You're Extra Special!

A) Damn, Laurenn is good.



B) Oh my god, this is going to be so much fun.



C) People are talking.

Making Xtop's scarf. (It's more than six feet long now.)

He actually sleeps through the night under the covers.

Thank you, Gawker.

I posted a few pictures of the dog on Flickr.

Jen and Dietsch [Who just tied the knot - congrats, you two!] are responsible for the rubber chicken toy -- which he LOVES.

In reading through a few uberlists over on livejournal, I've noticed that several of us have posted some variation on "DRINK MORE WATER."

So somebody out there must be good at this one already. Give us tips? How do you get your 8 glasses in?

I'm still pretty bad at it, it helps me to put a slice of ginger or a wedge of lime in the glass. I also seem to do better with a straw.

Comments are open.

He's home. We've got our hands full.

Oy. I'll post more later.

Dropped him off for his surgery at Mission MedVet this morning.

Think good thoughts.

UPDATE: He's out of surgery. They started a little later than expected but it had nothing to do with him and everything went smoothly in his procedure. There was minimal arthritis in the joint and he's expected to recover nicely.

I'm to call at 9am to check on him and then I can make an apt to pick him up and get aftercare instructions.

You guys are all aces and I adore you. Thank you so much.

Posted by kellysue at 09:11 AM | talk to me (16)

Holy. Shit.

David Fury is a god to my people.

This was a weirdly joyless process for me this year. I don't know what's wrong with me right now.

