Awesome stuff

I really hate it how all we seem to hear from people regarding customer service/new products are the horrible customer service and disappointments they've experienced.  I also hate how the details of these experiences are often blown completely out of proportion (I blame Twitter, incidentally).

I wish people would share their positive experiences with as much enthusiasm - why punish the crappy businesses and then ignore the good ones?

So today, I'm going to tell you about some recent acquisitions I've made that I'm very pleased with.  You might not care, but I'm going to do it anyway.  Here we go:

1.  New yoga pants.  I am not one of those creatures who believes that spending $100 on a pair of yoga pants (or jacket/top/whatever) is acceptable.   I have never paid more than $30 for a pair and many of mine have lasted for years and years (and I practice a very physically demanding form of yoga, so that is saying something).  Usually I go to Winners for yoga gear, but I don't like the inconsistency - just when I've found a brand/style that I like, they run out of it.  (Wanna see someone go ballistic in a public place with little or no regard for decency?  Come shopping with me at Winners on a Saturday morning on a day when I need new yoga pants and can't find a pair.)

But Mountain Equipment Co-Op just put out a line of yoga gear and I tried some stuff on while I was in Ottawa (we don't have a store here...*SOB*).  I confirmed my size and ordered a pair of the Messina pants online (yay! on sale!).  They fit perfectly.  So comfy, the fabric is soft and sturdy and the colour is really nice.  I had to hem them because I'm short for my size (large), but that's a pretty common occurrence and it's not their fault that I'm a hobbit. 

So: win.

2.  Still with MEC (a most wonderful chain of stores that I can NOT say enough good things about - if we had one here, it's probably the only place I would shop, I kid you not).  Last winter (the warmest winter I've ever experienced, so my purchase kind of went to waste), I bought a pair of merino leggings.  Black wool leggings.  Yes.  So very yes.  They're thin and comfy and totally non-itchy (and non-stinky: BONUS) and WARM.  I love them (and would love them more if I'd thought to buy them in medium, as the large is a little too large) and am getting at least one more pair.  Perfect under long wool skirts.  Perfect as pyjamas.  Perfect under jeans.

(Wool-sensitive Husband bought the men's long-sleeve undershirt version and loves it.)

Win again.

3.  A buckwheat pillow from Halfmoon Yoga (another great Canadian company). 

I do not sleep easily, friends.  I've battled one form of insomnia or another almost my entire life (there was a lovely bout between the ages of 17 and 24 where sleep came easily and I'm grateful for that, but alas, it waned).  It's frustrating to deal with so I take sleep seriously.  One of my big challenges is finding a good pillow.  Not too big, not too squishy (and for the love of all that is holy, no damn feathers!), but something that will stay put and has neck support.  I don't move very much in my sleep and I tend to remain on one side or the other all night, so it must have substance.

I'd read about buckwheat pillows and I have a zafu, so I had a sense of what it would feel like, but I wasn't 100% sold on the idea.  But I got good and fed up a few months ago and decided to just take the plunge, already.  Now, I don't consider $80 for a pillow reasonable - I was gritting my teeth in protest even as I was clicking on the "Add To Cart" button.  But I was so tired of experimenting with other pillows (thereby wasting money),  I went through with it.

This is the pillow for me. It took about 10 days nights to get used to it (my neck was sore for a few days and my ear hurt a fair bit from sleeping on it - the pillow doesn't have a lot of "give" to it), but once I got accustomed to it, it felt sooooo good.

Win win win.

4.  My Sigg wide mouth water bottle.  I bought this on my trip to Ottawa, not online.   It has a dual cap: one opening big enough to drop in ice cubes and one opening small enough that you can easily control the flow of water you're drinking, so that it doesn't splash you in the face.  Also, easier to clean than the narrow-mouth versions.  Love it.

Mine actually has a different and more ornate orange Indian/paisley pattern on it, but this one is nice, too.

Win x 4.

5.  And last, but not least: my new travel mug. 

I have bought 4 travel mugs in the past 2 years.  Four.  And they all sucked.  Either the caps were gross and uncleanable or the body of the mug itself took on water when it was being washed (which would naturally escape later, when I was trying to drink from it...mmmm old dish water running down my chin...GAG).  This one, bought from www.goneshopping.ca (AWESOME online shop with a fantastic assortment of eco-products - they sent me a lovely personalized e-mail and then a little handwritten note with my shipment, offering me a discount on my next purchase), is a total winner (though the price tag initially took me some time to justify - until I calculated how much I had wasted on the previous 4 mugs).  The cap comes apart for ease of cleaning, the body is fully sealed - so there's no seepage, and it keeps my tea hot (HOT, not just slightly warmish) for literally 7 hours (no joke - if I prepare it at 7:00 am, my tea is still be drinkable at 2:00 pm).

