I’m baaaccckkk!

I totally stole this idea from the lovely Meagan at Slips of Prolixity, but I liked the format and felt compelled to join in:

Outside my window… is a lot of greenery with a creek running through it.  My place of employ is in an industrial area of Scarberia, but our building is beside a little stream surrounded by lots of trees and wildlife.  I actually had a fox standing about three or feet away from me, separated only by a pane of glass earlier this year.  Pretty cool.

I am thinking… about some life plans/decisions I am in the process of making.  And about products I can buy for my curly hair.

I am thankful for…that the world is full of endless possibilities.

I am wearing…beige chinos with a green paisley top.  Also have a cami type thing under the shirt ’cause it’s kind of low cut and I am at work.

I am creating…a life plan for the next year or so, incorporating my three main goals for that time frame:  school (Law Clerk and Business Writing Certificates), diet/exercise , and financial objectives. 

I am going…to start turning my computer off by 10 p.m. each evening, except for the remainder of the current season of True Blood

I am reading…I’m not reading anything right now, but as part of the “turn the computer off by 10 p.m.” dealie, I plan to read until I fall asleep – first up is making 100 Years of Solitude my bitch!

I am hoping…that my perfect man - a combination of Crash Davis, Andy from True Blood and Craig Ferguson,  is looking for me too.

I am hearing…my lovely and wise Poor Little Russian Girl* co-worker trying to trip me up by resurrecting conversational threads which I thought we’d finished already – and expecting me to know what “guy” she’s talking about.

Around the house…things are looking good, I got a few “new to me” bookcases etc over the weekend, and am making plans for some lovely “new to me” furniture which will be arriving in a few weeks.  Cats are all good.

A few plans for the rest of the week…none for the rest of the week, but I’m heading north on Saturday to pick my mother up at her sister’s house, where she (my Mum), has been visiting for the last month.

And finally, a category that didn’t appear in Meagan’s blog but I’m adding just ’cause I want to:

My new favourite song in the world…….

I heard this on KGSR this past weekend and I loooovvveeee it.

Oh, and I’m really digging Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody, and Muse’s new one as well, which I think is called Uprising, but I’m not 100% sure.  I like it regardless.

’sall

Addendum:  Poor Little Russian Girl is an affectionate nickname only, while she is in fact Russian, she is not poor.  I’ve also been asked to set straight any misconceptions about “guys” being her usual topic of conversation, she is happily married.  In fact, she is a neverending source of interesting and insightful discourse, surely as a result of her childhood diet of vodka and wolf meat.

Leonard Cohen lyric of the day……

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, you must not ask for so much.
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?

Truly, does it get any better than Leonard Cohen?  I don’t think so.

Frequently when I spend the evening listening to music, I think to myself “man, I have a lot of Tom Waits”.

In somewhat the same vein – I am one of those people who believes music is a better if you listen to it loud, so you can feel it as well as hear it.

Not germane to the general direction of this post at all, but important to say regardless:  This is going to be the best year ever!

When I can’t sleep…….

I listen to music.  These are two of my favourite artists:

I love Madeleine Peyroux’s voice, I think it’s so pure and beautiful.   I’m also a huge fan of Leonard Cohen (whose lyrics are pure and beautiful), so it’s a given that I am all over her version of his amazing song “Dance Me To The End of Love”.  This song makes me want to wear heels and a little black dress, then dance the cobblestone streets of Paris with my own personal Cary Grant.

I believe wholeheartedly that Ray Lamontagne has the.sexiest.voice.in.music.  And this is him singing live!  He is freaking amazing. This song pretty much makes me want to bear his children.

In which I confuse reality with fiction….

I seem to have developed my very first crush on a fictional character, namely Eric from True Blood:

 

I watched all of Season One and heard/read all of the Eric love and thought “whatever”, but this season I’m loving his humour (and new haircut), so I’m firmly on the Eric Love Boat now.

Alan Ball is amazing; of course I was a huge fan of Six Feet Under, but I also think American Beauty is a fantastic movie and will be remembered as a classic in years to come.

