discussing that with myself. Stay tuned for updates.

3. From November 18 to December 2, I will be taking a break from the above to knit for charity as part of Knit Unto Others. Won't you join us? I will be knitting a few scarves and/or hats for needy patients at the inner city clinic where my mother works as a pediatrician. I may start a little early, because the Shedir pattern is pretty complicated, so I will need some mindless knitting as well. (Yes, I told you that a complicated pattern would be where the one-at-a-time rule would break down. I think two at a time is acceptable.)

4. Speaking of which, the "one book at a time rule" broke too. (Hah, like my grammar there? The rule broke. I didn't break it.) It wasn't the Winter Reading Challenge that did it, though. It was something even vaguely work-related. There's a particular book that the store where I work is pushing this holiday season, and I wanted to read it before I push it, so I know what I'm talking about. So I'm reading a chapter a day of that, and then back to Thunderstruck. Which is taking FOREVER. Possibly because I've been reading for about five minutes a day. But still. I've been reading it for a few weeks and I'm only on page forty-something. When I finish the other book, I'll probably keep going with the "a few pages of Thunderstruck a day" while I read the Winter Challenge books. Because otherwise there's just no way. So. Two books at a time, too.

5. For you local people: I have an article about Melissa Leapman in this week's Hippo. (For the non-locals, that's the name of the biggest weekly newspaper in New Hampshire. No, really. It's not short for anything, or anything. It's really called The Hippo. We're a little odd up here.) It doesn't seem to be online, but please pick one up if you see it! I'm proud. :-)

6. Look for a sidebar overhaul soon. Part of that will be splitting my blogrolls. I'm going to be taking knitting-related blogs out of my personal Bloglines account, because they're going in the Yarn Life blogroll and I read them there, and the regular one just gets cluttered with all these things that they're telling me are new but that I've actually already read. So. If it looks like I unsubscribe from you sometime in the next few days, don't worry. I'm still reading. Just consolidating accounts.

7. Once again, my weekend was supposed to be open and relaxing, but now I have plans for tonight (meeting a knitblogger! Want to check before I post much about it, though), Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday late afternoon/early evening. Plus my normal shift at the bookstore all day Saturday. Gah. How does this happen?

First Randoms of November!

Happy November, everyone!

1. As promised, Yarn Life is up! I'm excited! Let me know how you like it. And please, if you do like it, I'd love if you could link to it in a blog entry so your readers can find it too. Thanks!

2. It's NaNo day! I wrote about 50 words at midnight, so at least I've started. Now I'm working out some character names/ages/etc.

3. It's November, so can it go ahead and snow already? Just a little. Please. Sheesh.

4. I have a list of blog posts I want to write. At least four of them. Gah.

5. My boss is away this week. Therefore, everything is breaking.

6. I feel like I have been working on the multidirectional diagonal scarf for ever. Maybe I'll manage to finish it this weekend.

7. Can we add, oh, four hours to each day for the foreseeable future? That would be really helpful right now.

8. There were, indeed, trick-or-treaters at my friend's house. Some of them were extremely adorable. Fun.

9. Said friend has me wanting All-Clad now. She got it as a graduation gift to herself. So maybe next year I deserve some too...

10. I just read somewhere that Trekking can be machine washed. I somehow hadn't realized this. It makes me very happy.

11. And I feel like I need an eleventh because it's November 1. Oh, yeah. I'm on a quest to put "all" knitting blogs on the Yarn Life Blogroll. Any guesses as to how many I'll find?

Oh, hi! Wednesday randoms!

Hello out there! I'm back from my trip, but still trying to get back into my normal routines, and feeling all discombobulated. But hey, it's Wednesday. Let's do some randoms.

1. Trip was good. No need to discuss how much chocolate we ate or how much we drank or how much money we spent at the Hershey's gift shops and nearby outlets. We will need to discuss the bag of yarn I bought at WEBS on the way home - I'll try to take pictures and get that up tomorrow.

2. Have you seen Fantasy Congress? Anyone playing? I'm tempted...

3. Have you all signed up for NaNoWriMo? Yes? Good. NH kick-off party on Sunday. Be there. (Leave a comment if you need details.)

4. I've started cross stitching again. Because, say it with me here, I clearly don't have enough to do.

5. Hee! I just heard something really funny and exciting. But I can't tell yet. I will later, I promise. But hah! And also hee! Really, I'm sitting here in my cube laughing.

6. Yarn Life now has a blog. (And I think I'm in love with WordPress.) Not much there yet, but there will be lots more coming this week, so you should all subscribe to the blog so you see the updates.

Super Bonus Randoms!

I'm in the mood, so really, why not?

1. The presentation went well; I got a 98. Yay. And the professor, wonderful man that he is, heard that I wasn't feeling well and sent me home almost two hours early. Which means that I got home at a reasonable time and have now sort of started packing for my trip.

2. Since no one else has stepped forward, I'm claiming Femiknit Mafia's brother. Would any of our mutual friends who have actually met me in person (ahem, Cate, I'm looking at you) like to provide me with a reference?

3. Watching the Project Runway finale. Eeek.

4. Speaking of which, other TV thoughts: I am adoring Studio 60 and continue to be underwhelmed by Heroes. Gilmore Girls has totally won me back with the past few episodes. Veronica Mars is still my favorite. I am starting to forgive the Tenth Doctor for being different. Starting.

