Susie Cupcakes

Weekend

2009-11-08T18:53:00.002-05:00

This is one of the two weekends a year where I have to work on Saturday. For reasons that I don't entirely understand, I do not get another day off during the week, so it ends up being a six-day work week, followed by Sunday, then five more days of work. And this time, I am feeling very fed up and not very school-spirity. As a representative of the school, I have to spend Saturday chatting with people about how special it is, and while intellectually I know it is indeed special, my gut feeling all day was all mumbly and muttered things like, "stupid rich university that couldn't even spring for the customary thank you bookmark, even though I gave a talk to 70 potential donors at 10 am on Saturday morning....grrrr." Okay, so maybe not that mumbly, and maybe I said as such aloud last night during a game of scrabble. But I can't say that to people who are genuinely excited to be visiting their alma mater, or the place where their kids go. That is too evil, even for me.

Anyway. To try to make Sunday at least worthy of the name "weekend," Alex and I took a drive through northwestern Connecticut, stopping in Litchfield. This is a quite Stars Hollow-y town, and I think Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick live there. We did not have a Bacon sighting (which would have been awesome, because I could then insert myself into the 6 degrees game! sort of!) but we did have lunch at kind of a schmancy place where they asked Alex to remove his hat (huh?) but they served very nice food and horseradishy bloody marys, so they are okay. We then went to the historical society and the Litchfield Law School, which was America's first law school. We got to watch a 15 minute video recreating what some of the early law students would have seen and discussed on their way to the law school. It turns out to be slavery, Aaron Burr, and girls. Typical.

On the way home from Litchfield we stopped at a Target and guess what I found!

My long lost dream beverage! Okay, so the situation was a little weird, in that some of the boxes looked like they had literally been through hell and high water, and they were in cases of 8 cans, which is unheard of in my La Croix research, but hooray! I bought 4 cases--2 lime, 1 lemon, and 1 pamplemousse! This should last upwards of one week, at which time I will return to the Torrington Target for another fix.

A few things

2009-10-20T08:07:00.003-04:00

I'm not even going to make an excuse for being AWOL. Let's just get going again!

1) Graybaby has redeveloped her diabetes. We noticed that she had lost a few pounds, and in our house, the loss of a few pounds is cause for celebration (people) or concern (cats), because our family doesn't lose weight easily. A visit to the vet last week was cancelled after my smart kitty hid from me, and was rescheduled for yesterday. It was quickly confirmed that GB does have the 'betes, and needs insulin shots and fancy food and follow up visits. She was first diagnosed almost exactly four years ago and it lasted about three months. I hope this round is similarly short.

2) I am playing a little game called Sober October this month, in which I am not drinking any alcohol all month. Mostly, I just wanted to see if I could do it, as it's been a long time since I went a considerable length of time without drinking. So far, so sober. The only times I've "missed" it is when I'm eating a meal with other people and wish I could have a glass of red wine with my pasta, or a beer with my lobster roll. Other than that, it's been pretty easy. I've even lost a few pounds! Don't worry, though, I'll go to the vet soon.

3) Despite the success of Sober October, I am looking forward to Don't Remember November.

more soon . . .

2009-06-19T05:17:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts--we haven't had as much internet access in our b & bs as we anticipated, but we are having a great time and have beenvery busy scrambling over rocks, visiting quaint towns, and sipping pints. I can't believe it's our last day already, and we will be back in the US tomorrow! More posts and pics then.

Slainte!

yer a harlot

2009-06-13T06:22:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Dublin! Alex and I arrived early, very very early on Thursday morning after a flight from Boston. I am sorry to say that Aer Lingus no longer gives you free booze but they do have a tv monitor for each seat, so you can watch movies and tv and play games. Frankly, I prefer the booze but any port in a storm and all that. After we arrived at 4:45 am, we had to wait until 6 when our rental car place opened. During that time, Alex realized he had left his camera bag on the plane. After a series of phone calls, it appeared that maybe the camera had set off for a new Irish life. Luckily we still had 3 cameras on our person.

After picking up the car, we drove up to Newgrange, because when you're sleep-deprived and disoriented, I think it's best to drive very narrow roads on an unaccustomed side, and then visit a 5,000 year old monument. After I stopped cringing and tensing everytime we swept past some brush and nearly collided with trucks (sorry, lorries), I realized that Alex is AN AWESOME DRIVER. Which I already knew, of course, but he is totally set for a serious run on the Amazing Race.

Newgrange was as spooky and weird as I remembered and the weather was lovely and green. Seeing sheep and sunshine is quite a restorative. After our tour and some rest, we drove back down and through Dublin to Dun Laoghaire, where our b&b is. It took us so long to actually locate the house on the confusing, narrow streets that I started to sadly accept that we may have to live in the Ford Fiesta, possibly forever. Ah, but then it appeared! A hot cuppa and some raisin bread, followed by a three hour nap was as refreshing as splash in the cold Irish Sea. Alex and I voyaged into Dun Laoghaire town for some dinner and a Cork Dry Gin and Tonic.

(Jenna: CDG is as prominent as ever, and seems to be the standard rail pour for gin at most bars. Did they used to bring the glass with ice, gin, and lemon, and give you a miniature tonic water bottle to add it yourself? I don't remember that . . . but I don't remember a lot about Ireland 1999!)

After a good sleep we ate an absolutely enormous breakfast (a good Irish fry for Alex with 3 or 4 meats, a huge bowl of porridge for me, plus bread and fruit). We then went into Dublin for more adventures . . .

My internet time draws to a close, but more soon!

btw, "yer a harlot," is what I heard a man say to his lady friend as we were walking yesterday. Now my man friends says it to me quite a bit, with a special Irish lear . . . "Yer a harlot, I tell ya!"

babies!

2009-05-26T20:31:00.002-04:00

I think I'm going to be an auntie soon! My sister texted to say that she is in labor, and sounded a little breathless when I talked to her. Since I've known about the baby since mere hours (well, weeks) after conception, it's hard to believe that little Arabella will be a real, true baby soon!

In other news, not much to report. It was a weird, long spring season and I am happy to see it go. Alex and I go to Ireland in two weeks and I am really excited to go back. Last time I was there I was in a weird Deep South/Northern Ireland emotional place, reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in between visiting depressing community groups struggling to survive terrorist attacks. This trip should be a bit lighter, emotionally. We are going to see sheep! And cows! And it will be really nice to be in a totally different place for a while.

But before that happens, there will be a new baby in the family! I am so excited.

Sammie

2009-01-14T19:44:00.003-05:00

Two sammies:
1) There's a deli near my work that I occasionally go to, usually when I have forgotten to bring lunch. They have about a million specialty sandwiches and types of bread and kinds of soup and it's sort of fabulous, if a deli near work can be fabulous. I'm torn, though, because although I think the food is very good, it is very slow, and without prominent signage about how to line up to place your order, people get confused and harried, and it brings back horrible flashbacks of when I was a waitress in an airport and people were mean. (Also, I was a truly horrible waitress, but that's another story.) I was behind a student in line one day that almost lost it when her roast beef sammie appeared to disappear into the abyss behind the counter. The guy who runs the shop is very avuncular, though, and asks all his customers questions and knows them and tends to put people at ease. I need to learn how to ignore angry, stressy people around me, because if I am out to eat and someone at another table is unhappy, I am not only very aware of it, but I observe nervously and forget that I am, you know, out for a nice meal and it doesn't really matter if a stranger doesn't like her potatoes.

2) I have been watching The Biggest Loser which is hosted by Sami from Days of Our Lives. I caught a few episodes over the holidays and it reminded me how much I love Days. I loved Passions very much more, passionately in fact, but it is dearly departed. Days is also delightful, though. So many torrid glances! So much smell-the-fart acting! Anyway, Sami has been on that show forever as a huge brat, but on The Biggest Loser she is very empathetic with the people. I'm not sure I can keep watching, though. Unlike a show like The Bachelor, in which you think the people kind of deserve what's coming, these people are genuinely in a tough situation, so there can be no pleasure in elimination.

I do enjoy all the numbers, though. The most percentages in primetime!

Subzero Hero

2009-01-12T19:16:00.003-05:00

I was in the drug store this morning picking up a prescription and saw this in the 75% off Christmas junk aisle.

I have to admit that I glanced at it while walking out and had to turn and go back and look more closely. It is a little plastic toy that comes with "cola and butterscotch" jelly beans--but don't worry, any "standard size jelly bean" will do. And you were wondering what to do with that stash of fecal-colored jelly beans!

I love that he is called "The Sub-Zero Poopin' Hero."

I love that he is called a "Poo-lar Bear."

And I really love step 3 in the directions:
3. Shake the bear gently to settle the sweets.

I found myself repeating the phrase (in my head, not during library meetings or anything) over and over. It's written in dactylic verse (DUM-da-da-DUM-da-da) and it reminds me of another lovely and severely creepy phrase a that a French student teacher used in class to demonstrate the present progressive form of a verb. She said, and I quote,

"Papa is coming to punish the child."

I can't even remember if this happened in my sister's class or in mine, but it immediately became one of the most commonly used phrases in our lives. Your parents get mad at you? Papa is coming to punish the child. You fail a pop quiz? Papa is coming to punish the child. You get annoyed with someone's gum smacking? Papa is coming to punish the child. It's brilliant because the speaker can shift from Papa to child depending on the situation. It's also deeply disturbing and redolent of Victorian novels with harsh "masters" and orphan children.

So there you have my two favorite dactyl verses.
Papa is coming to punish the child! Shake the bear gently to settle the sweets!

I'm fine, why do you ask?

November 30

2008-11-30T19:38:00.002-05:00

I write to you, dear friends, from the Comfort Inn in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. After a day of driving though rain and fog, we finally decided to stop before the mountain roads got icy. We will get up early tomorrow and try to make it the rest of the way home. We are currently near White Haven (not as nice as it sounds) and about 45 miles south of Scranton. I miss the kitties and would like to be home, but not badly enough to drive for another 6 or 7 hours, given the rate we've been going.

It was a lovely weekend with everyone and very nice to see friends again. I really wish we could have spent more time seeing our favorite people and places, but it just means we'll have to go back soon.

I did it! A month of blogging. Thanks for reading along.

November 29

2008-11-29T23:16:00.002-05:00

I am so glad tomorrow is the last day of November. I am not a natural diarist. I need more time to marinate (ruminate?) on the day's event before I post. But: today was great. Lots of friends and food.

Tomorrow we head back to the cold North.

November 28

2008-11-28T22:31:00.002-05:00

We had another nice day of Wii, eating, walking around town, and enjoying the warm weather. We stopped at Locopops, and I had a pear-tarragon popsicle. Ooh, wish there were locopops everywhere!

It's been another lazy day, so not much to report. But for Jodi and Jason, our generous hosts-in-absentia: we are loving our "beach house" (we pretend) and we haven't stacked the PBR cans up too high.

November 27

2008-11-27T22:14:00.002-05:00

We had a nice Thanksgiving with friends down here in North Carolina, and I ate so much food I think I might die. Or at least sleep for a really long time. The boys are playing Wii baseball and I'm about ready to call it a night.

Sorry for the LAME blogging. Tomorrow I will be less sleepy from travel and overeating. Tis a new tomorrow!

November 26, 2008

2008-11-26T21:01:00.002-05:00

It took 14 hours, but I am in North Carolina and having a fine time. I got to see many exciting places, including Scranton (but not The Office crew, of course); Harrisonburg, where Stef works; and now Carrboro, one of my favorite places ever.

More tomorrow. For now, adieu!

November 25

2008-11-25T19:38:00.003-05:00

I am so excited: I got an American Girl catalog in the mail today! Tell me, how did I get on this list? My subscription to Gourmet? Ordering things from Ann Taylor Loft? The Lego stuff I ordered for Alex last year? However I fell onto this most auspicious mailing list, I want to stay!

Have you ever wanted to see Susie C. in doll form? Okay!

This is the "Just Like You" version of me. I'm really quite stunning. I mean stunned. (By the way, this is what is considered "short" blond hair.)

I used to get this catalog when I was a legitimate American girl and always wanted to have all the fancy clothes and accessories, which was clearly impossible because the dolls wore clothes more expensive than I did. That was when they just had historically-based dolls with accompanying costumes. My favorite was Samantha, the rich Victorian girl. I mean seriously, do you want to be a poor Swedish immigrant when you can wear giant velvet hair bows? (Note: This may be some kind of sick instinctual affection, being that I am descended from poor Swedish immigrants.) But in any case, I was dismayed to see that Samantha is being fricking phased out! She's going into the "American Girl Archives." Question: do children no longer like giant velvet hair bows? Second question: How do I get a job at the American Girl Archives?

My friend Anastasia wrote a brilliant essay about the American Girl phenomenon that is unfortunately not online (if it is, let me know, Stas!). It is truly a bizarre phenomenon and if you can visit a store, please please do. We visited the Chicago store and it's an experience we can never forget. If you haven't seen someone pay $10 to get their doll's hair put into pigtails, you're really missing out.

November 24

2008-11-24T20:20:00.002-05:00

Thanks for the pants advice, ladies. I will do some investigation during Thanksgiving weekend and report my findings. (I especially appreciate "Emily" (mysterious!) who wished me "Godspeed." I appreciate the solemnity. Pants are pretty solemn.)

Okay, so I started my Tour de Childhood on Saturday and we will return to that today. Our next stop is Fargo, North Dakota, which is a deeply, deeply weird place. The band Southern Culture on the Skids came one summer when I was in college and I heard through the grapevine that they said Fargo was the weirdest place they had ever been. This is a group that throws fried chicken at their audiences. They know from weird.

So, December 1982. I am four years old. We pull up in front of our rental house and I immediately threw up. This rather inauspicious beginning is easily credited to traveling from New York to North Dakota in December with a 2 year old sister, a 4 month old brother, two stressed-out parents and two freaked-out cats in a Dodge Aries K. Frankly, I'm surprised we all didn't throw up.

I spent the rest of my childhood in Fargo, only leaving when I went to college. The thing that is bad about Fargo is that it is so isolated. But the thing that is great about Fargo is that it is so isolated. It allowed people to become genuinely weird and creative people, and gave them the space to try things that a bigger city would not allow. There were so many strange band venues. I saw Bikini Kill at the Elks, and Calvin Johnson at the bowling alley. There was also an old skating rink called the Purple Pickle or something, and local bands would play there too. Some guys started a theatre/coffee house/hangout place downtown with carpet samples laid out all over the floor and walls. It lasted about 4 months, but it was great. It was so unabashedly itself.

There was also a lot of ignorance and closed-mindedness and I'd be lying if I said I didn't fantasize about leaving from approximately age 13 onward. But I feel some real tenderness toward a place that lets people leave their cars running, unlocked, in the parking lot while they go grocery shopping. It makes you start thinking a little bit . . . weird.

November 23

2008-11-23T20:16:00.002-05:00

Ladies, can anyone recommend a clothing manufacturer that makes really nice fitting pants for those of us with more zaftig figures? I am tired of pants that are the same diameter at the waist as at the hips, meaning pants that pull unflatteringly across the hips, or pants with a waist gap. I'm looking for (preferably) wide legged wool trousers. I'm thinking Katharine Hepburn. She would never tolerate hip-pull or waist-gap. WWKHD?

November 22

2008-11-22T21:31:00.003-05:00

My dear Sis suggested I write about the places I have lived, and since I am too tired to take pictures of the February Lady I'm making, that's just what I'll do.

I spent my first four years in Schenectady, New York, but owing to the fact that I was developing basic motor skills and learning language I don't have too many memories of being there. My very first memory is being at my babysitter's house, Grandma Wetzel (not my real grandma, but like a real grandma), and talking on the phone with my dad, and him telling me I had a baby sister. I promptly burst into tears, mostly from confusion, and perhaps from some deep understanding that things would never be the same. I got over it, and now adore my sis of course! Sorry about the rude welcome, though, buddy.

My other memories are sort of strange, Lynchian disembodied strands. I remember my mom being mad and me picking her flowers in the backyard. I remember standing at the top of the staircase and dropping my cat Timmy down to the bottom. I did that every night after we had snuggled in bed for a while. I don't do that any more. It turns out it's not very nice for the cat!

