I Said I Loved Knitting Baby Hats...

Got this pattern from One Skein, which has been a godsend since I have an incredible amount of stash yarn laying around. I love the cute little detailing at the bottom.

Hat Love

I love knitting baby hats. They're just so darn cute and tiny. And since I finally unlocked the mystery of knitting on circular needles, it's like a whole new world has opened up to me. My favorite hat is the Umbilical Cord Hat from that bible of fun knitting, Stitch & Bitch. Behold, in various needle and yarn sizes:

I'm seriously thinking of knitting one I can wear. It's just so darned cute. My next project using the hat is to see how small I can make 'em - I'm getting into knitting preemie caps for charity, and I just think these would be adorable.

Ahhhh... almost done...

Biography Day is out of the way, and the Science Fair happens this week. I can finally get a break from Will's work schedule. I do not remember having this much crap to do as a second grader. I swear I'm the one getting graded.

So I can revisit some of the knitting I've been trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to photograph the baby shower gift I made for Michele, a pastel variegated baby blanket that was a sampler - stockinette, basket stitch, and rib, with a garter stitch border. I've made it several times before; it's a Lion Brand pattern that I got from A Passion for Knitting, which has some really good patterns, especially if you're in a pinch.

Anyway - I'm going to shoot the hats and document my search for the next 'perfect' baby shower gifts. I've got two more showers to come, and I really want to stretch my comfort zone. So watch this space; I'll turn this into a real knitting blog yet.

The Joys of Having Boys...

...no one has to know I'm secretly excited about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie... I can pawn it off on them

...a reason to bust out my old Star Wars figures to play with

...no whining when I want to watch The Dark Ages on History Channel (well, except from 3-year old Alex, who takes it as a personal affront when Noggin is off the air)

...someone to have in-depth discussions about X-Men with, as well as fairly amusing debates about Justice League

It's good to be a geek mommy of boys.

Self Challenge - THIS is the year.

It's March, and that means it's time for my annual Self Magazine Self Challenge. I've yet to finish a full three-month challenge. Sadly and frighteningly enough, the closest I came was the year I was pregnant with Alex. I've gotta do it. I'll be so proud of myself and happier with myself if I do. I started out okay on Sunday and was fucked by Tuesday, but I'm going to shake it off and start again. I have to stop fighting myself on this.

Maybe once I get back into a F/T job and routine, it'll be easier. Still no phone call today. I'm hoping and maybe, just maybe, saying a little prayer.

Seven Deadly Sins...

Well, Pride and Wrath are my biggest failings... imagine that...

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	High
Sloth:	Low
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	High

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

Needle Love

I've spent the last few days combing the web for interesting baby blanket patterns. I'm in a cabling state of mind these days, so I'm looking for cables like crazy. But you know me - I do love my skulls, and since Will is hankering for a skull blanket, I innocently googled the term, "punk knits" - and lo and behold, a plethora of skull-y goodness ensued, as did some other great stuff. There are tons of great sites out there, but the blogs are the best. Knitters ain't just knitting grandma's stuff anymore - hell, you know it by now. Bring on the skulls and horns. I love reading about other knitters, especially the ones who have the talent to create stuff on their own (I'm not there yet, but hopefully one day I will be). So I just wanted to mention a couple of the many cool knitting blogs I've since added to my Bloglines (thanks, Nancy, for suggesting that - now I actually READ all the blogs I've bookmarked!)

You Knit What?? does for knitting patterns what GoFugYourself does for celebrity fashion. They're not blogging anymore, but the commentary they've left behind is hilarious.

Vintage Stitch-o-Rama has great patterns including Ankh Earwarmers and the "Camisole of Death". Love it. She's also got vintage patterns that go back as far as the late 1800s - awesome.

I'll post more later (right now, my ancient computer is giving me attitude about opening up another Internet Explorer window and letting me cruise the many bookmarks I've racked up the past few days). Pictures to come, too; I've got an unbelievable amount of little hats I've knitted up (god, what did I do before I learned to knit in the round?) and I'm agonizing over which blanket to knit for Will's teacher, as well as a friend of mine in MD. I've found a couple of interesting patterns, at least, right?

Young Mr. Roosevelt

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, young Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Rider:



Will had to do a Herculean biography project for school, culminating in his dressing up like the person of his choice and giving a presentation. After seeing A Night at the Museum, Will was all about Teddy Roosevelt - and hey, a New Yawker could do worse, right? He was adorable and awesome, and I'm gushing as usual. :-)

Batter Up!

Will's officially a Little Leaguer. He has his first team practice this coming Saturday. Can't wait! Now, to make sure to curb Mike when he starts playing games...

Until Domestic Goddesses is Back Up...

...I'll keep blathering on about my crafting here. I've been reacquainting myself with my sewing machine lately; this is a cool grosgrain ribbon I trimmed Will's pillow with. I originally bought it, along with some small D-rings, to make a belt for Will with, but I recently found some even cooler camo canvas belt material - which is probably a little more rugged for my 7-year old to have as a belt. Methinks grosgrain may come back from its maiden voyage frayed to crap. So I trimmed the pillow, and Will loves it (he's modeling, not sleeping, in the picture at right).

I have so many cute ideas from watching Uncommon Threads obsessively; I may need to make a pilgrimage to Rag Shop or JoAnn's very soon.

2007, so far...

So 2007 didn't start out on the greatest foot for me, but I've been trying to keep a good outlook. Things are starting to brighten up, so I'm going to be optimistic and look at what's happened so far this year; what I've accomplished and see where I can go.

- I've gotten to spend a lot of time with Will and Alex, which they (mostly) appreciate.
- I've gotten to bone up on my crafting - knitting, yes, but now I've reintroduced myself to my sewing machine and am getting more comfortable with it - something I've wanted to do for a while.
- I've gotten a lot of baking done, something I kept complaining I had no time to do.
- I've taught Alex three new songs and am about to teach Will cursive handwriting, since apparently they don't teach it in public school anymore (exactly what is there time in the curriculum for?)
- I've started eating healthier again, and this time, when I go off the wagon, I'm very aware of it.
- I've continued freelancing for Bspan, and had my first honest-to-goodness freelance marketing spot.
- I've begun a book marketing campaign for Dan's book - I even wrote the press release for it!

Not too bad for someone who's moaning about what a crap year it started out to be. What do I want to do next?

I really, really want to relaunch the Domestic Goddesses blog. After becoming addicted to DIY Network and the Uncommon Threads, Knitty Gritty, and Stylelicious shows (not to mention all the programming on Food Network), I'm dying to make that blog what it should be - craftastic! So I'm going to start working on it (and Stacey, Linda, Lauren and Nancy - help, please!) and will let you know when it relaunches in all its crafty, cookery glory.

(BTW - speaking of cookery - yet another Miracle Muffins victory last night, with cranberry muffins. Mmmmm...)

After that? I'd like to stay on the good eating wagon and finally unpack my pre-Alex clothes. I'd like to be back in those clothes for the summer. I may journal here from time to time, even if it's just listing the food I've eaten that particular day, to keep me honest. Bear with me.

I want to keep doing stuff on the freelancing end, but I needs me a 'real' job. So keep fingers crossed, light a candle, kill a rubber chicken, do some yoga and send good prana my way, anything that can help.

Speaking of that last goal, I have an interview in a little while. So I'm going to work out and get ready for it. TTFN.

Books

I've been reading like crazy lately, but it's pretty much the stuff I get paid to read. Sometimes it's great, as in the case of stuff like The Last Chinese Chef and the insanely funny Ant Farm and Other Desperate Situations, and sometimes... well, sometimes it's not. I love getting paid to write book reports, but sometimes, I just miss reading 'my' books. So... shhhh... I put one of the less enticing books aside for a couple of days to steal some Roe reading time and revisited Jim Butcher's first Dresden File, Storm Front.

I've really got to say, if you haven't read these yet, please pick them up. They're quick and compulsive reads. And if you are watching the Sci Fi Channel show, please understand that while the show is entertaining, you are missing so much by not reading the books. There are eight books now - check one out. It's worth it.

I checked out a webinar on Search Engine Marketing today. It was a brief overview, more about what career path you can take with it, but it was interesting. I think I'll check out a few more; they're on the SEMPO website (professional organization for search engine marketing). Anything I can to do pump up the resume and learn something new.

