Battle Cry

OK, I know, I'm blog fail. But I've been thinking about this post for awhile, since fall started. One day, walking home from getting coffee or lunch or something, a page from a book hit me in the face. No, seriously. It blew up from the sidewalk and literally hit me in the face.

Here's what I read:

"'I sometimes wonder, Danny, if we all aren't a bunch of wild, crazy animals. I guess we all wonder that. But we've got to try to go on living and loving and hating and feeling and touching and smelling whether there's a war, or not.'
'Professor.'
'Yes.'
'Would you lend me your ID card?'
'Why'
'I want to get crocked.'
Norton put out his cigarette and shrugged. 'Is it going to make it easier by going out and getting drunk?'
'Ive got to do something or I'll blow by stack. Don't give me a lecture.'

And it goes on from there, for a brief time. He talks about drinking and bartenders and giving or selling good advice. He mentions Frank Sinatra singing in the background (odd, that, with me walking around in Hoboken - or maybe that's the point). He talks about Danny having a girl be in love with him and should he let her wait for him, and how poeple grow old fast in wars. And then I got to the end of the page.

Hmm. So, I've been pondering what Mr. Uris was talking about. I only had one page of the book (Battle Cry). Also, I've been wondering why that one page hit me in the face. Any theories, please do share. Just an interesting thing that happened to me recently.

Oh, and I knit a few things, too. Will post pics once I take them off the camera.

My kit arrived!!

My kit from the supremely excellent Perenelle arrived yesterday. Took a few wobbly phone pics today to share.

Check out the awesome handpainted Phillies bag she made me! What a great project bag and a great way to show my love for the fightin' Phils!

The pattern she sent along is great, too: A Noble Cowl (rav link). Looks fun!

Inside the purple tissue was two skeins of Mission Falls Merino Superwash in an excellent navy blue/purpley color. Inside the red tissue she also sent a great little notebook, a small tins with some very useful knitting notions and a small sharpie (in green! love!) and some other fun little things!

She also sent along several of my favorite candy bars bewitched to be turned into Dementor Recovery Sticks!! Handy!

Thanks again, Perenelle! I love it!

PHX

Stuck in the airport in Phoenix, wishing I had some of these to nibble on:



Hope all is well -- home soon, thank goodness!

Almost!

So, I've been a travelling fool lately (vacation last week, work travel next week) and have yet to send out my HSKS kit to my spoilee, Thistle. I got it all together today and walked myself down to the post office only to find out it had closed 5 minutes earlier. Boo. (My apologies, Thistle!) Either I take it with me and mail it from my travels this week (if I can fit it in my suitcase, that is) or I won't get to mail until NEXT Monday, 8.24. Sometimes this work thing really gets in the way of important stuff like knitting and swaps. I'll use the extra time this weekend to post a few pics if I can a.) take the box apart without wrecking everything and b.) find the camera.

And, just because, 5 songs that have helped me get through the day of having to work on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday:

Suspicious Minds, Elvis Presley
Monkeys Gone to Heaven, the Pixies
Falls Apart, Stabbing Westward
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want, the Smiths
and P. Y. T., the late, great Michael Jackson

This week: Albuquerque Monday and Tuesday, San Francisco Wednesday thru Friday. I'll wave as I fly over!

East Coast Tour!

Well, friends, heading out on vacation tomorrow...starting the week in Florida, flying home on Wednesday AM, and then driving up to Gloucester, Mass to see the Johnson side of the family! While I'm away, check in with my spoilee, Thistle as well as my spoiler, Perenelle and say hello to both of them! Back on 8/10, have a great week!!

Game 5...Pffffbbblt.

That's the sound of a raspberry. Which signifies me getting nothing done on Game 5 of the swap. Instead, I offer you some yarny goodness. This is the awesome prize Heather sent me for winning earlier at camp:

It's Malabrigo (squee!) Baby Merino Laceweight in the "Ibiza" colorway, and I could literally stare at it for hours.

Along with this Leaf Lace Scarf pattern by twistedknitter:
And this is the start of a Baby Surprise Jacket for my new little homie, Cooper. Yarn is two strands of Online Supersocke held together:

Happy Friday!!

Swap stuff...

Nutty week this week, friends, doing a little travelling and working on the road. Am in Nashville, one of my favorite towns, and looking forward to spending the weekend with my best mate!

SWAP STUFF
I've been zooming around the HSKS universe looking for eggs, but haven't found any new ones yet. Will keep looking. And as far as my house assignment goes for the week, I give you...

Billywig Fizz!



Fill a tall glass with ice and then add:
One shot blue curacao
One shot blueberry flavored vodka
Splash of pineapple juice

Top off with Sprite or 7-up and garnish with a cherry and lemon slice. Nom!!

