Awwww!

How cute is Roland and Amy’s potholder portrait? Potholders make good wedding gifts because they can be used both literally (on...say, a date night batch of jiffy pop) and figuratively (to prevent hot monkey love scalding incidents). It’s all good people!


These are Merri’s potholders, specially commissioned by Hoops. Merri’s school colors are included in the scheme, but I’m not sure which ones they are. Ask Hoops. She’s the color consultant and is also thinking about launching an advice column.

For those who've asked, Ducky's all better now. Got a new genuine Mini Cooper windshield installed on Friday, and it's...well, shielding as it should.

What’s Your Favorite Line?

Laurie (see hip knitting blog link) is embarking on a new movie line contest starting in March. That’s right, MARCH, so don’t think you can start any sooner. I’m serious. Anyway, that got me to thinkin’ about some of my favorite movie lines.

"There’s no crying in baseball!!" (League of Their Own)

"Thanks for the pen!" (Grosse Pointe Blank)

"Gaaaaarrrrrrr!!!" (Godzilla)

Do you have a favorite line? If so, send it to me and you could win a potholder! Names will be drawn randomly for five days or until I run out of potholders, so your odds of winning are pretty good.

Poor Ducky!

Poor little Ducky got hit by a rock on Friday. Either that or someone was shooting at us. At any rate, my windshield is trashed, and I've since been going around and around and around and...around with the insurance company trying to make sure I get an OEM windshield. They are very tricky about this and have tried to foist off the likes of "OEM-like" and OEE (original equipment equivalent). Interesting that my premiums won't go down even though they'd be decreasing the value of my car. My latest compromise has been to go with their "preferred" glass installer as long as they order the glass from Mini and not some after market schlock in China. The things you learn...and this isn't even in the fine print.

What follows are some more pics from Merri's. Her cat Boo (short for Baby Cat, though I suggested that Buddah was maybe more fitting) is a lovable old queen, and Lovey (a.k.a. Love Dove -- Merri, could they have any less butch names?) is a cuddle junky. They're both hams when you bring out the camera.





This is Love Dove taking a break from her afternoon siesta.

Fly Like An...

We went down to LaSalle, IL on Saturday to visit Merri and to look for bald eagles. Merri lives right near Utica, IL, home of Starved Rock state park and one of the better places to spot bald eagles. It was pretty nippy, but as you can see from these photos (I hope), we picked a good day. There were eagles everywhere! One tree had about 30 eagles just hangin' out, posing for various future coins I think. We were pretty far away, but with the binoculars, you could see them up close and personal. This is the view across the river toward the park. I don't have a very powerful zoom on my digital camera, but managed to zoom in a bit with photo shop so you can really see the white tails and heads.





This shot shows both eagles and their huge nests.




Here's Merri and Lenore, trying to work their cameras with mittens on.


And here's Merri getting distracted from the eagles by a woodpecker. You know these college professors, they have such short attention spans.


Lest we get too far off topic... More potholder shots coming soon -- Roland and Merri have sent pics, watch this space for updates!

Great Show!

Paula's 2-plus-hour show was awesome! I love the way she just glides from topic to topic, and she did a lot of chatting with the audience, too, which was hilarious. These were the only two pictures I was able to take before the power-drunk usher guy bustled over with a stern reprimand. Jeeze, get a grip dude, it's a camera, not an uzi. They reminded people to turn off phones and stuff, but didn't say anything about cameras. I don't get the whole "no pictures" thing anyway, especially when Paula posed for lots of pics after the show. It's not like people were setting up tripods and strobe lights for cripesakes. But I digress... We laughed pretty much the entire two hours, even at stuff we had already heard.


Here's Paula signing Lenore's book. Lenore managed to get a number (11!) for the book signing before the show (even though she didn't technically buy her book there), and Paula wrote a nice note dedicating her next win on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me to Lenore. Lenore had pasted the picture of her and Paula from the Wait Wait taping into the book, which tipped Paula off that Lenore was a fan...or maybe a stalker. At any rate, I'm sure Paula totally remembered us, but didn't want to let on and make the other fans feel bad.



She liked her potholder and appreciated the "safety first" theme of our gift. I said we wanted to make her an afgan (since it was like 2 degrees out), but we didn't know how to knit. She graciously noted that she'd get more use out of a potholder.

