afterburn

Have I mentioned lately that I love my Secret Pal? This here picture is me kicking back and chilling to some Amadou et Mariam while wearing a new pair of fancy-ribbed red slipper-socks, courtesy of my wonderful thoughtful Secret Pal.

She has great timing. After a depressing evening of watching pResident Bush doing his State of the Union on the teevee over at Chez Seamless, a lovely package from my Secret Pal was more than welcome! Thank you, SP, for making what could have been an unbearable evening, well, kind of nice, actually. In her package she included a CD full of world music MP3's, including the amazing Amadou et Mariam, which is soothing my frazzled nerves as we speak. Thank you, Secret Pal! (PS - I can call her "she" now 'cause she told me she's one of us wimmins. We have this communication thing going. It's cool).

I can't say I have much of an informed reaction to the State of the Union address, except what in the heck was with all the anti-isolationism rhetoric? Who's actually proposing isolationism as foreign policy? It's amazing to me that he sets up this straw man to tear down, and it sure does look like the actual foreign policy of this very administration - a straw man, indeed. Same deal with the gobbledy-gook about closing our markets to the world - come on man, talk about what's actually happening in our universe!

The quote of the evening (we were watching with friends) came from Robyn, who captioned the Barak Obama close-ups with "Now there's a black man I could get with!" True dat, girlfriend. I love me some Obama. If the next president is going to look (and talk) half that good, I might just withdraw my Australian work-visa application.

One last thing - why was Cindy Sheehan arrested, exactly? What was the disturbance that she caused? Her very existence? Man, this guy is so afraid of critics, he can't even stand to have them looking at him from the balcony.

All right, back to knitting - a much less frustrating topic. Here's the problem: I can't decide what to knit next. I am eagerly sitting on my plans for the Knitting Olympics, but I can't cast on til February 10th! I'm all done with my cute green stripey socks, and I have this big huge design/knit project waiting for me... but I really am one of those loyal one-project-at-a-time knitters (except for the little sock or scarf project that I keep going on the side for meetings and conference calls).

I can't imagine starting a big design/knit project and then interrupting it to start my olympic sweater a week later. It seems so... so disloyal. I'm already burning with guilt over leaving my bamboo knitting needles sitting alone at home while I'm out painting the town red with my Addi Turbos. Help me, Carolyn Hax! I'm a cheater! Is admitting it the first step to recovery? Do I even want to recover?

The last thing I want is to wind up like Simon, the nap slut. Look at him, napping casually in any old chair or cardboard box that will have him. Tramp.