11.29.06 knit blog
i forgot to mention that i finished the scarf i was knitting for my MIL. she always wears a scarf...even in summertime. and it's usually the same scarf (a red one) so i wanted to make her one that was not red. i used a novelty yarn, a Caron Jewel Box color called smoky quartz (i'm not sure why it's called that, when i think of smoky quartz this is not the color combo i would think of. like i think of smoky quartz all the time, right? oh, you too?). it's basically a strand of green and a strand of purple with a gold/yellow string in the middle. go here and scroll down and you can click on the swatch for to see the color. i used 2 skeins of the stuff and i cast on 21 stitches. i like using a multiple of three cos i find it easier to count by threes. it ended up being 5ft long!

she seemed to like the scarf, but the real test will be if she wears it or not. at any rate i'm just glad that i actually finished something. now i've started on two other gifts. they're all just straight knitting so i hope they'll go kinda fast cos i really want to learn how to do the cable stuff. it looks so damn fancy. i want it.

i haven't started on the baby blanket for wittle bennie catoe (i'm TOTALLY going to call him Old Ben Catoeby, hee, "Obi Wan Catoeby, you're my only hope."), but only cos i'm wating for tonight at knitting class. i've never used the round knittng needles before. i'm afraid to cast on. chicken!

see you at knitting class.

11.27.06
the milk expired today.

***

my stomach has stopped killing me every time i move so i guess i'll go to work today. but before i go...i think i'll do a little knitting. oh, and the Allman Bros. are in the rotation!
ROCK!

is there anything more soothing than "Little Martha"?

11.26.06
between Gametap and knitting i fear this blog will self destruct.

i was swearing like a sailor on fire and jimmy came in to see what kind of difficult game i must be playing. he keeled over laughing when he saw it was Astrosmash.

leetle brahther called today to ask what we would want for Christmas.
"well, jimmy is really in to hot tea right now, so if you run across any kind of fancy tea up there that we can't get down here, that would be cool."

"um, okay. and what about you?"

"yarn. i'm all about the yarn."

"we've got a Knaughty Knitter up here."

"really? cool! get some awesome yarn that i can't buy at wal-mart."

"okay. tea and yarn. it's like buying christmas for my grandparents."

"what was that honey? i can't hear you? could you pick up some batteries for my new hearing contraption?"

11.24.06
the internet is so very handy.

ROBERT DUVALL!

11.24.06
well, i won't say that i had the worst Thanksgiving ever, because that would be melodramatic. but i will say that i had a pretty rotten day yesterday. i've some kind of stomach virus. it's more pain than anything else, thank you Jesus. there was some diarrhea of course, but it's nothing compared to the stomach pain of woe. i still feel miserable, but i'm sure i'll live. here's how bad it was, i was laying around all moany and gross and i didn't even feel good enough to knit. i know! how physical is knitting, right? but man, just to move was horrible. if i didn't have to breathe i wouldn't have been breathing.

anyway, i hope you had awesome turkey and punkin pie.

i must be getting better cos right now punkin pie sounds pretty good. and i don't like punkin pie.

11.22.06
today seemed to be errand day with a touch of Crazy Margaret added for sport. i baked cookies this afternoon (after the running of the errands and the dealing with CM) and now the house smells cozy. also, the fire i've got going makes it double cozy. fire! good!

i had to take roxy rockstar to the vet this morning for her yearly check-up/shots/shenanigans. she was a bad girl. she would not BUDGE after we entered the waiting room. when it was our turn to go back to see the vet? she turned into a dog statue. a heavy dog statue. she has never acted that way before at the vet's office, but seeing as how the last time she went to the vet was when she ate rat poison and she had to spend the night there wretching her guts out...i can see how she would actually remember that and act accordingly.

it took two people to drag her down the hall and the whole time she's looking at me with these glistening, gigantic anime eyes and her claws are digging into the concrete floor all, krrrrrrrrrrk. it was all around pathetic. and then, they put a muzzle on her because you never know what a huge terrified dog is gonna do and it was sad because she kept squeezing her tongue out to lick the vet tech. and now she's on her pillow enjoying the fire and feeling slightly miserable. you can tell she's not feeling wekk because she's not being very active at all. poor wittle fweegan. aw.

junebug is in the hospital again (basically, she's 4,000 years old). i went and hung out with her for a couple of hours today. i brought her some of the cookies i made and you'd have thought i'd brought her actual spanish treasure. doubloon cookies! i'll probably go back tomorrow for a visit since it's gotta suck to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving.

we're doing the thanksgiving thing with mr. fleegan's fam this year. leetle brahther and seester-een-law are doing it with her fam. so my parents are working at some kind of charity turkey dinner thing downtown. i think they're both looking forward to it.

well, i'd blog more, but i've got this fire going and i desperately need to poke it for no reason other than apparently i'm a closet pyro.

