End of April, already?

Wow, the year 2005 has certainly traveled rather speedily. It's the last day of April already and I haven't gotten my last Secret Pal package in the mail yet. It's going out today, though...

HHGTG the Movie is highly recommended for anyone who is a HitchHiker's fan. It's also recommended for knitters. (Just watch, there's one teeny scene and one huge scene that you'd love). The soundtrack is pretty steenkin' awesome as well, and of course my friend L and I had to stop by Waterloo Records last night to pick up a copy.

So long and thanks for all the fish...

Don't Panic!

So, do you have your towel today? Yup, it is the release date of the long awaited HHGTG movie (and yes, I have my towel). I'm going to go see this with a friend after work today - I love the thought of Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin.

I also want to include an overdue note of THANKS! to Jenanne for the fabulous RAOK of Adagio tea -- I really do love this stuff, and you sent a couple flavors I hadn't tried yet. Yum! :)

...and whatever you do, Don't Panic!

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaad, bad blogger.

Wow, has it really been two whole weeks since I came up with something to say? How unusual. I guess my only real excuse is that it has been crazy busy at work - long hours on top of lots of personal things to do makes not much extra time for blogging. :D

I started a Regia Stretch Color sock, toe-up, two weeks ago - still working on the first sock. Apparently stretch yarn on size 1 needles takes a very long time to knit. Oy.

This past weekend I did get to check out a new yarn shop (new to me) - Yarn Heaven in Arlington. Not a lot of overlap between that one and the ones here in Austin, so that's refreshing. The layout was a little crowded, but that's kind of normal for yarn stores that have been around for a while. :D

I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.

Courtesy of the LWML

Our church LWML (Lutheran Women's Missionary League) holds a Mother-Daughter-Friend banquet annually, and this year's theme was quilting. Many of the ladies in the LWML also quilt, and send quite a few of these off to world missions projects.

At any rate, one of the ladies got up and presented this little prayer, about unfinished objects. I can certainly relate. How about you?

I've been a bit remiss

'Twas mentioned to me the other day that I haven't given enough details on the projects I trotted forth on the fourth. So...here goes. :)

The leaf cap is adapted from a pattern in Too Cute Crochet, done in a day and a half (approx 6 hours of work, I think) in Sugar N' Cream cotton, shades Jute, Dark Brown and Sage - less than one ball of each.

The vest was started around October or so, and would have been finished much faster if I hadn't kept getting sick of it. The pattern comes from Knitting Digest, August 2004 (I think), again modified for my use - I eliminated the brioche stitch it called for because it certainly never would have been visible in this yarn. The yarn is an old Caron acrylic - older than me - and used for this project because my grandmother found it and sent it to me, requesting a vest. By the way, while current acrylics (yes, even Caron and Red Heart) can be fun to work with, really old acrylics set my teeth on edge. If you have an acrylic yarn to work with that you think feels horrible - don't give up on it, but do remeber that it will take at least one good washing with a gentle soap and good fabric softener to wash out the processing chemicals and soften the finished object up. As much as I hated the yarn, I have to say that this vest came out very well.

Thanks to all who sent the comments and emails about the accident - it was an experience I hope to not repeat anytime soon. :)

For those of you in Austin, there is a free recital tonight at Koenig Lane Christian Church. The recital starts at 7:30pm, and I will be performing a piece by Mozart somewhere in there. :D

A small world on a bad day

Yes, it is a small world after all. Unfortunately, I got it on a bummer of a day. Besides having way too many things to do at work, the evil traffic issues rose up to bite me today. Ok, I cannot really blame the traffic -- but I can blame the jerk in the giant van who decided to swerve around the car in front of him at the last second -- the car that I was not aware was there until that moment. Unfortunately I wasn't able to brake in time and rear-ended the fellow. On the plus side, there was no real damage to either car and neither of us was injured. Shook me up quite a bit, though.

Where does the "small world" part fit in? Turns out the gentleman I hit is the fiancee of a woman I've met through the yarn shop. He was very nice and seemed to take the incident philosophically - hopefully that will be the end of it. I felt so bad for it, though, and I still want to call and apologize all over. Oy. At least my hands have stopped shaking.

My Favorite Things

1. My MP3 player (a new Dell DJ, with pink case)
2. Dragostea Din Tei (fabulous in Romanian and English).
3. Adagio Tea

Now all I need is a vacation to sit and knit with the aforementioned items...

Oy, a meme

As if one blog post a night wasn't enough, I spotted a meme that was right up my alley. Found it at Poetic Purl: "Movie Madness.

Bold the ones you've seen , italicize the ones you've seen parts of, underline the ones you own, and add three.

