Saturday, December 24, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 13

Since this will be the last of the videos (Christmas is tomorrow!) I decided to take us full circle and come back to The Piano Guys and their amazing music. Happy Christmas Eve, guys.

Friday, December 23, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 12

On the 12th day of Christmas the blogger gave to me... Someone spiking the eggnog!

Wait, what?

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 10

Because monks who take a vow of silence like Christmas carols too.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - I've Lost Track

This is what happens when you go home for the holidays. Despite my best intentions I haven't posted a video countdown in three days. No, I'm not going to make up for it. That would be a lot of videos. I don't think you have time to watch four geeky flicks while your family is there and it's a better idea to go play games with them than watch funny videos on my blog anyway.

Sigh. Where was I again? Oh yeah. Video.

YouTube is known for having piles of animal videos, and in some of them the animals even talk. (Warning! Video is a little NSFW. If you don't know what that means, you may want to avoid that video.)

Friday, December 16, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 5

I gotta say, the subject of this video is possibly the most irritating thing about being a Steampunk.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 4

Sorry it's so late, guys. I was cleaning and totally spaced it.


"Quick! Write in happiness!"

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 3

Please assume the Party Escort Submission Position before watching this video.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 2


In case you were wondering, each word of the song has a length that corresponds to one of the first 50 digits of pi. So the first word is "Man" which has 3 letters, "I" 1 letter, "can't" 4 letters. Pi's first three digits are 3.14. See?

Monday, December 12, 2011

A Video Countdown to Christmas - Day 1

Hello loyal blog followers, I have returned from the depths of blog apathy to bring you the newest addition to my chronicles of insanity - the Video Countdown to Christmas! From here on out, I will be posting a new video every day following a theme until Christmas gets here.

This year's theme: Blessed are the Geeks, For They Shall Inherit the Earth.

To start us off, here is a fantastic video from The Piano Guys!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

And the Award for "Worst Blogger Ever" Goes To...

::headdesk:: Yeah, that's me. I had a whole huge Halloween post planned and I got some awesome pictures too (including one of a guy dressed as The Doctor) and where is it? Yup, still in my head. Because I suck.

In the meantime, I was in a swap. Yay for Ravelry swaps. Bigger yay for Selfish Knitters & Crocheters swaps. Know why? Cos now I'm spoiled.

MapleSyrupMama made me an awesome swap box. Wanna see it?


Oh, wait. You meant see what was in the box. Now I see.


Look at all that awesome stuff. I was sent green laceweight, brown tweed (bestest yarn evar!), green bulky yarn, handpainted aran weight, tapestry needles, a miniature copy of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and a To-Do list pad and pencil. 

Yeah. That was awesome. 

Friday, October 21, 2011

Rolling on Floor, Laughing Out Loud



For the life of me, I never knew it was that intensive to open a bag of spaghetti.

Monday, October 10, 2011

I Think I Must be the Worst Blogger Ever

Really. I'm kind of the blogging equivalent to this guy:



Seriously, I'm that kind of a train wreck right now.

The trouble has been that there have been way too many distracting things. Work, school, getting ready to graduate... and way more knitting that I care to admit I've let slip past the realms of Ravelry and my blog.

See, the other thing that's been happening is that I've been busy with a special project.

What kind of special project?


One that heavily exemplifies my eventual and inevitable decent into geekery.

Wait, could you be more specific?


Um... it involves me doing geeky costume-y things?

That's not going to be enough for you, is it.

Okay, here's what I've been doing: For the past few months, I've been slowly amassing my steampunk costume. Yeah, you heard me. A steampunk costume.

I'm obsessed. I've been obsessed with steampunk ever since I read The Voyage of the Basset when I was about nine or ten. I deeply wanted the HMS Basset to be real and take me off to a magical land, and I wanted my very own Wunterlabe (pronounced VOONT-er-lob) to navigate the "Otherwhere and Otherwhen." 

The thing is, everything in the world of the Basset is either clockwork or steampowered, and I was enchanted. This lead to a love of Sherlock Holmes and other victorian mysteries. Then I just started thinking about complicated machinery run entirely by steam and clockwork. I simply lacked the word for what this obsession was.