uberlist 2006

1. AMBIGUOUS: This is sort of difficult to quantify, but I'd like to cut down on clutter and paper around the house and in my psyche.
2. BUY: GTD: proper filing cabinet
3. BUY: HEALTH: roadid from roadid.com
4. BUY: HOUSE: plastic door guard
5. BUY: HOUSE: proper mirror for bedroom
6. CLASS: CRAFTS: take a knitting class – maybe finishing? Maybe a sweater class? Oh, duh: Cables. There's a James Coviello sweater in the Holiday 2005 VOGUEknitting that I love but that is waaaay beyond my skill set. I couldn’t even parse the pattern.
7. CLASS: FUN: take a cooking class with xtop
8. CLASS: WORK: take a short story workshop?
9. CLASS: WORK: take Japanese lessons with Aiko's husband
10. COLLECTING: take kimono pictures for fury
11. CRAFTS: FAMILY: finish Karen's shawl and mail it to her
12. CRAFTS: finish denim throw
13. CRAFTS: FRIENDS: knit a scarf for Jamie
14. CRAFTS: FRIENDS: knit scarf for xtop (sorry about the socks, dude)
15. CRAFTS: FRIENDS: make laurenn's curtains
16. CRAFTS: FRIENDS: make blanket/hat/mitten set for Amity's baby
17. CRAFTS: HOUSE: make drapes for my office
18. CRAFTS: MOI: knit myself a sweater
19. FINANCES: call and make an appt with Bill
20. FINANCES: get Linda the paperwork she needs
21. FINANCES: meet with Linda
22. FRIENDS/FAMILY: Bug xtop to get his short stories published.
23. FRIENDS/FAMILY: check in with Patience about the Danskin triathlon
24. FRIENDS/FAMILY: Encourage Fraction and Sanders to promote their book locally
25. FRIENDS/FAMILY: fix up fraction's old powerbook for grandma deconnick
26. FRIENDS/FAMILY: teach Applejack to run with me
27. HABITS: FRIENDS/FAMILY: get back into the circle journals
28. HABITS: FUN: monthly thrifting rounds?
29. HABITS: go to bed before you're absolutely exhausted, read for a while
30. HABITS: GTD: get caught up on filing and then get in the habit of filing as it comes up.
31. HABITS: GTD: maintain a projects list
32. HABITS: HEALTH: drink more tea
33. HABITS: HEALTH: drink. More. Water. …same as it ever was.
34. HABITS: HEALTH: keep running journal
35. HABITS: HEALTH: you eat WELL; now eat LESS
36. HABITS: MOI: wear my fancy lingerie more often. I have tons, what am I saving it for?
37. HABITS: pay attention to rituals
38. HABITS: ROMANTIC: hit some new restaurants for date night
39. HABITS: SOCIAL: write more letters
40. HABITS: SPIRITUALITY: make gratitude lists frequently
41. HABITS: start preparing for Christmas much earlier this year
42. HABITS: WHIMSY: listen to more music.
43. HABITS: WORK: get back on deadline. Not NEAR deadline, ON deadline.
44. HABITS: WORK: learn to turn the radio OFF
45. HABITS: WORK: make a list in the morning of what you hope to accomplish that day and another list at night of what you actually did; reflect on how much you're accomplishing and what makes one day more or less successful than another
46. HABITS: WORK: schedule my work days.
47. HABTIS: GTD: do a weekly brain dump
48. HEALTH: cheer up, dammit.
49. HEALTH: do some 5ks
50. HEALTH: let's try this again: take better care of your skin. You've been lucky, but you're going to start to look old if you don't show some respect.
51. HEALTH: look into eye surgery
52. HEALTH: return to swimming
53. HEALTH: return to weightlifting
54. HOUSE: do something about the butler's pantry?
55. HOUSE: finish the stairwell down to the basement
56. HOUSE: get leopard chairs from laurenn
57. HOUSE: hang pictures
58. HOUSE: have Dale the Electrician organize the wires to the ponds and set up conduits where necessary.
59. HOUSE: have Dale the Electrician put an outlet in the front so we can hang Xmas lights.
60. HOUSE: have Dale the Electrician put the electricity from Fraction's office in a conduit.
61. HOUSE: have Mr. Graft fix up the stairway to the basement.
62. HOUSE: hire a monthly cleaning service
63. HOUSE: measure rooms to find out if we can apply for Trading Spaces with Kelly
64. HOUSE: organize tools and hardware in basement (Grandpa DeConnick's shop as a model?)
65. HOUSE: plant some bulbs, if it's not too late
66. HOUSE: repair fence
67. HOUSE: strip and stain entryway buffet
68. HUGE: HOUSE: put a new roof on the garage
69. HUGE: PIPEDREAM: visit the raj
70. KC: hit the museums
71. KC: try some new coffee shops (Oak Street Café?)
72. LONG OVERDUE: get back to actively working steps
73. LONG OVERDUE: send casey his thank you box
74. ORGANIZE: HOUSE: deal with the closet in the spare room
75. ORGANIZING: ask Laurenn about sending her some stuff to take to Buffalo Exchange since ATC buys are always so disappointing. Alternately, take stuff with you when you go visit.
76. ORGANIZING: clean out closets; ebay what you're going to ebay, donate what you're going to donate
77. ORGANIZING: file all those magazine pages
78. OVERDUE: finish up MK12 Xmas gifts
79. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: figure out what that means in my life. What do I have time for? You've already volunteered to help Molly with her Catherine's Place event. What else can you do? Maybe you could get in the habit of writing or calling your representatives in Congress to let them know you're paying attention and you vote.
80. SOCIAL: breakfast club with Jane and rebecca
81. SOCIAL: have a housewarming…two years later
82. SOCIAL: yoga with gina k. and/or amy b.
83. SPIRITUALITY: Give Sunday services another go.
84. TECH LIFE: do something about the overwhelming disaster that is my endless stream of e-mail
85. TECH LIFE: figure out viz's new associates structure and post purchase links on my blog
86. TECH LIFE: find out what's going on with my back up procedure/program; make sure that if my computer died or was stolen I'd be minimally distraught
87. TECH LIFE: get Natty Minx going. Sign up some new minxes. POST.
88. TRAVEL: FAMILY: Houston, TX. Visit Grandma DeConnick
89. TRAVEL: FAMILY: New Port Richey, FL. Visit Nana and Pop and Aunt Polly
90. TRAVEL: FUN: San Francisco, CA. Take S-factor intensive
91. TRAVEL: Portland, OR & Seattle, WA. Vacation for Fraction & I. Visit friends.
92. TRAVEL: San Diego, CA. Try to get out there a little early and see Terry's new house.
93. TRAVEL: SOCIAL: Harveyville, KS. Get fraction and xtop out to Harveyville
94. TRAVEL: SOCIAL: Los Angeles, CA. See WEFers, Dave Holmes and Jason Hefter while you're there.
95. TRAVEL: SOCIAL: NYC, NY. Make a trip out to NYC to see Amity preggers and help with preparations for baby over a long weekend or something. Try to see Cheryl, Barbara, Lynne, Bill, Scott, Mike and others, too.
96. TRAVEL: SOCIAL: Paris, France with laurenn?
97. WORK: decide what to do about XXXXX pitch
98. WORK: finish short story for XXX XXXXX (do I have time?!)
99. WORK: follow up with that librarian who wanted you to come talk to his manga club
100. WORK: get an artist set for NORMAL JEAN
101. WORK:XXX XXXX script pages to Mr. B and Mr. M
102. WORK: original novel pitch for XXXXX XXX
103. WORK: revisit XXXXXXX XXXXX
104. WORK: scout unlicensed manga for Mr. A
105. WORK: script NORMAL JEAN
106. WORK: XXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX pitch

