For what, you ask? This:
Seriously - if it weren’t for the Knittyboard, I would not have known that Smiley’s had discontinued Cotton-Ease for $1.99 a skein. OK, I guess I also have to blame Kris, because when I said something to him about a discontinued yarn that I like being available for about 60% off what it went for retail, he told me that I should stock up. So I did. Hee. That would be 20 skeins each of the 7 colors that Smiley’s has. Yes - 140 skeins of Cotton-Ease. That should last me for a while. I figure once I decide what I am doing with all of it, I’ll eventually swap some of what I am not going to use.

In other news, I totally missed last week’s “Does It Float” assignment for Blogstalking. The week just sort of got away from me. So, I am being better this week.

Bezzie’s son Chunky declared that this week, we should take pictures of our feet. So, here are mine, complete with fresh polish!
Feet are strange. I find that people have very unique relationships with their feet. I’ve spent most of my life wearing cheap shoes from Payless et. al, and not thinking twice about it. I have a friend who has problems with her feet, so she tries to be careful about what shoes she wears (not that she doesn’t wear cute shoes - she just buys ones that are better-constructed as a rule). Lately, I have become addicted to my Birkenstocks. I have three pair (brown Bostons, taupe Arizonas, and black Rios), and I have worn them almost exclusively since I got them.

When I was born, my feet were misshapen. They turned in. I don’t mean they turned at the heel and I was pigeon-toed, I mean that my feet actually bent about halfway between my heels and toes. So, for a while, I wore a brace on them. I don’t remember it, obviously, but I think that there have been some long-term consquences from the brace. Most people, when they stand, put their weight on the pads of their toes. My big toes curl upward, so I actually stand on the knuckles of my toes. You can see what I mean in the picture to the right - I am not curling my toes. They just do that. Almost every pair of shoes I have has a little spot above the toes where my big toenail rubs against it. Plus, it is murder on pantyhose. (Yet another excuse not to wear them. Hee.) I have noticed, though, that the way my Birks fit seems to have lessened how much they curl. I’ll be interested to see if that continues as I keep wearing them.

Random thing from last weekend that has been bugging me. Thursday night, we went to see our friend Hillary in a dinner-theatre show. She is understudying at a production of “Beehive” at the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre south of DC, and she was guaranteed a certain number of performances. Thursday was her first, so we of course wanted to be there. If you aren’t familiar with “Beehive”, it is a revue-type show that focuses on female singers and groups from the 1960’s. Through the show, each of the women in the cast takes on a variety of different roles. Toward the very end of the show, Hillary does a bit as Janis Joplin. Not an easy person to replicate, realistically, and Hill did a great job. After the show, we waited to say hello to her, and right before she got over to us, two women stopped her and said something. She looked a little puzzled, and when she told us what one of the women had said, we knew why. This woman (who didn’t know Hillary from Adam), took the time to stop her to compliment her on the show, and then felt the need to add “Janis wasn’t my favorite, though.” WTF?!?! If you want to deliberately stop a performer to compliment them on a show, why the hell would you feel the need to criticize a portion of it? Honestly, I did community theatre for years, so I know that not everyone is going to enjoy every show. I’m ok with that. But really, unless you are an actual critic, why the hell would you feel it necessary to say something like that to someone who has just worked her tail off to entertain you? Grr.

Other than that, still making progress on the Christmas knitting, along with a project for my CASP. None of which I can show here, of course. *Sigh*

Hee… yeah, because I have a public. =) Seriously, you guys crack me up.

Anyway, nothing much going on here (No, Cristi, seriously), but I do have a couple of pictures to show.

First - I joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL, and the mid-month one for August was the first pattern I did. (I skipped the beginning of the month one). Happily, the pattern came out right about the same time that I got some Sugar ‘n Cream in a swap. So, I cast on, and a few days later,I had this:
I’m gathering a nice collection of washcloths, which is cool. Happily, Kris likes them and uses them in the shower. So, I’ll keep making them. =)

Also, I’ve gotten two more sets of stitch markers from the swap. The orange ones came all the way from Egeria in Ireland. There was a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate with them, but, um, I must have misplaced it. =) The fishy ones are from Batty. They came with a note that said “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish,” which completely cracked me up. Thank you both - I love them!

