Fair November Weekend

As always, Fair November weekend was a good weekend.

It all began Friday night, when Jodi came to meet me for dinner in Burlington. We had originally intended to go to Jack Astor's in Ancaster, but a big accident on the 403 made that seem like a really bad idea, so we changed our plans and met up at Milestone's. It was great seeing Jodi and getting a chance to catch up, even if it was just a flying visit. And Jodi liked the presentation of our garlic-heavy appetizer that she wanted a digital record of it.

It was very yummy. I regretted the copious amounts of garlic later, but that's another story. And that's the end of that story.

The next morning, Rosalie, Marissa and Jen met me at Ikea in Burlington, and we headed down to Fair November in Guelph, for our annual pilgrimage for crafts and campus memories.

It was as we were hopping out of the car that I noticed my wardrobe malfunction. One of the buttons on my (new!) shirt had come off, leaving me with a very inconvenient gap, where no gap can be. Marissa and I struggled with the remaining thread, and ended up with a somewhat successful, if precarious, solution, that relied heavily on the placement of my purse strap.

We headed into the fair, and stashed our coats in an out-of-the-way desk drawer when we discovered that the coat check wasn't around this year. When we came to a knitwear booth for A B Originals Designs, Marissa noticed some buttons for sale and made a joke about how I should have the lady at the booth sew my button on for me. She overheard, and ... did. While it was a bit awkward standing in a busy public fair while a woman I don't know sewed a button on my shirt while I was still wearing it, she was a real lifesaver. I'm only sorry I didn't introduce myself - I tink I was just feeling too awkward. But she's going to be at the One of a Kind Show next weekend, so if you're headed out, you should definitely include her booth - A34. She's great. And has a sewing kit. And is great with buttons.

We made sure to make our usual stop at the chocolate covered fruit-on-a-stick booth. (so good) Then headed back to Burlingon to Ikea. By this point, we were kind of running low on energy, so we particularly enjoyed the furniture displays.

Comfy chairs.

Finally, we headed out to dinner. At... Milestone's. Again. But it was good.

Especially the Bellinis.

Today was mainly recovery. After a morning at the gym, learning what all the machines do and how they can hurt me in many different ways, that is.

Saturday Filler

Today was a good day. And I am very tired. So, another Saturday, another cheat-post. But tomorrow will have pictures and stories - including a stranger with her hands inside my shirt.

For now:

Your Element Is Air

You dislike conflict, and you've been able to rise above the angst of the world. And when things don't go your way, you know they'll blow over quickly. Easygoing, you tend to find joy from the simple things in life. You roll with the punches, and as a result, your life is light and cheerful. You find it easy to adapt to most situations, and you're an open person. With you, what you see is what you get... and people love that!

What's Your Element?

See you tomorrow!

Sometimes You Get What You Need

So yesterday, I was all down in the dumps about not only my mother’s continuing health problems, but about being alone in this, and having no one to talk to and no one in my life who can help me through things like this.

So what happens?

I hear from two different friends on the same night. Friends who will be in Toronto and want to take the time to meet up and catch up. Friends who are wonderful friends and can be counted on, even when I’m being stupid and blind and self-pitying.

And? Tomorrow is Fair November day! Ever year, a group of friends from my old workplace in The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Ontario gets together and head down for the annual craft/art show at the University of Guelph. We shop and talk and laugh and eat together, and it’s a great day. And that’s tomorrow.

So even though the skies are still gloomy, and my mum is still sick, and all the problems at work are still around, I can feel the heavy weight of sadness lifting from my chest – not because I’m rationalizing it away, or even because I’m escaping it, but just because it’s another day and there are friends in it.

In other news, I have finished the cable scarf. I also told the friend for whom it was originally intended that it exists, and that I had planned to give it to her for Christmas – before she started in on how she has far too many scarves and not enough necks. She said that this ‘is different’ and sheepishly said that she would still like to get it, because (she has not seen it) it sounds wonderful and warm. And it is. I didn’t tell her to shame her into accepting it, but only because I already have another project lined up for her in lieu of the scarf, and thought I should share the frustration. We’ll see how this all plays out – if the other project is finished in time, she may get both.

Other Christmas knitting is boring the snot out of me. It’s a log cabin blanket done in neutral colours, for my dad. Blankets are big and square and even the appeal of the log cabin wears off when the rows get longer and longer and more and more garter-y, if that’s possible.

