Snake Surly

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August 29, 2005

peaks and valleys

warning: no knitting content follows.

I had the protective contact lens thingy taken out of HE2 today, and omfg, it hurt. I'd forgotten how much it hurt the first time. I spent a lot of today sitting down suddenly and sticking my head between my knees to keep from barfing from pain.

However, I had a good day overall. I loafed around the Stanford Mall for a couple of hours between my eye doctor visit and my hair appointment. I'm not a big fan of malls (or "mauls", as we like to call them), but the Stanford Mall is really nice. There are great stores and it's beautifully landscaped (my god, the dahlias are breathtaking right now) and (yes, I'm a snob) most of the people shopping there are dressed nicely and smell good. I tried on some fun stuff and bought some stuff, and I got my hair done, and it looks great. I had Raul give me a new late summer-early autumn darker color, and let him give me highlights, which he always wants to do, but I always resist. They look great, if I do say so myself. Then I trucked down to Lavande at Santana Row (another really nice outdoor mall) and had my eyebrows cleaned up since I can no longer see well enough up close to do it myself.

I talked on the phone a lot, and read some books at the bookstore, and between flashes of excruciating pain, had a pretty nice day.

Yesterday was good, too. Rob and I went over to Bob and Sharon's and went swimming and had drinkies and pizza and lots of fun, as one always does when visiting the Colliers.

Posted by Kate at 11:12 PM | Comments (5)

August 27, 2005

This post brought to you by vitamin V

Well, yesterday sucked big floppy donkey dick.

Today was slightly less heinous, although HE2 is really quite painful. I had lots of sweet phone calls from sweet people, my no-longer-secret pal sent me a spectacular gift (more about that tomorrow), and Nathania sent me some utterly delicious Claudia sock yarn, just because she loves me.

Because I'm a dutiful blogger, here are some photos.

Posted by Kate at 12:08 AM | Comments (6)

August 24, 2005

ow

ever feel like someone hit you in the face repeatedly with a baseball bat?

just curious.

Posted by Kate at 6:16 PM | Comments (9)

August 23, 2005

HE2 - The Other One

Ow, my eyeball. Y'all know the drill. There are funny pictures of me with my dilated eyeball and of me drooling on the couch in a Valium-induced stupor, but you'll just have to wait for those.

Anyway, my eye hurts like a #&$^*@%! At least there's some food in the house and I'm all alone so I can lay here like a slug watching chick movies.

Time for drugs now.

Posted by Kate at 7:40 PM | Comments (3)

August 22, 2005

and all the craggy mountains yield

well, i had a pretty dandy weekend, but i'm not feeling all that motivated to post anything much about it. I did manage to put up some photos of the trip to the parentals', though.

Posted by Kate at 2:34 PM | Comments (8)

August 18, 2005

PORN IS COOL!

Got your attention, didn't I?

I'm talking about yarn porn, ladies and gentlemen Bob.

We had a really great day at work today. Chloe and Nathania and I were all in fine spirits. Here's Chloe modeling her fabulous scribble lace shawl:

And Nathania finished one of her Fourth of July socks. Astute viewers will also notice her Ribby Cardi, which she finished yesterday.

It was all fun and laughs until we heard the UPS truck pull up. Some of us dived for our lipstick, hoping that we'd be visited by Nick, the hot UPS guy. Alas, it was the slightly less hot (but still cute) guy, but he had SIX HUGE BOXES from KFI. And I mean HUGE.

We all went tearing into the back room. As soon as Nathania opened the first box, Chloe dove right in:

And found something she really wanted:

I was overcome.

And then I was giggling so much I couldn't hold still to capture the looks of bliss inspired by the SPARKLY NORO.

Again, I was overcome with bliss. Debbie Bliss.

Then Chloe started weeping, "It's just so beeeeee-auuuu-tiful!"

