August 29, 2007
Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Major props to Dear Reader Weaver for the knee-slappingest comment I’ve read in a long time (and that says something since, although I may be biased, I think this blog is blessed with very funny comments and commenters). A pit-scented banana? I just about bust a gut. Thanks you, Weaver, for making my morning. I can report that, thanks to my deodorant, at its worst, the banana was slightly floral scented.
Recently life seems to have been a string of minor dramas. First, the pratfall on the slick moss, then the banana fiasco, then there was this morning, when I went to the doctor for some tests, and while I was in the tiny laboratory bathroom preparing to do unspeakable things with unspeakable bodily fluids and an unspeakably small cup, I got too close to the motion-activated paper-towel dispenser, which immediately and with a loud, robotic whirr, spat a paper towel right into my ear, scared the crap out of me, and left me rooted to the spot, terrified to move in case more whirring and paper towelage should ensue. Eventually I was able to resume my task but I'm sure major damage was done to my psyche. In fact, I may never be able to pee again. (TMK has a motion-sensor alarm at her house which I now think she should replace with a motion-sensor paper-towel dispenser. Much more effective. It would so be brown-trouser time for the intruder.)
For those of you who are having Frankie withdrawal:
So, what’s the story here? You would think the story would be that this is a picture of Frankie being terribly naughty, of her lying where she’s not supposed to, on TMK’s Personal Private Private Personal Leather Throne of TV Watching and Video-Game Playing. You see, for as long as TMK has owned the chair, Frankie has strictly honored The Throne Rule. She would occasionally wave her nose at The Throne in passing in case there was anything interesting up yonder but that was it. But at 3:01 p.m. on Monday, August 28, 2007, everything inexplicably changed. Some synapse, some neuron in Frankie's tiny brain went completely haywire, and when TMK next walked into the living room, Frankie was on The Throne, curled up and happily sound asleep. So, again, you would think the story would be about an act of defiant doggy disobedience and how TMK is firmly but lovingly retraining Frankie not to abuse her chair privileges but, no. The real story, as the picture clearly shows, is that the chair now has Frankie’s favorite blanket on it. Frankie: 1, TMK: 0. Big time.
No knitting or knitting pictures to speak of today, Dear Readers. I’m still plowing along on the Banana Scarf and such like. But I do have a question. The prototype of the Transylvania Hat is just different enough from the specs of the final pattern that I need to knit a new one to photograph for the pattern. Which is a bit of a bummer because I really liked the black-and-terra-cotta combo I used for the prototype but not enough to knit another entire hat in the same dang colors. So what would you suggest? What color combo would have the same masculine, earthy, tailored feel of black and terra cotta but would not be black and terra cotta? (And I’m afraid I also have to put the kibosh on gray and wine red, because that’s what I used for Olympic Squirrel.)
Dark green and gold, two of my son's favorites. Or, Navy blue and orange, although that may be too close. Light moss green and a deep brown would be nice.
Frankie just went where the blanket was, as any common sense person would do.
Posted by: picadrienne on August 29, 2007 03:05 PMThat is the brattiest expression on Frankie's face. She knows, as does every wise dog and quite a few children, that once you let them break one rule, the others are just asking to be broken. Just look at that face! She is busy plotting her next move. Your pathetic 'rules' will fall like dominos pushed over by a wet nose. It is only a matter of time until she is using mind-control to force you to max out your credit cards on expensive dog cookies and the latest dog toys. (My dear sister was recently taken over in such a way by her three corgis) Stand your ground!
(The paper towel dispenser story was priceless.)
Posted by: Lydia on August 29, 2007 03:34 PMTransylvania colors....
Well, given the name, how about black and wine-red? If not earthy enough, brown and wine-red; or brown and gray/taupe; or I like the brown and moss green suggestion. Or black and gray!
I hope you pee again. Though don't underestimate the power of mind over matter. My small daughter was traumatized by an automatic toilet flusher when she was 3; she and her butt were not big enough for the sensor, and the flusher went off while she was still seated, giving her an unfortunate phobia about being flushed and automatic flushers. Well, sometime after that she got to go on a trip requiring airplane travel. The airport had only automatic flush toilets. The airplane bathroom was also a terrifying proposition to someone whose rear end is no bigger than a canteloupe, therefore someone else has to hold you on that scary excuse for a toilet -- talk about being worried about being flushed! So this tiny one HELD IT for 10 hours even though she had to go, and only consented to pee when the hotel was attained. Gotta respect that ability.
