It is so hard to post after such a long hiatus. Part of me wants to sit here for hours and tap out a long update.. but I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to try to pick up where I left off, and get back into the swing of things.
Summer is off to an interesting start though! The kids finished their school year last week, just as Richard's office has decided to transition from maintaining a working office to everyone telecommuting. Great in theory.. and with gas prices so high, its a money saver. But starting off.. during the kid's first week of vacation, when everyday is barely managed chaos. Well, lets just say, we all hope to work out the kinks quickly.

As for knitting. Boing! is still in progress, though I've taken a little break from it. The Celtic felted bag is in hiding - I actually hated the pattern as it was slightly confusing. And when I hit a glitch like that in a pattern, I'm completely turned off. Maybe I'll go back to it.. I'm not sure.

What I am rather obsessed with currently is Lizard Ridge. I've watched Paige knit on hers a few times on Saturday mornings when we all get together and well, I was smitten. A weird thing for someone like me who tends to walk right past the Noro at every yarn store. Its pricey.. and its scratchy. But I couldn't resist any longer. And whatta ya know.. I actually don't mind the feel of the yarn. Its also incredibly helpful to my wallet when Beth at Sheep Thrills gives us Ravelers a sweet discount.

The pattern tells us to knit 24 individual "blocks", much like a quilt. Screw that. Too much seaming! So I'm working panels using the equivalent number of blocks. One panel down (left) and the second one in progress (right). I'll be making four total. I've definitely slowed down a bit this past week with all of the changes here at home, but I'm still making steady progress.. and I'm not bored yet.

And oh, Its Monday! That means Music!

Love Rise Against.. And love Little Boxes. For those unfamiliar, Little Boxes is the theme song for the tv series, Weeds (Monday evenings on Showtime) Every episode features a different artist singing the theme (see here for the most recent release). If you have never seen the show *gasp*, get the first few seasons from Netflix and catch up. Its one of the best tv series, ever. Fantastic writing, great acting, hilarious!

So the blog (and my email) went down around 8:30ish this morning.. and now its finally back up almost 12 hours later. If anyone tried to visit today and timed out - Sorry 'bout that. Believe me.. it made me plenty grumpy.

Just when I was trying to get my blogging mojo back...

So I missed music Monday (which I've decided to rename as "whats on my iPod?" anyway) but even setting that aside, I've missed blogging about everything lately. My mojo apparently went on vacation again. Its not that I haven't thought about blogging.. I've just had nothing to say.

So because I don't want to just throw a post here once a week with a music link, I forced myself to take some pictures..

While I'm more fond of the moniker, "McSame", "McW" and "McBush" serve the purpose. You can get your very own stickers here. And free while supplies last, so hurry!

Another We Call Them Pirates hat. I think this is my 5th or 6th one? This one will be gifted to a friend who is moving to a very snowy and cold state in two weeks. I really love this pattern - it goes so fast! Its being worked in Patons Classic Merino - on US3 needles and I'm getting proper gauge.

Now for the music.. Its not new by any means, but when I think of Boston or Massachusetts, I think of Dropkick Murphys. With the breaking news of Ted Kennedy's tumor today.. I just wanted to pay homage to the "Lion of the Senate" in my own warped way. Get well Senator!

Next week I'll post what I had originally planned. A clue: Guitar Hero III Bonus Tracks.

Whoops, I forgot to do the random number generator last night! But I did first thing this morning, and Beth's number was the lucky one! Congrats Beth! I wish I had one for all of you, but I'm happy to lend my copy out when I'm finished with it (Paige? Kris? Loren?) So Beth, I'll bring along the book this weekend when I'll be seeing you!

Additionally, I wanted to apologize to everyone who has commented for the past few weeks. A) I've been really busy and not replying to email as I should be and B) complicating this, is that my spam filter has not been working right. "Real" emails have been going in my spam filter, and tons of spam has been landing in my main inbox. Since I get so much spam, weeding through and sorting it out can be overwhelming to the point where I quickly scan for "real" mail and delete the whole lot of them in frustration.  I think I have it fixed now, so hopefully my former comment etiquette will return.

.. or a meme and how it relates to the sniffles?

Nan tagged me for a meme over the weekend, but while I expected to complete it earlier this week, I was hit hard with some sort of viral nastiness. So, since my week thus far as been nothing but viral nastiness, I bring you my meme..

