HE DID IT! Mubarak finally did it. The video out of Egypt right now is just amazing. One commenter said “I finally feel like anything is possible.” I don’t know what the future may bring for Egypt’s people and how the US will relate to the Middle East going forward, but right now I’m celebrating with them!
Goddamnit, Mubarak
Dear Mr. Mubarak:
The images and video out of Egypt’s Tahrir square continue to captivate and amaze me. I spent most of the afternoon waiting for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, anticipating along with everyone else that you would be stepping down today, only to learn that you are stubbornly remaining in power. Do you not see the thousands upon thousands of people rallying outside your door? Have you not learned the lessons of history and what happens to despots when they are violently deposed? You must know that the longer you wait, the worse it will be for you and for the people of Egypt. I implore you, PLEASE, don’t be a jerk.
kthxbai
a stream of consciousness post
Today is one of those days where I am really only posting because I promised that I would. Earlier we met with other members of our homeschooling group for a bit of sledding and I am right now actively avoiding the dishes and making dinner. Tonight I have the first rehearsal for the spring concert and I am dead tired. Also my internet is not working properly and I should probably restart my computer. My feet are cold and my fingers and the rest of me is cold too even though I am wearing woolen slippers and a sweater and hand mitts. Perhaps a hat would help? I think my thyroid level may be off because in addition to the intolerance to cold I have been unusually abrupt with the kids which makes me sad. I don’t like feeling like I’m yelling at them all the time. Most of the time it’s not even their fault. So yeah, I’m only posting here because I promised I would and I’m not even attempting to come up with a topic. Well, I did attempt to for a while, and I even poked and prodded the depths of the internet for some material, but honestly, I got nothing. Oh, there is one thing. I worked on my Baktus scarf last night and I was thinking how quickly the second half of it goes because the rows are getting shorter and shorter and I suddenly became afraid that I was decreasing too frequently because the rows were going so quickly. I don’t think that I was, though. That’s just how fast the back side of that knit goes. I hope to be finished with it in a couple of days. I even brought it with me to the sledding event, but it was far too cold to get out my knitting so I just sat and drank Chai instead.
Is 300 stream of consciousness words enough? Or should I shoot for 500? Well, now it’s 530 pm and I only have an hour and a half to do the dishes, make some sort of food which I shall loosely term “dinner” and get ready for orchestra. I guess a little over 350 is going to have to do it.
10 on Tuesday
You had to know the memes were coming. It was only a matter of time, really. I’ve been following the Painted Sheep blog for a while and she does this Ten on Tuesday thing from Carole Knits so I figured, why the hell not? So here goes.
This week’s theme is 10 Favorite Oscar-winning movies. I tried (unsuccessfully) to keep it to Best Pictures only. So here they are, in order of release date:
- Gone With the Wind (Definitely one of my favorite movies of all time.)
- West Side Story (It has some of the best music to come out of the musical era of Hollywood.)
- Amadeus (Always made me wonder how close to real life the move was.)
- Rain Man (the height of my Tom Cruise crush. I’m over him now, but back then? Yum-my!)
- Dances With Wolves (Back when Kevin Costner was cool.)
- Silence of the Lambs (Oh Anthony Hopkins, you were so delightfully and frightfully evil!)
- American Beauty (An all around great movie.)
- Chicago (First musical to win since Oliver!)
- Slumdog Millionaire (The contrasts in this movie were so striking and the tale was artfully told.)
- Ingourious Basterds (The only one on my list that wasn’t a Best Picture win. Which is too bad, really. It was a really amazing movie!)
We love movies in our house and we watch a lot of them. Not all Oscar quality movies either, hah! What Oscar winners are your favorites?
Good day, bad day.
Good day: Overnight, I made broth from the carcass and bones of last night’s leftover turkey. I woke this morning to the most delicious aroma of rich turkey broth which I then made into an easy turkey-noodle soup for tonight’s dinner.
