To The Nines!

A BAM CAL

2012-01-27T17:00:00.000-05:00

What's that? You ask.

Well, a BAM is a "block a month" (familiar to the quilters out there, probably), and CAL is "Crochet A-Long".

And there is one going on (well, actually probably more than one) inside of Ravelry, which I joined. I just finished the first block, and it is

um...

blocking on the blocking boards now, and so I took a picture for historical purposes (and so that I could share with you).

The block utilizes many different techniques--there's a little applique, a little embroidery, crochet, of course, and blocking to size. Everything for the crocheter who also likes to quilt! That, friends, would be me.

So, without further adoo, here's the block for January:

of course, you'll note that I accidentally cut off the top border when I took the blurry picture, but it is what it is, I suppose. As you can see, I'm not such an even embroiderer, nor am I good at the blanket stitch (at least keeping the stitches evenly spaced, anyway), but you can't be perfect at everything...can you?

And, if this interests you, you may sign up for the BAM CAL here.

Still Working on the Scarf...

2012-01-21T16:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why, but working on this scarf, while it's pretty boring, it still holds my fancy. I'm just not sure why it takes so long to make a triangle! By now, I should be halfway through the second skein (there are 3 skeins to the scarf), but for whatever reason, I'm still on the first skein, and only a few yards of it remain. I'm a little curious why it's taking so long to get some length on it!

Slow and steady wins the race, I suppose, but there are other projects I would like to begin...such as this really fancy dan shawl...

Tomorrow evening, I have a crochet class. Seven students and lots of things to prattle on about. I'm looking forward to it. And soon, I'll have the scarf done and I can post the finished product here...if it ever gets done. But I think it will go in the Christmas present pile....along with the other two crochet scarves that I made.

Stay warm people. I think we're getting our January thaw right now.

Lately....

2012-01-20T18:05:00.001-05:00

I called in sick today. Mostly because of nausea and a headache, but I've had a bit of bad news, and just wasn't up to getting it all around and making a day of it. Plus, I'd heard that snow was to begin around noon time, and I SURELY didn't want to drive home in the slippery stuff.

So I stayed home. We've been trying to keep it warm in the house, but we've found something out about wood pellets. They DO NOT keep the house as warm as the field corn. We are freezing our butts off--even though the thermometer in our living room says it's 60 degrees inside the house, you really can't feel it. I got the humidifier going again, and hope that it will help keep us warmer, but the wood pellets just don't do the job. I doubt we'll be using them next year--or perhaps only for when it's 40 degrees out--not the 6 degrees that it's been most of the day.

And of course, I've been doing some knitting on a scarf that goes this way and that way. It's really quite ingenious, but it will need a LOT of blocking before I can do a picture. It puckers everywhere, but I can see that it will be pretty when it's done.

In the meanwhile, we've been watching movies--and staying close to the little bit of warmth that the stove puts out. If the wind starts to blow, I think I'll have to run to town and get some corn. In the meantime, I hope you are safe and warm in your house.

New Projects

2012-01-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

I finally finished my slippers, but they turned out a little big. I might have to put them through another hot wash and semi dry...but here they are....

And my cowl, which is made from a new Lion Brand Yarn called Luxe Fur. Three skeins makes the cowl, and I decided I wanted stripes. It's crocheted on 45 stitches (plus 3 for the turning chain), dc's all the way up. Of course, you can switch up the rows with thinner stripes or even some traveling stitches if you wanted. Entirely easy in one color or 3, and you don't have to make it as wide as I did, either. It would even make a beautiful mobius. This stuff is amazingly fluffy.

Word of warning--it's 48% wool--and you can smell the lanolin in the wool. Hand wash only cold water!!

I Had This Hunch...

2012-01-11T20:46:00.000-05:00

But it didn't help at all! I stopped off at JoAnn's on the way home (not that the store is on the way home, but rather that I went there before actually GOING home), and I dropped off another scarf (there are two featured for the next two months for classes in Crochet, and I made samples of both, plus a block that was called "Woven Stitch"). No pictures, though, until I can get the projects back...bummer for you, but it helps me make sales of classes at JoAnn's if people can see the finished projects.

I'm a little worried that everything is "scarf-ish" this time, and wonder if people are maybe "tiring" of scarf this and scarf that. I know I am.

Therefore, I bought some yarn (oh, like you didn't know THAT!)...in green and white (well, it's cream, but against the green, it will still look white, and won't look dirty quite as soon! Two birds!), and the plan is to make Spartan hats...

Sort of like the reindeer/panda/hello kitty hats I've made, just with a "Michigan State Spartans" theme. I plan to put it on display and turn it into what JoAnn's calls a "trend" class.

This is where I write up a pattern, and it's submitted to the corporate office, and they do all the checking with the powers that be, and let me know if I can do it or not.

Well, who knows? Once I get an idea in my head, it's hard to let go.

So I have to figure out what the end result is going to look like, and while the colors aren't a problem, the end result is a little daunting. I don't want it to be just an ordinary hat, and I don't want it to be so hard that people can't make it, but I want it to be special enough that others will desire it, and take the class to make it.

So there you go...a complete quandry in a few sentences.

I also purchased yarn to make a this way and that way scarf. What is it with all the scarves, people? You'd think it was getting cold outside! But I think since I have to teach the class to make this bird, I have to figure out how to make it fly.

So that's what is on the needles. Plus I've got a little tatting project going, but I have to practice my tatting. There are parts I don't remember how to do, and since some folks at JoAnn's want me to do a trend class for it, I figured I should "brush up". I'll let you know how that goes.

In the meantime, I'm between projects, and reading a book. It's called "Scott Free" and written by one of my favorite authors John Gilstrap. So I'll see you as soon as I have something to really say or show. Bye for now.

Sunday....Afternoon....

2012-01-08T15:14:00.000-05:00

Kind of sing-song today, with not much to do. I've done the samples for JoAnn's, and want to work on the third, and maybe even the 4th, but I don't have the right yarn (yet). Hubby doesn't know it yet, but I'm heading to JoAnn's after I drop off the movies at the video store, so that I can pick up the yarn I need for the projects I want to work on next.

Hush. I know I have projects waiting for me in my queue, but there's this every which way scarf done with short rows that I'm pretty excited to work out, if only for my own self. The scarf will make a nice present for next year. I also have to work out a hat for the Spartan population, and that takes a special forest green and white. I've got some ideas in mind. I also have a project for my brother that I want to do....There are just too many things to do!

On the other hand, yesterday, I bought a tatting shuttle and some tatting thread and a hanky, and I thought I might make an edging for the hanky. That's something I need to look online for, and planned to find earlier, but forgot by the time the movies were over...So I'm off on the hunt. Wish me luck!

Another Hat Completed..

2012-01-07T16:06:00.000-05:00

I made this hat for a friend, who is going to give it to her daughter. It's really cute in person. Tell me what you think!

