Because The Internet Is Great

I found a new site devoted to pictures of Mick Jagger (with an awesome URL)--what better thing to share on a Thursday?

Serious Mick.

Good Mick.


Houndstooth Mick!

You're welcome.

Next Time You're Around A Typewriter

I just learned two more pangrams (sentences that contain all the letters of the alphabet) in addition to "The quick brown fox" and thought I'd share:

1. Viewing quizzical abstracts mixed up hefty jocks.
2. Back in my quaint garden jaunty zinnias vie with flaunting phlox.

Now you can impress your friends while trying out different typewriters.

Tuesday Project Roundup: So Much For Finishing Before Spring

I know that we will have a few more snow storms before the weather really starts getting warm, but the equinox is Saturday, and I don't think I will have sleeves and button bands by then.

Oh, well--as my mother said when I complained that this sweater seemed like it was taking forever, "It seems like thin yarn."

Let's Hear It For The First World!

Yesterday morning the Liberty of London for Target merchandise hit stores, and now I understand the mentality that leads to stampedes for discount DVD players. Fortunately, it was a Sunday in Utah so no one was rioting for floral-printed home goods, but I ended up going to four different Targets anyway. My friend Kara and I were on the phone comparing selections between Targets: "I'm at Jordan Landing and they have candles and stationery!" "Centerville has a lot of dresses!"

Yes, driving miles and miles in a car, to get stuff made in China, that I don't really need but was heavily hyped and marketed*...yay, America!


*I am happy with what I bought, though. And I appreciate some good hyping; I work in advertising. Besides, I focused mostly on home stuff like a teapot and dishes. So very practical!

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Sherlock Holmes was watched successfully last and and it was delightful--definitely worth the wait(s). The story was more faithful than I could have hoped, with actual lines of dialogue lifted straight from the books, and even though they made Irene Adler his girlfriend (and dressed her up like a romanticized prostitute from the Wild West*), most of the Holmes adaptations do that. Besides, I have the BBC for more accurate costume dramas--this one combined my literary crush and my actor crush. Enough said.

2. *Irene Adler was a lady marrying nobility in the one story in which she appears. I don't think she would have chosen fuchsia satin.

3. Happy birthday, Jack Kerouac!

Third Time's The Charm

My work friend and I are going to try one last time to see Sherlock Holmes in a theater tonight, so wish us luck.

And since I'm talking about movies, check out the gallery of movie posters "if they were honest." I really love the one for UP:

Wednesday Project Roundup: Travel Knitting

Even though I am still slowly knitting my way through the not-so-elaborate cabled sweater, it was too bulky to take with me on a carry-on to the beach. So I started a new project, also very popular in the knitting world--a short sleeve cardigan from a free pattern here.

I'm using the yarn I got in the fall to make a different sweater that I just got too bored with (it was a spring color anyway). So I unraveled what I had done and started again and got about six inches of the new pattern knit over the weekend.

Ultimately, it will look something like this:

Tuesday Vacation Report

I'm back from the beach and, while it was a little chilly and I was fighting a head cold, it was nice to be by the ocean.

It was especially nice to hear it at night. One of my favorite chapters of The Gastronomical Me describes MFK Fisher's visit to the coast of Mexico, and she has this to say about the ocean:
"I slept like a cat all night, dreaming good dreams in my well-being, but hearing the waves when I wanted to through the dreams."

(I brought some vacation knitting, so I'll put up a Project Roundup tomorrow.)

Two Pretty Things For Monday

Jackie Kennedy and the Taj Mahal:

And closer:

Found via Life again, from her trip to India in 1962. Lots of great pinks in that set.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Monday was Holi, a holiday I knew nothing about. According to Wikipedia, "Holi, or Holli, also called the Festival of Colors, is a spring festival celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and others." I like spring and colors. Read more here.

2. The slideshow name says it all (and the captions are funny): A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things

3. And finally:

Let's Talk About Accessories

Specifically, big sunglasses: I found the archives of Life magazine last Saturday and got sucked into looking at pictures of Jackie Kennedy, whose trademark (after Camelot) was big sunglasses.
Then I saw this stylish lady on The Sartorialist yesterday, who is also making me want to talk about leopard print, as well:

I haven't worn big sunglasses in a few years because I think there's a risk, with short hair, of them looking like this. But now I am reconsidering.

