Sometimes capitol hill is a fun place. Thanks, Barb.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
A big socialist/musician/farmer in a handknit sweater
As promised, there's my old dad. Check him out, he's a handsome man! Handknits really suit him, don't you think? (It is too bad there is not a little more light so you can see the sweater better, but whatever. It's Karabella soft tweed in stockinette, and I think it's lovely. Also, it fits him, which is an improvement over its first incarnation.)
Hangovers and shopping
*I wrote this post on Sunday, but I couldn't post it until now.
Brucie,
Last week was sort of a bad one at work. Therefore, it was fortunate..."lucky" if you will, that yesterday was St. Patrick's day. I'm somewhat amazed that even though I'm little older and a tiny bit wiser, even though I work at a professional job and don't really know anyone in this city, I managed to get hammered last night. It wasn't my finest moment...I basically invited myself out with a girl I'm friends with and all her friends who were at a bar. As all bars in Toledo seem to be, it was located about 20 minutes away from my apartment and was situated in a strip mall.
Abby, my friend, is totally awesome and really fun. But I am so out of my element every time I hang out with her. She is friends with like two girls, and the rest of her friends are straight guys. This is totally foreign to me! Also, I have a really huge problem remembering average, white straight guys. I have no memory for their faces...they all blend into one another, as do their Abercrombie and Fitch shirts. And don't even get me started on their names! There is a reason I have slept with 4 Daves in my life. 99% of men seem to share about 8 names!!
I don't say all of this to be mean or anything. I've grown up a lot in the past few years, and I have absolutely no problem with guys like this (provided they don't say anything overtly homophobic or sexist)...I can totally carry on a conversation. But I have no interest in sleeping with them, making out with them, flirting at all with them, etc., and I think this aspect of my personality really shines through when I'm introduced. Because of it, I am totally forgettable to them and they are totally forgettable to me. Therefore, every time I go out with Abby, I end up mostly talking to her in a really crowded sports bar in a strip mall, standing against the wall equidistant from the bathroom and the bar, surrounded by these "dude" guys who are trying to hit on her. And I introduce myself to them over and over, each time I run into them (whoops!). This whole social situation has made me feel like I'm: a. completely asexual, and b. a very socially awkward person.
So, I woke up this afternoon and decided to go buy a pretty dress...because I don't know if you've heard or not, but I'm taking a business trip to D.C. this weekend, and I haven't shopped for clothes in awhile. I decided to go to Target, because they are pretty much the cheapest option. However, as I learned today (for perhaps the millionth time), cheap clothes come at a heavy price.
2:30pm: Enter local Target store, grab a shopping cart (first mistake). Head directly for women's clothing. Choose several different dresses to try on.
2:36pm: Make my way towards dressing rooms, passing through the "professional" clothing section. Decide to choose several pairs of pants to also try on, seeing as how I only own one pair I can wear to work. Also choose several Businesswoman tops so I can fully appreciate the pants I will be trying on.
2:38-2:45pm: Because the Target dressing rooms have a six-item limit, two dressing room trips are necessary. I try on several unflattering cuts of size 14 pants and dresses, amidst screaming teenage girls and their mothers trying on bathing suits. One young teenaged girl laments that she needs her bikini bottoms to me a size Medium instead of a Small this year. A nine year old in the dressing room next to me actually begins rolling around on the floor and screaming because her mother won't let her get a two-piece.
2:50pm: Deciding finally on a dress and a pair of pants, I decide to head over to the "sporting goods" section to see if they have any hand weights I can use during stepaerobics.
2:52pm: Oooh! Housewares! I just love these soy candles... really? There's a fragrence called "cut grass?"
2:58pm: Wow, I can't afford NOT to buy these picture frames!
3:05pm: I wonder if they have "When Harry Met Sally" on DVD? My tape is completely worn down.
...and so on. Suffice it to say, my $25 dress paled in comparison to the $50 I spent on a whole bunch of worthless crap. I blame it all on the hangover.
