Read this instead

Let’s face it: I’m completely crap at sports blogging, even if I actually like the game at hand. But watching the World Cup is about the only thing I’ve been doing lately, so I will still make some comments. If you want to read a fantastic account of the matches, you should go here instead.

We bought a ball the other day, and have been playing in the yard. We’re crap at that, too, but it’s wicked fun.

Ties all ’round

It was wicked fun to watch the USA/Italy match on (a huge-ass) TV with a bunch of other people. There weren’t that many people there for it, but it was enough to make it fun. I like to hear other people’s comments. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one swearing at the Ref’s. Seriously, though, a red card for a yellow card offense? I didn’t even see our second red card. I got up to use the toilet and I get back and we’ve only got 9 guys on the field! Crazy! Still, for only having 9 players, we got some good shots on goal. No team has ever scored with only 9 players, though. A tie game was as good as we were going to get, and the USA defense did a fantastic job keeping Italy from scoring, even though they were clearly exhausted.

The Rev’s tied with DC United, 1-1. It was a good game, too. The crowd wasn’t very boisterous, though, so that was a bit disappointing. Down at the other end, in “The Fort” seats, was a different story. They had drums, banners, chanting– fantastic! The second half was more rowdy. We didn’t score ’til pretty late in the game (70-something minute, I think) and the crowd was getting anxious. Then when we did score, they played that song that they usually play over the loud speakers. You know, the one with the oh-oh-ohs that makes you sing the saxaphone part of “The heat is on” if you’re not careful. I don’t know the name of it, but I’m sure Miss Kitty remembers it from aerobics classes back in the day.

I can’t even remember the last sporting event I went to. Perhaps homecoming football in my early college days? I can’t remember. The last professional sports game I went to was to see the Oakland A’s when we lived in California. I was eight or nine then. I think I’ll go to more soccer/football games when I have a job. That was too fun! And we had pretty good seats for $18! They had half of Gillette Stadium closed off, because there weren’t enough butts for all those seats. I’ve heard that they’re looking for another venue, or building their own venue to accomodate the smaller crowds.

Anyway, super-fun times all ’round.

Football/Soccer makes you do crazy things

I’m going to a match tomorrow. New England Revolution vs. DC United. My old home team against my new home team. Ooh, exciting! We’re also showing up four hours before the game is supposed to start. Why (I hear you ask)? Because we can watch the USA/Italy World Cup match on very large TVs with a bunch of other people. Doesn’t that sound fun?

We do, so we’re going. This is going to have to be the last fun (non-vacation) outing of the summer if I don’t get a job soon, though. (News on that front: I received an update today and will hear from them end of next week/beginning of the following week.) We’re going to have to stuff our faces all morning and early afternoon before we head out, though, because I doubt we’ll be able to smuggle enough snacks in to the stadium. I’d rather not spend a fortune on soggy french fries for dinner.

I have to finish making my skirt that I started ages ago. It’s red, and I want to wear it tomorrow. Woo!

“Life’s not pretty for a dog-faced boy”

The EELS almost disappointed me last night. For the first four songs I think they were laboring under the misapprehension that they were Motorhead. I think they just needed a few songs to warm up and remember they’re the fucking EELS and should stop sucking. I enjoyed most of what they played last night, with the exception of the 20-minute long, self-indulgent, masterbatory, you-need-eight-pounds-of-weed-in-order-to-appreciate-this jam session in the middle of “Not ready yet.” I swear I wanted to kill myself at least eight times during the show. Three times before they even played, actually.

The pre-show music nearly sapped my will to live. Electronic-symphonic musak of the worst songs from the seventies and eighties. I wanted to simultaneously crawl into a hole crying my fool head off and break a bunch of shit. It was intense. Thank goodness it ended sooner than later. I was nearly afraid that the band had shifted beyond my capacity to appreciate them. They haven’t, yet, so I’m still glad to list them among my favorite bands, but I do have to say that I enjoyed their last tour immensely more than this one.

The opening band, Smoosh (pronounced with a long “O”), was fantastic! Sisters! From Seattle! Ages twelve and fourteen! They rocked! Hard! And enthusiastically! With keyboards and drums! I can’t even tell you with exclaimation points how good they were. Their songs were catchy, robust, rockingly performed, and sincere. Poppy but not sugar-coated. Punky but not for marketing purposes. Just good. Rock. Music. Seek them out.

Craftiness

As requested, a crafty post.

I was a complete ass and didn’t photograph the wallet/coin purse thing I made for The Bean for her 22nd birthday. It came out really cute and used the same yarn as the Weezer Purse I made her last year. I’ll snag it back from her, and photgraph it, so you can see. If the Spinstah remembers the thing I was knitting when we went to see the Yarn Harlot, she’ll have a good idea what the wallet looks like, since that’s what I used for the outside portion.

