she's just saying...

We got press!

We're getting famous!

The Oregonian has a great knitting blog full of knitterly happenings in the state, and today they featured the Bend Knit-Up. Click to see:

I'm so proud I'm getting teary.

Though she got it mixed up about my Red Sox. No biggie. Just don't tell Jacoby or Dustin.

P.S.

Figuring out how to include an audio clip in the previous post took about an hour. Just for you, my dear readers.

Hope it works.

Ode to Kathi D

She of the cute little puppies, misted chickens and tired roosters,
the negrospeak and the goldschlager,
the gratuitous celebrity photos
and the hilarious poop-filled blog.

Why are you here reading me when she's so much more entertaining?

I even wrote her a limerick:

Ahem.

"There once was a blogger in Cal,
who I call my special pal;
she gives us the scoop
on chickens and poop,
That Kathi is my kind of gal."

Thank you. Tip your waiter on the way out.

I'm insulted

Hmmm...

OK, nobody has anything to share with the group (except the wonderful Sarah!)

I never know whether it's because the post is boring, or no one has anything to say, or you're too caught up with real life and adorable puppies . Never mind, I'll move on.

Cute/thoughtful/perceptive/wry post coming, I'm sure!

Blog thoughts

I love this recent comment I received on blogging:

"It's scary on so many levels-- why people blurt out their private feelings to everyone, possibly even Martians, what the technology is all about (what have I committed to if I click on "subscribe to the comment feed"), and how anyone can have time for this sort of thing in the first place..."

I remember those feelings, but I also felt the thrill and pleasure of discovering the "other" blogosphere,  non-techie and personal. I started to look forward every day to checking in on other bloggers' thoughts and communicating with them in a simple but intimate way. And now, as with many of you, I have blogosphere friends who I feel quite close to, though we've never met or spoke.

I also love hearing from people that they're reading my blog. (Not in a narcissistic way, really!) It's a creative exercise that's addictive and important to me. But it's also an emotional exercise, a way out of isolation and a way to connect. You make the time for things that are meaningful, and who needs sleep anyway?

Thanks for reading.

3000!

The visit counter for this blog is just about to mark the 3000th visit. Maybe it's YOU!

It's a meaningless number, as most readers visited by mistake while searching for information on woks, feral kittens, waterfalls or entrelac. But it's a nice round number, and I feel like celebrating.

So, if it's you (and you can tell by looking down there on the left where it says Sitemeter), let me know and I'll send you your award. And it's not a feral kitten!

Feels so good...

...feeling good again. Two months seems to be the ticket. What once was a painful ache is now a pang of regret. Whadda ya know?  It really does take time. "Every day, in every way..."

These days, work, Henry, kittens, dead fish (yes, he seems to have succumbed), baseball, knitting, work events, flag football practice, homework and oh yes, work seem to be filling my plate. I'm very happy with the new job - it's just right. I'm energized by it and challenged, and feel I can contribute substantially while learning new things, all critical criteria for the easily-bored. It's good to learn once again that I actually do like working, after the slow painful wind-down of Edge and an aimless summer.

This is turning into a catch-up blog, what with all the self-referential links. So, to round things out, Oreo is going under the knife on Tuesday, then is moving in with some friends of ours, so we get to see him grow. Some regrets, but right now he's in the pouncing and biting phase, so it's a little easier. It's actually kind of scary to have a very fierce kitten, claws out, determined to jump on your face and bite you. Over and over. Everyone's a little nervous around him right now.

Top Ten Tuesday: Back to School edition

For my four readers who don't live in Central Oregon, a weather update: we woke up to frost on the ground yesterday. I realize that Labor Day is the symbolic end of summer, but did we need such an obvious reminder?