Brucie,
Last week was sort of a bad one at work. Therefore, it was fortunate..."lucky" if you will, that yesterday was St. Patrick's day. I'm somewhat amazed that even though I'm little older and a tiny bit wiser, even though I work at a professional job and don't really know anyone in this city, I managed to get hammered last night. It wasn't my finest moment...I basically invited myself out with a girl I'm friends with and all her friends who were at a bar. As all bars in Toledo seem to be, it was located about 20 minutes away from my apartment and was situated in a strip mall.
Abby, my friend, is totally awesome and really fun. But I am so out of my element every time I hang out with her. She is friends with like two girls, and the rest of her friends are straight guys. This is totally foreign to me! Also, I have a really huge problem remembering average, white straight guys. I have no memory for their faces...they all blend into one another, as do their Abercrombie and Fitch shirts. And don't even get me started on their names! There is a reason I have slept with 4 Daves in my life. 99% of men seem to share about 8 names!!
I don't say all of this to be mean or anything. I've grown up a lot in the past few years, and I have absolutely no problem with guys like this (provided they don't say anything overtly homophobic or sexist)...I can totally carry on a conversation. But I have no interest in sleeping with them, making out with them, flirting at all with them, etc., and I think this aspect of my personality really shines through when I'm introduced. Because of it, I am totally forgettable to them and they are totally forgettable to me. Therefore, every time I go out with Abby, I end up mostly talking to her in a really crowded sports bar in a strip mall, standing against the wall equidistant from the bathroom and the bar, surrounded by these "dude" guys who are trying to hit on her. And I introduce myself to them over and over, each time I run into them (whoops!). This whole social situation has made me feel like I'm: a. completely asexual, and b. a very socially awkward person.
So, I woke up this afternoon and decided to go buy a pretty dress...because I don't know if you've heard or not, but I'm taking a business trip to D.C. this weekend, and I haven't shopped for clothes in awhile. I decided to go to Target, because they are pretty much the cheapest option. However, as I learned today (for perhaps the millionth time), cheap clothes come at a heavy price.
2:30pm: Enter local Target store, grab a shopping cart (first mistake). Head directly for women's clothing. Choose several different dresses to try on.
2:36pm: Make my way towards dressing rooms, passing through the "professional" clothing section. Decide to choose several pairs of pants to also try on, seeing as how I only own one pair I can wear to work. Also choose several Businesswoman tops so I can fully appreciate the pants I will be trying on.
2:38-2:45pm: Because the Target dressing rooms have a six-item limit, two dressing room trips are necessary. I try on several unflattering cuts of size 14 pants and dresses, amidst screaming teenage girls and their mothers trying on bathing suits. One young teenaged girl laments that she needs her bikini bottoms to me a size Medium instead of a Small this year. A nine year old in the dressing room next to me actually begins rolling around on the floor and screaming because her mother won't let her get a two-piece.
2:50pm: Deciding finally on a dress and a pair of pants, I decide to head over to the "sporting goods" section to see if they have any hand weights I can use during stepaerobics.
2:52pm: Oooh! Housewares! I just love these soy candles... really? There's a fragrence called "cut grass?"
2:58pm: Wow, I can't afford NOT to buy these picture frames!
3:05pm: I wonder if they have "When Harry Met Sally" on DVD? My tape is completely worn down.
...and so on. Suffice it to say, my $25 dress paled in comparison to the $50 I spent on a whole bunch of worthless crap. I blame it all on the hangover.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Oh Holy Heaven
Brax,
Look, I'm in love and nothing, I say nothing can tear us apart.
I was working at the store today and some big brown boxes came. An old yarn-rustler like me has seen it all, so I was not curious. But when I opened them up, my heart fell out. It fell right out and landed in a fluffy gorgeous bed of 100% virgin wool, which feels not like wool, but like glorious, otherworldly fuzz. Twinkle Soft Chunky!! Where have you been all my life? A photo can't do it justice, you have to just track some down in person, look at it, and feel it, feeeeeeeeeel it.