I also remember eating dinner with my sister and us putting ketchup on our noses and proclaiming ourselves Rudolph. I remember watching my sister eat pieces of paper ripped from a Charlie Brown book, and then getting in trouble for not stopping her. In a stunningly accurate prediction of my future self-conception, the book was called Everything I Do Makes Me Feel Guilty. One thing I don't remember was that I used to go outside with a bucket of water and a paint brush and paint tree trunks, but I apparently enjoyed hours of that. To which I say, was I offered no toys or did I simply reject them in favor of an unsatisfying and pointless activity?

Thus, you see that the early formative years of my life were creepy and I'm lucky to have developed relatively normal interests and hobbies. Well, I still bust out that ketchup thing when dinner party conversation lags. I find it works much better than sharing the Timmy story.

November 21

2008-11-21T19:48:00.002-05:00

Wheeee! Weekend! I am hap-hap-happy to be at the beginning of the weekend, and know there are only two days of work next week. On Wednesday, we are saddling up and heading down North Carolina-way to see friends and BABIES (YAY!) and eat all the food we miss so much. Neomonde grape leaves sandwiches, Elmo's huevos rancheros, and just about everything at Weaver Street Market. Diet starts, um, Monday after Thanksgiving.

I came home to a new US Weekly, and thank god it didn't have the Obamas on the cover like the last two weeks. While I love the Obamas, I do not care to see them in US Weekly. It's rather like seeing your parents at a kegger: completely inappropriate and wrong. This week it's all about how Angelina is a cruel minx and Jennifer Aniston is a sad victim and Brad Pitt is helpless in the hands of such powerful women. While I have serious reservations on the implications of this (vis a vis virgin/whore dichotomy), I truly much prefer learning about how Angelina's interview with Reader's Digest (!) totally hurt Jennifer's feelings. Reader's Digest, really? Did she read it at her grandpa's house or something?

Did I mention I love the weekend?

November 20

2008-11-20T22:00:00.003-05:00

Lately I can't even sit down without a cat climbing into my lap, by my side, and on my feet. Every time I go to the bathroom, Mouse is shrieking at the door the second it closes, and Buckles likes to lie on my ankles at night. He weighs almost 20 pounds, so it's not unlike dumping a dozen textbooks on my feet. But they are textbooks that poop and chase one another at 4am.

However, there is something unquestionably nice about a heater bug in the bed on cold nights. They are so sweet and comforting. Even with their fish breath.

November 19

2008-11-19T18:57:00.006-05:00

Today is a very important day. It is the

SEASON FINALE
of
AMERICA'S
NEXT
TOP
MODEL!!!!!!

It is a day that only comes once (well, twice) a year and it means it's time to say goodbye to another batch of crazy eating-disordered, mentally unstable, and self-obsessed close personal friends of mine. As I expected, two of the three ladies I selected as finalists have been eliminated. The final choices are Analeigh (my only pick left and I still like her), a strange young woman who calls herself "McKey" and developed a sudden European accent last week, and a yippy hyper lass called Samantha. Unlike past seasons, I neither loathe nor love any of them. That's not right! Tyra, please think about how you can spend more time editing the show to make your loyal viewers despise or celebrate en masse! And please reconsider your acting "teaches"--I've seen finer acting in the productions my brother and sister put on using a video camera back in Fargo. My performance as "Mother" in 1989's A Kitten for Christmas is on par with your teaches, and that is not good. And please reconsider using the word "teach" when you mean "lesson."

Actually, keep saying teach. It just wouldn't be ANTM without mangled grammar. Love ya! Mwah!

November 18

2008-11-18T20:11:00.003-05:00

Is this thing on? Hello?

NICKNAMES for my cat MOUSE

Mousie
Mousie Mouse-demeanor (variation on Missy Miss-demeanor)
Moo
Moose
Moo-cow
Moosie
Moo-moo
Mink
Minky
Minky-moo
Mouser
Mouse Cookie
Mouse Cookie Joslin-Roher (honorary last name of my college roommate)
Mooker
Moon
Moonie
Moo-dog
Moon-dog
Mao
Moomba
Lady Moo
La Moo
Meehee
Moopey

Suggestions gratefully accepted

November 17

2008-11-17T20:33:00.003-05:00

Today I got a couple of text messages from the 305 area code. One said

hey. CARNARSIE

The other said:

hey.big head miss me already?

So in response to my mysterious new friend from Miami:

Hey! You slightly misspelled my name.
Are you saying my head looks fat?
In a strange way, I DO miss you already.
TTYL?

November 16

2008-11-16T20:40:00.002-05:00

Maybe it's the stormy November weather, or just a generally dour mood, but I've been very much enjoying mysteries lately. Alex and I continue to watch the Inspector Lynley mysteries, and we picked up a Wire in the Blood DVD at the library yesterday. So creepy! And the Wire in the Blood episode gave me my first exposure to tight Burberry swim trunks. I can't say I support it. Tartans and chlorine seem an unnatural mix.

I also checked out some mystery novels, including Jon A. Jackson's The Diehard. It was written in the 1970s and takes place in Detroit, but it has that quick hard-boiled Hammett dialogue I have grown so fond of. There are a bunch more in the series, so I'll be getting some of those next time.

Sunday nights always make me feel kind of glum. Luckily, we're watching a couple of Arrested Development episodes and knitting. Always cheers me up.

November 15

2008-11-15T22:22:00.002-05:00

Today Alex and I spent some time at the public library, which is always a treat. Our library has a fantastic fiction section, as well as a ton of DVDs, books on CD and tape, and lots of knitting and cooking books. I happened upon Tim Gunn's A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style, which is just as delightful as Tim Gunn. So far, he's referenced Roland Barthes, Kierkegaard, and Ralph Lauren. Love it.

What are you reading these days? Sparky bit my calf today because I walked too close to her, so I expect I'll be bedridden some time in the near future. Best stock up on books now!

November 14

2008-11-14T17:39:00.004-05:00

Yay! I came home from work after a long long week and found a package for me from SoKnitPicky's Vy, she of the beautiful knitted garments and photographs!

It's gorgeous splendid Malabrigo Silky Merino in Azul Azul colorway. I have never seen this yarn in person, and I assure you: it is about the softest yarn ever, with a beautiful silky sheen.

I won the yarn for coming the closest to guessing the final electoral vote count for Obama and McCain. Yay! The audacity of hope has translated into fabulosity of yarn. I think I'm going to make a hat from the yarn, or possibly a scarf. Thank you Vy!

Thank you also to those who left Thanksgiving dinner suggestions. I now have an oven, a sous chef, and suggestions to make polenta or buy Golden Corral yeast rolls and canned cranberry sauce. That last one was suggested by my sister, and it was indeed a yearly tradition to open a can of cranberry sauce, watch as it oozed out of the can, standing up on end in a dish, and bring it to the table as a quivering mass of gelled cranberry, complete with the can ridges. We were classy like that, okay? For the last few years I've been making homemade cranberry sauce with fresh berries and orange zest, but the "traditional" family style has great appeal. Mark Bittman and I will consult this weekend and make a decision.

It's actually funny thinking about childhood food stuff. We recently had a work party where we were supposed to bring "childhood favorites." I brought fruit salad which was a total lie, as it was not a childhood favorite, but a response to the growing list of macaroni and cheese entrees. I was afraid we would all get scurvy and then who would run the library? But the dish that popped first into my head was something my mom used to make that we called Booger Pie, and it was (I think) shredded potatoes and carrots mixed in with ground beef, baked in a casserole dish, and served like meatloaf with ketchup on the side. It was actually quite fantastic, but marketing it to others presents a problem. At some point, you become old and you just don't want to eat boogers anymore.

November 13

2008-11-13T20:18:00.002-05:00

I'm exhausted so: BLOG! You're it.

What should I make to bring to Thanksgiving dinner?
Parameters:
must be able to be made two days ahead of time
must be able to survive a 14 hour car ride headed south without refrigeration, although use of cooler may be allowed

GO!

November 12

2008-11-12T19:49:00.002-05:00

I feel wretched today (combination of work stuff and, uh, work stuff) so today I want to think about vacations. In the last year I flew someplace about once a month, including four trips to California, five trips to Minneapolis, and one amazing trip to Paris. There were also a lot of shorter trips to places like Baltimore, Charlottesville, New York, and Newport RI. Now that I've gotten in the habit of traveling semi-frequently, I want to do more of it.

Ten places on my list:

1) Hawaii: Wheel of Fortune is in Hawaii this week!
2) Greece: I've wanted to go to Greece for a long time, for reasons I'm not entirely sure about. It may have happened the first time I ate dolmades. Every time I see a sun-soaked photo of the Aegean coast, I wish I were there. I also enjoy the Greece scenes in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (shut up).
3) Italy: see Greece, plus pasta. Under the Tuscan Sun is like travel porn. If only I lived in a 14th century villa with vineyards and olive trees!
4) Argentina: just want to. Hilly, with interesting knitwear.
5) Australia: I loved In a Sunburned Country and I would love to visit. It seems super-weird.
6) New Zealand: Flight of the Conchords, duh!
7) South Africa: completely fascinating.
8) Morocco: I like mint tea.
9) India: Love the colors, food, history, architecture. Also, my BIL has relations there so maybe I could crash.
10) Scotland: Ewan McGregor! In a kilt?

Where do you want to vacay? And can you get me cheap tickets?

November 11

2008-11-11T19:58:00.003-05:00

Today I had to go to the drug store and pick some stuff up, and I stopped by the makeup section. I adore the drug store makeup section, from the Wet 'n' Wild to the bizarre Physician's Formula multi-colored powders (I see that Physicians Formula has the hilarious slogan "Your Eyes Won't Believe Your Face." This works on the assumption that your eyes and face are separate, and disagreeable, entities.). Today I bought some mascara and what proclaims to be Superstay Lipcolor. It says it will last for 16 hours. We will see if that's true at 10:20am tomorrow morning. I love the promise of new products, that they will Change Your Life. Or at least your lip color.

I don't wear a ton of makeup but I love reading about it. I've been subscribing to Allure since forever, as it's the only magazine I've seen that takes beauty stuff seriously, analyzing things down to their scientific properties and social implications. The thing is, it's not pretending to be the Economist. It fully assumes that if you want to learn about computers and computer-generated hot ladies, you will subscribe to Wired; if you want to know about annoying modern artists and experimental chefs, you will subscribe to The New Yorker, and if you want to know about self-curling mascara, you will subscribe to Allure. Just this past month, I learned about a hairspray that is regarded by hairstylists as the world's most perfect hairspray: Elnett. You guys, it can hold a shape YET you can comb through it! People used to smuggle cases of it from Europe! Just wait until I get my hands on it. Life will never be the same.

November 10

2008-11-10T19:46:00.002-05:00

I am fresh out of blog-worthy chat today, so let's take a fond look at Sparky's Extreme Home Makeover:

Sparky, before: starved, weak, pregnant, furious
Home, before: calm, happy, friendly

Sparky, after: fat, sleepy, delighted with herself, furious
Home, after: at the mercy of Sparky's moods and whims

And that is Sparky's extreme home makeover. None of us will ever be the same again.

I love her the most when she's asleep.

November 9

2008-11-09T22:55:00.002-05:00

Oh blog! You are starting to harsh my mellow. It's pretty late so I will just give a quick update of today: morning pumpkin muffins, afternoon walk on the beach (we call it the shore here in Connecticut; if you call it the coast you get eye-rolls/stabbed), then Bethany, Alex and I made an intense Jamie Oliver squash risotto with fried sage. We were supposed to see Jamie Oliver talk today but his flight was delayed, which is sort of lame. Can you imagine two cities with more flights between them than London and New York? But I will forgive Jamie because he is adorable and the risotto was fantastic.

Tomorrow is Mondayyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Sorry to be all "case of the Mondays!" but yuck. Hope you all had a good weekend. See y'all tomorrow!

November 8

2008-11-08T20:08:00.004-05:00

Thanks for the nice comments, Woodburys! You are sweet.

I realized that I hadn't done a blog post today, and thought eek! What will I write about? After some thought, today I will write about Autumn 2008 Obsessions: TV Edition:

1) Tabitha's Salon Takeover: Combines my love of business criticism with my love of no-nonsense Australian ladies, with a dash of self-help-ism. I just like how she rejects crying, unclean sinks, and poor retail sales. I now totally understand how I come home with $13 hair messer-upper ("make it beachy!") every time I get a hair cut.

2) Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Oh, PBS, you burned me bad with my up-close-and-personal experience with History Detectives (short version: I submitted a mystery which was produced but I was cut from the segment. Blerg!). I cannot watch History Detectives anymore and due to Monday night proximity, I only rarely watch Antiques Roadshow, which is real shame because I adore the touchy-feely-blondy Keno brothers. But Sunday night is dreamy wonderful Mystery! night (excuse me, Masterpiece Mystery) hosted by Alan Cumming who will always be rubber millionaire dancer Sandy Frink. (Let's pretend that his personal fragrance thing wasn't quite so unsavory.) Inspector Lynley is a wealthy British detective who is paired with a more working class partner whom he secretly loves but shares instead a firmly platonic relationship based on murderer-hunting. It's like Mulder and Scully but in London with fewer aliens but more sexual predators. Fun!

3) Jeopardy!: This show is super old-school and I know two people who have been contestants and say Alex Trebec is kind of an ass, but I have really enjoyed watching during the last couple of months. It started with loving the nerdy college tournament and then continued into the regular selection of nerdy adult contestants. I like that many of the questions are legitimately difficult. However, from the last couple of months, I see certain trends. If you were to go on the show, for example, you would want to study the following topics: English royalty, French literature, Italian opera, Academy Award winners, U.S. presidents and first ladies, and dog breeds. It's also helpful if you know the first lines of mid-to-late-19th century English and American novels. You also need some weird anecdotes to talk about during the "chat with the contestants time." Something about how you have been attacked by birds, mistaken for a celebrity, or swallowed by a whale is ideal. My story will be about how I was smothered by cats.

What are you watching these days?

November 7

2008-11-07T19:36:00.002-05:00

I feel like I'm getting just a touch of the baby fever these days. My sister has a little one a-cookin' and due to pop next may, and several (nay, many) of my friends have had babies in the past year, and they are adorable. Really gorgeous. Part of this is due to my "really gorgeous friends" policy, but it's also because babies eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! They are cute!

From everything I've read, a lady's ability to have children declines rapidly past the age of, like, 17, but I am still not sure this is the time to take that leap. Having a baby is serious business. You cannot feed it tater tots and veggie corn dogs for dinner, as I feed myself. You cannot give it wine, nor can you give yourself wine when there is massive baby laundry to do. Babies like to wake up every hour or so for the first year or five. I like to sleep. I was on a plane with a baby who pooped soon after take-off and it was nauseating. Poop just ain't cute. Yet I scoop litter boxes all the time, and it's totally worth it. It is.

How do you know when to have a wee one? Is it when you start putting someone else's baby as your computer desktop background? (Hi Stella, cutie-pie who doesn't belong to me!) Is it when you have enough money? (Because I might never have enough money. The history biz is never going to be super lucrative, unless I write a best-selling biography of Ben Franklin or something.) Is it when you think your partner would be a good parent? (Because Alex would be awesome. I'm the one who would be less awesome.) Or does it just happen a bit by accident, or a bit not?

Parents, inform me. Non-parents, what are you thinking? Parents to be, fill in the blanks!

November 6

2008-11-06T19:34:00.003-05:00

Our front entry way is dripping! Today's rain has compromised the already questionable quality of the roof in that area and now we have our own peaceful dripping noise, and we didn't even have to order anything out of SkyMall! We are so lucky . . . to rent, not own, this pile of sticks.

I made some mittens this week using some Noro Cashmere Island I bought back when we visited California in October. I bought two skeins at Elisabetta in Los Gatos. The yarn was certainly an indulgence but totally worth it. I also figure that yarn is like my souvenir from travels. (I can justify many yarn purchases this way, since there is not a yarn store in my town, therefore all yarn purchases are made during "travels.")

