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on squirrel patrol...
I thin khe may need a bigger bed soon...

Wed, Mar 23

Hard wet work» The Worst Jobs In History: Channel 4 in the UK has a fun site about horrible jobs from Roman to Victorian times. And of course, the job of "Viking Sailor/Warrior" is included and is categorized as "Hard wet work."

Tues, Mar 22

felt green on graphite Mirra chair» My new Herman Miller Mirra chair arrived today and it ROCKS! I chose the felt green color for the back and seat and the frame is graphite.

The Ultimate Backstore is currently having a sale on their Mirra floor models and I bought a fully loaded model for quite a lot less than it normally costs.

I love the fact that the chair is 96% recyclable.

Wed, Mar 16

» I found a most excellent t-shirt at Target last night:

Tues, March 15

» I took the The Commonly Confused Words Test and here's how I scored:

English Genius

You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 77% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Mon, Feb 28

» May the Gods help me. I saw them on Friday night at the mall and there's no going back...I've gotten sucked onto the deep, dark world of Playmobil Vikings ;-) As I giggled with childish glee, I bought the Longboat, the Viking Camp and the Viking King and Prince. What I really want is the Viking Longhouse, but great googly moogly, it's a tad expensive...

Mon, Feb 14

» It's Valentine's Day and so I went out and treated myself to a couple of really nice things:

  1. Color on Color Scarf
    Scarf Style by Pam Allen AND I've already ordered the yarn for the Color on Color scarf. It calls for an astounding 46 different colors of Paternayan Persian Wool Yarn and you can buy it in 8yd "knots" for only .70 each at Rebecca's Discount Needle Crafts.
  2. A gorgeous Bromeliad plant (Aechmea fasciata) from Strange's Florist & Garden Center here in Short Pump, VA. I went in looking for another orchid, but the silver and green leaves and the big pink flower of the Bromeliad really caught my eye. Plus, they're much easier to care for than orchids.

» Darnation! Two of the wool colors for my yummy Floral Felted Bag (see Fri, Feb 4) are on backorder due to the fact that Jameison's has decided to switch from hanks to balls. So...I may not get my order for 2 to 4 weeks. I looked around for other e-tailers who carry the stuff, but Handworks Gallery is the only place I found online that actually had all the colors I needed...well, except for the backordered ones. sigh.

Thurs, Feb 10

Clapotis from Knitty.com My gorgeous hand-dyed merino wool from Holly Spring Homespun» I want the Clap too! After seeing my friend Suzanne's finished Clapotis I decided I had to have one too, but in a different colorway so I'm not a total poser/copycat. I went and bought the yarn today at the wonderful Holly Spring Homespun shop in Powhatan, VA and I'm gonna' start on it tonight dammit. I think the colors will go perfect with my hair!

FYI all you Richmond, VA knitters, Holly Spring Homespun is the most adorable shop and the owner, Kathy is really sweet and very knowlegeble. If you don't go to buy yarn, at least make a trip to meet and play with Scarlet, her very playful 6-month old Boston Terrier. I brought Chester with me to the shop today and Kathy took some pictures of them playing together which I will post when Kathy emails them to me.

Wed, Feb 9

» One does not simply...walk into Mortor... This is a 1.4MB animated .gif, so give it a sec to load.

» The Viking Five: Indecisive Vikings can't decide the best way to rob an unprotected monk. Who'll get the booty? This stop-motion film was created by Sven van der Hart with Playmobil toys. You can watch it several ways: download the 21MB Quicktime movie (240x180), or you can see it in Real Media or Windows Media Player format at iFilm.com.

I also suggest you check out "The Making of The Viking Five" on Sven's website.

Fri, Feb 4

» What I really want to knit next: from the Fall 2004 Interweave Knits: The Floral Felted Bag by Nicky Epstein. Yum.

It uses the following yarns: Jamieson’s Shetland Double Knitting (100% wool; 150 yd [137 m]/1 oz [28 g]): #235 grouse (dark brown), 4 skeins; #365 chartreuse, #1140 Granny Smith, #540 coral, #576 cinnamon, #577 chestnut, #1190 burnt umber, and #147 moss, 1 skein each. Yarn distributed by Simply Shetland. I found it for $4.75/ball on the Handworks Gallery website.

Fri, Jan 28

Sebastian Foucan--one of the best in the world.» Ever heard of Parkour, Le Parkour, Freerun, Free Running or PK? Check out UrbanFreeflow.co.uk. description of the sport From World Wide Words:

Free-running treats the urban landscape as an adult playground. It treats man-made structures as an obstacle course that participants negotiate by daring feats of graceful gymnastics. It was invented by a group of childhood friends in Lisses, near Paris—as in so many suburban towns, there was little for young people to do, so Sebastien Foucan, David Belle and others created what they call le parkour (a deliberately un-French spelling to make the point that they were doing something different).

Anybody in Britain who has been watching BBC1 in recent months will have seen this most recent example of an extreme sport in action; David Belle was filmed for a promotional trailer in which he rushed home across London’s rooftops to catch his favourite TV programme. More recently, a trio of free-runners were seen in a programme called Jump London on Channel 4.

The sport grew out of attempts to imitate ninja feats. Unlike other extreme activities, it has developed a philosophy. “It is not just a game,” Sebastien Foucan is quoted as saying, “it is a discipline because it is a way of facing our fears and demons that you can apply to the rest of your life.”

» Gene Kelly Remix: With the help of some clever computer effects, Gene Kelly's memorable dance sequence in Singin' In The Rain has been updated so that the star now appears to be Breakdancin' In The Rain. And it's all thanks to a TV ad for the new Volkswagen Golf GTi. Having received permission from the Gene Kelly Foundation, the makers of the advert set about transforming the original scene. See the Quicktime ad.

» New Chester pics: From Dec 2004 and today..

Thurs, Jan 13

» Nalbinding update: I just received a lovely email from a German nalbinding group asking for permission to translate my Oslo Primer into German for the folks who want to learn but who don't know enough English to fully understand my instructions. And my answer...Heck yes!!! As soon as the translation is done I will post it here on my site.

I also added these 2 websites to my Viking Links page in the Nalbinding section:

» From the Norsefolk email list: Another viking funny bit posted by the ever-wonderful Gunnvor.