35 posts tagged “knitting”

The final installment! 

~~~~~~~

Olga and I got to Savannah the day before Thanksgiving.  It was good to be home, though it felt a little odd in some ways, and like I had never left in others.  It didn’t look like much had changed at all, save for a few new signs and Mamaw and Mom living together in a new house. 

I was supposed to cook, and Olga and her mom were coming over the next day, but since Christina wasn’t getting in ‘til late and Mamaw was working, the day went slowly.  I woke up and then went to Kroger to get stuff for green bean casserole, and then Jessica picked me up to take me to Grandma Chris’s house for food.  We stayed there for a bit and then went to Amanda’s for a few minutes.  It was good to see everyone, but still that same feeling of never having left.  I had to get back and cook, so Matthew and Jessica came with me, and she and I cooked, while Matthew rested and attempted to recover from his first 2 dinners.  We had a lot of food, but enough people that there weren’t tons of leftovers; the three of us, Mamaw, Mom, Christina, and Josh.  Ken and company came by later, but they didn’t eat.  Olga and her mother never showed; she said later that her mom hadn’t felt like going out because of being upset about her grandmother dying, and they’d both fallen asleep. 

The next day, Black Friday, I hadn’t really planned to do any shopping, but I met up with Olga at the mall and we went out to lunch with her mom, and then to a few Wal-Marts.  I got a few things – the Firefly DVDs and some odds and ends I’d been wanting.

Things since then have been pretty quiet.  I introduced my sister and my mom to Firefly, and they both enjoyed what they saw of it.  I’ve spent a few nights at the house with Jessica and Amanda, on the next Thursday I started working at Burger King.  I’ve been knitting on a few different projects, but mostly the baby blankets for Ken’s twin girls, and I’ve had a few ideas for designs.  I’ve even been reading, and I went to the new library and checked out some books for my Fairy Tale and Folklore group’s Winter KAL/RAL – the story for this time is Andersen’s The Snow Queen.  I haven’t read it yet, but I’m pretty sure my projects for it are going to be Wrenna and Aeolian.  They both look rather wintry. 

Julie, you might wanna skip this one.

I have a lot of things to post about, but there will be several posts to play catch up.  First up, the easiest things.  I had no real time for knitting in Bangkok, with the exception of Ben's scarf (which sadly, I don't have pictures of at the moment) which was done in garter while I was in lecture.  But, in the few weeks since I have been back, I have done quite a bit, of which I am very proud. 

First, my Blackrose Wristlets.  Glad to finally be done with these, as they took a lot of modding to get the way I wanted them.  Unfortunately the lace pattern doesn't show up very well, but they are comfy and suffice for their intended purpose of warming my hands.  I have lots more of this black yarn - I was going to make the matching socks with it, but it might just end up being vanilla socks. I think the yarn's texture is the problem.  Click to embiggen.

While I was visiting Julie in DC I was in a Marshall's looking for some shoes. I didn't find any shoes, but I did find some pretty awesome scarves made from variegated sparkly, wonderfully cushy acrylic.  I bought  and frogged them, thinking the yarn deserved to be something much more interesting that a ribbed scarf.  (I mean, ribbed scarves are nice, but there are so many in the world.)  Sadly, there aren't many fingerless glove patterns for bulky yarn that I liked, but I made these from a pattern called Highly Regarded Mitts, and they turned out awesomely.   They were fast and simple too - took me maybe 6 hours total to finish them.

Lastly - and best - I finally, FINALLY finished my Dragonwings Shawl.  Technically, I finished knitting it in June or something.  But I hadn't done the crochet edging.  I had picked an edging I liked out of a book, gotten my beads, made sure I understood how to do all the stitches the edging required - and then realized I wasn't sure how to do the stitches in order, and to be honest, trying to do so many stitches with such tiny yarn and hook - well.  I decided to go for something simpler.  It didn't take me that long to get it all done once I got started - crocheting is fast!  (I should do more of it.) I even have some beads left over.

While I was in Bangkok for a month, I decided to see what kind of yarn I could find.  There didn’t seem to be many people on Ravelry who could help, but I found some helpful blog posts and went out exploring.  I only found 3 stores, but I’ve heard there are others, I just didn’t have time to get them. 

