hello again

I've found a groovy new web site.

Spout

It's a site for film lovers and there's a burgeoning group on the site who love knitting and film called "knitting flicks". There's a very friendly group of people there to chat with.

see you there,

GG

New Obsessions

Annie Chun’s noodle bowls. They’re the healthy person’s cup’o noodles.
Top Chef – I caught up on the entire season last night.
She Will Have Her Way – a compilation of Crowded House/Finn Brothers/Split Enz covers sung by Aussie and Kiwi Women
Rowan Big Wool Print – I started Mr. G’s cardigan last night –woah that stuff is soft and knits up fast!

For the first time I’m not in the mood to go to knit night. The week has caught up with me and I’m exhausted and in need of a rest. And I have some cleaning to do. My parents are coming over tomorrow night and I don’t want the house to be a mess. Anyway Marin Fiber Arts is having a Sunday brunch this weekend so I’ll spend plenty of time with my fellow knitters then.

I also have to clean because we have some new furniture coming in.

Oh yeah you read correctly. My furniture malaise has been relieved. Those mismatched bookcases are on their way out! We found the perfect glass cabinet bookcase last weekend. It was perfect, roomy, but not too tall, and it doesn’t stick out too much from the wall. It was love at first sight. We also got a huge leather ottoman/coffee table.

I guess this means I’m going to have to have a garage sale soon.

Apologies to everyone at knit night (especially Warren), hopefully I’ll see you for brunch on Sunday.

Have fun,
GG

Weeknights

Cooked again last night. Compulsively made 2 major dishes, both of which I had never made before. First I made Chicken Cacciatore which was basically the same sauce that I make for my spaghetti Bolognese, but without the ground meat. Instead I flavored everything with onions, garlic, basil and thyme and seared the chicken before pouring in the canned tomatoes. Simmer for an hour and serve with rice and freshly grated parmesan cheese. The perfect dish for a rainy evening. It was possibly the yummiest thing I’ve made in months. So yummy that I brought some to work for lunch.

I don’t know what possessed me or what gave me the energy, but I randomly pulled one of my cookbooks off the shelf and realized that I had the goods for a new recipe. Cauliflower casserole with potatoes and cherry tomatoes. I was too full from the chicken dish to eat much of the cauliflower, but what I did taste was yummy. I’m reheating it for dinner tonight which means less for me to cook.Which means more time for knitting.

I am dying to cast on something new, something huge and something new. I want to make another sweater. I have plenty of yarn for making sweaters, the question is which one am I going to make?????

I could make Mr. G’s sweater out of big wool. I could make a sweater from the Rebecca mohair special with some mohair I’ve had lying around for ages. I could make my own sweater out of rowan big wool from an old Vogue knitting.

I want to knit them all right now. This feeling reminds me of that scene in Amadeus where Wolfgang is trying on wigs and he declares that he likes them so much that he wishes he had three heads. Right now I wish I had six arms.

GG

Carnivale of Couture

The topic this week for those who read the Bag Snob and Manolo's Shoe Blog is that pivotal fashion purchase. You know, that special bag or shoe or pair of pants that really takes you back.

For me it was a pair of jeans. Not just any jeans, but a pair of vintage Yves Saint Laurent denim circa 1979 that I found at a church rummage sale. The year was 1996, when teenagers were still wearing "baggy fit" pants. Since I couldn't find any pants that suited my scrawny teenage frame, I resorted to the men's levis. Which, while preferable to baggy fit, were still baggy for me. So when I found these pants I didn't even try them on. I just saw the label, that golden YSL and my heart raced. I bought the pants, along with a burgundy polo shirt and a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans circa 1979 all for the outrageous price of $1.50. God bless church rummage sales. The pants were tape hemmed about 2 inches too short, but the tape nearly disentegrated in my hands. They fit like a glove. They were the staple of my wardrobe for my junior and senior years of high school. There is in fact a picture of my in my junior yearbook wearing these pants as an example of the year's fashion, which was possibly my most fashionable moment to date. Sadly, I wore out those pants, they didn't make it to college, but I'll never forget them.

GG

The Sky is Gonna Clear Up, Put on a Happy Face

Photos yay!!!



This is the flower shaped washcloth from Weekend knits. I love making it and this particular specimen will be for my booty swap pal. I'll be sending it out next week!


And the socks that I've been making out of knit picks sock garden in stargazer lily.


This is the beginning of what's going to be my design for the sun-shaped chenille washcloth


This is the quilt, which is languishing in the craft room since I've had to move the sewing machine off the dining room table.