The weird part was that I honestly thought I was alone in my passion.

Then, a few years ago, an interesting and very fun show came to SciFy network. It was Warehouse 13. Oddly, everything in Warehouse 13 was exactly that. A quick perusing of the wikipedia page told me it was called "steampunk." And that's when I realized that for ten years I have thought I was alone. There are whole conventions for like-minded people. There are musicians and people making music videos about steampunk!



Really, I'm just ahead of the curve. And now I can't wait for Halloween. Geekdome... here I come!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

I Don't Want to Live on the Moon



Oh, Ernie. Truer words were never sung.

Happy birthday, Jim Henson. The world lost the best children's show programmer ever when you died.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Knitting Proof 2

Premesses:
1. All you need is love.
2. You can't knit love.

Q.E.D. 
All I need is yarn. The rest is secondary.

Post inspired by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's "At Knit's End."

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Knitting Proof

Premisses:

1. You are not smart enough to knit socks if and only if remaining premesses are false.
2. Socks are knit using a formula. True
3. 8-year-olds in Denmark are making better socks than me using aforementioned formula. True
4. Uneducated people all over the world are making better socks than me using aforementioned formula. True
5. You are highly educated and older than 8. True

Initial conclusion:

You have the capacity to knit socks.

Q.E.D.

You simply do not want to knit socks.

Please don't confuse the two.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Best Laid Plans and All...

I had planned to write a blog post about a certain Food Network celebrity and his Twitter flouncing, and why his followers were becoming increasingly exasperated with him and his lack of social media knowledge. (We will not discuss how I feel he needs a social media overhaul of all his sites, but I digress.) I planned to give you a whole blog post on how to create an effective social media plan and how not to use Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and a whole host of other social media sites.

However, he grew a pair, apologized and took the advice of someone who knew what they were talking about the next morning.

This means that I won't post something scathing or use him as an example. It also means, however, that I have no blog post planned, and the last post was on the 4th.

So, I will give you an update into the world of my knitting!

I finally have a yarn budget. Yup, I'm getting paid at work now (and loving it!) and now I have enough money to buy nice yarn. So, without further ado, the tweed vest:



It's completely free-formed, meaning I have an idea of what I want and I'm knitting it without a pattern.



So, yes, a post about knitting! On a knitting blog! How novel.

And it's also Pioneer Day weekend! Enjoy your Utah founder's day!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Fourth! Now Say Whatever You Want

In my humble opinion, there is a short paragraph that is more important in this country than any other document we have ever written. More important than the Declaration of Independence (yes, I really do feel this way, but if you'd rather read that, I have it here), as important as the Constitution, and definitely more important than any new law we've come up with recently.

That paragraph is the First Amendment to the Constitution. The stuff of this paragraph was so important that the founding fathers felt it needed to go at the top of the Bill of Rights. Without this paragraph, I cannot blog, we cannot make an opinion for or against the government and its policies, we cannot protest, we cannot write a letter to the president or petition for a new law, and we cannot be a member of whatever religion we so choose.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


There are five parts to that, and they're not all "freedom of speech."
Part 1: Religion

Believe it or not, the founding fathers actually saw religion as the most important of the five freedoms mentioned. At the time, the history of the colonists wasn't far off, and the colonists had come to America searching for freedom to practice a religion other than The Church of England. What this has translated into is a freedom to practice whatever religion we so choose. This means that the LDS church was allowed to form itself (more on that on the 28th - gotta leave something for Pioneer Day), and the many people fleeing their homes for freedom from religious oppression had a place where they could find like-minded individuals.

Part 2: Freedom of speech

This is the most well known part of the First Amendment. Freedom of speech was established so that the people had the right to speak out against the government should they begin to act in a way contrary to the Constitution. This allows me to say in public "I think the president is an idiot" and I can get away with it. Is there something I can't get away with? Of course.

