Category Archives: Randonymity

TGIF

Whew! It sure seems like this has been a busy week and I am definitely looking forward to a relaxing weekend of knitting (I’ll finally finish my purple Trekking socks!), reading (hopefully I’ll finish my second non-fiction book), cleaning, biking or walking, playing with the cat, catching up on blogs… Hmm, that sounds pretty busy, too, doesn’t it?!

Anyway. Crampy crabbiness is curbing my creativity this morning, so here are a few random bits. First, a cereal box that sends me into fits of giggles everytime I see it (click on the picture to see a larger version). Check out the list of allergens not contained in this cereal. I do recognize that they’ve simply reproduced the list of the eight most common allergens covered by new labelling laws – but, really, how many times have fish or shellfish in cereal been a concern for you?! Ewwwwww…

Curious what the Chaos Kitty is up to in the background? (Ignore the jungle pouch action there – he’s trim and muscley, but that darn jungle pouch has been there since he was born.)

“Clean toes are very important. I’m glad you recognize that, Mom, but if you try to paint my claws to match your toenails…….”

Last night I went to a St Paul Saints baseball game – I’m not a baseball fan, but it was one of those work “team building” events… I knit about 1/4″ of a new sock (more on that when there’s something to actually look at) and got a few cool sky pictures. Can anyone figure out what that unidentified flying object is in the first picture?? At first I thought it might be a helicopter or a bird, but now I’m wondering if it was a mosquito flying past my camera!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Pretend it’s a Random Wednesday…

TB is having a contest in which you send her a picture of the weirdest thing on display in your house. Photos must be received by midnight, August 13. I don’t think she says what the prize is – hopefully not the weirdest thing on display from her house! ๐Ÿ˜‰

SRP update:
The Apostrophe Thief by Barbara Paul, 247 pages. I’m reading the Marian Larch (NYPD) mysteries totally out of order – it’s an older series and the library doesn’t have all of the books.
A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton, 259 pages. The third mystery about Fort “Connor” (Colorado) CPA and new knitter Kelly Flynn and her friends is another light and speedy read.

As part of my ongoing series of unusually colored Minneapolis architecture, here’s a purple house/business that I missed in July…

…and a house of a different color – you definitely want to click on this picture to get a better look!

The Crafty Modster held her final Project Spectrum mix giveaway and I won; actually, everyone who entered won something! Look at all those PS neutrals:

I’m all set, aren’t I? Thread, embroidery floss, tasty chocolate, a very cool flower pin (with the button in the middle) that now graces my cube…

…the mix, of course…

…and a card for Chaos! (Interestingly, that’s similar to a favorite Chaos pose that I haven’t managed to get a picture of.) Thank you so much, Anjo!

Speaking of Chaos…

“Good grief, there are other vegetables besides the Evil Zucchini Monster?! That’s just not right.”

At the Fringe of the Wacky Chicken Show

Don’t forget, today is the last day of my Official Blog Opening Contest! Leave a haiku comment before 6 pm CDT (um, that’s six hours behind GMT/UTC) to participate. Thanks for everyone who’s already left a haiku – they are witty and funny and wise and I love them all!

Knittymama’s greyhound happily models a bib…

I finished my first non-fiction book for SRP!
Downhill: The Life Story of a Gravity Goddess by Marla Streb, 326 pages. I really like to read about cyclists’ lives and inspirations. Altough I have absolutely no interest in mountain biking (I have a hybrid and prefer paved trails), I found Marla’s tale of leaving the safe life to follow her dream really resonated.

And two more fiction…
Murder by the Glass: A Wine Lover’s Mystery by Michele Scott, 246 pages. Isn’t it a little amazing how many targeted mystery series exist? This series features vineyard manager and oenophile (i.e., wine lover) Nikki Sands, who does a bit of amateur sleuthing in the Napa and Sonoma Vallies. As per usual, our intrepid sleuth is torn between two handsome men…
Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters, 416 pages. I was actually looking to reread the first Amelia Peabody mystery, but it wasn’t on the shelf at the library.

