Beware the Evil that is Cthulhu!

I recently acquired an icon of the evil god, Cthulhu.

Already the apartment is filled with the aura of his horrible beauty.



But some dreaded work is about... I received a second icon of him this afternoon. Could it be the story of old is coming true, that "They had come from the stars, and had brought Their images with Them"? Could it be that this second idol is just a warning of what is still to come?

If so, I say, come! Come Cthulhu, come! Cthulhu fhtagn, Cthulhu fhtagn!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is possible that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Though it is a quintessential USA holiday, it should be a universal one -- a day when we can sit back and give thanks for all that is good in our lives and the world. It is easy to spend most of the time thinking on all the bad things that are going on, but it is important not to forget the good things, especially in a world where so many go without.

So I'm going to take a moment and acknowledge those good things and say some thanks: for being employed and having a roof over my head, for having a loving family, for being blessed with so many wonderful and truly exceptional friends, for being healthy, and for being loved. I know I am blessed.

My apartment is full of the smell of Thanksgiving. The turkey is in the oven cooking away. This year I'm making a cider glazed turkey that was brined overnight in a cider/water/salt/allspice bath. The skin is already browned and now I'm just going back in every so often to reglaze the flesh now cozily protected under foil. I expected the bird to take a good 5+ hours to roast as it's an 18-pounder, but the breast temp is already 155 degrees and it has only been roasting for a little over 2 hours. I expect this is because of the brining - I did read that a brined turkey will cook faster. But still. I've lowered the oven to 325, to slow things down a bit.

The stuffing is a fairly traditional sausage, apple and raison one using fresh sourdough bread. And though I was only planning on bringing the bird and the stuffing, I realized I couldn't have a Thanksgiving dinner without some sweet potatoes, so I also prepped a sweet potatoe dish with brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon. It may not be sweet potatoe pie, but I expect President Obama would enjoy it just fine where he joining us for dinner. Oh, yum, I can't wait to get to MH/EI's place so we can start the eating!

It will be a good group of us for dinner -- 8 total. Then the missing usuals will show up for dessert. It promises to be a fun afternoon and evening and I am especially thankful that this year it is at someone else's house. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

DimpleWalrus Shout Out!

I'm lucky to be surrounded by friends who are interesting, creative, fun and, yes, crazy. So while it's not that surprising when I get to do a shout out to one of them, it sure is special.

In the recent edition of 7X7: Insider's Guide to the Best of San Francisco, I guess it's the November/December printed edition, DimpleWalrus's 300 word love letter entry for her neighborhood, Hayes Valley, won the love letter of the month and was published. You can see the web version of the article here: http://www.7x7.com/content/e/hood-month-hayes-valley. But it would be better if you picked up a copy of the magazine - it just looks cooler to see the short and sweet essay in print, on glossy paper, surrounded by some nice neighborhood pics.

I sure am proud of that lady. Makes Bellhops all squishy and happy and cool and stuff.

Obsessive Activity Circle

Reading obsessively --> knitting obsessively --> WoWing obsessively --> repeat. I'm now in the WoWing part of the circle. My elbow hurts, but I'm having fun. :-)

I start my new job Monday. Already have projects on my list, plus the task of having to transition my replacement.

And please do check out KP's blog: http://saywhatkp.blogspot.com/. She's doing it for her class, so show her some support by reading and, if you are so moved, please post a comment, too! I know she'd appreciate any comments.

A Day Without Cats PROTEST

Go ahead, call me a crazy cat lady. Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me! Besides, I revel in being called a crazy cat lady! I take pride in it! Granted, I only have 2 fluffy felines, but I consider all the beautiful fluffitudes living with friends and family as part of my own feline federation!

So, to you people over at Urlesque, and to you shamefully supporting cute lovers at Cute Overload, I PROTEST this Day Without Cats. You guise it in the form of giving cats a break, as if somehow cats need your help from shameful catsploitation. Cats don't want a break. They aren't being exploited. They believe, perhaps rightfully so, that they are the center of the universe and should always be in the forefront of everything. No, you insult them with this day, trying to hide them, pushing them into the closet, locking them in the laundry room! Shame, shame, shame.

Nuku supports this protest and happily presents his exceptionally fluffy tail and bloomers!

Agh, Knitting Frenzy!

Warning: This is a ridiculously long blog entry. I take no prisoners!

Since Saturday, I have twice been admonished for failing to update my blog.  In an effort to redeem myself, I shall therefore blog.  First to clarify: my failure to blog is not because I have been playing WoW obsessively.  In fact, you may doubt me when I say this, but I have not actually played WoW in many weeks.  The reality is I needed a WoW break -- and frankly I had to catch up on my movie watching.

I had a burst of Roku/Netflix watching madness where I watched all available seasons of the BBC series, The Chef, many many movies -- some of which were simply a poor use of my time, random episodes of 30 Rock, South Park, and Couplings, and, well, other stuff too.

Then I decided to catch up on my Tivo list -- which was mainly episodes of this season's The Closer.  Okay, kick ass.  The Closer still retains status as one of the best shows currently on television. (Speaking of which, who the heck did I loan my Season 1 DVD collection to?) And I caught up on Top Chef (only 3 episodes so far).

Once I was back on the television side of things, one thing led to another, and I started watching some On Demand stuff.  Like S2 of True Blood. I'll confess without shame to have watched all episodes twice, now. Snarfffable Survey says: 50-50 on the rating meter.  There are essentially two story lines, one involving vampires and the other not. Having a preference to vampires, I prefer that story line.  The other story line is just a bit over the top even for me and my fondness for supernatural curiosities.  Despite that, I think I might say that S2TB is better then the first.

