The Library -- Part 1

Because my camera batteries ran out just as I was taking pictures, y'all only get a partial post of our library. Yup, we have a library. Aren't we so hoity-toity?

The "library" is a small (about 6x10) room on the first floor of our apartment. It's a mess right now; it's overflowing with books (natch!), and have boxes of comic books on the floor because ZantiMisterKnit is researching for his book (did I mention he's writing a book?). It also houses a couple of guitars, about a third of my shoes (all piled on top of each other on the shelves ZMrK built for me), and about 6 of my hats. I've never said I was a good housekeeper.

Let me just cut to the chase here and show you what you really want to see -- the knitting books. Such as they are. I admit, I haven't many of them. I also admit my camera batteries ran out before I could take pictures of my knitting mags. But, there they are, along with books on dogs, cats, sharks, Bruce Campbell and Janice Dickensen. I'm nothing if not well rounded.

Another passion of mine -- Anne Rice's books. They're not all great -- Merrick was okay, and half-way through the second of the Sleeping Beauty trilogy all the explicit sex and torture began to get repetitive, but I love the epic vampire stories, and the books on the Mayfair witches (I'm more than 1/2 way through my second reading of The Witching Hour right now). Lords of Chaos seems to have worked its way into this shelf too. This is also a sneak preview of our video collection, as you can see some of our TV boxed sets (below), one of our "Masters of Horrors" disks above, and our "Tales of the Unexpected" boxed sets (above, left). You can also see some of our various horror geekery.


These are a few of my recent acquisitions from Brimfield. The Spiegel catalog is the fall/winter 1960 edition, and is about as amazing as a clothing catalog can get. I think my forever look is going to be based upon the year 1960 -- it had the superb tailoring of the 1950s with a little bit of space age thrown in. Plus, I want to wear vintage corsets.

Here are a few of ZantiMisterKnit's comics, with some vintage smut to boot! (It's research for the book -- REALLY! There's a particular artist who does a strip in this mags, and that's the first thing ZMrK looks at when he finds them. Me, I go straight for the boobies. It's still too early to show anything beyond T&A, so there aren't any huge 70s earth-mamma bushes to scar me mentally.) When my camera has it's batteries charged up, I'll have to take pics of the comic alcove, as well as the books on ZMrK's dresser and the "bookstand" (a milk crate on top of the air condition) next to his bed.

Look! More books!!! Here are our Stephen King books, some horror anthologies, and lots of books on films (horror and "fantastic films" -- as they are known in Europe -- mostly). ZMrK's collection of the fruit mugs are there too -- I don't recall offhand what they are called, but they have names like "goofy grape" and such. They're from the early 70s; I remember them from when I was a kid.

This is another corner of the library -- you can see my knitting books on the 3rd shelf down on the left (same shelf as Chucky). We have a stack of paperbacks (the "Signet Books" rack), lots and lots of horror anthologies (a huge book of Poe with the mustard jacket, and the top shelve has paperback versions of "Hot Blood" and "Book of the Dead", etc.).

I hope you enjoy this little tour through my and my husband's geekery!!! Wait until I post our videos -- you're in for a real treat!!!!

I just got called "Devil Lady"!!! \m/

Let me set this story up: I am normally a very polite, peaceful person. I go out of my way to avoid any kind of confrontation. On rare occasions, however, something will push my buttons and cause me freak out* without any sort of warning.

The place: Haymarket, Boston, MA.
The time: A very busy Saturday afternoon.

On Fridays and Saturdays, a spot of Boston called "Haymarket" has produce stands set up, and produce distributors bring out the foods that the chain supermarkets didn't take. These are available at really cheap prices. Those cheap prices draw major crowds from all over the Boston area.

Some days I deal with Haymarket better than others. It's pretty annoying, as it's incredibly crowded and you can get pushed and shoved around. We gotta eat, though, and don't want to pay the equivalent of a down-payment on a house just for salad fixings and stir-fry, so it's off to Haymarket we go every week.

