Under the Arch

I thought I would join in with these lovely ladies and offer up my humble prize......a hand-knit scarf, knitted by me, of course. I had been saving this scarf for some sort of contest and one just fell in my lap! The item to be won:

A close up of the stiches....

Me modeling the scarf in my ratty Jeep sleep shirt....

It's a drop stitch scarf made with Lamb's Pride yarn, a wool/mohair blend in, as you can see, orange, or as the yarn label says, "Orange you Glad". I love the yarn and the pattern, but orange and I do not go well together. So, if you would like your very own, handmade scarf, and you look lovely in orange (or know someone who does, gift!), just leave a comment on this post. I will draw the winner Saturday, Feb. 2nd when I get home from the Mardi Gras parade and inform them via email, so make sure I can contact you. Good luck! (Oh, and click on the logo at the top to find the ginormous list of others who are offering goodies, including Summer who is giving away a lovely set of jewelry!)

The front room of my apartment didn't come with lighting...at all. I didn't think much of it when I viewed the apartment in daylight, but in winter, when I have to keep the drapes closed to hold in the heat (or keep out the cold, depends on how you look at it)...anyway, it's freaking dark in here. I spend my evenings working on art projects or knitting in front of the tv, and with inadequate light, that can be difficult. This is my third lamp in the room, I'm planning on hanging two smaller ones next to it. That corner will soon house an easel and a rolling drawer unit with paint and such. I love my drapes and the lamp, I bought both at IKEA. Now I just need to make it hang straight.

I've lost my train of thought...freaking ADD. Ooh, shiny!

I'm a sucker for feel-good sports movies. I was flipping through the channels and just caught the end of The Replacements. One of my exs loves this movie and can't pass it by when channel surfing. For the next few minutes, it's his birthday today, so Happy 28th Birthday, darlin', hope it was a good one. I know that you hate celebrating your birthday, but you know that I don't care. :)

I was leaving to....well I don't really remember why I went out to my car, but I was about to put the key in the door when I saw the glass in the passenger seat.

"No, no, no. Please tell me I'm imagining things!"

The passenger window was gone, and so was my cheap ass stereo.

"Fuck!!"

I would have been in better shape if the car had been stolen. Seriously. Some idiot broke my window, which is going to cost me $265 to get fixed so that they could get away with a 8 year old stereo that originally cost me $100. So, what, they could get $5-$10 from a pawn shop for it? Will that even buy half a crack rock? I'm so livid right now, I can't stop tearing up, which is my go to reaction for strong emotion.

Also, when I called my Dad to tell him about it I dropped the f-bomb at least twice. I doubt he was upset, but I don't curse in front of my parents.

My parents are being kind enough to pay for the repair since I am in my last semester of school and don't exactly have $265 lying around. (Did I mention that my job at school is no more because they decided to close the office earlier this semester?) So, I'm broke, I have a broken window and no stereo in my car. This. sucks.

p.s. Anyone have any suggestions for having a stereo in a crappy car that doesn't shout, "STEAL ME!"

I bought it at Target (of course). It was the only one of that color at the Hampton location, but they had orange and pink. It's Merona and says sm satchel on the tag. Oh, and it's $24.99. Does that help, MP? :)

updated to add: found it on the Target website!

New purse the color of fresh cut grass to remind me that winter doesn't last forever......

I tore out what I had managed to finish on Dan's hat last night.
I was about ready to start reducing to close the hat at the top when I realized that one of the stitches had fallen off one of the needles a couple of rounds ago and I hadn't noticed. Damnit.

I decided to go the "easier" route and buy a circular needle. (two needles connected by a cord or tube) Easier my ASS. I had trouble with it from the start and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.

"Damnit!! You're supposed to be easier! Be easier, you fucking thing!"

Needless to say, that didn't work either.

Then, I found a website that said when I had finished casting-on my stitches, I needed to stretch them out so that they covered the whole thing.

"OOOOh! Ok!"

So I cast-on my stitches again and stretched them out, and....no go. The cord was too long. What the hell?