These are made from the same colorway (separate skeins), and I love how different they look. The color repeat is sooooo long, it probably doesn't repeat for the whole 110 yards of each skein. This would probably drive some people up the wall, but I love the unpredictability. The yarn is so deliciously soft and slubby. I wanted to eat the colors!

Sparky was less thrilled about the colors.

All I can say is, good thing I was wearing mittens.

November 5

2008-11-05T18:53:00.004-05:00

Whew. That was quite a night. I am very glad to hear that a puppy will be moving to the White House!
I promised to show the Tangled Yoke today, and I can show it to you in pre-wearing state. My photographer husband (oooh, just like a supermodel!) is indisposed at the moment, i.e. taking a nap because we stayed up late watching election coverage.

First of all, I love the pattern and love the way the yarn worked with the pattern. The heathered reddish orange yarn (Frog Tree Alpaca Sport Melange) is soft but still lets the cable definition come through.

I blocked the sweater on old beach towels on a futon. It took forever to dry--it probably needed at least 48 hours to completely dry, along with several changes of towels. This really surprised me because
a) alpaca is water resistant
b) it is low humidity in the house
c) there is a radiator directly below the futon

I did notice some paw prints on the sweater, perhaps from helpful friends. Maybe they slept on it and prevented it from drying. Never underestimate the appeal of smelly, damp wool for a nine hour nap. At least, according to Mouse, no regular nap can even come close to the damp wool nap for pure sleepy satisfaction.

In any case, it took its own sweet time drying. But it was totally worth it. The sweater fits beautifully. My only issue is that the buttonhole side of the button band pulls against the buttons (wait till you see them--so pretty!) and gives me a "bust-a-fazoo" Mae West look, when in reality, the sweater fits well. I think the yarn is a bit more delicate than that used in the pattern instructions, so it is more prone to stretch. Would a ribbon applied to the reverse side of the buttonhole band prevent that? Does anyone have any experience with dealing with this issue?

Oh my goodness, only 42 minutes until ANTM! Time for a glass of wine!

November 4

2008-11-04T19:47:00.003-05:00

Okay, sweater pics tomorrow. I am wearing it and I love it, though! Tomorrow I will not be wearing pajama pants and socks with holes in them when I take the pictures, so it will be more pleasant for all of us. The sweater was not 100% dry when I put it on this morning, but it seems dry now. Those alpacas! So water resistant yet absorbant.

I could barely concentrate at work today, what with checking on FiveThirtyEight every six minutes. Alex and I voted at about 6:30 am and then got breakfast at O'Rourke's. The voting line only had a few people in it, we were on the rolls as expected and it seemed like our ballots were accurately accepted by the Machine. Ooooh! I'm so excited to see what happens tonight!

My cardboard president could be my real president. This could change everything.

You know what else is big, big news? My sister is preggers!

November 3

2008-11-03T20:06:00.003-05:00

My Tangled Yoke sweater is still drying. Alpaca is apparently a highly absorbant fiber, and I sincerely hope it's dry by tomorrow, or I'm going to wear a creepy damp cold sweater because it is my OBAMA MAMA VICTORY NOW sweater. And tomorrow is the day to wear it.

[I don't want to make this a political blog. I would make it an America's Next Top Model blog much sooner than a political one. But I really hope that you are all voting (even if you don't agree with me).]

Speaking of America's Next Top Model, I'm somewhat enjoying this season. The contestants are genuinely weird, and when Tyra is busy (dressing up in a fat suit for her talk show, looking in the mirror, etc.) their weird personalities can really come out. Some of the girls are genuinely attractive, which is not always the case, and several of them seem highly eruptable, which I love. My predictions*:

Top three will be

1. Analeigh

Why: she is hot like ice is cold.
Why not: she seems nice enough to be traumatized by her crazy friends on the show (see below).

2. Elina

Why: She looks like a Ukranian Angelina Jolie
Why not: She's brittle like peanut . . . brittle. I sense imminent breakdown/blowup. Caveat: if said breakdown/blowup can be resolved by Tyra's wise counsel, she is a shoo-in.

3. Marjorie

Why: French! Terrible posture! Terrifyingly anxious real life presence transforms into lovely photos.
Why not: A Cover Girl cannot be so twitchy. A Cover Girl cannot give the viewer the impression she is about to rip off her own skin in angst.

goodnight! VOTE!

*my predictions are almost univerally wrong.

November 2

2008-11-02T10:47:00.004-05:00

We had a great time in New York yesterday, seeing old friends. Em looks terrific and she is definitely much bigger than three months ago at my wedding. Can't wait to see lil baby in December when she makes her debut. I tried to capture the bump on my cell phone, but seeing as I have only recently mastered the text message, the photos didn't come out so well. Luckily, Alex took a picture of me taking a picture of the bump.

The party was in the Quarter Bar in Brooklyn, which is a pretty great idea for a baby shower. No smoke, drinks for those who drink, drinks for those who don't, and delicious food. The weather was mild and in the low sixties and we could even eat on the back patio!

Noah and I enjoyed some samosas and talked about movies, as we both enjoy the more bizarre fruits of 1970s and 80s cinema. I tried to remember the name of the movie with Jamie Lee Curtis and John Travolta as (what I believed were) dueling aerobics instructors. I remembered this morning: Perfect. From the synopsis, it appears that it was male reporter vs. aerobics instructor.

Hello, Netflix!

Today has been quiet, but I am blocking out my newly completed election day sweater: the Obama Mama Victory Sweater. Photos tomorrow!

November 1

2008-11-01T11:54:00.002-04:00

Well, not much time to blog this morning--we're about to leave for New Haven, to take a train to New York and attend my college roommate's baby shower. Should be fun, as it's the only baby shower I've ever attended at a bar. Promises to be awesome!

We had many kids come to our door last night trick or treating. The little Supergirl, spider boy on a leash, and the 7-year-old James Bond were my favorite costumes. Nice to see neighbors out, and some were even stationed at either end of the street, warning people to slow down. We live on a short, residential street but people generally feel compelled to figure out what their zero-to-60 time is. All the kids, cats, and dogs walking around just make it more exciting!

Okay, time to catch good old Metro North! See you tomorrow.

NaBloPoMo

2008-10-31T17:43:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween!I am waiting on the porch for trick or treaters to arrive, and eyeing the bowl of candy. I've eaten so much Halloween candy in the last few days, Alex has had to purchase supplemental candy. No self control, I tell ya.

But guess what: tomorrow is November 1, and that is the start of Nanowrimo. Some of you may remember that I attempted the 50,000 word goal last November and flamed out within a week. Dudes. 50,000 is a lot. I considered trying again this year, but between my general malaise and my renewed zeal for knitting, I don't see it happening.

Then I had a brilliant idea this morning: why don't I blog every day for a month? For realsies? What a SMART Goal . . . uh, specific, manageable, aaaaaaaaa-something, realistic, and time-based! These may not be the actual qualities of SMART goals, but whatever, the point is: I will blog every day for a month. I started trying to think of the right acronym . . . NaBloWriMo? NaBloMo? Oh wait. Never mind. It's NaBloPoMo, and someone smarter and faster already started it! Okay then . . . time for Halloween beverages, and see you tomorrow!

Musings

2008-10-10T21:55:00.003-04:00

Last weekend Mr. C and I were in San Jose for a wedding. It was our first wedding attended as married people and it felt very emotional. We are both very happy about and for the couple, and I think the emotion from our own wedding came out watching another couple. Is that weird? We were super excited about our own wedding but there was so much to think about, and so much going on that I think we couldn't totally get emotional about it. Watching other people take that big step was sort of cathartic. Also, they were really funny and had fabulous food and good music. I can't believe I neglected to play "Bizarre Love Triangle" at my own wedding! I need to make a note of it for the 50th anniversary celebration. The grandchildren will be horrified.

Other than that, we've been treading water to stay afloat. Work is nuts and it's hard to get up in the morning. I alternate between acceptance and depression about current conditions. I think, in reflection, that I am really homesick most of the time. Homesick for the Twin Cities, and homesick for North Carolina. Homesick for friends. Not as bad as when listening to a single Death Cab song sent me into floods of tears, but a bit of glumness about New England life. Which is really not fair to this beautiful, strange, and gay-marriage friendly area of the country. I mean, the cheese! The maple leaves! Hell, the maple syrup. Good stuff. We have friends coming into town this weekend and next, and Rhinebeck is coming up soon. Woolly sheep are beautiful.

It's all good. It's October in Connecticut and the cats are fat. Harvest time, yo!

Guest blogger!

2008-09-10T19:57:00.004-04:00

Oh, hello there! I was just admiring the smooth and unblemished skin on the back of my upper arm. I am truly an amazing physical specimen, and any number of world-renowned photographers will back me up on that. Anyhoo, I just wanted to say hello on behalf of Susie Cupcakes. Susie has been busy. I tell her, "Girl, set that booty down and post on your blog!" And she tells me, "Blah blah blah, went to San Francisco for a conference, had a cold, blew nose in a most un-fierce way, and now I have to wooorrrk." And I say, "Did you know that when I went to Paris and I was 15 and didn't know anyone, I did 28 go-sees and two blog posts in one day? My mama didn't take any excuses. And neither do I, Miss Thang." And then she gave me a rude look and she is no longer in the running toward becoming America's Next Top Model.

Anyway, hope you're watching the new season! We dressed up like aliens and used circa 1982 technology last week. It was slammin'. This week, who knows what will happen? Hint: it will involve humiliation, camp, and shady editing. See you there!

Paris, Day Seven

2008-09-03T17:59:00.003-04:00

In real life, Day Seven occured immediately following Day Six, but in recap life it is occurring two weeks later. C'est la vie! Let's get started....

It was our last full day (sniff!). We finally got brave enough to take the Metro.

And you know what? It's very easy to use, just as easy as in New York or Boston. Thumbs up for the Metro. We took it south so we could visit the Catacombs.

Turns out everyone wants to visit the catacombs, but only 200 people are allowed in at a time, due to space reasons, and, I think, freak out-claustrophobia reasons. We happily waited an hour or so for our turn.

It was creepy in the extreme. You go down narrow, steep stairs, then walk for a number of minutes before coming upon this:
It's a reproduction of the isle of Elba or something that a miner made in his free time while down in the tunnel. Some of you know how I feel about certain dolls, puppets, and masks (people surrogates), and this is the building equivalent. Creepy! But not as creepy as, you know, 6 million dead people stacked decoratively.

Those are tibias and femurs. Behind that pile it goes back up to 80 feet deep with all the hip bones, fingers, ribs, etc. And it went on for miles (feet).

Passageway after passageway of bones, each section from a different church. It is a strange burial ground/freak show experience. Some people couldn't get enough of it, and wanted to take some of the magic home.

Busted! But seriously, how do you hide a skull on your person? Third boob?

When we re-emerged, the sun was shining and all was right. We decided to go where cheerful Amelie was filmed, Montmartre.

(Alex labeled that "Fake Train Smile" on Flickr. I normally look like I'm plotting something unpleasant.)

Montmartre is adorable and hilly, with beautiful views of Paris.

And I got to meet my first real French kitty!

This kitty lived on an adorable street, in an adorable house with an adorable garden. Is it possible to be jealous of a cat?

Then, I saw ANOTHER ONE!

It was watching birds! I realize that most people don't take pictures of strange cats when on vacation, but I can't help it. I was especially excited since there are so many kitties in artwork, posters, even grafitti, in Paris, but I had yet to see a live one until that day. Maybe I was starting to miss my own meows a bit.

We walked around the neighborhood, seeing where many artists had lived when they were poor and wild. It was charming. I mean, THIS is a door!

Unfortunatley, we had to leave, though, so we could meet up with our "landlord" and get our deposit back on the apartment. We got our moneys back and went to dinner!

We found a sweet little restaurant on the Ile St. Louis (the one with all the ice cream) and had a fabulous three course dinner.

Do you see that pillar on the far left hand side that looks like a table leg? It's a pepper mill! I thought I had the largest Peugeot pepper mill known to God and man (thanks to Jenna!) but apparently there is a bigger model. I don't think it would fit in a regular home. Maybe you could keep it by the bed to attack burglers in lieu of a baseball bat. Love me some pepper mills.

After dinner we went to take a final boat cruise on the Seine. We got to see the Eiffel Tour all dressed up for evening.

And that is the story of our trip to Paris. It was just about the most perfect honeymoon I could have imagined. Thanks, Alex, for a splendid time. Vive le mariage!

Paris, Day Six

2008-08-17T09:21:00.004-04:00

Monday morning dawned nice and sunny. We had heard that the Marais neighborhood (across the river from where we were, on the right bank) was a good place to visit, so we headed over there, first stop at the modern art museum, Centre Pompidou.

Should have checked Rick Steves before we left--it was about 9 and it didn't open until 11. We admired the fountain art and then moved on, deciding to come back later.

The doll museum was also closed, regretfully. That's DOLL museum, not POOPY museum as Alex kept calling it.

Then, we totally by accident stumbled across the National Archives! Hurrah!

I'm sure in your studies of archives (hahahaha) you learned that the French National Archives were the first intentionally created national institution to document history, so it is pivotal to the history of archives. Other countries kept tax rolls, death registers, etc. for centuries, but always for administrative purposes. After the French Revolution, the French basically said, "We're important! Save things so future generations can understand us."

Of course, in typical French style, they housed it in a palace.

Uncanny! Looks just like my office.

After we left the archives, we headed to the Picasso Museum. I had never been to a museum dedicated to just one artist, and it was really fascinating to see his style develop and change.

Here we are, post-museum, with one-euro espressos. C'est bon!

The Marais neighborhood is the traditional Jewish area, but in recent years appears to have become also a hip, boutique-y kind of place. We passed a store that had these adorable mittens:

It was closed. A lot of shopkeepers close up for August or at least part of the month. Very civilized, but too bad some of the neatest-looking places were closed while we were there.

For lunch, we stopped at one of the famed falafel restaurants and each had a platter of delight.

Ooooh, so good. There used to be an Israeli deli by my college that I loved. I love Middle Eastern food, so this was a treat.

After lunch, we went back to the modern art museum. I know I sound like a hick, but modern art makes me feel sort of stupid. I find it interesting and thought-provoking, but I have a hard time understanding the intent or meaning behind a lot of the art.

This is a piano covered in felt. It's fascinating . . . but I have no idea what it means. Maybe that's okay. Maybe modern art is intended to raise more questions than it is intended to make statements? My feet hurt at the time, so I probably wasn't in the best frame of mind.

After I had my brain twisted, we walked back to our neighborhood in the Latin Quarter and visited the Pantheon, a Greek-style French building that has been the site of important political and cultural events.

More stairs, of course, and another gorgeous view, this one extra special because the day was so lovely.

The Pantheon is also the place that Foucault conducted his famous pendulum demonstration.

Confession: I always rather idiodically thought that Michel Foucault was the pendulum Foucault. In retrospect, why a postmodern theorist would get into pendulums is a mystery beyond reason. I guess I assumed that the panopticon and the rotation of pendulums were both . . . round. Oh, liberal arts college! Essentially Foucault University.

After a stop back home to regroup, it was early evening and time for dinner. We went to Le Reminet, a restaurant just a few blocks from us recommended by our friend Katherine. It was very, very good.

My first-ever amuse-bouche, a courgette (zucchini) soup in a shot glass.

Then, delectable oysters.

And then . . . fish and pasta. I really cannot remember exactly what it was, but I will verify it was delicious.

After dinner, Alex needed to run up to our apartment to get something, and I waited downstairs on the street, next to the park. A Frenchman struck up a conversation with me (yeah . . . no.) and we somehow began to discuss American politics. He was fairly convinced that Americans would just vote the way "the Jews" wanted them to, since they "own everything." I don't want to get into a long essay on the history of European anti-Semitism or the fact that in Paris alone 200,000 Jews died during the Holocaust, but it was profoundly disappointing to meet someone who so casually and honestly believed these things. I, and Alex when he returned, debated that point and discussed the many issues that factor into U.S. elections. All's well that ends well, I guess: we concluded with a bizarre group hug.

