Category Archives: Randonymity

Contests, Randonymity

In which we find evidence that I need to vacuum

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Cara is having a contest to celebrate her upcoming January One birthday. Read the clues and guess what sock she’s knitting before December 31, 10 am EST, and you could win some not-yet-for-sale STR yarn and other goodies.

Kristi is looking for a baby whisperer (and celebrating her blogiversary) – leave her a comment with tips for getting both of her twins asleep at the same time and you could win some fibery gifts (and provide relief to some exhausted parents!). Deadline is January 4, 11 pm EST.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Typepad hates me this week. I’m having trouble commenting on Typepad blogs – pages load really slow and I (eventually) get error messages when I click “Post.” This is happening in both Firefox and IE – anyone have any ideas what might be the problem?! Much appreciated… If you’re on Typepad, really, I still love you. I just can’t comment! 🙂

I got nothin’… Look! Over there! A kitten!

“How can you resist such perfect cuteness?” -M

“You know you don’t want to resist… Hey, Mom, you need to vacuum in here! That’s not my hair.” -M

“I can’t bear to look at evidence of such slovenly housekeeping. I must avert my eyes!” -M
Randonymity, Reading

Not a USPS approved use of a Priority Mail box…

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Susan used Patons Soy Wool to make some Kureyon-Chans – they turned out really cute!

Cursed bloglines – it’s not seeing my blog again. Not seeing a lot of blogs, as far as I can tell. Grrrrr…

Reading Update
Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. This is the second book in the series about Harper and her stepbrother Tollivar. Harper was struck by lightning and can now find dead people and knows how they died. This series is ok, but not as good (so far) as the Sookie Stackhouse or Lily Bard books.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I’d read this a while ago and enjoyed it, but after reading Anansi Boys recently, I knew I needed to reread this book. Wow. I got a lot more out of it this time! Anansi Boys was a good read, but this is a great read – it’s epic in a most unusual way.
Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180 by Mike Magnuson. Warning: the cover picture of this book is not for the faint of heart. It’s a “before” picture of the author – and it appeared in GQ, probably as a spoof of Liebowitz’s famous photograph of Lance Armstrong.)
This is the first From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge book I’ve completed. Hey, I have all of January to read the remaining four…
Anyway, I love reading cycling books, which is how this book ended up in my stacks in the first place. I read another of Magnuson’s books a long time ago (The Right Man for the Job), mostly because a friend of mine knew him and was pushing the book. I remember nothing of it, other than it took me a while to get into the book, due to Magnuson’s writing style. Same thing with this autobiographical tale of how Magnuson used cycling to turn his life around as he neared 40, but after I got into it, the book gave me a lot to think about, including some ways in which I need to consider changing my own life.

Not much else going on around here, so maybe it’s time to check the mail…

“All I know is I sure can’t fit in there. Your mileage may vary, May.” -C

“I wonder if I can fit…” -M

“It looks awfully snug…” -M

*muffled*
Contests, Randonymity

Driving in a winter wonderland

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Vicki Knitorious has written a nice post about knitblogging that I highly recommend.

Trek is having a funny fiber fiction contest for those who usually purchase from Amazon.co.uk – you could win a £5 gift certificate!

Strangelittlemama is having a contest – let her know what your favorite FO from 2006 was and you could win a fun gift!

If you’re looking for some different Christmas music on Christmas Eve and you live in the Twin Cities or have good internet access, you can listen to several hours of various programming from Minnesota Public Radio’s station The Current. The music gets going at 5 pm CST on Sunday with an hour of local Minnesota holiday music. Then Aimee Mann shares some of her favorite Christmas music from 6-7 pm. Next is the Sound Opinions’ Christmas Special from 7-8 pm, American Routes’ Christmas in New Orleans from 8-10 pm, and Peter Otroushko’s Heartland Holiday Concert at 10 pm. I’ll definitely be listening!

