Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday, everyone! Here's the best thing I've seen online all week:

This weekend is busy, busy, busy: I'm teaching two classes, helping my grandpa with a project, starting Christmas projects, going to a party, and hopefully vacuuming (my living room carpet looks like it's made out of cat hair. Ew).

Monday Beloveds

1)Song and dance dream sequences.

Something like this:

  

 2) The Dead Weather

I've known about this band for a while and liked what I've heard. But as I was trying to find stuff to listen to on YouTube while I work I put on a few videos and it just hit me in a certain way. I'm now in full on obsession mode.

  

The thing that brought The Dead Weather to mind was the preview for AMC's new Western Hell on Wheels. I don't have cable at my house (thus my obsession with DVD's I can get through the library like Moonlighting) so I didn't see the premiere last night. The previews do kind of make my Deadwood-loving heart beat a little faster so maybe I'll watch the show online or when the DVD's come out. But back to the point, the song on the previews for Hell on Wheels had me humming and straining to think WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT SONG until I finally got to a computer and with some creative Googling re-discovered my favorite Dead Weather song:

3) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

It took me 50 pages and at least two zombie nightmare before I decided I liked this book (and that I probably shouldn't read it before I go to bed). It's weird and can be a little jarring sometimes if you're really familiar with Pride and Prejudice but if you're willing to take it for what it is, it's a pretty enjoyable read. There's some gross zombie action, some country dances and gossip, something for everyone!

Happy first Thursday in November

This weekend I have knitting on my mind: I'm knitting a gift (I don't dare say more about it until it's given, just in case), knitting samples for my November/December classes, finishing a design for submission to a book (I am so excited! But again, I don't dare say anything more until it's finished. It's just a submission, there's a huge chance it won't get in. But just the thought that it might!), and starting what I like to call the Christmas cast-on: wherein I get way too ambitious about making gifts for friends and family for the holidays. I am hoping (hoping) this year to pare down my grandiose ideas to something more achievable. The theme of my holiday gifts will be thrifty, handmade, loving and reasonable. Although, as I type that I can hear the tiny voice of my more reasonable self saying, "J'accuse! You already have one grandiose idea that is in a medium with which you are not proficient and you are in love with it! Take heed!" Uh, my reasonable but dramatic self, apparently. Annnyway, I'm starting the planning process of my holiday gifts and I'm looking forward to it. I have matured recently as a knitter in that I actually knit gauge swatches and design before I start the actual project instead of during. It's still not my favorite part, my fingers still itch to get those stitches on the needle and just get started already but I have noticed that my designs are better and my finished products are nicer if I take some time to think about what I'm going to do before I do it. Somewhere, my mother just heard a thousand angles break into song and said quietly to herself, "One of the many, many lessons I tried to teach my willful daughters just sunk in to one of their thick skulls! Glory, glory!"

In case any of you knitters out there haven't seen this yet, feast your eyes on this video. And if any of you non-knitters actually made it through a paragraph about nothing but gauge swatches and designing, you will still appreciate this:

It makes my vision blur just thinking about knitting on a scale that small. And the colorwork on some of those pieces... I am in awe.

Other activities for the weekend: watching Coraline, cleaning and cooking, a party for a friend, an open-house at JoAnn Fabrics (if you live in the Mt Pleasant area and want to take a class at JoAnn's (not just knitting, there are lots of other classes offered) come sign up this Saturday for 50% off! And if you don't want to take a class, maybe you just come and visit me!), cinnamon buns/coffee/knitting at Erica's so I can meet her new kittens, and playing Boggle with my Grandma. And if the Interlibrary Loan gods smile upon me, Season 3 of Moonlighting will come in and I can spend some more time with David and Maddie.

Monday beloveds (a day late) Halloween style

1. Young Frankenstein

My family quotes movies a lot and this one more than most. We "Put the candle back" accuse each other of being "abby normal" and sing "Puttin' on the Ritz" like monsters. I couldn't love this movie more if I tried.

2. Carving Pumpkins

Last night, my sisters and assorted boyfriends/husbands/babies gathered to carve pumpkins. Last year, my sister was so pregnant she couldn't get up by herself and it took my other sister and I all of our strength to heave-ho her up. This year, we had a little child wandering around the garage in a walker, banging into things and yelling. She reminded me of an angry roomba, or R2D2 malfunctioning or Captain Pike in his little scooty chair but without the disfiguring scars.

For those of you too cool to know what Captain Pike's scooty chair looks like.

I know this comparison is not a new one, but hanging out with toddlers is so much like hanging out with drunk people. Last night I was sitting on the floor eating chili, when my niece, using the couch to steady herself, staggered over to me smiling, grabbed my boobs, smashed my cornbread muffin into a thousand pieces, tripped over my legs and fell into me giggling. Then she puked on my pants. It's a good thing she's darn cute.

Anyway, we all managed to dodge the mad toddler long enough to carve our pumpkins without anyone getting hurt. It was the most fun you could have while sitting on a cold, cement floor in October.

 

 3) Moonlighting

So this one doesn't have anything to do with Halloween, but I spent all weekend at the Blue Moon Detective Agency and I am smitten! Smitten with young Bruce Willis, smitten with Cybil Shepherd's entire wardrobe, smitten with Ms. Dipesto, the list goes on and on. I don't care how the two lead actors felt/feel about each other in real life and I don't want to know. I just want to sew shoulder pads into all of my shirts and practice using a banana clip while watching this show. And waiting for this guy to show up.