Yikes. To shake off the weirdness, we went to visit some sweet weirdness: a south Tunisian bakery I had been admiring, which sold these amazing cookies? Pastries?

It's a pastry "tube" circle soaked in honey. It was unlike anything else I've ever eaten and I will no doubt be craving it until I come upon my next south Tunisian bakery.

Ah, a long day. Time to go home.

Those damn stairs!

Paris, Day Five

2008-08-13T20:32:00.002-04:00

Day Five (Sunday) dawned and we ate some very delicious pastries bought the night before at the boulangerie where the baguette was procured. Our tiny apartment had a coffee maker, and in a city where the very cheapest espresso (except for machine made, see Day Six when posted) is around $4, this was absolutely a blessing. A little coffee, a little pastry, and back on the Batobus. We wanted to visit the Louvre again, and spend more time there. A sleepy Sunday morning should be a great time to go, right?

WRONG. We don't have a picture of my panic, but it was the monthly "Free First Sunday" and there were (seemingly) hundreds of tour buses, long lines, and galleries as noisy as street fairs. It was so crowded that certain galleries became one way only and my creeping (seems to be getting worse every year!) claustrophobia told me it was time to GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT.

So we got out, and there was luckily a museum right next to the Louvre that we really wanted to visit: the Museum of Decorative Arts. There was a fantastic Valentino exhibit, a jaw dropping jewelry exhibit, and lots of toys.

Jean who laughs, Jean who cries. And I guess you shoot them? Toy creator, I hate it when people laugh at me, too. And crybabies--who needs 'em?

After a couple of hours looking at inflatable pool toys and other fun things, we got a bit museum-ed out, and decided to get some fresh air. There was a ferris wheel nearby, and I couldn't resist!

Our recurring theme in Paris seemed to be looking at the city from high up, and this was a nice, not too high view of central Paris. After the ride, we ate a bit of lunch, I got humiliated in a public bathroom by not understanding it was a pay toilet (such things!), found a free public bathroom with pink toilet paper (yeessssss!) and we decided to stroll down the Champs-Elysee like fancy pants people. If you didn't take French in high school, this is the tree-lined boulevard where lovely people stroll on lovely Sundays. Even cretins like me 'n' the Cupcakes-Man.

I never would have thought to make a special trip to the numerous car dealerships along the way, but they turned out to be more like art exbitions. It was so fun! The Citroen "exhibit" was wild.

Individual cars were stacked up on spinning platforms, and the viewers ascended the stairs to view them. They went from newest (bottom) to oldest (top).

Peugeot had a totally different approach--super artsy and concept cars. Look at this one!

It has hardwood floors and upholstered Louis XIV chairs. Insane. FABULOUS!

At the end of the Champs-Elysee stands the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed the stairs.

Due to what I would consider peer pressure, we climbed all 200 (250?) stairs at once, since there was no place to rest and stopping would have stopped everyone. We got to the top and felt like the awesomest people ever.

Note to selves: GO TO GYM once in a while.

The view was (as always) fantastic.

I don't think I'm ready to drive in Paris. I'm barely ready to place a phone call.

To get home, we walked a significant length back to the Eiffel Tower Batobus stop. We had an issue with a Russian party of 14 teenagers who had one person holding their spot while they retrieved hot dogs and ice cream. I had not codified this in my mind beforehand, but I sincerely believe that holding a spot should require a one-to-one ratio, i.e. 7 people should have stood in line, rather than single bratty girl shoving me over right before we boarded. The unruly group was still taking pictures, jamming hot dogs in one another's mouths, when two of them boarded followed by the Cupcakes. They stopped the boarding immediately after us because the boat was full. "NO!" shouted bossy Russian who pushed me aside to try to convince the Batobus person to let her party of 14 board with her. Oh no you di-ent! BOARDING DENIED. But the Cupcakes were allowed on! Hurrah! Triumph! Seriously, I think if we hadn't already walked something like six miles that day, we wouldn't have been so pissed, but we were super annoyed with them. It was a sweet victory.

We were really tired by the time we got home, and decided to have a night in. Alex took the sexiest picture of Camembert ever. Are you ready? You sure? Well....okay.

It makes me blush just to look!

Paris, Day Four

2008-08-12T18:18:00.004-04:00

Looking back over this day, it appears to have been about 36 hours long. Let's get going, kids, we have a lot to do!

First, we decided to buy tickets for the Batobus, which is like one of those big buses tourists ride in New York or London, where you can hop on and hop off, except it's A BOAT which makes it cool and not lame-o. Our own personal little Bateaux Mouches! It was a cloudy day but still really fun to cruise the Seine. I noticed that some people had what I think are houseboats on the river!
I immediately began fantasizing about living on a houseboat in Paris, having a little boat-top garden, and generally being fabulous. If not for money, job, cats, family, and the fact that I think there's some gross stuff having to do with bathrooms on boats, I would totally get me a houseboat!

We got out at our stop and began to climb. Can you guess where we were?

Oui! Le Tour Eiffel. The time between when the two photos above were taken involved climbing seven hundred steps, waiting in a long line for the elevator up, and taking a long elevator ride to the top. Don't take the steps if you want instant(ish) gratification.

This is one of those places that everyone needs to visit when they go to Paris, like you have to go to the Empire State Building in New York. Yes, it's touristy, but WOW. Amazing views.

After we descended the stairs, we decided to take the Batobus back to the Musee D'Orsay so we could get a couple of things from the gift shop, then walked across the river to the Jardin des Tuileries which is a very pretty, well manicured park where tons of people congregate. Since all we had eaten was a sandwich at the Tower (a good sandwich, but still), we got some ice cream!

We discovered the most delightful flavor at two different ice cream shops: salted butter caramel. YUM!

After walking around a bit, we sat down in an outdoor park cafe, had a pichet of wine, and wrote postcards.

If you got a wine splattered postcard, this is why!

We then Batobus-ed back to our Notre Dame spot, and for reasons I don't entirely understand, rather than collapsing we instead walked to Ile St. Louis, the island next to Ile de la Cite (where Notre Dame is), and bought cheese.

The feet of the angels. So delicious. If I could import one concept from France to be instituted throughout the United States, it would be the fromagerie. Also: a democratic society.

Anyhoo, we also stopped and bought a baguette, headed back home, and bizarrely ventured back out just a couple of hours later for dinner, returning to Ile St. Louis and eating at a lovely restaurant, Cafe Med. It was a prix fixe meal (appetizer, entree, and dessert) for 19 euros, which is about as good as it gets there. They even had 12 euro options for a three course prix fixe meal. I wanted to kiss them. Mwah! I had a tomato mozzerella salad, then this amazing crepe:

It has smoked salmon in the center, sour cream (or maybe creme fraiche) in the corner and a little lemon on the side. Holy cow. A square crepe! And for dessert:

A chocolate thing-a-ma-jig (sort of like a lava cake) in creme anglaise with slivered almonds on top. It was okay.

Kidding! It was FANTASTIC. And we finally called it a day. Vive la Paris!

Paris, Day Three

2008-08-11T20:30:00.002-04:00

On this morning (Friday), we woke up late, got some delicious crepes, and went to the Musee de Cluny, aka Musee des Moyen Ages, aka the Museum of the Middle Ages. This was one of the museums we could visit using our Paris Museum Passes. I'm not a huge Renaissance, unicorns and turkey legs kind of gal, but this was a fabulous museum.

So much humor and detail, and the tapestries! Oh friends, the tapestries. I became totally obsessed with "The Lady and the Unicorn," a series of six tapestries about the senses, filled with animals and plants and cheeky references to sensuality. So weird and unexpected.

This towel holder was pretty awesome too.

Following the museum visit, we walked down the Rue St. Germain, window shopping and people watching. We stopped at a cafe for lunch where, if I'm not mistaken, I spent around $14 for a glass of bubbly water. C'est tragique. The euro hurts, my friends.

To soothe our wounds, we went to Musee d'Orsay, which is filled with impressionist and other mid- to late-19th century art. There was a really cool exhibit of daguerrotypes, and some art nouveau furniture.

I don't know what that little cubby was intended for, but wouldn't it be a good place for knitting projects? In my house it would contain a cat within minutes of arriving, but for less catty places, it would be perfect.

After the museum, we walked back home, stopping at a grocery store, where I happened to spy these:

Single-serving (10 cl) real glass glasses of wine! No Capri Sun pouches here. These are a classy people.

Paris, Day Two

2008-08-09T08:01:00.002-04:00

On our first full day of Paris, we woke up early and went for a classic breakfast: cappuccino and croissants.
This cappuccino cost around $7. For all the lovely things about Paris, it is TOO EXPENSIVE. This was the last cappuccino I had, except for one from a machine that cost 1 euro. The spendy one was better, but the ability to afford rent has rewards of its own.

Following breakfast, we bought some fruit at an outdoor market and some cheese at a fromagerie. Fromageries are fabulous. Cheese heaven. Then we set off on a seriously insane day of museum-ing. Notre Dame first:

Even the doors are crazy fancy. Following that we went to the Archaeological Museum, Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, and the Louvre. Pictures of all of these can be found on Alex's Flickr set (everything I'm using for these Paris blog posts is from that. I took about four pictures on my own camera. It's hard to want to take many photos when your hubs does them so much better.)

Sainte-Chapelle is near Notre Dame but much smaller. The stained glass windows are incredibly beautiful and ornate.

After all those museums, we were pretty tired. Luckily, the Parisian government has created this genius faux beach called Paris Plage on the right bank of the Seine. They have everything from misting sprinklers to run under to mini-golf to petanque games to a swimming pool. It runs for several kilometers and it's totally FREE.

I hope to see a Middletown Plage on the banks of the Connecticut River soon, although it would probably be difficult to work around the various industrial waste that washes up on shore. Ah, my sweet homeland.

Anyhoo, we also stopped for lunch at a cafe, where I ordered a most unusual gazpacho.

What I thought was some type of dumpling turned out to be a foamy balsamic vinegar sorbet ball floating in the soup. I don't even know how you would make that, but it was pretty tasty.

That evening (after a restful afternoon nap of three hours), we went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant and had some really good pizza and tiramisu for dessert.

It had a lovely little caramelized sugar "veil" on top. Pretty pretty pretty!

Paris, Day One

2008-08-08T07:58:00.002-04:00

Bonjour, we are back from France! It was a wonderful, magical, beautiful, and delightful honeymoon. To get to our apartment we had to climb something like 88 tiny, differently sized spiral stairs.

The building was probably 17th or 18th century! The apartment itself was adorable. Everything so tiny but perfectly suited to us on our trip. Even the door was tiny. (I'm 5'6", for perspective.)

And the view. Oh, the view.

This is our view when we looked out the window to the left. C'est magnifique! When we arrived and got checked into our apartment (the owners gave us bottles of wine and champagne as a welcome!), we were pretty exhausted. It was only noon but we had been traveling all night. A good nap and we were ready to have a nice dinner.

Ah, our first cafe. I really love the French affinity for sitting around and drinking coffee or wine, just watching passersby and chatting. I read that Paris is extremely dense--20 times more people per square kilometer than New York, so it seems natural that people would become more social . . . .or else go crazy trying to get away from one another.

So that was our first day. Good night, Notre Dame!

getting married makes you busy

2008-07-28T20:53:00.002-04:00

I totally failed on the blogging every day mission last week. Sorry! I got all busy with people coming into town and lots of fun social gatherings. In summary (see here for more info):

1) It was a wonderful, exciting, and beautiful day. I was pretty anxious about the whole ceremony (i.e. being in front of lots of people) but it was so sweet and nice to be up there with my honeybunch. Why didn't we do this sooner??
2) My bridesmaids are the hottest ladies in the world.
3) Our friends are such caring, friendly, and gorgeous people. I wish we all lived five minutes from each other.
4)We'll be in Paris in just a little over a day! Lots of blogging potential if I don't wuss out.

Love,
Mrs. Cupcakes

Oopsie

2008-07-22T18:00:00.003-04:00

I realized this morning that I never did a blog post for yesterday. This is possibly because yesterday was spent cleaning, changing litter boxes, doing laundry, etc., and it wasn't really all that interesting. Today was spent doing much the same, because tomorrow we leave for St. Paul and the festivities begin!

I am taking "down time" by watching season 3 of Felicity, which is set in bizarro New York, where your dorm suite has about four bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen with Sub-Zero type appliances, a working elevator, and gorgeous bay windows. My sister and I used to watch Felicity in her college apartment, which consisted of two bedrooms held together with tape and prayer, a tiny living room, and a kitchen approximately as wide as a fridge. I do not say this to criticize, since my college apartment bedroom was suspended over a parking lot by two old, peeling posts. I believe it was originally intended as an open porch, and at some point they put storm windows in. It was incredibly cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Yet I found it charming and bohemian and infinitely preferable to the school dorm options.

Anyway, we used to watch the show because it was such an idealized version of college life, with impossibly handsome and emotionally attuned young men always at the ready, and quirky--dyed hair!--but warm friends to form a urban pseudo-family. When Felicity has a hangover she looks a bit wan but still has shiny ringlets and rosy cheeks. Kind of like Shirley Temple, come to think of it.

See you tomorrow from the great state of Minnesota!

Sundazy lazy

2008-07-20T18:44:00.002-04:00

I'm watching this show on E! about celebrity plastic surgery, and I don't think a single person looks better in the "after" pictures than the "before" pictures. Maybe because really good plastic surgery is not usually so severe as to be immediately noticeable. I don't even want to discuss the "full body lift." Ay-yi-yi!

Alex and I met Bethany at the Blue Oar this afternoon for sandwiches and beer. I sat with my back in the sun and perversely put sunscreen on the tanned skin only. I really do not recommend such cancerous behavior, and I think I am beginning to understand why so many brides wear veils.

Tomorrow I plan on cleaning and organizing around the house, working out at the gym, getting a massage, and going to the public library. I love weekdays off!

Vows

2008-07-19T18:19:00.004-04:00

Mr. Cupcakes worked on an outline of our ceremony today. We have the basic structure in place, but we still need to flesh out the more personalized parts. Alex pointed out, when we were at lunch today, that a big part of what makes our relationship work is the fact that we are pretty different. Yet, he said, highlighting independence and difference during a ceremony that is supposed to unite two people maybe isn't the way to go. But the truth is: Alex will never want to see movies about street dancing with me. I will never want to play war video games with him. Yet neither of us want to give these things up or deny the other the pleasure of dancing championships in hard-scrabble inner cities. Now I just need to think of a way to say how much I love that without bringing up Save the Last Dance during the ceremony.

In other wedding news (sorry, but this week is just going to be full of it--I'll be done in one week, promise): I unwrapped many of our place settings and the silverware today. Crate and Barrel wrapped the plates in enough paper packing material to ensure that whether the box was kicked, dropped, or run over by a UPS truck, everything would remain perfectly intact. Next time we move we're all set.

Skin tone status: I might be imagining it but it seems like the stuff (for those of you keeping track: Jergen's Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer for medium skin tones) might be beginning to work. If it hasn't taken real effect by mid-way through the week, more drastic measures will have to be taken. Pray for me!

I've read a bunch of books since I last posted a book review but I just finished Empire Falls by Richard Russo and it totally blew me away. Those of you who live in Maine (I think there's just one of you--hi, Pat!) should immediately go out and read this, and the rest of you should too. It's about a man who grew up in small Empire, Maine, and it details the people in his family, his restaurant, and his town with such heart-breaking honesty that you feel like you know the people from childhood. There's also a super mean cat named Timmy, which is awesome. This is the first book I read by Russo--will definitely look for more at the library.

See you tomorrow!

My promise

2008-07-18T17:30:00.003-04:00

In eight days, Mr. Cupcakes and I are going to make it legal. Since many friends won't be able to come to the wedding, my promise is to blog each day, at least until the wedding, and fill you in on how crazy I'm going. I realize that I've probably not even done eight posts this year, but I'm really going to try to document every day at least a little.