Fear Becomes You...

2012-01-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

Someone asked me if I wasn't afraid of anything when I posted about opening my computer and putting in memory. It made me giggle, because truth be known, there are things I'm afraid of, but the guts of a computer isn't one of them.

For instance, I am afraid of storms, especially those with the possibility of tornadoes. I love happy, little spring rain that makes the flowers grow, but when it comes to tornadoes, I'm ready for the basement. The reason for this is because I went through a tornado as a child, and all I remember is screaming at the top of my voice and not being able to hear it for all the noise.

I'm afraid of spiders. They are fine, outdoors and in their element, but drop one in the tub, and I'm calling my husband to "get it out of my tub". Big man that he is, I can always count on him to take care of the nasty thing.

I'm not scared of snakes, but they do make me jump when I wander across one and it's unexpected--but I have a pet snake--a Dumerils Boa. Very pretty snake. If snakes can be pretty.

I'm not afraid to jump out of an airplane, but I'm not about to try it. I have a healthy respect for activities where you can end up with a really mangled body or worse...emphasis on the "worse". Likewise, you won't find me scaling tall mounts on a rope (for exactly the same reason), without lots of other people around and someone to break my fall.

I'm not afraid of lightning, but I don't stand outside with a kite, string and key, either...again, for similar reasons. Call me stupid, but I value my life (to a degree). I say that, because a few days ago, I realized that my ex-husband may have tried on numerous occasions to murder me. That said, it's probably a really good thing he's an ex, right? But this latest one, really sort of shot me in the head...

There was a big "KaBOOM" in our mobile home one night that brought me out of a sound sleep, shook the pictures off the walls, and scared me to death. When we woke up next morning, we found that the chimney had "blown it's top", and the lid was laying on it's side on the roof. We didn't know what was happening, at least *I* didn't know, but looking back, it's one of those "I wonder if..." moments...

We had natural gas heat, so when a problem presented with the furnace (where the boom came from), it went up the chimney instead of blowing the trailer to bits (as propane would do). We were VERY lucky (at least *I* thought so). When it happened a second time, I called the furnace man, who came out and found a hole in the baffle, which caused the furnace to load with gas, then when the thermostat kicked in, "kaboom". So we had to get a new furnace.

Looking back on it, I remember the hole as being about the size of a large screwdriver...as if someone had stuck the screwdriver and pressed down on the baffle to create the hole.

Therefore the "hmmm" moment, because that's not the ONLY incident that I sort of rummage over now and then. Of course, he would deny it. But he lies all the time, and I have nothing to do with him anymore, and so there's a very healthy FEAR of my ex-husband. My current husband thinks I'm being an idiot about him. But you know, once burned, twice shy. When he tries to talk to me, I turn and walk away, and then I look over my shoulder to make sure he's not following me. Darn stalker, anyway!

But enough of that...so you see, there are things I am afraid of, but the guts of my computer? BAH! I sooner be afraid of snails. I'm sure that there are other things I am afraid of--losing my job...dying before I use up all the yarn I own...dying before I use up all the fabric I own...things like that, but I tend to not allow those things to prey on my brain, and think of happier things. I'm a lot more afraid of certain behavior that didn't scare me in the slightest when I was 20 and thought I owned the world. I think I was hitchhiking in Denver when Ted Bundy was in town, but that's kind of an unknown, actually. He may have been in Florida at the time.

Today, I Added Memory

2012-01-02T09:37:00.000-05:00

Would that it were so easy to add memory to the human brain---just stick in a chip and you're good to go. Want to save that picnic in the park on Sunday afternoon? Just add a new chip and sandwiches in the basket and off with you. You can add memories of your wedding to husband #1, then take the chip out when he turns out to be a lying, cheating creep, and never have to remember him ever again. No grief, no loss.

Of course, if you had children with this dude, you're doomed to remember him no matter what, but I digress.

But seriously, I added memory to my computer motherboard. It's really very easy to do. First, you turn off the machine. Then you unplug it from the wall (at least you should to prevent any kind of static). Then you open the box--now for some folks, it's just a key in the back, some it's a latch, some it's a couple of screws in the back. They all seem to come apart differently so that you can get into the guts of your machine.

Now, here's the tricky part. Before handling a memory chip, be sure to ground yourself on a metal piece of the computer.

Memory chips look like long strips of green plastic with little flat, black, rectangular bugs on them. There are usually slots for 2, but sometimes there are 3 and even 4. They come in different sizes, and your motherboard (the big green sheet in the back) knows what chip it needs. You can't just put any old chip in there. You have to have information about your particular motherboard, and know what sizes and configurations you need--then you buy it, usually in a bigger configuration than what you have already in there.

Once you have it, you open the slot by pushing open the little "keys" on the ends. Memory will usually "go in" only one way. Then you push on the memory chip until the little keys snap shut around it. This means it's "seated", and you're good to go. Close up the box in reverse of how you took it apart.

Plug in your machine and turn it on, watch while the computer "boots up". Some machines are set up to recognize changes in your machine, and the memory will be found during the bootup procedure. Some machines are set up so that you don't see that, but you can still find out how much memory you have in your machine by going to the My Computer Icon and looking around in there. The computer should show how much memory you have. It depends on what version of Windows you are running. This morning I put in another 2 gig chip. I now have 4 gig of ram in my machine. It feels pretty good, but I'm not really doing much yet. Enough gig of ram in you machine and you can run several different programs at the same time, all of them resident in memory.

You can look at a pic of a memory chip on this website. You can even locate your particular memory needs there, and then head over to EBAY, and find the chip you need for the lowest price you can get, and buy it there (or you can pay double at the other website, but it's the same ram, and even includes a return policy if it doesn't boot up as required). You only need to know the information about your motherboard, and you find that information in the My Computer icon as well. In the margin, you find out all sorts of usable information about your computer and it's needs.

There really is no need to be scared about it. I realize it's a bit intimidating, but pretty soon, you'll be building your own computers from the bare box up, and that's pretty fun. I actually did that for a couple of years, but always had a techie friend who could step in if things went awry--as they can do when drivers aren't correct--to help make everything co-exist together inside your box, because there's a lot inside there that I haven't even mentioned yet...for instance there's the hard-drive, daughter boards, such as the sound card, video card and perhaps some other cards for usb ports or even a television or radio card that will pull in digital information from the air--or a card so you can plug in your cable tv. There's also the CPU, which is a square shaped chip on the motherboard. In older models, it was about 2" square. In your box, it might still be, but they are getting smaller and smaller and do more and more. CPU means Computer Power Unit. This puppy makes the whole box work, and if it wasn't there, or burned out and didn't work, your machine would not boot. Same goes for the power supply, which normally comes with the box, and has it's own "requirements" in order to work with the box. It's actually more of a converter, but it takes the power coming in from the wall and converts it to forms and needs of the various components inside your box. If it isn't big enough, it may not power all the devices you have, and things won't work at their optimum.