11.20.06 plumbing update

it only cost $100 this time. i say "this time" because the plumber seems to think we're gonna have to dig up the yard sometime to really fix it.
awesome.
anyway, the "root system" and other gunk that he pulled out of the pipe looked like a really long, evil weasel. even the plumber was amazed, and do you know how hard it is to amaze a plumber? they've seen everything come out of a pipe, right? anyway, the grossness he pulled out was so amazing that HE TOOK IT WITH HIM SO HE COULD SHOW HIS COWORKERS. THAT IS HOW AMAZING THE ROOT CLOG WAS.

***

to celebrate our AMAZING ROOT CLOG mr. fleegan and i flushed the toilet and did the dishes. then we built a celebratory fire in the fire place. it's the first fire we've made since i got the place last summer.
good news: the fireplace works!
bad news: the flue has been open since i bought the house last summer.
you effin' genius.

when i went outside to get some more sticks for the fire (the logs aren't burning because they're wet on the inside, i guess. or maybe they're just lazy.) i could smell the fire and i thought, "aw, that's my fire smelling like a fire." and i wanted to call someone to come over to smell the fire outside my house and then have them come in to get warm by the fire and drink tea or hot chocolate or coffee with irish cream in it or whatever toddy they want.

come, smell my fire! drink something!
but not tomorrow. tomorrow's bowling night.

11.20.06
i'm having more plumbers come out today. the basement is flooded again. that's twice in a week.

everyone will be getting a scarf for christmas this year.

11.19.06
you know those cars that have those stickers across the top of the windshield? it's usually personalized? yeah, well there's two of those that i've seen around town recently, one says Almond Joy across the top. the other one? the other one says To Good For You.
yeah, well you're not too good for the spell check, ass.

***

we saw Stranger Than Fiction this evening. it was absolutely great. it's pro'ly the best movie i've seen in years.

***

i'd write more, but i'm working on a scarf for the m-i-l. it's her birthday this week.

11.15.06

the wedding was really nice. cindy's dress was very very pretty. i've never seen one like it before. very cool. it had red in it.
AWESOME. justin looked very handsome in his tux as did dad (only they gave him the wrong size pants and they were a bit too short and he kinda looked like frankenstein from the waist down. oh well. it's just pants.), and mom looked really nice in her fancy suit dress. dress suit.

it was going to be an outdoor wedding, but the weather turned cold really fast up there in TN which was a bummer because it would've been really nice to have it outside, but none of us thought to bring any realy coats with us so we'd all have colds now if it had been outdoors.

i told myself that i wasn't going to cry at the wedding, but when katy got up and sang led zep's "thank you" at the beginning of the ceremony i'll admit, i teared up a bit. a great deal actually.

anyway, it was one of the best weddings i've ever seen. and yes, i'm biased as hell.
the kids went to gatlinburg for the honeymoon.

***

last night at bowling, mr. fleegan rolled a 189! hoo! i don't think i broke a hundred on either game. he said to me, "so jaimie, what's it like knowing you're going home with the guy who rolled a 189?"

he's a doof.

11.10.06
what's this, a knitting blog now? blech.

to my fellow knit kninjas! check this out! we HAVE to do this! how awesome is this? my only question is what are centimeters? (hee) we should get our knitting group to all make one. or two. or hell make as many as you want. fun!

***

i'll be in TN tomorrow if anyone needs me. roxy will take all my calls. toonces will be sulking behind the tv.

11.08.06
the Patty Hearst Voice continues. today i left Cookie a voicemail in PHV and this evening i received a voicemail from Liz in PHV. it cracked me up cos at first she was asking for some cheddar cheese and then she said, "oh, i wanted to tell you to stop wearing the black dress. it isn't helping."
and boom! instant chucklehead was i.

***

at lunch popsicle, tinley and i went to a homemade candy store in glencoe. it was WAY pricey so we didn't buy anything. we went there knowing it would probably be expensive but we thought we'd get a piece anyway. splurge you know. well, i'm sorry, but no, that was beyond expensive. but they had these candies there called chumbles. it was like melted chocolate over peanuts and raisins or whatnot. dad immediately says in axle-shriek, "you know where you are?! YOU'RE IN THE CHUMBLE, BABY! YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"

that is a perfect example of what it's like to hang out with dad.