I've been trying to select a pattern to knit my first sweater, so I've been pouring through knitting magazines of late. I'm madly in love with the James Coviello cropped jacket from the Holiday 2005 issue of VOGUEknitting, but it's waaaay beyond my skills. (I can't even parse the pattern!)

This woman has only been knitting a year and also has yet to knit a sweater but seems to be entirely undaunted by the Coviello sweater. Am I just retarded?

The knitty pattern that Savida mentions (blackberry) isn't quite as lovely as the Coviello pattern, but might not be as difficult.

...

Not AS difficult might still be too difficult for my first sweater. I'm also entertaining Banff (which I fear might not be flattering, though I'm confident I could knit it), Asrai from the Colinette book Akashya, and the retro cardigan that Jess pointed me toward. Nothing has quite presented itself as The Thing yet.

A friend from DHW sent this lovely package from Japan to cheer me up post-buglary. The little box at the bottom contained a pretty pearl bracelet and the sweetest note ever folded into an origami card.



Also? CRAZY BEAUTIFUL handwriting.



Her blog is here. Check out her kimono practice! This is a girl who understands perfect pants.

My friend Anjy's band is going to be on OneMusic tonight:

Just a reminder about the BBC show tonight guys (and some other great news on the Hoax front as well): BBC Radio 1 OneMusic show with Rob da Bank
Tonight (Jan. 12th) 11pm-1am GMT timezone.
That would make it 6pm eastern US time and 5 pm central.

If you're not able to listen live either on the radio or on the internet, they're going to archive it for 7 days afterwards, you can stream it there if you'd like:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/

They're also going to be putting up our band info and an MP3 for download on the BBC OneMusic page as well. I believe it'll stay on there for 4-6 weeks:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/rob/unsigned.shtml

They've told us that our song is to be played around 11:30 GMT, and the track in question is "A Prophecy Fulfilled". They called me to record an intro to it too, so you'll hear my "deer frozen in the headlights" voice right before the song comes on. :)

Publisher's Weekly: To get the obvious out of the way: What is the book about?

FRACTION: The shortest, write-it-on-the-back-of-a-business-card pitch for Casanova is "the world's greatest thief gets blackmailed into being a pawn and double agent in a global game of super-espionage." There are more keywords and PowerPoint topics, like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Diabolik, Jim Steranko, Jerry Cornelius, Nick Fury and Our Man Flint.

FRACTION: Then I do a little interpretive dance.

Read the rest of the interview.

There's a good description of a luxating patella here.

10. Fiona Apple: An Extraordinary Machine
9. Sigur Ros: Takk
8. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
7. Spoon: Gimme Fiction
6. My Morning Jacket: Z
5. The Decemberists: Picaresque
4. The White Stripes: Get Behind Me Satan
3. Death Cab for Cutie: Plans
2. Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
1. Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

More in link.

I feel so vindicated by this and this that I'm sure it means I'm a horrible person.

At least I am a horrible person with a huge grin on her face.

Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit (2004), Episode entitled "Mean"

Elliot Stabler: Psychos... they always love comics.

From a description of the new NBC show, The Book of Daniel:

Webster also has loving, but challenging relationships with his three children: Peter (Christian Campbell), his 23-year-old gay son, struggling with the loss of his twin brother; his 16-year-old daughter Grace (Alison Pill), a talented Manga artist dealing with typical teenage angst; and Adam (Ivan Shaw), his 16-year-old adopted Chinese son, a handsome and cocky high school jock with a wicked sense of humor.

The dogboy has to have knee surgery on the 18th. Think good thoughts for all of us, would you? Also? Send piles of cash.

I really could stand some unqualified good news, please. Not, "Well, it could be worse -- at least his hips are fine..." Not, "At least the burglars didn't get your laptop..."

Give me some good news without a "but" or an "at least," someone...?