Detroit Diva

Knitting Progress

Well, I am slowly but surely making progress on my various knitting projects. Today at knitting circle I finished the front of the skully sweater from the Stitch & Bitch book. I have the back and the sleeves to do -they are all done at the same time or actually you put the front and back together and pick up stitches for the sleeves and go from there. I'm planning on casting on for the back sometime next week. I made my sister a tank top (or sleeveless shell depending on your preference) from Book 2 of the Knitting Experience last fall and am giving it to her for her birthday next week. I started seaming it together tonight in hopes that I would get it done so I could give it to her when I see her tomorrow but well, that's not going to happen. Yeah, should have seen that coming. I have one side seamed and then I realized that even if I got the second side seamed I still have to finish knitting the neck which is sort of a mock turtleneck thing. There is no way I can get that done tonight so, I set it aside and will have to mail it to her next week instead. Finally, the felted bag that I said I wasn't going to start in an earlier post but did anyway. It's a baguette. How cute is that? I'm doing it in Noro Kureyon yarn, color 128. I've completed the sides and am about 1/3 of the way through the body. It's a very quick little project. My sister is bringing me her digital camera tomorrow so I'm hoping to post pictures of the baguette and maybe the others sometime next week.

A little bit of this and a little bit of dat

I watched the movie Adaptation with Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper last night. Mmm, it was ok. It's about a screenwriter played by Nick (yes, we are on a first name basis thank you very much) who is hired to write the screenplay for the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The Orchid Thief is a real book and Susan Orlean is a real author. Apparently the screen play for Adaptation came about after the real life screenwriter couldn't come up with a screen play for The Orchid Thief. The premise for the movie is actually very interesting and the movie makes the book sound fascinating but the movie, I don't know, it was kind of boring and Meryl Streep, as Susan Orlean, I just couldn't buy in certain aspects of the character. I don't want to ruin it for you, in case you haven't seen it. So if you do watch it, let me know and I'll fill you in on the problems I had with the whole thing.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night Time by Mark Haddon won the Whitbread Award for best novel of 2003. Of the books I read last year - this was my favorite. It's the quirky story of a 15 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome who tries to solve the mystery of the death of his next door neighbor's poodle. Not really a mystery - I can't explain it adequately. Just read it!

First there were knit alongs and now come along read alongs. Have you got that? I'm thinking of starting a read along for the book The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracey Chevalier (whose previous books Girl with the Pearl Earring and Falling Angels, I loved). How it works is this - we all read the book at the same time and post our comments, etc. here at Detoit Diva. No meeting in person, no trying to arrange shedules or any of that. I'll post comments as I move along through the book and you can respond or not as you choose. Any interest? Post a comment here or e-mail me. I'm planning to start the book towards the middle of next week.

It's a Mystery

Last night I finished P.D. James' The Murder Room. It was very good. Ms. James always writes a solid, good book. I'm a big fan of the mystery genre and, in particular, ones that take place in countries other than my own. Some of my favorites include: Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley series (the Mystery! adaptation of this series was good but my friend Paige and I have had many a discussion on the casting of the characters - not at all what we would have done.), Andrea Camilleri's Inspecter Montalbano series which is set in Sicily and is very witty and well-written, and Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, set in Botswana. This series is as good as you've heard.

Want to know what's new in mysteries? Check out Cluelass. Includes the Bloodstained Bookshelf, Mystery Calendar, and the Deadly Directory.

Bowling for Columbine

Well, I have finally watched Bowling for Columbine, the Michael Moore documentary, and all I can say is that this movie totally deserved the Oscar. Extremely powerful. I thought the point Michael makes about the media and its perpetuation of fear is right on. And what about Marilyn Manson's remark that fear and consumerism go hand in hand. Still drinking that water you stocked up on prior to Y2K? Wow. Bowling for Columbine really has me thinking and I'm putting the book Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner on my must-read list. I'm trying not to think about Charleton Heston (is he Mr. Sensitive or what?) being a native of Michigan. Please, don't hold that against us. Bowling for Columbine is a must-see regardless of your stand on gun control.
Check out Michael Moore's website for information about his new book, Dude, Where's My Country, also going on my must-read list, his endorsement of Democratic Presidential hopeful, Wesley Clark, and his Letters from Soldiers in Iraq section.

It's a Hi-tech World

and I'm so confused. I've decided to buy a digital camera and I thought it would be a quick and easy trip to the store. But noooo. When in the hell did buying a camera become such a complicated thing. Ya picked out a camera, slapped some film in and you were good to go. The hardest part was deciding what size roll of film to buy. Now you have to deal with megapixels and ram and cards with more ram and the worst part? The price. Good God! At least $150 and for that you get 16mb of ram and 2 pixels which will take about 15-20 pictures. What a scam. And if your traveling somewhere you need to buy extra ram cards unless you want to spend your vacation in an internet cafe downloading your pictures to your home computer. I may be going to Spain without a camera. It sucks! Kodak is thinking it sucks right about now according to this article. Kodak didn't get into the digital market soon enough and they are in trouble. Which explains why Target didn't have any Kodak digital cameras.

I'm loving Jet, an Australian band, right now. Listen to sample tracks here. Buy them at Target where it's $9.99. Target rocks!

I want to be a movie star

Ok, not really. I just want the stuff they give movie stars when they present at an awards show or attend a party. The gift trunk - can you believe that, a gift trunk! - that they are giving at the Golden Globes has $27,000 worth of stuff in it. Like what you ask? Oh, a surf board, pearl earrings, and more hair and body care than one person probably uses in a lifetime. Or how about access to the Kiehl's room at the Sundance Festival. C'mon - what is with giving tons of free stuff to people who make tons of money. At the next ALA conference they better have a Kiehl's room or even better a Lush room. Yeah, not likely!