Monday evening, my friend Lisa and her two kids took me to dinner at True Thai (yummy tofu pad thai!) and then to see The Wacky Chicken Show: Modern Vaudeville, which was part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

I finished turning the heel of my second Trekking sock while we waited for the show to begin. The Wacky Chicken Show was a mixture of slapstick silliness, magic, and poignant interludes about lost eggs. By skillfully not making eye contact, I managed to avoid going having to lay an egg onstage… You can see a video clip here, if you’re curious.

I loved the words on the fence at the the Playwright’s Center – here are a few more:

And I threw together a little collage of some of the postcards I picked up for other Fringe Festival productions:

Once again, Chaos held down the home front:

“A cat’s work is never done! Wait a minute – what do you mean, what work??!”

Ready for Roswell

I am really enjoying the haiku you’ve been writing – they definitely brightened a mundane Thursday! Still plenty of time to submit a haiku for the contest if you haven’t already.

Scout challenged us all to show off our UFOs (unfinished objects). Yikes. As I mentioned a few days ago, I posted about my WIPs last winter and all of those WIPs are still UFOs. Really, doesn’t work-in-progress sound much better than UFO?! Anyway, I shall review them here for your amusement. Please note that the older pictures were taken with my former camera, which I do not miss at all… You will perhaps be amazed at how Project Spectrum most of my projects are!

The tank that will be ripped out as soon as I find it again, as it is chunky and unflattering and it’s all too clear where I switched to new balls of yarn… Note the phantom paw!

A petal washcloth, intended as only one of many for Xmas presents year before last. There’s a peach one that only has one or two petals somewhere (oh, and a missing needle is there, too, I bet!). This exceeded my Allowable Knitting Fiddliness Level (AKFL) at the time, with all the cotton chenilley ends.

Next is Door County Cable in black Cotton Fleece. The body was knit in the round up to the armpits. When I started to go back and forth, I got really confused and put the project away in a snit. Two years later, I might not find the directions as confusingรขโ‚ฌยฆ or I might still. I did find some errata that could help the situation.

One lone sock of a pair that I promised my dad several years ago… He has challenging feet, darn it.

A fingering weight tank top out of black Fortissima Cotton (75 cotton/25 nylon), knitting on Addis 0s. Started last summer and abandoned when I realized that, in picking up stitches for the first armhole, I had made a tourniquet. (Hmm, more missing needles there…)

A mobius cat bed for Chaos. Since it still has a hole in the bottom (and is definitely not felted yet), he found the row counter much more interesting. I put this project aside one hot and humid day last summer – it filled my entire lap with its way too warm self and then lured Chaos in for a nap. Since Chaos has most of a down comforter as a cat bed – do you think he’d enjoy this at all??

Out with the old and in with the new… Clockwise from upper right: a hat from some handspun that someone gave me. Started in, um, March? April? Eventually it will be donated to a local project for the homeless. Next are my 1.3 Trekking socks. Then a sock yarn baby sweater from KnitPicks something or other, abandoned in December for unremembered reasons – perhaps because I was winging it on the sleeves (more needles!). Then the first sock of a pair (bulky – yay!) promised to a co-worker a year or so ago as barter for bike repairs. Finally, underneath it all, my moderne log cabin baby blanket – still chugging away on that one.

Where was Chaos in that final, current WIP/UFO picture?

Hmm, you don’t think that all those bibs scared him off knitting, do you?! Oh dear. For the curious, you can see my dining room in the background, upper left. It’s not waiting for a coat of plaster – that’s how the walls are finished. That empty wine box middle left is a cat hidey hole, not evidence of debauchery! ๐Ÿ™‚ And the massive living room mirror can be seen upper right.

Did I distract you from the massive number (11? 12??) of UFOs you just saw? No? Darn it… Have a good weekend anyway!

Wandering through Wednesday

Thanks for all the kind words about the new look! Things are mostly as they will be, although the banner isn’t displaying correctly in Firefox yet. Soon.