The most common example of speech that cannot be free is speech that endangers the lives of others. If you've ever taken civics here in the U.S., then you've undoubtedly heard the idea of "You can't yell 'FIRE' in a crowded room if there isn't a fire." Why? Because it puts all of those people in danger. They could all run for the nearest exit, and someone could wind up trampled. This also seems to include saying things deliberately designed to rile up a crowd into a riot. As long as the speech doesn't put anyone at risk, you have the right to say it.

Part 3: Freedom of the press

Warning: This is the most complicated section in the whole blog. Bear with me here.

The press is an interesting construct. Just like the U.S. government has a series of checks and balances, the press has a series of checks and balances too. These consist of three entities: The Press, The Government, and The People. The People vote on laws for the government to pass and provide safety and rights. The People also tell the press what they want to hear. This is why we have so many stories about reality television stars and celebrities.

The Government provides laws for the people that they may vote on, and protection for the people.

Here's where the press gets screwed.

The Government's job is also to provide specific sanctions on the press during times of war. These sanctions, sadly, are somewhat arbitrary and generally up to whatever administration is in charge at the moment to state. For the most part, the press is allowed to state information about what is happening in the war. They are not allowed to state plans for various attacks or show where troops are. This is kind of a "duh" thing, but sadly some people need reminding that the press reports on the past, not on the future. If they could do that, I think we'd have a whole other problem on our hands.

The Press' job is to tell the people what they ought to hear (whether or not people listen is the sad fact of news), and to act as a watchdog over the government. In recent years, the press has not been allowed to do either of these. Why? Well, that involves understanding that the press is no longer independent. The press is owned by business organizations who have their own agendas. Sometimes, those agendas involve not making various political parties look bad, and making sure that people are paying more attention to them and not their competitor.

Part 4: The right to peaceably assemble.

This means we can assemble in a large group and have something like The Rally to Restore Sanity or a political rally, or even a convention... so long as it doesn't become a riot. Should any one of these turn into a group of looting, raiding, crazy people, then it is no longer an assembly, but a riot. And as we all know, riots are illegal because people get hurt.

Part 5: Freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances

This is literally that. I can draw up a petition, get it signed, and send it off to Congress in order to enact or change a law. I can also petition the government to look over a law they had created. It, in essence, gives the people some say in what happens to the laws in this country.

I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have about our great First Amendment. Yes, I think this is the greatest thing our country has to offer. I think that because of it, we are allowed to be free, and we are also allowed to be free from governmental intrusions.

And for that, I thank the founding fathers. My hat goes off to you, men. Thank you.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

In Which, I Post Something Other Than a Video

Somehow I've gone and missed my first blogaversary. Inexplicably, I thought I started my blog on the 29th of June. I started it on the 4th. So, now, I feel I must post something, right?

My sorority is gone.

No, that's not a joke, it's a travesty. Seriously, it's gone.

In 1936 local institutes started Lambda Delta Sigma, the sorority. It served as the Latter Day Student Association for a number of years, and in 1967, Sigma Gamma Chi, the fraternity was founded. They both served as friendship organizations within college institutes for more than 50 years.

Then, about 20-30 years ago* most of the sororities and fraternities were dissolved and turned into Institute Women's Association (IWA) and Institute Men's Association (IMA). There was one place in the country where Lambda Delta Sigma and Sigma Gamma Chi still existed: The Salt Lake Institute of Religion. That, by the way, is where I've been for the last year and a half.

Then, in May of this year, Church authorities started reorganizing the entire single's ward structure for the country. They realized that many students were choosing institute activities over ward activities, and they wanted to place more emphasis at the ward levels. All institute run organizations were ended. This includes IWA, IMA, and LDSSA, which is the student government within the Institute.

I understand this. I really do. The fact is, it's way more fun to do stuff in institute than it is in church. I agree that there needs to be more emphasis in the wards.

That doesn't make it any less hard.

So, Delta Darlings, here is a tribute to some great times.

The eating contest


Retreat


Barn Dance


Battle of the Chapters


Fall Rush 2010


Minute to Win It


Spring Rush 2011


If moments can last forever, let those moments be these. It's been a great run, sorority. We'll stay friends forever.

*I am actually speculating here. If you know more about this, feel free to send it to me in the comments.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Simon's Cat Forever!

