Monthly Archive: January 2013

Hi, all!

G and I are heading up to Massachusetts the weekend of the 9th (arriving the 8th, departing the 11th). We have plans for Saturday night, but arr has graciously said that I can invite folks over for a gathering at her place on Sunday afternoon. Very low key. Hanging around and catching up and (undoubtedly) playing games.

If you’re interested in attending, please ping me, so we can get a general idea as to how many people might show up. There are lots of you I haven’t seen in forever, and I’d love a chance to catch up some!

Mahalo!

G has turned into a whirling dervish of home improvement. So far, in the past 24 hours, he has:

• taken out a bathroom sink; 
• taken out a bathroom medicine cabinet;
• painted the entire aforementioned bathroom white;
• installed a new sink;
• installed a new medicine cabinet;
• painted a contrast wall in said bathroom (bright blue! pretty!);
• taken all the doors off of our upper cabinets in the kitchen;
• painted the cabinet boxes black; and
• painted the cabinet doors white.

I believe he’s still waiting on the last coat of white to dry. I’m not 100% sure. I’ve decided that hiding in my basement craft room is probably the safest thing to do, lest I be painted myself. (Hey, don’t laugh! Sprocket apparently had to have an impromptu bath this morning. Though, I believe Sprocket was more responsible for introducing himself to the paint, rather than with any direct involvement on G’s part.)

ThinkGeek is having a movie night at their Fairfax, VA, headquarters on Thursday, January 31st. The offer will be extended to 50 persons randomly chosen from the pool of people who have submitted their request by Monday, January 21st, at 6PM.

Oh yeah. They’ll be showing The Princess Bride. And feeding you pizza. And maybe giving away goodies.

This has been one of those weeks that seems to be designed to make me feel inadequate. (Wow, and it took me about 5 minutes to remember the word inadequate.) Professionally (such as it is), personally, financially, and in just about every other way, things just have not been going my way, usually due to some lack or limitation on my part.

This really isn’t a “poor meri, pity me,” post. Honestly, I’d almost be amused by the sheer amount of wheel spinning I’ve done this week, if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve completed none of the things I wanted to do this week.

Maybe today will be the day things turn around, and I’m able to jump-start a productive weekend! Wish me luck. 🙂

Greetings!

I know a few of the folks who read this are based in the Netherlands. I’m hoping to get some input from one (or more!) of you on something.

I’m looking to acquire a board game. To the best of my knowledge, the name of the game is Mens erger je niet, which translates to “Do not get angry,” or some such. It’s an important part of G’s family history, and we’d like to get a copy. Now, I don’t know if this game is available in the Dutch equivalent of Toys-R-Us, or if it’s more esoteric.

The acquisition process logic goes something like this:

• Is the game readily available? 
• If so, for how much?
• If $AFFORDABLE, would you be willing to pick up a copy and ship it to the US?
• As a special added bonus, would you be willing to translate the instructions into English?

For this, you will, of course, be reimbursed. And, if there’s anything from the US that you’re craving, I can probably help out on that front. Or I can knit you something. Or design you a business card. Or use some other meager skill of mine to provide you with something you might want.

Mahalo!

This weekend has felt as thought it’s been full of Mondays. Thus, it seems incredibly unfair to have two days of Mondays followed up by an actual, everybody agrees it’s Monday Monday.

Stupid Mondays.

I have signed up for a yarn dyeing class in February. While I doubt that I’m going to become one of those amazing people who spins and dyes their own yarn (because, really, that would take time away from the knitting), having a basic idea of what’s involved would be kind of neat. Hence, the class and my enrollment in same.

However, something has just occurred to me. Those of you have known me during the last 10 years or so will know that I spent much of that time chromatically enhanced, mostly in the realm of reds. Though I did have a stint with actual black hair. You might also remember that I had a fairly unfortunate reaction to the hair dye, putting an end to a meri with anything but bog-standard brown hair.

Now, I have to assume that, during the class, we will be wearing gloves, as the goal is to get the dye on the yarn, and not the peoples. But, given my particular flavor of luck, I wonder if I’m tempting fate…

Finally, I have a picture of a finished product to share!

This is the Emlyn dress that I knitted for Christmas for a special little friend of G’s mother. This is size 2T, knit on US2 needles.  G’s mother gets all of the credit for the patience required to lace the cord and ribbon through the eyelets, though. So not a task for me. 🙂

(more…)

All the signs point to it being one of Those™ days.

• I put my slippers on… the wrong feet.
• I tripped over a cat coming down the stairs (though I did manage to not actually fall down the stairs).
• I burned my tongue on my coffee.
• My left knee tried to give out.
• I have YAMA.
• I was stymied by a graphics project until G came to the rescue.

All before 9 AM! Grar!

Every now and again, it occurs to me that I have A) a remarkable number of print photos (including the yearbooks from Kalaheo High School, years 1988-1991), B) a really handy little photo scanner, and C) a lot of free time. If I can get my desk cleaned up, I might have to start scanning some of the huge collection of photos that Jer and Shama helped me unearth the last time they were down visiting.

If you really object to having your photo posted online, please let me know, and I will do my best to honor your wishes. Otherwise, all bets are off!