Ha ha!
Yikes!
Ha ha!
Yikes!
Ew!
Yikes!
Ew!
Ha ha!
Ew!
Boo hoo!
Yikes!
Ha ha!
Yikes!
Boo hoo!
Ha ha!
Yikes!
Ew!
Double EW!
Yikes!
Ew and Yikes!
Boo hoo!
Double boo hoo!
Yikes!
YAY!
Ha ha!
Awww!
Well, as you can see, my sister is seriously stacking the vote in favour of Sisterhood. But Julie is also doing a good job of diligently voting for Happiness, so it’s catching up. And Jody emailed my a bunch of suggestions, all of which are good, so I may decide to go with one of them instead.
And why is Cook’s Tour suddenly showing up? It’s my doing, you see. I’m reading Devil and am feeling a distinct loathing towards the author - I could go on at length about why I feel such contempt towards her, but it would involve several expletives, and this is a family blog. So, as an antidote, I desperately want to read something snarky and honest, so that’s why I’m voting for it.
Voting will continue until I say so. Probably until the day before the next book club, which doesn’t have a date yet.
This morning I made the best cup of coffee I’ve had in a while. Normally, I don’t have coffee in the morning, mostly because my coffee-making ritual involves a lot of song-and-dance kind of things that I just don’t have time to do before work. But this morning I was tired and needed the jolt.
(Thanks to Julie* and her ex-boyfriend, I’m something of a coffee snob. I have my own “blend” - a combo of Continental Dark, Huehuetenago (pronounced “way-way-ten-an-go”), and Paradiso, all from the Second Cup - that I grind myself in a fancy schmancy coffee grinder. I must use fresh, cold water and let it sit for a few seconds after it boils because boiling water will burn the coffee and change the flavour. (Water for tea, on the other hand, must reach a rolling boil, meaning it’s been boiling for a short time, to be the optimum temperature.) I also have a French press coffee pot, which I like better than pretty much all coffee makers on the market. Besides, it’s easier to brew half a pot with it.)
The key is using enough coffee ground at the right coarseness for your coffee maker. For example, a coffee maker uses a medium grind, while a French press requires a coarse grind. I also like my coffee (and tea, for that matter) to be strong. Like, really strong. Strong enough to stand up and fight against a sea of weaker beverages and give them such a beating that they crawl away thinking to themselves, “Well, that wasn’t fun. I don’t think I’m going to be doing that again anytime soon.”
(Which, to get sidetracked for a second, is why I don’t like chamomile or chai or most green teas. They aren’t strong enough, and there’s no way to get them strong enough. Besides, they tend to get really harsh if you let them steep for too long.)
What you put in the beverage is just as important. Most people make a funny face when you tell them you like evaporated milk in your coffee, but that’s how my parents drank it when I was growing up, and that’s how I’ll take it if I can get it. Otherwise, I like to take it with homogenized milk. No sugar, but I will occasionally use raw sugar if it’s been sitting around for a while.
(Another side note, I absolutely refuse to use honey in my tea unless I’m sick, and then I’ll use it with lemon. Honey is waaaay too sweet and I find that it weakens the flavour of the tea. Part of the reason I don’t like chai tea is because the first time I had it, the person making it put honey in it without asking me if I wanted any. If that’s the way it’s supposed to be made, then I probably won’t be going out of my way to try it again.)
So, the coffee I had this morning was heavenly, and it really did the trick. Too well, I’m afraid. The strong coffee, coupled with the cup of tea I had after lunch, meant that I had the attention span of a hummingbird all day long. I couldn’t focus for more than 30 seconds on one task before I’d get distracted by something else.
Gee, I think I’ll go make myself another cup…
*No Julie, this isn’t a hint that you need to update your blog. I understand that becoming a member of the OLA and signing up to go to the conference next week took a lot out of you, so you’re off the hook. For now… (I’m kidding!)
I’m experiencing something of a personal crisis right now, so you’ll excuse me if posting is spottier than usual for the next little while. Things have gotten out of hand, and I need to deal with them before they get worse.
Basically, the situation is twofold.
Firstly, my laundry is taking over my bedroom. I’m down to my emergency underthings and socks with holes. Pray that I have enough quarters and loonies (one-dollar coins) to deal with what will likely be several loads of laundry; otherwise, I will be forced to wash certain unmentionables by hand.
Secondly, I got a call from my ISP this afternoon. They noted that there was a high level of virus activity coming from my computer. So I’ll not be on much for the next little while (that, and I’ll be in Toronto most of next week without access to a computer.) I’m writing this with my computer disconnected from the box, and will post it when I briefly reconnect.
