Pretty darned random

Does anyone else have the mid-winter blahs? I seem to just be doing the bare minimum that I must, then wasting a lot of time doing goodness-knows-what. I may be PMSing, too, so throw that into the mix. All in all -- blah.

It's not that I've been entirely unproductive, it's just that there's not a lot to show for it right now. Here's a short run-down of what I've been...

... Making:
I finally finished Gator's secret anniversary present and mailed it off yesterday. I can't show it to you until after he's received it. It took a lot longer to complete than I had anticipated but I lurve the results. Is it bad to be really jealous of your own husband for receiving a gift that you made for him?? That seems so wrong, somehow. And yet.

I have not worked any more on the Baby Christmas Stocking, but that should change this week. I've been puttering on another block for the experimental Ballband Afghan and I just ordered the yarn to make a baby afghan for my pregnant labmate. So things are a'brewin'.

... Listening To:
I'm seriously loving Ippy, my fabulous birthday / Christmas gift iPod. I've loaded all my music onto her and I happily listen all the time. I've been listening to some pretty random stuff, especially music from my collection that I haven't listened to in ages. The Church, Bela Fleck, Enya. It's a rockin' good time.

Also, I've just gotten turned on to the audiobooks available at Project Gutenberg. I knew they had a vast selection of E-books, but the audio versions are a godsend for long days in the lab when I have much to do, but none of it requires my entire brain. I've just downloaded all forty million chapters of Jane Eyre -- which I've never read! -- and I'm itching to get started today. Yay!

... Reading:
I just read one of the worst books I've ever had the displeasure to read. I'm a huge fan of Gone With the Wind and I really enjoyed the latter-day sequel Scarlett (NOT the horrible mini-series they made that bears little to NO resemblance to the book), so I was looking forward to reading the next authorized book based on GWTW, Rhett Butler's People.

It is supposed to tell the story of Rhett's upbringing -- how he became the man that appears in GWTW -- as well as what might have happened after Mitchell's novel. A version of the happy ending most of us yearn for. Even though both Scarlett and Rhett Butler's People are authorized companion novels to GWTW, they do not jibe with each other. They are two separate visions of "what happens next". While this apparently really messes with some peoples' heads, I don't really have a problem with it. But that's not to say I don't have plenty of problems other than that.

The author has previously written civil-war era fiction and has been highly praised for it. It apparently took him twelve years to finish Rhett Butler's People. He admits to only reading GWTW once and not liking it. He says he worked off his wife's notes on the novel. He admits he took the job for the money. It SO shows. Worse yet, I don't think anyone at the Mitchell estate or St. Martin's Press did any editing whatsoever. It's horrible. It is quite possibly the most unprofessional job I've ever seen, period.

There are many typos, to be sure. Ridiculous things that the lowliest of editors should have spotted. But worse than that are other errors. A one-legged man, who limps when he walks on his peg-leg, suddenly puts his cold feet into his shoes, "quickly" backs down a ladder, jogs in his stocking feet, and generally does things that a perfectly able-bodied man would have trouble with. Then there are the inconsistencies with the original Gone With the Wind. The timeline is disturbed (he states that Scarlett sold the lumber mills to Ashley before his birthday -- in opposition to the events of GWTW -- but then what excuse would Scarlett have had to go see him that fateful day and cause such scandal? The author offers no reason.), characters are decimated, and important events are left out completely. Then there's this novel's own storyline. It's all too pat and incestuous -- a small group of people seem to be the only people in the world; all their actions come around at the end to tie everything in a neat little horrible bow and nothing else influences anything. By the time I got to the last few chapters, I just wanted to get it over with so I could take the book back to the library. Thank God I got it from the library and didn't buy the ridiculous thing.

So now I'm going to re-read GWTW, just to cleanse my palate, so to speak.

Is it naptime yet? I just feel so... blah.

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Reuben rolls and sweet tarts

I had a wonderfully lazy Independence Day. I sat by the pool and knit on my sock, talked to neighbors, and generally soaked up the sun. Last night, the roof was the place to be! About a quarter after nine, it started -- all the city parks and nearby suburbs started their fireworks shows and we could see them all from our rooftop perch. We have a not-quite 360 degree view and there were more than forty separate shows we could see going on at the same time. At one point it looked like the whole world was lighting up -- in every direction there were beautiful displays. Spectacular! They had forecast rain, and there were some threatening looking clouds to the southwest, but they managed to miss us.

We were not so lucky on Tuesday night. That was the night I went to Summerfest to see Weird Al. It started raining an hour before the show while we waited for Al and all through the performance. Of course, after the encore, it stopped. Figures.

The Summerfest grounds near the skylifts

Egg rolls? No, silly rabbit, these are Mader's Reuben rolls!!

The south end of the grounds from the north

While I wandered around, I discovered a really fun cover band (metal-techno versions of everything from Mamma Mia to Sweet Home Alabama) called the Sweet Tarts. They're going to play at the Wisconsin State Fair, too, so I hope to see them again.



Sorry, no pictures of Al due to the copious amounts of raindrops falling on my head. It was a fabulous time anyway. He played most of my faves, including the two most important -- The Saga Begins and Yoda. The geeks were out in fine force. It was awesome.

