Thinking too Much. Again.

So I read this blog: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ A lot. The woman who writes it, whose blog it is, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, is amazing. She's like my knitting hero. She's one of those people that I think, when I grow up, I want to be Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.  Of course, part of the problem with that is, I'm already grown up, in that I'm 32 years old. I also have zero desire to have children, never mind three girls. But knitting/career-wise? Stephanie is amazing. She's written five books on knitting. Five. Her latest is on the New York Times Best Seller List. How awesome is that?!

It's funny, when I first started knitting, her blog was one of the first things I found. It didn't impress me much. It had awards down the side for like 5 years past Best Canadian Knitting blog, and the like. Her blog hasn't changed in format or look since then either. It's very basic and felt dated, and I can be a techie snob sometimes, okay most of the time.(I should say now I appreciate the simplicity and it's appeal. Coming to her blog and reading it feels like coming home, like spending time with a well-loved friend.) Also all the entries I read were about socks. I hate knitting socks. Okay, to be fair, I've only ever knitting one pair of socks, and I don't think I'll ever knit another pair. I hate knitting anything on needles that small, for one thing. For another, my feet are too stupidly sensitive and I know I could never actually wear them, so what's the point? Last and not least, until very recently I've been just rubbish at knitting short rows. I've knit a lot of short rows now on the knitted sea creatures I've made, but I'd still hate to test my short row skills against a sock! No thank you! So, in length, you can see how her blog just didn't appeal to me.

Thanks to twitter, and a crochet-crazy acquaintance I have on my feed, I re-discovered Stephanie about a year ago or more. Yes, she talks about socks a lot, and I can't really identify, but she talks about a lot of other things too. And she's funny! She makes me laugh out loud until I have tears streaming from my eyes. Mostly though, she's just... endearing, entertaining -- she's the most likable writer or knitter I've ever encountered. I really don't know how else to put it, except that she's a joy to read, and I wish she was my friend, 'cause I think she's awesome.

She's having a book signing here in Toronto today. At a chapters downtown. I kinda want to go, because I want to support her, and maybe meet her. But I've never actually bought or read any of her books. I want to, but I just don't have the $$ right now. If I went to the reading/signing, I'd feel obligated to buy her latest book (I do want to but again, $$).. But after spending $35 dollars on tea this week I think my husband might blow a vein if I spent more. *Sigh*

I was just reading her latest post about how we Canadians are quiet with out enthusiasm for writers and other famous people. I am so very guilty of that! A few years ago when I got to meet Kim Harrison, who is my all time favourite author, I was so excited I could barely speak. I had so much love and admiration for her, but I didn't know how to show it. I just ended up being awkward and telling her she made me love reading again, and I almost cried, because she really did change my life, and I didn't know how else to express my gratitude.

I know if I went to see Steph tonight I'd be the same way. I'd barely be able to speak to her. I know I wouldn't be able to tell her how awesome I think she is, or that I wish I knew her in real life, because from a 'fan', that can come off really creepy, and that's the last thing I'd want.

I also really need to work on my Nano novella today as I haven't worked on it since Monday and I'm likely 5k words behind by now. *sigh*  FMS has really done a number on me this week. I'm not in anywhere near the pain I was yesterday or the day before, but my brain still feel exhausted. Being in that much pain for that long takes a mental toll on a person, and it's that toll I can feel myself paying today. Bah. Hopefully by Saturday I'll be well enough to enjoy some time with my friends!

Sadness, and a Fridge full of food.

So we tried to have a housewarming/bday party for my husband today. It was a fantastic failure. We gave everyone two months notice. Invited just about everyone we knew in Toronto, many people that before today I would have called friends, but they aren't really, they're just acquaintances for the most part.

So can you guess how many showed up? Yup. That's right. Zero. At least a couple of them had understandable excuses. But when no one shows up.... Yeah, that's no coincidence. This is me, never throwing another party again.

On the bright side, at least 90% of the perishable food in our fridge is healthy! Lots of veggies, and fresh salsa, and cheese. Mmm, cheese.

