Friday, November 14, 2008

The Hill

You know, I've walked past this countless times, but this week was the first time it dawned on me ... in this hill there should be a Hobbit Hole - not this ugly thing, but a round green door with a knob in the middle and lots of rooms inside with pantries full of food...
I do wonder - was it built during the cold war? Is it a fallout shelter? I'll have to try to find it from the inside one of these days.

Tonight was Drunken Knit Night and Merlin's was packed. I guess everyone likes to go have a beer on Friday night when it's chilly outside.

Happy first anniversary to Minneapolis' DKN.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Whimsical Art

No news is without a doubt good news for me these days ... so I'm borrowing from others to entertain you today.

Witness the Margarita Tsock from the Tsock Tsarina - how absolutely fabulous is this? Yes, it really is a salted (translate to beaded) rim with limes and a cactus on the leg!

And this site is unbelievable - some people get really creative when they play with their food (seriously, take a look at the other stuff on this blog, it will make you smile):
And the Telephonic Sheep by Jean-Luc Cornec posted on Book of Joe demonstrates a wonderful use for old phones - haven't seen that kind of phone for a long time: Part of an art installation at the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt in 2006.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Weird Monday

Who knew? There is a conservative answer to wikipedia - check out the entry for Liberal here. (They say those things about liberals as if it were a bad thing!) Thanks, Kate, for the tip.

In the meantime, it was a very weird Monday. Boy-child and I went to juvenile traffic court where he pleaded guilty and threw himself at the mercy of the court. It went well.

After coming home I thought I could quick get some leaves raked, bagged and over to the city compost drop off before it starts "precipitating" tomorrow.

The cat did not want to help:
I did find an example of maroon and gold in nature, which the University had a publicity thing for a while back:
It's in the middle there, somewhere.

What seems really odd to me is that that tree can produce so many leaves when we only just planted it when Girl-child was born.

Of course, that was 19 years ago this week. She was home for "cake" tonight, and some goofing off with her little brother.

Unusual choice of cake for a November birthday, but whatever the Birthday Girl wants ...She watched a schmaltzy romantic movie (can't remember which), washed her sheets because "they don't smell right after being washed at school," squeezed in a Target run and I then managed to meet some of her floor-mates at the dorm since I was hauling stuff up to her room with her.
And speaking of tacky movies, Boy-child talked me in to watching Shaun of the Dead last night. Wow. And I thought Mallrats was bad.
Actually, the zombies brought Sheepish Annie to mind, which made me giggle, but I still couln't watch the whole thing.

Still Waiting for the Fat Lady to Sing

Coleman's Lead Shrinks To 206 Votes

ST. PAUL (WCCO) ― The margin in Minnesota's unresolved Senate race has gotten tighter again in the latest figures reported to the secretary of state.Republican incumbent Norm Coleman's lead over Democrat Al Franken stands at 206 votes as of Monday afternoon. It had been 221 votes in tallies that are still considered unofficial.County canvassing boards are meeting to certify their results, a week ahead of the state canvassing board.The one-hundredth of 1 percent difference between the two candidates will trigger an automatic recount that won't start until next week.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

What Now?

For those of us who have been obsessing and ranting about the election, there is the question now of what's next? What can I obsess about now? I think some of us will just have to wait and hope ... because I do feel very hopeful all of a sudden. (Nice photos, P)
This is girl-child after voting for the first time in a national election. How fun would that be, to vote for a winner the first time? I've only voted for the winner in the presidential race three times now - I hope she has better luck!

I'm very happy for her - and for all young people - because of the hope that the Obama presidency inspires. (Even though, imho, it will take two or three generations to recover from the W years.)

I think I'll start watching the first season of West Wing again. I don't see Rahm Emanuel as a Leo McGarry type, but perhaps that will make it more interesting to watch the new administration in action.

In the meantime, I'll continue to knit. I finished the back of the Must Have Cardigan: It's really quite nice and I love the color. After making Boy-child two orange hats and working on orange socks for Girl-child, I'm enjoying the green very much. A person can only take so much orange.

I took Girl-child shopping today - she has given in to the fact that she needs boots for the winter. I think the snow yesterday and today inspired her. I was always a boot person, so I hope that she sees the light while shod in the fab pair we found at DSW today. We got her jeans too; the general public will no longer know what color underwear she has on when she's walking around campus...

Boy-child visited two schools in the past two weeks and has decided to stick with the current one 'till the end of the year with the hope that he'll get into the better of the two recently visited for next fall; the lesser of the two will be the back-up. He has calmed down a lot over the past month, and I am very grateful for that.

I went to see author Monica Ferris* today at a local yarn shop. She is quite a charming woman. She read from her new book, Thai Die, which is not out quite yet. I picked up Sins and Needles for the trip to Chile, as well as a basic hat, mittens and scarves book for Girl-child to have for reference. I'm so sorry I didn't take my camera, because Ms Ferris had on a wonderful hat which she purchased at a store in Muncie that caters to African-American church-going women, in the spirit of Crowns. Since she's local, I'm hoping I'll have another opportunity to see her; hopefully with camera in hand.

*Thanks kmkat, for pointing out that the Monica Ferris website has hat pictures!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Dirty Laundry

Well, well, well...



So they didn't want to spill the beans before the election ... what would have happened if Lehman Brothers hadn't declared bankruptcy in September?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

November 5, 2008