OK, I'll bite.

The 48 Things Meme

1. FIRST NAME?
Samantha, although I mostly go by Sami. "Savida" is a mashup of the first two letters of my, my husband's and my son's names.

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
No.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
Three days ago. My son accidentally head-butted me right in the nose.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
Yes. It's generally OK, and very good if I put some effort into it.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT?
Roast beef, as long as it's very rare.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Yes! It would be nice to know someone with my bizarre combination of interests.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?
Not in the diary sense. I have a knitting journal for my project notes, and another notebook where I jot down ideas for games or puzzles.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
Yes. Not to jinx myself, but other than giving birth to my son (I had a C-section), I have never been operated on, or broken a bone, or spent the night in a hospital.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
No.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Cap'n Crunch.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Yes.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Mentally - yes. Emotionally - for the most part yes, although I have occasionally seen the end of my rope. Physically - I used to think so, before my husband started powerlifting.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Mint chocolate chip.

14. SHOE SIZE?
7.5

15. RED OR PINK?
Red! I don't care much for pink.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I procrastinate too much.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
I plead the fifth on that one. No one I know would like my answer.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
Was this originally an e-mail? I'll take this to mean do I want people to do this meme in their own blogs, so the answer is yes.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Black pants, black shoes, taupe sweater.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE?
A banana.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Ambient office noises.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Black.

23. FAVORITE SMELL?
Lilac.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
My husband.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO?
Facial expression.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from?
Well, I don't know her, but I like her blog.

27. FAVORITE DRINK?
Chocolate milk. Made with Quik. I don't like Hershey's.

28. FAVORITE SPORT?
Any kind of martial arts.

29. EYE COLOR?
Grayish green.

30. HAT SIZE?
Ginormous.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
I could never put anything in my eye, it freaks me out. I do have glasses, but I almost never wear them. I'm slightly nearsighted, so I only need them for subtitled movies and to see the slides at work meetings.

32. FAVORITE FOOD?
I love food; I don't know if I could pick a favorite. If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life (ignoring nutritional consequences), it would be challah bread with butter and honey on it. The food I eat most often is pizza. The best individual dish I ever ate was tagliatelle with wild boar ragu (at Hearth here in NYC).

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER?
It's a tie. I hate the cold, but I like that I get to wear knits in the winter.

36. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs.

37. FAVORITE DESSERT?
It depends on what was for dinner. After good Western food, I like to get the cheese plate. After mediocre food, I like apple pie a la mode. But nothing beats green tea ice cream after Japanese food.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
I just finished Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

41. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
At work - the Dell logo. At home - a picture of The Wibbles.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV?
Nothing. I don't watch much TV.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS?
Stormy weather, heard from inside where it's nice & warm.

44. ROLLING STONEs OR BEATLES?
I go back and forth on this one. Right now, the Stones.

45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME?
I've been to Buenos Aires and all over Ireland. Not sure which is farther from NY. Probably BA, since that was a longer flight.

46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT?
I have two. First of all, I can cross one eye and roll the other one around. Second, I have a nearly "photographic" memory, except that it's not for what I see - it's for what I hear. My memory for what I see is crappy. If I meet you, I will always remember your name, but I will forget what you look like. There are only about a dozen people on the planet whom I would recognize if I ran into them somewhere that was out of context.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Florida.

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Stolen from Ivete.

Here, sort of.

Sorry it's been so long. I've had a host of personal (and non-blog-appropriate) issues to deal with, along with some work and "hobby" deadlines that couldn't be missed. Not only have I not been blogging, I totally flaked out at the end of Secret Pal, and I feel terrible about that.

My Pal sent me a wonderful final package with a knitting magazine, point protectors, a hand-knit dishcloth (why have I been using sponges all these years? Dishcloths are awesome) and two skeins of Kureyon in a nice, neutral colorway. One of these days I will post a photo.

I also owe my spoilee an extremely belated package. It's coming. It is.

Although I won't talk about my personal issues here, these are the things I was working on. I want to thank V. for giving me enough support and encouragement to meet these deadlines.

The Glaistig Hat, for the Samhain issue of The AntiCraft (they published early! yay!). (Their original deadline was before all my crap started, but I originally used a variegated yarn, which did not photograph as well (see comparison below), and ended up reknitting in a solid.)





I've got a game entered in this year's Interactive Fiction Competition. Authors aren't allowed to discuss the games before voting is over, so that's all I'll say about that.

There has been virtually no knitting, but hey, I still owe tons of photos of stuff that's already been finished, so if I get the time and energy to post again I'll still have some knitting content to show.