kmkat and her kneedles

Saturday chuckle(s).

From MyLifeIsAverage.com:

Today, I read a facebook bumper sticker that said 'Girls: We bleed, non-stop, for a week every month, and don't die. You DON'T wanna screw with us.' It took me a minute to realize that not only was that the truth, that I was a girl, and therefore extremely badass. MLIA.

and this one:

Today, I was walking home from class when I saw a squirrel bury an acorn and cover it up with dirt. Then the squirrel started picking up leaves, examining them, and tossing them aside. He finally set one down on top of the dirt mound. I walked over and saw that it was the absolute perfect autumn leaf. Animals can have OCD too, apparently. MLIA

* * * * *

Looking for that perfect (non-hand-knit) Christmas gift? Look no further.

Hi, my name is...

From ThinkGeek.com; $17.99 - 19.99 .

Cello, meet computer. Computer, meet cello.

Readers, meet Zoe Keating.

I am not a big fan of avant garde music. John Cage sets my teeth on edge. John Coltrane and Theolonius Monk make me want to change the channel. I do like a bit of Philip Glass occasionally, also Steve Reich. but in general I prefer the 17th and 18th century classics.

Then I heard Zoe Keating on Radio Lab. Maybe it is because I find cello music to be orgasmic (figuratively speaking; I'm not THAT weird), maybe it is because her music reminds me of Philip Glass, maybe (probably) it is because she does not completely abandon melodic themes, but I instantly fell in love with her music, so much so that I scurried off to the iTunes store and bought one of her albums, something I do very, very rarely. (Heh. Diagram THAT sentence.)

Knitting: it's everywhere.

Today's Cute Overload features a ferret napping on...

 

... a hand-knit dishcloth.

Knitting: it's everywhere.

Monday chuckles.

An email today from my Canadian relatives:

Now that  Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, these are some questions people from all over the world are asking. Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted on an International Tourism Website.

Obviously the answers are a joke; but the questions were really asked!
 
Q: I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow? (England)
A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and watch them die.

Q: Will I be able to see polar bears in the street? (USA)
A: Depends on how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only four thousand miles, so take lots of water.

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada? (Sweden)
A: So, it's true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATM's (cash machines) in Canada?  Can you send me a list of them in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Halifax? (England)
A: No, but you'd better bring a few extra furs for trading purposes.

Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada? (USA)
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe. Ca-na-da is that big country to your north... oh, forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is north in Canada? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions. 

Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada? (England)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is... oh, forget it.  Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
 
Q: Do you have perfume in Canada? (Germany)
A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Where can I sell it in Canada? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada? (USA)
A: Only at Thanksgiving.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada, but I forget its name. It's a kind of big horse with horns. (USA)
A: It's called a moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.

* * * * *

Last night Smokey and I were watching End Game on PBS. It is a rather good movie-ish production about the end of apartheid in South Africa and is based on true events and people. At one point the Nelson Mandela character has been taken from his 27-year imprisonment to stand by the ocean. The background sound is of waves and seagulls... and a loon call. Smokey and looked at each other and said, "They have loons in South Africa?"

Eye candy Friday.

Taken a few weeks ago. A viburnum (I think) in front of the library in the rain.

Today... rain, sleet, snow.

The day after.

Thanks for all the good wishes on our anniversary!

I'll answer that question about Smokey's beard history. He had a beard when I met him and has had one ever since... except once.

It was about 1981 or 1982. He had been in the Naval Reserve for a number of years but was thinking about switching to the Air Force Reserve, I don't remember why. The catch was that he had to be clean-shaven.

He pondered this for days.

Then one night after I had gone to bed he shaved off his beard, came to bed, and woke me up to get my opinion.

I took one look, said, "Grow it back," and rolled over to go back to sleep.

He did.

35 and counting.

Thirty-five years ago, on a beautiful sunny October day, The Kat™ and The Bear™ were united in marriage.

omg, we were so young! (Not really, 26 and 25, but still.) 

The reception was held in the lodge at Timberlane, a resort on the same lake -- sort of -- that my parents lived on. They lived on a bay that had been separated years before from the main lake by a highway; it was connected by a culvert under the highway that would periodically get plugged by floating bogs that the beavers had chewed loose. Either the highway department or my dad would then have to blast it open with dynamite. The level of the bay would fluctuate significantly, depending on how the culvert was running. This raised havoc with the fishing... and hence my dad's temper.

My favorite part of the whole day, aside from the actually getting married part, was the food at the reception.

