Movies and Such

So it's that time of the year when we celebrate Gay Pride here in the Twin Cities. While we didn't attend the big parade or anything like that, we did go to the Walker Art Center to see Chuecatown. It was described somewhere in the literature as "Almodóvar light", and I'd say that was an apt description. We enjoyed it very much, laughed lots, and reveled in the fact that we were the only family in attendance (yes, that would be P and I with our two kids in a theater full of gay couples). We like to keep them guessing. It reminded me of going to see John Waters last November with the kids.

At home we watched Lars and the Real Girl (thanks for the suggestion, Linda) and we enjoyed that as well.

Only one flop this weekend, and that was The Air I Breathe. A must miss, imho. But two out of three for the week isn't bad!

And just two bits of knitting news, first, Girl-child and I stumbled upon the Urban Knitters group of Needlework Unlimited - had a fun time visiting even tho we didn't stay to knit (maybe next month). *AND* I found out that Sheepy in WBL is planning to have Lorna's Laces new celebrity color, Franklin's Panopticon, so I had her put me on a list to contact when it's available - woo hoo!

Fetching Deb

Well, I think she likes them even tho she doesn't look so happy in the picture:

I love Deb. She makes me laugh every day on the way to work.

Kid Stuff

Since I don't really knit enough to make this a real knitting blog, and since one of my three readers is not a knitter, and for posterity 'cause heaven knows I hadn't taken pictures of my kids in ages, here's the family stuff...

Kitty enjoys the evening air:


Summer has finally arrived and so moments of rest in the shade are necessary after a hard day's work:

And there is occasionally a need for a Miyazaki marathon with Asian takeout for dinner:

And did you hear about the guy in Alaska who got a DUI on his riding mower? Really, it's not a joke. You can read about it here. Actually, it's probably all over the web now. My favorite line was the reference to the low speed chase...

That's it for now folks!

Yes I Am Knitting

Yes, I really am knitting...last weekend was not a good one, but I am back on track now. There is a benefit to sitting around hospital waiting rooms and waiting to hurry up and that is that you can get a lot of knitting done.

This is my Reversi in bamboo/wool which I really like (even tho it's made the least progress lately):

And here is a plain pair of socks I accidentally started for Girl-child - suddenly I'm almost done with the first one (It's amazing how much faster they go when done in stockinette):

And I can't remember if I posted a picture of April's baby's sweater earlier, but it's done and I really like the way it turned out:

Pato's million dollar socks are done (ok, the ends have to be woven in, but last year I took all summer made socks with ends to weave in on the bus for the yarn shop hop in October and that worked really well for me, so I'll probably do the same this year):

Did I mention how they got the nickname? Pato wanted some socks, so I told him to go down to the LYS and find some yarn he liked - my only requirement was that it had to be washable. He came home with a hank of Mountain Colors (the beauty of the color can not be appreciated in a photo). It still makes me giggle to think how they saw him coming! They do have a sock yarn now that is more expensive, but only one.

And while this is a really bad photo, I made a pair of Fetching fingerless mitts for my favorite bus driver, Deb. When they dry and I give them to her I'll try to get a photo of her wearing them. They are a pretty purple color and I gave them real thumbs 'cause I made a pair ages ago and didn't like the thumb technique:



Knitters who want real details can check Ravelry for yarn types, needle sizes, etc. I'll have them posted soon.

Geography

Some day I may have more than three readers and I can take a look at blog statistics like Aidan does. In the meantime, I will have to play with online geography games and such. My favorite is here. I have not made it to the final level yet, only through level 11. Yes, I know the map is small and it's hard to be accurate, but it's still really easy to be a thousand miles off...so it's a trade-off.

Other fun geography related places to visit are StrangeMaps as well as this GeoQuiz site.

Have fun!

Traveling Companions

Yarn Harlot posted today about a difficult person sitting next to her on a flight to Chicago. She kinneared him. I was unfamiliar with the term before, but am happy to know it now. I will be sure to look for an opportunity to kinnear someone in the future - it will probably be while traveling (there are so many people who irritate - especially while traveling - I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity if nothing else, when I go to Chile in December).

I did find someone who had an even harder time following in-flight rules. This woman not only lit up a cigarette, but she punched the flight attendant and then used both the f* and the n* words to abuse the flight crew.

I am so glad I'm not in the travel industry any more ... I don't think anyone punches out librarians ... I remember last year at the ALA convention in D.C. how excited I was to be a part of a profession that everyone loves ... no one told me horror stories of their library experiences ... (although more than a few librarians have stories...)

MKG

(Non-knitters just skip over this one.)

So I went to Knitters's Guid tonight and lo, it was show-off-your-shawl-night. There were 50 shawls to look at, each one more beautiful than the last ... and we voted, which is kind of silly since so many were so wonderful, but how else are you going to decide who will go home with a prize?

Many tables like this, with all colors, all textures, all patterns of lacy designs represented.

I didn't vote for any of the winners, but what do I know? I've never knit a shawl before. I knit mostly socks. What I knit are akin to an armory whereas the shawl knitters are creating the Taj Mahal or the Sydney Opera House.


I loved the pattern on this one, although the color didn't come out at all in the picture:
And this one was a beautiful silk with my favorite colors in it, all variegated (again the colors aren't accurate but you get the idea):

And who wouldn't want to throw color like this over their shoulders on a cold and rainy day?

I worked on a plain knit sock during the meeting. Big surprise there. But I'm not going to belittle my work, no indeed, I'm going to listen to Franklin and remember that there are a lot more knitters than golfers in this country (probably in all the world) and we at least create beautiful and useful things...