As you might imagine, knitting isn’t terribly popular in a place like Thailand; it seems to be mostly a hobby for the more well-off, and the yarn prices definitely reflect that – they were nowhere near the cheapness of the yarn in Korea.  There was a wide variety of Western and Japanese brands of yarn, and things generally started around $10 a ball and went upwards. 

Zawa Knitting:  a very small shop, I went one Saturday evening and there was only the girl who worked the shop.  They had Clover needles, but no KnitPros in sight – I wrote down the word, and she seemed to know what I was talking about but didn’t show me any, so the rumor I read about Zawa having them remains that.  Their entire stock consisted of a large selection of Filatura di Crosa yarn, and not much else.   The girl there looked friendly, but was clearly discomfited when I attempted to ask for things, and could only tell me that she didn’t speak English.    This was the branch on Sukhumvit 49; there is another branch in Paragon

Hobby ____ in Siam Paragon:  This was a multicrafting area in Siam Paragon Mall, in the Paragon Passageway on the 5^th floor.  They had a large selection of many kinds of yarn, some familiar to me and some I’d never heard of – it seemed to be mostly Japanese and Italian brands.   Lots of Clover and Takumi needles in various sizes.  There were also sections for scrapbooking, jewelry making, and sewing/quilting, with smaller tables in each area and a larger central one.  The girls who worked there were very friendly, although still a bit uncomfortable with dealing with a foreigner, but there was one who seemed to be in charge of speaking to anyone in English. 

Big Knit Café:  Literally down the street from the Zawa Knitting store on Sukhumvit 49.  It’s a very cozy place, lots of little tables and chairs for sitting and eating and crafting, as well as a big table for groups.  The food was good, the desserts looked yummy, and I love the way the yarn is organized – on shelves with balls of everything out for fondling.  I ordered and went to look around, and one of the girls who worked there came over to help me.  She was a bit nervous, but when I described some mohair I had seen at the Paragon shop, she showed me all the stuff they had that could be similar to what I wanted.  She was very helpful, and they had quite a large selection.  Lots of Filatura di Crosa, as well as some Anny Blatt and a brand called Mondial. Quite a bit of novelty yarn, and interestingly enough, there was a house brand as well, with a pretty rayon/cotton blend.  There were also lots of books, in both English and Japanese.  There was knitting going on, of course, but needle-felted animals seemed to be very popular as well.    I bought a needle-felting kit and got one of the older women who worked there to teach me how it worked. She didn’t speak any English, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. 

Directions to Big Knit and Zawa Knitting on Sukhumvit 49: the closest BTS station is Thong Lo. From there, Sukhumvit 49 is pretty easy to find - it's a few blocks away from the main intersection that Thong Lo occupies. The streets have signs on them, so no worries there. Both stores are a ways down from the main Sukhumvit Road - probably about a 15 minute walk, with Zawa Knitting being closer to Sukhumvit Road than Big Knit Cafe. Both stores have maps on their websites.

Directions to the store at Siam Paragon: Siam Square BTS station. Go out exit 5 or 6 for Siam Paragon. Follow the signs in the mall for Paragon Passageway; it's on the 5th floor, near the Paragon department store.

Seriously. You can make pretty much anything in a rice cooker.  Rice, obviously.  But, also, cake. Pasta. Risotto (does that count as rice?).  Soup.  Just google it.  So, it stands to reason that you could make rice wine, as well.  Or other alcoholic beverages, since I think they need cooking.  How is this relevant? Well...

So, a bit ago - a few weeks, not sure exactly; it's probably best not to know - I was going to make some rice for dinner.  Or something with rice.  As it turned out, I ended up eating out for dinner, or perhaps not eating dinner.  I don't remember the details - but both options are equally probably.  Anyway - I washed the rice and put it in the cooker with some water.  Soaking rice is fine, after all.  And then, like I said, ended up going out, so I figured I'd just make it the next night. 

So, a bit ago - last week sometime - I was going to make some rice for dinner.  I think I was going to make chicken and rice, actually.  Had my chicken all thawed, and figured I better cook the rice first, cause you know, it takes longer.  So I opened my rice cooker up and found this:

Obviously, I had forgotten to cook the rice the next night.  Oops.  Perhaps you can't see this from the picture, but there's at least 4 different textures in there.  It definitely smelled like it was alcoholic, tho I can't imagine what sort of hallucinations you would have gotten from it (or what sort you would have had to been seeing to eat that).  I was so delighted that I bounded down the hall to show Donald, who was, let's say, not as excited as I was - I think he referred to it as 'rank'.  And neechan, I know you always yell at me for stuff like this, but this was as cool as that time my arm did that exploding thing... I wonder if that video is still on my phone...