5. Yay, I am happy with the Project Runway results.

6. What else was I going to say? I swear there was other stuff. Oh well.

Wednesday Randoms

1. I'm home sick. Typical, seeing as how I have to give a presentation in class tonight and I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow. Blah. I slept for an extra four hours after e-mailing my boss this morning, so I'm hoping that that + caffeine + Advil gets me through.

2. Aforementioned trip? I haven't actually started packing. Oops.

3. We're supposed to dress "professionally" for this presentation, and I was going to wear a blouse and skirt, I swear. But I'm sick and there's just no way I'm shaving my legs and wearing stockings, etc. So corduroys and a sweater is as professional as I'm getting today. At least I'm wearing nice shoes instead of my regular hiking boots or clogs. That should count for something, right? (Since my presentation is on information organization from the Renaissance to the French Revolution, I am very tempted to wear Kristy's spare Ren Faire outfit, which I happen to have right here. But I'm resisting.)

4. Since a few of you asked: The scarf is a Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf in Knit One, Crochet Too's Paint Box. Mr. Coffee is more formally known as Mr. Coffee TFX23 12 Cup Programmable Coffee Maker - Black. Actually, no, that doesn't seem to be his exact model number, but it's very very close.

5. Fewer than I thought, actually:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 47 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

6. Okay, must go present. Ack. I hate presentations. In six hours, it'll be over...

No longer Wednesday randoms

WHAT is going on recently? It seems that everyone I know is having some sort of drama this week.

You know that "Going to Carolina" song? The James Taylor one? Apparently it now makes me cry. Every freaking time I hear it.

I have very mixed feelings about Gilmore Girls so far this season.

It's October, which means you should all go sign up for NaNoWriMo.

School school school work work school school. Stress stress stress.

Apparently Joanna Trollope was exactly what I needed this evening.

I should probably go try to get some sleep.

Friday Night Random Observations

* Watching Studio 60. (Thanks for the push, Cate.) Wow, much better than I'd expected. And how had I never noticed before how much Matthew Perry resembles Tom Hanks?

* Other TV thoughts: Heroes was enh. Brothers & Sisters has potential. I have mixed feelings on the Gilmore Girls premiere. 7th Heaven premiere was about as ridiculous as I expected. And I adored the Veronica Mars premiere, which I'm sure totally shocks you all.

* Cold Stone has pumpkin ice cream now. Yay.

* My landlord says he's going to make a dryer appear in my apartment, to go along with the old washer he gave us when we moved in. This is exciting.

* I hate the MBTA. Also drunken baseball fans. Especially when they're on the T with me.

* Yes, I'm writing such trivial things because I'm just a wee bit stressed and can't come up with anything else at the moment.

* But I now have a big bulletin board hanging in my living room covered in color-coded index cards holding lists. This is making me feel very slightly closer to in control.

Randoms? Actually on Wednesday?

Will wonders never cease? Hmm.

First a quick summary: Work is stressful. School is fun but stressful. Social things are fun but stressful. Going away this weekend, which will be very fun, but is currently stressful in preparation.

And OH. Attention Cate. And other Doctor Who fans, but Cate is the one who implied that I'd be in for a serious guilt-trip if anyone missed anything. In case we weren't all aware, Doctor Who Series Two (Tenth Doctor) starts on Friday, September 29. Details here.

Knitting? What knitting? Actually, I am almost done with the green baby blanket, finally, so that's something. Not feeling terribly inspired on the knitting front these days, though. Suggestions on ways to get out of the slump? I'm feeling like I seriously need to knit, but just... can't be bothered. Or something. Help?

I was in a reading slump too, but then I started Snow Blind by PJ Tracy. I've loved all her (their, actually) other books, and I'm about 100 pages into this one and not disappointed. And hey, it has snow, so it's even better. (No, I don't want to discuss the fact that it's due back at the library tomorrow. Maybe no one else has requested it and I'll be able to renew. Right. That'll happen.)

My closest friend at work is leaving. Today is his last day. I'm trying not to think about it.

Also, I realized earlier today that I'm really, really angry about a work thing. I'd known I was annoyed, but no, apparently I'm pretty close to furious. It's nothing I can actually affect or change, but at least now I've recognized how I'm feeling, so that must be somehow helpful, right?

Inhale. Outhale. Inhale. Outhale.

In better news, fall TV is coming. Yay. Teddy TiVo has big plans. Now if I only had time to watch all these shows.

Despite all the above, I am getting very excited about NaNoWriMo. Yeah. LIke I have time for that. It's such a... big thing now, though. I don't know. Sort of like knitting blogs, actually. Hmm. Maybe a more coherent post about that, um, sometime.

I am feeling smugly well-prepared for class tonight. My written assignment and my reading were both done by Monday night, the required handouts are printed, and I don't even have anything I have to do on campus before class. Now if the T could be sane and reasonable for once, it might be a fairly okay evening.

Thirteen days until new Veronica Mars. Just in case anyone was wondering.

What do I want to pick up for dinner? Hmmm. Other than ridiculous amounts of caffeine?

Just barely Random Wednesday!

(Just barely still Wednesday, I mean. Very random.)

Oh, hi! You're still here! Yay! Thank you for those of you who have e-mailed or otherwise asked if I'm okay. I am. It's mostly just beginning-of-semester busyness combined with something of a knitting slump plus a lack of sleep that's making anything at all creative seem way too much work. But. Here I am! Just in time for randomness!

