This is Salty Whiskers. He is a miniature schnauzer who has spent most of his life if not all of it in a puppy mill as a sire dog. He's spent more than six years in a crate until his rescue, and has spent a while at the Humane Society in Binghamton.

When Rascal met him, they both perked up and were friendly.

So this Wednesday, I'll go pick him up and take him to the vet's office. They'll do the full exam and "tutor" him. I'd like them to clean his teeth too at the same time, but our vet says they probably won't. And later in the week we get to take him home from the vet's office, and I'll post more pictures then.  ¶ 10:36 AM

  Warning:

This blog turns into a writing blog for NaNoWriMo. Knitting content will be likely suspended.

However, we will be posting about Rascal's new pet dog, when Rascal has finished picking one out, because doubtless there will be adorable stories in conjunction with the picking. First though, a sad: Rascal and family went to the local humane society where they had a lot of dogs. We got there while dog walking was going on. Two dogs were deliberately walked with Rascal, and he liked one of them very well. However, one dog came out that from a distance looked a lot like Kenya. Rascal WOOFED and tried very hard to take off and greet that dog. He got a good sniff and came away with his tail down.

But that sadness is why he's getting a dog. Jazz and I don't really want one. But he does. And you know what pushovers we are.  ¶ 2:34 PM

    ¶ 9:48 AM

  So what I did at Rhinebeck, for those who are curious.

Got up at 3 AM, thanks to Rascal. Spent maybe 45 minutes up because he had to go out and took his sweet time before he was finally ready to give me a notice he wanted Out. Managed to go back to bed and fall asleep, for the alarm to go off at 5. Dressed and hit the road in time to pick Tracy up at 5:30, Steph and Amanda up at 6, and Sandi about 6:30. Steph gave us coffee, Amanda managed muffins, and Sandi passed out cider. I forgot what Tracy brought but it was something.

We chatted away until we hit Roscoe for a pee break, which we greeted with a "Holy Shit!" because the gas price there was 2.95. I pre-paid while they took turns at the toilet. It soon become apparent *why* the gas was cheap- the pump was going very very slow, and it took a good 5 minutes for the gas to pump $2 worth. I went and hit the john with someone else holding the pump, and it went to $3. oooo. We gave up after $7 worth, because we'd been there damn near half an hour.

Then we finally got to Rhinebeck and getting parked was easy. The line to get in was already moving, and didn't take long at all. I walked too fast and left the ladies behind, but I made sure they would know where to find me, and we had the default meeting for the end of the day to make sure we all could leave together. I went straight to our booth. Liber greeted me immediately, but I had to do a little bit of work right away, and she wandered off. Then I got to meet Franklin, and I tried very hard not to drool on him or scare him, but I was honored to meet him. He is adorable. (see the "If I were a sheep" link on the right- I'm going to be lazy and not link everyone) Then I sat down next to Brewergnome (who is also more adorable in person with his clothes on) and we companionably got a few things sorted out for selling in the booth. It was nice to get to know him and feel less stalkerish- I read a lot of his posts on Ravelry, but I can be self-effacing about not being noticeable sometimes, so I wasn't sure how much he wanted to know me at first. He's a brewer, and fond of gnomes (and yes honey, he's very, very gay), and I like his sense of humor a great deal. Our chores being done, we walked back to the booth and set out those wares. Then I wandered off by myself and explored about half of the booths.

I found the Socks that Rock booth, and managed to jam myself in and pick out a few skeins... and then realized the line to check out was more than hour long. I put the skeins back. I found pencil roving, which I had not seen in real life before. I found the Bosworth booth and drooled on them all fanboy, but did not touch any of the spindles. I did admire their full size wheel though. If I was MINO, yeah, I would want. But I'm not, and I don't NEED it. I wandered off again. I found a place to shop for Heather and bought way too much there, but she ought to be happy. She'll see all that tomorrow. Then I wandered back to our booth, and offered food and drink and a pee break. I am well trained as a retainer. :) Gwynivar was too cold. I gave her my coat and put heating bandages on her. Then I stopped and explored the other half of the show.

During lunch, Liber called. She wanted to meet for the wheel- so I completed the deal of buying a spinning wheel. Yes, I bought a spinning wheel at Rhinebeck... And later I found Steph and told her her wheel was in the car, and she handed me money to pay me for it... So I also sold a wheel at Rhinebeck. :) I include this interlude to make my sweetie a little nervous, but he ought to be pleased that I did not buy one and bring one home For ME. Some of the wheels they had there included a couple of double fly antique types which you draft with both hands as well as the cheaper and highly portable types like Hitchhikers.

I did buy a few sampler packs of roving materials- so I can see what it's like to spin flax, hemp, organic cottons, and buffalo. And I bought Kissmoose presents for a swap with the Bingo crew. But I spent most of my day at the booth. Itgirl, Jesh, Brewergnome, Lisa and myself were standing at the front of the booth, by Jesh's spindles. Itgirl confessed she never learned to spin. So we asspinerated her, right then. We pulled a spindle off the rack, and grabbed some roving, and had her just try it. She ended up buying that spindle and some roving, and took them home with her. Brewergnome has in the past admitted to being afraid to use a spindle (but he has a wheel). Lisa solved that by handing him a spindle with roving attached and asked him to "just wind that up" while she took care of a customer. He found himself actually spinning with the spindle. So I took him over to the Bosworth booth and helped him pick one out.