It's shown with the loop cap, but you can buy the "café cap" to go with it - that's the one you need in order to use it as a mug

I bought it on a Thursday, it arrived at my office on Monday morning (Monday!  I live on a little island in the Atlantic - nothing ever ships here in 2 days!) and I used it Tuesday and Wednesday (by which time I was totally smitten, as you can imagine).  Then, on Wednesday night, I flew out to Toronto for business and proceeded to lose this little guy in the taxi from the airport.

I don't really have to tell you how much cursing and screaming (quiet screaming, mostly internal, but very effective) I did the next morning when I went to make a cup of tea in my hotel room and discovered that it was missing, do I?  I got a grip (took me a few hours to calm down, I'm ashamed to say), conjured my inner Gandhi (not an easy feat, I assure you, kind of like horking up a hairball) and told myself that it was ok, some lucky bastard had just unknowingly inherited the best damn travel mug ever made by humankind.  It was just $30.  Let it go.

Right, so the next morning (that's Friday - 8 days after my initial purchase, in case you've lost track), I walked two blocks from the hotel to the Yonge Pharmacy (what a great, old school place that is!), where the interwebs told me I could find more Klean Kanteen stuff.  I couldn't find the insulated ones, so I approached the counter and asked if they had any of them in stock.  They had just received a shipment the day before and had exactly what I was looking for in the back.  So I prepared to lay down (another! ARGH!) $30 for a replacement and while the clerk was ringing me in, I started recounting my tale of woe.  He kind of chuckled (not laughing AT me, I'm sure...) and said "Aw, that sucks.  Well, seeing as you had such a crappy time of it, I'm going to give you 20% off this one."

Yeah, that's right.  Good karma: I has it.  Glad I coughed up that hairball after all.

(And I have been guarding the freaking thing with my life ever since - if anyone so much as looks sideways at my travel mug, they're going to lose an eye.)(If my house was on fire, I'd grab my great-grandmother's knitting needles, my husband, my two dogs and this mug.)

So that's it - those are some of the good things I've recently purchased that I am so very pleased with.  The shops I've linked to are amazing and take customer service very seriously, for which I commend them.  If you have Christmas shopping to do in the next few months, you may want to consider sending some business their way - they deserve it and you won't be disappointed.

(I don't really have to say it, do I?  None of these people have given me a dime - or free product - to give you my recommendations.  I just really like them and wanted to go on the record with my experiences.)

SWAG!

Ok, so mentioned this on Ravelry (to my peeps), but it bears repeating:

I love Elizabeth Zimmermann. 

I recently bought two of her books, The Opinionated Knitter and The Knitter's Almanac Commemorative Edition when KnitPicks had them on a deep discount for their February book sale.  They arrived about a week ago and my brain has been completely blindsided by the awesomeness.  Holy crap.  I'm getting the shivers, just thinking about how awesome these books are.  For reals.  Go and buy them now.

Also, I bought some yarn.  You have to understand something about this yarn, before I show it to you.  I have been lusting after this particular yarn in this particular colour for over a year.  Jenny posted it in January of 2011 (second photo from the top) and when I saw it, I fainted and then, when I regained consciousness, I fainted again.

We were talking about yarn/pattern obsessions on Ravelry and I remembered it and posted it and then smacked myself in the head for not just buying it already and then I went and found it online and paid for it and waited an eternity for it to arrive and then fell on the parcel like a pack of rabid hyenas when it arrived.

And then I fainted.  And then I fainted again.

The wool is so smooth and even that it almost feels like silk.  And I think this yarn contains every single one of my favourite colours ever and I am totally in love with it.  In kind of an illogical and irrational way.

Oh crap, what am I going to make with it?

Christmas was awesome

About a month before Christmas, my husband was out doing...something.  I don't know.  He was out with friends, I think.  Shopping, maybe?

Yes, my husband shops.  Willingly.

No, you can't clone him.

Anyway, he was out with friends, shopping (and yes, I'm sure he's straight, by the way) and he stumbled upon a big sale at the Paderno Factory Outlet (Paderno is a local company, dontcha know).  A major sale.  Like a holy-cow-now-we-can-afford-the-Cuisinart-food-processor-we've-been-talking-about-for-five-years kind of sale.

