Monday, May 26, 2008

Take a Chance on...

I went to the newest casino in town yesterday, Lumiere. It was in fact all shiny and new and well not that busy. There were whole rows of slot machines with only one or two suckers plugging in there cash. This sucker lost the requisite $20 and then an additional $10 for good measure.
I don't really begrudge the money, I had a nice time and it was interesting to check out the much hyped casino. Yet, in the end it was just that a new casino, nothing that special. I especially enjoyed that after all the brouhaha over the only pretty people apply policy when they were hiring was a joke. Trust me on this the staff was not all that much more attractive than any other casino I have been too. And the patrons were pretty much interchangeable as well. So much for marketing strategies.
The real jackpot came for me when I ran into a former co-worker from my days at the Collector of Revenue. It came out that despite administrations need to lie about the specifics as to why I left, the common story among the staff is that TV was ignorant to me and I resigned. And that was worth money to me especially since every time TV tells someone why I left it is a different story. The golden moment at the casino was I truly for the first time felt happy to not be on that bus bound for glory at the Collector's Office. It is nice to move on. I may have left a little lighter in my pocket, but also and a little lighter in my heart. A fair exchange if you ask me.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Sometimes I hate cats!


Sometimes I hate my cats. Today is one of those times. Over the weekend I washed ALL my bed linens. If it fit in the washer I washed it. Saturday night I even slept on my futon while my sheets dried. Tonight after a great night of friends, knitting, and gossip I came home to a mess. One of my cats puked all over my bed, on a new library book, and a presentation I need for tomorrow. Yup, I am hating cats right now. The barf seeped through the protective cat blanket, my blanket, the flat sheet, the fitted sheet, and the mattress pad. Sometimes I hate cats.
Tonight I will have to do 3 extra loads of wash, clean a brand new library book (that no one has even cracked open yet), reprint and annotated my presentation. I just wish the cat that had the discourtesy to do this awful thing would have just puked on the floor. It is very washable and so are the bottoms of my shoes. You know sometimes I really do hate cats!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Steaming teapot


This is where my story about the vintage shawl I am making for my mother for mother's day (yes mother's day 2008) turns into a saga. I have been knitting on it and I would swear to you I was at 57 inches. I had carefully measured the dratted thing and was sure that was my total. My once beloved Cuz helped me to measure my progress again Thursday night. I am sure the woman was playing a very bad joke on me because she said it was only 53 inches long. WHAT? I said and made her measure it again. Sheepishly she said again it was 53 inches. I looked at the tape and there it was the lesser number laughing fiendishly at me. I am sure that this has become my personal Odyssey into knitting hell. I am also sure that my once beloved Cuz is sneaking over at night and tinking out all my work. Evil Cuz. I am truly in the world of negative knitting. I am so annoyed, annoyed at my tape measure most of all for lying to me. I know I had 57 inches and don't tell me what are 4 inches among friends! So back to the knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting...

Monday, May 12, 2008

Saucers for eyes


This starts with the confession that I didn't get the mother's vintage shawl done. I knitted and knitted and knitted and knitted. For some reason it just did not get longer than 57 inches. I knitted and measured and then knitted some more and still I was at 57 inches. It was pitiful. I felt pitiful. Friday night I passed out on my futon knitting. I woke up at 3:30am to an infomercial for acne medicine my shawl in my lap. I admit in my less than coherent state I threw my project in the floor and rolled over and spent the rest of the night on the futon.

My mom was very understanding when she tried to wrap what I had done around herself and it was obviously not long enough. She even said, that the color was perfect. I am still trying to get the present done as soon as I could, but the pressure is off.
For this post I wanted a picture of one of those creepy saucer eyed waifs to convey my affected sadness. In my quest for the picture I found this site http://besmirched.tripod.com/eyes.html . This site is not for the faint of heart those eyes are the stuff of nightmares. But I did steal the saucer eyed kitty picture. Actually I have another real kitty picture that looks almost exactly the same, creepy very creepy.

Friday, May 9, 2008

50 inches...


Okay, I am at 50 inches on the vintage shawl it is Friday night and I need to be knitting not blogging, but I thought I would check in for those of you dying to know about my progress. I am chucking the whole idea that everything will be done by Sunday morning. My goal is to get the thing off the needles (all 70 inches knitted and bound off). Blocking and fringe will have to wait until after mother's day. I hope my mom understands, if not I will have to throw myself down on the floor and kick my feet while holding my breathe. It use to work on her when I was 5, maybe it will now.

Also since I am blogging today I got up at O'dark:30 and went to yon string store to knit before work. Why you ask? Well let me tell you, some local TV guy did a story on Stitch n Pitch at Knitorious. We were all there to show how fun and cute we knitters are. How much fun I can be that early is negligible, but I showed up anyway to be sort of cute. If you are quick at one point you can see the back of my head, and my hair does look fabulous. Follow the link, I think it is a silly piece of fluff, but my knitting tribe is there and that makes me happy. http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=6502395&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=5.2.1

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Vintage

Awhile back I checked out Runway Knits by Berta Karapetyan from the library. The book had some stunning patterns in it and I particularly fell in love with the Vintage Shawl. I read through the direction and thought, hmmm, I think I can knit that. So with credit card in pocket and mother's day in the future I thought, "I shall knit this for my Mother's Day present." Okay that was the plan, and a fine plan it was.

I have this thing for Queensland Collection Kathmandu. It is just so soft and smells so delicious that I decided to fore go the recommended bulky yarn for an Aran. I mean what is the difference between such close friends, right? In the end the difference was about 25 stitches, but again, what is 25 stitches for my mommy. I even picked out a wine color that I know she will love. The shawl will look perfectt draped over her or the back of her couch. So I purchased the estimated 12 balls of yarn and an extra 3 more case my math skills fail me, which they often do.

For the first time ever I gauge swatched the project to be sure of my cast on. I am so glad I did too, I noticed how badly the edges rolled. What looked like a design element in the picture was actually completely furled edges, yuck. I know my mom would notice that right away. So to a smart knitter I went. She suggested a garter stitch edge. How simple, how silly that I couldn't think of that on my own, but this is why I love knowing such smart knitters.

So here I am blogging when I should be knitting, 7 days away and I am at inch 33 with 37 more inches to go. I have to get this done with fringe by next Sunday, YIKES!!!

Wish me luck I will keep you posted, but know that wherever I am and whatever I am doing sitting next to me in a bag is a project which is like a time bomb waiting to explode. And I am probably knitting on it or thinking about knitting on it. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Uncomfortable


Like the woman lacing herself up in the corset, I feel very uncomfortable and uptight about so much right now. I am on my usual path doing my usual thing and bang, something comes up that makes me wonder if I made a wrong turn somewhere. I did not find myself in my beautiful house, with my beautiful wife, but still I say how did I get here? And why has the word beautiful become so distasteful to me recently?
Ah me! I am recovering from the aftertaste of strawberry/orange juice splashers. It burns a little. I must be off my game and tired. I am hoping tomorrow (which has actually become today) improves. In the mean time I am left wondering about how uncomfortable I am currently feeling. I feel estranged and separate from those I love. I know I am raw with hurt and frustration and I must be carrying it around like a cheap purse so all can see my shame. I will shake this and I will get better, my life will improve and I will return to my beautiful wife and my beautiful house and the word beautiful will once again ring true and sincere. I will be better, I promise.