"Like a tree. Or a high-class prostitute."

Before you all start to worry about me, I feel that I should assure you that my washing machine is not the only thing in this world that is bringing me joy lately. Honestly, I chose to make a video of the washer because it was a Wednesday morning and ... well, what else am I supposed to film? My toes? Besides, I like the cute little music it plays when I turn it on. The drier does the same thing! Eee!

Here are some other things that have made me happy in the past week.

1. Liz may appreciate this one more than anybody.
There is a HILARIOUS personal ad on Match.com right now. Jeezie creezie, it's a masterpiece. I read about it on Jezebel (which is sort of feminist-y, silly gossip blog). The ad is for a man who calls himself "TheGoodDr" and in the ad, he basically imagines the internal monologue of a woman who is on a date with him. It's stellar. Click here to read it.

2. I am finally - FINALLY - teaching myself some more advanced knitting stitches. I was inspired to do this because last week I needed to find a washcloth pattern for Shawna. I found what she wanted, but it had a few steps in it that I had never tried before. The name of this pattern: "Idiot's Washcloth". I realized that I needed to move past the "idiot" stage of knitting. Hence, lace work. Here's a link to the pattern. It's complicated, but I am currently on row 59 and have managed not to screw it up.

3. This week's obsession: Flight of the Conchords. I LOVE this show. These guys are like The Smothers Brothers with a splash of Newhart, but ... well, younger. And from New Zealand. I've only been able to watch 3 episodes of Flight of the Conchords, and that's after scraping the bottom of that big barrel known as The Internets, but I've watched oodles of clips of their stand-up routine on YouTube. If you have HBO (which sadly, I do not), then you must watch this show. It's on Sunday nights after Entourage. Here's the first song from the first episode just to whet your appetite.

First film

I can be such an idiot sometimes. I have owned this new camera since last Christmas and only recently did I realize that I can record movies with it. Picture me smacking myself in the forehead.

So this morning, just as an experiment, I made a little video of one of my favorite things. :)

Tear jerker

I'm feeling emotional this week. Please forgive me. I have been crying off-and-on.

No, nothing bad has happened to me or Tim, so don't worry your little heads. Indeed, everything is great!
1. I made some new friends - Tina & Valerie. Both have great senses of humor & enjoy Amy & David Sedaris, so I'm feeling hopeful there.
2. My fancy KitchenAid food processor arrived in the mail. Did you know that the French term for "food processor" is "robot culinaire"? This means I have my very own robot! Kick ass!
3. I cooked lamb chops for dinner on Thursday. However, they were absurdly expensive ($20 bought enough for just me & Tim) so I won't be doing that very often, but it made Tim happy so it's all good.
4. After many months of ignoring my knitting needles, I picked them up again in order to decifer a knitting project for our friend, Shawna. And it was fun & Shawna really appreciated my help (she now knows how to purl & how to do a "yarn over" thanks to me). So yay!

So ya see? Good things! And yet, I have been a weepy mess.
1. I watched "Miss Potter" - the movie about Beatrix Potter staring Renee Zellwegger & Ewan McGreggor. Bawled my eyes out. Streams of tears. Partly I was crying because some sad things happen in her life, but mainly I was crying because the scenes from the Lake District were so unbelieveably beautiful. I miss Cumbria. Sigh.
2. A dog I never met has died. There's a blog I like to read called "Posie Gets Cozy" ( http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/ ) and the woman who writes it owns - owned - a fabulous black and white corgi named Audrey. If you know me well, you know that I adore corgis and black & white animals. As you can imagine, this corgi was my ideal dog. So to read that poor little Audrey had cancer & had to be put to sleep ... well, I'm getting teary just thinking about it again.

Thank goodness my husband is sappy, too. Any other man in his right mind would see me weaping over things like this & would give me a rather wide berth for a few days. But dear Tim smiles as if to say, "You're wacky & sweet & adorable & I love you," & wraps his arm around my shoulder. Ain't he the best?
Sniff.

I'll leave you with a video of Audrey the dog playing at the beach. So cute! Oh lordy, now I want a dog again.

Social Life: The return

Last Friday: Went over to house of new friends, Lauran and John, for snacks and a card game called "Killer Bunnies"
Last Saturday: Hosted dinner party. Fed fabulous smothered pork chops to Kevin, Shawna, & Mark. Then tried out Tim's new card game called "Legacy of Madness"
Last Sunday: Went to Mark's to watch F1 race. Ate croissants & grumbled about Alonzo, the newly-knighted Sir Douchebag of Ass-a-lot.
Thursday: Went to Laura's house for Girly Card Night. Played Balderdash and Apples to Apples with the ladies while eating Doritos and lemon cookies.
Saturday (today): Going to Kevin & Shawna's place for spaghetti & card games. Jennifer, Kyle, and Mark may join us.
Sunday: Potential movie outing. Potentially.
Tuesday: Massive get-together at Laura's house for ladies we've met on-line who happen to live in Durham. Sandy, Tina, and Victoria should be in attendance. Should be fab!

So yes. I suppose I have a social life again. Hmmm. Whodathunkit? Of course, if I keep talking about my washing machine, these invitations may dwindle down to nothing again.

My Endless Love

I love my washing machine.
LOVE.
If you'll recall, shortly after moving into our lovely house, we chose to invest in the LG Tromm front-loading washer & dryer. They are widely known to be the best machines on the market. And oh my ... they are fabulous. The washing machine is especially amazing. Miracles take place in that drum, I'm sure of it.

My adoration for my washing machine is so intense that it's becoming a bit fanatical ... and perhaps a touch embarassing. I have rambled on about the glory of my washing machine to friends & have gushed about its cleaning power on internet message boards. Once I even held up my phone to the machine so that George could hear the cute little song they play when I turn them on ("Deedle-deedle-dee!"). I just can't help myself. Would you like to hear about the incident with the tika masala sauce? Or the grenadine? Or how about the old, set-in blood stains? All of these long, passionate, dramatic stories end the same way - with laundry that has miraculously come clean without the slightest bit of soaking or hand scrubbing on my part. Astounding.

So if any of you know anybody at the LG corporation & they're looking for testamonials, tell them to look me up. I'd be thrilled to wax poetic about my washing machine ... to someone who cares.

Chicken goes to Disney

Remember the 20-pound concrete chicken that we stole from my friend, Tes? We took it to Disney World. Unfortunately, we saw no way to take the chicken inside any of the parks because they've really stepped up security there (ll bags are searched before you enter the parks). Besides, who wants to carry around a 20-pound concrete chicken all day?! Luckily there are no security issues at the Disney Marketplace, so we took some pics around there.