Somusing

So, I haven't been reading much lately. I'm halfway through a novel called Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin, but it's been so long since I picked it up that there's an impressive layer of dust on the front cover. (And I think I've even dusted it once since I opened it last.) It's an entertaining and hilarious novel reminiscent of A Confederacy of Dunces , except that it's about a silly crown prince in England (and later in America) instead of about a misanthropic fat man in New Orleans. I think I will finish it someday, but for now, my reading habits have taken an unfamiliar (to me) turn. I'm knitting and watching more online TV, although I seem to have finally gotten over the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel obsession. (Thank goodness. But I don't guarantee that it won't return.) And otherwise, I'm reading bits and pieces of many non-fiction books: Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun; 10 Habits that Mess Up a Woman...

I almost forgot that I saw this movie , but I did and it was even in a theater. And actually, it was rather funny and not your typical romantic comedy. Sandra Bullock is a fine comedic actor. It's not a great movie, but it's entertaining.

I have fond memories of the soundtrack to Saturday's Warrior and vague memories of my parents taking me to see a live production when I was little. We watched this 1989 production of the play while we were at my parents' house over Thanksgiving. I think I might be permanently scarred. The combination of cheesiness and 1980s fashion was too much for me. There's probably some pretty interesting psychological stuff I could get into (I used to think that looked cool?), but I'd rather not.

Yes Man is good! One of Jim Carrey's more thoughtful movies, funny but with something meaningful to say. I always like Zooey Deschanel, too. This movie is at least loosely based on a non-fiction book by Danny Wallace, which I'd like to read. Wallace sounds like the British version of A.J. Jacobs, doing semi-crazy stuff and then writing books about the experience.

There are a few funny moments in The Proposal . How could there not be with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock? But there's no reason at all for the two characters to fall in love, except proximity and the fact that they're both nice-looking. I'll say the same thing about Jersey Girl , which is not the recent Jersey Girl with Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck but an early '90s rom-com with Dylan McDermott and a girl that I recognize but can't name. It's all so unbelievable. Or maybe any girl can force the guy of her dreams to fall in love with her by getting into a car accident with him and then relentlessly and annoyingly pursuing him. Hey, I love Hulu, but their movie selection is limited.

This was so much better than I thought it was going to be. My expectations were fairly low, but it had interesting characters and made me laugh. And the central message was important and relevant and made an impact.

Beware of many knitting details below. For Christmas, I got to give to my brother Colter, who is an artist and musician and one of the coolest people I know. He's interested in found objects and has created a lot of art using stuff he's found, whether it's someone's grocery list or a cardboard box or whatever. So I decided to knit him a sweater vest from already-used yarn. Ideally, I would have found some old sweater at a thrift shop, unraveled it and used that yarn, and I did try to do that. But the first sweater I found had been washed too many times or something and the yarn broke really easily. So my next best idea was to use yarn that I had knitted into part of a baby blanket about six years ago. Here's the beginning of Colter's sweater (on the left) next to a couple of panels of the blanket (on the right) before I unraveled them: There's nothing quite like unraveling something you've knitted. You just pull and everything comes apart one...