Other than that, I’m making some progress on the Christmas gifts, and I’m being good about not “cheating” and casting on anything for myself.

ETA - For those of you unfamiliar with Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books, my screen name is a reference to a character, and the 4th book is titled “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish”. Hence the markers from dear Batty.

…or else I just have friends with too much time on their hands. (You know I love you both, CBear and Yorkie).

I’m making some progress on the Christmas knitting, but I can’t really post about it, what with the recipients reading my blog, so you’ll have to wait on that.

I am also behind on my blogstalking assignments. I’m playing catch-up this weekend.

Honestly, nothing all that interesting going on around here at the moment.

Check it out! I finished the “We Call Them Pirates” hat for Kris!
I actually finished it a couple of days ago, but had to block it and then wait for it to dry. Stupid cotton hem. =) It is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in “Coal” and “Cloud”, and KnitPicks Shine Worsted (for the hem/lining) in “Ebony”. The Shine Worsted was a killer on my hands (US1 needles…shudder), but the Shine Sport doesn’t come in black.

I’m really happy with how it came out, since this was my first real Fair Isle project. There were a couple of places that I pulled the floats a little tight, but most of them stretched a bit with blocking. This is a cute project, and a lot of fun to knit. Which is good, since I am making another one for my brother for Christmas. And Kris says it is nice and warm. Because, you know, Tom will really need that in Vegas. Hee.

We did something last night that was totally new to me, and way more fun than I thought it should be. John was meeting up with a couple of his old medical school friends and invited us to tag along. We went to the Montgomery County Fair to watch the demolition derby. And it was AWESOME. Kris took his camera (of course) and took a ton of pictures. He’s posted a few of them here, but these are a couple of my faves.

This couple was sitting in front of us. Judging from her hair, we are guessing that they actually got married yesterday and were spending the evening at the fair. How cute is that?

This was the car that won the “small car” division. And the driver? Was a woman. :D

We really had a blast. And we also had some awesome food. There is nothing like a county fair funnel cake. Yum.

And my dear Siress Yorkie? Every hour on the hour? Really? I have to believe you have more important things to do than see if I have updated my blog. =)

But first, a small announcement. Since my “Jack Sparrow’s Favorite Socks” pattern got found (and apparently is kinda popular. Who knew?) I’ve gone way over my GeoCities bandwidth limit. Luckily, I am married to a wonderful man who already had some webspace set up, and now my patterns are there, just waiting to be discovered. I’ve updated the links in my sidebar to go to the new space. Anyone know a good way to get the word out to the free pattern sites? I know it is linked from a couple of them, and I don’t want to prevent anyone from making fun pirate-y socks. =)

And now, the part you have all been waiting for - the great Macro Reveal.

Picture #1 was… our dvd boxes, which zknitter and wily jeneric both correctly identified as being from Ikea, as is the shelf they sit on. =) We’re kinda movie geeks. Not movie snobs, by any means - we have lots of animation (like Disney and WB, not so much anime), and silly comedies.

Picture #2 was…
A ceramic mask, which a lot of people identified. I was a theatre major in college and collected quite a few of these. I used to have them all on display, but they haven’t made it back up in this house yet, except for a couple.

Picture #3 was…
Yes, the crokinole board. This game is present at every EdFest, so it has some good memories attached to it. Plus, this one was an anniversary gift I gave to Kris.

Picture #4 was…
A Steeler flag (or as Kirsten said, a “Stiller” flag). I haven’t lived there since I graduated from college, but Pittsburgh will always be home.

Picture #5 was…
Apparently the stumper of the bunch! Only ONE person got it. This is my copper-bottom Calphalon skillet that Kris gave me for my birthday. Yes, he is allowed to give me cooking stuff as gifts, because I love to cook. It’s not a chore - it’s a hobby. (And yes, I know it is in desparate need of polishing)

And Picture #6 was…
Part of our collection of glasses from DuClaw(there is one more shelf above those)! We like beer (you may have picked up on that, already), and DuClaw is a local brewpub. They have 5 regular beers (always available) and every month a different “seasonal” beer comes out. If you are on the mailing list, you get a coupon to print out and bring to the release night to get a freebie. It’s either a glass or a t-shirt, so we have amassed a nice collection of both. =)

So, without further ado, the winner, the first with 5 correct, is zknitter! I have your address from before, so I’ll get something in the mail to you. And just because I am a sucker, I am going to send something to all 5 people who got 5 correct - Kirsten (yeah… I have your address), wily jeneric, merry, and stiticher mom. If you could email me your addresses, I will get something out to you within the next week or so.