So, I’m pretty sure you all have a mental picture of Minnesota, and it might involve a cold, snowy, wasteland (perhaps year round). 😉 Well, until yesterday, we’d had only a bit of snow this winter (Mayhem chittered at it, thinking it was quite the flock of falling birds) that didn’t stick around because it’s been so warm. Yesterday, it started to rain in the morning. That turned to freezing rain around noon, and by 12:30 pm, we had heavy snow for a while. Here’s what we could see from the window at work at around 1:30 pm (the close blobs are frozen raindrops on the window – the farther blobs are cars on the freeway, crawling along):

Here’s what things looked like from the window at home a few hours later, after a drive home on sidestreets (and a stop at Home Depot for some tubes of sand for ye olde rear wheel drive car):

Winter wonderland, no doubt! Except that’s only about an inch or so of snow, which probably won’t survive the weekend.

“Neener, neener, neener – I’m warm and cozy inside and life is good! And for any flying mice that break into the condo – look out, because you are toast!” -M

Happy holidays to all of you from all of us here at Casa de Chaos (and Mayhem!).

Alongs, Randonymity

Knit Knacks, paddywhacks, give the cats some tuna…

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Kat with a K is hosting UFO Resurrection Challenge 2007. Signups close January 31 and everyone who finishes will be entered in a prize drawing at the end of next year.

Hmm, not much knitting going on here (but I do have my presents wrapped!), so I think it’s time for another trip down memory lane… Check out those tights, eh? I bet you’ll all be emailing me, begging me for that pattern, because what could be more flattering to our thighs, right?! 😉

Elf hat, anyone?

How about a massive collar with bobbles?! Here’s another weird thing about me – I never wear turtlenecks because I have a long skinny neck and turtlenecks are not flattering. I see these collar thingies and picture one of them on me… and I might have nightmares.

Doesn’t the French poodle (at the bottom) look like it should be holding a roll of toilet paper in someone’s grandmother’s guest bathroom?!

Quick! There’s still time to make yourselves a sequinned hood and party slippers before New Year’s Eve…

And can you believe that there are no actual photographs of these bonnets in the booklet?! These are the best part! I’m sure we can all think of a deserving child who needs a Clothilde Cat, Oswald Owl, or Lionel Lion bonnet…

Since you’ve all been doing so well interpreting black blob pictures this week, here’s another for you. I call it “Under the Chaos Bridge.” (If it helps, Chaos’ head is just off the bottom of the picture and one of May’s ears is to the right.)

“Chaos bridges falling down, falling down, falling down, I’m a fair kitten! Or something like that.” -M
Randonymity

In which I capitulate and do the six weird things meme

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Ok, although I tend not to do memes, I think I’ve hit critical mass on being tagged for the six weird things meme. First it was Anmiryam of Gromit Knits, then La, then Peeve. Um, I’m not sure I can think of six weird things that I haven’t already included in my 100 Things About Me list… I suppose, since I don’t really remember what’s on that list…

  1. I never thought of myself as being particularly into cars. Sure, I had my beloved purple Escort wagon, but that was mostly the perfect quirkiness of said vehicle. However, I’ve discovered a deep and abiding pleasure in driving the replacement for the traitorous Escort – my silver BMW 318ti (“ti” should stand for “tiny”!). This shakes me selfview a bit.
  2. I have to wear earplugs to sleep, even when it’s not noisy.
  3. I’m not sure exactly when I last turned on my tv, even to watch a movie. Um, April maybe??
  4. Smears and smudges and streaks on the inside of the glass in my car drives me crazy. Do you know how hard it is to keep that glass streak-free?!
  5. My Rainbow vacuum cleaner is the same one I used as a child! It’s wicked on cat hair, kitty litter, etc.
  6. When I go to bed, I have to start by lying on my left side for a while, then turning over to my right to fall asleep.

Whew! That was hard. Cat picture, anyone?

(muffled) “Got your foot, May! Ha! Now what’re you going to do?!” -C

Contests, Randonymity

The Tongue Edition

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Nishanna is having a contest – caption a picture of her cute pup before Monday, December 18, 7 pm EST, and you could win some yarn!

Wendy’s putting together Knit From Your Stash 2007. Wisely, it’s only the first 9 months of the year. And there are additional conditions. Me? I freak out and start buying yarn like a maniac if I’m part of something like that. If I’m not, I don’t. Your mileage may vary!

