Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Re-Watching "Midnight In Paris"

So why am I on here, trying to think enough to update?

 I shouldn't be on the computer this late in the evening, actually -- it ruins my ability to sleep well.

But seriously. I love this movie. That is all.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

In which I finally show you some knitting

I went to Da Phew's baseball game today. I forgot how inconvenient it was having a metabolism in summer -- I'm so accustomed to simply not feeling the heat, I didn't realize until I got outside that I was going to really regret it. Thankfully, there was a breeze. I think I actually broke a sweat again today. That makes three times in the past year. A new world record! Well, for me.

I can't believe I used to have a hard time dealing with heat and couldn't wait for winter. And this, children, is why "diets" are a waste of time -- I lost weight, yes, but it came back with friends and my metabolism was so broken I couldn't even feel warm in a blast furnace for nearly 10 years. The things I do to try to break myself.

While at the game I did some knitting on Nieceling's European Vacation Scarf:

I could only knit for about...eh, 45 minutes or so? The colors in the bright sun were giving me a headache. But I got, in that time, about 5 inches cranked out, which means that the full 60 inches should only take 12 hours (well, 11 more). I've got all day tomorrow to knit -- having a private movie marathon, with stuff from the library -- so I should have a couple of feet finished by evening. Then I'll put it away before I go all stabbity with my needles because, hell and damn, y'all, those colors are screaming hot-bright. And then I'll pick it up next weekend and get another two or three feet done and be finished, well in time to wash/block and hand it over before her journey.

I got the yarn in a swap one year, and I voluntarily chose it and a second color (which is also screaming hot) of the same yarn. What was I thinking? Oh, yeah, I wasn't. That was at the Coven's Christmas Bash, and I'd been drinking. You'd think I'd learn.

Anyway, here's a better shot of the colors:
The flash tends to make them a little more pale than they are in fact, but it's blurry without, so...

Anyway, you get the gist. I tried to add beads to the scarf, but those super-mod 1980's colors make anything short of a Christmas tree ornament hard to see. I guess I'll have to find some other project for my pretty gold beads.

I'd like to get this finished in as short an order possible, because the colors are making me go blind and the pattern is giving me the collywobbles. The second pattern line is a massive pain in the patuckus (granted, there are only two pattern lines and two resting rows, so I shouldn't whine). Every time I mess up, it's on the second pattern line.

Betcha by the end of this scarf I'll have that second pattern line memorized, have nightmares about it and be unable to knit anything that doesn't use it.

Sigh.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Thanks, Mom.

Apparently, human grandchildren aren't the only ones she spoils, because guess who bought Yoda a toy mouse yesterday? A toy mouse that he took to playing with at two o'clock in the freakin' morning and yowled for an hour over??!?!?

Yeah. It was like that.

And today what do I find in Yoda's inbox?

Yet another fluffy mouse toy.

Because I really don't need the sleep. Oy.

And then I bought myself something.

A beaded bracelet, fair-traded from Guatemala.

I saw this several weeks ago when I went out of an evening with my friends. I wanted it then, but had no money. Today I mused I had more than ample spare lying around (it wasn't all that spendy) and decided to ride over to the fair-trade store, on the off chance it was still there. And lo! There it was!

Here's a close-up:

I can't believe no one bought this. It's just too perfect for words.

Oh, well. More for me!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Don't Call It A Comeback....

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a while. I've been battling my un-Godly vertigo/stomach problems/other nervous issues which I now believe to have been the prodrome of a migraine. A migraine which, I would like to point out, never freakin' happened. So all that noise and bother for, essentially, nothing.

Suck.

But I'm feeling miles better now, thank you. I can sit up in bed without the room goes all whirly-whirly and the sinus problems are abating a bit. I can function again. Bless.

I still managed, however, to do this while incapacitated:

Is it madness; is it? Is it?

Why, yes, Loki-quote-from-Thor, it was madness. A most excellent, loud and boomie, action-packed, spandex heavy day of fabulous madness. Here was the schedule:
 
I know you can probably barely make that out, but that was the overly-optimistic schedule of films. Spanning from 11:30am on Thursday the 3rd to nearly 3:30 the next morning (magically, the films started running behind after The Hulk), I sat in a movie theater just over the state line in Kentucky, watching each and every Marvel movie that tied into the newest The Avengers movie.

God, it was fabulous. That's a fun ride, mommy, I want to go again!

The last three were in 3D (Thor, Captain America and The Avengers), and I got super extra-smurfy special 3D glasses in a Thor theme (did you think I could have resisted?) I also carried along my Harry Potter 3Ds, which are my go-to back up 3D glasses. They fit better and they just seem to work better for me than the standard issue Buddy Holly style 3D glasses you get at the movie theater. So I carted them along in case the Thor glasses were...subpar. Which they weren't. They work as well as, if not better than, the HP roundies. I was pleased to note that I had no problems with the dizziness or vertigo for those three movies. Of course, I was too blinded by the awesome pouring off the screen to have noticed even if I had.

Anyway, this was our theater:

The AMC at Newport Mall in Cincinnati (actually just over the river in Kentucky.) Don't ask why I traveled so far to see this thing. Just accept.

And glad I am that I did, this was the swankiest movie theater I've ever been in in my life. The seats were really wide (wider than the ones in our local AMC), and since my friend and I sat in the upper tier of seats, and she has a tendency to poke around when bored, we found a family bathroom in the upstairs back hall that became our private bathroom for the whole day. Late in the day some fanboys found it, so it was semi-private, but yeah, no lines. Excellent.

I went outside between a couple of the movies and checked out the views.

The river was lovely, and the breeze quite restorative. Not that the theater was stuffy; I wore my sweater to keep the chill of the air conditioning off my arms, and, quite naturally, had my Little Loki snugged around my neck for the last movie of the night, and was quite comfortable. But there's nothing quite like fresh air, no?

And they even had an outdoor art display:

I can't recall just now the name of this painting, and since I took the picture on my cell phone the zoom is useless, but I was surprised to see it. It's a rather nice reproduction (no, they aren't stupid enough to put an actual painting outdoors) advertising a local art museum. If I'd had time, I might have indulged.

As it was, we got back to my friend's house at around 4am Friday morning, and I had to drug myself to get to sleep. The adrenaline storm, it was fierce. Thanks to my handy little sedative pill I slept until 1pm the next day. Felt better than I had in a long time, too, when I woke up.

We had to go back to a different theater on Sunday for a second viewing (after five movies in a row, the sixth gets a bit blurry around the edges, particularly after midnight), and it was still awesome topped with epic awesome sauce. And why, oh, why does Ohio have the swankiest movie theaters around? I swear, both movie theaters that weekend were just incredible. Even their cheap movie theater (you know, the $2 dumps) is nice and clean and you don't lose the soles of your shoes in the sticky gunk on the floor. Ohio, home of off-site storage facilities, fabulous movie theaters and Jungle Jim's. Incredible store.

Sigh. Other than the movie-gasm (and the fact that I've seen it yet again since coming home and plan to see it a fourth time this next weekend -- to verify a certain fact the fanboys and girls seem to be spreading around like wildfire on the internetz), I haven't been doing much. Sleeping a lot, getting a new crown, having my migraine prodrome, getting (mostly) over it. Keepin' on keepin' on, so to speak. I started a new project (one with a deadline, urgh) and put most of my other knitting on backburners. I should get off this infernal machine and go work on my deadline knitting, too.

Well, after I eat my dinner. Eating fries is bad for the yarn while working. Good for the tummy, mmmmm. Bad for the yarn. *frownie face*