Knotty Mouse

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
–Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems (1916) “Fog”
US biographer & poet (1878 - 1967)

for more information on the silent poetry reading in honor of St. Brigid : go here

♥ ♥Also.. its my 10th wedding anniversary. ♥ ♥

You Are Amy Lee!

Gothy, expressive, woman-in-pain Who looks damn good in a corset “When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears When you’d scream I’d fight away all of your fears”

Who’s Your Inner Rock Chick?

stolen from Dawn
Hmmm… I wish I could figure out what the other choices were to see if there was anything closer than Amy Lee of Evanescence…. I’m glad my inner rock chick is a goth hottie… lol.

Snow Watch ‘08 update: Its SNOWING! Munchkin is absolutely beside himself with joy..

	I, Mouse, being of sound mind, hereby bequeath my entire estate to my pet rock. I do this because it understands my needs. My only regret in this life was that I didn’t punch more people in the face.

Hee hee hee!! I can’t actually remember who I stole this from but I nearly snorted my coffee (iced..) when I read my results. I’ve got some finished 2 ply merino handspun to show off as soon as it cools down a little to take photographs outside..  its over 100 degrees here in Georgia and I’m absolutely miserable. Apparently when it gets this hot and you live in a house with no trees and no shade.. the best your air conditioner can do is 85 degrees inside. This is still too hot. I’d like to move somewhere that has no more than a month of summer- preferably in Canada… can that be arranged?

Other than alternating between complaining and roasting from the heat.. there’s nothing going on around here at Chez Mousie. Munchkin started school on Monday and is slowly adjusting to life as a first grader.. which he says is significantly less fun than being in kindergarten. Both of us are doing more than our fair share of complaining in the morning because getting up at 6:30am is just cruel and unusual punishment - not to mention that we have to be at the bus stop over an hour before last year and we have the bus driver from hell. If it wasn’t so hot.. I’d be driving Munchkin to school instead of putting him through that horrible woman’s attitude every morning and evening. Unfortunately both the car AND the people inside it would overheat before we got through the car rider line - I have one working window in the car and no AC. I’m still hoping to be able to get a new (to me) car in the next 6 months.. but I can’t do more than cross my fingers for that.

I haven’t been knitting anything for over a week now.. but I do still have a bunch of projects on the needles and my Ravelry queue is getting more and more out of control. At the moment I’m considering my choices for a sweater to wear to SAFF ala Jen of Jenla - though without the bet and the handspun. I don’t have a very big stash.. and I only have enough for one sweater (6 skeins of Cascade 220) so I’m rather limited in my choices. Right now I think I may knit Samus, or  Mariah, or the “A Cardigan for Arwen” from Winter 2006 Interweave Knits. I don’t have a very big stash.. and I only have enough for one sweater (6 skeins of Cascade 220) so I’m rather limited in my choices unless I can get the same dye lot of the cascade 220 that I already have. Everything about Samus looks pretty easy and I have the yarn to make it (and the zipper if I decide to use it) but I don’t like that Samus doesn’t have a hood. I’d like to add a hood but I’m clueless as of how to do so.. I’ve never made anything hooded.

Now if you’ll excuse me….. I’m going to go back to standing in front of the open freezer.

It’s SCATTERGORIES, and it’s harder than it looks! Stolen from JenLa:

Here are the rules:
~Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following.
~They MUST be real places, names, things…NOTHING made up!
~If you can’t think of anything, skip it.
~Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial.
~You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Have fun!

Your Name: Mouse
1. Famous Singer/Band: Marilyn Manson
2. 4 letter word:Mice
3. Street Name: Madison Avenue
4. Color: Magenta
5. Gifts/Presents:music box
6. Vehicle: motorcycle
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Magazines
8. Boy Name: Michael
9. Girl Name: Maryjane
10. Movie Title: Monsoon Wedding (wonderful movie..)
11. Drink: Martini
12. Occupation: mortician
13. Celebrity:Madonna
14. Magazine: Motherhood
15. U.S. City: Miami, FL
16. Pro Sports Teams: Magic, Marlins,
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Murdered
19. Something You Throw Away: matches
20. Things You Shout: Motherf–ker!
21. Cartoon Character: Mystique

A meme stolen from Amputeehee..

