Moving and Tears

My office is moving this Friday. We will still be in San Francisco, just a little closer to downtown. We all got a bunch of big ass orange crates into which we must pack our office lives.

I swear I never knew I could collect so much paper. I feel guilty because I single-handedly must have downed a small forest's worth of paper. I have had a quite a few moments of "Oh, so that's where I put that document!" Not good. So that is the "Moving" part of this post.

The "Tears" part of this post is because our new president was sworn in yesterday, and his inaugural speech was so moving that it brought tears to my eyes. I mean, just read the below excerpt from Obama's speech, and how can you not be moved by the hope it embodies and the faith in the basic goodness of humans??

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. "

The full text of his speech can be found here.

The Real Littlest Monkey

The pygmy marmoset.

Where is My Knitting Mojo?

I emerge from the working holidays, alive, but not unscathed, and I wonder, where has my knitting mojo gone? I cannot seem to get myself to pick up the needles. I even got these:

The snazziest of knitting snaz - Addi Clicks Interchangeable Needles - a Christmas gift from my little brother (thanks, little bro!). And I still can't get myself to knit. My last completed project is my Taste the Rainbow Scarf. I am hoping that my kniting mojo returns soon, because I, and my husband, may just die if all my yarn stashing was for naught.

Where did 2008 go?? New Year's Eve was very quiet, just me and the husband goofing around together, then another day of working on New Year's Day. We finished up watching the last season of the BBC's version of Robin Hood. We got the DVDs through Netflix. I liked it a lot, but my husband quickly got tired of the back and forth robbing and pillaging and crazy hare-brained schemes which all amazingly come together at the end, and would occasionally yell at the screen, "Why don't you just kill him and get it over with!?!" I told him it wouldn't make for a very good series if the main evil guy got killed within the first few episodes. He didn't care for my logic, but I also noticed that he did not stop watching...

Finally, just for kicks, here is a picture of Monkey, captured right after she got a good scolding. She does not look very contrite at all, does she? In fact, it looks more like she is plotting my death.

Where the Universe Does Not Want Me to Enjoy Christmas

Christmas is cursed for me. This will be the third time in 3 years where being a corporate peon has made me have to work through Christmas. And just when I thought I was gonna get off easy this year because of the slow economy, I got smacked down again.

Things are Scary in Corporate Peon Land

As if I thought you all didn't already know, the economy sucks. Things are slow at my corporate peon office. People are nervous and just sitting tight. It certainly puts a damper on holiday cheer.


Courtesy of icanhazcheezburger.com

But, in other news, I have finally finished my Taste the Rainbow scarf. It took FOREVER with all that 1x1 ribbing. It just needs the ends woven in and a good long soak in my wool wash. I am moving on to scarf #2, but I am not sure if that will be done in time for Christmas. Oh well, there will just be an IOU on that one.

Someone in the family has also requested a slouchy hat based on this one. I think I can do it, but would be my first time deconstructing something. I bought some really lovely Gusanito, a test yarn from Malabrigo, for this hat. The color is called Rouge, and it is a vibrant red, but has the unique kettle dye color changes that is oh-so Malabrigo. But, this will have to wait until after the holidays.

Taste the Rainbow Striped Noro Scarf

I bought 4 balls of Noro Silk Garden at my favorite LYS, Imagiknit, this weekend and have been obsessively knitting my striped Noro scarf all weekend long. I am trying to understand all the fuss about this yarn.

Personally, I find Noro color combinations too vibrant/70s for my taste, but somehow knitting two different colorways together gives really lovely results. I choose one colorway which is pretty neutral, mostly blacks, blues, grays, with a shock of neon green, and the other is very virbrant, with pinks, fuschias, reds and greens. Still, I have found A LOT of foreign objects/vegetable matter embedded in the yarn, and some of it is large and sharp! Also, there have been two knots in one ball, and one end of the knot is in no way related colorwise to the other end of the knot, so have had to do some creative cutting and splicing. However, my sister-in-law did request a colorful scarf for Christmas, and this will fit the bill, I think. I am hoping that a good soak will soften up the yarn a bit, too.

Spaghetti Cat (I Weep for You)

My childish sense of humor.