But I have some more interesting ideas for a few other gifts – getting a start on those will hopefully help me to get over my little patch of log cabin boredom.

Avert Your Eyes From the Self Pity

Why is there so much sadness all around right now? Even the sky weeps today with torrents of rain. My morning ritual of blog-stalking and my discussion group alike are filled with sadness and bad news - sickness and death and mourning. And yet the little things that mean living, and working and moving through life continue to happen and that just seems unfair.

I know that the situation right now isn't as horrible as it could be - and yet it kind of is, because of all the possibilities it holds.

So many times in my life - particularly when I'm going through something that is hard for me to take - I feel like I have no right to burden people around me with the knowledge that I am not doing okay. Not today. Too often, I laugh off my worry, my confusion, my hurt, to prove that I am strong and above this and don't need to have other people help me, because, all too often, I feel like there is no one there with whom I have a close enough relationship to ask that sort of thing of them. Juno's entry today today made me think about all this again, and she says it all so much more eloquently than I can, and without the heavy sad thing that's happening here. So go there.

I promise to have something less self-pitiful here soon. Sorry.

We Don't Know and That's Not Okay

I hate when the world seems to mock me when I'm sad.

I hate when I'm doing just fine with my avoidance and cheeriness and someone sincerely asks me how I'm doing and tells me they're thinking about me and then I have to stop avoiding thinking about the thing I must not think about.

I hate that the thing that is causing all this is "nothing".

How can a negative, the absence of a problem, cause such ...? I have no words.

So, sucky as it is, this will have to do for today's post, because my mum is very sick, but the tests are all negative and I want to be sad and worried for a bit.

Look Who's Stalking

The woman at work who decided that I am Shady continues to provide us with amusement and consternation. Her conversational skills may as well be interrogation tactics, in that they hit you like a snowball in the face, leaving you confused and directionless.

Some recent conversations: (see if you can pick out the hard left turn)

"So I went to Subway to pick up our dinner one night and ran into our pizza guy! I felt so guilty I tried to pretend I didn't see him."
"Ha! Did he recognise you?"
"Was he getting a sub?"
"What do you like on your pizzas?"

"It looks like this thing's going to go pretty late this afternoon. I think it's going to be quite busy over there."
"That's too bad - I hope things go well."
"Do you like Starbucks?"

"I live about twenty minutes away from work. The commute's not too bad."
"Yeah, that's not bad - the QEW can be brutal."
"Hm. What is your last name?"

"They're planning to repaint the walls and put down new carpet."
"Hm. Who is the most senior person here?"

We've started trying to anticipate the kinds of questions we'll get in upcoming conversations.

"We met people from Company A and they offered to help us with that problem."
"Hm. What colour were their shoes?"

We're trying to decide if this makes her a wee bit um... eccentric, or whether she is in fact gathering information about us for some nefarious scheme.

Wouldn't be the first.

Green Means Go

From my window, I can see across the street to where a little, green light is flashing. On off on off on off on off on

That light flashes all day and all night, and it makes me anxious. It makes me feel like I'm being told that it's time to 'go ahead' but I don't know what it is that I'm supposed to do, where it is I'm supposed to go. If this is a sign in my life, then someone needs to tell me where to find the accelerator, and the steering wheel. Then I can get started, get on my way... to wherever it is I'm supposed to be headed.

On off on off on off on off on

Later in the afternoons, as the light fades from the sky, earlier and earlier every day, the small, green, flashing light gets brighter and more insistent, telegraphing an urgency, a panic. As if whatever it is I need to do, I need to do it soon, or it will be too late.
On off on off on off on off on

I close the blinds.

It's Not Easy Being Green

You know, this day really hasn't helped me to feel more significant in the world. First, I stupidly ventured out into what is now apparently the insane shopping Sunday of Doom, packed with people so thick you can body-surf to the back of the store. I didn't even try to park in front of the grocery store, choosing instead to go the more expensive, but less freakishly busy one in Port Credit.

But the one thing that really made me feel unimportant and overlooked?

The automatic doors didn't open for me at Michael's. Hmmph.

Nationality Confirmed

Well, this is reassuring.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
The Midland
Boston
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Quiz stolen from Maryse at Monster Yarn. Steal and steal alike.

Some Days Are Worse Than Others

There is something about Saturday that drains all inspiration out of me. Here's today's filler.

