(No posting on Monday, Dear Readers. Vacation day! Yee-haw!!)
-----------------------------
Why is it that, on the day when your mind is a dune-and-wind-filled blogging wasteland, your partner says, “Make sure you blog today. And soon. And make it good!” “Good?!” She’s lucky the crap I ramble on about even half-way makes sense, and now she wants good. Mamma mia!
Sadly, TMK’ll and all’a ya’ll will just have to settle for mediocre, if even that. I have no photos, and it’s been a quiet week, thanks to a variety of odd malaises interspersed with bouts of colonic house-cleaning (for new readers, that means extreme housecleaning, from the inside out, hence, colonic. Har, har; I kill me.) and really annoying things like, oh, having to meet with one’s financial advisor. Blech. I’d rather have a wisdom tooth pulled without anesthetic. An impacted wisdom tooth. Pulled while a vicious dog is gnawing on my ankle.
And I can’t even write the next chapter of "Dick & Jane’s Adventures with Frankie" since—again, thanks to malaise—I’ve seen m’girls for a total of two hours in the last two weeks.
Hold the phone; a solution has just presented itself to me: Smokescreens. That’s it! Smokescreens! I’ll just send you elsewhere for entertainment and then you can just ignore the weird little (wo)man behind the curtain.
Smokescreen #1: Cuzzin Tom’s most recent entry about the adventures of a robe-clad Buddhist monk among conservative Christian Oklahomians. I love this entry; one of my faves ever. In fact, I believe he should get a blue ribbon for actually using the phrase "woodgy-woodgy." I think it rates up there with the time I was able to sneak the phrase "urinal cakes" into one of my entries.
Smokescreen #2: Speaking of blogs, my dear and fiber-y friend LindaK has started a new blog in which she is describing her adventures during her current three-month stay in India. Lots of photos but well worth the download if you are interested in exotic climes.
Smokescreen #3: Eye-candy for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing. Now, before I creep Big Sister and Cuzzin Tom out and, heck, even myself, you should know that this handsome fella is also a cousin of mine, albeit once removed, I think (son of my mother’s cousin). And for those of you who aren’t that interested in eye-candy of the male persuasion but who are interested in good music (you know who you are), Tuey is a very talented jazz musician who plays all over the East Coast. Here are snippets of his music; here are his appearance dates and locations. Go see him! You won’t be disappointed.
Smokescreen #4: One of the comments from Monday was from new reader Sedie. I popped on over to her blog and was rewarded with finding an indescribably cheerful Irish Hiking Scarf knit in a bright, mood-lifting, mango-colored yarn. Go have a look for yourself (scroll down to the bottom and click on the last photograph). Must. Duplicate. That. Scarf. Must. Duplicate. That. Scarf. In fact, Must. Buy. Yarn. Tonight.
Smokescreen #5: The miniature to end all miniatures. I don’t have the vaguest idea why, but I was surfing the Web for information about miniature baskets and discovered this. That’s a nickel, people, a nickel. (Note to TMK: Coincidentally, this is here at the Burke Museum!)
Smokescreen #6: More talk about Dulaan.
1. Thanks to all the new Brigade members who asked to be added to the list. If I’ve left anyone’s name out, please let me know, and I’ll add it quick-like.
2. Don’t forget, we are selling items with TMK’s famous Dulaan logo on them through CafePress. All the profits from the store will go directly to F.I.R.E. I have ordered some of these things myself and have been really impressed with the quality.
3. I’ve had a couple of questions about getting the tax receipts from F.I.R.E. Meredith does tell me she is working on it. I believe, legally, they have until January 31st to get the tax receipts out, so it should be done by the end of this month. If you have any more questions, you can contact her directly at fire@fireprojects.org.
Smokescreen #7: Someone is going to be commenter #5,000 today or tomorrow. (Update: I lied. We're at 4,955, not 4,995 as I thought. But soon, my pretties, soon.)
And there you have it, TMK. For today, long and so-so will have to do. See you tonight. And dinner better be good. Wink.
Thanks for the links, especially the eye-candy. I'll be in DC on business when Tuey is playing there, I'll have to check it out. Going to see live music is much better than eating dinner alone at a restaurant. Would he mind if I brought my knitting?
Posted by: Kat on January 13, 2006 12:05 PMThanks for following up on the F.I.R.E. receipts for last year's donations. I was surprised that my accountant had already asked for my tax stuff. I've been getting it together for him in the hopes that I could get it to him sooner rather than later, especially since I have a short vacation trip to Arizona starting next Wednesday. Haven't been to the Southwest so am looking forward to that as well as seeing dear friends who moved there last year.
Posted by: Charlotte on January 13, 2006 12:11 PMSmokescreens are good. I love the post from Cuzzin Tom, though of course my first thought upon seeing the bison was "was there fiber?!"
Good post! Enjoy your day off! :D
Posted by: perclexed on January 13, 2006 12:12 PM5,000 comments? Yikes! And I'll mention my craving for Dulaan logo items to my hubby tonight. He's been very good to me lately.
Posted by: Carol on January 13, 2006 12:25 PMYou just kill me Ryan! Thanks for the eye-candy, hubba-hubba!
Hope to see you at the Guild next week!
Dear Sr. Mary Marmot,
Loved the post, and enjoyed Cuzzin Tom's, too. WalMarts in the midwest are something to behold, I'll tell you. He's a brave man.
And QUIT cleaning, we want more knitting photos.
And who said you could take so many vacations? WTF? We need MORE postings. At least skip Fridays, when we have the weekends to look forward to. Taking away our Monday blogs is unreasonably cruel.
Could you add me to the Dulaan brigade, too? My work knitting is currently a Dulaan project. It was going to be a hat, but now I think it's going to be a sweater.
Isn't it about time for another Dulaan knit-in? Then you'd have something to blog about...
Posted by: Melinda on January 13, 2006 01:13 PMThe (mostly) new year is a good time to purge your domicile; I'm happy to come over and help you clean out some of that pesky "stash" you have. :)
Posted by: Elaine on January 13, 2006 01:35 PMThanks (Gulp!)Ryan for noting the blog. Eeek - makes it seem more real now. I better start the fiber chat sooooon! Let me just take this opportunity oh Blog Guru-ji to say YOU WERE RIGHT, when you said that blogs are work. But, it's good work.
Linda "K"
Posted by: Linda "K" on January 14, 2006 11:54 AMThanks for the Dulaan reminder. Today is the day (a rainy Seattle holiday) that I am going to pull the entire stash out for evaluation - I see lots of cozy hats coming out of this process. I don't think you have me on the Dulaan list, but hats are coming!
Posted by: Barbara on January 16, 2006 09:37 AMI'm in the Brigade! I've got a few hats done already, and a big pile of yarn leftovers that will soon be converted. :)
Posted by: TChemgrrl on January 16, 2006 02:48 PMI live in "Pomo" country (Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, CA) and have a miniature coiled basket by Victoria Manuel, who I am guessing is the maker of the miniature basket in Smokescreen #5. Mine is about the diameter of a nickel, adorned with tiny pheasant feathers and small cut glass beads, and just beautiful. There are about 375 stitches in this tiny wonder.
It was a "just because" gift from my husband, I think when we were dating, and I really treasure it.
All it needs is some really tiny knitting inside;o)
Love your blog, even on your "bad blog" (i.e "bad hair") days.
Posted by: Janice on January 16, 2006 11:36 PMI've got some mittens winging their way to F.I.R.E. for Dulaan. . . we'll see what else I can manage to get done in the next 170 days.
Posted by: Susan on January 19, 2006 10:40 AM