The bride and groom get to go through the line first :-)

To commemorate this momentous occasion (who'd'a thunk it would last this long?) we spent a few days in a quaint little log cabin in a quaint little mom'n'pop resort on the North Shore overlooking Lake Superior.

The cabins were built in the 1920s and 1930s by Horace Stickney, an ancestor (I think) of the present owners.

I was entranced to discover that the spaces between the logs were chinked with moss, just like the pioneers did it.

 
Closer inspection revealed that the *moss* was in fact bits of yellow fiberglass insulation that had turned brown over the years.

My disillusionment was tempered by finding evidence of former cabin guests.

The dogs came with us, of course.

The autumn colors were at their peak.

The four of us went for a walk along the shore, where I noticed the similarities between these two profiles.

  

This building on the resort property was obviously very, very old.

A little internet research after we got home told me that this was the original bunkhouse of the Shroeder Lumber Company. The resort is in Schroeder, a tiny village on the North Shore.

I brought along a couple knitting projects but didn't really get a lot done. Too many naps, too much playing with the dogs, too many games of Boggle with Smokey.

We ate once at the Blue Fin Grille -- good burgers, great dessert, right on the water -- and once at the Nakomis (the name is spelled wrong in the linked review), where Smokey had the walleye poor boy and it was indeed excellent. I had a grilled tuna sandwich, also excellent but not as good as his. Both were accompanied by truffle [french] fries. Now I know why people like truffles so much. Mmm, earthy yumminess.

On the way home we stopped at Playing with Yarn, a yarn store along old Highway 61. It may have been tiny, but it was packed to the ceiling(s) with great yarns. I purchased this skein of Misti Alpaca hand-dyed sock yarn.

 

Souvenir yarn. Y'all do that, too, don't you?

Saturday silliness.

I saw this yesterday in Minneapolis. Drove around the block so I could get a photo.

I also saw a guy in a utilikilt. No picture, though. This was my first sighting of such.

Found at The Daily Dish:

Eye candy Friday, the NOT version.

I am blogging today under orders from #2 son. He sent me an email with links to these photos and the command, "BLOG THIS."

Ever the compliant parent, I am following his instructions.

The City of Minneapolis recently revised its downtown street usage and directions. Among other changes, two formerly one-way streets became two-way again, now with both parking lanes and bike lanes at the side. But the lanes are a bit... odd. The bike lane is next to the curb, separated from traffic by the parking lane.

Yeah, people no longer park next to the curb. Like I said, odd.

There is plenty of signage to help people do the right thing.

 

Below you can get an idea of the layout. Bike lane next to curb, separated from parking lane by a double white line, then driving lane. The parking lane is only a parking lane during non-rush hour times.

Those two cars next to the curb? Yup. Parked in the bike lane.

 
 

One problem immediately evident to everyone who ever rode a bike on a city street is that in this configuration bicyclists will constantly be confronted by passengers opening their doors into the bike lane, getting out of the cars into the bike lane, standing in the bike lane while retrieving purse, briefcase, toddler, and/or packages from the car, and eventually crossing the bike lane to get to the safety of the sidewalk. There does not appear to be any way to avoid that conflict.

A biker commented on the bumper sticker:

You have to realize that this is meant as a command to bikes, not a statement of support, in this case.

#2 son wrote:

As I was taking the last two pictures, a black SUV pulled up behind me and patiently waited for me to move so that he could park behind the road-sharing Volvo.

Another biker commented:

Ok, I have a plan. Let's do this. Since they are allowed to illegally impede traffic, let's all go over to Steef's shop and get a kickstand out of the box. Then we'll put them on our bikes.

Then we'll all go down First Avenue and for every one car parked there like that, let's have one bike take the middle of the right-hand lane and put the bike on a kickstand and say were waiting for someone to come out of the building.

Seems fair enough. 

Here is what the bikers would really like, bike lanes like those in Paris, with a concrete barrier wide enough to prevent the disembarking passenger/bike conflicts I described above.

 

A worthy goal, but methinks it will take awhile -- some major rethinking on the role of bicycles in urban transportation, some tax dollars to construct, and some dedication on the part of snow-removal crews. (Yes, dedicated bicyclists ride year-round in this Land of Seven-Month Winters.)

Highway safety has come to be seen, not just as a matter of educating and exhorting people to drive safely, but also of designing roads and vehicles to enhance and ensure safety. Likewise, part of bike safety means designing potential hazards OUT of the system, not INTO it, as was done here. I have no doubt that conditions and infrastructure will improve. Minneapolis is, if nothing else, a relatively well-run and citizen-friendly city. Like so many things, it's just gonna take some time and some money and some effort.