Maybe The Universe Is Telling Me I'd Really Hate This Movie And, Therefore, Doing Me A Favor

I tried to go to the Sherlock Holmes movie at Brewvies again last night (a week after my work friend and I got to see five minutes of it before the film broke) and, as you might guess from the title of this, no deal. When I had checked the schedule online Monday night there was an 8:00 showing, but when we got to the theater it had been pushed back to 9:30 to accommodate a special event for Engineers Without Borders.

Dammit, Brewvies, as much as I want to continue liking you, you're making it really difficult. You should probably consider hiring projectionists who aren't so stoned they put the film in wrong. Perhaps updating your website a little sooner than the day of an event would be a good idea, too. (And universe, I know the film is in no way faithful to the Conan Doyle stories, but I really like Robert Downey, Jr. And now this has become a challenge.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: One More For The Beach

I probably should have spent my time finishing a sweater to wear instead of sewing a spring tunic (the latest reports are predicting rain in California), but I used the trip as an excuse for some more Liberty of London fabric.
I made my favorite Simplicity pattern (for about the sixth time) and it was delightful to work with the Liberty print--so much color and detail.
I bought my fabric before I saw that Target was launching a similar print, so I hope no one asks me if I got it at Target. And I hope I can layer a sweater over the sleeves easily.

Like Christmas Morning

Last week started looking up when I discovered nearly 30 full-length Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes on Google Video*. Thirty of them! That I don't have to wait to arrive via Netflix!

Over the weekend I was finally able to see Space Mutiny, featuring the many nicknames of the hero (seriously, watch it):


And I watched Final Sacrifice, featuring the sidekick...ROWSDOWER:


I love this show so much. Toby is affronted by my laughter in the evenings.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Have you all heard about the killer whale killing a trainer at Sea World? Let's see, we make a creature with highly evolved social networks and communication skills and the ability to swim vast distances live in something the size of a bathtub, alone, and we're surprised when this happens? I'd be plotting to kill my captors, too.

2. The latest science news tells us that the world we know may be a giant hologram, so maybe I shouldn't let things like #1 upset me so much. It's also kind of reminiscent of The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

3. I saw this image on a t-shirt but now I can't find a link to the shirt, just the image. "So long and thanks for all the fish," indeed.

Nice Things

It has been a week of crazy clients, anxiety, and stupid things happening (Toby's space heater broke, I tried to go to Brewvies Tuesday after work and the film projector broke, etc. etc.), so I had to read some Franny and Zooey last night. Here is a scene of Zooey watching a little girl playing with her dog--and yes, in the book it's all one paragraph:

A fair-sized maple tree stood in front of the girls' private school...and at that moment a child of seven or eight, female, was hiding behind it. She was wearing a navy-blue reefer and a tam that was very nearly the same shade of red as the blanket on the bed in van Gogh's room at Arles. Her tam did, in fact, from Zooey's vantage point, appear not unlike a daub of paint. Some fifteen feet away from the child, her dog--a young dachshund, wearing a green leather collar and leash--was sniffing to find her, scurrying in frantic circles, his leash dragging behind him. The anguish of separation was scarcely bearable for him, and when at last he picked up his mistress's scent, it wasn't a second too soon. The joy of reunion, for both, was immense. The dachshund gave a little yelp, then cringed forward, shimmying with ecstasy, till his mistress, shouting something at him, stepped hurriedly over the wire guard surrounding the tree and picked him up. She said a number of words of praise to him...then put him down and picked up his leash, and the two walked gaily west, toward Fifth Avenue and the Park and out of Zooey's sight..."God damn it," he said, "there are nice things in the world--and I mean nice things. We're all such morons to get so sidetracked."

Does This Apply To Writing Websites, Too?

What is demanding and fulfilling is writing a single word, trying to write le mot juste, as Flaubert said; writing several of them, which become a sentence. When a writer does that, day after day, working alone with little encouragement, often with discouragement flowing in the writer’s own blood, and with an occasional rush of excitement … the treasure is on the desk.

[...]The writer who endures and keeps working will finally know that writing the book was something hard and glorious, for at the desk a writer must try to be free of prejudice, meanness of spirit, pettiness, and hatred; strive to be a better human being than the writer normally is, and to do this through concentration on a single word, and then another, and another. This is splendid work, as worthy and demanding as any, and the will and resilience to do it are good for the writer’s soul.

I don't think Andre Dubus wrote for the web a lot, but it's still something to consider.

