I must confess that while I have liked Wonder Woman since I was a kid, I have never been particularly interested in the comics or anything and have not seen the new movie yet. I’m also sort of tired of pop culture so knitting what is essentially a big comic book character logo is not anything I would have foreseen myself doing six months ago.
HOWEVER… I am interested in the construction of things and the construction of this baffled me as it uses short rows to do the shaping. So I wanted to knit it to see how it worked. The pattern is free and I happened to have some elderly Shibui Sock in my stash that would work (I don’t think they even make Shibui Sock anymore, that’s how long it’s been in my stash) so I impulsively cast on.
It took me about a month of just knitting on it during the weekends, but I finished last weekend, blocked it, and now it’s done. The construction is very clever for that middle yellow stripe. Those were my favorite things to knit, even though one of them is all purling.
It blocked out much bigger and is over six feet long tip to tip.
It turned out great! And it’s nice to actually finish a project for once. I haven’t been doing too much of that lately. :/
Last week I had a series of bad luck events that culminated in spending around $1.6k on a new water heater and – most unfortunately – on a new floor underneath the water heater. 🙁 🙁 🙁
Here is the sequence of events:
Had to call the sheriff’s department Saturday morning to report an alarm going off at my neighbor’s house… alarm woke me up at like 7:15 a.m. and didn’t turn off for over an hour. I was very sad as this prevented me from sleeping in. However, silver lining – was up early enough in the morning to go to the oft-too-crowded grocery store (Sprouts – the parking there is atrocious) without incident
<redacted extended family matter>
Sunday evening I was in the master bathroom puttering around and heard water running. The water heater is next to the bathroom in a closet that opens on the outside of the house. I checked the bathroom faucets and was like, ohhhh…. nooooooo. And went outside and looked in the closet and sure as shit, the water heater was leaking from the top and the whole floor was flooded about an inch. There was a drain and the water was going out there but everything was wet. FROWNY FACE. I turned the water off to the house to stop the leak and there wasn’t much else I could do besides go drown my sorrows in pizza and discuss the <redacted extended family matter> with my mom.
The next day the plumbers came out and removed the water heater. Advised that the floor was ruined so they couldn’t install the new heater. Which was sitting in my carport. So we stowed the new heater in my shed for the time being while I started to call around to see if one of my maintenance guys could replace the floor. The plumbers restored water to the house, but only cold. This meant that I could do laundry, shower, flush, etc. but no hot water and no dishwasher, which runs off the hot water line. SORROW AND DISMAY
Was able to schedule the maintenance company for Friday.
Friday morning discovered a broken mirror in one of my eyeshadow pallets. Could this be the source of my misery??
Was stuck at work till almost 7 on Friday completing a project. While finishing it up, my guy called to let me know that the floor work was done. Yay!
Got home and admired the new plywood floor. The old one was MDF. Who does that???! Particle board underneath a water heater? WTF.
Unfortunately, they called too late to schedule the plumber, so on Monday morning called and they were able to get out that afternoon. I had already missed a bunch of work (it felt like… only like 3 hours) due to this so I had my mom meet them out there and they were able to install.
While my mom was at my house she cleaned my whole kitchen. Moms are amazing!
So, I’m back up and running with hot water and ran the dishwasher and had a couple of warm showers (I was starting to get used to the cold showers… TBH my hair LOVED this – so shiny looking!). Last night I partially cleaned out the fridge… the garbage can was too small to hold it all so that project is on hold till next week. I’m starting the big spring cleaning project I didn’t have energy for in the spring.
This upcoming weekend I have 2.5 days off and to myself (office closes at 1 on Friday and I have absolutely no plans, hurrah!) so I shall try to not be a complete hobo and keep up with my projects. I pulled out the binding machine the other night with the plan to bind a couple of knitting pattern ebooks I purchased.
I also think I may be mentally ready to tackle the studio.
In April, my sister and I drove down the Pacific Coast to LA on a several day road trip where we visited Hearst Castle, Morro Bay, Catalina Island, and Harry Potter world at Universal. One of the suggestions my sister had was to listen to podcasts along the way. My suggestion was to listen to the Backstreet Boys.
