Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston

Too bad he's the only person I wanted to vote for. Naturally that means he's doomed, right?

Remember this?

Well I just caught Emily the kitty having a little taste of some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies!

Was her reaction to try to hide or even look guilty? No, this time, she just casually went back to licking the cookie she had dragged off the cooling rack.

Bad kitty!

17%

What I want to know is, why is Hashbrown more likely to eat her friends than me? She's even a vegetarian!

By the way, this is wrong because I assume it is talking about not eating people already dead but killing people. I wouldn't even kill my dog or cat much less my friends, so I guess I'd die of starvation.

Dude, this is so cool!

I'm kind of obsessed with this book. I think it's because I'm already sick of dyeing my hair and I'm only 31! Of course, thanks to some awesome genetics, grays have been sneaking onto my head since I was a teenager.

I think if I really had a full head of nice silver or white hair I'd probably go with it, but I'm worried my natural sort of bland medium/dark ash brown hair + a ton of greys will just look messy and weird.

I've been considering switching from permanent dye to the kind that lasts for 4-6 weeks and slowly fades to see how it looks as it grows in.

Anyway, regardless of what I decide, I think this book looks really interesting. And check out the great group of before and after shots the author has on her site (that is, women before growing in their natural gray hair, and after - and even a few who have never dyed theirs).

OK, in light of my recent crying jags about animals in shelters, anybody want to do something nice for them? That is, if you don't have a giant farmhouse that means you can adopt 50.

Thanks again for the crying gene, Mom.

OK, so last night I'm watching something random on TV, I think Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC America and all of a sudden, during the commercials, I see a depressed looking dog in a cage and Sarah McLachlan's song "Angel" starts playing. I immediately burst into tears and say, "Fuck you Sarah McLachlan, for making me cry!" and the commercial continues by showing me about 20 more sad looking animals, kitties and dogs, and it's for the ASPCA so then you get a few lines about how every year thousands of animals are abused, neglected, etc. but the ASPCA works to help and save them etc. but for many it's too late. More crying. Then Sarah McLachlan herself comes on and talks more about how you should give money to the ASPCA and by then I have to leave the room.

WTF?

I seriously had to go sit in the bathroom and bawl for a minute.

That's all.

Happy Friday!

p.s. Why, when I went to find the YouTube video of the commercial did I torture myself by watching most of it again? At least the sound was off on my computer.

Um, commercials have been known to make me cry. Just tonight, while we were eating stupid Subway and watching terrible Carpoolers, there was a random commercial on about how for every dog adopted from a shelter one is not. And I cried.

Then David Duchovny informs me that I should buy Pedigree dog food or something so that they will help save unadopted dogs.

But really, what I wanted to do was sell my soul to buy a giant farmhouse in Pennsyltucky or something, where I would proceed to save as many dogs as I could for the rest of my life.

Then I declared loudly to Rob (and completely sanely) that half the people in the world should be removed and we should "give the dogs their houses".

Yeah.

Dear commercials,

Please don't make me cry.

love,
Jenn

Future installments:
Hallmark commercial about woman giving a card to old lady across the street
Ad in magazine about camp for kids with AIDS
This episode of Futurama (OK, not a commercial, but it's still important to mention. It gets me every time.)

So I was previously already obsessed with Ingrid Michaelson's song "The Way I Am" (but why are there scary clowns in this video???) from yes, an Old Navy sweater commercial. Sorry, but I loved the song.

If you were falling
then I would catch you
you need a light
I'll find a match

'cause I love
the way you say 'good morning'
and you take me the way I am

Anyway, so I bought it from iTunes. The other day I got an email from Borders about a performance by her at their #01 store in Ann Arbor Michigan and I clicked over and listened to it a bit.

Now my new obsession is her song "Breakable" which I also bought on iTunes. I probably will just end up buying the album.

And you fastened my seatbelt
because it is the law
in your two-ton death trap
I finally saw
a piece of love in your face
that bathed me in regret
then you drove me to places
I'll never forget

And we are so fragile
and our cracking bones make noise
and we are just breakable breakable breakable
girls and boys

It's very pretty, melodic music, and I like her voice a lot.

Check it out if you're interested.

