I am going to cheat the tiniest little bit by ignoring the bit about having to *start* the book after the first of the year. I have two or three in the works already which I started at varying points in 2011. I’ll probably be finishing some of those off when I panic and fall behind.

However, in celebration of new project excitement, I picked up Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan at a friend’s request. I figure my first finished book should have a start day after the first. I’ve read his Uglies series which I thought was excellent conceptually, so I’m excited to give this one a shot. The chapters seem to take less than ten minutes to read on average, which is faaaaantastic for my limited attention span.

I shall report back.

So it took us a solid over-24-hours to re-acclimate to the the crappiness of being separated by hundreds to thousands of miles, but we’re home and entrenched in our separated worlds… Blerg.

Here is a basic throwdown of what happened while we were away!

1) Just outside of Seattle there is a restaurant/bar named AFK something or other. They have shots named after things like HP Houses and Jayne’s Hat. They have a “The One Ring” burger and “Dwarven Battle Bread.” I pledge my eternal love to this place.

2) I found my future husband. He works at AFK and wears weird hats. I think we had a connection. I made a solid first impression by stumbling over my words a lot and giggling like a school girl. I’m thinking once he finds out that I’ve pre-named all of our children, I’ll be getting a call.

3) Linuxchic proved that four days is not too short a time to polish off mass amounts of saccharine green liquid. Also, I’m fairly certain she can’t live without it at this point – it’s like a second heart.

4) I have determined that Schmutzerella lies about her cat. Bella is made of all things lovable and purring. She’s like a snowball that cuddles.

5) We came up with a multitude of colorway names that will make absolutely no sense to anyone at all ever. Not even to us because we’re sober now.

6) We got to see the 10 Things I Hate About You troll:

8 ) There was a tea party that we probably shouldn’t talk about. We’re odd. We laughed. A lot.

9) I have a fat stuffed Panda named BALLER! He’s the cutest thing EVER. He seemed like a complete waste of money at the time, so I almost left him cold and alone in the Holiday aisle of some drug store that starts with a “B” but Linuxchic saved him from drug aisle obscurity and now he will LIVE WITH ME FOREVER.

10) Jammie Dodgers are amazeballs.

11) Linuxchic made this for my doggie!!!

This is the picture where she decided to attack the camera:

12) I’ve run out of things that sound cool. I shall ask my cohorts if they have additional points to add… or pictures. They have pictures. I do not. I didn’t bring my camera because… I suck… I can take pictures of Baller though, and will. Many, many, many pictures. Stay tuned…

Time for a list of things I’m thankful for!

1) Penguins. They waddle.

2) Books. Walking into a book store without a book in mind is like walking into a store full of new worlds, characters, and stories. You get to pick where you’ll be and who you’ll be – it’s intoxicating. Go pick out a book this Thanksgiving

3) Geeks. My people.

4) Family. Mine made me who I am, and I like who I am, they get the credit.

5) Friends. The family I chose. ‘Nuff said.

6) Owls. I like animals, what can I say?

I mean, just LOOK at that thing.

7) Everything else in the world.

What are you thankful for, friends?

“Quaint? Who are you?”

“Midori.”

She had finished scanning the living room and moved into the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Brendan was unprepared for this intrusion into his life and wasn’t sure how to handle it. Asking questions seemed the simplest solution. He followed her and then moved around her to block her from his food.

“Are you making a sandwich?”

“Well, obviously.” He placed the relished slice of bread on the rest of his ingredients, picked up the sandwich, and held it in front of himself protectively.

She finished looking at everything in his kitchen and turned back to look at him. Scanning his body language and expression, she frowned.

“I’m not going to steal your sandwich. You’re being rude.” And with that, she turned and walked out of his open door, leaving his house.

Brendan opened his mouth as if to speak back to a person who was now no longer there, but found that he was lacking words… and an audience.

****

With the imminent arrival of Winter, I have to knit faster! I have so many things queued up but am moving all my worsted weight projects and quick knits to the front of the line.

My plan for the month of November includes:

• Loxley
• Magic Loop Mitts (using test yarn)
• Finish Snow White (wip since last winter)
• Candy Stripes & Sprinkles hat
• Jen’s Sensational Scarf (out of handspun)
• Toe up striped socks done with fingering two strands at a time.
• Victorian Neck Cozy (in delightful alpaca)
• Khair

I REFUSE to discuss all the holiday crafting I haven’t started. Shhhh, none of that.

KNIT FASTER!

And speaking of my favorite Halloween movies, let me pull out some screencaps of some of the best and brightest:

SCREAM came out in 1996 when I was 15 years old and living in Switzerland. I remember being completely, COMPLETELY horrified. I took the train home with my blanched friends and got off at my stop with another girl, Ellie, who lived at the bottom of the hill (I, of course, lived at the top of the hill). She recognized that I would have to walk all the way home by myself at night and took pity on me. She walked me halfway up and then we both broke to run home from there, effectively splitting the panic time in half for me. Awesome friend I swore I would never, ever watch Scream again. Two weeks later I was back in the theaters… a horror movie fan for life.

Which lead me to discover the greatest classic horror movie of all time:

Halloween. Little needs to be said about the awesomeness of this movie, seyz I. It’s creeptastic in the best… possible… way.

Also, this chick is flippin’ scarysauce:

So, what’s your favorite scary movie, Sydney, readers?

I don’t know about you all, but Autumn is crazy-inspiring for me from a fiber loving perspective. Naturally, the majority of what I WANT to knit has to go on the backburner in favor of Christmas knits, but I still manage to sneak a few projects in from time to time

Here’s what’s on my docket:

The Weasley Homestead Socks. This will be entertaining for multiple reasons.

1) Weasleys!

2) I have never knit a full pair of socks before – I’ve tried, oh I’ve tried, but there are two of them. Who came up with that? It’s a stupid idea. One sock should suffice. You can totally shove both feet into it.

3) There are really only two entertaining things, but I felt a third number in the list was necessary.

Also on my docket:

The Confuzzle Socks

What’s funny about this? Yep, youuuuuu’ve got it! Also socks!!!! The chances that I’ll get through these, I figure, is greater, because they’re worsted weight. Perhaps I should start with them…

I’m still guessing that we shouldn’t hold our collective breath for Vberry to finish anything, but she will be giving it her all! Stay tuned and I’ll tell you what yarn I’ve picked out

What’s on your November knitting slate?

When he was recovered, he sat himself up and stared at the curtained window. There was a tap that made him jump again, but thankfully he was already on the floor and had nowhere to fall. He stood back up carefully and approached the window again. This time he flipped the whole curtain back and there before him, on the other side, stood one of the three women from next door.

She had her head cocked to the side and a questioning expression sat on her face. She was so still that for a moment all Brendan could do was stare at her. Her black hair obscured one of her eyes in that position and the eyebrow above it was arched impossibly high.

He was so stuck in a frozen moment that when she opened her mouth and yelled “Are you okay?!” as loudly as she could to be heard through the window, it almost stopped his heart.

Without responding, he tromped to his door and flung it open. She was now craning her neck gazing through the window, trying to follow his progress to the door.

“What are you doing?” he asked sharply, secretly hoping to scare her as she had him. She turned to him slowly and hopped over to the door. Well, more of a skip maybe. Who skips at her age?

“I saw you looking at us through the window and thought you might want a closer look.” She smiled unironically and he took a step backwards, confused. She seemed to accept that as an invitation to enter and hop-skipped into his house. His house. She was in his house, this weird person.

Just because this needs to be posted everywhere in the universe…

Allow me to present to you a couple of the finished projects!!!

Looking lovely, ladies. You all rock my world!