Quickly and Efficiently

*That's the phrase I've always used when I need my children to show a little hustle.

*Does anyone else day, "Bless you" when your pet sneezes?

*Today is my BFF Shari's actual birthday.  She's either 15 or 60, depending on how you look at it.

*In 2012, when she turned "13," she had a second Bat Mitzvah.  So much fun.

*Still drinking tea.  My favorite find so far is Montana Gold from Snake River Tea.

*My all-time favorite hot tea is Apple and Honey from Wissotzky.  I buy many boxes at a time, as it is Hannah's favorite as well, and I don't want her poaching mine.

Knitting for babies is so wonderful for so many reasons.  Here's Quincy, whom I told you about the other day:

Yeah, I cried a little when I saw this.

To the Store

I am not a shopper.  I'm a buyer, but not a shopper.  I cannot go into a store and just walk around, cannot go to a mall to "window shop."  There are two exceptions: yarn and cowboy boots.  Those I can look at for good whiles.  Otherwise, I only go into a store if I know what I'm going to get.  I get it, maaaybe pick up some other stuff if I happen across it, then get out.

Today I went to Barnes & Noble looking for a jigsaw puzzle.  Hannah had been working on one the last time I went to see her, and I've had that bee in my bonnet ever since,  I had already been to a couple of other places I thought might have puzzles, but to no avail.  Are Hannah and I the only ones who work puzzles anymore?  I did muster the patience to go through all the shelves, and this is the one I brought home:

ANYway, I went to the crafts section of Magazines, and. . .  What has happened to knitting magazines?  Only Interweave and Noro were on the shelf.  Now, B&N honestly is the only place in town I know of that stocks knitting magazines on the regular, and I hope this isn't a permanent state.  Do most of you still have access to knitting magazines?

Pretty Much on Time

A while back, I wrote about a couple who was due to welcome a new soul into the world.  He's here!

Welcome, Quincy.

Gimme

One night last week, I went to a pet store here to get Tap a new collar.  (Such a big boy.)  There was a table set up outside with Brownies selling Girl Scout Cookes.

TAGALONGS!!

I said this on Facebook: I would mainline these if I could.  It's a good thing they weren't around when I was a Scout, or I would have chowed through my entire inventory.

Speaking of that, I think there were only 5 or 6 cookie types when I was selling.  Thin Mints were there, and some type of shortbread, if memory serves.  And they were (again, I believe) 50 cents a box.

While I Was Away

Well, I haven't actually been away --- I've been running the contests, but I've been away from regular programming.

Firstly, Vicki suggested a solution to the Rickman and Hepburn always win dilemma.  I had actually thought of it, too.  They will both be held out of the contests from now on.  We love them, and we want to knit with/for/next to them, but other people deserve a chance.

Hepburn will be going into the Hall of Fame.  Rickman is already there.

I turned 60 during all this.  I am quite distressed at that.  It is the first age that has bothered me in any way, and it is bothering me in every way.  To the point that I can't even think about it without being overwhelmed.

It snowed here one day.  Really came down, and was just spectacular, but it didn't stick for very long.  

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, mostly my own DVDs that I haven't watched in a while.  "The Hunt for the Wilderpeople,"
"The Visitor," "Enough Said," "Mr. Pip," "You Kill Me," "The Young Visiters," "State of the Union," "The Zookeeper."  Reading a Jim Henson biography and drinking lots of tea.  So many online tea stores sell samples, which means I can try lots of flavors without lots of money.  And still knitting wraps.

A Change Might Be in Order

The 2020 Knitters' Hunk and Knitters' Chick Classics winners are

Alan Rickman

Katharine Hepburn

These two have won these dang things every.  Single.  Year.  

Hepburn was an automatic entrant, so the KC prize goes to Lorette, who nominated Cokie Roberts.  (She nominated Eleanor Roosevelt as well.) 

Rickman was an automatic, too, as were Grant and Williams.  The KH prize, then, goes to Vicki, who nominated Paul Newman.

Huge thanks to all who participated.  See you in August with the "regular" ("the people who are still alive") contests.

The Winners Ought to Be

Semifinals

The end is so very near.  You won't be able to see results for this round and for the Finals.  There should be some mystery at this point.

Thanks to everyone who nominated.  When the winners of the tournaments are announced, you'll also find out who the winning nominators are.  Guess I'd better get to packing up those prize packages, huh?

Day Two of Quarters (Does That Make Them Fifties?)

Are you kidding me with some of these pairings?

Williams over Nimoy
Rickman over Lincoln
K. Hepburn over Gardner
Grant over Cousteau
Roosevelt over A. Hepburn

Are you kidding me with some of these pairings?

Quarters on the Table

Firstly, thank you for breaking these ties:
Tim Conway over JFK, Jr.
Robin Williams over Gene Wilder

Secondly, vote!  (First on the leftover Second Round pairing, then the Quarterfinals.)

