Saturday, November 25, 2006

What Kind of Reader Are You?
Your Result: Dedicated Reader
 

You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.

Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
 
Literate Good Citizen
 
Book Snob
 
Fad Reader
 
Non-Reader
 
What Kind of Reader Are You?
Create Your Own Quiz

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving!

All alone and far from home this Thanksgiving, but I'm trying to make the best of it. Just spent almost 2 hours on the phone with my family (thank you Verizon-to-Verizon free calling) and now I'm going to make an apple pie to bring to "Orphans' Thanksgiving" - a little get-together of residents that aren't working but couldn't go home. While that's in the oven I plan on watching White Christmas and knitting. All in all, not a bad day off.

Some Thanksgiving seriousness via Happy Catholic...

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.


And some Thanksgiving fun...

You Are Mashed Potatoes

ordinary, comforting, and more than a little predictable
You're the glue that holds everyone together.
What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Saturday, November 18, 2006

I'm a sucker for memes. I like reading them because it's a little glimpse of people's lives, and I like doing them because it's an easy post. I'm trying to post more often after my month and a half absence, but there's not much going on in my life or my knitting. So here goes... from Rabbitch

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: quiet
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): nonexistent
3. Your hair: puffy
4. Your mother: giving
5. Your Father: helpful
6. Your Favorite Item: books
7. Your dream last night: scary
8. Your Favorite drink: coffee
9. Your Dream Car: little
10. The room you are in: messy
11. Your Ex: distant
12. Your fear: failure
13. What you want to be in 10 years? confident
14. Who you hung out with last night? residents
15. What You're Not? tidy
16. Muffins: blueberry
17. One of Your Wish List Items: bag
18. Time: insufficient
19. The Last Thing You Did: telephoned
20. What You Are Wearing: sweats
21. Your Favorite Weather: brisk
22. Your Favorite Book: austen
23. The Last Thing You Ate: peanuts
24. Your Life: hectic
25. Your Mood: mellow
26. Your best friend: far
27. What are you thinking about right now? shopping
28. Your car: dirty
29. What are you doing at the moment? sitting
30. Your summer: busy
31. Your relationship status: pathetic
32. What is on your TV? Superman
33. What is the weather like? chilly
34. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday

Feel free to play along.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Christmas knitting - Take 1

Last Christmas I was a newbie knitter - reading Stitch 'n Bitch and trying to figure out how to purl (ribbing was a tough lesson for me). So this is my first Christmas doing the knitted gift thing. As such, I'm keeping my expectations pretty low. A scarf for Mom and socks for Dad. The socks may turn into a birthday present to give me a couple more weeks since I've barely started sock one and my dad wears a size 12. This could end very badly - frantically knitting on the plane ride home to get them done. But I've made a good start on mom's scarf. I'm doing a simple lace pattern. Simple is essential when it comes to me and lace as I learned in that whole Amazing Lace debacle. (Anyone remember Charlotte? Me neither.) But simple can be good when done in a yummy cashmerino yarn. Isn't it pretty? And check out the needles. What to do when you stupidly snap and #3 bamboo needle in half? Replace it with these gorgeous rosewood needles. These are the nicest needles I've ever worked with - warm in my hands, smooth but not too slippy with the yarn, and great tips for lace. I see more of these in my future for sure.


I don't think the picture does it justice, but it's the least blurry and least yellow I could come up with. It's really hard to get decent photos without natural light, and the sun isn't around much lately. Honestly, if someone had told me that there's no sun in Massachusetts, I might not have been so eager to move.

So that's what I've been up to. I want to finish the scarf in the next week or two and then devote my time to the socks. Picture to come when I've actually made progress. Also to come, info on my one year knitversary drawing.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

I love me some Prison Break


Which Prison Break Character are you?





You are Dr. Sara Tancredi
Take this quiz!








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OK, I totally cheated and deliberately got this result. But I just love Michael Scofield too much. Even if it looks like Sara is in some serious trouble right now.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

From all the "where are you" emails I've gotten, I guess it's been a long time since I posted. Looking back it's been a really long time. Sad to admit that I've gotten very little knitting done in all this time. It's getting cold up here (I just bought a new ice scraper and ordered my snow tires!) and I'm in scarf knitting mode.


On the left is the "Men's Cashmere Scarf" from LMKG that I started months ago. I finally finished it and I love it. It's a wonderfully soft alpaca yarn that I just want to snuggle. I also finished the scarf for my ISE pal. It's the same pattern but in purple. I tried a bunch of different patterns with the yarn but finally just redid this one because it worked with the alpaca better. I of course finished it just in time to mail it and didn't take a picture before rushing to the post office. But it's just like this one, but in a different color. On the right is the awesome scarf I received through the ISE. It's the Rib Scarf from MagKnits in Malabrigo. I've been wearing it nonstop since it arrived in the mail.

I've started my Christmas knitting (my very first knitted Christmas gift) with a scarf for my mom. The pictures were all horrible and blurry; I blame the gray day and the crap lighting in my apartment. I'll try to get a decent shot of it tomorrow. It's a simple lace pattern in yummy cream cashmerino. I would work on it some more, but I just sat on my size 3 needle and snapped it in half. So it's off to buy new needles tomorrow afternoon!