Knit night was great. It's growing at such a fast clip. And Elaine brought a delish pumpkin pie, one of the best I've ever tasted. And she brought me a tea from starbucks. Yum. Such nice people go to knit night.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that my Pirate Booty pal emailed me to say that my treasure chest is on the way. She's firefly from Firefly Adventures. She makes beautiful quilts and she just got married (you gotta check out the pictures and read the story) anyhoo I can't wait to see what comes in the mailbox (or in my case from the UPS guy) ARRRRRRRRRRRRR!

you hear that sound everyone? That's the sound of March ending.

Oh April here we come.

happy knitting everyone
love to the world...
Grenadine Girl

Some Words to the Wise

Do-it-yourself Prozac:

1: Just let things be.
2: Take the path of least resistance
3: Appreciate what you have
4: Free your heart from hatred*
5: Free your mind of worries*
6: Live simply*
7: Give more*
8: Expect less*
9: Persevere
10: Have faith
11: Stay positive

*from a paperweight I saw somewhere

Helloooooooooo

What's new?

Nothing much here. Yucky March continues. I've been laying low for the most part. There have been many movies. Word to the wise, do not watch The Weatherman unless you like to feel awkward and uncomfortable for two hours. I could only take it for 45 minutes. To remedy the intense discomfort I went to Borders and bought the new Pride and Prejudice. It was good, but it couldn't hold a candle to the BBC version. They just had to take out too much of the story to make it into a two hour movie.

I've been turning to interior design to alleviate the spring of my discontent (keep in mind that spring is not even 24 hours old). I've been looking around at my furniture and it depresses me. Our home phone lives on a computer desk in the dining room. We have too many too-cheap-even-for-Ikea bookshelves that mismatch and are too small to hold our books and cds efficiently. Seriously I think we have 6 three-shelf bookshelves. We have the most disgusting blinds. So I'm daydreaming of changing everything. Selling all of our current furniture at a garage sale, getting rid of all of the junk and getting new glass front bookshelves, new framed prints. We need some new feng shui around here.

I should consider myself very lucky and get over this middle class malaise.

At least I've been knitting up a storm. I started the second pink sock. And I'm making more chenille washcloths, projects that finish quickly. I should put some photos on here and make this blog a little cheerier.

oh la la

GG

I'm telling you April has got to have something good in store for me.

These Be The Ides of March

There has to be a rule somewhere that you only start to feel better from a cold after you’ve made a doctor’s appointment. This sucks because they won’t let you cancel your appointment later than 24 hours before. You have to convince the doctor that you were sick in the first place and that you weren’t just being a hypochondriac. “No, really doctor, Joseph’s techincolor dreamcoat really was coming out of my nose!” You sit there feeling bad that you’re wasting the doctor’s time. In the end you just feel silly for being sick in the first place. I suppose our bodies are more capable of healing themselves than we give them credit for.

Perhaps it’s the Ides of March, but this month is not treating me well. And historically March has never been a good time for me. I was once grounded for the entire month of March. I’ve been dumped by boyfriend(s) in March. On the east coast, the weather is awful in March. It’s warm enough that the snow starts to thaw, but it’s all slushy mud and yucky and you’re sick of seeing nothing but black, gray and white. In California, it rains incessantly and you’re sick of seeing just green, gray and black. I should just learn my lesson and get the hell out of the US during the month of March. The year I spent March in Australia was a markedly better year as a whole.

I’d fly there now except that it’s a little too late to redeem the month. Let us recap. My car didn’t pass smog. I got a cold that took me out for a week, the natural gas bill came in (ack!!??), my cat’s got a slight limp, the Oscars bored me, one of my friends has to endure a painful medical procedure. And I’m just cranky in general. I just don’t like March.

Since I’m an optimist I have to consider the good things that have happened. I joined the booty swap and became Mad Anne Rackham. I made plans to the TNNA convention in Indianapolis with Warren from Marin Fiber Arts. I keep drawing sweater designs that I’d like to make. I’ve been hanging out at the yarn shop and getting to know Warren better. It’s nice to have new friends. And tonight is knit night so I have something to look forward to.

Everything can’t be awesome all the time. This is just a low period. May and June are coming up and those are some good months. Just go with the flow I guess. And rent a lot of movies.

Rented an interesting movie. The Girl in the Café starring Kelly McDonald and Bill Nighy. Two of my favorite British actors. Who am I kidding? I haven’t met a British performer that I didn’t like. Well except Sascha Cohen.

