Fit Chick Knits

Quick update & Movies

2011-01-21T06:23:00.000-05:00

* Haven't forgotten my blog, been busy as usual. We're leaving Italy soon. There's a lot to do w preparing to move back to the states including having last hoorah's with friends.
* On the knitting tip again finally. Stockinetting my heart out with Lion Brands Curtain Call Shrug. Using Paton's Decor in Grey.

MOVIES
Recently watched Greenberg, which was as quirky as the previews look. Sometimes I feel like it was trying or that the movie was just running parallel to views and jokes I’ve seen Ben Stiller make in real life. It also drug on painfully in spots
Watched Social Network and liked it.
Watched Inception and thought it was better than the Matrix ever was. Loved it.
Saw Takers. Not as bad as I would have judged. Had some quality to it though it was very typical heist style movie. Even though I like rap and hip hop, I expect very little from rapper produced movies. This one quality wise esp. was a step in the right direction.
Saw Easy A, was one of those feel good teen romcommer’s that was actually cute. It was on par w my like for Mean Girls. Emma Stone had me feeling like she was the new Lindsay basically. Albeit, the anti-crack/stupidity version.
Thought the American drug on unnecessarily, though Clooney was looking Fine (note w capital F).
Holy vulgar guilty pleasure, Machete. Did you really pull a cell phone out of there stripper outfits and naughty nurses? What am I watching?
Cried my face off watching Hachi, deep sobing ugly cry and I’m just not that kind of girl.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Loved.

Seen a ton of things but I pulled these off the top of my head. Gotta dress the boy and myself. ttyl

Recently Read Review-Sookie Stackhouse Novels

2010-11-08T19:41:00.003-05:00

Been reading the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire novels and really enjoy it. I’m on the 8^th book. Before I get into all that let me say this on a sidenote; I read the first book of the Twilight series and thought I might choke Bella out through the pages. It kinda made me worry about teenage girls reading those books. She (Bella) just seemed like a codependant, insecure, stupid girl. I really wanted to jump on the bandwagon and like it but I just couldn't. Some of my friends and family say I need to keep reading and I will.... eventually...maybe. I’ve got the other 3 books to read but I don’t know if I can bring myself to waste the time/effort.

Anyway, the Sookie series is not for teenage girls or people who love the no sex aspect of Twilight. The books are no where near as explicit as the Showtime series but…it’s no purity show. Hide your kids, hide your wives….and hide your husbands too

I will also say that Stephanie Meyers is probably a better writer than Charlaine Harris BUT Charlaines characters and books are more interesting and fun and clever.

The books regarding Sookie are significantly different from what’s being done in the series (after the first season, that is- the 1^st season kinda goes right along with the first book which makes sense). Anyway, I don’t know if Sookie will realize it or not but book after book I’m more and more Team Eric and she needs to be too. Course in regard to the TV show I’m team Eric too. Bill is a boring unattractive mess compared to Eric on the show. Season 2 they give Eric a haircut and I was like, DUUUUUDDE. As in, “Holla at me, you look so good I could slap your mama” kind of DUUUUUDE.

So, some things I like about the books have mainly to do with the characters, especially Sookie. She’s funny and clever and smart in the books. She is also gangsta/gangster (tomaetoe/tomahtoh). In the books she’s like,"Bill, Sam, Tara, Eric, boyfriend,girlfriend, king, queen, brother –WHOEVER if you're in trouble…I’m going in." She’s an undeniably strong character in the book though she does need rescuing. She’s finally the chick who kicks off the high heels to sprint from the bad guys while slathering vaseline on her face for the inevitable brawl to come and I like that. I think at one point in the latest book she pretty much says, "this chick does not know, I'm the business when it comes to a fight." I don't know I could be paraphrasing just a bit. Anyway, she might be considered by others just a slight bit Whiskey Tango but she doesn’t view herself as such so in turn no matter what anybody says in the book we all know she isn’t (lol). There’s plenty more I like but I’ll leave it at this.

Some things I don’t like about the books is the constant rehashing Charlaine does with each new installment. I’ve read Series books before and I can never recall this constant rehashing of characters and back information. Sometimes it’s so annoying that I’ll skim/skip the page or paragraph she’s going on and on in. Charlaine, honey, there’s gotta be a better way. I understand the desire to make each book a product the reader can pick up at any installment and not feel totally lost but seriously…seriously? There’s gotta be a better way. Another oddity--well, I guess the character of Bubba is kinda growing on me with each passing book not but the first few books that character made me laugh out loud due to how cheesy it felt to stick him in there. It felt undeniably cheesy BUT I also had to like that the author wasn’t afraid to have fun and insert him. There are other things I could complain about but nevertheless I recommend the series if you like TrueBlood, the show, and if you like vampire novels.

Let's pretend

2010-11-08T18:20:00.003-05:00

Let's pretend like I never left and haven't be completely absent from my little blog space for over a year. Pretending.....time......NOW!
So we move back to Georgia in February some time. I guess I will have to make it my business to post up any trips and travel we do between now and then. It has been a blast living here and I don't want to leave. Straight up. Period. Don't wanna go.
Guess I gotta move onto the next chapter of my life. Nevertheless these last few months will certainly be a blow out of events. Funny everyone is visiting us now that the sand is about to run out on the hour glass here. By the time it's all said and done we will have had about two months of guests staying here! It's been a blast. I'm so glad everyone has/is coming. It's been nice being able to share a little smidgen of my life with everyone. My sister and her boys are here now and there is a series of wonderfulness going on between my son and her boys being together, her LOVING Italy, and getting to hear the boys perspective on everything they see and learn.
Anyway, I see that I said so last year but for real...talk to ya soon, I'm back on the blogging tip and I'm about to come with a vengeance.

It's been a while

2009-05-08T21:39:00.002-04:00

I'm just going to jump right back in here like it's what I've been doing for a spell instead of continuing on like I have been which would leave us all with more days of nothing said. The truth is that once I finally got over being sick with the baby I've done a lot of interesting stuff. I'll even have the thoughts of, "Man I should blog about this." Then I just don't. I'm going to try to be better. I've only got one more month until baby James is here BTW. Should be cool. Anyhoo, I'll start with something easy today. Movie "reviews".
There's no way in Sam Hill I can go back and give you a recap of the zillions of movies I've crushed over these months so I'm just going to do the last four I've watched. There's no favorites and no outright V8 award recipients in this batch so here's what I've got.
1. Bolt- Yep, I resorted to watching Bolt even though I don't actually have a child here begging to watch cartoons and I am not ashamed. The truth is that I've seen cuter and funnier animations in the past but it wasn't a bad flick by any means. If you want to watch some cartoon sweetness then this is a harmless choice. It has a little humor and a sweet message and ending. There's no Bambi, "Your mother won't be with us anymore" moments which is good but I did think to myself a couple times: "Can they just straight up rip off Inspector Gadget like that?" (Those old inspector gadget cartoons were dope!) Cartoons back then were so much better than the weaksauce they have now; and you can't beat those old theme songs. Anyhoo...
2. The Spirit-This movie was whack but I couldn't stop watching. I get it to a certain extent; the dialog and such are suppose to be hokie but good grief. Still I can't give it a tomato splat because it was the type of movie that is so bad it's funny. I would say to rent this movie only if you're in the mood to laugh and not take it too seriously.
3. The Reader- I thought this was a good movie but you should be warned to be prepared for a lot (I do mean a lot) of sexual inappropriateness. I'll tell you what else too, the movie has a lot of substance but the part that made my heart grow to Grinch size on Christmas morning was the short spell when old dude makes all the tapes and old girl starts to read and get her write on. I just thought that was amazing but don't rent it if you have a problem with sexuality on screen because they are not playing around.
4. Hotel for Dogs- Just another sweet and fluffy movie with little parts by Lisa Kudrow and Don Cheadle. It's about some kids who, you guessed it, start a clever little hotel for stray dogs after becoming "strays" themselves. It's just all kinds of lighthearted, feel good, family friendliness up in there so if that's what you're looking for rent this sweet little movie.

Back on the Block

2008-12-06T07:15:00.002-05:00

1. First things first. I'm pregnant, preggo, preggers, knocked up, inseminated, with child. My lovely lady lumps gotta me a beauty baby bump. I gotta bun in the oven. I'm procreating. I'm multiplying the Earth. I'm a mommy to be, so on and so forth....you get the picture.

2. I'm back on the blogging tip but I'm not so sure it will be so much about knitting so the little readership I do have might be forced to keep it moving past my site. On the other hand I don't have plans to turn into Mommy and me central up in here either.

3. I haven't explored much of Italy yet but now that I'm feeling better--Venice, Rome, Verona--YOU COMPLETE ME.

4. I might change the site name to "Movie Watching Chick Knits sometimes" because I've got a whole bunch of movie reviews and a whole lot of unfinished knitting/crocheting projects.

5. The whole Bailey family is coming in a little over a week for Christmas.

someday...

2008-10-15T07:06:00.001-04:00

I'll be hooked up to my own internet again and will be able to blog and upload pics of my new home as well as some of the projects I've gotten done. In the mean time "Viva Italia!"

Big ol summer bag.

2008-07-19T18:40:00.006-04:00

The other thing I got done this past week were all the squares for my big ol summer bag that I want to take to the beach at the end of august. I needed 16 crocheted squares. Here they are.
I just need to sew them together and find someone to sew me a liner for it. I also have not decided what kind of strap I'm going to use. More info. to come later.

Lessons from Mama

2008-07-19T13:02:00.006-04:00

I've been on Ravelry a lot lately and I must say that somehow it is motivating me to get my projects done. It may be a couple of things egging me on.

First off I've queued almost 150 projects that I want to knit.

Second, I have the yarn in my stash for several of the projects that I've queued.

Third, I have the book or pattern or pdf for a lot of the patterns I have in my queue with awaiting yarn.

Fourth, with all the other ridiculous stats I see since I've been on Rav. I've only got 16 projects done….and not all of them are DONE. I have a couple hibernating. I have a couple still in progress. That reminds me. The hat isn't done. I ran out of yarn-i have some more in my stash but it's currently in storage waiting for shipment. I'll finish the brim when I can get to my stash but that will only take a minute.

Also, Joy is enjoying her Special K's.

Ok, so anyway, ultimately, the stats don't lie and when I log on and see how out of proportion things are it kinda checks me. I may be itching to cast on a new project but I won't let myself until I see at least one of those WIP's are done first. I might want to buy some more yarn but not until I bust some stash first because honestly, this is ridiculous. (At this point there will be no new yarn buying unless I'm vacation). I don't want to be a SABLE chick. I want to have a small stash. Right now I feel so wasteful. When I was young my mother would say, "There are children in Africa that would kill for…." insert whatever you like in that space- food, toys, clothes. I know ya'll have been there before, sitting at the dinner table for hours pushing around food that you don't like wishing you could reach the Kool-Aid drink that has been sat in the middle of the table out of reach so you don't fill up on drink and not eat.

Wow, sorry forgive me, flashbacks. I digress-- what I’m trying to say is my mom was right. I need to appreciate what I have and not be wasteful. I’m sure there are knitters in Africa who would kill to have my stash—right? (Puh-leez, lets face it, there’s knitters in a America that would stomp a foot in my… ) Anyway, I’m going to use up a large part of this stash---I will! I can!

You guys and Ravelry will help me right.

Special K's done

2008-07-10T08:16:00.004-04:00

I can tell you right now, the second legwarmer looks tons better than the first legwarmer. I think it has to do with confidence. I spent much of the 1st legwarmer figuring out the pattern, wondering about the gauge, trying it on constantly…the 2nd one? The second one I just cast on and knit and got it done. All the stitches are a lot neater, it took me less time and I barely tried it on at.
So anyway, I’m not ripping legwarmer number one out so, here they go. Of course I haven’t blocked them yet. These were extra quick to knit so that was cool.
I had planned on making myself some in brown using the same pattern but the other day when I was looking at records at the salvation army I ran across this:
Those legwarmers are hot! Jane even had the hole cut out on the heel. Looks like 1x1 rib for like two inches on either side and then all stockinette. I wonder if I could figure out how to do magic loop for these. Hmmmmm.
You know, I was wondering how effective stash busting really is if you have to buy additional yarn in order to bust the yarn in your stash? This seems to happen to me often actually. I have the brown wool I wanted to knit the original legwarmers out of but I don’t have any mohair/fuzzy yarn and I want my warmers to be a little hazy. And if I decide to knit the Jane Fonda legwarmers I’m going to need a lot more yarn. Dilemma.
Even still, legwarmers aside, sometimes I have to buy an extra skein or some more complimentary yarn when it comes to using yarn in my stash and I can’t help but to chuckle at the irony of buying more yarn to have less yarn.
Anyway, I will cast on for my pair soon but first I want to finish this…

It’s Mellow Moods from the 1st Get Your Crochet On! Crochet is so freaking quick.

Special K legwarmers

2008-07-09T12:40:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I watched breakin’ with some family. It was a nice throw back. Me and my brother were pretty excited to share because we loved the breakin’ movies when we were growing up.
I mean I was all but gonna marry Turbo and Ozone. Anyway, the week after that we watched Beatstreet. My brothers girlfriend is taking breakdancing classes and the movies have been a sort of home work for her. Anyway, what really matters is that special K was layering the legwarmers on like nobody’s business. I was convinced immediately that I needed to make us both at least a pair. So I started hers' the other day from some yarn I had in my stash (STASHBUSTING!!!). Thus far I’ve got like one and a quarter done. They are quick knits…

It’s 1x1 ribbing of Lion Brand Wool-ease yarn held together with some wanna be mohair yarn that my sister gave me. I’m using size 9 double pointed needles. I just kinda ripped the pattern off from looking at legwarmers on ravelry (sorry). Nevertheless, they’re coming out pretty dope…if I don’t say so myself.
On a side note Ozone was wearing a couple of leather vests with zippers and chinese letters on the back. They were pretty dope. I definitely wish chinese letters would come back in style...I'd rock that in a minute without hesitation--heck if I could find them I'd start my own trend regardless...
I'm getting ridiculous w/ the youtube but you gotta check out Jean Claude Van Damme gettin' down in the crowd in breakin'. Yep, that's him in the black spandex unitard. Toooooo funny.

Step 1. Admitting there's a problem

2008-07-08T10:16:00.003-04:00

I don't know if you've noticed. I don't know if I've told you all. I don't know if it's been obvious or not.

I have been so out of my element this last….geez forever. I've been out of it for forever at this point…let's not put a time frame on it ok? But really the worse has been these last eight months while my husband has been away in Afghanistan. It's been touch and go ya'll and you could never imagine how much yarn I have acquired in the last eight-ish months alone. It's kind of embarrassing actually. I need to get myself under control. I need accountability. I need to admit I have a problem. I'll start ponying up the goods slowly but you guys have to promise not to judge. I swear it's like I black out and suddenly when I come to, elann or kpixie or knit picks is knocking at my door thanking me for my purchase. Boy does it feel good to get those packages in the mail…

Fiery Phiaro Done

2008-07-07T19:12:00.004-04:00

It's been a week or so and I still haven't blocked it and I must admit I wore it out to the new Wegman's because I had on these cute shorts and sandals and the weather was just right and I was feeling it and it didn't look incredibly wrinkled, just cute and sophisticated and I had a little Grace Jones"strange' girl" (pronounced straun*jay) in my strut and....although I can't say that Grace was very cute or sophisticated in that movie but she was working it from the old school "fierce" factory...
Anyway, I love this scarf. It was a pain in the neck to knit toward the end because it was so freaking boring and then you gotta braid all the fringe but it was so worth it when I got to "work it" in my handmade scarf at the grocery store (oh, don't hate). You can check the specifics on Ravelry but I did use 2 and a little bit of the third skein to finish this. I also bound off 10 stitches between every drop 5 group instead of doing and even ratio like the pattern calls for. I like it this way. Surely I'll block it this week

Ebay bay, ebay bay, e bay bay

2008-07-03T10:16:00.005-04:00

found some Calmer style yarn – ebay bay

Had a little sale going on- ebay bay

Put it in my stash so I can Hike- ebay bay

Ohhh, you know that price was really right- ebay bay

Eh, e-bay that's my yarn… snap it up!

