bag 'n' trash

Ten on Tuesday

I'm a bit of a TV addict.  I turn it on first thing in the morning, and very often I fall asleep with it on (we have a timer).  So this week's Ten on Tuesday is a fairly easy one for me.   Ten Great/Awful Things about Television Today.

1.  Awful -- Reality shows.  I hate them.  Survivor, the Biggest Loser, Big Brother, any of a number of shows on E!.  Of course I do have some exceptions.  But for the most part, I really don't care for them.      
2.  Great -- I really like Project Runway.  Yep, that's about it for the reality and I don't even consider that "Reality" television.
3.  Awful -- Wife Swap.  I hate Wife Swap so much, that it Gets It's Own Awful.  I hate the concept, I hate the families, I hate the format, I hate that every week they still manage to find two wackadoo families even more wackadoo than the week before.  And I hate that J took to watching it during the writers' strike and then this summer when there was nothing else on.
4.  Great -- Mad Men.  Part of the reason why I like this show so much is the look of it.  It's set in 1960 so the costumes and sets have this retro look that I can't get enough of.   But I also think that I'm sucked into that show because every episode just makes me just ever so slightly uncomfortable.  The characters are flawed and the writers do such a good job of showing what a different world it was back then.  No showing us the "good old days." 
5.  Awful -- That MTV and VH1 don't show music videos anymore like they used to 24 hours a day.  (Do they even show music videos?)
6.  Great -- That if I miss some shows I can still watch them on the Internets.  Although that's probably something great about the internets and less about television.
7.  Awful -- That all of these great old movies that I always want to watch are always on the Turner Classic Movies Channel and we don't get that channel.
8.  Great -- Late Night Television -- the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Dave Letterman, SNL especially with Tina Fey.
9.  Awful -- That I can never seem to stay up long enough to watch Late Night Television.
10.  Great -- TVLand -- because sometimes I want to be taken back to the "good old days."

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day 172 -- thinking about what to make for dinner and if there's anything good on tonight.

As Seen On TV

a friend just told me that she heard my name mentioned on tv.  this is not a surprise to me as i knew it was a possibility, but it is a little bit thrilling nonetheless.   

these 15 seconds are courtesy of my friend stitchy mcyarnpants who you all might have seen on the Kitschy Christmas episode of Knitty Gritty that aired for the first time yesterday.  sweet huh.  (i, unfortunately, did not get to see her as i do not subscribe to the DIY network.)

anyway, you might have also seen my fun fur kitschmas tree. 

i first knit this tree about 2 years ago, inspired by anjo's dr. seuss-like trees.   i finally wrote up a pattern for it.  my version is knitted from the top down, measures 18 inches in height and although free standing, is also soft and pillow-like.  so here it is.   you can also click directly onto the pattern link in my sidebar over there to the right.

i hope you all like it.

 

I'm a Big Dork

i just finished watching the very last episode of Gilmore Girls and i'm crying.

it's ok to mock.  i'd mock myself if i weren't so sad.

Sloth and Gluttony

yesterday i was woken up at 7am by sun coming through the bedroom window.  i spent the next two hours catching up on all of my blog reading (yes it took two hours to get through my bloglines).  then after watching East/West  (a very good movie by the way) i spent the next 13 hours watching an America's Next Top Model marathon while eating salty snacks and later chinese food.  the only reason i was able to rationlize watching this crap was that during this whole time i was knitting.   for the salt overindulgence, there was no excuse.  i woke up this  morning with sausage fingers and no eyelids. 

from june 1st through august 21, the boston museum of fine arts will be hosting an exhibition on the quilts of Gee's Bend. the boston globe has something written up too.  this exhibition is definitely something i'm going to want to check out. 

that's enough for now. because of my tv marathon yesterday, my big ass wore out the couch, so today we're going couch shopping. 

