Happy Halloween!!!

In honor of Halloween coming up on Saturday I would like to share some of my favorite Halloween time movies!! Here are some clips to start with... I'm not really the "horror" movie type, so most of these are just cheesy Halloween movies that aren't very scary or gory.

It's FINALLY concert time!!!

So I haven't been to a concert all year!! Sad and shocking!! But I'm making up for it in a big way tomorrow night at the Ulalume festival at Merryweather Post Pavillion!

It's not only a Paramore and AFI concert but a Halloween festival put on by MTV! It's common knowledge that I complain yearly of not having anything "cool" to do on Halloween where I get to wear a costume and be creepy and be creeped, but I will not have any reason to complain this year!! We will be standing in the pit a mere 35 feet from AFI and Paramore when they take the stage. We will also be in full costume. I (of course) will be in a gothy Alice costume and Stephen will be his own take on the Cheshire Cat! I will blog again this weekend with pictures and such but in the meantime enjoy this AFI video montage!!

PS make sure you tune into the Ulalume Halloween Special on MTV Friday October 30th at 9pm to see if you can catch a glimpse of me and Stephen!!

S O C K is a four letter word!

** Warning, probably of no interest to non-knitters

Sooooo I have spent much of my knitting career learning that socks are the be all and end all of the knitting experience. "Knit a sock and you'll be hooked" "Socks; easy, quick, and hard to ignore" is just some of the sock propaganda that has been tossed around my knitting group every week. So I gave in and got pretty excited about my first pair of socks and completed them with relative success! So feeling pretty cocky I began immediate plans for a pair for my mom (who incidently has the same size foot I do) for her birthday. I got the perfect wool, nylon blend sock yarn in a pretty coral color in a swap and knew it was fate! I started on a "Poppy" pattern from a certain sock knitting celebrity and CO (cast on for you non knitters) onto my US 1 DPNs (double pointed needles).

Four frogs (completely ripping out your entire project), 10 dropped stitches, and 1 aggravated heave accross the room later I'm left to wonder "What's wrong with me?" I've knitted sweaters, baby blankets, mittens, moderate lace, and basic socks why can't I tackle this project.

I soon learned that the road to proper sock knitting is littered with terms like "toe up" "provisional CO" "short row heel" "heel flap". Terms I've come to appreciate as profain! I must soon re-prioritize my knitting goals to keep from lunging my US 1 's at the next person who asks "How's your latest sock coming" I must suck it up and begin agian! Bigger, better, lacier sock patterns are in my future!! Knee high stockings as far as the eye can see!

I'm grumpy...

So... I really hate that saying "When it rains it pours" mostly because it's true. I had hoped to spend this entire week cleaning and organizing and preparing for my husband to come home Thursday night. Well to throw another over used phrase at you "the best laid plans..." often get ruined by stupid crap that decides to happen all at once!

It all started Monday when I had a pretty good day of running errands and having dinner with a friend and wanted to take a relaxing shower to end the night... then BOOM my nice hot shower was crashed by the biggest, ugliest, craziest looking bug sitting on my shower head who then proceeded to jump on to my newly cleaned hair! After putting on the best 10 minute naked, wet, screaming, slipping, stomping show on earth I finally managed to coax the beast down the drain and rinse the rest of the soap off. Through some internet research I found out that it was a Brownbanded Cockroach... YUCK!! I spent the rest of the night tossing and turning, feeling hundereds of imaginary bugs crawling on me and waiting for the ceiling to crash in with all their buddies that I was sure were breeding in my attic above.

I finally fell asleep at 6am only to be awoken at 7am by terrible cramps from my early monthly visitor followed shortly by Kaylyn's usual "Mama I'm Awake" song. So half concious I fixed Kaylyn breakfast, threw down 4 Advil with scalding hot coffee and called the exterminator. An unusually helpful man told me that these cockroaches unlike others, do not always travel in packs and unless I wanted to pay $400 for them to look and say there were no more I should go up into my attic and check things out for myself and maybe set off a bug bomb to be safe. Great idea except for the fact that my attic entrance consists of a hole in the celing of my closet with a piece of plyboard for a door. My ladder choices are 1. a 6ft ladder in the shed that I can neither lift nor fit into my closet, or 2. a 2 step stool that leaves me 2.5 ft short of reaching the door. I decided that this could be tackled after getting dressed and running to Walmart for the bug bomb.

After throwing on an attractive t-shirt, jean, flip flop, frizzy hair, no makeup outfit I convinced Kaylyn to abandon Handy Manny by bribing her with new crayons and made the trip to Walmart. Came home, bug bomb and new crayons in hand... set up Kaylyn in the unusually hot basement... why is it so hot in our basement when the air conditioning unit is on and actually in the basement... I opened the work room door to investigate only to find myself standing barefoot in an inch of very gross water! After stifling some un Kaylyn approved words I called my absent husband, who said he didn't mind the call during his brake, but his irritated tone told me otherwise... he said rest assured it was only the filter... look for the dimensions and go buy a new one.