Tuesday Project Roundup: This Looks Like Another Vacation

Why yes, I am going on another quick trip in a couple of weeks--this time to the beach in California. (I haven't traveled this much in two years. Poor Toby!) My oldest friend is also turning 30 and has arranged a beach house weekend for eight other people, with menus and itineraries and everything else planned. So the least I could do was make a new dress for the event:
This was one of the new Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity patterns and I have to say I like it a lot. Here's a better idea of the fabric color (and my own lack thereof):

(While we're on the subject...spray tans: Pro or con? I'm thinking con, but I don't want to blind everyone in the group with my special shade of pale, either.)

All This Sheep Hair

(Click the image to make it bigger.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I always wish I had gotten a better grasp of the concepts behind math instead of just memorizing the rules, so this new series from the NY Times is perfect: A math professor is going through math concepts a step at a time in a weekly column. There's more to be learned than just math, too--in the second column, he tells us that "The word 'calculate'...comes from the Latin word 'calculus,' meaning a pebble used for counting." Who knew?

2. I've debated sharing this, because it could mean more people camping out by Target on March 14, but did you know that they're collaborating with my favorite textile designer Liberty of London and releasing a collection of clothes, homewares, and even bicycles? Check out the teaser video here.

3. Do you know what else happens March 14? Mad Men Season 3 is released on DVD! I can't wait for March 14.

Happy Birthday, Wallace Stegner

He would have been 101 today!

"If there is such a thing as being conditioned by climate and geography, and I think there is, it is the West that has conditioned me. It has the forms and lights and colors that I respond to in nature and in art. If there is a western speech, I speak it; if there is a western character or personality, I am some variant of it; if there is a western culture in the small-c , anthropological sense, I have not escaped it. It has to have shaped me. I may even have contributed to it in minor ways, for culture is a pyramid to which each of us brings a stone."

Thumbs Up

There's a long article about Roger Ebert up on Esquire.com right now, and it's worth a read. If you didn't already admire a man who described watching the first Twilight movie as "driving a tractor in low gear through a sullen sea of Brylcreem," you probably will after reading this.

Tuesday Project Roundup: More Experiments With Knits

After I found that fabulous navy wool jersey at such a great price, I had to order more "wool knit" from the same place. As it turns out, though, that's a crucial difference in terms: You might picture wool jersey (i.e., t-shirt fabric) but if you order wool knit, you end up with something like the world's nicest stretchy terrycloth. So I went with a novelty top.

This silk Anthropologie blouse had a similar shape to the pattern I used for the first Vegas dress, so I thought I'd go for a similar look, sans giraffe.

While I'm not sure how successful my copy is, it didn't cost $228. That might be enough of a success right there.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Happy birthday, Charles Darwin!

2. This week, the Astronomy Picture of the Day site taught me that volcanoes can form lightning when they erupt. Go see the picture (and check out out the "lunar fog bow" [night rainbow!] while you're there, too).

3. Happy Lunar New Year on Sunday. All the newer casinos in Las Vegas were decorated last week--here's a big tiger from the Bellagio:

A Poem For The One You Love

Because it's Valentine's Day this weekend, and because this poem works equally well (or better) recited to your cat (whom you will always look out for), or your family members.

This Year's Valentine

by Philip Appleman

They could
pump frenzy into air ducts
and rage into reservoirs,
dynamite dams
and drown cities,
cry fire in theaters
as the victims are burning,
but
I will find my way through blackened streets
and kneel down at your side.

They could
jump the median, head-on,
and obliterate the future,
fit .45's to the hands of kids
and skate them off to school,
flip live butts into tinderbox forests
and hellfire half the heavens,
but
in the rubble of smoking cottages
I will hold you in my arms.

They could
send kidnappers to kindergartens
and pedophiles to playgrounds,
wrap themselves in Old Glory
and gut the Bill of Rights,
pound the door with holy screed
and put an end to reason,
but
I will cut through their curtains of cunning
and find you somewhere in the moonlight.

Whatever they do with their anthrax or chainsaws,
however they strip-search or brainwash or blackmail,
they cannot prevent me from sending you robins,
all of them singing: I'll be there.

A Craft Thief?

For the first time at this apartment, a package I was expecting has gone missing. What makes me suspect a craft thief? The package had vintage patterns in it. Plus, my JoAnn sales mailer hasn't arrived and I know that they're having a President's Day sale.

