I seem to have caught swapping fever on Craftster. Hah. But I’ve been in a creative, I want mail sort of mood. Even though I’m broke off my ass. I just finished making a crochet roll:

[insert pic here]

for the 2006 Wishlist Swap… where I unfortunately haven’t been chosen. Damn. I guess I’ll consider it a good deed?

I’ve also signed up for the following swaps:

DIY Kit Swap
I’m swapping two soapmaking kits for a visual journaling kit and an altered book kit! Huzzah!

Summer Bag Swap
I’m making a messenger bag, and will be recieving… something good, hopefully!

iTunes Shuffle Swap
Making 2 cds of (close to) 50 songs for my partner, along with a deco’d up case of some sort.

I <3 Coffee/Tea Swap (the <3 is a heart, for the uninitiated)
I'm swapping a bunch of coffee/tea goodies!

Little Visitor Swap
This is sooo cool. You send out a stuffie to your partner, and you get your partner’s stuffie in the mail. Then you take her stuffy around town and take pictures of it and make it a little accessory (hat, bag, skirt, whatever) and send it back about a month later with some souveniers. And you get yours back with all the same stuff! Like the travelling gnome, except, cooler than a gnome, for sure.

So yeah. *cough* I’m in the midst of swap heaven. I believe I’ll be making the stuffie I’ll send on its trip. Gotta get busy with that - I send off on July 12th!

Also, must sew up two quilt squares. Need to do that ASAP as quilting is on the 7th. They’re cut out, at least. That’s a start. Will have to get some pics of those, too.

Progress being made on the gray cat hat! I did my first pompom! It’s kinda scraggly, but it suits the hat, I think. Wish I’d remembered to keep track of the number of wraps for the second pompom. Oops. Hope I can guess close…

The pompoms really add something. Something good. I like it. Anyway, one more earflap and then the ears, and then I’ll be done!

I got two packages today in the mail! Hurrah! I first got my little hummingbird stitch markers - which /are/ far prettier than the picture shows, though I can’t get a decent picture of them to save my arse - and my second Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell book! Though I had a surprise with that one. Namely, it turned out to be a softcover, not a hardcover book. Like… wtf? I specifically ordered a hardcover. But oh well. For something like $5.50, I’m not complaining. Even the softcover is priced at $15.95 - and the softcover’s in near-perfect condition, except for the tiniest wrinkles at the corners. Anyway, I caught my cat admiring it, so I snapped this photo.

I need food for thought. So here it is:

1. Voice :: Song
2. Us :: Them
3. Passionately :: Kiss
4. Humbly :: Beg
5. Love songs :: 80’s Music (why oh why?)
6. Dim :: the lights!
7. Calendar :: Islands (no idea)
8. Careless :: Hands
9. Block :: Head
10. Goal :: Hockey

Totally weird. I popped off the very first coherent thing that came to mind for each of these, and I does not understand them. Oh well. Get your own at: Unconscious Mutterings.

Another meme, from 3x Thursday:
1. Do you look forward to getting new toys (appliances, gadgets, etc)? Why/why not? God yes. I’m like a big kid at heart when it comes to toys. And when I say toys, I don’t just mean appliances, gadgets, electronics, etc, though those certainly count in my book, but I also like /toys/ toys. Like, My Little Ponies, and dolls, and other silly little things that are “just for kids”. I love getting new toys, and I look forward to it all the time. Why? Because… stuff is fun.

2. Have you gotten any new toys lately (say, the last 6 months)? Do you like them? Got a new hard drive, but haven’t done much with it yet. Like, anything. Except install it. Uh… Got a new Ubuntu distribution. That’s not really a toy. It’s software. But it was fun, so it kinda counts. Ohhh! I got a new 19″ monitor! That counts. It’s a very cool toy. I love it.

3. Do you get any satisfaction out of getting new electronic equipment? Why/why not? Loads of satisfaction. I’m still getting satisfaction out of that monitor. I suspect I’ll be getting satisfaction for years to come. If it doesn’t last years, I’ll cry, though. Why or why not? I can’t imagine why you /wouldn’t/ get any satisfaction out of new stuff. Boggles my mind. Electronics, especially computer stuff, rocks my world.

Bonus Question: If you could get any new piece of equipment, what would it be? Why? Hmm. A snazzy new computer that clocks in around 3.2 GHz and has a load of RAM and a pricey graphics card. Yeah. That. Does a computer count as “a new piece” of equipment? Most people would say yes, but I guess I tend to view computers as a conglomerate of many pieces, but in this case, for this question, I’ll bend my own rules and do what the majority says. Why? To play better games on.