I know I've been going on and on about how I want it to be autumn, but sheesh, that happened quickly. A week ago today I noticed that the leaves were turning. (I meant to blog about it at the time, but apparently that didn't happen.) A few days ago, my apartment was 54 degrees when I woke up. This afternoon when I left my office, I swear it smelt like snow. Now, even I am not delusional enough to expect snow in mid-September, but it was still exciting. And tonight I got home to find that the L.L. Bean Christmas catalog had arrived.

I'm loving my class this semester. Great subject - organization of information - and awesome professor. It's a lot of work, though, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed already. I'm keeping up with the schoolwork, but my housekeeping routines have almost totally disappeared in the week since school started, and that's really frustrating. I'm trying to keep up with social commitments, and... something's got to give, I guess.

There are also suddenly a whole bunch (well, if about 2.5 counts as a bunch) of cute boys around making my life complicated. Or at least taking up a lot of mental energy. Odd.

Extreme Veronica Mars addiction continues. I now own both seasons on DVD (found at really good prices, I must say) as well as the soundtrack, which is addictive in and of itself. I think I've seen about through disc one of season two so far. My adorable new cell phone Pluto has a Veronica Mars wallpaper and ringtone. Yeah. I've become one of those people. I'm sorry.

And as evidenced by the fact that it is now 12:20, I am finding it impossible to get to bed before midnight recently. And if I do get to bed, I can't sleep. Bah. Must restart yoga routine. Yeah, now to find the time...

Oh, I haven't forgotten about the SRP, by the way. It's just... lots of data. Look for the final results on Sunday.

And Princess Aaralyn, of boring baby blanket fame, is now walking! Awww. I miss her.

Knitting? What knitting? Well, there's been a little. Haven't finished anything, though. Considering taking a break from the WIPs and doing fingerless mitts of some sort this weekend. Hmmm.

Okay, I should be attempting sleep, so to sum up: I am here, just busy, and a bit scattered and stressed, but what else is new? In general, I think I'm doing better than I have been in... quite a while, actually. So. Random enough for ya?

Randomer than Wednesday

Right? If randoms are on a day other than Wednesday they're even randomer? I think Cate said so, and she's the originator of the randoms things, so...

1. Yoga is fun! I had a bad experience with it in college (took a class way too early in the morning, and it was a "all levels/beginners welcome" but everyone else had been doing it for years so I was very self-conscious and never understood what was going on), but I wanted to give it another try, so now I'm using A.M. and P.M. Yoga for Beginners and wow, I love it. I'd definitely recommend it. Perhaps the best part is that I've been sleeping SO much better on the nights when I do the P.M. practice.

2. Remember my pretty new sock yarn? Well, Dyenamics now has a Web site! Go order from them. They're wonderful, I promise.

3. Go read Vickie and Erica's exciting (for them) news. Go ahead. I'll stay here and cry.

4. A friend of mine is going to be the guest on The Colbert Report tonight. Someone I actually know. This blows my mind.

5. I get to go to Tracy's and play with my new fabric tonight. Yay!

6. My parents are visiting this weekend! I haven't seen them in a while, so I'm quite excited. And looking forward to lots of good food.

7. Deplorably little knitting or reading getting done lately, but I can't figure out why I don't seem to have any time. Hmm.

8. Isn't it naptime?

Wheeeee random Wednesday!

1. The paper is DONE! And the PowerPoint presentation is made. Now I just have to, um, present it. Scared. But in less than 3.5 hours, it will be over. Think happy presenting thoughts for me.

2. Car is back from VIP and healthy for the time being. My last bill was for $0.03. Seriously. And my mechanic gave me a nickel to pay it. And didn't charge me for a $40 part, because I'm cute "very understanding."

3. Ugh with the drama. Can we stop now? (Not you. Well, unless it's you. But you'd know if it was.)

4. But really, you cannot imagine the lack of stress I'm feeling because of #1. And it will be even better once I present.

5. Except that my roommate is moving to North Carolina. TOMORROW. I am happy for him, and mostly happy about living alone, but still sad that such a good friend will be so far away.

Umm... too scared about the presentation to come up with anything else at the moment, apparently.

I guess it's Wednesday.

My cousin and I had the "Is it Tuesday?" "Um, I think so." conversation several times yesterday, so I guess that means today is Wednesday. So. Randoms. Of course, I had several planned out earlier today, but now I can't remember what any of them were... hmm...

1. There's an interesting conversation about grading going on at Hugo Schwyzer, originally here and now here as well.

2. And Juno has a good one going about menstruation.

3. And, on a lighter note, "91 New Reality Shows You Need to Know About."

4. Yes, the preponderance of linkage means that I'm still horribly stressed about everything and trying to ignore it.

5. But I found myself smiling earlier today without really thinking about it. I'm taking that as a good sign. Or a sign that I'm in complete denial.

6. Have you seen Oreo Dippers? (Apparently they're really new, because I can't find a picture online.) They're Oreos but in a more oval shape, like Cameos or something, so they're easier to dip. It's an intriguing idea, but it might mess up the perfect Oreo ratio. So I'm not sure whether I approve. I did have to buy some, of course, so I'll let you know how it goes.