So he bought me a Cuisinart.

Yikes, sorry for the hair-raising photography.  The light is so horrible, these days.  I don't have much to work with.

*Officially* it was a Christmas present, but the thing is massive and there was no way he would have been able to hide that thing somewhere in the house (our house is so small that we can't even fit a Christmas tree in it).

I've been inventing excuses for the past 6 weeks to whip it out and play with it.  I don't think he understood why I wanted one so badly until he used it, himself.  When he saw how fast it chopped his stir fry veggies, all he said was "Duuuuuude." and his eyes just about popped out of his face.  Stir fries are a twice-weekly tradition in this gluten-free household, so it was a big deal.

I've been using it for mixing GF dough (pizza, cookie, scone, almond balls, etc) and chopping the aforementioned veggies.  What else should I be making with this thing?  Ideas?  Oh!  Homemade mayo?  Egads, I can't believe it only occurred to me just now.

Gotta go!  That mayo ain't gonna make itself.

(PS: The keyboard for my iMac pooched on me a couple of months ago.  The letter K and the comma buttons suddenly decided that they had known enough of the world and offed themselves.  Perhaps it was murder-suicide.  We'll never know.  Anyway,  I've been using the frustrating/disgusting/obnoxious keyboard that came with it, five years ago.  So he got me a new keyboard.  He's a keeper, this husband of mine.)

I should probably demand a commission

This week, I got a Ravelry message from Ash, who is a member of our Ravelry group (that's Woodcraft Knitters, which was technically started up by Wood, but which I have highjacked and of which I have anointed myself High Chancellor).  It got me wondering: did I ever end up telling you what I think of my new-ish KnitPicks interchangeable needle set (the ones in these photos)?

Well, in case I haven't, here's what I think of them:

I love them.

The end.

 



What?  Oh, you wanted more feedback?  OK FINE.

Seriously, they're fantastic.  This is why I think so:

1. You can not - and will not - beat the price.
2. I am a very loose knitter and I ordered the nickel-plated set (the interchangeables and a slew of the skinnier ones - which can't be manufactured as interchangeables because they're too skinny for the mechanism - in 40" lengths, for magic loop knitting).  The nickel-plated is super slippery and excellent for fast knitting.  My Lace Addi needle got all tarnishy and ugly after the first project (not that their look affects their performance, but you know what I mean), but my KnitPicks needles are still 100% perfectly beautiful after several projects.
3. The tips are sharp (thank you, folks at KnitPicks - you angels, you)
4. The joins are as good as it gets.  The looser the knitting, the more invisible they seem.  Perfect.
5. The cables are so bendy and forgiving, it's kind of freaky.  Seriously, they are even more forgiving than Addi's and that is saying a LOT.
6. The tips are feather-weight.  Awesome.  Just awesome.
7. I now have a pretty complete set of circulars on hand.  I had no idea how liberating that feeling would be until I bought these.  I have a complete set of straights and a mostly-complete set of DPN's, but I think circs are more versatile and wow, it makes a big difference having them all within reach.
8. They fit in a tidy little case (though the case is stiff and awkward and could probably benefit from being made of a different material...except that it is really nice to be able to see through the plastic...oh well, you can't have everything, I guess).
9. The options for the tips.  I mean, how great would it be to have all three types - metal, acrylic and wood?  You could experiment with each one when you're trying out a new yarn.  Different yarns benefit from being knit on different needles, did you know that?  I didn't.  But apparently, it's true.  You can get better results if you play around with your needle types.
10. You can buy a little coupling separately that allows you to join cables together and make one super long cable.  Afghan knitting, anyone?
11. Have you ever heard of lifelines, in knitting?  Well, they work like this: when you're knitting something that is a little involved, like a lace shawl or a cabled sweater, there is a possibility that you might make a mistake at some point (what?? me, make a mistake???  NEVER!) and you'll have to rip some knitting back.  The thought of having to rip back lace is enough to give a person a migraine (I don't recommend it to anyone), so this is what you do: at the end of a round of particularly complex knitting, you will thread a yarn needle with some scrap yarn and feed it through your loops, thus securing them and providing you with a safe harbour in the storm.  Well, with the KnitPicks interchangeables, it's even easier to do than that.  The tips are tightened onto the cables using a little pin.  You twist the tip onto the cable, insert the pin into a small hole near the needle's socket, and you use the pin as leverage to really torque the needle and cable together.  Here's the secret: that little pin hole is the PERFECT size for dental floss.  You thread the dental floss into the hole, tie a little knot to keep it there, knit your next row just like you normally would (with your regular yarn - the floss is just going along for the ride), but when you're done, you snip the knot in the dental floss and leave it in your work.  BAM: instant lifeline.  Plus, it's minty fresh.  And lifelines need not be limited to complex work.  They're good for keeping travel knitting safe from tangles.  Or just preventing your toddler from setting you back hours and hours and hours in your work by gleefully making away with your needle from your project, which was sitting peacefully on the sofa before you turned your back a moment ago.
12. They also have these little tags that you can buy separately that are GENIUS!  Why, you ask?  Well, imagine this totally probable scenario: you start a project like...I don't know...a sweater.  Yeah, you're starting a sweater.  You're knitting up the body when you realize that you were supposed to start on the sleeves first, for whatever reason.  No biggie.  You unscrew the needle tips from the cable and use the little purple caps that came with your kit to secure the knitting onto the cable.  It will now act as a stitch holder (goodbye scrap yarn method!) and will keep the body safe until you're ready to graft the arms on.  Except WAIT.  What happens if you start the sleeve and then decide that you have to knit an emergency scarf with that size of needle (what? scarf emergencies happen, yo) and so you abandon the sleeve idea and all of the sudden, you come back to them later and you have no idea what size needles you were using for the sweater (because, though I've told you to, you haven't started a knitting journal yet and you're working blind).  SO WHAT THEN?  You're up the creek without a paddle, my friend.  Unless...

