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Quote of the day (heck, of the year):
“The U.N. is cool. I got a brief tour of it yesterday and somehow managed to restrain myself from running into the Security Council meeting room and representing Angola. ” — Em, Everybody Loves Saturday Night

I’m a-gonna work on the Dude Sweater (as Silvia has dubbed it) tonight and hopefully finish it the hell up. I’ve got too many things on the needles right now, and it kind of stresses me out. I’m not a multiple-item knitter. I like one big project in the works, and socks somewhere in a basket for train knitting. But right now I have the ChicKami waiting only for straps, the Dude Sweater waiting for a bottom that doesn’t flare (aren’t we all?) and a collar, the Cromarty waiting for custom-dyed yarn from Canada, and I REALLY want to cast on for a Debbie Bliss cabled cardie from her Cotton for All Seasons book.

Last night I put the big projects aside and swatched with the cashmere from the cone I bought from School Products. I was convinced that if I worked hard enough, I could get gauge for the cardie. Nope. Couldn’t even get it on ones, and let me tell you, I tried. I did the math to see if I could make the smallest size to make up for it, and no. I can’t. Blast it all. I’m getting four stitches per inch on ones, and the yarn would honestly be more comfortable at about 3/in. Why didn’t I notice it was on the bulky side? Sigh. I want to make something incredible with that stuff, and I’m disappointed. Anyone know a good bulky weight cabled jacket/cardie? Bring it on!

Ah, well. So I’ll finish Dude. I was going to pick up the collar and just do a (k1 p1) for six or seven rows and then cast off, but do you have a better idea? I’m feeling uncreative and I realize that someday I need to invest in the Vogue knitting bible so I have it to run to when I’m this uninspired.

I just finished my writing for the day. I’m sitting outside right now, on my porch swing. I love my backyard, have I told you that recently? It’s still nothing very special, and I have several pots of dead flowers that for some reason I just keep watering, but there’s a fuschia at my right hand that is so pink and purple that it makes my heart feel good. And my tomatoes are growing (and wondering what they’re doing, it’s just not that sunny back here). And my the wind flirts with the ivy behind me and the swing is hung low so my short little legs can keep it moving, and I’m just happy writing out here. I’m doing well with the writing on my work days. It’s easy for me to be regimented on work days: I have so many minutes to write, so many to run, so many to eat, so many to shower, and back to work. Easy. But my weekend days…. I’d still like to figure out how I can fit a little writing in on those days. Maybe I have to do it the same way: Do it first thing, as soon as the eyes open, before the protestations can occur and the distractions arise. It’s also not as important to me to work on my weekends. I do, after all, need a weekend. But I have three days off a week, not two, and I could definitely do with a little work on at least one of ‘em.

Babbling, aren’t I? Don’t let me get started on the date I don’t want to go to on Saturday….. Ideas for the collar? Please?

(Bethany’s in Maine, the top edges of her trip….)

***update — Friday morning. Dude is complete and gifted. Pics tomorrow. Sleep now. Mwah!

Knitted breasts, and their “essential” tension made me laugh in this, the 14th hour of my shift.

The Guy Sweater has gone from boring me to mocking me. I finished the bottom of it yesterday, theoretically leaving me only the collar and weaving in of ends to finish. I had thirty seconds after the final bind-off before I had to go to work, so I threw it over my work shirt.

Damn. It’s hyoooge. Way too long. Must remeasure. And my bind-off went floopy for some reason, giving it a little kicky flare at the bottom. Unfortunately, my friend is not the type to appreciate flare. Not around his hips, anyway. So I have to rip and I hate that, ‘cause I’m just so ready to be done with this one. For MaryB, who insisted, a photo:

Fascinating, isn’t it?

This is only slightly better, since I didn’t have good light this morning, and didn’t feel like standing up to turn one on, but this is the ChicKami I’m about to finish. I swear I know this pattern by heart now, and it’s just so much fun to throw in lil details, like this lace insert.

I must run. Actually, I mean it. Just woke up from a poor sleep, filled with bad dreams and kitty whines, and I’m going to fit in a run (and honestly, a little swatching of cashmere for the next project) before I shower and go right back to work. I’m working from 5pm to 7am tonight. The mind reels. Go kiss Greta.

with the sweater I’m making for my guy friend (bartered for couch and wall painting help) that I’m eternally grateful for TV. Dude, 3X1 ribbing. The whole thing. Feel my pain, wouldja? But it is, like, the coziest big ole sweater I’ve ever made, and if he hates it, I’ll keep it. I kind of hope he hates it.

Okay, can we talk Colonial House? I had to take a break to write this. This is for several reasons. One, if I write now, I can sleep in tomorrow without feeling guilty for having not really blogged much for DAYS (sorry ’bout that). Two, I can’t stand to watch what’s going to happen on this sixth episode. Had to pause it. I was at once sad and happy to see the governor go back to Waco and the present day. He and his whole family seem like beautiful, wonderful people that I would be glad to call friends. Only thing is, the governor wouldn’t call me a friend. He’d call me a homosexual sinner, and I’m bummed that he never got called on his homophobia – that he never had to confront Jonathon and that they never got a real chance to talk. I also can’t stand what’shisname the New Governor, and I like his wife even less. Erp. The revolution is coming. I can feel it.