EDIT: I think it’s all set. If things look odd, please try hitting your reload button. If they still look odd, please drop me an email and let me know the details. Thanks!

The heat finally broke yesterday! It’s been raining off and on ever since. Hopefully the humidity breaks soon…

Scout’s challenged us to out our UFOs. *gulp* I posted about UFOs/WIPs back in December. Scarily, everything I mentioned in that post remains a UFO! Whoops… Sounds like I need to rip a few things out, doesn’t it?! And of course, I have new UFOs/WIPs, too. I’ll look around today and take some pictures.

SRP update: I made my fiction goal of 30 books! However, I still need to read two non-fiction books this month to meet my bonus goal.
Unhinged by Sarah Graves, 332 pages. Yet another Home Repair Is Homicide mystery! I’m not reading these cozies in order, but I’m enjoying them anyway.
Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaze Clement, 261 pages. This is the first (and only, so far) book about former sheriff’s deputy, now petsitter, Dixie Hemingway of Sarasota, FL. I’ll definitely be on the look out for additions to this series – it was more compelling than many such mysteries and kept me guessing up to the end.

I finally got a picture of the “Gateway to the North of Nashwauk” sign last weekend! What I find very interesting about this sign is that you see it when you are driving south, not north. Hmm.

I’m a sucker for amusing wine labels, so how could I resist this one?

Chaos apparently wonders why “smell no evil” wasn’t addressed in the pictorial proverb.

*sniff sniff* “I sure hope you weren’t hoping for great taste from this wine, Mom…”

Under construction

You might’ve noticed that things are changing around here! Missa of MoonArts has been working on a new banner, new button, and some color changes for me. When all the tweaking is finished in the next few days, I’ll be having a Happy New Blog Look contest!

Darn bloglines is acting up and is showing updates for some blogs and not for others. I’m one of the lucky ones who isn’t showing as updated… Hopefully they get things corrected soon so I can catch up on what all of you are up to!

Chaos has a late entry for Project Spectrum purple (sorry, Marina, I know you thought it was safe again). Apparently his purple mouse is no more colorfast than his hot pink mouse. (Oh, and the plant that is industriously growing into the cat feeding station is a purple passion – green leaves covered with purple fuzz. Missed that for July, too, darn it.)

*crunch crunch crunch* “Mmmmmmmm… cat food…”

Little purple houses for you and me

Bethe’s cat Pugsley was fine with wearing bibs – maybe because of the catnip bribe?!

SRP update: Wreck the Halls by Sarah Graves, 320 pages. Another Home Repair Is Homicide mystery – these are light light light, but I’m enjoying them anyway.

Ok, as promised and to finish off Project Spectrum purples right, I present two more purple houses. First, the less purple house – I’m particularly fond of how bowling balls are used along the sidewalk. (Click on the pictures see them larger.)

Next, the purple stucco two doors down, which is the most unapologeticaly purple house I’ve ever seen!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this utterly un-purple house on the next block, which I could have used during PS April!

Once upon a time, I owned a purple Escort station wagon. I loved that car. Alas, it rewarded my love by throwing a rod through critical engine bits (probably an important life lesson there, eh?). Here’s a very bad picture of me with the dead and dusty Escort, as I prepared to remove my stuff from it.

Speaking of cars, this auto repair place a few blocks from where I live has great purple signs. Sorry about the photo quality! I took this 6 am Saturday, as I headed out of town to the cabin. I wasn’t up to playing around with camera settings until after the caffeine took hold many miles later!

Chaos survived my being gone just fine.

“I demand popcorn to compensate me for the emotional trauma of worrying about you!”

It’s too hot hot

Yowza – temps here in the Twin Cities are supposed to hover in the upper 90s to 100F all weekend, with a max heat index of 109F. Fortunately, at the cabin, it should “only” be in the upper 80s/lower 90s, so I’m heading north tomorrow morning.

Peeve surprised me with some fun mail from Australia yesterday!