Write your own six word memoir. Post it on your blog, including an illustration if you’d like. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so that it can be tracked as it travels across the blogosphere. Tag at least five more blogs with links. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

• Nyquil
• Sniffling - Sneezing
• coughing - Aching
• Stuffyhead - Fever
• So You Can Rest - or not.

So now I'm tagging, hmm.. Cass, Loren, Beth, Daisy, and KaKi. And yes I know I cheated.. I used way more than six words.

If I weren't so sick this week, perhaps my meme would look different. But being this sick has its benefits. I'm nearly finished with a pair of socks that I started to knit on the way to PA on Saturday. And I finished The Kite Runner (not as good as A Thousand Splendid Suns, but only slightly so).

I know lots of family have been visiting hoping for our pictures of Grammy's 80th birthday party from last weekend, but I haven't gotten around to downsizing them from their original 20+meg size yet. Viral nastiness leaves little patience/energy for sitting at a computer futzing in Photoshop. But I am hoping that Richard will set aside some time before the weekend to show me how to do them as a batch.. all 150 of them so I can upload them to Flickr. I even have some video - my favorite is Danny and Jay playing Guitar Hero (who knew Danny could rock like that?) But the funniest one is the one where I zoom in on the "meter" and watch it quickly plunge to red while they try to do Slayer on "easy mode" - it was hilarious! For an idea of how hard this song is, here is a video of someone playing it on expert mode (omg!) And by the way, I must buy Guitar Hero, as soon as financially possible - I'm addicted.

Only Krissy and Nan guessed, but five were still left last night. And I expected some more guesses by this morning. Nope. So I let it sit all day. Not a one. I mean lots of y'all were looking at it according to my stats...

So were they that hard? Not that it matters, I'm just curious

Now the answers from the movies no one dared to guess, or guessed incorrectly..

“It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. After all, with Your help, I’m starving to death.“ This would be Tevye in "Fiddler On The Roof", talking to God.

“Everybody in this family needs to just calm down and eat some fruit or something.” I chose this line because "Vamanos Children!" was far too easy. Of course, this is from "Signs", totally cheesy when compared to other works by M Night Shyamalan, butI love it. If its on TV, I have to sit and watch. If theres nothing on TV, I'll put in the dvd. Not sure why I love it so much.. but I do.

“I am making a horseth asseth of myselfeth.” That no one got this one, shocks me a little! Elliot Garfield - my favorite leading man! "Goodbye Girl"! Geeeez! < wink >

“Because you thought I was *cocky*, I’m now on a permanent *acid trip*?” This would be Nick Cage to Don Cheadle in "Family Man"

"This is politics at its finest" Robert DeNiro as Conrad (or Connie) in "Wag The Dog"

So, no pictures today. I took some.. of the snow (what is up with THAT Mother Nature?) But I'm far too lazy to open Photoshop.

I saw this on Carole's blog this morning.. and since I'd like to keep the blogging mojo flowing, I grabbed it. I must have been living under a pile of yarn or something because I hadn't seen this (or noticed it) on the blogs until it showed up on Carole's.

The rules..

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

Annnd... here they are:

1. "It may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. After all, with Your help, I'm starving to death."
2. "That's because my life is as good as an Abba song. It's as good as Dancing Queen." Kris - "Muriel's Wedding"
3. "Everybody in this family needs to just calm down and eat some fruit or something."
4. "I am making a horseth asseth of myselfeth."
5. "Because you thought I was *cocky*, I'm now on a permanent *acid trip*?"
6. "What's the Czech for "Do you love him"?" Kris - "Once"
   
7. "Come and get it! It's a running buffet!" Kris - "Shaun Of The Dead"
   
8. "This is politics at its finest"
9. "Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man." Kris - "A Christmas Story"
   
10. "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." Kris - "Goodfellas"
    

I'm not going to tag anyone, but feel free to grab it!

One more to go. And I'm nearing the halfway point on that one! So I'm not knitting as fast as I would like to on these, but I'm not disappointed with my progress either.

Out of the 20 pictures taken, only these two are worth sharing. The rest were all a blurry flurry of orange and green. So you see, its not just my motivation to blog taking a hit recently.. its also my ability to take decent pictures!

As for that, now that I've mentioned it again.. Its not that I've lost all motivation to blog, but perhaps I'm running out material? Maybe I'm sick of blogging about knitting? Maybe I'm regretting moving all political content to liberalmom? Scratch that.. I haven't been blogging there lately either! Or maybe its just the time of year.

In any case, if someone has some motivation to spare, or fodder.. please send this way.