Hold the Vermouth, please

I’m not entirely certain what that means. Does he want more gin? Or is he a vodka guy? Or is he taking it easy, one shot at a time, these days? Doesn’t quite look like that last one…

I received a postcard from Don West today! Don’s the Idle Minutes guy in my blogroll.

This will go up on my cubicle wall tomorrow, among the photos of my kids, where it will induce the greatest potential confustication in passers-by. A candy bar is set aside for the first person to ask if he’s a relation of mine.

Thank you, Don!

I particularly like the scruffiness of it all, and how well the few colors fit with each other to make a very expressive pen-and-ink drawing into something complete.

You can see the whole guy over at Don’s place. (It’s my postcard, but it’s Don’s creation.)

Mr. West, by the way, runs the only place Google can think of if you ask it to “Hold the Vermouth, please.”

Postage stamp trivia: The american beaver is the largest rodent.

Spoiling the Dog

Carla with hambone

We had a ham over the weekend. Carla gets special treatment lately, which includes free rein to ingest leftover pork products, including skeletal remains.

She *ate* the bone. Chewed it up into tiny pieces and swallowed it all. I’m told this is OK because ham bones don’t splinter like chicken bones do.

But still. It’s a little freaky knowing that the animal loose in the house while I sleep is capable of eating another animal, bones and all.

Because, you know, I’m constructed of that same stuff…

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The Washcloth (#1)

First knit, closeup

Here’s my first thing knitted from a pattern. It’s #1 of the 16 in “Nifty Knit Dishcloths ” published by Leisure Arts.

Nifty, indeed.

I am surprised at how much I enjoy knitting. I found a yarn store and Jenn went with me there over the weekend. The women there were surpassingly kind and helpful - I bought some dark green & black yarn and a sock pattern. They said they’d help if I got stuck! So, as soon as I finish another dishcloth for my Mom, I’ll give that a shot.

See, the whole knitting thing started with socks. I found a pattern online for socks with the Apple logo in them. You can’t buy those. So you have to make them. So I’m learning to knit.

Seven rows to go

I’m almost done knitting my first “real” dishcloth.

I’ve done a few in stockinette (which is the stitch I think of when I think of a plain old sweater), but this’ll be the first from a pattern.

Then I have to bind off in purl, which I’ve not yet attempted, but which I believe myself capable of.