Becca's Blog

More picnic pics.

But first, I have to say that I love my new teeth. They're straight and even, and if not pearly white, then at least a uniform color. Of course, if I said I wasn't happy, after 20 months and about 5 thousand bucks, Jane might smother me in my sleep.  I can't wait to floss tonight--my gums are going to bleed like nobody's business, but it's going to be so easy.

OK--now that you know more about my mouth than you ever wanted to, the rest of my knitbloggin', picnickin' photos:

On the not-spinning side of the aisle, Emily (guarded by Tiko) starts a project with ArtFibers' Kyoto. Celia works on her Fair Isle skirt, before heading off for the penultimate performance of SHIFTINGS, at the SF Fringe Festival. I think she was really just warming up her knitting moves before the show. Janine is starting a silk kimono scarf.

Harriet enjoyed burrowing  in the leaves, especially since she was freshly groomed. She and Tiko and Willis also enjoyed barking at the nice police officer who walked up to chat for a minute.

Willis impressed everyone with his sweet disposition and excellent obedience. But he tried to eat a bee and it stung him, so he ended up going home with a fat lip.

It would have been nice to bring Josie and Tina along, but unlike the other dogs present, they can't be relied on to play nicely with others and not steal food from the table, so they had to stay home.  They got lots of treats while I was baking picnic goodies, though, which I hope compensated somewhat.

Tricoter sur l'herbe

Well, actually it was knitting on the leaves,  not on the grass, but pleasant just the same. The knitbloggers' picnic went off on Saturday afternoon, with lots of lovely snacks, delightful knitting projects, and charming significant others, babies, and dogs for companions. There was a bit of spinning, too.

Frith (walking, foreground) brought Michael and their son, Coltrane.

Jeni (above right) brought her daughter Brianna, and Willis.

Janine brought her husband, J., and managed to go mobile across the lawn to get to our picnic tables. I had hoped to get a more wheels-friendly spot, but the Alameda County Probation Officers Family Picnic beat me to it.
Jane and Lala talked about Bolinas.

Jeni, Rachael, and Lala spun. Elizabeth knit on a cool cabled cardi from a Japanese knitting book. Miss Idaho sat on Rachael's lap, but she also made fast friends with Celia.

I have more commentary and more photos, but Typepad is being a bastard, my cat is being a desk-hogging asshole, and I have to run and *get my braces removed*! More later (and hopefully I can get the captions next to the photos), I swear.

Why do thrift stores smell bad?

Presumably they only accept clean things, so why do they have some sort of stale people odor? There's a Salvation Army store near my house that's been open barely a year, and it has that smell. Junk stores, in contrast, may smell dusty, but not nasty. I'm deterred by little obstacles like this, so I'm not a good thrifter. I also don't have the patience and determination needed to score big, or maybe it's just a lack of imagination.

I've stopped in the couple of thrift stores closest to my house recently, looking for sweaters made of recyclable yarn (maybe I should start with the Manos I already have, you say)? I also had the idea that maybe I could find cheap, discardable windbreakers or sweatshirts to wear at the start of road races, but so far no luck. The racks of unworthy, unlovely things just depress me. But I like to collect old cooking utensils and serveware, particularly silver trays. My kitchen is pretty full already, though, and I've been trying to heed the mantra I devised not long ago: "I have enough. In fact, I have everything I need." A lot of the time it does keep me from buying things that I really don't need. So usually I leave thrift stores emptyhanded--and fine with it.

This morning I made a cool thrift store discovery, though. I live about two blocks from one (it's painted magenta and has a neon sign and funds AIDS services). I didn't know this, but they accept books--which is unusual, I'm pretty sure. I'm so accustomed to bookstores rejecting my used books that I figure no one wants them. So great, a place to recycle used books--but even better, I perused the shelves and found that other literate Berkeleyites have been dropping off some pretty non-doggy books. Among the old mass-market paperbacks and diet books were several novels I'm pretty interested in. I exercised moderation and only bought The Book of Salt, The Master, and an old copy of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, since a hawkwatching colleague and I were discussing the tyranny of the majority last week--and I had to say that I hadn't read On Liberty. So it was fated for me to come across a 50-cent copy of it. In all, I spent just $3.25, so I think I was pretty moderate.

Boing Boing doesn't know knit from crochet.

But still, a cool, intriguing link.

And if you're a usability/interface geek or an Apple watcher, today's Daring Fireball entry should crack you up.  I haven't downloaded iTunes 5 yet, but I suppose I'm going to have to sooner or later.

Wondering what else you can do?

You can give blood. There was a shortage anyway (it happens a lot in the summer), but with the destruction and lack of power in hurricane-affected areas, the shortage is that much worse. Wherever you are, you can help.

I walked the talk, people. Yesterday I made a special trip into the city (BART *and* the bus!) and gave blood.  I was heartened to see that the blood bank was very busy--and ashamed to see from my card that it's been five months since I gave last.

Later today, I think I'm going to drop some petty cash at my local Salvation Army store, and get off my ass and list some books and DVDs on half.com, to turn some stuff back into money to donate.