Will the patterns turn up? Will I ever get a 40% coupon for JoAnn? Who could be sabotaging my crafty endeavors? It's a mystery. (Also, am I glad this is my only problem? Yes.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Another Positive

Since I'm finding the silver lining of my far-from-successful trip to Las Vegas, here's one more: I got to make another knit dress, this time with some really nice wool jersey.
(Please ignore the cat on a towel on the rug in the reflection.)

I used the pattern in the Sew U: Home Stretch book that taught me how to sew knits and I got the fabric from my favorite online discount place.
As I've mentioned before, I feel as chic in navy as I'm sure the hipsters and artists and designers feel in black. Plus, I don't get bored sewing navy fabric and I always have to think of Coco Chanel. So a win all around, made possible by Las Vegas (ugh).

Where You Folks From?

So I was in Las Vegas most of last week (which you may not have realized due to the magic of scheduled posts) but it just wasn't how I thought it would be: I've been twice in the last ten years and I guess enough time lapses between trips that I think it's a glamorous, exciting place complete with Elvis and Danny Ocean, when in reality it's a glorified miniature golf course.

There wasn't a lot of sunshine, I don't gamble, vast seas of humanity are not my idea of a good time, I missed Toby...I could go on and on (and on. Ask me about the cleanliness of the rooms in the Monte Carlo sometime.). But instead, I will choose to look at it as my oldest friend suggested: I got out of my comfort zone and pushed my limits, so really it was a trip of growth and self-discovery.

And I will remember this discovery when Vegas starts sounding exciting again in about five years.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. This has been making the rounds on all the design blogs already, but it's funny: Unhappy Hipsters, which puts funny captions to pictures published in the mod design magazine Dwell.

2. I've just discovered businessguysonbusinesstrips.com which has comics making fun of advertising life. This one is eerily true to life when the senior people and the clients get going:

3. Palm trees! I'll be seeing palm trees!

Thank You Very Much

So as I mentioned, I'm going to Las Vegas (where it is even more warm and spring-like than it was here on Monday), so of course I had to track down some Elvis videos on YouTube. While this isn't the original version of "A Little Less Conversation", the mix below does a great job of showing him in his bespangled, be-jumpsuited Las Vegas glory. Enjoy.

A Cocktail For The Last Half Of Winter

While I'm not one to get tired of whiskey or scotch or gin (oh my), sometimes it's nice to break out of the seasonal rut--which for me in winter is whiskey or scotch or a Gibson. I'm slowly stocking up my bar for the 30 Things, so when I was thinking of cocktail options I wasn't able to make a Sidecar with brandy, but I discovered the Chelsea Sidecar.

Take 2 ounces of gin, half an ounce of Cointreau, and a teaspoon of lemon juice and shake it up. Enjoy the lemony deliciousness and the frosty cold gin. Just enjoy slowly, because this one is strong.

Besides its delicious taste, this one gets extra points because it's an even lesser-known variation on an old-fashioned cocktail and it has "Chelsea" in the name, which makes you feel all sorts of late 60's mod and hip. Although that could just be the gin.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Viva Las Vegas

I have a trip to Las Vegas coming up with my friend from my stationery days, so of course I had to make some things to wear for it. As I reviewed my progress on the 29 Things at the end of 2009, I realized that I hadn't sewn any knits since that spring. Knits + travel = easy packing and no wrinkles, so I made a couple of knit dresses.

Here's the first, with some ordinary fabric from JoAnn (in case I was out of the habit of sewing knits). I used this pattern from Simplicity and, despite cutting the back a little crooked, it turned out pretty well.

The print reminds me of the old casino signs, so it's perfect for fabulous Las Vegas.

We Made It Through January

Happy February first (or Imbolc, if you're a Druid). Did we all enjoy the mix of snow and sun and high 40's yesterday? It made me think that yes, we can get through this. I always think of a Wallace Stevens poem at this time of year--"at the end of winter when afternoons return."

The Poems of our Climate

I
Clear water in a brilliant bowl,
Pink and white carnations. The light
In the room more like a snowy air,
Reflecting snow. A newly-fallen snow
At the end of winter when afternoons return.
Pink and white carnations - one desires
So much more than that. The day itself
Is simplified: a bowl of white,
Cold, a cold porcelain, low and round,
With nothing more than the carnations there.