Anyhoo. The Girl in the Café is about a May-December romance against the backdrop of a G8 conference in Iceland. It is written by the same people who brought you Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually. The writer has such a talent for showing how people interact when they’re unsure of themselves. It’s so good to watch. Some of it is a little unlikely, but that’s why we watch the movies…

le weekend

So we've reached terminal velocity on this cold. I'm breaking down and making a doctor's appointment. I took my grandfather's advice and had Mr. G buy me some Mucinex, which actually works! Thanks for the tip.

I'm sure you're all sick to death of reading about how sick I am. So I'm trying to segway into something more palatable. OK I could talk about yarn, but really I dont have much to say on the subject except that I hung out at the LYS again with Warren. We saw the funniest Bizarro cartoon I have ever seen. I would include a link to it, but that's not possible because they don't put comics on the internet anymore because people are reading the comics online and not in newspapers and people can't make money if we view stuff online. I'll just say this, the cartoon, included a sheep in jail with a druggie guy. It's perhaps the funniest sheep joke I've ever seen. It was from Saturday's March 11th paper. Check it out for a laugh.

Well with all of this time on my hands I've been able to get caught up on some movie watching. This afternoon I watched North Country starring Charlize Theron. It was a good movie, very engaging. Interesting topic, well shot, well acted. BUT the denouement at the very end was so flat that I really didn't care about what happened to the characters in the end. I don't wonder where are they today? What would they do next? Basically you see this woman played by Charlize Theron suffer at the hands of many men, and she finally gets justice in the courtroom, but you don't get the feeling that the win was truly that important. The film does not try to leave you with that feeling in a dramatic way.

The last couple of scenes include Charlize picking up her son from hockey, and seeing her lawyer, he says something about her being rich, with an ironic twinge. She gives her son the opportunity to learn how to drive. Then there is a shot of the North Country from above, with some subtitles stating how this case changed how the workplace treats women and sexual harrassment. I didn't get the feeling that anything really changed. We did not see any of the consequences of this justice, no punishment really was made. The subtitles mention something about a small financial settlement with a sexual harrassment policy, but for me that wasn't enough to satisfy me cinematically.

While story-wise I'm happy that the Josie character is getting along with her son at the end of the movie, this compared with what she endured throughout the movie isn't enough for a happy ending. Perhaps this was the filmmakers intent. Perhaps the filmmaker wanted to leave the audience with the feeling that all women want is the right to work free of harrassment so that they can care for their children, but the feeling I was left with was that the suffering of women at the hands of men in society, be it teachers, husbands or coworkers doesn't deserve retribution. You don't see any of the men in question punished, which diminishes the message. Not that anyone needs to enact revenge, but one wants to see those perpetrators face the consequences of their actions. Leaving this out suggests that the behavior is tolerable. This undoes everything the film was trying to say. North Country, a good film that shoots itself in the foot.

Wow what a way to use that film degree!

GG

I Hate Being Sick Part 2

Ok I still have a cold. Usually my colds last 3 days, 4 tops, but this sucker's been hanging around since Sunday and it got worse today.

Yesterday I stayed home from work, and this funny thing happened. It happens every time I get sick. I spend more time at home and the more time I spend here, the more I realize how badly the house needs to be cleaned. The bathroom floor needs to be mopped, laundry needs to be done, the kitchen's a mess and changing the bed linen would be nice. This is a problem, because I'm sick and I'm too tired to clean. Mr. G will tell you that the urge for me to clean just doesn't come naturally, so it's particularly frustrating when I actually want to clean and can't. Arg.

And I'm too tired to knit. All the free time in the world, and all I can do is sit and moan. uhhhhhhhhh. sneeze, cough, blow my nose. uhhhhhhh. You know that sound, it's the sound of someone who's ready to give up.

When you're sick you also notice how bad daytime television is. I admit, I did watch some Price is Right, but man it's so not as exciting as it used to be. The prizes used to be so cool. Wow, a new car, or wow a trip around the world or wow a new living room set. Perhaps I'm a little jaded myself. Aside from the PIR, I ended up watching "French In Action" which surprised me b/c I didn't realize how much more French I could learn from watching TV. However, the first episode was interesting, the second mildy amusing, but by the third episode I was napping. Thus I headed to my local video store for some immediate assistance in the entertainment department. I also went to Jamba Juice for some sustanence. I couldn't be bothered cooking anything. I wasn't even hungry, but I needed some juice. So I rested on the couch watching In Her Shoes and slurping on an Aloha Pineapple. Dozing off after the credits, I felt much better that evening. So much better that I went to work today.