And wily - I subscribed to World for YEARS! I had forgotten about the “What in the World?” back covers until you mentioned them, though. That magazine was actually how I learned the sign language alphabet. They had a fold-out thing in one issue that I saved for a very, very long time so that I didn’t forget it.

Thanks to all of you for playing. This was fun - I’ll have to do another contest at some point. =)

You know how when you are a kid and someone does something to hurt you or make you angry, your first reaction is to lash out and get back at them?

I think it is a sign of maturity that I have managed not to make any snarky or mean comments to someone, even though I have been sorely tempted. And let’s face it, what she did WAY warrants it. And I’m not even going to publicly out her for what she did.

Because I’m going to be bigger than that.

11-1/2 hours until the guessing game deadline! Still no perfect scores yet…

My mom shared this recipe with me, and I thought I’d pass it along to y’all:

What do you get when you combine an 18 oz. package of Oreos, 8 oz. of cream cheese, and a bag of chocolate chips?
Oreo Truffles!

Take the bag of Oreos and pulverize them (a food processor works well for this). Add in the cream cheese and mix thoroughly (again - food processor = very handy). Scoop and roll the mixture into balls of about 1 to 1-1/2T each and chill thoroughly. Once they are firm, melt the chocolate chips and dip the balls in the chocolate. Let the chocolate harden, and enjoy!

On the Macro Guessing Game front… I won’t say who has gotten the most right yet, but I will tell you that no one has gotten all of them yet. =)

This week in Knittyboard Blogstalking, we are supposed to post a macro shot of something in our home, and let people guess what it really is. Later in the week, we post the full shot of the item. I decided to let hubby loose with his camera for this one. He couldn’t decide on just one thing, and when I looked at what he had taken, I had an idea. I am posting 6 shots of different items, and we’re going to make it a little contest. The shots are numbered 1 through 6. Leave a comment with your guesses as to what the real item is, and the first person who gets the most correct (or close enough to correct, at my discrection =) ) will get a prize of some sort of yarny goodness from my stash. (I have no idea what that will be, but I’ll come up with something. I do own a few bits of yarn, you know.)

Macro Shot #1:

Macro Shot #2:

Macro Shot #3:

Macro Shot #4:

Macro Shot #5:

Macro Shot #6:
A small hint (for those of you who are really into winning) - item #3 has been in at least one picture on my blog before, and I did mention it. =) Also, they all relate to something important to me. (You know, other than knitting.) And no, the filenames will not help you.

Deadline for guesses will be midnight (my time - EDT) Thursday (August 17), and I’ll announce the winner and post the full-size shots on Friday. (I’m hoping this goes well - this is the first time I’ve actually attempted a contest here…)

ETA - One guess per customer, so if you re-think your guesses after you comment… no do-overs!

Dear Cheapie Cheep,

I am not worthy. You are the most amazing SP. You have sent me such thoughtful, creative gifts, and this one just blew me away.

THANK YOU!!!

-Trillian

Seriously, folks. Check out the loot! Per the postcard, this is a “bath relaxation” themed package. All sorts of bath goodies, including a Lush Bath Bomb that smells absolutely amazing, the funniest purple devil rubber duckie, a tea light, and a face cloth that Cheapie knit for me! It is so soft and yummy (I have to know what yarn she used in it - I need to make myself about a billion of these.) Also, a skein of gorgeous, gorgeous Misti Alpaca Lace yarn (Per Cheapie: “Lace can be forced meditation, if not always relaxing.” Hee.), that is so soft…

Also, Cheapie either has traveled all over the place lately, or has a whole lot of compatriots on the board helping with sending these packages - every one has come from somewhere different.

Ta da! Here ’tis, all modeled and everything.
I am really thrilled with how this came out. I love the way it fits, and I really like the yarn (elann Connemara). Which is good, because I ended up with some leftovers. I’ll need to figure out what to do with those at some point.

Not much else going on at the moment. We’re meeting up with our friend Hillary tonight, which is cool, because I haven’t seen her since we went to see Carbon Leaf back in June. Not a clue what the specific plans are, but she’s always fun.