Snake Surly

They Like Me

Okay, so I was only about half right on my Oscar picks. I did even worse at predicting the Felix Awards, because I won Best Featured Actress and Best Supporting Actress. I was stunned. I truly did not have a speech (or two!) prepared and babbled like an idiot. I am embarassed to say how happy it made me.

But even better than me winning my acting awards was that the Mary-Troy-Kate contingent totally kicked ass. Actors directed by Mary or Troy won all the acting awards except one (there wasn't a Mary/Troy actor in that particular category), Troy won Best Director, Mary won Best Show for "Boys Next Door", and our designers came out great, too. We rock, if I do say so myself!

I (hart) Award Shows

Okay, I found an outfit to wear to the Felixes tonight. I got a skirt and sweater from Anthropologie, and some kickass shoes at Nordstrom. I got some pretty Liz Palacios earrings and a bracelet which will not compete with my favorite green necklace. I'm hoping it will all look all right together.

Not that anyone cares, but I thought I'd make my Oscar picks.

Best Picture:
I haven't seen "Ray" yet (I'm hoping to see it tonight if I don't get home too late), but I've seen everything else. I really liked all of the nominated films. My favorite is "Sideways", but  I'm picking "The Aviator".

Best Actor:
I haven't seen it yet, but it seems like Jamie Foxx is the favorite. I gotta say that Leo was pretty great in "The Aviator", though.

Best Supporting Actor:
Thomas Haden Church. He was fan-freaking-tastic, although Clive Owen is hotter.

Best Actress:
I only saw two of these movies. I absolutely loved Kate Winslet in "Eternal Sunshine", but Hilary Swank was amazing. I'm picking her.

Best Supporting Actress:
Dude, Cate Blanchett WAS Kate Hepburn.

Director:
Clearly I am picking Martin "Susan Lucci" Scorsese.

Motorin'

Did everyone but me know that all the party dresses this season are made of chiffon in heinous pastels and cut on the bias? Why was I not alerted? My dress-buying expedition was an unqualified failure. I went to Bloomie's, Macy's, Nordstrom and even Neiman-Marcus. BLECH. Guess I'll have to drag my ass down to Moon Zoom and get something vintage.

At least I found what I wanted at the grocery store. After the trip to the Maul, I went to the yarn store (well, you didn't think I was going to take University during rush hour, did you? The only sane choice is to take Willow. And you didn't think I was going to Menlo Park without going to the yarn store, did you? DID YOU?) and my Midwest Moonlight scarf was much admired. I bought a pair of shorter bamboo #8 needles. The ones I traded from Elizabeth are too, too long, and my metal ones still have the Ruffles on them.

On the way home, I listened to my Money & Run mix CD. It made me all mushy and stuff and made me miss the weirdos at Impact. I think I'll go see their Othello. Maybe Casey will be naked!

Randomness

I started out sucking at poker last night, but I got really agressive in the third game and wound up coming in second. Two losses, a second place finish and a two dollar profit in the losers' lounge side game = up two bucks, baby!

Midwest Moonlight is finished. It's gorgeous.

Started working on Misty Garden yesterday. I'm using my delicious Brooks Farm Harmony mohair. It is absolutely stunning. The swatch I saw knitted up at the show wasn't very wide and thus looked a little stripey, but in a wider scarf it's beautifully variegated. The feather and fan pattern is a cinch to knit, so I'm definitely going to try this scarf again. I'd like to see it in a kid mohair like the stuff in the pattern. I do like the Jo Sharp, but I'm tempted to try Alchemy's Promise. I saw some a couple weeks ago at Imagiknit. The colors just about knocked my socks off.

I'm fighting off a migraine.

The wonderful and talented Ron Gasparinetti recommended me to the Pear Avenue Theatre, and they've hired me to stage manage their upcoming show! Woohoo! This is a fabulous theatre which has been on my "wanna work there real bad" list since I saw Troy in a show there last year.

I'm not going to the City today to rehearse since my scene partner is under the weather. Ideally, I should use this time to go over to Palo Alto and find something to wear to the Felix Awards this weekend. Have I gotten my ass off of the couch yet? Hell, no. I have no chance of winning either award I'm nominated for, but I still wanna look hot.