I've got so much running through my head. It's all driving me nuts. I wish I could just blink and it would all go away sometimes. It's frustrating, trying to deal with everything life throws at me when it feels like everything's coming all at once.

I'm wiped, time to go check out Battlestar Galactica (I'm catching up) before Lost starts at 10.

501 Great Books...

Got this from a cool librarian's blog. I've bolded the ones I've read, and am feeling mightily under-read right about now (and that's saying something!)... however, I do feel like I've seen quite a lot of movies, hee hee...

Before I get to "The List", I'm thinking that I may need to compile a list of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror books - anyone interested in helping me compile one?

1. "Little Women," Louisa May Alcott
2. "Fairy Tales," Hans Christian Andersen
3. "Peter Pan," J.M. Barrie (I've read the kids' version, does that count?)
4. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," L. Frank Baum
5. "The Last Unicorn," Peter S. Beagle (still have it, have the movie...)
6. "The Secret Garden," Frances Hodgson Burnett (good movie, ashamed to say I've never read the book)
7. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
8. "Pinocchio," Carlo Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini)
9. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Roald Dahl (I re-read this and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, often)
10. "Sophie's World," Jostein Gaarder
11. "The Wierdstone of Brisingamen," Alan Garner
12. "The Wind in the Willows," Kenneth Grahame
13. "Children's and Household Tales," Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
14. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," Mark Haddon
15. "Emil and the Detectives," Erich Kastner
16. "Just So Stories," Rudyard Kipling
17. "The Complete Nonsense Books," Edward Lear
18. "A Wrinkle in Time," Madeleine L'Engle
19. "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," C.S. Lewis (honestly, who are you talking about here? ;-)
20. "Pippi Longstocking," Astrid Lindgren
21. "Dr. Dolittle," Hugh Lofting
22. "At the Back of the North Wind," George MacDonald
23. "Nobody's Boy," Hector Malot
24. "Winnie-the-Pooh," A.A. Milne
25. "Anne of Green Gables," L.M. Montgomery
26. "Five Children and It," E. Nesbit
27. "Tom's Midnight Garden," Philippa Pearce
28. "The War of the Buttons," Louis Pergaud
29. "Fairy Tales," Charles Perrault
30. "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," Beatrix Potter
31. "The Colour of Magic," Terry Pratchett
32. "Northern Lights," Philip Pullman
33. "Swallows and Amazons," Arthur Ransome
34. "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang," Mordecai Richler
35. "Harry Potter and the [Philosopher's] Sorceror's Stone," J.K. Rowling
36. "The King of the Golden River," John Ruskin
37. "The Little Prince," Antoine De Saint-Exupery
38. "The Human Comedy," William Saroyan
39. "The Misfortunes of Sophie," Comtesse de Segur
40. "Where the Wild Things Are," Maurice Sendak
41. "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street," Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)
42. "Black Beauty," Anna Sewell
43. "The Golem," Isaac Bashevis Singer
44. "Heidi," Johana Spyri
45. "Treasure Island," Robert Louis Stevenson
46. "The Fellowship of the Ring," J.R.R. Tolkien (Do I really need to list this, or is it just a given?)
47. "Mary Poppins," P.L. Travers
48. "Charlotte's Web," E.B. White (still cry like a baby...)
49. "The Sword in the Stone," T.H. White
50. "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," Kate Douglas Wiggin
51. "The Happy Prince and Other Tales," Oscar Wilde
52. "The Epic of Gilgamesh," Anonymous
53. "The Thousand and One Nights," Anonymous
54. "Sense and Sensibility," Jane Austen
55. "Old Goriot," Honore De Balzac
56. "Vathek: an Arabian Tale," William Beckford
57. "Lady Audley's Secret," Mary Elizabeth Braddon
58. "Jane Eyre," Charlotte Bronte
59. "Wuthering Heights," Emily Bronte (the book that defined the dysfunctional relationship... and I still read it like it's the first time I've ever picked it up)
60. "The Pilgrim's Progress," John Bunyan
61. "The Canterbury Tales," Geoffrey Chaucer (heh heh heh... good stuff...)
62. "The Collected Stories," Anton Chekhov
63. "The Man Who Was Thursday," G.K. Chesterton
64. "Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure," John Cleland
65. "The Moonstone: a Romance," Wilkie Collins
66. "The Hound of the Baskervilles," Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
67. "Heart of Darkness," Joseph Conrad
68. "Robinson Crusoe," Daniel Defoe
69. "The Christmas Books," Charles Dickens
70. "Our Mutual Friend," Charles Dickens
71. "Crime and Punishment," Fyodor Dostoyevsky
72. "Middlemarch: A Study in Provincial Life," George Eliot
73. "Tom Jones," Henry Fielding
74. "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald
75. "Madame Bovary," Gustave Flaubert
76. "Howards End," E.M. Forster
77. "North and South," Elizabeth Gaskell
78. "The Sorrows of Young Werther," Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
79. "The Vicar of Wakefield," Oliver Goldsmith
80. "The Power and the Glory," Graham Greene
81. "King Solomon's Mines," H. Rider Haggard
82. "Jude the Obscure," Thomas Hardy
83. "The Scarlet Letter," Nathaniel Hawthorne
84. "Moby Dick," Herman Melville
85. "The Portrait of a Lady," Henry James
86. "The Iliad," Homer
87. "Les Miserables," Victor Hugo
88. "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of The Dog)," Jerome K. Jerome
89. "Kim," Rudyard Kipling
90. "Bliss and Other Stories," Katherine Mansfield
91. "Utopia," Sir Thomas More
92. "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque," Edgar Alan Poe
93. "In Search of Lost Time," Marcel Proust (I read a big chunk, but not the whole thing.)9
4. "A Sicilian Romance," Ann Radcliffe
95. "Clarissa," Samuel Richardson
96. "Waverley," Walter Scott
97. "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley
98. "The Red and the Black," Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
99. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Robert Louis Stevenson
100. "Dracula," Bram Stoker
101. "Gulliver's Travels," Jonathan Swift
102. "Vanity Fair," William Makepeace Thackeray
103. "War and Peace," Leo Tolstoy
104. "Barchester Towers," Anthony Trollope
105. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain (Langhorne Clemens)
106. "Candide," Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)
107. "The Castle of Otranto," Horace Walpole
108. "The House of Mirth," Edith Wharton
109. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Oscar Wilde (Mike and I had one of our first conversations thanks to this book, hee hee...)
110. "To the Lighthouse," Virginia Woolf
111. "La Bete Humaine," Emile Zola
112. "London, the Biography," Peter Ackroyd
113. "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life," John Lee Anderson
114. "The Hour of Our Death," Phillipe Aries
115. "Berlin - the Downfall," Antony Beevor
116. "The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II," Fernand Braudel
117. "The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century," John Brewer
118. "Frozen Desire: An Enquiry into the Meaning of Money," James Buchan
119. "Hitler and Stalin - Parallel Lives," Alan Bullock
120. "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy," Jacob Burckhardt
121. "Daily Life in Ancient Rome," Jerome Carcopino
122. "The Accursed Kings," Maurice Druon
123. "The Age of the Cathedrals," Georges Duby
124. "The Stripping of the Altars," Eamon Duffy
125. "Rites of Spring," Modris Eksteins
126. "The Wretched of the Earth," Franz Fanon
127. "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire," Niall Ferguson
128. "Millennium," Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
129. "Pagans and Christians," Robin Lane Fox
130. "The End of History and the Last Man," Francis Fukuyama
131. "The Naked Heart," Peter Gay
132. "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Edward Gibbon
133. "The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy," Martin Gilbert
134. "The Cheese and the Worms," Carlo Ginzburg
135. "God's First Love," Friedrich Heer
136. "Histories," Herodotus
137. "Hiroshima," John Hersey
138. "The Fatal Shore," Robert Hughes
139. "Pandaemonium," Humphrey Jennings
140. "A History of Warfare," John Keegan
141. "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies," Bartolome de las Casas
