Ramblings of the insane, and a few reviews.
Last night Mother of Mine and I watched Australia.
I must admit, that when I originally saw the trailers for it… I thought “hmmm looks like something I want to see.. but it looks like something I’d need to be in the mood for”
Which is why it hadn’t been watched until now.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan of Baz Luhrman. I do in fact own the Red Curtain Collection, and Strictly Ballroom has been one of my all time favorite movies.
I’m also a huge fan of Hugh Jackman. I mean, heck… I once recorded a PBS showing of Oklahoma! because he was in it. (I managed to somehow not watch it before I accidentally recorded over it, but you still get the point.)
Now, one of the reasons I was meh about watching it, was because I just have to be in a mood to watch one of her movies. I’m not saying she’s a bad actress… I’m just saying I tend to have to be in a mood.
But Australia finally came in last night at the library.
Now, the first thing I will say… is if the trailers had actually shown what most of the movie was about… I would have watched it a LONG time ago.
The trailers made it seem that the movie was ONLY about War coming to Australia.
And also, that it was because of the war that Lady Ashely (Nicole Kidman’s character) goes to Australia for.
Without giving away the movie.. I’ll say, that only about the last half to last quarter of the movie has anything to actually do with the war.
Ironically, I’m glad that I’ve watched McLeod’s Daughters a bit prior to watching Australia, because if I hadn’t… I think all the Droving, would have just made me think of City Slickers (you know… Billy Crystal). Which, though there were a few times I snorted thinking about that movie… I was glad my mind was flicking more back and forth between what was on the screen and the droving of McLeod’s Daughters. (Mostly, I was just thinking about the “Station House” and how something can in fact have been around for over 100 years, and doing the exact same thing as it was built for originally.)
The movie, very much had Baz’s signature flair. OR at least, the very beginning did. There was no doubt in my mind watching the first 30 minutes of the movie that this was in fact a Baz Luhrman film.
The music was very gorgeous, and of course I ended up going to bed having “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in my head. Which, if you see the movie, you’ll understand.
The cinematography was absolutely without a doubt breath takingly gorgeous. And they did such a great job with the Green Screen, that you can only tell it was employed in very few scenes. I don’t know how many it was actually used in, but there are some where you could tell. Which, there were obvious reasons for it.
Wicked’s vote: I’ll own this someday. (And thats saying something!)
Moving along…
I quickly read over the weekend, the latest book by Joanne Fluke.
Cream Puff Murder.
I have to admit, though this book was slightly annoying in the aspect that it was mostly centered around Hannah’s waistline and the need to loose a few pounds.
The person who died in this one… I, like others am very glad to see dead.
Mike, one of Hannah’s two boyfriends… I have decided I do not like. Originally, I used to be more Team Mike rather than Team Norman. I mean.. who wouldn’t want the hot police detective as opposed to the slightly normal looking dentist. Dentists have the highest rate of suicidal tendencies per year. Perhaps I’m the only who thinks about that in the grand scheme of things when it comes to choosing a partner.
Yes, Mike has more danger when it comes to his profession, but is less likely to kill himself when it comes down to it.
Right now, I’m definitely more in the Team Norman camp. I’d kill for his house. lol.
Almost through with Sandman Volume 3 by Neil Gaiman.
Started reading Summer Knight again by Jim Butcher. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish it this time before it’s due back at the library or one of my other “gotta read this now because there is a waiting list a mile long” books comes in.
That means Sookie has been put down for the moment.
Oh, on completely random news. I got something really cool, and I don’t recall if I had talked about it yet or not.
Leslie over at Dv’yne Writes, has a contest every month for those who subscribe to her news letter. As I have known Leslie for years thanks to the Colorado Ren Faire… and I’ve owned at least one of her notebooks, and have lusted over many more of them.. I of course would be a subscriber to her latest news. I mean, I never would have known about her awesome leather covers for say.. Harry Potter, or the other books she has.. I mean amazing work.
Well, I happened to win this months free journal give away.
It arrived quickly, as well.. she lives only about 70 miles away from me. Ironically, the journal via the post office, would have traveled more than that, because though she lives in Littleton, I’m willing to bet it had to go to Denver (north), then back south to me.
I opened up the box, and was BLOWN away. I mean absolutely blown away by what I found.
