Aaaaaaaaaaaaa. (contest results!)

Today at work is killing me. I am far too stressed to make a good post about anything, even though I have lots to tell. Sorry about that. I’ll make up for it tomorrow by posting those photos I failed to post in the last trip entry, and possibly an update on the SuperSecret project.

So in lieu of a real post, I’m going to announce the winners of the 100th post contest!

[Drumroll, please]

Our winner is… Dawn! Yay! This search string was very creepy and excellent, all at once:

“walmart must sing chants before every weekday”

It conjures up images of besmocked employees, dancing around a bonfire made of discarded produce boxes. It’s much easier to imagine that I would like.

The ChickenGoddess also made an entry (thank you!), and it was memorable because there’s someone out there in BlogLandia who searches for her as the ChickenGoddess. However, Dawn‘s was by far the most excellent.

So, congratulations! Email me/talk to me and we’ll figure out what your personal rubber stamp ought to look like.

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Nothing new to report.

Well, that’s not completely true, but I’ve been exceptionally busy at work today, and in my offtime I’ve become rather involved with writing on my novel, an activity that has eclipsed any and all other activities. I’m making progress, though, so I feel accomplished even though I haven’t gotten anything else done. That Super Secret project? Yeah. So totally not going to be finished by the end of June.

I’ve started to read Twilight to my husband at night, a chapter before we go to bed. So far, his assessment is that it’s very much a chick book, though he did snicker at some of the descriptions. I kind of have to agree with his assessment, although since I am a chick, this is not as much of a problem for me as it is for him.

We’ll see how he feels when Midnight Sun comes out and I force him to listen to it. Perhaps a different perspective will change his mind. Or perhaps not. I’m still forcing him to listen to me read it.

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Now on to Virginia

I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I should have; we spent a lot of time in Charlottesville at Biscuit Run, and I only got photos of the horse farm. Dang. However, the photos are lovely. Surrounding the horse farm, activity-wise, there was a tee-ball game (after which I christened my new boots by stepping in some truly foul-smelling dog poop, and will now probably be remembered by all of Jennie‘s family as “that girl who stepped in the dog poop”), which I enjoyed because bobble-headed children are fun to watch. There was even a little girl who ate dirt, and one who fell down in the outfield on purpose. Then after the horses there was a bagel lunch and then coffee downtown, and a visit to a snooty yarn shop where the lady mentioned to another lady while I was in the shop that “everybody’s knitting these days,” and then asked me if I had needles for the sock yarn I was purchasing. No, I think I’m going to give it to the cats and see what happens. Of COURSE I have needles. Just let me pay for my damn yarn and be grateful. The good that came out of it is that now Jennie wants to knit, and she’s promised to let me take her to Knitch to shop for supplies. And so it spreads.

After the yarn shop was Iron Man with Jennie’s sister, this being the third time seeing it for Jennie and the second time for me. I must say, though – there’s something immensely satisfying about seeing a superhero movie wearing superhero shoes.

After the movie we met the rest of Jennie’s siblings (minus the ones who weren’t in town) for dinner at a little Thai restaurant, and then it was back home again. Whew! I didn’t realize how much we accomplished until I laid it all out there. That was a lot.

[Okay, so I did this excellent bit involving lots of photos, but somehow deleted it and since I don’t want to re-post it now, here’s the link to my flickr photos. Later, perhaps, when I have more time and patience, I’ll re-create it. But not now. Now, I am irritated.]

And that’s all for day 2/3. More tomorrow, wherein our heroes venture forth to Baltimore and do many things including eating and sleeping and fetching husbands from the aeroport (if only a dirigible had been involved…)

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Nope.

Didn’t do that whole updating thing on Saturday. I forgot my hard drive, and then went out to a movie with a friend, and then it was time to take care of cats, and then I had a migraine so I went to bed.

Today is definitely a Monday. I’m in that PMS (post, not pre) depression mode, so I can’t think properly, and besides, the Twilight obsession is still going strong. Not too long before August 2nd… I’m having difficulty being patient with this.

Anyway. Day 1 of Road Trip (Part 2), and Day 2 (Part 1) as promised.

At the end of the exciting drive, we arrived in Virginia, at the home of the DragonCon goddess and god (Jennie has them in her phone this way). They are seriously Viking warriors, plus nice people. As they were leaving the next day for a business trip, we crammed in as much as possible. We ate at a nice Mexican restaurant staffed all by Indian people (it was very tasty), then went bra shopping:

Upon my return, my husband expressed his relief that he was not present for this; bra shopping makes him uncomfortable. However, I found out my size (I’m not telling) and got a couple of new items, which is nice. I’m generally a cheapo Target girl when it comes to undergarments, but I will probably think twice in the future; there really is a difference.

