Annie Knits

Friday Round Up

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Family and friends and random book buyers attended Mike's talk.  He did a great job, read from several states' excerpts in the book, flashed pictures on the screen behind him to give face to the characters in his book, and generally regaled us with his wit.  The kids were uber excited and enjoyed every minute, as did I.

"You want me to hold what while you take a picture?"

Mike's back in Chicagoland by now and life chez Annie can run at a simmer for awhile here.  At least until the holiday rush begins.

Fall Color

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, most of our leaves have dropped.  But this Oak-leaf Hydrangea is absolutely spectacular.

Last year, it was the dogwoods in this bed that really stole the show, but this year?  This hydrangea has been like this for weeks. 

What a great color.

And how's this for plant weirdness? (Click to embiggen.)

All Euonymus  or Burning Bush, all planted at the same time, all treated the same.  One decided he needed to sing early.  Just a week out of step with the others. 

Brushing Up Against Fame

So, the much acclaimed author is in the house today and tomorrow.  Tonight is the book signing/reading/some kind of slide show thingy at this Barnes and Noble -- come on over if you're in town.

This morning I drove him over to do a radio show in town -- McGraw Milhaven if you're local -- and he did a great job.  It's not on podcast yet, but it looks like they update audio files only periodically.  Mike is very funny and has a great off the cuff sense of humor.  He's walking a pretty fine line too, as many interviewers seem to try to get him to crack wise about bowlers and bowling alleys, which he rarely does.  He genuinely enjoyed just meeting all of the people and absorbing that quintessentially American atmosphere.

Anyway, he got pushed back a few minutes by McGraw.  Some St. Louis Cardinal baseball player was going a little over the time set aside for his segment.  I totally Kinneared him.  From behind a potted palm no less.

Albert Pujols is someone for which Chicagoans like my brother Mike have little affection -- and Mike talked big about bumping up against Pujols' shoulder as they passed in the lobby, but he chickened out.  "That guy's not that tall," said the author later, "but he's pretty big around..."

Mike got his 10 minutes or so, and as I said, he did a great job.   He was funny, irreverent, and he really got a few belly laughs out of McGraw.

So I Kinneared him too, just to make him feel better.

Knitters Represent!

Brother's book tour lands in St. Louis this week! 

Thursday at the Barnes and Noble, 1600 Clarkson, 7:00 p.m.

I'll be there, knitting a sock.  That I could use for bowling. 

Come say "Hi" to Mike so that you can have his voice in your head while you read the book.  Which is excellent, by the way.  Laugh out loud and (for me -- the parts about my dad) cry a little.  It's reviewed very favorably in the St. Louis Post Dispatch here.  Dogonnit, I'm gonna have to lay down the (one sided) feud I've been nursing over this review. 

See you there!

Not Red, Not Blue, But United

'Nuff said.

Now back to my regularly scheduled knitting blog.

I've been knitting up some Flat Feet that we got in at the shop.  How about a bullet round up:

• I find this stuff endlessly amusing.
• I should have knit it two at a time, toe up because therein lies the strength of this put-up:  you can gauge exactly how much of a knitted row in the blank it takes to make a round of your sock so you can use every last inch.
• I wasn't bothered at all by the crimpy, raveled yarn.  Not one bit.  Really.
• I knit the sock on size 1 addi short sock needles, and I cast on 64 stitches for my plain vanilla sock.

I am knitting a stealth holiday project and it is big.  Not blog fodder at all.  So, that'll be nice, won't it...  Well, maybe I can show you an up-close shot.

Except that the piece is a lovely yellow.  Yeesh.  Maybe my not being able to photograph it so as not to tip my holiday hand is not all bad.

Now it's on to the daily dog/kid anecdote.  This one, by the way, is not for the faint of heart -- or stomach.

Around 1:30 a.m. Monday morning, Dear Son appeared at the end of my bed.  The moms among you know that this kind of appearance is rarely good news.

"Mom, I don't feel good at all," were the only words he got out before throwing up.  All over both dogs who sleep at the foot of my bed.  He did make it to the bathroom for the rest of the show, but the dogs took off into the living room, dripping dinner all the way.    Let's just say that what followed generated lots of laundry.

So there's your morning gross out.  I did kind of warn you.

Voting and Bowling

I voted this morning.  I left my house at 9:30, walked to my polling place, and I was home again by 9:55.  Absolute kudos to the City of St. Louis and the Missouri Election Board.  The line was out the door and into the parking lot, but it moved pretty quickly.  Husband and I compared notes, and we're pretty sure our election judge couldn't read very well as she had a terrible time finding our pretty distinctive last name on the page, but otherwise it was a very smooth transaction.  Whew.  Got that out of the way.

Earlier this week, Brother had his book launch.  The whole Annie Knits family gathered at a bowling alley in Lincoln Park to fete him. 

Mike signed our books.  There was a vaguely bowling related trivia event in which dear son won a prize:

...

See the bowling ball clip-on tie?  He even got Uncle Mike to autograph it.  Son also won the prize for the lowest score of the evening.  A word to the wise:  You shouldn't tell 11 year-olds ahead of time that there is a prize for under-achieving.  The prize was a bag of Swedish Fish, one of which promptly pulled out Dear Son's barely loose 12-year molar.  Nice.

Even my mom bowled -- and pretty well too!

But, the news you've all been waiting for?

Bowling Across America's

St. Louis signing party

is coming soon!
 
Mark your calendars. 
November 13th, some Borders or Barnes and Noble
(?  no word yet which one),
in the evening. 

More info on this as it comes in. 

Now, I've got a sick kiddo at home today, so I have to go pay attention to him I guess, don't I.

I've Got One Word

VOTE, VOTE, 

VOTE, VOTE,

VOTE, VOTE, 

VOTE, VOTE,

VOTE, VOTE, 

VOTE !

Isn't it funny how if you write a word enough times it starts to not look like that word any more .