Mid-Week Update (The Random Sort)

1. Admittedly, I have not watched much American Idol this season, but it seems to me that they should just put us all out of our misery and declare this Kristal Bowersox woman the winner by default. Although: I must confess, I want desperately to take a pair of scissors to her hair. My middle-agedness is catching up with me.

2. I slog on with my Tomten knitting. I have crowned this project with my Most Stupid Decision Ever award (crafting category). I used the wrong yarn and my gauge went whacky and now I have a baby sweater that I am hoping will fit my friend’s 4-year old daughter. Every night I knit a couple of rows, sigh deeply, and give up; why I have continued on is, frankly, beyond me, although it does resemble my dating history. You know - find something completely unworkable that makes you utterly miserable, and then hang on for dear life, hoping beyond hope that This Situation Can Be Saved. When really, you’d rather never set eyes on it ever again…but the idea of starting something new is just too overwhelming to consider.

3. Last week my ipod went missing. It was a silver Shuffle that I bought before moving to NYC and might as well have been implanted in me, as I used it daily. It was pretty inconceivable that I had anything that small for three years and never lost it, and it was pretty beat up anyway, so when it went missing I was sad but not surprised. Off to Target I went, where I used a chunk of my tax refund to buy a new Nano, which I justified by calculating that if I use it every day for the next two years (which is exceedingly likely), my cost is something like 20 cents a day. The peace of mind that comes from being able to block out noisy kids on the commuter train? Priceless.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I went to work on Monday and found the old ipod on my desk. *sigh* I was tempted to see if Target would take the new one back, but as I’d already loaded it and fooled around with the settings, I figured it was pretty doubtful, and not exactly ethical (I mean, it’s not Target’s fault I’m disorganized). I am consoling myself with the fact that the old one is on its last legs anyway, but it does make me feel a little wasteful.

4. Peanut Butter Cookie Lara bars! So here’s how I justify these, because they are admittedly expensive: first, I actually eat them, unlike the fruit I buy that inevitably goes bad in the fridge before I get around to eating it; two, they have fiber and protein that fill me up enough so that I am not compelled to buy a chocolate croissant on my way to the office; three, they are portable and I can eat them on the train with no mess; four, I both know and can pronounce every one of the ingredients (dates, peanuts, salt); five, they actually taste like peanut butter cookies, which is a huge plus since I grew up with a dad who saw nothing inherently wrong with eating actual cookies for breakfast (at least when my mom wasn’t looking). In a pinch, the chocolate coconut ones aren't too shabby either.

5. On Sunday, Ovation ran a Slings and Arrows marathon from which I could not tear myself away, despite having Netflixed the series twice. "I AM Darren Nichols. Deal with THAT." Ah, those Canadians...