Donnaville is crawling back– my humble little Web site was down and out for the last week. My hosting provider upgraded their server (or something) which somehow angered Movable Type and corrupted my Berkeley database. Thankfully Kathy from BlogMoxie swooped in and got me back to blogging. My archives and old comments are no longer in Movable Type but at least I have them in html. Let me give all of you a tip– do not use my hosting provider, 2MHost. They are complete jerks who were unwilling to help and went out of their way to jerk me around. For a laugh I should post all the emails I sent them with their responses– let me tell you, I have never been so discouraged. Kathy, on the other hand, was wonderful! She was kind and obliging and very, very helpful. Thanks, Kathy! If I had any friends, I would recommend they use you to set up their Web sites. This is also a good time to say: BACK UP YOUR FILES! I really wish I had done it.

And now the blog entry to end all blog entries… I continued to write (type, may be more exact) even after I was unable to log into Movable Type– I just used Notepad. So here it is– everything I would have blogged about had my site not gone belly up:

1. Last night I dreamt I went to my Senior Prom. My date was Rob, an old classmate of mine who now works with my mother. She recently told me that he just had gastric bypass surgery. In the dream, he arrived at my house looking quite dapper and almost slim in a tuxedo. A team of surgons were right behind him. I invited him into the living room where he took a seat on the couch.
“I am afraid my skin is getting too big and I asked my doctors to make a house call, I hope you don’t mind, especially because this will cost me $40.00 rather than the usual $14.00.”
“Go right ahead” I told him.
The head surgon took out a pizza cutter and sliced a hole into his chest. He scooped out some fat and started to cut away extra skin. As he was about to sew Rob back up, the doctor pulled a great big pickle from Rob’s chest. The surgon shook his head and scolded Rob, “You aren’t supposed to eat solid food!”

2. I am saddened to hear that Dave Blood from The Dead Milkmen committed suicide. If I ever want to find a person’s age without outright asking them, all I need to do is start singing Punk Rock Girl and if the person in question can sing along– CONTEMPORARY! One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead/ I met a girl there/ And she almost knocked me dead…

3. Living on my own is wonderful. I am truly enjoying myself. I am a little agravated because Lisa decided she needs cable to exist; whereas I am enjoying not having a TV (or at least one that has reception). The cable man comes today. Will I be able to read or knit, or do crossword puzzles when I know there are 900 channels beckoning me to watch? I think the real reason I didn’t fight is that La Femme Nikita is back on Oxygen and I must get my fix.

4. I am knitting a Mike Nesmith hat for a (seemingly) nice singer/songwriter in England (he contacted me). The hat is coming along well except last night I dropped a stitch and didn’t realize it until 4 rows and now I don’t want to rip out and lose all that work. I am consoling myself that it will be hidden by the brim. Lisa became angry when she saw me knitting the hat because I still haven’t finished her poncho. She said I was making excuses when I told her that this hat is more challenging because it is K1 P1 rather than the poncho which is K all.

5. The cable guy arrived, looked around the house and immediately announced that the only room that was set up for cable is my office.
“That is not possible”, I said, “The cable is to go up in Lisa’s loft.”
Apparently the only way he could do that is run the cable outside along the siding. The homeowner’s association would not look upon this solution too kindly so Mr. Cable Guy left leaving us without cable. Hooray?

6. The Mike Nesmith hat is finished. It turned out okay. If I was to make it again, I would make it shorter. I knitted to 11 inches and I think 9 or 10 inches would have been better. I hope the singer/songwriter in England likes it. Maybe I will try to make another one that more resembles a beanie than a hat.

How to Make a Mike Nesmith Wool Hat

1. Get some dark green yarn.
2. Cast on stitches to equal the size of the head who will be sporting this masterpiece. Make sure the number of stitches is divisible by 2.
I doubled my yarn to make it a little bulkier and I casted on 68 stitches.
3. K1 P1 rib for 9 or 10 inches, depending on head size. SPUTNIK!
4. Last row K2tog
5. Thread the yarn through the last row of stitches tightly and knot.
6. Seam together.
7. Make a pompom and secure to the top of the hat.
8. Grab a guitar and sing Love is only Sleeping.

7. Lisa and I have spent the last few weeks shopping for a kitchen table. The other day I found one I liked on Sears.com. Buying furniture online seemed like a huge risk so I continued my hunt at stores I could physically enter. The few things I found didn’t compare to the Sears retro 50’s formica dinette so last night I ordered it. In 10 days it should arrive and I will know if I made a mistake or not. Quality is hard to tell in a picture.

8. My hosting provider is driving me crazy. They don’t seem to understand that even if the index page loads, there may still be issues with the site. I have asked them to upgrade my databases and all they say is– your index page loads fine. I am beginning to question their ability to speak English.

9. It snowed. The weather seemed to be warming up. I could feel my spirits starting to rise. Excitement began to flow through my veins– Spring is almost here! But then I wake up, walk to the kitchen and through the window I see SNOW! SNOW! SNOW! Snow is great in November, It is fine in December, January, and February. But March?!? NO! I want warmth. I want sunshine. I want to walk outside and feel the sun on my SPF-protected face. Please? Pretty please with cherries on top?

10. My frustrations running high because Donnaville was down, this made me feel so much better!