We also got the Twinkle book, which after a cursory glance, I am totally into. If Wenlan Chia can make 2 stitches per inch look sexy and stylish, then she gets the Bruce Chocolate and Beer Award. (This is an award I just made up. I feel that I should have my own award.) I think I will make every cardigan in this book, each one in a different color of Twinkle Soft Chunky. This will only take me a few days at 2 stitches per inch, and then I will just swoosh all over town in my sexy sexy bulky knits, looking fabulous. Then I am pretty sure I will get discovered, and be offered a high-fashion plus-size modeling gig, and everyone will want to touch my soft, otherworldly sweaters, and soon all the models will be gaining 40 lbs and rocking hairy pits, because me and my sweaters will be serious trend setters.
Yeah. Anyway. Like I said, I'm in love.
Bruce
Look, I'm in love and nothing, I say nothing can tear us apart.
I was working at the store today and some big brown boxes came. An old yarn-rustler like me has seen it all, so I was not curious. But when I opened them up, my heart fell out. It fell right out and landed in a fluffy gorgeous bed of 100% virgin wool, which feels not like wool, but like glorious, otherworldly fuzz. Twinkle Soft Chunky!! Where have you been all my life? A photo can't do it justice, you have to just track some down in person, look at it, and feel it, feeeeeeeeeel it.
We also got the Twinkle book, which after a cursory glance, I am totally into. If Wenlan Chia can make 2 stitches per inch look sexy and stylish, then she gets the Bruce Chocolate and Beer Award. (This is an award I just made up. I feel that I should have my own award.) I think I will make every cardigan in this book, each one in a different color of Twinkle Soft Chunky. This will only take me a few days at 2 stitches per inch, and then I will just swoosh all over town in my sexy sexy bulky knits, looking fabulous. Then I am pretty sure I will get discovered, and be offered a high-fashion plus-size modeling gig, and everyone will want to touch my soft, otherworldly sweaters, and soon all the models will be gaining 40 lbs and rocking hairy pits, because me and my sweaters will be serious trend setters.
Yeah. Anyway. Like I said, I'm in love.
Bruce
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Happy Ides of March
Brucie,
...is that a real greeting? I'm making it one!
Sorry I have been slacking in the blog department. My internet connection hasn't been the best. But that's all behind us now, and I'm coming to visit in exactly 9 days, and (hopefully) Alena will be there too! Hooray!! We're gonna have so much fun, and make so many drunk dials to senior officials in the Bush administration.....
"Hey Rovey! I was just calling to see if I could borrow your favorite outfit! Call me back."
I have a cat-a-day calendar on my desk, and today's cat has 7 toes on each front paw. It's creepy. And the scary part is, I think I saw the same cat on Stuff on my cat! I'm more than a little bit disturbed by the fact that I seem to be at the point in my crazy cat lady-ness that I recognize stranger's cats from the internet. On the other hand, that cat's thumbs are pretty scary looking, like evolution is speeding up. Just saying.
Also, not to complain about the weather in one more post, but what the fuck? It was in the 60s and (gasp) 70s the last two days, and I woke up this morning to a snow-covered car. I guess this is winter's last chance to stick it to us before next Wednesday. But still! No wonder I had a massive headache all day yesterday. Well, that and because I was trying to cut back on coffee and I limited myself to just one cup. I'm never making that mistake again, no sir.
In knitting news, remember that post I made where I freaked out about gague? Turns out my gague isn't huge per se, it just fluctuates wildly from one project to the next...or, as the case may be, from the left hand glove to the right hand glove.
That's right. It's not a camera trick. I have since unraveled "big lefty," and he's now a little ball of yarn. Maybe I'll finish this pair of gloves in time for one last morning of scraping snow off my car. Maybe.
Love,
Brax
...is that a real greeting? I'm making it one!