142. "Seven Pillars of Wisdom," Thomas Edward Lawrence
143. "Islam in History," Bernard Lewis
144. "Chinese Shadows," Simon Leys (Pierre Rychmans)
145. "The Crusades through Arab Eyes," Amin Maalouf
146. "The Defeat of the Spanish Armada," Farrett Mattingly
147. "The Story of English," Robert McCrum
148. "The Ornament of the World," Maria Rosa Menocal
149. "The Women's History of the World," Rosalind Miles
150. "Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire," James Morris
151. "Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade," Henri Pirenne
152. "Parallel Lives," Plutarch
153. "Flesh in the Age of Reason," Roy Porter
154. "Citizens - A Chronicle of the French Revolution," Simon Schama
155. "Leviathan and the Air-Pump," Steven Shapin
156. "The Decline of the West," Oswald Spengler
157. "The Trial of Socrates," Isador Stone
158. "Annals of Imperial Rome," Tacitus
159. "The Origins of the Second World War," A.J.P. Taylor
160. "A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century," Barbara M. Tuchman
161. "A People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn
162. "Paula," Isabel Allende
163. "Journal Intime," ("Amiel's Journal") Henri-Frederic Amiel
164. "Aubrey's Brief Lives," John Aubrey
165. "Confessions," Augustine
166. "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter," Simone De Beauvior
167. "My Left Foot," Christy Brown
168. "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini," Benvenuto Cellini
169. "The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinrurus," Cyril Connolly
170. "Boy: Tales of Childhood," Roald Dahl
171. "My Family and Other Animals," Gerald Durrell
172. "An Angel at My Table," Janet Frame
173. "The Diary of a Young Girl," Anne Frank
174. "Journals, 1889-1949," Andre Paul Guillaume Gide
175. "Poetry and Truth: From My Own Life," Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
176. "Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments," Edmund Gosse
177. "Ways of Escape," Graham Greene
178. "Black Like Me," John Howard Griffin
179. "84, Charing Cross Road," Helene Hanff
180. "Pentimento," Lillian Hellman
181. "Childhood, Youth and Exile," Alexander Herzen
182. "The Diary of Alice James," Alice James
183. "Memories, Dreams, Reflections," Carl Gustav Jung
184. "Diaries 1919-23," Franz Kafka
185. "The Story of My Life," Helen Keller
186. "The Book of Margery Kempe," Margery Kempe
187. "I Will Bear Witness," Victor Klemperer
188. "In the Castle of My Skin," George Lamming
189. "A Grief Observed," C.S. Lewis
190. "The Towers of Trebizond," Rose Macaulay
191. "Journal of Katherine Mansfield," Katherine Mansfield
192. "The Seven Storey Mountain," Thomas Merton
193. "The Pursuit of Love," Nancy Mitford
194. "Borrowed Time," Paul Monette
195. "My Place," Sally Morgan
196. "Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited," Vladimir Nabokov
197. "Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books," Azar Nafisi
198. "Memoirs," Pablo Neruda
199. "Portrait of a Marriage," Nigel Nicolson
200. "Running in the Family," Michael Ondaatje
201. "Down and Out in Paris and London," George Orwell
202. "Autobiography of a Yogi," Paramahansa Yogananda
203. "Diary," Samuel Pepys
204. "Letters," Pliny the Younger
205. "Confessions," Jean-Jacques Rousseau
206. "Words," Jean-Paul Sartre
207. "Journal of a Solitude," May Sarton
208. "Walden," Henry David Thoreau
209. "De Profundis," Oscar Wilde
210. "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit," Jeanette Winterson
211. "Autobiographies," William Butler Yeats
212. "Things Fall Apart," Chinua Achebe
213. "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," Jorge Amado
214. "Le Grand Meaulnes," Alain-Fournier (Henri Alban Fournier)
215. "Take a Girl Like You," Kingsley Amis
216. "Winesburg, Ohio," Sherwood Anderson
217. "Surfacing," Margaret Atwood
218. "The New York Trilogy," Paul Auster
219. "Tales of Odessa," Isaak Babel
220. "Giovanni's Room," James Baldwin
221. "The Sweet Hereafter," Russel Banks
222. "The Regeneration Trilogy," Pat Barker
223. "Herzog," Saul Bellow
224. "Ficciones," Jorge Luis Borges
225. "Nadja," Andre Breton
226. "The Master and the Margarita," Mikhail Bulgakov
227. "The Naked Lunch," William Burroughs
228. "Possession," A.S. Byatt
229. "If On a Winter's Night a Traveller," Italo Calvino
230. "The Outsider," Albert Camus
231. "Auto da Fe," Elias Canetti
232. "Oscar and Lucinda," Peter Carey
233. "The Kingdom of This World," Alejo Carpentier
234. "The Bloody Chamber," Angela Carter
235. "What We Talk about When We Talk about Love," Raymond Carver
236. "The Horse's Mouth," Joyce Carey
237. "Journey to the End of Night," Louis-Ferdinand Celine
238. "Soldiers of Salamis," Javier Cercas
239. "The Stories of John Cheever," John Cheever
240. "Disgrace," J.M. Coetzee
241. "Cheri," Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette)
242. "Victory," Joseph Conrad
243. "A House and Its Head," Ivy Compton-Burnett
244. "Fifth Business," Roberson Davies
245. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," Louis De Bernieres
246. "Underworld," Don Delillo
247. "Seven Gothic Tales," Isak Dinesen
248. "Berlin Alexanderplatz," Alfred Doblin
249. "Once Were Warriors," Alan Duff (never read it, but the movie is amazing - like a gut punch)
250. "Rebecca," Daphne Du Maurier (I LOVE this book)
251. "The Lover," Marguerite Duras
252. "The Alexandria Quartet," Lawrence Durrell
253. "The Name of the Rose," Umberto Eco
254. "The Neverending Story," Michael Ende (never read it, loved the first movie and still have the 45 by Limahl)
255. "The Sound and the Fury," William Faulkner (I wanted to dig him up and shoot him after I read it)
256. "The Wars," Timothy Findley
257. "The Good Soldier," Ford Maddox Ford
258. "Wildlife," Richard Ford
259. "A Passage to India," E.M. Forster
260. "The Corrections," Jonathan Franzen
261. "Birdsong," Sebastian Faulks
262. "The Blue Flower," Penelope Fitzgerald
263. "From the Fifteenth District," Mavis Gallant
264. "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Gabriel Garcia Marquez
265. "Our Lady of the Flowers," Jean Genet
266. "Lord of the Flies," William Golding
267. "July's People," Nadine Gordimer
268. "FerdyDurke," Witold Gombrowicz
269. "The Tin Drum," Gunther Grass
270. "Hunger," Knut Hamsun
271. "The Blind Owl," Sadegh Hedayat
272. "The Old Man and the Sea," Ernest Hemingway
273. "The Glass Bead Game," Herman Hesse
274. "Lost Horizon," James Hilton
275. "A High Wind in Jamaica," Richard Hughes
276. "The World According to Garp," John Irving
277. "Berlin Stories," Christopher Isherwood (does knowing Cabaret by heart count?)
278. "The Remains of the Day," Kazuo Ishiguro
279. "Ulysses," James Joyce
280. "The File on H," Ismail Kadare
281. "The Trial," Franz Kafka
282. "It," Stephen King
283. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," Milan Kundera
284. "The Leopard," Giuseppe Di Lampedusa
285. "The Diviners," Margaret Laurence
286. "Women in Love," D.H. Lawrence
287. "The Golden Notebook," Doris Lessing
288. "The Periodic Table," Primo Levi
289. "Changing Places," David Lodge
290. "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas" J.M. Machado De Assis
291. "The Cairo Trilogy," Naguib Mahfouz
292. "The Executioner's Song," Norman Mailer
293. "God's Grace," Bernard Malamud
294. "An Imaginary Life," David Malouf
295. "The Magic Mountain," Thomas Mann
296. "Embers," Sandor Marai
297. "Life of Pi," Yann Martel
298. "Cakes and Ale," Somorset Maugham
299. "The Group," Mary McCarthy
300. "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," Carson McCullers
301. "Enduring Love," Ian McEwan
302. "The Sea of Fertility," Yukio Mishima
303. "A Fine Balance," Rohinton Mistry
304. "Cold Heaven," Brian Moore
305. "Beloved," Toni Morrison
306. "The Progress of Love," Alice Munro
307. "The Sea, the Sea," Iris Murdoch
308. "Lolita," Vladimir Nabokov
309. "A House for Mr Biswas," V.S. Naipaul
310. "The Third Policeman," Flann O'Brian
311. "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor
312. "The English Patient," Michael Ondaatje
313. "Where the Jackals Howl," Amos Oz
314. "The Messiah of Stockholm," Cynthia Ozick
315. "Gormenghast," Mervyn Peake
316. "Mr. Weston's Good Wine," T.F. Powys
317. "The Nephew," James Purdy
318. "Interview with the Vampire," Anne Rice
319. "Barney's Version," Mordecai Richler
320. "Hadrian the Seventh," Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo)
321. "The Radetzky March," Joseph Roth
