Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody who celebrates! The annual cook-a-thon has come and gone, and we are still not hungry a day later. Not in the picture: Mount Aetna, the amazing exploding apple pie. I made it, it exploded. All is as it should be.


Also not in the picture above: Merlin, trying to figure out if there's any chance the humans won't notice if he sneaks up on the stuffing. Or the buttermilk mashed potatoes. He really seemed... interested in those.


In spite of the tough economy, there is much to be grateful for this year. We have a place to live. We have jobs. We have food. We have cats. We have family and friends, though they can't be with us for the holidays. Still, that's a lot of Good Stuff.

Klutz...

Yesterday, I squished my finger in the door but good. It's better today, but that means I lost a whole day of holiday knitting. It's the end of November, aaaaaaah! I hope everything gets done by the ship-by date, preferably without sore tendons.

In other news, I just found a tub of Crisco at a grocery store along the way. I know, exciting, right? It means all non-alcoholic ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner are accounted for (there's a bottle of Calvados for the gravy and another bottle of something for... I forget, one of the other dishes). Tomorrow, we start cooking!

Feminism Fail

Yesterday, I got a little brochure from Dell. Hey, computers, cool! After all, they sell the awesome Alienware gaming computers that you can trick out until they cost several thousand dollars more than you can afford. I'll never buy one, but I sure like to drool over them. So I opened the brochure and found...

"Now you can customize your Dell laptop with your favorite OPI Nail Lacquer shade!" I'm not making this up. It comes in lovely colors like "Princesses Rule!" -- and if you don't believe me, here's the link to their website.
Because this is what I really, truly care about when buying a new machine: Will it match my nail polish? Will I look cute holding the laptop? Will all my co-workers die of jealousy because they wish they had this pearlescent pink piece of technology?

Women don't want technical specifications. Women don't want to... you know, do stuff with their computers. They want them to match their nail polish. Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh. I thought we were further along.

Gearing Up For The Holidays

At Casa Batty, we are gearing up for the holidays. I'm not crazy about Christmas decorations, gift-giving, and all of that stuff. But I love Thanksgiving. It may even be my favorite holiday of all -- it combines two of my favorite things: Spending a whole day in the kitchen with Mr. Batty and eating.

The tradition around our house involves getting a copy of every single Thanksgiving magazines I can get my hands on. I'm a vegetarian, but Mr. Batty isn't, so we make one turkey and one Quorn.


We spend time with the magazines... then, we usually make the same recipes we first made in 2001, our first Thanksgiving together. But the process of looking, daydreaming, and choosing is fun.

Speaking of holidays... look, socks, not for me.


'nuff said.

Stash! Eeeep!

I just went stash diving. Needed some yarn for the SKA November mystery sock. And took a good look at my stash. Wow, it has grown!
I've been on a yarn diet, more or less, and it has slowed down the rate of growth. But that's not the same as stash reduction. And I really, really need the stash to shrink.

So: 2010 is going to be the year of no yarn. None at all. January 1 to January 1, no excuses, no pretexts, no nothing. No yarn.

Grateful Dead Archivist???

Dude! The University of California, Santa Cruz is looking for... a Grateful Dead Archivist! Imagine having that one on your resume. Apparently, they got a grant to digitize a bunch of Grateful Dead stuff.

Think I'm making this up? Go look for yourself, here's a link to the job description in Higher Ed Jobs.

Weekend

This week went by in a blur. First, we were preparing for 2 days of meetings, then, we had two days of meetings, and now, I need a break. I've been too tired to knit, so I've been spinning. Finally, I'm getting around to this lovely roving. Different shades of gray, a bit of black, pretty squishy merino.


I'm spinning from the fold, so it already looks plied even though it's singles... I'm not sure if I want to ply it or leave it like this. It's very pretty.
I'm tired. I'll take a look around the knittyverse to see what everybody is up to, and then, I'll flop on the couch and watch something stupid.