I'm really not ready for fall and I resent it being thrust on us so quickly. But in an effort to get back to UPBEAT!, here are the top 10 reasons I welcome the end of summer:

1. Baseball playoffs (especially when the Bosox are involved)
2. Knitting in public doesn't seem as weird
3. No mosquitoes
4. Less temptation for the recovering tanaholic
5. Best tomatoes at the farmer's market
6. Foster kitten season is over til spring
7. Hot flashes are more tolerable (not that I'm having any)
8. Don't need to mow as often
9. I can wear the fingerless mitts I'm knitting
10. OK, scraping the barrel here: um, can't smell the compost bin from the hot tub?

Compost pile with Wonder Worman worms

What are yours? Give me something here, people!

The Omnivore's Hundred

Thank god Jen provided the topic for a post just when we were about to be sucked into the Sticky Swamp of Cuteness forever.

Originally from www.verygoodtaste.co.uk: "...Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognize everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers."

"Here’s what you do:

1) Copy this list into your blog , including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating."

So here goes, my comments in parentheses:

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea (girl scouts!)
3. Huevos rancheros (like every weekend)
4. Steak tartare (used to love this in NYC restaurants)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10.Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21.Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24.Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27.Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (covered in chocolate)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more (more NYC excess - it was the '80's)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (Montreal)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (Kaopectate?)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (um, all four?)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (Paris)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (my old advertising clients!)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (Paris 1977, NYC in the '80's again)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake 

Hmm. I guess I'm quite the omnivore. Don't mean to sound like an obnoxious food snob, but this isn't a very ambitious list, IMHO. I probably had most of these 20 years ago (ok, that sounded snobby).

How about you guys? (Bloggers: Here's an easy post for Labor Day weekend!)

C'mon

No one else willing to take a shot at a six-word memoir? How can I post the top 10 submissions if you don't submit anything?  Or I could get my brother to write more -- that's a threat...

Six words to describe your life

The book Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, is a cogent little compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were: For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

(I don't really understand this actually: was he referring to his own shoes? He had kids, so it couldn't be theirs, so what gives? Anyway, I digress [my memoir in just three words right there.])

So, this is a wildly popular meme and since I'm always up for talking about myself a challenge, here we go. How I'd sum up my life varies wildly depending on how I feel at any particular moment. Maybe that's one:

Can't describe it: it keeps changing.

A few more:

PA, VT, AK, MA, CA, OR.

Getting old but feel fourteen inside.

I'm on a roll:

So much love, yet still single.

I hope I'm reborn a kitten.

And from the Dalai Lama's thoughts on the meaning of life:

Be happy: help others be happy.

 

Alright, all my froggers (friend/bloggers). I won't call out your names in front of the whole class, but start writing. Either here or take the ball and go home to your own blog with it. It's kind of addicting.

[Read more submissions to the next book project here.]

Big news, big changes

I've been working my consulting gig since the Big Globe swallowed us and spit us out, but we can't live balancing on that tenuous tightrope. So, back to the corporate world I go.

The big news tonight is that I accepted a new job as VP of Marketing for our local cultural gem starting in early Sept. I predict the quantity of blog posting here will drop precipitously.

Whoa! We interrupt this news update to say that those Jamaican relay runners are very FIT! Those green shorts make it all very clear.

Whew. 

Oh yeah, so work, it's gonna begin again. Good times.

To my lovely lurkers

Alright, you people. What's it going to take to get you to comment on this blog? Other than that Chatty Kathi, my bro, Amber and the occasional work/knitting bud, I never hear nothing from nobody. Are you all mute? (What's the computer equivalent of mute - keyboard-challenged?)

Sorry, just had to go off there. I do appreciate your readership, however silent. Seriously though, I'm getting a complex. Actually, yet another complex. And I already have plenty, what with only dating younger men who won't commit. But that's another post.