Lest you think I've done nothing but work on turning my brain into mush, I have also been reading a lot.  On my Kindle, of course.  I read all the books in the Sookie Stackhouse series (of which True Blood was based on).  They were okay.  The first few were very entertaining, but as the series progressed I found the author spent far too much time trying to explain pervious storylines (in case a new reader started later in the series).  This was very distracting.  Also, I think the author lost some of her interest and enthusiasm because at seemed at times like she was trying to fill up the pages with anything, rather than something really good.  Nonetheless, I don't regret the time spent. The vampire love scenes were just perfect.  Who needs women's erotica when you can just pick up one of these books and thumb to a love scene with Sookie and her vamp of the week?

I read some other stuff, too.  I started re-reading the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin in the hopes that the last book will come out soon -- or in prep for the HBO production.  Well, there are other books I could list, but suffice to say the Kindle makes it very convenient for me to read all sorts of random stuff.

So, that's a lot of TV/Movie watching and book reading.  But that is not all.  I have also been knitting like a fiend.  I knitted a little cozy for my MacBook Air because I couldn't find a cover I liked.  That then inspired me to knit a cozy for my Kindle.  Of course I then had to make cozy's for the Slacker, so know he has his own set.  I'm also knitting a scarf for PacoTacoMike to keep him warm out there in the windy madness of Chicago.  I'm using Misty Alpaca Chunky and let me tell you, such softness!  I found the very manly pattern on a knitting blog for a yarn shop out in Philly -- can't link to it yet cause I don't want PTM to see the scarf pattern before he gets his -- but that blog led me to several other patterns I am also working on -- some new scarves with lovely silk and beaded yarn and a lap blanket for the Slacker (in dark colors, of course). The yarn for the blanket is organic cotton, perfect for the Bay Area. I liked the Misty Alpaca so much that I got some for myself and am knitting another scarf for myself.  When I'll ever have cause to wear such a warm scarf, I have no idea.

This here is my MacBook Air Cozy.  One thing I do have to say about this was my seaming at the bottom kicked ass. I'd say very nearly perfect.  I also really dig the pico edge I did after the couple of inches of seed stitch. Gives it a nice finish.


This one is the Kindle Cozy I made the Slacker.  I was trying for a much different pattern, but I didn't plan out well, and this is what I ended up with.  I'm not really happy with it, but the Slacker likes it, so I guess it will do for now.  When I find another yarn I like I'll knit him a new one.  I made myself one in this same yarn, but it's a straight stockinette stitch with just a little change towards the top edge where I did a couple of rows of seed stitch before going back to stockinette for the final inch before bind-off.


Here's Slacker's MacBook Air Cozy.  The yarn I used was a much lighter weight -- really a sock yarn -- so the stitches are much finer.  I really loved the variegated blue yarn and it worked up beautifully.


Here's some pics of works-in-progress...

This one is a scarf I'm making with the scrumptious beaded silk yarn noted above (I purchased several colors so I could make one for a few of the girls). Below that is a pick of the 3 other yarn colors.




This one is another scarf in the same pattern as the above but using the Misty Alpaca Chunky.


And this one is Slacker's blanket in progress. I'm using just four colors and I'm planning on 3 repeats of those colors (though the size is off from the pattern, which will require me buying 4 more skeins of yarn). I'm thinking the middle repeat will have more rows of the pattern, maybe 8 or 10 depending on how much yarn I have.


My hands have not been idle.

Amidst all the above, I've done a little bit of socializing and relaxing, but nothing exceptional.

Oh, I am changing jobs, too.  I asked to transition from my position as the Director of the Project Management Office to a newly created position of Sr. Systems Analyst.  I decided I didn't want to keep doing the project management stuff.  I'm hoping the new position will give me a chance to get back to doing some more technical things. We'll see how that pans our over time.  I'll be in the programming/dba group and my main focus is to be the go-between between our functional users and our technical team.

So, there's my update.  I can only hope this will satisfy my impatient readers.

Ciao!

Kittehs! The Horror!

What better way to start my vacation then with a post about KITTEHS!!!!

Really, one can only tolerate so much cuteness in one day. Despite the dastardly heat this past Saturday (88 degrees at 10:00 am up to 104.5 degrees at 5:00 pm in Sonoma) I found myself completely in thrall of these lovelies. But really, can anyone blame me? I mean, for pity's sake, their cuteness is quite demonic and therefore absolutely irresistible.

First, the duet: Samantha (the calico) and Tiburon (the tabby). Both girls, about 2 months old, rescued from the animal shelter in Petaluma.



Then some Samantha details:

Clearly she is thinking, "Yes, human, come closer so I can practice my claw-sharpening skills on your soft, fleshy, furless face. Yes, closer... closer..." (Notice the serious whiskerage.)



Samantha, being exhausted from her various skill improvements, decided she'd relax with my Kindle. She was certain that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would be to her liking. She ended up dozing off instead, the poor tired little sweetling. (Notice shaved little belleh!)



Then there is Tiburon (aka the blood thirsty shark). This is what happens to kittehs after they've been scratched behind their ears for just a little bit. Total collapse. She stayed like this for a LONG time. In fact, I was unable to depart because of it. How could I possibly move? I might have disturbed her!



Okay, look, if you're going to get sick from the overwhelming cuteness, please take it elsewhere... (Notice the multi-colored schnozzle.)



And finally, a must have for all you Rorschach fans. What do you see there? No, please, keep it to yourself... really...