Hair of the Cat

Miscellany

Good Eats & Bad Movie:

I briefly knew Halifax's local "celebrity chef," Ray Bear, when we were little kids.  He's had a couple ups and downs with his career over the past few years but things finally seem to be settling down for him.  His new restaurant is called Mix, and I went with some co-workers a couple of weeks ago for a goodbye lunch (not for me, I haven't gone anywhere).  Despite reading mostly negative reviews online I was pleasantly surprised by the decor, the attentive wait staff and the food.  Will definitely be returning.  If only they had more pasta on the menu ...

Mike and I went to Rocco's recently as well.  It's an upscale Italian restaurant in an awful neighbourhood, but they're worth the risk.  ;-)  We decided to try their pepper steak and it was very, very good.  Too much sauce but otherwise very good.  The mashed potato was pear-shaped and coated with some sort of crunchy flour batter.  Creative and tasty.  

Rented The Town last night, starring and directed by Ben Affleck.  What a yawner!  Out of a two-hour film I believe there are maybe 20 minutes where anything happens other than characters revealing depressing aspects of their lives.  Cry me a river.   It's about a bunch of bank robbers in Charlestown, MA (which is supposed to mean something I guess 'cause they harp on this fact) who take and release a hostage, and of course Ben falls for her and he wants out of the bank-robbing business but of course they won't let him leave and blah blah blah. 

I much prefer Matt Damon.

More Spanish eye candy ...

David Ferrer made it to the semis at the Aussie Open this year.  What is it about Russian women and Spanish men in tennis?

 

Make it Happen.

This command is on the wrapper of a Playtex Sport tampon wrapper.

Make what happen?  What should be happening?  I'm bleeding; what more should happen?

Another wrapper says to "Keep your eye on the ball."  What ball? 

"Don't cry - get back in the game."  Who's crying? What game?  And why is Playtex wasting money putting stupid positive-reinforcement sayings on tampons?  These actually sound like words of wisdom for tennis players.  The Aussie Open just ended; I'm thinking they could have used these words of encouragement.

 
 
 
 

 

So much to rot your brain, so little time.

Ever since Star TV was rebranded as E! here in Canada, we are seeing a lot more celebrity-reality shows.  And I'm seeing things I simply wasn't meant to, like Vince Neil on skates and bimbos married to rock stars.  There isn't enough eye bleach in the world to unsee what one sees on shows like these. 

I think now is a good time to swear off TV save sports, films and specific shows I want to watch (you know, that don't cater to the lowest common demoninator).  No more mindless television viewing; that's precious knitting time.  Since there are no regular shows currently worth my time, I guess I won't be turning on the TV for anything other than the weather until Hockey Night in Canada.

My First Granny Square

 

This square is for a Ravelry group that makes blankets and shawls for people going through difficult times (The Amazing Flying Squirrel Karma Team).  For this particular project, I had to make a mitered square, a squirrel square (a square with a squirrel in it) or a granny square.  Having never made any of these, I chose the mitered square.  The pattern I found called for sock yarn.  I quickly discovered it would take me five weeks to complete an 8-inch sock-yarn mitered square, so I tried my luck at a granny square.  I stuck with one colour so as to not confuse myself further.  However, after only two false starts, I had completed this square in about two hours.  Which is amazing for me, the world's slowest knitter/crocheter.  I'm off to make another one in purple.   When I have time I'll have to try multi-coloured squares ... but first I have a cat bed and a scarf for Mike to finish.

A Little Spanish Eye Candy

For your viewing pleasure.

 

The Australian Open is so far away ...

Free Pattern: MsEllenT's Diagonal Stitch Scarf

Materials:          Cascade 220 Heathers or similar worsted-weight yarn

    Size 7 (4.5 mm) needles

Gauge:                Not critical to this project. 

CO multiple of 8 (40 stitches will give you appx. 8 inch width with worsted weight yarn)

K 1 row.