I absolutely love Simon's Cat! It's a great way to cheer yourself up.

Monday, May 30, 2011

If I'm Going to Get Sucked In, So Are You!

It shocks me just how little I've got to tell on this blog anymore. Seriously, it's rather sad.

When I first got my blog, I wanted to post everything. Rants, observations of nekkid people, stuff about my knitting, you name it. Now, it's like I have permanent blog-block. Nothing is worthy of a post, and besides that after a Raveler posted this link online two weeks ago, my productivity has been shot to H-E-Double hockey sticks.

Don't click that link. Seriously, don't click it. You'll never get out.

It's the link for Chrome's version of Angry Birds.



If you haven't played Angry Birds yet, I don't recommend it if only because once you start, it's too cool to stop.

The basic premise is that the evil pigs have stolen the birds' eggs. Now, the birds are battling the pigs to get them back. By slingshotting themselves at the pigs.

Yes, they literally sit in a slingshot and like little feathered, kamikaze terrors from above they fly at the various and sundry structures the pigs are hiding in. Some of the birds do interesting things when clicked, like explode. Seriously. It lands somewhere, you click again, and BOOM! Nothing is left.

And I'm hooked. As is the rest of the tech-savvy world, apparently. As of this post, total downloads of Angry Birds exceeded 200 million.

That's a lot of kamikaze birds.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Letter of Termination

Dear Skylar the Dell Laptop:

It is with a somewhat heavy heart that I feel I must write this post. You have been my laptop for the past two years or so. In that time, we have shared somewhat of an intimacy that I haven't shared with most of my other previous computers. You were there when I felt crazy and needed to write angsty poetry to describe my craziness. You were there when I began my decent into the world of social media by starting not only my Facebook and Ravelry pages, but my twitter, blog, LibraryThing and DeviantArt pages as well. You were there for countless papers, long nights online, and long showings of obscure foreign films on Netflix. You have done quite a bit of work over the years for my job, barely working under the weight of the load called "Adobe." You have, indeed, been my constant companion over the last two years.

However, I should state that despite all of this, nothing you have done has been without great personal cost to me.

I have never had a day of peace in my computing with you. It has always been a fight to remain online, to work without crashing, and to run the way I ask you to. A year ago, it was discovered that you were disabled by a defective motherboard, and you handled yourself admirably. However, the replacement has not worked to my liking.

Recently, the refusal to upload a blog post was the final straw. And so, as it would be with an employee who does not meet office standards (and you would never want to feel that I was keeping you out of a sense of duty), that I feel I must fire you. You are being replaced as of today. Hand over your vast files and leave the building.

Your replacement? With any luck she will be a far better employee than you. I present:



Momo-Tan Mac.

It's been a good run, good buddy. Good, but not great. And after you've been reformatted and turned into a computer to run John's audiology software, I'm sure you'll have a much better time of things.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Links Posted by Ravelers

On the last day of this somewhat disastrous contest, I feel the need to post again.

BTW, I've raised $3 in comments. Sigh. I'm giving $15 (that's enough to provide a bag of food to an ASPCA sponsored shelter).

So, without further ado, some funny links Ravelers have sent me.

hyperboleandahalf. Yup, before Ravelry I'd never heard of this site, and it's funny. Impossibly funny. In fact, I recommend reading God of Cake if you have any questions regarding the funny.

Then next link is... a list of comments from Amazon.co.uk. Holy crap. I can't finish them. My eyes are tearing up from laughter. Amazingly silly on so many levels. Who knew foil had so many uses/devoted followers?

A paper on Knitting Dependence. Yup, you heard me. Someone wrote this paper on the fictional mental health disorder, Knitting Dependence. It was apparently for an assignment on determining and researching a mental disorder for submission to the mental health association. Either way, I meet all the criterion. I think the cure might be more yarn.

Here's a hint for the next two links:
How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb? It's a really obscure number; you probably haven't heard of it.

