Puzzle of the day: Was I the only person who was made to sing "Hot Dog, I Love that Weiner Man" as a young child? Repeatedly? With such stunning lyrics as the one quoted in the title? We sang that all the time in Camp Fire when I was young. It involved singing the word "weiner" dozens of times between quicker and quicker iterations of the one verse. Anybody else?
In somewhat related news, I yearn to go to Hot Doug's. If you're not from Chicago, or just don't know about Hot Doug's, check out the menu. Even more important, check out the specials.
I don't even eat regular hot dogs (thanks, high school lit class in which we discussed "The Jungle" coming directly before hot dog day in the cafeteria!), but I love Hot Doug's. I had an elk sausage with mustard seed cheddar (hold the blood orange mayo) last time I was there. If you're ever in Chicago and you can, you should go.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
"Someday I'll change his life, I'll be his weiner-wife."
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Again with the non-knitting!
I've finished a sweater--more on that later; it will be a little ranty. When I have pics, we'll talk.
Other than that, things that are bringing me great joy:
-Moving! Because we're insane, Kevin and I are moving! Across the backyard! With a new roommate (Phil, former roommate of Kevin's)! I am getting an incredibly tiny room, with an attendant incredibly tiny rent. While I avoided asking friends to help me move last year, I'm not going to hire professionals to carry boxes down a flight of stairs, across the lawn, and up a flight of stairs.
I may well be making my own loft bed, or at least finding people to help me do it. Yeah, I know it's insane, but I'm not willing to pay too much for a bed that I'll likely only use for a year.
Oh, and we're moving in on August 1st. Oh, holy crap. I gotta get moving.
-Pride Weekend! With attendant Pride Parade. I believe I will be staking out a parade spot for my group of friends, starting around 9 on Sunday. Much sunscreen will be used. Following that, Kevin is (and, to a lesser extent, I am) having an afterparty. Unlike the last Pride Party I threw, this one won't involve me dumping my boyfriend in the middle of the party. No word yet on whether this one will also involve bare-assed spanking going on in my bathroom (you can't predict these things), but unlike the last party, my boyfriend will not be involved. He's in Vegas, so I can say this with confidence.
My only food contribution: fancy lemonades and limeades. I'm not going to stress too much about it.
-Sewing! My mother FINALLY shipped me my sewing machine. Only 18 months late!
-Internet Radio, while it's still around. I especially like the program Pandora-FM, which allows me to listen to Pandora radio and have the songs post to my last.fm account. The only disadvantage: Pandora sometimes freaks out on me (why Hilary Duff on my Indie Pop radio station? Why?!), and if I'm away from my desk, the world will think I listen to Hilary Duff. Despite the fact that nobody looks at my last.fm userpage, the thought that anyone might think I listen to Hilary Duff is alarming.
-According to my Google calendar: So much volunteering! Maybe a weekend trip to Michigan? John Sellers (whose book I read awhile back) book reading/signing! Os Mutantes at the Metro! A wedding! Pitchfork and Lollapalooza! These are the reasons why I'll be hauling my belongings across the backyard in garbage bags.
*Did the spanking incident lead to the dumping of my then-boyfriend at the last Pride party, you probably aren't asking yourself? Answer: Not as much as you might think. It's a long story.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
And your winners are... (drumroll)
Socks-y: Megan @ Woolly Interlude! I swear I didn't rig this.
Spinny: Kelly @ Lime Street Knits!
Sheepless: Pixieriot!
Since all three of you are Knittyboarders, I'll be pm'ing you about mailing this off.
Congrats, all! Proof of knitting to come soon.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Socks-y, Spinny, or Sheepless: the prizes.
Hey, the knitblog contest ends tomorrow night. Want to see the prizes?
Socks-y: There's one bonus for this winner: she gets a choice! So, will it be...
Lorna's Laces Superwash Sock in Pin Stripe?
Spinny: It's all Fleece Artist for you.
Sheepless: Speaking of aqua and blue, I really do like those colors.
These are SWTC Bamboo, in a medium aqua color, from the discountyarn sale. This would be enough to make a tank top, I believe.
The contest is open through tomorrow night, and results will be announced on Thursday; if you want to enter, comment at this post. Good luck!
Friday, June 08, 2007
Friday music: the beauty of the shuffle setting on my iPod
Usually, when I'm listening to music on my iPod, I'm either listening to an album in full, or listening to my workout playlist (whether or not I'm working out).
Every once in awhile, I put it on shuffle, and remember that I have tons of music I don't listen to all that frequently. In particular, I remember I own a ton of compilations. Nuggets I and II; Living in Oblivion Vols. 1, 3, and 4; The American Anthology of Folk Music (the three main volumes, plus the semi-official fourth); some huge comp of Woody Guthrie; several Brazilian comps; and a box set of turn of the century gospel music featuring an entire CD of sermons only. I haven't listened to most of this stuff all the way through, so a trip through my iPod on shuffle often reveals gems I didn't even know I own. Like this, from Nuggets II:
The Marmalade - I See the Rain (mp4)
And sometimes my iPod reminds me I've downloaded a bunch of great stuff I've not listened to yet. Like Lifter Puller, a precursor to The Hold Steady:
Lifter Puller - Mission Viejo
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
For a limited time only... non-knitting content.