After cursing the air blue, my cat was staring at me warily and I made a radical decision.

"I'll just cut it!!"

I estimated how much needed to go, cut it off, and after trying to use matches to fuse the two ends together and failing...miserably, I went to the kitchen, turned on the burner, and stuck both ends in the blue flame and smooshed them together(that's the technical term).

"Holy crap, it worked!! I'm a genius!"

bwahahahaha!

I'm working on a new layout, a new header...new, new, new!!!

You may have also noticed the sign-up for email updates in the sidebar. I'm trying this out, and I'm hoping you will help. The way it's supposed to work, if you sign up, I can send everyone an update when I post an entry. I'm not sure if it is something I'll keep, but if you don't read my blog from a reader, this may be good for you. I don't know, Crystal has one, I'm a follower.

Driving east on Watson, I always see this tower rising out of the hill. The building itself, is always shrouded in darkness, but the top of the tower glows like a beacon.

Being the nosy creature that I am, I HAD to know, and last night I decided to investigate. You never know how hilly St. Louis is until you go wandering in and out of residential neighborhoods, trying to keep a glowing tower in sight. My poor car struggled up and down, up and down.

Closer now.....
Ah ha!!!

Kenrick Theological Seminary or Kenrick-Glennon Seminary

I like purses and I like shoes......ok I REALLY like shoes. I would say it's genetic, but my mom is all about comfort with shoes and probably only owns 10 pairs and wears maybe 4 of them. I haven't counted in a while, but I probably own about 40-50 pairs, more if you count flip-flops.
But, today, this is about purses, which I like, and own quite a few of. I don't own any designer purses, and until today, I didn't see the attraction. I was perfectly happy with the Target knock-offs and had never spent more than $30 on a bag. While other women I knew were drooling over bags with a designer label, I was quietly gloating over my good sense and rolling my eyes at the idea of buying anything just for a name, but tonight I saw this......


I couldn't find it on the website, so I took a pic of the ad with my cellphone. It's by Prada, and it's quite possibly the coolest purse I've ever seen. How embarrassing. :)

I still have two laundry bags of folded clothes to hang up....and I ran out of hangers. I remember having more hangers than this, I don't know what happened. This calls for a trip to Target, I still have gift card money left.

Note: Did anyone else watch The Sarah Connor Cronicles sunday and monday? How fun was that? I just adore that Summer Glau girl. (She was on Firefly and in the movie based on the show, Serenity, which I love and have watched a dozen times.)

I went to the laundrymat (laundromat?) to wash all my clothes, because semester end+holiday season+bad cold+lazy+procrastination= lack of socks and underwear and...pretty much anything else. I actually have a washer and dryer in the basement that I own, but the water pressure here sucks so it takes almost as long to wash a load of laundry as it does to dry it. (plus, I'm lazy and it's cold down there and mwah!) So I took all my dirty clothes, sorted them into like colors and such and hauled the whole mess to the laundrymat on South Grand that is open 24/7 and has free wifi. I would have taken advantage of the wifi, but I had a new book to read and all this knitting, so I didn't bring my laptop...another time perhaps.
I have a lot of clothes. Say it with me...I have a lot of clothes. I didn't bring towels or sheets or any of that nonsense, just clothes. But, uh, by the time I finished folding everything and putting it back in the laundry bags, it was a little embarrassing.

I noticed this guy watching me and he was frankly making me a little nervous, but when he finally came over to talk to me.......
Stranger: Are those all yours? (pointing at the MOUNDS of clothing)
Me: Yeah, I know, it's really sad.
Stranger: Wow, and I thought I had a lot.

Look at that! Random strangers are alarmed by how much clothing I own! (And I didn't tell him about the summer stuff I have packed away.) As soon as I get it all hung up, though, I won't need to do laundry again for at least a month, maybe two. That's gotta be worth something.

This is the knitting project I've been working on lately. My friend Dan is in the army and will be deployed to Afghanistan in March. I've been told it's quite cold in the mountains, so I thought I would make him a hat. The color doesn't show up very well here, but it's called "putty" if that helps. It was the manliest color of yarn I could find. But, here's my dilemma....this is the pattern. If you ignore the fact that the model in the picture is a girl, the pattern's not too girly is it? Help me out, here.

