Google Reader/Task Master

As I posted before, for awhile there I was really behind on my blog reading. I couldn't break the 1000+ mark in Google Reader.

To try to catch up, I'd been eating work every day like this:

• Plate in front of me
• Right hand shoveling in food
• Left hand controlling the up and down arrows so I can scroll through them

This kinda worked, except for when I wanted to open up a post its the home blog--I'd have to put the food down, move the keyboard, double click on the post, spin around three times in my chair and throw a handful of paperclips over my left shoulder for luck.

Well, on Friday I made a truly fortuitous mistake. I accidentally clicked "Mark All As Read" and WOOSH--they were all gone. Once I started breathing again I realized that this was exactly what I needed to do. Now I don't have all of that pressure to spend my whole lunch break gazing at the screen, eyes dry from not blinking, one finger about to snap from the force with which I press the down arrow.

That said, I'm back up to about 420 unread posts. How much time should one spend reading about other people's lives?

Bow Before the Great List!

I've been tagged by CCR. If you're reading this, I tag you.

Here's my list, with the movies I've seen in bold:

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
6. Gone with the Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler’s List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On the Waterfront (1954)
20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. The Sound of Music (1965)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47.A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)
55. North by Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1975)
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
74. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)
77. All the President’s Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night at the Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do the Right Thing (1989)
97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959)

37/100

Malden Monday

For my first Malden Monday, I'd like to bring your attention to a fairly new restaurant in Malden that's been getting lots of press.

Exchange Street Bistro

67 Exchange St.

Malden, MA 02148

It seems I've been eating there a lot, mostly with John. Just yesterday we went there with Patrick for brunch. I ordered the stuffed french toast: 4 slices of french toast (not at all rubbery) with peaches and blueberry compote on top and sweet marscapone cheese in between each slice--yum!

Lunch and brunch are reasonably priced, with dinner much more expensive. It is by far the trendiest place in Malden, with a big martini list and hip interior--even though Exchange Street itself feels like a back alley.

I'm alive!

Here I am, a month later.

I have not knit a stitch this whole time--I'm really trying to get my wrist back to 100%. Unfortunately, this does mean that Amy's scarf isn't finished. It's more than 1/2 way there--should I post a picture? Usually in exchanges you don't post any pictures until the receipient gets the item (so it's a surprise), but Amy is understandably anxious.

I have gone to my SnB a few times--so strange to just sit there and watch others. I occured to me recently that our SnB is more than a year old! Yay us for keeping it going!

I'm really enjoying work--lots of projects to keep me busy, lots of variety in the day, nice people.

Let's see, what else... The bathroom still isn't done (*sheepish grin*). John is visiting his family here in Malden, so we've been kickin' it.

I've decided upon a day theme--Malden Mondays. It's so obvious. I'll post on something about Malden; could be something I like, something I hate, a person, anything. Look for it next week!

Knitting on Hold

My knitting wrist is unhappy, so all projects are on hold :-(

I took this picture of my backyard today. No, just kidding. I stole it off the internet. But we do have lots of snow here, which, now that I really am an adult, I'm hating.

There's the shoveling, of course. But for me, the biggest snow-related pain-in-the-butt is trying to walk around the city. I'm a walker--don't drive, take public transportation, the whole bit. It took me twice as long as usual to walk home from work today because some people didn't shovel their walks and I had to walk in the street, jump walls of snow, ford puddles, and keep from slipping and killing myself.

FO!

I have a finished object to report! And it's a cutie.

One of my co-workers left today to start her maternity leave. I put together a little hat-and-mitten set:
So sweet! I don't have anything in there for scale, but trust me--they're small.

The cap is Watchcap, which I modified by using 2x2 ribbing instead of 3x3. I made a single Knitted Flower and attached it to the brim.

I decided that I had to make the fingerless mittens to go along with it after seeing the ones CCR made. She gave me a tutorial at Stitch-n-Bitch, though with my sport-weight yarn and size 6 needles, I cast on only 24 stitches instead of her 28. I did 2x2 ribbing on the cuffs so they'd match the hat.

