I've been trying to knit again. I started a sweater pattern. Then I remembered why I stopped knitting. And I also learned a whole new reason.
First, I am incapable of sitting still for long periods of time at home (unless I am watching television or a movie or a movie on the television). I am also not allowed to sit still for long periods of time at home (because my dog is an insane herding beast who interprets my almost stillness as "time to go annoy mom and make her interact with me and my tennis ball" time). And finally, my new reason, today I learned that I fucking hate circular knitting needles.
I will still try to knit some god damn socks, and maybe a new scarf or some shit that I can do on straight needles. But I swear, I am not interested in patterns that require circular needles. Lesson learned. They make me want to stab myself in the face with the pointy end.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Social Networking
I recently realized that I belong to or use a great number of social networks...
Facebook. Twitter. Flickr. Pinterest. Instagram. Ravelry (just joined, trying to take up knitting again).
I used to have my Twitter linked to my Facebook, so that all my FB buds could see my random musings on Twitter. (Actually, I only posted to FB from Twitter.) Recently, I unlinked them. I decided that FB is to be a reflection of my more friendly side, while Twitter is to be a reflection of my naughty side. As I said in my first post-severance tweet, I gave myself a split personality. The truth is, I felt constrained by the "friendship" of several younger relatives on FB...I tended to edit the cuss words and such from some of my more clever tweets, or to hold back altogether. No more. Twitter shall be unedited. I'll need to start a swear jar. I have an unfortunate habit of dropping f-bombs or making inappropriate remarks on the regular in real life. While it may be unladylike, it's just my authentic ribald self.
For the record, my new favorite social networking places are Instagram and Pinterest. Maybe it is because they are fresh and new...I'm not really sure. I do know that if you stick a clever photo with some witty text, I'm hooked.
Facebook. Twitter. Flickr. Pinterest. Instagram. Ravelry (just joined, trying to take up knitting again).
I used to have my Twitter linked to my Facebook, so that all my FB buds could see my random musings on Twitter. (Actually, I only posted to FB from Twitter.) Recently, I unlinked them. I decided that FB is to be a reflection of my more friendly side, while Twitter is to be a reflection of my naughty side. As I said in my first post-severance tweet, I gave myself a split personality. The truth is, I felt constrained by the "friendship" of several younger relatives on FB...I tended to edit the cuss words and such from some of my more clever tweets, or to hold back altogether. No more. Twitter shall be unedited. I'll need to start a swear jar. I have an unfortunate habit of dropping f-bombs or making inappropriate remarks on the regular in real life. While it may be unladylike, it's just my authentic ribald self.
For the record, my new favorite social networking places are Instagram and Pinterest. Maybe it is because they are fresh and new...I'm not really sure. I do know that if you stick a clever photo with some witty text, I'm hooked.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Cranky
Someone pushed the cranky button inside my brain yesterday. There was no particular reason to be cranky, I just found myself in a really foul mood, which seemed to worsen as the day progressed.
On my usual post dinner dog walk, I saw this.
I was instantly less cranky.
Today, I'm wearing a scarf out of necessity. This does make me cranky. I am not ready for cold weather.
On my usual post dinner dog walk, I saw this.
I was instantly less cranky.
Today, I'm wearing a scarf out of necessity. This does make me cranky. I am not ready for cold weather.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Perfectionism. My Curse.
I have officially survived hosting our first round of house guests in the new, tinier homestead. Not only that, but we crammed more people into the sleeping areas than we ever fit into the old, larger abode. I am now ready to open a bed and breakfast. I got this.