I was expecting one of the little soft sided refillable notebooks.. (like the one I have) I mean, it’s one of the less expensive books she sells (which is why I have it. I mean I bought mine at least 10 years ago, and I could never afford any of the more expensive ones), and one generally figures that for a free give away, it would not be an expensive one.
Well, the journal I got was a 60$ slightly hardsided non refillable journal.
Sad news is that Leslie will not be at CRF anymore. She officially sold her booth, and is moving on to other things. I wish her luck though, and I don’t blame her for wanting to move along. CRF was not a money maker for her in the recent years (I know this due to having a friend who worked her booth for a few seasons) I’m sure she also has other reasons for moving along. She will be missed.
Moving along…
Yesterday.. or was it the day before? I got an idea into my head. This is always dangerous. As I should have been writing or knitting. Not painstakingly editing a photo so that I can maybe make it work in a chart, and then attempt to knit it up.
If this works, it will be FREAKING AWESOME.
If it doesn’t work… I will be once again reminded why I do not like socks. lol.
I won’t really say what I’m working on yet… but I will say this.. “Wuv… True Wuv”
Hmmm I wonder if this can count as part of my Read/Knit Along? I’ll have to see.
Alright. I guess I’m done rambling for now. I guess I should try to write.
Oh, and I must say.. .even though I put down Alex and her world of vamps… they are still talking in my head. Constantly.
Which recently has come up a lot it seems. Marissa commented on her blog, how writing is an acceptable form of schizophrenia. I agree with that statement. (Mind you, I was paraphrasing) It reminded me of the introduction in the first volume of “Comedity”, where Garth talks about his friend’s experience when it came to being a writer.
His friend had a high paying job (he delivered payroll in his own car, through nasty parts of town.. so he was really really well paid due to the danger involved). He quit his job to become a writer and work on his novel. Well, of course when Tax time came around, he went from reporting a lot of income to reporting 0 income for the year. He of course was audited. He went in sweating and freaking out, and having everything he could possibly have ready to explain his expenses for the last year, and when the taxman asked “so… why did you go from reporting _____ much, to reporting nothing”
Friend: “Well sir. I quit my job to write”
Taxman: “Oh.” *scribble and rubber stamp* “We’re done.”
Friend: “What?”
Taxman: “You are crazy. And this crazy is explainable. Have a good day.”
Apparently, per the IRS, writers are insane, as we will willingly go from having high paid careers (ha i wish) to having zero income for a year or more.
(Again, paraphrasing.. but the words crazy, and insane were actually used, and the convo was that short. I’m not willing to dig out my copy of Comedity right now as it is upstairs)
So not only are we schizophrenic, but we per the taxman are also insane.
This makes sense to me. As I remember sitting in my 2nd period class my Sophomore year of highschool working on a play I was writing.. my first one “Just an ordinary day… like no other”, and my friend Nikki (not the crazy Irish one, but slightly Hispanic one) asked me how I could write what I was writing. I mean, 70 pages of dialogue? She wanted to know where it came from. I couldn’t explain it other than “I just hear them talking.” And it’s true. It’s also the reason I only wrote plays for the longest time.. Because I could hear the voices, but I sucked at the “The color of the mountains at dawn reminded me of a glass of sherry held up to the light coming in from the window.” That kind of stuff.. I sucked at it back then. I wrote poems and plays. That was me.
I’m partly still sucky at it, I have to force myself to do description, and thats partly why I end up putting down somethings I’m working on. Actually, that is one of the reasons I had to put Alex down, Denver and it’s descriptions were kicking my ass lol. I digress..
Is it insanity, when I clearly hear entire conversations of people who do not exist? If I never put my pen to paper, and I only just spoke of the convos… would I have been forced to undergo meeting with psychiatrists? No, I don’t think so. Mostly because I come from a family where we tend to embrace our creativity in all it’s forms. (or at least we do now)
I was never a child who had “imaginary friends” or at least none that I remember. I don’t consider the voices I’ve always heard my imaginary friends. Though, these voices in my head tend to be best friends. So, I guess in fact they are the epitome of what one would call an imaginary friend.
