Vampire People @ Barnes & Noble

Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?I’ve been terribly lax in updating this week, for which I’m very sorry.  It’s been a busy week, with both ups and downs, and very little time for yarn work.  The biggest up is that my friend Allyson’s first book, Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?, became available exclusively at Barnes & Noble stores across the country on Friday, about a week earlier than any of us expected.  Friends from NY to Florida, Iowa to Texas and California, have been reporting back with stories on how they found the book, how they chatted up the store employees to generate bookseller interest, how they took pictures (and posted them) of the book on display, and finally how they felt upon reading the essays nestled within the covers.  It’s been a big weekend for those of us chronicled in this book about how an internet community based around fandom (in this case, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly fandoms) can change a life.  Specifically, it’s about how it changed Allyson’s life, but so much of it describes how it changed many lives, mine included.

And if you’re reading this blog, I’d wager your life has also been changed by online interactions with strangers around the world, and if that’s true, you should stop by your local B&N and look for Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? by Allyson Beatrice.  Leaf through it, maybe read a page or two (I’d recommend the chapter entitled “The Internet Wants Your Daughters”), and if you like what you see, buy a copy and bring it home.  And as you’re reading it, everytime you come across a mention of Allyson’s friend Paula, you can think to yourself, “Hey, I know her–I read her blog!”

P.S. It’ll be available in all other bookstores as of August 1st!

Categories
Miscellaneous

Happy Fourth!

Wow, two months since an update. I suck. I’m so sorry to be neglecting this blog so grievously; I guess I’ve been spending too much of my time updating my knitting blog. Sorry!

Anyway, I was just in my LJ talking about tomorrow’s holiday. Growing up, the 4th of July was the awesomest holiday ever. Mom would take us to the park near Grandma’s house, where they had all kinds of races and contests for the kids (I once came in third in a potato sack race, won a frisbee!), and rides for the really small kids, and lots of bbq and ice cream. The local Eagles club would have an open house, and my cousins and sister and I would run around the function hall screaming and yelling, or downstairs at the bar, begging Uncle Jack to take the cover off the pool table for us (he didn’t give in until we were in our twenties). Sometimes they’d give us sparklers to play with after dark, or we’d go to the nearby bridge to watch the fireworks over Boston, or we’d just watch them on the bar tv. It was a day spent with family–uncles, aunts, cousins–and it was awesome. I looked forward to it every year, even when we outgrew the park (and became old enough to drink more than Shirley Temples from the bar).

The park two blocks from me does a lot of the same stuff I remember as a kid–rides and races and free food. The Hollywood Bowl is doing fireworks this year (which I find odd, given the lack of rain). But it’s just not the same. For me, it’s a family holiday. I suspect this year will be spent either on the couch reading The Goblet of Fire or watching Independence Day and 1776, or else at the movies watching Transformers. It’s nice to have a day off in the middle of the week, but nowadays, that’s really all it is.

For those of you for whom it’s something more, I wish you a wonderful and fun-filled holiday! For me, I’m thinking cheeseburger, ice cream, and my couch. Woot!

Best/Aiko Hybrid Amigurumi Bunny

Amigurumi BunnyThe bunny is nearly finished. I gave up on the body from katcrochet.com (tell me that doesn’t look like a vase!) and instead used the body from LionBrand’s Best Bunny (pattern #60480A), which worked much better. I was going to use the legs from the Best Bunny, but they were too stout, so those became the arms, and I went back to the Aiko pattern for the legs. So to sum, head, ears and legs are from Aiko, and the body and arms are from Best Bunny.

As this is my first toy, this is also my first time assembling a toy, and gah, did it suck! As you can see, the arms are not even–one is higher than the other.  Blech.  And in my attempt to not make the same mistake with the legs, I made them too close together.  Blech again.  On the bright side, the ears are perfect, IMHO.  On the not bright side, my decreases are too wide and hole-y, so you can see the stuffing around his midsection, which won’t work if I decide to make another in a brighter color.

He’s not finished yet, because, obviously, he’s lacking a face.  I’m askeared of the face, as it requires embroidery, which is so not my strong suit.  Right now, he’s a freak without a face (bonus points if you recognized that reference).  I do have the embroidery thread, so he may have a face soon, if I can figure out how to do it.  I wonder if wikipedia has anything on how to embroider a bunny face?

Ok, so now that I’ve finished the critiquing of my own work, can I just say, “Squeeeeeeeeeeeee! Isn’t he the cutest thing ever?!!”  Hee!

Aiko the Amigurumi Bunny

As I sat here all freakin’ day waiting for an overnighted delivery (4:30, they showed up–4:30!), I worked on my first amigurumi animal, Aiko the bunny.  It’s been a little frustrating, as the pattern has a couple of mistakes, and the body appears to be half the size of the head, and shaped like a vase, and looks nothing like the picture.  Maybe it’ll all become clear once I’ve stuffed the pieces (no polyfill in the house), but at the moment, I’m looking at it all and wondering if I’ve wasted my day on something that can never work as written.  Poop.

Categories
Blogs

Drinking game!

I realize I am way late in finding this gem, as it was originally posted in March of 2006, but now that I’ve found it, I want to make sure I remember where it is:

Needles & hooks: Knitting Blog Drinking Game

So clever!  And so true–lordy knows I’m guilty of more than one of those drinking triggers myself!