Hitting the Highlights:

Hey all - not much is going on in 'Real World' - there is work (of course) and there is knitting (when isn't there knitting?!) and there is always cats . . . everywhere with the frigg'n cats, lol! Blue is still around, and I will get a picture up soon, I promise.

I've been eagerly devouring Lime & Violet's podcasts and I've finally gotten to January 2007. Seriously (drink!). Boob Rocks, Side Show Husband, Alex the Dog . . . whole threads on ravelry (and even some blog posts) now make a WHOLE lot more sense.

Seriously! (drink)

Casa Miguel y AJ has now been given the Good Housekeeping Seal of 'Trailer Trash' approval. We have a working television on top of a non-functioning television. GHETTO, people, I'm tell'n ya! It's not that the lower television does not work - far from it. Lower television is one of those mammoth MAN BEAST televisions. Hi-Def, seventy-twelve inches, blahblahblah whatever. It's nice. No . . . that t.v. works just fine thankyouverymuch.

Seems that DirecTV sucks dead donkey dick. Sucks it hard.

We have 'lo-def' television and receiver in the bedroom and 'hi-def' television and receiver in the living room. Hi-def receiver has given us nothing but grief since we got it. They've been out three times now and still - craptacular hi-def problems. Sunday (remember us? FOOTBALL PEOPLE. Us. Majorly. Sunday is the day of pigskin worship at our NFL-lovin house!) Hi-def receiver bit the dust. Again. Fucking fucks. We don't have ANY frigg'n channels in the living room.

We've spent the money for the NFL ticket (*all games all the time* . . . in hi-def). Grrr. We watched them in lo-def on the horrific t.v. in the bedroom.

So - now we have my 'knitting room' t.v. on top of the cabinet housing our high def t.v. All those years of rising above my Louisiana Trailer Trash lineage has been for naught. It's gotta be the bush-okie from Mike's side! Those people say 'throwed' andI kidyounot.



On the knitting front: I'm almost done with a socky-slippery item made out of *gasp* acrylic. Because this is for gifting to bush-okie family, I can't very well knit up stuff out of cashmere or alpaca or silk or whatever and expect them to handwash them. That's just crazytalk. To be fair, I'm not knitting up high-end products for my side either.



I'm also about 1/2 way done with a 'cell phone sock' for my MIL. She just got a beautiful electric red cell phone and when I saw it I came home and went directly to the stash. There are a few balls left over from my red entrelac stole that are a perfect match so there ya go! Easy peasy Christmas present.



As far as MILs go, I am pretty lucky. Seriously (drink!) I could make her a knitted uterus or knitted *stressticles* or even a knitted blob of crap and she would be so nice and sweet about it. Out of everyone I'm related to through birth/adoption/marriage, she's the sweetest nicest soul and always supportive of my knitting craziness. I don't always remember how sweet she is and that's something I need to focus on.

Lastly, and something that kinda annoys me and kinda makes me laugh:

I named my blog 'knitting blue content' for a reason. I speak my mind. Just last Friday a lady from our Friday Bass Club Group Weekly Dinner Out Group was laughing at something I was running my mouth about and she called me 'Say It Like It Is AJ'.

That's me.


One of the things I am adament about is my Childfreedom.

I haven't climbed the soapbox about that topic here hardly but there will be days (believeyoume) that I will just let go. Speak my mind. Say it like it is, as it were.

Which brings me to ravelry.

I love ravelry like a yarn snob loves seacell. Love. It.

It's a HE-UGE place for the most part and anyone can be as much or as little involved in every aspect as they want. For me, I have a (relatively) small group of *friends* that I keep an eye on - either people I've met in real life or people who live at the Coast (where I'm from) and in the Central Valley (where I live now). There I can see any blog updates and what projects they've done or want to do.

Also at ravelry, there are groups that you can join or just watch. Red-headed crocheter in Jersey? Probably. Used to be from Boston but now live in Spokane? Probably a group of them too. If there isn't a group that fits what you're looking for, you can create the 'Six toes on my left foot and also ambidextrious' group. SERIOUSLY (drink)! I think I'm a member of about 14 groups or so. Stuff that interests me and I want to keep an eye on.

Pretty soon after joining, I created the 'Say No To Babies' group. Anyone can join and we even have parents and step-parents as members. We talk about the Childfree movement and the problems we run into in real life . . . whatever . . . just stuff. Oh, and there's a 'dead baby jokes' thread and a 'other names for kids' thread. Stuff that isn't *pretty* to some people. It's all there.

Several months ago Casey (husband of Jess and the guy that created the whole shebang) told me that some people had complained about our group and after checking us out he has no problem so long as we didn't advocate the actual hurting of people. Since we don't and we wouldn't allow that, I was all 'lalalala' and moved on.

Everything was fine for quite a while. We post and laugh and share stories and ask questions and just be us.

The other week, I noticed an influx of 'guest' commenters over at the SNTB group, which made me ask Casey if we could halt the 'guests'. He sent me over the the "Moderator" group, which was really good because I didn't even know there was such a thing (seriously, ravelry is so big, you could miss whole groups!)

I joined and asked my question about 'guesters'. A few people gave me the information I requested (and that's ALL I did - ask. No commentary, no emotion, no noth'n. I signed the post with 'aj over at Say No To Babies' by way of explaining that I was a moderator too).

What shocked the hell outta me was the Moderators (they are moderators of their individual groups) posted about how horrible my group was.



1) I came there and asked a technical question.



2) Don't read shit you aren't going to like.



3) Act like a freak'n Moderator and keep on topic.



4) Kvetch all you want to me via message or email or whatever. Not in an unrelated thread.



Why is it so surprising that I don't worship you because a human being fell out of your uterus? You (and me too) are a unique individual - JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.



Get over it. People in comas and pack mules participate in 'the miracle of birth'. Give me a break. I'd be so much more enamored of you if you could keep your Bratleighs and Snotsdons from having major meltdowns in public.

(and here's where I could try and humanize myself in parent's eyes and say I know lots of people with kids and even LIKE several people with kids but really - even though I do like those people? I'm still a Childfree by Choice person and no breeder-bingo is going to change that.)

Not a sermon, just a thought.