the one with the waggedy tail

UPDATE! I just bought the deer/unicorn stuffie. I couldn't help myself.
I really need to stop looking at things on Etsy, especially in a week that began with the first winter utilities bill and ends with a haircut, Belle & Sebastian tickets, and a possible drive to Dayton.
Because I keep finding stuff like these things, all of which I want:

by PerfectChildren


by knittydirtygirl (I've been stalking the Craftster spinning board lately, wanting to try to make my own yarn with weird stuff in it.)

Someone already bought this, but I still feel like I should pimp this guy's stuff, because I really like it:

by WalrusRider

Man, I keep looking at that deer/unicorn thing. I do get paid this week, and it's not like I've added to my weird stuffie collection lately...

until I’m ready to use it

“Hold My Life” is playing right now. Billboard January 7, 2006.

• There’s a pretty boy on the red cover wearing a shirt saying “Underage Thinking”, which may be the cheesiest thing I’ve seen so far this year.
  
• Wait, sorry, I forgot about the previews for that Sam Jackson/Eugene Levy thing they played twice before 40yrold Virgin.
  
• But does that count, since I saw it last year as well?
  
• ”The Who” will be touring again this summer. Sorry, Pete, but it’s not really The Who anymore.
  
• So, here’s an ad for Hard Rock Hotel San Diego condos, which, yuck, but it’s a topless vaguely ethnic woman, all sweaty, from the back. We’re invited to check out their website for “more eye candy and important ownership information”.
  
• I’m amused at how old the picture of Michael Jackson they chose to illustrate this story with is. I miss less-obviously crazy Michael, don’t you?
  
• I think Arctic Monkeys might be my new favorite horrible band name.
  
• Any idea what they sound like?
  
• OK, they “serve up hard rock with a Southern flavor,” but isn’t DecembeRadio the crappy emo-est band name you’ve heard in awhile?
  
• Oh, they’re a Christian band. I wonder if that can account for the name…
  
• ”Underage Thinking” is the name of that guy’s album.
  
• He kind of looks like Rory Gilmore would, if she were a boy.
  
• If I cared at all about the Grammies, I would read about their secrets, but—
  
• --O! I feel a Simpsons reference coming on!
  
• Where did George Harrison get that brownie from?
  
• I know Mariah Carey’s all about this butterfly thing and all, but her giant butterfly ring looks like something I got out of a gumball machine in 1987.
  
• Oh man, Gwen Stefani’s got these flowers coming out of her head. Like, it looks like her hair turned into giant fake blossoms and she doesn’t know what to do.
  
• Speaking of Mrs. Rossdale, did everyone read Meg Cabot’s blog (link if you scroll down a hell of a lot) the other day when she was talking about celebrities’ years-in-review? The fake Gwen one was very funny.
  
• I like plurals of words with hyphens like that. Mothers-in-law and such. I was listening to the radio the other day, and they referred to more than one person going past as “passerbies” (I can only assume that’s the correct spelling).
  
• That’s not cool. “Passers-by” is one of my favorite words, and not one I get to use very often.
  
• More about the new Strokes album.
  
• We should order Mary J Blige’s new album for the library.
  
• Man, it’s raining hard right now.

I'm really charmed by this.
Also, I like how, sometimes, if I'm loud enough when I tell kids to straighten up and fly right, their parents happen to hear and come discipline their kids.
Plus the fun hypocrisy of saying, "You can't be loud in the library," loudly. Being a grownup has its petty, childish perks.

hold this thread as I walk away

This weekend was all about nothing. Did I go visit friends? No, I punked out (sorry, guys). Did I take down Christmas decorations or buy groceries? Of course not.
I did, however, do some spectacularly bad dart-throwing, checked out the DeCapo 2005 Best Music Writing anthology, and went to my new favorite thrift store. I got all kinds of great stuff that I might even take pictures of to show off here.
***
This is what I spent the biggest part of the last couple days messing about with:

A Cheap Source of Yarn!

I like things that don't cost much, and I like to take things apart. I was that 9yrold girl who knew what the inside of her taperecorder looked like, and kind of the mechanics of how it worked. And if it didn't work quite so well after I found out, well...I had still learned something, right?
So thrifting a sweater to unravel for yarn to make other things with seems like a tailor-made-for-Jessy activity, no?
Unraveling a sweater is also, really, the next step for someone recently obsessed with knitting. Once you learn how, you can't stop noticing how things are put together. This is why I kept staring at Theresa's scarf the other night at Lanhucks and why 70% of my Narnia movie conversation with Tiff concerned the Pevensies' sweaters. Once I start noticing how things are put together, it's only a matter of time until I want to take them apart.
I used a fabulous and fun-to-read (even if you don't want to take apart a sweater) tutorial by a woman named Ashley Martineau who spins and does all kinds of cool stuff.

Here are some pictures!

The sweater. It's a light blue color, in a 70% lambswool 20% angora 10% nylon blend. I bought a Large; it was $4.


Man, it was pretty outside Sunday. I did some unraveling on my porch/balcony thing. I accidentally dropped my yarn ball and about had a heart attack as it rolled perilously close to the edge.
Also, you'll notice that the yarn is everywhere 'cause it was windy Sunday, too.


