If You're Happy and You Know It

OK, as much as I enjoy rubbernecking, it's time to attempt to be A Better Person again.  So I decided it was time to do another post about things that are making me happy right now.  We haven't had one of those lately, and I have more reason to be happy than I have in a while.

The first thing that's making me happy right now is I Am a Paleontologist by They Might Be Giants.  Someone is using it in a commercial right now, and it makes me want to boogie every time I hear it.

Something else that had me whooping and bouncing on the bed recently was Monday night's episode of The Closer.  Captain Raydor (Mary McDonnell) was first presented in the show as a nemesis to Brenda.  Then she shifted to an unlikely ally.  This season she's been revealed to be a pretty valuable supporter, even if Brenda doesn't always know it.  (Chief Pope can seriously bite me.)

Anyway, I loved seeing Raydor lead that chase last night.  And then when she whips out that shotgun?  Whoa, momma.  You go girl!  Definitely one of the most badass moments of the series so far.  And I absolutely loved the look Tao gave her as she was walking away.

If you haven't ever watched The Closer, and you at all enjoy cop shows, I suggest you do what I did a few years ago and rent season one.  It's a fantastic series, and well worth watching.  (Although I'm bummed that this is the last season.)

Happy Thing #3 is that it's looking like I've got at least a little bit of my knitting mojo back!  I hadn't touched the needles in months, until this past weekend.  I poked around on Rav until I found a pattern that looked promising (of course I changed my mind and did something different when the needles actually kissed yarn), and then I hauled out all my sock yarn scrap.  Y'all, I have a boat load of sock yarn scrap.  Three big, overflowing bags of the stuff, and then some.

I sorted out all the scrap, and most of it was sufficiently bright.  So then I sat and watched TV and wound a ginormous ball of scrap yarn, tying on a new color when I came to the end of each scrap.  This thing was easily half again the size of my fist.  When you consider how thin sock yarn is, that's a LOT.  And then I cast on my Shawl of Many Colors.  (It'll probably change names a few times, but that's what it is for the moment.)

After a couple of days, the SoMC is on row 87 or so, and growing all the time.  This pattern isn't super specific.  You get to a certain point and then they give you a general recipe to continue, because the size needed on something like this can vary so much, depending on who it's for an how they want to use it.  I could probably stop right now and have a respectable head scarf.  But I want a full size shawl, which means the wings span is equal to the height of the wearer.  I'm 5'7, so I've got a ways to go.  Fortunately, I'm pretty sure I've got enough sock yarn scrap to make it happen.  But at some point in the not too distant future I'm going to have to start rolling another ball of yarn.

I'd planned to post a picture of this grand masterpiece, but I can't find my camera.  Or the batteries that go in it.  So that's going to have to wait for a day or two.  By then it will be bigger and more colorful and more impressive anyway.

One more thing that I'm really excited about.  There's a challenge coming up in my M/M reading group called the Quarterly Gang Bang.  (Trust me, not as kinky as it sounds.)  Every person who signs up picks a book for each other member, and they all pick books for you.  By the time the picking is done you could have 50-60 titles on your list.  The idea is to read all those books in the next quarter.  The reading part doesn't actually start until October, but sign ups start on Thursday.  I've been wanting to do this for MONTHS, but I felt like I needed to clear out some of the mainstream romance I'd managed to accumulate but not read in the last several years.  I did get some of it read (89 out of 198 books read so far this year were non-m/m), and I hope to knock out a few more in September.  And then the rest of the year will be dedicated to reading as much delicious m/m lovin' as I can handle.  I even have a few holiday reads lined up already.  I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and I can't wait to dive in.

So that's all the happy stuff.  And I know I said I wasn't going to gossip any more, but I just have to mention that we've had our first official *flounce*!  Someone who, by her own admission, left the group for a while and only recently came back, felt the need to declare us all terrible people and announce that she was leaving the group again.  So there!  It was kind of funny, because a) although she claimed we were all rude, her post was by far the most obnoxious one to date, and b)... oh, hell.  I forget what b was.  But anyway, you know you haven't had a good internet kerfluffle until someone loudly declares that they're taking their ball and going home.  I suspect the whole thing will have petered out to nothing by this time tomorrow.

It was all amazingly civil for an internet dust up.  If this had happened on my knitting forum there would have been a pile on, and by the time the mods stepped in the offending parties (not always the original offenders, either) would be ripped to shreds.  A half dozen people would dramatically flounce (only to quietly return next week), and whoever is left when the dust settles would be quietly knitting sweaters from the remains of the deceased.

Knitters are Hardcore.

I couldn't imagine it happening in the Betties.  I mean, I know it could happen anywhere, and we certainly aren't immune to petty scandals.  But accusations?  Histrionics?  I don't see it.

Anyway, that's what's going on with me for the mo.  I'll try to control myself in the future.  And I'll let you know about positive developments.  I'm not quite ready to say anything about them yet (besides, this post is ridiculously long already), but I'll update you when the shift from "things I intend to do" to "things I'm actively doing".  Intention is important, but if you don't follow it up with action you won't get very far.

Lip balm flavor of the day: Gummy Bear