Bad day: We had the HVAC guy over to do our annual tune up of the heating system and while he was here I had him take a peek at our hot water heater (which has been seeping water for a little while). It turns out that the upper heating element is totally corroded and therefore the whole hot water heater must be replaced ASAP (as in tomorrow and there’s no hot water tonight) before a catastrophe occurs.
Good day: A hot water heater catastrophe has not occurred up to this point.
Bad day: Preventing a future hot water heater catastrophe costs a lot of money.
Good day: While we don’t have the cash on hand in the form of savings, cash can be gotten relatively easily in the form of credit.
Bad day: This means more debt. :-(
Good day: The turkey soup was awesome.
My First Yarn Tasting
So my LYS had a nifty yarn tasting today, which featured yarns from Bijou Basin Ranch. I have seen them at Rhinebeck, but their booth is either too full of people for me to get into, or they don’t have any yarn left for me to fondle (or to sell me), which is why the yarn tasting was such a treat!
First I knitted with the Yak/Bamboo blend. It was soft and drapey. The Rep had knitted a Pretty Thing cowl from it (see it in the photo there, just behind the yarn ball?) and it took all my will power not to tuck that Pretty Thing into my pocket and sneak out the door with it.
Next up was the Cormo blend. It was soft, light, and very very smooshy. A hank of it may have found its way into my shopping basket.
Oops. But least I ignored my baser desires and actually paid for it! *laugh*
Lastly, I sampled the 100% yak lace weight. Loved. It. It reminds me a lot of qiviut fiber in that it definitely has that softness, but it’s not quite as pricey and, as such, is much more accessible.
The Rep also brought along a sample of the yak down which had been processed for spinning, but since the shop doesn’t actually carry spinning fiber I wasn’t able to bring any of that home with me. (boo-hoo!) Luckily, it’s available on their website! (yay!)
All in all, I had a really nice time. The shop owner is a lovely woman who you can tell just loves yarn and The Rep was a very enthusiastic lover of all things Bijou Basin. It was fun to sit with them and the other yarn tasters and bond over our love of string! Yay yarn!
Further, a certain knit blogger you know may be teaching a sock class there in March. I’ll keep you posted.
Happy Caturday!
Onward: Blue Blossom Shawl Again
Arg, it’s getting difficult to come up with interesting blog post titles. I highly suspect I will have to resort to plain post numbers soon.
[ravelry]
I am pressing forward with the Blue Blossom Shawl again. I love this part of it. In the beginning, it’s small, so it goes relatively quickly, and the pattern is easy to memorize so I don’t make any make fewer mistakes. I see a long knitting-filled weekend ahead of me. :-)
Also, don’t forget my formspring.me account! Want to see me blog on the topic of your choosing? Ask me!
Linky Thursday
It’s been a lazy day here. I had to get up early to chisel our car from its icy tomb. Then I took a nap, after which I knitted my Baktus while watching the protests escalating violence in Egypt. Also, I surfed the web. Here’s some stuff that amused me.
- Lambs Wearing Sweaters. I wish Buzzfeed linked back to the original source instead of just nicking the photo.
- Regular Ordinary Swedish Mealtime. Don’t forget your pre-dinner mayo (and be sure to check out some of their other videos because they are so full of win).
- Great Britain, Explained. And by an American, no less.
And how was your day?
Cheeky! (A Finished Object Post)
What do you do when you’re stuck inside because of the ICE STORM OF DOOOOoooooOOOOOooooOOOOM and while watching the country of Egypt fall into civil turmoil? Why, finish your knit-for-pay project of course!
[ravelry]
I had originally tried the Studio Shorts pattern, but the more I thought about it after my friend had tried them on, the more I realized that they were, indeed, too large, so I frogged them back to the legs and started the butt part over following Elizabeth Zimmermann’s instructions for Nether Garments. Elizabeth Zimmermann FTW! (Holy run on sentence, Batman!)
I’m so thrilled with how they came out!
I’m sure she’ll like love them.
Knitting Interrupted 
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