I love that card. The small purple box contained this:

A tiny cute mouse just for me! ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks, Peeve! (Tough luck, Chaos kitty – it’s too small for you to play with , anyway.)

Here’s another in my series of Project Spectrum purple buildings:

Even though we have air conditioning, Chaos has been hanging out on my bed (on my Project Spectrumesque duvet) underneath the ceiling fan.

I check periodically to make sure he’s still alive.

“Whaaaaaa?”

Have a great weekend, everyone, and stay cool, wherever you are.

Thursday things

Jeanne’s yarn from Saturday turned out great, although it seems as if Bugsy now thinks I’m a bad influence, keeping Jeanne out late. How come he doesn’t think Deb is a bad influence?!

Christine is having a contest to name her new dachsund boy with a “B” name. The contest ends Sunday, July 30, 2006, at midnight, CST. Bonne Marie is having a contest in honor of fictional Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski’s 50th birthday.

Chaos won a contest at Trek’s. Too funny! I wonder if it will be catnip or tuna? ๐Ÿ˜‰

This purple house is only a few short blocks away from me. I still have to get pictures of a few other purple Minneapolis houses before the end of the Project Spectrum purple month – houses that are far more luridly purple than this one!

In the spirit of Project Spectrum, here’s my first completed Trekking sock. I’m just finishing the toe increases on the second sock, so I doubt I’ll be done with it before the end of the month. I’m also back to working on my moderne log cabin baby blanket – no bibs on the needles! *twitch twitch* Bibs bibs bibs bibs bibs! Whoops – sorry about that lapse..

Chaos spends a fair amount of time on top of the fridge or dangling over the edge – hopefully he doesn’t fall off onto his head… (That black kitten card on the front of the fridge? Not Chaos, but how could I resist it??)

“A cat falls off the fridge once! Only once! And gets grief about it forever. Sheesh.”

KisS KisS

Although I’ve been rather quiet about it, I’m participating in the Knit Sock Kit Swap (KSKS). I had to be sort of sneaky about the whole thing because my swap target was Mrs Pao and I didn’t want her to figure that out. But now that she’s received her swap package, I can talk about it – especially since it was such a Project Spectrum kit! ๐Ÿ™‚

I asked Scout to dye a special skein of yarn for Mrs Pao, incorporating her favorite colors of black and purple (yes, yes, I know, those are my favorite colors, too, but I was ever so good and didn’t keep the lovely skein of yarn). The absolutely perfect Stormy Chaos colorway reminds me of Lorna’s Laces Black Purl and Koigu #305.

The bag was knitted from black Tahki Capri, a sadly discontinued Egyptian cotton tape yarn, using the Two Old Bags’ Pamela bag pattern. I can’t sew worth anything, but I dug out some swirly purple silk jersey and sewed a bag lining by hand. I have my very own Pamela bag from the same yarn (although not lined… yet) and think it’s perfect for carrying around a sock, since the bag handle loops so handily around the wrist. As soon as Mrs Pao’s router is playing nice again, I’m sure she’ll share details of what else was in the kit!

Last night I met another local knitter, blogless Kathryn K, at Bar Abilene for chips, salsa, margaritas, conversation, and, of course, knitting. We had a lot of fun and I bound off the first purple Trekking sock! One down, one to go…

And yet another SRP update…
The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King, 358 pages. The first Kate Martinelli mystery in a long time! This book sort of bridges King’s two mystery series, the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series and the Kate Martinelli series, as much as can be done when they take place many decades apart.
Wicked Fix by Sarah Graves, 290 pages. This is the first “Home Repair Is Homicide” mystery that I’ve read, but I enjoyed it and will be reading more. The series is set in Eastport, Maine, and features former Wall Streeter Jacobia Tiptree.

If you’re ever curious about the order of books in a mystery series, curious about mysteries set in a certain location, can remember the character but not the author, or want to find new books to read based on authors you like, check out Stop, You’re Killing Me! It’s easily the best resource an avid mystery reader can have (besides a public library…).

Chaos is enjoying the sun and the air conditioning…

“Why are all of you upside down?”