OHHHHhhhhhhh Snap! That's hot! Let me find out I'm bout to grab a record deal up in here. LOL, sorry, some of that southern rap (here's a singalong-lol) for ya. Feel freet to link to that foolywag material which is the music video if you want. Somebody tell me why Hurricane Chris has those Venus/Serena beads in his hair still? He needs to be pulled over and ticketed.

Anyway, I found some Calmer on ebay (get it-hehe) for cheap the other day-it was a total freak event. I snapped it up and it goes directly in my stash so I can finally knit Hike. Don't know when I'll ever start this top but at least I've got the yarn for it. I actually got it a while back but never posted.

I finished Ay baybays (AKA PeteyPab) summer bag too. As you can figure old gal is about the souff....

I used stash dishcloth cottons and the everlasting bagstopper pattern on Knitty. You can check out specifics on Ravelry. I'm Ninabeena on there. We should be friends.

Movies 18 thru 21

2008-06-25T15:08:00.002-04:00

Today's Feature

18. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford- I feel like I missed some stuff in this movie and need to watch it again and I would too if the movie wasn't Soooooo. Freaking. Long. I mean seriously it's a great movie but it goes on for so long you do get tired of watching. Me and the BIL debated whether it was worth it to go on I mean we know that Jesse is assassinated already! Lol. In hind sight it is worth watching.

19. Cronicas- (foreign w/ subtitles) OMG this was a good movie. Let me just say that John Leguizimos was amazing in this movie and Damian Alcazar, the guy that plays the imprisoned Bible salesman, is so freaking creepy it's chilling. Actually that whole story is chilling. It really got me thinking about the influence well known people and reporters have on popular culture and also how twisted the media is. I couldn't believe the motivation to get compelling and dangerous footage throughout the movie without having a strong moral urge to intercede or do the right thing. Also, in the beginning of the movie there is a scene where the press is attending a funeral for a child and they're just having a normal business as usual conversation with cell phones ringing and everything. The disconnect of respect and decency depicted was very poignant in my opinion.

20. Rocky Balboa- What is Sly even talking about in half of the movie!? It's just this big slurred jumbled mess of verbage- lol. Actually, I have to say, once it was all said and done I have to admit this was pretty good. It stuck to the original Rocky formulas so I couldn't be that mad at it for the bad acting, dialogue, and triumph with a fighter's heart outcome. You should rent if you need some eye of the tiger in your life and maybe are feeling a little down. J

21. There will be Blood- Talk about an interesting movie. I mean WOW. I kept waiting for the movie to get to the point honestly and in the end I was a little disheartened to find that I had sat through hours of (actually we ended up watching it over two days because it went on for so long) graphic craziness for pretty much more graphic craziness to ensue! The verdict is still out as to whether this movie should be called a good idea or not and I'll tell you why….though long and puzzling, it's intriguing- you want to keep watching because the story is so….so? The story is so compelling and insane and interesting and you're constantly wondering what is this leading up to? There's this sense of anticipation the whole time you're watching….and then…and you'll have to find out for yourselves!

Orange u glad I didn't say....

2008-06-18T09:57:00.003-04:00

I finally started my fiery Phiaro scarf. I love the yarn that I ended up going with. The colorway is called Tequila.
It's by SWTC, it's 100% bamboo. Some of ya'll helped me choose it for this project and it was such good advice!
This is the 2nd time I've used bamboo yarn. I love the way it feels. It's interesting, the first time I used this yarn it felt a little "crunchy" until I blocked it but now it's just silky silky.
This is such a quick knit. Just straight up mindless nonstop stockinette, it's great for sitting and watching movies or tv. I'm almost at 10 inches- just 12 more to go until I can start dropping stitches. What I'm really not looking forward to is the finishing. You have to braid about a zillion pcs. of fringe.

Quick Crochet

2008-06-17T10:28:00.005-04:00

I forgot how fast crochet is. A friend of the family has been going through a hard time recently so I decided to make her something. Of course I had some yarn that would suit her well already in my stash. It's that laceweight yarn my sister gave me when I first FIRST started knitting. I tried to knit it into lace so many times it was ridiculous. It has mohair in it and when you rip it back it gets really tangled. For some reason it never dawned on me over the years to crochet with that yarn...I've really wanted to use it b/c it's just so pretty. Anyway, the opportunity knocked and whomp---there it is...I knit this up in a day and a half- prob could have been quicker if I stayed devoted....I freaking love crochet! I need to take some post blocked pics so you can see that this is actually cute. It's this pattern. I think the yarn I used is from Cherry Tree Hill...it has little sparkles in it too.

Going green...

2008-06-17T02:48:00.003-04:00

This is about to be so random but what else is new? For the longest time I've appreciated the look of natural hair. I tried several years ago to grow my hair natural but I didn't have the courage to do the BIG CHOP. I had several inches of new growth with my processed hair back then but couldn't chop it off. Recently I had a weave and hardly any new growth at all but for some reason I decided enough was enough and found my courage.
Here's what it looks like.
Mind you I look a lot more "fierce" with make up and proper accessories. This pic is just a drive by. I'll give you some sexy later...don't you worry.
In other "green" news I ripped back the bag that I was making for "Ay BayBay" and now I'm reknitting it using the Everlasting bagstopper pattern on Knitty. Now that I'm motivated again, it will be done in no time.

Movies 12 thru

2008-06-12T10:44:00.002-04:00

TODAY'S FEATURE

12. No Reservations- Cute little movie. I know everyone raves about that little Abigail girl from Little Ms. Sunshine. I'm not a big fan of the kid but still she did a fine job and the movie was a cute little predictable romantic (it was suppose to be a comedy) drama. If chick flicks are your thing pick this baby up it's really sweet.

13. Run Lola Run- (foreign w/ subtitles) Obviously, I had never seen this before but had heard rave reviews from others in my Fiberflix and Netflix groups. I am so glad I watched it. I actually watched it with my brother in law and he pretty much hates subtitles but the movie was so high energy, entertaining, and interesting that we both ended up loving it. I really love how the story is told and the snapshots into the future, and the animation. It was a really cool film. I would recommend it.

14. Hotel Rowanda- Another incredible movie. It will be a really hard week to choose my feature of the day. Don Cheadle. Wow. That's pretty much all I've got on that note. The movie is incredibly moving. It spoke legions about the different political relations in Africa. It also amazes me how in modern day people can still be slaughtered in mass because of race, religion, economical status etc. (not just in Africa). When I watch a movie like this I wonder, "How can I make a difference?"

15. Millions- This was a neat little foreign film. I ended up really liking it. I thought the concept was great. The little boy who plays the main character is as cute as a button and I loved how his imagination is played out on screen. It's quite the little family film too sort of home alone, meets real life, meets fantasy.

16. Volver- (foreign w/ subtitles) Another great movie. The thing that struck me is how lighthearted the film actually feels considering it deals with some very dark issues. Somehow it all just flows and seems to make sense. Penelope Cruz is wonderful and beautiful in this movie (me and the BIL had a convo of how she can be hit or miss sometimes) and again this movie is rich with latino culture. I loved it.

17. Baby Mama- Gotta love Tina Fey and her really funny writing perspective. Saw this in the the theater with a girlfriend of mine. It was laugh out loud funny but I will say that it is more on the chick flick side of things. While I think my hubby would have found things funny in it he would've requested I find a girlfriend to go with after all was said and done.

Snaps for the Kidz

2008-05-24T14:23:00.002-04:00

Me and my brother wilin' out at the Kanye concert. Yessir.

Been Writing.

2008-05-24T14:01:00.004-04:00

Yes, it is ridiculous right now. Don't even ask me what I've been away so long doing. I have no idea- the time has been occupied somehow. So sad. I go to Cali in four days too. I wonder how many posts I can get in from here til there to feel better about myself- lol. I have been writing a lot lately; just not on this blog. I have not been knitting or crocheting so much. I stare at my beautiful yarn almost everyday and think of the stuff i could knit but i don't. I think i got a little burnt out so I've been burning myself out writing poetry, "short" stories (50 pages so far) and lots of journal entries/devotions and blog entries on bodybuilding.com.
I have no idea why I have so much to talk about. I am not working, been only just a tiny bit social, doing only a handful of stuff most days but I am full of words apparently. I haven't even been watching movies like I usually do (though I do have some backlogged reviews that I need to post on here).
What's funny is that I'm not one of those chicks that always has something to say...out loud...verbally. I don't always want my voice to be heard and I'm not always the one shouting out my unwarranted opinion to people. I'm pretty good at keeping things to myself but wow, I realized (I guess I knew it before too) that on the inside my thoughts are constant they are overwhelming. I feel everything and anything provokes or inspires my.....words.
And it's not like I have an extensive vocabulary. I like to look them (words) up in the dictionary but I couldn't really tell how much of a variety of words I truly remember to use--somehow the ones I do use come out in different combinations and life is ok. I guess using the same words repeatedly make things sound like me. Those special times when I can remember that new snazzy word I looked up a day ago I feel like "oh, no don't hurt it with the flava girl..." I'll read my special combination of new worlds real proud like.
I've written so many words and I feel fulfilled but hungry to write more at the same time. I write them any kind of way, avoiding most set rules yet with my own special set of regulations and pet peeves to avoid. I listen to other peoples words and wonder how they would sound in my own story. I've written words I'd be embarrassed for others to see while being vulnerable to maybe the only person who truly knows inside of me. Freaking words....
Anyway, movie posts later today or tomorrow other stuff to follow...holleration.

What a day

2008-04-08T22:58:00.003-04:00

Boy today has been crazy. I have been on the go basically the whole day. I got in both my work out sessions and got my cpr/aed certification. Going thru that class really just hit me in a real emotional way. I really pray that if I am ever in that situation that God gives me the courage to do what I need to. I've never been a flight type of person in the past but I did get freaked out in the class once we started doing the compressions and I realized how easy--almost default it was to break ribs. Better broken ribs than unfinished life right?
Anyway, I got my taxes done today. What a freaking hassle. I got my Dexter swap package yesterday and have been dying to take pics and tell y'all about all the cool stuff I got. I didn't have much time today so I took my items with me to the tax office and took pics while I waited. I know those people thought I was crazy...whatev.
My swap partner is the absolute best. Everything she sent me was so thoughtful, snazzy/cool, and just plain great. I had so much fun with this swap. I can't wait to do the next one. This is def. my cup of tea as far as the knitting community swaps and KAL's go. Anyway without further ado...

My partner made me the coolest bag. I will have to take another pic so you guys can grasp the full scope of things. Nevertheless, its the coolest bag with little skulls all over it. Definitely my new knitting bag-permanently

Check out these stitch markers! They are body parts and the fingernails on the hands are even painted just like the ITK's victims. Note that the hands are black! love it.

My partner included a custom pouch that had not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR skeins of custom dyed merino wool (worsted-my favorite) inside. Do you know what colors those are? Ice Truck Killer colors my friends

Here's a shot of the other cool stuff that was in the package. She made me a custom Dexter flip book that included quotes and stickers from the show. She even sent me the barbie head keychain (in sistah version). Also included were cool stickers, a notebook, mints, earrings, not to mention a really heart felt and lovely necklace.

it's been a minute

2008-03-19T19:48:00.002-04:00

I haven't forgot about ya'll over here. I've got 3 nearly finished objects and some stuff i can hardly wait to cast on for....just been busy over here.
I've finally gotten myself back on track over here. I'm exercising, eating right, studying, doing work to sell the house, visiting/traveling, and just getting myself together mentally/spiritually/physically. It's all good over here.

Girl put your records on

2008-03-08T11:44:00.005-05:00

I don't know if I mentioned it here- probably not considered how I was out of blog mode for so long, I got a record player for Christmas. If you haven't somewhat guessed I love music. I mean LOVE it. I pretty much love all kinds of music too although old school jazz, blues, classic r&b, and 80's music hold a special place in my heart for some reason. Anyway, I ramble. I got a record player for Christmas. I informed my honey that I wanted to get into collecting because it's just my style. It reminds me of my childhood, now, don't get me wrong, I'm not that old and we had one of those big ol floor stereos with a tape player AND record player but I definitely remember my mother playing her Sade or Earth, Wind, and Fire records and my uncles DJ-ing and myself as a kid looking through several crates of hundreds of cool covered records while Luther or Atlantic star played in the background. I remember hanging in the basement searching through my uncle's crates of records just to see what he had. There is just something so authentic and organic and soul stirring to me about records. It makes me think of Smokey Robinson and Barry Gordy writing songs and cutting records at the hit factory in Tamla Records (I wrote a report about Motown and Barry Gordy when I was in the fourth grade)- what exciting/frustrating times they must have been. It makes me think of my mother. I know who she is through that music…through these records.

Anyway, you'll be seeing records make an appearance from time to time now and here's a couple that I found with Gudo and Weet a few weekends ago.

From L to R: David Sanborn, George Benson, Eagles, Compilation record w/ Ross, Stevie, and 'nem, Luther, and Smokey & the Miracles,.

How could I

2008-03-06T10:47:00.002-05:00

have forgotten how great exercise feels and how important it is to my overall mental health? I have been so DOWN in a big way and getting back on the exercising has worked wonders for my mental state in just two pathetic days. I'm not blazing through two miles or bench pressing 100 (yet) but man it felt good just to go on a little walk/run and be out and a part of the Earth today. I did it in the morning too...my favorite time. I'm breathing deep today.

News Report from Dexter Swap

2008-03-04T20:49:00.003-05:00

This is totally awesome and really made my day- morbid but the truth. I'm loving this swap!
I didn't know how to put the video on my blog so here's the link to a special report from my Dexter Swap Partner.

I don’t see nothing wrong…

2008-03-04T00:13:00.004-05:00

..with a little leopard skin

Y'all can call me tacky if you want to but I saw this ribbon at Michaels and I couldn't pass it up. I was going to go all fancy schmancy to some superior and uppity ribbon-notion shop and pick out a couple of feet of the most exquisite imported black and white ribbon or maybe something else that was silk or embossed with diamonds and 14K gold and platinum (every time you come around my city BlingBling). But then I was in Michaels looking for tags (I'll tell you about it later) and happened to look at some of the ribbon they had just for giggles and I not only thought it was cute but it spoke to me. Maybe it's my way of paying homage to my sister…she loves leopard she even has a leopard baby bag (and it is actually very chic). Anyway, I figured it would all be hot when I wore my leopard earrings (yes I said it; I ain't never scared) and black pencil skirt and sexy peep toes- holler atcha girl- I mean seriously what are the odds of finding a leopard skin anything that matches those earrings so perfectly? It's like trying to match denim from memory (not that you should be matching denim….)

Mine as well face it I’m addicted to yarn..

2008-03-03T00:47:00.003-05:00

sangin' "Mine as well face it I'm addicted to yarn…."

Clearly I can't be too ashamed of all my recent yarn purchases because I still have a mind to buy more. There are a couple of projects that I want specific yarn to knit with and not compromise. I bought myself one ball of Rowan calmer yarn back in the day when I saw the yarn harlot in Atlanta. Now I want to knit Hike out of Rowan mag #37. It requires like 11 or 13 balls. That's well over a hundred bucks for a sweater and I would have to sew in a zipper (not a good look). Also, I know that Universal tunic from this past Knitscene would be looking mighty fine too. I want to try the yarn they're hollerin' about in the pattern because I've heard good things about it. At least that yarn isn't too far off the charts in affordability (I found it for $4.99 at Royal Yarns online).

Then I've got all these other yarns that I'm constantly hearing about that I'm actually thriving to try out (but won't be because a sister does not have ends like that).