In the meantime, Bicyclists! Be careful -- it is dangerous out there!

* * * * *

Just in case you really, really, really need an Eye Candy Friday image, here is one taken at Autumnfest two weeks ago.

How we decide.

I finished this book last night. The author describes the neurological bases of our decision-making processes. There is the prefrontal cortex, which is the rational, analytic bit, and then there are the emotional bits, whose names I don't remember except for the amygdala. All the bits interact, they argue, sometimes they help us make the best decision, sometimes not. But the whole thing was utterly fascinating to me. 

A couple years ago I read Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals About Morality. (Confession: I didn't finish the book; it was a tougher read than the one I just finished.) Both of these books present recent research showing how brain physiology relates to behavior. I'm oversimplifying, of course, but you get the idea. The effect of both books is to, once again, make one reflect on the relationship between scientific knowledge and religious and moral beliefs.

Like I said, fascinating.

Saturday.

A couple weekends ago I attended the (second annual!) autumn festival in a nearby city. ("City" is misleading. St. Croix Falls has a population of about 2,000, but it is officially a city for governmental purposes. Wisconsin distinguishes between cities and villages, but don't ask me the differences. I know those differences exist but they do not concern me so I do not clutter my brain with them.)

It was a beautiful, sunny day. So sunny, in fact, that I had to stop at Wally World to buy some sunglasses.

What I saw in the parking lot:

 

Buggy on a flatbed trailer behind a pickup. (In literary circles, this is known as foreshadowing.)

I had signed up to work at the Friends of the Polk County Libraries stand. Here is my friend Colleen, the librarian. You can see my felted wine bottle cozies at the left. She had already sold two ($10 each! thanks!) by the time I got there at ten o'clock.

 

Thanks to all of you who helped me with the marketing. The tags described them as both reusable gift bags and wine bottle cozies and had a paragraph describing what the money would be for. The Friends are trying to raise money for a $25,000 matching grant, funds to be used to hire a technical support person to serve the ten municipal libraries.

Rear view of a book browser:

 

The theme of the festival was "Buy Local" so there were lots of local vendors.

 

 

 

 

Some vendors were not as obviously local.

 

There is a substantial Somali population in the Twin Cities, but I had no idea it had expanded to the St. Croix Valley. Hurrah for diversity!

 

Speaking of local diversity...

 

The professional theater (where #2 son was a stagehand and later ran sound and lights) sold old costumes -- just in time for Halloween.

 

Remember the buggy on the flatbed? I saw it again, this time hard at work.

 

Hey! What's that down in the parking lot?

 

Every good festival has a sandpile for the kids.

My lunch was local...

 

...from here:

 

I love their barbecue. And all their meat comes from a local butcher, just down the street from their bricks-and-mortar restaurant.

Part of the festival was the dedication of the new library, which is now located in a building that used to be a Holiday Foods supermarket but had sat empty for a number of years. This little town raised $1 million (a million dollars!) to renovate the building and parking lot and make the structure energy efficient.

Solar panels on the roof:

There were elected officials. The state senator and assemblyperson who represent this city:

 

The mayor and the librarian (the mayor is elected; the librarian is not):

 

There was a harpist before the dedication and a signer during the speeches. (What do you call the person who signs? "Signer" doesn't sound right.)

  

After the dedication I worked in the festival information booth until 4:30 when the vendor booths closed. The lady running the booth across the street from the info booth gave me some red and some orange tomatoes plus a small basket of cherry tomatoes, all from her garden. The cherry tomatoes were the best I have ever eaten. I need to find that woman and learn what breed they were and how she raised them. Yummmm.

And now, a bonus -- that day's Saturday sky:

Sunday chuckles and knitting and more chuckles.

Smokey was lying in bed while I got dressed this morning. He asked, "Well, what's new today? Did anyone break in overnight and clean and organize our house?"

"Nah," I replied. "Probably because we forgot to leave the door open. Or forgot to light the beacon. You know, the grail-shaped beacon* on the roof."

We started the day with a laugh.

Which was a good thing because about an hour later I broke the garage door.

* * * * *

Email from Andrew: "Hey mom, mom, guess what I'm learning about."

I email back: "No idea. Give me a hint."

Andrew: "I was watching a lecture I missed for musculoskeletal pathophysiology (that means bone and muscle disease class). I attached my notes for it, and you should have a look, both of you. The lecture is on seronegative spondyloarthropathies, a disease category that's a lot more familiar to you than it sounds."

(It turns out that psoriatic arthritis is one of those diseases; Smokey suffers from it, although I generally tell people rheumatoid arthritis because the effects are very similar and people have heard of it.)