Yup, the next two involve everyone's favorite dirty words I can't say for fear of my mother's bar of soap: Hipsters. Oddly enough, hipsters and their amazingly condescending attitudes towards the world are amazingly mockable by those of us who have been afflicted with them (I'm remembering a certain one-time visit to a certain local chiropractor). Unhappy Hipsters (kind of a "what else is new" sort of irony) and Dads are the Original Hipsters. The second one is the really hilarious one.

Ah, Great and Mighty Ravelers. You guys crack me up.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Pictures of You

Sometimes I'm afraid to show people what I look like. Especially on a day where I woke up at 5AM and couldn't get back to sleep. So now I look a little strange, because it feels like it should be late afternoon, but really it's only about noon-ish and I'm ready for a nap.

Anyway, this is what I look like:



Beware of Stash. It attacks.

Remember: there's still a contest.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Websites of Awesome

I'm thinking I should showcase some very fun, informative, and generally awesome websites on my blog today. No, there will not be a theme. There will only be awesomeness as I see fit to post awesomeness.

Website 1 is Goggles. Goggles allows you to paint on any web page you want. Click on the link and follow the instructions. Once it's in your bookmarks bar, you can doodle on any page you want.

Seriously, try it here. Makes the stuff I post far more interesting.

Website 2 is My Gluten Facts. This is the most comprehensive website I've ever come across for finding gluten free information out there. They've compiled a gazillion restaurant menus, products, and various other things to show you what's gluten free and what isn't. That and their labeling system is easy to understand.

If you need to eat GF, this is the site for you. I've already been made extremely happy today.

Website 3 is Konami Code sites. Using your arrow and letter keys, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A to get in (sorry, it doesn't work on my blog. I wish it did). That's a Konami Code.

The Konami Code was originally in a game called Contra and it featured some spectacularly bad Japanese-English translation. For example: "All your base are belong to us." Not entirely sure what they meant, but it's sure as heck funny.

Well, now you can enter a Konami Code on various sites and cool stuff will happen. Sadly, not all of the sites on this page work (sometimes web page updates take out the code), but many of them do.

Website 4 (the final site today) is The Random Kitten Generator. It's just that: Random pictures of kittens. Do I need to explain it further?

April is still Go Orange month! All comments will add to the pot for a donation!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Three States of Being

I always say that I have three states in what I say to people going on in my head: What I Want To Say, What I Should Say, and What I Do Say. These are usually relatively entertaining, quite nice, and just too random to be said aloud, lest someone think I'm crazier than I already am.

This is especially apparent when it comes to Professor Fisher. He's a self described "cold hearted bastard" with a penchant for throwing hard candies at us and being generally rather annoying. Lately, the Three States of Telling People Things have been more active - and far less nice - than usual. For example:

Fisher: "Are you sure you want to use that font?"
What I Want to Say: "At least it's not Papyrus."
What I Should Say: "Go Away."
What I Did Say: "Pretty Sure."

Fisher: "Those are like Designer Masturbation: They serve no purpose other than to make you feel good."
What I Want to Say: "I'd like to fly out the door and across campus on a hoverboard while I listen to the soundtrack to the Transformers movie."
What I Should Say: "Go Away."
What I Did Say: "I can make them more functional."

Fisher: "Those text boxes are five pixels too close to the edge of that box. Change it."
What I Want to Say: "If two-and-a-half pixels on either side is that big a deal, than you have way too much time on your hands."
What I Should Say: "Go Away."
What I Did Say: "I'll see what I can do."

Yes, I am a complete wuss.

BTW, I was rather serious about that last post. Yes, I posted it on the first, but it wasn't an April Fool's joke. The more comments, the more I donate to the ASPCA. So comment away!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Go Orange for April Fools and the ASPCA!

Dear amazing and wonderful blog lurkers and the new lurkers who are just beginning to comment,

Today is the first day of April. To the ASPCA, this marks the start of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. As some people know, I'm a supporter of everything the ASPCA does.

So I'd like to leave you a challenge: For every unique comment on every blog post this month, I will donate a dollar to the ASPCA. What this means is that if you comment once on a blog post, I will donate a dollar. If you comment eight times, I'll still only donate a dollar. If I get eight posts from eight different people, I'll donate eight dollars. If you post a comment on every single post, I'll donate a dollar for every comment you made. I'll add it all up at the end of the month, and we'll see just how much I donated. If you want to add your own donation to the pot, I'll factor it in as well.