II
Say even that this complete simplicity
Stripped one of all one's torments, concealed
The evilly compounded, vital I
And made it fresh in a world of white,
A world of clear water, brilliant-edged,
Still one would want more, one would need more,
More than a world of white and snowy scents.

III
There would still remain the never-resting mind,
So that one would want to escape, come back
To what had been so long composed.
The imperfect is our paradise.
Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.

Salinger-Related Information (On A Friday)

1. I learned yesterday (like most of you) that J.D. Salinger died Wednesday, at the age of 91. His New York Times obituary focuses mainly on his 50 years of reclusiveness, but did have this to say about the italics:
The stories were remarkable for their sharp social observation, their pitch-perfect dialogue (Mr. Salinger, who used italics almost as a form of musical notation, was a master not of literary speech but of speech as people actually spoke it), and for the way they demolished whatever was left of the traditional architecture of the short story — the old structure of beginning, middle, end — in favor of an architecture of emotion, in which a story could turn on a tiny alteration of mood or irony.

2. I have to admit that I always wondered if more Salinger would be published after he died, but now that he's dead I'd rather think of him still writing every day than of being able to read more of his work.

3. If you would like to read any of the short stories online, you can use your subscription to The New Yorker to do so here or you can read them for free (gasp! just like a library!) here.

ETA: 4. And The Onion's take on it: Bunch of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger. Thank you, Onion.

Speaking Of Alcohol...

A few weeks ago I found a news article about new research that makes the claim that early humans developed agriculture not for a steady supply of food, but a steady supply of booze. As the article tells us,

[Archaeologist Patrick McGovern's]bold thesis, which he lays out in his book, Uncorking the Past. The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverage, states that agriculture--and with it the entire Neolithic Revolution, which began about 11,000 years ago--are ultimately results of the irrepressible impulse toward drinking and intoxication.

"Available evidence suggests that our ancestors in Asia, Mexico, and Africa cultivated wheat, rice, corn, barley, and millet primarily for the purpose of producing alcoholic beverages," McGovern explains. While they were at it, he believes, drink-loving early civilizations managed to ensure their basic survival.

Hey, I think it sounds plausible. If I had to struggle to survive every day, I'd want a drink, too.

When Hemingway Comes In Handy

Monday night I took a wine class (through the U's Continuing Education) with a friend from work. Our class was "Value Wines of Italy" and as we moved onto a Tuscan red (not, apparently, an "official" Chianti), the teacher asked, "Who knows what the straw-wrapped bottles of Chianti are called?"

And I had to remember all the times the Colonel in Across the River and Into the Trees asked the hotel staff in Venice for "a fiasco" of some wine or another, and that was indeed the answer.

The teacher went on to explain how most Americans' first experience with Chianti was so bad that the term was adopted to mean "a complete failure"--which isn't exactly what the dictionary tells me*, but sounded very charming and plausible when she said it.

*My dictionary says the term came about from the phrase "far fiasco," literally "to make a bottle," and was used in Italy to mean "complete failure" since the mid-19th century. Tomato, tomahto...both of which are very nice with Chianti.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Now With More Cables

Remember at the beginning of the month when I talked about making a traditional Aran sweater? And I was intimidated by the traditional pattern and construction methods? Well, this is the year of speaking up sooner if something is not how I want it to be, and the traditional pattern of the intended sweater was not only difficult--it wasn't cable-y enough.

Here is the traditional pattern:


And for comparison, here's something with LOTS o'cables:I don't like knitting projects to be that challenging (or require that much concentration at night), so this is not the winning pattern. Instead, I compromised with this pattern (very popular among knitters) and a different cable.


Here's the progress so far


and here's the different cable--it's called a staghorn cable.

And I think I used "cable" about 5 times in 100 words. Cables!

Happy Birthday, Virginia Woolf

And happy birthday yesterday to Edith Wharton. If you want to be a perceptive lady novelist, it's a good time to have a birthday.

(Can you tell I've been busy at work? I'm sorry things have just been links or images lately--I don't have as much time to find or prepare better material. On the upside, we are actually helping to promote a mixed martial arts event in South Carolina and I get to write scripts for the ring announcer. My career is complete!)

Friday Unrelated Information

There's an animal theme today:
1. BoingBoing posted about the kid's book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb and used the phrase "beatnik monkeys." I'll have to see if the parents still have our copy so I, too, can admire those cool simians as an adult.