7. I think I'm going to stop at Au Bon Pain on the way to class to pick up dinner, because I'm really tired of granola bars. And Au Bon Pain always makes me think of Lauren. Even though I guess I've never actually gone there with her. Heh.

8. Training a new person at work. Ack.

9. Paper paper paper paper paper

Wednesday (?) Randoms

I know, I'm really bad with the days of the week recently. I think everyone's confused this week, though. (Or at least everyone in the States.)

1. My assignment due tonight is done! Woohoo!

2. I am having eight people over tomorrow to watch Doctor Who and my house is not yet clean. Ack.

3. Why do I keeping doing this to myself? I didn't bring any knitting with me today because I'm trying to focus on the baby blanket and it's too big to knit on the T. But now all I want to do is knit. Will I ever learn?

4. My first D&D game was yesterday. It went well. I got lots of knitting done.

5. Whoa, I'm sleepy all of a sudden. Just in time to drive to Boston! Yay!

6. I keep wearing a red shirt on days when there are Red Sox games. It's annoying, because I'm not doing it deliberately. Although this time of year I suppose most days have Red Sox games, so it's not that much of a coincidence. Still.

7. At least today's game is away, so it won't affect Boston traffic.

8. I have a feeling that this is one of those short weeks that's going to seem to take forever. Although I'd totally go for another day in between today and tomorrow, actually. How about we switch Thursday and Friday this week? I'd have a day with a free evening to clean and get to bed on time, and then the day of the Doctor Who party, and then the weekend. I'd totally go for that.

Oh, it's Wednesday?

* Today I am feeling both "What do you mean it's only Wednesday?" and "Huh, it's Wednesday already?" I think the time-space continuum is doing odd things and giving me some sort of cosmic whiplash.

* The above might be resolved if I had time for a nap or even a full night of sleep, but since I don't, we won't be able to test this theory.

* The above also means that although my summer class just started last week, it is already 1/4 over, and after tonight's class it will be 1/3 over. qw21? I'd better get seriously working on all the assignments, not just the first one, because this is moving very quickly.

* I realized on Sunday that the next night I'd be home before 10 or 11 pm would be Friday. So I'm in the middle of that now, and really feeling it. I'm hanging on to the idea of an unexpectedly freeish weekend (family gathering was cancelled, but I still have to work on Saturday and do all that homework and clean for all those people I invited over to watch Doctor Who next week), no class on Monday, and no work on Tuesday.

* But why can't we decide when the darn holiday is? My school has it on Monday, work on Tuesday. If work had given us Monday off instead, I would have been able to go visit my parents or something. Not that I'm complaining about a random day off in the middle of the week, of course.

* My tea is very disappointingly milkless this morning because the milk in the fridge went bad weirdly quickly. I'm hoping that some new milk will magically appear sometime soon. (Yes, I'm using my blog to remind my roommate to buy milk. I know. I know. Sorry.)

* Do you think I had enough adverbs in the above item? But speaking of tea, I discovered Good Earth Original last night. Oh my GOODNESS. Try it. Really.

* Geek Alert: I've been convinced to give D&D another try (in my oh-so-abundant free time) and I've become rather intrigued by the kalashtar idea, and I have the Races of Eberron book sitting right here but I'm at work and so I can't read it. I am feeling very impatient.

* Knitting slump continues. I feel like I'd feel better if I were knitting more, but the idea of trying to fit it in to my schedule is stressful. Gah. I did work on Clapotis while watching a movie with a friend last night, so that's something. Maybe my goal for the weekend will be to finish a sock (for sanity) and actually take pictures so I stop boring you all to tears.

* I'm way, way too scattered. I'm making countless to do lists and then forgetting to reference them. I try to think of what recharging activities would be most helpful for an "ideal" free day, but my brain won't calm down enough to come up with anything. I can't believe it's already the end of June, but at least that means that August is sort of in sight. Things will calm down in August. Must hold on to that.

First Randoms of Summer

1. Today is the solstice. I am totally ready for winter, or at least autumn. Is this bad? I'm having trouble sleeping in my 90-degree apartment...

2. Knitting? What's that? See above re: 90-degree apartment. You want me to touch wool? I have been working on Clapotis a bit, since it's silk. But still a bit... sticky. Bleagh.

3. The Summer Reading Program is going swimmingly, and it's not too late to sign up, if you're interested! I'm reading three really good books at the moment, and hoping to finish something soon so I can stay on my own Top 10 list. That'd be nice.

4. Wait, it is Wednesday, right? Yeah. Okay. Momentary disorientation there.

5. Summer seems to be all about the reality TV, at least for me. Anyone watching How to Get the Guy? It seems like some of their tips might actually be useful, if I could get myself to follow them.

6. School started this week. Summer classes are twice a week, so I'm trekking to Boston every Monday and Wednesday until July 31. (My birthday.) It's a hassle. But I'm also remembering that I really like school. So that's good. I wish more of my classes were like this one. Which, you know, means I should probably go get that English degree.

7. We just had a departmental meeting that actually made me somewhat enthusiastic about my job. Will wonders never cease? Of course, we are being forced to wear those stupid t-shirts (see Monday's post) tomorrow, so I'm sure my enthusiasm will disperse quickly.