But I don't feel like it.  Maybe later.  Midnight here in the Land of the Morning Calm, and I need to go to bed so I can get up for work in the morning (don't feel much like doing that either, but that's another story.

Here's what I wanted to show y'all. I pulled it out and finished it tonight.  I'll start the second one this week.

Here we are, the promised pictures of my recently-finished dragon shawl.  Looks damn awesome, if I say so myself.  No long-winded nattering about the details of it, since I have been informed that that is boring.  :P   Feel free to ask though, if you want an earful.

So here I am on a Sunday night catching up on my blogging.  It's about 1230 and I have open lessons tomorrow so I need to get to bed soon, but I had some pics I wanted to post.  Plus I slept in a lot today, since I didn't go to SnB and I was sick.

What goes first... here.  Yesterday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day, so the Seoul SnBers had a bit of a celebration.  I didn't take my camera, but I will share some of the amazing-ness when it is posted somewhere else.   We all met up at Seoul Arts Center, and we knit, and took pics, and traded yarn and did a fun quiz and Nikki gave away hand-dyed yarn.  She and Carson showed off their spinning, and I'll be damned if it didn't look cool and I wanna try.  But I have enough projects on my mind right now without adding more.  Might start spinning later when I design this shawl and need some appropriately colored laceweight.  (Yeah, I wanna design a lace shawl. So what? :P)

The trading was awesome - I got rid of a bunch of yarn I had leftover from projects/stashed and didn't want.  And I got some new stuff!

Yes, that is rainbow neon sock yarn.  It's amazing looking. I have no idea what I want to do with it, but I had to get it.  It was the only yarn I did get yesterday, even though I came up with some ideas for formerly un-decided stash.  Here's a closeup

We're also knitting a blanket, and raffling it to give the money to a charity that works with victims of sexual violence here in Korea.  ('cause they don't know what it is, for the most part) it's going to be patchwork, with all of us knitting squares.  I decided to put together various things that I knew I would never use for anything else (Yes, you, Lion Brand chenille!) and make up some squares.  I have til the end of the month to finish them, but here are two I did last night.  I'm really proud of them - I think they will make great additions, besides being a tad too big.  Oh well, gives them character. 

One is blue chenille and sparkly eyelash yarn, and the other is some black acrylic held with a black/gold sparkly thing the woman at the Gangnam store gave me.  She likes to give stuff like that when you buy things, so I thought I would put it to good use.  Both of them look surprisingly good - just normal garter, but nice.  I have some more I'm thinking of, and will probably do another one tomorrow.

Did I mention I started my first sock a couple weeks ago? Yeah I know I am slow - I've been working on it in bits and pieces, cause both my shirt and my shawl are nearing their ends.  I found a crochet edging for the shawl and I am about to cast of the sleeves for my shirt.  I need to get some beads... have to get up and go to ddm some saturday.  Anyway, here is the sock!

granted, it doesnt look like a sock the way I am holding it here, but it looks awesome on my foot.  I should be starting the toe tomorrow. 

And then when I got home, there was this waiting for me. 

yes, that's a bra strap.  Yes, it has been chewed in half.  You have no idea how pissed I was.  The other day I came home to see my sock pattern, which had been left on my bed, looking like this:

Just in case you can't see from the picture, the paper was in a plastic sheet protector.  And he shredded that to get to the paper inside.  He's been doing this a lot lately, and so I went and got him some new toys and chewy things to help out with that.  No dice, apparently.  Now he's sleeping all cute on my bed, but last night, he stayed in the bathroom for a good few hours before i decided to let him out.  UGH!!!!  I'm really not sure what to do.  It's not like he doesn't have things to chew on, or toys.  I know he gets bored, but there's not much I can do about that - I leave the door open for him to play on the balcony during the day.  I could leave him in the bathroom, but that would be mean.  Still, I'm not sure what else would work.  I probably shouldn't leave stuff out, but hell if I know what he's going to try chewing on next. 