01. Trainspotting
02. Shrek
03. M
04. Dogma
05. Strictly Ballroom
06. The Princess Bride
07. Love Actually
08. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings
09. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11. Reservoir Dogs
12. Desperado
13. Swordfish
14. Kill Bill Vol. 1
15. Donnie Darko
16. Spirited Away
17. Better Than Sex
18. Sleepy Hollow
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
20. The Eye
21. Requiem for a Dream
22. Dawn of the Dead
23. The Pillow Book
24. The Italian Job
25. The Goonies
26. Baseketball
27. The Spice Girls Movie
28. Army of Darkness
29. The Color Purple
30. The Safety of Objects
30. Can't Hardly Wait
32. Mystic Pizza
33. Finding Nemo
34. Monsters Inc.
35. Circle of Friends
36. Mary Poppins
37. The Bourne Identity
38. Forrest Gump
39. A Clockwork Orange
40. Kindergarten Cop
41. On The Line
42. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
43. Final Destination
44. Sorority Boys
45. Urban Legend
46. Cheaper by the Dozen
47. Fierce Creatures
48. Dude, Where?s My Car
49. Ladyhawke
50. Ghostbusters
51. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
52. Back to the Future
53. An Affair To Remember
54. Somewhere In Time
55. North By Northwest
56. Moulin Rouge
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
58. The Wizard of Oz
59. Zoolander
60. A Walk to Remember
61. Chicago
62. Vanilla Sky
63. The Sweetest Thing
64. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
65. The Nightmare Before Christmas
66. Chasing Amy
67. Edward Scissorhands
68. Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert
69. Muriel’s Wedding
70. Croupier
71. Blade Runner
72. Cruel Intentions
73. Ocean’s Eleven
74. Magnolia
75. Fight Club
76. Beauty and The Beast
77. Much Ado About Nothing
78. Dirty Dancing
79. Gladiator
80. Ever After
81. Braveheart
82. What Lies Beneath
83. Regarding Henry
84. The Dark Crystal
85. Star Wars
86. The Birds
87. Beaches
88. Cujo
89. Maid In Manhattan
90. Labyrinth
91. Thoroughly Modern Millie
92. His Girl Friday
93. Being John Malkovich
94. Run Lola Run
95. The Color of Paradise
96. Ghost in the Shell
97. Tron
98. Tomb Raider
99. Almost Famous
100. Alice in Wonderland
101. Dr. Strangelove
102. Kairo
103. Stir of Echoes
104. Lilo & Stitch
105. Brazil
106. Heathers
107. Talk to Her
108. Memento
109. Young Frankenstein
110. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
111. Mulholland drive
112. Dogville
113. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
114. Lost in Translation
115. Some like it Hot
116. Punch-Drunk Love
117. Gohatto
118. Full Metal Jacket
119. Death on the Nile
117. Practical Magic
118. Amelie
119. Butterfly Effect
120. Cast Away
121. Tangled
122. Frequency
123. The Others
124. American Beauty
125. The Last Samurai
126. Ghost World
127. Taxi Driver
128. The Royal Tenenbaums
129. Cube
130. Nosferatu
131. Nuovo cinema Paradiso
132. Koroshiya Ichi
133. The Thing (John Carpenter)
134. J?bei Ninp?ch? (a.k.a. Ninja Scroll)
135. The Kingdom (all parts)
136. Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo
137. Secretary
138. Hellraiser
139. Avalon
140. Heat
141. Out of Africa
142. True Romance
143. Goodbye Lenin
144. Vengo
145. Pulp Fiction
146. Crazy/Beautiful
147. Grease
148. Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
149. Four Rooms
150. Festen 1
51. Tillsammans/Together
152. Central Do Brasil
153. Closer
154. Rounders
155. Sliding Doors
156. Stand by Me
157. The Shawshank Redemption
158. The Green Mile
159. Velvet Goldmine
160. Dracula 2000
161. King Arthur
162. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
163. Top Secret!
164. The Virgin Suicides
165. Camelot
166. The Emperor’s Wife
167. Gormenghast
168. Singin’ in the Rain
169. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
170. Team America: World Police
171. 42nd Street
172. Crossing Delancy
173. 50 First Dates
174. Iris
175. Ella Enchanted
176. Garden State
177. Titanic
178. The Bumblebee Flies Anyway
79. Billy Elliot
180. Meet the Feebles
181. Passion of the Christ
182. Brassed Off!
183. When Harry met Sally
184. Before Sunrise
185. Dead Poets Society
186. The Black Stallion
187. Lord of the Flies
188. Sense & Sensibility
189. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
190. The Talented Mr. Ripley
191. The Indian Runner
192. The Faculty
193. Interview With The Vampire
194. Formula 17
195. Frida
196. Grave of the Firefiles
197. Big Fish
198. The American President
199. What About Bob?
200. Crimson Tide
201. Pieces of April
202. Resident Evil
203. Walking and Talking
204. The Notebook
205. Amadeus
206. Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion
207. Batteries Not Included
208. The Emperor’s New Groove
209. Adventure’s In Babysitting
210. Better Off Dead
211. Legally Blonde
212. Shrek 2
213. Seven
214. Bound
215. Blue
216. Tea With Mussolini
217. Gross Anatomy
218. Willow

So I think it can be safely said that I am a videophile... Most of the ones that I've only seen part of are simply because I caught part on cable TV and haven't gotten back to watching the whole thing yet, although there were a few I just couldn't finish (movies like Dumb and Dumber come to mind). How about you?

Look, Ma, I found Nemo!

Okay, so it isn't the really REAL Nemo, but we went to the San Antonio Zoo this past weekend, and this is a little guy I spotted. There are several interactive exhibits there now, including a bird house where you get to go in and play with the parrots and like birdies. They are very friendly, too...

I also got some crocheting done. I finished most of a hat, and put the finishing touches on it tonight.


Look what I can do!

...and amazingly enough, I also finished a WIP that's been hanging around since October.


Click me to see what I am attached to!

Now I can get back to working on my Bamboo Ballerina, and perhaps start another pair of socks. I still have a little finishing to do on a couple other projects as well, and the WIP pile is still banished to the hinterlands. :D