Sorry I have been slacking in the blog department. My internet connection hasn't been the best. But that's all behind us now, and I'm coming to visit in exactly 9 days, and (hopefully) Alena will be there too! Hooray!! We're gonna have so much fun, and make so many drunk dials to senior officials in the Bush administration.....
"Hey Rovey! I was just calling to see if I could borrow your favorite outfit! Call me back."
I have a cat-a-day calendar on my desk, and today's cat has 7 toes on each front paw. It's creepy. And the scary part is, I think I saw the same cat on Stuff on my cat! I'm more than a little bit disturbed by the fact that I seem to be at the point in my crazy cat lady-ness that I recognize stranger's cats from the internet. On the other hand, that cat's thumbs are pretty scary looking, like evolution is speeding up. Just saying.
Also, not to complain about the weather in one more post, but what the fuck? It was in the 60s and (gasp) 70s the last two days, and I woke up this morning to a snow-covered car. I guess this is winter's last chance to stick it to us before next Wednesday. But still! No wonder I had a massive headache all day yesterday. Well, that and because I was trying to cut back on coffee and I limited myself to just one cup. I'm never making that mistake again, no sir.
In knitting news, remember that post I made where I freaked out about gague? Turns out my gague isn't huge per se, it just fluctuates wildly from one project to the next...or, as the case may be, from the left hand glove to the right hand glove.
That's right. It's not a camera trick. I have since unraveled "big lefty," and he's now a little ball of yarn. Maybe I'll finish this pair of gloves in time for one last morning of scraping snow off my car. Maybe.Love,
Brax
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
New York City
Brax,
I went to visit Alena this weekend! It was so fun. And do you know what? I forgot to take a single photograph the entire time. So Here is what we did: We went out drinking. We went to a nice dinner. We went to Central Park (I love central park!). We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (how cool is the Brooklyn Bridge? It is cool). We shopped. And two other important things happened:
1) We went to see this exhibit. It was really cool.
2) We went to Knitty City, and I bought some yarn. And Alena bought some yarn and I taught her how to knit. So she is joining the cult. I am dangerous.
Also I have tempted her to come to DC for a weekend, and she might come the same weekend you come. Hooray!
Now where are you?? You are not gmail chatting, and you are not blogging? Are you well? Are you OK?
Bruce
I went to visit Alena this weekend! It was so fun. And do you know what? I forgot to take a single photograph the entire time. So Here is what we did: We went out drinking. We went to a nice dinner. We went to Central Park (I love central park!). We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (how cool is the Brooklyn Bridge? It is cool). We shopped. And two other important things happened:
1) We went to see this exhibit. It was really cool.
2) We went to Knitty City, and I bought some yarn. And Alena bought some yarn and I taught her how to knit. So she is joining the cult. I am dangerous.
Also I have tempted her to come to DC for a weekend, and she might come the same weekend you come. Hooray!
Now where are you?? You are not gmail chatting, and you are not blogging? Are you well? Are you OK?
Bruce
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Top Model, knitting and beer: Awesome.
Note: I wrote this post on Sunday, but the internet went away before I could post it.
Hey Brax,
The 'ol ball and chain is out of town, so I had the whole day all to myself, and it was also my day off, so I was totally free! I slept late, and I woke up and read some Redwall, and then I made coffee and took a shower, and watched a little of a PBS fundraiser, which was about having a healthy diet. Then I went on down to the market and got me a bottle of organic wine, which I didn't consume yet because I got in the mood for beer. (We had a BYOB party this friday, which went very well, and was very fun, and now our fridge is totally full of booze. It reminds me of the time we had a BUYB (Bring Us Your Beer) party at the Goody house. Remember that? Man, we were high on the hog for a few weeks after that party.) Anyway. So I played Harvest Moon for about 15 hours, and now I am watching TV.