So if you've never opened your box before, take a look inside and take note of the items I've mentioned. Try and identify the daughter boards inside based on what's plugged into the back of your machine. Be sure to ground yourself well, but if you don't actually "touch" anything, everything will be okay. Taking a look doesn't hurt anything and even gives you a little better understanding of what your particular machine has to do in order for everything to work and get you out onto the web!

Happy computering!

Fait Accompli!

2012-01-01T10:52:00.000-05:00

Or as they say in the good ole US of A, FINISHED!

The wind kicked up, blowing my almost dry hair all over the place. It's supposed to really snow today, but there's supposed to be alot of different kinds of things, not the least of which is the wind, which indicates a front is passing. How lucky for us. Maybe it will blow over.

But we had to go outdoors--the light was just horrible in the house--candlelight just doesn't cut it sometimes. No actually, I was standing in front of a lighted ceiling fan, and it was throwing off the camera's internal light sensor. But we got the pic, and there you go.

I hope you all had a safe New Year's Eve, and a wonderful New Year.

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T00:13:00.000-05:00

It's very late, and so this will be short, as I must get my sleep...

Must.

Sleep.

It's after midnight, btw. 12:15am, actually. So Happy New Year everyone!

Let's see if we can all make it count for something.

It's The Weekend Again!

2011-12-30T22:36:00.000-05:00

Rather difficult to believe that in a couple of days, it will be the new year...you know, the year the Mayan's said we would self destruct on December 21, 2012. Yep, it's that year.

And while there might be some great big disaster coming in the middle of the winter on the solstice, you know? Who knows what might be around the corner? It's better not to think about it too hard, and remember the happy times.

The weirdness visited upon me by my hubby has apparently resolved. I reminded him that he had told me that Wednesday was the day for me to do all the running around because he was going with his buddy for most of the day. After that, he started talking to me again. Then today, we worked on the chair covers and the fireplace mantel--that puppy is cleaner than clean now. Except of course, I have lots of knick-knacks that I have to figure out a place to go, because he doesn't want them on the mantel where they are supposed to go...my little memories. He keeps trying to make deals:

"If you don't put all that 'STUFF' up there, I might keep the mantel dusted once in a while, but if you put anything other than those candles and those hurricane lamps up there, deal's off."

Yeah, that kind of stuff.

Then he wants to put a great big mirror on the same wall as our television--which will look pretty stupid--because the mirror is nearly as big, but in the opposite orientation--aka, portrait, instead of landscape...if you get my meaning. The result would be an off balance wall, that would totally destroy the room's chi. Or something like that. The mirror is too much of a focal point, to put next to the television. Ideally, it should go on the wall next to him. Perfect place for it. Then there's the matter of the clock he got when he retired...there's no real good place for that either. I'd like to put the clock above him, and the mirror above our bed, but he wants it in the room where everyone can see it. I get that part. Then he's telling me "it's too bad that we can't get another one just like it to put on the other side of the television." To which I reply "Okay Mr. Monk!".

Long story.

So we're still trying to work through all the issues with the living room, and at some point (probably in the spring), I'll have to take a lot of my yarn and toys back downstairs, to go with my other yarn and toys and patterns and--and--and...I don't even want to think about it. The shelving that I put up on milk crates has fallen over, and there is glass broken all over the floor. I have to carefully go in and clean before I can get in to organize and let me tell you, organizing is not going to be easy...mainly because he THINKS that I'll be getting rid of some things.

HA!

Well, what he doesn't know now won't hurt him, right?

But there will be some dealing with his attitude in the spring. We'll see how it goes.

In the meanwhile, I'm knitting another shrug, this time in a bright jewel-tone blue and green, with a little rust tossed in there occasionally, and it really is quite beautiful. I'll likely have it done in a couple of days, and there will be pics when I'm done. In the meanwhile, the pattern for it is HERE, and it's REALLY easy. If you stay with it, you can have it done in 5 or 6 days. I substituted Lion Brand Homespun, which seems to work quite well, and the end result is a really warm, slip on your shoulders and go type sweater with no buttons, one size fits most, and if you LIKE buttons, you can add one, without too much trouble, because the stitches are not so fine that you can't make a buttonhole of one of them.

That said, I'm going to head over to Ravelry and see if anyone has responded to my postings on the forums. I'll let you know when I'm done with the shrug!

The Week is Passing

2011-12-27T09:38:00.000-05:00

It's snowing outdoors. It's cold. I've got my jammies on with my woolen slippers. I'm not cold in the house, but outside it's just too cold. I don't want to go anyplace today, even though I really need to get out and return hubby's Christmas sweater (slightly too small) and my robe (extremely too small) for exchanges for a larger size. I had no idea that my upper arms were that big, but guess I'm a big girl now.

I swept the stairs that lead to the basement and once at the bottom of the stairs, found a hairball the size of Rhode Island. I graded all the cat upchuck from the floor that had turned into cement, and dumped it all in an empty bag of cat food, spiders and all. Then I took my new handheld Shark vacuum and vacuumed all the little nooks and crannies (what's a crannie?) and sat down to type it all down.

Interesting blog fodder, eh?

I ran out of Christmas gifts at the end of the giving part, and parted with the crochet shrug I'd made when hubby's sister turned up and I had no gift for her. I didn't really get much for the guys, because most of the guys don't appreciate that sort of thing anyhow, but everyone of the women and girls got SOMETHING. I think. I hope I didn't miss anybody.

So, I'm in the process of making another shrug, this time in blue/green, and after one skein, I can see it's going to be very jewel-toned, and probably too pretty to wear about the house....however, it doesn't wear well under a coat--as the sleeves come to about the elbow.

The urge to go shopping is really strong, but the snow is discouraging me. I expect that from here on out we won't see much of the ground anymore. Sigh. I'm starting to miss the color green again.

It's Finally Here!

2011-12-25T08:01:00.000-05:00

Christmas Morning and none too soon!

Santa brought all sorts of things, including some that we have to deliver....(we're a hub, you see?). Santa got my hubby some new underthings, a new wallet, a cardigan (courtesy of Younkers Meridian Mall) and hand-made gloves. He's pretty happy.

Tenna got a fuzzy robe and jammies, a Shark Vacuum Cleaner, cordless and handheld, and still hoping for the Addi Lace Interchangeables, but they aren't here yet. Santa had to go all the way to Germany to get them, I suppose, so they are taking longer.

Gifts for delivery are a couple of hats and scarves, a cowl, a Hello Kitty and one of those new sew fleece blankets. Which had technically been intended for one person, but it's going to have to go to a different one. Not that Santa forgot about that someone, but because hubby is sending the family to a fun-park, and well, that's just going to completely change things entirely.

But the food is on, cooking. Hubby's made his signature baked beans, and I've made my signature meatballs, and we're going to be leaving pretty soon, I hope.