Later, Nathania (notice poor Tom, who was trying to ignore the estrogen-fest) reveled in the shipment all laid out in its glory:

And I tried to decide which color of pink Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky I liked better:

I think Nathania was trying to tell me to get both colors:

ANYWAY, after we'd calmed down and returned to our regularly scheduled knitting, we met Kathryn, a really cool customer who is a blogger, but not a knit blogger. YET. We got her started with some needles and some yummy orange Cascade 220 and indoctrinated her into the cult encouraged her to embrace knitting.

It was a pretty great day. I still can't believe these people PAY me.

Posted by Kate at 11:22 PM | Comments (11)

August 16, 2005

tag!

I'm it, apparently. Miss Buttonwillow has asked the question:

List 5 things you enjoy, even when no one is around and you want to go out and play. What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level?

What, besides VicoGin and Tonic?

Okay, I can do this.

In no particular order:

Knitting. I'm so glad that I've become a knitter. It really has done wonders for my stress level, and it's shown me that there is patience in me, which I never thought possible. And oh, I love the yarn. I'm an incredibly tactile sort of person, and the feel of the yarn in my hands, on the needles, coming off the swift, gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction. But it's not just the feel, it's the colors. Sometimes when I catch the Artyarns Supermerino out of the corner of my eye, I just stop and gasp. Anyway, yarn rocks.

Reading. I've always been a big reader. I usually have four or five books going at once (hm, what is it about me that always has to have multiple irons in the fire?).

Rock Climbing. Not that I've been in ages, but I love climbing. Again, it's that tactile thing. Of course, it's hell on the fingertips. But it really does exercise your body and your mind.

Going to the spa. I feel a theme here. Not only do I love touching things, I love being touched. So pretty much anything they do at the spa is fine with me! Except when they rub the pumice on the bottoms of my tickly feets.

Dining. Great food, great wine - that's the a good way to make me swoon.

Okay, enough about me. I inflict this torture on Bob, Margaret, Grace, Kathy and Kris.

Posted by Kate at 9:05 PM | Comments (9)

August 15, 2005

good freakin' morning, gentle readers!

Why is it that I've been up for so long that I need a nap already at 10:30 in the morning? Because this morning I woke up very, very early and, er, urgently needed to go see a certain type of doctor. Ladies, you all know what I'm talking about. Gentlemen, no need to read any further. Look! There are boobs right behind you!

Anyway, after a brief visit to the doctor's office (where I used my new knitting bag), I got the magic drugs from the pharmacy. (and frankly, my gyn could have called the prescription in, she didn't need to see me) I feel a little better already.

But now I'm all tired and cranky and I have STUFF to do today. I need more green Cascade 220, dammit! (didja notice the obligatory knitting content? huh? huh?) And all I want is a nap. I wonder if I could sneak in a quickie if I tried real hard.

Posted by Kate at 10:24 AM | Comments (7)

August 14, 2005

oh, yeah

The jogless jogs - PERFECTION. We'd missed the step where you move your marker after you do the picked up stitch part. Now they are freaking gorgeous. Meg Swansen, also a goddess on earth!

Posted by Kate at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)

true love

I can die happy now. Look what I got today. It was tough to choose between the camel and the navy, but I finally chose the navy. As soon as I transfer all of my makeup into my small zebra-stripe makeup bag, I'll have combined my handbag with my knitting bag. And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaay.

Jordana Paige, you are a goddess on earth.

Posted by Kate at 6:09 PM | Comments (1)

Dancing Through Life

So we intended to get up early to get in the lottery for the matinee of Wicked this morning. We didn't. After slugging around and having lunch in Palo Alto, we drove up to the city to try to get into the evening lottery.

We had hours to kill, so we shopped aimlessly (Rob bought me a fabulous sweater at Anthropologie because I was tragically underdressed for the cold, cold city), then went up to Zuni for a drinkie.

Man, oh, man, do they make great drinkies. Here's me enjoying my first martini:

And here's an admiring portrait of my second martini (note the luscious ice chips on top, just like I like):

Fortified with martinis (Manhattans in Rob's case) and some delicious anchovies, we drove (because we are lazy Californians) down to the Orpheum and put our names in for the lottery. And LO AND BEHOLD, I won! Woohoo! Here's how excited I was:

So with almost two hours to kill, we decided to go back to Zuni (we walked this time) and have more drinkies. And more food. Oh, the stuffed squash blossoms. Gotta love summer.

