Um...

I was on my way home from a meeting last night and saw this. One too many alcoholic snow cones perhaps? It's all well and good 'til somebody loses a torso, people! I like to point out that East Dundee has all the bars, while West Dundee has all the churches. East Dundee town motto: "If you're going to hell, you might as well be buzzed."

OK, so here's the latest batch of potholders that YOU COULD WIN, some of which were crafted with 100% cotton loops from a new source. It's a limited edition run, because I wasn't crazy about the color selection ratios, but they do make nice unmelty potholders (apparently some of those poly-cotton loops have not held up well to extreme temps -- Perky Potholder quality control specialists advise that you NOT handle molten lava or attempt to forge horseshoes with your Perky Potholders. All potholders come with a money-back guarantee of course, just fill out the appropriate paperwork and send it along with $7.42 and a moon rock).

How do you win? Well, currently you can post a comment containing a favorite movie line and the movie title, which will automatically qualify for one of several drawings taking place now and again. Winners will be notified by carrier pigeon (they love carrying potholders, those pigeons!). Be sure to identify yourself if you don't have an account, otherwise you come up as "anonymous."

Coming soon... 100% wool potholders! Guaranteed to work in volcanoes! Also, don't miss the results of my ebay shopping excursion for more loops! Eight bags!! (But they haven't arrived yet and I'm beginning to worry...I've been having mail issues, including my Neflix DVDs that someone in my neighborhood is getting by mistake AND WATCHING (!!!) thanks to my careless mailman. What's up with THAT?! Yesterday I found in my mailbox an obviously opened and taped back together Netflix envelope that had been missing for over a week. I can't get behind that. Or maybe the mailman is watching them. I'm going to have to start ordering more foreign films about feminism.

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.