1. I need to decide on an elaborate cabled sweater to make soon if I’m going to accomplish Thing 22 on the 29 Things. The latest Interweave Knits magazine had a cardigan that I know I would wear a lot, but is it cabley enough?
2. Check out this crosswalk sign hack:
3. And speaking of high fives, I took today off from work so I get a four-day weekend. That’s pretty great, too.
Friday Unrelated Information
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Sewers and knitters, hurry and scour your stash–the Iraqi Bundles of Love project is taking donations through September 7th. The project wants to get sewing supplies into the hands of Iraqi women. It’s all organized by one soldier:
Willing contributors can send to me a flat-rate box of sewing / quilting [or knitting] supplies, all bundled up. I’ll open the box, pull out the fully-contained bundle, and hand it off (with others) to our counterparts in the Iraqi Security Forces (Army and others) or the local police, for them to distribute. Some of the bundles will also be delivered by US Soldiers.
I’m just not sure something can get to an APO address in a week…maybe Priority Mail is a better idea? I only heard about this yesterday, but I hope to put something together.
2. Bonnie Tyler brings back fond memories of my old roommate. Here’s a flowchart for “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” in case you need it (click for big):
3. And the quilt looks fantastic! On to the finishing–pictures soon.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Tomorrow my dad turns 62! He’s the only 62-year-old I know who is going to perform impressive feats of strength on his birthday (a 100-mile bike ride.) Happy birthday and be safe on your ride–we want you to stay around for many more birthdays.
2. Ray Bradbury turns 89 tomorrow, too. Did you send a card?
3. And, in other news about old guys (ha! sorry, Dad–you thought I had resisted), here’s a news report from last month: New Jersey Homeowner Calls Cops on Bob Dylan. They thought he was a homeless man in their yard and the 24-year-old officer didn’t recognize him. Hijinks ensue.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. It’s been a long week at the office–a week in which I’ve met race car drivers, ridden on a golf cart, corrected my boss quoting The Blues Brothers, and worked what feels like a hundred hours. My job is awesome, but sometimes tiring.
2. Check out these trompe l’oeil murals from the UK that you can put on your garage door. Now the neighbors can see scenes like this instead of just a door:
Personally, I like the giant bird:
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Going back to happier topic, Hemingway’s thoughts mirror mine on an after-work cocktail:
I have drunk since I was 15 and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work all day with your head and know you must again work the next day, what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whiskey?
2. Ray Bradbury is turning 89 on the 22nd (also my dad’s birthday), and he is having a birthday party at a bookstore in Glendale, CA. This cool bookstore has promised to give Ray any cards you might want to send him, so click here for the address and go get a birthday card in the mail.
3. I’ve found a site about hilariously bad Craigslist postings: You Suck At Craigslist. This post has been making me laugh whenever I think about it. You have to click through and see the picture, too, but the last line is a masterpiece:
test drives at ur own risk i cant go with you too many bees.
Now I want to add “too many bees” to the ends of all my sentences.
Thursday Unrelated Information
I’m taking the day off tomorrow to have the new bed delivered and I’m feeling out of ideas, so this will be the end of the blogging week for me.
1. Today is the birthday of both Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights, not Jane Eyre) and Henry Ford.
2. The Big Picture blog featured photos of the Tour de France last week. Check out photo 28 of Mark Cavendish’s bike’s paint job.
3. AMC has a cool new promo site for Mad Men: MadMenYourself.com. You can build a character of yourself into the show. This is me (with the coffee cup, for those of you who aren’t watching yet) (and why aren’t you watching yet?):
Friday Unrelated Information
1. It’s PionEER day (as people pronounce it here), which means an oh-the-humanity walk to work (roads are closed and people are CAMPING on the sidewalk, so the car and the bike are out).
2. Yesterday was Raymond Chandler’s birthday, in 1888. I’ve been thinking of The Big Sleep lately, but I’m still trying to limit my re-reading and go through new books for the summer.
3. Check out photographer Jennifer Greenberg’s “The Rockabillies,” portraits of people who really embrace 50’s style and decor. And cars:
Seriously, what IS that? I thought cars like this only existed in cartoons. It’s fantastic.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch was yesterday. Check out some great images on The Big Picture blog. In #24, Neil Armstrong kind of looks like my brother.
2. Learned a new word: sciolist (SAI-uh-list), noun: “One who engages in a pretentious display of superficial knowledge.” So if I said this rhymed with “nihilist,” I might be a sciolist.
3. Toby is doing what I’m hoping to do this weekend (after mattress shopping and asking about professional quilting services):
Friday Unrelated Information
1. Happy birthday, Marcel Proust, born in 1871 today.
2. Complaining about mosquito bites on my face yesterday reminded me of Little House on the Prairie, in which the entire family ends up getting malaria* one summer:
In the daytime there were only one or two mosquitoes in the house. But at night, if the wind wasn’t blowing hard, mosquitoes came in thick swarms…Pa could not play the fiddle at night because so many mosquitoes bit him…And in the morning Laura’s forehead was speckled with mosquito bites.
That’s actually a pretty terrible chapter, with the whole family sick and Pa passed out on the floor and Jack the bulldog upset and unable to help. Just another reason to be thankful for tonic water and DEET.
3. *In the book, Laura calls it “fever ‘n ague.” I’ll probably never hear that second word used in conversation in my life.
Friday Unrelated Information
1. I was in a month-long cooking rut in June, where just the thought of coming up with something for dinner made me want to tear my hair out. Usually the ruts don’t last more than a week–they can’t; I’m the cook in the house–so fortunately M.F.K. Fisher has saved us from more takeout and frozen things: I found a new book of her collected short fiction at the library. Last night, we had souffles.
2. I have today off for the Fourth so we’re going to go to Lagoon. I haven’t been there since I was twelve. This will either be really fun or a huge mistake, like going miniature golfing in my early twenties and being the only one there who could drive.