lagniappe 2.0

The flip side of "better than you" is "never good enough."

Fold that any way you wish...

When “back to work” means “everything rests on my ability to watch 'Grey’s Anatomy'."

An email in response to a friend's question about watching Grey's Anatomy tonight:

-----Original Message-----
From: Jen [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 2:53 PM
To: Friend X; Friend Y; Friend Z
Subject: RE: Grey's Anatomy

Hey everyone,

I MIGHT be watching this episode, I don't know. Right now my cable is freaking out. I just went to set the VCR because I might not get to watch the show tonight--never able to plan my schedule around the shows I like, dammit--and we aren't getting any reception at all. So, we'll see. I thought it might be just a "rabbit ears" issue, but it's something else.

That said, I will NOT be watching this season if something bad happens to the Christina or Burke characters. I hope Addison stays, though, and finds a decent man. I'm not a McDreamy fan--for her or Meredith. And yes, M needs to do something with the mop on her head.

Hope you're all doing well. Back to work.
Jen
-------------------------

A slightly later email, wherein said "work" was performed...



-----Original Message-----
From: Jen [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 5:18 PM
To: Friend X; Friend Y; Friend Z
Subject: cable hookups and ph.d.s

Hi all,

You know how I sometimes make fun of the faculty (as a whole, of course) and its inability to operate simple machinery like, say, an overhead, or a copier. Well, I must be on my way toward professor-hood because I "solved" my cable problem this afternoon in one easy step.

After much hemming, hawing, and hand-wringing, during which time I contemplated several possible solutions to my problem**, I finally pulled on the cable part of the rabbit ears. Yep, it was not attached to the TV anymore. F'ing brilliant. I plugged it back into its place and Voila! Channel Nine is fully operational.

Thought you'd get a kick out of that little lesson in humility. Now, do I tell Russell to make him laugh, or do I keep this shameful experience to myself?

Jen

**Solutions to cable problem including but not limited to: calling Russell at work, calling landlord and pressing "1" for "emergency" on the maintenance line, climbing onto the roof to check the antenna myself, calling the cable company (meaning, Channel Nine) to determine if service was out all over Cinti, crying, calling the City of Cincinnati to determine if winds (it's not even windy today) had taken down a line... No, I'm not
obsessed. Why do you ask?


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baby hat sweatshop

The announcements began trickling in back in November and December, I'd say, when the holidays brought families and friends together. At first the numbers were moderate: my sister-in-law, two friends from school, my best friend Kate. But then came the deluge, and when it was over thirteen of my friends were going to give birth by mid-September.

Without sounding cheap, I hope, I must say that I freaked out at first at the potential cost. Depending on the parents-to-be, the registries can be prohibitively expensive. The diaper champs, the Baby Bjorns (if you don't know what that is yet, don't panic--a pregnant friend will surely fill you in at some point), the myriad bedding and clothing options...for this graduate student, it all seemed like an exercise in savings depletion. The first shower I went to set me back $55.00. At that rate I was looking at $600.00 plus bucks for the entire summer, and I knew I'd spend more that that on my particularly close friends. Couple that with the fact that I don't get paid during the summer and you can perhaps understand my anxiety.

I certainly don't mean to sound dour about my situation. I mean, I was ecstatic that so many women I care about were having babies. But that celebration was always tinged with, "How will I pay for it?" And that's no way to usher in the joyous occasion of new life.

So, I purchased about ten skeins of Artful Yarns "Candy" and went to town. It's been a baby hat summer. I began with some so-so needles and finally made the investment in some Addi-turbos. (For all you non-knitters out there, the "turbo" is for real--they're super slick and fast!)

Here's the first hat I made:


Pretty cute. And relatively simple. A hat plus a book for baby made a fun, affordable (for me) gift. And for a while I was a machine, cranking out a hat per shower in no time at all. But then I started to expand my repetoire. I wanted to make a couple of my friends a sweater to go with the hat. I began with the same "Candy" yarn for two, and those sweaters turned out really well. I mean, they weren't perfect, but that's what "homemade" means, right? The Candy yarn has a little elastic in it, so it's very forgiving.

Then I asked a friend to give me some suggestions for a color and she chose solid blue. Well, there's no solid blue "Candy," so I went to regular cotton. So much harder. But here's the result:


Check the buttons:


When my friend Kate gave birth on Sept. 5, she was the last of the thirteen. I thought my stint as mad-baby-hat-knitter was over. I ordered myself some Cash Iroha to make the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and dreamed of finishing one of my shawls.

On Saturday, I received an invitation to another baby shower. So, back to the sweatshop I go...