I was given some bulky, grey wool from Iceland by a friend of mine who moved away last year. I didn’t want to make it into a garment because of the major itch factor, so I decided I’d make a throw rug or throw blanket– whichever it turned out to be. It’s a lap blanket, after all. The itchiness won’t bother me because it will be used in the winter when the likeliness of bare skin touching it will be quite slim. It came out ok. I crocheted it, and I’m not too handy with crochet, so my decreases at one point are really lumpy and make this weird bump thing. I should have decreased in the middle rather than the edge. I crocheted it one way, then turned the piece, so that the rows would be going perpendicular, but by doing so I’d have to decrease a bunch of stitches so that it would be the same size. Yeah… no planning involved, so that’s what I get.

I’ve also been working on a secret project for my friend who had a baby in April. I haven’t been to see the baby yet, though. She gave birth two weeks before the end of the semester, and I wanted to give her time to recover before I went to see her, plus school was keeping me busy. Then I caught the Plague, and was ill for three weeks. The last few weeks I have no excuse, just that I haven’t gotten around to phoning her; I have a suspicion that I am a bad friend. But I’m making a super soft snuggly surprise for her little boy, so hopefully I can bribe her not to hate me. I’ll post pix when it’s done and after I deliver it to her, so I won’t ruin any surprise– not that she visits this site, but on the odd chance she should pop over, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.

I’m making a purple shawl for myself out of some subtle, varigated, bouclé yarn that JeT’s mom got me for Christmas. I’m not doing any lace, because I think the yarn would obscure any fancy stitches, so I’m just doing it in garter. Though I think I might rip it out and start over, as I don’t like the way the edges are coming out. I keep forgetting to slip the first stitch to make a nice chain selvedge. It’s looking too lumpy, even for bouclé, so I think I’ll start it over. I’m not that far along, really, so it’s not a big deal.

I’ve since abandoned the sock, because I want to use some other yarn. I love the colorway I’ve chosen, but it’s wool, and I don’t feel like hand washing socks, you know? I’ll get some fun sock yarn from Knit Picks and make some socks on my vacation. I’m going to be sitting in a truck for hours each day with my family, and there’s only so many games of the Geography Alphabet Game that one can stand.

I never did get around to sewing the ribbon handles on my red felted bag that I was making at the end of the semester. The bag came out great, I’m just lazy, and so it sits on my knitting shelf in the living room, waiting for me to sew the last two ends on. It’s not like it’s very difficult, and I even left the red thread and needle in the bag, so I wouldn’t have any excuses not to finish the damned thing. Oh, well. I’ll get to it.

I should also get back to my sweater sampler from Jaquiline Fée’s The Sweater Workshop. It’s about 2/3 done, so I really should get cracking on that. The book is amazing. It’s written exaclty the way my brain works. Don’t you love it when you can find something written exactly for you and your quirky brain ways? I need guidance in knitting, because, while I’m a good faker, I’m not really that good, and I don’t know very many things. But I can’t follow a pattern to save my life. I modify the hell out of it, so that any guidance the instructions could provide have no bearing on the thing I’m actually making. Then when I get stuck, because while I’m quite imaginative I can’t imagine my way out of the messes I create, the project gets set aside indefinitely. This book is full of instructions for creating parts of sweaters: various sleeves, necklines, waistbands, armholes, etc. You pick how your sweater will look, figure out your own gague, and use the pattern bits to create your very own frankensweater that will fit exactly the way you want. Genius! Enough guidance to help me through the tricky bits, yet free enough to let me feel like I’m being creative. It’s going to be a real triumph when I actually finish the sampler, because I’m following the pattern almost exactly. I say almost because I’m working with a handful more stitches than directed so my piece would fit on the circulars I’m using. Close enough for me.

So that’s a summary of most of the projects going on. I want to get a Flickr account and use that to pop some pictures into this blog, so once I go through the motions and actually get that done, I’ll have photographs of the projects to actually share. But this should satisfy your crafty reading for now. And if not, go read someone who actually finishes projects.

I’m off to meet the JeT in Boston to see the EELS at the Somerville Theatre. Woo!

books on a wall

I live in a small house. All space needs to be used efficiently, or it drives me crazy. I get no end of pleasure from things organized well. That’s not to say that I actually have everything organized well, just that when I do, I am happy. Nay-sayers who claim that any organized space in my home is contrary to my true nature are vastly misinterpreting what it is that I am. Or they’re completely balmy.

