Mobile Me!

I was exploring the wide world of phone apps today and guess what I discovered?

A mobile blogger app!

So I'm writing my very first mobile blog post now. I only wish I had something intellegent to say...

Harry. Flipping. Potter.

Beyond excited.

Give Peace A Chance.

Back about two months ago (although it honestly feels like it was about two years ago) you may remember that I gave a speech about Knits by Meliss at a convention. Cool, but not exactly the point.

Well, after I was done talking about myself, one of the participants approached me and asked if I could make her a peace sign hat. I agreed. I thought it would be kind of fun. And besides, how hard would it be to make a peace sign hat?

Very.

But this afternoon I think I've finally conquered peace — or at least the sign part!

It took three tries and a whole lot of patience...

For my first try, I couldn't find a pattern to make a peace sign that I liked, so I decided to knit a plain hat in the round and then make a peace sign applique to attach to the outside... It seemed like a great idea at the time, but unfortunately failed miserably....

The applique looks OK from the front, but when viewed from the side it looks pretty silly. Unfortunately, even if it hadn't popped out so much, I would have had to redo the peace sign part because I sewed it on too high on the hat, so it sits awkwardly high up on the forehead. Whoops!

Next time I try this technique, I'll use thinner yarn so that the effect isn't quite so 3D...

For my second try, I looked up peace sign cross-stitch patterns and found one that I could alter to work for the hat. This version totally would have worked but I miscalculated how many stitches to cast on and accidentally made the hat 4.5 inches wider than I meant too... I was going to try make it work, but when I started knitting in the pattern, it went all wonky, then I dropped a stitch, and things got awkward when I tried to fix it... so I decided to start over. Again.

Third time's a charm! This time I think I made it a good width (slightly larger than I would normally have made an adult hat, per her request) and I managed to knit in the pattern without doing anything strange or dropping any stitches.

I'm pretty sure it's a miracle!

Welcome to the 21st Century!

I did it. I finally got a smart phone. 

A Samsung Fascinate to be exact.

Yay.

Beatrice and Virgil

Beatrice and Virgil

by Yann Martel

This morning I checked off another book from my seemingly endless to-read book list — Beatrice and Virgil, by Yann Martel (author of Life of Pi).

I've been excited about this book since it first came out in hardcover last April, when I immediately put it on my "to buy when in paperback" list. I did buy it, but unfortunately like so many other books I buy it sat for several months on my bookshelf while life constantly got in the way of me reading it. But I did, finally, and it was worth the wait.

Beatrice and Virgil is a novel, about a man (a famous writer actually) who tries to write a book about the holocaust, fails, and gives up writing. Following his failure, this man, Henry, and his wife decide to pack up and take an adventure. "They settled in one of those great cities of the world that is a world unto itself... Perhaps it was New York. Perhaps it was Paris. Perhaps it was Berlin." His wife gets a job as a nurse under a work visa and he began taking music lessons, learning Spanish, acting with an amateur acting troupe, and working at a local chocolateria.

All the time, he's getting letters from people who have read his book (the one he's famous for). His book (as far as I can tell) uses animals to tell the story rather than humans. One day, he receives a letter that is more like a packet... inside it contains a photocopy of Gustave Flaubert's short story "The Legend of Saint Julian Hospitator," a ext from a play, and a short note.

Flaubert's story — a tale about a boy who loves killing animals, eventually kills his parents, repents and then is borne to heaven as a saint — has been heavily highlighted by the sender, but only those sections dealing with the killing of the animals. Henry is intrigued, but only mildly so. The play extract is of a scene where two characters, Beatrice and Virgil, discuss a pear, or more to the point, Virgil describes a pear to Beatrice, who has never seen one before. (This made me want to eat a pear so badly I ached inside.) The note asks for his help.

Henry decides to respond to the letter, and since its writer happens to live only a few blocks away, he decides to deliver it in person, although he's only planning to anonymously drop the letter off. But, the address takes him to a taxidermy shop and he's curious, so he goes in.

What follows that fateful decision is a journey through the twisted mind of an old taxidermist and his play "A 20th Century Shirt: A Play in Two Acts," about a donkey named Beatrice and a howler monkey named Virgil. As the book progresses, we get to read more and more snippets of the play, and start gaining small insights into the taxidermist. What starts out as an innocent examination of a pear, and a strange, yet slightly whimsical story about two animals that live on a shirt, progresses to more sinister scenes and allusions to the holocaust, and we, as readers, soon start to suspect that something really horrible has happened to these two characters and that the taxidermist is hiding something important.