I finished my shrug. I've gained a bit in "girth" apparently, especially around my upper arms--and the robe didn't fit, but the shrug wasn't quite big enough around my belly. So I added a ruffle. And if you can overlook the sleepy-eyed woman in the picture, and just look at the shrug, you'll see what I mean!

I know, I know. Pretty frumpy in my new jammies. The shrug is perfect, though. Now I have to buy the perfect button--I was thinking a toggle would work best.

Now, on to the next project!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot

2011-12-23T13:38:00.000-05:00

Like Christmas...Reindeer hat in tow...
Everyone loves it, but nobody will pay $30 for it, and that's all SUPPLIES, believe it or not.

But the crowning glory is my latest hat, also pattern by the same person who patterned the reindeer hat....
Check this out...

Now, if you don't like this, you really are a Scrooge.

This one is for my brother's step daughter--who wanted a panda instead of a reindeer, which I suppose is more "wearable" throughout the year, but it's still pretty cute.

Ya'll have a Merry One, hear?

I Should Have Stayed Home

2011-12-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

I arrived at the office and logged in this morning, before the normal "wake up" time for all the IT people, who reset things...

So when I logged into one program, I was fine, but when I logged onto a different program (associated with the first program), it told me that my password expired and to enter a new one.

Well, idiot moi. I didn't realize that when I changed the password in the second program, it would blow up the first program, so when I changed back to the first program, things didn't quite work the way they were supposed to.

End result, I locked myself out of both programs.

And I can't do anything until I get a password reset. Yukko!

So I'm pretty bored.

But it's lunchtime now, and I think I'll head over to JoAnn's and get some googly eyes for my new creation. Pictures later.

Excitement Aplenty--Too Much!

2011-12-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

Such an exciting day at the office today.

First, there was a fire drill that wasn't a fire drill, but just a hot transformer of some sort in the conference room.

Then there was another fire drill that wasn't--it was just the test of the same transformer, and it didn't go well, I guess.

Then, they locked down the building. And they locked down the Police Department next door, and there was rumor of a shooter in the area, and everyone is flocking to the windows (they have a name--they are called TARGETS), to watch the State Troopers with rifles all around our building and theirs. They nabbed a couple of people and took them to the State Police building for questioning, but not before they stuck rifles in their faces and scared the bejesus out of them!

Then, the police called an all clear, while they were still searching the building. I left before they got to my floor, and stood outside with some of my office pals, who said that NO, the guy with a gun was INSIDE the building, and they were looking for him...so it was good that I got out when I did, I suppose.

I took a little walk to the pizza joint, sat down, shaking like a leaf, told everyone on Facebook, and then someone comes and says "No, it was a hoax."

Really? A hoax? They take my office buddy to the State Police building at gunpoint, and question her? On a hoax? I still don't believe it. As I've always said, the stuff you hear before the authorities get hold of it, is probably more true than what you read in the paper a few hours later.

And sure enough, Communications wrote us all an email that it was all contrived, and here's how it went down, and all this, but police don't stand outside their building with guns ready to shoot somebody if there's trouble for a 'maybe' thing.

When I got back to work, the troopers had gone inside, our doors were open, and I simply said "I don't feel safe here, anymore." There are lots of ways that a shooter could get into our building if he wanted to--not all doors are carded, and all they have to do is wait for someone to walk out, while they slip in. They have a guard only at the front of the building--the back and sides are, while not "completely" unprotected, it's enough that a bad guy could get in unperceived and take the elevator, and no one would ever know. None of us knows everyone, and with all the new positions in Information Technology--it's just not safe. Knowing this causes me to have concern about us all for tomorrow, when the State closes down for the holiday.

But if I happen to make it through tomorrow without incident, I'll be sure and blog so you all know that I lived through it.

Reindeer Hat

2011-12-19T17:27:00.000-05:00

Here it is. I thought I had submitted it via my Android phone, but apparently, it didn't post.

I have to make another....
And another for next year....

It's going to be a long week before Friday finally comes.

They have added to my responsibilities at the office and I'm doing mostly what I was doing before the new boss came on the scene. I'm not sure what that means, other than more work, but it's keeping me busy, and making the days go by quickly. It's a short week this week, too, and after Thursday is over, I'm off on vacation until next year.

That makes it sound like a long time, but really, it's only 10 days.

Ten solid days of nothing but kicking back and relaxing.

Ten solid days to count on my fingers and toes.

And this hat to keep my brains between my ears. Merry Christmas, one and all!

Coming Apart at the Seams

2011-12-12T13:01:00.000-05:00

Well, that's how it feels anyway. I'm on my lunch break, and the boss happens by. He's going to give me extra work to do, and I'm caught up with my regular stuff, which is just fine, but I figure he's going to give me a big job to do, and it's going to throw off my "plan".

I'm working on the reindeer hat. I got the ball for the hat done, and then realized I'd need some fiberfill before I can go any further.

Funny how that sort of thing happens. Just when you think you've got everything together for taking to the office, you forget the ONE thing that you REALLY NEED. Like the fiberfill. Or your cell phone, where all your phone numbers are stored, and then you can't call your dentist because your cellie is at home.

It's a real bummer when this sort of thing happens to me.

Now, yes, I can wait and buy more fiberfill at JoAnn's when I get there for my class tonight, but I HAVE fiberfill (a whole bag of it) at home, and really don't want to spend the extra for something that's just going to sit and collect dust in my room. All of this means NOT MUCH PROGRESS at all on the hat, and I was really hoping to have it done tonight so I could wear it to my knitting circle on Tuesday.

But now, that's just not going to happen.

And my brother, who is currently on Facebook, won't respond to me with his address so that I can send him and his wife their Christmas pressies. That irritates me, too. In fact, there are lots of things that irritate me these days. I suppose it could be hormonal.

Maybe I can find some stray fiberfill at JoAnn's tonight. I'll look around. In the meanwhile...

Hubby's Gloves and...

2011-12-11T21:42:00.000-05:00

Another hat. Made half at JoAnn's in class, and the rest at home. I think it took a total of 5 hours.

The recipient of the hat...remains a secret...a Christmas present to someone far away.

My son's Christmas Present is safely in the car, boxed and ready for Tuesday. I'll take a pic of him. He is going to be SO surprised.

And then I will post it here...so stay tuned!

In the meanwhile, I leave you with a pic of the gloves and hat...

A Cardigan for Christmas

2011-12-04T13:10:00.000-05:00

He wants himself a cardigan for Christmas...
Only proper cardigans will do.
He wants it knit by me
And plainly I can see
There's only twenty days to knit, impossible decree!

But he wants a simple cardigan for Christmas
One that doesn't sag or bag or zip.
With buttons on the band
And sleeves that reach his hand
And covers up his belly, keeps him warm and right to plan.