Sure, I could buy an uber pricey gaming machine like an xbox or the new PS3 coming out and all… but I just wouldn’t use it as much. I like to multitask, and I can’t do it in front of the TV. I /can/ do it in front of my two-computer heaven here. And I don’t like game console controllers. So computer gaming is best for me, in most cases.

But I don’t really have the money for either, so the entire point is moot.

Grandma’s in the hospital. To make a long story semi-short, she called and asked me to come help her, so A and I ran over to see what it was she wanted. Turns out she’s on the floor, weak, dizzy, sick, and unable to get up. When we helped her up into a sitting position, she passed out in my arms, so A called 911 while I held her and soothed her with a cool washcloth (It was /hot/ in her house! Gugh!). Then we called Dad, and he came, and the ambulance came, and she went off to the hospital for observation. She’s dehydrated, a bit, but she should be okay. Good. She had me worried.

Anyway, for a couple hours, we dealt with that, and them A came and went to work for me, because… she needed the hours, and I needed a night off. *sag*

So on a whim, I decided to do some more memes. Because I’m bored and waiting for the post office to open so I can go get my mail and hope my second Jonathan Strange book has shown up. Now I’ve confuzzled you. Two Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell books? Why /two/? Easy schmeezy. I wanna alter one. It’s the PERFECT altering book. Big, ragged pages, black, and full of words that are semi-scholarly, literary, about magic, and none too distracting or offensive. It’s perfect for a witchy altered book, or any altered book, really.

Moving on, this is from Monday Madness:

1. How many cop shows can you name? Er… not so many. Lemme see… Oh hell, I’m not even gonna try. A handful. Maybe 6-8? I don’t watch a lot of TV. But I do like cop shows.

2. Do you send text messages? Only through email. Haha. But I actually live in one of those fast-disappearing places where digital cell service /does not exist/. We only have analog here, boys and girls. It’s /podunk/. And actually, I have to get outta town and catch a lucky wind just to get service at all. Ten miles east, it’s another story altogether. So no, no “texting” as it’s called. And besides… what a pain in the ass it is, anyway. Who really wants to send messages on a phone keypad? Gugh. Isn’t it easier to just dial up and /talk/?

3. If you could be on a gameshow (current or old), which one would you be on and why? I get stage fright, so I really don’t want to be on any, but probably Jeopardy, even though I really don’t know that much about trivia. But it’s my favorite, nonetheless. Be aware that I really don’t watch many game shows at all, though. (Like… zero.)

4. What are some of your favorite websites? Craftster, Mysticwicks, Google (of course - isn’t it everyone’s fave?), and lots of others. I have hundreds of bookmarks.

5. What are your favorite things about the internet? The internet has opened me up to not just another world, but dozens of worlds. It’s transformed everything about the way I live - I shop there, I play there, I learn there, I /think/ there. I can research anything I want to know. I can read books online by famous authors, and stories by writer fledglings. I can publish own a piece of it to do what I’d like with. I can find people who think like me, and turm them into the best of friends, and stay in touch with them every single day…

6. What about least favorite? It’s kinda pricey. It’s kinda slow, even on DSL. It’s filled with ads.

7. What are some good ways to deal with a pet loss? I’ve always found that finding another to love is the best way to deal with it. But then, I haven’t lost a pet in years, and I was a mere child then. But I know that if my babies ever died, I’d need to replace them. Not that they could ever be replaced - not in the way that you replace your fine china when it breaks, or your favorite jeans, but… Oh, it’s terribly difficult to explain. Every way I try it seems like I’d be one of those horrible women who got into a relationship, failed, and immediately latched onto another man. That’s not the case. Pets and humans are different things. I know this much: I feel calmed and at peace with my pets. If I lost them, I would lose both a companion I cherish, and a fuzzy, living… psychotherapist who heals with touch, not words. It’s not the companion that would be replaced (you can never replace friends, only add new), but that furry therapist - that need to have someone, something there for me during my pain that doesn’t try to make me feel better, but does anyway.

So I uploaded my dishcloth images to the computer from the camera… and realized I had to download GIMP to crop them, right? Which I did. And then something went wrong - a crash of the program, and suddenly… those images are lost. From both camera and computer. Damn. Oh well. I do have a picture of the Harlequin Kitty Hat! Look!

Ain’t it adorable? I used six different yarns - two very cheap, but soft Caron Simply Soft skeins, in tangerine and lime (not the official names, I’m sure), one skein of Red Heart crappy acrylic in blue (it just happened to be the right blue, at the right price, and it’s definately hardy stuff!) and three Lion Brand Fun Fur skeins of the same color. And I hardly used any of each skein. The Caron & Red Heart stuff comes in this huuuuge skein anyway - I still have most of a skein of black left after my own cat hat was made! So anyway, I think I may have to make R a matching scarf, because hey, not like I’m short on yarn. And what else does one do with yarn in those colors?