322. "The Human Stain," Philip Roth
323. "The Satanic Verses," Salman Rushdie
324. "Pedro Paramo," Juan Rulfo
325. "Bonjour Tristesse," Francoise Sagan
326. "Short Stories," Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)
327. "Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger
328. "Staying On," Paul Scott
329. "Austerlitz," W.G. Sebald
330. "Last Exit to Brooklyn," Hubert Selby Jr.
331. "Unless," Carol Shields
332. "The Magician of Lubin," Isaac Bashevis Singer
333. "The Engineer of Human Souls," Josef Skvorecky
334. "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," Muriel Spark
335. "The Man Who Loved Children," Christina Stead
336. "The Grapes of Wrath," Joseph Steinbeck
337. "Sohie's Choice," William Styron
338. "Perfume," Patrick Suskind
339. "The Confessions of Zeno," Italo Svevo
340. "Declares Pereira," Antonio Tabucchi
341. "The White Hotel," D.M. Thomas
342. "The Master," Colm Toibin
343. "Felicia's Journey," William Trevor
344. "The Palm-Wine Drinkard," Amos Tutuola
345. "The Accidental Tourist," Anne Tyler
346. "Couples," John Updike
347. "The Time of the Hero," Mario Vargas Llosa
348. "In Praise of Older Women," Stephen Vizinczey
349. "Brideshead Revisited," Evelyn Waugh
350. "Voss," Patrick White
351. "Memoirs of Hadrian," Marguerite Yourcenar
352. "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Douglas Noel Adams
353. "Hothouse," Brian Aldiss
354. "Brain Wave," Poul Anderson
355. "I, Robot," Isaac Asimov
356. "The Handmaid's Tale," Margaret Atwood
357. "The Crystal World," J.G. Ballard
358. "The Demolished Man," Alfred Bester
359. "Who Goes There," John W. Campbell
360. "The Invention of Morel," Adolfo Bioy Casares
361. "Planet of the Apes," Pierre Boulle
362. "The Martian Chronicles," Ray Bradbury
363. "The Sheep Look Up," John Brunner
364. "A Clockwork Orange," Anthony Burgess
365. "Erewhon," Samuel Butler
366. "Cosmicomics," Italo Calvino
367. "2001: A Space Odyssey," Arthur C. Clarke
368. "A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder," James De Mille
369. "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch," Philip K. Dick
370. "To Your Scattered Bodies Go," Philip Jose Farmer
371. "Neuromancer," William Gibson
372. "Stranger in a Strange Land," Robert A. Heinlein
373. "Dune," Frank Herbert
374. "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley
375. "Two Planets," Kurd Lasswitz
376. "Left Hand of Darkness," Ursula K. LeGuin
377. "Solaris," Stanislaw Lem
378. "Shikasta," Doris Lessing
379. "Stepford Wives," Ira Levin
380. "Out of the Silent Planet," C.S. Lewis
381. "I Am Legend," Richard Matheson
382. "Dwellers in the Mirage," Abraham Merritt
383. "A Canticle for Leibowitz," Walter Miller
384. "Ringworld," Larry Niven
385. "Time Traders," Andre Norton
386. "Nineteen Eighty-Four," George Orwell
387. "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket," Edgar Allan Poe
388. "The Inverted World," Christopher Priest
389. "The Green Child," Herbert Read
390. "The Laxian Key," Robert Sheckley
391. "City," Clifford D. Simak392. "Donovan's Brain," Curt Siodmak
393. "Lest Darkness Fall," L. Sprague De Camp
394. "Last and First Men," Olaf Stapledon
395. "More than Human," Theodore Sturgeon
396. "Slan," A.E. Van Vogt
397. "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth," Jules Verne
398. "Slaughterhouse-Five," Kurt Vonnegut
399. "The Island of Dr Moreau," H.G. Wells
400. "Islandia," Austin Tappan Wright
401. "The Day of the Triffids," John Wyndham
402. "More Work for the Undertaker," Margery Allingham
403. "Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly," John Franklin Bardin
404. "Trent's Last Case," E.C. Bentley
405. "Trial and Error," Anthony Berkeley
406. "The Poisoned Chocolates Case," Anthony Berkeley
407. "The Beast Must Die," Nicholas Blake
408. "Psycho," Robert Bloch
409. "Double Indemnity," James Cain
410. "Thus was Adonis Murdered," Sarah Caudwell (Sarah Cockburn)
411. "Farewell, My Lovely," Raymond Chandler
412. "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," James Hadley Chase (Rene Raymond)
413. "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," Agatha Christie
414. "The Woman in White," Wilkie Collins
415. "Unnatural Exposure," Patricia Cornwell
416. "The Moving Toyshop," Edmund Crispin
417. "In the Last Analysis," Amanda Cross (Carolyn Gold Heilbrun)
418. "Rose at Ten," Marco Denevi
419. "Vendetta," Michael Dibdin
420. "The Glass-sided Ants' Nest," Peter Dickinson
421. "He Who Whispers," John Dickson Carr
422. "The Big Clock," Kenneth Fearing
423. "Blood Sport," Dick Francis
424. "Quiet as a Nun," Lady Antonia Fraser
425. "The Sunday Woman," Carlo Fruttero
426. "Death in the Wrong Room," Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Beatrice Malleson)Probably.
427. "Red Harvest," Dashiel Hammett
428. "Suicide Excepted," Cyril Hare
429. "Bones and Silence," Reginald Hill
430. "A Rage in Harlem," Chester Himes
431. "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow," Peter Hoeg
432. "Malice Aforethought," Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox)
433. "Hamlet, Revenge!" Michael Innes (John Innes Mackintosh Stewart)
434. "The Murder Room," P.D. James
435. "The Sleeping-Car Murders," Sebastien Japrisot (Jean Baptiste Rossi)
436. "Death of My Aunt," C.H.B. Kitchin
437. "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold," John Le Carre (David Cornwell)
438. "The Mystery of the Yellow Room," Gaston Leroux
439. "The Last Detective," Peter Lovesey
440. "Final Curtain," Ngaio Marsh
441. "An Oxford Tragedy," J.C. Masterman
442. "The Steam Pig," James McClure
443. "The Seven Per Cent Solution," Nicholas Meyer
444. "How Like an Angel," Margaret Millar
445. "The Red House Mystery," A.A. Milne
446. "A Red Death," Walter Mosley
447. "Deadlock," Sara Paretsky
448. "Dover One," Joyce Porter
449. "The Chinese Orange Mystery," Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee)
450. "The Man in the Net," Patrick Quentin
451. "A Judgement in Stone," Ruth Rendell
452. "Gaudy Night," Dorothy L. Sayers
453. "Mr. Hire's Engagement," Georges Simenon
454. "The Laughing Policeman," Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
455. "The Red Box," Rex Stout
456. "The Man Who Killed Himself," Julian Symons
457. "A Pin to See the Peep-Show," F. Tennyson Jesse
458. "The Daughter of Time," Josephine Tey (Elizabeth Mackintosh)
459. "Above the Dark Circus," Sir Hugh Walpole
460. "Born Victim," Hillary Waugh
461. "The Bride Wore Black," Cornell Woolrich
462. "Travels," Ibn Battuta
463. "The Scorpion-Fish," Nocholas Bouvier
464. "The Road to Oxiana," Robert Byron
465. "In Patagonia," Bruce Charles Chatwin
466. "The Voyage of the HMS Beagle," Charles Darwin
467. "My Journey to Lhasa," Alexandra David-Neel
468. "On the Narrow Road to the Deep North," Lesley Downer
469. "The Traveller's Tree," Patrick Leigh Fermor
470. "Seven Years in Tibet," Heinrich Harrer
471. "Kon Tiki," Thor Heyerdahl
472. "The Purple Land," W.H. Hudson
473. "The Last Place on Earth," Roland Huntford
474. "Video Night in Kathmandu," Pico Iyer
475. "Journey to the Hebrides," Samuel Johnson and James Boswell
476. "Eothen," A.W. Kinglake
477. "The Seasick Whale," Emphraim Kishon
478. "A Rose for Winter," Laurie Lee
479. "Golden Earth," Norman Lewis
480. "The Cruise of the Snark," Jack London
481. "Arctic Dreams," Barry Lopez
482. "The Danube," Claudio Magris
483. "The Snow Leopard," Peter Matthiessen
484. "Destinations," Jan Morris
485. "Never Cry Wolf," Farley Mowat
486. Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey," V.S. Naipaul
487. "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush," Eric Newby
488. "Roads to Santiago," Cees Nooteboom
489. "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," Francis Parkman
490. "Into the Heart of Borneo," Raymond (Redmond) O'Hanlon
491. "The Travels," Marco Polo
492. "Dead Man's Chest: Travels after Robert Louis Stevenson," Nicholas Rankin
493. "Sailing Alone Around the World," Joshua Slocum
494. "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile," J.H. Speke
495. "Travels with Charley: In Search of America," John Steinbeck
496. "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes," Robert Louis Stevenson
497. "The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels," Freya Stark
498. "The Great Railway Bazaar," Paul Theroux
499. "Southern Cross to Pole Star," A.F. Tschiffely
500. "A Tramp Abroad," Mark Twain
501. "On Fiji Islands," Ronald Wright