Anyway.

From Andrew's notes: "...Or also gold salt is a remittive therapy. Q: Why? A: We don’t know why, but macrophages eat the gold, so maybe the gold messes up the macrophages somehow and yeah, kittens."

I love my boy man-child.

* * * * *

Now the knitting.

I really like to make hats. So simple, don't need a pattern, great way to try out color ideas, portable, yada yada; all of which is also true for socks except that I can finish a hat in an evening of concentrated knitting. Try to do THAT with a sock.

So I was delighted to read about the Handknit Hats for the Homeless at the Simpson Shelter. Once again, thanks for helping me re-find it.

Last year I made this hat just because. I knew eventually it would find a good home.

Yarn: Bernat Lana (100% merino, although it doesn't feel as soft as other merino) worsted weight
Pattern: Seaman's Cap (Ravelry link; this is my go-to hat pattern) done on 96 st.
Needles: US#7 (I think) circ, Magic Loop.

Last weekend I knitted up a couple balls of super bulky yarn leftover from who-knows-when.

 

Yarn:Lion® Wool-Ease Thick and Quick
Pattern: Improvised, based on Cathy-Cate's Casbah Toe Sock. One hat worked on 60 st, one on 56. The latter worked better for the decreases.
Needles: US#10 circ, Magic Loop.

Last night I started and very nearly finished another hat, this time in worsted weight again.

Yarn: Colorado Yarns Durango (50% wool, 47% acrylic, 3% rayon) in a brown tweed.
Needles: US#6 circ, Magic Loop.
Pattern: Improvised. Cast on 96 st, join. K1, p1 for 5.5 - 6". Decrease same as Seaman's Cap, above.

I finished the first Red Scarf. (Color is off in these pictures; it is more of an intense dark red and less dull brown IRL.)

 

I love that it is so easy and mindless. And reversible.

Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK, Garnet; 3 skeins (150 gr, ~300+ yds).
Needles: US#6.
Pattern: Yarn Harlot's One-Row Handspun Scarf (Rav link).

Red Scarf #2 is nearly 1/3 done. Yay for mindless knitting!

* * * * *

One A couple last chuckle chuckles, this one these from MyLifeisAverage.com:

Today I was walking into the grocery store when I saw a small boy in a trench coat that was clearly too big for him. Suddenly a tall man in a ski mask sprinted around the corner, bowed to the little boy, and said "Master, things are not going as planned. We'll need another one." He then handed the kid a potato. I've never had so many questions. MLIA

Last night, I was knitting at a bar. A guy came up to me and said, "I've never seen a hot chick knitting before." I mustered up the deepest man-voice I could and said "Me, neither." He left very quickly. MLIA.

* Monty Python & the Holy Grail reference; we also used to have a cat named Zoot, named for one of the eight score young blondes and brunettes who lived in Castle Anthrax, the castle topped with the aforementioned beacon. Yeah, MP nerds here.

Thank you, and answers.

It has occurred to me that I ask things of you, my readers; you deliver; and I go on my merry way. So today I sat myself down here with the reminder that my mother raised me better than that.

Thank you!

...for your many ideas to improve the rules for county fair knitting.

...for providing me with the link to the hats for homeless men project in Minneapolis.

 ...for knitting ideas.

 ...for knitting solutions.

...for music new to me.

...for all your good wishes and sympathy during my ankle/surgery/wheel chair/knee/surgery travails in the past year.

...for the good advice on how to have my morning latte while camping w/o electricity ("Thanks a latte!")

...and for a thousand other things, including reading and commenting. You guys are the best!

* * * * *

Sad day here.

 

WTF?

* * * * *

Answers to yesterday's quiz. Many of you knew that the second was one of the Great Lakes and several recognized the waters and shore of Lake Superior. But only one reader got even close on the first photo.

1. South Atlantic coast, a few miles north of the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.

 

Alida, who lives in East London, South Africa, got the first one almost right. She knew it was South Africa but guessed the Indian Ocean coast. So close and yet so far...

2. The North Shore of Lake Superior.

Sparrowgrass, who used to live in northern Minnesota, not only knew that the second photo was Lake Superior but also correctly identified Father Baraga's cross on the hill in the background.

 

Eye candy Friday and a quiz.

One of these photos was taken where we spent this past week. The other was taken several years ago and thousands of miles away.

 

Which is which and where were they taken? No prizes, just a hearty congrats...

N-HRDSBMP2K9 pix!

N-HRDSBMP2K9 = No-Hater Rolling Dance Super Bike Mega Party 2009, the bike-ride-dance-party #2 son and a friend organized on Friday.

