Tuesday, June 27, 2006

It was Ian, in the meat locker, with a meat hook

Thanks to everyone for all the really nice words. Between knitting and bears, I'm very happy now indeed. I just wanted to quickly blog and show to everyone that is is bloody 7am in the morning. And it's my day off (of two! Two days off people! In a row!). Why am I up at 7am those of you who know me well are asking... well, it because I just had a really disturbing nightmare and I decided being awake and groggy is better than going back to sleep and entering the same dream. I'll let you know how the rest of the day goes.

In other news, last night, I finished the knitting on TWO projects. Oh my god.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

People Suck

So you ever have those dejavu moments? Where you are like... 'wow, am I back in high school?' because people are being so bloody immaturingly mean to you? In a little gang? They've all voted you off their friend list? Now, if it was high school, sure, I would sink to their level and write something nasty about them on the bathroom wall but no. I know now that there are things in life that just aren't worth it.

It's not so much them because I mean -ew- but it does make for a really crappy day and I keep on thinking there is something I need to do, not to them, but something I need to do for myself that will instantly make this crappy feeling go away. Well, I have some ideas but none of them are attainable, like gathering today my Harem friends (don't ask) for drinks at M. But it's this nagging feeling like part of me knows what to do but my cognitive part can't remember. Very odd.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

*this is my first attempt at a book review. A small quasi-spoiler is in here but not anything important. Please keep in mind that I am not a writer and keep your expectations low*

Guilty Pleasures is the first book of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. So far, there are fourteen books in this line, but I've only read the one. This book was everything I expected it to be(which wasn't much), and in all honestly, a little more. It was an entertaining and quick read, with no deep thoughts, no moral lessons, and kinda a wonky plot. The upsides were Anita Blake herself, who narrowly escaped being another sarcastic, overly cool, heroine. She had enough quirks and downfalls to make me actually like her. The dialogue was surprisingly good, I was worried at points it would fall into the way too sarcastic realm (think The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) or the way too orchestrated realm (think Gilmore Girls-which I know, isn't a book, but it's written isn't it?), but for the majority of the book, the dialogue was consistent and believable. The book provided enough violent gore and sexual innuendo to keep it slightly edgy, but not enough for my liking- personally. As for character development, not much went outside of Anita Blake. There were some rounded characters that helped balance out the usual stereotypes, but a lot of characters that seemed like they should play crucial roles were not given any lipservice. Probably the biggest downfall to the book when the odd playout of the plot. A lot seemed to be happening without a lot getting done. It didn't really seem that Anita Blake figured out the mystery, more she just keep on putting herself in exceptionally dangerous situations because of her outstanding morals and then eventually near the end of the book the mystery kinda exposed itself while she was there. I don't know, I was impressed by Anita's disregard for her own well-being but not for her detective skills. All in all, I give this book three and a half stars out of five because it was very entertaining, I read it in three evenings, and the female heroine didn't end up getting rescued by some guy. I hope to read some more Anita Blake books at some point, and see how or if the books change.

Thank you for reading my book review. If I know you and like you, please leave comments (good or bad) about this review. If I don't know you and you are polite, you too can leave comments. If I don't know you and you aren't polite, please- go away. I mean, why are you reading my blog, rude person?

Sunday, June 18, 2006

We all have our vices

So I had a bad day today at work. A really crummy bad day. Miserable. Anyhoo, Jenn was lovely and asked me what I wanted to get or to do to cheer me up- lovely girl that one. And I'll jump a little into the future here and paraphrase (taken some blog liberties) what Jenn said to my response...

When most people say 'I know I shouldn't but...' they usually follow it with 'I'm going to drink till I'm drunk and incoherent' or 'I'm going to eat this tub of cookie dough ice cream all by myself' but not a lot of people say 'I know I shouldn't but I'm going to start a new knitting project!'

But yes, that is what I'm going to do. My other projects will just have to wait! This will take my grand total of current projects up to... 5! (to some knitters, that's heresay, but to others, it's the tip of the iceberg). But I know which one I'm going to start and it won't take me all that long to do. I'm very excited about it and am going to start my swatch after I finish this blog! As well...

HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO DAD AND GRANDPA!!!!
I love you both very very much and even if you don't read this blog, I just wanted to let everyone know what astoundingly amazing men I have in my life and fortunate I am to have them. I lead a very blessed life.

Okay, I'm off to swatch! Wheeeeeeeeee!

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Productivity, the fun kind

So it is only 12:30 pm and I've been so crazy productive! Bonkers I tell you. And none of that 'writing papers, studying, reading textbooks' productivity, this is the good kind.
  • Knit
  • Written two long overdue emails
  • Organized my email inbox into folders (8) and went through over 200 emails (still 300 to go)
  • bought a book of poetry (don't get excited, just a student anthology but still, makes me happy)
  • Finished the details on a scarf I'm designing
  • Showed somebody how to do a russian join (knitting)
  • Bought yarn (for scarf I'm designing so it's a legit purchase)
  • Had three coffees!!!
  • Talked to a good acquaintance which is nice because she's leaving for Vancouver in two days and I didn't think I'd get to see her before she went
  • went for a fourty five minute walk
  • and now I'm blogging!
In other news, I found a Star Bright cake pan and it's really expensive because the woman also rents them out but I want it so badly. Should I fork out the 20 dollars for it? I mean, it's Star Bright!

Friday, June 09, 2006

WASP!

