Piping up

When I let the every day blogging drop, I really let it drop, right?

Just wanted to pop in to say that the combination of being busy and (more importantly) being on muscle relaxants has sapped me of all desire to blog this week.  I'm down to my last one tomorrow, so perhaps I won't be quite so wiped out when it comes time to write an entry on Sunday.

Whee

Muscle relaxant relaxed to the point of indifference.  That's all I can muster tonight.

In the stream

Amid a lazy Sunday of watching football, napping, and wondering what in the world I did to pull something in my lower back (or so I assume), a thread about Toto flared up in my Twitter feed. I thought I could only name three songs by the band. You know, the one about Rosanna Arquette, the one with ridiculous lyrics shoehorned in about the eponymous continent, and "Hold the Line". After checking out what singles of theirs charted, I recognized one more.

And that's all I have today. Time to hobble around like an old man.

'Tis the season

Social media introduces one to the sorts of things that may not be stumbled upon in the normal course of things.  Today that saves my blogging bacon and keeps me on topic.  So, here you go: knitted gnomes vs. snowmen.

In a mood

Near the end of the work day and a metaphorical fire appears.

About a half hour later another one ignites.

Then I think I've lost my iPhone.  (At least this turned out all right and I found it.)

The fires will have to continue to be dealt with tomorrow.  In other words, I'm in no mood for much of anything tonight.

The night before

Gotta get a good night's sleep as I'll be running in the Olympics tomorrow morning.  Scratch that.  It's a 5K race in the suburbs.

By the way, what a weird detail to include in this video at :35.  There's a close-up of the composer taking a big drag on a cigarette.

The sands of time

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.  As I try to keep up with everything and spin my wheels here, I wanted to post Squeeze's fun "Hourglass" video loaded with optical illusions, but embedding is disabled.  The vintage Letterman clip up top is nice to see, though.

In the stream

The day's already almost over?!  OK then, a couple items recently in my Twitter stream:

-Anonymous art left around Scotland.  (Seriously, take a look.)

-How to make kids hate you on Halloween. (I got a pretty good laugh out of this.)

Happy Halloween

Really, is there anything else to say after that?

Scary

If you're looking for something scary to watch this Halloween, may I humbly suggest The House of the Devil?  Made in the style of '80s horror films (and set at an indeterminate time in that decade), it's one of the scarier films I've seen in recent years, and it does a bang-up job of utilizing The Fixx song seen in its official video form at the top of this post.  (I would have embedded that scene up top, but out of context I don't know that it sells it much.  Plus, why ruin the fun?)  It should be pretty easy to find for rental or streaming.  Just don't blame me if it freaks you out.

Bushed

Flew back from Dallas today. Boy are my arms tired.

Yes, it's an old, predictable joke.  It doesn't ignore the fact that I'm bushed.

See you tomorrow.

The night before

The night before leaving for a trip never fails to be far too busy.  While I get ready (and try to get into bed for a good night's rest) for my trip to Texas, let me point you toward a local effort via a knitting clinic to show support for a Girl Scout leader with a form of leukemia.

The right attitude

Not much to say other than this longtime knitter certainly has the right attitude.

Let's hear it for the boys

Here's a nice story about boys at a grade school in London who have taken to knitting.  The most surprising part to me is not that boys have taken to it but that the school's name is Dog Kennel.

Gold star

I had an unexpected twelve-hour work day, so in lieu of writing anything, here's a (relative) oldie but a goodie from one of my all-time favorite bands.

Historical

"The Duke of Windsor, seriously worried over a virtual British government boycott of his wedding, has resorted to knitting to soothe his jangling nerves, it was understood today.

Such was the news in the May 22, 1937 edition of The Pittsburgh Press.  Somehow this detail didn't make it into The King's Speech.

Friday night video

Crashing into the end of the work week and too fried to write.  Enjoy a new song from Wilco.

Time

Seems like I don't have enough of it these days.

Cosby sweater

Now this what I call a Cosby sweater.

A Sunday read

Amid the frantic pace I've been keeping I find that Sundays are best as prescribed: a time of rest.  And watching (or sleeping during) football games.

Still, I want to blog something, and since I've been light on the knitting content, I thought I'd dig up a link to something that applies to it.  So, here you go: the daughter of The Clash's Joe Strummer talks about handcrafting and knitting in the punk tradition.