We went to the movies on Monday night (saw "Million Dollar Baby" - terrible title, great flick. Hillary Swank was amazing.) and played poker last night, so TiVo is jam-packed with content. Woohoo!

He giveth and we spendeth

The nice people at the IRS sent us a great big huge gigantic refund. We will pay off some credit card debt with most of it, but some of it we spent last night on this. It goes vroom.

Rob said, "Well, if we don't get it, you'll just spend the money on yarn."

big spender

So I was coming home from class yesterday and I stopped in Menlo Park to see if Draeger's had any V-8 in glass bottles (they didn't) (It's for Rob, not me. I wouldn't want anybody to think I drink V-8) and I thought, "Ooh, I can go to the yarn store!"  and then the good Kate on the other shoulder said, "No, don't go to the yarn store. You just bought all that yarn at Stitches." The bad Kate said, "Go! You need point protectors and a mohair brush and you want to try to make that cape thing from Stitch&Bitch Nation." The good Kate said, "Dude, you may NOT buy any more yarn until you finish at least one of your current projects. And besides, that cloak looks suspiciously like a poncho, and you wouldn't want to disappoint the Manolo by wearing a poncho." The bad Kate said, "Shut up! It's not a poncho! We're going to the yarn store!"

So I went to the yarn store. Fortunately they didn't have any bulky weight yarn that leapt out at me that wasn't either heinously expensive or alpaca, which would have been too warm. So I spent a whopping 54 cents on point protectors.

While I was there I showed off my Ruffles scarf. One of the women there showed me the variegated brown mohair she'd made HER Ruffles out of. I want it bad. She also showed me her in-progress Backyard Leaves, which was goooorgeous. Maybe I'll try that next.

Here's my Ruffles. The picture is really dark. And it's a lot longer now.

Here's my Midwest Moonlight, too. It's long enough to wrap around my neck. I'm tempted to bind off now, but I must be patient and finish the ball of yarn.

Killer Attack Hick Baby

During Mockingbird, Miss Vicki gave us all these hideous fake hillbilly teeth. I carry them with me at all times. You never know when you might need a pair of freaky fake teeth.

Apparently toddlers love them.

Pur Mows

Uh-oh, Tifne is knoct up.

Home again, home again

Just got back from the old homestead. Since my parents are in London, my sister needed some help with the demon spawn baby, and she called me, as I have nothing but free time. (Well, that's not true, but I had some.) We had a good ole time, and I was actually left alone with the little nipper for an hour today. During that time, I managed to let the stupid dog out, but the baby obliged by reading his new guitar book quietly while I ran around outside trying unsuccessfully to trick the dog back into the house.

Anyway, I'm home now catching up on the TV I missed this weekend.

giveth and taketh, part deux

So last night I was minding my own business, knitting on Ruffles. I stopped to examine the last few rows and noticed I'd let a piece of yarn split. It was sticking out in a very unattractive way, so I unraveled a few rows to fix it. And then...I couldn't get it started again. I undid all the way to one of the rows that goes all the way across, and all of the twist stitches were screwing me up. I undid another row, and couldn't get it to work. I tried again, and again, and again.

This story ends with me unraveling the entire thing, and throwing it across the room screaming "FUCK YOU!" My metal #8's did make a nice satisfying sound when I hurled them to the wood floor, but that was the only good thing about it. I cried and cried.

But I started it right back up, which is something the old Kate would never have done.

Anyway, today was much, much nicer. I went to Stitches. It was the greatest. It was like I'd died and gone to yarn heaven. I got lots of stuff, and I now have enough projects to keep me occupied for the next forty years or so. My favorite purchase was some mohair from Brooks Farm. This stuff is incredibly beautiful. I got some Primero and this color of Harmony. I think I'm going to try to make the Misty Garden scarf from Scarf Style with it. Both my sets of #6 needles are in use, so this will motivate me to finish those projects. I also got some cashmere (from Nevada and from Australia) and lace patterns, and stuff to make the coolest beaded scarf EVER.

All of the people I talked to were SO nice. It was a perfectly lovely afternoon.