2005-07-27

 

Vacation, all I really wanted. Vacation, had to get away. Vacation, meant to be spent alone. And then at Lambtown. And then with the boy.
I have six days in a row off from work. Just as soon as I send this last email...
Okay, email sent. Yay!
I still have a few things to do, like some cleaning around the house and maybe fixing that closet rod... Very exciting stuff, I must say. Still, it will be my last few days at the house by myself, so you would think I would be treasuring these last little bits of solitude. I'm not. I'm ready for them to be over. It's not as though Stevie follows me around the house tripping me up like the cat. We often are quietly together in the same room - each doing our own thing (often, we're reading). This used to drive my sister crazy. I guess she thought that our quiet "near-time" didn't count as "time together". But it does. Just being in the same room as that boy feeds my soul.
Come home, baby. Come home and be near.
Just three more days...

posted by bethanye 8:53:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-26

 

Let's hear what the zaftig girl has to say about that. I just read yet another review of the new Dove ads. Another one. This one, from Bob Garfield in Advertising Age, was the best of the lot, to be sure. Still, I feel a bit conflicted. Garfield says that the ads still portray an idealized beauty that is not attainable for most women -- beautiful, clear skin; perfect white teeth; great hair... It's a good point. Yet in the same article, he describes size 8 women as "on the zaftig side". Zaftig? Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, Bob!

zaftig: (of a woman) having a full rounded figure; plump. Yiddish, from German "saftig" - "juicy".

I have a dear friend who is a size 8. The girl has no butt. She's totally hot, but she has no butt. Now, how can someone possibly be zaftig with no butt? Yet size 8 is "on the zaftig side"? WTF-ever.
A few points to Mr. Garfield, though. He cites the age-obsessed language used to describe the lotion - "Anti-aging serum with milk peptides". Paraphrasing Mr. G since I don't have the article in front of me -- "What's next? New Anti-Death Serum with Molecules?"

posted by bethanye 4:52:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

 

What I learned from Clarion West. Unlike the authors of a few blogs I've been following, or the dear husband, I of course did not attend CW. However, it has still been an educational experience for me, and now that it is drawing to a close, I will share this with the four people who actually read my blog.

• Six weeks is a long time. No, really. It's a LONG time.
• Clarionites go to cool parties.
• Knitting can only pass the time for so long. I actually get more knitting done with the boy around, probably because I watch more TV with him than when I'm by myself.
• Carding wool works out that little muscle at the top of the shoulder.
• It's all well and good to have a list of things to accomplish in the absence of your honey, but you won't get most of them done. Examples of undone things: replace closet rod; dub movies (partially done); kitties to vet
• Using a Bosu is good for the ankles... but it does wear ya out.
• "A dream is a wish your heart makes..."
• The cats adapt pretty quickly to only having one person to afflict. Double the affliction, no waiting.
• My humor type is "The Wit".
• It takes a few weeks to get in the rhythm of doing your own laundry after you haven't done it for years and years.
• Nutritious meals are important for keeping depression at bay. Unfortunately, after about two weeks on my own, all I wanted to eat was chocolate and BBQ brisket.
• I can eat an astonishing amount of Riesens.
• Just because you can pick up fast food late at night, doesn't mean you should.
• Being in love is different after 10 years, but separation is still a bitch.
• If the boy dies first, I am fucked.