This movie was actually kind of awesome. I knew a bit about the storyline but not a lot. It's actually kind of a great one. If you don't know, it's no spoiler to tell you that Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Johnny Depp), was formerly known as Benjamin Barker and that some creepy corrupt judge destroys his family by falsely imprisoning him so he can try to seduce his wife. The Barkers also have a young daughter at the time.

The movie begins with him coming back to London after something like 15 years locked up on the false charges.

Johnny Depp does a really good job with the singing. I've of course never heard him sing before so you always have to be a little nervous - sometimes actors think they can just magically sing when they actually can't. But I think the score of this movie is also notoriously difficult and he does great.

I love Helena Bonham Carter as well, she's so nutty looking when she wants to be and is perfect in her role I think. I even liked the guy who plays the kid in love with Sweeney Todd's daughter, he has a really sweet singing voice and I like the song he sings to her.

The music and story are great and it has pretty much the perfect ending. If you're a fan of musicals at all and/or particularly of Sweeney Todd, I highly recommend the movie.

I thought I owed you all more than a quick link to another blog where the author actually wrote, you know, like a sentence or two. So, while I am still getting off cheap by copying Jenny, here is a list of 7 things I approve of:

1. Never depriving yourself of dessert.
2. People who love their pets. A lot.
3. Awesome shoes.
4. Doing things yourself.
5. Not taking your bad day out on others.
6. Good design.
7. Everything about Hester Willa. (OK, that's almost a cheat, but it's true.)

Hester with the Raggedy Ann doll my parents sent her for her first birthday. How cute is this?

Check it out.

Guess what I did this morning while the laundry was in the machine at the laundromat, beginning in the six o'clock hour?

Read the rest

Of course it's even more out of control than I expected. The thickest part is only 0.76". The thinnest is 0.16"! That's crazy dude!

Today is MacWorld and everyone is in a kerfuffle about a supposed new ultra thin laptop.

And checkout the teaser currently on Apple's site:

and here's what it says, because you probably can't read the horribly compressed image:

Nerderific!

My company closed the office today! Nice to get a snow day even as a grown up! So far I've been lazy around the apartment but will probably do something to make use of the time at some point.

(Also funny is that the only other post in this category is about a surprise day off in April of last year. That's because I purposely don't write about my job here.)

Hester seems suspicious of the party hat I'm wearing. It's actually hers but she was not impressed with wearing it herself, so I got to try it out at her birthday party on Sunday.

Happy First Birthday Hester! I love you!

(Please note the UNICORN SHIRT I am wearing. Thanks Clementine!)

Today I was warned by someone at my office that people were going to start thinking Hester was my own baby because I have a picture of her in a silver frame on my desk.

Um, did the other 16 pictures at my desk not already qualify as an over-abundance? You know, for normal people. (Also please note that before Hester was born I had sonograms of her on my cube wall. Yep.)

Please observe, what we fondly call "The Wall of Hester"

But come on.... how can I resist? I'm her auntie! And she's so freaking cute! Check it out:

Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others.

Jules Renard

I randomly stumbled across this site, so I'm not certain how legit it is, though it doesn't look like something a 13 year old threw up in their spare time so there's probably something to it.

Anyway, given my well-documented hatred of PETA (despite or even because of my life-long love of all animals and general regard for them as better than people), I thought that the fact that this site exists was hilarious.

I have to say, for an organization with so much press and so many celebrity endorsers, maybe they could find a way to run no-kill shelters.

Oops, assholes.

As per every personality test I've ever taken, INFP, baby.

Just before dinner I had the most annoying trip to the store ever.

I had to run to Whole Foods and CVS to get:

Whole Foods

• salad
• marinade

CVS

• soda
• cash back for laundry

When I came home I told robreed and Heather Rose about it and I didn't even remember all the relevant details.

First, right around the corner from Whole Foods, (at Charles River Plaza) some car pulled over on Cambridge Street in an illegal spot and a chick jumped out, called back to the driver, "I'll be right back!" and darted in front of me too close not to be rude, and ran to the store.

So then I go in the store, get salad from the salad bar and pick out a marinade to make the chicken we're having. I walk over to the checkout and am literally already getting in a line when some chick just walks in front of me and plunks her crap down and proceeds to check out.

