just be.

the world is a confusing place.

you know how people always say don't put anything in an email you wouldn't want the world to read? i blew it tonight.

using twitterific, i feel like my mother-in-law: i love the benefits of the newfangled technology, but i don't always get it. the differences between direct replies and general tweets are not always (okay, almost never) clear to me. and that's where disaster entered the picture today.

my friend katie and i had been having a conversation on the facebook about who would play us in a movie (i can't remember how it started, but there it is). we have never met in person, and i'm not even sure we've ever seen photos of each other—we met on ravelry and continued our friendship in email and fb. anyway, i declared that i pictured helen hunt or julia louis-dreyfus. she sent me a direct tweet saying, "can't remember her name, but I picture you played by Best in Show trainer." (that is one of my favorite movies, so that endears me to her, of course.) so i tweeted back, "Omg. She very dykey, but he is hilarious. The one who hooks up with jennifer Coolidge and starts bitch magazine?"

now. if you know me, you know that i'm using "dykey" ironically (and you're as shocked as i am that someone i've never met in person nails my persona so accurately. i talk way more like jane lynch than like helen or julia, though i'm nowhere near as willowy and pretty as any of them). but i am *mortified* that i sent the message out. without the context of what we had said before the tweet, it sounds like (a) i'm using "dykey" as a slur and (b) either i'm talking about some guy or i'm talking about the same woman and saying that she can't be dykey and hilarious. or something. i have been shaking and sick to my stomach ever since i hit send and realized that i'd sent it to all my twitter followers—some of whom know me but many of whom don't—and not just katie.

so i'm apologizing for any pain or confusion i may have caused anyone who read it, out in public like my words were. i hope that putting it into context alleviates any concerns, but really i'm just sorry i said it and humbly ask for forgiveness. it's not the worst thing i've ever said and wished i could swallow—but those are stories for another day. and yes, i know that putting it here on the blog opens it to a way wider audience than my twitter followers, but i'd be terrible at apologizing in 140-character snips, and i believe that an apology should be given as publicly as the wrong involved. so here it is on the blog.

and i'm getting rid of twitterific in search of an app that is a little more my speed. (speed 16.)

and now to the headlines:

• dick cheney continues to astound me with his awfulness.
• i wish i were half the wife nancy reagan was—and continues to be—to ronald.
• lawrence o'donnell was better when he was less rabid, less rude, and used fewer of his words to call people names than to state principles.
• you don't have to be a racist to oppose someone of a different race from yours.
• someone who attempts to glue your locks—twice—and who cuts the lines for your surveillance system and who drills holes in your roof is not committing vandalism. that person is preparing your location for a crime that he or she does not want you to escape and does not want watched or recorded for evidence. a crime like, say, using explosives or gas to kill everyone inside. we knew this 15 years ago when i interned with the national clinic access project. these are not new techniques or ideas. nor are they secrets. they are well-documented, widely published, nationally known methods used by a sick, misguided, sad segment of our society that is smaller than, but not qualitatively different from, any loose coalition of terrorists motivated by political or religious rationales. so let me give you a little tip for them, in case you see them: political voices can and should be expressed by voting and free speech. religious voices can and should be heard through free speech and free exercise of religion. spread the word. seems the message (and the methods) aren't making it around to everyone.

ugh.

you know what one feature i REALLY want from my next rss-feed reader? the ability to filter out any post with the word "steampunk" in it.

that is all.

10:02 a.m.

it is really lame to post a meme after a long absence from blogging, but katy had this very cool one on her blog and i had to do it. i've been migraining daily for a few months now, which makes everything harder to do, and blogging is pretty low on the list of priorities. i'll try to be better :) meanwhile, lisa: get thee to ravelry. there is a northern neck group there.

edited to add the details: You are 10:02 a.m.
You are breakfasty, like a pile of pancakes on a Sunday morning that have just the right amount of syrup, so every bite is sweet perfection and not a soppy mess. You are a glass of orange juice that's cool, refreshing, and not overly pulpy. You are the time of day that's just right for turning the pages of a newspaper, flipping through channels, or clicking around online to get a sense of how the world changed during the night. You don't want to stumble sleepily through life, so you make a real effort to wake your brain up and get it thinking. You feel inspired to accomplish things (whether it's checking something off your to-do list or changing the world), but there's plenty of time for making things happen later in the day. First, pancakes.