Dream in color smooshy,
Malabrigo,
Sundara (never gonna happen)
Scout's swag yarn.

I already know that Lisa Souza is no joke because I bought it for one of my swap partners a while back and almost couldn't give it up. Anyway, I know what I can afford though and that is $8.50. (I spend that at Panera in a day and I could definitely go without that for at least a day)Anyway, that's how much it costs to sample four yarns a month from the Yarn a Month club. I tell you what else doesn't sound bad either is a 6 month or one year subscription to Elann's little yarn sampling operation because I think the bottom line of all of this is I'M ADDICTED TO YARN. I had managed my addiction quite well for some time but now that there's a little extra $$ up in this mickieflick and no supervision…you know the rest.

I think a sister has some things to think about….

Let’s go crazy…let’s get nuts!

2008-03-02T10:41:00.003-05:00

I love me some old school Prince….Anyway, for some reason I can't get all the yarn that I told you about from my travels to post pictures. I'm going to try just to list and label today. Not too many words- of course you already read what all these are from this post anyway. Be ready for installment #2 any day now. J

Filatura Di Crosa Mohair-two for me

Two for sis (she also got a bag of Italian merino wool in her favorite color-not pic'd)

Filature Di Crosa Print 127 was on clearance- could be the beginnings of a blanket

Saw this vibrant Mondial Seven yarn. You saw what it has started to make yesterday.

Others to include

2008-03-01T21:13:00.003-05:00

I've got a couple other works in progress. I've got a little summer fun bag that I'm making for a friend of mine. Ey BayBay!

It should be done really soon if I actually pick it up and knit. I started it before my plane ride to New Mexico back in December. Then I got all side tracked with both of Matty's scarves that had to be done ASAP. I'm using sugar n'cream cotton and some Lion Cotton to do the job.

Then I casted on for this snazzy little market bag for myself with the yarn I got from Italy. I don't quite have enough to do everything I want to with it so I'm adding some other yarn to the mix (don't know what). Hopefully it will come out cute. Geez, it would stink if it didn't! Originally the pattern came from MagKnits but after I'm done modifying it who knows what it will look like.

In the meantime I've decided that I'm going to rip a good portion of the baby blanket I was doing out so I can double up on the strands and also do a little research on how I can pick up stitches a little better. After my last two turns my work has started to pucker…really bad. Bye bye blankie.

Finally, parting shots of my progress on the scandalous ribby tank…ohhh I like the ring of that… Hence! From this day forth rib tank #24 shall officially be dubbed "Scandalous Ribby Tank." Actually if the split down the back were just a little lower I could call it the bootycrack ribby tank. Anyway…

Call on Jesus

2008-03-01T00:40:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went to Union Station in DC for the first time. It was awesome. Do I dare to tell y'all that it was better than Grand Central Station in NYC. I guess I do because it was. I forgot to take pics though I had my camera with me. I will have to go back. This time I went to meet Lissy there to have lunch. I got there about an hour late even though I left an hour early. I have probably driven to DC on my own twice and I got the lamest directions I could have possibly gotten to make it there. Next thing I know I'm in Maryland somewhere. Thanks very much to the ladies at the Jesus Christ bookstore for printing off new directions for me to make it. They were awesome. I had just about given up when the sign for the Jesus bookstore shone like a beacon in a foreign land…my thought was surely they'll be willing to help and certainly I won't have to worry about getting sliced up at the Jesus bookstore.

Wanna be startin' something

2008-02-29T10:45:00.004-05:00

Thanks so much for all the feedback from folks on Ravelry. I'm going with Tequilla for the scarf. You know I was thinking that maybe I wouldn't send the Esquire back.
Maybe I'll knit the clapotis out of it. I did rip out the bullfrogs and butterflies clapotis. I would need one more skein...

Can’t decide, let’s vote ok?

2008-02-23T01:59:00.003-05:00

So I got yarn to knit that snazzy little Phiaro scarf from Knitscene. I'm subbing with SWTC Bamboo yarn instead of using their Oasis like the pattern calls for. Thing is I originally got onto kpixie saw the color Tequilla and thought "LOOOOOOOOOOVE, never knew what I was missing…" but the more I looked at it I thought, "Nina maybe you need to click-click-click it down a few notches-other people might not know how to handle you and all your all color ALL THE TIME." So then I let my eye wander over to my second choice, Esquire. When I saw Esquire the song eventually came to me, "I try hard to fight it- no way can I deny it…..can't explain why your loving makes me weak." So I clicked "buy." And in a short day and a half it was on my doorstep.

(Esquire)

Then I happened to be giving an update on what I was ready to cast onto my needles on Ravelry (I'm on a whole 'nother level of addiction to that place recently) and went to link the page that I bought the esquire from and wouldn't you know I accidentally bought 3 skeins of Tequilla. Actually, I had a panic attack when I saw the tequilla again and decided I wasn't being true to myself.

(Tequila)

So now here's the story I get Tequila the next day (kpixie is not even joking with the shipping) and while nice it's not exactly what I thought either- so now I have two great colorways and I honestly can't decide which I'll used for Phiaro. One of them has to go back. Will y'all vote and help a sister out?

Movies 8-11

2008-02-22T01:23:00.005-05:00

TODAY'S FEATURE

8. El Cantante- Ya'll I'm mad at the media on this one. I thought the movie was fantastic. So many critics dismissed this movie because J.Lo starred in it with her husband. So what! She delivered an awesome performance. Marc Anthony? Holy poo, his acting was good but his singing…his voice was just nothing short of amazing. I got the soundtrack afterward and I also got my good girlfriend to burn me some of the original Hector Lavoe's music. This is would have been my pick of the week had I not been so inspired by the documentary. I just thought the movie was very compelling and let me tell you J.Lo looks awesome in this movie too- great wardrobe. It definitely irritates me that this movie didn't get picked up more here. Aside from the media's love/hate with J.Lo I also feel like the lack of coverage is a social issue too but whatev, don't even get me started.

9. In the time of Butterflies- I thought the cast of this movie was really good. It's another Latino culture/history must see. There were a couple points in the Father's portrayal that I thought hmmm, this seems a little generic but nevertheless the acting as a whole was good. A very young Marc Anthony makes a cameo. You could tell that this piece really mattered to everyone playing a part on screen- they really wanted the story to be told and heard. The Latin culture is so rich and when I think about the music, the dancing, and just the history to overcome in places like Cuba, Columbia, Dominican Republic etc I feel it close in my spirit with the struggle my own people have endured. I just want to study and learn more. I think it is amazing. I watched three very life enriching movies this time and I feel rewarded. Just to change the tone a little I will mention how sickeningly beautiful Salma is even when she is not all done up and has her nappy/ratty prison wig on. Actually all the sisters are lovely

10. Born into Brothels- Such a striking documentary about kids living in the Red Light District in Calcutta. Though I could see the obvious social issues addressed in this movie, what struck me the most is that thing. That thing that seems like I've talked about before. The burning question in my own mind; those children made me wonder and also helped answer, albeit only a small bit, what is it that makes a person? How is it that all those kids come from the same life and some of them understand this doesn't have to be their destiny and others are consumed by the cycle of what they see? I felt like I could see it in the children; the ones who would take advantage of their opportunity and run with it. I could see the ones who could clearly see this documentary, those trips, boarding school; as an opportunity and would seize the day. In the end I found myself heartbroken that some of "my" kid's opportunities were snatched from them by their own parents who could not be selfless enough to give their own kids a chance at something different than what they have. Though sad, this too spoke directly to my heart and drove home some of those things we learn about ourselves and others when the going gets tough. This was such a human story that needed to be told. There is something powerful about the natural hope of a child and it's even more powerful what the stealing of that hope from children can motivate people to do in order to make change. I found the website with some extra info on children born into brothels and the vision of the charity here. You can buy their photographs and other merchandise here. Or just make a donation here. Of course there is some controversy that you can read about here with additional links

11. Jumper- Geez, what can I say? I would not recommend anyone spending their money to go see this in the theater and I'll tell you why: while the concept of teleportation is awesome, the acting and script fall severely short. Have you ever watched a movie and wondered what's the point? Have you ever watched a movie and wanted to yell at the screen so say what you mean already! I can definitely only take vague talk in good movies—you know the ones where you want your mind to be bended…not so with this film. The film is really lacking a certain cohesiveness that would make it good. There were several points in the movie where I just wanted it to be over or the dialog would literally make me cringe. I think this sucks because I was looking forward to being entertained and all the teleportation scenes (which there were many) where just way cool….which considering should have been able to save the movie but it didn't. I don't know I hope this is making sense.

Fit Chick Knitting?

2008-02-21T17:46:00.004-05:00

Truth is ya'll, I'm a little embarrassed. If I keep it up I'm going to have to think of something else to call my blog. Maybe just chick knits because the "fit" is not poppin' off over here. I'm having a hard time getting myself motivated. I've said it before and I will say it again. It has been a rough year over in this mickieflick. Georgia took a lot out of this city slickin' sistah and I have not bounced back. Heck, I had pretty much just got into my swing and then it was time to go from there- now I'm back home and even it is pretty whack. I feel like I hear a Michael Jackson scarecrow singing "You can't win," in the background. When did I become so hard to please….

Anyway, I'm still complaining bear with me. I need to get it together and handle my business. The sooner I do that the sooner I can move myself to Italy! A part of getting myself together is taking care of myself. Starting today, I'm back on the get it right, get it tight fitness for life plan. Especially if I'm trying to wear this when I'm done.

Remember how I used to be obsessed with Knit.1? Well the obsession is back (it never left) and I'm starting with the first issue I ever bought. I'm going back and making all the crazy stuff I have marked up and still like about three years later. This is the ribbed tank. Pattern number 24 in the mag. I started it two days ago. I am using size 6 straight needles (because I like straights) and some King Tut cotton yarn I had in my stash. I'm kinda excited I get to scour for a snazzy ribbon for the back. Oh, and the needles I'm using are those little plastic ones that light up—I've had them for a while but this is the first time I've actually used them. Can you believe I really like them?! So many people don't…anyway here's a progress shot...I've got more done now actually

Last call for alcohol...

2008-02-20T11:30:00.003-05:00

Well not quite. It's the last call to sign up for the Dexter Swap. You have until 12 midnight to get your sign up questionnaires (scroll down page on link) in. Let the good times roll.

Disturbingly delighting Dexter

2008-02-13T10:06:00.006-05:00

I couldn't tell you why I'm over the top stoked about this Dexter swap I'm in(sign up end Feb.20). Between liking the show and just feeling like it will be a lighthearted fun swap I can't help myself. I hope others are as excited as I am. I've already started a list of things that I could include in my swap package. I'm trying to conjure up something creative. Some other people in the Dexter group on Ravelry (which is where the I found out about the swap) have already gotten their creative juices flowing. Here are some of the cool colorways that one of the members has created and started to sell. Again, if you're a fan of the show you'll be amused by the names and the colors.

103 AKA "Bloodbath"

Dexter

Hookers Fingernails

Ice Truck Killer

Hawaiian Shirts

Those were just some of the ones I really liked she has others like Dark Defender, Dexter's Canvas, Bay Harbor Butcher, Lila, and Beneath the Bay. If you're not down with all the grouping and swapping business and you just like the yarn you can get it here from Cosmic Yarns on Etsy. I think all she has left is the Hawaiian shirts colorway but I'm sure that will change once the swap gets started plus you can special request.

Stash is out of control.

2008-02-12T23:41:00.004-05:00

I have so much that I need to get done in these next months it's ridiculous. I look forward to the adventure and to learning new things.
One thing I have had time for was to buy more yarn. I'm pretty much sure my stash is officially out of control. I am definitely acquiring at a quicker rate that I could ever knit. Somehow I've managed to pick up yarn in each place that I've visited over the last two months…. except for Atlanta! Interesting….it's not because I didn't have plans to stop there that's for sure!
I showed you what I got in New Mexico, here's a look at some of the stuff I got in Italy. I found a great shop there called Bevilacqua Lane Vicenza.
The first stuff I picked up there was this great springy, squishy ZarOne yarn by Filatura Di Crosa. I got 8 balls in a sort or khaki color and knit Matty another scarf that he could take with him to Afghanistan. Can you believe I knit him a man sized 2x2 ribbed scarf in 3 days in the midst of all we were doing there? Of course I don't have any pics of the finished product for some reason….nevertheless, I really liked the yarn. I only used 6 balls so when I went to Sumter, SC to see my sister she got the other two. Two balls only gives you like 120 or something like that. I wonder what she'll make. I just hope she enjoys it as much as I did and maybe she'll post up a pic of the yarn. On the other hand before I got there to Italy I finished the original scarf I was knitting him in Cascade 22o. You get the idea. It's seed stitch. Amazingly, I actually do have a picture of it.

It took me a couple weeks to make. I have a whole lot of the dark brown left. Don't know what I'll make out of it.
Anyway, I also got my sister a big bag of really soft Italian wool in her favorite color-don't know the name and I don't have a pic- maybe she'll post one up whenever she gets back to blog land. With the new baby I don't know how much knitting homegirl will really be doing but when the time comes I got her enough to make herself something nice. I also got her 2 balls of Filatura Di Crosa mohair. It's pictured below.

I got myself the other two balls of mohair along with this crazy colored Mondial seven. I figured I could make some type of grocery store or market bag with that stuff.

Then I fell upon this bag of Filatura Di Crosa Print 127 on sale full of colors that just screamed "Nina, baby you know that you like my style, you know that you like my style." I was like, holler atcha girl, you could be a cute little blanket or something one day"

There's more traveling goodness but I fear that this is looking way too ridiculous, still you know that I didn't leave Sumter empty handed- mainly due to my sister. She's an enabler.

Addicted to Dexter

2008-02-12T22:47:00.006-05:00

I happened to fall upon Dexter on the browse instantly feature on Netflix. Lissy had mentioned the show when I was in New Mexico and when I saw they had it for download I started to watch...and watch....and watch...and watch. I completed the first season and went ahead and ordered Showtime so I could Tivo the 2nd season. I am completely hooked. So hooked in fact that I've been tempted to break my no more KAL/swap's rule that's been in affect for well over a year now. I just signed up for :
It's going to be awesome. If you're a fan of the show or the books you should definitely hop on board . Sign ups close Feb. 20th.

Movies #4 thru #7

2008-02-12T13:42:00.001-05:00

TODAYS FEATURE

On the plane ride from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany they showed two movies. They were both ok in my opinion so I won't be giving any V8 awards (just a tomato splat).

4. Hairspray- Well, wow. I would say that this one is leaning just slightly to the "I couldda hadda V8" side of things. I can't believe this thing won a ton of awards. I'll tell you why. Disclaimer: I actually really like musicals. This one had some really good numbers in it that were performed well. Unfortunately, I still had some bones to pick or lets just say some things that I couldn't get to stop nagging me. First, John Travolta--seriously? I saw that Oprah special for Hairspray were they just went on and on about how light on your feet you were and how amazingly womanlike you were in the movie but there were so many things about your character that I couldn't get over. Lets' start with the voice and then work our way over to the accent (which Oprah said you nailed but I actually felt was a mockery and a little over the top) and then we can finally focus on how seriously unattractive and unconvincing you are as a woman. Secondly, it nagged at me how quick, seamless, and easy the "integration" went. I mean old girl and dude are just making out on camera and then America (which suddenly isn't racist anymore) automatically call in and vote how they voted. I know that there is suppose to be a lightheartedness to the whole thing but for me- this was a musical too far detached from reality considering that it is actually dealing with some REAL issues. I felt like on one hand they wanted it to be such a statement but on the other fun and light and not really get into it all. Almost, like they couldn't really decide which way to go with it. Maybe since I never saw the original hairspray I just didn't get it. I realize that it is a musical and there's a certain lightheartedness that comes with that but it was too much for me at times.