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are a wanderer. You constantly long for a new adventure, challenge, or eve a completely different life. You are a grounded person, but you also leave room for imagination and dreams. You feet may be on the ground, but you're head is in the clouds. You believe that people see you as a bit small and insignificant. People pay more attention to you than you think. Your near future is still unknown, and a little scary. You'll get through wild times - and you'll textually enjoy it. For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

I'd say some bits here hit the mark - I definitely feel pretty insignificant most of the time. But I feel justified in that opinion, based on the proof that people generally have to 'meet' me three or four times before they remember me. It's really quite odd, as if I have no distinguishing features strong enough to warrant a memory. Maybe I should start wearing a flower tucked behind my ear, or a very ugly hat. All the time.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be feeling more write-y. In the meantime, go read a few recaps.

Rediscovering Knowledge

Near the end of the last series of Cast On, Brenda Dayne talked about starting a grand project - a project to get the sum total of all knitting knowledge together in one place on the internet. What a great idea - and it begins here. (I haven't listened to today's podcast yet, so if there is credit to go to someone other than Brenda, I don't know about it yet.)

Even though I've bought a few knitting books by this point in my yarny adventures - and they're some good books - I still rely mainly on the internet for my knitting knowledge and trawling for patterns. I rely on all the other knitgeeks out there and what they've learned, both good and bad, to make my small steps forward. I also rely on all the terribly creative people and the patterns they so generously share.

I bookmark patterns and tips everywhere I go. My real challenge is remembering to go back and use those links.

Here are just a few of the bookmarked patterns and resources that I've come across in my travels:

Sodera Socks (I don't know why I bookmark socks - I don't really knit them yet. My only sock so far was a misshapen tube of multicoloured acrylic.
Knitting Tote (I'm still trying to decide if I think this is fun-looking, or frumpy)
Tiny Purse (I'm pretty sure I think this is ugly, but I like the idea)
Hello Yarn (So many fun patterns, including my WIP Irish Hiking Scarf. Highlights include pirate mittens and an anime hat)
La's (of JenLa) sock post (a blog post chock-full of resource links for learning how to knit socks. See above re: socks)
Knitting Pattern Central (lots of really good stuff here, but you have to dig through some not-so-good stuff sometimes. Ooh! I just found a bunch of stitches here. I need a stitch dictionary...)
Reid Cardigan from Knitty (Knitty. Of course, Knitty. Love it. This is a baby cardigan I thought about trying out a while back)
MagKnits (another online knitting magazine - I don't like it as much as I like Knitty, but there are some fun patterns in here, too)
Witterings (a fun, floppy sunhat)
The Clapotis Cap (a hat made in a pattern similar to the Clapotis. Still trying to decide if I like it.)
Pinwheel Baby Blanket (I forgot about this pattern. I may have to try this out.)
Slipper Boots (I like this pattern - it's very geeky, with places to fill in measurements to get a custom fit)
Felted Pumpkins (I love these little things. Why, oh, why didn't I discover felting when I had a washer and dryer all to myself? Now I have to wait until I move again. Bleh.)
Wool Works (another little gathering of knit resources)

It's good to go through my bookmarks once in a while - I tend to just click it and forget about it. It'll be nice to get that wiki filled up by people who know more by me and then I can get my lists cut down a bit.

Glorious Food

I love it when I come home and my crock pot has cooked dinner for me.

By some trick of air movement, I could smell the roast, rich with onions and garlic, as I climbed the stairs up to my apartment. Every time I use the slow cooker, I wonder why I don't pull it out and use it more often.

Part of it's probably my horrible cooking preparation abilities. I need to start planning meals in advance, to the point where I can pick up all the things I'll need during my weekly grocery trip. It's when I'm poorly prepared that I end up eating macaroni and cheese more than once a week, or succumbing to the temptation of the drawer full of take out menus. The people who developed the internet ordering for Pizza Pizza and Swiss Chalet had me in mind. A few clicks, and someone brings you chicken? Brilliant!

And the slow cooker dinner is perfect for Thursday nights, when my hectic television watching schedule reaches its weekly peak. Before work this morning, I stuck the roast in the bottom, covered it with sliced potatoes and onions, added some garlic, pepper, some onion soup mix, and a little bit of water. The roast turned out pretty good, too. Better than the insta-meal I more often fall back on.

Today was a good food day overall, really. We made up a shrimp and vermicelli dish for lunch at work (love working in a place with test kitchens) and ended the day with a mini-doughnut throwing contest, into the garbage can across the room.

Food isn't always just for eating.

