Hubris

I'll admit - before I even begin this post properly - that this post is pure, out-and-out boasting.

The woman who initiated the SnB group that I belong to is (fortunately for her, unfortunately for us*) selling her knitting shop. In an effort to make the transition easier for the new owner, she is very kindly selling the odd balls (called oddments here) off cheap.

When I say cheap, I mean cheap. Last Sunday we went by the shop to look through the yarn and I purchased two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan for 50 pence each. Uh-huh, you heard me, 1-2-3-4-5-ifty pence. That's approximately 25 cents, for my U.S. friends that I am clearly taunting.

I bought it in this color:

Mmmm, chocolate...

I also bought a skein of Jaeger Alpaca 4-ply and a skein of Debbie Bliss cotton cashmere for the same price. I figure that I can either make fingerless gloves or add the last two to something else. They were just too good to resist.

Okay, I'll stop bragging now.

Back to regular scheduled programming...

Power Struggles

In our house a war of wills is raging between the husband and the cat.

The two of them are constantly at odds - she wants him to read her mind (isn't that just like a woman?) and he wants her to be something other than the thing that attracted him to her in the first place (typical man).

I'm trying to remain as Swiss as possible. I mean, how can I take sides? Since I am currently... unapplied, he's keeping me in shoes and grilled cheese sandwiches and he's the one that gets up at 0-god-thirty to let her out when she needs the loo. It's hard not to see his point. But, look at her! How can you argue with that?!

Zoo, he can't read your mind. Nor can he smell the thing you can smell, so when you run up to him and mroowr that way and he looks at you like you're stupid and you look at him like he's stupid, neither of you are. He just doesn't get it. Mice and shrews he gets; they're self-explanatory. Random smells? Not so much.

Husband, she's a cat.

The Zimmers

The husband is obsessed with this band.

I have to admit that the video is pretty good (and more than a little touching).

A DJ on BBC Radio 2 reckons that this song will go to number 1 on the charts. As an aside, more people have viewed this video than the original The Who video. [Note: I can't actualy vouch for that statistic. Someone told it to me and I am simply repeating it. If it's wrong, who cares, it sounds good.]

Old people are funny. Unless they're driving in front of you on a narrow one-track road. They're not very funny then.

Flix

I blatantly stole this from TiggerLarue

The Movie Meme
1. Name a movie you have seen more than 10 times.
You won't believe me... French Kiss.

2. Name a movie you've seen multiple times in the theater.
Lord of the Rings (all of them).

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
I'm ashamed to say, James Spader.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Jennifer Jason Leigh. I just hate her.

5. Name a movie than you can and do quote from.
Steel Magnolias ("I make it a point to never deal with my wife.")

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Godspell

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
West Side Story

8. Name a movie you would recommend everyone see.
Shaun of the Dead. It's funny and scary in all the best ways and I love that about that film. Also, The Station Agent - Peter Dinklage is amazing!

9. Name a movie that you own.
(Le Fabuleux destin d') Amélie (Poulain)

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Tim McGraw. Call me crazy if you want to, but I dare you to watch Friday Night Lights and not be impressed by the transformation.

11. Have you ever seen a movie at a drive-in? If so, what?
Yes. I think it was one of the Back to the Futures, but for the life of me, I don't know. There was drinking... and flirting...

12. Ever made out in a movie?
Yep. And that's all I have to say about that.

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Monsoon Wedding

14. Ever walked out on a movie?
Nope. You just don't know how many times I've wished that I had that gene.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
Brokeback Mountain. However, the hardest I have ever cried was on a plane watching This Is My Father. It may have been because we were on a French-Canadian airline, though. Let's just say it was the movie.

16. What was the last movie you saw in the theater.
300. It freakin' ruled.

17. What is your favorite/preferred genre of movie.
Don't have one. I prefer 'good' over 'genre.'

18. What is the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
Star Wars

19. What movie do you wish you'd never seen?
Bridget Jones' Diary. I was stupider when it was over. That pissed me off. I'm still holding a grudge against the person who recommended it. He knows who he is.

20. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

21. What is the scariest movie you have seen?
Showgirls

Alright, alright... if I'm being serious, The Exorcist. To this day, I can't even watch the trailer.

22. What is the funniest movie you have seen?
Rushmore. Without a doubt.

A Crisis of Faith

This last week has been one of frustration, mingled with ennui. And flu.

I've been what's termed "poorly" here. It started last week and has just borne real fruit this weekend (Friday really) - sinus infection, sneezing, pressure behind the eyes, headache, achy, seriously tired. I wasn't as bad last weekend, and expected this weekend to be much the same. Sadly, I was wrong.

It's been three days since I've been out of my pj's long enough to do anything other than change a key piece of clothing so that I don't smell as bad as I look. It's been more days than that since I've been outside my front door.

In addition to this, I am having trouble with my crafting.

I had the same problem last year, right before we moved, when I felt that my desires and my desired projects far exceeded my skill set. Worse, due to some mitigating circumstances, I was forced to reckon with my growing collection of craft supplies and came to the conclusion that I have more accoutrements than I have talent.

I participated in an ATC swap on swap-bot and I struggled. The theme was "black and white only" and, though it sounded like exactly the sort of theme that I could work, none of the ideas that I came up with seemed to work. I couldn't convince myself that the ideas and the cards that I liked best would be well received. I didn't want my swap partners to be disappointed when their ATCs arrived, but I was disappointed in them when they went out. I hope that spirit doesn't follow my cards and that the recipients do like them, but I can't help feeling that I let my swap partners down.

Worse, still, I keep trying - and failing - at knitting project after knitting project. I tried Fetching from Knitty... I tried felting a small clutch from the One Skein book... I thought about doing the Irish Hiking Scarf from Hello Yarn. It was only after I started Fetching that I remembered that I don't know how to knit in the round with double-pointed needles. Nor do I know how to cable. Hrrumph. I knitted the clutch and my seaming was better than it had ever been (thanks, kiddo; you know who you are), but the felting was a complete and total disaster - the piece never fully felted, it shrunk like all get out, but some of the stitches were still visible. I'd like to blame it on my front-loading machine, but everyone here has a front-loading machine and lots of people felt. So I moved on to the Irish Hiking Scarf. It was then that I remembered, after printing the pattern and sitting down to knit, that I still didn't know how to cable. Bugger.

And just to wholly deflate my already sagging ego, I surfed over to knit-one-one and realized that Punk Rawk Purl, whom I greatly and dearly admire, learned to knit a mere two months before I did and is now teaching classes, rather than sitting around of a weekend lamenting her abject lameness.

How do some people's skills get that far ahead, that fast? Is it because they knit every day? Are they inherently better at it?

Urgh.

So, this weekend, I have practiced making bobbles and am teaching myself to cable without a cable needle via Grumperina's tutorial.

I am determined to get past this.

I know, I know... I will. I'm just having a small quandary.

In my head, I hear Chevy Chase as Ty Webb telling me, "Just let it happen. Be the yarn. Be the yarn, Danny."