5. December Boys- This was a sweet little story of 4 orphan boys in England who are given a "holiday" from the orphanage/nunnery to the coast. It's all about their adventures, growing up, family, and lifes lessons even when you have your own intentions. It had the Harry Potter boy, Daniel Radcliffe, in it. He and Elijah Wood remind me so much of each other; it's actually quite weird. Anyway, little potter did ok and the story was a sweet one. The movie was not a waste of time but you know, nothing too intense, or funny, or provoking, or too intriguing-- just a solid story.

On the plane ride back from Frankfurt to Germany they showed two more movies which I did not actually watch on the plane. One I had seen already (Ratatouille) and the other I wanted to see (Martian child) but had already started Monsters Ball on my laptop…good thing no one was sitting in the same row as me btw.

6. Monsters Ball- Ok, couple things. I really liked the movie. I don't think that Halle should have won an Oscar for her performance in this movie and I love Halle. She would have deserved one (in my opinion) for Things we Lost in the Fire but I thought her acting in this movie was over the top. Hated her slang and supposed to be low class attitude. To me it looked like Halle Berry pretending to be ghetto, she never once took me away from who she really is. Geez, Heath Ledger's character and Billy Bob's character had so many dimensions. I was very pleasantly surprised by Diddy too. Anyway, I thought the story was an amazing story and I also thought that the ending was a really great thought provoking and soul resonating ending. The sex scene was absolutely crazy. It was SO realistic. It was like soft porn...maybe. The movie as a whole is really good. Although, if you're looking for a feel good, lift your spirits kind of movie this is not necessarily it. Anyway, with all its seriousness this is this week's pick.

7. Superbad- Thought I was going to hate this movie but there were a ton of inappropriate things that cracked me up. I usually find movies like these not very funny because they usually replace the real humor with crudeness. A lot of that happens in this movie but there still manages to be a lot of really funny elements. Not my feature of the week, but if you're on the crudely funny tip with some extra language have a look.

Evian Alps

2008-02-06T13:42:00.001-05:00

This post is old.

For some reason airplane window photos are always hit or miss. I am in beautiful, delicious Italy now. When I flew in I snapped a couple of shots of the Alps. They look exactly like the Evian water bottle pictures. They are beautiful.

I want to learn to snowboard and ski now so I can experience them in all their true glory. Still, it was a crazy day to travel here. I swear every person on my first flight had been struck with the plague or something. I don't think I've ever shared with you all before but I am like EXTRA sensitive about mucus. It's an unnatural loathing for (way above what would be normal dislike for normal people) all things mucus related. I mean seriously what is wrong with people? Don't your parents tell you not to pick your nose or to get your fingers out of your nose from the time you can understand? I have never in my life witnessed more people up their nose than I have in the last month of traveling. Get a freakin' clue folks….

I digress. I'll tell you what else looks like the pictures in Italy are the houses on rolling hills with tall, skinny bushy trees. They are just like those snazzy little Tuscany pictures you can buy at Target. It's pretty sweet. I'm over the moon at the thought that I will be living here in less than six months. Last night we went to this quaint little restaurant outside of post (which post here is TINY) called La Fana. I had my first Italian house red wine and it was the best wine I had ever tasted. It was just smooth and didn't have the bitter acidic taste I'm used to getting with red wine (even when I've drank the finer stuff). I ordered lasagna because it was homemade there at the shop and it too was sooooo delicious. The tomato sauce was not overpowering at all and the lasagna noodles were handmade/homemade too. It was all just so smooth. Also, it's funny, the lasagna I had was a big ol piece, and I practically ate it all and even though I was full I didn't feel gross or heavy. What a difference already. Eating dinner is an event here. It takes several hours and there are several courses. Last night we cut some of the other courses out but still managed to have desert. I had a half of a coconut shell fill with fresh coconut gelato. It was just so creamy and perfect followed by the most amazing cappuccino and I don't even like coffee! Finally we ended the night with little lemon cellos. They say it helps with digestion. They came in tiny little scientist beakers and tasted just like lemonhead candies except with a kick. We ate so much but I was amazed at how light all the food felt in my stomach. I had my camera with me and wanted to take pictures so bad but I didn't want the natives to think I was weird so I refrained. Tonight they won't be so lucky because we are definitely going back there.

More on my Vintage Finds

2008-01-22T05:27:00.000-05:00

Last year when I found some awesome vintage knitting books at a yarn store in Atlanta I never got to posting about them in detail and always really wanted to because I thought they were just so cool. I wanted to share some of what I found in these books. I think I'll do it over a couple of posts so it's not beyond ridiculous with all the pictures. Remember the Good Housekeeping Complete book of Needlecraft I found? Well it had some pretty cool information in it; some techniques that maybe all the knitters but me already knew but became so clearly explained to me in this book. Along with some gems of knowledge came some pretty classic patterns. standard baby wrap sweater (kimono) and top down sweater in the round.

but look at this neat reversible baby jacket and argyle booties

I don't know if I'm catching the baby bug or what but I thought what cute and practical little baby items that never look stupid. I would totally knit these for my own baby. I also liked these child mittens and another babyset

I don't know about actually doing the boy/girl design on top but I like the style of the mittens. There were several other items in the book as well for the whole family. Here are some of my other favorites. It was like flipping through a completely practical list of things you have (essentials) to knit before you move on to knitting what you want to knit.

Still thinking about New Mexico

2008-01-15T08:33:00.001-05:00

Hanging in the airport waiting for my flight to Italy, debating whether it's really a good idea to pay $8 for 24 hours of internet that I might only be able to use for two hours….is that cheap? That's probably cheap, huh? I wouldn't mind using my Netflix and watching Heroes on instant download (another reason why I love Netflix- you can watch movies instantly). When I was in New Mexico I was staying up into the deep hours of the night/morning watching Heroes; feeding my addiction. Everyone there was just raving about the show and I had seen the previews and wanted to get into it but never had. After the first show I was hooked and now I just have the 2^nd season of what they've shown already to catch up on (for Hero fans you can watch season 2 episodes on Netflix every Wednesday after they air.)

I had to stay up late at night to watch them because during the day we were hiking Aguirre Springs ,

and eating at Si Senore,

or snow fighting in Santa Fe during the day. See ya in Italy.

Most Def to knit in '08 #7

2008-01-09T00:37:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I fly into Atlanta. I have a ton of errands to run and deadlines to meet in order for my trip to Italy to happen, one including picking up my passport from on post. There is so much I want to knit!
I went to one of the yarn stores in Las Cruces called Unravel. Very nice little store. I picked up a couple of items there. Almost every time I go to a new that has a store it seems I end up getting some Noro Kureyon. I can't help myself. I really love that yarn. I love it so much I've decided that I can no longer resist knitting the Lizard Ridge Blanket. Heres 3 more skeins to add to the stash.

In addition to all the scarves I'll be knitting I'm adding Lizard Ridge to my must knit in '08 list. How beautiful.

Look what I found

2008-01-08T00:33:00.001-05:00

I found this awesome book at a gimoungous used bookstore in Las Cruces. The store is called Coas Books Inc. They have a website. I got a few cool/vintage knitting and crocheting books but this is the only one I brought with me to look through on my way to Santa Fe. My goal is to knit or crochet at least one thing out of this thing. There is some awesome info between these 550 pages even if it was published back in 1959! The book is by Good Housekeeping and it's pretty much an encyclopedia with patterns about all needlecrafts to include sewing, crocheting, and knitting, and cross stitching and tatting and...you get the picture.
By the way I've got this phone blogging down now, my camera phone leaves some things to be desired though.I guess it's good in a pinch. Maybe I can give you a few peaks at Matty's stuff and other randomness before Feb....
PS- I found out that I do not have to enter a token every time I want to blog from my phone- I'm so glad b/c that would have been stupid.

Matty's new scarf

2008-01-07T00:13:00.001-05:00

Matty camera pics 006
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

I'm currently in Santa Fe.We just got here today, on our way we stopped in Albuquerque to ride the tram- since the weather was so misty it ended up being a no go. We'll have to try and check it out on the way back on Tuesday. Nevertheless, what a blast this place is! I wish I had brought my USB cord so I could upload some of the crazy pics that I've taken since I've been in New Mexico! Check out the place that I'm staying. I've got my own little casita complete with a cute/awesome kitchen and wood burning adobo style fireplace. It's freaking amazing. Gives you that rustic New Mexican feel- which I love. Just from being in Las Cruces alone, I definitely could live here- I think this to myself every time I visit actually. Who knows where my little path could take me. I know on Saturday it will be taking me to Venice, Italy. I'm pretty excited about that.
Anyway, I mentioned the other day that it was all scarves all the time over here and it is the truth. Here is the yarn I'm using to knit Matty's scarf. It's Cascade 220. Great yarn actually- quick to knit with. As soon as I'm back home I will show you the finished product of this (which probably won't be for another 3-4 weeks). Before Matty left I had him pick the yarn from this amazing store in Macon called Creative Yarns. It's also were I got the yarn for my ruffly harlot scarf. Then I flipped through my copy of the Vogue Knitting handbook and had him pick a pattern he liked...maybe not a good look. I've knit most of the scarf and it is curling like CRAZY. I'm hoping that it will block out; we shall see. I think I'll throw up in my mouth a little bit if I have to put a border all around that thing.

New Year= new list of movies.

2008-01-05T00:26:00.000-05:00

Hopefully I can keep up with it at a good pace this year. Here are a couple of movies I’ve watched thus far.

TODAY'S FEATURE

1. Vertigo- Back in November my Fiberflix group was doing the whole Alfred Hitchcock thing and there were a few movies that I didn’t get to watch and this was one of them and the best so far I would say. I had never seen hardly any Hitchcock movies before (blush), maybe the Birds but not many. I really liked it and recommend it with all it’s crazy suspense. This weeks recommendation. Also check out the trailer here. I thought it was amusing and it struck me funny how detailed and long it was.
2. The Lookout- I had gotten some previous info that this movie was horrible from several family members but I watched it anyway and didn’t think it was that bad. Of course it was not the best movie that I’d ever seen. I will admit I was expecting something different but what I got wasn’t bad.
3. A Fish Called Wanda- I’ve actually seen this movie quite a few times. I think it is hilarious each time. Jamie Lee Curtis is priceless in this movie. Also I just couldn't get over how young she looked.

maybe i'm about to show how silly I am

2008-01-04T05:24:00.000-05:00

So, the last two messages came from my phone because I'm determined to be a better blogger in '08 and because I got this pimpin' new phone that is freaking awesome for Christmas. It's called the Pantech Duo BTW. Anyhoo, it has dawned on me (unless someone can tell me I'm doing it wrong and then I'll be relieved) that every single instance that I want to blog from my phone I will have to send the post to go.blogger.com. From there blogger will send me a token that I can enter and select whether i want it to go to the separate blog it created or merge it to my current blog and I will have to go through this process each time I post from my phone. If someone knows of a better more logical way please do inform the ignorant. I've just spent a couple of hours trying different methods other than the single token form to post to my blog. The separate tokens were the only things that worked like a charm.

Blog from my phone

2008-01-04T04:41:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to set this up from my phone.

Multimedia message

2008-01-04T03:32:00.001-05:00

I want to blog from my phone!

All scarves all the time

2008-01-04T01:54:00.001-05:00

moving-food-scarves-stankface-etc 004
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

I'm blogging from my flickr again and yes this is another scarf. I believe I got the pattern off of an old Crazy Aunt Pearl blog entry or something. Nevertheless, this scarf knit up so easy it was ridiculous. It might have taken two days and I wasn't knitting my whole days away either.
It's made out of the Online Linie yarn that's at the top of my page. I think I used size 13 needles. Again like the other scarf I made it super long and used 3 balls of the yarn.
Unfortunately, there seems to be more scarfs in this blogs' future this year because I spotted one in the new Knitscene called the 1.)phiaro ( I already have 1 ball of the required yarn in my stash so I just need to buy two more) scarf that I really like and even though it's like clapotis, it's not clapotis so I still want to make my clapotis that I messed up so badly earlier last year so that means 2.) clapotis is on the list. Then of course I am currently knitting a 3.) scarf for my honeybunches out of Cascade 220 using some stitch pattern he chose out of my Vogue Knitters Handbook. Add onto that the two scarves I mentioned earlier and I've got at least five and of course that 6.)mobius cowl scarf thingie I've been wanting to knit for sometime and I've got 6 definite scarfs to knit. I will keep you posted. Matty's scarf should be done pretty soon and then I can mail it to him. He says it's freezing in Italy. BTW, I believe that he will be there for a few weeks before heading to Afghanistan. It's a high probability that I will be visiting Italy for a couple of weeks after I leave New Mexico. I can't wait. Sumter, South Carolina will have to see me when I get back. Did I mention that I'm not living in GA anymore? I moved back to Northern VA! Exciting times.

Matty camera pics 007

2008-01-04T00:46:00.001-05:00

Matty camera pics 007
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

i can only allow myself to make a few more scarfs for a while. I feel like all I ever knit is scarfs. Although, when I think about it, it's what people ask me for the most. I have about a hundred of these that I need to make. I finished it a couple of months ago and wore it when we went to Macon to see some of Matty's family. His Aunt and his cousin were hinting pretty hard that they wouldn't mind having their very own ruffly scarf. It only took a couple of days, an hour here and there. I thought I would add them to the Christmas knitting but um, no ma'am.
Sorry for the weird picture. My hubby took it. At the time I was not amused.
I used 3 balls (2 and 3/4) of Online Linie something, obviously I'm going to have to find the little paper because I can't find the number online. (I'm in New Mexico away from most of my stash right now folks!)
Anyway, I used my size 8 Rosewood Lantern Moon needles my sister gave to me a few years ago. I twisted the yarn as I went so I could make one side completely dark green and the other completely light green.
My tension was weird in some places in the scarf and you can tell if you really look at it. I also managed to drop a stitch for like 10 rows- somehow. It really builds the scarfs character. Anyway, at least I will do a perfect job the next time I knit it. I was thinking I could make one in brown for cousin and a red one for Auntie. No telling when that will get done....

Can't keep going on this way.

2008-01-03T15:48:00.000-05:00

Ok seriously, I have done so much and been so many places and so much has changed it's stupid. Right now as I type I'm in New Mexico visiting family. It's bittersweet. I'm having a blast but I had to say goodbye and see Matty off to Italy (eventually Afghanistan). It was truly remarkably hard. Harder than I ever anticipated.
This past year was a really really rough year for me. I gained almost all the weight I lost back and I know a lot of it was because I was so out of place in life this past year. Once I'm back from gallivanting I'm back to being a fit chick. I feel like an alien right now. It's ridiculous. Furthermore , I feel like I've gotta crap or get off the pot with this blog. Half the stuff I knit doesn't make it up here and the other half i never finish. Also, there is so much interesting or fun or whatever type of stuff in my life that should make it up here and doesn't. So here's my solution- i continue to only have 3 or 4 crummy type post in a whole month then the site comes down. I'm giving myself about 4 months to sharpen up. You would think life would be easier for me now...I got a laptop for Christmas! Let's see if I can do work.

MmmmDada Mmmmdada

2007-11-12T13:26:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago my BIL (Weety), my friend Michelle, myself and Matty went to a food festival (Taste of Atlanta). We had a freakin' blast and ate so much food it was ridiculous. I kinda want to do this every "summer-fall"now. They have these festival of restaurants all over America.
There's Weet stuffing his face.
Michelle caught red handed.
Aside from the incredible food there was music (DJ's) in the streets and also street performers. Of course my favorites were the breakers. There were some incredible break-dancers there. No chicks but it's all good.

All that breakin' took me back to my special K Electric Boogaloo days. I was going to marry Ozone or maybe that youngin' Turbo if he'd have me -I was a sucker for a gherri curl and cut off net shirt and you know I was poppin' and lockin' with the best of them in my Michael Jackson Beat It jacket. :-)

TV Time spent doing?

