Archives for August 2003

I need confirmation from my beloved Grammar Avengers. Now that I’m done with grad work, I’m more of a Grammar Aficionado. I know the rules, and I’m annoyed when others break them. But I also know that in my own haphazard writing I break the rules or simply don’t notice that in haste I’ve used the wrong form of a word. Ugh. What was once unbearable is now almost acceptable. Laziness? Age? (At thirty-one, I can now say I’m in my mid-thirties. You think?)

But help me, please. I may be wrong.

In referring to grades received, it would be incorrect to say “I received all A’s.” Right? Shouldn’t it be “As,” without the apostrophe? Like “CDs for sale,” or “I’m in my mid 30s.”

In the new Harry Potter (god bless, I finished, what a ride), there are multiple references to Harry receiving D’s.

Am I mad? Am I flat-out wrong? Someone back me up. Every time I hit another sentence that had “D’s” in it, I had wild one-sided conversations with myself – no, her editors wouldn’t have let that happen, there must some kind of exception when it comes to letter grades, no, I know I’m right, it’s three in the morning, I could be wrong.

Grammar aside, I’ve started a new little sumpin-sumpin. Apparently addicted now to tanking, I’ve decided to cable another tank up. I’m going to make the bottom third in this simple cable pattern, with the top half remaining firmly ChicKami-esque, since I lurve that pattern. We’ll see.

And I leave you with a snap of Digit. He’s outside the window, in the barren window box (I planted a lettuce-seed sampler there, and got nothing but ugly looking spouts), crying for me to notice him. How could I not notice that face?

It’s done! Made with Baby Bernat in cotton, using Bonnie Marie’s awesome pattern. It has a few mocha coffee spots on the front, and I’m a little alarmed at how the stripes in the bust kind of striped out into wide swathes of solid color, but it’s cozy and soft. I used the fabulous wide strap version, but I raised the neck in the back.

Okay, weird pose. I was in a hurry to go to work.

See the mocha stain?

Raised neck.
Oooh la!

With his permission, I submit to you the front of a co-worker’s vacation postcard.

This is what it said on the back.

I’ll make it legible:

Greetings from Ireland. I must confess I ran into a bit of bad luck. Today, our first day in Ireland, I went jogging and got bit by a dog! Then Katie and I were passengers of a very violent auto collision. Our car was totaled. Katie’s neck and face were hurt. I hurt my back and broke several ribs. Feel very sore but we lived. I feel like hell. Will try to enjoy the rest of our trip.

(Update – Katie’s fine now, Bob’s kidneys and ribs are healing nicely.) I KNOW it’s terrible, but reading it makes laugh hysterically. I’m a very bad person. Luckily Bob has a good sense of humor. It’s the Very Worst Postcard Ever!

Baby-yarn ChicKami almost done. Pics this weekend. Working mad hours tonight and tomorrow and then I should get a weekend (albeit a shortened one). Fighting the cold with all my Vitamined C might.

OMG, now it’s official. Califonia is CRAZY. Gary Coleman’s in the race. See this fabulously funny East Bay Express article on the governor-race-as-art-installation.

Also: This is great. New gifts to make for Christmas.

Just because I CAN put up pictures, whenever I want! I just wanted to see his face again. Digit doesn’t repose easily, or gracefully, so when he does accidentally fall asleep on the bed next to me (so undignified!), I like to capture the moment.

Crap. Now I’m getting the cold that I felt trying to get me last week. I don’t feel sick yet, don’t feel anything but a mild ache under my skin and a thickening of my throat. That tap-tap-I’m-gonna-getcha feeling. Oh, hell, no. I’m not going without a kicking, screaming fight. Unfortunately, I’m working sixty hours this week, and I’m only half-way through. Damn.

BUT – I’m getting a lot of knitting done. Working on a modified ChicKami in that baby yarn I was using for the sweaters. Of course, I was at work last night, a brand new gorgeous big-as-they-come (but don’t admit Venti) mocha at my elbow. I turned to say something witty and sparkling to my co-workers and knocked the whole damn thing over. It flew, top cracking off while still in the air, a hard rain of mocha dropping through the room. Do you know how much coffee is in a Venti? The whole amount covered three computers, a fax machine, dripped into three drawers and drained under three floor rugs. I was devastated.

But I gotta tell ya. That Bernat baby yarn – that stuff is meant to be washed. It was the easiest mocha clean-up I had in the whole room. I had to scrub the keyboards, but I merely swiped at the yarn with a sponge and it lifted off. Hear this, young mothers. Or mothers of the young, whatever.

I was so tired driving home I forgot how to drive. Really. I made a right turn near my home and realized AFTER I had turned that I had forgotten to look left.

I will drink more coffee tonight. I won’t knock it over.

I still had energy when I got home, however, to play with Adah (note her Wendy mousies):

She’s not possessed by the devil, I swear. (Wait – that could explain a lot…..)

Hi there! Welcome!

This is my new glass house. It’s a little early to let you in, I don’t have everything unpacked, and I haven’t even figured out how the ice-maker in the fridge works (and I might not ever work that out), but the some of the pictures are hung, and I really wanted you to have my new address.

Will you bookmark me, please? And if, by some miracle of fortune, you have me listed somewhere on your site, will you update that link? I’ve been having so much fun, and I’ve found so many new fabulous friends, and I don’t wanna lose you. It’s a little frightening to me – next week would have been exactly one year at my old site, and it’s oddly painful to leave it behind…. the blogging first steps…..

BUT – I just love this new place because I have commenting! And trackback! I can’t get over it. Someone leave me a comment, please! Also still have the tagboard, although I can’t seem to work out the pixel size of the comment box, aargh. And I haven’t worked out all the coding for the rings I’m part of.

(Pulling on my cardie and putting on soft shoes), I’m so glad you’re here! It’s so nice to see you! [sung offkey] It’s a good feeling, a very good feeling, the feeling we know that we’re…. [wait for it] ….friends.

OH! – and the reason I love this new place so much is I can throw in a pic or two right with the text, whenever I want! (I know y’all have had this ability forever, but it’s very exciting to me!) So here’s one for you:

The blanket behind shedding Adah was knitted by my New Zealand grandmother for me more than thirty years ago….