It's the most wonderful time of the year

Shark Week is here again! I have been obsessed with sharks ever since I first saw Jaws; I'm scarred of them and in love with them so what could be better than a whole week of TV dedicated to them?! I remember coming home from high school and watching hours of Shark Week that my dad had recorded on VHS tapes in the olden times before DVR. Two years ago, I hand addressed my sister's wedding invitations while watching Shark Week. Oh, the Shark Week memories!

This year, I don't have cable and have been trying for the past couple of weeks to not panic about missing Shark Week. "It's only TV," I kept telling myself, "and not even the new season of Mad Men, or anything." But in my heart, I was sad. Miss Shark Week? NEVER. Luckily, my cousin is willing to let my other cousin and I use her DVR for the week and we have set up recordings for some of our favorite Shark Week events including the Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs episodes. We both have Friday afternoon off and are going to gather up some snacks, some wine and our knitting and watch as much Shark Week programing as we can jam into one afternoon. I'm pretty sure it will be the best day of my life. Especially because as a grand finale, we're going to watch Jaws (which my dad gave to me last year as a Shark Week present. Because he is the best dad ever).

So be prepared for all kind of sharky links and Shark Week stories this week. Enjoy your Shark Week!

Just in case...

You know sometimes late at night how you can't sleep even though you're exhausted? And everything you're worried about or everything bad you've heard about or every sad thought you've thought comes alive and creeps up on you in the shadows? And you're all alone in your room and your house and you worry maybe you're all alone in the world?

A text from a friend will make those creepy thoughts and sad musings start to back off. But if you still can't sleep, allow me to recommend:

Happy Classy/Inappropriate Thursday

I really like what little I've heard of The National and as soon as I get that old cd unstuck from my car stereo, or a DVD player that works or my computer fixed or bring that stereo up from the basement (I have some technical difficulties and how!) I plan to Interlibrary Loan all the cds of theirs I can. In the meantime I am in love with this video: the song and the imagery and the light sixties/Don Draper feel of it (Or is that just me?)

Isn't that lovely? The only problem I have with it for a Happy Thursday post is that it's a little poignant for a happy Thursday. It's excellent, but it tugs on the emotions a bit (or at least it did for me). So to make sure you leave a Happy Thursday post, well, happy, here is this next video. Be warned, it's about...um, a kid visiting his grandma, which is nice. And, well...drugs, a little bit. But funny!

Yogis is tricksi!

http://boingboing.net/2011/07/26/the-secret-of-yogi-levitation.html

Now if only there was a similar trick to Handstand or Headstand, I'd be all set! (I know, I know, building strength and confidence, practice for a reason, the journey is as important as the destination. Blah blah blah. I'm still afraid to go upside down contraption-less.)

White Squirrel compels you to punch deer in face!

My modeling career beings and ends here.

I'm back from the craft show a little sunburned, a little richer, a little tired and a lot happy. The weather was super hot (I'm pretty sure I drank my weight in water every day) but it only rained a little and some people bought some stuff and that is what I call a success. Really, there's very few ways for a craft show with friends to go wrong. Worst case scenario you end up sitting outside laughing and talking with friends while everyone tells you how it's too hot to even look at your knitted goods and you don't make any money. We sat outside laughing and talking while everyone told us that but we made a little money, so we're all set.

We met some truly bonkers crafters, which is always a good time. One of our booth neighbors was a craft show newbie who was extremely nervous about his booth set up and wouldn't just sit down and relax. He was a photographer who was selling a lot of nature photos. His favorite was White Squirrel. It was this picture of a very, very intense looking white squirrel and he must have had at least 5 to 7 prints of it on sale. At any given time there were at least 4 White Squirrels staring at us in our booth and every time a customer wandered into our neighbor's booth they were shown White Squirrel. I'm pretty sure the reason this guy couldn't relax about his booth set up was because White Squirrel was never pleased and this man could hear White Squirrel's commands and felt compelled to obey them. I still see White Squirrel when I close my eyes.

The picture at the top of this post is from the first day. We tweaked our set up every day and were finally happiest with this one:

The colorful posts on either side are holding paper-mache heads my friend Mandi was selling. They are so very cool; kids were in love with them and would point them out to their parents across the street. If said parents weren't looking, it was common for the kids to run up and pet the animals and even talk to them which was adorable. Imagine our shock when one little boy ran up and suddenly punched one of the deer in the face! His mother apologized and no damage was done but we were a little disturbed.

Yesterday I had a bad case of the post-craft sale blues, but today I'm just jazzed to get designing some new ideas I've had and to build up my stock for the next sale (only 67 days away) which is Applefest. I love Applefest: apple cider, pumpkin patch, hayride, corn maize! No one will tell us it's too hot to look at our knitted goods at Applefest (I sincerely hope)! Although, it doesn't have to be quite as freezing as last year. Something about craft shows seems to bring out the extreme in the weather.

Photo credit: I stole these from Erica completely without her permission.

Happy Revenge of the Nerdsday

 

I'll be nerding out at a craft sale for the next three days with some of my darling friends including Liz (who also created this blog with me) and Erica so consider this an early Happy Thursday post. This is us at a craft sale last year. I expect we'll be dressed for the opposite weather this weekend. 

Erica edited this picture and put the "yarn" around us is as a play on "knit 3 together, or K3tog" which is a knitting joke. Wow, this post is super nerdy.

Do you want to hear something kind of sick? While watching Revenge of the Nerds for about the billionth time the other day, I realized I have a crush on Booger. Who has a crush on the gross guy named Booger who wins a belching contest? 

Me, that's who. Don't ask, I think this is a mystery better left unsolved. Sometimes I gross myself out.

Happy Thursday rolls in again!

You know what is a cheering thought? No matter the chaos of one's life, bills, complications, confusion, schedules, etc. there is always a cat doing something stupid and hilarious. Have a Happy Thursday one and all!

Happy Thursday to your inner child!

This is my most favorite thing on the internet right now. Enjoy it, don't grow up, and have a most Happy Thursday!

Shelfari, omg!

As an obsessive list maker, a book lover and someone who handles at least 100-200 book titles in a work day, I honestly don't know how I made it without Shelfari.

Ok, I do know how I made it: badly and at the expense of my sanity. Starting as a library page, after all my library jobs I would come home from work with pockets and purse full of scrap paper covered in book titles. I would also come home with piles of books that stayed in their piles until they were overdue because I could not bear to let them circulate outside of my reach but I did not have the time to read them.

Then, a couple of years ago, a friend told me about Shelfari. Go, look now. Are you amazed?! I now have a way of keeping track of ALL of the book titles I want to read. I can keep track of ALL of the books I have read. I can obsess over my little list, I can see when I added them, when I read them, and make arbitrary decisions about which book to read next.

This has been life changing for me. When a book comes across my desk, be it a knitting book, a biography of some strange and interesting person, a new book by a favorite author, or just a book with a pretty cover (I would feel worse about blatantly judging a book by its cover if my friend who owns a bookstore didn't have the same weakness for superficial book beauty. But as long as I have company in this frivolous predilection, I feel fine) I just add it to Shelfari and I can let it go along its merry way. No more book hoarding, no more serial-killer-looking lists of book titles. Shelfari, you complete me.