So I started shopping stores, and more and more and mores
And not one simple cardigan to find.
I looked into goodwill, and got my searching fill
And 'tis quite plain, I'm right as rain, and flipped out of my mind.

Cus he wants a simple Cardigan for Christmas
And a Cardigan is just all that will do!

The Elegant Universe

2011-11-30T18:08:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try to read a book, but not just any book. Being a total nimrod about physics in general and astro-physics in particular, I thought it might be a fun time to read a book by Brian Greene called "The Elegant Universe", which is about a number of theories, starting with some of Einstein's stuff, of which I only know E=Mc2, which I couldn't begin to elaborate on--other than E=Energy, M=Mass, c=hmmm....foggy foggy dew? and the 2 is supposed to be squared, but I couldn't figure out how to make it move up a notch on blogger using html code....that's how stupid I am.

Well, really, I'm not stupid about everything, just about SOME things. I'm pretty smart about lots of stuff--just ask my boss. Or my therapist. Or my MOM.

Okay, hush.

Anyway, I was so impressed by the series on PBS that I decided to get the man's book and try to read it, if not understand it, and see if it takes me into realms of my imagination (as things scientific always do). I thought, if I can just get past the first page, maybe I could get past the second.

So far, I've read 2 credits. I don't remember what they said, but they sounded positive, smart and enlightening. I thought perhaps this book might cater to the ignoramusses of our day (that's usually me, but you may join me if you like--you'll be in good company, trust me), and therefore be a nice readable book that I might put down after 24 pages and say "Whew! That was a BITE!" as if my mouth wasn't full enough already.

And then..

"What does it MEAN?"

But I'm willing to give it a go, and let you know if I make it past the first 24 pages. If I do, it means I wasn't as stupid as I thought. Maybe simplistic is a better word.

So I'm home from my first day at work this week, and holy cow, am I beat. I'm only 3 days behind in my work, and I've got 3 special projects going at the office. It was pretty good getting away at lunch time, and even though I got a lot accomplished (including 34 voicemails), I don't feel like I was quite up to par on getting things done. Since it's going to be at least 20 minutes or more before supper, I have a little bit of time, either to read, knit, blog, catch up on Ravelry...whatever. I decided to blog.

You lucky devil, you!

I received my first Christmas card today, from my friend Ray. That man is such a character. I get cards practically year around from him, some just because he wants to keep in touch. It was a nice card, and I'll have to return the gesture. I don't usually do Christmas cards, but he makes such a concerted effort, that I feel it wouldn't be right if I didn't respond. He can get really blue when snow flies.

I suppose now, I'll go check Ravelry. It's been a nice update.

Sick Days Off

2011-11-29T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I decided to take another sick day. Still not quite on top of things with this sinus infection, but getting better. Taking 2 pills out of that Z-pack really knocked the legs right out from under it. But I coughed, wheezed, sneezed, dripped and snuffled my way all through yesterday. Today, things seem much improved, thanks to the addition of chicken noodle soup and mandarin oranges from a can.

However, outdoors, it is cold and wet, and by the end of the day they are saying that nasty four-letter word again. I am eating my oatmeal, thinking about taking my next doses of morning medication, so that I can get myself on the mend faster.

I need to go to the increase evenly site to figure out how to do some increases for the stealth project which is darn near done, and I might actually finish it today. That means I would be able to start on a couple of other things, and well, that just gets me all excited. I'm not sure what's coming next, but you can be sure it will be exciting.

So off to that website.

Sunday/Monday

2011-11-28T13:40:00.000-05:00

Sunday was a bad day. I had a sore throat. It simply destroyed my whole weekend. Today (Monday) I'm headed for the doctor. I have been in bed for the last 12 hours sleeping off and on, sometimes with a cough drop in my mouth.

I don't sleep well with a cough drop in my mouth. I used to try that when I was a kid, and somehow it would end up stuck in my hair. My mom used to comb my hair when I was little, and I had long hair. She got tired of combing cough drops out of my hair. I can't say I blame her. I seemed to be sick a lot as a kid, and I get sick when the season's change from fall to winter and winter to spring. Some say it's allergies. I just think it's the most horrible thing. I truly hate being sick. I'm such a whiner.

I'm about 3/4 done with my stealth project. That's a blessing. I haven't worked on it at all today. It's weird, because I am always knitting. Today, I'm not sure I'm going to attempt it. It's not like I'm feverish or anything--just a sore throat and stuffy nose, but I know if I don't kick it in the butt right away, I will be sick for months. First, it develops into bronchitis, and then pneumonia. I can't get that sick.

And my friend at work emailed me wanting to do lunch, but I couldn't seem to get myself around until an hour later to let him know that I can't.

Being sick is a sad state of mind.

See? I told you. Whiner.

I'll miss my class tomorrow night, too. That's not nice. It's okay. Boss wants me to get better and not pass this bug around to others. I understand that. If I feel better, though, I might just head over to Lake O to knit night--because they will get the other gal to take my place or reschedule.

All because I'm sick. Boo Hoo.

I feel like I'm not going to live, even though my husband said that I would. Of course, he's not SICK. Even so, he's asking me to tell the doctor go give me extra antibiotics FOR HIM. Um, yeah, right. The doctor will be all for that, I'm really sure of it. I ought to just go into the living room and spread my germs all over him, just for the heck of it. Just touch my itchy eye and put my finger in his mouth. Nothing like spreading germs the sneaky way. But I won't. I have a conscience. Then, he takes my WI-FI hub out of our room and puts it elsewhere so that he can get 100% connection speed, while I only have 78%. Now, this is not good, because frankly, I pay for the darn thing, it should be ME at 100%. So I'm irritated, on top of being sick.

Just a bad day all around.

Well, it's getting close to time to go, and I want to check out the new patterns on Ravelry, so *cough*. Bye.

Turkey Weekend

2011-11-26T10:31:00.000-05:00

Amidst guns and firecrackers, my dog, Mandy, did not enjoy the holiday in the slightest. She is still hiding out behind the throne, which seems to be the only safe place she can find.

Hubby is fast asleep and snoring, still at 10:30am. I don't know how he does it.

Our Thanksgiving holiday was happy and at the end of the meal, everyone was stuffed, except the turkey. Mom bought a 22 pound turkey, and the bones were basically picked clean. There were some new dishes, which will likely be on the table next year--a corn dish made with corn, jalapenos and cream cheese and a little something else, but I can't remember what it was. It was spicy, but it was SO tasty. We also had some Greek food to eat/sample. Grape leaves and another dish that looked a little like pumpkin seeds, but was some sort of pasta in a light marinara--it was spicy, but not hot, and I think I would have liked it much better if there had been a little more sauce--then of course, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans (not the traditional green been casserole, but beans with craisins and almonds), gravy and biscuits (Grands). After supper there was 2 cakes and 3 pies, and there was a lot of dessert left over.

