Miscellaneous: December 2006 Archives

20061223_BeezleTree.jpg
The Beazle Waits for Santa

No matter what holidays you celebrate, may you be surrounded in warmth, happiness, peace and good health for the holidays and the year to come.

The Keyboard Biologist will be on hiatus until after the New Year. I'm going to have a house full of family next week and I suspect my fiber-bonding time will be limited. Thank you so much to everyone who has spent some of their day with me this year. I've enjoyed meeting so many new people!I look forward to showing you more knitting, spinning and the occasional glimpse of Chicago in the coming year!

Sheesh! Computers! I've been having blogging and computer use problems for a couple of days. Fortunately, the computer whisperer that is my husband was able to get Chaos (the name of my intrepid laptop) back into fighting form so that Chaos and I could bring you another blog post.

On Monday, I shared some "weird" things about me. I'm pleased to be in such good company with my phone-o-phobia. As I began to think about that, I came to the conclusion that it started sometime while I was in grad school. It was before caller ID, and somehow my phone number got on the Joliet State Prison dialing list and I had a number of inmates asking to make collect calls from me, in particular, a very serious individual named Tyrone. I got enough of these calls that I started screening everything by answering machine.

But enough about me! Apparently a number of my friends in blogland have some weird things of their own that you wanted to talk about. It was so fun to see some of you delurk to let me know you were taking me up on my meme invitation. So without further ado, here's some weird things about some people who come visit my blog (they are in no particular order -- other than the order in which they left a comment).

Kay, over at Kay In Stitches delurked and provides some interesting information about being a bilingual knitter.

Carole, over at Carole Knits hasn't posted anything yet (I understand completely, tis a tough season to get anything bloggy accomplished) but I do see that she has some most excellent pictures of holiday cookies. Mmmmm! Polish Tea Cakes!

Maryse, over at Bag n' Trash -- Home of Monster Yarn always saves the best for last and loves to be surprised. I wish I had that kind of resolve!

Dephal, over at Domain Dephal talks about a familial chromosomal inversion. Such cool genetic information to have! The computer biologist in me would love to know about things like that going on in my own DNA.

Sydney at As the Yarn Turns has an adorable ferret (another animal I wouldn't mind spending some time with) and shares my phone-o-phobia.

Bonne Marie, one of my knitting buds at Chic Knits, shares an awesome photo, a nick name, and a couple of tips for dealing with traffic in a Jeep Wrangler. Weird knit bug fact: When I first started blogging, I started reading Bonne Marie's blog, I had no idea she was practically my next door neighbor until she mentioned setting up a knitting group in our area. We got to know each other working together to pick a good location.

Judith, at Tofu Knits, is a relatively new blogger, knitter and spinner. She talks a lot about cooking (I might have to try that banana bread oatmeal recipe!) and shares some interesting facts about herself in her very first meme!

Gina at Knit Two Together posted her weird things list -- I have to admit, I have a similar lack of understanding of scrap booking. Though generally speaking, I figure any craft that involves collecting interesting paper can't be all bad. (Yes, another weird fact about me... I love paper!)

Michelle, another fun Chicago knitblogger at Blog-o-Rama (who is also a real life practicing composer -- how cool is that?) talks about how she met her husband as part of her weird list. She's got my meeting John via the internet beat!

Knitnana at her eponymous Knitnana blog thinks she might not ever be an advanced knitter because she doesn't like to knit sweaters, even though she has made some pretty exceptional shawls! I'd say that sweater knitting does not an advanced knitter make!

Donna, over at Sheep to Shawl (fellow Lithuanian and author of Arctic Lace and Knitted Rugs) shares my feelings about phone calls, reading material and book stores and I love the idea of a backyard full of natural dye plants. Scroll down the page a bit to find her entry!

Gaile at Gaile Online misses her 1972 VW Bug, which reminded me of two long departed but much loved cars: a 1978 Ford Fiesta and a 1982 Ford Escort. Ah, the freedom of one's first automobile!

AllisonH at SpinDyeKnit. Allison has something in common with Chicagoans -- she grew up near a lovely Frank Lloyd Wright building. Shows you how bad my FLW history is -- I had no idea he created a house in Maryland!

Dana at KnitSmith, Word Purl (I just love that blog name) has a special place in her heart for her dishwasher. I'm completely sympathetic to this, because when my husband bought his townhome right before we were married, it was his first encounter with a dishwasher. And it was love at first sight!

Flan, at Emphatic Knitting shares my love of thunderstorms. I will do the same thing, when I can. It's just incredible to watch nature in action!

I'd like to say a big thanks to the 15 folks who decided to play along with me on this meme. I really enjoyed reading your blog entries and getting to know you a little better. I hope my readers will take the time to explore and maybe make some new blog friends. There are so many creative people out there. And as I read through all of those "weird things" it makes me realize that we have so much more in common than we do in different. And that our weird things really aren't that weird at all. Just things that make us special and unique and vibrant in the universe.