Top 10 procrastination activities

1. Look up projects on Ravelry - the MySpace for knitters
2. Take more pictures of the cats
3. Sudoku!
4. Sharpen all the pencils in the house for Sudoku
5. The Jumble (but only if you're really desperate)
6. Pluck your eyebrows (don't get carried away with this one)
7. Google ex-boyfriends
8. Just one more row on the Clapotis
9. Deadhead the pansies
10. Think up top 10 lists

So what's on your list?  Commenting on blogs is a good one, for sure.

loose ends

Time to tie up a few:

1.Yes, Henry does not like the retainers. He says he'd rather have the braces again, and even offered to pay for them himself. We're trying them (actually, he's trying them) a few hours at a time. And they have been lost twice in the two days we've had them. Unfortunately, they're clear and small and easily overlooked.

2. I think I've solved the catnip situation. If you can't cage the cats, cage the catnip.  They hang around it alot but haven't tried to break in yet. I think the smell alone drives them crazy - they don't have to ingest it. Does anybody know?

The owner of Chow (the out-of-coffee cafe, in case you didn't guess) sent me a lovely email apologizing for our experience. He said they weren't out of coffee - it was a server misunderstanding. That's good to know - I'm definitely trying it again.

3. Our knitting group may have found a home - Makahna's Cafe on Galveston. Great spot! Meets all our criteria (natural light, not too noisy, comfortable space, parking, beer and wine). The owner, Steve, kept it open just for us, which was wonderful. He's working on staying open evenings more. Check it out!

4. I did buy an electric mower and love it.

5. The laser treatments I had to control my glaucoma were very successful. My interocular (great word) pressures are way down, and should stay that way for a few years, hopefully.

Anybody willing?

No one wants to try their hand at a list? C'mon, this is your chance to tell the world (or the 10 people who read this) about how interesting and unique you are. I dare you!

me me meme

Okay, I'm piggy-backing on the meme on Knit One Quilt Too. Hey, Kristen!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Um, let's see. 1998. Dating Bruce. Driving to Portland every other weekend. Working at the agency-that- must-not-be-named. Training Flash. Thinking about adoption. Wait - it might have been Kev. Who can remember?

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Work on that darn entrelac bag! Whose idea was it, anyway? Oh, right.
2. Write back to my friend Maurice in Hawaii - I miss him.
3. Hit Safeway for the third time this week.
4. Look for work.
5. Attend the Knit-Up at PJ's tonight - highlight of my week!

3. Snacks I enjoy.
Cereal, plain yogurt, fruit and maple syrup.
Cheese and crackers (my staple single-girl meal).
The little candy bars that are in accounting. Have to come up with reason to visit accounting.
Is wine a snack?

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
Get a housekeeper.
Give a million dollars to Heifer International. That's a lot of chickens! (and ducks, bees, geese, goats, rabbits and of course heifers).
Fix the potholes on 16th Street.

5. Places I have lived.
In reverse chronological order: Bend, Los Angeles, NYC, Boston, Fairbanks, Vermont, Florence, Paris, Vermont, Pittsburgh PA.

6. Jobs I've had.
Are you kidding? OK, titles only: marketing manager, marketing director, consultant, account director, management supervisor, account supervisor, account exec.(right on up the ad agency ladder), scuba instructor/divemaster, temp secretary, traffic manager (newspaper, not cars), bookstore manager, pipeline inspector, restaurant manager, pizza cook, waitress, figure drawing model, girl scout camp counselor.

OK, who's next?

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

 

Yes! Success! After two days of messing with it, the blog is back up and better than ever (I hope). So no excuses for not posting comments! I seem to have lost a bunch of my old ones in the move, but I cherish each one I receive.

So don't be shy, or be shy and be anonymous, but do post back. It would make me so happy to hear from you (a little mother guilt there). Thanks!

moving day

I've had it with Blogger.com and am moving my blog to Typepad. As my dad loves to say, "you get what you pay for." Hopefully I won't lose you all in the process. Bear with me as I rebuild the whole thing, redirect the domain, import posts, re-categorize, build widgets, re-format, etc. etc. All I can say is that once again it's an opportunity for learning . . .

Good thing I have a lot of spare time at the moment.