ooh, ooh, meeee!!!

i recently got dental insurance.

i was reading over the coverage plan and it struck me that dental insurance is cheap, and for the most part it works really well compared to its big sister health insurance.

all preventative care is covered 100%. it is once you start needing stuff fixed that they drop it to 80% and when you start really screwing up* that they only cover 50%.

this whole "pay for preventative care" angle makes a lot more sense to me than the "pay per service" or the "take this prescription and go away, that will be $50 please" models for health "care".

just saying.

*"screwing up" is a relative term. i speak from the experience of having teeth replaced after an accident.

one step beyond

i had an interesting blog-related experience in my real life today. i'm sure everyone eventually has this happen, but it was new to me.

one of the cast members of my current show interjected in conversation "hey, i like your blog." i kinda didn't know what to say because 1. i'm not related to this person. 2. he is a brand new friend, so i have not told him i have a blog myself. 3. this is the first time a guy has ever said something positive about my blog.

now, i started the blog for close real life friends and family to keep track of what i'm up to and see that i am, in fact, alive and well and knitting in paris. (i wish. couldn't resist a theatre joke.) and i only usually tell people about the blog if they are my knitting friends. they have a similar addiction, so we can't judge each other. other pals who find out... fine. and they usually won't tease because... well... they found the blog. no one wants to tease someone (right away) whom they have taken enough interest in to find the blog thereof.

and the last bit about a guy saying nice things about a (bright pink) blog mostly devoted to knitting.... well... as, i said K. is a new acquaintance, and he seems like a pretty good guy. his mother probably raised him right.

now, in other work-related nonsense. i was driving home from his design run tonight and got stuck behind a truck with a bumper sticker that was confusing. i understood it but as i followed it for block after, block, i kept think "what is the point?"

it was all red and in plain white block letters it read...

It's cheaper to yank your own.
Crazy Ray's

maybe the only point is that ray, in fact, really is crazy.

i need to stop now because i am using to many parenthetical phrases. there are a lot of them in the text of my current show. now they are gumming up my brain.

apples and oranges

i have lots of little things that don't really go together. so let's a have fruit salad blog post.

first, the cake.
no, no, no. there won't be a cake on the blog every week, but this one is special like S.'s cake last week. my pal D. at work got it for me because she didn't think i was working last week on my birthday. D. is great. she likes pretty, delicious things (and trying new things) and i think she likes sharing her discoveries as much as eating them. i own a previous act of D.'s generosity--a copy of an out-of-print sock pattern booklet from the 1940s calls "2 Needle Socks". i think this should accurately demonstrate the level of D.'s generosity.

at least it will to knitters.

anyway.
this is a Grande Mariner cake from Stella's Bakery in Rockville, Maryland. it is delicious. you should march out right now and get one.

second.
Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men. this is a real book. it came out in 1973. for those of you who, like me, were not walking this earth to know... Rosey was a football player in the 1960s. back when they were the Los Angeles Rams. go have a look-see. it is very amusing. i love books from the 70s. there is something about the "hipness" of them that is quaint.

like calling people "cats".

third.
i forgot to mention that i have a knitting profile running on the Knit + Stitch = Bliss blog. have i not mentioned that i am now running the blog for my LYS (and place of employment)? hm. well, i am. yes, i am a professional blogger now. go see my "Meet the Staff" profile here.

fourth.
i have been getting a lot of traffic to the blog from people googling the actors in my last show. i guess all i have to say about that is... hi, guys! but maybe it is wrong to assume they are googling themselves. i do it from time to time to see if i missed show reviews or the like. and i know at least one actor who proudly would tell anyone who would listen that he had 15 pages of listing in google. and that was 2 years ago, so he is probably up to more now. ha.

fifth.
at a local gift/variety store that sells yarn i saw a knitty.com Branching Out scarf knit in lace weight Malabrigo. i want to make that scarf, so i bought the yarn. now i can't get the eff-ing gauge to look like anything worth knitting. arrrrrgh! this is just random ranting. i'll get over it and knit something else from my Malabrigo

sixth.
Knit Lit is not a very good book. it should be, but i think the stories have all been edited to not really be stories, but rather those types of moments that you stop sharing and say "well, i guess you had to be there".

i think i could also be disappointed because reading about knitting is less fun than doing it. then why are blogs interesting?

and finally.
little to no knitting to report. i've been catching up on other aspects of my life. oh, who am i kidding... my sock is going in fits and starts. i keep eff-ing up the lace pattern by 1. getting cocky. 2. getting distracted. 3. drinking a 2nd beer while knitting.... which i guess is a combination of #1 and #2.

i'm halfway to the heel. maybe i'll have more to report after the weekend.

it's raining... yarn?

today as i was having a walk around my block, i discovered this little oddity near my driveway. a crocheted cotton swatch! on the ground! all by itself!

spooky.

i decided the yarn gods are sending me a sign. i'm not sure what the sign is just yet, but i thought i needed to record the moment. when i trotted out with my camera to take the picture and inspect the piece more carefully, i realized this isn't just a swatch. see the little hook? apparently this is an earring.

a poor, misguided crochet swatch earring. and now a lost one, at that.

odd.

in other news, i watched High Fidelity last night, and this means the Tonalita scarf has doubled in size since i took the photo yesterday. i am officially well into the 2nd ball of yarn. yay.

toby woke me up at 5:30am today by discovering that he can reach a window from my bed. fourtunately i can fall back to sleep easily. i'm glad he is out and about finally and not hiding under the bed all the time. he actually sat under my chair last night while i was watching the movie and knitting. i'm enjoying my house guest.