Yeah, well it's last minute, and it will be a little difficult I'm sure, but it's not an insurmountable problem or anything.

Well, that's good then......by the way kudos on the use of the long word.

Snort! Um, thanks?

Insurmountable. Hey, any word with "mount" in it is good enough for me.

It's de-lurker day, so if you stop in...you know, say something, even if it's just, "Hi!" If you leave a comment, I promise to visit your blog and either reply via email or comment back on your site. Everybody join in! (ha! peer pressure!)

p.s. This means you, stl visitor who stops by regularly but never says anything!

crap, I just can't shut up today. The badge on the right side of your screen is new. Bossy had this great idea. A crazy idea. A great, crazy idea. She is going to travel around the country, visiting bloggers. I have volunteered my couch and my time as a guide. I figured it was the least I could do for this woman who has clearly lost her mind. (Hee. kidding.) Go to her site, join in the crazy.

iambossy.com

Wouldn't that be lovely? To have a bookshop devoted to travel books? Well, ok, you wouldn't make any money, look at Notting Hill, but still, it would be lovely. I would like it. Anyway. the point? right.

My mom gave me a $50 gift card to Barnes and Noble for Christmas and I spent the whole thing in about 20 minutes. I just love books, the way they feel, the way they smell, the way they take you out of yourself for a while. I don't always like every book I read, of course, but I rarely can't get through the darn thing and I've come to that point in a book I bought with my gift card.

I love travel, and I have a collection of guidebooks of places I've been and places I want to go. In the travel section, I found some books written in kind of "I was here and it was like this, and some funny stuff happened" way, which I thought would be a welcome departure from the guidebooks but also give me my travel book fix. Um, sort of.

The first one, by Tony Hawks(not Tony Hawk, yeah I was a little confused too), is absolutely delightful. I've been reading it at work and a couple of times I had to stop myself from falling out of my chair laughing. It's called Round Ireland with a Fridge and, really, it's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. It's like reading someone's blog about their travels, so fun. Tony makes a drunken bet with his friend to hitchhike the circumference of Ireland with a fridge as a companion. Tony takes the bet and starts out having no idea what his idea would get him into. He quickly becomes an Irish legend and is baffled with the attention he receives from just about everyone as he makes his way across the country. If you have a yen to meander across Ireland, sitting in warm pubs, soaking up the music and culture (like I do), give this book a try and enjoy the ride.

On the other hand, I accidentally grabbed the other book this morning on my way to work and I think it's going to be one of those that I throw across the room in frustration because I just CANNOT like it. I've tried, it's just not happening, which is a shame, really. This should be a lovely little book about travelling to small-town America, but it's not. I bought it because he made me laugh on the first page, which is usually an indicator of greatness, not so for Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent.

I don't know what happened to this man as a child, but 76 pages in, the things that have stuck with me are his disdain for fat people (and almost everyone he meets apparently is fat, or old, or both), for old people, and his completely inaccurate commentary on some things.
He goes on and on about how Carbondale, IL doesn't have a downtown, or anything to offer a traveller but fast food. Um, I didn't grow up in Carbondale, but I have spent some time there. It's a college town, a rather large college town that was famous for it's Halloween riots a few years ago. In 1989, when he travelled through there, it was a college town with an old downtown with bookstores and little cafes you could walk to. I don't know where he was, but it wasn't Carbondale. When I graduated high school, my parents refused to let me even consider attending the university there, but he couldn't find anything going on, in September? Really?

Never mind that everyone he meets is fat and/or stupid, I was ready to throw in the towel when he fondly remembered afternoons at the local downtown movie theater where he would sit on the balcony, dribbling Coke on unsuspecting patrons below him and throwing candy at the movie screen. Now, you don't want to get me started on morons who don't go to the movies to, I don't know, SEE a movie, but then he goes on to complain about movie theaters in malls with tiny auditoriums and minuscule screens. Um, where is he finding these theaters? Because the movie-plexs that I have been to have reclining seats and cup holders and stadium seating so that unless you have the misfortune to sit behind someone REALLY tall, everyone can see the screen.