We were going along one corridor of it that has a brick building down the side. It had been raining this morning, and out of nowhere, a bunch of rain came down off an awning above us. One 20-something decided she was too much of a princess to get rainwater on her, and pushed me into the brick way to avoid it. Without even thinking, I shoved her away with one arm and yelled, "Get out of my way, BITCH!" and kept going.

We went along the rest of the corridor, and when we passed them on our way back (I think she was still standing where she landed after the push), ZantiMisterKnit heard the words "devil lady" come out of her mouth. He told me, "She just called you devil lady!" and I said, "Devil lady? That's AWESOME!!!!!"

Once in a while, you have to be a bitch. Or a Devil Lady. :-)

*There are two other instances I can think of where I went from Zero to Devil Lady in 2 seconds. One was about 8-9 years ago, at a Southern Culture on the Skids show, a group of college idiots (3 guys and a woman, I think) decided they were going to "mosh" (you know, because SCOTS are such a moshable band). I wasn't near them, but the woman kept coming near me (whether it was on her own or her jock-itch friends flinging her towards me), and bumping into me, or stepping on my toes (I was wearing high-heeled mules too). Finally (and I don't even remember doing it, and I wasn't drunk), I guess I grabbed her by her ponytail, looked like I was using her head to change gears, and flung her away from me. I recall they stopped after that.

The other instance is less exciting. I was a passenger in the car, ZMrK was driving, we were heading down the street the turns onto ours, some douchebag in a minivan comes out of a side street looking to her right (we were coming on the left), and I just yelled out "LOOK!!!!" in a really forceful, death-metal sounding voice. It was summer all the windows were down. I don't think it's nearly as funny as ZMrK does.

A woman we know, JoAnn, is even better at going from zero to Devil Lady. Her fiance works with ZMrK and is always coming in with stories. She called him from the train one day to touch base with him re: some work they were getting done on their home. Mid-conversation, she yells, "What the hell are you looking at? Go read your book!". I guess someone gave her a dirty look on the train for talking on the phone. It's funny 'cuz it wasn't me (I've given people dirty looks for talking really loudly on the phone. I've yelled at people to shut the hell up when they are talking really loudly on the phone.)

Like I said, sometimes you really need to be a Devil Lady.

I think I'm in the middle of a nightmare!

1. We found evidence of MOTHS in the house. I am going to nuke and freeze those white winged bastards!!!

2. I was just looking at some of the eBay auctions of The Mohair Knitter (person who sells really hairy mohair catsuits and such on eBay to fetishists) and discovered that the model looks a bit like me!!!!

PLEASE LET ME WAKE UP SOON!!!!!

Celebrity Blogstalking!

Or, "UH-oh, now everybody will know just how big a geek I really am!"

So, this week's Knittyboard blogstalking assignment is "celebrities" -- pictures of celebrities and you, even if the photos are of you photoshopped next to a celeb. Well, I don't need to photoshop because ZantiMisterKnit and I tend to go to a lot of pop-culture conventions (such as Chiller and the Horrorfind convention). So, there you have it. I'm a geek.

First up, the Monkee that was christened "mine" as a child: Peter Tork.

My sisters christened him "mine", because Dianne, being the oldest, got Davy (who seemed to be the most popular, gourds know why) and Nancy, who could kick my ass sideways, got Mike, 'cuz Mike was the coolest. I have no idea who "had" Mickey, but Dianne and Nancy told me I had Peter, mostly because we were both blonde and had the same dimples.
After this picture was taken, Mr. Tork motioned to ZantiMisterKnit and asked, "Are you with him?" to which I replied, "Yes, he's my husband". Then Peter smiled slyly and said, "Too bad for me!".
There you have it: Peter Tork hit on me!
Oddly (and creepily) enough, don't we look like we could be related?