What if you slipped one of these little puppies onto the cable before you capped it at each end when you stopped knitting the sweater body?  A built-in method of documenting your needle sizes for on-going projects.

See?  Genius, I tell you.  Simply genius.

So, do I think you should invest in a set of these?  Yes, I do.  I DESPISED circular needles for years and I knit almost exclusively on these, now.  My knitting-in-the-round has improved tenfold (no more ladders and unevenness).  Magic loop is my answer to everything.  Two-at-a-time socks are my new modus operandi.  Heck, two-at-a-time sleeves are next.

What I would suggest is this: KnitPicks make a set of interchangeables that include a pair of each type of tips (wood, metal and acrylic - I inserted a photo of this set at the top of this post) so you can try them out.  I would give that a shot.  The Holidays are coming - put them on your list.  I really don't think you'll regret it.

Oh, and one more thing: if you haven't been listening to Kelly Petkun's podcasts, you really ought to remedy that.  Holy cow, have I learned a lot from this woman.  Excellent commuting soundtrack (I even listen to them while I'm doing housework and baking).  Just remember to keep a little notebook handy (or maybe your NEW KNITTING JOURNAL, HINT HINT) so that you can take notes.  'Cause I guarantee that you'll want to.

Viewer Discretion is Advised

The reason for the disclaimer is that I'm finally ready to show what I got for my birthday (back in July...so much for promptness).  I hinted at it a few times, but I only wanted to unveil it when it was ready.

So, without further ado, I present to you the newest member of my family:

She's a foam body form made by a company called Uniquely You.  I bought it online and the way it works is that you tailor the canvas cover it comes with to fit you EXACTLY (more on that in a minute).  Once that's done, you wrestle the canvas cover over the foam form (emphasis on the "wrestle"... I actually have blisters on my knuckles from body slamming this thing into submission this afternoon).

I'm obviously a little shorter than the norm, because you can see the strip of foam poking out the bottom there.  Oh well.

And can I just take a moment to marvel at just how curvy I am?  I hate photos of myself (I am truly the least photogenic person on the planet) so standing next to this thing is the best sense I've gotten of my body's proportions ever.  I have got me some junk in the trunk.  Who knew?

Right, so you're dying to ask me if this thing works.  Well, so far, I would have to give you a resounding YES.  Oh, it gave me some trouble: it was hellish to get the stupid cover right.  You can see a whole whack of loose threads poking out there, right?  After the fourth fifth third hour of altering, I got lazy and stopped trimming the ends.  And holy cow, when the instructions say that the cover has to be SKIN TIGHT, they don't kid.  I could barely breathe in it.  The current incarnation you see above is actually the second version.  I spent a whole day altering the first time around only to discover that it didn't match my measurements when I got it all assembled.  My reaction when I discovered that is best kept under wraps.  It was not pretty, folks.