...and one more thing...Susan Rainey, who organized tonight's Guild event, is asking for shawls to be donated to the hospital where she works. The shawls are given to people who have lost a baby. I couldn't watch the video. (Susan, you'll have to get over the fact that you didn't win that shawl pin, even though you did a very good thing tonight).

Emoticons

Most people seem to be ok with emoticons, although there are those who dislike them, and most people probably think they're a product of the computer age; I certainly did.

Wrong.

A historian has discovered that "putting the human touch on the text" goes back to much earlier times. You can read about it here.

Who knew? :-O

TGIF

Yes, thank the gods it's Friday... and Drunken Knitters' Night* at Merlin's Rest...

Let's start on a positive note, shall we? Did you know that the New York Public library publishes a "25 Books to Remember" list? Take a look at the 2007 list for titles to add to the "to be read" pile (we all need more titles there, right?)

Did you hear about the drug trial that got thrown out of court in Australia because the jurors were doing Sudoku instead of paying attention to the proceedings? (Sounds like the opener for a joke, doesn't it? )

In politics ... I have to confess that I have seen a certain charm in Huckabee in spite of the fact that he's a Republican (we all have our shortcomings after all). Alas, my image of him was shattered today when I found out he'll be doing commentary for Fox News. Really. IMHO he can never recover from working for Fox. I'd like to think I have a sense of humor, but this week's Fox coverage of Michelle Obama being "Obama's baby mama" was too much. Not that I had a positive opinion of Fox before this week.

Knitting news: April's baby's pullover sweater is done. My apologies to those of you who aren't on Ravelry. Tomorrow is WWKIPD (World Wide Knit in Public Day). See you at the park.

And on the kid front: Girl-child and I went to Talking Volumes last night to hear Judy Blume. What a wonderful woman. Really. Remarkable. If only I had known Margaret when I was 12 years old. Anyway, we stood in line even though girl-child had forgotten her book to be signed, and the publicist didn't want to let her by when he saw that she hadn't purchased a book, but she slipped past to get her program signed, and was able to thank Ms Blume for Deenie; when girl-child was diagnosed with scoliosis she knew what was happening (even though her parents didn't).

*OK, they call it the Crafty in Minnesota group (from Ravelry), but that's not what we call it ...

This and That Sunday

Graduation is over, although the parties go on and on and on …we didn’t do the open house thing, although we’re having a small dinner next weekend and I told girl-child that she should have a party before she and her friends all go off to college. ‘Course, a lot of them are going to the U but what the heck …

Boy-child got new glasses this week...

I like how dark his hair is coming back in. He’s thinking of getting his head shaved lather and shave style next time…(I keep telling myself it will grow back although he really only has about 15 more years with hair if he follows the path of the men in my family). He’ll probably get his braces off this summer too, so he’ll be returning to school in the fall with a new look.

Hillary finally stepped down. Wow what a long time that took! Al Franken got the endorsement this weekend at the state convention. I’m openly glad for that, and I hope that those who have no sense of humor can move beyond the bad jokes and see that he’s a good man for the job.



On the knitting front I’m making progress on the baby sweater:



I may need some help on the placket but boy are those raglan sleeves slick – I’m glad I learned that. With each new thing I make I learn something new - I really like that about my new hobby...

Friday night knit night at The Yarnery was interesting – I hadn’t realized that one of the facilitators is an M.D. (family practice). We talked of the presidential race, Al Franken, HPV vaccines and teenage sexual activity, and of course lots of yarn and knitting stuff. What a lot of interesting people you can meet by being a knitter…

We watched Take Out Your Handkerchiefs this weekend - something I had found on a website with a list of movies that have knitting in them. Too bad I didn't like it. Perhaps it was a combination of a crisis of expectations and a misleading description; Gérard Depardieu maybe doesn't only do brilliant movies (of course, this one was from 1978) and the knitting woman was, I think, evil, and I expected it to be funnier...anyway, last night we saw Rendition which was really good. (This is why the baby sweater is progressing - lots of movies).

And one last thing about graduation: the footwear. Girl-child wore tattered canvas sneakers. Lots of girls wear heels. And then someone showed up in slippers. So here's a glance at the range of footwear witnessed downtown last Tuesday:


That's girl-child on the right, the CFMs in the middle are a classmate's and the slippers on the left are the classmate's mother's...

On Graduations and Elections

Last night was a momentous one. Girl-child graduated from high school with honors. Barack Obama won the delegates necessary to secure the nomination of the Democratic party. He spoke next door to the graduation ceremonies downtown, so there we all were…graduates and politicos…the future all together.

My thanks to the people standing in line to hear Obama – they were all cheering the graduates who were passing by. My thanks to the three aunties who joined us for the graduation ceremonies – it was good for Girl-child to have those family members there. My thanks to the very special faculty who made Girl-child’s high school experience a positive one.

And my thanks to the protectors of the populace:

Ok, so I have a hard time being serious for long ... it's a priceless shot, you must admit.

Magna Cum Laude

mag·na cum lau·de
adv. & adj. With high honors. Used to express high academic distinction (American Heritage Dictionary)

Here's what it looks like in our house:

Monday?!?

Where did the weekend go?

On Friday we went to D'Amico and saw The Fall at the Uptown. Visually spectacular, I would highly recommend it be seen on the big screen. At some point we also saw Across the Universe (on DVD) which was fun.

Saturday girl-child went to six (6) open houses. We went to two of them. On Sunday she went to two. After a Miyazaki marathon at our house with friends, she woke up sick. How is it I didn't see this coming? We can only hope she is able to walk tomorrow night to get her diploma.