Next is someone that not many people in the States (and unfortunately many other places) have heard of -- Paul Naschy. Mr. Naschy is the actor who famously and sympatheically played Spain's werewolf in the 1970s, and he is still making movies today. He also turned 72 on September 6, and it a real sweetheart and an extremely talented actor. Check out one of his recent films, Rojo Sangre, to see just how amazing he is.

Here they are -- The Ladies of the Evil Dead!!! I consider The Evil Dead up there with George Romero's original dead trilogy as one of the most important and influential horror flicks. Director Sam Raimi also has done pretty well for himself, what with directing the Spiderman flicks and all. Unfortunately I can't locate an electronic copy of us with Bruce Campbell, but we did meet him in the summer of 2005 as well.



Where the fuck do I begin with Jane Weidlin? She is the only grown woman that I will let get away with a squeaky little-girl voice. Plus check out here gallery -- she's done some pin-up modelling in recent years and it still smokin' hot. Believe me, I saw her up close, and from behind, and she has a great ass. I'm just sayin'.

I really adore this one. I can't remember offhand the name of the artist that this photo is based on, but I'm sure someone will tell me.


Do you know who this big hunk o'maleness is? Why it is Fred "Hammer" Williamson!!! Former football-player-turned-movie actor. He starred in lots of action flicks in the 70s and 80s, many of which were called "Blacksploitation". He is, as you can see, fabulous. We got an autograph from him, then ZMrK asked him, "Would you mind having a picture taken with my beautiful wife?", and Mr. Williamson did not hesitate to grab a hold of me and wrap those big bulky arms about me. Oooh yea; I'm one lucky little woman.




So, perhaps we have a theme here of me with big beefy African-American actors. And why not? Because I have to admit, Ken Foree ("Peter" from Dawn of the Dead) sure is a hottie, isn't he? And that voice!!! He's got a gorgeous, deep booming voice like James Earle Jones. And see how much he dwarfs me? He's something like 6'5". Dude, that's tall.








And here's the last one, a tribute to the best show on TV right now: America's Next Top Model. From left to right (in case you can't tell): Christopher ("Peter Brady") Knight (who is GORGEOUS), ZantiMisterKnit (aka the Hottest Man on Earth), me, and Adrienne Curry of ANTM/Surreal Life/My Fair Brady et al.

Lest anyone think all models are airbrushed and all that: she's freakin' gorgeous, and really sweet. She also told me I have great boobs and asked if we can trade. Dude, I love her!

Have any other ANTM-obsessed knitters seen the latest knit.1 mag? Kim Stolz, aka "Season 5's lesbian", is in a spread featuring "cables", and is on the main page of the website. I didn't buy it, though, 'cuz I think knit.1 is overall kinda crappy. But I thought that was interesting.

BTW, new hamsters September 20th!

New Yarn Goodness!!!

This is my score from the sale at Handpainted Heaven:
That's three skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarns in "bright" colors (and boy are they bright!!!!) PLUS they sent me a freebie of South West Trading Company's Pagoda yarn in a rusty brown color. I like Pagoda; it looks like Fozzie Bear. I was in a really glum mood by the end of the day, wandered around Boston for a couple of hours after work, worrying both ZantiMisterKnit and my mom, and then I came home not only to a cutie-pie of a husband, but YARN!!! Plus a cat who was more than a willing model!

Other than that, I leave you with possibly my best cat picture ever (and a preview of our pictures from Winslow Farm):

Princess Tinkle Tush!

I have discovered that I have a co-worker who pees on the toilet seat. I cannot begin to tell you how annoying I find it.

True -- there are six stalls in our bathroom, and I can and do always just go into another stall rather than clean up someone else's tinkle.

True -- it could be worse. At my former job (which topped all for fucked-up people), someone once shat on the floor, stepped in it in her high heel, and tracked it all over the carpet. Pee-on-the-seat is at least a common occurrence, one I have come to expect and look out for, unlike shit tracked all over the carpet. There's a reason I don't have dogs, or children: I don't want shit tracked on the carpet.