12% of the people who took this quiz got the same evaluation.

little harriet homeowner

what a great weekend! friday was the six-year anniversary of the night on which smartboy proposed. such a romantic night, and we continue to celebrate it every year. we also celebrate a lot of the first week of november, since that's when we met eight years ago. so saturday night, we went to legume for a *delicious* dinner; i had a mixed-green salad with bistro vinaigrette--a traditional french vinaigrette atop crisp, peppery greens, the kind of salad i could eat every day and still be wowed by its simple deliciousness--followed by a braised, browned chicken leg (the crispest i've ever had, though i FAR prefer breast to leg) atop a squash puree and fried polenta. SO GOOD. the portions are not huge, so i finished everything. clean plate club for both of us. smartboy had mussels as his appetizer, which he said were great--whole garlic cloves in the sauce and garnished with thyme sprigs--followed by scallops with a little pork. they were beautifully browned and he said that they were really good. he LOVES the scallops at eleven, and he said that these were almost as good. but we both love the fact that this is within walking distance of our house, and we agreed that the service is every bit as good as that at eleven, plus dinner was far less expensive. we shared a FABULOUS chocolate-truffle cake with fresh whipped cream (omg so good!), and he brought his own beer. i wish they took reservations, but we got there early enough that we didn't have to wait long, and it was a beautiful night to wait outside. for people who do have to wait, they'll take your number and call you, which is brilliant--you can go for a walk or go to one of the bars on the block. oh, and my drink was fizzy lemonade, in which they bring you a glass of fizzy water (san pellegrino, i think), a little glass of lemon juice, and a little container of superfine sugar for you to mix it to your own taste. i love things made at table :)

so that was our yummy saturday night. but we'd also spent a great day down at the waterfront, seeing bee movie, which we loved--it's no pixar movie, but it was good--in the late morning, followed by errands a-go-go. it was a gorgeous day, clear and cool, so i didn't even mind that some of my errands were foiled (victoria's secret wouldn't take the bra back that i'd bought online in exchange for one that fit, and i didn't even find one that i liked in my size; macy's found only the sale price of the skirt i wanted to exchange, and i didn't have the order paperwork or tags with me to prove that i'd paid more, so i had to bring it home, where i fortunately found the paperwork today; and i found no knitting books or magazines that i wanted to buy at barnes and noble). but i did unexpectedly find some adorable black rain boots with white polka dots! we went to dsw to find shoelaces, which i also found, along with some nifty gel inserts for my new heels and boots. little victories :)

and we went to lowe's, where i got some great advice for planting the little fall-planting perennials i'd bought from white flower farm (thanks, jen!!) and we looked at xmas decorations. i am SO getting into being the owner of this big old victorian! i have visions of christmas decorations in our beautiful living room, greens spread out on the white victorian mantle reflected in the mercury mirror above it, and candles glowing in every window. we found some nifty little ornaments (the characters from the rankin-bass "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"), but not the candles or aluminum tree we're seeking :).

today, we planted the perennials, which was much more fun and soothing than i thought it would be. i am NOT a grower of things. i kill plants--not intentionally--this isn't murder, but plantslaughter. so i don't plant things often. but i've had this gift certificate for a long time, and i wanted to buy something pretty to plant. i'm really hoping that these do well, or at least some of them do. right now, they look like sweet little tiny plants surrounded by huge wreaths of cypress mulch keeping our young dogwood tree company.

edited to update stitch count: and now i'm knitting and browsing, the perfect way to stay cozy :) today: 2,253 stitches/50,000 for the month; 3 blog posts/30 for the month; still at the same number of words as before, though. too busy to write yesterday, and i might be too tired today.