Dude. ANTM? I missed the first two episodes at their regular time, but I caught the replay of both tonight. I love it! I was really nervous at the end of the second episode, because my two favorite girls were in the bottom two. I love Jael. She is fabulous. And I really, really liked Kathleen, I'm sad they cut her. She was a total moron, in this really amusing way. Also, she had fierce style. A solid FOOT of orange hair? Come on, Tyra! I hate how they have to keep the bitchy girls to keep the show interesting, and sometimes they send home girls who are better models. I love Top Model, but it makes me really miss you and all the girls. I miss our weekly Top Model parties.
While I was getting all caught up on ANTM, I cast on for the Cherry Twist. I like to knit easy things! But I am totally not into making sleeveless tops in super bulky wool. So I picked my yarn, and I swatched it, and then, sneakily, I called Jess up and asked her what the formula was to resize a pattern for a new gauge. She said she'd call me back, and when she did it was to say that she'd e mailed me the pattern edits! Because she is lovely and awesome. Also, she is magic, so it only took her about 15 minutes. The yarn I chose is Nashua Cilantro (Oh Nashua yarns, take my hand, take my whole life too, cause I can't help falling in love with you). It is mostly cotton, but it has a little bit o' poly in there for stretch. Some knitters will scoff at the little bit o' poly. They will discuss this post while they drink tea with their little fingers sticking out. But I am of the opinion that a pinch of poly can be great for cotton, which has a tendancy to pill and to showcase your mistakes, as well as creating an optimum environment for fucked up looking stockinette. I picked the lime green. It looks like a margerita! Hey yarn snobs, don't be assholes! Check my cotton-poly bleeeeeeeeeeend!
Bruce
Hey Brax,
The 'ol ball and chain is out of town, so I had the whole day all to myself, and it was also my day off, so I was totally free! I slept late, and I woke up and read some Redwall, and then I made coffee and took a shower, and watched a little of a PBS fundraiser, which was about having a healthy diet. Then I went on down to the market and got me a bottle of organic wine, which I didn't consume yet because I got in the mood for beer. (We had a BYOB party this friday, which went very well, and was very fun, and now our fridge is totally full of booze. It reminds me of the time we had a BUYB (Bring Us Your Beer) party at the Goody house. Remember that? Man, we were high on the hog for a few weeks after that party.) Anyway. So I played Harvest Moon for about 15 hours, and now I am watching TV.
Dude. ANTM? I missed the first two episodes at their regular time, but I caught the replay of both tonight. I love it! I was really nervous at the end of the second episode, because my two favorite girls were in the bottom two. I love Jael. She is fabulous. And I really, really liked Kathleen, I'm sad they cut her. She was a total moron, in this really amusing way. Also, she had fierce style. A solid FOOT of orange hair? Come on, Tyra! I hate how they have to keep the bitchy girls to keep the show interesting, and sometimes they send home girls who are better models. I love Top Model, but it makes me really miss you and all the girls. I miss our weekly Top Model parties.
While I was getting all caught up on ANTM, I cast on for the Cherry Twist. I like to knit easy things! But I am totally not into making sleeveless tops in super bulky wool. So I picked my yarn, and I swatched it, and then, sneakily, I called Jess up and asked her what the formula was to resize a pattern for a new gauge. She said she'd call me back, and when she did it was to say that she'd e mailed me the pattern edits! Because she is lovely and awesome. Also, she is magic, so it only took her about 15 minutes. The yarn I chose is Nashua Cilantro (Oh Nashua yarns, take my hand, take my whole life too, cause I can't help falling in love with you). It is mostly cotton, but it has a little bit o' poly in there for stretch. Some knitters will scoff at the little bit o' poly. They will discuss this post while they drink tea with their little fingers sticking out. But I am of the opinion that a pinch of poly can be great for cotton, which has a tendancy to pill and to showcase your mistakes, as well as creating an optimum environment for fucked up looking stockinette. I picked the lime green. It looks like a margerita! Hey yarn snobs, don't be assholes! Check my cotton-poly bleeeeeeeeeeend!
Bruce
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