I promised you a post about Boston, but I can’t keep my mind on any one thing long enough to write coherently about it. So you will get snippets of Boston. I like it very much – I could totally picture myself living there. And the fact that I got to hang out with Aimee and Sloth all the time while I was there? Made it even better. We packed a fair amount of stuff into the five days that I was there, and there was so much more that we didn’t get a chance to do. I’ll definitely be going back. I do have some great memories of the trip, though: eating chowder with Aimee at Quincy Market, the Benjamin Franklin walking tour I took, walking past the Green Dragon Tavern (where the Sons of Liberty met and planned revolution), seeing Craig Ferguson recite the Pledge of Allegiance on the 4th of July, the party in Dorchester where I discovered that champagne goes with everything, dinner at Sloth’s house…the list goes on and on. I was going to put pictures into the post, but apparently my happy Flickr plugin isn’t playing nicely with the blog today. So instead, I will give you the entire Boston Photoset. Have fun.

Coming soon, fiber progress. Because there has been a fair amount of it despite the heat. You all can thank Plurk for that – since I hang out (virtually) with knitters all day, I knit and spin and stuff now.

Is it possible to be too connected to the ether? I wonder about this lately. In the past, I’ve had a habit of being very passionately interested in something on the internet, and then move on after a few months. IRC, Victor Garber (there was a website at one point…it is gone now), MySpace…the list could go on, but it would embarrass us both, so I’ll leave it. This blog is the one thing that has stood the test of time – it has been…holy crap, has it really been four years now? My blog is in pre-K? But of late I have let the blog lapse a little bit, because work has been too chaotic to come up with a single coherent thought, let alone blog about it, and the evenings…well, there are distractions in the evenings as well. My mind these days moves in short phrases, more suited to Facebook status messages than even Ravelry forum messages. Twitter would be good, but Twitter is often a little bitch and tells me I’m refreshing too much when clearly I am *not*. That annoys me. But Plurk, Plurk is cool. Plurk has a lot of knitters on it, so it resembles a cross between the beloved Facebook status message and IM, where we talk about socks and spinning a lot. That does it for me, I dunno about you.

And so I think in short bursts of third person thoughts, like “Evil Julie wants a jelly donut” and “Evil Julie is going on a ten-minute spin break, anyone in?”. Those do not make good blog posts, by the way, so my pre-K blog is probably being abused by the people running its daycare. My verbal skills are probably suffering, and looking back on that last sentence, it becomes quite obvious that my ability to come up with a decent metaphor has been compromised as well. And my attention span is not long enough to update Twitter (little bitch), Facebook, Ravelry, Plurk, and the blog. Sometimes, being this connected to the internets reminds me of the hive mind of the Borg…I haven’t lost the ability for independent thought, but I am always, always wondering “Has anyone written anything cool? What are these people up to? Have I blogged this week? No? Damn. Oooh, has anyone written anything in the past five seconds?” It is something I am going to have to work through. But I’m still taking my laptop with me when I hang out with Aimee and Sloth this weekend. So there.

(That last sentence totally caught your attention, didn’t it? Blog post when I get back. Promise.)

Aaaanyway, several years back, he had a pet squirrel. And by pet, I mean, squirrel he trained to come into his house off the street. A New York City squirrel in his house. And in the course of time, Rocky disappeared and we all figured he’d gotten run down by a car or eaten some rat poison, or some other hideous fate that city squirrels can avoid for only so long.

Two weeks ago, Eugene emails me at work to tell me he has a new squirrel. Rocky II. And Rocky II has a girlfriend, and he brings the girlfriend to Gene’s window, but she won’t come in the apartment, only Rocky II, and…well, you see that this is another reason why we call him Shady Gene. I think he was one of those kids that just brought home every stray animal he found and he’s never outgrown it.

So without further ado, I present you with Rocky II (Eugene made these titles up, I had nothing to do with them. He’s twisted.)

Rocky II, the Sequel 

Rocky II Goes for the Nuts 

So to try to recapture some holiday zen, I will show you pictures. (Behind the cut, and there are a lot of them. Sorry, dial-up friends!)

We’ll start with a finished object, Rick’s Christmas scarf. Actually, his hat, too, since I just realized I never showed either to you all.

The hat on the bear’s head is not the finished version, since after Rick tried it on I had to add some more ribbing around the bottom to make sure it stayed on his head. The pattern was a little wonky when worked for the larger size. The scarf is the Yarn Harlot’s One Row Scarf. Both patterns can be found on Ravelry if you’re into that kinda stuff. The yarn is Knit Picks’s Swish Superwash, and I love it.