Also — I really liked when Don Wood said that if they didn’t straighten up, they’d be known as the F-ckin’ Lame Colony. Heh. The humor of this particular show comes directly from their lameness.

Enough TV talk. I never used to talk TV. I didn’t even have cable for most of my life. Cable is relatively recent in my life. TiVo is still brand new. And hear me now, I won’t go back. You can’t make me. No pillar of salt, me. Won’t even look back to say goodbye to my cable-less self….

I went running today! It was the first time this week, and I ran three times last week. I hate to admit it, most of all to my non-athletic-and-proud-of-it self, but I’m still liking it. A lot. I actually like the running part more than the walking-because-I’m-gonna-die part. The running hurts less somehow. I also HAVE to call it running, even though what I’m doing is more like a jog. A really slow jog. Even a semi-quick walk. I have short legs. What am I going to do? I canNOT say that I’m jogging. That’s just dumb.

Oh, and I’ll leave you with the best picture EVER. The little mama (wearing the Mindless Raglan) and blissed out sleeping Adah:

My sister Christy graduated about twenty-six years ago.

Today, she graduated again, receiving her Master of City Planning diploma from Berkeley.

Isn’t she bee-yoo-tee-ful? I’m the proudest sister in the whole wide world. She had a small ceremony yesterday within her department, and today was the large one, where she wore her robes. What IS it about that hood that’s so wonderful, that has so much power? I loved seeing her in it.

And you must have the obligatory LittleMamaInHat picture:

Christy, you ROCK! I’m so proud that you’re my sister, and my friend. I love you.

I went to bed late last night (well, as late as a girl who works midnights can say is late) and didn’t fall into real sleep until about 5am, when Adah decided she wanted to eat. That’s a little early for us, so I usually put her out in the living room until about 6 or 7, when I’ll get up and feed them and then go back to bed. This morning (oh, the guilt), I didn’t wake up to their crying. I always wake up to their crying. Usually the slightest whimper of hunger wakes me and then I can’t get back to sleep.

Today they cried until 10:45, when I finally woke up, looked at the clock, and said Shit. Because, you see, there’s only one litterbox in the house, and it’s the depths of my closet. In my bedroom. To which they had no access.

Not sure which one it was, but s/he had pooped very neatly into the sissal Ikea two-dollar rug and then rolled it up. Not kidding. Wasn’t that sweet? But still. The looks on their faces! Betrayal! Shock! Disgust at having to live like cats in the wild.

I’m a Very Bad Cat Mom today. Digit and I were had been in retroactive-mother’s-day-present negotiations, but today the talk has been tabled until further notice.

And by popular demand! Mariko’s running tips! Whoo-hoo! (Besides the knitted jogbra, the last line is my fave.

Well, I think it’s great you are going to start running. I’m sure you will get loads of unsolicited advice, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon! Here are a few suggestions so easing into running will be fun and painless (the most important thing):

– Get yourself a good pair of running shoes. Transports, which is just up on College Avenue, is a good place, and they will fit you with the appropriate shoe for your foot type (that is VERY important. Don’t let me catch you going to Big 5 or the 24-hour Long’s for your shoes!!!!). A pair will cost you probably $80-100 but will be well worth it.

– If possible, run on soft surfaces such as DIRT. Dirt is your friend, and concrete is not. Do not run on sidewalks unless you absolutely have to. They are murder on your joints. When I first started running, which was when I lived in Berkeley (sigh), I ran around the little dirt track at that park on Cedar Street. It was perfect for me because I didn’t have to think that hard (since I was just going around in circles), and I could keep track of my progress very easily. Sometimes having to find a route is psychologically more brutal than just going to a track. So, to start, that might be an option for you. Also, I initially ran with a walkman because I hated running, and I needed a distraction. After a couple of weeks, though, I decided to go cold turkey. I figured that if I was going to become a runner, I needed to learn how to run without music (plus it’s really dangerous).

– Pepper spray, if alone.

– Don’t start worrying about the marathon yet. First you need to get into routine running and build up a baseline. The marathon is far away, and you have a ways to go before you get there.

– Please don’t knit yourself a jogbra. I don’t think it will be very effective (you are, after all, a loose knitter).

– Don’t worry about speed. Maybe find yourself a nice little path or track on a soft surface and begin by running 1/2 mile (that’s what’s nice about a track), walk 1/2 mile, run 1/2 mile, walk 1/2 mile. Maybe for your first week or two just work on ONE MILE, then slowly build your way up. Pay attention to what your body tells you, obviously.

– When you start building up to higher mileage, explore! My favorite runs in the East Bay were the Strawberry Canyon route by the Berkeley campus, and the Inspiration Point area at Tilden Park. Gorgeous.

– If you like social running, join a running group or start one. I have several friends in Berkeley/Oakland whom I am trying to coerce into joining me for some part of the Chronicle Marathon, and they would love to run with you. They are kind, funny, generous souls, and they would adore you. They are also trying to get into shape right now, so it’s not like they are going to run you into the ground and leave you for dead.