I just spent, like, an hour and a half reading this recounting of the Azaria Chamberlain case. It’s fascinating stuff, especially to an American whose only previous knowledge of the case was based on Elaine Benes sneering “Maybe the dingo ate your baby!” According to the Snook, up until very recently most Australians still felt that Lindy was actually guilty. It’s just mind-boggling.
Month: December 2004 (page 4 of 5)
Apologies for not blogging much lately (and not putting up our trip photos), but I’m absolutely knackered. I came back from holiday and jumped right into a Hell Week at work. We have officially moved Tapestry Craft to its new location at 50 York Street. It’s only about ten doors down the road, but sheesh, do you know how many products we have? Like 30,000. Oh, and we already sent out cards telling all the customers we were opening this Saturday. The move itself would have been difficult enough without the additional problems of the new shop not being, you know, completed. I felt like ass from my cold but it really was an “all hands on deck” situation, so I worked pretty much ’round the clock. Friday night was a haze of painting, cleaning, carrying, and stacking. I staggered home at 3:30 am for a couple hours sleep before our opening at 9. It was, to put it mildly, a disaster. The stairs between the two floors weren’t even done, which meant that customers who wanted to visit the knitting section had to walk all the way around the block to the back door. The computers weren’t set up (which meant we couldn’t look up any prices) and the cash drawers weren’t connected (which meant we were making change for customers out of our pockets). We also seriously underestimated how many rubberneckers would show up on the first day so we were pretty busy the whole time. At least it made the hours fly by. I couldn’t even go to sleep when I got home; I’d already agreed to go to a friend’s for dinner. By the time I hit the sack last night, I was practically a zombie.
So yeah, that’s why I haven’t been posting. I’ll be recovered soon.
I hope you’re seeing lots of movies over the holiday season… because the Third Annual Web-Goddess Oscar Contest will be starting up very soon! (Awards night is February 27, 2005.) Want to hear a secret about the prize this year? I don’t think it’s going to be a monkey. Christopher e-mailed me a while ago with his idea for a “Soctopus,” a brilliant idea whose time, I feel, has finally come. Stay tuned!
A solstice a long time coming…
I am so happy to report that my Jo Sharp “Solstice” sweater is finally finished, nearly two years after I started the damn thing! I ran into difficulty in September (2003) when I started sewing it up and realized that I’d made a complete cock-up of the drop sleeves. I’d cast them off too tightly, which meant that the armhole was rather tight and not nicely drapey like it should be. Unfortunately I only realized that after I’d sewn the sleeves on and woven about 50,000 ends into the seam. Frustrated and annoyed, I packed it in a bag and set it aside to work on happier projects. It languished for over a year. Periodically I’d take it out and pick at the seam, then sigh and put it away. I just couldn’t deal with it, you know? Then last month I had a flash of inspiration: Why not pay somebody to fix it for me? So I took it in to work and gave it to Ann, the lady who runs our knitting clinic. She worked on it all through our holiday and had it ready for me when I got back today. She not only fixed the sleeves (and added a bit more needed length), but she also seamed the sides, knitted the collar, and wove in the remaining 100,000 ends! Of course, as part of the deal I had to put up with a fair bit of griping and criticism from her about my crappy finishing techniques, but hey, I was a beginning knitter, all right? And she did compliment me on my even knitting, which was nice. (Apparently my final measurement was only two centimeters off the 130 specificed in the pattern.) At any rate, it’s finally finished and I can wear it… in about six months when this damn summer heat wave ends. *sigh* But aren’t the colors great? I wanted something big and crazy bold to wear with jeans in winter, and I think this will fit the bill nicely.
Okay, seriously, Notre Dame’s Alumni Association are scaring the crap out of me. They’re like the Catholic Mafia or something. First incident: earlier this week I received the annual ND “Christmas-card-and-donation-plea” but was surprised to see it addressed to both myself and the Snook. How in the hell did they know we got married? I didn’t tell them. That’s spooky. And then today I got an e-mail asking me to fill out an alumni survey… addressed to my Gmail address. I’ve never given them my Gmail address. How do they know this stuff? How is it that members of my own family don’t even know my address over here but Notre Dame has me under total surveillance? Am I the only one?
I got an e-mail this morning notifying me that the new Knitty is up, but before I could even settle down into it Andrew forwarded me a link to this pattern. Heh. (Based on the URL, I thought it was going to be a wombat.) Maybe I’ll knit him and Kathleen one for a wedding present? 🙂
Later: Okay, now that I’ve had a read, there are a couple other patterns that caught my eye. This hat is adorable and I love the little skiers. This cuff may tempt me into trying bead knitting. I’m always up for more socks. And I know the Snook would love a tux penguin! But my absolute favorite is Belle Epoque. *swoon* Sooo Elizabeth Bennet.
Place the State. How well do you know your US geography? My score: 96%, 8 miles, 319 seconds. (I really only messed up one or two at the beginning and then the rest were all perfect.)
Turn your Mac into a typewriter. Well, not really. But that nifty bit of shareware makes typewriter noises whenever you push a key, including a nice clunky carriage return when you hit “enter.” It scared the crap out of the Snook and made me giggle like crazy, which is pretty much a glowing recommendation. 🙂
The comment spam is really, really pissing me off. I’m happy in that I’ve succeeded in keeping it from showing up on the site, but I still growl every time I log in and find I’ve got 400 pending spam comments to delete. I’ve just coded in my latest grenade in this escalating war: a limit on the number of links per comment. Let me know if any of you legitimate users bump into it. (I don’t think you will.) Is there some way I could show this crap to Google and just, you know, have them remove comment spammers’ links from their index? Because that would rule.
Whoa! Somebody on MetaFilter is reporting that a friend got busted by US Customs after a bar of Lush soap tested positive for THC. She was threatened with jail time and received a $500 fine. And there I was three months ago, blissfully unaware as I marched through airports across the US carting about twenty pounds of Lush products home for the fam!