I met lots of other people at the booth, including my East Kingdom knitting friends, who introduced me to Thora Sharptooth- and she is THE VIKING EXPERT and I go to her webpage for many research questions. She did not appreciate my "Not Worthy" adulation, but I could reign it in. I promised I'd be at Hrim Schola again in the spring, and there were smiles around. It feels good to have a Laurel admire your new job. I forget I'm a peer now too.

I did a lot of just standing in the booth and answering questions. I think mainly I was there just to see how things are done. The wonderful news is I did not react badly to much of anything- and I was worried I would react to the soap in the booth, perfumes of anyone, and stinky neighbor booths. There were a few places I did have to avoid, but in general the wind was pretty strong and not much bothered me. The cold did not. I'm bringing fingerless gloves next time just in case anyway next year, and probably will wear more knit outerwear. I had a great time. I did not take a lot of pictures, but I'll try to post those I did take later. And try to post pics I know that others took of me.  ¶ 4:49 PM

 

It is delightfully short.  ¶ 12:14 PM

  You don't realize how big Rhinebeck is until you've heard people at SOAR talk about it in reverential tones. And I've heard people talk about SOAR that way- spinners, anyway. SOAR is an annual spinning retreat- it's a week-long thing, and this year it was two hours south of me in the Poconos. Next year it'll be in Oregon, so I won't be going to that unless I win the lotto or suddenly become famous or the like. I only learned to spin in June, so my attendance at this year's SOAR was extremely unlikely, what with registration happening in March with a lottery and everything. But the vendors were open to the public, and it was hard to stand firm to the resolution of not going. Besides, this week I'm printing like a madwoman to help the Tsarina get ready for Rhinebeck. I'll be busy, I knew.

Then I ran out of toner Friday night. Oh biological impossibilities with canards, I emailed the Tsarina. We discussed the options. I would check for local shops one more time in the morning (but that did prove fruitless). I could drive to Rome where there is a shop that would be able to refill the cartridges- but that's a two and a half drive, and there was no guarantee that they could do it while I waited. Or I could drive to SOAR and rondezvous with the boss where she could give me toner. It felt naughty. Like I was playing hookey or doing something wrong. Or the heavens had opened and said, "Thou Shalt Go To SOAR." So I went.

It was nice to see everything. That is one very pricy neighborhood! But I did see a brace of bassets on my way out. The shopping area was about the same as one barn of Fingerlakes, without any animals. I saw the Yarn Harlot being escorted through the shopping area (or stalked- it was hard to tell if she wanted all the company she had), but I knew she would not know me from Adam (other than I'm the one with the tits), so I didn't bother introducing myself or saying hi, even if I was wearing my Vintage socks. I found the Tsarina eventually, and got the toner. Then I waited for Abby to finish her workshop, and I gave her beer. In front of the Yarn Harlot who looked on in envy. I figure Ms. Stephanie has enough people driving long distances to give her beer- but if I had known she was there and I would be in a position to do so, I would have brought her some too. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hang out with either of these ladies, but I got to meet a couple of other Ravelry friends before heading back to print some more.

I got some printing done- but now, I'm out of magenta. Fortunately, it is already being shipped to me and will arrive in time. But it means my wedding anniversary on Monday (12 years!) will be a nice quiet day, without me freaking out about getting enough work done.  ¶ 4:59 AM

  Don't mind me, I'm a little busy prepping for Rhinebeck.

For your giggling needs, I want to point you to Why would you knit that?  ¶ 11:42 AM

  Are you registered to vote?

That web page is a very nice and simple check to see if you're registered.

I am, of course. I believe if you don't vote, you don't have the right to bitch about what the government does, and I love to bitch. You probably noticed. I honestly don't care if you vote in a way different than I do- as long as you vote! Don't just sit there and do nothing- that's the sure recipe to piss me off.  ¶ 11:52 AM

  Why Joe Biden lost the debate.

Everyone is talking about Sarah Palin.

From her nervous trembling, her accent coming and going- more folksy when she was spewing a rehearsed speech- and her gasping for air when rushing to get some words out, all eyes were on her. It almost didn't matter what she said, as long as she didn't have a deer in the headlights look or rush off the stage in tears. I wanted this to happen. I'd be lying if I said I didn't. I wanted her to fail. The expectations of her rambling answers set the bar so low for her that even a mediocre performance would be enough to overwhelm expectations. But she has been in debates before, and when she got comfortable with everything and switched to nothing but canned speech parts that may or may not have had anything to do with the question asked, she looked actually professional.

I still don't like the fact that all the children had to be dragged onstage at the end. They ought to be in bed and not paraded in front of the crowd. But Joe did this too, and so does everyone else for these high attendance affairs.

Biden didn’t even really have to be there- few will have noticed his performance, his zingers, or his moment of choking back tears when he talked of knowing what it’s like to not know if a loved one is going to make it or not, or how comfortable he was debating. He was a gentleman throughout and very much a good debater. He never pointed out when she completely evaded the question nor went after any personal attacks. My respect for Biden went up, and I did not expect it to, nor was I looking for that to happen.

In my view, Biden did very well, but with all the hype surrounding Sarah, no one was going to notice him unless he stripped naked and started singing the best of Weird Al.  ¶ 11:15 AM

  Tonight for the debate, I'm going to play Palin Bingo.

I'm going to do a shot every time I hit Bingo.

Then cry myself to sleep if I get totally wasted.  ¶ 8:24 PM

  The Obama Llama Song.

I sincerely would have liked it better if they hadn't used "Bush" instead of Duck. Because then it connects Obama to Bush in my brain, and they don't go together like Llama and Duck.

This one is better.

  ¶ 5:13 PM