Helpful cats

Because it's so much easier to knit lace with a cat on your lap, hunting the yarn, your circular needles, and your fingers.

Sit on my face, and tell me that you love me....

I haven't had much sleep the last week, so when I got home from work yesterday, I thought I'd have a nap. My plans were thwarted, quite soundly:

What the picture fails to convey is the windshield-wiper action that was going on with the tail. Also, Mr.Q's sadistic delight at my discomfort. However, the picture clearly shows who's the boss of me. And I've had that stoopid Monty Python song in my head ever since.

I have garlic roasting for supper, to be spread on a baguette, which will in turn sop up the baked brie-and-blackberry-jelly I am about to put in the oven. The occasion? I'll illustrate, with a little gratuitous nudity:

The First Day of Naked Feet!

(edited to add an after-dinner-note-to-self: However extravagantly jubilant the occasion, keep in mind that an entire (large) head of roasted garlic just might be a little too much for one person. I'm just saying.)

Out & About

We had a real live date night on Friday, with cheesecake and everything. It was very exciting. We went to see an old friend play some new tunes, and enjoyed ourselves very much. So did the Singe sock:

In fact, the sock was having so much fun that Mr.Q was rather taken aback by the spectacle:

What can I say? It was very good cheesecake!

We bookended the weekend with a little outing with Jel & a friend of hers. We poked around a couple of yarn stores (conveniently located next to a couple of record stores, which could have been a recipe for disaster, but both Mr.Q & I were surprisingly disciplined!) We followed it up with a walk on the beach, which was chilly but soooooo nice & sunny.

Anyway. I'm in no hurry for Monday. It's been a lazy, lovely, sleeping-in-and-getting-breakfast-in-bed kind of weekend. Cuddles with cats, wine with Jel, a new sock started. And Mr.Q & I have decided to have a bona fide romantic getaway over the Easter weekend. We spent a couple of hours online, looking for something close enough that holiday weekend traffic wouldn't be a huge issue, but distant enough to feel like we were "getting away from it all". We found this place - perfect for holing up for 2 days with a stack of books, a couple of guitars, a pile of yarn, and lots of wine and cheese and crusty bread. Whee!

It feels terribly extravagant. We've never done anything as batty as book a B&B! It's more like "let's find somewhere we can camp for free." But maybe not in March. Camping in March on the coast would be more like spending two days stuck in the van, miserable and damp and cold. So instead we're going to this little cottage for 2 nights. It feels so grown up! Or like stuff you see people do on TV or something. Crazy!

(But, well, what with all that money we won't be spending on the band now - what the hell!)

In the land down under

Jel took me out last night for a consoling hot chocolate and some knitting-in-public - a combination guaranteed to improve my outlook on life in general. As we were getting close to the coffee shop, she asked me to keep my eyes open for parking. She noted that every time we go to this particular cafe, we seem to end up in the same parking space, next to a now-defunct nightclub/exotic show lounge.

"Yes," I agreed. "We generally have good luck around this corner, in front of Uranus."

Dead pan faces for just a moment, before we dissolved into giggles.

I'm moderately embarrassed to admit just how entertaining we found that notion. I guess it's a good indicator if just how much I needed a good laugh - and what a great pal Jel is! - that the joke kept going all night.

"Easy to remember where the car's parked!"

And: "Look! A lucky penny! I found it right around the corner from...."

And so on. I think we freaked out the barista with our snickering. I do think that's one of the litmus tests of a true friend. Not only will they share their wine (and whine) and cheese and chocolate and honesty and compassion and knitting patterns with you. They'll even devolve into potty humour when needed.

I was in a much lighter mood when I came home. And the car was right where we left it...And I have to say, that is the worst name imaginable for an "exotic show lounge"!

Sex, lies, and audiotape

Well, there was a brief flirtation this week with the notion of trying to sort out conflicts within the band. Very brief. It has quickly been replaced by mudslinging of the most vicious, immature kind. Of course, the two responsible for it have managed to catch Mr.Q squarely in the crossfire - and apparently in such a way that they have both managed to squirm out of being called onto the carpet for their actions, past and present, which have culminated in this mess. And in such a way that looks like the end of one of his oldest friendships, with the fourth member of the band.

Is Mr.Q totally faultless? Well, I suppose he could have called "bullshit" a long time ago, either ending it before it escalated to this point, or possibly (thin hope!) of nipping some stuff in the bud. Really, though, from my perspective, he's been used as the buffer/filter for the dysfunctional relationships among his bandmates.

I am really going to try to refrain from posting much more about this. And from posting certain details of the situation which aren't mine to tell, however much I think they need to be made public. Possibly, I may explode from that effort. I shall endeavour to make sure I am nowhere near any unprotected yarn if that happens. As per Barb's advice, I am going to try and console myself with the pretty new yarn and VERY large chocolate bar that I got in the mail yesterday from a sock-yarn-swap partner. And maybe just a swig of tequila. (As for your suggestion, Rabbitch m'dear, as far as the angst goes - as soon as the papers are signed here, I plan on avoiding any more of that for rather a while, if I can! I 'spect more of the tequila may help there.)

Out with a bang

Remember that scene from Monty Python & the Holy Grail, where King Arthur battles the Black Knight? The knight just won't give it up, even when limb after limb falls off him. He probably dies some ignominious death by drowning in that little stream he's guarding.

Well, watching the band disintegrate over the last while has been sort of like that fight scene...everything falling apart, but nobody wanted to be the one to call it quits. Until it totally imploded from the strain and negativity. Last night's CD release should have been triumphant - months of hard work, top ten radio charts, an upcoming tour, all in support of a very fine album. A full house of enthusiastic friends and fans. And instead, it was indeed their swan song.

The weakness of the band has always been the toxic relationship between two of the members in particular, and the tension created by it. Two people who are reasonably functional away from each other, but together are like hydrogen and an open flame. And of course, each one completely denying any responsibility for their own part in the mess, or for the effects of the fallout on their bandmates & the future of the band. (Not that I think it's equally weighted between the two, but I'm really biting my tongue here.)

The irony is that it's this tension which has always come out as electricity onstage. The band never played so well as when these two were pissed at each other. And unsurprisingly, given the all-new-high of animosity between them, last night's show - their last - was probably the best, most compelling performance they've ever given.

They were absolutely fucking brilliant. I'm glad they went out on a high note.

I think I'm more upset today than Mr.Q about the whole thing. He seems lighter than he has in months. He says he's just relieved finally came to a head, and it's done. But me, well...it's a little heartbreaking to see someone I love sooooo close to their dream, to have it jeopardized because of a couple people who couldn't get their collective shit together.

Fortunately, if there's one thing Mr.Q is not lacking, it's other, equally worthy opportunities for creative & musical outlets. He'll just be a little more cautious next time around. In the meantime, we're going to have dinner with some friends (they're making a moose roast, and I've made chocolate mousse for dessert. It seemed appropriate!) And spend the rest of the day thinking not about the interpersonal politics, but about last night's bloody brilliant music.

Testing...testing...?

I think I've just figured out how to get the photos from my cell to the internets to my blog....whew! The phone doesn't take the greatest pics, but as a blogger...now I don't have to worry if I forget my camera! Many's the time I've seen something really cool, or funny, or crazy (like the giant moose in the yarn store awhile ago) and smacked myself for not having the camera. Even when I intended to bring it along. So! Now I can be a better blogger. (And beat some butter for better blogger batter...) (Don't mind me. I'm not sure if I had too much sleep last night, or not enough. But there's been a lot of coffee so far, and no breakfast yet, and the caffeine has rather gone to my head....)

Anyway, here's one of the first photos I tried to take with my phone, the day we got them. (I am addicted to blogging...the first thing Mr.Q did was set up his voice mail and transfer his contacts from his old phone - very sensible - but I wanted to figure out the camera so I could use it in the afore-mentioned situations...just doing my geek dance now!)

It's so very 21st-Century: going at his cellphones like a gunslinger with a pair of 6-shooters. The cats, as you can see, found it quite fascinating.

Anyway! Off to get the day started...It's the CD release show tonight, and here's hoping it goes well. I think some of my students are coming out for it - a little weird, but cool. There are new T-shirts and everything. Mr.Q even went and got his ears de-waxed at the clinic this morning, in preparation. I guess he figured a hair appointment or a manicure wouldn't rock his socks.

(Apparently 15 years of wearing earplugs almost daily, on job sites and at shows, will compact the stuff. He had one ear almost totally plugged. Eeeeew! I guess it had affected his hearing even more than he thought, coz now he's walking around listening to flies sneeze or some such thing.)

And now that I've got the phone-camera worked out, maybe I'll be able to Kinnear some local rock-n-roll hot shots tonight. It's good to have goals.