so today on the tivo, i turned on an episode of image union which featured a short called “Sound Underground,” a short documentary about the musicians who play in the CTA subway stations. it’s actually a pretty good flick, and, amusingly, i saw one of the artists featured in it, playing last night at the washington dearborn subway stop. i’d never seen her before so that was kind of fun — she’s the one who tap dances while playing guitar and violin (yes really).
but the hidden gem in the episode was an excerpt from a short by Rookie TV, called Meatshake:
don’t you have a protest to get to, hippie?!?
so, my department at work, every quarter we go out to dinner together. we always, always go to a steakhouse of some sort, and while i like steak, don’t get me wrong, sometimes i want not-steak. so i suggested japonais ages ago (i *heart* sushi), and a couple people agreed with me. we kept not going to japonais and kept not going to japonais and finally we got to go to japonais. because the group is, all together, like 25 people, we had to rsvp a large group, and they made us sign a contract. the dinner was tonight. it was fucking brilliant. we had so much food and sake and yumminess there was no way we could finish it all. the only problem was… most people bailed on the evening. only 10 people wound up showing up for the dinner. and the bill was like $4500. seriously — $4500!!!! i feel awful for suggesting it, because we wound up spending so much money, because we had to sign the contract in advance. omg, so much fucking money. it was a brilliant meal and, yes, i would go back on my own, but…omfg, so fucking much money. i just feel awful.
(yes, i would feel substantively less guilty if more people had showed up, and the price per head had subsequently been less. this does not change the fact that they did not show up. and i still feel awful. omfg. people could pay rent for what we paid per person for dinner tonight! we could have just gone to oysy for less!)
it needs to quit. snowing. already. srsly. i am beginning to understand the reason for cabin fever, and i am leaving my house on a regular basis. also, i am ready for the nanny-state to make it mandatory that everyone clear their sidewalks, because i am tired of slipping and almost-falling, especially while carrying groceries home from jewel.
filed my taxes yesterday. 12 feb may actually be the earliest that i’ve ever done so. i’m feeling pretty rock star about it, actually. plus, since i have like 9 months left until 15 april, if i remember i’ve forgotten something, i still have plenty of time to file an amended return. though, i don’t think i did. turbo tax rules! yaay turbotax! (booo federal government not allowing everyone to e-file for free. seriously, why is the government making taxpayers pay twice to file their taxes — once for the IRS bureaucracy to operate, and twice to a tax preparer to handle e-filing, since we can’t just go directly to them, like we can to the Illinois Department of Revenue? this sucks. i will vote for the presidential candidate who opens up the IRS income tax API so we can all file for free.) now i want my refund. c’moooonnnn, IRS! i filed TWELVE WHOLE HOURS AGO! get the lead out!
have gotten comparatively little knitting done lately, but: THE ANTI-BAUDELAIRES ARE DONE! YAAAAAY! picture to follow. DONE DONE DONE! remember, i started knitting the baudelaires in *may* of last year. MAY. and i finished the ribbing on the second anti-baudelaire last night. i still have to weave in the ends, but i am counting them as DONE. because i want to.
my donna-sweater-in-the-round-with-seed-stitch-instead-of-ribbing is proceeding well enough. (can you really still say you’re using a particular pattern if you pretty much change everything about it? oh well.) i got trapped in an interminable post office line a couple weeks ago when i was getting to that measure-every-five-minutes stage of ‘jesus, am i done with seed stitch yet??’ and wound up knitting about 8.5 cm of it instead of the 7.5 i was shooting for, but i didn’t care enough to rip it out. so now i’m onto the ‘ten thousand miles of stockinette’ stage. good news: stockinette is fast. knitpicks options needles are fast. stockinette + knitpicks options = turbo knitting. so i hope some day to have the body of this sweater done — that would be pretty awesome. perhaps it’ll even take me less than a year to do.
in other news, work v. busy. pitchers and catchers report at the end of this week (YAY). i reduced my gas bill by ten bucks this month due to conservative thermostat use, despite it being much colder than the previous month. and i just realized i have to put the laundry together for the laundry fairies to pick up, before i can leave for work. byeeee!