Thanks again to the McDonald parental units for the tickets!

(There was a clingy "Paula's best friend" wannabe in this shot who would not move, so I photoshopped the bitch into oblivion.)

Paula Poundstone!

Lenore and I are going to see Paula Poundstone tonight in Crystal Lake! We got to meet her and even chat with her briefly when we went to see the live taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me last May (the day before Lenore's first surgery), so I'm sure she's just as excited to see us again too. Lenore is bringing Paula's book in hopes that there'll be a signing after the show. I made her a potholder -- I probably won't make her enter a contest. I'll just give it to her because I'm feeling pretty generous today.

Here's Paula's potholder. It represents a variety of holidays in its color scheme, including Waitangi Day in New Zealand (Feb. 12, it's not too late to celebrate).

She was on one of my favorite podcasts Tues. 2/13 -- listen to the interview here.

Flashdance II

Check out the stylin' wrist bands Laurie knitted for Hoops! She wanted to try them on right away (Hoops, not Laurie). Hoops has been waiting for a call back from the Solid Gold Dancers.

Who Does Your Hair?

I got highlights and a new do, and Hoops approves. She think the highlights match hers, which is pleasing to her cat-like sensibilities.







I also got my eyebrows waxed, can you tell? It was not the most pleasant of experiences, but overall, not too bad. Julie tells me that saying "not bad" is a Midwestern compliment of high praise. So, Julie's link-of-the-week submission was "not bad" and won her a set of designer original Valentine potholders! It was a rough week, people, so the head butt game hit the spot and possibly even prevented me from doing it for real. Though I'm not ruling it out. (Note to self: buy ice).

Can you think of captions for either of these photos? There could be a potholder in it for you. I'm just sayin'.

Today's Thot(s)

It simply does not pay to buy cheap zip lock bags. Also, have you ever been happy with bargain kleenex? You just end up with tissue shrapnel all over your chest when you blow your nose.

The link below wasn't offered as an entry, but it's definitely an interesting diversion. It was either Laura or Joe who discovered it, and I had the URL in my "favorites" list. Take a look -- it's probably some of the strangest animation you'll ever see. Where in one's brain would stuff like this come from? I ask you.

That's all.

Another Winner

Congrats to Laurie for her name entry on this potholder. "The Polluted World in Square Form." Methinks Laurie has been reading too much Kierkegaard. Or maybe she's just feeling lonely down there in Southern IL. I can't seem to find the other specimen, "Dancing Amoebas," so the prize inventory commission will send a suitable replacement. Promise.

It's not too late to send your entry for the Valentine contest! It's quick, it's easy, and it makes me think people are visiting!

Mom's birthday potholder which came with a cake (now gone). Happy birthday mom!

Potholder Superpowers

Holy cats! It's a bug shield, it's a necktie, it's a piece of art noir suitable for framing...it was with comic book-like speed that Wayne demonstrated all three uses (and probably more) of his fabulous potholder. It almost takes your breath away, doesn't it?

Nothing Says "Be Mine" Like a Potholder!

I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "Sweet! Valentine potholders! I wish I had some of those!" Well today is your lucky day. Because you could win these very handcrafted potholders simply by entering this week's contest. Just be the first to send me a 10 pound box of chocolate... KIDDING! Just e-mail me a web link that you think is worthy of being the next "link of the week." It'll be posted here PLUS you'll win this marvelous set of two designer original potholders. Hurry, operators are standing by!

Baby It's Cold Outside. No, REALLY!

So much for global warming. Last night it was 2. This morning the Mini (oh yeah, I got my car back!) thermometer thingee registered minus 11. That's just not right. Laura is here as chemo chaperon, and she's handling it all very well. As you can see, she's keeping warm by multi tasking: iChatting with Lynda, downloading, making jewelry, drinking from her Trader Joe's beer assortment and watching the Superbowl(sort of).

Let Them Eat Salad (and Cake)

This is documented proof that Austin ate salad at least once while visiting. We also proved, once again, that carrot cake isn't just for breakfast. In fact, it's almost like a salad, what with the carrots and nuts and...um...forks.

Here's Odie's other "Go Bears" potholder