2007-11-08T16:56:00.001-05:00

IMG_0392
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

A quick blog from Flickr today. I happen to be on Ravelry and came across this scarf pattern- it was posted by Crazy Aunt Purl and I thought to myself, "Self, you've definitely got the yarn to make that scarf real quick." And quick it has been. What you see here is the result of about 2.5 hours of TV.
The yarn I'm using is OnLine Linie60: TONDO. It's bulky and 100% wool, it's pretty luscious to knit with actually. Feels great. I have plans for a whole bunch of little projects- like I usually do for this time of year. We'll see what gets done. I started and screwed of the heal to one of my socks. I'm ripping and redoing...AGAIN. Freaking socks

After the party it's the hotel lobby

2007-10-30T00:57:00.000-04:00

The "Fiesta, Fiesta" keeps on popping off over here. After the Aquarium you know we had to make it over to Zoo Atlanta. It was a blast.

Here's a couple of shots of the fun but really you can look at all the pics of the events I've been telling you about over on my Flickr. Links Links Links!

Anyhoo, Michelle? Jerry? You both can see I covered up the boys just for you in my green dress. I wasn't too happy that I couldn't cover up that stomach bulge but skip that for a minute...doesn't my skin look freaking amazing? Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. When I was checking out the pictures I couldn't help but sweat myself- j/k but I'm not to on the self hate tip to pay myself a compliment,"Go skin, go skin- it's your birthday..."

Anyway, let's not even get started on how many movies I've seen over the months and haven't told you all about. I have been keep in a list. There's about 90 on the list and I've written about 50 of them on here so far. I have to catch up before the year ends- I must. I've seen some good ones lately but I'm dipping back to tell you about some from a ways back.
"Just gotta git it out- just gotta git it right out of meeeeah"

No Vegetable Juice this week- Rent them all!

51. House of Flying Daggers- Another beautiful martial arts film. I loved the story and the fight scenes were incredible AND visual masterpieces however not more so than Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Actually if we’re talking visually nothing has topped Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, or even Hero for me yet. Visually, they were just incredible. They really show Asia in a glorious way; with simplicity but still with great life incredible beauty. The love story actually ended up being beautiful and the choreography of some of the fight scenes…Wow.
52. Life is Beautiful- What an incredibly optimistic view of the Holocaust. I was not expecting this movie. Of course I had heard so much about it and yes, I saw the Oscars that year but it’s one you have to see in order to appreciate it. I recommend this film to everyone. It’s so sad (how could it not be) yet the movie convinces you that everything’s going to be ok, that things are not as bad as they seem; that surely there will be a happy ending somehow. It really does an extraordinary job of keeping you hopeful yet haunting you with painfully truthful reality. Even so, the way the movie ends it’s so…hopeful-light even. This is so not the word I’m looking for. It’s like this; Just like the title reads, “Life is Beautiful” as is the movie and it’s message. Undoubtedly, I came away with an understanding. “This is all terrible, this is all true and horrible BUT life is too beautiful to let the terrible consume all the beauty it contains.” To me and I hope to most that is the moral of the story. To me that was the goal of the Father for his son. It really was much more than looking at the glass half full, it was sacrifice…
53. Easy to Wed- Oh my goodness, what a hoot of a movie. Lucille Ball was in this one as a supporting actress. Dude, she is sooo freaking funny. Effortless. It’s funny the whole plot is something that could happen today (we haven’t changed much at all) A high society woman is rumored to be a “playgirl” and a tabloid paper produces a story about her that’s false so she & her rich Father call up and claim to sue the company for $2M. Well the tabloid hires a notorious “playboy” to rope her into a real version of the fabricated story and it all plays out from there. I tell you there is just something about these old movies. You can hold an expectation to them that today’s movies just never hit you with. Geez, I really am having a sorry time trying to explain what I mean today. Maybe I should try using my words another day! It’s just that the delivery, the humor, the feeling of these movies- it’s all something so 100% different from todays movies. It has to do with the way movies are shot now as oppose to then or something. Maybe it’s a difference in film, in sets, in actors, in wardrobe, humor, delivery. It’s something greater than what happens these days for some reason.
54. Neptunes Daughter- Another good one with Esther Williams (she was in Easy to Wed too) and Ricardo Montalban (who I had no idea was that hot in his younger years). I love how easy it is to fall in love (I mean madly/wildly/truly/desperately in love where the man is all up front and gushy about it) and get married in these movies. Anyway, this movie is mainly a case of mistaken identity. I wonder if this musical is absolutely where the song “Baby, it’s cold outside” came from? Interesting. I always thought it was a blues classic. Anyway, what I actually like best about this movie was all the Latin/South American music scenes. I got a little irritated with the obnoxious Mexican stable hand stereotypes and Esther’s sister had a black handmade (who looked pretty glamorous to be cleaning house in a movie from the 40's-hmm) well, at least her script didn’t include anything like “yes’m I’s gittin to it” or anything like that; I suppose that was a step up from the norm- anyway there was a pretty good amount of good un-stereotypical but celebratory Latin influence in the movie which I enjoyed. Also, the swimsuits in the movie where incredible; I love those old suits.
55. On the Town- Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra (who I had no idea was so incredibly scrawny until you see him next to little brawny Gene Kelly). This movie was very entertaining. Good music numbers and dancing (which you could always expect) but this is not my favorite musical from Gene Kelly. It’s not even in the top 5. Nevertheless, you won’t be sorry if you rent it. The whole premise is that three sailors have a days leave off the boat in NYC. They want to see the sights and see some women all in one day before they have to get back on board. Anyway, Mr. Kelly gets on the subway and sees a poster for Mrs. Turnstiles and he must have her- so he and his buddies spend a good part of the movie in hilarious pursuit of “Ms. High Society”. These freaking movies just make grin. Love it.

After the party there's the after party...

2007-10-29T20:03:00.000-04:00

After comedy night of course there was more Atlanta fun to be had. We went to the Aquarium, which was freaking awesome.

I had never been to an aquarium at all and always wanted to go to the one in Baltimore (definitely will make time to do it next time I'm in VA). Anyhoo, here are just a couple of the awesome things we saw there. Note that the shark with the chainsaw nose was a hard picture to capture because of the shear size of the fellow so, lucky. Lucky would be the word I'd used for the final capture for the whacked out shot of Mr. Pristiophoridae.
In other news I guess figuratively speaking today could be the tomorrow I spoke of about a week or so ago. I do tend to use very symbolic language at times....with no further ado here are two of the crummiest sock progress pictures one could possibly shoot.

The pink Lorna's laces is going to be all stockinette with just an inch or so of ribbing at the top and the purple/blue Tofutsie's has a 2x2 rib pattern along the front and soon to be the leg of the sock- I'm really pleased with how that one is turning out :-). I start to turn the heel on the pink one tomorrow. Ya'll say a prayer- haha- no seriously ya'll get in the prayer circle and plead the blood over these ones because I feel like it's Groundhogs Day over here. I'm just continuously knitting the same sock over and over again day after day. This time I am referring to a heel pattern that is not short rows (Interweave Knits, Summer 'O7)so we'll see how it goes.

U gotta live

2007-10-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

So the thing about stepping up the blog can only happen if you get out and live and the thing with getting out and living is that you're usually not getting out with your desktop computer. It's just a good thing that I'm off for the next few days without getting out there and living plans :-) I can give the blog a good old update. :-)
After the final Braves home game Matty and I went to comedy night at the Loft here in Columbus. The opener was pretty lame but the header, Mutzie, was hilarious. I've actually seen him on Comic View on BET before. Wouldn't you know that I got picked out of the crowd to help end his act. Ask my sister, ask Matty, ask my McCaffrey's I always get picked out of the crowd. Nevertheless, I had a blast and was pretty much a celebrity for the rest of the night. Here's a picture of me and Mutzie at the end of the night.
As far as knitting goes, I mentioned ripping and restarting both "pair" of socks that I've been knitting since the concept of knitting a sock entered my mind. I still haven't taken a picture but I will say that if I could have just focused on one sock I probably would have a whole one done but of course I got tired with what I was doing and decided to start the other sock from some variety. I promise I will get on it and update on the socks with pictures tomorrow.

DOIN' WORK

2007-10-04T14:13:00.000-04:00

I've got so much to tell you guys. I'm behind- what's new? I think I've mentioned before that since Matty has been home we've been DOing WORK (anybody watch Rob & Big) right? The weekend after my Yarn Harlot trip we went back to Atlanta to see the Brave's last home game. They spanked the Brewers at the end and gave the crowd what they came to see...now mind you there's no post season for Atlanta right now but they DID WORK when we were there.

Matty got all the good pictures and he hasn't uploaded them yet so you can't see the close up of my Atlanta Braves eye guards or me chopping it up with my classic tomahawk. He got one of Andruw Jones sliding onto first and yes we were so close we could see the sweat dripping:-) It's funny whenever players slide I always think "Dirt in the skirt, Mae. Dirt in the skirt." ...I love that movie. Actually if we're talking about doing work, Andruw DID WORK that day in the outfield a couple times.
We've been doing work watching more and going to the movies. Here's a little of what we've seen lately:

45. The Brave One- It was good because Terrence Howard and Jodie Foster are just good in my opinion. The storyline was a good one that I hadn't seen and wasn't expecting ( I mean not wholely- I did see the previews and knew what it was about but...u know). I wasn't expecting how it ended and I definitely came in thinking that Jodie was just taking back the streets "a little". Old Jodie was DOIN' WORK for sure. I will say that in parts it was very slow and while I did get over the slow parts I wasn't on the Bill's Movie Review overlook it tip.
46. Old School- I hadn't ever seen this before and thought it was pretty funny. Of course Matty got it in from Netflix b/c it was WAAAAAYYY down on my roster. We've both been have sporadic "blackouts" of brilliance.
47. Yellow- This was an independent little project by Rosalyn Sanchez and I have to admit I liked it but there were some points were I cringed at the script or the acting. Nevertheless, I found the story interesting...provocative as the professional reviewers like to say. I loved how Hispanic culture and poetry and dance were all infused into a relatively deep storyline. DO WORK Rosalyn b/c I saw your name all over the credits.
48. Breach-This movie was intriguing and don't laugh but I had no idea it was based on the true story. Chris Cooper was crazy in an ingenius way. He played the role flawlessly; I kept turning to Matty saying OMG this guy is crazy. I was on the edge knowing everyone's cover was blown in every scene. I've got a love/hate with these type of movies.
49.Knocked up-This movie was very entertaining. The language was over the top a lot yet still I was cracking up through so much of this movie. Also, I now understand what everyone warns about as the TMI scene at the end when Katherine Heigl is in labor. lol
50.Disturbia-I really enjoyed this movie too. I'm telling you little LaBeouf is a really convincing little actor. It is so surprising. I will say that I did chuckle to myself how the whole family and friends just get back to happy go lucky living after what would be tragic events to real people.
I've got some good ones in the line up. If you want something more serious I say go with Breach but I'm picking Disturbia...yes even over the Brave One; simply b/c it was slow in many parts. Pick of the week:

In other news. I ripped out both socks I've been working on for forever and started fresh for the one zillionth time. I'm feeling really positive about these. Could it be b/c of the Harlots mojo? It's probably due to me finding what looks like a easy pattern in an issue of Interweave Knits. I'll post some pictures soon.

For Anna and others...

2007-10-01T10:03:00.000-04:00

So here are the couple of things I didn't mention or show last time. One was the log cabin blanket I'm working on and it's progress. Of course here it looks like crayola crayons but I promise in real life all the colors are a lot richer and just plain nicer. Also there goes my new birthday watch for scale:-), the blanket is all garter stitch so it's great mindless knitting.
Also, when I was at Knitch for the YH I got a ball of Rowan calmer because everyone always seems to be going ape nuts over it and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. There should dang near be platinum chards spun into it between how much it cost and how much people rave...I like the color I picked. Anyway, I don't really know what I'm going to make out of this one ball but I'll think of something. I'm leaning toward a hat because they are quick
Coming up lots of traveling and activities, lots of movies, and more knitting. Yesterday was my birthday and we/I had a blast. I'm almost thirty now....

Pump up the Jam

2007-09-24T10:49:00.000-04:00

So here is one of my first post from my newly "pumped" up site. :-) I've been having even more of a good time than usual since Matty has gotten home. Guess that's a big duh anyway right. Well last Wednesday I made it to see the Yarn Harlot at Knitch in Atlanta. Here's a picture I took of her taking a picture of all 500+ of us. It was really cool and she was hilarious. The chick is practically a stand up comedian- her timing is flawless. These are pictures of the incredible line I waited in to get Ms. McPhee to sign my books. Notice how I have the elevated angle- it's because I was at the end of the line upstairs where I was stuck behind this one chick who complained about a group who cut in line the WHOLE time we waited. She even went as far as to warn how theirs would be coming on judgment day. Oh how I wish I would have snapped one of her on the DL now. Anyway, it was worth it in the end. Stephanie put some mojo on my pathetic sock knitting skills; don't mind how extremely huge my arm looks- I hear the camera adds 15 pounds
.
I had a blast. I knit another block and a half of color on the log cabin baby blanket. It was just so cool to meet all the other knitters there and see what they were working on and what they had already made. It was like we were all already friends- pretty cool.

Zero knitting progress

2007-09-12T09:55:00.000-04:00

But in other great news my honey is back home.
He suffered through Ranger school and now he's home so I can feed him non-stop until he's all fattened up again. I've missed cooking! Nevertheless, since he's been home we've ate a disgusting amount of food and we've ate out quite a bit. Last nights blue-cream cheese burgers were the first "meal" I've made for him. They were great- got the recipe out of Everyday w/ Rachel Ray Magazine.
Well, taking a Q from Kaity. I think I'm going to step this blog up a bit too. I hate posting so sporadically so I'm not going to anymore but the compromise is that I will probably be a lot more personal and not just knitting on this site now. I hope my knitting peeps don't run away...I know how it is when u subscribe to a zillion blogs- you want knitting meat and potatoes. Well now when you turn here you might get ACTUAL meat and potatoes so beware:-)
Well, on the movie tip since Matty has been home we've seen:

41. Bourne Ultimatum- this was my 2nd time seeing this in the theater. It was good. Action packed with plenty of butt-kicking the way I like it. Is there something wrong when you really feel like you could watch people fight "hand to hand combat" all day long? I LOVE it. Nevertheless, it seemed that everyone was apes over this movie and while it was good I wasn't apes over it.
42. 3:10 to Yuma- I've never considered myself to be a big western movie watcher but I liked this little flick. It could be Christian Bale and Russel Crowe that convinced me but I really think that I like the whole I'm a cowboy and outlaw attitude. That's probably what does it for me. this was a thumbs up surprisingly.
43. The Kingdom- Matty and I attended a sneak of this movie and I thought it was AWESOME. I recommend this movie- I'm talking pick of the week status. Jamie Foxx was really good in it too. The movie was realistic and though most of the action happens at the end it didn't drag and furthermore the movie strongly resonates and the ending really makes you think.44. Rush Hour 3- What a sorry bunch of crap of a movie this was. Dude, talk about selling out...most of the movie I was asking Chris Tucker if he was serious. Aside from being just straight- up hokey AND corny I'd say dang near half of the comedy was a freaking minstrel show. I'm not even racially oversensitive but I definitely was cringing through a lot of the "comedy" especially since I was there with my in laws. I felt like I needed to clarify or explain or something.

I am so behind...