Seriously, unless there's someone out there who can come up with a reason not to, I'm done with this book.
Gah! End of rant.

I just finished this entry and it was all I could do not to sob. Read about him and get the background here. Then, you can find his blog here. Pass it on, please.

We had a high of 71 degrees today, St. Louis weather is fun!!!! Don't worry it will be back to normal by...um, thursday it looks like. Until then, look!!!
See the pretty line of red? It's a severe thunderstorm!!! With high winds and maybe a tornado!!! Wheeeee!!!!! I can barely contain my excitement. No, really.

• I "rescued" my friend Randy from a bar where he was drunk and needed to spend more money to close out his tab. We were able to knock that out with a drink for me and one more beer for him.


• I drove us to another bar where our friends were waiting. (This was at the beginning of the night, Randy had gotten started without me, and admitted that he hadn't exactly "thought it through".)
  


• After another drink, I was dancing next to the table and trying to convince my friend Sarah into joining me. I can't remember what the song was, but it may have been Sinatra.


• This prompted, not one, but two older men into coming over to talk to me. One was very pleasant and quite drunk but backed off calmly when I politely declined a free drink. The other claimed he came over to "save me" from the first guy. When I walked away to get another drink(the third and last of the night), he apparently told the first man that he was my boyfriend and that I got a little "freaky from time to time". Yeah. These are the wackos I attract. I'm just lucky I guess.


• Illinois has instituted a new smoking law, so you can't smoke inside at all, which meant we spent a lot of the evening on the patio. (not because of me, I don't smoke)


• I left my wallet on the patio table and had to go back out to get it. I pulled one of those the door doesn't open but you keep going and smack right into it with your whole body things. I. am. winner. I don't think anyone saw, but I went back to tell my friends all about it, cuz that's how I roll.


• I stood on the patio and stared in wonder up at a tree in the back.

• The tree had one of those fake faces on the back of it that looked like it wanted to kiss me, but I was too short to reach. Yes, I would have done it, too, even sober.

Me: What are those trees called? the ones with the white bark?

Dan: A birch tree?

Me: Yeah, birch. This is the biggest fucking birch tree I've ever seen. Look at it! It's fucking huge!

Dan: Uh sure?

He turns to Sarah: She's in one of her moods, isn't she? (See, I told you!)

Good times, good times.

I wish. But, Rachel reminded me that the Bloggies are coming up and nominations are being accepted now until January 11th for various categories. Go vote for your favorites and if you are feeling particularly kind, nominate me for best-kept secret blog. I don't expect to win, but being on the list of nominees would be neat and would help me keep my resolutions. Even better, if you are feeling especially generous, vote for Rachel in the same category. (Click on her name and check her out if you won't just take my word that she deserves it.)

I've been thinking about resolutions all day and what I could actually stick to were I to make some, and this is what I came up with......

1. Make more conscious decisions
basically what I mean by this is to stop letting things just happen as they will rather than make the decisions that will effect my future

2. Keep knitting
I have a bad habit of starting a project only to never finish it, I don't want knitting to one of those things. To help, I have been on the lookout for easy stitches to try and people in my life that NEED a scarf, since that's the only shape I can do so far.

3. COMPLETELY clean my apartment and attempt to keep it that way
It would be easier if I had a housekeeper, but I'm poor, so that's never going to happen. But, I told myself if I can keep up something that even resembles clean, I'll get a puppy in the spring.

4. Try to work out my flabby arms
I've lost 30 pounds in the past year and my flabby grandma arms have become even more obvious and I'm sick of looking at them, they have to go. (This is prolly the least likely of all that I will keep, but it does concern me, so I'll try.)

5. Work on my writing
I want to write more (better quality would be nice also). I'm hoping to actually register a domain sometime this year.

That's it, short and sweet. What would YOU like to work on this year?