3, 2, 1

Perhaps it is a coping mechanism for being separated from us fairly soon, but Hannah is spending a lot of time with people other than Briton and me lately.  And she seems so eager to do it.  I’m trying to stay placid, but it does hurt my feelings.  All of which is perfectly expected and accepted, but difficult nonetheless.  It’s just been a joyless summer all the way ’round.

Taking her to work yesterday, I passed a bank whose digital sign had the temperature at 107 degrees.  This is not helping anyone’s energy level or sprightly mood, I can assure you.  Went to the grocery, and was absolutely sopping wet by the time we got everything into the house and unloaded.

Knitters’ Hunk nominations begin tomorrow.  Each of you can nominate 3 men for the contest, but you can only nominate once.  Nominate here, in the comments section.  The men must be famous, so that 1) I can easily find photos of them to post, and 2) the voters are more likely than not to know them.  The men with the greatest number of nominations will be seeded 5th through . . . whatever, as our first four seeds are already in place. When the voting is all done, and the Hunk is decided, the person(s) who nominated him will be given a prize package.  (If there is more than one successful nominator, a tiebreaker will decide the ultimate winner.)  Maybe the reason I’m looking so forward to this this year is my own coping mechanism for Hannah leaving.  Psychology aside, all I can say is, this has been tremendous fun the last three years, and I don’t expect anything to be different this time around!  Ladies, start your hormones!

Shush

Women all over the Internet are trying to decide whom to nominate for Knitters’ Hunk!

And they have to decide by Sunday. . .

A Pair of B*t#hes

Totally got my sew on yesterday by making a wrap skirt (blue with Buddhas scattered about) and cutting out my next venture: a straight skirt with a pleated yoke around the bottom.  When it came time today, though, to work on that one, the sewing machine did not care to cooperate.  Well, the bobbin was being a little b*tch.  This is always my problem, somehow, sometime, on a sewing machine.  The bobbin starts feeding yards and yards of thread on the “underneath” stitches.  I don’t know what I do, or don’t do, but it’s fiercely annoying, and put a big, fat damper on my day.  Hannah said she’d take a look at it when she got home from work, but I could’ve had the skirt done by then.  And she’s about to re-claim the machine to make her Star Trek costumes, so my time is up.

God, I can whine, can’t I?

Gearing up for Sunday, when the Hunk nominations start coming in.  Johnny Depp will be the #1 seed, as returning champion, Mark Harmon will be #2 as returning runner-up, Hugh Jackman will be #3 as previous year’s champion, and Alan Rickman will be #4.  The rest of the seeds will depend on how many nominations any single man gets.  I’ve been trying to come up with a tiebreaker these last few days, in case we have more than one person nominate the winner.  Haven’t got one yet, but should have the brain in gear by contest’s end.

Can’t get the brain in gear for the new job quite yet, either, as I don’t have the textbooks I’ll be using.  Have to have them to make the course outlines, have to have that before I can make copies to hand out on the first day.  All this has happened so fast, and the feeling I got from the interview was so positive, as in, this seems like it’s a real college, that trusts its professors enough to let them do their own jobs, that I’m sort of just sitting back in amazement still.  Suddenly, though, I’m sure, I’ll say, “Oh boy — I’ve gotta teach tomorrow.  Better pick out some clothes and some nail polish!”

Saturday. SATURDAY.

Well, everyone, we’re a scant one week away from opening Knitters’ Hunk nominations!  Yep, starting August 1st, you can send me the names of three (3, and only three [3]) men who you think deserve to be named our 4th (Fourth) Knitters’ Hunk!  I’ll be talking more about the contest in each post, as there are some friends I’ve made over the year who aren’t clear on the idea.  And each of you, should you feel the urge, can spread the word on your own blogs!  A prize to the person who nominates the ultimate champ, you know.

I woke up this morning absolutely convinced today was Sunday.  When Briton told me otherwise, I actually checked the time and date on the computer!  What is happening to me?????  And the weird thing?  I feel all off-balance after finding out it’s Saturday.  Not that my life changes that much day to day, but, I really thought it was Sunday. . .

In very painful news, my sweet, gracious friend Bridget and her husband Tim have had to let go of two of their dear cats this week.  If you know her, or if you love pets and know the heartache they are feeling just now, go by her blog and leave some nice words.  She honestly, truly deserves them.  Thanks.

Life

Things at The Chez have sped up dramatically this week. My getting the new teaching job, and all the retro-fitting that goes with it (not to mention all the new stuff I have to do.) Got my parking permit and my ID (photo made with me wearing one of my “House” t-shirts;  sweet!)   Then, there’s Hannah packing some things here, then finally consenting to buy some things for her dorm room — sheets and a comforter.  Trust me, that is a major accomplishment.

She found out yesterday who her roommates are;  they’ve all “met” on Facebook and begun to make a few plans.  The way the rooms are arranged, 2 people sleep on one side of a common bathroom, and 1 person sleeps on the other side.  Hannah, it would seem, has been assigned the single room.  She won’t let on one way or another how she feels about it — trying to get her to talk about anything school-related is like pulling teeth.