I hope all of you from the U.S. had a fabulous holiday and I hope the rest of you had a peachy day, too! :)

Good news, good day!

Wow! Yesterday was a great day! Today is shaping up to be pretty nifty, too. Three things topped the making of my mood:

One: The summer after I graduated from high school, my parents sent me on a fabulous six-week tour of northern Europe which included The Soviet Union, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, England, and Ireland. It was an amazing trip that can never be duplicated, most notably because a couple of years later, the Soviet Union fell and I'm sure the country would be completely unrecognizable to me. I'd love to go back. But that's beside the point. While on this trip, I made a friend, B.R. who was cool, funny, and loved my cheeks. The ones on my face. Don't ask. Anyway, we went off to different universities, stayed in touch for about a year -- he even visited me once -- and then we lost each other. I always thought I could easily find him, knowing his hometown and alma mater, but then the years went by, many things happened, and the next thing I knew I realized I didn't know where he might have gone or what he might be doing. Looking at my trip scrapbook would bring him to mind and I tried to Google him but, unfortunately, his name can be construed as nouns, so the results were cumbersome and I had no luck. So, imagine my surprise when, yesterday, there was an email from him in my inbox. He was afraid I had completely forgotten him but I, of course, had not. I may have even frightened him a little bit with the enthusiasm of my response. But I was so thrilled! Reconnecting with long lost friends is a great pleasure of life. I'm eagerly awaiting more info from him as to what he's been up to and where he's landed. Exciting!

Two: Once I dated a guy. He was a musician and had a deep and abiding love of the band Rush. During our time together, I developed a love for the band as well. After a year or so, I decided he was not the guy for me. We went back and forth for awhile, but in the end I lost the guy but kept the band. I've never regretted the trade and I've been a rabid Rush fan ever since. My friend, Missa, and I go to concerts together every time they tour. Yesterday I found out they have a new album coming out May 1, Snakes and Arrows, and that they will tour this summer. Yay! Someday, this will no longer happen, so until then I shall savor every chance to hear new tunes from them and see new shows -- their shows are always well put together and well performed. Also exciting!


Three: Last night I decided to do the finishing on the Braided Cables Scarf, which I had completed the knitting for almost a month ago but had set aside because I wasn't in the mood for finishing. But I really wanted to wear the scarf, so I needed to buckle down and get it done. So, an FO! When I had been working on it in Missouri when I visited for Christmas, Missa asked if it was going to be a skinny scarf. It was somewhat skinny as I knitted it, but as you can see, blocking widened it by half again. It is a nice width now and the cables really pop now that they're not all scrunched up on one another. I fringed it this morning and it's all ready to wear! Totally exciting!



And, tonight, I'm going to the movies to see the Oscar-nominated short films, both animated and live action. It's the first time I've ever had the opportunity to see these films that always look so intriguing when I watch the small clips during the Oscar program. I'm stoked!

Now, I get to go see if my mating experiment worked -- I got all new antibodies so I hope my result is glowing! (Ha ha -- it's an immunofluorescence experiment -- science humor.)

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Start the week with flakes and tunes

I have two flakes this week, mostly because the first one was so simple and quick that I decided I could get a leg up and pad my flake stash. I've made the first one before and i really kind of like it. The second one I had not made before, and I was a little afraid it wouldn't look very good. The pattern is written as a beaded snowflake, which I always think look really nice in pictures, but I can't figure out how you get the stiffener completely off the beads when you block.
Mine would look like crap, I know. So, I decided to make a picot everywhere they called for a bead. It turned out all right. I like the "arms", but the center seems a little dense for a snowflake. Or, I'm totally over-analyzing this.

Last Thursday, in the midst of hyper-presentation-preparation, I did what any good graduate student would do: I went to a concert. Now, to be fair to myself, the tickets had been purchased before my presentation was scheduled. So I went. New Friend Veronica had seen the band, Girlyman, before and had really liked them. I had not heard of them before, but I'm always game for a reasonably-priced live music experience. Some of my favorite bands-nobody-has-heard-of are the result of blind concert-going. They describe themselves as "Delicious Acoustic Harmony-Driven Gender Pop". It is, in fact, acoustic and harmony-driven, but I don't know what the other two descriptives mean. In terms of music, anyway. I hate to think that there might actually be something legitimately called "gender" pop. WTF?? I'm not going to start a tirade about the stupid use of words, I promise. Though I could really go to town on that one. But I'm not going to, because I really liked Girlyman. Their songs are melodic and the three-part harmony lends a complexity that makes their songs much more interesting to listen to than those of a lot of bands today. The overall mood is cheerful, but there are a few beutiful ballads that are sad and mournful. I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys new folk or tight harmony and to a few people who don't. But if your idea of a great new-ish band is Lamb of God or Avenged Sevenfold, they may not be for you (Hi, Sweetie!!)

You can check out some Girlyman songs on their MySpace page (I recommend "Speechless" and "Young James Dean").

And now, another week begins. Please send warm, sexy thoughts to my little Tetrahymena so they will mate well! They seem to need a little help, lately.

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