Finished Sweater!











































I just got done with my biggest crocheting project that I have tackled to this point. You see, I'm an avid "fiber-artist", but I have total project A.D.D. Usually, I have to do little projects so that I know I'll finish them - but I decided to buy some nice yarn and sit down and commit myself to this project.

I'm relatively happy with the results, and I've gotten several compliments on the sweater already. Being the perfectionist that I am, I'm not 100% happy with the finished product. It fits really really well. That's great. But somehow, I suck at positioning buttons and snaps. They just aren't quite right and they are creating annoying little buckles here and there. *sigh*.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure it out sooner or later. Or I'll just learn to live with it.

But, it fits. It looks decent. It's comfortable. And it's a LOVELY orange color, of which I totally approve.

Bill O'Reilly VS. Godwins Law

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-swAcidXHyM

Brilliant.

Purple Flowers!!!















I found them outside
Clusters that covered our lawn
I am delighted

A Haiku

The years pass swiftly
One thing remains a constant
I want a stunt kite

Not even the world's most attractive man can rock the 'stache.
Might this be a lesson for us all?

Bad Marketing:





I found this advertisement for a "career" at McDonalds while watching episodes of the Colbert Report online. How likely do you suppose it is that folks who regularly watch the Colbert Report actually fit into this target demographic? It seems to me that the majority of people who enjoy watching the show might just be more inclined to make fun of it. Why, I'm about to do that right now!

I think the thing that most strikes me about this ad is how the left seems to be an advertisement for a community or small public college telling you how they can prepare you for you for the career of which you've always dreamed. This is starkly contrasted with the "McDonald's" sign on the right. I don't know about you - but when I think of the LAST place I would consider working with two degrees, McDonald's is the FIRST place that comes to mind."

I am suddenly reminded of that Saturday Night Live commercial from back in the 90's. "What will your family do when you are gone? Start planning for their futures - LOTTO."

I realize that McDonald's is probably trying to change precisely that impression. The real humor lies in how poorly they are accomplishing that mission. They are showing this ad to a demographic that, last time I checked, is made up primarily of college students and young professionals. So essentially, they are showing this ad to a group of people for whom the idea of working at McDonald's is their ultimate nightmare of failure. Telling this demographic that they can "maximize their full potential" at McDonald's is probably more likely to scare them than to inspire them! In addition, there is not a single reason given on the sign to inform me why my opinion of employment at McDonald's might be wrong or outdated. Come on folks, know your demographic!

Therefore, I give McDonald's the same advice I gave the movie "Gracie":
Fire. Your. Publicist.

Misadventure!!!

Today I had a fun and challenging project to tackle:
To give you the back story - Goro, my friend and accompanist, broke his wrist several weeks ago. As you might imagine, I've had several reasons to be concerned about his recovery. . .

The doctor has given him the go-ahead for playing - as long as he doesn't do anything that hurts, like move his wrist around too much. The trouble is that the splint that they had given him was made for just after the surgery when he was not able to move his fingers or thumb around very much. The problem? Well, it's pretty hard to play the piano when you can't move your wrist, but damn near impossible when you can't move your thumb!

We got to talking about how the brace could be improved by removing the thumb piece - but of course, you don't want to mess with the brace that you wear for everyday activities just to play a few hours a day. We started talking about the perfect brace for playing piano at this stage in his healing. It would need to immobilize the wrist from motion while allowing the fingers full range of motion. I started talking about the different ways you could go about achieving that, when the familiar but reckless creative crafting demon inside me suddenly decided to take over my body and use it for its own designs.

"I can make that," I was suddenly compelled to say.

The rational side of me was like "You can't be serious - a brace for a BROKEN WRIST?? Are you out of your mind??!!"

But the crafty side somehow won the argument with "Oh, come on. How hard could it be?"

So Goro and I went to Johann's Fabrics and Lowe's to pick up a sturdy fabric, some Velcro, and some sort of material for the brace part that needed to be firm but somewhat flexible so we could mold it to his hand. After spending 30 or 40 minutes wandering around Lowe's, we finally realized that the best material was probably just really firm cardboard - which we could totally get for free. So we got some. And I was able to successfully mold it into a very firm board to support the wrist.

I'll spare you all the boring details of how I put it together - but here are some shots of what he already had compared with what I made for him.
Here is the brace from the doctor - notice the immobile thumb:



















Here is my version. And for all of you who may be freaking out about this idea, this is only an aid to helping him to stop from accidentally moving the wrist too far while playing gigs and such forth. Sure beats the alternative of not playing with a brace at all. . . but I do not recommend this for general life purposes!




Click on this pic to see the cool red stitching!

So there you have it. I must say, I really surprised myself with this one!