I think that was the hardest part to believe.

There were about 20 people to eat the bare-nekkid bird, and everyone was in or out of the kitchen back and forth for this or that tasty treat. Black and green olives, pickled green beans and cheeses of nearly every flavor. It was pretty amazing how much food 20 people can put together! I gave my mother-in-law two hot pads that I've recently made, then sat down in a chair and prepared to continue to knit on my son's Christmas present. It's coming along nicely. I expect that I have another 2 or 3 full days of knitting before it will be done, and next week is going to be quite busy. I'm not worried any longer about getting it done before Christmas, but I am concerned about other things with respect to the project, and I may have to do some major grafting, but we'll see how things go.

Friday, I got the shock of my life. I had been out Christmas shopping most of the morning and was on my way home when my cellie rang. I almost dropped the phone when I saw who was calling! My SISTER called me! She wanted to know what I was doing and would I like to go to lunch? After I picked up my chin off the floor, I said yes, and then called my hubby to ask if he'd like to join us at a Chinese place. He declined, so I picked him up a sub sandwich and went home, dropped it off, then headed to meet my sister.

We had a great time at lunch, and I asked if she'd like to join me for some Christmas shopping, to which she answered in the affirmative. So we pulled out of the restaurant and headed to Walmart.

Now on Black Friday, I expected Walmart to be swamped, but there was hardly anyone there! Surprise for me. I think we spent about 3 hours just roaming the aisles, and then the shopping began. I bought two more gifts for my husband, she bought four or five. I bought a candle warmer and a couple of magazines for myself, and she bought some items for her house, too. I lost track of her two or three times. She found a gift for her husband that I thought would make a perfect gift for my son-in-law. My total haul-$50. Her total haul-$70. Time spent together doing stuff we love-priceless.

So I'm getting cold, and thought I would put away the knitting for a little while land warm up in bed with my snoring husband, but saw that the computer was trained on my blog, so figured I would stamp out a couple of words.

There are just times when I can't believe how blessed I am.

Monday's Almost Over

2011-11-21T17:22:00.000-05:00

It was a real Monday today. Too much work, and not enough time to do it in...that's because I didn't get to work until 9:41, because someone I sleep with, (who shall remain nameless) woke me up by taking all the covers off of me at 2am, and then proceeded to snuggle and snore in my ear.

The result?

No sleep from 2am to 5:30am, which is when I normally wake up. And so, instead of rising at 5:30am, I simply turned off the alarm.

Hubby continued to snore, while I called in to the office to let them know I was going to be late, because of my husband.

At that point, I promptly fell into deep sleep, and didn't waken until he turned over, all excited, saying

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

This at 8:30am.

And when I told him why I didn't go in, he looked at me as if I had spoogers all over my face and denied every word. But it was true. I'm considering separate beds.

But the 2 1/2 hours that I lost, I'd sure like to have had back. There was too much work to do for 5.3 hours. I really only needed another hour, but I simply wanted to go home and work on this scarf--

The Popcorn Scarf.

Which has sort of up-ended the stealth project for Christmas present that I've been working on--feverishly. I've got this scarf going, and I really like it.

The fact that it really looks like popcorns is what makes the whole scarf...even if it is a little too wide. But what really upsets me is that the whole thing biases to the left. This is because the popcorns sort of lean leftwise.

It's a simple pattern, made simpler by taking away two strands of yarn and the huge-mongus crochet hook to use one strand at a time, carring the unused inside the stitches and a size H hook. I end up with a green background and white popcorns--the perfect scarf for a Spartan fan! Of course, it's not to plan, but an alternative, and when people see this, they are going to want to make it. That's how cool it is.

In fact, it's so cool that I told the manager about it, and she seems really thrilled about the prospect of showing something similar, but different to show what you can do just by altering the pattern a little.

And here I was thinking I was being clever! Durn!

So for now, I need to run into the living room and get started on the stealth project. I'm just not certain how I'm going to proceed. I'd like to work it a la magic loop, but I have a thought that it will get too be too much for that, so perhaps I'll just do one at a time and let it be like that. In the meanwhile, Knit or Die!

I Want to Make the Very First Sweater...

2011-11-19T20:35:00.000-05:00

On this video:

Still Working on the Stealth Project

2011-11-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

But getting closer to being done. It seems to take forever. Of course, tonight is the night that hubby and I watch the bulk of our television viewing, so there'll be no knitting this evening. In fact, I have but an hour before the next show pops up. I have to measure, and of course, I have no measurement to compare to--so it's a guess by gosh project, and I really hate those.

But on to describing the next project. JoAnn's wants me to make a popcorn scarf.

I think I want to make a popcorn scarf--just not the way THEY make a popcorn. I want to make one that I can sell to a Spartan fan to wear to a game. I thought "green and white", and things started snowballing from there. So I'm going to try my hand at it this evening while watching "A Gifted Man", to see how it works out. Think white scarf with green popcorns? Green scarf with white popcorns? I'm thinking the latter. It might turn out more interesting than I think. We shall see.

In the meanwhile, I'm struggling for stuff to chatter about in my blog. I did inter-library loan the book by Brian Greene. I thought it might be fun to see if the book is so far over my head that I find myself equal to a zero on the simian intelligence scale...if there is one.

Usually, I don't bother myself with things that are so far out there, but imagine being able to sit down for a moment or so with Albert Einstein or any of the other great thinkers of our day? Tossing out ideas, trying them on for size, coming to conclusions that change the world. There was a line in "Close Encounters", where the government men were talking, and one said "Wouldn't it be great if Einstein was here?" and the other government man said "Hell, he was probably one of them!"

Which just totally blows your mind to consider, and maybe pokes your brain onto imagination mode enough to say:

"hm."

And then decide that it's too far out there to consider, and it becomes just one of those things that you really can't spend a lot of time thinking about, because there is just too much going on in life to wonder about something that seemingly has so little significance on your own life. As the Bible says: Sufficient unto the day, is the grief thereof...meaning there's so much to worry about going on today, why worry about things that have little impact on your life? Like Tomorrow--or the future or what happened yesterday.

It's cold tonight, and the wind has picked up. I had hoped for the Silver Bells in the City to have moderate weather for the lighting of the tree. It is so cold, in fact, that even Mandy didn't want to go outside--preferring sleeping in front of the fireplace. She might be having trouble with her joints, perhaps her hips--as many line bred doggies do.

Well, it's time to get going, so I'll say goodbye for now. Find some knitting to keep you warm. It's going to get really chilly tonight.

The Meaning of the Universe

2011-11-12T08:28:00.000-05:00

Hubby and I watched Nova on PBS last night. It was about the relationship between time and space, physics and string theories and TOTALLY over my head. The only string I worry about is my yarn in my hand. The show was interesting, and especially mind-boggling, but I noted right away, that there was a problem with the model that the narrator, Brian Greene, was using.

