My Opal Socks---oh my

Not exactly a matched pair, are they? Well, this self-patterning yarn is a little tricky to figure out; I thought I'd gotten to the right point to begin the second sock---go figure. My knitting friends who read German probably know and I should have asked. But why would a know-it-all ask for help?

I do admit to loving them. And for the record, they do feel much better than garden variety "off-the-rack" socks because they have REAL heels and they're made to fit a foot that is the wearer's size.
I like the sock best with the two purple stripes but I also the striped heel on the other one. What's a girl to do? I think I won't take them off until I have another pair knit up.

New Movies and Books

Because I've been home, and am likely to be for a bit longer, I have a pile of new movies to watch. The Pianist, Brick, City of God, The Constant Gardener, the Showtime series Huff AND---exciting! A 9-movies collection of Pedro Almodovar flicks. The thing is, its easy to knit while watching a movie so long as its not subtitled. I'm hoping my Spanish is good enough to get me through. I also have Elizabeth--amazing---Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version; I prefer Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy) and a video production of Stomp which is so much fun! Of course I haven't watched hardly any of these because my concentration still stinks.

In hopes that I'll soon be better able to focus, I also bought two books I've been longing for: Johnathan Safran Foer's, Everything is Illuminated. I absolutely loved his Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Secondly I purchased Dave Egger's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. I think Rob has read some of Eggers stuff, maybe even What is the What and a recommendation for Rob, unless its that godawful poli-sci stuff he reads, is something I attach great weight to. Before I can even try, though, I must finish, The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen. Its a very broad consideration of the community-wide impact of certain decisions made to protect that community as the 1918 influenza pandemic approached the pacific northwest. The characters are really well developed and it feels like fiction to me but the challenges faced, the damned-if-you-do-or-don't position leaders are sitting in..., well, let's just say it resonates. Surprisingly, Rob also liked this one; he typically doesn't like my doomsday public health reading (see my thinking about his poli-sci); he actually didn't get through The Great Influenza. I think if I live to be a zillion years old, I'll never really understand what literature will or won't resonate with that man. Isn't that the beauty of marriage?

Oh! And I don't want to forget that Rob has given to me a book called Emergency Sex and other Desperate Measures, NO, its not a self-help book! It is the non-fiction account of (and authored by) a physician, social worker and "legal expert" on various United Nations peacekeeping missions in places like Rwanda, Mogadishu, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Phnom Penh. Its been extremely well received but has shaken things up at the UN a good bit.

The problem is, I simply can not knit and read at the same time. And I hate to put down my knitting needles!

"Built for Comfort" -- Howlin' Wolf

This song never fails to cheer me. Its been done by about a zillion people and I think my only regret about the Taj Mahal show I caught last year is that he didn't play it; I bet that would be something to see live.

I chose this song for its ability to cheer me but also because I was reminded of a great collection of Willie Dixon tunes released as a 2-disc set in 1990 by Chess records. Chess, Cobra, both are record companies built on the back of Dixon's uncanny ability to write blues with BROAD appeal---some of the earliest signs of the emergence of rhythm and blues. He was also a bassist and I have a soft spot for those guys.

Anyway---some folks built like this, some folks built like that. I'm built for comfort; I ain't built for speed.