The reason she was doing it was the line she went to first had just closed. But guess what? Doesn't matter rude bitch, I was already in line. But I had my iPod on and didn't feel like dealing with a confrontation so I just walked to another line. Of course, I made one of my classic crazy faces and mouthed the words fucking bitch obnoxiously but she didn't see me. The best part? She was that stupid chick who was going to be "right back". Also, what was she buying? A bundle of firewood. And if that's all she was buying and she was supposed to be in and out so fast I don't know why she barely beat me to the checkout since I didn't run and got two things not particularly quickly. Whatever.

Then I went to CVS where I was annoyed as hell by the state of the line. There's this somewhat recent phenomenon I've noticed where if there are multiple registers open at places like CVS, fast food restaurants, etc., people refuse to pick a line and just jumble up in a big mess as if they're trying to make one big line so the first person in that line can just go to the next register that opens. Only that causes more problems than it solves because there's no room for it most of the time (if there is, then the store already has a clearly roped off area where you wait in an orderly line) so people are all standing in the aisles and blocking them, and you can't really tell who is where in line, etc. It makes me so angry. A lot of times I refuse to participate and will just walk right up to an open register, skipping the made up line. But for some reason I didn't do that so I had to wait in the stupid made up line and it was a mess and I wanted to kill everyone. Oh, and of course they have 2 self check-out lines there but both of the registers were closed.

While I was waiting to cross the street on my way home there was some car sauntering through the intersection so slowly and in no lane and I couldn't tell if he even saw me or what he was doing. At this point I said out loud, "hurry the fuck up you're a goddamn car". Still have my ipod on so I'm sure other pedestrians think I'm crazy. I probably said it too loud.

Then, around the corner from my apartment, I see this lady who lives in my neighborhood and her dog, and she's letting the dog pee on a bike that someone has, apparently foolishly, locked to a parking meter. WTF lady? I know I was making all sorts of crazy faces then. I actually wish I said something to her because I just can't take people's stupidity anymore.

I'm done with oblivious, careless, stupid, ridiculous people. Seriously. It's inexcusable. By the way, this lady is someone who's constantly outraged about everything going on around Beacon Hill except, apparently, the ridiculous things she chooses to do, like pee on people's bikes.

They have this new program that they're just beginning to introduce, which my friend MisaGracie told me about recently and which we just got to try tonight when we went to the store for our beginning of the month big shopping trip.

You scan your Stop and Shop card and take one of the "shopping buddies" right inside the entrance of the store. You also grab bags then and there. Then you scan everything as you go and bag it at the same time, putting all the bagged items in your cart. That might sound annoying (the bagging part) and it's a little hard to manage at first, but it's nice knowing that when you're done you don't have to wait around for this to happen.

The device keeps a running total for you, which is awesome, and you can also remove items from your cart (and the device) if you change your mind about something.

When you're done you go to a regular checkout line where you just scan a UPC there to tell it you're done, then hand your Stop and Shop card to the cashier. Everything quickly rings up on a receipt that s/he gives you, you pay, and you walk out.

It ROCKS!

I understand that just like the loyalty cards they and other chains already have, this is potentially another way to track what I'm doing.... in what order I make my purchases, etc., but it's so convenient that I don't mind. It saves me waiting in line, it saves me dealing with crazy people, and it's really kind of fun.

Check it out and see if there's a participating Stop and Shop near you!

There is almost nothing I hate more on the web than seeing those ridiculous adds by lower my bills dot com (I refuse to link to them) with the stupid terrible dancing cartoon-y people that run in an endless loop and make me want to stab my eyes out.

Why on earth would I ever get a mortgage from these people? I'd rather eat my own liver.

So currently I'm trying to only work on one thing at a time. So while I have about 4 things on my mind to do next, I'm trying not to start any of them so I can finish Hester Willa's matchy pink hat to go with mine.

The story is, I had a couple of skeins of Lana Grossa Pashmina yarn that I bought before for a project which it turned out to be the wrong color for. So I thought to myself, this is really nice yarn, but it's really only enough to make a couple of hats, and who is going to wear an eye-searingly pink hat? Well, I decided I would, so I made myself a pretty little cabled hat. I love making cables though my impatient nature means this is really only the second project I've finished with cables, and the other was also a hat.

But, I am pretty happy with how it turned out:

The full hat

and a detail of the cables.