So now after identifying the dimensions, changing into a less wet tshirt and convincing Kaylyn to abandon her new crayons by bribing her with a Happy Meal I set off once again for Walmart...
Home again this time new filter, Happy Meal, and extra large Iced Coffee in hand I occupyed Kaylyn with her lunch and favorite Charlie and Lola DVD, cleaned up the gross ac water, replaced the damned filter and headed upstairs to tackle my main project of the day.

Armed with my 2 step, step stool, bug bomb, and flashlight I put on another acrobatic display by jumping the plyboard off the hinges and swinging myself feet and ass first into the creepy dark attic. Luckily I found no bugs, and set off the bug bomb as instructed, just to be safe. The ac is now working fine and no other water has accumulated in 24 hours.

So I guess all in all I am a stronger woman for all this, and if all else fails at least I know I could have a promising career in the circus!

Side Cable Dishcloth

So here is a pattern I wrote to make a dishcloth based on the "Modern Cabled Baby Bib" by gibsongirl on Ravelry. It's very simple and is made with my beloved Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn.

**Note: The picture is of a mini-version made by CO 26 stitches instead of 36 and I think I'm going to use it as a mug coaster or something. The yarn is Lily Sugar'n Cream Ombre and Prints in Natural Ombre.





Side Cable Dishcloth

Materials:
1 Ball Worsted Cotton
US size 6 needles
Cable Needle (I just use a double pointed needle)

Stitch Guide:
C6F = Place first 3 stitches onto cable needle and hold them to the front of your work, knit next three stitches from working needle, and then knit 3 stitches off of cable needle.

CO 36 stitches
Row 1 and 3: Knit across
Row 2 and 4: Knit to last 6 stitches, Purl 6
Row 5: C6F, Knit to end
Row 6: Knit to last 6 stitches, Purl 6

Repeat Rows 1-6 until piece measures about 7 inches.
BO and weave in ends.

If Whitoberfest was a music festival...

So during my husband's surprise visit this weekend we met some friends for a drink... as usually happens a couple drinks in some deep and well thought out questions were discussed... ok so that doesn't usually happen but one was pretty good that I thought I would pass it along!

If you had your own music festival what 5 bands (any time frame, any point in their careers, any music genre) would you have from opener to headliner?

So it seems like it should be pretty easy... until you head starts cramming all the bands that have ever meant anything to you. So how do you conquer such a huge task especially when your bound by deadlines of waiting babysitters, last call, and alcoholic tolerance? Here is my 3 step guide!

1. Immediately eliminate any band that you are holding onto for purely sentimental reasons. Example: The Bloodhound Gang's "The Bad Touch" was playing on the radio the first time Stephen and I made out in a car, so that song does make me smile when I hear it but I would rather beat myself in the head than listen to a whole concert of them.

2.Before you mix genres make sure the mood of one band won't ruin the mood of the other.

3. In cases of unavoidable band additions remember that you can add a 3 band second stage!!

So after much deliberation I finally decided on my 5 (oh, ok 8) bands!

Second Stage: (Opener to Headliner) Flyleaf, Paramore, and No Doubt

Main Stage: (Opener to Headliner) Dave Matthews Band, Live, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

So now somebody with lots of money and connections throw me a concert!!

I'd love to hear everyone else's thoughts!

This Month's Book Review

While it is very hard to knit and read at the same time, sometimes my urge to read a good book actually overtakes my urge to knit (only sometimes). The only problem is that I am very picky when it comes to books. I usually don't stick with one genre, sometimes I need a good romance, sometimes I need an intellectual boost, sometimes a simple young adult Harry Potter type book, and sometimes a thriller. With this latest reading urge I finally gave into the crowd and read my first James Patterson novel.

I read the first book in the "Women's Murder Club" series, 1st to Die. From James Patterson's website...

A serial killer is stalking and murdering newlyweds on their honeymoon. San Francisco Homicide inspector Lindsay Boxer takes the case and along the way meets three other women–a lawyer, a reporter, and the city medical examiner. Joining forces to solve this gruesome crime, the Women's Murder Club is born.

I loved it! It had a good pace, it was interesting, and compelling. All of the characters were well developed but I liked Claire, the bold, caring, southern-momma like medical examiner, the best. While she wasn't the main narrator in this one, I felt I identified with her over the other more aggressive females in "the club." I hope that the other books in this series use the other ladies as narrators, giving each book their own personal twist. This first book had the police inspector, Lindsay, as it's main narrator, using the other three women for their insight into this career building case while battling with her own health, and social problems. I hope in the other books we'll get more in depth looks into the lives of the other leading ladies.

I believe there are currently seven books out in this series with an eighth book due out this summer, but don't quote me on that. I have the second book on hold at the library; hopefully it'll come in before my reading urges go away and the total knitting obsession settles back in.