Anyway, pics soon of the grey cat hat - preferably once my new hummingbird stitch markers have arrived! I ordered them last night from Etsy - and I think they are soooo cute! The chick emailed me this morning saying that she was mailing them out today! Hurrah! I stole this picture from etsy to show them off. I doubt I’ll be able to take as good a pic with my crapola camera. I did not, however, steal the bandwidth. So I’m only a partial-thief, right?

My camera fund (I’m plotting to purchase a new… uber expensive SLR digital camera from Olympus… you know, one of those 900 dollar jobbers…) is at $370 right now. I am half tempted to pool the money in my savings account together, and buy the whole thing next month. But that’d leave me savings-less, which… would defeat the whole idea of savings, I guess, huh?

Ah well. Someday I’ll have it. Someday… In the meantime, I will knit, and take crappy pictures with my crappy camera!

For Mother’s Day, I knit Mom a dishcloth, plus a little IOU card for two more. I finally got them both done this week and gave them up to her - she adored them both, but especially the hearts one that I snapped a picture of. (Picture coming soon - seems I don’t have GIMP installed on this computer yet! *gasp*!) That done, I also sent of R’s Harlequin Kitty Hat (pics of that coming, too!) and I’ve begun another Kitty Hat for T. R’s hat was all colorful - orange and blue and green, and so very much like Harlequin himself (Harlequin, for the uninitated, is a character, who happens to have orange, blue, and green hair, and purple and red eyes. Yes. He’s a doll.) My own is a rather fuzzy black, and T’s will be gray. She requested it that way. It’s not as fuzzy furry as the other two, but I did swear I wouldn’t be working with that crap again for some time. I’m using Wool-Ease on it, though, which has a fuzzy, heathered look to it. Good enough. I’m 3″ into it, and I like it already.

That said, I need to knit more. I have loads of yarn, and little to show for it. Pity. Most of what I knit I despise before it’s even finished. Like my ill-fated sock. And my pocket monster that somehow turned out way too small. And various other small things. I need to finish my campus coat and see if it’ll be big enough to fit around my fat body or not. If not, I guess I’ll send it to someone who can wear it. Though I dunno who that’d be.

And I’m dying to do another Branching Out. I’d like to make one for myself, and maybe another lace scarf of some sort for Mom for Christmas. But first… the gray heathered kitty hat. I hope to finish it this week.

I’ve been reading an incredible book these last few days, and this morning, I’ve finished it at last. It doesn’t usually take me a long time to read a novel - even one as impressively long (973 pages!) as this one, but to be honest, I wasn’t prepared for the emotional ride Ken Follett had crafted in Pillars of the Earth. The book is stunning, in every way - realistic from the start in both characters and setting in 12th century England. There isn’t a bland moment despite the fact that the entire novel revolves around the building of a cathedral, and much of the novel takes place from the eyes of a monk. Follett is a master of suspense, and ruthless in his depiction of the cruelties certain characters demonstrate in their quest for power.

Frankly, I haven’t read many 1000 page suspense novels (if any). By the time the first three hundred pages were through, I was all but shaking - and well aware that the tragedies, hardships, and sorrow mounting atop the main characters’ heads were only beginning. In most novels, as you’re aware, at this point, things should be wrapping up and turning for the best. An epic it is, and an epic worth reading.

I’m still in awe, and am tremendously grateful that I began to read the books on the BBC’s Top 100 list… because without it, I never in a million years would’ve picked it up.

I haven’t done anything overly interesting lately. In fact, my days have been, on the whole, rather dull. But I /have/ been reading - several books in the last week or so, in fact, a couple on my 100 Top Books to Read list for the 101 Things project, and several others that were /not/ on the list. I confess - the ones /not/ on the list were better, mostly. I’m currently in the midst of War and Peace - which is bloody boring, to say the least, and The Wind in the Willows, which, despite being an illustrated kids book, is incredibly long and also quite dull. Just finished Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett, which was better than I expected. It also wasn’t on the list. There /are/ five books by Pratchett on the list, but naturally, this podunk library in town doesn’t have a single one of them. Hah.

I’ve also been doing a lot of work on my linux box lately. In plain english, that means: “I’ve royally f*cked up my computer, and have been working my ass off to make it right again.” The good news? It paid off. I’ve now upgraded to Ubuntu 6.06 (aka Dapper) and I’m /very/ happy with the results, except for small… er… large… bug involving /etc/fstab and samba shares. But really, it’s working good now. All that’s left is to attempt swapping out my RAM to see if that will solve my freezing problem…

Now, I’m off to mess around some more, and will soon be reading Pillars of the Earth, and Artemis Fowl.