I'm done with this blog.

No more DomesticOverlord, I'm done with that.

I so totally finished something.

Yeah, I hauled ass on this scarf... for the last two days. I suddenly had a burning need for completion and, voila! Wavy is finally done. It has taken me so long that the intended recipient, Hercules, is actually making his second trip out here since I started it pretty soon. Okay, next month but hey, at least I finished it before he got here, right? I really, really love this yarn (SKR Perth). It's machine washable, super soft, and squishy. It also comes in fantastic colors, though not as many as it really should once you take it's awesomeness into account. I've been sewing lately since the purchase of my new machine. I love the machine it rocks. I've made a bunch of costumes for the kids for a trip I won't tell you about because of the suicidal depression and unbridled rage it will inspire. I've made myself a dress. And I made a new messenger bag for the world's largest woman since the only one who wouldn't look ridiculous carrying it would be her. And even still she might find it a bit much. Stupid pattern, it looked fine in pieces but then it just GREW. I'm trying to finish up things that are just lying around here, like the Wavy. I'm on to the little sweater for the barber's baby now. I'd put it down for a mistake I made in the eyelets 10 rows previously and can't fix without ripping. Clearly, I'm not ready for a lace shawl like, ever. Kids always distracting me so I end up with shirts with only one armhole and whatnot. They better put me into a damn good home later for all I've put up with. This week they both broke their glasses. BOTH! He snapped his in half and she tried to eat hers. Thank me (yes me) I bought the warranty.

So hey, remember me? I knit sometimes.

I had a brilliant blog post all written out in my head last night, you think I can even remember a word of it now? Hell, I don't even remember what it was about. This is my first completed project of this year. Twinkletoes from knitty. Miss Beans asked me for some ballet shoes last weekend and being totally broke but having a ton of the yarn you see there (from my failed Crumpets, if you're my one long time reader) I whipped up those little babies on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon while hanging around in the ninth bolgie of the eighth circle of Hell (also known as Chuck E. Cheese's). They turned out cute but a little small so I'll have to make another pair. She loves them though, she's barely taken them off to let me wash them and has even slept in them twice. In other knitting news: I received a large portion of Andean Treasure for my birthday which will become a Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I'm still working on that damn Wavy for Hercules because I hate it and don't want to do it anymore. Why do scarves have to be so l o n g ? I'm working on a little baby set for the soon-to-be-baby-girl of RTK and Darth's barber who is a very cool guy. If you're in San Diego and need a barber, I can't recommend Lefty's enough. As far as news about my life... Well, it's never pretty, is it? My son got glasses so that's both kids are in glasses now. Neither RTK nor I wear glasses so we're a little baffled as to how that worked out. Our rent is going up so along with the price of gas and groceries we could really use a raise we're not going to get. You'll probably see me on the news when my moneymaking scheme goes horribly, terribly wrong. That's about it for the moment. Except, I've been collecting yarn for the Alpaca Lounge Pants and I think I've almost got enough. If I start them soon they should be ready for Autumn.

Sewing disaster averted.

You know how I can't sew? How the thought of sewing makes me cringe? How whenever I have to do it (even though I usually volunteer) I complain and complain about it? Well, not today. Today I present a completed sewing project that only took about three hours from start to finish. I think. Uh, well I guess it was longer, I had to iron the fabric. It doesn't matter. The point is. I recovered the hideous old pillows that sit on my living room couch. It may not sound like much but there are six of them and they are rather large (two feet by two feet). This project made a horrible mess. It turns out the pillows are feather pillows and they were starting to shed a bit. Duck down was escaping from the actual pillows into the decorative cases which led to my living room looking like Huey, Dewey, and Louie had murdered old man McDuck for those millions (and his monocle!). Also they were full of dust. It was a very sneezy time for awhile while I was ripping those things apart. Can you put awhile and while next to each other in a sentence? Well, I did. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Who brags about making pillows? Woohoo, you sewed a square, way to accomplish the ordinary! And you're right. Most people wouldn't brag about making pillows. Then again most people haven't sewn their fingernail into a Halloween costume while it was still attached to their hand. Most people don't consider their sewing machine their nemesis. Most people don't spend hours on the simplest of projects begging for the sweet, sweet release of death. You see I am no ordinary woman. And for my encore I'm going to try to make a purse. GASP! That's right. I even bought a pattern (the orange one in the corner, my version will be blue with robots on it). Booyah. Yes, I am the last person on earth still saying Booyah. It's me and Cyborg and he got canceled. The fabric that you see in the trash bag there is the old stuff, unattractive and cigarette stained from a previous owner. The close up of the new fabric which is a printed bark cloth called Beatnik from Big Kahuna.

Still here.