And for some added incentive, if you donate to the ASPCA this month yourself and comment on my blog with your donation amount, I'll put you in a drawing to win something awesome. It might be yarn. It might be a cool book about animals. It might be an awesome water bottle. It might be a year's supply of Turtle Wax (just kidding. What the heck is Turtle Wax anyway?). But you'll win something cool.

And now for a shameless plug for the ASPCA, since they do many awesome things.

Since orange is the ASPCA's official color, if you'd like to go orange yourself, consider getting something from their store. All net proceeds (that means all of the profit made after they take out the cost of making the item) goes towards ending animal cruelty. This applies to literally everything in the online store. I won't factor purchases into the drawing. Sorry. You've already gotten your prize.

And now, a gratuitous video of some shelter kitties:

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

An Actual Post About Knitting

For a blog that's supposed to be about knitting, there's surprisingly little about it posted. Instead, I'm posting about my vacuum, Sushi Cat, and nekkid people.

So here's a change of pace:



That's the front of the Olivier Pullover from Interweave Knits' "Weekend Knits 2010." All of the pieces of this sweater are blocking in my bathroom.

All of them. My bathroom smells like wet wool. What's weird is how much I love that smell. It reminds me that another sweater is almost finished.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Please Help, I'm Obsessed

About a month ago I was goofing around, playing some flash games. Now, flash games are like the Minesweeper of the internet: There's no reason to play a flash game other than to alleviate your boredom.



That's when I found it. It was the greatest, weirdest game I'd ever played.

It's called Sushi Cat.

Sushi Cat isn't a cat like this:



Sushi Cat is more like this:



It involves a cat who sees a lovely female kitteh for the first time, but he can't get into the building where she is. So he realizes he has to get fat in order to get in.

Yup, you heard me. He has to eat a pile of sushi and get fat. And along the way, there's some very strange sushi to nom.

So imagine my glee when I found out last night at there are two sequels.

I'm gonna be a bit... I've got flash games to play.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Bad Luck Magnets

So there's always good magnets jokes out there, but in general no one ever talks about the other kind of magnet: The bad luck magnet.

This is usually me.

I literally seem to attract bad luck. Like take last Monday, for example. Firstly, it was Monday. Monday is a total brat fink who should be drop kicked into another state. Unfortunately, it's never happened, so Monday is always going to throw Things That Are Not Nice my direction.

Like the toilet.

I've never had a problem with my toilet before, so it was a bit of a shock Monday morning (Valentines Day, btw) to hear a strange water sound and rush into about a 1/4" of water on the floor from the overflowing toilet. Larry was called, and it seemed the toilet valve (which has been limed shut since I moved in) finally broke. Larry turned off the water (to my whole apartment, btw) and took the toilet apart.

Then he said "I could have sworn I had a spare part for this thing."

So I had no water and no toilet for two days.

Thank goodness for Youtube and its wonderful goodness.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Dear Blog Lurkers...

I know you're there. I have a free Analytics account, so it tells me when someone looks at my blog. So guess what:

I like comments. It makes me know you're reading my blog. ;)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Time to Kill

I'm sitting here in the Salt Lake City Airport, waiting for stuff to open, and blogging. Why I am I blogging in the SLC International Airport? Because I missed my flight. How did I, the Queen of Never Being Too Late to Anything, miss my flight, you ask? That's a very good question, but it involves a number of factors.

Factor number 1) I did my laundry way to late last night, in the building's laundromat. I know, I vowed to never use those dryers again, but I simply didn't want to go out and do it. I was tired. So sue me.

Unfortunately, this meant I couldn't 100% pack last night, because everything was still damp (lesson learned). Also, because it was late, I was up until almost 2AM finishing stuff up.

Factor number 2) The flight was at 7:10 in the morning. If you've stayed up until almost 2, and then realize you have to get up at 5 in order to make it on time with everything you have left to do, you will wake up at almost 6.

