I'll Be There. No question.

I'm home!

The doctor gave me a photo of my gall bladder before he took it out. It was ENORMOUS. Supposed to be the size of a thumb, was larger than a dollar bill.

Will write more later-going to sit out in the sunshine.

comcast email is borked, y/n?

Anyone else?

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com/

Updated with my adventures in spinning tow flax and finally learning to use my camera.

Yes, it's that time again. Time for the Western PA Wildlife Center's annual baby shower.

http://www.pawildlifecenter.org/

Sunday, March 29th from noon to 4 at the center on Verona Road in Rosedale.
Nursery and Menagerie tours, education programs, games, prizes, food, and much more. All proceeds go to the PA Wildlife Center, in the words of their mission statement-

"To rehabilitate and release injured and orphaned wildlife and to provide educational programs to regional residents in order to help foster an appreciation for conservation and a harmonious existence between humans and wildlife."

The Baby Registry on their website has a list of needed items. Stop by, help out the baby animals, and have a good time!

(Crossposted to pittsburgh

day late and more than a dollar short, I updated buttercupia. Not very interesting but some purdy yarn pictures.

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com

RIP Philip Jose Farmer.

http://www.pjfarmer.com/

This seems to be happening a lot lately. The old guard of SF writers are all passing now.

I'm home for the rest of the week due to a horrible earache. I have some kind of allergy that causes my right sinus to fill up with goo and refuse to drain, then it makes my eardrum retract. Last time, I got a prescription for nasonex and that helped, but this time, it's not doing the trick. So I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow and today, I'm taking pain meds and laying around feeling sorry for myself.

Wah wah wah.

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you (the NEAREST, not your favorite book, the coolest, or the most intellectual).
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth full sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LJ.

"Two more custodians come banging out of the trailer, carrying off the divisional p***ography library and a life-size cardboard cutout photograph of the president of America, with his cleft chin, his golfer's tan, his air of self-importance, worn lightly, quarterback-style."

(changed a word there since I'm at work and I don't want anything setting off bells and whistles)

From The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon

this is a photo of my mother and I when I was less than 2, at Kennywood or Idelwild, it looks like. I really like it. :)

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com/

I do go on sometimes. Lots of pictures though.

Hey kaote, how do you say Welcome in Finnish? My blog has been inundated with visitors from website in Finland looking for my sock patterns. Awesome!

Also, thanks to hugh_mannity for sharing this amazing video, which I vaguely remember seeing when it was on TV. It would have been right around the time Lena was born, and she's turning 25 next week.

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/sony_releases_new_stupid_piece_of

HATE autoplay videos. HATE.

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com/

Why I could not write a song parody of "woodstock" celebrating the Steelers.

Also, planning to attend Knit and Crochet fest on Saturday, as Bob and I are deferring V-Day dinner to Sunday in the hope of avoiding nutso crowds. If only my tax refund arrives by then!

I've been home since about 430 on thursday-my ears hurt, I have stiff/sore neck, aching ears, congested sinuses. I want to go to the pool but not sure it's a good idea. Started snorting the nasonex again, hopefully it will help. Bob is washing the dogs, I'm knitting a sock. I updated buttercupia earlier. No idea what the rest of the weekend will hold.

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com

http://kateharding.net/2009/02/05/exceptions-that-arent/

READ. It's great.

JAMES HARRISON! WOO!

If you haven't seen "Slumdog Millionaire" yet, go see it.

In light of recent events in the sock knitting world, I thought this primer might be valuable.

The Post-Gazette has a contest up for your favorite Steelers fight song. Of course I would love to recommend you vote for the Yinzer Anthem by Rockstar Collective because it's awesome and the lead singer works in my office and is a very nice young man.





Vote here!

http://www.post-gazette.com/steelernation/steelersongs_voting.asp

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com/

Reminiscing about last year's birthday.

Ugh.

http://www.therockstarcollective.com/

A very catchy steelers fight song from a local band. Pass it on!

(crossposted)

The white house website has been completely revamped.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Among the changes-a blog. With an RSS feed.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

This particular phrase on the first entry thrilled me to no end.

"...this online community will continue to be a work in progress as we develop new features and content for you. So thanks in advance for your patience and for your feedback."

The mind boggles.

Anyway, here's the livejournal feed for the blog.

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/whitehouseblog/profile

My favorite part of the inaugural address? "Science will be returned to its rightful place". I got tears when he said that.

Via hugh_mannity

You Are "ctrl"

Some people might try to say that you're too controlling. And while there is a controlling aspect to your personalty, you like to think you're competent. You are an expert in many fields. You tend to really know your stuff. You tend to take the reins whenever it's needed. You like to lead, and people like to follow you.

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com/

Kinda boring but some crafty pictures.