So I have my blog signed up for Google Analytics, mostly because it’s fun to see what search terms bring people here. I’ve included some of the most interesting ones – feel free to discuss them amongst yourselves:

  • dress butt picture (whose butt?! I wear a dress about 2x/year, so not likely mine)
  • mom armpit lick (EEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!)
  • sock monkey cookies (not sure they’d be edible!)
  • pics of chaos dying (NOOOOOOOOOOO!)
  • tossing ferrets (Like tossing cookies?!)
  • french coat flasher book (*blink blink*)
  • i love when my kids lickes my armpits (EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!)
  • ferret licks my hair (I swear, I have no ferrets!!)
  • lederhosens for dogs (please make sure you leave the appropriate holes!)
  • pics “boy’s butt” (I prefer men over boys, but whatever)

How disappointed do you think most of those people are?! 😉

If you live in the Twin Cities metro area and are looking for a kitty, I got May through Underdog Rescue. They have several kittens at my fabulous neighborhood petstore (Urbanimal) right now, including a gorgeous little black kitten girl called Suri (yes, like the alpaca – she’s obviously meant to be a knitter’s cat!), another older black kitten (Esmerelda) not listed on the website, and a dilute tortie called Tink (Tink?? Really, you need to come visit right now). I cannot get any more cats, due to condo regulations. Hopefully some of you can!

Ok, since I’ve obviously run out of vim and vigor and blogging ideas at the end of the week, I present the Tongue Edition (yeah, baby, that’ll pep up my search terms).

“Neener neener neener, May, I’m first cat in the blog today!” -C

“Big kitty, it’s age before beauty.” -M

“But my tongue is bigger than your tongue, May! Ha!” -C
Contests, Randonymity

Singularly unexciting

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Go read a very eloquent post that Christine of Knitting on Trial wrote about the essence of blogging.

Lorinda is having two contests – leave comments about your favorite holiday tradition and your favorite holiday memory by December 18. Knitterly prizes for knitters, non-knitterly prizes for non-knitters.

Ok, although I usually don’t do memes, I thought this was fun – I first ran into it over at Maryse’s: What was the first sentence that you posted each month of 2006? (I learned that my first sentences were almost uniformly boring! Yikes.)

January
I’ve read a lot of knitting resolutions over the past few days, which got me thinking about what my knitting resolutions might be. Pumpkinmama’s list finally inspired me to stop thinking and start listing.

February
Thank you all so much for your well wishes!!
(I had the flu for the previous 3 days!)

March
As you might’ve read on Scout’s blog, she and I are working on an early October meetup in New Mexico. New Mexico is one of my favorite places – I spend an amazing amount of time gawking at the sky.
(*sniff* The meetup that didn’t happen due to a sick Chaos)

April
This starts with five overview shots and then a few detail shots of some of my favorite things.
(This was for Flash Your Stash.)

May
Not blech regarding the weekend, which was very fun, but blech is how I’m feeling today.
(Just back from the Midwest Master’s at Neenah, Wisconsin.)

June
You might become confused while reading this post and think that we’ve skipped right over June Blue to July Purple in Project Spectrum.

July
My Saturday sky is unsettled.

August
You might’ve noticed that things are changing around here.

September
Domesticat is having a contest to celebrate her second year of knitting and that she and Duck are moving.

October
Megan is participating in the Tour de Cure.
(I started to fear that contest announcements would be the rest of my first sentences…)

November
Hope no one’s got a Halloween sugar hangover this morning!

December
Xanthan gum!

Ok, for surviving all of that, I present Sir Wooliam and Wee Wooliam, in the window of a Pendleton store.

Not enough compensation? Well, ok then…

“Isn’t it hard to read blogs when you’re upside down like that?” -C
Randonymity

A knitter’s (obviously not-so) secret shame

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“What’s this on the coffee table?” -C&M

“Oh, very comfy! But I thought Mom hated knitting mittens and gloves – and these are kind of like both in one, aren’t they?!” -M

“Whatever – these are just so cozy!” -M

But wait… what’s that on the left?! Oh, my… could it be… a price tag?!

“Mom! How could you?! I’m so ashamed! What are all the other bloggers’ cats going to think?!!” -M
Contests, Randonymity

WTF Wednesday: The British edition

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Anne is having an essay contest – leave an entry by December 15 about why you or someone you know deserves a brand-new Denise interchangeable needle set. (Syd! She has ferrets!)