The Real World

a few weeks ago, i joined netflix.  and at carolyn's suggestion, i rented season 1 of the gilmore girls.  i am now obsessed.  i want to be part of the show, except that i want the show to be real life.   j and i would live in a house like lorelai's, with a big farmer's porch and archways in the entry.  i would run the local yarn shop/book store when i wasn't teaching biology  at the local highschool.    j would be the town handyman with his own handyman van.  lorelai and sookie and i would be friends.    it would all be very fun and grand.  my commute would be all of 10 minutes  and i could do it on my bike.  my friends wouldn't bore me with gymboree and playdate talk.  i could have house of my dreams and i could surround myself with beautiful yarn.  j has pointed out to me that wanting to be part of a tv show is insane.  he's also pointed out to me that a single mother, manager of a hotel, could not in a million years afford the house she lives in only 30 minutes outside of hartford, unless her very rich parents had in fact bought it for her.  he likes to burst my bubble.  he does like the idea of being the town handyman though.  (by the way, he's watched several episodes with me).  one question.  i'm almost done watching season 2.  and there are no season 3 or 4 dvds available.  i've been taping season 5.  can i watch season 5 now? 

my trip to alabama proved to be insanely busy but not very interesting. (not because alabama couldn't potentially be interesting by the way.  but more because i spent the entire 3 days in a hotel off of the interstate in a conference room with no windows.)   i did get to drive by a piggly wiggly but that was pretty much the highlight of the trip. i loved "driving miss daisy."  that's where miss daisy liked to shop.

even with all of that excitement, i did manage to knit up a scarf.  (yes it's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts)

Mini Knits

as always, when i feel that the contents of my post might be a little thin, i post the results of a quiz (from the queen of lint).

You scored as Visual/Spatial. You probably feel at home with the visual arts, maps, charts, and diagrams. You tend to think in images and pictures. You learn best by looking at pictures and slides, watching videos or movies, and visualizing. People like you include sculptors, painters, surgeons and engineers. Visual/Spatial 86% Verbal/Linguistic 75% Logical/Mathematical 71% Interpersonal 64% Intrapersonal 43% Bodily/Kinesthetic 43% Musical/Rhythmic 18% The Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences created with QuizFarm.com

i am not at all surprised by the outcome.  i'm very visual (if i see something written down i'll remember it, if i just hear it -- like a phone number, or a person's name -- poof it's gone) and i became the family car trip navigator at the age of 9 when my father figured out that i could in fact read a map and my mother could not.  (i did not get to sit in the front seat however.)

by the way, lint queen is a fellow knitter who drives a mini.  she and i are both members of the new ring called "mini knits" (check out the link under "clutter") created by purlingswine  for people who drive minis and knit, hopefully not at the same time, although i have knitted while driving but in my defense i was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the mass pike.  i was not actually moving. 

hmmm other news.  i joined netflix.  i told j he could order some dvds upon occasion.  maybe 1 for every one of my 3.  i started off with season 1 of the gilmore girls.  someone had suggested that i might like it.  and they were correct.  very cute.  thank you whoever you are. 

finally, although it's almost 50 degrees today and the birds are chirping and it actually feels like spring could be coming, it's supposed to fucking snow tomorrow.  i'm ok with snow in january...but in february ... and then MARCH (because it will snow in march) i'm not quite so excited.  when i lived in the city, i did not hate snow.  i swear it.

Oh-Two-One-Three-Four!

it's a sad day when something from your childhood disappears.  Zoom has been cancelled.  it's true, that i didn't even know it was still on, and had i not read this article i would have been oblivious to it's demise, but still.  it's a sad day.

i thought the kids on zoom were really cool.  (yes, i was a HUGE dork as a kid and very uncool). they wore orange and yellow striped rugby shirts (this was the 70's -- no one wore rugby shirts) and one of the girls, i don't remember her name, wore her blond hair really short and she wore big button-like earrings.  although i had pierced ears, i wasn't allowed to wear big earrings like that. 

it's on zoom that i learned what a self-addressed stamped envelope was, and i learned how to do that thing with my arms that really serves no purpose other than to amaze and shock your friends and family ... those who didn't watch zoom anyway.

and you were encouraged to send them letters, although i never did.  "SEND IT TO ZOOM.  BOX 35"oh"  BOSTON MASS OH-TWO-ONE-THREE-FOUR!  SEND IT TO ZOOM!"

by the way, 02134 is the zipcode for allston, a very popular student neighborhood of boston.  and when i see an allston address, i can't help but hear in my head a faint voice singing (and it's the only thing i hear in my head by the way) oh-two-one-three-four.. send it to zoooom!