That last one is no surprise to those who have known us for a long time, but for me, it was a bit of a rude awakening. I mean, I like to think that if something happens to the boy, I'll go through an acceptable mourning period and then eventually be okay. However, based on how hard it's been to keep me "up" knowing damn well that he's coming home, I don't think I'll be okay if he's never coming home. It's kind of morbid, I know. Not trying to dwell on it, but it was a slight surprise to me.
Ah, ego is a difficult mistress.
I think we're off to Karrie's again tonight for more card-stravaganza. Poor little muscle!

posted by bethanye 1:50:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-22

 

Shamelessly stolen. A Marine squad was marching north of somewhere when they came upon an insurgent soldier badly injured and unconscious.
Nearby, on the opposite side of the road, was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state.
The Marine was conscious and alert.
First aid was given to both men and the Marine was asked what had happened.
The Marine reported, 'I was moving north along the highway and coming south was the insurgent. Seeing each other we both took cover.'
'What happened then?'
'We tried to draw each other out of cover. I yelled at him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable low-life scum bag, and he yelled back that George Bush was a spoiled-rotten, good-for-nothing moron.'
'We were standing there shaking hands when a bus hit us.'

posted by bethanye 10:30:00 AM    More Info

Comments: Post a Comment

 

I'm not going to break into a chorus of "I Am Woman". Y'all are safe from that. I do want to emphasize a few interesting links from the past week. First, Programmers: girls play video games. That's right, you dumbass nerdatrons who think that women who don't look like Lara Croft, or at least Angelina Jolie (both of whom I adore, but that's beside the point), have nothing to offer. You suck. Just to show how much, I would also like to point out that women are getting rich faster than men in the UK, and I suspect that trend is more widespread than just our friends across The Pond. Not sure why I'm pissy this morning. I'm all emotional. I don't think it's cyclical. I think it's because I woke up crying this morning, and not because of the long separation. Well, maybe a little. But mostly because of that story on Morning Edition. I just cried and cried and cried. I cried making coffee. I cried in the shower. I may have cried it all out finally, because I think I'm okay now. Well, besides being pissy. I'm just so thankful that I wasn't in the car when I heard it. I would have had to pull over. Let's think about not-sad things for a moment. I have a lot of work to do today, and I can't stay too late because I'm off to Karrie's tonight for more s2s training. Hopefully, I can get a reasonable carding technique down tonight. I've also put in the order for my team-spirit t-shirt and to show my Texas pride, and Adios Mofo! shirt to boot. Lucky me!!

posted by bethanye 10:12:00 AM   

Comments:

Google the following "presbyterian hospital skip hollandsworth", select the Texas Monthly hit (use cached to avoid the registration).

I remember them both, and other CF kids.

# posted by Bob : 7/22/2005 3:35 PM

 

"Girls play video games." Yes, yes, and yes three times over. This is one of my biggest beefs with the games industry - there's even some sections of the market where women outnumber the men, and yet... Gah. Do you know about the Women's Game Conference in October?

# posted by Cat Rambo : 7/25/2005 5:10 PM

 

Post a Comment

2005-07-19

 

Now, this is just ridiculous. I just parsed a headline about HP laying people off as "Harry Potter to slash workforce by about 10 percent". I have issues. Also, I am tired. I just got back from Karrie's new apartment where I learned to card pretty fluffy curly wool. How do I card wool? Poorly, I'd say, but there's plenty of time to practice. Say, on Friday night for the card/spin-a-thon. You can even see our grueling training schedule here, while Karrie keeps posting it.

posted by bethanye 10:06:00 PM    More Info

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-17

 

So. Tired... Off to bed soon, but just a quick note before I go. I don't understand why it was hotter in The City today than it was here at the house. It just doesn't make sense to me. I went to hit the big Nordstrom sale and buy big socks for Stevie. Nordstrom is essentially the only place we can reliably find socks for him, just as it's just about the only place we can find shoes for either of us. We're just a big-feeted couple. After that, I browsed around Sephora and headed over to Artfibers. I like Artfibers, don't get me wrong, but most of what I see in there would be the accent piece for me -- not the main piece. For example, I adore their silks, but I just don't see me making an entire anything out of them. While some of their yarns lend themselves very well to lovely tanks and shells, again that's not really something I would wear. I find myself wanting to lust after their lovely things -- and they are truly lovely, I don't deny that -- but then coming back and thinking "Wow, I really love DB Cashmerino and Rowan Calmer," not fixating back on the shiny jewels of color lining the Artfibers shelves. Am I a traditionalist knitter? The horror....

