Thursday, December 20, 2007

Ummm?

What the hell is wrong with people who assign names to describe colors? Particularly, yarn colorways. Look at this.

Scroll down to the 4 colorways. Pay special attention to the colorway: "mellow."

Mellow? Someone looked at that and said, "A-HA! Mellow!" I say, "Psychotic stabbing at a preschool." Much more fitting, don't you think?

Sheesh.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Laughing Too Hard

Ok, people.

Go HERE

And scroll through the pictures. I haven't laughed this hard in ages. There are a lot of pictures to go through, but I think #5 is, by far, my favorite. Followed closely by #43, #48, #49, and #53.

Enjoy.

12/22 Edit: They moved my favorite to #25 as of today. Kid's name is Bella. Funny as hell.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

How Did This Happen?

Winter is finally here. Well, at least it seems that way. It was 21 degrees this morning. And it snowed a little yesterday. At least, enough to have a terribly annoying commute on I-95 this morning.

When we packed up and moved to Delaware in early March, we tossed all our hats, gloves, scarves, etc., into a box that we labeled "coat closet." I bought one of those wardrobe boxes for the coats and jackets, too. Now, our new house has a rather large coat closet in the foyer. I'd say that it is probably twice the size of the coat closet that was in our South Philly home. Yet, inexplicably, we can't seem to fit the same number of items in the new closet as we did in the old one. Yeah, I really don't get it either.

By the time most of the unpacking was done (and hey, is unpacking EVER really done?), it was April. The last thing on my mind was where Todd's winter hat was. So the box o' winter accessories got relegated to the basement.

This morning in a frozen panic, Todd and I were like, "CRAP! FIND THAT BOX!" I found it; I'm good at finding things. I pulled out what is one of only 3 knitted items that I have ever made for myself: The loopy scarf. God, I love this thing. It is my total go-to scarf. Anyway, I started rummaging for a scarf of Todd's. I found ones that he'd used over the years. What is the deal with men's scarves? They are PATHETIC. Flimsy, too-short, drab-looking pieces of woven fabric, with the consistency and softness of a paper napkin (even though they all said 100% wool). It struck me, "My God! Todd doesn't have a decent scarf! How could I, a knitter, let this happen?"

I hung my head in shame.

So, as soon as the holidays are over, or I come to my senses and recognize that I am NOT going to finish that kimono sweater I am knitting for my mom in time for Christmas, I am going to grab some delightful merino wool and knit up a more-fitting scarf for Todd. Shockingly, he's actually wearing the hat I made him, probably because it actually keeps him warm! But I think I might make him a new hat, so he can have winter accessories that actually match for once in his life. I mean, I love that hat, and I think it looks great on him, but there is no way I can ever match those colors.

Yes, I changed the skin of this blog yet again. I'm not crazy about this one either....

Monday, December 03, 2007

Injustice For All

Rant #1: the library

Anyone who knows me can tell you that reading is near the bottom of my list of hobbies. I do it. But not a lot. Something really has to GRAB me. College killed my desire to read. I think after reading 14 books on Suleyman the Magnificent and every piece of literary work from the pen of Henrik Ibsen pretty much sucked the desire to read out of me. Yeah.

However, I do fully appreciate and respect the value of books. I sincerely do. So much so that it greatly pains me to see the condition of most libraries. Most notably: the library associated with the university in which I work. SHAMEFUL.

First of all, they are reconstructing the front steps and entrance to the library. It looks shitty. Mostly because there are no handrails to be seen (still) and there is NO WHEELCHAIR RAMP. Um...hello? I thought that was why you tore out the steps to begin with: To join the rest of humanity and put a wheelchair ramp on a publicly-accessible building. I guess not. Imbeciles.

Second, OH MY DOG. Today, as I was walking from the parking garage, which is down the street from the library, I was absolutely horrified to see (through the ugly glass wall, so common to 1950s-1960s architecture in this stupid city), several students sitting there and eating. And I'm not talking about a granola bar and a bottle of water. No. I would have a tolerance for that. It's still wrong, but, hey, I was a student once. I had (still have) stomach issues. I really do understand that sometimes you NEED a Coke and a bag of pretzels. Really. But a sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast burrito wrap with hash browns and a coffee is A PUBLIC INJUSTICE AND UNACCEPTABLE FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER IN A LIBRARY. End of discussion.


Rant #2: Iman Idiot, a.k.a. the bane of my existence

Yeah that student. You know the one. The one who doesn't know how to write numbers over 100, or apparently can't read his/her own handwriting? That one.

Ok, well that student was supposed to see me Friday at 4:00. I hung around until 4:45 waiting for their dumbass and they never showed. Of course. So I am greeted this morning with this e-mail:

Gina,

You are my advisor and I have a few questions:

Is it too late to register for winter classes?
What is the minimum GPA to make the Deans List?
Can I meet with you some time with week to talk about possibly double
majoring?

I hope to talk to you soon. Thanks and have a good weekend.

Iman Idiot


SIGH. Look, you don't have to tell me that I am your adviser. Unfortunately, I KNOW; very well, thank you.

Technically, it isn't too late to register for classes, however, at this point, I think it's free-for-all registration. See, all our students get "time tickets" to register, based on what class they are in. Upper-class students register before lower-class. For example, seniors have their time tickets before juniors. Well this student is a junior. Their time ticket was back during the first week of November. All the best courses---and probably ones this student should be taking---are probably FULL. So now I'm going to have to jump through hoops to try to get this student into closed courses. Nice. Maybe on the form, in the "reason for request" section, I can write, "Because student is too stupid to register during prescribed time-ticket."

Are you SERIOUSLY asking me what the minimum GPA is for Dean's List?? Wait, let me mop the tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. It's a 3.6. So... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you don't have a prayer, kid.

DOUBLE MAJORING? OH MY LAND. You can't be serious. I'm seriously going to say, "No, I'm sorry. You can't double major at this juncture." God forbid! This student will be here like an extra 3 years. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Why me?