Gray and deep blue? Brown and red? Yellow and pink, er, never mind.
Posted by: kmkat on August 29, 2007 04:11 PMHow about gray and green? Green and beige? Green and natural/offwhite-ish?
Posted by: Carrie on August 29, 2007 04:14 PMGrey & navy, grey & hunter, pumpkin & mustard, chocolate & tan
Posted by: jen on August 29, 2007 04:36 PMI don't know about colors for the hat but wanted to let you know that the auto-towel story had me laughing here at the office...it is truly a hoot of a tale...and it IS 7:27 pm where I am......
Posted by: alotta.knittin on August 29, 2007 05:17 PMRyan, your paper towel story had me laughing my head off. Hope it doesn't leave you with any long lasting side effects.
Posted by: sheila on August 29, 2007 07:57 PMHow about charcoal gray and mustard/gold? Or a very dark brown and rust? Those have the same dark neutral/warm not-too-far-from-neutral accent color dynamic while being enough different to not feel like deja vu all over again.
Personally, I'd be fine with knitting the same colors again to get an appropriate photo sample. I think that will come in handy as I get more into designing patterns. But I do understand the reluctance.
Maybe the explaination of TMK's actions lies in Frankie actually warping the space/time continuum, since in the dimension where I exist Monday's date was the 27th. Watch out. Next thing you know Frankie will figure out how to loop back to the minute before you filled the food bowl and get double portions -- without actually leaving The Throne.
Posted by: KarenJoSeattle on August 29, 2007 11:18 PMI, too, favor the earthy moss green and brown suggestion--or howsabout two tones of green?
Or a charcoal-y grey and rust or russet-y red.
Navy does go with just about anything...what does Frankie think?
Posted by: kt on August 29, 2007 11:39 PMOK, cuz, reading your last two posts just forced to mind a very peculiar memory involving not bananas (which I love -- what's up with these banana-haters?), but apples. I seemed to recall reading somewhere about young women in the Middle Ages swiping their moist, pungent armpits with an apple slice and offering said slice to their lovers as a keepsake. Needless to say, I had to research this a bit before posting the comment and voila. This site (http://www.allaboutstuff.com/Spices_for_Romance/Apple_The_Real_Adams_Apple.asp), which tells you all you'd ever want to know about the sexual symbolism of apples, informs us of the following: "...an old German superstition went so far as to claim that eating an apple soaked in the sweat of your loved one's armpits would 'increase love'." Funny. I would have bet on that being a French custom.
Anyway, when you relate this little tidbit at your Labor Day BBQ's, don't forget to mention that you heard it from a Buddhist monk!
Posted by: Cuzzin Tom on August 30, 2007 03:38 AMso glad that I gave you a giggle and even more glad that your deodorant was up to the task that ill-fated day. Now, let us just hope that the person in charge of new scents at the deodorant factory isn't sitting in his (or her) office today thinking "banana!"
Posted by: Weaver on August 30, 2007 06:49 AMUgh, we have one of those auto-paper dispensers in our office bathroom, and it's too sensitive. You go in the bathrooom, it dispenses paper (wrrrwrrrr). You finish your business and move to the sink, it dispenses paper (wrrwrrr). You wash your hands and rip off the dispensed paper to dry with, and it dispenses paper (wrrwrr!) And the worst part is... when the bathroom is empty and no one is even walking by the door... it dispenses paper! (wrrwrrrWRRR!!) Drives everyone nuts around here!
Posted by: beezie on August 30, 2007 07:14 AMI'm SO glad you said it out loud. I've been pretty unhinged by automatically-flushing toilets, haunted water spigots that turn on when you approach them, lights that turn on when you walk into the room, enchanted paper towel dispensers..........I figured that it was just my Advancing Age.
Posted by: dale-harriet in WI on August 30, 2007 10:11 AMFor a long time, I lived in a building with auto paper and soap, and the paper dispensers just refused to give you paper and the soap was always empty. (I'm a college student, btw, if that seems like a wierd situation.) I bought a bar of soap and luckily never was a fan of the paper towel situation (that's what my hoodie pocket is for.)
ANyway, I was going to suggest olive green and a deep golden brown.
Posted by: klaus on August 30, 2007 01:23 PM