Today was my last day of work until August 11, which is a lovely feeling. We have four full days before we leave for the Twin Cities, though. Time to clean up, straighten up, get rid of old things, integrate new gifts--especially kitchen things--into our lives. Right now I have a very large pile of beautiful and thoughtful gifts in the living room. I think I'm a little weirded out about starting to use them before we actually marry. Is it poor etiquette? We've been opening them as they arrive and writing thank you notes (I wrote 18 of those suckers on Monday). And then I ceremonially add them to the pile.

Other issues: last Saturday we went to Brooklyn to visit some friends, and we sat out in Sunset Park all afternoon. It was a gorgeous day, and the park has views of the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan. It's a great people watching spot, too. Lots of goofy kids and their goofy parents. I thought we had been sitting out chatting for two hours....but it turned out to be five hours. Five hours of sun on my shoulders. Luckily I don't burn easily but I do tan rather easily. Now I must do emergency tanning correction, so that I don't look like I'm wearing an undershirt under my wedding dress. I bought some Jergen's tanning lotion after doing some super professional librarian research by googling "wedding tan line help!" If random, illiterate strangers recommend it, it's gotta be good.

That's all from Crazytown for today. Tomorrow: VOWS!

Hmmm.

2008-06-26T18:01:00.003-04:00

I'm totally off knitting these days. I haven't picked up the needles in a week, despite getting one skein of delicious Noro sock yarn for my birthday, and a second one as part of a trade at work. Maybe it's the muggy weather, or some kind of nervous energy preventing me from knitting. It's my -1 (minus one) month anniversary today. It's getting close! I have neither transformed into a lithe goddess nor have I learned French well enough to even order a sandwich. Except for "Croque Monsieur," which doesn't really count as it's the only thing I retained from high school French, plus I don't eat ham.

Tante pis.

Work has been particularly grating and perhaps this is why, while getting ready this morning, I began a list in my head called Things That Are Vile.

Things that are vile
1) When US Weekly doesn't arrive until Saturday. It's very hard to feel like the work week has ended unless I can erase any knowledge of "history" or "technology" learned over the past week with this industrial strength scouring pad of gossip and blurry photographs. The New Yorker, my faithful Tuesday pal, doesn't work for this.
2) The Supreme Court today and Scalia's bizarre argument that guns are the preferred weapons of the populace since you can hold it in one hand while dialing the police with the other.* As opposed to knives, pepper spray, baseball bats, heavy wrenches, lead pipes, candlesticks, etc. Has my all-time favorite movie taught us nothing about the many types of weapons available to us as a people?
3) Watching Emeril Lagasse chop vegetables with his big mitts. Just can't stand it.
4) The man who stood yelling in my street for two hours on Sunday night because he was drunk, confused, angry, and apparently locked/kicked out of his own home. While there is a perverse thrill in being an NNN (Nosy Nextdoor Neighbor) and seeing what will happen next, sleep is a wholesome thrill and sorely missed when lacking. The police eventually came and suggested, an an authoratative way, that he go to bed. And he did. And finally I did too.

I guess there aren't so many vile things to complain about. It's all a matter of perspective, and there are definitely some good things coming up. Whew. Thanks for letting me vent, peeps!

*Not kidding: "There are many reasons that a
citizen may prefer a handgun for home defense: It is easier
to store in a location that is readily accessible in an emergency;
it cannot easily be redirected or wrestled away by
an attacker; it is easier to use for those without the upperbody
strength to lift and aim a long gun; it can be pointed
at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the
police."

Book talk

2008-06-19T19:58:00.002-04:00

Did you know my sister has a blog? It is the delicious, summery, fruity cocktail of the internets. Please, visit and encourage her to write more, because it makes me laugh (and wish we lived closer, sigh).

Books, yo!

The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett

Ah, Dashiell, you really know how to confuse me with multiple characters, anonymous cities, and double-crossers. But fun! Everything is speakeasy sleazy. (Speakeasy Sleazy is going to be the name of my band of chipper girls who who sing songs in ABCB rhyme.) Anyway, there are lots of broads and bad guys. Good stuff.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke

1) More apostrophes in the title than any other book you'll read this year.
2) Doesn't Brock Clarke sound like the name of a 1950s-era quarterback?
3) There is little actual guidance in the arts of arson in this book.
4) I wanted to like this more than I did.
5) The main character was goofy and quirky. This could hypothetically indicate an original character. In execution, though, this person is tiresome and unaware of basic social norms. I can find that at work. I don't need it in my novels.

Buddies by Barbara Park

An oldie and a goodie. The story of a somewhat dorky girl, Dinah, who goes to camp and decides to fit in with the cool girls, only to be shadowed by Fern Wadley. Fern Wadley. (What a great name, right?) Fern picks her teeth with barrettes and hangs on to Dinah's shirt tail. Literally. The dilemma of how to shake someone unpleasant without being unpleasant oneself is rarely this funny in real life.

kicking it, summer style

2008-06-12T18:22:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy few weeks at Casa Cupcakes. The agony and ecstasy of Reunion/Commencement weekend was capped by a visit from the Chosen One. It was pretty awesome, honestly.

And it was nice of him to take some time out of his busy schedule to pose with us. Ignore the cardboard crease at his waist-level. It was an exciting day in my library's history too--first time snipers took up positions on the library!

The next weekend Bethany and I had a nice little Sex and the City girlie afternoon. Alex came too, of course. He just loves that Miranda! The movie was fun but that Mr. Big....he needs a slap. Do you hear me, sisters?

After SATC we went back to Bethany's place to play Wii! Wheeee!

Don't judge. I'm going through a Sally Jessie Raphael phase.

Can I just say? Guitar Hero is AWESOME. We're did level 0, the one that infants do, and it's pretty damn hard. Is real guitar this hard? I have newfound respect for John Mayer. (Secret confession: I totally listen to his albums at work through the weird access I have to people's iTunes libraries at work. Alex won't let me listen at home; he says John Mayer songs sound like asthma attacks.) Anyway, I've had "Slow Ride" in my head for two weeks now.

Then last weekend we were at Sonja and Jonathan's gorgeous wedding in St. Paul. They are too adorable.
It was a lovely, happy, fun wedding with lots of great people who were joyously celebrating. This was only enhanced by the flowing champagne.

Plus, I got to hold a baby!

This is Molly and Kenny's seven-week-old baby Calvin. I totally caught baby fever from holding him! He was very sleepy. But I hear that sometimes babies are awake and cause a ruckus. Calvin seems like a pretty cool dude, though. No ruckus-having for him.

So all in all, it's been a pretty good few weeks. Next up: a wedding in 44 days. Not that I'm counting.

By the way, all pictures stolen from Alex. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right, sweetie? Right?

Holiday Monday

2008-05-26T18:59:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted lately about it, but I have continued knitting. I made a hat/sweater/bootie set for the David/Ellen baby (as-yet-to-be-determined) but somehow failed to take a single picture. Let's just say it was cute, since there's nothing to contradict me, ha ha! Now I'm working on a pattern from an old Vogue Knitting I picked up for half price. I've also failed to take a picture of it, so far, but it's coming along swimmingly. This is the first thing I've made for myself in over a year, so I'm excited to see how it looks. Daringly modern? Or hopelessly frumpy? Stay tuned!

New books:

Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain
How is this book not more popular? This 1930s tale of a divorced lady in Los Angeles, struggling to make a decent living with two daughters, is fabulous for a) bootleg scotch; b) Mildred's prosaic "do what you have to do" approach to men and money; c) daughter Veda's Gossip Girl-level evil behavior; d) all the fraught class-consciousness of L.A., which I think is . . . pretty much the same seventy-five years later. I swear, if you multiplied all the monetary sums by 10 and published this as a paperback with a stilletto on the front, you would have a best-seller. This is one of my favorite books of the last few years. Who is this James M. Cain? And what else has he written? Next, I must see the movie, and if anyone finds that pulp fiction edition with the down-to-there dress, please buy it--I'll pay you back!

A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
Well, wow. I read this whole book today, on Memorial Day, which seems somewhat appropriate, given Afghanistan's role in recent American military action. The book's dust jacket uses typically overblown words like "breathtaking" "heart-wrenching" and "striking," and, well, yeah. For once, those are totally apt descriptions. It's the story of two women ensnared by the various regimes vying for political control, and you feel their suffocation. Imagine not being able to go to school, go to a store, walk on a street, visit your family, travel out of town, have a job, wear anything but a head-to-toe covering....I just kept thinking about what I would do in such a situation. Even though the reality is very grim, it also presents these characters as completely real beings, with friends and crushes, tempers and beliefs. It's when you think of the two characters followed in this story and multiply it by ten million women that it really becomes breathtaking. Somehow I never read The Kite Runner--now that's next on my list.

Hope you are having a good holiday weekend, those of you in the U.S. It feels like summer now.

thanks!

2008-05-20T20:13:00.003-04:00

Wow! Susie C. has broken her all-time comments record with that last post. I very much appreciate all the thoughtful replies, and I'm not just saying that because y'all overwhelmingly agreed with me. Mr. Cupcakes and I have resolved to not let wording tear us apart, and I think we can all go on living happily. So thanks!

On Sunday, we went to West Hartford, the swanky city cousin to poor Hartford's country mouse. Recently a "shopping experience" opened, one of those new downtown-like shopping centers that are usually placed next to or in the downtown that was destroyed by shopping centers. We live in dangerous times. But anyways, it also has a super huge Crate and Barrel with an escalator and cool zappy wands that you use to register for gifts!

But you guys, I had no idea that the awesome responsibility would be so overwhelming. In choosing plates, you worry that you will accidently get the kind that can't be microwaved and has to be massaged with a soft cloth rather than tossed in the dishwasher. You worry that you will choose the wrong set of pans, one given only the shameful "recommended with reservations" in Cooks Illustrated, and you will have to live for the rest of your life with a non-ergonomically designed handle or something. In two areas, however, the Cupcakes really excel at making choices: gadgets and drinkware. I think I registered for an avocado splicer or something. And I know we registered for miniature martini glasses. Even so, after an hour we were too confused to look at mini-muffin pans and placemats and decided to do more zapping next weekend.

Any recommendations for "must have" items that I might not think of? I wish you could register for booze.

We seek your opinion

2008-05-14T19:29:00.003-04:00

Things that are great:
1. Leaves! On trees!
2. The OC, Season 1. Chrismukkah to Yogalates, it remains a perfect gem. I like to think it ended right there.
3. Obsessively reading Paris guidebooks. I bought three slightly out-of-date ones at the library book sale this weekend, plus one really out of date one (1950). I assume, however, that stuff like Notre Dame and the Catacombs don't change too terribly much in 58 years.
4. Registering for gifts! So materialistic. SO MUCH FUN!
5. String cheese. I forgot how good string cheese is.

Things that are grrrrrr:
1. Mr. Cupcakes and I have a dilemma. In our wedding invitations, on the "info" card, he wants to write
"please be prepared for a short but sweet ceremony, followed by cocktails, dinner, and dancing."
My feeling is that "be prepared" conjures up notions of homeland security, upcoming exams, and boy scouts. Mr. Cupcakes feels that "be prepared" conjures up none of these things, and simply lets guests know to expect. This is ripping our future marriage apart! In his words, "I'm fully willing and able to remove the phrase, but I think you're wrong."

Weigh in, please. Our domestic bliss depends on it! Alex says Buckles is depressed too. I'm simply not prepared for a depressed cat.

Springtime. FINALLY.

2008-04-21T21:20:00.003-04:00

The weather has finally become gorgeous and no jackets are required. The magnolia tree outside my office window is in full bloom and the college kids seem blissed out (4/20 notwithstanding) each day that the weather is not raining, hailing, sleeting, or snowing. Hooray!

I don't think I ever posted it but I finally finished the wedding blanket for my sister and her hubs in mid-March. Twas BIG.

I should have done a little bit of math and figured that 40 skeins x 4 oz = 10 pounds. Ten pounds of blanket! I had maybe 30 yards left over, so it's pretty much the full ten lbs. That's a big baby.

I edged it with a pattern from Nicki Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. It took a lot of pins to block it out. But the best part was? When I unpinned it.

MURDER! I thoroughly washed each square, then washed the whole blanket, but that deep red dye is probably always going to be a little fugitive. Now I have a very nice prop for Halloween.

Now a couple more book reviews!

Anastasia At Your Service by Lois Lowry
The Anastasia books were some of my very favorite childhood reading. The characters in Anastasia's family actually seem real, and the parents talk to their children with interest and respect, yet the family also gets upset with each other and argue....it's just so rare to have children's literature with families that aren't gooey or absent. This is one of my favorites, when Anastasia accidentally becomes a maid for a rich woman in town. I've read this book approximately 854 times. But it's always a treat. Also, the Anastasia books are always on the "most challenged" lists because they contain occasional swear words and mention the existence of sex in an entirely age-appropriate way. It boggles the mind.

The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett
I really enjoyed this one, although any book with a curse has a whiff of Nancy Drew/the haunted talisman the Brady Bunch found in Hawaii. However, Hammett gets a pass because he's the first of the group. The novel is about a family that is maybe cursed to kill one another and most of their friends and loved ones. It's got a fascinating San Francisco cult subplot. Who knew San Fran was known for its cults even in the 1920s? Not quite as many people were killed in this one as in Red Harvest, but that's okay--the ones who did die did so spectacularly, on cliffs, alters, by their own hand, etc. I like a guy who mixes it up.

Plane time

2008-04-09T19:07:00.003-04:00

I have spent way more time on planes this year than normal, thanks to a couple of west coast conferences and wedding planning and friend visiting. All of which are delightful reasons to travel. But while I like the anticipation and excitement of travel, I dislike the gross food and tacky shoe shine stations in airports. And I especially dislike people who try to cheat the Southwest boarding system by lining up in NON-numerical order. Sorry, B23, you cannot line up behind A34 and expect to be seated. I do, however, like walking past those people and feeling like a superior rule-follower.

When I'm not smirking, I knit, listen to podcasts, and read. I sort of enjoy the forced "off-line"-ness of air travel. And I'm so glad you can't talk on your cell phone. Don't you hate that horrible period after you've landed, and everyone has unbuckled their seatbelts and is standing, hunched, in the aisles, and there's always some guy on his phone saying, loudly, like, "YEAH, I JUST LANDED. YEAH. YEAH. NO, PUT MOM ON THE PHONE. NO. YEAH. BRING A SANDWICH. [BLAH BLAH BLAH]." And everyone avoids eye contact and the rest of the plane is quiet. Awkward!

But reading is indeed a great part of travel. And in the spirit of Wordnerdy's book reviews, I think I should start putting up at least summaries of the books I read. This may be more for my documentation than your edification, but here goes. I'll start with a couple to try to prevent your (and my) eyes from glazing over.

Buster Midnight's Cafe by Sandra Dallas
This is a book I snagged from Mr. Cupcakes' parents house. It's about three friends from a mining town in Montana who grow up in the 1930s, and one of them becomes a movie star. It's narrated in a bit of a folksy first person style by one of the friends. It's an enjoyable story of how friends and relationships evolve as you age. It actually sounds like a real story you might hear someone tell you, which is not easy to do using period lingo and products.
Points: for educating the reader about the delightful depravity of Montana mining towns.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
I think I read The Maltese Falcon for a course I took in college called Legal Reelism (geddit?) but that was my only Hammett experience. This book is also about a Montana mining town and its horrifying depravity and criminal activity. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the journalistic/detectivey descriptions of each person are stellar. For example: "He was a man of thirty-four or -five, fairly tall, broad, and heavy without fat. His eyes were large, brown, dull, and set far apart in a long, slightly sallow horse face. It was a humorless face, stolid but somehow not unpleasant." There's so much description packed into each sentence that you need to slow down to really put the image together in your mind. Hammett was created to write screenplays. Also, according to the biography in the back of the book, he was created to meet lots of ladies.
Points: for the narrator killing a couple dozen people without remorse. And they say violence in the media is a problem today!

Babies!

2008-03-30T10:36:00.003-04:00

It's spring, and baby season is about to begin! There are at least 4 babies to be born among friends in the next four months. Although I am 100% not ready to have a baby myself, I have discovered that I love to knit baby clothes. Tiny! Darling! Quick!