Wednesday Randoms

1. While I was at work today, my landlord's brother bought and installed a shiny new garbage disposal. (And he does some sort of repairy thing for a living, so it wasn't as sketchy as it sounds.) Now, even before it was leaking, the disposal didn't work - we just used it as a regular drain. The repair means both no more leaking AND we can use the disposal as a disposal. I am BEYOND thrilled about this. No, really.

2. Newest TiVo discovery: Bringing Home Baby. Awww. But why do they constantly put bows in this one-day-old's hair?

3. I got my first Rachael Ray cookbook over the weekend, because friends assured me that her books were not as annoying as her TV personality. I made my first dish from it last night - yum! But, of course, it took an hour, not her promised 30 minutes. And - chop raw bacon? How could ANYONE chop raw bacon and finish a recipe that quickly?

4. Believe it or not, I've been crocheting more than knitting recently. I KNOW. I'm sorry. But I was convinced that my (newly cleaned!) living room would not be complete without a ripple afghan, and once I figured out what the heck to do with the stupid edges, it became strangely addictive. (I am convinced that basically all crochet patterns are wrong, though, because I looked at a bunch of ripple patterns and none of them worked as written.)

5. Hee. I just talked to an online friend on the phone for the first time. I never expect southern accents, even when I know perfectly well where the person lives. I can't tell you how many times this has happened.

Wednesday Random Bullet Points

First I have to announce that it's my baby (hah!) brother's sixteenth birthday. Happy Birthday, Dave!

Okay, randoms in quick bullet-point form:

1. The Amazing Lace. Joining?

2. Must Love Dogs. Cute! (Thanks for the rec, Cate.)

3. Beef Porcupine Balls. Yum!

4. WEBS. Big. Bought yarn. Pretty.

5. Tristan + Isolde. Worst movie ever. She was reading John Donne. wtf?

6. Me: tired.

Randoms! On Wednesday!

1. My newest TiVo find: Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown. Favorite quote so far: "Well, hello! You must be an Alp!"

2. I know Rachel warned us, but I was still disappointed by the ending of My Sister's Keeper. Actually, the whole book was sort of annoying, but compelling at the same time. Hmm. I'll try to sort out my thoughts on it in time for the May Reads post.

3. Oh. I was going to say the weather was finally better, but now I hear it raining again.

4. Speaking of which, yes, I was in the flooding area, but yes, I'm fine. My usual route to work was closed for several days, and my kitchen ceiling is precariously close to dripping, but I'm fine. And check out Feminknit for some pictures.

5. I am going through soy milk withdrawal. (I usually put it on my cereal, but we got a free gallon of regular milk, so we're trying to use that before it goes bad, and so there's no soy milk in the house.) It's REALLY not fun.

6. Talking about soy milk suggests that I don't actually have much to say. Or at least don't have the energy necessary to say it.

7. Up next: NH S&W report and photographic evidence that I do still, in fact, knit.

Still alive, really.

So I was going to finish my paper, and post after that, but I didn't, quite. And I was going to finish Birch, and post after that, but I didn't, quite. So I was going to write up the April Reads post and post that, but I didn't finish, quite. So. Yes, I'm still here but no, I can't seem to manage to post anything substantive. The paper is due Tuesday and is at least 80% done, so it's fine, but still stressful. There's been some family stress too, and a bit of work stress to top things off.

I am planning on much relaxation at NH S&W on Sunday. I have to work Saturday, but would be up for joining people for dinner if anyone's going to be around. Let me know.

Oh, also: I am convinced that there's something going on Friday evening. If I told you I would do something with you then, please remind me, because it's driving me crazy. (And please don't take it personally that I've forgotten. Whoever you are. If you're out there.)

(I do realize that odds are pretty good that it's all in my head.)

I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Randoms. Late. Again. Sorry. Or just randomer, depending on your point of view.

1. I have become thoroughly addicted to My Super Sweet 16. Oh my goodness. I'm not even sure what to say. It's train-wreckily compelling and horrifying. And addictive. And... I don't know. They are such brats. I can hardly even imagine how they get that way. I'm watching the episode about P.Diddy's godson right now. I'll probably work up a post for it for Reality TV Sociology. But if you have MTV, watch it. It's on practically twelve hours a day, so really, it's not hard to find. (When it's not on, Tiara Girls generally is. I haven't watched a whole episode of that yet, but I have a feeling that it will be my next addiction.)

2. qw21 is wrong with Helen? Lynley is great. She totally doesn't deserve him. Heck, I'll take him, if he's such an annoyance to her. Um, sorry, just had to get that off my chest. (And I'm only in the middle of the second book in the series, so no spoilers as to their future relationship, please.)

3. Birch has entered black hole phase. It's almost done, I think, but I've been thinking that for days. So we'll see.

4. Next time I say something like "Oh, I don't have to write down how I did that heel. I'll remember," remind me that it may be several months before I get to the second sock, and my memory might not be quite that good.

I know there were more, but I should go to sleep. Maybe we'll have part two of the randoms tomorrow.

Randoms, Better Late than Never

I know, it's not Wednesday. But enh. I'm in a random mood tonight, so let's go!

1. Thanks for the hand advice, everyone. I just finished the sock I'd picked up, so I'm back to Birch, but I promise I'll stop if it hurts.