There was a wasp in the living room. This involved herding the kitties into my room, a chair in order to get close enough to the wasp (on the ceiling), throwing heavy magazines (simple living), jumping on magazines, realizing wasp is not under magazine, throw magazine outside anyways (just in case), phone Jenn, finding possibly dead/not moving wasp on floor, dropping a magazine on it but running away and screaming at the same time, jumping on said magazine, putting armchair ontop of magazine, realizing Spike will get to the dead wasp no matter what (and that leaving a dead wasp underneath a magazine underneath an armchair is not the responsible approach to the whole situation), herd the kitties back into my room, picking up the magazine, getting a bag to pick up the wasp, realize I cannot pick up the wasp, putting the magazine back on the wasp and jumping on the magazine till the wasp is smushed onto the magazine, and I'm very proud to say, carry the magazine to the garbage can outside, let the kitties back out, and restore the living room back to order. I've also been compulsively checking the kitties to make sure they weren't stung but so far they are fine so I'm guessing that they weren't stung, doesn't mean I won't stop checking.

In other news, the blister I got on my index finger on my left hand because of my knitting on tiny metal needles with thick yarn got stabbed by another knitting needle yesterday and started to bleed! Dangerous I tell you! Well, I do like to live life on the edge.

Spike says hi.

Finished The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. I really liked it. I imagine it would be spookier if I didn't know how the story ended, but still, had quite a chills in the spine factor. If I ever join a bookclub I would love to discuss this book with people. Halfway through V for Vendetta, and so far I am really enjoying it. I don't know if I want to see the movie but I think I will when I am done the book. I'm having a hard time picturing Natalie Portman as Evey but meh.

Up and atom!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

A firey shower of star shaped books about samosas written in dye made from pansies plauged the western half of N. America-excluding parts of Alaska

I had very high expectations for today. I don't know what I really expected to happen, but nothing really all that significant happened. It was a nice day, don't get me wrong, quite a nice day detailing some friends stopped by, and I knit a dishcloth and watched lots of simpsons, but nothing that I could put on this blog entry in big capital letters with lots of exclamation marks. A jehova witness came by this morning while I was still in my big red houserobe. That was fun. Oh wait, I could make this into a big thing.... SPIKE TRIED TO SCALE THE FRONT DOOR WHILE IT WAS OPEN, GOT TO THE TOP BUT LOST BALANCE, DANGLED BY HIS FRONT PAWS FOR AWHILE, THEN FELL, HITTING HIS BUM ON THE LOW BOOKSHELVE THINGIE BEFORE HITTING THE FLOOR!!! Meh, not quite what I was going for but it works. Spike was fine by the way, he licked his tail for a long time and then decided to run run run and so now Chuck and him are wrestling.

And I'm proud of my dishcloth. I'll try to see if I can get a photo of it for here. Even though it's just a dishcloth- I still knit it in a half a day so I'm proud.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Just a lazy Sunday afternoon

I took today off of work because I had a bridal shower to go to. It was lots of niceness and I got a thing of wine charms as a thank you present which I'm going to turn into stitch markers so that was nice too. I realized it has been ages and ages since I had a Sunday off and it's turning out to be really nice. I'm doing a lot of laundry, knitting, and petting of whiny kitties. I also thought I would blog all the comics I'm getting. I'll never be a hardcore geek (bathe too much and don't shrink away at the touch of natural sunlight) but nevertheless...

Lenore (for me and Jenn)
Magician: Apprentice
Ptolus
Artesia (warning, a tad explicit... just a tad)
Marvel Civil War
Serenity (me and Jenn)(I love the artwork in this but unfortunately I don't like the way they drew Inara)
Bettie Page: Queen of the Nile (I've only tracked down the first one but rumour has it I may be getting the next two eventually)
Eternals (hasn't come out yet but it will soon!)
All star Superman (for Jim but I read them too)

Okay, this is really annoying because I know I am getting 11 comic titles but I cannot remember the other two! I took Johnny the Homicidal Maniac off... I don't think it's any Marvel or DC comics... meh. Just in case anyone is wondering (which I doubt you are but, eh) I have not yet dyed my hair.

In other news, I would like to announce that I would like to enter into a relationship with someone who doesn't play mind games. Just thought I'd put that out there. If anyone has talked to me through phone, email, or msn, then you know what I am talking about. I mean, the silent treatment? Are we in the fifth grade again?!? Huh?!?

Oh, and apparently Chuck would like me to let everyone know how incredibly hard his life is (Chuck is the orange kitty) and how incredibly abused and neglected he is. Unloved. Unloved.

Update: Jenn (Mgan) should cook everyone dinner. Seriously. Just do it.

Update deux: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter & Emily Strange are the other two

Friday, June 02, 2006

Oops... more yarn

There is a sale currently at the yarn store (I wish Darlene had a website in which to show all of you) but anyhoo, there is a sale currently so I went a little bonkers today. I bought this insanely soft Frisky yarn in which to knit my Grandma a shawl (last I heard Grandma doesn't read blogs so I'm safe) and I also picked up this pattern here in which to knit some for either me or xmas presents for pumpkins (or adults, whatever). I picked up two types of fur, blue and sparkly white, and two types of body yarn, an off-white and a soft purpley. The purple and sparkly white go together while the blue and the off-white go together. Do you like my picture below? Heh. I can't start until I finish some of my current projects which are actually coming together nicely lately. I only have about another two hours or so on my mohair shawl and then another evening of tv or a movie for my spca blanket.
In other news, life is kinda messed up but not in a drastic way. I miss Jim. Work has its highs and lows. My room is atrocious! The kitties are good. I got a new book from the library since I finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Very, very, very good. I had a little bit of a rough patch getting into it because the main character seemed kinda flat but the book addressed that and it just kept on getting better and better. I picked up Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris so I'll start that when I finish The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. I haven't seen the movie for either of those. I want to see V for Vendetta but The Stepfords Wives... meh.