This is a Baby Kimono from a pattern by Julie Cashin. It's all garter stitch, knitted flat, then seamed up along the sides and underarms.

One for Malena and Graham's baby (to come in May) and one from Molly and Kenny's baby (to come in April). I felt Molly's baby do, like, a somersault or karate kick or something and spontaneously shrieked with delight. Babies! Maybe once my damn wedding is out of the way, babies can be taken under consideration. In a few years.

I used an I-cord for the closure, but a ribbon or button can also be used.

Sorry for the gap in posting--I've been travelling a bit. I was in Minneapolis visiting family and friends and doing wedding planning over the Easter weekend. It snowed, of course. I was in Newport, RI Friday and yesterday. That's a super-crazy town, all filled with center-chimney colonials (the 18th century architectural style closest to my heart) and insane summer "cottages" built by Vanderbilts and other people with money to burn. I should probably put cottages in double double quotes (i.e. ""cottages"") because the irony is so great. These are marble palaces with sixteen bedrooms and gold plated faucets, manicured gardens, etc. It's nice to have something to aspire to in my summering practices.

My summering this year will be very exciting, since it will not just be a summer vacation, but a HONEYMOON! As my favorite hobby is obsessively planning vacations in exhaustive detail, causing Mr. Cupcakes to stop responding to me or taking advantage of my spreadsheet of housing comparisons, I have taken the liberty of doing the planning for the 'moon. Can you guess where we're going?

Hints: cheese! wine! chocolate! pastries! guillotines!

February fun

2008-02-16T10:30:00.004-05:00

I can't believe February is already half over, but that means we are closer to spring and may eventually leave this gray world of slush. On Wednesday it snowed, then rained heavily, so there were several inches of standing water underneath the snow and my socks were wet all day. Wet socks are just hateful, right up there with too-tight ponytails and toothaches.

But! Today is sunny (cold, but I'll take it) and Alex and I are going up to Boston to visit our friend Heather. Should be a fun little trip--we both have to work on Monday so it's just going to be an over-nighter. Last weekend I was in Baltimore visiting another friend, Stef, and the weather was also cold but sunny. I really like Charm City; Stef is cute and likes puzzles, the food is great, and the city has an intriguing weirdness to it. This may be because I think of John Waters movies whenever I'm there. I've also been reading a lot of Laura Lippman mysteries and she offers a pretty stark look at what makes Baltimore great and not-so-great.

So, knitting. I've been sewing the blanket squares together, which is slow and not very portable, because it's so large and heavy. So, in addition to the Noro socks, I'm also working on Snicket Socks.

This pattern has a cabled diamond pattern that was pretty slow going until I used Grumperina's cabling without a cable needle tutorial, which saves me a ton of time. The pattern is by a German author, and I think the heel must be a German or European style. I've not seen it before.

It's a short row heel with "double stitches," which are difficult to explain . . . well, there are these instructions from Lana Grossa. They call this heel a "Jojo heel." Ha! Did you guys grow up eating jojo potatoes, which are basically huge fried potato wedges, kind of like steak fries? I did not have them in my homeland (Fargo, ND) but they seemed to be prominent in eastern Minnesota/western Wisconsin. Anyhoo, I will call these heels the Jojo Potato Heel, in honor of the potato goodness.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to Boston, all Johnny-Tremain style.

Susie (Cup)Cakes

2008-01-29T15:32:00.001-05:00

This bakery's name is awfully close to my lovingly crafted alter-ego, but I shall not proceed with a lawsuit, because anyone who makes banana pudding is a force for good. Lack of banana pudding is one of the major flaws with New England.

In other news, I've been doing this "Couch Potato to 5K" program using some awesome podcasts. No matter how awesome they are, though, the fact remains: running is involved. Some notes from the last three weeks:

1. Running hurts the shins, thighs, hips, heart, and soul. It is not unlike my terrible cat, Sparky.

2. Using the treadmill at a gym where the average age of the people around you is 19 can be demoralizing. They are happily lifting one another over their heads with one hand, wearing short shorts and casually doing splits and it can make a 29yo librarian feel a little, um, OLD AND FAT.

3. Sunday's easy-breezy run is Tuesday's painful slog. What will happen on Thursday??? My money's on sloggy-breezy.

4. The gym is continually tuned into VH1, which is constantly showing one of the following:
a. 8 Mile
b. Dr. Drew's House of Pain (this may not be the correct name. It is the correct feeling.)
c. Rock of Love, the world's most appalling show, starring hair-challenged Bret Michaels. Dance offs and lingerie figure prominently. I think it's fabulous, in a fin-de-monde sort of way.

5. I'm seriously kind of into these podcasts. The music is very dance club (a la the Saloon in Minneapolis, my go-to gay dance club, 1997-1999) and the guy's voice is encouraging but not fakey.

Keep me in your thoughts. I'll be the one panting in the corner.

Hump day

2008-01-23T17:45:00.000-05:00

First: can you believe the news about Heath Ledger? I actually gasped in the car listening to NPR last night. It sounds like maybe it was just a really tragic accident. So sad. I guess we'll always have Brokeback. Also, apparently, a really terrifying depiction of the Joker in next year's Batman movie.

Second: What do you think of the term "time consumptive"? I've heard this used twice in the past few weeks: once at a conference and once on a conference call. In both cases, it was used where one might say "time consuming." Time consumptive reminds me of Nicole Kidman coughing blood at the end of Moulin Rouge, which in turn reminds me of Ewan McGregor. Yay! Except for the consumption disease part. Anyway, I haven't found a reference to "time consumptive" in dictionaries or grammar guides, so I would guess it's only been used recently. Have you spotted this term? Seems to me people just love to throw on suffixes when they can: problematize, methodology, fabulosity. 'Tis moronosity!

To the task at hand: here is another pair of socks I've been working on:

These are made with the intriguing new Noro Kureyon sock yarn, which the Beckers gave me for Christmas. It's totally cool single ply yarn that goes thick and thin, and constantly varies its color. Here's a closeup of the heel where you can see the yarn's variations.

The pattern is just a standard issue sock with a faux cable every six stitches. Faux cables are super easy: just knit as though you were going to knit 2 together, but instead of dropping the stitches off your righthand needle, knit into the first stitch, then take them off the right needle. It really does look like a cable.

Well, I don't want to be too time consumptive, so ta ta!

Monkey monkey

2008-01-20T09:43:00.000-05:00

The first of several pairs of socks-in-progress I'll be revealing (exciting!) over the next week. These are Monkey Socks in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Peacock. I added an extra pattern repeat to the leg, but otherwise they were knitted as written.

Love the colorway. These are for my ma.

This past weekend Mr. C and I had a very nice visit from my college roommate Emily and our friend Noah (who was also my roommate for a summer, come to think), both from New York. We mostly just hung out, watched reruns of ANTM on MTV and Babysitters Club videos (I could explain, but I choose not to.). I love old friends and falling into the exact same patterns comfortable laziness that were enjoyed ten years earlier.

Also I learned that Sparky is a little minx who loves boys.

Awww, suddenly she's so nice! No wonder she was an unwed teenage mother when we met her.

Speaking of unwed teenage mothers, have you seen Juno? It's fantastic. It's so nice to see a movie with a young teen/woman who has a personality (not just "friendly"), and is interested in things IN ADDITION to boys. Also, the Minnesota license plates really warmed my heart.

Hidden millions in your pants

2008-01-14T22:32:00.000-05:00

I just got back yesterday from southern California, a quick trip for a great conference. I like having a hotel room to myself (no offense to awesome roomies, such as Mr. Cupcakes) just because you can lie around and watch Law & Order and get room service and generally feel fabulous. I guess except for room service, life at home is not so different. I just really love ordering things and having them show up in your room. Perhaps I should train the cats.

In addition to my general sloth, I enjoyed getting to know the Claremont corner of southern California. Seeing things like this

on January 11 is nothing short of miraculous. Even North Carolina doesn't work that kind of magic.

On my free afternoon, I got in my super-hot rental car (well, a Kia Optima with a scrape on the side) and took some new friends out for a spin. I experienced the wonders of traveling on LA freeways. There was even a huge tire fire that shut down part of the highway. How authentically hellish! The quintessential Cali experience. After only an hour or three, we made it to Malibu.

Malibu is really pretty, with 1960s-era angular houses tumbling over the rocky cliffs. We drove through some of the little neighborhoods and everyone was, like, roller skating and washing their Lexuses (Lexi?) and generally being highly all-American. I can see why some people put up with tire fires in exchange for gorgeous sunset views and warm weather year-round. After Malibu, we drove up Sunset Boulevard (yes, THAT Sunset Boulevard) and cruised through Bel Air, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood. I saw the Hollywood sign, the Capital Records building, the Kodak Theatre, the stars on the walk of fame, the original Frederick's of Hollywood, the palm-lined boulevards of Beverly Hills (90210) and people dressed up as Jedis. It was quantitatively awesome. The only way it could have been better is if Britney herself had appeared and perhaps hit my car.

There is always a dark side, though, as all Jedis know. For example, look what I found the the ladies' room of a middle eastern restaurant:

That is appalling. And environmentally unsound. And your eyes do not deceive: a baby has been placed inside a cleaning bucket next to a bidet.

After witnessing this testament to depravity, I came back to my hotel room to discover this:

Hidden millions in your pants? I tried for, like, 3o seconds to figure out what was happening with this caption but I was scarred with images of toilet paper-wrapped babies and cash stuffed pants and had to turn on some Law & Order and unwind. And a little room service really takes the edge off, you know?

2008 comes in like a penguin

2008-01-03T20:38:00.000-05:00

Happy new year, peeps. 2007 was a little crazy for me (and maybe for some of you too) in ways good and bad and I welcome the new year with some relief. Mr. C and I had a very nice time in the MSP. It snowed constantly and there was nothing better than sitting by the fire, knitting and drinking coffee (AM) and wine (PM).

I also had the chance to produce a flock of penguins, a creation out of the mind of one of my brilliant co-workers. Everyone should make these on any occasion (parties, holidays, funerals, snacktime, etc.) because they are serious crowd pleasers.

This was my first one, so please forgive this penquin's sloppiness. The penguin is an ingenious combination of a large olive given a seam and filled with cream cheese, a smaller olive for a head, a carrot "coin" with a wedge cut out for feet, and the wedge inserted in the face for a nose. The toothpick works as a spine to hold it all together.

Mr. C immediately took the idea and made the world's cutest penquin:

He used a ziplock with the corner cut to neatly apply the cream cheese. (By the by, the cracker is not moldy, but instead a bizarre onion and herb saltine.)

We had a whole herd ready for the holiday (Swedish sausage-making) party. And yes, that is a roasted red pepper scarf. These penguins were beloved by all but eaten by many and then,

There was only one left. Don't worry, he was eaten soon after this picture was taken.

Stay tuned for ACTUAL KNITTING CONTENT!

Nano-what-mo?

2007-11-13T20:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm running behind on Nanowrimo. However, in many cultures, November goes on for months (just . . . go with it), and I've decided that my culture is one of those cultures. Honestly, just getting into this project has been enormously fun and interesting, and being forced to write no matter what is the secret. What I'm writing now is incredibly strange and not at all the novel I intended. It seems to be heavily influenced by The Westing Game, which is a little weird. Although huge props to The Westing Game; I can only hope to be half that good.

Speaking of weird, for the past six months, I've been having incredibly vivid dreams every night. Not those kind of dreams, sillies. I should probably start writing them down, because they go something like, "I'm in China and I'm in college and then Paris Hilton is my roommate and then I'm an American Idol semi-finalist and then we get in this plane but then it's a submarine" etc. I'm not on anti-malarial pills or anything! I think I might be just naturally crazy.

Also, I've been knitting, but it's just the same old blanket. The wedding is T-minus 3.5 weeks. Think good thoughts for the completion of this blanket...and for the Cupcakes' Mexican travels. The resort lets you drink and jet ski all day long. It's gonna get interesting.

Clickety-clack

2007-11-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

So, I'm trying to do NaNoWriMo this year, which I've intended to do for a long time but always chickened out. I'm still a big chicken, but as I've gotten older (read: old) I'm less worried about failing and more worried about not even trying. So far, I have 500 absolutely crappy words but it's something. It's a start.

In other news, this weekend is Homecoming/Family Weekend which is a lot of Events and Lectures and Open Houses and basically just really exhausting, but it's nice to see people excited about their school. I, personally, am really excited about falling back for more sleep. To sleep! To live!

Halloween

2007-10-28T20:34:00.001-04:00

We attended a Halloween party last night and had a hard time coming up with costumes. Hobo? Robot? Britney Spears? But a trip to the drug store and investiation of our wardrobes made the decision easy.

Amy Winehouse and her creepy husband!

(this is really them, not the Cupcakes)

I think his name is Blake Mr. Winehouse. (By the way, in the picture above of Blake/Mr. Cupcakes, he is not pretending to inject illicit drugs, he is using some eyeliner to give himself a tattoo.) The costume was pretty easy for him, since he already had the hat, jeans, bandana, and chains.

Mine was easy too. The wig cost $5.35 at RiteAid, and the Wet and Wild liquid eyeliner was $1.59. Unfortunately, I only thought of the costume around 4pm so I was unable to lose the necessary 40 pounds to properly portray Ms. Winehouse.

Only one person at the party guessed Amy Winehouse (we were pretty sure no one would get the hubby without the Amy nearby). The other guess was "white trash." Hmmmph.

And a very happy Halloween to you! Don't let anyone make you go to rehab.

Rhinebeck 2007

2007-10-22T18:00:00.001-04:00

I came down with a nasty cold/sinus thing this week and spent Thursday and Friday sprawled on the couch, working on the Victorian wedding blanket and watching the majority of season 2 of Gilmore Girls. Although my head felt stuffed and I was sneezing and coughing, it was a pretty pleasant two days. It's interesting to hear the local references to towns and streets and try to figure out where Stars Hollow actually is. My best guess is . . . Litchfield-ish?

By Saturday morning, I was feeling a lot better, with just a small headache and much less disgusting sneezing. I was so relieved that I felt better because it was Rhinebeck day!

Rebecca could only go on Saturday so of course that was the day I wanted to go too. Mr. Cupcakes wavered about going (too much yarn) but agreed at the last minute to come. The drive was gorgeous across Connecticut and up Taconic Parkway in New York State. The festival is so, so big. Thousands of cars, thousands of people, thousands of skeins, mwah ha ha ha ha!

This is the only fairground I've ever been to with a bathroom attendant. She was fabulous and very encouraging to all who entered.

There was fun to be had outside the bathroom, too. There were tons of cute, cute animals.

And lots of nice merch for sale.

And . . . this guy.

He wasn't part of a performance, he just strolled through standing on two of the biggest horses I've ever seen.

Beckers and I bought some beautiful yarn, too!

Skaska Designs Merino Lambswool in Saffron

Graceful Lace Yarn from Yarn Place

Blue Moon's Socks That Rock in Mediumweight, Covelite colorway.

All in all a success!

The next day Alex came down with whatever bug I gave him.

Poor baby!

I heart ANTM

2007-10-16T18:26:00.000-04:00

So, I'm doing terribly at the ANTM pool. I gained one point the first week, then lost one point the second week, for a grand total of zero points. I should just choose the girls randomly, methinks. Don't you think this show consistently gives the worst blonde makeovers ever?

That poor girl Jenah looks like pictures of deceased prostitutes that sometimes run in the New York Times in the Metro Section, usually with a italic headline and a byline from an outlying borough. (The fancy Manhattan prostitutes get their stories in Section A.) Just saying.

She totally knows but is powerless to stop it. That is not a happy face.

This (NSFW) is not allowed to appear on a family website like Susie Cupcakes, but YIKES. I believe its made of those resistance bands that I had to use when doing physical therapy on my knee.

If you don't already read the fourfour ANTM recaps, do so immediately: they are brilliant. And watch this week's special video recap for the ten happiest minutes you'll have all week. At least until the next show.

Making progress

2007-10-14T11:07:00.001-04:00

I finished my Mama-E cruise socks--a delightful memento five months after the cruise.