Anyway, the show was fabulous. I don't normally like sitting on the main floor of a theatre (I'm a balcony sort of girl), but the front row freaking center (for $25 each) seats totally kicked ass. I was afraid that after four martinis, I'd pass out during the show, but the longish walks to the restaurant and back must have burned off some of the gin, because I was pretty darned perky.

But now it's sleepy time.

Posted by Kate at 12:50 AM | Comments (2)

August 12, 2005

snake slytherin

So Chloe showed me Meg Swansen's jogless jog yesterday, and now my jogs are less noticeable. They still sorta suck, though. Anyway, between some very pleasant naps today, I worked on the Slytherin scarf. This is ONE skein of the green Cascade 220. Ack. It's gonna take me forever.

But it does make a cute hat.

Posted by Kate at 10:28 PM | Comments (3)

August 10, 2005

geek alert!

Okay, so the body of the Gryffindor scarf is done. It's been washed and is now being blocked. All it needs now are some super cute tassels.

I've gotten through the first pattern repeat of the Slytherin scarf. I switched movies and am doing the cooler trapped bar design of the third movie. My joins are sort of kludgy, so I'm going to have to get Nathania to help me out.

Anyway, here's me in the scarf pre-washing. (and eek! speaking of washing, I gotta go wash my hair.)

Posted by Kate at 11:12 PM | Comments (8)

August 9, 2005

Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon

Okay, ladies. I have come to a turning point in my knitting career. Tonight, as I was coming home from rehearsal (where I knitted and Stage Managed at the same time: see?), I ran into some really bad traffic.

I had on a record that was making me really sad, and then all of a sudden a little light switched on in my head and said, "Snap out of it, you twit!" and I put on Graceland (it is impossible to be sad with that on the stereo) and whipped out...(wait for it)...my Gryffindor scarf! The traffic was so heinous, that not only was I able to knit, I was able to pick up a dropped stitch, tink and re-knit where I'd knit instead of purled, UNTIED A KNOT, and changed yarn colors. It totally rocked. I thought, "wait until I blog about this!" And then I thought, "DUDE, I have my camera!"

I am so proud. Now am having drinkie.

Posted by Kate at 10:29 PM | Comments (3)

August 7, 2005

handprint on my heart

Okay, so we didn't go see "Wicked" tonight, although we did listen to it in the car. The baby Jeebus tried to prevent us from getting us to the ticket lottery at the Orpheum in time, but we eventually made it. Alas, we didn't win, so we went to Rose for dinner instead. Swoon. Tomato season. That's all I'm sayin'.

It was a marvelous meal and a fun evening, and it helped me ignore my emotional hangover for a while.

Posted by Kate at 10:29 PM | Comments (2)

August 6, 2005

the curtain descends, everything ends too soon

Hi, I'm taking a break from writing my closing night notes. I hate doing it, but it has to be done. I hate it because it means the show is over, and I hate it because sometimes it's hard for me to express how I feel in words. Okay, I'm done complaining. Must go charge up my camera.

Posted by Kate at 4:31 PM | Comments (1)

August 5, 2005

good morning

Look! I'm out of bed now. I stayed up super late with uber-hosts Bob and Sharon and their entourage, and then spent the night in their living room with the kitties jumping on my head. It was a totally delightful evening.

Now I think I will go have another nap.

Posted by Kate at 1:27 PM | Comments (1)

August 2, 2005

Harlot!

Just got back from Berserkely, where I saw the Harlot! Woohoo! She's so fabulous. For someone who claims to be freaked out by public speaking, she's marvelous in front of a crowd. DAMN, she's funny. And smart. And cute and Canadian.

I could go on and on AND ON, but I really don't want to look like a deranged blog-stalker. There are photos, too, but I think I left my camera cradle at Nathania's last night.

Posted by Kate at 8:10 PM | Comments (4)