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Happy Friday! Of course, I plan on going in to do overtime tomorrow, but we’re going to pretend we didn’t hear that, right? And stay up all night, anyway?

(And be sorry for it in the morning?)

So, not too long ago, I knocked something off one of the stand thingabobs where we keep our DVDs (and yet, it’s not really a DVD stand–don’t even try to understand our furniture choices) and the something (keys, I think?) slipped between the wall and the stand. I reached behind it and made an odd discovery.

A poster, in a hard plastic casing, of this picture:

OMG, it's Ned!

Yup, Ned Stark from Game of Thrones. The odd thing is…I don’t remember buying this. When Jim came home, I questioned him. He scratched his head. “Maybe I bought it for you and hid it back there…and forgot?” He couldn’t remember buying it, either.

Regardless, the picture is now hanging in our hallway, although we both agree it would have been even better if it were over the toilet, haha. As it is, that space–the space over the toilet, that is–is occupied by a cross stitch made for me by my sister of a cat grabbing onto a branch that says “Hang in there!”

Actually, now that I think about that picture in the toilet-context, that’s pretty funny too. Well, if I were 12. Or me.

Anyway, Jim’s out tonight. I am not playing Skyrim. Are you shocked? I’m learning that it takes me hours to do anything in the game, and since I don’t have much time before I have to get to bed, I might as well not bother. I’ll try to get some game time in tomorrow.

Besides, Jim updated his blog, making me feel sufficiently guilty for not updating my own. Although he has a better reason for updating than I do: He’s actually finished the first draft of his first novel! I’m impressed. I’m looking forward to getting to read it, although it’s going to have to squeeze in between Skyrim, reading Name of the Wind and Storm Front, and crocheting these:

Cthulhu!

Ha! I have my own accomplishments. This is my first attempt at amigurumi–a cthulhu. Granted, my skill is nowhere near Ruth’s (a.k.a. Cthulhu Chick), but I don’t think it’s half-bad for a first attempt, especially considering that it was just a short time ago that I got over my longtime fear of crocheting in circles.

Here’s the back:

Wings!

I did better on the wings that I thought I would; however, my stitching is still sloppy. Also, I found out afterwards that I should have used a smaller hook. I actually figured it out myself when I decided that the gauge should be tighter, then looked it up online and found out that this, apparently, is a well-known fact in the universe of amigurumi-making.

Dumb of me? Well, maybe, but what do you want of a girl that pretty much only makes scarves?

At any rate, I knew my first attempt would be sloppy, but it’s all about the learning process. I’m on my second, and I already think it looks much, much better than the first.

The real goal, by the way, is to make Jim an amigurumi-like kobold. He found some by Meri Greenleaf. (Click the link, scroll down, behold some awesome pictures of her husband and the kobold plushies.) Jim thought of all the kobold plushies he’d seen, her kobolds looked more…well, kobold-y, heh. So he wants something similar.

You know what I want? To go to bed. Actually, that’s not true at all, but I don’t want to be as exhausted as I was this morning, when I decided to go in early at 6 AM. Blech. Remember when Friday nights were FUN?

Yeah, me neither. Night!

So this week, I’ve:

• Started crocheting a tiny cthulhu, frogged it, restarted it, and am still working on it as I need supplies.
• Been getting rides to and from work all week while my car was (and still is, apparently) in the shop.
• Found out some of my co-workers in Harrisburg are dealing with the aftermath from the F4 tornado.
• Had to take cover in the women’s bathroom at work as more bad storms passed through the area just a couple days later.
• Found out that my raise was bigger than I had expected, and my gainsharing was more than I had expected as well. (Jim and I did fist bumps when I showed him the numbers, heh.)
• Found out that my mom lost her job. (She seems to be surprisingly okay with it, though.)
• Been doing a lot of reading on my Kindle, trying to catch up with our book club.

By the way, I love my Kindle. I still and always will love regular old books, but now I’m wondering why I held out so long on getting an ebook reader.

And The Walking Dead tonight! My co-worker Ryan told me some of his predictions on the fate of a couple of characters, and I’m curious to see it is plays out as he thinks. I relayed Ryan’s predictions to Jim, and we agree: Very plausible.