2007-08-21T11:49:00.000-04:00

On everything including movie reviews. I've watched so many and started writing the "reviews" for them but I don't want to bombard my knitting blog with tons of movie reviews. I guess I will take a page out of Anna's book and start posting a few a day. My problem is that I watch movies like it is regular tv. There are only a few shows that I Tivo regularly and when I watch those I don't flip through and browse the cable box or anything. I only watch what I've recorded plus music videos. So in a sense Tivo has cut down my useless TV watching and help me get right to the meat and potatoes. Lets pretend like this means less time wasted. Anyway, it's easy to run out of things to watch sometimes so I have my movies.
BTW, I'm loving Netflix 12 x's better than blockbuster. They are quick, the site is easier to navigate, you can set up a seperate Q for other members of your household, you can really "talk" to other people about movies, their buddy system is easier, it seems like everyone writes reviews (which I love) and the suggestions they make for you are forever changing and look interesting. Oh, and I like the way you can view what's in ur buddy's Q and what they've rated already...whatev.
Moving on, I haven't been knitting on my shrug like I should or my blanket. I have been investing my time in a new blanket (crochet) because I've missed my hubby so much. It's a picnic blanket. The yarn is some ridiculous Red Heart acrylic that I've had in my stash for about 10 years (I'm not kidding) Anyway, I'll be finishing up the picnic blanket, shrug, and beebee blanket by the end of the month. Is this too ambitous? I think not considering everything is over half complete already.

2007-08-03T10:22:00.000-04:00

I've also been working very sporadically on the two toned shrug from Fitted Knits. I probably could have been done in a matter of days but of course I've been dragging my feet. Right now all I have left to do is to complete the border so obviously this is an old progress pic. Maybe posting it up here will motivate me to finish.

From Mason to Dixie

2007-07-28T14:13:00.001-04:00

IMG_1522
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

...this is the start of my log cabin blanket. I'm using all Lion Brand Wool. I like the colors they offer. I'm thinking it will just be a little baby blanket, fabulously chic and in vibrant modern colors. The kind of baby blanket a neo-soul yummy mummy would go for

2007-07-26T11:58:00.001-04:00

36. Employee of the Month-Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson. It was goofy and cute. Jessy did a generic job…she was probably better in Dukes of Hazzard (which I don’t know what that’s saying) I don’t know the movie was a giggler. I liked it enough.
37. Tristan and Isolde- OMG, by the end of the movie I was just irritated. Please everyone just die already. I guess it just burns me up in real life, so to watch someone on screen pretend to be a friend- family even! and then stab another in the back SO severely…it’s just like “Hurry up and die”
Et tu, Brute?
Furthermore, I think it irritated me that it was a like poorly done First Knight meets Romeo and Juliet mash up too. (I really liked First Knight with Richard Gere) I know others probably loved this…not me- just my opinion.
38. Poseidon- And the V8 goes to….then again Josh Lucas was in it (Well, hulloe thare)

39. Red Eye- Why does Cillian Murphy look so freaky!? Don’t you remember him in Batman Begins? FREAK!! Sometimes he wants to trick us but really he is truly a freaky face. Anyway, this movie was good. It took me so long to watch this because I was convinced that it was a scary movie and not a thriller. As we all know I don’t do scary so Rachel was getting no play in the Bailey household (well maybe a little from baby bro Bailey-who loves her but whatev). There actually ended up being thrills and butt kicking and connivery (probably not a word). It probably would have looked better to me if I would have seen it when it originally came out. It always amazes me how goofy/cheap quality a movie can look just a couple years after it was made when viewing it on cable TV…
40. Transformers- Can I just tell you that I saw this movie twice in the theater and would pay a third time to see it? It is that freaking awesome.  MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. Little Shia LaBouf really did a great job in carrying his part too. He has me looking forward to the new Indiana Jones movie. Let's hope Harrison doesn't break a hip! I really can’t wait for the sequel to transformers- it better be freaking awesome and when this comes out on DVD, I want a gold plated special edition (because they always make those) Can you guess my pick of the week?

two week trial

2007-07-23T14:39:00.000-04:00

Dudes, I think I'm switching to Netflix from Blockbuster Online. Ever since I moved to Georgia it takes longer and longer to get my movies in the mail. It's ridiculous.
Netflix has a two week trial period that I just signed up for today. We'll see how long it takes for me to get my first three movies to.
I mailed movies back to Blockbuster last Wednesday or Thursday- got the notice they received my movies and still haven't gotten a email that they've mailed out what's next on my Q. I went to the physical (Blockbuster) store a few weeks ago and they wouldn't let me "hand in" my mailers for new movies, which is supposed to be one of their great selling points over Netflix. Don't get between me and my movies....
I'll keep ya informed. Oh, I already like that you can set up separate Q's for different members of you family on Netflix. Already got 60+ movies set up to sent...I'm a junkie

Don't go changing...

2007-07-22T02:22:00.001-04:00

IMG_1008
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

I just spent a ridiculous amount of time on Ralvery. It's so addictive. You just click and click and click and click; looking at EVERYONE'S stuff. It's crazy. I love it. MUST. HAVE. MORE.
Oh so this is my "progress" on the Namaste yoga bag...what?
Well I could see how u could forget but yes I was working on this in the beginning of June end of May-ish. Haven't really touched it since then but I will so be done with this like yesterday as soon as I pick it up again. I'll send u all a picture of the other stuff I've been working on instead of this tomorrow. The next time you see this guy he'll be finished, ok? Geez, I swear u guys (all fourteen of u) can really b pushy sometimes:-)
I must say that I love this cable pattern though. I can't remember which way is which for me now and I'll probably pick it back up knitting the cables in the reverse order but I'm not that phase by it...
Furthermore I know most people have their "knit cables with a solid color so the cables really pop" thing but dear Mr. Namaste, I like u just the waaaayy u rrrrrrrrrr

So anyway

2007-07-20T21:10:00.000-04:00

When Matty and I went to our baseball games way back when we also visited Strings and strands in Atlanta.
I got three vintage pattern books there--wait b/4 I go into all that let me just say that Strings and Strands was a cool store they had lots of variety and a whole room of clearance items. In that room is were I found a whole bin of vintage pattern books but since poor Matty had already been there for quite some time I just took the best three that I has skimmed through (out of lets say 8-10 I had picked up out of the first pile of books/mags) Of course I'll take pictures of some of the awesomely great and awesomely horrendous things I found in them later and post them up. That in itself was just way cool. Yep there's the picture to ur left. My cute little books- actually they are as big as Rowan books but anyway...
I had a really hard time at this store just because of the discount room. I just didn't have enough time to agonize over which things I really wanted and such so I ended up leaving things. I totally regret not buying more of the incredible deals/steals they had to offer. I did pick up this bag of peachy cotton yarn for $21. It's 7 skeins of NAIF (German) 100% cotton which equals 637 yds of yarn. I really wanted to make one of those nifty little Turtleneck tube vest from Fitted Knits. I'm worried I won't have enough yarn. I'm absolutely the person to think I have enough yarn and run out...and guesswhat? Can't reorder this stuff- nevertheless I'll find something great to do with it because I love the color and the sheen that it has.

MOVIE REVIEWS

2007-07-12T01:42:00.000-04:00

26. Accepted- Sitting through all the previews before this movie I really started to dread what
I was to come in contact with but I found the movie refreshing actually. I thought it was a great satirical comedy (is that an oxymoron?). More than anything I viewed it as poking a big joke at how serious and crazy and important people make college for their kids. To the point that the pressure is unbelievable for some. While it’s meant to be one of those Van Wilder/National Lampoons type movies it comes off a lot milder and I would even say cuter than some of those raunchier college comedies. I think the movie makes several valid points in very clever ways. I found it amusing and Justin Long was unexpectantly cute as a button too. He’s pretty cute in the new DieHard as well.

27. All the Kings Men- Drama drama drama. So good though. Long but really good. Sean Penn and Jude Law. They were freaking awesome in this movie. Dude, Jude Law he’s a sleeper. The guy is a pretty good actor and really brings it to the table. Cold mountain, Enemy at the Gates, Road to Perdition, Closer, The Aviator just to name a few. I’ve been really surprised at how well he’s been able to disguise his accent. Same for when he did Cold Mountain- anyway this story is complex and well done. At the end you totally know what is going to happen but you are still on the edge of you seat waiting, needing to see how it all plays. Everyone gives a tight performance- did I mention Anthony Hopkins is in there? Yes folks, he’s in there with the rest of the perfectly air tight cast. This made me feel like I got my money’s worth after Crank. Holla at ur girl b/c this is my pick of the week.

28. Idlewild- Very creative. I enjoyed watching this just for the creativity it embodied. Some things about the storyline were assumable but I forgive them because it was so creatively executed. I will say that this movie reminded me of Belly. Belly seemed like a long music video shoot to me at the time. Idlewild had it’s moments where I was waiting for the video information to flash up after they completed their song and dance. Nevertheless, it was entertaining and I definitely didn’t feel sorry I rented it.

29. Fever Pitch- A cute little movie! I thought Drew and Jimmy had great chemistry and the cute little story worked well. It was entertainment and I enjoyed it. Nothing spectacular just typical; in a nice sort of way you don’t even have to think about. Sometimes that’s nice.

30. Bee Season- Such an interesting and different movie. The whole movie is haunted by the audience knowing something is really wrong with the whole family but never being able to pinpoint exactly what. There’s a whole mystic overtone too. Don’t know about that…Veered!

o yes,

2007-07-12T00:26:00.001-04:00

Did I mention that there is a Pho Saigon place down here in good ole Columbus, Georgia. It was perfect for when I sick.
I also saw Pirates III the week before the NYC excursion. SOOO much better than that weak-sauce Deadmans Chest Pirates II hot mess they put out last year that sent me home with nothing more than disappointment. I mean I could of had a V8....

Can u believe

2007-07-12T00:06:00.000-04:00

I went to NYC- yarn store heaven and did not make it to a yarn store? I met my good friend Teenie there for a girls weekend. We pretty much just ate, danced (mainly salsa), shopped, and visited some tourist spots like Grand Central Station, Hudson River dock- I got my nose peirced in Greenwich Village. We went to the wax museum. I got a Frauda/Prada bag etc. We really just hung out and had an awesome time

When I returned home I decide to get a wickedly disgusting cold, so really this is my first week back really. What a week. I checked my bloglines and my life was just out of control on there seriously. Furthermore I discovered that I have 14 subscribers to my blog (that I hadn't updated in ages) How freaking exciting. Makes a sista want to step it up a little more
When I checked my email I also was pleasantly surprised by a Ravelry invite. Woohoo!!!! Now to just get my site and blog updated, all my emails read, and All my bloglines subscriptions read--I subscribe to almost 150. I guess that's what I get for being so nosy...
O and I've seen some really good movies too. I've got a stock built up of reviews for you guys. I've also seen Mr. Brooks (which I actually really liked), DieHard4 (plenty of action), and Transformers (you know I'm all about it wouldn't mind paying to see it in the theatre a 2nd time)
I'll post up some of the movies I've got stored up but after than I promise some actual knitting content or at least pictures of new stash

Annnnnnd we're back

2007-07-09T02:17:00.000-04:00

Dang I've been gone for a bit again. Did a little traveling. Been studying, working, and living it up here in Columbus. I've got a list of things I need to update on; it's as much for me as it is for you
1. Went to NYC
2. Almost done with 2tone shrug
3. Almost done with Namaste yoga bag
4. Have a crocheted hat to share
5. Got my Ravelry invite
6. Have new stash to share
7. Still want to share my vintage pattern books
8. My bloglines subscritptions are out of control (apparently everyone else continues to post when I'm away---everyone except my sister that is)

There are still some other things I need to delve into but I'll start with these few first. Post addressing some of these things tomorrow!

Another List- 7 Random Things

2007-05-31T22:12:00.001-04:00

1. I like the dictionary. I like it so much I've thought about carrying around a mini version in my purse because it's so handy to be able to look up the specific definition and origin of a word. It's also interesting to look up the definition to words that are used frequently; it's incredible how many words are actually used out of proper context.
2. I think about a trillion things I could blog about all the time and would actually love to present my posts in an intriguing/clever way (like so many of the other cool bloggers online do- how do their brains work that creatively?) but I always end up just slapping the words down and never saying or including any of the cool things that are really happening in my life.
Sorry guys- I'm actually so much cooler than this- LOL
3. Its become hard for me to cry about things that really matter to me. I've been known to cry over the Campbell's soup commercial where the little girl in the new foster home confesses that her mother used to make her tomato soup or if I think I've really hurt someones feelings unintentionally but won't allow myself to shed a tear if Matty or a close friend or family member really upsets or hurts me. In situations that really matter my emotions are turned completely OFF- cold as ice. I used to not be this way.
4. I'm not particularly into sports (aside from Boxing-it's my favorite) but I LOVE watching PTI on ESPN.
5. Though I tend to lean toward teals and blues a lot I actually don't have a favorite color. I pretty much like-love them all and I dress according to mood and season as to what colors I wear. This summer yellow is in and I've bought several yellow accent pieces. (bright and punchy and pastel yellows) I'm also wearing alot of navy from last season because I bought all my clothes a size smaller last year and couldn't fit them- I can fit them this year and I'm wearing those navy shirts with my cute navy shoes whether it's in or not.
6. I love my skin. I love that I can wear any color I want and not get "washed out". I love that I don't have to tan. I love how soft it is too thanks to the stock I currently own in baby oil and cocoa butter.
7. I love ice cream in an unnatural way. I'm actually not that big on "desserts" for example cakes and brownies and cookies (don't get me wrong I like them and all) but I actually LOVE ice cream.

Drive by update

2007-05-30T21:58:00.000-04:00

1. I am ripping/redoing Clapotis. I really like it. I really like the yarn. I screwed up the pattern one too many times to keep going though. Better rip and do it right.
2. My Sockret Pal still hasn't received socks from me because I have not freaking finished them yet. I'll be mailing a ridiculously bountiful final package (partially out of guilt.)- You will received a beautiful pair of hand knit socks from me eventually, Parisa- in the meantime enjoy the "booty."
(Just getting prepared for PiratesIII)
3. Delta is balled up in a bag somewhere...I'll try to find her one day.
4. Got a couple of crocheted hats to show you guys.
5. Knitting a log cabin blanket.
6. Matty went to Ranger school.
7. Went to Strings and Strands in Atlanta. Loved it- I got some really cool stuff there too.
8. I love Atlanta
9. I got a RETAIL job at Ulta- the fact that it is part- time and at Ulta makes it all better. I actually really like it and am being paid significantly more than I ever thought I would according to Georgia standards for part time non- office work.
10. I went ahead decided to start studying to get certified as a personal trainer thru NASM. Of course I've fallen off the workout and healthful eating wagon just in time to compliment my new commitment.

Me-Matty-Braves

2007-05-29T08:54:00.001-04:00

Me-Matty-Braves
Originally uploaded by neeneepet

Awwwww, shucks. I just got a Flickr and I can post a blog from it, watchouttherenow!
BTW, I'm still here. I just got a job and have been working and trying to get in my Matty time before he went Ranger school. More to come. We went to Atlanta and saw a game and visited a yarn store.

Flickr

2007-05-29T08:50:00.001-04:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The weekend before the extravaganza…

2007-05-15T11:49:00.000-04:00

Matty and I went to Providence Canyon here in the good ol durty. It was nice. I really enjoyed hiking thru the woods. It was also funny to watch the educational video before we hiked. It pretty much revealed that scientist really have no idea how the canyons were really formed; just a hodgepodge of theories; some downright laugh out loud hilarious. Nevertheless, it was beautiful out there.

Namaste bag

2007-05-14T12:52:00.000-04:00

I started another project after my last “Woe is the World-I just want to quit” entry. It’s the Knitty cabled yoga bag, Namaste.

I’ve actually been practicing yoga pretty regularly and figured knitting this project would be motivation for me to stick with it. I was right. I have been gettin’ my Vinyasa on like a champ and I love it. I really want to finish this project up so I can use my bag and buy a cute matching/coordinating mat. Right now the mat I’m using is like 4 years old and primary crayon blue.
Here you can see where I’ve knit half a skein of Manos- I realized that I wasn't going to make it with just two at this point....