The pattern is Retro Rib Socks by Evelyn Clark from Interweave Knits' Favorite Socks.

The colorway is Seasick, an exclusive from Mama-E's C-eye-ber Fiber for the SeaSocks Cruise. I seem to have a ton left over--I could have made knee socks with the amount of yarn left over.

I really liked making these socks but it is kind of a relief to be done. The yarn got hopelessly tangled in June and added a "knot un-tying" challenge to each row.

In other news, I have started recording everything I eat in an online log (available only to me, thank the lord). It is striking how much the act of having to write down what you eat changes the what you eat. It is deeply humiliating to write: "106 candy corns, 13 ritz crackers, chunk gouda cheese, half a red pepper, and 4 glasses wine" for dinner, so I end up (honestly!) eating more normal, less toxic food. This is not a diet, but an attempt to exercise self-control and good judgement. I did accidentally eat both cheesecake and ice cream yesterday afternoon, but overall I have been v.g. about eating sanely. I'm also listening to Bridget Jones's Diary on cassette from the library. V.v.g.

yay for October

2007-10-01T16:41:00.000-04:00

Happy first day of October, all. I'm writing this from Mr. C's laptop, as Graybaby cheerfully clamped her teeth on my laptop's power cord and it is "sleeping" now (i.e. out of juice). Mr. C says he'll do .... whatever it is he does to fix the power cord every time a cat chomps it. Welding? Grafting? Something like that.

Until then, no pictures of new knitting. But I finished the Mystery Stole! There were, perhaps, tears due to unfortunate stitch lossage six rows from the end. But it's faked up to look basically okay, and it is sooooo purdy.

Are any of you on Ravelry? It is the greatest invention of the 21st century. It combines my love of cataloging and yarn. If you're not on, get on the waiting list. There are something like 20,000 people waiting, but they are speeding up the invites, and I guarantee it is worth it!

And I would like to direct your attention to the ANTM Fantasy Game, linked in my sidebar. Awesome. The second greatest invention of the 21st century. I had a little trouble choosing my team, since I can remember only, like, 2 of them at this point. But you get points if your models get in fights, are called/call themselves fierce, and/or are accused of having no neck. Sweet!

knitting progress

2007-09-22T17:11:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, Mr. Cupcakes was in Austin with his manfriends for ACL. While they were getting to see Bjork (!), MIA, and Yo La Tengo, I was home launching a big reorganization project.

When we moved in, we had lots of plans for how to organize our new place. But somehow, it's over two months later and we still have boxes in every room. It's starting to make me feel antsy and unsettled. So I will tried to get as much organized as possible, even if it meant stashing things in the basement or attic....just as long as its out of sight for day-to-day living. I made a lot of progress on the first floor. This weekend, the second floor is going to get its makeover.

Through all the events of summer, I have been knitting. I just finished some socks for Mr. C.

I love this yarn. It's Mega Boots Stretch, a name that always makes me giggle and pronounce it as though I were Arnold Schwartzenegger. It makes a very attractive sock with enough color variation to keep it interesting. This is just a vanilla sock pattern (68 stitches) with a four stitch cable running down the leg and foot. I like it! Next time I might put a purl stitch on either side of the cable to make it pop, but it's good as a subtle pattern, too.

I've also been working on the Mystery Stole.

Lace is so mysterious and futzy and beautiful, I must occasionally stop, stretch out the lace, and admire the pattern. There are beads in there too--it's so cool to know how to add them now! It's a technique that doesn't require you to string them on at the beginning.

I don't have much to report about Chicago, except:

Toilet phone!

The news

2007-08-29T15:19:00.000-04:00

Hi! I've been spending the month of August with Oops, getting to know my new adopted pony daughter a bit better. Now it's almost September and time to send Oops to college. She's eighteen, you know. Have fun and be careful, baby!

But really, I'm at a conference in Chicago, waiting to check into my room and see if there is a toilet phone. I sincerely hope so. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous so I hope I can get out and enjoy it a little. I believe a yarn store or two might be on the agenda. And I brought my new camera so I hope to capture all the excitement and do one of those super long blog posts that annoy y'all. Stay tuned!

Eeep.

2007-07-30T17:47:00.000-04:00

Due to foreseen and unforeseen events (moving, domestic partner in hospital, domestic partner can't lift anything, vacation, Rare Book School) I have been a bad mommy to my blog. In my defense, I am a very good mommy to my new adopted pony daughter Oops. Oops is so special she deserves her own entry--which will be forthcoming, barring any unforeseen events (yet see above, so: hmmm).

Anyway, I am in Virginia at Rare Book School staying in a crazy room with a fireplace and no air conditioning. It's fab! I'm also getting used to a new weightiness in my left arm, because look!

The Cupcakes are gettin' hitched!

I miss yarn.

2007-07-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

Back to regularly scheduled knitting next week. This week is consumed with wrapping things in newspaper and taping boxes. We are a-moving, and although moving is NEVER EVER FUN this is not so bad--a few extra weeks makes all the difference.

By the by, are any of you ready for iPhone mania to end? At first I thought it looked so cool. I mean, the commercial showed you how you just push, like, 16 buttons and calamari shows up at your door! I love calamari. But then the eleventy-hundreth time I heard that evil lullaby music and "This is you . . . making a call." I started to feel annoyed. I already make calls, Apple, and I do it on an ancient bright red cell phone that doesn't even have text message capabilities (well, it has receiving, not giving). I think it's the smugness that started to annoy me. That and the fact that it costs $500.

This is me . . . making a call . . . on a bright red phone. Text me! I'll call you right back.

Next in the lineup is....

2007-06-24T16:43:00.000-04:00

Today's yarn is....
Berocco Vibe!
65% wool, 35% nylon--but not exactly a blend.

The two strands are loosely attached to each other, so I'm excited to felt with this, since the wool will felt and the nylon will not. It should be really cute for a hat and mittens. A gift of three skeins from mama, once again. Yay!

Last night we watched The Thin Man and drank martinis. I love the 1930s clothes!

I also love that Myrna Loy wears these incredible gowns and jackets as though she had just thrown on jeans and a t-shirt--totally casual and comfortable. I think I have a girl crush on Myrna!

More yarn (of course)

2007-06-22T17:40:00.000-04:00

Thank you for the birthday wishes, friends! I toast a complicated martini to you.

As promised, today's yarn is....
Mountain Colors Bearfoot!

This is made in Montana, and purchased in Montana by my Montana mama. It is truly gorgeous.

(I love the digital macro feature on the camera, too!)

The colorway is teal, but it's subtley varigated with forest greens and deep blues.

Jenny Hammy left me a comment saying happy blogoversary, and I hadn't even realized it had been two years since I started yapping. Thanks for sticking with me, from state to state (geographic and mental) and from frequent posts to um, not so frequent posts. I love being able to stay in touch with friends from all over, and "meeting" new people too. Oh, the internets!

P.S. What are you all reading now? I just finished Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Dry by Augusten Burroughs. (By the by: it's so naughty to drink wine while reading a memoir about alcoholism.) Now I'm reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (snagged it from the university library before the Oprah fans could), a not so great new Houdini biography, and re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to prepare for the final installment. Any recs?

birthday

2007-06-21T08:25:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we celebrated the glorious anniversary of my birth. I took the day off and went to the gym, ran errands, watched Passions, did the dishes, and got ready to parrrr-tay.

Some of my sexxxy friends came over:

And then we went out to dinner at Udupi, where the Cupcakes family is known by name, due to our weekly orders of dahi vada, vegetable utthapam, potato bonda, and aloo gobi. We are called "Alex."

Rebecca ordered a giant soccer ball of bread, and she knows how to work it!

Go girl!

After dinner, we went out for complicated martinis. I ordered a lemon drop. Mmmm!

It was, all in all, a splendid day.

I received beautiful yarn as gifts, so I will introduce each one individually. They are like my newly adopted cats, but less whiny and they don’t smell like tuna.

First, allow me to introduce you to . . .

Laceweight Manos del Uruguay! I didn’t even know they made laceweight! I used their gorgeous red worsted weight yarn to make my mom a tea cozy and it looked beautiful knitted up. Now Rebecca has gifted me with 800 yards of violet yarn. Whatever shall I make?

Do you like the pictures? They are from my NEW digital camera, gift of Mr. Cupcakes. What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.

(he's a mighty mighty good man.)

moving on up

2007-06-11T07:46:00.000-04:00

The Cupcakes family has had an exciting week. We chanced upon a listing for a house (a duplex, really) for rent, looked at it, applied to rent it, and were accepted! It is only about 5 minutes from where we currently live, but it has:

3 bedrooms (instead of 2)
1.5 bathrooms (instead of 1), including a bathtub! I miss taking long baths and reading junky magazines. Your body gets clean while your mind becomes clogged with celebrity gossip. A lovely dichotomy.
a basement, attic, and garage (instead of none)
a yard (instead of containers on the porch)
normal human neighbors (instead of our "troubled" neighbors)

Being completely insane, I insisted that we make a pro/con list, listing all the good things (see above) versus all the bad things (slightly more rent, the way we HATE MOVING). The scale was tipped when Mr. C added "Our relationship" to the pro-side. So we're moving within the month!

(We're on the left.)

That hasn't stopped me from knitting, of course. Socks using Mamma-E's Seasick colorway from the cruise.
Mouse is a great (big) model. The pattern is Retro Rib Socks by Evelyn A. Clark, originally in the Winter 2004 Interweave Knits, but also in Favorite Socks. You need to get this book immediately.

I also got some beautiful yarn from the Sweet Sheep, a merino/tencel blend in Poppy (now out of stock).

Mouse was a huge fan, immediately. I might add that it was about 90 degrees that day.

But just look at that shine! Mouse, you have good taste.

Summertime

2007-05-31T07:34:00.000-04:00

Since it's now past Memorial Day, I think we can officially declare it summer! I hope to spend less time at work and more time at home, with friends, with yarn, reading books, seeing movies, and traveling. Mr. Cupcakes and I have plans to visit Ocracoke Island in July, then go to Chapel Hill for a few days. Cross your fingers that hurricanes don't interrupt these plans. Like last time.

Angela came to visit this weekend and it was delightful. Rebecca and I gave her the whirlwind western New England tour. Angela even took my crazy neighbors and insane cat in stride. Now THAT is a friend.

Last night, Rebecca and I went up to Northampton to see the Yarn Harlot, who is too awesome for words. I'm too lame for words, and forgot to bring my camera and chickened out when I saw how long the line for book signing was. Nevertheless, the Harlot is so funny and whip-smart and generous, and managed, along with WEBS, to get all attendees free yarn and needles to make squares for Warm Up America, and to encourage us to donate food to a local food bank.

I showed tremendous restraint and only purchased two skeins of yarn from the discount warehouse, Regia's 6fadig Tweed in a nice blue gray. It's important to feed the stash regularly so it doesn't get angry. Same with cats.

Blankie

2007-05-26T19:44:00.000-04:00

My sister has had a blankie for as long as I can remember. It is (well, was) white with a tiny pink flower pattern on it. Now it is a washed-out gray with frayed edges. It was cut up (with surgical precision by Mom) so she could take part of it with her when she studied abroad in London. It is, truly, a great blanket.

But I think it might be lonely. It might need a pal.

I'm working on a wedding blanket for Laura and Anil, using an old Victorian pattern. The color is not accurate here; it's really a deep, winey red.

I wanted something that could be assembled in small pieces, so I didn't have a heavy blanket draped over my lap during steamy Connecticut River valley heat waves.

It is so pretty in Deerfield, with its baby alpaca and silk.

I have decided to make 30 squares, and use Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge to create a botanically-themed edging . . . maybe leaves, maybe floral, maybe just an interesting scallop.

I hope Blankie will make some room on the bed! And I hope I can finish this in fewer than eleventy million years.

Yarn love

2007-05-20T20:45:00.000-04:00

While on the cruise, there was also lots of wonderful gifted fiber, not the least of which were a pair of socks from Michelle, owner of the Sweet Sheep, an online yarn store. Can you think of a more fabulous occupation than ordering and sending beautiful yarns all day? I am so lucky that she was my sock swap buddy! She made me these beautiful socks out of Colinette Jitterbug.

Check out those clocks! Now go order some of her yarn right now. Even if you don't knit, it's pretty enough to be a decorative item in your home. Put it in the fruit bowl!

Just to gild the lily, Michelle gave me a skein of the rare and elusive Black Bunny Fibers yarn, too!

I was too eager to get started, so I don't have a picture of the unwound skein, but it was purdy. All Funfetti cake colors! Using some of the great advice I got at one of the sock knitting "courses" on the ship (taught by the fabulous Eunny Jang), I did a slip stitch pattern (slipping every fourth stitch every other row). It's my usual sock pattern--derived from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

These are so cheerful and lovely. I can't wait to wear them in the fall with some jeans.

We also got a skein of Mama-E's incredible hand-dyed sock yarn. Mine is in the colorway "Seasick" but it's way cuter than that sounds.

Off topic: Thanks for the ANTM sympathy--I totally agree that their description of Renee as "old" was terribly insulting, since she looked about 17 and a half in most of her photos. I do hope that she and Natasha carve out careers of their own, possibly as globe-trotting model roommates on a Bravo reality show. I just really love Bravo reality shows.

Must dash--Masterpiece Theatre is on!

Stash showoff

2007-05-17T07:41:00.000-04:00

I showed a little bit of restraint in my yarn buying while on the cruise. This is probably because there was not a yarn store on the boat, and it's hard to buy yarn while at sea. But when we stopped in Victoria, B.C., we had the opportunity to go to Beehive Wool (sorry, link appears broken), a really beautiful store that was understandably very excited to have 70 crazy yarn ladies stop by.

I bought this really pretty "blueberry" shade of Fiddlesticks Zephyr Laceweight wool/silk blend.

It is so soft. Maybe I'll get into lace sometime soon--my stash seems to have a rather large amount of laceweight yarn. You buy a little here, a little there....and suddenly you have 4000 meters of yarn looking neglected.

But I have an obligation to socks, too.

This is Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, and it could not be left behind all by its lonesome in the store. Especially not in those gorgeous green and blue colors.

Next post: all the yarn I got for FREE!

P.S. I can't believe Jaslene won ANTM! I don't remember feeling this disappointed about a winner since...well, ever. It's cool that she's the first Latina to win, I just find her obsession with being a model a little tiresome. Where is the backstory? What are her hobbies? When asked to portray four emotions, this is what she chose:

Okay, drag queen and cha cha diva are essentially the same thing. Sentimental? Or is it "boo boo on my shoulder"? Modelesque is not an emotion. It's not even a word. Except for Jaslene. I will grudgingly admit that she looks a lot like Janice Dickinson in these pictures (especially drag queen), which is AWESOME.

I guess I'm just disappointed that we weren't able to explore the life of a mail-order bride with Natasha. Here's looking at you, Nata.

Spring, sprung

2007-05-09T21:04:00.000-04:00

The knitting cruise was a big success. There was laughter, tears, food, drink, slot machines, barf bags, buses, planes, mustaches, boats, yarn, Ico the waiter, and a salt-water swimming pool. And that's just what I can remember! Seriously, it was fantastic. Boats are crazy, especially such a big boat, the W(V)ision of the Seas. Twice as big as the Titanic! That's a mite terrifying. One can only imagine how many people were packed in steerage. I imagine they had a separate dining room, one without a constant flow of "savory bites."

And maybe not with nightly display of animals, sometimes horrifyingly displayed, made up of bathtowels.

My camera (read: I) kind of messed up and my pictures are pretty limited. But here's what the Golden Gate bridge looked when we passed under it at dawn.

And this picture is from the very first day, when we were waiting in the hotel in Los Angeles to let us check in.
Can you feel the stress leeeeeeaaaving?

After 7 wonderful days of vacation, it's back to olde Newe Englande. It's so beautiful right now, though, that it's a little easier to come back.

I'll write about all the knitting and yarn and socks next. But for now, it's just nice to be home with Mr. Cupcakes and the kits. And to feel confident about not finding an unexpected towel animal.