Okay, and now it's 1 am and I need to get to bed.  I still have planning to do for Thailand/Ashley's wedding/home trip tomorrow, and parents to impress as well.  Oh, and I need a shower before work.  At least I don't have to worry about my car payment anymore.

Here I am drinking my peach nectar (love this stuff, tho I like Japanese Peach Water better) and chilling, and I thought I would post something real quick, since I'm in between things at the moment. 

I did a lot of reading last night (read: was up til 8 this morning), and I can never have too many books on my blog.  I was going to watch a movie (Twilight, again) but then I realized the copy I have is crappy and recorded in the theater, so I went looking for a DVD rip, which is out.  Love to Axxo and his support of us piratey types.  While that was dling, I figured I'd read some Fables, since I haven't in a while.  I got thru quite a few issues, including an Animal Farm-esque stroyline and the most recent, 'Storybook Love' in which Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf finally hook up - sort of.  I went to read the next issue tonight and have to re-dl it. Grrr.

After I was stalled on Fables, I started the second volume of the Tir Alainn trilogy, Shadows and Light, and finished

 it this morning in between knitting on my shirt and talking to Olga on Skype.  I really enjoyed it, especially Breanna and Liam.  And Falco - adorable.  Ashk and Padrick were also amazing, but I feel bad for Morag - I wish she had someone besides her sister.  Though at some points there was def some slashiness between she and the Hunter.  It ended rather abruptly, so I definitely want to see what happens next.     Anne Bishop is an amazing writer and her characterizations are so diverse - I'm sad I'm just meeting her now.  Oh well, lots to catch up on, as usual.

I've been on a weird 90s movie kick for a few weeks.  The other night it was She's All That, and while Freddie Prinze jr. is not really my type, Rachel Leigh Cook is absolutely gorgeous.  The storyline is a bit fragmented and jumpy, but about 10 minutes into it, I discovered something wonderful - DULE HILL!!! Yes, he's in the movie, playing Freddie's best friend/token black guy.  My favortie line from him is "On behalf of black people everywhere, shut up!"  Oh, Gus, how I miss you.  I can't wait for Psych to come back in July.  All in all though, it was cute.  Cait and I have decided to have a cheesy movie marathon next weekend (she's never seen Bride and Prejudice, what?), which should be awesome.   (Weird, just discovered you can add movies here same as books. Sweet!)

The shirt is now about 34 cm... less than 10 to go before I can switch needles!! I can't wait,

this is going to be great.  It makes me feel like I am almost done, though of course that's not the case. Whatever.  I'm coming along nicely on my shrug-sleeve as well.  I think I might work on it some more tonight whilst listening to the audiobook I've been on lately - Otherland: City of Golden Shadow.  I've only gotten thru the whole series once (it's 4 huge volumes) but I still maintain that it's one of the best series I have ever read, if merely for sheer complexity.  I was thrilled to find the audiobook, tho it's really bad quality - recorded from tapes and you can hear background noises.  Still, better than nothing, and certainly convenient for when I'm knitting.

Okay, off we go. 

Here, this is my cute new knitting needle holder, made by a Rav friend in exchange for some yarn I sent her.  I got it today and it's so adorable! Tho a bit bigger than I expected, which is cool. 

Also, I discovered that Gizmo had eaten a chocochip cookie when I came home this afternoon.  So far he hasn't exhibited any symptoms of death.  I think maybe he's just indestructible or something.

Well I thought I would get here and write a blog post whilst waiting for my steak to finish cooking in the oven, and post some pics of stuff that I thought would be fun to share and have been meaning to post, but then I realized my camera battery is mysteriously dead, so it’s charging now.  Breaking things into categories is easiest, I suppose. 

Plans for next year (and by that I mean, after September):  I looked up CELTA courses last night for a few hours, and Thailand and Vietnam seem to be the main places to go.  Vietnam sounds cool (and is $100 cheaper), but I have no huge desire to go there, and I would love to see Thailand.  Unfortunately none of the schedules for the classes look super-amazing – the earliest one that I could do without getting out of my contract early starts in late September.  The others start the first week or so of October.  This is good if I want to work here a few extra weeks/go travel around Thailand a bit before starting.  But it does also mean I will get home later in the year.