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Snagged from Stacey and Lauren...

1. Name one person who made you smile yesterday? Alex
2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning? Freezing my arse off walking Will to school
3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Surfing the web, catching up on Stacey's blogs
4. What is something that happened to you in 1994? Saved up money to move out in '95
5. What is the last thing you said aloud? "I'll be right there!"6.
How many different things did you drink today? Coffee, water, seltzer
7. What color is your hairbrush? Black
8. What is the last thing you bought? Birthday cards
9. What was the last gift you received on your birthday? A gift card to Michael's. :-D
10. What color is your front door? Brownish - it's hideous.
11. Where do you keep your change? All over the place, but I try to keep it localized between my coat pocket and my wallet.
12. What was the weather like today? Fecking freezing
13. What is the best ice cream flavor? Butter Pecan, but Vanilla Swiss Almond is a close second.
14. What is something you are excited about? Getting the kids to bed and having TV to myself tonight (Mike's at the Slayer show)
15. When was the last rainbow you saw? A couple of months ago, driving back down from the Catskills, I guess it was near the Tappan Zee.
16. What size shoe do you wear? 7 1/2, 8.
17. Where is question 17? It's in the closet.
18. Are you very random? I love lamp.
19. Do you want to cut your hair? Eventually, once I decide what the hell I want to do with it.
20. Are you over the age of 25? Good God, yes.
21. Do you talk a lot? Depends who you ask.
22. Do you watch The O.C.? Thankfully, no.
23. Does your screen name have an "x" in it? Nope.
24. Do you know anyone named Charles? A former teacher and a friend's dad and son.
25. Do you make up your own words? Yeppers.
27. Are you typically a jealous person? Depends.
28. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "B": Um... Brian?
29. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "J": Janine
30. Who's the 1st person on your received calls list? Mike.
31. What did the last text message you received say? "On way home now"
33. Do you have curly hair? Wavy, not so much curly.
34. What is the next concert you're going to? If Duran Duran tours again, you'll see me there.
35. Who is the worst person in your life? hahahaha... whittling down to just one is difficult...
36. How many times have you swore today? Oh my god, it's exponential.
37. What is something you say a lot? F**k, What the f**k?, Jesus Mary and Joseph, WHAT?
38. What is the last thing you ate? Way too many of my mom's oatmeal raisin cookies.
39. Have you seen the movie "Donnie Darko"? I just DVR'd it, actually.
40. Do you have work tomorrow? Yep
41. Is marriage in your future? I don't know what my husband would think about that.
42. When was the last time you said "I love you"? About 5:30 this evening.
43. What should you be doing now? Bathing my children.
44. Do you have a nickname? Roe, Rosie, Mom
46. When was the last time you used a skateboard? I think maybe when I was 10.
47. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks? No movies in past 2 weeks, 24 (mmm... Jack Bauer...) works for me.
48. Is there anyone you like right now? My kids, my husband, my friends and family
49. When was the last time you did the dishes, be honest...? About 6 this evening

Snagged from Stacey and Lauren...

1. Name one person who made you smile yesterday? Alex
2. What were you doing at 8:00 this morning? Freezing my arse off walking Will to school
3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Surfing the web, catching up on Stacey's blogs
4. What is something that happened to you in 1994? Saved up money to move out in '95
5. What is the last thing you said aloud? "I'll be right there!"6.
How many different things did you drink today? Coffee, water, seltzer
7. What color is your hairbrush? Black
8. What is the last thing you bought? Birthday cards
9. What was the last gift you received on your birthday? A gift card to Michael's. :-D
10. What color is your front door? Brownish - it's hideous.
11. Where do you keep your change? All over the place, but I try to keep it localized between my coat pocket and my wallet.
12. What was the weather like today? Fecking freezing
13. What is the best ice cream flavor? Butter Pecan, but Vanilla Swiss Almond is a close second.
14. What is something you are excited about? Getting the kids to bed and having TV to myself tonight (Mike's at the Slayer show)
15. When was the last rainbow you saw? A couple of months ago, driving back down from the Catskills, I guess it was near the Tappan Zee.
16. What size shoe do you wear? 7 1/2, 8.
17. Where is question 17? It's in the closet.
18. Are you very random? I love lamp.
19. Do you want to cut your hair? Eventually, once I decide what the hell I want to do with it.
20. Are you over the age of 25? Good God, yes.
21. Do you talk a lot? Depends who you ask.
22. Do you watch The O.C.? Thankfully, no.
23. Does your screen name have an "x" in it? Nope.
24. Do you know anyone named Charles? A former teacher and a friend's dad and son.
25. Do you make up your own words? Yeppers.
27. Are you typically a jealous person? Depends.
28. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "B": Um... Brian?
29. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter "J": Janine
30. Who's the 1st person on your received calls list? Mike.
31. What did the last text message you received say? "On way home now"
33. Do you have curly hair? Wavy, not so much curly.
34. What is the next concert you're going to? If Duran Duran tours again, you'll see me there.
35. Who is the worst person in your life? hahahaha... whittling down to just one is difficult...
36. How many times have you swore today? Oh my god, it's exponential.
37. What is something you say a lot? F**k, What the f**k?, Jesus Mary and Joseph, WHAT?
38. What is the last thing you ate? Way too many of my mom's oatmeal raisin cookies.
39. Have you seen the movie "Donnie Darko"? I just DVR'd it, actually.
40. Do you have work tomorrow? Yep
41. Is marriage in your future? I don't know what my husband would think about that.
42. When was the last time you said "I love you"? About 5:30 this evening.
43. What should you be doing now? Bathing my children.
44. Do you have a nickname? Roe, Rosie, Mom
46. When was the last time you used a skateboard? I think maybe when I was 10.
47. What is the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks? No movies in past 2 weeks, 24 (mmm... Jack Bauer...) works for me.
48. Is there anyone you like right now? My kids, my husband, my friends and family
49. When was the last time you did the dishes, be honest...? About 6 this evening

Well, That Was Arduous...

So I've been trying to switch my Blogger account over for the better part of two weeks now. And what held me up? This buggery computer, as I attempted to create a Google account to sign in with. Finally, I just decided to stop smashing the round peg into the square hole and just go directly to Google, set up an account, and then log onto Blogger. Grr.

So yes, I'll be posting more regularly now. Good lord.