(doesn’t it kinda remind ya of granny panties? lol)

I had the skeins of the Manos del Uruguay in my stash for a few years actually so I ordered two more (nope, it's true- I don’t care that the dye lots are COMPLETELY different) and have been kind of die hard knitting. I wanted to use the wool as oppose to the suggested cotton- I just like wool so I went for it even though I had cotton in my stash too. This is the project I took to West Palm Beach and Orlando. It got some knitting time on the flights going there but even though I was delayed about 800 MILLION hours on the way back I just didn’t feel like working on the bag. I kinda burnt myself out knitting it for it bit I think. This is where I am now.

I hope to finish it soon actually- now that I’ve got my hats to break up the monotony.

PS- If I’d known cables were so totally awesome and easy I would have done them a long time ago. Long live cables!

Now we return to our regularly scheduled...

2007-05-13T13:38:00.000-04:00

Let’s start from the beginning of when I first fell off the Earth. (Speaking of Earth- anybody else been watching the Planet Earth series on Discovery besides me. I LOVE it. I think it is amazing. I only wish it were more in depth and that there was more)
Anyway, I think the last thing I was saying had to do with being dissatisfied with everything I was doing. Well obviously, I’ve moved on from that. I bought this book,
and promptly whipped up this hat about 1 ½ hours later.
I was so excited I didn’t even weave in the ends as you can see.
I’ve started another two but then went to West Palm Beach and Orlando for a wedding/graduation extravaganza so I haven’t picked them back up since.

More to come

2007-05-13T03:26:00.001-04:00

Back from Florida. More to come soon.

2007-04-18T12:28:00.000-04:00

Ever feel dissatisfied with everything you do?
I feel like I want to rip and/or restart every project I have on the needles right now. I'm not sure if I like anything that I am making. I need something to be finished or I need something to be started.

WIP #3

2007-04-18T12:25:00.000-04:00

Dear Delta,

1. Who wrote these frickin’ instructions?
2. Will it even fit?
3. Do you have enough yarn?
4. Do I really like you?
5. Are you even worth it?

WIP #2

2007-04-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

The first picture is what the sock use to look like. The second pic is what it looked like after I ripped back. The only thing I don't have a picture of is where I'm at with all this now. I have knit some more sock and am currently at the short row heel again with a lot less long of a foot. It looks better already. I just hope I can pull off this heel. This part freaks me out and I always lose track of what I'm doing. If I can just get thru the one I know I'll exhale and be fine for the next. I just want to knit lots of socks perfectly without trauma...is that too much to ask?

And the winner is?

2007-04-15T12:53:00.000-04:00

I am way behind on the movie reviews. I have got a butt load of movies that I've seen and haven't posted up. This weeks is tough for me. There were a lot of good movies (in my opinion).

21. Haven- What a disturbing movie. So disturbing. This movie had me still thinking about it all almost a good week after. This is another adult content type movie. Severely. There were so many good things but truly I just found this one upsetting to me-on a personal level. I didn’t understand the character of Zoe Saldana. She really just threw me for a loop. I believe I had such a tough time because so much in the movie was the complete opposite of what I believe personally. Even though I feel I’m incredibly in tune with the role of fiction and usually have zero problem with extrication from movies and viewing them as entertainment or for artistic value or catalyst for conversation etc., this one in particular just seemed so authentic to me and it was disturbing. Matty watched this one with me and even he said “Wow, I can’t tell if that was good or not,” at the end. The depiction of human greed, the distortion of real love, the severe and almost normal practice of drug use and Zoe's character and all the character lines Crashing into each other (came out the same year) makes this a complex movie that just resulted in this viewer feeling heavy. It was a heavy movie

22. Derailed- A really good Jennifer Aniston movie! Ok this movie is adult content but I thought it was good. I was afraid that it was going to be scary (I don't do scary) but actually it was a thriller. The storyline was unexpected and it really had some good twists in it. Now, I’m sure that Matty would have said he knew what was going to happen from the beginning credits (he’s just that way) but I thought the movie unfolded beautifully and while I was trying to figure the pieces and how Clive would get his footing again it wasn’t annoyingly textbook predictable. I find that these days that I've seen so many movies that I get irritated when they all start to play out to be the same thing- didn't have that tinge here. Boy, I’ve already split my selections up a couple times but there are some close contenders this week.

23. Lucky Number Slevin – I’m telling you Bruce is still doing his thing as he gets up there in years (52). Though as a sidenote I'm not sure if the new Die Hard is going to be too over the top for me. What if Willy goes out like Harrison Ford who should have stopped years ago?
Anyway- There were many parts of this movie that was so unbelievably predictable but then there were things that came as a “surprise” just as well. It was great to watch the whole plot unfold because they did a lot of the story telling out of order. The characters were quirky and I’ll even use the word fun. I’ve decided that between seeing the Black Dahlia and a couple other Hartnett flicks that I like him. (Could it be the manjaw?) I liked the movie. I thought all the characters where well acted and I really liked the unveiling at the “resolution” of the story of how everything came to be. I was surprised at how much I was rooting for the love connection for Hartnett and Liu and I liked the depiction of their relationship because at first it doesn’t seem that serious but as time goes on you realize it’s something more.

24. Crank- Usually I’m all about the action and with a name like Crank I was expecting a lot of it. I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong there was violence and high energy-lots of high energy but it was mainly shooting and chopping and seaming. I prefer my violence to come from a good aggressive butt kicking; I mean he (Jason Statham) kicked butt in the Transporter, so what happened? Did he get too caught up in making a “cool and trendy” vicely action flick instead of sticking to martial arts? While the film style had form of humor that was presented differently and somewhat entertainingly and more unconventional than what you see on some levels (which I could appreciate) I didn’t really dig the movie; I found it to be a little crass and even offensive at times. I tried to imagine how I would feel watching this movie in the theatre or in mixed company. I even had the thought, geez, I wouldn’t want to watch this with anyone who I cared what their opinion was of me…like a mother in law or a nephew or something. It’s definitely not a movie for little ones. There were humorous moments thrown in there with this crazy quick concept of a movie but there actually wasn’t enough for me to call the movie good. I’m glad I did not pay money to see this in a theatre. It’s one of those movies that in 6 -12 months you’ll look back and amuse yourself in regard to some of it's corniness. I thought the ending was the best part of the movie…seriously it was clever.

25. Ask the Dust- The box said “exceptional performances”. I don’t know about that but you see, there is something to like about this movie but I’m not quite sure what it is. The acting seemed good but not “exceptional” it was sometimes cheesy even, the storyline (I believe intentionally)got goofy at times and I felt like there was so much more they could have done with some of the characters. Still, the movie has something. Albeit, sex appeal. Salma jumps into a twilighted ocean naked as a jaybird with her disgustingly dang near perfect form ( I want that body..now) without an uncomfortable blink or twitch of shyness or embarrassment. Later they (Colin and Salma) have a love scene. I picked up the box to double check the rating again. “Is this porn?” I mumbled. Also, there is something drawing about the fixation and focus that both characters place on race and their own social status and economic status in this particular era. They are very open and confrontational with their bias’ (is that a word?) and struggles with prejudice to one another and their own self oppression is constantly looming and evident. I liked the movie though I’m fairly sure that most won’t. I found the ending in the desert quite moving.

Boy who will it be this week? The only reason I’d recommend Haven is so you all could be as confused as I was. The other movies were really good but where they better than each other? Though undoubtly “lighter” (which isn’t saying much considering you’ve got thriller/drama’s) where they better than Haven? Though disturbing there was just something about story and the presentation even. The gritty feeling of it all...something. I choose Haven but do rent Bruce and Salma and Jennifer. ;-)

Uhhh?WTC?

2007-04-13T11:56:00.000-04:00

Went to my interview yesterday
Dressed professionally.
Got there 10 minutes early.
Politely approached front desk,"My name is Nina Bailey and I have an appt. for an interview with Fallon at 11:30."
Receptionist: "Oh, OK. You can have a seat."
I sit down in front of a glass windowed office where Fallon (complete with name tag) is looking directly at me. I smile. The receptionist goes over to her and they chat.
Receptionist returns: "OK, I'll be interviewing you today over here, I still need to cover the phones and front desk so excuse me," as she ushers me to the edge of some other random office. I hand her my resume.
"What time frame were you looking for? Is transportation an issue? What position are you looking for? OK, well she's done a lot of interviewing today and I'm not sure on how much hiring she plans to do. She'll give you a call."
Me? I'm still a little shocked that they've wasted my time to ask me questions that I filled out on the application the day before. I regained my mental composure, smile, thank her for the "interview". Fallon watches me as I exit. I give her a pleasant smile as well.
What. the. crap? Why do a call back specifically stating, "Would you like to come in for an interview with Fallon at around 11:30 tomorrow?" have me drive 20 minutes across town for a 3 minute interview with the receptionist while the original interviewer looks you dead in the face while doing nothing else important? Furthermore the receptionist informs you "She's had a lot of interviews today--uh, yeah I was under the impression that I was one of them." I have to admit that as I drove home I was pretty ticked.
I filled out another application to another place yesterday. I'm going to fill out more today. I'm still very irritated with the whole experience I've had here job hunting period. Literally every place that I've gone to has had some weird story or ridiculous level of incompetence/unprofessionalism involved. I am not being conceited- I promise you guys I'm not- but I know for a fact it's not me. 100% of the time I've been more professional and put together than any of the people I've been dealing with. Matty says that's the problem (of course he would say that).
I don't want to work an office job and I do not want to work retail.
More than anything I was really excited about this interview and I feel like I was wronged in some way today. I felt like something was fishy for some reason. I don't know what it was but I had the "What is really going on here?" feeling.
iontno

Epiphynil almost

2007-04-12T10:15:00.000-04:00

One of the gyms called me back.
I'm going on an interview today. 11:30
I'm realizing how much I really want to do this and how much I might really enjoy it. I feel like I'm on the verge of finding my niche or something. We'll see.
I keep having these very revealing thoughts to myself...epiphanal almost. (Probably not a word but think "epiphany") Since I made the word up I think I'll spell it epiphynil because the "anal" makes me feel weird and also the previous spelling reminds me of elephant....leave me alone I'm having a really weird goofy day.
Anyway, I feel more and more like..."I would love for this to be my life; I could pursue this, I could really be all that I can be at this, I could really help other people change so much just by changing one thing. I could help change a life in a personal way."
I mean dude, just losing the weight that I have has changed me radically- mainly on the inside actually...more on that later
Something else I've realized over the years is that the look I'm working to achieve is a look I've loved since I was a little girl...I've always thought muscles and strong bodies were cool/beautiful...I mean the Hulk, Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Conan...I was going to MARRY these men when I was little....I remember watching the bodybuilding men flexing on TV and thinking "Wow". When American Gladiator came out and there were actually strong AND pretty woman on the show I was really interested. She-Ra, Red Sonja, Xena, Wonder woman, all the girls in old kung-fu flicks that kicked butt, Tina Turner in MadMax, FloJo...my heroes. Anyway that was an important point for me for some reason. I guess it makes me feel like my goals are grounded in my authentic self or something and not on some other craziness just because someone else is doing it (trendiness or something). I guess realizing that helped me own it or something, iono. Anyway, the other thing that I actually wrote down in a journal one day was a statement that hit me like a ton of bricks: It's important to me to reach my goals because I want the outside to reflect what is going on inside of me. I want the outside to be a statement that is spoken without words; I'm just as strong and beautiful on the outside as I am on the inside. I know I have inner strength. I've always been confident that I will survive, life will go on, hard times will come, I'll make it through and be stronger. I don't know if I'm an optimist who's bouncing off the walls with positivity or anything but I am able to level headedly look at the glass as half full because of the inner strength God has given me. Inner strength and resilience. It is the one spiritual gift I know that I do have.

WIP #1

2007-04-07T13:53:00.000-04:00

I’ve had this Lorna’s Laces Bullfrogs and butterflies yarn in my stash for forever.
I decided to start a clapotis. You know the scarf shawl thingie that practically every knitter on the planet in blogland has already knit…yeah, I started it when I went to VA.

The picture here is a little outdated. I’m still on the second section but I've dropped more stitches now.
I love the yarn I’m using. The colorway is called Tuscany. I had to order two more skeins because when I originally bought the yarn I only bought it with hopes no real plans. Now here it is two years later…..
So far I’ve noticed that you really gotta pull this yarn to get the stitches to “run” in the pattern.
Oh and apparently there is one other chick just as cool as I am who hasn’t knit this baby yet I love the colors she chose

Almost totally forgot, February=5

2007-04-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

Here are February’s finished dishcloths for the knit along.

Notice I did two of the Mid-month pattern. I was pretty excited to knit it and really enjoyed myself. I was a psso – ing and k2tog tbl fool.
I made one in white which is perfect without flaw( I have a lifetime supply of white lion cotton yarn) and the other one is SnC cotton. It’s a color called seashore; it ain’t so perfect. Anyway, the color is being discontinued and it was one of the skeins I bought for a mere $0.75
The first pattern was cute and Valentine’s dayish. I used Rose colored SnC and it turned out really sweet. I have to say that when you block these cotton dishcloths it makes a world of difference.
I never brought y'all totally up to speed after I got home from my trip to VA. Did I mention that I've got a lot of projects going on? Well, here's a peek. I'll give you a break down in the days to come

I'M PISSED!!

2007-04-04T10:57:00.000-04:00

NOTE: Jerry if you're reading divert thine eyes...although a message like this always tempts me to read anyway so read at your own risk...

I mean really could I feel any fatter today?!?!! And the freaking Midol is NOT working.
Ahhhhhh!!!

Going for a run, maybe it will make me feel better.

I haven't knit all week either. I need to try some knitting, maybe I need some knitting "zen" in my life...

I mean seriously I'm just angry for no good reason right now...I can feel the ball of anger in my chest...just hateful

Run just as fast as I can...

2007-03-28T18:19:00.000-04:00

… to the middle of no where, to the middle of my frustrated fears…..

Four straight days of running, two more to go!
I had actually only planned on running 5 days a week but Matty talked me into going to run with him on Sunday after I got back. We’ve only been running two miles a day so its not that hard on my legs/knees/feet or anything. That being said today was an awful running day. My head just wasn’t in it. I kept stopping. I didn’t eat or drink enough. It was quite hot. What else could I possibly throw out there as an excuse? Not to mention that I've been harassing the gyms around here but NO ONE is responding. I was suppose to have a meeting with one girl today and she never came back from her lunch break for 3 hours. I was then suppose meet with the assistant manager but he stayed on the telephone for almost half an hour. The girl at the front desk asked me to come back for a third time later this evening.....think I'll apply at a couple of other places tomorrow, check the status of my other applications and if I get nothing come back to them. I guess this is the point where I need to think of something I'm grateful for because I've had quite the stupid day and can feel myself getting into the "I moved to Georgia blues."
...at least I still have a yoga session and weights to recover with and I sure am glad that a "bad day" for me these days consists of me getting out of bed after 8:00 under no dire time constraint, straightening up my lovely apartment, doing laundry that consists of an abundance of hot fashion and finally having a crummy run in sunshining weather with an array of lovely birds chirping my own personal rendition of zippity do da. What I really should have done today during my run was stop and smell the roses...lol... guess I really need to get a grip.
I've had MUCH worse days than this and other people definately have it worse than me. Ok, I'm getting over myself....