Fun Fur

I have some blogs that I have in my bloglines feeds that are there just to make me smile. Not even to laugh, or to make me think, but just to give me that moment of silliness that makes the gloomy sky seem a bit brighter.

And every now and then, I hit one that hits me juuuuust right, and makes me laugh out loud. It's not usually the funniest picture, but the one that triggers a giggle for whatever reason.

This is one of those.

Gimme some CANDY!!!

See? Not the funniest picture ever. Maybe not even the funniest picture on Stuff on my Cat today. Maybe it's the expression. Or it could be the beady little Frankenstein eyes. The caption was definitely part of it. Whatever it is, it just made me laugh out loud in my apartment all alone. As pathetic as that may sound.

Another place I check daily just for giggles is Cute Overload. Nothing like piles of fuzzy, furry cute things to coax a smile out of a day of spreadsheet frustration and emails full of capital letters.

I feel like I need to trim my bloglines a little bit. When getting through my list becomes more of a chore than a pleasure, it's no longer a treat. In the meantime, I'll just keep enjoying other people's creativity and pictures and stories.

Maybe it is still a treat.

You Don't Want to Know

As Christmas rapidly approaches (54 days ... sorry), the subject of gift exchanges came up today at work. What works, and what doesn't.

As a concept, the Secret Santa system is a good one. Instead of buying for ten people, you only have to buy for one, meaning it not only costs less, but you can take the time and make the effort to find something meaningful, that you know your person will like. Sure, there is the downside - people paired up with people they don't know well, or people who can't be bothered to get a good present, leaving their recipient feeling uncared for and maybe a little bitter about the whole thing.

Then there's the 'present stealing' system. In this system, everyone at the party brings a wrapped present, worth an agreed-upon amount. One by one, the people at the party are chosen, by drawing names, or by dealing cards, or by whatever other method. The first person chooses a present and opens it. The next person has a choice: they can either choose another wrapped present, or choose to take the already opened present from person number one, who then takes and opens another wrapped gift. The third person can choose either of these opened presents, or open a new one of their own. And so on until all the presents have been opened and claimed. This can go terribly wrong. The last time I took part in one of these, a bottle of wine was in the mix, making all other carefully chosen and purchased presents unwanted and their purchasers feeling insulted and unappreciated. Thanks to a few jerks who ended up as the final 'choosers'.

The best Christmas gift exchange I've taken part in in a while, aside from my yearly exchange with friends in Windsor, was an 'unwanted' gift exchange. Everyone was invited to bring something from home - nothing bought. It wasn't to be garbage, but rather items that you were maybe regifting, or that you'd bought for yourself and never ended up using - something that you just didn't want, for whatever reason. Then we went through the gift stealing scenario above. The items were all decent, but none were so much better than the others that there was a struggle to get them.

However the gifts are going to be handed out, it's about time to start gathering them together. Not to mention getting the needles clacking a bit faster.

Seasons of Discontent

It was lovely to feel the warm air again today.

There's a particular sweetness to the last breaths of warm air before winter truly sets in. Especially when we've already tasted some of the chill.

Autumn is definitely my favourite time of the year, with its crispness, its apples, its colours, its smells. But it seems to get shorter every year. I feel like I was cheated out of this year's autumn almost entirely. It wasn't long after the leaves started to change colour that we were treated to snow. And even though we're getting the warmer weather again now, it's now after Thanksgiving, after the leaves are all on the ground and swept away to wherever they go before the long, cold months.

But these days, it's not just the autumn we're getting cheated out of. We haven't had a crisp, white winter in years. Summers are sticky and unbearable, or cool and rainy every weekend. Spring has always been too short, and too wet. We've gone from having months full of each season, but I have no idea what's filling in all the leftover space.

Maybe I'm filling it with whining.

Sunday Filler

I made it back home, barely surviving the perilously boring stretch of the 401 between Windsor and London. I then celebrated my triumphant return by wrestling with a couch slipcover that no longer fits the couch, tearing it badly in the process, then topped it off with some reheated meatloaf and instant mashed potatoes.

Clearly, I have neitehr the energy nor the creativity right now to contribute anything of worth. In lieu of, here's my Celtic horoscope.

You Are A Hazelnut Tree

You're a charmer with a killer sense of humor.You are very demanding, but you can also be very understanding.No matter what, you always make a lasting impression - you're quite popular.Passionate, you are an active fighter for social causes and politics.In general, you are moody, honest, a perfectionist, and very sexual.