DAMMIT tomorrow's my last day off! It's been a great five day vacation though.

Ok, the Pens won. One down, one to go.

GO STEELERS!

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

the star wars trilogy as explained by someone who has never seen it.

My favorite part-"hans?"

Ben Roethlisberger "This Is Sportscenter" commercial.

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com

going on about a bad experience at karaoke on saturday, then bread and crafts.

Here's a bread picture.

For once it was nice to see the Steelers offense step up to the task. Of course the D was amazing as usual.

The rib roast came out amazingly good. I've never done prime rib before so this was a bit of a scary experience-they are not cheap cuts of meat and you really don't want to mess it up. My oven is a bit on the insane side too, which did not help my confidence. I coated it with a nice mixture of horseradish, dijon mustard, salt, and fresh ground pepper before baking and it was perfect. Medium to medium rare, fork-tender, moist and delicious. The potatoes were good, as were the brussel sprouts. The bread was excellent. All in all one of my better efforts.

I also managed to spin quite a bit on my second skein of grey sock yarn so yay.

A good day!

Well, today's my re-birthday, three years ago today I quit smoking.

In celebration, I made italian bread from scratch, not in the bread machine. I mixed and kneaded it by hand and baked it in the oven. It came out beautiful-I gave a loaf to my neighbor as well since she sent over cookies on christmas.

I'm also making my very first prime rib roast. A three-ribber. I'm nervous as hell about it but so far so good-it smells yummy. I'm doing a sorta-twice baked potato recipe that kightp posted but next time I do this I am totally making yorkshire pudding. (Bob brought back a full rib roast from Columbus-the butcher shop near his mom's. I almost had a heart attack but I cut it in half so we could spread out the joy a bit.)

I'll post pictures later.


GO STEELERS! GO GO GO GO GO!

http://buttercupia.blogspot.com/

On being a survivor of parental suicide.

my mom's birthday is on sunday, along with Bob's. My mom is a terror to shop for. She has everything. I've very seldom felt like I was getting her something she really needs or wants. Well, this year, that changed. I hope. We were over at her house yesterday and she was telling one of her friends how she's always wanted one of those Kit Cat Clocks. I had no idea.

So I went on a mission.

According to the website, there's three stores in the pittsburgh area that carry them. One had the phone disconnected. One didn't answer the phone. The third closed at 430 today and is not open hours I can get to tomorrow, but is in Mt. Oliver (non-locals, a small neighborhood about a 15 minute drive from downtown pittsburgh.) I can get to Mt Oliver, I found out, by bus in about 20 minutes. The buses run every 10-20 minutes both ways. Yay!

So I walked from my office to Macy's to get other gifts then caught the Many Crazy People bus across the street to Mt Oliver, ran into the store (well, hobbled quickly) and hobbled back out to the bus stop again. Made it back to work in just under an hour and a half, with all gifts bought and paid for. A LOT of walking, in very cold weather. But totally worth it.

The bullshit put out last year about "catching fat" from fat friends has been debunked. Don't look for this study in the headlines, though.

http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/12/fat-is-catching-theory-exposed.html

2008 year in first lines. Edited some to make sense and avoid repitition.

January-Michelob Ultra with Tuscan Orange and Grapefruit. It's GOOD. Damn good, and I'm a total beer snob. I will definitely be keeping some of this on hand in the summertime. They have a lime and cactus one I gotta try too.

February-word on the street is I'm being transferred to the skilled nursing facility today.

March-Ok, real fast. I'm in the hospital again, probably just for the night, with a suspected infection. So I got to update buttercupia and check my email. Woo. I'm thrilled.

April-I'm HOME!!!!!!!!! I'll post more after I relearn how this whole "internet" thing works.

May-Dude was actually eating out of the bird feeder. Hilarious. I wish Figment had seen him, his reaction would probably have been priceless.

June-Buttercupia's updated x2. Over the weekend I posted a sock pattern that I wrote. Then today was photos and knitting.

July-Funny stuff. People talking about weird things they've blurted out while asleep, falling asleep, or just waking up. Like the time I told Bob to "take THIS pillow, it's never touched the kitchen".

August-We just watched the movie "M" by Fritz Lang, starring Peter Lorre. I have never seen a Fritz Lang film before

September-If you're on the fence about reading those teen vampire books, here's a quick review.

October-The Real McCain?

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

Courtesy of [info]sarrath, please share with those who may be on the fence.

November-Now with added photos. No new post, just pictures to go along with the previous post.

December-http://thefritzblitz.blogspot.com/

(I've actually posted a couple there since I last mentioned it here, I just don't usually mention it here.)

And that was the year that was.

Posted a year-in-review thingy on Buttercupia, too.
http://buttercupia.blogspot.com