Moving on, I’m still getting the food thing in order a bit but it’s going good. So this is what I’ve done this week exercise wise and this is what I plan to do:

Monday- am -2 mile run
pm – circuit weight/cardio session

Tuesday- am – 2 mile run
pm – 20 minutes of yoga and abs

Wednesday - 2 mile run
pm – circuit weight/cardio session
noon-pilates

Thursday - 2 mile run
pm – yoga and abs

Friday- am – 2 mile run
pm- circuit weight/cardio session
pilates

Hopefully I'll get another crack at it all tomorrow

I see you windin’ and movin’ up on the floor…

2007-03-27T09:52:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I’m winding it up but I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT! j/k

My sockret pal doesn’t have a ball winder of her own so I figured I’d be nice and wind it up for her. It’s probably my own guilt since she came “this close” to me picking up some Lion Brand magic stripes and shooting it over to her- lol.
Again, j/k.
I did get the pleasure of letting the yarn run through my hands one more time while watching it’s beautiful colorway form this lovely center pull cake.
Love love love.
I’m thinking about throwing in my rosewood double points that I just bought. I really feel like it would disappoint Ms. Emerald otherwise. I mean I did kinda tell her it was her luxurious destiny. I mean a gal’s gotta live.
BTW, here’s are the ridiculous socks that I started to knit. I’ve ripped back the heel and about an 1-1/2 – 2 inches of the monstrosity of a sock. I think I’m just going to start on the Mary janes tonight. I could have them finished by tomorrow and mail her package by the end of the week. I’m down to the wire now….maybe I’ll still send her the finished socks once I get the hang of them because I am actually still intrigued with knitting them.

And another one...

2007-03-26T18:38:00.000-04:00

Biggie, biggie, biggie, can’t you see? Sometimes your knits just hypnotise me and I just love your… Remember, I started Wendy’s dream-swatch pattern for a scarf? I wanted to give all my peeps a little something from me straight from the heart before I left VA. I didn’t even half way get started in time to finish anything so now I’ve resolved to a more decent time frame of before I leave for Italy. That could be a while…..
I started knitting the dreamswatch for those times when Delta was just ticking me off and I needed to take a breath and step away from the stupid instructions (because obviously it’s the instructions fault that I’ve had to rip it twice already).
Anyway, this is for one of the sisters of the Danica scarf recipient. The gal loves lavender and bamboo so what could be better than a scarf made out of bamboo in a lavender color?
Again, can you say “knitting pimp” I thought the pattern would be a lot tougher but it was super easy- it just takes a little patience. I’m very pleased with the results if I have to say it myself. I added more stitches to the pattern to make it a little wider. It’s actually been done for some time now and I already gave it away.
I really like the bamboo yarn. It is firm yet sometimes it feels a little “foamy” it’s super nice and the color…well you see it…LOVE. I think the recipient liked it so I’m happy. It’s one of those items you can do in the winter or wear as an accessory in the spring. Now, I’ll have to get another project to work on instead of Delta.
BTW, sorry the first pic is sideways, tilt your head a little and it should work out! lol
I'll post pictures of my horrendous sock and also give details on what I'm working on right now this week.
So far since I've been home I've run 4 really slow miles over two days and am on my way to Monday's weight session. Slowly but surely. More on that as well...later- what an action packed week.

Soon as i get home

2007-03-23T16:02:00.000-04:00

1. I will be up in the gym just a workin' on my fitness.
2. I will get a part time job.
3. I will go grocery shopping for "clean" food and get back on the diet tip.
4. I will post some pictures of what i've been up to.
5. I will get back to blogging (I know you guys have missed me:-)

BTW, I started knitting a clapotis for myself while me and my sister get together what yarn we are going to knit one for my grandmother. I had some Bullfrogs and butterflies yarn in the color tuscany in my stash that was begging to become something more than a yarn cake.

Away message

2007-03-13T13:20:00.000-04:00

I'm actually in VA this week visiting. It's been really nice. I'm enjoying myself. It was nice to see my friends and fam. I'm thinking about staying an extra week and maybe going to see my family in New Jersey....we'll see about it all.
Just wanted to drop in and say hey and I haven't fallen off...I'm just away.
I should be adding a review for 300 and for Babel eventually. I've seen both while being here.
In knitting news I finished and gifted the dreamswatch scarf. I've been working on my secret pal socks and they look aweful. You know it's bad when people who don't knit ask"Dang, what size foot does the person have that you're knitting that for?" I'm probably going to rip it all out and just knit up some maryjanes for the poor girl. I can do that fast and I they will look nice.

Tornado and movie update

2007-03-05T19:12:00.000-05:00

I didn't list movies last week. Guess I was too busy gawking at all the damage the tornado did around here in Columbus. Thankfully we didn't have any damage personally but all around us looked like some bizarre scene from the Wizard of Oz with uprooted houses and blown off roofs. On the night of the storm we were coming back from dinner (we'd already spent most of the evening locked in the mall due to tornado warnings) and couldn't use our exit because the highway signs and trees were down. When we rode into town it was PITCH BLACK- no store shops lights, no street lights, no traffic lights. Bizarre. Anyway, back on track now...one movie post coming up!

16. Must Love Dogs- “One romantic comedy/drama starring John Cusack coming up! Is that made to order? No, it just comes like described here under typical romantic comedy”

A mixture of the romance and comedy genres, this genre normally features stories involving two people who meet and have an attraction, but normally come into some kind of problem disallowing them to be together. The films involve light-hearted, humorous plots that end up with the two characters together.
centuryofslang.com/reviews/genres.php

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t not enjoy the movie and there were cute things to remember it by but on the other hand…it’s all been done before, it all ends the same way they have before etc etc. I can’t help to feel like I’m watching the same movie over and over again especially since John is in it--boy this whole review seems like DejaVu.

17. Cars – There were so many cute things about this animation. I picked this as my recommendation of the week because I was so pleasantly surprised. I loved this movie! It was funny. It was well done. It was family oriented but really clever content for adults too. It was a lot lighter than a lot of the other movies I’d been watching which really fried my brain. I laughed out loud and I liked the whole cars as people concept of the movie. It was just good wholesome fun to watch. You find yourself really rooting for Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson). The characters and their relationships were very well developed for an animation too. It’s a must see for young and old. I really enjoyed watching this one. Plus you got Larry the Cable Guy in there as the good 'ol boy truck Mater- pretty funny/cute stuff.

18. Firewall- All I could think the whole movie is just how old Harrison Ford looked. Someone tell the man he shouldn’t do anymore action thrillers. There were several parts in the movie that were just laughable- and this wasn’t no comedy folks! The whole storyline is just kinda missing something to make it click. I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters I didn’t really have much empathy for the hostaged family or for the crooks. Nothing made me want to hold on and watch. Soon I resolved to just let the movie play in the background to my knitting because some of it was just down right annoying. Oh Harry, I’m so sorry. We’ll always have The Fugitive and Indiana Jones.

19. Black Dahlia- I loved the look of this movie. It was set in the 30/40’s and looks so old town Hollywood. It plays out like the old 40’s mystery movies do too from frame to frame. Something you don’t see much of these days which I thought was clever and added flavor to the movie. I The movie really did keep me on the edge of my seat –once it got going. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t slow but it was a little while before you got to really connect the dots of all the characters in the story and how maybe they would play into each other. I kept wondering “What’s his/her motivation?” throughout the movie for the different characters. You want to solve the mystery. Some of the scenes with the body and the murder are pretty morbid so be warned. The whole movie is adult content so be warned. Scarlett Johanson was in this one and as I said before I’m trying to gauge whether or not I’m excited about her acting or not. Classic Hollywood looks great on her though. Hartnett was strapping as well, I've seen quite a bit with him in it and I think I really like him. He's a sleeper; one of those you know of but underestimate you know?

20. Wild Hogs- Very cute middle aged man movie. Lol. j/k…kinda. I mean it was all very cute, slapstick type humor. I went to go see this in the movie theatre with my in-laws. It was the perfect type of movie for such an event. I will say that ending that play while the credits are rolling was in my opinion one of the funniest parts of the whole movie.

Temptation: a fact of life

2007-02-24T17:30:00.000-05:00

My pal noted some yarn on her blog a while back so I decided to check it out. Boy does that girl have good taste! I check out Lisa Souza’s site and was so excited over all the great yarn and beautiful colorways she had to offer at not so bad prices (especially considering the yardage you get)

I ordered a special colorway just for her but when it got here, boy was it hard to do the right thing. The yarn is beautiful and I want it for me, myself. It needs to be mine; living here with me, basking in the beautiful wonderland I keep for all my sock yarns…
Would it be such a bad life to bask in the shade with other breathtakingly stunning yarns living an elite life, collected and relaxed until the day you were summoned to glide over brand new rosewood double pointed needles

and manipulated into a luxurious garment perfectly tailored for finely lotioned then delicately powdered manicured feet?

You see,I would do you right, I'd treat you so good if only you would just stay with me...PLEEEEZE don't go; say you'll stay with me forever---er, sorry-lost my mind for a minute
Look at this, you know…you go in intending to do something nice but then it backfires. Why o why o why o why o why o why?!

BTW, I placed the order at 5:15pm on Thursday evening and at 5:20 Lisa emailed me to let me know she processed the order and would have it out to me the next day. I got the yarn Saturday….homegirl was not messing around over there; she has my business that is FOR SURE

Still amazed...God has really kept me

2007-02-22T14:28:00.000-05:00

Just a day ago I found out a guy I used to be involved with is in jail for murder. Yup, it's true. After the shock wore off I had an epiphany because my first reaction was to thank God for my Matty. I kinda realized it before but this confirmed it for me that God has really saved me from myself so many times. Here's a look at the last few guys I invited into and tried to hang onto in my life

1. ST- murdered before 20 yrs old; involvement in less than stellar activities and people
2. JA- ex drug addict & alcoholic (to date); 2 kids before 21
3. DT- jail drug dealer and probably a pedophile since he was dating me
4. SP- drug addict; dead of anurism (sp) before 21 yr old

No I'm not the black widow or anything..
Even my first real kiss, JM ended up being a crackhead, literally. Anyway, I think there are a zillion reasons why I chose these type of guys. I do know that there is a part of me that believes in the very best in people even if they or no one else really see's it. I feel connected in the soul to the good qualities or intentions of a person quite frequently. I am also the type of person who has a tough time even computing the evilness that some people/things really possess even though I've been the very witness to it. I'm the person who is constantly shocked and ever soul struck by the evening news (which is probably why I don't watch that often).
Anyway, all that aside I know that underneath my past choices have stemmed from 1) my self assessed self worth/value 2)family history.
My mother died of cancer before I turned 7 years old but not before she passed on her horrible legacy of choosing the wrong men which I'm sure was passed on to her by the women in her life....
Anyway, by the time I met God in high school I had already told him, myself and my grandparents that I wasn't getting married. That I would rather just live with whoever and kick them to the curb as necessary...because apparently it would inevitably be necessary.Didn't quite work that way, I ended up going thru some hard times and really clinging to God and in turn my life and who I was totally changed. I learned who I was by God's standards and started to believe in good things for myself and in my life. It wasn't something I accepted overnight. I still wrestle God to this very day but ultimately he won my heart and showed me just what he could do with it. He sent me Matty in my youth and we grew into adults together stumbling thru and mastering what it really meant to love one another...purely might I add. It never ceased and has not ceased to amaze up how incredibly blessed we are to have each other. For all you skeptics out there I'm just going to say it because it's true that they do exist...Mateo is my soulmate. And just to freak the rest of you all out some more let me say God one more time. God God God... he made me a new creation and has richly and deeply blessed my life ever since.

Stupid inner dialogues...

2007-02-20T16:20:00.000-05:00

DELTA!!!!!
I’m afraid I might need to rip it. This sucks. I’m pretty sure I messed up the instructions for the decreases on several rows but I keep telling myself that as long as I have as many stitches on my needle as the pattern calls for and my gauge is still good there shouldn’t be any problems…..it is bothering me though. I should rip. Should I rip?
My edges aren’t looking so hot and I want this top to be nice. The little voice inside of me keeps nudging saying, “Better to rip it now in the beginning” or “ if you’re going to do it you’d better do it right.”
Frick

Last Sockret pal package is in the process ….

2007-02-16T19:31:00.000-05:00

I'm using that antibacterial Tofutsie's SWTC sockyarn I got at Darlene's. It is very splitty but I'm managing.
As you can see I'm going from the toe up and I've decided the sock will be in garter rib stitch. This would be my first time doing any type of pattern in a sock. I'm really enjoying myself. I had to go up to a size two needle. There was lots of swatching. It's probably why the third and final swatch ended up being so small. I should have knit the swatch like I did for Delta.
Anyway, I'm on my way now and that's what's important.
My sockret pal will just have to look at these socks as a sentimental mark in my sock knitting career. One day I'll knit socks like Stephanie Pearl McPhee but today...today is not a sock harlot day. Today I rip and started the toe over approximately 5-7 times and even now I won't say I'm satisfied but guess what...this is what your getting sister! lol

Mo' movies, mo'movies, mo' movies

2007-02-14T06:47:00.000-05:00

11. Brokeback Mountain- The movie was definitely complex and I think it did a really good job of showing the taboo of it all, especially in that time period and setting of the country. Heath Ledger was really impressive in his portrale... I have to tell ya, it was tough for me to watch this movie and I really only caught it in passing on HBO. On a personal level the attraction just seems so foreign to me and I can’t understand it. I could have empathy for the characters on screen but I could never really make the connection because I just don’t understand it. In real life I am one of those people who does a double take like, “What is going on over there?” if I walk past two males or two females holding hands. It’s always startling and a surprise to me so to try to get down with it in a movie was….tough. Anyway, my final conclusion is that above all else for me the movie was deeply thought provoking and I believe this was part of the purpose of the movie. While American culture is working hard at mainstreaming homosexuality a movie like this is a catalyst to get people seriously thinking and talking and truly facing/examining themselves and what they believe.

12. DreamGirls- Matty and I saw this in the theatre a couple of weeks ago. It was good. Matty even really liked it. He was fighting me on it originally especially when I told him that it was a broadway musical type thing. BTW, they did a great job of making it a movie and a musical. Everything about this movie was good. Good singing, good acting, good set design, good wardrobe. Jennifer Hudson was impressive in her acting especially for a first time appearance. She was really able to get her emotions to transfer over the film quite naturally. Her singing wasn’t bad neither! Though she did play a big role, it wasn’t the Beyonce’ show either. Eddie Murphy deserved his best supporting actor award. I thought he was simply amazing. Honestly, I was just glad to see his face on the silver screen again. I think that he can be over the top at times but the man is truly brilliant. It was a stellar cast honestly. They couldn’t have done a better job on that. The movie did an great job of depicting the industry’s relationship with blacks in that time period. Did I mention the set designs were really perfect? They also did a great job in developing each character and their storyline while incorporating the music. I think this is a must see for everyone/anyone and so it is my recommendation of the week.

13. My Super Ex-Girlfriend- A goofy movie. I like Uma Thurman and the Wilson brothers, that’s why I rented it in the first place. I wouldn’t waste my time a second time but it was amusing enough for me not to start wishing for an ending halfway through the movie. Luke Wilson, who I usually think is a clever little cutie pie with his whole manjaw going on, actually looked kinda chubby in this movie. It was weird.

14.The Covenant- This movie was cheesy. The very beginning scene I said to Matty “Huh, have you ever seen the Lost Boys?!” The beginning scene was so familiar to that movie for me. Actually the whole “bad boys” of darkness thing was amusing and I have to include that every frame of the movie tried to be gothic/gotham city esque. The college was all very stone and gates and gargoyle. The rich-bad boys houses all looked like huge haunted mansions. Most of the scenes took place in the evening or with a “misty fog” around. It all seemed so cliché’ and over overdone. The special effects and fights were a joke. It almost looks like they’re throwing water balloons at each other. Finally, I’ll end this by saying that it was all quite predictable too.

15. Mission Impossible III- There was a good amount of action. It was an entertaining movie to say the least. Didn’t Michelle Monaghan remind you of Katie Holmes just a little bit? The whole content of the movie that pertained to his love interest and their relationship felt like a subliminal statement to me actually. Anyway, if you’re looking for some action this would still be a very good choice. Storywise and actingwise I definitely think that Mission Impossible II with Thandie Newton was better. (Anyone seen the Truth about Charlie? Very clever movie with her in it)