And the best part is that I made this from my Peruvian alpaca stash! I've been trying to figure out what to do with this pink, so I'm glad this came up. These are so soft and smooshy!

Themes

OK, I know, I know. I'm a bad blogger. As Blogless Stef said to me the other night, "Enough about the Top Model already!" I understand--you need new reading material.

I, on the other hand, have way too much reading material. I have about 30 blogs I track with Google Reader, almost all of whom participated in the Blog-Everyday-In-November challenge. Now that I'm working and spending less time online, I have 1000+ unread posts. I'm not joking. 1000+ posts. After 1000, Google Readers just stops counting and uses a +. That's when you know you're in trouble.

And this part can't be right. I have Angry Chicken on my reader list. Today when I checked there were 148 unread posts from her blog alone. She can't possibly have posted so much in 3 weeks.

Anyway, one of my problems is that my life feels pretty boring right now. I go to work, come home tired, and try to be in bed by 10:30. What's there to blog about? Hmm?

I was thinking of coming up with daily themes. Have you seen these? I think Angry Chicken has a Quilt Monday theme, where every Monday she posts about a quilt she's working on or one she's seen that she likes. John over at Ectomo has lots of daily themes, like Cthulhu Cthursday
and Moustache Monday ( <--!!!).

What do you think? Any theme ideas for me? And for those of you who blog--want to do a theme together? That might get our creative blog-juices flowing. Um, that sounds gross.

By the way--see the clock image I put in here? I love the guy at 3 o'clock. He's screaming into two phones at once. And Mister Ten Thirty is sawing his monitor in half. Ha.

ANTM

Some of you know that I love America's Next Top Model. It's the only show that I watch regularly. Everyone in the house must be silent, preferably in another room. I don't even knit while it's on!

Tonight, they kicked Heather off of the show:

I really liked Heather. I'm not sure they did enough to accommodate her Asperger's. It's always a tough call. If she became ANTM, she'd certainly have enough money to pay someone to take her directly to her Go-Sees!

I just hope Bianca doesn't win. She's an awful person. And the preview of next week's episode looks like she's all extra mean.

Here it comes...

Uh, yeah. All of that downtime? Long gone ;-)

Greetings!

Oh Blog, you're still here! I'm so glad to see you. I've been busy getting ready for my first day of work, which was yesterday!!! So far, so good. My co-workers are very nice, my superviser is helpful and patient, and my boss is friendly. It's a bit boring right now, just because I don't know how to do very much, so I have lots of down time. But that's sure to change!

In other news, I need to send out my Ravelry Scarf Exchange project by December 1st. Yikes!!!

See you soon! *kisskiss*

Lord of the Sings Transformers Karaoke Competition

Last weekend we had a karaoke throw-down at Eamonn's house. Karaoke at Eamonn's is unique because it is a themed competition, complete with prizes. The theme is predetermined by Eamonn, and is always tied to a movie. Contestants must plan ahead, choose a song in Eamonn's collection and change the lyrics, a la Weird Al Yankovic, to make the song about the movie. Eamonn serves as both the judge and the MC, and writes a minimum of four songs, which he performs between each of the entries, kind of like a screen wipe.








In the past, we have had a Lord of the Sings Karaoke Competition for each of the LOTR DVD releases (hence the name). I'm proud to say that I was the first every LOTSKC champion (I chose Belinda Carlisle's Heaven Is A Place On Earth). The following year Scott took my tiara. It didn't look half-bad on him ;-)

This time Eamonn chose the new Transformers movie. Eamonn loves transformers. Actually, Eamonn loves anything he was supposed to stop loving when he was 12: brownies, Transformers, Coke, people talking in funny voices, people wearing clown wigs, gold stars, cartoons, action figures, inflatable beach balls, bubbles... Note that even though Eamonn can write witty song lyrics about Transformers, he's not clever enough to change the title of the competition--instead, he just shoves the word "Transformers" in there.