Hope everyone's having a great week - will post pics of my awesome gift from Bevin and some other fun stuff when I get home!

Riddikulus!

My boggart. Seriously, the thing that will make me move fastest in all the world is this:



Riddikulus!! And voila...



I think I do pretty good work, if I do say so myself...

Game 2, Part 2 and Three Truths and a Lie Guesses!

Gah, was busy with the holiday weekend and didn't get a chance to post this!

Quote: "When in doubt, go to the library."
Quoter: Ron Weasley

Here are my guesses for our house game, Three Truths and a Lie:
Bevin: coffee
Celestina: kids
Dan'Azarella: wrestling
Helga: TV
Rowan: piano
and Winnie: country music

And, just because, 5 random songs that have come up on the iPod today but have provided me with great background sounds for a very productive day:
"Caring is Creepy," the Shins
"You Look Like Rain," Morphine
"Amie," Damien Rice
"Expo '86," Death Cab for Cutite
"Grace," Jeff Buckley

Enjoy!

...And Game 2 answers!

In the second volume of the HP books by JK Rowling, The (#1)CHAMBER OF SECRETS, we continue to learn the incredible adventures of Hogwarts student (#2) HARRY POTTER and his friends (#3) RON WEASLEY and (#4) HERMIONE GRANGER. Belonging to the house of (#5) GRYFFINDOR, they attend Defense Against the (#6) DARK ARTS taught by Wizarding celebrity (#7) GILDEROY LOCKHART, a none-too-bright fellow who cannot even handle pixies!

In The (#8) CHAMBER OF SECRETS, we also meet Dobby a (#9)HOUSE ELF for the first time. Determined Dobby seeks to sabotage the return of (#10) HARRY POTTER to Hogwarts and is pretty persistent but is unsuccessful. After a few weeks at school, the deceased Ravenclaw student who haunts the girls lavatory, also known as (#11) MOANING MYRTLE, shows (#12) HARRY POTTER and (#13) RON WEASLEY an old empty diary that dropped through her ghostly form out of thin air!

Many nifty things continue to happen for the next several months… we won’t go into all the juicy details right now… however, the ending is prime reading indeed!! (#14) HARRY POTTER finally kills Tom Riddle’s (a.k.a #15 VOLDEMORT) sneaky diary (which we now know is a #16 HORCRUX) and saves the sister of (#17) RON WEASLEY, (#18) GINNY WEASLEY!!!

Oh! Of course, we must mention that the thickheaded (#19) GILDEROY LOCKHART unintentionally erased his own memory, so he won’t be back for book three, The (#20) PRISONER OF AZKABAN!

So, I've got to get going on my swap kit...

...and I know my swappee is WAY into Herbology, so that means some lovely lace stuff coming her way. I'm thinking something with a plant or flower theme would be perfect, I just have to research.

On another note, there is an awesome recipe site that has been running alongside some of these previous (and current) swaps that has allowed folks to share their favorites. It's great -- I feel like there will be baking happening in the near future to have some treats for the big 4th of July bash on Saturday!

I also noticed that I have about 10 things on the needles right now, and not one of them is even close to being finished. I need to get cracking, seriously.

And to finish, a list of five excellent songs that came up on the ol' iPod today:
1. Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket
2. Alibi, David Gray
3. When the War Came, the Decemberists
4. New Speedway Boogie, the Grateful Dead
5. London Halflife, Metric

That's it for now - happy Tuesday!

HSKS8: Summer Camp and first activity!

So, I'm back participating in the latest and greatest HSKS event - Summer Camp! Check out the official blog for details. Here's my first activity:
Three truths and a lie - can you spot the lie?
1. I have two brothers.
2. I play three musical instruments.
3. I speak four languages.
4 I have five binfuls of yarn stash!

Looking forward to a fun summer!

39 things

So, I've been dinged with this, like, 900 times on Facebook. But I'm going to respond here because about 200 people too many will actually see it on FB. And, well...no one reads this, really.

39 odd things...