I’m trying to get a lot of sewing done before she leaves with the machine.  My wardrobe, for some reason, is heavily fall- and winter-appropriate.  Need to make some light cottonish skirts and tops for teaching in this abominable heat.  Short of those, I can make really cute tote bags to carry:

It’s honestly been too hot to knit.  Yes, I live in an air conditioned house, but just the thought of taking up the yarn. . .  Maybe in a couple of days.  I’ve got two sweaters on the needles — one a short swing-type thing, the other sort of hard to describe.  A cross between a shrug and a cardigan?  A shrugican?  That’s being made of a lighter cotton blend, but the mojo just isn’t there, you know?

AH!  There it is!  Different kind of mojo, though. . . .  ‘Scuse me. . .

Ja Hear?

“That Miss Kim went and got herself a job as a school marm.”

“That’s nice, but

what’s a marm?”

And It Just Goes On Like That

A lot of you already know that I have a job interview tomorrow, teaching Sociology, at another college in town.  The e-mail inviting me to come in for an interview couldn’t possibly have come at a better (or worse, I suppose) time.  I was as hopeless and grim about what was going on around here as I’d ever been.  And I’d been hopeless and grim.

It’s easy to get carried away with the possibilities of this job right now, but I have to keep remembering that I’ve got an interview to get through first.  But a job, and a job that I already know I can do, and a job that will give me an honest chance to start anew, and a job that offers me a range of classes to teach (not just one) — that all looks like fruit really low on the tree.  Still: interview first.  Interview first.

Thinking of opening Hunk nominations on August 1st.  Keep them open for a week, give me a couple of days to fill out the brackets, start the voting early-to-mid-month.  Does that sound about right?

This is a 9 1/2 foot long scarf made with yarn I got in Atlanta.  The light and darker tans are tweedish wool, and the stripes between them a skein of Noro.  Knitting.

My circle skirt, though it doesn’t look too circly here.  I like the black and white butterfly print — very different from how you usually see butterflies rendered.  Just wondering if I’ll need a slip when I wear it.  Wait — can you even buy a slip anymore?  Sewing.

Enervation

One of my weaknesses as a sports fan is that my memory isn’t what it should be. Unless I am personally involved with the team (in either a real or an imaginary fashion), I won’t remember from year to year who won the Super Bowl or the World Series. If any of you struggle with the same type of forgetting, let me remind you who won our little Knitters’ Hunk contest last year.

By virtue of that victory, he will enter this year’s tournament as the #1 seed.

You might also be interested to know that after our contest, Depp was named “Sexiest Man Alive” by People. We had accurately predicted the previous year’s “Sexiest Man Alive” by crowning Hugh Jackman the KH.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

So-Sew

Hannah now has her college ID and has taken her math placement test.  Briton and one of his friends took her up there.  And they had a little wrecklet on the way back, maybe a mile and a half from the house.  No damage to either car, just a little bump-into thing.  But Briton has now had his first experience with, what would you call it?  Not a driver’s emergency.  Or crisis.  Issue?  Pfffffft — you know what I mean.  And he’s so stressed about it, because there was a police report taken.  I explained the difference between a report and a charge, and he relaxed significantly.  Even said the deputy was a “pretty cool guy.”

Having the sewing machine to myself allowed me to finish up a little apron I had begun the night before last:

What is it about aprons?  I don’t know anyone except my mother who actually wears one, but so many people love them.   And cute fabrics that you bought for tote bags work just as well for aprons.

I also got as far as I could on a little circle skirt;  we don’t have the right size elastic for the waist.  Don’t, though, even begin to think of me as a seamstress.  Well, no — you know what?  A seamstress is exactly what I am.  If there isn’t more to something than a couple of seams, I’m good to go.  I’m not a sew-er.  Hannah is.  She sees things in her head and makes them out of cloth.  Minimal use of patterns with that one.  Very impressive.

My fabric “stash” consists of maybe a dozen or so pieces of fabric, most all 1 1/2 yards, all under 2.  Two pieces that are 4 yds. each, and one, the circle skirt one, that is probably a smidge under 3.  I bought the yard-and-a-halfs to make tote bags and toys, the longer pieces because they were pretty and, undoubtedly, at a crazy low price.  So, I’m a little impeded by what I have to work with, but, just like with yarn, figuring out what to do with the “big enough” leftovers is good fun.

Have You Ever Gone Back

and read any of your old blog posts?  I was going through some of mine over the weekend, because I couldn’t remember everyone that’s ever been nominated for Knitters’ Hunk, and I want to post pictures of past nominees to sort of get everybody in the right mood.  Here’s today’s:

So, I’m reading entries, and I was scared by how little of it all I remembered.  Granted, it didn’t help that so many of the links had expired.  I’d come across cryptic sentences:  “Horrified by this,” or “Can’t say it any better than it was said here,” and the “theres” would be gone!  ARGGGGGH.

Overall, though, I was fairly pleased with what I found from years gone by.  Not embarrassed by much.  Which, for me, is a good thing.

Thundery, thundery day here.  One of those days where the outside and the inside temperatures are just enough at odds that the windows in the house are fogged up/misted over.  Isn’t it weird how that only happens occasionally?  There are lots of days that have rain and air conditioning at the same time, right?  Why do the windows only do this every now and then?