When a star explodes, as in a big bang, it doesn't just explode left or right, up or down--it explodes in an infinite different directions--all around the star. Spacially, and relationally, the star explodes toward me, but MOST of the star PASSES me and goes away from me--like a sphere around a rubber ball. In fact, half of the exploding star is between neither closer or farther from me or farther from me entirely. The rest comes close or not at all. UNLESS the star only explodes out from ONE POINT--like a tennis ball comes apart at the seam, more or less. Which might explain the emissions from our sun--mini explosions that happen all the time, that are more like a burp or a queef, rather than total annihilation. Whatever, it was intriguing, and caused me to think about Biblical things and the end of the world and such.

Then came Thursday, and it was all about Friday and the day off for a three day weekend. Wow.

I did some traveling on Friday. I was pretty much on the road most of the day--first because I wanted--no--sincerely desired this new yarn by Berroco--called Lacey. This stuff is like lace, but makes the most magnificent frou-frou scarf! You can go to Berroco's website and look up Lacey, and you'll find the yarn AND the pattern. It more for decoration than keeping warm, so not a lot of use for around here, but it might make a pretty spiffy Christmas present for someone who is feminine and doesn't necessarily live in a frozen tundra.

Then, later in the day, I found out that my Addi Turbo interchangeable set does not have a size 10.5 in it. Since it's from Germany (UK), I can see how they might use different sizes according to what's used in the UK most often, but over here in the hinterland, we don't use a 10.75--so whatever made them put that size in the box is a mystery to me. Maybe one of my readers will come up with the answer. Perhaps its a very popular size in the UK--unknown to me. Or perhaps it was just a manufacturing accident. Indeed, while the other needles pass through the needle sizer quite easily, the 10.75 is so tight as to be almost a 10.8--which would be really confusing to me. All of this resulted in another trip to town to find the 10.5 that I needed, so I stopped at Hobby Lobby, who didn't have ANY but the thinnest double pointed needles (DPN), but they did have the most delightful colors in Sugar and Cream--which I fondled for a while and then moved on. I decided that I didn't want a set of bamboo needles, even though they would have done the job, I would use them once and then be done, so I opted instead to go to Sticks and String, a delightful little store owned by a couple of the ladies that worked at Threadbear before the horrible accident. I stopped in and found a couple more frou-frou scarf yarns that just about knocked me over, the 10.5 interchangeable that I needed AND some hand balm in Lavender flavor.

Talk about heaven. And I knew the minute that I smelled it, that I would have to have it. So I searched down in the depths of my pockets and came up with $10 I didn't know I had, and bought some. Then, when I got home with my prizes, I rubbed the stuff all over my hands and under my nose and well, let's just say I smelled good all night, and it really helped me sleep. Lavender is known for it's relaxing qualities, and this was no exception. I'm not sure what balm is in the tin along with the scent, but it smooths your hands, but doesn't leave them greasy AT ALL, so you can keep knitting or sewing or whatever handwork you're doing!

Today, the plan is to work on my son's Christmas present. If I tire of that, I may switch over and do some crochet on the Reindeer hat, or work some on the Scrappy do. There's a lot going on in the house today. It's so cold in here, one must keep moving, and that is why things in here seem so rushed. I need a drink in my glass and some knitting on my lap to help keep me warm. So signing off for now. Pictures later of the scrappy do, because it's getting SO BIG--it covers my lap now quite well!

I'm Thinking a Couple Days...

2011-11-05T11:50:00.000-04:00

Rest, and relaxation, tarnation!

It's the weekend. I didn't think it would ever get here, and do you realize that you have less than 2 months before Christmas?

It's just too much for my mind to fathom. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we were shoveling snow out of the drive--and to think it was at least 6 months ago!

I haven't got ANY of my Christmas knitting done. It's boggled my mind. I can't think straight.

I did finish a pair of gloves for my winter wear. I have to make a pair for my hubbo--he lost the last pair. They only needed a little mending (big hole in the palm--easy to fix). And I started a pair of pink fingerless gloves--which I'm considering giving to my grand-daughter for Christmas, along with a puffy scarf I made last month. Otherwise, that's IT.

I have a special present in mind for my son, but can't talk about it here, because he reads my blog (nyah, nyah), and it's going to take me a while. So I suppose I should at least start it...and soon.

My hubby's side of the family isn't drawing names this year. I think it means that we're buying a little something for everyone. I assume that means some major bending of the credit card this Christmas, because I like giving nice gifts. Things that took some thought. Things that match the giftee--for instance, the fingerless gloves I made for my son two years ago, and the matching hat last year were both wonderful. The Nurse Kitty for my sister in law was a really cool gift. But this year, I'm at a loss. I suppose I could take a handful of dishcloths and pass those around, but that's more of a birthday gift than a Christmas gift. I've got an idea for my step daughter, but I'm pretty sure that she already has one. Her husband is as easy to buy for as I am. My mother in law likes clothing and jewelry. My other sister in law, her husband and their children are coming up from Florida--and they don't use knitted wear much down there--not that I would have time to do it anyway.

And so I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to start. I've had a bit of a sagging interest in knitting. Not that I'm losing interest, but because I'm always so tired when I get home from work. I simply don't feel like doing anything except sit down and watch television. It's very likely the chill in the air and the cloudy days and the lack of sunshine that's causing my intrigue to wan. Even though I'm still knitting, my productivity has gone WAY down.

It's cold in the house, and I'm a little uncomfortable, so I'm going to sign off and crawl under the covers to get warmed up. Hubbo says he can't mow lawn until the grass is dry which may be late in the afternoon considering the amount of frost we got this morning. That's another thing--having to scrape the windshield. Sigh. It's going to be a long winter.

Knit and Crochet in the Dark

2011-10-30T09:21:00.000-04:00

I hear a huge snowstorm hit the east coast from Pennsylvania to Vermont, and that some areas got as much as a foot of snow. I also hear that over 300,000 people are without power.

I feel for these folks--especially women. There's just about nothing you can do without heat and lights in the cold weather--except go to bed, and some people are okay with that at two in the afternoon, but there's only so much time you can spend in bed before your back starts to scream "ENOUGH ALREADY!"

Of course, my thoughts turn to knitting and crochet--and I've tried knitting in the dark before. It doesn't work really well, even by candlelight--even by lamplight--even by FIRE light...which if you get too close to the candle or the lamp, things are prone to catch on fire...

I purchased four balls of kitchen cotton--one of them in the Christmas colorway, and made one of those diagonal potholders. It turned out really pretty. The other balls are slated for potholders, too, and the leftovers will go on the Log Cabin Scrappy Do, because I'm running out of colors in my scrap bag. I also got out my stash of Dazzleaire, and started a Mile a Minute crochet afghan. Sadly, I only have light colors at the moment. I need some dark stuff to set it off. I'm almost afraid it's been discontinued. I'll give the search a good college try, and then I'll just make it a scrappy afghan to use up what I have.