Hey, remember when I used to talk about things other than knitting? Me neither.
Music.
Massive bummer of last week: Missing the Dino Jr. show at the Abbey on Thursday. I was just way too busy and exhausted, and spent all afternoon walking around buying books when I should've been taking a damned nap. Although I heard Lou was cranky as hell and it wasn't that great of a show, I wish I'd been up for it.
Exciting concert I'll be napping for this week: The National. They're always great in concert, and now they're all famous and shit.
Concert I should buy tix for soon, once I get my shit together: Os Mutantes at the Metro in July. It's gonna be great. The replacement singer for Rita Lee is hot, their set at Pitchfork fest last year was really energetic and tight for not having performed in many years, and maybe they'll stop singing the English-lyrics versions of their songs.
Song I'm obsessed with: Caetano Veloso's cover of Joni Mitchell's Dreamland. Still. It's a terrific song. Honorable mention: The Raincoats' cover of Lola.
Movies.
Hot Fuzz: I saw it the week it came out in a downtown theater, a few weeks later at the "Art Theatre" in Ann Arbor, and last weekend at the $3.00 second-run place. I will probably be seeing it at the Brew and View, too. I like it more than Shaun of the Dead, maybe because I know more about cop movies than zombie movies.
Knocked Up: My love for Judd Apatow and crush on Seth Rogen make me rather unobjective on this movie, so just go see it. It's hilarious. It has wise things to say and innovative bong formations, so there's something for everyone.
Books.
Books I've finished: 33 1/3 books on Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA and Joni Mitchell's Court & Spark. I slightly prefer the former, maybe because I like the former album better. Both of these books were slightly critical of their subjects--Springsteen could've made an even better album if he'd picked different tracks, and his humorous songs were better than he thought; Mitchell put out an awesome string of albums, but then got hateful toward her dwindling audience after C&S. The criticism was a nice change of pace from some of the "how cool is this album? here's all the recording details of this album!" style of some of the books. Not that I mind that all the time...
Disconcerting book fuckup of last week: Speaking of the worshipful recording details-style book, I was chugging along through the 33 1/3 book on Exile on Main St, only to find that every other pair of pages between 74 and 110 were completely blank. What the hell? The publisher was nice enough to send me a replacement, though.
Proof that I read books that aren't from the 33 1/3 series: I'm finishing up on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Yes, I know I'm four years late in reading it.
Trivia.
We managed to beat two pub trivia teams featuring people who've been on our team before (including Scott, the Web editor of Time Out Chicago--read him here and here) despite knowing nothing about Bobby Kennedy vs. Billy Carter. It's all Cranky Uncle Greg, people.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
See, I'm posting again already!
...However, I should've posted about this on Saturday, as I got my Secret Pal package on Friday from lovely Froggy_dear. Let's see what I got, as pictured on my dreadful phone-camera:
From the top left, going clockwise: Mad Libs, a citrus-caramel-dark chocolate candy bar, MONKEY LIGHTS!, small pots with basil and tomato seeds, a small wooden box (great size for stitch markers) witha finger puppet, Ghirardelli squares in Dark and mint-filled chocolate, a lovely tomato plate, a very nice Art Nouveau style card, and two skeins of SWTC bamboo. The pic doesn't do the color justice--it's a lovely electric blue.
So thank you again, Ms. Froggy_dear! Now I have to figure out if I'll be participating in Secret Pal 9...
Inertia, followed by a knitblog contest.
I am not blogging about knitting because I am apparently incapable of finishing anything. Currently active:
-Sahara: I must knit on the sleeves to this. Cap sleeves! That is all, apart from a small amount of finishing. And yet, because I didn't finish it in time to wear it to the rehearsal dinner... it is not done.
-Blue Sky Cropped Cardigan: I'm close to done, but I've been dispirited about this project since I finished it, wore it, decided it was too floppy, and ripped it entirely out to restart it.
-Rosa: I'm working on this one a fair amount, but it's a shirt, with beads, on US 2.5 needles, aka SLOOOOOOWWW.
-Supersecret project: It's pretty, and in a color I'd never wear, but I'm working at it exclusively at Mr. Z's place, which makes it slow going.
I have managed to stop buying yarn, as it was slowly overgrowing my apartment, and was clearly forming designs to suffocate my poor roommate. And I've realized that I won't be starting up spinning anytime soon, at least until I manage to knit down my stash.
Therefore: contest! Inspired by Megan at Woolly Interlude, I'm gonna have a knitblog contest! Announcing... Socks-y, Spinny, Sheepless or Silly.
Rules:
1. Leave a comment to this post by Wednesday, June 13th at midnight Central time. Include some sort of way for me to contact you, in case you win. I'd like it if you also left your blog info, if you have one (so I can read you later) and something about yourself, but I'm not too picky about that. (New Rule! Tell me if you read about this on another blog, as that blogster will get another entry for everyone that sees her post and enters.)
2. Also, tell me if you want a socks-y prize (I'm thinking... Fearless Fibers), a spinny prize (Fleece Artist fiber), a sheepless prize (this will probably be bamboo from the discount sale), or a silly prize (magically fugtastic Rowan Mag from the early '00s).
3. I will pick two or three winners early on June 14th (depending on the response), and start sending out prizes!
So yeah... post a comment, possibly get free yarn! Not the worst deal in the world.