Next up: reading the Sookie Stackhouse books (once I finish my own personal literary Achilles Heel – 100 Years of Solitude)

Michael Jackson

Further to Michael Jackson’s departure from this mortal coil, my all time favourite MJ song

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough

(I can’t find a video without embedding disabled so you have to click on the link)

Irrespective of any personal issues he had and they way he lived his life, he was a musical genius in his prime, and will always be remembered as such.

Ah, sweet youth….

Today I have received proof positive that  the days of  of my youth have passed me by:

Not in the passing of Farrah Fawcett – an icon of my teen years and indeed, the inspiration for the feathered hair that I and so many other women/girls sported at that time.

Not in the passing of Michael Jackson -  a musical  figurehead of my generation, whose impact has been both worldwide and lasting

No, my recognition that I am now a middled aged woman came as the result of an advertisement on the radio, kindly letting me know that The Pretenders – the “alternative” band I discovered during my teen years who sang songs such as “Bad Boys Get Spanked”, and whose ouevre included such lyrics such as “I shot my mouth off and you showed me what that hole was for” - yes those Pretenders, are playing Casinorama this year.

Pardon me while I go and turn up the volume on my TV and look into getting an adjustable bed.  *sigh*

Dear Will.i.am

You pretty much had me at Let’s Get It Started, but after this weekend, I can only say that in the words of David Cassidy circa The Partridge Family:  I Think I Love You

Just sayin’ is all.

Spring Forward, in Summer

Not the best pics, but here is the promised photos of the Spring Forward socks:

In use:

I was a little unsure how the pattern would work in self striping yarn, but I ended up liking these a lot.  I have visions of a pair for myself in a pale creamy yellow or a mossy green though, I think it would look nice in a single colour yarn as well.

I’ve had a couple of doctors appointments this past week and used the hours sitting in their offices, patienting waiting my turn,  to my advantage and worked on the RPM socks, I’m already at the heel flap of the first one.  The pattern for this one is super cool, and I’ve actually had random people comment on them while I’ve been knitting away.

And finally, apropos of watching So You Think You Can Dance on television,  the Stevie Wonder song “Higher Ground” is one of the coolest songs of all time.

Ten Great Things About Summer

1. I no longer have to wear a hat, scarf and gloves. In my house.
2. I have a semi legitimate reason to have a bike in my living room.
3. Hot Day + Cold Beer.
4. So You Think You Can Dance is on TV
5. I finally actually see the next door neighbours who moved in last December
6. I can leave my house in the morning with wet hair
7. You actually experience day light
8. Sandals
9. Watermelon
10. Thunder/Lightening > Snow

I finished the Spring Forward socks and will post photographic evidence of same tomorrow.  I’ve also started the RPM socks so I’m on fire as far as the whole sock knitting goes.

I also experienced a moment of female empowerment this weekend when I managed to fix and actually start our lawnmower!  The lawnmower is tempermental and I am short tempered, an interesting enough combination that my neighbours would all come out and watch me try to get it going (and the incipient temper tantrum I would throw when I wasn’t able to do so).

But I bested the bladed bastard and managed to get the front yard done before it broke again and I gave up.  Ha, ha, ha.

Socks!

I’m enjoying working on the Spring Forward socks, the lace pattern is very easy to follow and the pattern is well written. I even did a fairly good picking up stitches for the heel, something I’ve had problems with in the past.

I went with 60 rows of the lace pattern for the ankle of the first one and unfortunately have a suspicion that I may not have enough yarn for the 2nd sock. If not, it’s no biggie, the whole process have gone pretty quickly and if I have to rip this one out and start again, it will be good practise and I’ll be able to fix the few errors I did make (the colours of this yarn are very forgiving as far as mistakes are concerned).

Not sure what pattern I’m going to do for the next socks; I do still like the RPM socks from Knitty, but I also really like the Mojo pattern as well and think the stripes of the Austermann Step yarns I have would look really funky in this sock.

Now that I’m getting a bit more into the whole sock knitting thing though, I’ve seen a lot of patterns I like. I have to knit four pair, plus at least one for me though so that’s a good thing. For my Mum, sisters and niece especially, since they were supposed to get their socks for Christmas 2007.