They trimmed the palm trees outside my windows this week. You may not think that palm trees can obscure a view (if you can call the parking lot a "view") but I assure you that when the top of the tree is level with a window that Suessian poof at the top can really get in the way. I haven't seen a thing but palm leaves out my window since September. "What's the point of this?" you wonder? Well let me tell you the very first thing I saw out my window, if only I'd snapped a picture, where was my mind? Yesterday, in the parking lot of my apartments, a man in a pink bathrobe gesturing wildly with his cigarette holder was conducting a heated conversation with two men in a gold Lincoln Navigator. Now, this was not a Navigator with a simple gold paint job, this was a a highly custom, why-god-why!? kind of paint job where the paint wasn't the color of gold but merely a clear substance gold glitter could be suspended in. This vehicle also had gold detailing and gold rims. It was like the sun became a vehicle and parked downstairs; Apollo's chariot if he was a real ostentatious 'playa', if you will. Inside this monstrosity were two men, the driver was wearing a cowboy hat and the passenger had on red and white stripes of some kind. So I did what anyone would do when faced with such a preposterous scene: I took out the trash so I could walk by and get a closer look. Upon further inspection I found that Guy in the Hat was clearly one of those guys who dress up in the fancy cowboy suits but has probably never even seen a cow. His hat likely cost more than a month's rent at my apartment (in California that's saying a lot), and I don't even want to speculate what is crazy, gold and gemstone bolo tie cost. The passenger was wearing a Chivas jersey. And hat. And probably pants and shoes also declaring his love for the team. (Side note: some of the Chivas jerseys have 'Bimbo' printed on them. Bimbo is kinda like Hostess. It's still hilarious to see guys walking around in their sports jerseys with the word bimbo on it though.) The most disturbing thing of all about this scene once I got up close? The guy with the silver cigarette holder (which contained an unlit cigarette, BTW) was wearing the same fuzzy pink chenille bathrobe I have. I wonder if his aunt bought his for him, too.

Well, this sucks.

RTK got laid off yesterday. I can't say I'm not worried about the money but I'm even more bummed that he lost a job that he really liked. Speaking of money, I've put up a button. I'm not saying you have to click on it or give me money but if I entertain you then feel free to put a dollar in the cup. I'll dance for it. But if you want me to take my top off that costs more. Now I feel obligated to be entertaining. Crap. Uh... There once was a man from Nantucket... Stop me if you've heard this one.

A day in the life.

I'm totally cheating. This is a day in the life of the sun. And just to be an even bigger cheater, it's not starting at sunrise but sunset and then sunrise followed by midday, because that's the order I took the pictures in. (Click on the pics for larger versions.) I took these during the fires. This first picture was taken in Ocean Beach at sunset on October 21. We had out of town guests, Garrison Keilor and Hercules, and had taken them down to the pier to show off a west coast sunset (also we had hopes to hit up a geocache but it wasn't meant to be). When I took these we had just found out about the fires and the ash was just starting to accumulate in the air. At this point we had no idea how bad it was going to be and were just enjoying the way the smoke affects the sunset. It really does incredible things with the color and the light. What I think is cool about these pictures is that they were all taken at the same time, in the same place and yet the color is completely different because of the different angles the photos were taken at. Also, they look out of order because I didn't get the sun in the second one and for some reason it looks higher in the horizon in the third one than in the first one. I don't know what I was doing with the camera other than panicking that I was running out of batteries. It was mesmerizing though. I'm glad we decided to take the guys to that spot to watch the sunset, I'm not sure what it would have been like elsewhere in the county. That pier was just perfect. The fires were terrible but what a spectacle. This is so San Diego, right here. Half the county is on fire, let's go surfing! I'm joking (sort of), like I said at this point it had only just started and no one thought it would be anything like it was in 2004, lettalone worse. Lettalone is a word isn't it? My spell check is pitching a fit about it. Whatever. Spell check can suck it. After I shot these pictures we went and got the kids some McDonalds and headed back to the house for Munchkin Cthulhu and general not paying attention to the emergency situation at hand. I ended up getting eaten by Dread Cthulhu a couple times and went to bed only to be woken up by Red Todd Kidd a half hour later informing me that the fire thing was kinda important. I ignored him and went back to sleep. When I woke up the next morning the smoke was thick enough in the air that you could look directly at the sun, just like in 2004. After dropping off RTK at work I snapped this picture of the sunrise from the gas station right by my apartment (it was $3.01 for regular that day, I wish it would go back to that, I payed 3.11 the other day). Have you ever had the opportunity to look directly at the sun? It's absurdly strange. I find that I have a fundamental urge to shield my eyes even though there's no need. I've never seen a sunrise that looked so much like a sunset as that one, early in the morning the sky was purple instead of brown with ash and smoke, that came later. You wouldn't think the sun could look so small and insignificant as this but there it is. This one was taken at about 3pm on October 22, directly over my apartment. The sky was orange almost all day, about an hour after this you couldn't even see the sun anymore because the smoke was too thick. It was an entire day of otherworldly, dingy twilight like being in some steampunk novel with ash raining out of the sky for several days and starting to collect on anything that was still, like I imagine snow probably does. Postapocalyptic San Diego. So there you have it, a day in the life of a smoke filled sky.