An artist-naturalist splashes through streams of consciousness... often, it's even her own...
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Bazaar Bizaare
My beautiful friend Xan shows off her mad skilz on the the stilts.
It was wicked crowded, and she was not only sure-footed amidst the crowd, she held a baby AND leant over to exchange kisses with me. She is so awesome!
Everyone needs a Xan in their life, if not the original!
(pronunciation hint for Rick and Daddy: there's no "w" sound in "que".)
Brilliantly designed exclusively for The AntiCraft by Erssie Major, a prolific and talented knitting designer in the UK. I am completely delighted by this pattern. It is at once challenging and entertaining, and I really like how it is turning out. I mean, it is simply just too much fun to knit!! I'm deeply impressed with Erssie's gift for design and whimsy.
Life is a blur as we speed our way into Cleveland Browns Stadium. I know from others' experience that the best way to keep my cell phone is to hold the heck onto it, so I am blogging my way up the escalator into the endzone opposite the Dawg Pound. People behind are taunting the crowd, letting us know how inadequate we all are for not responding to their call-and-response cheering.
I gotta tell ya, no matter how well or lousy-embarassing we do, I gave up all my energy on the marathon and the Everyman/Everywoman unpaid runner competing yesterday. They're not making millions of dollars for the privelege of sports participation. Nyah.
In the meantime, there are dozens of teams of people outside the stadium, mostly women, dressed in pink and collecting for breast cancer causes. I wish more energy would be given to raising men's awareness to the fact that THEY are also susceptible to breast cancer. At this point in history, men have a significantly higher mortality rate than women (for all that it's rarer) simply because they do not have the same safety and awareness measures in place as women.
Wow. There's that guy with that unstoppable patriotic spirit! I really admire him. Well done, and way to support the ultimate "support staff", our Armed Forces.
I wish I could have gotten as good a picture of my husband... perhaps Rick needs to run with a huge get-up on his back, so I have advanced warning when he's coming, too!
Yeah! There he is!! That's my Speed Racer! I'm so proud of him.
He's the one in the burgundy shirt with the helpful fluorescent orange "arrow" pointing up at him.
The jersey he's wearing is for RunMS, the next marathon he'll be running. It's in Columbus, and it's to raise money and awareness for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Rick just sent me this picture from the race route. It's the 8 mile mark, where they turn around and start running back north. What a gorgeous day, and how distractingly beautiful a race course! I think he's having fun, after a fashion... (I sincerely hope so!)
Obligatory pretty picture while I wait for runners to appear on the course. It IS a national park, after all. There's scenery and there's scenery, and it's all over the place.
This is the Cuyahoga River, as it runs along the old Canal Towpath in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Taking this picture, I'm right by the M.D. Garage and the Boston Store, and I stayed across the road from those landmarks for the most of duration of the race.
Sunrise touches the ski slopes at Boston Mills as I accompany Rick to the start of his race.
It's peaceful. It's also hilarious, as we observe dozens of men disappearing into or reappearing from the not-so-deep-brush, adjusting the fronts of their shorts and looking furtively around.
Thankful Thursdays: I'm Thankful for My Sense of Humor
This. Is Such. A. Hoot.
Little back story. Too many relationships have been ended over knitted articles that were received with less than the enthusiasm the knitter felt ought to have been lavished on the article by the recipient.
Example. "Oh, Sweetie, I saw how you were a little chilly a few months ago on that hay ride, so I knitted you this sweater. I hope you like it???" >thrusts sweater hopefully, batting eyelashes< "Erm... Sure, purple argyle is just... >deep exhalation< well, I-I-I I think I've got a t-shirt it'll go with, lemme try it on..."
Nevermind that the hayride was prob'ly in October, and the sweater may have taken until April to complete.
The knitter obviously didn't bother to check for color likes/dislikes when she started knitting a sweater for her boyfriend, so it's unlikely that she did anything about fit, either. The poor sweater gets tossed in the back of the closet, never to see the light of day again, the knitter begins a downward spiral of resentment which cues the deathknell for the relationship, which (plainly) was on rocky footing to begin with, as evidenced by their poor communication skills.
It's a common story. Lots of knitting books and blogs address the phenomenon; The AntiCraft has a great pattern called the Curse Your Boyfriend Sweater, which helps you expedite the end of a relationship deliberately via sweater-gift; in Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch Nation (2004, Workman Publishing), she features a sweater/knitted goods-as-gift contract. It's on page 120 under the heading Pre-Knitual Agreement. (Go ahead and chuckle. I can't help how clever it is. ALL her books are like that.)
Here's a story via song that's just about 180 degrees from the curse. What happens when you've been found knitting for someone else???
Warning: old-school Country Western-style music ahead. If you object, replace the performers in your imagination with the Blues Brothers. That might be even funnier.
Part of what I love about it is that these women could easily be drag queens. Except they're so understated (not enough rhinestone, not enough boa feather) it's clear they're really women underneath all that makeup and hair.
"Maybe I just need a new project" is the best breakup line. EVER!!!
NaBloPoMo (dumb VOLUNTARY thing that makes me post every day) (I'm so biddable) has set the theme for August: HOT. Entirely appropriate, as I am melting from heat and humidity as I type.
I didn't know how to post it on my blog. Even after I was handed a clue. A clue on a silver platter. With gilt (NOT a misspelling). And rubies. I'm saying it was a good clue.
Sometimes technical stuff really clicks into place for me, and others? I do better with cuneiform.
I'm deliriously, happily married to Rick. We have a basenji named Cleopatra and 3 manic (as a result of the dog) cats. They all appear on the blog regularly, as does the garden. On occasion, you may mistake this for the local Ag Report, but I assure you I am an artist, and eventually my work will make an appearance.
In the meantime, I find enjoyment in life's daily distractions.
We work to be part of the solution in Cleveland as members of a giving circle called The Cleveland Colectivo, giving microgrants to grassroots neighborhood projects throughout Cleveland and the inner-ring suburbs.
Rick and I are avid bike riders, and we captain a BikeMS team called Patti's Paladins. Visit our team website pattispaladins.com to learn how you can help us fight Multiple Sclerosis. Join us for a ride!