And, I'm trying to breathe some new life into Domestic Goddesses. I've been recently hooked on a show on DIY network, the home of my beloved Knitty Gritty, called Stylelicious. Vickie Howell from Knitty Gritty is one of the 8 hosts - yes, 8 hosts, but they are on a constant rotation in groups of 3. They're a bunch of friends who love to do all sorts of funky crafty stuff - basically, what Stacey, me, Karen, Lauren, Linda, Nancy and almost all my girlfriends have been doing for years. So I told Stacey that we must resurrect Domestic Goddesses and make it our own Stylelicious. So I'll let you know when that's happening.

I've also been loving Uncommon Threads, another crafty needlework show - yes, I've been watching a lot of TV of late. But it's TV with a purpose, as it's getting me closer to actually pulling the sewing machine back out of retirement.

I've also been knitting a lot, eating way too much, and feeling too damned sorry for myself. But I'm blogging again, so there's got to be some change in the wind, right?

I'm Baaaaack...

Yes, it's been forever since I've blogged last, but don't worry - I'm still alive, I've been knitting, and I'll be blogging again more often.

In the meantime, who's joining me for the SuperBowl Sunday Knit-In? C'mon, folks, it's for charity!

Yes, I'm Back... and I've Got a Cool Website With Me...

I know, I've been awful with keeping updated lately. It seems that I'm having trouble getting myself on a schedule now that I'm home for a little while. I'm worse than my preschooler.

So in the wee moments I get to steal in between viewings of I Spy and Dora the Explorer, I've gotten hooked on an actual grown-up site, BooksPrice.com. It's the greatest idea - it's one-screen comparison shopping. So I don't have six different screens open anymore, driving myself nuts looking at what Amazon's charging, versus B&N, versus BooksaMillion - it's basically like Geico for books. How cool is that? You can even customize it to include your memberships, and it takes that into consideration when it's adjusting the price. I've been nerding out on it, searching for my newest obsession, cookbooks (I'm on a Paula Deen kick at the moment - lots of buttah...). SO cool. And so free, which is always a sweet thing.

I'll post more later; need to go get Will from school. I'll talk about the school trip from the Black Lagoon when I get back...

Wreckage

Pretty much sums up where I've been coming from. But hopefully, on the mend now. It's three weeks of bronchitis (still coughing), school (ending on Monday, final exam and project done as of last Monday), holiday stress and new beginnings all weighing in. I'm looking forward to some time to get my head together; I haven't been very good to myself lately.

New beginnings - there's always an ending at the start of a beginning - does that even make sense?

Thanksgiving was nice. I love that we stay home for it now; while I enjoy reconnecting with family and friends, it is nice to not have to drive around for an hour looking for parking. Or take the kids upstairs and wait for Mike to find a spot while the boys fight over which episode of "I Spy" or "Crashbox" to watch.

Mike and I cooked up a feast. He made three turkey breasts, cranberry sauce, gravy and stuffing; I whipped up some cappuccino custards (I baked them in my Corelle mugs - so cute!), maple-glazed carrots with pecans, and mashed sweet potatoes with nutmeg & sour cream. Even Will got into the act, making white chocolate-coated pretzel logs with sprinkles and later, sugar cookies with turkey faces on them (candy corn feathers... mmm...). Mom and Rich came over, and Christian, my brother-in-law, arrived the night before. It was a nice, small group.

Knitting Blogs

I'm always on the search for a good knitting blog, and in my quest for cute skull and crossbones patterns (don't ask), I've found a great site called DomiKNITrix - how cool is that? She's got a book coming out, so I'll be putting that on my Amazon wish list. And yes, she's got a skull pattern. Rockin'. Even more rockin' - she posts links to other cool knitting blogs. Love it, so I'm going to post a few here myself:

Glampyre Knits - and yes, she has a skull pattern.

Ysolda has a skull illusion scarf - after doing the Alien Invasion scarf from Stitch & Bitch a couple of years, ago, I'm so psyched to do this.

MagKnits has skull wrist warmers - including one with a bow in its... um, head. How cute is that?

I'm off to photojournal my scary apartment in the hopes that journaling it on Domestic Goddesses will actually make me do something about it.

I've been sick...

I've been sick all week with an absolutely irritating case of bronchitis. I hate being sick. But it did give me a nice weeklong respite on the couch catching up with Dexter and rewatching Sex & The City, both On Demand. I love cable. We had the brother-in-law's wedding last week, which was fun and the kids looked gorgeous (as always). Think I joke?



Yes, Will looks like a dazed deer in the headlights, but look beyond it. The boy looks sharp in a suit; they both do. Alex ran around like a nutcase on the dance floor and Will decided at the last minute to punk out and not dance with me. Bah! Overall, it was a fun wedding.

I also spent quality time with the knitting needles during my almost-week of convalesence, figuring out finally how to knit in the round and creating preemie hats that I have to wash and pack over the weekend in order to send out to a few hospitals. We're doing this Knit-Out on ClubMom's knitting board and since none of the local hospitals returned my calls, I'm going to send them on to a hospital that the moderator's already noted. I can't figure out how to do the extra-small preemie hats on circular needles, though - even on 16" needles, they are so tiny that when I join the yarn, there is still a huge divide between the stitches. And I can't sew them because the seams hurt their little heads. I need to figure this out.

More pictures to come, but I need to post first about this great knitting site I found. And she warrants her own post.

You Must Check This Site Out...

YogaBeans! is the Internet Source for Plastic Action Figures Demonstrating Ashtanga Yoga. You really need to see it - awesomeness.

I'm home anticipating my brother in law's wedding at 4 p.m. today. The kids will be in suits - how adorable will that look? You'll see when I post pictures in the next day or two, but I can guarantee it's going to be pretty darned adorable. Right now, though, Alex is cranky and whiny and I'm ready to run away. I think I should probably eat some breakfast before I lock myself in a closet and scream.

Bizarro...

Something weird is going on with my blog... the right hand side - profile, links, amusing crap I find as I troll the Web... is alllll the way down. Can anyone explain why this is happening?

I'm so Bloggy today...

I think I need to take up cross stitch.

This is Awesome!

PunkKnits.com has knitting needles with skulls on them!




There is also a t-shirt out there with a skull and knitting needle crossbones. I need this.

I am still knitting. I knit a beautiful pink baby blanket with a diamond pattern and cables on each side for my mom's friend - but forgot to take a picture of it. Argh. I'm finishing a cardigan for the same person now that I will shoot when it's done. It's a seed stitch cardigan with the cutest little pockets! I love how it's turned out, I hate my seaming a little less this time around, and I'm doing the final finishing in single crochet now - give me another few days. I'm tired.

The Future of Television...

If the writers don't try to pull a "Lost" on us and stay focused, this could quite possibly be the coolest series ever. Solid writing, funny characters, and just enough mystery to keep us coming back for more. Heroes is everything I hoped it would be. And Hiro Nakamura is officially the most awesome character on television. Anyone who can quote Star Trek while at the same time recalling an issue of X-Men featuring Kitty Pryde - and still manage to dole out some Star Wars morality (using one's powers for personal gain - surely the path to the Dark Side) - is my hero (or is that, my Hiro? Ouch, that was sooo bad.)

Hiro's blog is even dated using the Stardate system (Captain's Log: 1764.3, his latest blog entry). How awesome is that? I love when TV studios and executives let fanboys do the writing.

I'm so nerdy today.

WTF Moment - LOST

The Lost Castaways, in happier days...

Who else is getting really pissed off at Lost this season? Last night's episode almost turned me off to the show completely. It's all about bizarre incidences that raise questions but provide no answers - what the hell is The Others' deal about? "We're the good guys," Benry (Henry Gale, apparently now known as Benjamin) tells Michael last season - how then do we explain the mindfcks (that's not a typo; I promised Will I would curb the language) that follow - the capture and imprisonment of Jack, Kate and Sawyer, under insanely inhumane conditions, no less: Sawyer and Kate in cages, doing forced labor (while Kate wears a sundress, no less - what would SJP do?); Jack, kept in a drained dolphin tank while some bizarro woman brings him grilled cheese sandwiches and reads his dossier to him; Sawyer led to believe he's had a pacemaker implanted in him which will make his heart explode if his heart rate goes above a certain level - and then told that the only thing they put in him "was doubt". It's like watching Marathon Man on 'roids.

