Haven't slept since yesterday afternoon...

... and my brain is showing it. I really need to get my pop culture head out of my pop culture keester. I have the 24 hours of Le Mans on (trust me, at 5 am, it was that or more of the endless odes to Reagan, and I didn't need that kind of saccharine). Speed had a radio feed until 7 that I was liking, and then they switched back to their own team. One of the members of that team is Andrew Marriott. I was all "Why on earth did they hire some guy whose claim to fame is being the Bachelor?" So they go to him, and some old Brit is on my TV. Huh? Andrew FIRESTONE was the Bachelor, EVAN Marriott was Joe Millionaire, and I am a moron. But a happy moron (even though Bourdais is out of the race).

I've been spending WAY too much time surfing the blogs, and have been reading the whole "Purling Puppies" contretemps with amused detachment. I personally wouldn't join a group whose rules end in "Yay knitting! Yay puppies!" (note - the quote may not be exact, but certainly is in the ballpark) even if I was a dog person, but I have no big problem with the group existing. The fuss and furor is hilarious to read, however. I don't think anything I say will ever get anybody riled up, 'cause I think I'm the only person who reads it.

Now, on to whining about my life. I spent most of this week getting my knickers in a knot about my bloody band uniform. Certain people (I refer to them as the uniform Nazis) seem to believe that one's skirt should be below one's knees, and that one should wear black hose. My skirt is about an inch above my knee (not indecent by any stretch of the imagination) and my choice for summer hosiery is fishnets - from a distance, look just like pantyhose, but much harder to run, and much cooler than opaque black tights. I was all worked up, and perfectly prepared to quit if anyone gave me static about the clothing issue. My theory was - these clothes are considered inappropriate, I chose these clothes, ergo I am inappropriate. I'm not bloody well going out looking for clothing I won't wear (frankly, I only wear the black skirt for band concerts) because someone else thinks it should be longer. Sure it's petty, but it's a MORONIC rule. Turns out that the uniform Nazis didn't show up for the concert, so it wasn't an issue. Even if they had, I would have said "Peter's wearing grey pants, not black. I'm not about to even consider changing until you get him into proper uniform." Hee hee hee. I have a feeling that Peter is just being pissy because the band isn't footing the bill for the new black pants. He's living in the 50s, and really should get a clue. Every year, he whines about the grant the band gets from the town. If he does it next year (and I'm still around), I may just speak up and point out that the band has a practice facility where things can be kept between practices, and gets some money from the town, and that that is a hell of a lot more than a lot of bands get, and that the town is certainly under no obligation to keep providing space and money, so maybe we should be thankful for what we get. (Peter pisses me off in general. Not as much as Chris, but Peter has better musicality. Then again, so do the two grade 7 flute player who have been playing for less than a year.)

In knitting news (since the intent of this was to be a knitting blog), I finished my Honeymoon tank, although I need to fiddle with the straps, because they've ended up a little too long. I think I can maybe run a string through the I-cord and just shirr the straps up that way. They don't need to be a lot shorter, just a bit. Otherwise, it looks really good (and used less yarn than I thought it would - I've got a ball and a half left. The ball is still as new, so I might return it to pay for more yarn. Then again, the next few projects in mind require yarn from somewhere other than my LYS (Phil'Onde from Knit'n'Tyme, Elann's got some cotton coming up at the end of the month that should work for the Victoria Tank out of the summer IK, Kureyon from Ram Wools maybe for a Rosedale). I'm on the cuff of the first sock for Mom, and the sleeves for Salt Peanut are progressing slowly (they tend to be a fill-in project if I was too tired or frustrated to deal with Honeymoon or the sock.) Honeymoon was a royal pain in the ass in the beginning, because I kept dropping stitches, something the vine lace pattern I used was not very forgiving of. (Yes, that's a dangling participle or something, but I just cannot be bothered to fix it!) It took four tries to get it going, with two of the rip-outs coming during the lace, and one of them coming after I had finished a full ball - I had dropped a stitch while decreasing (the left decrease had a tendency to yank the previous stitch off the needle) and it ran into the lace, which was fatal. If I make another (which is a distinct possibility), I'll use another lace pattern at the bottom, and I might make that longer, and I will use different increases - I'm not particularly fond of the right increase - it left some fairly visible holes. I think I'll also use a worsted weight cotton, as opposed to a DK. The pattern knits to a worsted gauge, and I think some of my issues (edge stitches especially) could be solved with a slightly thicker yarn...

OK, that's quite enough rambling out of me. At least for now...