Month: February 2010 (page 1 of 6)

Baby Boom

Huge congratulations to Major (aka Nathan) and Steph AND Kenya (aka Nick) and Sally on the arrival of their firstborns this week! I will have plenty of babies to knit for this winter…

Photoshop Rain Tutorial

Photoshop Rain Tutorial. In case you need to, you know, make a sockmonkey werewolf look like he’s in a downpour.

Phone

The Snook hates talking on the phone

web-goddess Oscar Contest 2010

Oscar Contest 2010Oscar Contest 2010… is open!
The Eighth Annual web-goddess Oscar Contest has finally begun. I’ve added a thirteenth category this year – Best Original Score – to lessen the odds of a tie. As usual, the number of dead people in the obituary montage will be the tiebreaker. And what do you get if you win? Why, it’s a Sparkly Emo Vampire Sockmonkey Playset! (And don’t worry, Twilight-haters. I’ve catered for you too.)

You can go here to make your entry. You can see all the current entries here. The contest will end the minute the ceremony begins! Read on for more photos and details of the prize!

Once upon a time, a girl named Bella fell in love with a very sparkly emo vampire named Edward. He gave her piggy-back rides in the trees.

Oscar Contest 2010 - Bella and Edward

But her long-haired Native American friend Jacob didn’t approve and warned her away.

Oscar Contest 2010 - Bella and Jacob

Bella didn’t care. She and Edward frolicked in a meadow and he sparkled.

Oscar Contest 2010 - In the Meadow

Jacob cut his hair and took to wearing cutoffs and hanging out in the woods in the rain.

Oscar Contest 2010 - Jacob

But what’s this? It’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer! With a flash, she whips out Mr. Pointy and reduces Emo Edward to dust.

Oscar Contest 2010 - Buffy stakes Edward

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. If you win this year’s Oscar Contest, all this melodrama could be yours. You get three different sock monkeys: Edward, Bella/Buffy, and Jacob.

Oscar Contest 2010 - EdwardEdward comes with foofy auburn hair, amber eyes, embroidered six-pack, and a black peacoat. Oh, and he sparkles in the sun.

Oscar Contest 2010 - BellaBella has long brown hair, a grey coat, and a treasured copy of “Wuthering Heights” (with hand-embroidered cover). She’s also very clumsy and lacks any sort of personality. (Just like the books!)

Oscar Contest 2010 - Jacob (Younger)Jacob (in his younger incarnation) has long brown hair, an embroidered six-pack, and a pair of denim cut-offs. He’s friendly and nice and has no idea he has a latent werewolf gene.

Oscar Contest 2010 - Jacob (Older)Later, Jacob gets ripped, cuts his hair, finds out he’s a werewolf, and kinda turns into a jerk. See? You can tell he’s scowling. Poor kid has no idea Renesmee is in his future.

Oscar Contest 2010 - BuffyWith a quick change of wig and the addition of a crucifix, Bella becomes Buffy! Buffy has long blonde hair and a wooden stake. She’s also quick with a pun and has very little patience with mopey emo vampires.

The four wigs (Bella’s long, Buffy’s long, Jacob’s long, and Jacob’s short) all have a strip of Velcro on the underside that corresponds to a strip on the appropriate monkey’s head. You can mix and match to your heart’s content!

Oscar Contest 2010 - Wigs

So whether you’re a Twi-hard or a Twi-hater, there’s something for everyone in the Sparkly Emo Vampire Playset! Don’t forget to enter the Oscar Contest for your chance to win…

RunningBlog: Week 8

Week 8
So when I last updated, I’d just found out that I do not have plantar fasciitis and that my doctor cleared me to run. Of course, I still had a raging cold. Well, the Snook and I went off to Kiama and did a 4.2km hike through the rain forest. It was a pretty good workout, and my foot felt fine through it. This week I’ve walked home from work twice, and on Tuesday I felt good enough to go for my first run in nearly two weeks. I wore my New Balance shoes instead of my Newtons, reckoning that my feet would welcome the extra padding. It was a warm day and I’m not at 100%, so I went slow. I aimed for more of a mid-foot strike, as I suspect in my Newtons I’m landing a bit too far forward. It felt fine at first, but after 20 minutes the niggle in my foot came back. It’s not really pain. It’s like a sort of a tender ache. My right arch felt like I’d just spent 12 hours walking around at DisneyWorld. You know that feeling? Not a sharp pain by any means, but a tightness and tenderness along the whole arch from the ball of my foot to the start of my heel. I still finished the run, taking a few walk breaks when necessary to keep my heart rate low. That night I went through the whole spiel my doctor had prescribed: self-massage, stretch, strengthen, and ice. I went to Spudds on Wednesday and it didn’t bother me at all. So the problem is specifically related to longer periods (20 minutes or more) of continuous running. Good to know. From now on, I’ll be taking preemptive walk breaks on all my runs.

Feb. 20: 4.2km (hike)
Feb. 22: 2.54km (walk)
Feb. 23: 5.06km
Feb. 24: 2.53km (walk)
Total this week: 14.3km
Total in 2010: 151.5km (94.7mi)

I’m counting the walks and hike this week because it was the only exercise that I could do. I am now 2.3km behind schedule to meet my 1000km goal. That’s okay. I’m just about over this cold, and I think my running distances will creep back up.

Oscar Contest

I know the 2010 Web-Goddess Oscar Contest is late, but it will start this weekend, I swear. And that will give you a week to make your picks. On the plus side, I’m hoping that by leaving it so late, my regular readers will stand more of a chance of winning! DeskCam holds one final teaser for this year’s prize…

Driving

Women drive like this, and men drive like this!
Do women take the backseat to men? I actually reflected to the Snook on the weekend how much I appreciate the fact that I get to do all the driving in the relationship. Which is kind of a weird observation in and of itself, because he’s not really giving up any task he wanted to do anyway. From my perspective, I’m thinking about particular women I knew back in Indiana who never drove and wouldn’t even pump their own gas. From the Snook’s perspective, he just really hates to drive and I’ve got a lot more experience with it. So we both get what we want, really.

Angela and Jordan

Angela and Jordan, 15 years on. AWFUL. AWFUL. But Brian Krakow? Super cute! And he’s on Twitter. (Link courtesy of Sore Eyes.)

Cat and Girl

“No wonder everyone switched to knitting.” Indeed.

Selleck Waterfall Sandwich

Selleck Waterfall Sandwich – a tumblr devoted to pictures of Tom Selleck with waterfalls and a sandwich. I am in love. (Link courtesy of Max‘s Facebook, where he indicates his SO WRONG preference for Bea Arthur Mountains Pizza.)

I just have to say that I LOVE random tumblr sites the way I used to love lolcats when they were fresh and new. THAT MUCH.