posted by bethanye 10:25:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-16

 

The end of a lovely day with my underage boyfriend, Harry. Rest easy - it's a spoiler-free post. Ah, Harry... Alas, our interludes are brief and infrequent. This one was more satisfying, I must say, than our last, if shorter. Perhaps because there was less lead-up buzz to raise expectations? Or maybe I just avoided the lead-up buzz. At any rate, it was a good day indeed -- beautiful, warm but not too hot, with a lovely breeze and a comfy book on the comfy couch. I got some work done on my new "easy enough to do without thinking" project -- a cotton and steel (yes, steel) scarf made from Artfibers Tesla. Very simple -- cast on 14 stitches using 10 1/2's and garter stitch until done. I want a very long, skinny scarf from this. Skinny scarves do pretty well for me, since I don't have much of a neck. Back on a Harry-related note, there's a weird bit of type on the web page for the HP books that I think is a typo... but I'm not sure. See, it says this: But I think it means "that started it all"... not "that stated it all". I mean, both are true statements, but the one that's there sounds downright silly to me. At any rate, off to bed, after a lovely knitty Harry day.

posted by bethanye 11:01:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-15

 

This plate tectonics scarf is awesome. Add another feed to my bloglines -- geoknitter is now in my feeds. And for the TMBG reference alone, I think I'll add Everybody Wants a Rock as well.

posted by bethanye 8:03:00 AM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-14

 

I know that's not what they meant... but I do like the headline: Unborn babies carry pollutants, study finds.

posted by bethanye 12:13:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-13

 

Oooh, pretty... We should put these in our house someday...

posted by bethanye 8:16:00 AM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-12

 

There's a lot of quotes re: the recent tragedy in London here, but these are my favorites:

'It's hard to panic the British. They've dealt with the Blitz, the IRA, the Silurians, the Zarbi, the Daleks, the Cybermen...'

To quote an old Londoner who lived through the blitz and got caught up in the Canary Wharf explosion: "I've been blown up by a better class of bastard than this!"

We took on the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, the French, William Wallace, the Black Plague, the Roundheads, the Great Fire, Napoleon, the Nazis, and the Blitz, and we're still here. You terrorists are bloody amateurs.

The BBC paused news coverage to show *Eastenders*. That'd be the nationwide fear, terror and panic, then.

posted by bethanye 10:56:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

 

Wow, squick takes time! Off to the Mel-O-Dee, where you will be very much missed, my anonymous commentor! Hope you made it to the musk ox farm safe and sound...

posted by bethanye 7:49:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

 

Oh, I don't know WTF has gotten into me. Probably that last comment. If you dare: click for squick. Not my best work, but I'm starting from a creepy set of low-res files.

posted by bethanye 7:48:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

 

Okay, nothing squicky here, unless you have a Tom Cruise issue. It seems his people are more than a bit paranoid.

posted by bethanye 5:06:00 PM   

Comments:

terr-y-fying. xoxo your favorite musk ox farmer

# posted by Anonymous : 7/12/2005 7:30 PM

 

Post a Comment

 

First, the lap dance liner patent. Now, the Lapjuicer. Eww.

Not to mention there's more of those creepy retouched pix here.

posted by bethanye 2:12:00 PM   

Comments:

Hey B.

Please stop showing these kiddie pics, Michael Jackson is still loose and besides all I can think of is those pics are what you get when the Stepford Wives want to take family pictures.

# posted by Bob : 7/12/2005 4:37 PM

 

No one made you click that second linky, dear. And I even announced the content and everything. ~~b

# posted by bethanye : 7/12/2005 4:59 PM

 

Is it just me, or do some of these girls have a "Oh, God, get me the hell out of here" look on thier faces? Others just look sad....