The Dandy scarf is finished, except that now it’s too cold to wear. I knit it using large needles and a semi-lacey pattern that does nothing to block the cold. The ribbon scarf is still on the needles, somewhere at the bottom of my knitting basket.
The major project that I’m working on now is a hat/scarf/mitten combo using some Alafoss Lopi which was procured during various visits to Len’s Mills in Guelph, and the Manos I got in Fergus at Thanksgiving. Originally, I had purchased three or four different greens of Alafoss to match the Manos, but I ended up not liking the combo.
There was an olive green Alafoss that I really liked and sort of matches my eye colour, and it went very well with the Manos (which is a verigated green). I didn’t have enough at the time, but subsequent trips home provided me with opportunities to get more. In retrospect, this was not a good idea as I’ve ended up with yarn from three different dye lots - but, it works because I’ve used one dye lot for the hat, another for the scarf, and the third is for the mittens.
The hat is ribbed, and the pattern comes from the first Stitch n’ Bitch. The hat is made from the Alafoss and is edged with some Manos. The scarf is a pattern I made up, knit lengthwise on circular needles - two rows Alafoss, two rows Manos repeated several times. It needs to be blocked because it doesn’t look very wide.
I started working on the mittens last night while watching Firefly on DVD. They’re a basic pattern from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns (which is sometimes not clear, but it’s good for basic patterns.
I’d like to have everything done for next week for when I go to the OLA Super Conference (am I the only one who wants to do a Molly Shannon/Mary Katherine Gallagher whenever I hear “Super Conference”?)
I’ve decided to take the mature approach to solving my computer’s ills - I’m going to format the bitch and start from scratch.
(To my computer: You heard me. I’ve had it with not being able to figure out what’s wrong, let alone fix it. As soon as M. sends me my Windows 2K cd (which, as it turns out, is where it turned up - sorry Mom!), you and your little viri are toast!
But, because I do love you in spite of it all, I will be getting you more RAM.)
…besides my mind.
I had a tres amusing post, and it seems to have disappeared. Rats.
And you know that as soon as I rewrite it and post it - voila! - there it will be!
A few things:
Firstly, any report about my untimely demise (not that I’ve seen any or that there are any circulating at the moment) are exaggerated. I haven’t had time at lunch over the past few days to post anything. Not that I haven’t had Ideas - just not Time.
Secondly, I finally got off my lazy ass and linked the TSF button to the FAQ. Only took me - what, almost two weeks?
Thirdly, the purple of the survey box was getting on my nerves because it clashed so badly with the green of my background. So I changed it to a shade of pale orange that pleases me. It reminds me of pinapple and orange ice cream - mmmm!
(Third-and-a-halfly, way to go Julie! I think you’re single-handedly giving Happiness (TM) a fighting chance against Sisterhood. You guys know that you can vote more than once, right? Only once a day, though.)
Fourthly, it was -32 C this morning when I went out to my car. Right now, it’s a positively balmy -25 C. I’m cold right now - any guesses why?
Fifthly, I like numbered lists.
Sixthly, I still haven’t fixed my computer yet. I didn’t want the aggrevation of not being able to fix it immediately most nights this week, and I’m in a bonspiel most of this weekend (a James Bond-spiel - there’s a little curling humour for you. Seriously, that’s what it’s called.)
Seventhly, it’s almost time for a WIP update, isn’t it? Right - will work on that later.
(The title is a reference to this post, which was the other time I couldn’t come up with a clever title.)
I apologize for the hiccup Sunday night - I don’t know why it double posted, but it did. Wait, I think I have an idea - my computer has gone all wonky on me. And yes, that’s the technical term for what it’s done.
Programs won’t stay open. Links weren’t being opened. I couldn’t update Norton AV, so I tried reinstalling it, which resulted in an error message telling me to contact the sysadmin to grant me access to the program. Excuse me? I AM the frickin’ sysadmin! Give me acess NOW! I seem to recall hearing of someone with similar problems recently, but I can’t remember if it was something major (like immenent system failure) or minor (a virus). It’s entered “Do Not Attempt To Fix” territory, and I may have to take it to an actual professional on the weekend. Because I’m in over my head, yo.
In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have tried anything less than an hour before I had to be at curling (which we lost due to a spectacular second end for the other team), and shouldn’t have tried to fix things when I was dead tired afterwards.
So I’m just letting you know where I’ll be for the next few days - posting at work on my lunch break.
(Slighly off-topic: I watched part of Iron Chef America on Sunday night. Yay for finally finding out who Bobby Flay is! Anyways, FoolBlog has a hilarious “what if…” list of scenarios featuring Sunday night’s theme ingredient - buffalo. (I know - WTF?!))