2. Animals with Lightsabers. You may have seen this, but a recent entry was captioned "Jedi Reepicheep"!

3. And finally, seagulls:

Do You Need More Pictures Of Cool People In Your Life?

If you do, check out If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats. It's a visual blog of old photos of musicians, actors, mobsters, famous people--and even vintage pattern covers. There are such diverse categories as "The Gunslinger's Guide to Julie Christie," "Artists in Action," and "Before and After" (in case you want to see how people have aged).

Check it out--any blog that has a category devoted to Bob Dylan pictures is OK by me.

Another Reason To Visit The Cook Islands

If I did, I'd get to see the stars from the Southern Hemisphere. The Astronomy Picture of the Day site had a photo last week demonstrating just that:


On the left the outlines show Orion seen from a beach off Tasmania, and on the right you can see it in the Northern Hemisphere, from the Alborz Mountains in Iran. (See more details and a bigger picture on the APOD site.)

That's just very cool. My sister-in-law is going to South Africa in the spring and I am jealous!

Tuedsay Project Roundup: No Loose Ends

Here's a project from last year for the roundup: I wanted something mindless to knit over Christmas get-togethers, so I made a tube scarf (or infinity scarf) with some very nice berry-colored alpaca (Merry Christmas to me).

I was inspired by this scarf and I have to say that a tube scarf--i.e., a big loop of scarf, with the ends connected--is both fun to knit and wear. Because you don't have to worry about the ends being long enough to go over your shoulder, you're done knitting sooner than you would be with a traditional scarf, and it's nice to not have the bullk of the wrapped ends under your coat.



I just wish my cameral could deal with the light levels in the apartment better. For some reason pictures taken in this same spot of me wearing the scarf came out way too dark, which is why it's modeled on the hangar.

Happy Birthday, A.A. Milne

Today is the birthday of the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, Alan Alexander Milne. As the Writer's Almanac tells us, "Milne went to school for mathematics, but ended up spending most of his time writing. He wrote a mediocre novel and then started writing plays, and he ended up writing 27 of them."

But after publishing three books of children's poems and the first Pooh book (for his son) within four years, "most people didn't take him seriously as a writer for adults anymore."

That may have disappointed Milne, but it's fine with me--because who doesn't love the Pooh books, and their Random Capitalizations of Important Thoughts?

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I've signed up for "new listings" emails from a real estate office (more to just keep my goal in mind than to actually buy anything yet) and the agent remarks on the houses continue to be great. Did you know that Salt Lake has a trendy acronym-ed neighborhood? One house was located in "SOTRO (South of Trolley)." Groan.

2. Would you like to look at some mid-century gas stations designed by famous architects? (Who wouldn't?) Check them out here. I kind of want to move in to the Albert Frey one in Palm Springs.

3. Here is a recipe for Carl Sagan's apple pie. I'm sure it will be crumbly, but good. (Click for big.)

Rally!

The Paris-Dakar Rally (apparently just called the Dakar Rally even though it's being held in South America "for security reasons") is going on right now. The Big Picture blog has some great images, although there seemed to be even more death and mayhem than I would expect.

But look at this!

Sadly, there were no pictures of Ford Focus rally cars.

Have A Seat

I am really going to push myself this year to be more social--not only to get out more, but to have more people come to the apartment. Last year there were hardly any visitors, and if I'm not going to turn into a crazy cat lady hermit, I need to change that.

So I bought a chair (Thing #6) and rearranged the living room. Now guests can make their way to the seating area easily and we won't have to sit side-by-side and try to talk.

I "cheated" on this, too, in that I picked it out online when I was making my 30 Things list, but I was going to wait to order it--until Target had a sale plus free shipping after Christmas. I do love that Target furniture.
Toby does, too.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Stacking The Deck

I started thinking about the 30 Things in December, and I have to admit that a couple of things were not only thought of but carried out in 2009. I was going to wait on Thing #7 (sew new pillows for the living room), but then I decided to have a New Year's party and I had some time off and the brown pillows were just too much of an embarrassment. So here are the new ones:

I am so much happier with these, which don't collect cat hair and have orange flowers and birds on them to boot. And I have a nice feeling of early accomplishment with my list, even if I did cheat a little.

