Girlwich

Whew. Much shopping and running around (like everyone, which is part of what makes for the Whew). But somehow it is cheerful to have all these little packages lined up, ready to be wrapped and made into Presents. Isn't it funny how when you wrap something in pretty paper and tie it up with ribbons, it becomes something more than its mere unwrapped self?

It's a bit like the anticipation of meeting someone new, or planning a holiday dinner, or any one of the things on my horizon in the next few days. I almost don't want to unwrap all of it. I mean, I do, but it is also nice to sit in front of the big pile and admire it.

And of course, it all reminds me of the beauty of yarn still in its skein, fabric uncut, and so on. On the other hand, some yarns look even prettier knitted up, as the yarn I'm using for Annabelle's mittens does. I can't show it to you because she does read this blog, but when they're done and keeping her fingers warm, I'll post some pics.

Oh and hey, holiday tip: Old Navy has some swell wrapping paper this year - 2 big rolls for $5. Yay!

Oof, and now I am overwhelmed again by the strangeness of setting up dates with people I have never met. And by work (I have to finish two projects in three days, and I have more than enough shopping errands to fill those days). And all I really want to do is my Xmas knitting, but that keeps taking a backseat to more pressing items.

Do you ever get a longing for a time you've never experienced? I am having that - a yearning for some apocryphal era when social life was simple, boys were plentiful and comfortable to be around (ha! I can't even write that without seeing how far off it is from the truth), and I had nothing much to occupy my time, plus plenty of money. Oh wait, that is heaven. I forgot.

Meanwhile, back on earth...A little judicious tinkering and I have magically (and somewhat mysteriously) managed to get a photo to appear on the site. It is a nice subject, too. Malabrigo (top) in Verde Esperanza and Colinette Cadenza in Mardi Gras (bottom). The former is for me; I'd bought some Malabrigo a couple of weeks ago thinking I'd knit the blonde a hat, but apparently the Sweater Rule has a Hat Corollary. So, when Miz Fury and I ducked into Downtown Yarns this week to pick out some yarn for her fingerless mitts, I decided to exchange the boy yarn for the glorious Verde that I'd lusted after on my previous trip.

I think if I am not completely sick of knitting mittens by that point (I have two other pairs in the queue), I will use it to make myself a pair.

Let's see, what other ephemera can I throw at the wall here? I have two soups on my agenda, and I am just trying to decide which one to make first: A) beet, carrot, ginger, squash, and red lentil, or B) potato, leek, celeriac, turnip, parsnip, collard green, and white bean. Don't they both sound good? Wish I had two big pots; I'd do them double-fisted and alternate eating them.

Egad what a trivial post. Apparently I am too tired to be coming up with grand epiphanies. Go read Juno if you need something deeper, eh? (Yeah, it sounds dirty, but I don't think she'll mind. She's cool like that.)

Well that was fun - not. It seems that for some reason best known to Movable Type, as of Friday I was no longer deemed worthy to log into and post upon my own blog. And after much futzing and investigating, my friendly neighborhood geek guru (Boywich, who is the actual author of the post below this one, in case that isn't immediately apparent from his little self-promo) discerned that the only way to fix it was to upgrade the whole damn shebang to a new version of Movable Type. (Yes, he is always that funny. No, you may not have his phone number. All boys are belong to me.)

But wait, there's more - and it's even fussier and less entertaining. Because we couldn't log into the old version at all, we weren't able to port my existing posts into the new version, and for some reason - again best known to the nanobots or whatever strange contraptions make the blogware go - the new version gets posted at a different address. Ack. Yeah, I've had a migraine all day today, and that's before I even got all the details nailed down.

However, the good news is that once we finish hand-importing all those trillions of wordy, pic-heavy posts to the new site (and eventually figure out how to make it appear at the proper URL), the thing will operate a lot better thanks to its upgrade. For instance, there will now be proper archives and stuff, so you can easily see just how fracking wordy I really am.

Okay, enough technobabble. If anyone is still reading and/or awake, I am now going to move onto more entertaining things. I was going to put up a pic of some very pretty yarn I bought, but since the new and theoretically improved MT isn't letting me do that yet (apparently I have not beaten it sufficiently senseless to have earned its respect), I shall instead have to offer you a boy update. After trying and failing to create a Top 10 List of Reasons to Ditch the Blonde (I got to 7 and then got waylaid by dreamy memories), and then getting a very helpful boy's eye viewpoint from Boywich (who pretty much rocked the house this weekend, what with the blog-fixing and the empathizing, and assorted laughter-inducing conversations), I woke up this morning with a) a migraine, and b) a clear vision of what I want to do.

I won't go into details, because I am not (at the moment, anyway) feeling like laying my whole life out there on the table for y'all to peck at, but suffice it to say, I have at least one date this week, none of the participants in which will be yellow-haired, and I think the whole situation is going to work out just fine. And I am quite a bit more content than I was a few days ago. Not entirely, but well on the way.

PS. One more bit of techno-talk. The rather bland site design you see here is only a temporary placeholder. I'll be poking around in my html (sounds lewd, don't it?) and messing with it, and prettifying, but it may take a while, work and life and potential dates being what they are. So, you know, hang in there and just imagine that that skyline is real or something. Thanks.

PS2. Late-breaking addition: Gregory Peck! Oh, how glorious.

Technical Support (a cadre of geeky, well-endowed blondes with good skin, mad XML skilz, and revealing garments that fall off at opportune moments, all of whom are named Boywich) welcomes you to the new Girlwich. At the moment, we are working on the final layout of the new site, which will include a fabulous new template and handy widgets.