2. I'm reading Getting Things Done and, you know, I usually don't go for these pop psych/business motivation crazes. But I'd been hearing about this for a few years, so I thought I'd see what the deal was. And wow, it actually seems pretty good. I haven't implemented his "system" yet or even read the whole book, but just incorporating some of his ideas is already making a difference. Hmm. I may give it a whirl.

3. That said, I really need to stop procrastinating on my final project for my class this semester. Bah.

4. Texas Ranch House is starting soon! I love historical reality shows. (Cate, shall I/we blog about this on the reality TV blog? Yes, that's what I was trying to remember to ask you the other day.)

5. Thanks to my new TiVo, I've been watching lots of History Channel and Discovery Channel "unsolved mysteries" sorts of stuff. Decoding the Past is my favorite, but I can't figure out why I'm so enamored of it. Weird. Also, I am unspeakably excited about the Roanoke episode of Digging for the Truth showing tomorrow.

6. One more TV note: someone at Canyon Cafe last Friday was uncertain as to the state of her Dr. Who recording. Of course, I can't remember who it was. Does anyone remember?

7. Ooh, I just noticed that Opus is now in my local paper, at least on Sundays. Yay!

8. And the Daily Kitten is back! Hurrah!

Catch-Up Randoms

1. The weekend: After driving down to CT on Saturday morning, I headed to New Haven in the afternoon. I hung out with a college friend at a nifty chocolate cafe called Moka, and then parked my car in a garage and headed to meet Lauren at Yarn LLC. No need to get into detail, but we'll just say that I was not impressed with that store. Anyway, we then headed to the Masters Tea given by Annie Modesitt. Annie was really interesting and friendly and great, and I'm looking forward to reading her book.

But then Lauren walked me back to my car. Well, she tried. But the parking garage was closed. Apparently, this garage closes at 6 pm on Saturdays and isn't open at all on Sundays. It was 6:15, everything was locked up tight, and no one was to be found. I hadn't thought to check the hours when I parked, because I wasn't really aware that parking garages closed like that. Most of the ones I've used have not. So anyway, Lauren's very obliging FHBF drove me back to my parents' house. I ended up having to stay until Monday instead of Sunday - and therefore take a vacation day - and to add insult to injury, the laundry I had planned to do at my parents' house was locked in the car. I did manage to ransom the car out Monday morning, and of course had to pay for the privilege of parking there all weekend.

On Sunday, I helped my parents host brunch for 20 - hence the seven dozen eggs. Scrambled eggs, two kinds of French toast, quiche, cake... brunch foods take a lot of eggs. I got to meet two little cousins I'd never met, and it was a fun day all around. Except, of course, that I couldn't come home. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

2. Knitting! The Asymmetrical Cable Hat went very quickly and is almost done, but I've been mostly working on Birch. It's probably about half done by now, and feels like it's going quickly, for the moment at least. It'll probably get to the black hole stage at any moment now that I've said it was going quickly, of course.

3. And I finally managed to update the knitting WIPs list on the sidebar. The reading one too. Yeah, the reading is a bit out of control. Plus...

4. Library books! I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but I gave up library books for Lent. So I have had a wonderful time at both the school and public libraries this week, and now I have all this exciting stuff I want to read.

5. I'm watching some figure skating that Teddy TiVo found for me while I was gone over the weekend, and Sasha Cohen just skated to Celine Dion's version of "God Bless America," and they were all talking about how patriotic and yay-U.S. and everything it was. Um, people, Celine Dion is Canadian. Just saying.

Late Random Wednesday

Well, not technically late, as it's still Wednesday. But later in the day than I'd planned. And I had a lovely random post with lots of pictures planned out for you, but now it's almost ten and I'm just eating dinner and I was determined to get to bed early. So I think we'll just go with a few randoms for now and try for the pictures tomorrow.

1. My coworkers were driving me crazy today. I don't know if it was me or them, but... argh. I actually got a lot done, though. I'm relatively okay with my job at the moment. It's a nice feeling.

2. On the knitting front, I have a sort of system worked out for the three projects I need to finish in the new few weeks. Dave's Scarf is a bit over 2/3 done; the Irish Hiking Scarf is about 1/4; Birch is a bit over 1/3. So the Irish Hiking Scarf gets carried around and the other two stay home, unless I know I'm going somewhere particularly knitting-friendly. Dave's Scarf is my by-the-computer knitting. And if I'm watching a movie or something and know I'll be knitting for a while, I work on Dave's Scarf for a bit and then switch to Birch. Let's hope this keeps them all moving right along.

3. May is not as far away as it sounds. Yes, that's when my paper's due. I'm comparing the Wilson Reading System with whole language methods, focusing on their use in library-based adult literacy programs. This is a new area for me, so if any of you have any knowledge/experience/opinions to share, by all means, speak up!

4. Speaking of May, I was looking at the calendar and oh my goodness! May 13-14 is NH Sheep & Wool, then the WEBS tent sale May 20-21, then Cummington May 27-28. I'm planning to be at all three, probably on the Sundays, although I might try to swing both days at NH, and I might be able to drive down Saturday night for either of the MA ones. Maybe. Depending on accomodations and such. So please please please, if you are going to any of these or planning meet-ups or dinners or anything, let me know!

Quick Randoms

Because I was supposed to go to bed on time tonight, darn it! Argh.