This week has been devoted to removing the clunky, inefficient bookcases and instalilng shelves beneath the large windowsill that spans the front of the downstairs portion of the house. I did it mostly myself, with some preparation and errand running from the JeT. We teamed up to actually get the books from their holding area on the dining table to the shelves. I think they work quite well, though in order to fully utilize the space at hand, most of the books have been placed on their sides with their spines facing out. The front door interrupts the sill; on the left we’ve placed non-fiction, and the right, mostly fiction. I say mostly, because in addition to fiction there are a couple of memoirs, games, and a few other things I can’t think of right now.

This is not an interesting post, but I’m not really doing much of anything interesting. Unless you count waiting for the call about the second job interview and waiting for the cat to shit as interesting. I’ve been watching the World Cup while putting up the shelves and the aforementioned waiting, but I don’t actually know how to write about sports. Oh, I’ve also been reading, but I don’t write very well about books, either. I’m never satisfied with how I write about things I like. I should find more things to dislike so I can entertain myself by writing about it.

Pretty much a waste of a post, really.

Football fever

I’ve been glued to Univision these last few days, and unless I get hired I doubt much will change until after the final next month. Team USA was utterly conquered today by the Mighty Czech Republic. I swear, were we moving in slow motion or what? Most teams that have played thus far are quite aggressive, really getting on top of the ball and, you know, actually taking it away from the other team. We played an odd game, from my point of view. The players stayed farther away from their opponents, and rather than short, quick passes, mostly they kicked the ball long distances. The Czechs took the ball at every opportunity, and there were many. It was really painful to watch.

Hopefully, we won’t get squished by Italy, though I’m not sure. I watched their match against Ghana today. Italy won, but it was a fantastic game to watch. Both teams were so great. That Ghana goalie was crazy-good. And I wish my feet could move as fast as all of those guys. Fantastic!

The reason I was watching Univision again today, rather than ABC is because only ESPN had today’s games, and I don’t get that channel. ABC had some matches on the other day, and I’m surprised they didn’t have at least the US match today. I was all set on ABC to watch the match in English, and I was annoyed with “The View” instead. That’s OK.

Viva Univision! Viva el futbol!

Copa Mundial!

Match 1 of the World Cup was today. Germany and Costa Rica. Germany won 4-2 in 90 minutes. No one was broadcasting the opening ceremonies except Univision. I watched it in Spanish, and understood perhaps 1/3 of what was going on. If I’m correct, then as each country was introduced, children from that country escorted former team members from that country, and the children were holding signs with the year of that country’s World Cup win. It was really cool. And the children were in their football uniforms. It was great. There was music, dancing, and these women in masks with elaborate dresses, too. They were dangling from the ceiling of the stadium. Yeah. Dangling and waving their arms about. Quite strange, really. They probably symbolized something or other, but I couldn’t understand.

You’d think the World Cup would at least be something to put on TV, right? I suppose I can understand the networks not wanting to “waste” precious air time with regular matches, but come on! This is the World Cup we’re talking about here. Anyway, I watched most of the match, but missed the winning goal because I had to track down the cat to give him his medecine, and of course, he was sequestered in the back of the closet. I heard “GOAAAAAALLLLLLL!” and the eruption of the crowd. The cup matches are in Germany this year, so with Germany winning the first match, you can expect that it was truly glorious for them.

The rest of the schedule can be found here, if you’re interested. And you should be. I’m probably going to get some flack for this, but the World Cup is way better than the World Series. At least there are other countries participating. And don’t even try to say that it’s an international even because the Blue Jays are in it. The US and Canada do not an worle event make. And the Cup is cooler looking than the Series trophy.

Eleven years ago…

Eleven years ago yesterday, I graduated from high school. (Do you say “graduated high school” or “graduated from?” Adding the “from” sounds a bit redundant, while leaving it out seems a bit incomplete.) Eleven sounds much more impressive than ten, for some reason. I like having graduated eleven years ago, rather than ten– like I’m actually an adult, or at least pretending to be one.

A good sign

The interview went well, I think. I didn’t say anything too stupid, and was able to express myself intelligently, so that’s always good. I’ve been asked back for a second interview next week. I don’t know when it will take place exactly, but soon. I really like the job from the description, and at the second interview, I’ll learn more, and be shown more of the archives and such. I’m looking forward to it. And I’m not really nervous at all. I was nervous about finding the building, and finding the office, but really once I sat down, I was not nervous at all. And I’m actually quite excited about the second interview.

They are looking to fill the position soon, so I shouldn’t have to wait too long after the second interview to know whether or not they’ll hire me. The waiting is always the most nerve wracking part, anyway.

Keep those fingers crossed! And toes if you can manage it.