brainylady

Alison's starting to happen*

Do you ever type your first name into an Internet search engine, just to see what's out there? It's funny, isn't it, that we feel some kind of affinity with people who share our names. Anyhoo, from time to time I check my site stats to see where people are coming here from. (Don't worry, it's not surveillance; I don't know who you are.) And there seem to be an awful lot of Google searches for "Alison" going on. Perhaps there are hundreds of Alisons out there in boring office jobs, unemployed, supposed to be studying, whatever. Or is it just one Alison? A single Alison-with-one-L who relentlessly searches for her own name? And if that's the case, I hope it's Alison Moyet. Alf, if you're reading, I've always loved the Yaz(oo) song "Don't Go" -- I really liked your solo record Hoodoo, too. Your voice is amazing. So of course I had to see what's out there, too. I typed "Alison" into Google and found Alison's PantsCam! From the site's main page:

You've always wanted to get into Alison's pants. Now you can do it from the convenience of your own room, through a novel web interface! Thanks to incredible new technology ... you can now see what's going on in Alison's pants 24 hours a day, 365 days a year....

The entire assembly is strapped to Alison's belt and the camera is inserted in her pants, providing the entire world a constant live video feed of her underwear. A client-side Java applet automatically refreshes the images of Alison's pants and provides a simple chat interface for site visitors to discuss recent PantsCam developments.

No, you get out of here! Do you really think I could make this up? (You can click on it. I swear, this site is not naughty at all, and Alison looks like a really nice girl.) Sadly, I was unable to get into Alison's pants this morning, so I moved on and did a quick Googlism of "Alison" and found that, among other things, Alison is

a scary individual

a wicked character

a very sweet kitty with a strong maternal streak

an expert in soy

one of the greatest voices in bluegrass

allergic to chocolate and ate her last mars bar in 1980

seriously pissed off and needs cheering up

seen wearing those horrible white "keds" with her blue jeans

having trouble fitting in

living proof that you can't judge a book by its cover

Knitters, I need your support. Please tell me that blocking is not a big deal. I've almost finished the last piece of the Must Have puzzle (the left front), but I find myself picking up other things instead of finishing because I'm dreading the block. I like the idea of blocking, and I always admire photos on blogs of people's beautiful knit things pinned down in perfect proportions on grids. I certainly admired Greta's take-charge tale of making her own lightweight blocking board. But here's the thing(s): I don't have a board. I don't have a hardware store. I don't have a flat surface in the house or a spare bed. Above all, I don't have space. What I do have is an ironing board, and I could probably pin the fronts and sleeves to it (one at a time). Any ideas? Maybe I could put a garbage bag on the bed, pin the Must Have back to it in the morning, and pray all day that Beatrix isn't gleefully unraveling every stitch? I figured I'll just pin and spray, so a piece would probably be dry by bedtime. Anyway, I'd love to hear some encouraging words, since I found myself thinking last night, "Well, I can just put the pieces in a bag and pack them; I won't need the sweater until the fall anyway..."

Alison is having a mental block.

Oh, and have you seen Teresa's Rogue? Isn't she awesome for posting so many photos? (I have to admit that when people post photos of themselves in their yards modeling their knits, I drool just as much over their yards as their sweaters.)

* Anyone? Anyone know this song? It's a good one.