A Break to Break Some Ties

Leonard Nimoy is waiting for the winner of the Wilder / Williams contest, so there's still a wee bit of bookkeeping to do before the Quarters are entirely complete.  For now, though, see if you can end these deadlocks.

The most current winners were:
Lauren Bacall
Jacques Cousteau
Cary Grant
Peggy Lipton
Robert Kennedy
Katharine Hepburn
Cokie Roberts
Penny Marshall

In Which We Finish the Second Round

Really.  Your votes today send people into the Quarterfinals.  Waiting for them there are:

Abraham Lincoln
Katharine Hepburn
Alan Rickman
Ava Gardner
Paul Newman
Audrey Hepburn
Eleanor Roosevelt

Another tiebreaker, though, before the Quarters are full:
Tim Conway and John F. Kennedy, Jr.

For now, vote on these

In Which We Start the Second Round

By first announcing yesterday's winners:

Gary Cooper
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Robert Kennedy
Cokie Roberts
Leonard Nimoy
Penny Marshall
Diana, Princess of Wales

Gene Wilder and Robin Williams tied, so you'll have another opportunity to vote for them.  Today, you have:

Fourth Day

Latest winners:

Lauren Bacall
Fred Rogers
Valerie Harper
Jacques Cousteau
Dusty Springfield
Freddie Mercury
Peggy Lipton

These pairings are the last of the First Round:

Day Three Voting

The latest winners are
Paul Newman
Audrey Hepburn
Jim Henson
Mary Tyler Moore
John Kennedy, Jr.
Carrie Fisher
Tim Conway
Eleanor Roosevelt

and your latest choices are:

Voting, Day Two

Full disclosure: Twinnie nominated Grumpy Cat (inspired, don't you think?) and I nominated Ava Gardner.  We still, as far as I know, remain on speaking terms.

And, too?  Next year, get ready to consider Secretariat.

Winners:
Margaret Sanger
Gene Wilder
Nora Ephron
Mike Wallace
Rosemary Clooney
Anthony Bourdain
Ava Gardner
Abraham Lincoln

Today:

Polls are Open

Thursdays are My Favorite Days

If any of you stopped by last night and saw the first round of voting, I apologize.  I was seeing whether the poll codes worked, and I put them in the wrong place.  Actual voting begins tomorrow.

It's been a lovely grey, stormy, rainy day today.  Yes, I said, "lovely."  These are the days that energize me, that inspire me.  Sunny days do nothing for me.  Is that the opposite of Seasonal Affective Disorder?

This is Tap's latest trick.

He can sit like that for almost impossibly long times.  (Pardon his scragglier-than-usual hair --- he's been in and out of the rain all day.)   The only problem is, I'm not quite sure what it means.  We've sorted out a system of communicating in our time together: I've learned which of his barks means what.  But this is still a mystery.

I finished the Wingspan wrap (the one of the turquoises and purple.)  Still working on the others, and about to cast on a pair of fingerless mitts.  Told you the rain inspires me.

The Haps

Back to the ol' contest tricks here at KC/KH HQ.  Creating polls and looking for photos.  There are already some doozy match-ups, folks.

I'm on the second day of a headache that made me cancel two appointments yesterday.  One was with my tax guy, the other to get a haircut.  Yes, my head hurt too much to get a haircut.

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd type:
Well done, Mitt Romney.  Thank you.

*phew*

I think I might know why I abandoned cross-stitch for knitting.  It takes forever.  Knitting goes so very much faster, even if you're working with hundreds of stitches on the needles.  Maybe I'm just out of practice with cross-stitch, but jeeminy, these rows are taking so long.

I'll be making up the Classic draws tomorrow.  Voting will start Friday.

Building

Okay, we've got a good number of nominees.  But you still have time to submit names.

Also, at some point in the proceedings, I'll announce the new inductee(s) into our Hall of Fame.  I forgot to do that with the "regular" contests back in the Fall.

Lookee Here

So tonight,

I started a cross-stitch project.  It's the first time I've cross-stitched in ages.  It's to be the stitched version of this Mondrian:

This is the kind of pattern I always preferred: simple, bold, not having to change colors a lot.  

The problem for me is that I have to take my glasses off to stitch.  Trust me, after a lifetime of needing glasses to read or do anything up close, this is strange to me.  And possibly worse, being glasses-less means I can't see the TV or the computer screen.  So it was either cross-stitch or watch the Super Bowl.

Thanks to those who've sent in nominations.  The rest of you have until Tuesday night at 11:59 PM (Eastern time.)

Three Days to Go

I'll get the ball rolling on Classics nominees.

John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Abraham Lincoln

Gregory Peck

Ava Gardner

Helen Keller

Mary Shelley

Your turns!