Five things

2007-04-09T21:50:00.000-04:00

1. America's Next Top Model is so much better this cycle, don't you think? I was pretty concerned after last cycle's (hate that, why not seasons, Tyra?) hideous final runway show in a cave with random tourists looking on. This season is all weird and self-referential and almost as confusing as Lost. Also, Tyra looks like a gypsy, so: cool. I predict Dionne, Jaslene and Renee in the top three. I hope Natasha becomes a European pop sensation. It just feels right.

2. It was supposed to snow today, but instead it was just a heavy, cold, gray rain. Ish.

3. I was going to go to the gym, but I just came home and ate a granola bar and read the newspaper. Same diff.

4. The kids are working on their theses and final projects, and because I work at a small college with a rather impressive film program, you never know when you'll be an extra. Or when your house will be an extra.
Should I be worried that they appeared to be filming some kind of gritty Rocky redux, and chose to film it using the exterior of my house?

5. Our evil stray cat Sparky is starting to assimilate, although she is kicking and screaming (literally) the whole way. I came home for lunch the other day to find this.

My pillowy and timid little Mouse relaxing with clawful Sparky. She is awfully cute, with her Holstein spots. My hands are scarred but my heart is open.

Wine red

2007-04-09T21:32:00.000-04:00

Baltimore was fun and it was so nice to see old friends. I hardly knit a stitch, though. For shame, because there is a wedding blanket to be made!

No, not me, goofs, for my little sister. She's gonna get married! This is thrilling, not only because her betrothed is delightful but because they are holding their ceremony in Mexico. In December. Shhhhhweeeet! Looking forward to it so much. But back to the blanket: I found this Victorian pattern online and thought it was so pretty, and I really wanted to make some kind of personal gift for Laura (in addition to fun kitchen gadgets from the registry, of course). I agonized over what color to get, and my knitting group ladies told me to just ask her. So I did, and she and her fiance came up with the perfect color which never even crossed my mind: wine red. This past weekend, Rebecca helped me scour Webs for the proper yarn. Webs is approximately the size of a Target, but filled with yarn. I swear I didn't dream it, but it is a reality for those lucky enough to live in western New England. However, the embarrassment of riches really takes quite a bit of time to walk through, and Rebecca very patiently helped me narrow the selection down to 5 (five!) possible skeins, finally settling on Valley Yarns' Deerfield, which is 80% baby alpaca and 20% silk. It's exactly as soft as that sounds. Now I just have to make, like, 30 squares. Easy peasy!

In other news, I finished Hopeful.

But . . . I tried it on and I'm busting out the seams on this sucker. I swatched beforehand and made guage, it's highly fitted, with nearly negative ease, and I haven't blocked it yet. Upon blocking, it will

a. stretch enough to look lovely
b. not stretch and I will cry

Okay, I won't cry, but I will bring it on the knitting cruise for one of my lithe and lovely petite friends to wear. Because it's seriously cute:

It is too cute not to be worn, don't you think?

Oh, Karl

2007-03-28T22:46:00.001-04:00

I was struck with a revelation while drying my hair this morning. I steadfastly work my way through the New Yorker each morning because my cheveux is like a towel, which quickly and securely absorbs water and refuses to let go unless prodded by the hottest of hair dryers. So I spend quite a bit of time bent over the sink, learning about the latest environmental crisis or Russian author. But this morning, it was a delightful article about Karl Lagerfeld, the skinny, be-gloved, media-consumptive patriarch of Chanel. And so, you may begin your novel:

"Christian Lagerfeld, his father, made a fortune in condensed milk; his mother, Elisabeth, played the violin."

If the story doesn't end with a death, a sexual violation, or a creepy visit to to the pastures of Switzerland, you're not thinking hard enough.

Ten things I like, at the moment

2007-03-27T21:28:00.000-04:00

1. Blue ginger tea
2. Shalom in the Home. Also, the name "Shmuley."
3. Crocuses!
4. Girl scout cookies for sale at work
5. Getting excited about the cruise
6. Getting excited about my sister's wedding in Mexico. In December. Good one, sissy!
7. The Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting exhibit. Surprisingly inspiring.
8. Having a washing machine.
9. Opening the windows again.
10. Ballet flats. I really want a pair of ballet flat-style shoes to wear to work. When my dear friend Pay Chequey arrives at the end of the week, Zappos and I have some talking to do.

Vodka train, coming through

2007-03-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

We're back from New York, where Mr. Cupcakes took lots of pictures of our adventures. The cats didn't seem to suffer too much in our absence, other than being very VERY hungry, but that's pretty much the state of things at all times. I thought maybe coming back to M'town would be a bit of an anti-climax, but then, not an hour after we returned, someone got arrested in the parking lot next door! It was much more interesting than watching Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Note: I am not at all a chic-lit snob, and love Helen Fielding. But that second movie really falls apart once they hit the Thai prison.). I couldn't tell what the woman next door was being arrested for, but I hope it was something exciting. Lately, the neighbors have seemed a bit more, well, drunk than usual. A couple of months ago I heard one tell another she was hit by "the vodka train." That train sure seems to be making a lot of stops lately.

Ahem. As I wished last week, the snow is almost all melted, except for a few stubborn ice patches here and there. There are even a few crocus buds peeking up. In just five weeks, it will be cruise time! So I've been working on a new top for the warmer weather.

This is the Hopeful pattern, which I highly recommend (and which has been kicking around in my to-do list for at least a couple of years). It's a rather brilliant construction: knit in the round, divided for shoulders, short row sleeves, and a simultaneously knit and attached collar. Also, for every $5 pattern sold, the designer gives $6 to breast cancer research. And it's cute to boot! I'm knitting it in Calmer, which is a dreamy microfiber-cotton blend. Yes, I said dreamy. At $11 a skein, it better be dreamy.

I'm really looking forward to warmer weather, hanging out on the porch, growing new plants, and the continuing adventures of America's Next Top Model.

America turns its lonely eyes to you, Tyra.

Wonder bread

2007-03-18T18:44:00.000-04:00

I am a pretty active baker, what with being from a bread basket state and all, where the streets are paved in flour and wheat hulls. Muffins, cookies, and cupcakes (of course) are my most frequent projects, but I like baking bread when I have a few hours to spare. But now, sweeping through the internets and the newspapers from Portland, OR to Hartford, CT, comes the No Knead Bread, a revolution in bread baking. Malena made the bread and it looked beautiful. My mom said it reminded her of European bread. Everyone is saying it's really, really good.

The trade off? Is that you better have 24 hours between the urge to bake and the urge to eat, because it needs 18 hours to rise, another 2 hours for the second rise, 45-60 minutes to bake, and enough time to let it cool. Since it snowed this weekend and our cars were pretty well stuck, I had the time. Hurrah!

I used half whole wheat flour and half white flour, and what was probably too much salt. The top is dusted in oat bran. The whole thing was a very jiggly blob, very unlike traditional yeast bread. It all felt....wrong. And you know what?

It's magic bread! It really is delicious, all complicated and savory, with a mysterious hint of sweetness (there's no sweetener added). The crust is crackly and chewy, and the inside is soft but holds its structure. I think I better mix up another batch soon to try some variations. The recipe is apparently very forgiving, so you can add any kind of ingredients (herbs, cheese, dried fruit, etc.) to make a savory or sweet bread.

And while I found baking on a snowy Saturday cozy, I am currently finding doing laundry on a snowy Monday night to be tiresome. Enough snow, New England. Let's see some green.

South Florida

2007-03-13T21:56:00.000-04:00

I'm back from South Florida, where I had a fabulous time with Angela. We lived it up, Miami-style. You know, sipping mojitos on velvet couches in Coconut Grove...

. . . admiring the local folk art...

. . . looking at crazy tropical plants (this makes bananas, allegedly) . . .

. . . taking in a bit of the local culture . . .

. . . and admiring the miles and miles of turquoise water.

Lovely, lovely. Thanks for all the sun therapy and 90210 episodes, Ang!

That's hot

2007-03-03T19:11:00.000-05:00

It was 55 degrees here on Saturday, which is amazing considering it was snowing earlier this week. Lest we get big hot heads, the temperature will steadily drop this week to a high of like, 12 degrees on Tuesday. But! I am going to Florida where the sun is hot and the bikinis are small. Perhaps by the time I get back it will be springtime in Connecticut (HAHAHAHAAAAA). I had a terrible anxiety dream about United Airlines last night where I kept running and running around an airport building trying to get on my flight. Also, there was a carnival at the airport, which made it even more terrifying.

Down to business: I finished my sweater, and I think it's the best finishing job I've ever done. It only took 12 years to get seams down! (I'm not going to talk about how I broke one of the seams on my way home from work and had to repair it.)

I think it might be a good sign that people didn't say, "Did you make that sweater?" at work. I think "Did you make that sweater?" is code for "Did you really think you could leave the house like that?"

Anyhoo, I like it a lot, although the braided trim is completely unlike the trim shown in the photograph. Whazzah? It looks fine, but it kind of bugs me. There is not a correction on their website. Perhaps I'll write, because the decreases on one side were incorrect (I think) as well.

I also finished these socks in GGH Marathon.

Very denimy, no? I don't remember where I got this yarn but it's been discontinued, so I would guess I bought it quite a while ago. Gives me a bit of stash guilt. They're for me, but my next pair is for my cruise sock buddy, and I learned a new cast-on this weekend. It only took 12 years to learn a second way to cast on!

The knitting cruise is less than two months away. I can't wait.

P.S. Blogger issues may have dropped Susie C. from your RSS reader, so make sure you're subscribed, kay?

Aruba, Jamaica, ya know I wanna take ya.

2007-02-18T19:09:00.000-05:00

I made some new socks for Mr. Cupcakes, and he is pleasing me to no end by wearing them often.

These were made with some lovely, manly yarn that my mom gave me for Christmas. I hit a minor snag when I seemed to be having an alarmingly small amount of yarn left after turning the heel. A closer look at the label revealed that this was a slightly heavier yarn than typical sock yarn, and therefore had fewer yards. Luckily, the awesome Borealis Yarns (you must click; cat in fair isle to be seen) in St. Paul has a superb selection of yarn and I found a gray that matched the pattern.

This pair of socks is special to me not only because they are for my darling domestic partner (we're notarized!) but because it was the first pair I made without a pattern. It's in my blood now, people. And that's lucky, because in just two and a half months, I set sail on a knitting cruise with some of my best gal pals! It sails up the Pacific coast at the end of April. Is it weird that I'm planning my outfits now? I am dreaming of wearing floaty skirts and handknit tops and beautiful espadrilles. Obviously, I need to re-read Babysitters On Board (Super Special #1) to become acquainted with the cruise lifestyle. This "familiarizing technique" stems from my 1989 repeated re-readings of Logan Likes Mary Anne! (#10) which had a detailed account of the first day of junior high. Despite the fantasy of warm palm trees and Kokomo-like breeziness, it will surely be 39 degrees and rainy and I'll have to huddle with a bath towel around me to stay warm.

I don't care. It's going to be my personal Love Boat. To celebrate my love of socks and sock knitters.

Knitty city

2007-02-03T09:22:00.000-05:00

It snowed last night, and it finally looks like winter. It's been so snowless this season that it seems like a delightful novelty rather than a headache. Mr. C. and I walked home from watching Borat, admiring the loveliness of the snow on all the tree branches. Very refreshing after an extremely funny but deeply disturbing movie. There is more male nudity in there than in all Ewan McGregor movies combined, i.e. A LOT.

In any case, all this snow turns one's thoughts to ... knitting. And possibly cocoa.

Since I finished the pairs of Christmas socks, I've been working on a sweater from the Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting. I saw it and knew right away I wanted to make it.

(I hope this is not copyright infringement, ha ha!)

It's a pretty basic v-neck with a fabu braided (cabled) trim around the neck. I've done the back, front, and both sleeves, substituting Baby Ull Dalegarn in dark charcoal for the suggested yarn. I would show them to you, but charcoal gray, unblocked stockinette pieces are not too thrilling. The braid, however: bellisima!

Cabling is so fun. However, this needs to be 33 inches long, which is a LOT of cabling. Luckily, the Beckers and I are having a sleepover (pillow fight!) tonight which promises to include lots of knitting, plus we are attending the ultra-fantastic WEBS pre-superbowl yarn party tomorrow. But please, dear yarn gods, don't let me buy any more yarn.

Because, um, I bought a bunch last week.

I bought a number of skeins of Lana Grossa Luxor, a beautiful metallic worsted that was on sale. It's not super-metallic in this pale gray, more like the reflection off the ice of a frozen lake at dusk. Or something. I think it's going to be a shrug, possibly this one. The pattern is written by an archivist, so it must have permanent value. Hahahahahaha, archivist jokes!

ANYway, I also bought some sturdy, classic Regia 4fadig sock yarn and this pretty pretty Artyarns Ultramerino.

This has just a touch of Minnesota Vikings colors about it, but I think it leans more toward sunset-type colors. Hmmm, I'm really into dusk and sunsets these days. Must be winter's early evenings.

Have a good weekend!

New, big problem

2007-01-25T17:32:00.000-05:00

Today I went to the dentist. I'm not dentist-phobic, but it's not at the top of my to-do list, which is why I went this long without going. And you know what? I should never, ever have gone back because today, I was told that I have

dum
dum
DUM
(that's scary organ music)

MISMATCHED JAWS!

How terrifying! It's like I was assembled from random, leftover parts. Like Frankenstein! Soon I'm going to be yelping out "Putting on the Ritz" and smashing lab equipment and gosh, I don't know what else. What do Frankensteins do with the rest of their lives?

My specific problem is that my upper jaw is, and I quote, "much, much bigger" than my lower jaw. Observe:

Artist's rendering

Y'all, why didn't you tell me?

So I lied.

2007-01-21T19:31:00.000-05:00

Yes, Archivalist, I know I didn't blog more regularly. I make a lot of resolutions in my head (all year, not just in late December/early January) and things get in the way. But know, dear readers, that I think of you often, and resolve (ha!) to post more frequently.

The History Detectives filming happened on Thursday, with Elyse as the detective. I think it went pretty well. Look for me in July, looking rather pasty. I wish they had filmed me after my upcoming trip to Florida (hi, Angela!). But Detectives waits for no archivist. I won't reveal what they revealed about the book, but it's AWESOME.

Okay, so now that HD is done, I can get down to making some real resolutions for this new year of the boar.
1. Blog more regularly so people don't hate me.
2. Blog more cleverly so people don't hate me.
3. Actually take pictures of what I knit, because SCupcakes is all about the knitting.
4. Eat more vegetables and fruit, and cut the wine down to a level that would not appall the French.
5. Go to the gym and get ripped arms. I sense a bit of wiggle forming in my upper arms, and they are only going to get wigglier without intervention.
6. Clean the house for 15 minutes a day. I swiped this one from Crazy Aunt Purl, and I think it's a fabulous idea. It's admittedly bad when, while watching an episode of Law & Order, one's immediate thought is not "I hope I never end up in a garbage truck because that's a terrible way to go," but "I hope I never end up in a garbage truck because there is so much cat fur all over the house I would shame my family when they discovered it." This resolution is actually fairly easy to keep since I got my new Swiffer Sweep & Vacuum. It's a revelation. It completes me.
7. Read more books, and listen to more books on tape/CD while I am knitting.
8. Possibly consider cutting down on TV. But not really important fashion/modeling themed shows, obvs.
9. Return Netflix movies in a timely manner so as not to pay $15 a month to essentially store movies on top of the DVD player.
10. Have more fun. Seriously.
11. Stop lying on the blog. After this post.

Merry Xmas

2006-12-25T19:27:00.000-05:00

Hope all of you are having a good holiday break. The Cupcakes are in Minneapolis, eating too many cookies and drinking lots of coffee, and enjoying the view of the city skyline from Lil Sis's fabulous house. And also taking naps by the cozy new fireplace at Mr. Cupcakes's family home. Pictures this weekend--promise. It's my new year's resolution to nurture the blog, rather than letting it languish and then get spammed.

All the best this December...January brings new things, like ski trips and the filming of a segment on HISTORY DETECTIVES! EEEEEEEEeeeee!

Happy New Year!