The day wasn't wasted though. I vacuumed and washed the floors, and made raisin bread. All before 1pm! I even go to finish the dirty book I was reading.

I wish I could ease this sadness though. I also feel like such an ass. I made sure we had chairs for guests - though Chris was the one that carried them home from half way across the city, I made my poor husband go on a fourth trip to the grocery store today to get pop for guests that never showed. I nearly killed myself cutting veggies, making a double batch of cookies, burning myself on raisin bread, and for what? *Sigh* the Cookies and bread can be frozen. In honesty, I made the bread with the thought that at least I'd have something sure to look forward to today. I think though, this is why, once I got past 13, I never threw another party. I just couldn't take the thought that no one would show up. So when I did invite people over it was only people I knew wouldn't not show, like my family and best friends. But my best friends live in different cities now, I'm not even sure if they would show up if I invited them. I'll have to try, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Still. It wasn't a bad day. I got to snuggle my husband, and something actually made me keep the floors clean. lol. *Sigh* Just not what I'd hoped for. Oh well. Maybe we'll try again when one of us turns 40; preferably me.

But what really pisses me off, is this was supposed to be a birthday party for my husband. And no one showed up. Not a single one of the people I thought were our friends! And now there is no one here to eat the damn cake. The cake that is fucking perfect, and no one but us to eat it! Bah! Bah I say! Well, at least my husband is a fairly solitary creature, I don't think he's half as put out as I am. And he still wants to eat the cake I made. I'm very glad of this. I had some bread, and somehow I'm very full, but make no mistake, we will be eating that cake, and by gods we will enjoy it because it is magnificent.

Update:
To those of you who made my husband morose - *shakes my fist at you*

Good news for a change!

I can knit again! Well, at least I think I can. I did some knitting yesterday, and it totally didn't hurt, nor did it feel forgein, nor is my hand sore from it!

So so very exciting!

Three of my cousins are pregnant right now, I'm thinking that maybe I will knit them somethings for their babies-to-be. I really really want to get my hands on.... *looks up the titles as I have no memory* ...... The knitters Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann! I think I'm going to put in a request for it from my local Hamilton Library in fact!

If I like it, I might end up buying myself a copy, only trouble is, when I did go looking for it, it was the hardest thing to find! Very sad that. Anyway, this is what the library is for, n'est pas? -- Borrowing books you may or may not want forever, but do want to use. :)

I don't really have the money to be buying yarn for these baby gifts though, so I am going to have to search my stash. I might also end up asking my mom for the money. Sort of in a, "if you buy it, I will knit it" kind of way. That way it can be a gift from both of us!

Also, in other good news, Apple finally replaced my keyboard, and ta da! It's working perfectly this time! Very joyus! I really missed being able to cut and paste! (The 'c' key was the first to go funny and non-responsive)

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

I just finished reading The Laughing Corpse, second of the Anita Blake series by the wonderful Laurell R. Hamilton (and it's all I can do not to pick up the third book and start reading it RIGHT NOW).

I love love love Anita! She is bad ass! And I never say that about anyone, but she is! And oh gods are the books good. Delicious, wonderful story about a little woman who totally kicks ass! All kinds of ass! Vampire, Voodoo Queen, Zombie, human thugs, you name it, she can beat it. Necromancer. Tough Chick. Takes a beating and dishes out worse, you can bet your ass. Oh I love her, I just love her! But then, I've always had a thing for short chicks with spunk, and she has that in spades.

I wanted to post about other things, but I just had to spill out my praise for Anita and her writer Ms. Hamilton. I just love chicks that kick ass, you don't get to see them very often in media of any kind, it's just so damn refreshing! I love it, I just love it.

I'm actually considering calling my local-ish bookstore and asking them if they can get the next two books for me. $24 well spent if you ask me. But should I really be buying stuff when I have so little money? Probably not. But then... I've never been good at self denial, so we will see how long I can resist the urge. Really though, there is a LOT of worse things I could be spending my money on, right?