Since we moved into the new place, we had always intended to have some sort of celebratory barbecue, something to mark the fact that we survived our renovation with our sanity relatively intact. Of course, my perfectionism prevented me from planning this event. There were always little things that I wanted to have done before I exposed our home to guests. The yard looks like a desert in some places and like an overgrown weed jungle in others. It isn't the perfectly manicured landscape that I have dreamed it to be. The driveway concrete is a nightmare. The trim work around the clerestory windows is not done. The fireplace is still empty. Blah blah blah and on and on and on. It took me some time to realize that no one except me actually cares about these things. People will eat food and drink beer anywhere. The only shortfall of the house is that we don't have the fancy butt spray toilet seat on the guest toilet yet. We need to get another one of those, pronto.
Thus, when we opened the home for friends to spend the weekend (at one point 11 people were sleeping in my 850 square foot house), it seemed the perfect opportunity to throw a practice party. Of course, my perfectionism also extends to parties, and I went insane on the food prep and alcohol selections. Burgers and dogs on my grill? No way. I made seitan and veggie skewers (my own recipe), shrimp and pineapple skewers, flank steak, spicy baked beans, vegan blueberry cobbler, guacamole (also my own recipe), and german potato salad. I bought a lot of soda and tons of fancy beer (yeah, no Coors lite for us, just a selection of locally brewed craft beers). Someone brought cupcakes from Crumbs (butter cream perfection). While it was a lot of work, since I have that gene that makes me happy when I am feeding and entertaining people, it was well worth it.
Oh yeah, I know I mentioned it, but I'm saying this again...I cooked effing steak on my grill. An actual bloody piece of meat. It got rave reviews. After it was marinated and cooked, of course. My sister and I were both completely grossed out as I sliced it open to find it to be perfectly medium rare AKA still bleeding. We both wondered if I had undercooked it (I actually used the timer on my iPhone because I have no idea how to cook steak). Then we recalled that my mom's steak always looked like this. Actually, my sister reminded me that my mom would eat it while it was still walking around, so we figured I was safe. And I was. No one died!
There is nothing better than a circle of friends in lawn chairs. All we were missing was the fire ring. Next time!
Since we moved into the new place, we had always intended to have some sort of celebratory barbecue, something to mark the fact that we survived our renovation with our sanity relatively intact. Of course, my perfectionism prevented me from planning this event. There were always little things that I wanted to have done before I exposed our home to guests. The yard looks like a desert in some places and like an overgrown weed jungle in others. It isn't the perfectly manicured landscape that I have dreamed it to be. The driveway concrete is a nightmare. The trim work around the clerestory windows is not done. The fireplace is still empty. Blah blah blah and on and on and on. It took me some time to realize that no one except me actually cares about these things. People will eat food and drink beer anywhere. The only shortfall of the house is that we don't have the fancy butt spray toilet seat on the guest toilet yet. We need to get another one of those, pronto.
Thus, when we opened the home for friends to spend the weekend (at one point 11 people were sleeping in my 850 square foot house), it seemed the perfect opportunity to throw a practice party. Of course, my perfectionism also extends to parties, and I went insane on the food prep and alcohol selections. Burgers and dogs on my grill? No way. I made seitan and veggie skewers (my own recipe), shrimp and pineapple skewers, flank steak, spicy baked beans, vegan blueberry cobbler, guacamole (also my own recipe), and german potato salad. I bought a lot of soda and tons of fancy beer (yeah, no Coors lite for us, just a selection of locally brewed craft beers). Someone brought cupcakes from Crumbs (butter cream perfection). While it was a lot of work, since I have that gene that makes me happy when I am feeding and entertaining people, it was well worth it.
Oh yeah, I know I mentioned it, but I'm saying this again...I cooked effing steak on my grill. An actual bloody piece of meat. It got rave reviews. After it was marinated and cooked, of course. My sister and I were both completely grossed out as I sliced it open to find it to be perfectly medium rare AKA still bleeding. We both wondered if I had undercooked it (I actually used the timer on my iPhone because I have no idea how to cook steak). Then we recalled that my mom's steak always looked like this. Actually, my sister reminded me that my mom would eat it while it was still walking around, so we figured I was safe. And I was. No one died!
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