We shall see.

Okay, time for more coffee and more Buffy. The marathon continues! I’m on season 4. Now, the question is, do I watch the Angel episodes along with Buffy (because, as you know, several the episodes between the two series “go” together), or do I later give Angel its own marathon? Ah, decisions, decisions…

So, I lied:  The next “Homebrewed” will not be a long post.  In fact, it will be the shortest one to date.  Natalia didn’t even have any encounters.  I’m telling ya, we’ve had so few encounters with how short our game sessions are, that I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting what to roll and what to add.  And Natalia is still stuck on level 9.

Why was it so short?  Well, Natalia finished out the storyline and was preparing for the next part.  I had already told Jim what exactly I had planned on doing.  And I guess Jim didn’t expect me to go from point A to point B so quickly, and to go from point C to point D, Jim had counted on having something else involved, something that we don’t have yet.  I won’t go into it here because his plan hasn’t exactly been “confirmed” yet, but Jim believes it will be.  If he’s right, then it’ll be changing the game up a bit.

You’ll see.

Moving on.  First of all, Happy Father’s Day to the dads out there.

(Suckers.)

Secondly, Jim told me once that one of the reasons why he reads my blog is to find out what I want so he can give it to me.  I’m starting to suspect that is true because in my last post, I had mentioned wanting to watch Harry Potter once Jim was done with his Charmed marathon, and last night, he announced he was going to take a break with Charmed, and hey, would I like to watch Harry Potter instead?

WHOA.  My boyfriend really does read my blog to give me things I want?  Reeeeeaaaally…

I will not use my blog for evil, I will not use my blog for evil…

Let’s switch gears because that is what I do best: I am still working away on the pirate ship crochet blanket.  I definitely didn’t buy enough yarn.  Oh my god, nobody told me what YARN WHORES blankets are.  Because of how blocky-looking it’s going to be, I’ve nicknamed it the Lego Pirate Ship Blanket. 

Anyway, I was working on that blanket last night, when I remembered once, long ago, Jim mentioned that there’s a hat in Firefly that everyone he knew tried to make and seemed to fail miserably.  Now, being the fan of Buffy that I am, you’d think I would have seen Firefly.  I have not.  I’d like to, but I just haven’t yet.

So I didn’t know what hat Jim was talking about.  I asked about it last night while crocheting the pirate ship blanket.  He described it to me, and I was like, dude.  That sounds ugly.  Why would anyone want that?  Just because some guy on TV is wearing it?  He said it was stupid-looking, but he remembers everyone trying to crochet it, and by the way–he did not want it.  (I think that was his way of hinting to me, saying Please, don’t look it up and try making it for me.)

Whatever, Jim, because I did a little looking around, and I think he’s talking about this “Jayne hat”:

THIS is what everyone wants to wear??

First of all, looking at this picture, it’s clear to me that the hat is knitted, not crocheted.  Jim did mention last night that none of his friends knew how to knit.  I think I’m the only one he knows that can do a little bit of both.  Anyway, my guess is that they were crocheting the hat.  Nothing wrong with crocheted hats, but I suspect that’s why Jim didn’t think any of them looked “right.”  Not that they were necessarily doing it “wrong”–in fact, I saw some pretty comparable crocheted versions of this hat out there–but you know how it goes.  If you’re expecting something EXACTLY one way, any variation could look “wrong” to you.

Second of all, Jim’s right.  That’s one goofy-looking hat.  I guess that is what people think half the fun is.  Whatever, I’m not a fun person.  It does look like it would be fun to make, but hell if I’m going to make something I would never wear.  If you would, though, more power to you.  I, on the other hand, am about function: I hate the crocheted roses and muffins and crap that doesn’t really do anything.  Furthermore, I find them ugly.  If I’m going to spend time making something, it has to be useful.  Like, you know, a blanket.  Even if it does have a dorky, blocky-looking pirate ship on it.

Although I am thinking about making one of those mini-Cthulhus I’ve seen online, just so Gremlin can bat it around.  Who doesn’t want to see a kitten take on Squid Face?