Oscar night

Alright ... I need to get my butt to a movie theatre stat. After watching the Oscar nomination ceremony this morning, I am feeling left out. Out of the five Best Picture nominees, I have seen only one (Crash). So, the mission is to see at least a few more before Oscar night. (I am sure that I won't make it to all 4) . Brokeback Mountain, Capote & Good Night, and Good Luck are all playing at my local art house theatre. And I am not so sure that I want to see Munich, but that is playing at the regular theatres around Metro Detroit. So it shouldn't be a problem ...

I am obviously no expert in the matter ... but does anyone else think Walk the Line should be in that group???? I saw it a few weeks ago and it was excellent.

The skills that pay the bills

Pat & I spent another long weekend in Harbor Springs, and we were joined by Todd & Krissy. We skiied at Nub's Nob on Friday. No new snow ... just the old, packed stuff. It wasn't the best day we have had on the slopes, but it was still fun! Unfortunately I took a spill and twisted my knee up a bit. I skiied through the pain for the rest of the day and then limped around for the rest of the night. Many ice cubes later I was pretty much as good as new.

On the lift

The rest of our time was spent lounging, eating, snacking, laughing and watching Long Way Round. We watched all 8 hours on DVD between Saturday & Sunday. I had seen some of the episodes on tv when it originally aired. If you are not familiar, it is a documentary-type show about Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman traveling from London to NYC on motorcycles. It was very enjoyable!

I also had time to knit. YAY! And I learned some new skills. YAY again! With that yummy Blizzard yarn I bought on sale last weekend, size US 13s and a pattern that involves seed stitch (new skill #1) on the sides and a cable (new skill #2) up the middle, I made this ...

Cables in digital macro

Sick & tired

I am recovering from either food poisoning or the flu. Yuck! I am feeling a little sicky ... but much better now than I was this morning!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Chicago!? Mel & I had a great time there last weekend. We stayed in Wicker Park, which is a great little neighborhood. We ate and shopped and ate some more. There is so much fantastic shopping and yummy restaurants in Chicago! WOW!

We also ate here ... which wasn't so great!

And hung out here, which I have been wanting to do FOREVER!

I am making progress on the June Bug from Jess Hutch's book. It is fun & cute and I am excited about it. I am at a momentary stand still, though. Who knew that 9mm safety eyes could be hard to find? I went to 2 places today and they didn't have them. Poo!

Who can resist this? Not me. I was driving by my LYS and had to stop in. And even though I promised myself that I would try to stay away from knitting scarves, I justified my purchase with the fact that the scarf is a perfect way to learn cables. Right?

Seven songs

Saw this meme on Stacey's blog and it was right up my alley, so here goes. List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they are any good, but they must be songs you are really enjoying right now.

1. From Blown Speakers - The New Pornographers: I have been listening to the New Pornographers for the past 2 months non-stop. I love this song and I just can't help but sing along. "It came out magical ..."
2. I'm a Wheel - Wilco: Jeff Tweedy has never sounded so much like T. Rex. This song rocks my world!
3. Let Go - Frou Frou: This song is beautiful and makes me think of how cute Zach Braff is. (sigh)
4. Float On - Modest Mouse: I bought this album a while ago and never got totally into it. I randomly pulled it out a few weeks ago and I keep listening to this track over and over. There is just something to be said about the power of phrasing and this song has got it. "I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh what did I say?"
5. Jackie, Dressed in Cobras - The New Pornographers: Like I said before ... I cannot stop listening to this band. It is actually really hard to narrow it down to particular songs.
6. Since You Stole My Heart - Saturday Looks Good to Me: This song is just so simple and pretty and nearly perfect.
7. Hotel Yorba - The White Stripes: This song is fun and catchy. I like to turn it up really loud and sing along!

The next knitting challenge

The other night Pat came over and I was sitting on the couch watching TV. He looked at me and then asked, "You're not working on a knitting project?" I thought that was really cute & it made me realize that it is time to decide what to knit next. I purchased this before Christmas and I really want to try to make something fun. My FOs thus far consist of a lot of scarves and a few purses and baby hats. It is time to take a challenge and I am hoping that one of these won't be beyond my skill level. : )

This weekend Mel & I are headed to Chicago to visit her brother and have some fun in the Windy City. Even though I had some long weekends around the holidays, I feel like I really need to get away. Chicago sounds like just the medicine I need! The 5 hour drive from Detroit should make for ideal knitting time, but it would work better if I had one of these.

Oh, one more thing ... Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy 2006!

Happy New Year! Pat & I celebrated with my parents in Harbor Springs. Had a wonderful dinner and some adult beverages (but not too many, because we had skiing plans for new years day). We were just about the youngest people in the place, but that wasn't a big deal. Kind of amusing at times, actually.

The weather in Michigan has been very strange for the past few weeks. Very mild, almost warm at times. This doesn't make for very good skiing conditions. We lucked out, though. It snowed a lot on Friday night, so we had pretty good conditions for Sunday. We spent the day skiing at Nub's Nob in Harbor Springs. It's no Crested Butte, but it is a lot of fun and ranks pretty high as far as skiing in the Midwest goes. Maybe one of these winters, Pat & I will head to Colorado or Utah to ski ... but for now it's Nub's!

I knit in the car on the drive home. I cast on without having a real clear idea of what I was going to do. Ended up making a skinny scarf all in one color. Sometimes I want to wear a scarf at work or on a mild day that isn't super bulky ... so this will do the trick.

Note to Leetahl and Diana: Unfortunately all photos of my "excellent" dance moves have been deleted and the 2005 conga line picture is nowhere to be found. (Sorry to disappoint)