Well.. I’m rambling.. so I guess I’ll leave it here. But yes, I guess I just confirmed what all of you have thought of me for years. I’m absolutely bonkers. 😉
I think the only thing that really drives me crazy, is not only do I have Alex, Daniel and Kit talking in my head right now, but I’ve got my people from my new novel chattering as well. It can get confusing at times lol.
Oh and the final note. My gods… homemade chocolate chip cream cheese rolls.. are just still so wonderful.. no matter how many times I make them.
Twice cursed
Okay, lets just say that if I think of something to post, and don’t post it that day… I for the life of me cannot recall what I wanted to post. So yes, you all are missing out on some witty quips because I’m too exhausted when I get home to post them.
This one I remembered.
Yesterday Mother of Mine and I were twice cursed by the same curse.
Mother of Mine made Lemon Bars as a little while ago we mentioned them and then went “Ooooh that’d be really good right now, and we have all those lemons”
Well, as Mother of Mine puts it “The bottom was cooked too much and the middle lemony part was not cooked enough.” (We forgot to adjust anything for altitude, and I honestly don’t believe we’ve made Lemon bars while living in Colorado. Having a daughter who is allergic to citrus like that tends to not make them high on the list.)
They were still quite yummy, they just require a fork to eat them. And my craving for lemony goodness has now been sated for another 10 years. The remainder of the bars will go with Mother of Mine to her quilt guild thingie today so that they are out of the house.
Also yesterday when I got home, I had been craving cream cheese filling/frosting. Don’t ask why.. I just was. This was before I knew mom was making Lemon Bars.
But so I started whipping up a batch. It didn’t taste right. I didn’t do anything different than I ever do. (Mayhaps it was that I didn’t measure the powdered sugar??)
No.. it was the curse.
For those who don’t know… I am cursed. If I have a craving for something, it will inevitably taste… wrong. It does not matter if I make it, or go out and buy it. Or heck.. have it at a restaurant. If it’s something that I’m craving (and yes, it has to be a craving.. you know… the kind that just stay with you until you give in.. that kind of craving).. it will just not be right.
This is highly annoying for obvious reasons.
The frosting, I have decided I will make the other part of it’s original purpose, and that will be to make my chocolate chip cream cheese rolls. The frosting/filling, on my tongue tasted odd, will be just fine paired with the rolls it is originally meant for. Perhaps it was just my tastebuds being funny.
So this weekend, I shall dust off the bread machine and whip up some of the dough.
This week at work, (and yes I realize it’s only Wednesday) has been… well not off to a good start. Thanks to the pesky earthquake in California on Monday, over 700 email servers went down. That meant.. I was busy. Everyone whining that they don’t have their email.
We have finally caught up, but thats only because I worked my ass off and have already worked 241 billable tickets. Lets put this in perspective… Normally, I try to make sure I have 80 tickets… for the entire week. Anything above that is just gravy. So yes… I am exhausted.
At home:
I’ve been reading Absolute Sandman vol 3- don’t know how I feel about this one yet. It’s good.. but I don’t know about the story.. Delirium is not my favorite character… Neither is Despair.
Also been rereading Dead Until Dark. It’s amazing to remember how much I liked Bill at first.
Haven’t been knitting the last few nights because I’m just too tired to deal with it mentally.
Been watching some of McLeod’s Daughters (season 3) I really do need to go back and watch the earlier seasons, as I never ended up seeing them whilst my mom had them from the library. The show is good, and now I’m hooked. So back to the beginning it is for me. And by the way.. Season 3 is like… Sigh.. they were evil.
The heat is becoming an increasing issue. I can tell already that it will be a brutal summer, and my sleep is already becoming sporadic.
Okay, I guess I’ve rambled enough for now.
Bugs and Kisses people.
Sandman… bring me a dream…
So last night, as I was crawling into bed…
I got a thought about a colorway I’d love to do when I start dyeing.
It was quiet appropriate as I dreamed it up in bed, as the colorway involves Sandman himself.
I won’t go into details about it, because well.. I don’t want people to steal my idea before I get the chance to dye him up. But if he turns out how I thought of him… it’ll be gorgeous.
Unfortunately, it means I will definitely need to buy the Absolute Sandman, as my reference images are no where to be found online.