But, this weekend I had a bit of a burst of productivity and started to de-stash my fabric/sewing project collection.  (I know, crazy!)  I have been finding it difficult to get motivated re: sewing, lately.  Which is really dumb because it just sits on the edge of my desk all the time - it's not like I need to assemble it every time or anything.  Once that sewing machine gets set up, I find it much easier to just keep going.  Sigh.

So anyway, once I got this baby set up and measured it again (this time it was spot on, yay!), I took out a few projects that I started last fall (they've been sitting in the drawer languishing for a year OH FOR SHAME!).  One is a pair of pants and the other is a button-down shirt.  The laziness vis-à-vis the shirt, I can forgive, I guess.  (Have you ever figured out how to alter darts on the back of a shirt when you're the one it's being fitted on and you're alone trying to fit it?  Yeah, me neither.  Yoga will only get you so far: it can't help you grow eyes on the back of your head.  Hence why I needed the dress form.)  The laziness re: the pants is kind of ridiculous.  I mean, a whole 12 months they've been collecting dust?  Sheesh.  But the shirt got fitted this afternoon and holy crap, it was so EASY!  I actually foresee myself making more of them (which I never thought I'd "hear" myself say).  Dresses are going to be a breeze (I wish I could accurately convey the excitement I feel at being able to write that... but I can't, so you'll just have to use your imaginations, ok?).

Mwahahahahaha, I am now a sewing force to be reckoned with!

Or whatever.

I am a total geek

They're heeeeeeeere:

  

Oooooooh, they're so pretty:

So I celebrated by knitting myself a hat.  (And just in time for the -35C weather, too!)

 

Um, and so, here's the thing.  This hat is the reincarnation of my Burberry-Inspired Cowl: 

The cowl just wasn't doing it for me.  I wasn't wearing it.  And the yarn is delicious and it was from Wood, so there was NO WAY I was going to let it collect dust in the winter accessories bin (yes, we have a whole bin - a basket wouldn't even come close to containing it all...it's one of those massive Rubbermaid storage bins).  So I frogged it and IT LIVES AGAIN!

So there you have it.  I am off to swatch my arse off for my next sweater and make some socks.  

GET THIS: since I started knitting in the Continental style, I've reeeeeeeally loosened up.  I started knitting Ruth's socks with a 3.25mm circular and it was too loose.  Next, I tried a 2.5mm circular and it was too loose.  So I went down to a 2.0mm.  And guess what?  STILL TOO FLIPPIN' LOOSE!  Two! Point! Oh!  Millimeters!   That's like knitting with tooth picks!  They don't even make them smaller than that!  GAH!  So it looks like I'm going to have to a) start knitting socks in sport weight yarn or b) knit all socks in the English style, which is about as tempting to me as the thought of licking my kitchen floor.  All. Those. Stitches.  And. All. That. Ribbing.  And no Continental.  

Sigh.

PS: You know, I think it's time for a change, folks.  I switched to Apple several years ago because they just work (iMac, I love you).  I drive a car that is dependable and fuel-efficient and good quality, because it just makes more sense (though it is not made in North America - GASP).  I try to eat organic and local, because it is kinder to the planet and better for my health.  I even learned a totally new way of knitting (after 25 years of using the old method) because it was just smarter and more efficient.  I am all for tradition and standards and all that, but I think it's time for you crazy Americans to get over your impossible-to-understand-and-full-of-nonsensical-gaps knitting needle sizing conventions and come over to the dark side.  The totally logical, totally fool-proof, "it just works", dark, METRIC side.  

I mean, you have two versions of size 1 needles and two versions of size 2's.  And what's up with having a size 0? How is that even possible?  Honestly.  That's just silly.

A New Year, A New Yarn?

 Ok, so I know I haven't called in a while, but I have an excuse.  It's.... um... well ok, I have no really good excuse.  I was working my tail off on some work-work:

 ...and of course busting my hump trying to get some Christmassy work done:

(un-blocked lace knitting looks like a pile of noodles)

 (ahh, much better)

...which didn't get finished in time to send off, but who cares?  It's for my mom and she likes getting things all year-round, so I just sent her a homemade market bag for now.  This will get shipped off this week, if I can remember to go to the post office.  It's exactly how I hoped it would turn out and is the perfect size for her.  I used this pattern (Rav link) and this yarn and found it to be quite easy to follow.  If you decide to try it out, let me know because I have a few little tips.  It's the perfect gateway project into lace knitting.  Good thing?  Bad thing?  It remains to be seen...