11.07.06
i forgot to mention that after watching the Patty Hearst documentary that i cannot stop talking like her, and when i think or read something? the voice in my head? is her voice. it's pretty horrible, thanks.

it's also making me really annoying to be around (more so than usual.) because i CAN'T STOP talking like her. and every once in a while the urge to say, "death to the fascist insect that preys upon the the life of the people." which is just a phrase that makes everyone around you kinda uncomfortable, really.

***

it was election day. i forgot to vote.

yeah right, liz. you know i totally went and voted and got my sticker, bitches.

***

jimmy leaves tomorrow afternoon to go to east TN with his family. he's supposed to meet me in mid TN on saturday for my leetle brahther's wedding. kelly is going up on Friday cos her parents are getting there that evening. it's going to be zawesome. Zawesome. saucesome. you know what else is cool? john diener is taking time off from his crazy forest ranger job in CA to be there. this. will be. so. badass.

***

roxy rockstar hat

***

we finally got to bowl again. the bowling alley is having some major problems with its lanes breaking down. my scores were
suck and suckier. but fun was had.

11.06.06
last night we watched Beowulf & Grendel and Guerrilla: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst. the Beowulf movie was very good. it added a few things but was really enjoyable especially if you like movies about warriors. and we all know i like movies about warriors. even the bad ones. especially the bad ones. how many times have i seen kull the conqueror? even i've lost count.
"she told me she was 19!"

the Patty Hearst movie was a documentary. it too was enjoyable as well as educational. i learned that Patty Hearst has one of THE MOST annoying voices on the planet. very slow and vacant. even now.

11.05.06

fiddy

last night mr. fleegan and i were eating dinner with two of our compatriots and for SOME reason the horrible subject of ann coulter came up. (i know.) and my dear friend said that her parents like ann coulter and even own one of her books and sadly, i have lost all respect for these people because
1. her parents are extremely smart and well-read and
2. they should know better and
3. they probably DO know better and somehow that makes it worse that they listen to her and read her foul puke.

now, i don't use the C word very often (read: as often as laura does) but i can say that ann coulter is a cunt and i feel no remorse in doing so. i said, "she will die bitter and alone, a cunt." to which my friend replied, "all alone in her cunt mansion with her cunt money." and then we laughed and laughed because, cunt money.

anyway.

the knitting is going well. i've still not actually made anything but i have learned the purl stitch, and now i think i'm ready to make something. something really great and awesome.

i'm a little addicted to VH1 Classics.

i'm reading a great book called Horsemen of the Esophagus. it is about competative eating. i've never thought much about eating contests before.

11.01.06
tonight! we knit!

today! we work.

last night! we ate, drank, and were merry!

***

i have to tell you guys something. and quite frankly, it's shocking as hell. i was watching an old Lynard Skynard concert on VH1 Classics the other day (aka Televison Crack Cocaine) and it was the last song, "Free Bird", of course, when jimmy came in the room. anyway, i usually cry if i hear "Free Bird", and not for the same reason that everybody else cries either, not from overplay, but because it reminds me of "old times" and "fond memories" and "other such mawkish sentiments that my cold stone heart remembers". mostly it reminds me of my brother and i really miss him a lot even though i can talk to him on the phone any time.

ANYway, jimmy didn't know who the band was on TV.
wait, what?
i know. he DID attend high school IN Alabama! he's lived here all his life! and it's not like he was raised by a pack of wild dogs because even wild dogs from Alabama know who the hell Lynard Skynard is.
i said, "i'll give you a hint, they sang "Sweet Home Alabama"." ("der," as Cookie would say.)
he looked puzzled.

WHAT?!  hello?! SWEET HOME ALABAMA?!

"um, is it Alabama?"

"you mean to tell me, that you think that Alabama, sang "Sweet Home Alabama"?"

"i've heard them sing it before."

"dude, i've heard Tori Amos sing "Sweet Home Alabama" and no sorry, there's only one group. the one that WROTE it. are you putting me on?"

"are you sure it's not Alabama?"

"are you doing this on purpose?! is this like when Liz acts like ZZ Top ISN'T one of the GREATEST POWER TRIOS OF ROCK HISTORY just to get me upset and foamy at the mouth?"

"i like ZZ Top."

"jimmy, honey, sweetie, baby, tell me who sang "Sweet Home Alabama". i know you've heard the song. they play it after EVERY 'bama game. darling, love, tell me."

"i don't know."

"wow, it's like i don't even know who you are. this could be grounds for divorce. it's Lynard Skynard."

"oh."

"oh? oh? oh as in, "oh yeah, that's right! total brain fart!" or oh as in, "oh, i've heard of them." or is it the dreaded, "oh, i've heard of him." no wait, don't tell me which one, i'm going to pretend it's the "right" one so that i'll be able to sleep next to you tonight."

who IS this man i married?