# posted by Knitty Cat : 7/12/2005 8:25 PM

 

Why are they all leaning to the right?

# posted by kweaver : 7/13/2005 8:33 AM

 

Because they're all good right-wing zombies.

# posted by bethanye : 7/13/2005 8:37 AM

 

Post a Comment

2005-07-11

 

Ho-ly Crap. The White House press corps have finally grown a set. Follow the linky and watch the video. Seriously. It may never get off CSPAN, but thank ${DEITY} it even got that much air time.

posted by bethanye 5:44:00 PM    More Info

Comments: Post a Comment

 

Creepy... Check this: Photo Contest Winners. The best part is from the rules -- "Will be judged on facial beauty, expression & fashion, and overall appeal of photo. These should be professional pictures, but should not be extremely or overly retouched. (We are judging the child - not the retoucher!)" Yet those are some of the most creepily retouched pix I have ever seen. Not to mention the creepy heavy makeup that was either digitally or actually put on those kids. VERY icky.

posted by bethanye 3:52:00 PM   

Comments:

aaahhh! that is scary! their fake empty doll eyes scare the crap out of me. i wiggled my laptop monitor back and forth a bit to see if it would make their eyes blink.

# posted by kweaver : 7/11/2005 4:14 PM

 

OMG, Becky! I've seen anime girls that look more realistic. I gotta agree with kweaver, those eyes are freaking scary. Reminded me of those movies where the dolls are possessed by demons are try to kill you in your sleep.

What the hell are these people smoking?

# posted by MollyB : 7/12/2005 4:16 PM

 

"Remember -- we are judging the child" ???? Wow. That's something their future therapists can take to the bank....
-- Cheryl

# posted by Anonymous : 7/12/2005 7:34 PM

 

the 19-35 month winner Reagan seemed cute at least.

# posted by Knitty Cat : 7/12/2005 8:19 PM

 

Post a Comment

2005-07-08

 

So far, I don't see much difference between the official Google Toolbar for Firefox and Googlebar, the extension I've been using. It's a bit cleaner, but that's the big shift I see so far... save the fact that Google did an official toolbar for a browser other than IE, which is pretty damn sexy in and of itself.
I need to learn Perl. I'm sure I can. I mean, I can (mostly) read it. I want to do some webscraping, and that seems to be the cheapest way to get there.

posted by bethanye 11:35:00 AM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-07

 

It's not just us. I mean, I thought we were bad when we did this:


But then I saw what these people did to their cats. Wow. We are so outclassed on the cat jenga front.

posted by bethanye 11:43:00 AM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-06

 

Here's the thing. I really should be asleep by now, and yet I'm just not. I'm reading the most recent assignment piece Stevie wrote up at CW first. I tend to do that these days. If he sends me something, I read it just before bed. I'm not sure why. It's not like it takes the edge off or anything. This assignment is an exercise in flexibility, I suppose, because it's just not as much fun as delivering pizzas to Ra.

Must sleep now... must... sleep....

posted by bethanye 10:56:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

 

Happy 9th Anniversary to me and the boy. I sent him a smooch:


And a care package of LoGH DVDs, though that probably won't show up until Friday or so.
Also, Happy Birthday, Molly! Hope it was fabulous, and there's a little present in the mail for ya!

posted by bethanye 10:43:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment

 

posted by bethanye 8:48:00 AM   

Comments: Post a Comment

2005-07-03

 

Well, beginning Week Three of boylessness. And he's not coming home at all now for the entire six weeks. AND he's going to a party at the home of a famous author who I really really like. This means I'm concurrently sad and jealous, not an easy combination to pull off.
G&G have been here since Friday and they leave tomorrow morning. It's been really great having them here, and I've fed them very well. <grin> They're headed up to a wedding and I hope the trip is relatively uneventful.
Now, off to sleep. I'm wiped out!

posted by bethanye 10:00:00 PM   

Comments: Post a Comment