Speaking of celebrities - Bennifer is no more. I know, I know, it's sad - that it didn't end sooner. Apparently, Ben didn't want to committ - who can blame him, 3 or 4 months committment to a marriage can take alot out of a person.

Here's a link to an article about the new documentary Supersize Me in which a guy eats McDonald's 3 times a day for 30 days and documents the changes he goes through such as weight gain, higher cholesterol, and his liver becoming toxic. Yikes! If reading this article isn't enough for you to give up Mickey D's read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Truly frightening.

Habla Espanol?

So, in March, I'm going to Spain for 2 weeks and I've been trying to learn some Spanish using the very awesome Pimsleur program. I went to Portugal a couple of years ago and I knew no Portuguese what so ever and it made me very tense. Try telling the Portuguese petrol station clerk that you would like to pay for gas when gas means bubbles in Portuguese. Yeah, just helping Americans look good overseas. I've gone through 4 lessons with the Pimsleur cd's and can now say hello, thank you and I don't understand Spanish. But, here's the weird part - last night I had a dream in Spanish. I kid you not. I walked up to a lady sitting in a lawn chair in the middle of the street and she said something very long and unintelligible to me in Spanish and I said ... nothing! Premonition? I think so.

Or maybe martian
The San Francisco Gate, commenting on whatzhisname's State of the Union address, says "Bush contended that Pentagon inspectors have identified "dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day," he said." Dude, when are you going to give it up? Where are the wmd's - up Saddam's ass? I guess that explains why we kept seeing those pictures of the military guy checking Saddam's head over - I thought they were looking for ticks or something but maybe they were checking for wmd's.

I heard the funniest thing on 89X this morning -DJ said "Chinese New Year is coming up and 2004 is the year of the monkey - if Bush gets re-elected in November it'll be the year of the jackass." Nuff said.

Winter Wonderland

I hope everybody had a great weekend and got to enjoy the little bit of sun we had. Yesterday was the Martin Luther King holiday and the Iowa Caucus. On MLK day, I always look forward to the replay of his I Have A Dream speech - it truly is one of the most inspiring. I was watching The View yesterday and Star Jones said that she thinks that race relations have come a long way and that Martin Luther King would be proud of the progress that has been made. I'd like to think that was true but our local news had a story yesterday about the University of Michigan and affirmative action . The whole U of M thing says to me that we obviously haven't come far enough. On to Iowa - Howard Dean, baby, what happened??? I have to say I am really undecided about who I am going to vote for in the Michigan Caucus next month. Howard Dean is starting to get on my nerves. John Kerry leaves me cold and John Edwards, mmmm, yeah, nothing. Wesley Clark I like, but I don't trust the whole only been a Democrat for 3 months thing. So, I don't know.

The heat in my apartment building went out at about 2am yesterday morning for the second time in a week. They had to put a whole new boiler in so the heat didn't come back on until 10pm last night. Damn, talk about cold! I went to the mall to warm up. The sales were sucky but I did score some, so far, great lip balm at the L'Occitane store. I get severe chapped lips in the winter and I am alway looking for a lip balm that really works. I think this may be it. My lips feel 100% better after using it one day. It has shea butter in it and smells really good. It's kinda expensive - $10 - but aren't your lips worth it?

And, on a final note, just when you think it can't get any stupider, the Government comes up with this - terrorists use almanacs. I am speechless.

Leaving Las Vegas

Why can't Hollywood ever leave a good thing alone? CSI, the original is, in my opinion, one of the best shows to hit TV in a long time - so what happens? They create CSI: Miami. Did you hear anyone begging for David Caruso to come back to TV? Me neither. Apparently people are actually watching the Miami version because coming this fall is CSI: New York. I have no idea who's going to star in this one but all I have to say is that no one had better leave the Las Vegas CSI or I will be very upset. Maybe they could have Ricky Schroeder star or something - I don't think he's doing anything. Or how about the guy that played Screech on Saved by the Bell? Or are they signed on for the next season of the Surreal Life.

Splendid Table
The Splendid Table is a great food/cooking radio show from Minnesota Public Radio which I listen to on WUOM at noon on Sundays. (You can check the website for a station near you) This week the show includes: Jane & Michael Stern visiting Porubsky's Grocery in Topeka, Kansas, Dr. Kelly Brownell, Director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, and recipes for Chili and a vegetable hash. The website is very informative and includes recipes and a section called Boiling Water 101 which features tips and techniques. Don't forget to sign up for the Weeknight Kitchen newsletter for more recipes and tips.

Knitting Circle

At the beginning of December we started a knitting and crocheting circle at work. We meet just about every Friday for an hour that somehow ends up being longer. We have longtime knitters and crocheters and we have newbies. It's so great to see the projects everyone is working on - right now we have a lot of scarves happening among the knitters and baby blankets among the crocheters. The progress of the newbies is amazing. We have a lady who 2 weeks ago had knit and purl so confused that she was making up her own stitches - this week she came in with the scarf that she started last week and it's beautiful. She's doing a basketweave pattern and she's almost completed it. That's the beauty of knitting - it doesn't take long to pick it up and when it clicks, look out! If you don't have a knitting circle at work or with friends - check out the Knitting Meetup. (Do a search under knitting)It doesn't matter where in the world you live because on the 3rd Wednesday of every month, Knitters around the world meet at a voted upon location in their area at 7p.m. It's a great way to meet new people and of course, you get to knit. Not into knitting? There is a meetup for just about any topic you can think of- from Presidential candidates to witchcraft. Way cool!