these days of leiderhosen

George Booth of New Yorker cartoon fame is, aside from The Steven, the artist most able to make me snort coffee out my nose. This umbrella would cause no end of trouble. Today on the walk to work, outside the old apartment building by Addison Annex there were five huge dusty boxes of the sidewalk crammed with old National Enquirers from the early '80s, Reader's Digests and old physics and mathematics books in both Chinese and English. I picked up three unlikely titles with the most marginalia (blue ballpoint, English, very tidy). Inside the cover of Introduction to Mathematical Analysis is a hand written receipt dated March 10, 1961 for a calf purse: $7.96. Reading: Suetonius' Twelve Caesars. Dang this is dirty book! The Scruples of the second century. Pondering: These ghosty meringues Craving: the situation that would require the phrase: "Le sta bene."

My desk: 10:54 PM 10/18. this should provide some insight to my mental state and it always looks something like this on a Amber Danger Label day. Some of the less obvious things on display: An Oakland parking ticket with green envelope (expired parking permit, since remedied) Shopping list with three attempts at spelling anchovies. In pencil. Minor teethmarks. 1 skien of merino (renamed Melinda June) and 1 disappointingly small hank of unspun silk Jury Summons (my fourth since moving here), temporarily ignored. Emergency earrings for when I need to masquerade as a grownup. 1 dangly earring currently in use as cat toy. October BookSense One free range House hippo , yellow. 4 oz. Carbonized Bamboo, very shiny, not terribly elastic, doing an amazing impersonation of silk. Pity the stuff is just as expensive. Das 'Po has said he might accept a scarf out of said stuff. (He hates wool.) I love the Sartorialist , despite my inability to dress myself in anything but Frye boots and Old...

Today's Berkeley protest; Moms Against the War have taken up residence on Shattuck. The ladies have been out there since 7AM this morning. Pink signs. Lots of honking. Nobody is naked yet. Urgent need: Kleenex at Costco. Honestly. To Make : more homemade wheat bread for toast (How I love love love my Kitchen Aid's bread hook; why would one need a bread machine?), vanilla extract (I am nearly out and have 24 ounces of Madagascar beans in the freezer, wrapped up like some amazing hashish stash.) Craving: Chili and cornbread. And maybe a Guinness. Must be the weather.

How utterly wicked is this ?! The next unfinished wheel I get my mitts on is gonna have a flame job at the very least. Currently on the wheel; 4 ounces of carbonized bamboo fiber. Variations on a grey scale with loads of metallic shine, mad ass crazy staple length. The ply doesn't feel as soft as commercial bamboo yet, but I am in the process of doing horrible things to it. I finished plying off a peacock wool with a dark purple merino/silk. (I have discovered that dark purple goes with just about everything.) The skein sat in the bathroom sink for twenty minutes looking like a morose sea slug and is now hanging off a recently freed up doorknob, dripping quietly. This weekend I forced the Steven to watch Hot Fuzz. Great fun. Even better than Shawn of the Dead. Yesterday we went to Grand Lake Cinema for the Golden Age, which I have been waiting forever for. Honestly, Cate Blanchette is just as breathtaking as Elizabeth several years ago and Clive Owen is chew-my-ankles-and-call-me-...

For those of you wondering what in fresh hell this hobby of mine is, I give you the Sept. - October production: When in doubt, put the booties on the monkey. Someone just asked how Heather was and I just lost it. This is never gonna end, is it?

Okay, the Stash is way out of control. I've been reviewing the current spinning production, rotating the skeins through the vegetable steamer and draping them over all the doorknobs which we might be running out of. Have I mentioned that I've yet to knit any of this? Currently on Esme the Ashford Wheel: merino supahwah ! fuchsia, orange, merlot deep reds, rusts, repeat. Wicked stuff the color of some really potent girly cocktail ; guzzled by some slightly older tall brunette with great eyebrows who will tell you the best joke you've ever heard, finish her drink, and will take you home and wreck your life. It's making a very wild fun yarn. Definitely part of the orange kick I've been on lately. Update: (I thought you'd like a picture.) Next to arrive, Pigeonroof Harvest and some kind of pink. Then more Fat Cat (see description above) Buffy merino and her mad cool Carrot Top in orange tencel . I just handed over a pair of Saarjte's booties to the Momm...