A couple of friends have mentioned they would possibly be able to look after Gizmo for me, so that should be fine.  My project for this week, I think, will be to dive into the wonderful world of recruiting again and see what jobs are available in … hmm.  How long will I be home for?  I don’t want to inconvenience the cat-sitter for longer than necessary, so maybe 3 weeks?  Anyway, need to look into getting another contract, as well as decide for certain which CELTA course to take (almost certain it will be Thailand, probably Bangkok.  The Chiang Mai one is out in the wilderness, although there is a package where you have room and board for $2400 provided.  Still think I might like Bangkok better, me being a city girl. 

So yeah – looking for a job again.  Should be easier this time around, since I’m already here. I think.   Here’s hoping. 

Knitting: So here’s where my camera would have come in.  Never fear, pictures will be posted, as they are necessary (and I have to put some on Rav too.)  I have … 3 projects I’m working on right now. (I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s only 3.) 

-- The Shawl:  It’s about 50 cm deep now. Yay.  I just started the 3^rd ball of the sparkly stuff, and my plan for the moment is to finish all the sparkle stuff, and crochet or knit on a lace border with the rest of the non-sparkly stuff.

-- The Shirt: Well, I did a fair bit of knitting the other night at Feast to keep my hands busy and stop me from just walking out (they were talking till 10:15 PM OMG and I wanted to get home before midnight.  Didn’t happen.-sigh-)  I’m on my third set of skeins, and have realized omg I have a ton of this stuff.  (I bought 20balls just to be sure I would have enough.)  The last time I checked, the shirt was about 25cm done, but I can’t remember if I’ve done more on it since then.  Oh well.  The point is, it’s getting there!! Soon I will be able to start the ribbing for the bodice, and if there’s anything more stimulating than stockinette, it’s 1x1 ribbing.  Woohoo,  good times.  I’m trying not to think how bored I got with the ribbed scarf I made. It's SOOO SOFT, tho.  Silk/cotton, gotta love it.

-- My most recent project, the ‘Tank Top Enabler’:  This is a lace shrug I found on Knitty.com, ‘cause I like my tank tops and I want to be able to wear them without having people stare at me.  So I’m making this shawl, and we’ll see how it goes. I was working on it tonight for a bit before cooking dinner – it’s marked as a ‘piquant’ (difficult) pattern in Knitty’s archive, but I did the Argosy scarf, and that was too, so I think I shall be okay.  I’ve only gotten about 15 rows into it, ‘cause I’ve had to pull it out, restart, figure out the decreases, etc.  I think I am going to be okay for the moment, though.  This will def. need to be blocked when finished.

And there was a huge sale at yarn.com so I went shopping for stuff for projects next year.  I think I have at least 4 things planned, not counting whatever I just decide to do with the stash I already have.  That will be my last yarn purchase for a while, I think - I probably want a new computer before September, so I should be saving for that.

Stuff I do while knitting: I can’t work on anything too complex while I’m knitting, especially if I have to read subtitles- I still haven’t quite gotten the habit of not looking at what I’m doing, probably cause I’m working with double-stranded stuff and don’t want to accidentally split it.  Anyway – I’ve finished the drama I’d been watching recently, Romantic Princess.  Despite the usual annoyances with plot holes, it was pretty fun.  I totally was wrong about the main guy not really being attractive – he definitely grew on me (especially after that swimming scene).  One thing that surprised me about this drama – actual kissing.  Srsly.  After watching Hana Yori Dango and Devil Beside You, this show was way more explicit (though not to be compared the Korean HYD where there’s a ‘bedroom aftermath’ scene.)  Once I got into the show, I really enjoyed both lead characters, and they’re interesting strong characters, especially Xiao Mai. 

Last night I watched a movie I’d never seen but have been hearing about for a while – 10 Things I Hate About You.  I’ve been on a bit of a 90s teen movie kick anyway, but this was surprisingly good.  I felt like it could have been a lil more fleshed out, story-wise.  But it was a great, witty movie with lots of quirks (guidance counselor who’s writing a romance novel? White rastas?), and I’m a fan of Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance – need to watch that again…) and of course, Heath Ledger is just yummy.  I hadn’t heard his accent before, but it’s adorable.

What next?  Hmm... have several TV shows I need to catch up on – have yet to see the new Who special cause I haven’t watched S4 yet.  Maybe I will get started on that.  Or all those like 5 other shows.  We’ll see.