They gathered.

That's #2 son, Matthew, in the foreground. No, he is not a hunchback; he is wearing his CamelBak under his jacket.

They mingled.

That weird trailer thing?

Here is it, in better light and rigged for rain:

The bike, a one-speed racer. Please note the Rollo-shaped squeeze-bulb horn on the handlebars.

The speaker, attached to the bike with a ratcheting nylon tie-down and reinforced with inner tubes:

The power unit on the trailer:

...and somewhere in there is an amplifier.

They rode.

They danced.

 

They goofed around.

Between sprints of riding they hung out under bridges, safe from the threat of rain.

This young man had just moved last week from Louisiana to Minneapolis. As you can tell, he is excited to be in the Twin Cities.

And then... disaster!

"Dude, what did you do to my trailer?"

A hundred pounds of gear +

a lightweight trailer +

going down a curb (even when done ever-so-gently)

= 

Quick-thinking Matthew called out, "Does anyone have a BikesAtWork™ trailer?" No one did, but Someone knew Someone who did, and that latter Someone lived not too far away. A quick phone call, Someone #1 rode over to Someone #2's house, fetched the trailer, and wham, bam! the party was back on the road.

The party-saving trailer:

All hail, Matthew, O Mighty Giver (and Saver) of Awesome Party!

It was a good night.

And now I must go make some preparations for dinner. Matthew is due back shortly from riding 50 miles in this, and he will be hungry. He's a bike-riding fiend!

It's a kitty thing.

More from the [bottom of the] draft folder.

June 12, 2007, Chez Kat™:

August 1, 2008, www.icanhascheezburger.com:


Apparently this is normal kitty behavior.

Friday chuckle, now with knitting and yarn. And a plea for help.

Not that any of our cats ever attack, you understand...

* * * * *

And now, the knitting.

I am one-third done with my Red Scarf.

 

Yarn is Knit Picks Swish DK being knit on US#6 / 4.0mm* circ. Pattern is the Yarn Harlot's One-Row Scarf (first link is to the pattern on her blog, second is the Ravelry pattern link, third is Rav link to my project). I love this pattern -- reversible, thus perfect for a scarf; mindless, and thus perfect for grab-and-go knitting.

I didn't know how much of this yarn to order, so I skimmed a few scarf patterns and decided five skeins (615 yds) would be enough. Then I panicked and decided I needed more, so ordered a couple more skeins. After knitting exactly one skein's worth of yarn, I now know that one skein produces twenty inches of scarf that will block to six inches wide. So I have enough yarn for a whole other scarf... and a hat. Go, me!

When I felt how soft and nice this yarn was I decided it would be perfect for Smokey's co-worker's second chemo hat. Also in its favor was that it came in [what I deemed to be] the exact color she had requested, khaki. Khaki green, to be precise. (If she meant khaki tan, she and I are SOL.)

The yarn and the hat (color is correct in the yarn photo):

 

* * * * *

I need your help. A week or so ago I read on a blog somewhere of a project to collect hand-knit hats for the homeless. The address to mail them was, iirc, on Dupont Avenue South in Minneapolis, although I am not sure that the blogger was a Twin Cities person. Now, however, I can remember neither the blog nor the address. But I have some hats -- or soon will have some hats, right now I have 1-1/2 -- and I don't know where to send them. Does anyone remember the blog? or the address? or the deadline?

* I am trying to learn the metric sizes that correspond to the US sizes. Mostly I just remember La Harlot once saying, "Okay, here we have a 4.5mm needle. What shall we call it in the US? I know! A number... 7!" then I count up or down from there, a half millimeter at a time.

No-Hater Rolling Dance Super Bike Mega Party!

From Facebook:

omgmrj = #2 son

He borrowed a bike trailer from a friend and has been towing around the speakers (above), amp, and a car battery so that he had MUSIC! when he rides. The whole things must weigh at least 70 pounds. Source music comes from his iPod. Smokey has promised to get me a photo but it hasn't happened yet.  To me it kind of defeats one of the reasons a person might enjoy bike riding -- to enjoy the quiet and listen to the birds, etc. But that's just me.

He says he gets some really strange looks when he rides, pulling this contraction. No, really?

But I love the idea of the rolling bike/dance party, especially the "no-hater" part. That's-a my boy!

So if you are a Twin Cities biker who likes to stay up late and doesn't mind getting wet (rain in the forecast), head on over to the West River Road bike path under Hennepin Avenue at 9 pm Friday night.

And say Hey! to this [slightly dorky-lookin'] guy: