Tired tonight

My in-laws are in town for an early Thanksgiving. (It’s a long story, and I will tell you sometime soon). So I made a turkey and all (well, most) of the trimmings. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It’s just too bad turkey makes you so tired.

Nanowrimo strikes again

It’s National Novel Writing Month.  Here we go again.  Heaven help me.

 

Happy Halloween

Pictures tomorrow I promise.

Socks!

Hey look, I finished my socks.  Yay me.

This is the yarn I dyed myself earlier this year.  I am quite pleased with how they turned out.  They are pretty wacky, but I like them.

I did these from the toe up, so I don’t know how long they will last.  I seem to have better luck getting socks to last when I knit them from the top down.  But, I like knitting from the toe up because you don’t have to knit a gauge swatch.  It’s true.  You just cast on for the toe and keep increasing until it fits.  Awesome.

Now apparently I have to knit some bandages for Princess O’s stuffed animal veterinary practice.  Then, it’s time to suck it up and cast on 700+ stitches for the wrap I want to make.  Just the thought of it makes me want to lie down.

Renault, race fixing and a great big mess

It’s a Formula One day today mom. Sorry.

So as I am sure you know, Nelson Piquet Joonyer has come forward and said that he was told to spin and crash on purpose in the Singapore Grand Prix last year so Alonso could win.  He claims he did this so he would retain his seat with the team in 2009.  And it apparently came to light now in a fit of rage after Renault fired him earlier this year.

In the interest of full disclosure here, let me say up front that I have never had much use for Nelson Joonyer.  I don’t like him.  He’s cocky, he’s obnoxious and it turns out his mouth was writing a lot of checks his ass couldn’t cash. In other words, he could talk the talk but he couldn’t walk the walk.

Anyway, Nelson alleges that he had a conversation with Team Principal Flavio Briatore and the Executive Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds before the race, and that he was told when and where to crash after Alonso’s early pit stop so Fernando could maximize his chances of winning.  And Alonso did, in fact, win the race.

Flavio has denied everything.  Symonds meanwhile admits having “a conversation” with Joonyer about crashing deliberately but he claims Nelson brought it up.

All in all, it looks bad for the good guys.  The one small piece of positive news in this is that the investigators have apparently come to the conclusion that Alonso didn’t know anything about any of this, so he’s in the clear.  Of course that won’t mean much if his team gets banned and he doesn’t have a car for the rest of the season.

The latest twist to all this came to light today when the Renault team revealed they are bringing the Piquets (both Nelson Sr. and Nelson Jr.) before a criminal court on charges of blackmail and defamation of character.  I guess the best defense is a good offense.  I say this latest salvo is a good thing.   I hope this whole mess turns out to be a big pile of BS from an irate spoiled brat who finally had the rug yanked out from under him.  And I hope the Piquets wind up in court.  I hope this ruins them.  I hope when all this is over Nelson Sr. doesn’t have enough money to buy his son a cheeseburger, much less set him up with his very own Formula 1 team.  (I’m angry, can you tell?)

There is a lot of good information about this on real F1 sites.  Try GP Update, Allen on F1 and Paddock Talk.

I don’t want to believe this is possible, but from where I am sitting things do not look good.  And I have a few questions:

• Even though Nelson has been given immunity by the FIA (the sport’s governing body) if it is determined that he DID spin on purpose to throw the race, won’t he still be subject to the laws of Singapore and possibly the EEC regarding such behavior?
• Is Pat Symonds being set up as the “fall guy” at Renault?
• If this is true, what the hell were they thinking?

And finally,

• What will happen to Alonso?

There will be a hearing before the WMSC (World Motor Sport Council) on September 21.  The suspense is already killing me.

The Royal Ear-Piercing

Today was a big day for Princess O, a day she has been waiting for since she was five years old.  Today, she got her ears pierced.

As I mentioned, she first asked to get her ears pierced when she was five, and I told her she had to wait until she was in middle school.  I said this for the same reason I said it when she asked about a cell phone.  I picked middle school out of the air in random fashion because it seemed impossible to me that she would ever BE in middle school.  She was just a baby.

Anyway, today was the big day.  We were going to do it yesterday, but the tattoo parlor was closed yesterday for Labor Day.

Yes, I said tattoo parlor.  I know most normal moms take their children to a jewelry store to do this, but quite frankly, I didn’t want to trust my baby’s earlobes to a high school girl wielding a piercing gun at the mall.  A friend of a friend had her daughter’s ears pierced at this tattoo parlor and said they did a great job.  And at least at the tattoo parlor you have some confidence that the person doing the piercing has done this a zillion times, in places much -ahem- more interesting than just an 11-year old’s earlobes.

So off we went.  My friend and her daughter met us there, with the intention of making a party out of it, but C changed her mind and decided to just lend moral support instead.  The guy did a great job.  He had clearly pierced kid ears before and he was very reassuring and talked her through the whole thing.  They used a needle, not a gun and then he put the earrings in for her.  They use hoops instead of studs.  The guy said hoops are better because they are easier to clean, and it’s easy to spin them around so the scar tissue forms properly

While all this was going on the C-Man was busy inspecting all the sample tattoo artwork. He has some big plans for his 18^th birthday.  He took their card.

Mom, seriously, you're taking me to a tattoo parlor?

Ready to go!

Pierced ears!

Hey

Gavin Floyd is pitching a perfect game right now for the stinking White Sox.

Ooops, not anymore.  Hee hee.

No walking tacos

The walking taco stand was closed. Tragic.

I LOVE Project Runway

I missed it so much.

Odds and Ends – State Fair Edition

If you don’t want it to rain, lug around an umbrella and four rain ponchos all day.

***

I can’t believe I missed this!  Chocolate covered bacon on a stick.  A friend told me she had seen a sign for it.  Shoot.  Since I didn’t have any, I didn’t get a chance to take a picture.  But here is what it might look like.

***

There is no such thing as a food that can’t be improved by putting it on a stick and deep frying it.  This year I saw a sign for deep fried pineapple on a stick.  That actually sounds pretty good.

***

Here is a list of all your dining options at the fairground this year

***

This year’s Big Boar weighed in at over 1100 pounds.  That’s a lot of pork chops.

***

And finally, some photos: