S T A C Y V E R B

NaBloPoMo in review

Well, I made it!  When Monica first challenged me to join NaBloPoMo and post every day in the month of November, I was skeptical.  It sounded like a commitment I wouldn't be able to fulfill.  I thought I'd run out of material, or forget, or lose interest.  But I signed up anyway and now look--it's the last day of November, and my little calendar over there is full!

I won't pretend every post was riveting.  But to my surprise, I did manage to think of something to blog about every day, and without resorting to gossip or angst or anything else I feared I'd have to fall back on.  I think it was fairly entertaining, and judging by the huge increase in readership over the past month, some other people did, too.  Best of all, it did get me into the habit of writing at least a little something every day, for which I'm glad.

Having said all that...don't expect daily posting from me from now on.  I'm actually quite relieved NaBloPoMo is coming to an end, because it was a chore some days.  But most days it wasn't.  Thanks to all of you who commented, either on the blog, via email, in person or on Facebook.  Your feedback helped me stay motivated.  May this trend continue (just not every single day!).

Not the good kind of sewing

This is a sweater I finished knitting this week.  Or rather, this is a bunch of sweater components I finished knitting this week.  They need to be sewed (sewn?) together, which I loathe doing.  Why, I'm not sure.  I like sewing.  I like knitting.  But I hate sewing knitted pieces together.

Sewing these pieces together is my out-of-town project this weekend.  I'm hoping to trick myself into finishing it while I'm far away from other projects that might distract me.  I don't want a repeat of the last time I knit a sweater as separate pieces, when it ended up taking me ten months to sew it up.  Wish me luck. 

Friday flashback: 2003

A different direction for Friday flashback this week.  No cute pics of me as a kid this time.

This big lump of love is my dearly departed Dinah M. Kitty, who went to kitty heaven in April 2007.  She's been on my mind a lot this week for some reason, so I thought I'd feature one of my favorite photos of her.

I took this picture at Christmas 2003.  Adverb and I had just gotten married and had spent all our money on the wedding and honeymoon, so we didn't travel to visit family that Christmas.  We had a nice cozy time here at Boogaloo Acres, just the two of us, and of course the animals.  Here's Dinah lounging in her favorite spot--the back of the couch.  She's lying on my Santa hat which has a pin reading "Santa's Favorite Elf."  She enjoyed having Christmas with us.  She liked the crinkly wrapping paper, and hiding in boxes.  That was a fun holiday, even if it was very low key.

I miss my Dinah.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mmmm...nice day.  Sleeping in, watching the parade while drinking coffee in bed, then heading over to a friend's house for a Thanksgiving feast.  I'm so thankful to have friends who love to cook, who ask nothing more of us than to bring some wine. :)

Hot new 'do

Remember the other day when I said maybe I should start wearing bangs again?  Well, ta-da! 

Behold the new hair.  It's short (like me) and sassy (like me).  Fabulous.

Also, notice I'm wearing the shirt I blogged about a few weeks ago.  Hot stuff, baby!

A slippery slope

Being a creative person with a weakness for the fiber arts, I am admittedly susceptible to certain things.  Bolts of fabric.  Skeins of yarn.  Bundles of wool.  Spinning wheels.  Sometimes I manage to resist the siren song of beautiful things that call out to me, "Play with us!  Make cool stuff with us!"  But sometimes not.  This week at work, a new temptation has been calling out to me, and I'm trying (with mixed results) to ignore it.

This is the Cricket loom from the Schacht Spindle Company.  We have these in stock now at the shop.  They're small.  (I do not need another hobby.)  They're great for beginners.  (I do not need another hobby.)  They're inexpensive.  (I do not need another hobby.)  I get an employee discount.  (I do not need another hobby.)

I'm doomed.

(I do not need another hobby.)

[Thanks for all the inquiries about our plumbing.  It was enough improved last night that we decided to stay here rather than go to a motel.  The plumber came back today and finished the job--pulled all the roots out of the pipes--and now we can flush with confidence!  Joy!]

A straight flush is better than a full house

No, I'm not talking poker; I'm talking plumbing.  This post's title is the slogan painted on a local plumber's van, which always cracks me up when I see it around town.

And speaking of cracks, when we were looking in the yellow pages for our plumber this morning, we saw a different one whose ad read, "We wear belts.  You know why."  Ha!

So anyway, yeah, more plumbing issues, and they're still not totally fixed, so the plumber will be back tomorrow.  As of this writing, Adverb and I are debating about whether or not to go to a motel for the night.  I thought I'd better post now while I can, in case we end up somewhere without internet.

Sorry this isn't very riveting, but I'm a little distracted!  Here's hoping for better blogging (and pipe un-clogging) tomorrow....