And speaking of cheating, what's this in the foreground of the rearranged living room? Thing #6, perhaps? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Off To A Slow Start

I'm taking a sick day today, which is a little indulgent--I'm not THAT sick--but probably a good idea. Here's a lolcat instead:

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The Writer's Almanac tells us
Today, writer Isabel Allende is starting a new book, just as she has been doing every single January 8th for the past 29 years. On January 8, 1981, when Chilean-born Allende was living in Venezuela and working as a school administrator and freelance journalist, she got a phone call that her beloved grandfather, at 99 years old, was dying. She started writing him a letter, and that letter turned into her very first novel, The House of the Spirits. She said, "It was such a lucky book from the very beginning, that I kept that lucky date to start."

2. And here's Toby on an IKEA nightstand nicely finished by my dad as per this hack:

How Little We Know

You can't binge on Humphrey Bogart movies without running into Lauren Bacall. Here she is singing "How Little We Know" from To Have and Have Not.



That dress kind of makes me want to try a pattern from the 40's. Usually I avoid that era because older patterns=sparser directions, and I've never cared for that strong shoulder. But all these old movies are making me reconsider.

Capable

I've been watching a lot of Humphrey Bogart movies lately (Sabrina, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo, The Maltese Falcon), and when my mom called last week and I was watching another one, she said, "I don't think he's that handsome, really."

And I said, "No, but he seems so capable."

Tuesday Project Roundup: "A long and lovely project."

"It is a cold and snowy January. The holidays are behind us, and Twelfth Night will be any day now: what better time to embark on a long and lovely project? I have masses of thick unbleached natural cream wool, which with luck should work up into a really solid-looking Aran."
That is a quote from the Knitter's Almanac, a sort of pattern "guidebook" by famous knitter Elizabeth Zimmerman, and the source of my next project. This project terrifies me a little: I have guidelines on creating a sweater pattern just for me but no actual pattern, there are complicated stitches, and it involves knitting a tube and then cutting it to make it a cardigan.

Because there's a lot of "knitter's choice" in the pattern, it's hard to find a picture of what it looks like. It's the sweater at 2 o'clock on the cover of the book above, and here's the original pullover knit by EZ. Here are a couple other cardigan options with different cable patterns than specified in the book.

I'm not usually one for crafty challenges, but I've been thinking about this sweater all year (it was on the 29 Things) and I really want to wear it once it's done. We'll see if that's enough motivation, because it certainly will be a long project--hopefully a lovely one.

And We're Off!

I had a lovely three days of celebrating the New Year and my new decade, so let's jump into the first week of what should be a great year with my list of 30 Things:

1. Put the money that I was using to pay off debt into savings for a down payment on some sort of house, townhouse, or condo
   
2. Learn about real estate and home buying through the Utah State Extension classes
3. Stop buying non-essentials (ready-made clothes, really expensive fabric, shoes, magazines, etc.) for three months (months TBD)
   
4. Buy that Eames desk chair. I'll use the money I'll be saving from not buying any non-essentials.
5. Buy that damn garbage can already
6. Buy a living room chair--armless, small-ish, but comfy. This will help with seating to accomplish #22.
7. Sew new pillow covers for the living room
8. Buy a vacuum
   
9. Refresh my yoga skills and then...
10. Start doing yoga once or twice a week
11. Get recycling at the apartment. I haven't had it for three years and I'm tired of feeling guilty every time I throw away some junk mail.
    
12. Similarly, bring in some actual flatware for the breakroom at work to cut down on waste
    
13. November-March, walk or ride to work at least twice a month. April-September, up it to at least four times a month.
14. Eat at one new restaurant a month--any meal, but it has to be somewhere I haven't been before.
15. Eat at Red Iguana
16. Go to Bonneville Speed Week
17. Go to a roller derby game
18. Stop biting my fingernails (I mean it this year)
    
19. Wear more colors of lipstick than "pink" and "darker pink"
20. Find a perfume I want to wear regularly
    
21. Stock and maintain a home bar and keep it stocked. No drinking it up and not replacing it.
    
22. Have more people over to the apartment--not huge parties, but a few people for dinner, or drinks before a restaurant, etc.
23. Learn more about wine
24. Learn and retain the difference between whisk(e)y, bourbon, and scotch
    
25. Learn and retain the difference between brandy and cognac
26. Get my eyes checked again, update my prescription, and start wearing glasses in front of the computer.
27. Find a dermatologist to look at a couple of moles, if only so I can stop worrying about skin cancer
    
28. Learn how to can fruits, veggies, or jam
    
29. Get a better camera
30. Go to Moab and/or Zion