Hmm… perhaps if I actually wait till after I start my business, I can do it as a tax write off? Sigh.. I’ll keep those thoughts at bay till I actually move. I will definitely need to consult a tax person over there, as I know nothing when it comes to the taxes of the UK.
I have decided that I will in fact be signing up for the Dyeing class at my local yarn shop, as I really do want to make sure I’ve got some talent for this- and I’m a visual person.. I can only glean so much from tutorials etc, I need to get my hands dirty so to speak. So, for 30$ I can get class instruction and dye up a skein or two. I think I have some ideas for what colors I want to play with in the class. Well, thats if they let me. I don’t know if they’ll let me do the stripey style in the class or if they will be having us do non variegation yarn.
Well, if I don’t stop yapping now, I’ll end up babbling, and I’ll most likely end up babbling about the colorway.
So… Bugs and Hisses everyone.
Dream, Snow, and Sookie
Alright, while it’s fresh in my thoughts..
I just finished reading The Absolute Sandman Vol 2.
And I say just finished, as I also just started it. I quite literally read it all in one go. (Okay, not just one go as I did get up and use the ladies at least twice)
But I gotta say wow!
Vol 1, took me at least a week to read. And that was with skipping an entire section because the art and the story was absolutely of no interest to me.
But Vol 2 I just zoomed through. And I didn’t skip over any of the stories.
I can’t wait to own it. Because yes, I will own it some day.
And actually, it has made me ponder some colorways that would be awesome. Nope. Not allowed to start dyeing yet. Nope. Won’t do it. But I know I’ll look through the book again later when I do start dyeing and such like that.
Also I really shouldn’t ponder a project after reading that book, as it’s making my brain go into many different paths of ideas.
A friend of mine posted a 5 People Gift giving Pay it forward type thing. The gist of it is, you post the note, and the first 5 people to respond will get something made by you. Rules are though that they must also post the note, do the same for the first 5 people, and also make something for you. So, she is making something for me, and I am making something for her.
As this was done on my facebook, if I don’t get enough people responding, I will post it here for all my non facebook people.
Now onto Sookie…
I made a project that I have dubbed “Sookie Stackhouse Laceup Sexahhness”
Jen at Fresh from the Cauldron sent me a ball of her Sookie Stackhouse colorway, which is a silk base. It wasn’t much, it was roughly… about the size of a Leprechaun’s ball. (Oh yes, that just gave you a mental image you won’t be able to escape from)
The yardage wasn’t important, it was simply so that I could knit it up, see how my hands react during the knitting, and then also how the swatch would be against my skin.
Well, me being me.. I couldn’t just do a boring swatch.
So instead I did a laceup wristwarmer.
Seed Stitch because I think it’s so pretty.
And, I also taught myself how to do something I didn’t know how to do before.
a 3 row buttonhole. I can honestly say, that this is my most favorite buttonhole that I have yet done. It was so simple.
Now, of course I will post photos, but unfortunately my camera sucks, and there is no way to turn off the auto focus, so there is never any way I can take a good photo of seed stitch at all.
So the photos do NOT do this little wrist warmer any justice.
Now on to my discussion about snow.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that this portion of the country has had some extreme weather.
We had a Blizzard.
No big deal right?
Well, this is the first time in more years that I know, where they called it a Blizzard before it hit. Previously, they would just call it a “severe storm” and then when it was over they would call it a Blizzard.
All day long while at work yesterday I was watching the weather reports…
At 9:00am I went outside, and it was sunny. You couldn’t see the mountain (Pikes) but that wasn’t uncommon.
By 12:00pm, apparently it was snowing.
I went out at 12:30pm and it was really snowing.
I flicked on the traffic cams, and saw that things were getting worse.
So at 1:00 I made the decision to leave early. you all know how I feel about driving in bad weather …
Well Janice and I did the buddy system driving home. Which was comdedic.
Oh well, first I had to clear off my car, which was a miserable experience. Because I didn’t wear a hat. So my hair was drenched and my ear was frozen. My hair wasn’t just drenched, it was frozen.
Janice and I forgot to exchange phone numbers. Mistake. Whoops.
The plan was, that we were taking the safest route home, and she was going to break off from following me at Academy and Woodman. (where I turn right, and she would go forward)
Well, we get to Academy, and she’s turning along with me.