But where are the answers this season? Last season, at least we had clues that made sense, that led us to ideas, if not answers, from time to time. If the writers think they're weaving this great series of events in the hopes of leading up to sweeps when all will be semi-revealed, they may find that a good part of their viewership has given up on them in disgust by then.

And what about this hiatus they're going on in another week or two? Will they just leave all these loose threads out there and go away for six weeks or whatever it is they're planning? Again, they may find that a lot of people are going elsewhere for their entertainment by the time they come back.

Maybe everyone involved should go back and watch Season 1 on DVD and remember how to make good, compelling television. In the meantime, I'll be reading up on my newest obsession, Heroes.

Dilbert + Coffee Humor x Star Wars Geek References = Genius






EDIT 10/30/06: If you think you need glasses, don't fret - I had to shrink the size of the comic strip to try and rescue my poor blog's formatting. Click on the picture; you should be able to access it in a more readable format.

Heroes Rocks! And Other Nerd-dom


Where LOST is starting to get on my nerves, Heroes has become my runaway favorite show this season (but Battlestar has been insane - it's a tough call!). Any show where the geek fanboy gets a chance to save the world while quoting Star Trek and X-Men is a show for me. Hiro (Masi Oka) is a breakout character because he's so lovable and is totally into his powers and saving the world. Let's keep fingers crossed that the writers keep up the great pace they've set.

Lost... I love lost, but man... can you answer some questions before throwing more at us? To keep this crazy stuff up with the Others without any sort of explanation or insight into what it is they're doing - and yet, insisting that they're "the good guys" - well, it's getting old and irritating. So 'the good guys' lock people up in cages and torture them? Is this a 'good guy' situation like the Nazis felt they were the 'good guys'? Talk to me, please! Make sense of it all for me!

That said, I did enjoy the Locke-centric episode last week, with his mystical journey and background. I think some people were turned off by it, but I thought it was interesting to get a little more background on him and how he knew so much about survival on the island. Now I'm just waiting for the pivotal moment when we realize that he and Sawyer are connected... Yes, I'm still sticking to my firm belief that the infamous "Sawyer" of Sawyer/James' childhood is actually Locke's sleazy dad.

Do I need to tell anyone that I screamed like a lunatic watching Battlestar this weekend? This is one show that continues to get better and better - it's awesome. I just got the novel, The Cylons' Secret which I only now realize is book three - hope I don't need one and two to go along for the ride. As soon as I finish the books I'm working on for reader reports, I'll dive in. I love reading tie-ins, but they have to be good - the 24 one I read was excellent, the Lost one was awful.

Speaking of tie-ins, a little late but apparently the WWE is doing novels now. The wrestlers... well, let me paste the back cover copy here. Enjoy:

"... a new covert black-ops group using the Superstars of World Wrestling Entertainment. The WWE's talented men and women are perfect. Highly skilled athletes with the ideal cover, they travel all across the country and the globe; no one would find it unusual to find them in a town one day and gone the next. The government would train and support the wrestlers in every way possible except one: no one must know the truth."

It's almost like the premise of Zoolander, but these people are serious. Ye gods.

More pop culture geekery to come.

Dilbert Gets Better and Better


I believe I have actually threatened someone in a similar manner.

And yes, I'm drinking my third big cuppa as I write this. Ahhh... coffee...

More Dilbert Genius

Apparently, Dilbert's doing a coffee week - awesome!

My God, It All Makes Sense Now

This is What Happens at Bridal Showers...

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the wrapping paper hat and wedding dress.

Karen's getting married, as I've mentioned earlier; we had her bridal shower up at her sister's home in Westchester this past weekend (thanks again, Dana!) She was SO surprised; it was awesome. I love that look of complete confusion, followed by the look of realization that sets in when someone walks into their own surprise party.

So Karen received beautiful gifts, and Shauna went to work on the hat and dress. Shauna's the unofficial tailor at showers, having made a beautiful Star Wars wrapping paper dress for me at my wedding and another dress at my baby shower. We're creating our own shower tradition! Karen was a great sport about it, and Dana got into the act by holding the tissue paper train Shauna attached to the dress. It was a blast and everyone had a great time.

Had a girls' night out on Friday with Nancy and Stacey, which was so much fun. Just the three of us, let loose in Roosevelt Field; it was so nice to have girlfriend bonding time. It felt weird coming home to an empty apartment (Mike took the boys upstate to see his grandmother), but I just went to sleep so I didn't have too much time to ruminate. Saturday morning was nice - got up early (well, 8 a.m. is actually late for me these days), worked out, had my coffee and was on my way upstate for Karen's shower. Coming home to have Alex and Will yell "MOMMY!" and run at me is the best way to come home.

I finished the baby blanket - and darnit, forgot to take a picture of it! Maybe if my mom stays over tonight, I can snap a pic when I come home from school. Otherwise, she's taking it with her. Poo. I have the baby cardigan to put together - I'm already stressing it.

More later, including the new addition to my mom's household...

Step into my Time Machine... put on your heavy eyeliner and spandex, please...

...and click here:

Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet...

I know, I know, I've been too quiet. My home system is in revolt, letting my Internet access blink at me like a confused kid in a calc class and intermittently shutting down my e-mail access. So basically, being at home makes me a lame duck. Grr. (Leaves more time for knitting, though...) While I'm at work, there's only so much I can do. So for everyone who's wondering why I haven't been on, there you go.

ClubMom friends, I'll get on eventually - just doing some actual work for now. I know, I know, I don't know what that's all about, either...

BTW...

...anyone check out the PopCandy blog on USA Today's site? Whitney Matheson, who writes it, is a total Battlestar and Lost geek like most of us here are and I love the way she writes. She's got a lot to say on the BSG upcoming season, which sounds like it is very, very cool stuff. She's also a fan of The Office - basically, she should be hanging out with us. Go check her out, I'll wait.

LOST Season Three!

Okay, hands up - who's more confused by Lost now that we've actually kicked off the third season? I looked at Mike and said, "I'm worse off now than I was at the end of Season 2."

I have questions. If you haven't seen the episode yet, go away and come back when you've read it. I don't want to be spoiler girl.

WTF?!

Who thinks Carl, the kid in the cage opposite Sawyer, is a plant? I told Mike that the only reason he was 'captured' is to lull Sawyer into thinking he can trust the kid. Hope the con man can spot a long con when he sees it.

Henry Gale (BEN?!) tells Michael that The Others are 'the good guys' in the Season 2 finale. Do good guys lock people up in bear cages? Or dress ladies up in pretty dresses, take them out to breakfast, and tell them that the next two weeks will be very unpleasant and stick them in a cage? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!

WHY do they have dossiers on the lives of the survivors (you seriously don't think it's just Jack, do you?)?? Do they only have dossiers on a few people - maybe the people on "the list"?

What the heck is with Othersville, like we saw in the beginning of the episode. And is the fact that they're reading Stephen King's Carrie supposed to be telling me something, or are they just reading a book?

I NEED ANSWERS!

I think I need to geek out and see if anything's going on at the Hanso Foundation site now.

Halloween's Coming!

I LOVE Halloween. It's one of my favorite holidays - probably rivaling Christmas for the top spot. Every year, I tell myself I'm going to decorate for Halloween like I do for Christmas; get the whole apartment involved, and for one reason or other, I only stick a couple of scary faces on my door by the time it arrives. Not so this year! This weekend, I head to Party City and get ready to pimp the crib, Spook Style! (Wow, I sound so nerdy when I try to talk street.)

So Alex and Will, who were going to make me the happiest geeky mommy around by being Captain Hook and Captain Jack Sparrow for Halloween, have forsaken me and gone with different costumes completely. I'm never getting pirate kids for Halloween, I know it. But I have to admit, seeing Will go berserk for a Clone Trooper costume brought a tear to my eye. My boy, a Star Wars nerd like his mom... so what if he likes the new ones and I remain faithful to the original Holy Trilogy?

Alex has decided to go the Power Rangers route and will be the Red Ranger, naturally. The costume has muscles and a six-pack as part of the costume and with Alex's bulldog build, it's just about the cutest and most hilarious thing to see.

28 days 'til Halloween!!