(I never claimed to have sophisticated taste in music, okay? Losing hipster cred here.)
She asked me for suggestions on podcasts she could download which I thought was funny because I had never listened to one before. I had, of course, heard of This American Life and Serial and a few others, but the format didn’t really interest me much. Coincidentally I had just read an article aboutS-Town so that was my suggestion.
Morro Rock with seagulls fighting the wind
She came armed with several podcasts she thought I might like besides S-Town. Undisclosed, The Art of Charm, Sawbones, Stuff You Missed in History and maybe some others. So we listened to those during the trip. My heart belonged to S-Town though, a story about a maybe-murder that turned into an examination of a life cut short by mental illness.
By the time we got home, we had a couple of episodes left of S-Town so I downloaded the BeyondPod app to finish listening to it. I also downloaded a couple more episodes of Sawbones and Stuff You Missed in History, and started listening on my commute(s) which are generally around 30 minutes each way, the perfect podcast length.
While I would not say I’m obsessed, it has definitely become part of my week. Here’s what I’ve been listening to!
Hearst Castle from the Veranda below
CURRENT FAVORITES
The Nerdist Podcast – I can only take Chris Hardwick in small doses on TV but I actually find him quite appealing on the podcast. I particularly enjoyed the recent Elijah Wood episode as well as the one with Trey Parker (of South Park fame/infamy)
Criminal – This one has bite sized (30 mins or less) stories of weird tales of crimes. Start with episode 51 where a woman learns her identity was stolen… but then years later learns who did it.
Tom & Lorenzo’s Pop Style Opinion Fest – I don’t listen to all of TLo’s podcasts but they always have interesting things to say about pop culture and television. Most recently I enjoyed their discussions on “Peak TV” and their deep dive on Game of Thrones.
Mind Body Green Podcast – I just started listening to this one so I’m only a couple eps in, but the ones I’ve listened to so far (interviews with Melissa Hartwig of Whole30 fame and Califia Farms founder Greg Stehltenpohl) are really interesting. Those particular interviews had an entrepreneurial bent and really flowed well.
Lore – really well produced historical background on urban myths and legends.
The Chris & Sam Podcast – Shout out to my long-time internet friend Sam! Started listening to this a while back and as a shallow American, I just love listening to New Zealand accents. These guys talk about a lot of different, random topics, and are pretty funny – and the length is just the right amount for a commute. And did I mention the accents? 😉
The beach near the marina in Santa Barbara
HONORABLE MENTIONS
One-offs or series I don’t listen to very often but are still entertaining or interesting.
S-Town – I mentioned it above but I can’t express enough how much I got into listening to this one. In a way, I wish it hadn’t been the first one I listened to because the production quality is so good and raised the bar for others that I’ve tried. It also raises some great questions such as – was it too intrusive on its subject matter and should it have even been made? One of the things I found so engrossing about it was how it started off being one thing but at the end of the second episode it just pivoted into something else entirely. Even months after I listened to it I still think of John B. Macklemore
30 for 30 Podcasts – I have only just started listening to this one (not through the first ep yet) but the production values are spot on and the topics interesting. I thoroughly enjoy their TV documentaries on ESPN and if you haven’t watched their epic OJ: Made in America (one of the finest documentaries I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen approximately one million) then you are missing out. I’m looking forward to listening to the podcast and have high hopes for it!
CG Garage: Episode 131 – Interview with my cousin regarding his career as a VFX and matte painter in Hollywood. It was interesting to hear my cousin talk about his career and the industry. Over the years it’s sort of like, oh yeah, whatever, but this really shone a light on all the hard work he’s done to get where he is today – having a proud cousin moment, haha!
Sawbones – husband (comedian) and wife (doctor) duo discussing weird medical history as well as topical items in a humorous and accessible way.
And that’s about it for now! I will likely revisit this in the future as I listen to more. And possibly at some point my sister and I will go on another trip where I will be exposed to other podcasts. If you have any other recommendations please leave me a comment and I’ll check it out!