39 ODD Things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yup.
2. Have you ever been drunk? Yup.
3. Do you own a gun? Never in a zillion years...
4. What flavor of Kool Aid was your favorite? Grape
5. What do you think of hot dogs? Burn mine over charcoal, please. Unless it's 2 in the morning and I'm drunk, then it doesn't even really have to be cooked, just hot.
6. Favorite Christmas movie? Christmas Vacation
7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee
8. Can you do push ups? I sure do try. My goal is 30 man pushups in a row by end of 2009.
9. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? Jade heart necklace
10. Favorite hobby? Knitting
11. Do you have A.D.D.? Good lord, yes.
12. What's your favorite shoe? Don't really have one - comfy ones are best.
13. Middle name? Ann
14. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I should be working more. I'm kinda hungry. I should really take a shower.
15. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Coffee, tea, red wine
16. Current worry? Work stuff
17. Current hate right now? Nothing springs to mind
18. How did you bring in the New Year? I fell asleep on the couch at 11:15. Sad.
19. Where would you like to go? Someplace warm.
20. Name three people who will complete this? no one, his brother, and his mom.
21. Do you own slippers? I do and I wear them almost every day.
22. What color shirt are you wearing right now? Grey
23. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Eww.
24. Can you whistle? Yes
25. Favorite color? Green
28. Would you be a pirate? Nope
26. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don't usually sing in the shower. Everywhere else, but not in the shower.
27. Favorite girl's Name? Elizabeth
28. Favorite boy's name? Charlie
29. What's in your pocket right now? $17. Lint. A paper clip.
30. Last thing that made you laugh? My mom.
31. Best bed sheets as a child? Peanuts
32. Worst injury you've ever had as a child? I ran into a wall (?!) and took a huge chunk out of my forehead.
33. Who is your loudest friend? It's a tie between Mel and Shan, but only after we've had a drink or three
34. How many dogs do you have? 0
35. Does someone have a crush on you? I'm quite certain that's not the case.
36. What is your favorite book? The Great Gatsby
37. What is your favorite candy? Skor bars
38. Favorite Sports Team? The Philadelphia Eagles
39. What song do you want played at your funeral? Broke-down Palace by the Grateful Dead

So much for that...

I thought I'd really blog more in 2009, but I'm not off to a very good start. Here's some randomness:

Your rainbow is shaded indigo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a proud person. You appreciate cities, technology, and other great things people have created. Friends count on you for being honest and insightful.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Whatever that means.

Rockin' Sock Club 2009

So, I've always wanted to get in on this and this year, I have...

Evidently, you pay your $$$, and every once in awhile, you get a box filled with sock yarn and a pattern. And there's a pretty chatty blog/website you can post on and meet folks, too. Box should get here early next week (maybe on Tuesday for my birthday?), will post pics of what I get.

I haven't been knitting much since I finished my Christmas stuff, I need to get back in the swing. I have, however, been listening to the news 24-7 and am pretty pleased with the goings-down of this week. I'm hopeful, and willing to be (a little) patient.

Because I have no pics to post, here's some random thoughts...

1. I've been going to the chiropractor (4 times so far), and today I actually think I'm feeling it. Yay to not being in pain!

2. Also been going to the gym a lot and working with Liz the Wonder-Trainer. So that's good.

3. I wish I had someone who's job was to make me breakfast. Srsly, they came in for, like, 30 minutes, put the coffee on and whipped up a little something and left. That'd be so rad. As it is now, I hem and haw about what to have for breakfast and the next thing you know, it's time for lunch and I'm starving.

4. Snooty, condescending people at work get on my nerves.

5. I might go to England in March! I really hope that works out. Need to get with Cam, make plans.

6. Need to decide if I'm doing the HSKS swap again - sign-ups are tomorrow.

And there you have it. Oh, and today is my Ma's birthday, so happy birthday, Ma! Have a good one!

Happy 2009!

So, I really don't make New Year's resolutions, but one thing I am going to try for is to blog more. We'll see if I have more of a history of 2009 at the end of the year than I did with 2008.

Here's a great thing I stole from my friend, Mary.
1) Look at the list and italicize those you have already read.
2) Bold those you intend to read.
3) Place ** after the books you LOVE.
4) Post your list so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read 6 and force books upon them.
(Mary searched for books that are available on LibriVox and have linked them. There are a few Wikipedia links, too0

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen librivox link
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte librivox link
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling **
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee**
6. The Bible (Can't really say I've read the whole thing.)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte librivox link
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott LibriVox
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare librivox links
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch** - George Eliot librivox link
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald** (In fact, favorite book of all time.)
23. Bleak House** - Charles Dickens librivox link
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy librivox links
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky libriVox
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll libriVox
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy librivox link
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens LibriVox
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen librivox link
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (Really?)
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Again, really?)
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery librivox link
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen LibriVox
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas librivox link
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure** - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding (One more time, really?)
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville LibriVox
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens librivox link
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker LibriVox
73. The Secret Garden** - Frances Hodgson Burnett (thanks to librivox & kayray)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce LibriVox
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession** - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens LibriVox
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert librivox link
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle LibriVox
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince** - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces** - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas LibriVox
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So, I've read a lot, but I see a few I should add to my list. Greg got me an awesome thing for Christmas, and with it came 100 free "classics" (not sure I agree with every title being called a classic, but they're free so I won't split hairs). I'll just have to decide where to start. Happy reading in 2009!