Patrick and I put together a duet, sung to the tune of Islands In The Stream. Turns out, so did Dave and Stef. DOH!

Anyway, after four song entries, and just as many by Eamonn, Stef and Dave were declared the winners. Good on you, Stef and Dave. Your song most directly taunted Eamonn and all that he loves, and because of that I gladly throw open the LOTSKC Hall of Fame's* doors and grant you entrance.






*Funds for the construction of the LOTSKC Hall of Fame were secured by Tom Hanks

The Perry Bible Fellowship

I don't spend much time reading comics online, mostly because I hate reading things on a screen that I'd enjoy more if reading them curled up on the couch. I found out about The Perry Bible Fellowship from Tim Burke's blog, Easily Distracted. It's really funny.

Here's my favorite so far: Casting Call

Little Stuffies

Tomorrow, I'm taking a table at a craft fair at the Cheverus School (10-3). At first I thought I'd knit some stuff, but my hands started hurting so I stopped (no sense being "laid off" from knitting for weeks).

So instead I'm putting together some stuffies. I've never made them before, though I've thought about them. I'm using wool sweaters that I've shrunk/felted. Here's my favorite:

Little Elephant

Belated Hap-Bea Halloween

For reasons I won't get into because they make for a long and boring story, Patrick and I carved Bea Arthur's face into a pumpkin. Behold!

Scarf exchange goodness

I'm taking part in the Ravelry Scarf Exchange, in which I knit a scarf for my assigned buddy, and someone else knits a scarf for me. The buddy making me a scarf has popped into this blog a few times--Hi Pixie!

Well, I got Pixie's package last week. So great! First, the scarf. She chose the Branching Out pattern, which is beautiful. The yarn is a lovely red alpaca (the one picture makes it look magenta, but it is red). The whole thing is just perfect--I love the pattern, I love red and I love alpaca.

Included in the package were all kinds of goodies, based on some of my "likes." My own fluffy cloud ;-) , a cranberry candle, and more.

This is the first exchange I've taken part in, and it was great. Thanks Pixie, for being a great exchange partner!!!

I Got a Job!

I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job I got a job

Won't Lose This Between The Couch Cushions

As potentially impractical as this is, I really want this ceramic remote control. The whole idea is that it becomes an object of beauty, so you'll give it a space on the coffee table--then you'll always be able to find it!

Halloween, Engineer Style

These pics come from the family Halloween party at Patrick's work:

Concerts

I haven't written about it, but we've been to two concerts lately.

A week ago we went to see Erin McKeown at Club Passim. I saw her perform on tv a few years ago and went right out and bought all of her albums. My favorite one is Grand, especially the song Slung Lo. You can check out her myspace page to hear songs.

I'd never been to a show at Club Passim before. As it was an all-ages show, Patrick and I took Little Sis with us. I thought that the benefits of seeing a girl onstage, in charge and playing a guitar outweighed those of going to bed on time, even if it was a school night. I think I was right--Sis really like the show. As Patrick said, Erin is like sunshine on stage. She is just so natural and comfortable, and she her voice holds up in a live performance. After the show we went for autographs and pictures. I'd like to see Sis get that kind of interaction at the next Jonas Brothers concert! (If you don't know who the Jonas Brothers are, count yourself lucky. I've had to listen to their inane Disney-pop toooooooooo many times.)

On Tuesday we went to see The Thermals at the Middle East downstairs. Patrick and I love love love The Thermals. We first saw them open for Sleater Kinney and couldn't believe their energy. Hutch's vocals really sets the band apart.

This time we took Little Sister and The Cousin. The Middle East is not exactly a warm and fuzzy place, but it was an all ages show (again on a school night--I'm trying to show them other definitions of cool. Plus I get to be cool). They were, of course, amazing. Patrick and the girls perched themselves on a disused bar to get a good view, while I went up front to dance. Amazingly, they played not only my favorite song, but also Patrick and Cuz's. Again, the myspace page will give you a couple of songs to listen to.