The cats investigate my 4 balls of yarn (1 from each sleeve, 1 from the back, and 1 from the front).


I wound it into crappy-looking skeins (Ashley comes through again) so I could measure the yardage. Almost 600 yards of yarn for $4! DAMN.


(just tilt your head to the side, okay?)
I used the pegs on the back of my full length mirror to measure. I put them a little over a yard apart (because I figured it was better to under-measure and have extra then over-measure and be screwed when I run out of yarn mid-project) and wrapped until I counted to 100. Peter Sagal kept me company, since that fake British lady on my local NPR affiliate apparently hates Ira Glass.

Next, I'm going to try dyeing the yarn with KoolAid. Since it's a blend of sheep, bunny, and plastic, I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen, but I bet it'll be exciting. I'm planning on trying with Pink Lemonade and/or Lime, so I'm sure I'll wind up with something cool. How hard can it be?

and we'll take a cup o kindness yet

Do people make New Year's resolutions because they want to become better people, or because they think resolutions make them seem like they are becoming better people?
I got a call from my xboyfriend last night. This guy. Who I haven't spoken to, incidentally, since that conversation. He called because, in his words, his New Year's resolution was to "have a better relationship with [me]."
!!!
Have all the girls he's dated got (gotten?) these calls? Is this some sort of "What does it all mean?" thing? ()I kind of hope it wasn't just me; seems less weird that way.
Ever notice how, sometimes, Mr SensitivePonytailMan-ness and plain good sense are at opposite ends of the room? Or, as the case may be, the phone?

A Coincidence?
So today, while I was making a big gluey mess (my favorite kind) and getting all giddy about March 9, I decided to read Pitchfork. Because "paying more attention to music" is my New Year's resolution. (Shut up, you: it's the non-secret one.)
There's a review of the new Strokes album.
--Of course, if you're anything like me, your reaction to this was, "The Strokes have a new album? Why?"--
Now, I just think the timing of this is funny, if it is in fact a coincidence, because, while Andy and I rarely fought, argued, or debated (there are several reasons for this, some less functional than others), we used to bicker about The Strokes all the damn time.
Boring, overrated, and way too clean, I'd say.
Not so! Seen them live, he'd counter.
Am I allowed to read his calling me as the ultimate acknowledgement that, deep down, he's always known how right I was about Casablancas & Co.?

the second drummer’s drowned

I need a new haircut. What does eveyone think of these? Obviously, some involve more beating-into-submission than others, and keep in mind my tiny round face and steretypically hipster glasses.
(Also, did everyone catch the "pottymouth" comment on the last post? Hee.)

and I left a bunch of fencing stuff on the subway.

It's only January 3 and I already kinda hate 2006. Although I suspect at least some of that might be girl-parts-related.

First of all: boyness. There's a hell of a lot I could say, but won't because, deep down, I know how ridiculous it all is. Suffice to say, everytime I have a crush, I start assuming it's going to go this way: thinking things are fine, nothing more-than-friends happening, falling off the face of the earth. Running into him several weeks later with an ugly coat and/or a normal girl. Or rumors that he's gay. Or both.
Why do I think this? How many past examples are you looking for?
And then there's the other one. Who randomly showed up at my house last Thursday after no contact for about a month and a half. Who called last night while I was on the phone with my mom and didn't leave a message.
Leading to this sentence, "Well, that's really all I wanted from him, too, back when there was less random contact. I was just trying to put it more delicately."
Why I had chosen that moment to be delicate (not one of my strong points) to my mom (normally not necessary), I'm not exactly sure.
There's more I could say about that mess, too, but I'm feeling less mean right now, so I'll avoid the overtly bitchy for once.

Bitch the Second: I fucking hate the work-side catalog here. Search results are displayed IN THE ORDER WE BOUGHT THE ITEM. Not alphabetically; not in the order they were published; not in the order we originally got the item in cases of replacement copies. So a series, in our catalog, could potentially show up like this:
6, 5, 1, 2, 3, 1pbk, 26, 6replacement, 25, 24...
This is also assuming that all of the items in a series are in fact linked under that series title.
I also hate copy cataloging, or at least a ridiculous amount of reliance on it. Half of our Spiderwick Chronicles are shelved under Black. The rest are under DiTerlizzi.
We also still have an Alternative section of cds. Some REM is there and some is in Rock. Rock is the only large section of cds without any kind of alphabetizing, even the most basic.
And don't even get me started on 741.5, which is, as we all know, the devil.
--aw, reader's advisory always makes me feel better. And over IM, so all cutting edge and shit, too.--

Bitch the third: I fucking hate the Olympics. I hate the winter Olympics more than the summer Olympics, and this is one of those years. I'm sure I will bitch in a more timely manner about this when they actually start.

Look, even the internet thinks I need to shut the fuck up:

You woke up this morning with the Monday morning blues -- and it's not even Monday. Doesn't matter, either; it definitely won't last. In fact, if you can get yourself up and around, you'll be surprised to find that you'll actually enjoy your day -- a whole lot. Remember, you're in charge of your day -- and, more importantly your evening. And don't you have some plans to look forward to? Now pick up your bottom lip before you trip over it.