Beatrice and Virgil is an excellent read and very well written. It has no chapters, only small breaks occasionally, but I never felt put off by that. I wouldn't exactly call it a page turner, because the action in the story is more intellectual than anything else, but I certainly had a hard time putting it down. Although, I do feel I should warn you that by the end of the book, I had become so engrossed in the story that even when I did want to put it down, (mostly because I was disturbed or mildly horrified by what I was reading — thank you Boy in the Striped Pajamas) I couldn't because I had to see it through. And, like Life of Pi, which I absolutely loved, it starts a little slow, but it gets interesting much faster.

Can't Get Enough?

Check out these other animal-centric books...

Life of Pi by Yann Martel — young Pi Patel takes two epic journeys in this 422 page book. In the first, an exploration of religion, Pi is searching for a way to get closer to God. He visits several authorities on several religions and gains insight on each. In the second, a journey across the ocean, Pi is trapped in a life boat with an injured zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a 450-pound bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Book one (the religion one) is pretty slow, but book two (the ocean one) is so worth the effort. Then, the twist at the end of the book makes you question everything.

 Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne — The ultimate talking animals books that aren't just for kids! I love Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and all their friends. These two books, along with the poetry in When We Were Very Young and Now we are Six, are the perfect way to unwind after the intensity you'll experience while reading Life of Pi and Beatrice and Virgil.

Lost in the Smithsonian...

I got together with Mik and Jenny again for a Memorial Day weekend filled with culture, food, and a little bit of chili sauce.

We started our adventure at the Smithsonian Castle, which I'd never actually be in before. Since it takes about 30 seconds to see the whole thing, we then quickly headed over to the Sackler Gallery to look at Asian Art. The Sackler Gallery is really cool because its three stories of art are completely underground. It's also very confusing because (while underground) it connects to the Freer Gallery, which also houses lots of Asian Art, and it also connects (again underground) to the African Art Museum. The divisions between the three museums are not very well marked, so after wandering aimlessly and getting very turned around, we were quite confused when we wound up on the first floor of the African Art Museum, when we had started out in the Sackler. Oh well.

 Smithsonian Castle from the side not facing the Mall

 African Art Museum (above) and cool elephant sculpture

from inside the African Art Museum (below)

After our adventures in the three aforementioned art museums, Mik had to go home to catch a very important soccer game, so Jenny and I were left to our own devices. We decided to check out the American History Museum because neither one of us had been there recently.

Pretty trees on the Mall

What a mistake! Being Memorial Day weekend about every one and their mom, uncle, sister, and great-grandmother were in DC and I think about 3/4 of them where in the American History Museum. So, after fighting the crowds to catch a glimpse of Michelle Obama's inauguration gown, headed down to Chinatown to grab some lunch and then navigated the Metro back to Mik's place.

We saw Pirates 4 (not in 3D) that evening, which was really good and then ate dinner at a cool restaurant and called it a day.

On Sunday, we went out to brunch with a few of Mik's friends at this British Pub called The Queen Vic, it was interesting, but my cornmeal pancakes were surprisingly good! Since we were feeling pretty full we decided to walk the 10ish blocks to Union Station instead of taking a taxi. Jenny's phone was acting funny so we crisscrossed DC looking for an open Verizon, eventually finding one and finding out that her battery was just acting wonky.

Jenny and I still wanted to see the American Indian Museum, so we dragged Mik back down to the Mall to see it. That museum has the coolest architecture ever. The inside's pretty cool too, but the outside is awesome.

For dinner that night, we finally went to Sticky Rice, which is a restaurant I found on the internet somewhere and have wanted to go to ever since. It did not disappoint! Dinner was phenomenal, with the exception of the time that Mik squeezed the bottle of chili sauce and accidentally squirted it all over my head and back. Fail.

I had to go home on Monday, but before we did we when to Eggspectations for breakfast. I love that place. Our waiter was amazing too... he brought me free orange juice because everyone else at the table was getting their Vitamin C and he felt bad for me. Haha. It was fresh squeezed and seriously amazing. Like an orange in a glass. Then he brought us free cake too. A perfect way to end the trip!

This Shouldn't Be Allowed

On Monday when I was driving home from my weekend in DC, I stopped at the Leesburg Outlets to grab a few pairs of flip-flops and shorts from J. Crew. It was hot.

So hot, in fact, that when I got back to my car after battling the Memorial Day crowds for 3 or so hours, the thermometer said it was 107 degrees.

That's right. 107. In May.

I forgot to take a picture of that particular event. Fortunately for this blog (and unfortunately for heat hating me) when I got in my car after work yesterday, I was yet again graced by a three-digit temperature reading. 103 degrees. Gross.

It's not even summer yet.