Back to the pee though. What kind of person thinks her hiney is so pwecious-wecious that she cannot let it touch a piece of porcelain that is probably cleaner than many people's kitchen sink? This bathroom is freakin' clean. I scared myself last week because I could see my reflection in the tiles on the wall and I thought it was the ghost from Ju-On. It gets cleaned at least twice a day. How many of you clean your bathroom twice a day? I don't think I clean mine twice a month, except for, you know, cleaning the litterbox daily and little spot cleaning here and there as needed. Can you actually get any sort of freaky disease from sitting on a toilet seat? Even if you don't have an open sore on your buttcheek? In my opinion, it is the pwecious-wecious princesses who sprinkle all over the seat that make conditions unsanitary.

On to other things: I'm still wearing my pedometer and have taken more than 9500 steps today. That's twice as many as yesterday! Penny Karma asks: I want to get one of those things. What features are good to have?

Well, I went with the basics: it just tells me how many steps I have taken and how many miles that translates to. Prevention Magazine did a feature on them, and I went with the Digi-Walker SW-401 from New Lifestyles for $24.95. I have no idea if they are all created equal; maybe you could pick one up for much less at Marshall's and get the same results. It seems to be pretty accurate; sometimes when I count out 20 steps it reads 20, sometimes 19, sometimes 22. The bottom line is that it is making me more aware of how much I am moving, which has to be a good thing, right?

Speaking of moving: we just did Pilates and it kicked our asses! At least it kicked my ass, ZantiMisterKnit may not feel it until tomorrow. We've got to get that hole in the wall fixed so I can add drums to my workout.

On another post of mine, Jennifer (who has some very cute pugs on her blog) asks: what kind of yarn is that? the colors are AMAZING!!!!
Jennifer, I think you are referring to this picture, right? If so, the yarn is from Handpainted Yarn on eBay. It's a soft merino wool, similar to Malabrigo but maybe a little thinner, and it's shipped from Uruguay. With shipping, it comes to about the same about of $$ as buying Malabrigo from a store. It's allegedly great felting yarn, but it's so soft and mushy that I wouldn't want to felt it. I just want to pile it up and roll around in it and go to sleep.

Oh, yeah, I'm a little stalled on that sleeve. I haven't knit too much in a few days. I haven't sew in over a week -- I have pattern pieces all cut out and ready to assemble, and that's it. I need a kick in the ass!

I need a glass of wine.

Sad Day. . .

One of my fave TV personalities and conservationalists, Steve Irwin, was killed by a stingray.

Rest in Peace, good friend.

Love Is. . .

. . . knitting socks for someone whose feet are twice the size of your own.

Here they are, his and hers knitted socks. Twenty-thousand stitches of love (approximate count) in each pair. It's a little chilly and damp here today, so we both wore out handknit socks.

ZMrK came over to give me a kiss a few minutes ago. I was in my usual position, knitting on the bed. When he moved away, he tripped backwards over my knitting basket, and threw himself on the floor in a mock-fall. It was then that I was busted.

"You were looking at my socks the whole time! You didn't even look to see if I got hurt! You were saying, 'Yeah, those socks look goooood.'"

I didn't deny it.

I really love that man.

I wasn't as much of a couch-potato today as I expected. It's 5:46 p.m. and we haven't even watched a movie yet. Looney Tunes, yes, but no movies. We walked -- yes, on a drizzly day -- to the mall, so we could get some cement stuff for ZMrK to fix the hole in the wall, and for me to use my 30% off Borders Rewards coupon. I got Yarn Harlot, and have already read about a quarter. I need to figure out how to knit and read; we have a music stand, but it's hard to get paperbacks to stay open on their own. Maybe I can hire a cabana boy to hold my book open for me. Screw putting sunblock on my back, just hold open the damn book!

Hey, I'm up to 4,549 steps today! Not bad for a lazy Sunday!

