Little Miss Erin

ANYWAY--on a much happier and cuter note (not that you aren't cute, Mary)--I present a picture of Miss Erin Elizabeth Gill!

I think it's time to Zipcar it on down to southern New Jersey to cuddle this precious little niece of mine, don't you? I mean--look at the cuteness!

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Fuck all the dogs in NC

Okay, that might be a strong, but I am PISSED. For the second time in six weeks my sister, Mary, was attacked by a dog while on her daily run. Mary, for those of you who don't know her, runs marathons. She was going to run the Boston marathon this Monday and was really excited as it was her first time taking Boston on. People, she is really good too. She's run the New York Marathon in 3 hours 22 minutes 4 seconds.

The first attack was by some redneck's damn pit bull. He bit her in the calf HARD. She lost some training time, but it could have been a lot worse you know? Back on track, she booked a flight and reserved a hotel room for Boston.

This time? Another damn redneck's dog broke his chain, jumped a fence and tried to kill her. Here's the damage and I'm telling you I'm going to go into details here because I'm pissed and I want people to know that you just can't keep a vicious dog like this. You can't. I don't care what argument you want to give me--you are fucking stupid if you think you can rehabilitate a dog like this. Fucking stupid.

This dog took three chunks out of her thigh. Three. Chunks. Chunks as in they couldn't give her stitches because there just isn't anything to sew up. He bit her elbow, her shoulder, her chest and then the fucking dog grabbed her ponytail and jerked her head back so he could bite her head. My mom said to me that she was covered in blood. With nothing to sew up on her thigh they bandaged her heavily and she laid all night on towels to soak up the blood.

Oh and the stupid redneck hadn't even gotten his fucking dog to the vet for his shots. Let me repeat: the dog has not had his shots.

And to top it all off--last night she had an allergic reaction to the morphine and had to be rushed to the ER again.

If I could, I'd kill the damn dog myself, and I mean that. This is my baby sister we're talking about here! I don't know how I'd act if it were me, but I doubt I'd be as cool as Mary. This morning she said to me, "Oh I'm okay, I'm just bit up". Girl, if you get to run the NYC marathon again, and you WILL, you are going to have the biggest damn cheering squad in the city if it's the last thing I do.

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Cara Black!!!!!! I love you!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry Ann and Kay, I couldn't be on duty with you today (I'm just your understudy stalker anyway...sniff)--I had to go stalk Cara Black some more! My cover is totally blown though, one sight of me and she says, "It's my Paris stalker!". Damn. Do you think it was rampant posting of my Paris trip photos on the internet or the chatter over on the Fodor's Talk Boards?

Here I am trying (without much success, admittedly) to blend into a wall of books at the Black Orchid Bookshop which really is only five blocks from my apartment, Cara! Really, really.

Theresa took some shots of us looking all normal and stuff, but this is much better blog fodder, no?

Being number one stalker and all I had a sneaky peak at the cover of the next book (well, okay, everyone who was there got a sneaky peak, but I'm the STALKER damnit!)...I hope I'm allowed to say that? The rest of y'all just have to wait for next spring. Okay, Soho Press--when's the book tour being planned? I have to make reservations!

And oh yes, I still don't know if my brother and his wife have settled on a name for my niece. The "Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono" is two-thirds finished--on the subway this morning I accidentally poked a very large and scary looking man with my knitting needle. Stalking, assault with a pointy object...what next???

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I have a niece!

Kevin and Susan hadn't picked the name yet so I still can't cross-stitch her initial on her little teddy bear (bought in Paris, naturellement). But I am halfway through Christina Shiffman's "Heartbreakingly Cute Baby Kimono" from the almighty Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Y'all, I have a niece! Congratulations Kevin and Susan! I love you guys!

In lieu of a new baby photo, I give you Colin and his kitty, Tobey. They're hanging out under his little sister's crib last week. One of his last pre-big brother days. Colin, I sure hope you're as great a big brother as your daddy is!

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Shout out to Mason-Dixon!

Because I am!

Ann and Kay put a picture of little ol' moi in their rockin' knitting book. It's a picture from the Afghan-a-long sew up in NYC--one of the best knitting events I've ever been to period. I was totally clueless at the time (well, until they blogged about it later) that Ann and Kay had never met in person--a history making day and I was there! Plus the afghan project was just damn inspiring. How many times do we all feel like we should do something? All the time. But how often do we actually get up off our asses and actually DO something? Sadly, not nearly enough. But Ann and Kay had a thought--everyone can knit at least one square, and people did. Lots of people did! I found the whole project inspiring and frankly--hopeful. Knowing me, there was a high probability I would have just slept through the whole sew up. I've got a real problem with "getoffmyassness". But the Afghan-a-long was awesome and I wanted to be a part of it. And there is proof on page 125 that I finally got off my ass. Did I mention page 125?

Seriously ladies, y'all make my momma so damn proud of me...bless your hearts!

Ina was kind enough to snap a photo of me with the fantastic duo at Knitty City Thursday night:

Ina, I can't thank you enough for the photos--I completely forgot my camera that day and well...it would have been tragic if I couldn't brag a little big about being on page 125. I can admit it. It's okay. I'm ridiculously thrilled about it. Page 125...

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Paris!

I have returned. Well, I was back a week ago, but then went out to Jersey to stay with my brother and his wife and their baby while they get ready for baby number 2! I planned this trip in all of two weeks! Bought the tickets, reserved hotels and registered for a class in all of 14 days my friends. Never say it can't be done... It wasn't a month, but I was still there! On my own. For ten days. Instead of writing the whole trip report out I used my photo captions to give you a taste:

The Story in Pictures

(in case you haven't figured it out yet...I was in PARIS!)

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