Well, it's official. unfurnished brooklyn has moved again.

You can find me by clicking here.

unfurnishedbrooklyn.typepad.com/ufb

I'm trying something new (though my second post is a little depressing).

You have to wonder what the rest of your day will be like when you wake up and:

a) Ahnold is governor of California
b) your cat is holding a gift inches from your nose: a freshly caught, not quite dead mouse
c) you're checking out blogs for a little good news and you find this, courtesy of redheaddread (good morning to you, too! let's pop our Advil together, shall we?)

I could crawl back under the covers, or I could go forth and face the world. Since I'm not sure what other gifts Babykitty has brought to me today, I'm not getting back in that bed. Bring it on, world.

No, I take that back. Be gentle with me, world.

Ain't it a shame that I can't find 15 minutes out of my life to blog?

I usually post before I go to work, or late at night when Cheburashka is asleep. But this week was hectic: I overslept nearly every day and had to bring Cheb to preschool by car service, the internet-accessible computers at work were off limits due to training for the latest program that's going to "make our work easier!" And at night, I just crashed after washing dishes and making things ready for the next day. It also didn't help that I was fighting off a cold.

And speaking of fighting, here's why I need to hurry up and get my driver's license: Tuesday I missed the driver that takes Cheb to dayccare in the morning, so I took her to pre-k. I called the car service I always use, and told the dispatcher where I was going. Maybe I was a still little sleepy, but I gave him the wrong cross street. He corrected me with a similar sounding street on the same avenue, and I was all, yeah okay. So of course when the driver approaches the street, I realize my mistake and tell him to continue up the avenue.

Do you know he started screaming at me, with my child in the car? I told him to calm down, I got the street wrong, we just have to go a few more blocks. He kept yelling and asked me the address. I couldn't remember the street address, so I repeated the cross street, which was just a few blocks away. He started cursing in Russian, and I told him not to speak like that in front of a child. He was surprised that I understood, but then started yelling at me in English about knowing where I was going and insisting I give him the building number. Cheburashka was getting scared, and I told him (3 times) to stop because he was upsetting her. He kept on.

I asked him his name (cuz you know I was going to report his ass), and he yelled, "you give me address, I give you name." If my child wasn't in the car... The man would not shut up. We got to the pre-k, and he still was yapping. But here's the thing: I told the dispatcher that the driver was to wait while I dropped her off, then take me to the subway station. I really didn't think the guy would wait, and I surely took my time coming back from dropping off Cheburashka. But there he was. And since I can't be late for work (not for the next 3 months, anyway. Ahem), I needed him to drop me off. So I got back in. But since Cheburashka wasn't in the car, you know it was on.

I cursed his ass out when I got back in, and during the whole ride to the subway, we were screaming at each other. Man, the things I said to him. I don't know why he didn't pull over and kick me out the car. At one point we were stopped at an intersection where several cops were standing. One of them looked at us like, hmm, should I be getting involved in that? And through it all, the driver still wouldn't give me his name, but I told him I didn't need it to report him. Finally he got quiet, and tried to be nice when he dropped me off. I said, thanks for nothing, dumbass, and slammed the door on my way out.

And from there I had to go to work. In collections. More yelling and screaming. Grrreat. I did call the car service to complain, and when I gave my pickup address, the guy recognized me (as I said, I use them all the time), and he gave me the impression that this wasn't the first time they've gotten a complaint about the guy. That evening, when I picked up Cheburashka she asked, "are we going to take a taxi?" I said no. She said, "Good, because that man was yelling and making me grumpy. But you told him to be quiet and stop making me grumpy." I told her that no one was allowed to make her grumpy while I'm around. And she hugged me.

I finished reading The Two Towers, and started on The Return of the King. I am such a nutcase that I have the dvd for both Lord of the Rings movies, but I didnt watch the preview for the next one. Duuh. I realized I haven't read anything in ages, since I can't read and knit at the same time. And I used to be such an avid reader...I bought a new translation of Anna Karenina last year, haven't touched it. Been getting lots of recommendations (like the book reviews on Redheaddread's blog), but haven't picked up anything yet.Maybe I just needed to get the yarn addiction out of my system, now I can find that balance (read a little, knit a little).

One of the spacers between my teeth fell out the other day. Okay, maybe I helped it a little- I can't help twiddling them. I coudn't find the extras I was given, so I had to do without that night. I woke up hurting the next day. It was like my teeth snapped back into place. I had to wait til my lunch break, which is late in the day, to go get another one. I put it in at my desk, since I barely made it back to work in time, and have been twiddling with it ever since. But at least I know where the extras are should I need them.

Well, it seems I still haven't learned to play nice with my yarn, so we're taking a little break from each other. The brown Summer Tweed top is still in my bottomless purse, though I haven't worked a stitch in days. I pulled out all my stash on Sunday while Cheburashka was with her father, and separated the "spring/summer" yarn from the "fall/winter" group, and made a list of what I needed to finish, wanted to start, and couldn't bear to look at anymore.

No more yarn, I've got plenty. I put away the cottons for next season, and will work up all the wool I have now. I have a few things to seam, a few adjustments to make to a couple of items I nearly finished last winter that somehow ended up in the back of the closet. And then there's my preciousss*...the copper Manos del Uruguay wool that I've been saving for the perfect design. I think I'm going to make an Aran- cable city, baby. There's a mohair sweater that I started before I realized that I don't really like working with mohair. That might end up on eBay; though I do love the yarn, knitting an entire sweater from it isn't as fun as I thought it would be. Or.. I might be willing to trade 7 skeins of Artful yarns Portrait in shades of grey. Any takers?

I also want to use some leftover 1824 Wool for a poncho for Cheburashka, but I'm not too sure about the measurements. I need to get out the calculator, do the math and figure it out instead of waiting for the perfect pattern to fall in my lap. She saw me trying on my Big Wool poncho, and now she wants one. I have some crochet patterns, maybe I could adapt one...

Yesterday I went on a cleaning binge: after pulling out my stash yarn, I found all this stuff that I don't use and is just taking up space. Next week, its all going somewhere: Goodwill, a church group, somewhere. Just gotta get it out of here. Maybe that's why I'm so unfocused lately: too much clutter. Need space.


* can you tell I'm re-reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy?

I had an orthodontist appointment on Wednesday. Turns out that I don't need oral surgery, but they're going to put some weird contraption in my mouth to correct my bite. And to prepare for it, they placed these little rubber spacers between some of my upper teeth to make room for the contraption. It felt like I had food stuck in my teeth in eight different places. Lovely.

When I woke up yesterday, my teeth were aching. And I couldn't eat. So I had nothing but soy protein shakes, yogurt, and soup. Today was a little better, but I still had to eat soft foods. If these tiny rubber things are killing me, imagine when they install that metal thing. But, it is necessary. Long overdue, in fact. I searched for an image of the device, but instead found some very scary before-and-after photos, which I won't share.

Six months or more with a piece of metal in my head. Can't wait.

Crazy, loony day yesterday. Will discuss tomorrow.

I got this today from my co-worker: he took this photo on his cellphone during his lunch break.


This is why I love this city: you can walk around in a panda suit, and no one bats an eye.