Anyway, I finished A LOT more knitting, but I'm not going to unveil it all right now.  I'm going to draw out the pleasure and get more blogging mileage out of it.  Not good for you all to get everything you want right away.  Ha!


Christmas was pretty quiet around here.  We FINALLY got a major project finished (well, truth be told it's only about 90% finished, but I don't care):

You wanna see what the "before" looked like?  Ok, brace yourselves.  Here it is, on the day we moved in, 4 years ago:

Nasty.  Sorry to have done that to you.  Hope you don't have too much trouble sleeping tonight.

It was a major undertaking and will likely prove to have been the most difficult portion of our renovations.  It's a tiny little room and the only bathroom we have, so it drove us a little crazy.  By the end, I was so tired of contemplating it, that I just kind of let it drag on forever.  My husband had to step in and take over, after one of my many frustration-induced meltdowns.  Not my most shining moment.  Although I am proud to say that it is fully functional and I didn't kill anyone.  Win, win.

In terms of Christmas gifts, we had dubbed this "Frugalmas", so it was pretty light.  Mom sent over some little treasures and treats.  The hubbie gave me a box full of wonderful wool socks.  I know that sounds pretty paltry, but you have to understand something about me: I DESPISE having cold feet.  I sleep with socks on, even in the summertime when the rest of me is broiling.  And we just recently discovered that the reason we were freezing in our offices at work was not that the insulation is sub-par, but that the heaters were not working.  Winter has not really hit yet (we got our first "real" snow on Christmas Day - pathetic), so it wasn't unbearable.  I had adapted to it by wearing 3 layers up top (camisole, long-sleeve T, wool sweater) and wool pants below and wool hiking socks in my Docs.  Hence the wool socks for Christmas.  Ironically, my coworkers got fed up over the Holidays and went on a reconnaissance in the boiler room, discovering in the process that there was an air-lock in the system and our heaters were not working.  Took them 15 minutes to get it fixed and now I'm sweating all day long.  Better to peel layers off than have to knock the ice off the toilet bowl every time nature calls like we were going to have to do, I say.  Eventually we'll find a nice balance.  In the meantime, I have multiple pairs of comfy socks - one for every day of the week.


I gave him several pair of handmade pyjama bottoms (I only make him whine for 3 years before I deliver the goods) and I made him a new pair of spring/fall mittens a few weeks ago:

(no pattern, just improvisation with superwash merino)

It's my husband's birthday this week, so he received some additional funds from his parents with which to spoil himself, so he bought some snow shoes.  You know those traditional wooden snow shoes with the teardrop shape and the rawhide laces?  Yeah, modern snowshoes don't look anything like those.  Hi-tech.  What a difference.  As a short-legged girl who grew up waddling around on those massive wooden suckers, I have an aversion to snowshoeing.  I might be tempted to give his a try, though.

As a little treat, he used some of his leftover funds to buy me some new leather mittens:

 

They're dressy-ish but tough and functional and are kind of the mitten equivalent to my favourite shoes.  Plus, they have an added little bonus:

Sweet!  Knitted mittens are all well and good, but there comes a point in the winter where I need something a bit more substantial and have never found a nice pair (I detest gloves) that I can wear with my dressier coat.

I'm still very much enthralled by podcasts and have listened to over 100 of Kelley Petkun's (the owner of KnitPicks) while I've been knitting.  She covers many many many topics that I'm not even going to list out here, but one thing she touches on is audiobooks.  I've listened to them before, but not since I got my iPod.  So, when I received the customary iTunes gift certificate for Christmas, I logged on and bought the trilogy she recommended: "A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman", which is essentially the story of Pride and Prejudice, told from Darcy's perspective.  Yes, please.  It's awesome.  I can't seem to put it down.  It's making me want to interject "Indeed!" and "Blast!" into conversations and use words like "feigned", "absurd", "ardent", and "reticence".  Not to mention "cravat", "waistcoat", "pelisse" and "frock".  Modern English is so boring.

I also bought the latest album from Justin Rutledge, "The Early Widows".  Wow.  Listen for yourselves.  This one's called "Be a Man" and was co-written with Michael Ondaatje.  You know, the guy who wrote "The English Patient":

"Somewhere there is salt in the air of a season that touches the hem
of an island so northern
Some air is knitting a day for a woman whose eyes are upon the horizon"