1. Operation: Harlot was successful last night. I arrived at the store at 10:30, unpacked boxes for the first 15 minutes, and then realized that I had 15 minutes and about 25 boxes left and I had to go more quickly. So then I started just opening boxes. Blood was drawn. (Boxes are sharp!) But I found it. Wheeeee. It's wonderful. Better review after I finish reading it.

2. Clapotis = fun. And I haven't even started dropping stitches yet.

3. Watched the fourth Harry Potter movie tonight. Some of the exterior shots seemed oddly cartoony, but I thought it was good overall. Hermione is still my favorite, of course. As always, I found myself sort of wishing that they'd hurry up through the dragon/battle/whatever scenes and get back to the academics and interpersonal relationships and lovely boarding-schoolness. Maybe I should just go find some school stories to read.

4. Don't you hate it when something disappears right after you discover it? Last week, I discovered the green tea lattes at the coffee stand on campus. Now, I don't normally like green tea much, but these were all milky and melony and yum. Yesterday? They were gone. Bah.

5. Interested in reading or contributing to a free online knitting lifestyle magazine? Sort of Glamour meets Knitty, with a little Bust thrown in? Let me know.

I'm sure there was more, but I really, really should be asleep. Good night!

First Randoms of Spring

1. It is spring. Therefore, it was flurrying today. Come on, people. (And by "people" I mean "the forces of the universe that control the weather.") Either let it get warm already, or if it's going to be cold, how about some snow? A decent amount, not flurries. Like how about enough to close my office for, say, a week? Now wouldn't that be fun?

2. I came home from work today and slept for an hour and a half. Huh. Perhaps this surprise weekend off is coming at a good time. (I have, by the way, requested that I be switched from three shifts per week at the bookstore to two, so hopefully the crazy tiredness will soon be abated.) Of course, on my weekend off from the store I'm going to another Borders to see a friend and listen to her brother's friend, SJ Tucker. Ah well. That'll be at the Marlborough Borders if any of you local-ish people are interested in meeting up. I haven't heard SJ Tucker yet, but reviews on her site liken her to Dar Williams, Joni Mitchell, and Ani DiFranco, so that's basically enough for me, especially considering it's a free show.

3. Dave's Scarf is coming right along, but this evening I decided I was too sick of it to even take it out of my purse. (This is why my list is 10 projects, not one.) So I got out Branching Out. I had put it away last weekend because I was short a stitch and didn't have the brainpower to figure out why. As Tracy predicted, I had missed a yarn over. I managed to pick it up fairly decently and have started making progress again, albeit slowly. I still can't quite figure out how I feel about this pattern. Something about it and my brain just don't seem to be clicking: it's only a simple ten row pattern, and I should have memorized it by now, darn it. But I'm still not quite grokking it. At the same time, though, it's oddly addictive. Hmm. At least it's small, so hopefully it will be finished pretty soon. I want to start Clapotis. And Rogue. And Jaywalkers.

4. Podcasts? The best thing since self-striping sock yarn. Seriously. They make the work day so much more palatable. I'm working on a post of mini-reviews of my favorites, and I'll get them in the sidebar eventually too. I need more, though, if I'm going to be listening basically all day five days a week. So leave a comment with the names of your favorites - either knitting-related or not. (Actually, I think I've found most of the knitting ones, so I'm especially interested in other recommendations.)

5. I'm also thinking of doing a series this spring/summer of ice cream posts - reviews of ice cream shops I visit, flavor comparisons between brands, maybe even adventures in making my own ice cream. I'm still brainstorming about this, so let me know if you have any ideas on what you'd like to see in your ice cream blog posts. (Of course, now I'm thinking about ice cream podcasts. Hmm....)

6. I've added a few things to the sidebars. On the left, toward the bottom, you can see the covers of all the books I'm reading. (Sorry about the stupid "Buy from Amazon" thing; that was the easiest way I could figure out to get pictures up without uploading them all.) Yes, I really do read that many books at once. It's a sickness, I tell you. Also, in the top right there's a new "Check Out..." section. This is going to be links I think you should look at, but which won't get their own posts. I'm thinking it will be mostly blog posts, with some news stories and other links thrown in, but we'll see how it evolves. There will generally be about five at a time, with the oldest one bumped off when I find something new I want to add. Some sort of archive of old links will be available as soon as I figure out the best way to do that.

And I just did it again! Missed a YO in almost exactly the same place in the repeat. Argh.

Random, with Pictures!

Wow, it's already Wednesday again! And I'm still in a good mood. Yay.

1. I knew the recent springlike weather was just a tease. We had some bizarre fits of snow this afternoon. At least we know who to blame.

2. I'm liking the scarf better as it gets longer, so that's good, I guess:

As you can see, it's not exactly reversible, but rather two-sided. I'm hoping to knit a ball of yarn every two days, so I finish on Sunday and can start Rogue. The picture has about half a ball knit up, mostly from lunch yesterday, subway and class last night, and lunch today.

3. On Sunday night, I realized that, improbably enough, I didn't seem to have any plain decaffeinated black tea in the house. I picked up some Red Rose at the store today, and they have new figurines! I've been sort of collecting them since I was very young, so it's always exciting to get a new one. I got the cute little bunny.

4. I saw Match Point over the weekend. Whoa. I think I've decided that it was very good, and you should see, but I probably do not ever want to see it again. But ahhh, Jonathan. Even in this rather, shall we say, questionable role, he was gorgeous. Oh! And according to IMDB he's going to be Henry VIII! That's one of the most exciting things I've seen in a while.