Mouse – [noun]: A real life muppet ‘How will you be defined in the dictionary?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

I giggled at this.. and then thought maybe I should try again and see whether I got another response. I guess they’ve got me pegged as a mouse huh?

Mouse – [adjective]: Fuzzy to the touch ‘How will you be defined in the dictionary?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

yes.. apparently I’m a fuzzy muppet. I rather feel like a fuzzy muppet at the moment. I’m a little sunburned from my day at the GA Ren Faire - we were there for about 5 hours dressed as pirates. Yes, the whole family. Yes, I am a rentard. (thanks Jen of Jenla for that word)  I was groped got my photo taken with a rather terrible looking “Captain Jack Sparrow” for the love of my 6 year old child.. that’s got to count for something. I’ll post the photo when my husband transfers it from the camera. I look really thrilled. Its quite amusing.
I spent the rest of my weekend at the sewing machine (headscarves, headscarves, headscarves..) and cleaning the bedroom.  I have some before and after photos but I’m not entirely sure I’m going to post them on the internet because they’re pretty brutal. I’m not a “dirty” slob but I do LOVE to pile things.. and the bedroom has gotten completely out of hand. Every night and every morning while laying in bed I was treated to the view of piles of clothing, jewelry & makeup all over the dresser, and piles of shoes on the floor… it wasn’t making for a restful time. The room looks worlds better now but I still need to move my fiber stash out of the bedroom - just looking at it is enough to make me go out of my mind.

Its late and I’m off to bed..  I’m taking the family to see Pirates 3 tomorrow at the theater, and I’m super excited! I have heard that the first 10 minutes of the film is not suitable for children.. so I’ll be waiting outside with Munchkin while my husband holds our seats.

I was tagged about a week ago by Lana and have been kicking around how strange of a list I want to put up. The rules of the Meme are as follows (in case you’ve been living in a hole for the past week and missed it)

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. Here are my facts:

1. I can pick things up with my feet.
2. I have such tough soles on my feet that I can walk through pretty much anything without having to put shoes on. I love to be barefoot.. and clearly it shows by the fact that I have “feet of steel” (as my husband calls them)
3. I don’t ever wear shoes in the house and I really can’t understand why America doesn’t have the same “take your shoes off at the door” custom that Japanese homes do. The idea of what is on the carpet from the bottoms of shoes is something I just don’t want to think about.
4. I have a very sensitive stomach and won’t eat anything that “smells funny”. My husband is convinced that I can tell if something is 5 minutes past its expiration because I will turn my nose up at it. I say its because I can get food poisoning from just looking at bad food.
5. I am pretty sure that I’m addicted to eyeliner. My “every day” makeup consists of eyeliner (lined fully around my eye), lipstick or gloss, and concealer.. and that’s just so I can stand to look at myself in the mirror. The only difference between my makeup now and in high school is that I changed from black eyeliner to chocolate brown and I don’t wear quite as much of it… depending on the day.
6. I never go out without sunglasses. I can’t stand the brightness of the sun and will get either a headache or full-blown migraine depending on the amount of time I’m forced to spend outside without my protective huge, dark glasses.
7. I am a packrat (packMOUSE my husband says..) and a clutterbug. I don’t like dirt and filth but I will pile things up everywhere without stopping until they fall over. I’ve always been like this since I can remember. Right now I have no idea where the surface of my desk might be and the only clear space is where the keyboard is sitting. I HATE clutter.. and I really would love to have that ‘zen minimal’ feel to my home. I would also love to get rid of at least half of what I own… but I’m emotionally attached to my things. (you can file this under “things I’m trying to learn from Buddhism”)

If you haven’t been tagged and want to do this.. go for it.  Meanwhile I’m going to enjoy the last 30 minutes or so of my freedom until August 13th — today is Munchkin’s last day of kindergarten!  The school ended up passing him to the next grade regardless of what we or the teacher thought… so as of today at 3pm I’m officially the mother of a First Grader! We’ll be working over the summer on getting him up to speed for the next school year.. I’m already looking into different “systems” of teaching to help him along.

I’ve been tagged by Rabbitch for this ‘6 things’ meme.. so here you go.

“THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”
 1. I have a large shoe/boot collection but I much prefer to be barefoot.

2. I have always ‘matched’ my pjs - I have purposely changed teeshirts so that I wasn’t clashing with my shorts/pants before bed. I have no idea why this is.

3. I am absolutely nausiated by people belching or sneezing around me.. especially while I’m eating.

4. I always smell my food before I eat it..

5. I moved 2,000 miles with the intention of getting married to a man I met on the internet and ran up a thousand dollar phone bill talking to. I moved down on January 2nd and we got married on February 2… we’re still married.

6. I carry 2 ’spare’ sets of keys because I’m terrified of being locked out of my house or car.

Tagged: I’m pretty sure I’m last on this bandwagon.. but if not, and you’d like to do this.. Tag, You’re it! 

 Stolen from Lana

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot Chocolate.. and I prefer it to be mint.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
In my family.. Santa wraps presents. In my husbands family.. Santa did NOT.. which lead to a rather interesting arguement last year on Christmas Eve. I wanted wrapped presents.. so in our house Santa leaves out toys to play with.. and mom & dad’s presents are wrapped (by me).

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
My childhood tree always had colored lights..  but mine has white and blue lights.
4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Nope

5. When do you put up your decorations?
Whenever. Usually about 2-3 weeks before christmas.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
Maple baked ham.. cranberry sauce..

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?
Waking up early and going to the steps to see if the stockings that went down the railing were filled with presents.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don’t remember..  probably children at school.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Yes.  My family always let me open a gift on Christmas Eve.. and when I got older.. we would open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve so that we could just sleep in.

10. What kind of decorations are on your Christmas Tree?
Icicles, silver snowflakes, blue beads, blue & silver balls. I tend to do colored theme type trees..  This year I’d like to buy some peacock feathers for the tree.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread?
I used to dread it because I grew up in PA and was sick of seeing it and having the snow ruin my plans.. but now that I live in Georgia… I actually miss it.
12. Can you ice skate?
I used to ice skate.. but I’m not sure if my poor ankles will let me do it.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My antique wedding ring set given to me by my husband a few years ago at Christmas. I had NO idea about it and everyone was hiding it from me for months.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Family. Friendship.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
Pumpkin Pie & homemade chocolate/ peanut butter fudge.

16 What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Making christmas cookies

17. What tops your tree?
currently.. nothing.  When I was a child we had an antique angel that topped the tree every year. It had pipecleaner arms and halo.. and was sort of weird looking.

18. What is your favourite holiday book?
Every year on Christmas Eve my mother-in-law reads “twas the night before Christmas..” to my son.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
“White Christmas”.. I think.  I actually really enjoy listening to christmas music on the radio during the holidays.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yummy?
Yummy. I love stirring my hot chocolate with the peppermint ones.

You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you.”

This quiz is completely amusing.. since I am getting sick and need to be taking echinacea so that I don’t get slammed with whatever plague that is going around. I’m probably going to muddle through the last few days of NaBloPoMo with some Memes because that’s all I’m up to.

 

Thanksgiving Horoscope for Scorpio

You’re the sign most likely to start a family fight.  Your signature dish: Cranberry sauce Your signature dessert: Cherries jubilee This holiday: Keep busy baking pies or taking wagers on the football game. It’s best for you to stay out of any drama!

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I almost didn’t make it to post tonight.. something on my computer was giving me problems with logging into my blog space.  Tonight we took Munchkin out and went to dinner at a restaurant.. and the food was so aweful that the manager ended up giving us our meal for free. Unfortunately, all I got to eat was a cup of soup because it was MY food that was crappy..  I got a mushroom & swiss burger and when they brought it out the first time it was COLD. I had them take it back.. and 5 minutes later.. I was brought out a different burger that was nearly raw inside!  Between that and the fact that the mushrooms on both of the burgers had clearly not even been heated up before they were poured from the can onto my cold burger and non -melted swiss..  I had enough of the whole thing and chose to have them just take my food away.  It was some of the worst food and service we’ve had at a restaurant in a long time.. and I’ve had it with this entire week. I’m going to bed and am planning on sleeping LATE tomorrow.