I’m making hand signals out the window because I was like “dude did you miss it? that was woodman!”
then, I notice she’s got a sign in her front window she’s holding up (yes, this is all while we are driving on very bad roads with cars) that says “Call me” and her number.
Which I could not for the life of me see the number. Even when we were stopped at one point I opened my car door leaning out to look at the number. I was of course blinded by the snow so I couldn’t see the numbers.
We pulled off into a parking lot (the first chance we had) and she informed me that a friend of her’s had just been on Powers (the road that runs parallel to Academy for the most part and was going to be her route home to avoid the bad hills) and that there was a huge accident. So she was going to go down Academy with me and cut over after the bad hills.
Back in the car I go, and once again we start making the trek. The weather is getting worse and worse, and it’s just about to become 2pm. Then I run into traffic before Dublin. There is this little bit of a hill there. Which I had forgotten about, but there is no good way to avoid it. It’s the least of all the hills going that direction.
Well, in my previous car, I remember having problems on that little hill before. So I was nervous for good reason. Though, so far my car Byron had done fabulously on all the little inclines we had. Mind you, I had been coaxing and praising and encouraging my car the entire time. Yes, it would have been amusing if anyone had heard me.
But so Byron makes it up the hill without giving me any fits at all. Though, there were newer and fancier cars that were abandoned in the middle of the road at the median, and one that was being pushed up the hill by a nice guy with a big truck.
So I was honestly shocked that my car did so well.
I didn’t want to risk the hill on the street before my neighborhood, as that is the one where I had my first experience of not making it up a hill and having to maneuver back down. So I just went around to the only other option on getting into my neighborhood. It worked though because it let me out at the top of the hill instead of at the bottom.
Yup, I got home safely. It only took me an hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal 7-10 minutes it normally takes me. But man am I glad I did leave early.
I slept restlessly, as I could hear the storm and my neighbor’s wind chime all night (seriously.. I hope that stupid chime might ‘disappear’ someday. )
So at 4 am, I got out of bed. Looked outside. Saw the 3-4 foot drifts around my car. (Thats what happens when you have a end of the row parking space)
i fire up the laptop, and check the traffic cams.
Not many cars on the road, and the roads don’t look bad. At first glance. But I noticed that there was a suspicious gleam.. that meant ice.
I make the decision that I’m not going to risk it. Not at 4am with no other cars on the road.
I go back to bed.
Janice texts me around 645 asking me if I was going into work.
I tell her my reasons why I wasn’t but that I hadn’t checked the roads in a while. She was going to see if her fiance made it to work then make her decision.
Daniel then texts me 730 (or something like that) asking the same things. Only he doesn’t have inet right now so he can’t check the cams himself.
So I get out of my nice warm bed and fire up the laptop. I really did need the update so I didn’t mind.
I see more cars on the roads, but they are all 4wheel drive type vehicles. And things still looked icy.
Janice then texts me again after I’ve gone back to bed, and informs me that she attempted to go out on the roads (in her big 4wheel drive suv) and didn’t make it far before she gave up. Apparently it was really slick. At this point, I’m not feeling guilty about not attempting.. I don’t have 4wheel drive. And I have to replace one of my wiper blades. Specifically the driver side one. The rubber has decided disconnect from the metal. So really, it is useless. Which means if the roads turn into Splashback, I’d be screwed before I could even get to the store.
And guess what happened after the sun came up? The ice started melting, and splashback is the huge issue right now.
Yeah.. I’m not going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest.
Yes, the sun is out and things are melting. And I possibly could have gone to work after 12.. but I still wouldn’t get all the hours I’ve lost due to the weather, and it would also mean staying till after the sun set. Which no… not doing. So the amount of hours I could actually make up.. wouldn’t be worth it.
So yesterday and today I’ve been watching Andromeda season 1.
Oh and finished Witchblade. lesigh I miss that show. Though yes, season 2 got WEIRD.
I still love it. And I will still own my buell. And I think I’ve mentioned this already.. .
I’ve got a stack of dvd’s to get through… and I’m sure I think of a new knitting project.. and I can also finish reading the Sookie Stackhouse short story “Unusual Suspects”
Methinks I’ll finish it this afternoon. I would have finished it when I first started it, but I decided to put it down and then yesterday I was simply knitting.
I’m rambling.
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