I thought I was better. I didn't have a stuffy nose, people could understand me when I talked even though I sounded like one of Marge Simpson's sisters, Selma or Thelma. I got a lot done in the morning, but come the afternoon, I was totally useless. I couldn't think straight at all. So I decided to take a break. I went to the local drug store b/c I needed a new toothbrush and some floss and I was back at the office parking lot within ten minutes, which wasn't enough break to get me back to my desk. Here I am in my crappy car, in the parking lot outside my office and I'm taking a nap. The radio is on, the sun is shining, so my car is toasty warm. My mind is entirely clear and I am relaxed. I lean my car seat back to recline and there it was. My bag of Rowan big wool for Luke's sweater. I had left it in the car. And it was nice and warm too like a towel fresh from the dryer. So I lay on my side, snoring, cuddling a skein of Rowan Big Wool. It was a sight to be seen. Those who don't know me would have thought I was a crazy homeless person. But no, I'm a crazy yarn-addicted person.

I did get back to my desk and finished out the day, but I was totally exhausted, and I couldn't miss knit night. COULDN'T!!! So I went, thinking I was alright, but as soon as I start talking, trying to get the group involved in some oscar slagging, I have a major coughing fit. My throat was dry and scratchy and I couldn't swallow, so Warren, the dear that he is made me a cup of green tea. And Papaya Girl tried to calm me down with some knitting patterns. I get so excited at knit night. I'm such a pain in the ass. Always interrupting peoples conversations. If knit night was kindergarten class I would get an "N" for Needs Improvement. I'm just so happy to see everyone. We had an interesting conversation about our past phases. Papaya Girl had a crazy stiletto heel disco pants phase, and I went through the pink hair phase and Lisa used to pluck her eyebrows out and paint on new eyebrows and wear brown lipliner. Lisa is now studying in seminary so this revelation about her past was highly amusing. Of course Warren proclaimed that he's always been the same. He hasn't changed one bit. I offered to knit him a sweater that said that. Perhaps Warren didn't have a wild phase. but I don't believe that for a second. One day we'll learn what crazy phase he endured.

Anyway stick a fork in me b/c I'm done. Who knew that my best writing comes when I'm writing from bed.

Sleep well everyone.

much love,
GG

Go Chloe Go

oh thank god it wasn't Santino

and that top chef show takes place in SF, but I can't handle the people on the show...

GG

arrrg

I hate being sick
another cold snuck up on me on Sunday. This is the sore throat chest cold yuckiness. Many headaches, lack of concentration. Cold medicine only makes me hazy. Thus I'm home from work. I've been feeling better over the course of the day and I think I'll be back in tomorrow.

I haven't started anything lately, haven't worked on anything b/c I'm too tired. That's what sucks about being sick. You can't do anything you'd like to get done when you're at home.

This sort of thing reminds me of that scene on When Harry Met Sally, which was on Oxygen last night. It's that scene where Harry and Sally are on the phone together while watching the final scene of Casablanca. Harry says "I think I have a tumor" Sally says "you don't have a tumor" Harry says "yeah I do, its one of those 24 hour tumors. I hear they've been going around".

In other news my cat's gone a bit nutty. I don't know if the house is too cold or if she just likes to nest, but she's taken to hiding in her cat bed under a quilt. She'll sleep there all day. And she doesn't think it's too cute when I pop my head under to say hello. I keep hoping that she'll purr or something, but no. She just waits for me to disappear again to fall back asleep in kitty dreamland.

so tomorrow is the project runway finale. We'll find out which of the three remaining designers will take the top prize. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I think Danny V is going to win.

anyhoo happy knitting to all
I'm going back to bed.

GG

I've got booty to swap

I joined Nipperknit's booty swap. And in honor of such a momentous occasion, I have found myself a Pirate name:

My pirate name is:

Mad Anne Rackham

Every pirate is a little bit crazy. You, though, are more than just a little bit. You have the good fortune of having a good name, since Rackham (pronounced RACKem, not rack-ham) is one of the coolest sounding surnames for a pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

arrrrrrrr

GG aka Mad Anne Rackham

Ch Ch Ch CH Changes

For the past 15 years I have obsessed about the Oscars. It's always a fun guessing game to wonder who's going to win what and why and who's going to cry and what's the big surprise? Who's going to make a big ass of themselves. And every year I watch and get teary eyed when someone special wins and makes me want to go out and make movies myself. Gwenyth Paltrow, Sofia Coppola, Roberto Benigni. I cry with them and think, maybe one day I'm going to win an Oscar. But this is the year that I stopped caring and realized that the Oscar's aren't really that special, and they don't mean a whole lot in the large scheme of things. It's not like they have special televised awards ceremonies for police officers or firefighters or nurses or soldiers, people who I think are more heroic. I guess in the long run I just think society has their priorities all screwed up. Sometimes I think I grew up around too much television. Sometimes I think too much of my perspective is formed by what I've learned on tv.