After that, we hung around in their living room, watching YouTube and giggling over the fact that we were all wearing New Rock boots:

Like some kind of weird club. A cool, weird club. And there was chocolate. That doesn’t have anything to do with the boots, but the chocolate was awesome, so I thought I’d mention it.

See? Viking:

This man has more hair than is legal, I think. Why is it that men have nicer hair than women, usually? Why?

The next day, we dyed yarn (for the first time for me!). Wendi showed us the stuff she dyed already:

Eeeexcellent. Yarn + Kool-aid + Microwave = Awesome.

There was much prep work to do:

And so much yarn to dye:

And we were very excited:

(I like her shirt a lot, BTW, though I must admit that it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out what it meant)

And then the dying happened. I mixed a green and blue:

And then added some more colors, including 12 packets of Grape:

But it was okay, because she had a lot:

Crapload.

And then I got all crazy and did a circulatory system colorway:

See? Oxygenated on the left, low oxygen on the right? Excellent!

It smelled… funny. Like a combination of sheep and artificial strawberry.

Jennie’s expression pretty much sums it up.

In the end, we dyed four skeins (Wendi had another two she did after we left):

I had attempted to do some for another pair of Rivendell socks, but it’s all self-striping, so I’ll have to try again. However, the extreme ease of this particular dying process makes it certain that I will have another several skeins in the near future.

I’ll need many packets of Kool-Aid, though:

That’s only a fraction of what we used (remember the 12 packets of Grape?). Now the yarn is being washed and wound and sent up. The lighter color on the end apparently looks like violets when it’s all wound. Cool. As if I didn’t have enough sock stash.

Then on to Virginia. But more on that tomorrow, when my lunch break isn’t over.

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You have one more day

And then the search string contest is over and I announce a winner. Get to it, people!

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Now, for road trip.

Or an account of it.

I’m going to spread this out over a few days, since if I put it all here, the post would be enormous and contain a bajilliontey photos (yes, I’m aware that bajilliontey is not a real word, but I challenge you to come up with a more appropriate, and yet just as awesome, term). So today is the start of the road trip, and then later on we can move to things that actually took place. Hooray. But today, intro.

{I started this yesterday and then got uber-busy, and didn’t get to finish it. Sorry for the delay.}

Before the trip even started, we had a work dinner to say goodbye to the wonderful Paula, who is moving to Brighton. She is very missed, and was one of the reasons I took the job here (not the only reason – I am staying, but I will miss her). We took photos of us taking photos.

Very silly. The table was divided between red wine and white wine, with half on one side and half on the other, and a lone red at the end of the white side (traitor, or possibly a spy). Tod was in the middle with one of each. Sporting of him, I think.

Then bright and early the next morning, we were out on the road. Jennie looked sleepy already, or perhaps this is her reaction to the “XXX Superstore” (perfect for couples!) signs along I-85. I forget which.

Yep. I’m thinking road signs. There were many interesting ones.

Giant, actually triangular (the backside is all flat, and therefore not a square).

I like this one. Mr. Waffle, with a little Mr. Petro sign underneath. I was so tempted by Mr. Waffle. Do you think he and Mr. Petro are business associates?

Giant gorilla = super truck. Right?

The giant peach, out of focus. You can see its little “nipple” thingy at the bottom. We still haven’t figured out what the nipple is for.

We hit some spectacular rain in North Carolina. This photo unfortunately doesn’t do the scene justice. Against the dark rain clouds, the green trees were nearly emerald. They looked like they were glowing. Mind meld, anyone? That’s the only way I can really show you.

Proof that the yarn bowl does indeed work well on car trips. It kept the yarn from getting tangled and bouncing off my lap. Thank you, KnitWitch!

And finally:

This is kind of out of order, but Jennie and I had a long, rambling conversation about cougars, wherein I mentioned that I do not envision the cat but instead envision a sixty-year old lady with big hair and leopard print pants, and lo and behold what should greet us but this bumper sticker in the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant in Vienna. Perfect.

No Favorite Friday this week. I’ll post more about the trip tomorrow to make up for it (ooh! Special weekend stuff! Yay!)

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Allo!

DSCF0062.jpg picture by jenniebreeden

[I dyed yarn! I didn’t screw it up! It’s been microwaved!]

Whew. That was a week and a half, wasn’t it?

Anyway. Sorry I didn’t come to Philly, Gabbiana; it was a whirlwind (though the sofabed was incredibly tempting, I have to admit). Next time.