What's" Your Celtic Horoscope?

Here's to a caffeinated Monday.

Be They For Good or For Evil

I have decided that my brother has supernatural powers. Well, he may not. He may, rather, emit some kind of radiation not yet studied or understood by man. I only hope that these powers, or this radiation, is limited in scope as well as by geography, and God help mankind should it ever be harnessed by evil-doers – or should my brother ever develop a desire to go into sales.

What is this power? I have no name for it, and it defies logical description. All I can do to try to explain it to you is to demonstrate to you the effects it has had on my life. And my wallet.
Every major electronic device I have purchased, I purchased while in Windsor. While visiting with my brother. While shopping with my brother. Mp3 player? Windsor Best Buy. Digital camera? Windsor Best Buy. Computer? Windsor PC Outfitters. DVR? Windsor Best Buy. Vonage package? Windsor Best Buy.

And today culminated in a purchase that baffles me. For today, while out 'just looking around', I bought a laptop. I had no intention of purchasing a laptop today. I hoped only to take advantage of my brother's knowledge and advice while I had it, to get a better idea of the kind of computer I should, one day, look for and consider purchasing. Instead, I was taken again to PC Outfitters, just to 'talk' to my brother's friend. This friend offered me a good computer. At a very good price. And the credit card was suddenly swiped and I was suddenly picking up the box and then I was suddenly installing my precious Google toolbar.

I do like this new toy. Without it, right now, on day four of NaBloPoMo, I would have failed to post.

I thank the radiation.

Heading South for the Weekend

It took a month. And $12 in customs fees over and above the price of the yarn (discounted, to be fair) and the shipping. But I finally have my Kureyon. I don't really know what I'm going to make with it - I'm thinking maybe a bag. I probably don't need another scarf at this point.

But I don't think I'll be ordering from Webs again. It's not their fault, but if it's going to take a month to get anything I order from an American store, it's really not worth the (sometimes) lower prices.

I'm heading down to Windsor today. I really should have left by now, but that's another, and very familiar story. I'm going down to attend my brother's graduation tonight. This makes me very happy. I take so much joy in my brother's triumphs and accomplishments. He's come so far from the horrible place he was stuck in, inside his own mind and his own darkness.

But now he's graduating from Geek School and has a geek job that he loves and his life seems to be moving in a positive direction. At last. And this makes me happy.

I only wish I could knit during the three and a half hour drive down to Windsor for the celebration. As it is, I'll have to fill the time with music and knitting podcasts, now that Cast On is back from hiatus. It'll do.

You Can Smell The Evil

The other night, I was watching Robot Chicken. Now, this is one of those shows that I happen to come across while clicking around, delaying getting off the couch to finally head to bed. And, the first time I saw it, the reaction was basically one of, "Well. That's pretty weird. Maybe too weird for me." And I promptly set about forgetting it existed.

But then there came along another night of bed-delaying, and, since TeleToon is one of my primary sources for this delaying, I inevitably saw it again. It grew on me.

It's a very funny show. And it fits in perfectly as a show to watch just before heading to bed - it's on at 10, and is only about 10 minutes long. So I can watch the whole thing without feeling guilty about staying up later than I meant to. The only danger is getting sucked into Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which comes on just after. But, conveniently, there's a five minute gap, filled with commercials, that provides a good safety buffer.

ANYWAY. The other night, this was part of the show.



Considering my childhood fears of Cabbage Patch Kids, this was not a great thing to watch just before heading to bed.

Creepy.

What Have I Done?

Ever feel like you're setting yourself up for failure?

Following in the intrepid footsteps of Rabbitch, I have joined NaBloPoMo. I am now challenged with the task of posting here every day in November. I get the little fluttery-heart panics just thinking about it.

For today's filler post, I will share the story of the unwanted cable scarf. The scarf was made from yarn chosen lovingly and carefully, so that it would be soft and pretty and wearable and perfect for one particular person. The other day, I was talking to this person, and the subject of scarves came up. I then heard a joking rant about how she has so many scarves that she doesn't know what to do with them all, and she probably will never want another one.

Yes. Well.

Anybody looking for a new scarf? Never worn. It's not even finished yet. I'm sure I'll be able to find someone else with a cold neck who likes cables and 'New Denim' blue. I'm just feeling a bit deflated right now. Luckily, a new knitting book should help to cheer me up and inspire new projects.

See you tomorrow! Until then, I distract from the lack of true content with a kitten.