This year I was particularly irritated about how the Academy Awards kept coming back to two major themes:
1) Hollywood is politically and socially avant garde. They champion many unpopular causes.
2) Movies should be seen in the theatre.

Now this irritated me to some degree b/c the academy was trying to validate it's own existance. It's as if they know that they don't matter in the large scheme of things, and they're mattering less as our entertainment options expand -we have the Internet and video games among other distractions which take us away from the movie theatres.

Even the winners, many of them multiple honorees had a jaded air about them, which was only emphasized by the needless cutting off of acceptance speeches (as if we need more time to watch inexperienced red carpet hosts ask the movie stars asinine questions). Cutting off the winner's crowning moment basically tells the audience that the award doesn't really matter. Which makes me wonder why we watch anyway. We watch the Oscars because we want to see our stars in an unguarded and vulnerable moment. We want to see them as humans, not stars or the characters they portray. So ultimately, the Academy Awards producers are digging their own graves, cutting the audience off from what they really want.

Furthermore, there was this unending dribble from the Academy President exhorting the audience to visit the movie theatre. Now, given this has been one of the best years critically for American cinema, but one of the worst economically. And there is one main reason that Americans are abandoning the movie theatres. Money. With dvd releases just months after a film's premiere, only a fool would spend $12 a person to hoof it to a theatre that has to be shared with movie goers who forget to turn off their cell phones. For a mere fraction of the price and a small wait, you can watch the same film in the comfort of your own home. And if you have a little extra cash, you can set up your home to resemble a movie theatre. The only way that the film industry will lure people back into the cinema is if they lower admittance prices. The bottom line is that the film industry hasn't figured out how to compete with the comfort of home.

It was refreshing that most of the nominees this year tackled controversial social subject matter. It's awesome that its creating a public dialog, however it is disheartening to realize that more people watch the oscars than vote in elections. Imagine how much more politically active the general population would become if government was as exciting as the film industry.

that's it for now, just some thoughts I had while knitting a sock and watching the oscars. It's actually come to be that I care more about knitting than I do about movies. Which is strange to me, but I think I've figured it out. I love watching movies, I love getting sucked in to the point where I feel like what's happening on screen is happening to me. However watching films is a passive past time, no matter how much you emotionally become involved in the story. Knitting is something I do actively, productively, with other people and I learn something new every day.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I love knitting more than I love movies.

GG

I Think I'm Losing My Mind

One quilt has turned into three.

Originally I planned to make one quilt inspired by the French flag and the motto of Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood. The French flag is a tricolor of blue, white and red and I was going to make one quilt with the three blocks of color. However, to me it seems too busy to have three blocks of colors in one quilt. I just couldn’t figure out how to achieve a balance of different colors and blocks. Or at least I am not skilled enough at quilting to accomplish this feat without producing one ugly or boring quilt. Thus I will hopefully be making three fabulous quilts with the same theme. It will be a triptych of quilts, one blue, one white and one red, all inspired by my love of French culture.

I have resisted the urge to start a new knitting project. I have made a new rule for myself. I can only start a new knitting project if it is a gift for someone else. Thus I can’t really talk about my knitting projects because they may be for people who read this blog. All I can say is that I need to wind the yarn into balls, which I will do tonight at knit night b/c I bought the yarn from Warren.

In other news I am not a millionaire today. Big let down. Didn’t win the lotto again. Maybe Friday night? The Mega Millions jackpot is nearly $300 mil. That will buy a couple of skeins of yarn won’t it? And that new car. A girl can dream. I call it my $1 piece of hope.

The Project Runway Season 2 finale part 1 was on last night and it pains me to admit that I think Santino is going to win. His collection by far looks the most interesting and innovative of the three, but we haven’t seen everything on the runway yet. Chloe’s collection doesn’t look that interesting. And I’m worried that she chose Diana to assist her. I would have chosen Kara, but I’m sure there’s some bad blood between them after what Kara said when she got kicked off. It just goes to show you that resentment doesn’t get you anywhere, but then again Kara did get kicked off for her unfinished hems. And what was with the minimal coverage of Daniel? Are they trying to deceive us? It seemed like he might end up the winner –he was the most consistent throughout the season. But now with Tim Gunn poo pooing his line, Danny V doesn’t seem like such a shoo-in. We’ll just have to wait until next week and see.

GG