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.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, all! It's been a lovely day at Casa Batty. Even if the weather didn't quite cooperate. You see, I was going to go as a novice knitter. Wear my ill-fitting Banff sweater and carry US #17 needles and Fun Fur. See the picture below?


That was not today. That was 2 weeks ago. Today, the temperature outside was over 70 degrees F. Not good for thick wool sweaters. So I wore one of my regular bat shirts... and bought some bat earrings while we were out.

Then, there were the cookies. I bought some awesome cookie shapes and made cutouts. Lovely, aren't they?


They looked fabulous after I baked them. We ate some and threw out the rest -- they burned. The recipe didn't say how long to bake them... just "bake until the edges are brown." Uh... dude, the freaking cookies are brown! How am I supposed to know when the edges are brown? By the time I see them, they're burned. So... yeah. Lesson learned.


But we did go down to Porter Square today, where I sat in a cafe, ate a yummy oatmeal raisin cookie, did some spinning... and then, Mr. Batty and I stopped by Mind's Eye Yarns, and I bought some pretty purple/burgundy roving.

No Halloween post would be complete without a picture of my very own Helloween kitty. Poor Morgana went to the vet today... only to find out he'd looked at her tooth when we took her in a month ago and didn't have to go in at all.


But she's happy now. He just looked in her mouth, and that was it. She wasn't there long enough to pick up that vet smell... her brother didn't even hiss at her. So, all things considered, Halloween worked out pretty well.

Mojo?

Wow, it seems like I ripped out my knitting mojo along with that sweater! If anyone finds it, could you please tell it to come back? The holidays are drawing near. I need it!