I was going to lay out the whole socks situation, but the cats are very needy today.

“I am more important than this THING. Why are you paying attention to a THING?”

“This STUFF is in my way. I’ll just make some room by kicking it off the edge. That’s better.”

“YOU’RE NOT SUFFICIENTLY ADORING ME.”

After this, I gave up. A few hours later, I stealthily set up the photo shoot again. And lo, the other cat came running.

I give up.

Special bonus content: Mr. Burrito is getting big, yes he is!

Tags: I am a terrible cat owner, one day they will report me to Animal Cops

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Dear FreeCreditReport.com,

In your most recent commercial, the guy says he wouldn’t have married his wife if he’d known that her credit was sub-par.

This is the most appalling sentiment I’ve ever seen publicly expressed.

Dear Discovery Channel,

I’m glad it’s Shark Week. But we all know you’ll be back to airing eight-hour blocks of “Deadliest Catch” re-runs come August 4th.

Dear Sci Fi Channel,

“Ghost Hunters International” stinks. Please go back to airing “Ghost Hunters” re-runs instead.

Dear Wave Cable,

Why do you air so many commercials for Wave Cable? I daresay anyone watching you already HAS Wave Cable.

Dear Family Guy,

“American Dad” is a better show than you’ll ever be. (Ironic!) You are the show that I watch while I’m waiting for “American Dad” to air.

Please get canceled again. You no longer interest me.

Dear paper towel commercials,

I’m cheap. I mean really cheap. And yet, I have never once rinsed a paper towel and re-used it. Why you’re so fixated on this “feature” is beyond me.

Dear Sonic Drive-In,

Your various frozen dessert beverages look delicious. I wish you wouldn’t air your commercials in a market where your restaurants don’t exist. It’s kinda mean.

Dear Venture Bros,

You complete me.

Comments (15)

Turns out, there’s a thriving YouTube collection of videos of raccoons stealing things. A sampling, in alphabetical order by item being stolen:

Birdseed

Birdseed

Biscuits

Cat food: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Cat food and the dish

Cellphone

Doormat

Fish

Garbage

Marshmallows

Teddy bear

Tostitos

Tags: wildlife criminology

Comments (5)

I just discovered that the pattern for the Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug which I knit a few months ago is available as a free PDF online. Since it’s “legal” to talk shop on this pattern, I’m going to bust out some notes. (If only so that I can refer to them the next time I knit this.)

This pattern is incredibly confusing. First of all, the super-condensed format means that you have to read very carefully. Second of all, it asks you to knit a seriously weird shape, and the pattern doesn’t give a schematic.

Here’s a schematic overview.

(Click for big.)

The shrug is knit from the bottom up, over the shoulders, and down the fronts. The “notch” for the neck is pretty deep, because you’re going to add on a really deep ribbing.

I’ve noted the seams with matching numbers. You seam 1 to 1, 2 to 2, and so forth.

I added several rows of moss stitch along the bottom, to keep that band from flipping up. (You can even see how it wants to flip in some of the pattern pictures.) I didn’t realize how it would be seamed, so I also added moss stitch up the sides, which turned into the seam to the armpit. Oh well – design element!

This next schematic focuses on one particular part of the instructions. If you don’t have a mental image of what the finished item will look like, this is the hardest part to wrap your head around.

(Click for big. Depending on your browser, you may need to click a second time to see the full-size version. It’s a big image.)

You divide for the fronts while you’re in the middle of knitting the sleeves. This makes perfect sense if you look at a schematic. Hopefully, since the pattern doesn’t provide one, my hand-drawn schematic will do.

Tags: Debbie Bliss Baby Shrug

Comments (30)

You may recall that last week I made cat-face bread. This week? Oregon bread!

Last night we had a lovely, candy-colored sunset:

The cats have been practicing for the Olympic Synchronized Sleeping competition. I’m only going to give them an 8 out of 10 for this one. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the front paws are in opposite positions.

This one is at least a 9.0. One point deducted for the right front paw, which is tucked slightly out of sync. (The tail asymmetry doesn’t count. Brady can’t help it.)

I finished the body of the Mr. Burrito Commemorative Sweater. Actually, I finished the body at least a week ago.

Last night I finally did the math on how long the sleeves would be, the circumference at the wrist, the number of stitches and rows required, worked out the decrease rate, and picked up all the stitches. Then I knit like an inch and put it down again.

Yes, it took me a week to get around to doing that. It was a lot of steps! And the tape measure was over here, while the sweater was over there. Granted they were only ten feet apart, but still. It’s been one of those kinds of weeks.

Notice how nicely the edge doesn’t roll. Seed Moss stitch, baby! To be fair, I picked up the technique from TechKnitting. And I probably wouldn’t have thought of it if Rachel hadn’t complained of the problem on her Drops 103-1.

Tags: MBCS, Mr. Burrito Commemorative Sweater, Oregon bread

Comments (5)