Now I have to upload and sort many, many photos (including some of yarn I dyed with braveharlot), and send out some thank-you notes, and also get back into the groove of work, which is proving to be very hard. Lunch was brought in today (yay, free food!), and I’m meeting a friend at the office, so he can give me a painting. I will be sure to share.

And also, the hardest part is that I really got into the Twilight series, and it’s sort of occupying a third of my brain capacity right now, and the other two thirds are working overtime to do actual useful stuff. On the plus side, I might actually get some writing done this way. That would be excellent.

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Since everything is made of awesome

At least the past few days, I submit this, for your pleasure:

Eeeeexcellent. Stolen from here.

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Heh… yeah.

Today’s my last post before next Tuesday; I’m going on vacation (road trip to Baltimore!), and I do not intend to get on a computer until I return. Sorry. It’s nothing personal. However, I’m bring the other SuperSecret project along with me, so I should have some progress photos when I come back.

I would have some today, but I haven’t really knitted in a while, because I’ve been reading. I do this every few years, where I get really immersed in a novel/series of novels, and I go and read them all in sequence in, like, three days (or one day per book). Last week, Dawn-E-Girl told me about Twilight, which I knew about but hadn’t bothered to read yet, so I picked it up Friday night, completely intending to start reading it then and finish it over the trip. Well, I’m halfway through the third novel in the series.

See, Saturday we took a trip to Birmingham, AL so that the husband could call a quarter peal (tower bell thingy), and since I’m not a ringer, I took the book along to keep me occupied. And by lunchtime, I was finished. I bought the other two immediately after we came home, then lent the second one to Dawn (because I finished it on Sunday), and then started the one I’m on now, because I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. Seriously. I’m having a difficult time concentrating on work.

Anyway. And then I found out that a movie is being made, and so I’ve briefly wrenched myself away from Stephenie Meyer’s website, so that I can admit to the entire world that I am a complete and total dork.

Holy crap.

Have a great week, everybody, and I’ll take lots of photos on my trip!

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Friday Favorites, #2

First off, I’ve gotten two entries for the blog tag contest. Enter your tags! Fun and prizes await!

Today’s Favorites are in honor of this afternoon’s forthcoming shopping trip for one of my favorite things of all time: Shoes. I can’t possibly list all my favorites, so here’s a selection:

272-1 Itali Negro y Nomada Negro Reactor Negro Toberas E14

1. New Rock Boots. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s still true. These are awesome. Truly awesome. I love my pair.

https://i0.wp.com/www.famousfootwear.com/productimages/ff_is61441.jpg

2. Dr Martens Mary Jane. As anyone who knows me well can probably tell you, I have an unhealthy attraction to these sorts of shoes. However, I’ve had a pair in this particular style for about 6 years now (and a pair of 20-eye boots, as well), and I absolutely love them. I’d buy another pair in a heartbeat. They’ve been all over France with me and are great, sturdy, comfortable shoes. I also just found out that they make a stacked wedge Mary Jane, and so I think I might have to add another style to my collection soon.

https://i0.wp.com/images.hanger94.com/images/products/mediumimages/1664.jpg

3. Reef sandals. I also have several pairs of these, and I love them. They are comfy (and since flips flops are practically the Georgia summer footwear uniform, I blend in nicely) and durable and come in a wide range of colors and styles.

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4. Converse tennis shoes. I’ve been wearing these since junior high, and although I’ve bought knockoffs a couple of times in the past, the original is by far the best and most comfortable. Their only downside is that after a few months of constant wear, they start to smell really bad. I go for the low tops, and my current pair have an awesome swirly skull pattern all over them.

http://christabutlerphotography.files.wordpress.com/2006/09/christabutler-shoesirregularchoicejudggler2.jpg

(The soles used to look like this when they were brand-new!)

5. My shiny blue Irregular Choice flats. Unfortunately, I can’t find a photo of these on the internet (and I’m not wearing them, so I can’t photograph them on my feet), but they’re brilliant. And also comfortable.

And that pretty much sums it up. I have many (many)  other pairs of shoes, but these are pretty much the regulars, plus a couple of excellent pairs I bought at Target and a pair of boots from Nine West that I wear sometimes in the winter. If I were stranded on a desert island, the above 5 pairs of shoes would be what I’d pick if I could only pick 5 pairs. And of course I’d bring lots of hand-knitted socks.

(Birkenstocks should be on the list, but I’m still poor so I haven’t bought myself another pair of those yet; I last wore them regularly in junior high)

And if that isn’t enough shoe goodness for you, here’s a great haute-couture shoe blog:

Jak & Jill

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