5. I'm doing some reorganizing of my Bloglines feeds. I've realized that I have a hard time getting into new-to-me blogs without reading all the archives, so now I have a separate category for blogs I think I'll want to read regularly but that I have to catch up with first. It's making it all much easier to navigate.

6. Last night for dinner I tried an Odwalla Strawberry C Monster smoothie and Super Protein bar. It was filling and surprisingly satisfying. Hmm. This may have to become my default quick dinner for nights when I have class or work. If I can find them, of course. I found the smoothies at the grocery store tonight, but I couldn't find the bars, even though the cashier told me they sold them. I got a few Luna bars, since they seemed to be the closest, but they don't have as much protein. Ah well.

7. And another for Project Spectrum: (blurry) strawberries!

Oodles of Randomosity

1. The roommate is having houseguests this weekend, which has prompted me to clean a bit. And wow, I kinda like it when I can actually use my living room. Actually, I've been in something of a cleaning/decluttering mood anyway. Let's hope it sticks.

2. We all know South Dakota sucks, as Bitch Ph.D. so succinctly put it, but here's a new one in the "evil politician" category: US Senate Candidate Wants Death Penalty for Homosexuals. Um, what? With a platform like that, you'd think he'd at least bother to change his registration from Democrat to, I don't know, Lawful Evil or something.

3. I have become convinced that there are maybe five or six templates for towns in New England, and they're all variations on those. Lots of deja vu while visiting new towns recently. Today I drove into Haverhill for the first time and would have sworn I was in a certain part of Waterbury. Except things weren't quite where they were supposed to be. Weird.

4. I'm slightly concerned that I seem to be finishing the easier/smaller projects on my list of ten and replacing them with more complicated/larger ones. But I'm trying not to worry about it. Theoretically it will all even itself out eventually.

5. I am extraordinarily tempted by the Spring Forward KAL. I mean, look at all those cables! Just look at them! Aaaaah!

6. But Rogue! That has to be the next sweater started. So far for the KAL we've got me, Erica, Cate, Kat, and Tracy. Anyone have a Rogue picture they'd be willing to let me use to make a button?

7. Carole King is so cool. I picked up a promo of The Living Room Tour at the store a while back, and I'm finally listening to it. Dear Lord, the woman wrote everything. I don't always like live recorded stuff (um, you know what I mean), but this is great.

8. They're saying it's going to be warm this weekend! I have decreed that there will be frolicking. And ice cream. I will frolic by myself, if necessary.

And there's more, actually, but I think that's enough for one day...

Oh hey, it's Wednesday!

I finally went to work today, after being out sick, so it felt like Monday, so I'm totally confused. Anyway, it's Wednesday, so that means randomness!

1. FIRST of all, do you like the new layout? It's March 1 (Happy March!) so I decided something bright and springlike was in order. It's a very slightly tweaked version of a template that the lovely and generous Becky made for us Pretty Posies members. Let me know if anything seems to be working incorrectly.

2. Based on the comments I got yesterday and what I've seen at other blogs, I think Post-Olympic Startitis should be declared an official disease. I've managed to stick to my ten, though. Aren't you proud of me? (Birch was added to the ten when I finished the Olympic socks. The first ten were in basically random order, but I'll be adding new items to the bottom as I finish things.)

3. I decided to add my LibraryThing widget to the sidebar even though only a fraction of my books have been entered so far. (All the cool kids are doing it.) I'm going to try to add a few each day.

4. I was on Morning Edition on NHPR yesterday, talking about the Knitting Olympics. Want to hear me?

5. It has been brought to my attention (thanks Chris!) that an all-cotton sweater, as I was discussing last entry, might not work so well. So that project is on the back burner for the moment, and I'm open to yarn suggestions for a DK cotton blend.

6. I am SO ready for spring. So why is it in the twenties out? Not fair.

7. I'm still sick. Sleeping plenty but exhausted all the time. What's with this?

8. Okay, enough complaining. Let's end with something positive. Umm... oh yeah! Have you seen The Daily Kitten? Say it with me... Awwwwww.

So far beyond random that it's not even funny.

I think we're past random now, closing in on stream-of-consciousness inane drivel. Sorry. It's the Friday evening of a very long week, and there is so much I need to do and I just can't deal with any of it right now. So I'm giving myself these few hours left in the evening off. (Well, knitting. But off from homework or housework.)

Steph wrote about her "Aw...Crap" Knitting Olympics moment earlier today. I think I had one this evening, although it took a slightly different form. Mine came when I walked in from the laundromat, already behind on my knitting schedule, and smelled that my roommate was cooking dinner. And I, alas, did not have the willpower to resist a homecooked dinner complete with champagne and plenty of venting about work. So I got even less done tonight. I'm knitting now, but I think I'm going to have go to bed before I even finish the cuff of this second sock. Ack.

On the way home from the laundromat, I saw a sign that I was sure said "WOOL BLENDS." And I was so excited that the hardware store was now carrying wool. Alas, it was in fact "WOOD BLINDS." Yeah. You know you knit too much when... Oh, you also know you knit too much when you have nightmares about moths in your socks. Just saying.

I am getting so excited about my new ten-at-a-time system. I'm glad you all did not think that ten was too ridiculously huge of a number. Honestly, I think that I wouldn't be able