Chickenlips Knitting

Yep, I actually layered the brownie batter and cream cheese batter. Here it is in all its chocolatey glory, out of the oven with a swath of glaze over the top.

This late in the evening, if I cut it into squares now, all bets would be off. So that puppy went into the fridge, and there it will stay for the next couple of days.

I am no longer an IKEA virgin

About lunchtime today, after seeing the doc, (yet another of a series of med checks--fascinating stuff. Stay tuned for next month's colonoscopy, complete with snapshots! I'm just playing about the snapshots) I drove to Ikea in half-crappy weather. I wanted the whole experience, so first I went to the cafe and had the Swedish meatballs. Delicious, with the lingonberry sauce and all. Then I wandered through the marketplace in search of gifts for my illustrious brother and sister-in-law. One of her gift suggestions for him was "a really nice pan you can flambe in." I've never flambe'd a goshdarned thing in my life, and I believe there's a city ordinance against it where I live, so I bought him a stainless steel saute pan. Very nice and in my price range. If it doesn't fit the bill, he can take it back, no problem. For her, a red glass vase specially designed for a spray of orchids. And for both of them, a square wall mirror with black wrought-iron trim. I even bought a couple of handy-dandy kitchen things for us, and got out of there less than $100 lighter. Now that's shopping. Wily folk, the Swedish.

And The Chickenlips Rant Of The Week

I'm a knitter, so natch, I'm all about the details. We detail-oriented people share a peculiarity, IMHO: you never know what's going to set us off. Just look at the Ravelry groups and discussion boards. There is so much on Rav and every time I get on it and explore, I find something new. Discussions can go on and on and become quite heated over what seems like minutiae when compared with, say, climate change slowing down the planet's rotation. I'm not saying that any of it is irrelevant if someone cares about it. It's just that I've noticed something about the nature of group formation on Ravelry, and I'm not sure I like it. Ravelry was founded because of a love for fiber art. It has brought something like 40,000 into one large online community, and amazing connections are being made every day. My shawl design would not be where it is, for knitbloggers with large readerships to happen upon and mention, had it not been for Ravelry. And if you like something else besides knitting, crochet, spinning or dyeing (those seem like the fiber arts most Ravelers are into,) I'll bet you dollars to donuts there is a Ravelry group you can join. I myself founded the Rush Fans Who Knit group, and at the time I thought I'd be the only one. We have 28 members, rock on! But wait, don't fall asleep yet, I have a point and it's this: I'm seeing more and more groups based on hate of something. There are the kid haters, who are unapologetically graphic about their contempt for children and those who choose to have them. Tonight I found the "Anybody but Hillary" group. Hey that's fine, I'm a liberal and I know that were the founder of that group and I ever to meet, we'd run out of topics for polite chitchat in less than 30 seconds. I guess it just strikes a chord within, that all these people have converged because they love something, and now quite a few are breaking into smaller groups based on hating something. I am no Pollyanna, please don't misconstrue--I could sink into neverending despair if I dwelled on, say, the disenfranchisement of American youth, or the disappearance of possibility for my retirement, for more than two and a half minutes. It's just that I choose to keep my focus on the positive, and I would rather see positive feelings about a TV show, family status, or politician, be the cement for groups of Ravelers rather than allowing acrimony to be the cohesive factor.

Oops, skank that I am, I did it again. I yammered on way past midnight, and probably ceased to make sense about three paragraphs ago. If you're reading this, thank you, fellow traveler!

# posted by Sharon @ 11:51 PM