Quelle Chierie*
I got my ipod back. It had new scratches on it. It's going back to the repair center again. What a drag. I was planning to spend the weekend reloading it, possibly in a better, more organized fashion. So, I'll be without it for about another week, it seems.
I was thinking how great it would be to have my ipod as I walked the two and a half miles back to my apartment from the mall. I was wearing flip flops. That was not originally the plan. I dutifully called the local bus company to check the schedule for today and was given incorrect information. I tried calling the info line after waiting fifteen minutes at the stop. No answer. As I was engaged in that activity, the bus(with an incorrect route sign)drove right past me. So I got some unexpected exercise today.
I rented a couple of DVDs while I was out: The Company and Une Femme est Une Femme. The Company, a Robert Altman film featuring The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, was surprisingly dull, despite a couple of breathtaking dance sequences. Nothing ever really happened, so the ending was anticlimactic. Une Femme est Une Femme was charming, as many French films are. The sound was atrocious, but I believe that was a conscious choice on the part of the filmmaker. One of the more delightful pieces produced by the New Wave.
I bought the soundtrack to Morvern Callar today. That is what is typically called a quiet film, about a woman whose boyfriend commits suicide and leaves her a mix tape. It has a very good use of sound and music, so I had to find the soundtrack. There's a Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood song on it that is laugh out loud funny. I first thought that it was clever DJ work, intersplicing two unrelated songs, but closer inspection of the liner notes reveals that it was originally cut that way. Lee Hazlewood's sections are very gruff and a little rockabilly, which is quite the contrast with Miss Sinatra's floral verses.
I realized yesterday that I have no idea what the person I've chatted with for the past three months on the back deck is named. I'm such a shit. The point at which it would be acceptable to ask is long past.
Progress on the latest sweater is beginning to stall. I truly loathe knitting sleeves. They move so slowly and just keep getting wider. That is, until you have to decrease all those increases back out. Still, I think a good set-in sleeve is worth it, given the alternatives (dropped shoulders or a sweater vest, ugh). I'm going to power-knit tomorrow, as I'd like to wrap this up and move onto my next project. I've kind of finished my paper sweater. Miraculously, it's the same shade as a thin tank I already owned, so they can be discreetly worn together. I haven't made the hood for it yet, but I kind of enjoy it hoodless.

Current Events Roundup:
*George Bush finally admits the Republicans' true agenda in textbook example of Freudian slip. He claims this slip-up is due to his difficulties with the English language. Thin excuse, given that it is his mother tongue. Also, does he speak any other languages in which he might be more proficient?
*The mormon man believed to have killed his pregnant wife in Utah looks eerily like one of the stage managers at work. Weird.
*Rick James is dead. I hope that this will not diminish my enjoyment of Rick James related material on The Chappelle Show.
*I'm listening to David Bowie's Greatest Hits album. That's hardly newsworthy, but it makes me happy.

One of my friends is leaving tomorrow. This is sad, even though I will probably see him again. He lives only two hours away from me back in IL. He may or may not be able to cart some of my belongings back to the great midwest for me.

*It's not exactly high school French. Email me if you can't guess the meaning.