I’ve been reading here and there lately – some vampire novels and started (finally) Oku no Hosomichi the other day.  I think I’m about halfway through it, but it’s one of those books that will probably bear re-reading.  I especially want to go back and write down some of my thoughts on the haiku.  And Anand reminded me, I really should write that post about why  I chose this name for my blog.  I need to get started on that translation too, before I forget all the Japanese I ever knew.  At least I have the stuff printed out and in my house – that’s a step.  I’d like to get enough into it to see if I should bring one of my dictionaries back with me – my grammar ones especially. 

The rest of the time: there’s work. Which is fine as usual.  I made one of my 7-year old boys cry the other day, on accident (not that I was sorry about it, mind you. )  Before you think I’m a horrible person – Korean children have this annoying habit of molesting foreign teachers.  It’s not just my kids – it seems to be some sort of epidemic.  It’s really annoying, because it stems from rudeness/disrespect – many Korean children are not taught that it’s rude to stare or point at foreigners, and several of my kids seem to think it’s funny to be disrespectful to me, not only verbally, but also touching me.  I always get onto them about it, cause they wouldn’t dare do it to a Korean teacher, but it’s still really annoying.  Anyway – I was in my afternoon class on Friday, and one of the boys, Reo, grabbed my ass with both hands.  He only comes up to a bit higher than my waist, and my first response when someone does something like that is to backhand them.  Thankfully I didn’t, but I spun around and grabbed his wrist so fast that one of my nails caught the side of his next and scratched him a bit.  I don’t think it hurt him very much, probably just mostly surprised him, and he started crying a bit.  Hopefully he won’t do that again. 

Friday was also Teacher’s Day, a pretty important holiday here.  Well, for us it was anyway.  We didn’t get the day off, but we did get lots of flowers and chocolate.  A couple parents brought cake, so we had 2 cakes, and 2 large boxes of fruit as well.  And we got a bonus, which was nice.  Donald and I went to Costco with Debbie and her kids that night, and I have stocked my freezer with meat, so I will almost def. not need anymore till I leave, I think, unless I start eating a lot more of it.  Of course, I will have to go back for cheese, but that’s understandable.  Next year I really need to get my own card.  That reminds me – I need to go grocery shopping for normal-ish stuff tomorrow.  I didn’t find maple syrup there, sadly (add that to my list of stuff to bring back with me), but I did get chicken broth, so I can try to make risotto again.  Sweetness!

Like my awesome vase for the flowers?  Yes, you too can own this awesome 1.5liter coke bottle vase....

Maybe I’ve not mentioned this before, but I like making (iced) tea, and since I have like 8 different kinds, I usually mix 2 together and see how it goes.  Tonight’s mix is some Ahmad Black Mango and some Celestial Seasonings Peppermint.  I like it.  It’s a very light mix, and the mango comes after the peppermint but doesn’t get overwhelmed by it.  I think I might do that again sometime.  That mango is amazing! I’m running out tho – might have to traipse back to Itaewon. 

Ah! Music!  Well, I’ve been feeling a little bored with my music lately – I haven’t gotten anything new for a while.  So I found a torrent from November, some ranking list, and picked a bunch of songs I thought looked interesting, as well as the new Fray and Three Days Grace albums.  Haven’t listened to the latter yet, but the former is… well.  The Fray takes some sinking in.  I’ve been enjoying quite a few of the others though – Rihanna’s ‘Disturbia’ which sounds like it could be the theme for some upbeat version of the Silent Hill movies or something… well, maybe more Resident Evil? Something set in a city. More towards psychothriller and such.  I was intrigued to see a new OAR song, ‘Shattered’, which I like.  Always enjoy Nickelback’s singles – stop cringing, okay?  There’s a few more, but I think my favorite one is by someone I’d never heard of before.  It’s called ‘Shake it’ by Metro Station.  Dance-poppy, and addictive like whoa.  And on the other end of the scale is ‘Addicted’ by a band called Saving Abel.  The latter two are below for your listening pleasure, but be warned that ‘Addicted’ is probably NSFW.

 

Hmm. 12:30 am.  I should… go to bed, I guess?  Wanna try out the camera first.  And damn, I was going to finish that email to Julie tonight.  -sigh-