Thanks for all the well wishes for Mayhem!! She’s doing great – a little sleepy, but in good spirits… except that Chaos keeps hissing and growling at her. Guess she still smells too much like the vet…

“I’ll get you, big kitty, and your little dog Toto, too! Meanie.” -M

“Meanie?? Moi?! As if!” *hissssssssssssssssss* -C

Moving right along… A local grocery store has your basic “ethnic” food aisle. (Although I could make an argument for Thai and Indian being Asian…)

But here’s the sign on the other side of the aisle:

Ethnic British?! Hmm. I searched the store, but no other European countries were distinguished in this fashion, which is a shame, because I’d love to examine ethnic Andorran food. Here’s what the British section contained:

Do you think that’s a good representation of British cuisine? What distinctive British foods are missing?

Oh yeah – Acephalous is tracking the speed at which a meme can spread across the blogosphere for a paper at the MLA. Include a link to his post, explain the experiment, ping Technorati, and you’ve participated.

Alongs, Randonymity

Abundance abounds

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Please think good thoughts for little Mayhem today, as she’s going to the vet for her “surgery.” Thank you! I have assured her that she will still be all girl, but I’m not sure she believes me…

My Knitters’ Coffee Swap package arrived last week! My pal was Professor KnitWit, who sent me a very fun box of goodies. Gluten-free cookies (if you like gingersnaps, these are great), some lovely latte-colored alpaca, espresso-roasted coffee from The Sensuous Bean in NYC (let’s just pause to admire that name – and you haven’t even tasted the coffee, which is nice), and some delicious dark chocolate. Thank you, Professor! 🙂

If you’re curious about what I sent, you can find the details here. Here are the songs that were on the Coffee Mix cd:

Greg Brown – Good Morning Coffee
Mississippi John Hurt – Coffee Blues
The Galactic Heroes – Coffee and Pastries
John Gorka – St. Caffeine
The Jayhawks – Five Cups of Coffee
Claude Gray – I’ll Have Another Cup of Coffee, Then I’ll Go
The Mountain Goats – Woke Up New (ok, ok, this is the only song without a coffee theme in the title – here’s the excerpt that got it included: “The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it. But I drank it all, just cause you hate it when I let things go to waste.”)
Jars of Clay – Coffee Song
Ink Spots – Java Jive
Marlene Dietrich – You’re the Cream in My Coffee
Tom T. Hall – Don’t Forget the Coffee, Billy Joe
The Andrews Sisters – Proper Cup of Coffee
Lefty Frizzell – Cigarettes and Coffee Blues
Mandy Patinkin – Coffee in a Cardboard Cup
Gordon Lightfoot – Second Cup of Coffee
Brook Benton – Another Cup of Coffee
Guy Clark – Instant Coffee Blues
The Andrews Sisters – Coffee in Brazil
The Peanuts – Coffee Rhumba
The Boswell Sisters – Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night
Peggy Lee – Black Coffee
Emmett Miller – You’re the Cream in My Coffee
John Mccutcheon – Cup of Coffee
Greg Brown – Smell of Coffee
Bob Dylan – One More Cup of Coffee
Ella Mae Morse – Forty Cups of Coffee

Many thanks also to KnittyMama for creating and coordinating this swap. I had a blast putting the package together and am looking forward to another coffee swap. And if there’s another Knitters’ Chocolate Swap, please, someone tell me about it!!

I also won a contest over at For My Next Project – I was Kat’s 1000th commenter. She sent some nifty cat toys (May adores Black Slinky Mouse), some stunning laceweight alpaca silk, and a tasty maple candy. Thanks, Kat!

Just a Knit Wit sent me a birthday package! She sent me some of her lovely stitchmarkers, birthday buttons, cat and yarn stamps, cute post its (including one shaped like a “C” that didn’t make it into this picture), a skein of Silk Garden, and a wonderful cabled Silk Garden hat! Thank you, Kelly!! (No, the kitten wasn’t part of the package.)

My Knit Sock Kit Swap pattern, Elspeth, also sent me a birthday/coffee package – I was curious about the famous Peet’s Coffee, so she sent me some, along with some Peet’s chocolate (with coffee in it), black Bernat sock yarn (which I haven’t seen before – the color’s perfect!), and a lovely sock pattern. Thank you, Elspeth! (Even Chaos had to check it out.)