Has it really been 11 days?

I had no idea I hadn't posted in 11 days. What's wrong with me?

So I'm in the midst of trying to update my apartment, which looks like a Toys R Us after a nuclear attack. With a Barnes & Noble thrown in. Not pretty. But I'm trying.

I've got two bridal showers and two weddings rapidly approaching, and I'm nowhere near the dress size I want to be. Grr.

At least I start school tonight - my final class for the Publishing Certificate! Whoo hoo!

I'll write more later, I'm going to post my manic Martha energies on Domestic Goddesses now.

Project Runway

I prided myself on the fact that I was NOT watching Project Runway. It's one more reality show I don't need to be teased about watching. Then, I board a JetBlue flight to my Dad's, nothing's on TV - not even on my beloved VH-1 - and I ended up watching three straight hours of a Project Runway marathon. I blame them and Stacey for the fact that I knit my little fingers to the bone, up past the bedtime I said I was going to adhere to, to watch the new one last night.

How did I miss out on this before? What was wrong with me? It's so snarky, it's delicious. It's like eating candy without the calories.

Let the bitchery fly!

Knitting Fever

I'm a knitting fiend. I'm working on a cute cardigan and hat set and a cable-knit blanket for my mom's friend (remember the baby booties from hell? That's the one.) The cardigan, ever since I abandoned the original pattern and took up a less stressful one, is coming along nicely. But moss stitch is VERY time consuming, so I took a little break. The back and left front are done, and the right front is 3/4 done so I really don't have much more to go. But I needed something new. Which probably explains why I have so many UFO (unfinished objects) strewn about the apartment...

So this blanket is adorable. It's got a cable running up each side and a diamond pattern in between. I may go cross-eyed from looking at the chart before this is over, but we'll deal with that later. Pictures will come when I'm all done.

What's with the Banks?

So everyone familiar with Forest Hills knows it's like Bank Mecca. You literally can't spit without hitting a bank. Then I read this in this morning's Daily News and almost fell off my chair. What is with the banks? Are we becoming our own little Wall Street or something?

Flushing Savings Bank plans to open its newest branch at 107-11 71st Avenue, the former site of The Zone clothing store, where it will compete with more than 10 other banks in a ONE BLOCK radius, according to construction workers at the site.

There are even rumors that a bank will move into the former site of Value Depot, a 71st Avenue bargain store that closed last month.

What in the world is this all about?

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The Lights of 9/11

From Karen's terrace, the lights where the Twin Towers once stood. The lights reflected off of a cloud and created an amazing effect - it looked like the cloud opened up for them.

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The Hunt for Red November

For the past several months, I've been telling myself that I'm going to find a dress for Karen's wedding. I'm one of her bridesmaids and, in a move that is magnanimous on her part, she informed us that we only need show up in a red dress. Perhaps, I suggested, we go with a David's Bridal-type situation where we do the mix and match so we're all in the same type of outfit, a la Stacey's wedding? No, too much restriction. So with less than 60 days to go, women are scrambling and freaking out at being told that getting a dress can take up to 12 weeks if you're going to David's Bridal.

Not that I'm any different, and I've been a bridesmaid before. I just didn't feel like trying on dresses at this point, but finally I broke down and the good and kind Stacey and I embarked on Roosevelt Field this past weekend. Wow, we saw some humdingers. But finally, in Ann Taylor of all places, I found a dress! On sale! While the size I was hoping for was not zipping past the boobage, I upgraded and will likely take it to the cleaners to have a minor nip and tuck here and there. Why my boobs are a size bigger than the rest of my body is a fact left best to modern science to figure out. Ah, the wonders of womanhood and childbirthing.

So the dress is deep wine/burgundy, tank top with a bit of a scoop neck, and has a little bow at the waist with a center pleat that I am assured is flattering. I am doing 30 minutes of cardio a day just to make sure it STAYS flattering. We then went on to the holy land, aka DSW, where we were disappointed in the lack of ridiculous shoes - that is, until we happened upon this work of art:

Yes, that is pasta on the shoe. And a tomato. And, as Stacey noted, basil. We have a complete Italian dinner for two on one shoe! For only a mere $299! Mangia!

I did hit the jackpot for myself, finding a cute pair of strappy heels that match the color of the dress perfectly, so I am a complete bridesmaid now! I also found a cute pair of red Kenneth Cole loafers marked down to a price that challenged me NOT to buy them. And then, the big coup - a pair of black Charles David mock-croc pumps with deep purple piping on them. Marked down from $148 to a ridiculously low price. After conferring with Stacey and my mom via cell phone, it was decided that I should treat myself to all three pairs. My DSW Reward Your Style card hasn't seen this much action in ages.

Last night, headed over to Karen's to stuff wedding invites. Karen, Shauna and I sat around a small table, ate Chinese food, and assembled invites. I am a fully-dressed bridesmaid. Cue the huge sigh of relief.

I know I've been quiet today but September 11 is never a good day for me. A bunch of friends on ClubMom have been taking part in this Legacy.com tribute, where you select someone who was lost that day and memorialize them. As usual, my powers of technology were not with me and I think my tribute is somewhere in the ether so let me just blog it directly.

Christine Lee Hanson was 2 1/2 on September 11, 2001. About the same age as Will. She was going on vacation with her mommy and daddy, and was probably really excited to fly in a big plane, like Will and Alex get.

You know, once you become a parent, you don't deal very well with bad news stories involving children. So you're going to have to bear with me here. Because every child becomes your child when something goes wrong.

So little Christine was probably very excited. Her parents were probably smiling and laughing with her, pointing out the big engines or giving her gum to chew so her little ears didn't pop when the plane took off. But little Christine and all the potential ahead of her ended at the World Trade Center that morning.

Christine's not going to have the same opportunities Will has. She's never going to be excited over seeing her first movie in a big movie theatre. She never got to start Kindergarten and make new friends. She won't get to pick out Hello Kitty or Barbie school supplies. Christine's mom will never drop her off on her first day of school and cry when she gets home because her baby is growing up.

Poor Christine didn't have enough of a life to warrant her own obituary; she was part of her father's and her mother's. But she'll never be forgotten.

Every time Will reaches a milestone, be it a science project or be it mastering a two-wheel bike, my mind will wander to Christine. Because like the saying goes, there but for the grace of God, went Will and I.

There is no justification for this act.

School Daze

I sent my big boy off to second grade this morning, so I'm a little misty-eyed. Will was so excited to be back at school and with his buddies. We got his supplies ready last night and portioned out which he's bringing in which day - it's going to take a full week to bring everything in. Public school kids - how do these kids not graduate stooped over? I have FOUR BAGS of supplies, including three rolls of paper towel, two boxes of tissues, and a box of baby wipes - am I a parent or the local Costco?

X-Men folders? Check. Wacky Packages pencils? Got 'em. Tony Hawk folder - check - and do you actually know who Tony Hawk is? "Yeah, Mom, he's the skateboarder guy." Wow, I'm impressed. My son is turning into a pop culture freak like his mother.

We assembled school supplies, watched Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars I DVDs, and then he made some calls to his friends - who he'd be seeing not 24 hours from then - and all I could think of was, "Wow. He's a kid. He's not a little boy anymore." He's totally become this real kid, as opposed to the little boy I sent off to first grade last year. I may still have written his name in indelible ink on all his posessions this year, but he's growing up.

He even chooses his own shoes now. We went to Payless to pick up some new sneakers for him and he announced that he no longer wanted "any shoes or socks with cartoons on them." It was like a dagger in my heart, as I was eyeing up the cool Batman sneaks in his size. He chose a black pair of Shaq sneakers ("Do you know who he is?" "I think he plays basketball - but they're COOL SHOES!") and a pair of white and black hi-top Shaq sneakers. He loved them and was so proud that he chose them. For a sec, he looked at me and wavered, but I couldn't be selfish. I told him, "You have to wear them. You're... a big kid now. What shoes do you want?" "I don't want the Batman ones, Mom."

So we now have two pairs of Shaq sneakers at home - some guy who plays basketball. He couldn't wait to lace up the black ones this morning. He spiked up his hair (he chose the haircut, too) and was ready to go.

Oh, well... I still have a modicum of say in Alex's stuff for the time being. :-)