Row 2:  P3, *K3, P5 to last 2, P2

Row 3:  K1, *P3, K5 to last 4, K4

Row 4:  P5, *K3, P5 to last 3, K3

Row 5:  P2, *K5, P3 to last 1, P1

Row 6:  K2, *P5, K3 to last 1, K1

Row 7:  K5, *P3, K5 to end

Row 8:  P1, *K3, P5 to last 4, P4

Row 9:  K3, *P3, K5 to last 2, K2

Repeat rows 2-9 for pattern until you’ve reached desired length.  K1 row, then BO.  Gently block if necessary.

   

What have I been working on?

This:

This is my almost-obscene tank top.  I just got tired of knitting it after awhile so I made it just long enough to cover the essentials ... and that's it.  Obviously just for around the house.  Mike likes it, that's all that matters.

Also a cat bed:

 

Yes, that ugly green thing up there is a cat bed.  It's this one, actually.  I'm making it extra-large to fit Tubbs, although I don't expect she'll be too interested.  Buddy, on the other hand, sleeps on anything I happen to be knitting. He LOVES yarn.  Wool, acrylic, doesn't matter.  He's already knocked several stitches off the needles by lying on his unfinished bed.  (Don't worry, I saved them.)  So I expect at least one cat will get use out of it.

Inception & Grown-Ups

A couple of weeks ago Mike and I saw Inception and Grown-Ups. Inception was, of course, fabulous. Great actors, great writing, great effects, great story. We loved it. But Grown-Ups ...

Imagine you are a fashion designer (Salma Hayek) and your work is being showcased in Milan. Now imagine not attending your own show because your husband (Adam Sandler) and his friends from junior high are spending a weekend in a little cottage to remember their basketball coach from 30 years ago. Imagine discovering your husband had cancelled your trip before you'd even agreed to spend said weekend in a cottage with a bunch of bare acquaintances. Imagine being okay with it all after spending exactly 30 seconds on a dock listening to people make asinine confessions.

Imagine almost two hours of a "comedy" with no comedy. I dozed through the final "big" scene (another basketball game, of course). Mike loved it. He found something to laugh at, believe it or not.

So just see Inception.

Til Reality do us Part

I enjoy watching Til Debt do us Part.  Gail does have some good ideas for cutting back on expenses and saving money.  And, you know, paying off debt.  Sometimes, however, watching her show is very frustrating.  There's nothing like trying to drum up sympathy for a couple whose combined take-home pay is $7000/month and who are trying to claw their way out of credit-card debt.  How does a couple making $84k net per year end up owing anything?  I'm sure that couple felt they didn't have enough money.  I'm sure I don't care.  When their variable spending is cut back to an amount well above our variable spending, and they have a difficult time "surviving" on such a paltry sum, it's hard to shed a tear.

This is the great downfall of the show: generally speaking, it only looks at the upper-middle class.

Same with Gail's book, Debt-Free Forever.  Again, great ideas. The jar thing?  Love it.  But she seems to be out of touch with reality.  Some goal suggestions from the third chapter?  Save $8,000 each year to put towards a house downpayment.  Already own a home?  "[Y]ou might decide you're going to put a principal prepayment of $6,000 against your mortgage every year.  That means you'll have to set aside $500 a month in your budget."  Aaaah. Well, if you have an extra $500 in your monthly budget, I don't think you need this book, do you? And what about saving $8k for a downpayment, as opposed to a retirement or emergency fund?  Usually people with a lot of debt don't have much in the way of savings. Reality is what Gail is missing here.

What about the lower-middle or lower classes?  Do they have debt?  Of course.  But I guess people scraping together $800 for rent each month and foregoing driving the car for a week because they literally don't have money for gas is not as TV-worthy as the $7,000/month couple with the $300k mortgage and the two SUVs they haven't paid off yet.  Which one do they keep?  Oh noes!

So yeah.  Sorry for the rant.  Someone should pitch a "Til Bankruptcy do us Part" show.  We can follow a couple trying to find a decent apartment for less than $600/month, a car that will run for less than $3000 total, and some part-time work that doesn't involve anything illegal for someone who didn't graduate high school.  While that's certainly not our situation, it's someone's situation and I'd find far more useful advice in a show and book providing financial help for the truly struggling.