The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Part Four

Hey! I've got another blog you should go read! Justin over at The Declining is smart, witty, and observant, and he has excellent taste in music (go read about his self-designed Shuffle Challenge in particular).

In the spirit of Justin's discography analysis and musical comparisons, let's chat today about one of the songs I heard on the radio in the car yesterday. (Unlike Justin with his trusty ipod, I kick it old school and rely on my FM pre-set buttons when I'm driving.) My go-to station served up a nice little surprise for me, a veritable belated holiday gift for my ears: Cake's latest single, "Sick of You."

It's like a treasure trove of what I love about a good Cake song. Trumpet (of course... tug at those band geek heartstrings). Building layers of complexity, with harmonies on top of basslines and a little keyboard action. Awesome, awesome guitar riffs. Even that sproingy, ratchety thing (the technical term, of course). Interestingly, when the first chord left the speakers, I thought I might be hearing the Rolling Stones (odd, based on the radio station). A few bars in, though, the Cake sound was unmistakable. It actually made me happy to be stopped at a traffic light long enough to listen to the end.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Part Three

It's the third installment of the Copycat Project, wherein I steer you to blogs you should peruse whilst stubbornly refusing to maintain an updated blogroll. Check out part one and part two while you're here as well.

So you guys all know that I knit quite a bit, even if the majority of the content around here is woefully off topic for what ostensibly once was a knitblog. Jstrizzy, on the other hand, has a much more respectable attention span. A knitblog about knitting (and some sewing for good measure). What a concept! Plus, she's got skills, especially when it comes to lace. Go read about what she's been knitting these days... and ooh and ahh and pick your jaws up off the floor. She's good.

To take a page from Jstrizzy's book, I'll do a proper post about the sweater I finished last week -- the one that two of you wanted to see in greater detail than just the button bands. There's realio, trulio knitting content today, folks.

Pattern: Maude Louise, by Kristen Hanley Cardozo

Yarn: Lett Lopi, by Istex (Yes, very itchy. This is a layering sweater, that's for sure.)

Modifications: I omitted the seed stitch on the shoulders and stuck with stockinette. Otherwise, I pretty much followed the pattern.

And now for the pictures. The first one highlights the stitches and is pretty true to color. The second one shows off the pattern detail around the waist. There's also a row of those diamonds running down each sleeve, as you'll see (barely) in photo three.

Small victories.

We may not have floor tiles installed... We may not have primer or paint on the walls (skim coat goes up today!)... We may not even have a sink set up...

But our eight guests on Christmas will be able to make the bathroom as dim or as bright as their hearts desire, thanks to our new dimmer switch.

We pull put all the stops around here.

Finished sweater. Bad picture.

It shows the color very well, at least.

This is Kristin Hanley Cardozo's Maude Louise pattern, followed relatively closely... though I did omit a section of seed stitch on the shoulders.  If I had it to knit again (and I suppose I could, but I won't), I'd work the ribbing along the bottom edge with smaller needles, because the bottom isn't as fitted as it should be.  A-line in a sweater is less flattering than it is in a skirt.  I might add some elastic, or I might just wear this one primarily around the house.  It's very cozy and our house is generally on the cold side, so that works.

I can't decide what to make next, which is probably a good thing right now.  If you see me knitting before the end of the year, take the needles out of my hands and give me a taping knife, a sanding sponge, or a paint brush, depending on the day.  I'm hoping we get to the paint brushes soon.

Open Letter to My Fellow Drivers

If you approach an intersection and find that without a doubt, you will not be able to fully traverse said intersection, it is not your right, by virtue of the green light shining in your direction, to proceed forward and knowingly block traffic.  Even if all the other drivers before you did this (and really, didn't you spend what felt like an eternity staring through your windshield at them, waiting your turn and cursing their self-centeredness?), that doesn't make it ok.   A lame move undertaken by a mass of people is still a lame move.  Yes, it's snowy.  Yes, it's the week before Christmas.  Common sense/courtesy still applies.

This post brought to you by my hour plus commute home from work today.  My three mile hour plus commute.

He's worth it.

This is what happens in a small house when last year's Christmas tree location is now home to a 3' x 4' dog crate. 

It's ok, though.  We have Billy Idol's Christmas album to keep us in the holiday spirit.  Yes, really.

Nice pipes.

That's where the Hated Sink used to be.  It's also where walls used to be.  Project "Make the Bathroom Less Ugly" has taken a turn for the ambitious.

Our original plan was to get the most aesthetic bang for our buck by doing the following:
- replacing the medicine cabinet, light fixture, and light switch
- tiling the floor
- removing the glossy, speckled wallboard (shudder) from about 60% of the wall space - the rest being passable tile - and painting the drywall underneath
- replacing the Hated Sink with a cute little pedestal number and a retro faucet
- finally putting up the new shower curtain and chrome curtain rings we got as gifts months ago.

And that was supposed to be the extent of it. 

But then... we realized that the wall tiles around the tub were set directly on the glossy, speckled wallboard (shudder), so that by removing the wallboard, we'll also be removing the tiles.  So we added wall tiles to the project.

And then... we realized that one of the bathroom shut off valves had corroded over time (three guesses how that became apparent).  So we added valve replacements to the project.

And then... we took down the glossy, speckled wallboard (shudder) and found that the lurking drywall was in bad condition.  So we added complete demolition and rebuilding of the walls to the project.

And by "we," I pretty much mean "the Best Husband in the Whole Wide World."  I'll help when we get to the priming and painting.

It's Awesome Husband Day!

And that's the birthday cake we'll be eating this evening.

True to his superlative Best Husband Ever moniker, he'll be spending the day traveling between our dismantled bathroom and the aisles of our local Home Depot. Well, he's also buying a tile saw (did I mention that we got more ambitious with this project?), so that's kind of fun and exciting.  But still.  Manual labor on his birthday.  He's an awesome husband.

Happy birthday, honey!

The Hated Sink

Alright, you guys.  I had three requests for pictures reflecting the Before status of Project "Make the Bathroom Less Ugly" and so I present to you The Hated Sink.  The rest of the Befores will be forthcoming, likely when I post the During and After photos.  (Can't wait for those Afters!)

Anyway, I despise this sink.  The back corners slope away from the basin, so water landing there either overflows to the floor (awesome) or simply stagnates (double awesome).  Hate.  And the vanity it sits on doesn't win it any points either.

I kind of want to Office-Space it after we replace it.  But I won't.

There's no turning back now.

Project "Make the Bathroom Less Ugly" is officially on.  We've purchased a sink. And, since we won't be having pieces of a pedestal sink collect dust in the basement, I guess this means we'll be moving from the theoretical to the practical pretty quickly.

Progress. Impressive.

We now apparently have matching pets. For a few minutes each day, anyway.