Now, for a dose of the surreal, I present the gift the Landlady gave me:

Yes, it does say New York across the back of my head. Why do you ask?

From the front, I resemble an alien. It’s kitschy, and now I make everyone who comes over try it on and I take their picture:

Some pictures of Samang’s first Christmas:

And finally, proof that you can see Neighbor Forrest’s house from outer space. Mine dims in comparison, quite literally (my place is on the left, Forrest’s on the right. Even my LED light tree on the top floor looks shabby by comparison.):

Aimee: Hey, did you knit the (some pattern) with (some number of stitches)? Because I’m doing it, and it doesn’t look right. Too small.

Julie: Yeah, I did that. I added 10 stitches to make it bigger. And you have to knit it longer than the pattern says or it won’t fit.

Aimee: Cool.

Yeah, then later, I realize that the number of  stitches Aimee had mentioned (protected here because the recipient of (some pattern) reads the blog occasionally) didn’t sound right. So I texted her and told her maybe I fucked up and cast on too many stitches, so don’t listen to me and just cast on however many the pattern calls for plus an increment of stitches. And then I got back from lunch and looked at my project page on Ravelry and realized that I had not in fact knit (some pattern). I had knit (some other pattern). So I just texted her that.

Since when does staying up until 12:30 and wrapping and packing Christmas gifts like a mad dervish screw with my mind like this and make me into a space cadet? I must be getting old…

It is a good day to be a member of the Red Sox nation, especially in New York City, surrounded by disgruntled Yankees fans. I’m celebrating by wearing my beat-up Sox cap, bought right after they won the 2004 World Series (do not slight me as a bandwagon fan, if you live in NYC you know that they were impossible to find here before then). I think it may be time to buy another one in celebration.

Also, my man Terry Francona? Vindicated. And yes, he is my man. We grew up in the same hometown and I went to school with his nephew.

And just when you think the day can’t get any better? Cute baby pictures! We took Samang on her first carousel ride this weekend at Prospect Park’s Halloween celebration (thus the costume).

If the child had only been looking at the camera, this would have been a Christmas card.

With Grandmama:

Still teething. Horsies apparently teethe on their hooves.

Tonight I get to be a mime on stage. I’ve never been on stage, with good reason. I cannot tell you how happy I will be when this is over…

This guy was the first thing we saw when we entered the grounds. Still no idea what he was doing, but he seemed to wander around the grounds in this manner all day.

I wanted to take this little one home. Unfortunately, I don’t think my small apartment is meant to have a Border Collie, especially one that chews towels. He could always try to herd the cats, though.

Baby girl is teething, thus the face. At least, that’s our explanation for now – I have a feeling we’re going to see this expression a lot when she’s a teenager.

He looks like he’s wearing eyeshadow. I like that in a sheep.

This is Sparky. Yes, he has four horns. He’s a Jacobs sheep, that’s apparently normal.

I love goats. If I could have one in my apartment, I would. It would be me, the goat, two cats, and a border collie. Seriously, how can you not like their little rectangular pupils? People pay good money for contact lenses like that!

Yes, he was about to spit. No, I did not get spit upon.

A gorgeous end to a gorgeous day.

And now, the loot:

Oh my God, so so soft. It feels like a cloud. A 6 oz. cloud of BFL, Cotswold, and Mohair. Bad me, I don’t know where I bought this – the card is at home.

Mohair locks, $5. Can’t beat that.

Cloverleaf Farm sucks me in again – it wasn’t enough that I bought half their booth at MDSW. This is BFL in Sapphires. I likes BFL.

8 oz. of bamboo from Liberty Ridge. So soft, so shiny. I can’t wait to spin this.

Socks That Rock Mediumweight – Azure Malachite. I have wanted this colorway for ages.

STR Mediumweight in Atomic 6. Part of me wants to pair these two up for a Chevron Scarf. The other part of me would just like to pet them all day.

You will notice that I have no pictures of the Ravelry meet-up. That’s because I totally forgot about the camera! I was so engrossed in meeting all these people that the camera sat untouched in the bag. Also, other people are afraid of using the big camera – I guess it is kind of intimidating – so you can’t just hand it off and say “Can you take a picture of us?”. Also, Jordana was holding Samang, and a baby and a big camera are just too much to deal with. Also, I’m a spazz. Any of those reasons are equally credible. There are also no pictures of the swift because my apartment is a mess and it is impossible to photography a swift without getting apartment in the background. Let’s just say that it’s wooden and wonderful and big (yes, I got a large swift – I seem to buy weirdly sized skeins and the vendor said this will handle skeins that are measured in meters, not just yards). I love it.