Factor number 3) This one is simply not my fault. I still had just enough time to make it. Just barely. But I couldn't find the terminal for ticketing. So I asked a guy at the information desk.

For reasons yet unexplained he said "You want to take a right out of here and head down to International Arrivals and Departures. It sounds weird, but that's where it is."

What a jerk. I walked all the way over, and then I was stuck. It obviously wasn't there, so I ran all the way back with a full suitcase (it's a carry-on. Don't look at me like that!) and my laptop bag while wearing a wool vest and long wool coat.

In case you were wondering, running in this much wool will make you sweat uncontrollably.

So now I'm going to be late for the reception.

Fortunately, I'm flying US Airways. Here's a totally shameless bit of free advertising for them, because they rock. US Airways doesn't charge you to change your flight. Yup. That's right. You can show up late, it can totally be your fault, and they won't charge you.

After all that crazy, this totally made my day. Thanks, guys! Thanks wonderful lady at the ticketing desk! You've staved off a meltdown, saved the day, and I'm still going to make it to Minnesota for Emily's reception!

Now I'm going to go have a little nap before my flight so I don't need to caffeinate and get more high-strung than I am.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Paradox

Have you ever had a period of time where everything is happening and nothing blog-worthy is happening? That's where I've been all week. And I should have updated ten days ago with some very cool sorority stuff.

My team won Sorority Iron Chef.

Yup. After the random free-for-all at the table we found ourselves with two bananas, a package of Ritz crackers, coconut, sugar, craisins, a can of pumpkin, two thingies of nasty cinnamon roll flavored pudding, melted chocolate, crumbled cookies, and the secret ingredient: Marshmallows.

We made this:



We called it Fall Fiesta. It's really a modified pumpkin pie. It was apparently good, but banana-y. Maybe I can rebuild it into something viable for publication?

Or maybe I'm completely out of my tree?

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Randomness on Wednesday

I'm in Contra, so someone get me a Konami Code - I need a life or thirty.

1) I was thinking, wouldn't a terry cloth ballgown be the best? You wouldn't have to worry about the cost too much: Just sew a couple of towels together. You'd have the most comfortable dress at the dance.

2) I have a new vacuum. It's a gently used Dyson and I love this thing. It actually vacuums the floor. Which is a definite improvement over my old one.

3) It's only the third day of school and I've already overslept. Wow. Just wow.

4) The campus bookstore is a total ripoff. Last semester I bought one of my books used for $35. Apparently it retails new for $25. And the scary part about buying my textbooks online this semester is that I'm not sure if they'll get here on time to actually be effective.

5) It's cold.

6) I'm hungry.

7) I have four classes today.

8) Spring Rush is tonight.

9) My to-do list is a mile long.

10) I'm in class and blogging, and the guest speaker actually thinks it's cool. I love classes on Social Media.

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Vacuum Must Die

I want a new vacuum. For most of my life I've been dealing with this:

The Vacuum from Hell

From the time I was a kid and was terrified to try and work something that had gears you had to change (neutral and drive - yes. This thing drives itself), to the memories I have of using it for my bedroom, it's been around.

And I hate it. I have always hated everything about this stupid vacuum. It doesn't go into the corners well, the drive is too fast and feels like it's going to yank your arm off, and now the drive belt won't stay on.

It dies tonight. I'm now officially saving up for a new, fancy vacuum so I don't have to ask an inanimate object to do the job it was built to do.

Save me, Craigslist!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Come Play With My New Dog!

He's here, on the computer, so the apartment complex people can't say I'm not allowed to have him! ;)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Wordle, New Year, and Randomness

I've become obsessed with a website called Wordle. Basically, you upload a paragraph or a series of paragraphs and the program generates a cool picture with certain words bigger than others, depending on how many times the word shows up in the uploaded text. Here's one I did of a recipe for an Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce:

Wordle: Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce

It's also the first post of the new year! So happy New Year to all, and I hope it's a fantastic one.
Creative Commons License
Help, The Stash is Attacking! When Yarn, Knitting and Growing Up Go Terribly Awry by Kimberly Lewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at thestashattacked.blogspot.com.