Boredom + Rainy Sunday + Very Lazy Cat + Sleeve Knitting =

I bought a pedometer

I wore it most of the day yesterday (from the time I got dressed for work until the time I took a shower last night) and logged about 5700 steps.

I wore it today since the time I practically got out of bed -- even transferring it from my pajama pants to my jeans and back to my pajama pants -- and I have logged 5075 steps.

Tomorrow will be a test. It's supposed to be pretty crappy out, and I've been known to not step foot out of my house on Sundays, especially on crappy-weather Sundays. I may log only 1,000 steps or so. That would be scary.

I've put on a couple (maybe 5) pounds lately, and want to get back into shape. I really don't want to join a gym -- I spent half my time there waiting for a free machine, other people don't wipe their sweat off the machines when they're done, and they're basically big ol' germfests. People at my new job have warned me to there is a "freshman 15" that happens to new employees there, and I don't want it to happen to me, so I've got to figure out how to get some extra walking and exercise in.

I did some basic weightlifting using our snake tonight. She was coiled around my wrist. I think she weighs about 5 lbs.

Does anyone have any good fitness advice for a gym-o-phobe?

For Sachi's Viewing Pleasure. . .

Here's the whole drumkit. . . Ludwig kit, Istanbul cymbals. . . HEY! That husband of mine set it up righty!

Well, we have to fix a hole in the wall behind the kit before I can get playing, or the neighbors will be HATING us. There's a 5-foot space in between our house and theirs. There used to be a dog living in there, and whenever I started playing, the dog would start barking. Now someone different lives there, and I don't think I've played since they moved in.

We also have to pad the drums, so they won't be so loud.

It'll be great to own our own house, preferably with a basement or a smallish room we can soundproof and I can play unpadded. Preferably without other houses attached to ours.

In order news, I just pulled the trigger on some solid sock yarns from Cherry Tree Hill, available through the Labor Day Sale here. I wasn't planning on buying more yarn, but what the heck, eh? I'm still considering one of their grab bags of "orphans" for $30/lb, but I probably won't do that since I have so many one-skeins lying about from fiber fests past, and Oooh! Rhineback is coming up!

I think I've committed myself to going, so maybe I should try to find a hotel in the Catskills region.

Arrrr! There be tools!

Part 2 of my blogstalking assignment, here are my "tools":


I realize this photo is as exciting as Wonder Bread. It's my knitting basket, with my needle case that I made some time last year, my hello kitty bag that holds all my "extra" needles (thank you again, KBH!). I put two WIPs on the box behind it (my Tempting II sweater and my lace camisole) and the really 80s looking make up bag is holding all my other accutrements (sp???): stitch markers, scissors, stitch holders, row counters, crochet hooks, and all that jazz. You also get to see my dress form in the background (or my dress forms' boobie -- how scandalous!!!)

I know I typically review the Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar once a week, and there's at least one person who looks forward to it, but in all honesty, I just don't feel like doing it anymore. I don't think I'll buy the 2007 calendar, but I may buy the Stitch n Bitch calendar. Or I may buy neither and just buy the Stuff on my Cat calendar, so my co-workers and I can giggle at cats in compromising positions. All apologies to the people who come here merely to see what I think about the patterns; hopefully something else will keep you coming here.

Knittyboard Blogstalking!

I have accepted the blogstalking challenge! There be feet!!!
I'm also using this challenge to show off part of my new (yet old) drum kit. It's a 1971 Ludwig, the same kit Ringo Starr played. It's belonged to my BIL since he was a kid, and is the kit he played in the bands he was in with ZMrK (Skeletones here in Boston, and possibly Easy Shark back in Rome, NY -- ha! ZMrK is gonna scold me for this!). So, Jeff had to shipped from where they were in Nebraska to us, since he is living in Istanbul indefinitely. We just have to ship our kit (a mid-60s Westwood that cost us about $75) back to his friend Eddie. I'm really excited to have this kit, excited enough to start playing again. The downer of it is that the kit and the boxes (and now the upstairs part of our apartment) smell like cigarette smoke. Eddie must be quite the smoker. I'm hoping it dissipates soon, and I hope the smell doesn't go on to my yarn and my fabrics, all of which are in the same room.