And tonight I am going to barricade myself in the house and play with some of this. I’m in rehearsal for “Everyone’s An Asshole” or making props for it until Monday, so tonight will be my own.

So I’m sitting in the waiting room, knitting on a sock that I am determined will be finished by Friday so I can wear it to Rhinebeck on Saturday, and I hear “Hey, I know this lady!” I look up, and there are Jordana and Samang. Jordana, Thabs, and I all have the same doctor so the chances that we would meet up there are not astronomical, but they’re pretty freakin’ high all the same. We had absolutely no idea that we had appointments at the same time, and since I haven’t seen Jordana or the baby since my birthday, it was a very happy surprise. So while Jordana got her blood drawn, I got to play with my goddaughter – much more enjoyable than knitting a sock. And this chance meeting means I get to see J four days in a row – tomorrow we have a meeting to work on our performance, Friday night we’re driving up to Rick’s to crash (it’s much closer to the festival, and free!), and Saturday we’ll be doing Rhinebeck.

Between that and the fire drill my building is going to have in ten minutes, this is a red letter day.

But hey, guess what? There’s a picture of me over on Mason-Dixon Knitting. (If you’re a knitter, you’re jealous.) Top picture, left hand side. That’s me in the Steelers cap and aqua hoodie, concentrating very hard on my spinning. The Spin-Out was a lovely way to spend Saturday – I walked up the hill to the fountain, and suddenly, there was a crowd of my people! Even better? There were a bunch of people spinning on Lendrums! We’re a cult! (Check the Ravelry groups if you’re on, we really are a cult now.) I spun for about five hours with a few trips to the bathroom and to get food, made a bunch of new friends, and got a few lessons (and a lovely birthday present) from my friend Jenny. (She is a miracle worker. The superfine merino top that I was spinning up as crap last week? Now looks like real live yarn! Even Rick couldn’t believe the difference!) Kids were spinning, guys were spinning, girls were spinning, and we became quite the tourist attraction. Really…the rickshaws were stopping beside us and pointing us out to tourists. Same with the carriages. I made some wonderful new (look at the picture of me, it makes me laugh) friends who I will see again at Rhinebeck later this month, and I just really enjoyed myself.

Afterwards, Rick and I met up with J and Thabs and Samang for dinner at a German restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. We ended up sitting right next to another table that was celebrating a birthday (Librans are everywhere, I must have run into about twelve people with birthdays on or near mine this year), and so there was a lot of talk back and forth, and a lot of beer.

The next morning, I woke up to…well, continuing proof that Rick is the best boyfriend ever. When I woke up there was a handmade card and a small wrapped package. I unwrapped it and found a memory card that didn’t fit anything I own. I thanked him for it, but said “What do I use this for?” He said “Well, you can always use more memory. Especially if you have this.” and pulled out a Nikon D-40. There will be a steep learning curve, especially as I find myself reaching for the non-existent zoom button, but I love my first SLR very very much.

We then  went over to Prospect Park for a little birthday party with some friends. Jordana, Thabiso, and Samang were there of course, and the girls took some time out of their schedules to come out, and Jessie, Andre, and Zula joined us as well, but the person who gets the biggest amount of points for showing up? The Retropolitan, who not only came from his distant Bat Cave, but came out to help celebrate my birthday when the only person he knew there was me. No pictures were taken of Retro, because he is so mysterious that he cannot be captured on camera, but now you are all jealous of me, knitters or not. It was an amazing birthday weekend, and I am just thrilled to have all these wonderful people in my life.

30? It ain’t so bad. Pictures here to prove it.

Joe, in typical Joe fashion, took longer to warm up to her. (I think he’s also seen a baby or two in his long life, so he knew to be wary.) Late in the evening though, when the baby was still napping, I put him up on the bed to see her. She had gotten an arm out of her swaddle by this time, and when he got close to sniff her she whacked him upside the head. He looked at me to verify that I had seen this abuse, and then lay down at her feet to keep guard over her and protect her from that other miscreant, Freddie. Or maybe he just reasoned that the feet were still swaddled and less likely to make contact with him. But when I asked him if he liked the baby, he meowed. I take that as a good sign.

Baby-2, cats-0.