so life is good. :) hope yours is, too.

it's ravelriffic!

if you're not on ravelry yet, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about. i made some notes today about how i used it today, which was a pretty light ravelring day for me.
i'm knitting a pair of socks from an online pattern. i don't have to print or even bookmark the pattern; it's in my projects in my ravelry notebook, so i just go to my projects and click the pattern. i can note which round i'm on and any mods i make as i go right there in my notes field. ravelry has noted that it's one of my wips, so it's right at the top of my projects tab, the first, default page of my notebook.
i browsed through what projects people are making or have made with yarns i have in my stash, to get ideas for things i might make and see how their projects have turned out. i can see progress and finished-object photos as well as yardage requirements and, for patterns available online, click through to the patterns themselves. i can even read comments that people have about the things they've made, seeing, for example, whether they're happy with them or not and why.
i can make notes in the stash part of my notebook about what i bought that yarn for or what i might want to use it for (especially after browsing the patterns), since i can track how much i have and the patterns tell me how much i'd need.
i can send messages to users to ask them questions about things they've made.
and of course i can find out about patterns i never would have found otherwise. there are patterns--all in one place--from online, book, and periodical sources. everywhere imaginable. and i can see all the different versions people have made, what yarns they used, and what they thought of the pattern and their results, all with one click. if i'm not sure about a yarn, i can click through to more information about that, too.
some days i do more than this, but this is what i did today. i have loved not having to worry about bookmarking patterns on a zillion different web sites any more or remembering which books have which patterns that i'd thought about making for whom--ravelry lets me keep all of that information in one place. when i want to start another project, i can just look at the queue page of my notebook to see what i've got queued up and choose something to cast on. all the information i need is right there--where the pattern is, what i need to make it, and, if i'd thought about it, for whom i'd wanted to make it. i could even have noted by when i needed to make it. (lately, i've been noting just lots of patterns i want to make for me--bad bee.) it's delicious. see you there soon! :)

zomg! i gotz iphone!

(image from i can has cheezburger?)
yes i gotz iphone, and it is every bit as cool as it's touted to be. maybe more so. zomg. i heart it. kthx bai.

vote for JURIST for a Webby

A web site for which I used to serve as a content editor has been nominated and is now one of five finalists for a prestigious Webby Award in the Law category: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu. It’s up against Court TV, FindLaw, Justice Learning, and Nolo.
It would be great for JURIST and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law to win a Webby. You can help! Along with the judges’ competition is a People’s Voice Award, allowing Web users to vote for their favorite Webby nominees.
To vote, visit JURIST at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu and click the Vote for JURIST link beneath the Webby logo in the top red banner. That will take you to the voting site, where you can register and vote in this and as many other categories as you want. (It’s a good way to find out about great resources on the Web.)
Right now, after about two weeks of voting, JURIST has a slight lead, which is very exciting to those of us who built and have since worked on the site. It would be great if you could add to that. Please encourage your colleagues and friends to vote as well!

once upon a time

i started a catering business, sort of. i didn't really start a business, because i couldn't license a commercial kitchen and didn't want to go through all the hassle of finding one to rent. so to keep everything legal, i'd cook food in other people's kitchens for their events. and i'd plan parties and offer cooking lessons. it was fun.
but it was also a lot of work. and i got inquiries from people all over the country who found my web site, which had notes on starting a catering business, most of which i'd compiled for myself.
but the web site cost money to maintain. and i'm stripping out unnecessary expenses from my life, and that's one of them. i have no time for that particular hobby any more, and that web site's domain is about to expire. so i'm letting it do so, and moving some relevant content that i want to keep to a new blog. gotta love a bargain. thank you, typepad.

this is not your preschooler's sidewalk chalk

i *so* do not have time to blog today, but i received some images of this guy's work in my inbox at work today and had to share--incredible! julian beever does some amazing stuff. check it out. (this example, for instance--yes, that's a *drawing*--not a real boat, a real indentation in the sidewalk, *or* real water.)