Yeah, so it's official: the winery my mother dragged me to is wretched. I tried the hard cider last week. It tasted like apple juice and Perrier -- I poured both bottles down the sink. Last night Craig made dinner for us [because he's the grill master], so I opened the bottle of Leon Millot I bought there.
It's never a good sign when the hair in your nose burns while drinking red wine.
It tastes like the "dry full-bodied red, aged in French Oak" was also aged with a dirty dishtowel and some battery acid. It's so bad I don't even know if I can use it as cooking wine.
But wait! There's more to this fishtale! [expand entry]
I keep forgetting to purchase and send a Father's Day card for my dad. I go through this every year. I have nothing new to add.
My half-sister is graduating from high school this week, and I'm attending a graduation party for her this weekend. I'm unsure of whether my dad will be there. I hope not, but he probably will be.
There will be the enthusiastic hug while I awkwardly thump him on the back and fake a smile. There will be the invitation to a barbecue at his house, which I will make noncommittal noises in response to. There will be the ridiculous assertions that Crystal and I are "his girls" and he's a great dad.
And then I will make my escape and long for the day I no longer have to deal with him.
Sometimes, well...sometimes I have no words to describe my incredulity over the outright brass cajones of the current U.S. administration. Imagine how floored I was when I read this:
Israel has defended its policy of pre-emptive strikes after US President George W. Bush rebuked the country over two deadly missile attacks.George is pissed at a country over pre-emptive strikes? Uh, pot, kettle, black.
There's a homeless guy who sells newspapers in the middle of the 16th Street, around Cherry Street in the morning. Craig drove me into work today, and I noticed the headline for today's Daily News: Fragile Times in Fishtown.
Fuck. What now.
Surprisingly, it's an article that really gives you a feeling of what my neighborhood is like. You know, there are problems but it's a neighborhood on the edge of being upwardly mobile. And the reporter really got it right: Fishtown natives hate change with a burning passion. I've lived there now for just over three years. None of the neighbors actually spoke to me for the first two years. I just met my next door neighbor last week during the power outage.
But wait! There's more to this fishtale! [expand entry]
I would like to know why the shit and piss of Indian cows is organically superior to American cows. Whatever the reason, I can't help but think feeding American cows so that their, uh, waste products increase to champion levels might be less expensive than importing cow patties and urine from India.
And what's kind of disgusting is that all that crap and pee is going to be converted to biopesticide. It's going to be sprayed on the tomatoes that we eat. Well, the tomatoes that you eat -- I grow my own.
Suddenly I'm feeling pretty good about my garden. Ew.
As promised, there's been some turnover on the playlist [on the sidebar, down at the bottom]. I'm feeling nostalgic and cheesy, so there you have it.
I forgot to mention that I finished a sweater I've been working on. I believe the pattern is out of the latest Interweave.
So yeah, I wore the sweater to work today and felt all proud of myself. It was a fairly easy pattern, not too much shaping and no fitting armhole pieces together so it didn't turn out looking like ass.
And don't you like my Vanna White pose? I should definitely be on television somewhere, turning letters professionally. Or at least lounging on crappy furniture.
Anyway, for anyone who is interested in this kind of thing -- I used a http://thegofish.com/double strand of brown yarn in fingering weight, a silk linen blend. It took about a week and a half to finish.
The new issue of Knitty was released sometime in the last day or two. I've been considering knitting myself a fuzzy skirt and after seeing this pattern, I'm ordering yarn tonight for it and going to town. I'm so easily amused.
I think I might rotate the playlist tonight, so if you want to nab any of those songs, I suggest you do it soon. Any special requests?
The Cure songlist has been rattling around in my head for most of the day. And If You Leave by OMD.
Right now there's some Climaxx Blues Band playing on the radio at my desk. Rest assured, there will be none of that.
Dear Mom, It was the funniest thing. I was walking down the main street in Pakistan's Punjab Province the other day when the guy next to me just randomly fell down dead. Blood was everywhere, but I hadn't heard any gunshots or seen anyone stab him. It was a mystery. The man's throat had been slit, but there was nothing nearby except a couple kids with kites.Yeah, so apparently the latest thing in Pakistan is to have kite fights where "[k]ite flyers use metallic strings or coat them with glass shards" -- the "objective is to cut their opponent's string." The strings are so sharp they also have killed several people but cutting their throats.That's when the police came and hauled the kids away. I heard one of the officers say that the kids would be tried for murder. I don't understand.
Love and kisses,
Nicole
What the fuck? Can't they find a safer hobby? Maybe collecting stamps?
So, is anyone really surprised by the report that al Qaeda will probably drop a chemical or biological weapon on U.S. soil within two years?
To this, I say "Well, duh."
Those crazy kids in al Qaeda were pissed at us before September 11th. After we bombed the hell out of Afghanistan and killed some of them, and then invaded Iraq, what did anyone expect to happen? Did anyone really think they'd see our military dropping huge bombs, killing thousands of innocent Iraqis [some of whom were Muslim], and then decide that the infidels were just too powerful and too trigger happy to beat, so they might as well lay down their jihad plans and play nice with the nutty Americans?
I'm sure I can't be the only person in America who sees the likelihood of such an attack, especially in light of George's "preemptive strike" policy. Is this some sort of attempt to divert attention while George does something unconstitutional, as usual?