I wonder who the first commenter will be who says, "Girrrrrll -- you need a pedicure, ASAP!", 'cuz I know my toenail polish is really chipped. I also know my feet have imprints on them from wearing my socks (my own handknits from last spring, even though it's warm enough for me to go with a lighter sock). I'll tell ya something though -- glitter nailpolish is three times as hard to get off as regular nailpolish. Plus, I'm lazy and it's been too cold to wear sandals, so I don't really care if it's chipped. I don't even have nailpolish on my baby toenail any more, but I practically don't have a baby toenail (and I have a little fat baby toe).

Tools will be posted when Blogger lets me post more pictures!!!

Neglectful Blogger!!!

That's what I am! My last update to the blog was 8/21, eleven days ago!

I'm trying to catch up on my blogging while I engage in a little pigment restoration. I haven't dyed my hair in a while, since perhaps June. I was going to try to let all of the old color grow out, but since my natural haircolor is about the same shade as an aging field mouse, I got really frustrated and decided to dye it. I just kept looking at my hair and saying, "that looks like CRAP CRAP CRAP!". So, after work today, I went to Sally Beauty Supply, which was out of my normal color, which is "light natural golden brown" or something like that, which turns a dark, rich brown on me. Instead I got "light red brown", which I hope doesn't turn my hair purple. I use a deposit-only color, which does not lighten your hair at all, and I think some of the colors turn out darker than they should on aging field mice. It's been on about 20 minutes, which means I should wash it out soon.

I came across a pet peeve of mine while in Sally: people who use shopping carts when they don't need them. Who needs a shopping cart in Sally Beauty Supply? Really, WTF? The aisle are pretty narrow anyway, and this person had a couple of things of product in her cart, and a small bag from Dots. So annoying. And she had it diagonally across the aisle, so it took up more room. Really annoying! Am I just being petty here -- I know it didn't cause me a major inconvenience, and when I said, "Excuse me", she moved it a bit, but why did she need it? I felt like an idiot taking a basket when I only bought two things. Okay, let's move on to talk about what I have done in the past 11 days. . .

8/22 was ZantiMisterKnit's and my 3rd wedding anniversary! We both worked, so the celebrations did not come until later in the day. We had reservations at our favorite local restaurant, Helmand, which has Afghani food and is fabulous. Their flatbread alone, with the three condiments to choose from, is to die for (but truth be told, the best of those three condiments is definitely the "green stuff" -- it seems to have cilantro, pine nuts, and a teeny bit of crushed red peppers and who knows what else). I'm addicted to their "vegetarian special" -- it's got a little bit of everything: sauteed spinach, eggplant, okra, this really yummy baked pumpkin, all surrounding some pallow rice. Delicious, especially with a glass of their house Merlot (but, of course, everything goes with Merlot, and I can feel the skin crawling on all the purveyors of fine wine who read this. Wait. Do any purveyors of fine wine read this? My old roommate Joe used to drink Wild Irish Rose, and not ironically. My wine of choice is the $2.99 Charles Shaw from Trader Joe's, although once in a while I will splurge and get something "fancy" that's about $6.99, like Yellowtail. I used to think that you HAD to spend at least $15 to get a decent bottle of wine -- HA! But I will admit, I do shell out $15-$20 if I'm buying wine to bring to a party, and about $20 or more for my hair stylist's Christmas bottle.) So, this is my plug for the Helmand. If you are in the Cambridge area, check it out; it's right near the CambridgeSide Galleria. I think the tab was $36 pre-tip, for an appetizer, two meals (vegetarian, which are cheaper), a glass of house wine, and a Diet Coke.