Quintron and Miss Pussycat at Eyedrum

As I recall, it was around 1999 when Adverb came home with a CD that a co-worker had given him, and he was raving about it.  He also told me, “You’ll probably hate it.”  (I remember that part distinctively because he turned out to be so completely wrong!)  That disc was These Hands of Mine , our first exposure to the musical stylings of New Orleans duo Quintron and Miss Pussycat. 

As far as I’m concerned, Quintron is a flat-out musical genius!  He’s a one-man band, he’s an inventor, he’s a madman.  Accompanied by his partner (wife?), vocalist/maraca shaker/puppeteer/style icon, Miss Pussycat, he plays music that is impossible to describe.  Is it funk?  Is it noise?  Is it experimental?  Is it just plain weirdness with a danceable beat?  It’s all of the above!  Quintron is the kind of artist that either you get, or you don’t.  If you don’t get him, no harm done.  But if you do get him, you’ll be hooked for life!

Last night’s appearance at Eyedrum provided all the usual thrills of a live Quintron show (this was my third).  Miss P. opened the performance with one of her trademark surreal-yet-cute puppet shows (despite technical difficulties).  From there, the packed room was taken on a crazy musical adventure that featured smoke, lights, flying money, and a tumbling speaker.  Q. was clad in what appeared to be a bedazzled mechanic’s coverall.  (He’s the only person I know of who could wear this look and make it seem like a great idea.)   He proceeded to drive the crowd wild with his custom-built Hammond organ/synthesizer combo (with the grill of a car on the front, complete with working headlights), as well as his signature instrument, the Drum Buddy.

What’s a Drum Buddy? you may ask. It’s an incredible device that Quintron himself invented to produce all kinds of crazy beats.  It consists of a coffee can, a light bulb, some tubes, and I don’t know what else, operated with a key (“like a Ferrari!”).  See this mind-blowing piece of musical genius demonstrated here.  Or if you want a real taste of the weird humor that Q. & Miss P. are all about, watch this fantastic Drum Buddy “infomercial” (if you dare!).

I could rave on and on about the wonders of Quintron, but you really just have to dive in and check them out for yourself.  Amazon is a great place to start.  As of this writing, they have 97 Quintron songs available to download.  Listen to the free clips and see what you like.  Of course, the ultimate Quintron experience is a live show, so here are some links to YouTube videos of Q. & Miss P. doing their thing:

This one wasn’t shot by Adverb, but he did attend this 2006 show (I was sick that night and had to miss it, waah.)

Here’s some great footage of one of my favorite songs.  This really captures the energy and charisma of Q. & Miss P. in action. 

For those of you in the Atlanta area kicking yourself because you missed the Eyedrum show, you still have another chance to catch Quintron on Monday 11/24 at the 40 Watt in Athens.  For the rest of you, keep your eyes peeled because the tour promoting the new CD is underway--Q. and Miss P. could be bringing their noise and bringing their funk to your town soon!

Comfort viewing

Recently Adverb and I started watching All Creatures Great and Small on DVD.  We've actually had the third disc from Netflix for a couple of weeks already, but evenings when we're both home and available at the same time are kind of rare, so it's taking us a while to get through it.  Our slow viewing isn't due to lack of enjoyment, though.  It's weird--this isn't really our type of viewing at all.  There's no dark humor, or sarcasm, or social satire, yet we definitely do find it funny.  It's an earnest kind of comedy, and an earnest kind of story.  A country vet in 1930's England meets eccentric locals and tends their ailing animals--sounds downright wholesome, doesn't it?  Well, yeah, it is, and yet it doesn't make me "womit" (if you've seen the show or read the books, you'll get that reference) the way such programs normally do. Amazing!  It's well-written and well-acted, and it features lots of critters and pretty countryside.  The show is soothing somehow.  In the middle of the week, when we're frazzled by working multiple jobs or trying to meet deadlines or whatever, it's cozy to snuggle up and drink some hot chocolate and enjoy this pleasant, entertaining show.  It's not hip, it's not edgy, but it's fun in its own way.

Friday flashback: 1978 (again)

Well, I had high hopes of scanning in some other photos for Friday flashback this week, but then I ended up working some extra hours at the shop, and there was a plumbing crisis here at Boogaloo Acres, and yadda yadda yadda...we'll have to settle for another pic from the folder that's already on my hard drive.

So!  What we have here is my brother and I in a snowdrift.  The date on this is January 1978, making me eight and him four (he looks taller than me because I'm on my knees).  This was when we lived in upstate New York, and I thought this was what winter was like everywhere.  Snowdrifts so high that when cars drove past our house, the only part of them we could see from our window was the radio antennae.  Freaky.  I would flip out if I had to deal with that now.

We sure look like we're enjoying it there, though, don't we?  And why not?  We didn't have to shovel it, or drive in it, and I probably got the day off from school.  And we knew that when we got too cold, we would go inside and have hot cocoa.  What's not to enjoy?  I'm sure glad I lived there when I was a kid, and in the south as an adult, instead of the other way around.