I decided that my niecey Hester would be the lucky recipient of hat #2! Because I love to be matchy matchy with my Hester.

As for Hester's hat, I have finished the ribbing and am just on my 3rd row of the cables portion. I twist the cables every 5th row...oops, or did I do every 4 rows on mine? But I started on the wrong side to do that... well I guess I have time to fix it.

Full hat so far

and a detail of the ribbing.

A few more details: I'm using size 6 wooden needles that Clementine and Hashbrown gave me years ago, 2x2 ribbing and the cables are 4 sts with 3 sts of purling in between each.

Pattern

This is barely a pattern, but it was requested so I'll explain the best I can. I just made it up after doing a small swatch to test my gauge.

Again, the specific yarn I used was Pashmina. I'm sure another similar weight yarn would work just as well, and of course you should always do a swatch. I used size 6 needles.

For my hat, I cast on 116 stitches and each of my cables was 7 stitches so purl 3 and cable 4. Of course this makes 112 stitches. The other 4 were supposed to be extra at the seam although that's probably excessive. Maybe one on each side, so a total of 114. This was all based on my head measurement and my swatch. You may need to adjust somewhat.

I cast on using the "long tail" method (see video here). I then k2 p2 for about 4-5 inches, then switched to my cable pattern.

Cables: row 1: k3, p4 16 times
row 2: p3, k4 16 times
row 3: k3, p4 16 times
row 4: p3, cable4 16 times (note: if you want the same twist direction as my cables, slip the 2 stitches behind with the cable needle while you knit the first two)

Again, this was all me feeling it out as I went. When the hat was tall enough for me to start decreasing I decreased every other row as follows:

row 1: p2 together, p1, k4 16x
row 2: k2, p4 16x
row 3: p2 together, k4 16x
row 4: k1, p4 16x
row 5: p2 together, k3 16x
row 6: knit all
row 7: p2 together, k2 16x
etc.
until you have decreased to very few stitches, then you cinch them together and sew up the seam and you're done!

For Hester's hat I cast on 93 sts, her head is 18" around. My pattern is 91 sts with 2 extra for the seam. I haven't finished it yet.

Good luck!

Well this sucks.

Had to put one more up...

Here I am in Germany with Eva and her dad on my trip there in 1994, after our high school graduation. (In case you can't tell, that's me on the right.)

Besides the totally awesome haircut (or lack thereof) that I was sporting, and some wicked cool cutoffs, I also had on the best pair of Birkenstocks I've ever owned, which Eva's mom gave me upon my arrival. They were mostly green with other bright colors thrown in. I always got compliments on them and never found any like them here.

And do I believe the t-shirt I was wearing sported a Marge Piercy poem on the back. (Not the whole poem, just the last stanza.)

Try wearing that to a small-town high school in Ohio. Do you know how many fights I had with random stupid boys about that?

Here are a couple of gems from the photo archives over here at Chez Martinelli-Reed-Martin.

We used to see this guy fairly frequently in Brighton when we lived there. I snuck this photo in 2001 and was so excited to get it. I'm so sad it took me this long to post it. This was a homeless guy I'm pretty sure, but the point is the cape. Awesome.

Here I am in August of 2001. This was on our semi-annual trip to Saratoga Springs, NY, where Rob grew up. Don't I look so studious? Too bad I was considering which horse to bet on. Don't worry, we're talking $3 bets.

Stay tuned for more fun pictures soon to come!

Anyone who knows me knows my life is less than ideal right now. But it could be a lot worse, and there are a lot of problems I don't have to deal with right now.

I know a lot of folks who had a lot of bad stuff go on over the holidays, sudden deaths and illnesses, break-ups, other bad stuff.

I need to remember to be happy for what I have even while working to make everything else better. But my heart goes out to everyone who has so much more to worry about right now.

Here's to a good new year for everyone.

(Well, everyone I don't hate. Let's be honest here.)

I spent a lot of my time this weekend going through years and years worth of digital photos, so you'll probably see a few popping up now and then. Once we have them under control more, hopefully over the next few months or so, we'll be able to get them all online one way or another.

But anyway, here's a fun one...

"Billy, what do you think? Do you want a burger?"

"OK! I'll take two please, and some fries!"