Is this because I prefer The Graduate and Cary Grant?
I couldn't take the clothing. Hats, gloves, stockings, foundation garments, etc. I would be a disgrace in that department.
| You Belong in 1951 |
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But I can see why they got this.
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February 27, 2008
February 20, 2008
I suspect Spring is here which means I need to buy a lawnmower
The groundhog was wrong. I'm sure of it. He was wrong last year and I think he is wrong this year.
Just looking at the last series of photos I have taken reflects the changes.
First, just two weeks ago we had a lovely morning of snow. For the most part, Portland has great snow in the winter. We just get a dusting like this, so that everything looks charming and it doesn't really stick long. Heck, notice it doesn't even really stick on the surfaces I'm walking or driving on.
But just this last week the Chickadees have just gone bonkers looking for places to nest. They seem to be really fond of the roof over my porch. The hideous Sears roof that is too low and butt-ugly. But apparently Chickadee-friendly.
This adorable little pair seem to have taken up here.
Same pair, I believe this is where they are nesting. This gutter opening is right outside my kitchen window. One night when I got up in the middle of the night with Argus (ah, the joys of living with a 14 year old dog) there was a little black tail sticking out of the end of this most of the night.
This is another pair nesting on the other side of the porch.
It is nice to have some sunlight when I get up in the morning now. This morning put on such a show I had to run outside to get a picture.
I was driving on a picturesque rural road last weekend behind this tractor. Them some big tires! But it shows the farms are getting active! It is fun when they start producing. There are family farms everywhere around here where you can stop and get fresh vegetables, flowers, plants, etc.
It is still a little cool here in the mornings and evenings so I could use a hat. Crazy Aunt Purl posted this cute pattern and I thought I probably needed to make it. Unfortunately, I changed a perfectly good pattern so that I could make my very own shower cap.
Or is it a hair net?
Either way it isn't good and I think it could actually hold several hundred Chickadees.
February 14, 2008
Perhaps it is time I called people rather than blog
Violence is devastating and leaves fear, grief, and anger in its wake. But what is the psychological phenomenon that makes people dissociate from the human pain? Is there less empathy today because we have so much access to tragedy via media?
What made these people want to record the moment? Look at the people in the background. Every single person is holding a camera and taking a picture. I'm not criticism or saying they are horrible people. I think this is related to the public hanging displays and car wreck syndrome. We can't look away. And now we are all holding the means to record it.
Do we feel more alive when we realize that "it could have been us?" Is that how we realize that life is precious? And do the cameras prevent us from this necessary brush with death? Do they remove us from the human drama?
I don't have a single answer. I just keep looking at that picture trying to figure out if I've let media get between me an my fellow man too.
February 06, 2008
One-of-a-kind
If you would love to have some delicious knitted goodness on your bed, this beautiful blanket is being raffled off this weekend with the money all going to a fantastic cause.
I'm beside myself I love that blanket so much. It is the perfect combination of retro/modern.
Go now...bid.
February 04, 2008
Multiple chevrons
Quick! Catch up.
We've had a little weather. Just a little. The day we were supposed to have freezing rain we could only come up with this:
Some little itty bitty icicles. Not enough for drama. I did manage to do a little slide into an intersection. But I managed to turn into it so it was more like I ran a stop sign than anything.
I found a whole KAL for the chevron scarf I've been knitting. Which is when I found out I probably don't have enough yarn. So I found another lone skein I've been saving because it is pretty and it has similar properties. But I couldn't quite bring myself to rip it all out (for some reason this thing is taking forever and it hurts my hands).
However, when I got ambitious and gathered a portion of my sock yarn to wind (yes, just a portion, have I ever acted like I didn't have a problem?),
I thought I might try using some skeins I've been hoarding here just because they are beautiful. I couldn't bring myself to put them on my feet (I'm telling you, I should marry this yarn I love it so much). I want to be able to look at the colors all the time so a scarf is a pretty good solution.
Socks that Rock. The purply one is a rare gem so you can't get it. I just lucked out because I was a member of the sock club. The other was also a sock club sample that should be available this year. Silkie Walking on the Wild Tide. So I tried using these two skeins for a stripey effect and it works really well. And even though this version is knit on smaller needles, my hands don't hurt me near as much so it must be that alpca I'm using on the first one. The only thing slowing this scarf down is that I have to keep stopping to admire the results.
Mmm...purply.
I'll be lucky if I can blog with any regularity because we have a big implementation at work which means having to do actual WORK at work. Jeez, that really cuts down on blogging time.
What a nuisance.
February 02, 2008
Blogiverse poetry reading
I've always loved the rhythm of this poem and since Chicago has played such a big part in my life recently, it seems appropriate to make this my St. Brigid's day poem.
CHICAGO
Carl Sandburg
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.