This morning it's cold--inside and out. We have electric--as we're not in the snow belt this morning, but there was a hard frost, and everything looks like it's covered in snow--the cars, the grass, the leaves. I allowed my dog outside this morning, and the frost chilled her sensitive little feets, and she asked to come back in within record time. She doesn't like cold feet. I have footies for her, but she tends to flip them off pretty quickly. She's comical to watch walking about with slippers on...something like a crab...one foot at a time. I'll have to find them and put them on her and take a movie to show you, because it's quite something.

I also purchased a crochet afghan book with 66 patterns in it, and they are all just scrumptious throws. As cold as I am today, I think it wise to get started right away. It's what prompted the mile a minute, and getting started back on the Scrappy Do, as I've been sort of resting from both knitting and crochet for a little while--trying to decide what to make and when to make it. The doctor put me on some new medication, and I don't think it's working for me, because instead of going gun-ho with everything, most everything is slowed WAY DOWN, and I've pretty much lost a lot of interest in life in general, which isn't what the medication is supposed to accomplish. In a word or so, I think I have SAD.

Not that I'm unhappy, but seasonal affective disorder is almost as bad. You get to a point where you think everything is dying and you just can't bear to watch it anymore. Sigh.

Okay, enough of that. Where's my sweater? Brrr.

Since I finished the potholder last night, I have a bit of scraps to put on the scrappy do, and I can be warm while I work on that. This guy is HEAVY, and he's not my brother. He'll make a wonderful addition to the bed this winter. He might even be too heavy. We'll see.

I had a flu shot on Thursday, and like clockwork, I paid homage to the porcelain god Friday night. I keep telling people that the flu shot makes me ill, and they keep telling me that it's a dead virus. Do you know how small a virus is? What if just one is playing possum?

Well, enough random thoughts. Hubby is awake and out of bed, and may want to go to breakfast. That's a resounding YES for me--even though my chest still hurts from the heaving on Friday night.

But you know, it could have been the pizza.

Burning Down the House

2011-10-16T15:53:00.000-04:00

Okay, so we aren't quite ready to do that just yet, but my instincts are telling me that the flu has holes in it, and that we are going to come close--not my idea of fun.

We are, however, cleaning the stove and getting it ready for another burning season today. It's a lot of work, and takes a bit of tear down, vacuuming and cleaning to get things ready. I know that if hubby goes first (he seems to think so, I'm not so sure), I won't be able to deal with that stove by myself, and even though the house has boiler heat as well, I understand so little about it--and the cost is pretty prohibitive for me on my salary alone.

So you see, I have to "go" first. There's just no getting around it.

I've been working on Scrappy Do most of the weekend, and it's finally of sufficient size that I can use it for a lap cover to keep the tops of my legs warm. It hasn't been freezing in the house yet, but the chill from outdoors seems to seep right through the walls. I told hubby that this blanket would be heavy and warm, to which he said

"Good."

A man of few words, I suppose.

And so for the last two hours we've been working on the stove and the fittings. We need a new cap for the pipe on top of the roof. The old one has pretty well rusted right away. I suppose that corn creosote is more corrosive than wood creosote, though I have no idea what the difference might be. Hubby says according to his research on our stove, we not only heat more efficiently, we also are more environmentally friendly.

Well, right now, the stupid thing is growing meal-worms and sending little millers (small meal-worm moths) into the living room. The cleaning out business is mostly for dust and rust and creosote--oh my! But slowly, things are coming to. Hubby says we'll start her up November 1. I'm told we're to have snow before Halloween. Whichever actually is the case, I'm sure there will be heat in the house when he gets cold enough to turn it on...because that's how it works, and until then, I cower under my knitting.

Lazy Days...

2011-10-12T17:11:00.000-04:00

It's been so balmy the last week. It's been great. Even thought I've had to spend most of the time indoors working, it's still better to see sunshine than grey days and rain.

Which is coming tomorrow, I understand. It sounds like a drizzle in the morning and rain in the afternoon. I might decide to park across the street, just to avoid the rain. But then what would I do on Friday.

I like to get home as early as I can on Fridays. It gives me more time to relax. Last weekend was just too short due to working on Saturday. I really need my weekends. Yes, I know it's almost an extra $200 on my paycheck, but...well, I guess when I put it that way, I can take a little inconvenience, but it does hurt me when I don't get enough rest.

Today, I ate far too many peanuts. I love dry roasted peanuts. I can eat them by the half pound. I haven't had any in a long, long while, and so I bought some today. A half pound isn't quite "on my diet list", and so I probably WAY overdid it. The fact that my tummy is still upset a little tells me "Yes, oh yes, you did overdo."

So I'm not making dinner right away, because I don't feel well. I need to eat something, but I don't know what I want, because nothing sounds good. It's too bad that you can't eat yarn. I have a lot of it, and I could probably feed a small country for a couple of years if yarn was edible. However, I am more apt to take a nap than eat--I feel tired and sleepy. It's Wednesday, and there's nothing on television to watch tonight. Knitting in front of the tube might not happen. Calling it quits and turning in early sounds like a real plan to me, but then hubby would come home and wonder why I hadn't made supper for him. On the other hand, he has been helping his friend all day again today while I slaved at the office, so he might well stop off on the way home and eat something, since he knows I'll be home, he might not do so.

I hate the not knowing for sure. It's very confusing, and I never seem to make the right choice. And no matter which I do, I end up called on the rug for it:

"What did you make dinner for? We could have gone out!"

or

"You knew I'd be home tonight! Why didn't you make supper?"

It really doesn't matter either way. Whatever I do, it's wrong somehow.

So last night I drove to Lake O and sat and knit with the gals in the knitting club. We had a pretty good time. Nancy has redone the store. It's quite a bit smaller than it was, because they are planning on renting to a tattoo place--and we all decided that we should get knitting needles tattooed on our wrists. Someone mentioned the name for the tattoo that goes on your back, just above the top of the hip-hugger jeans, and the conversation devolved into laughter from there. I did another section on the scrappy do (everyone thought it was a pretty cool idea and very pretty), and I finished another potholder, and gave it to my mom after knit night. She spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how I made it . Then my son came in, and he looked at it for 10 minutes trying to figure out how I made it . It's so cool to be able to make something that just mystifies people.

So, I think that now I'm going to go to my chair and do some knitting before hubby gets home. I hope your day is knitterly fun!

Hi Honey! I'm Home!

2011-10-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

Just got the pizza re-warmed. Lunch and Dinner. Pizza. Stuff lasts forever around here. Today, I got an email (though I read it 10 minutes after I was supposed to read it), and it said "Meet me at the Pizza joint." This is my friend at the office, so I literally RAN to the pizza joint, and sat down, huffing and puffing, while he munched away telling me how great his 3-day weekend was.

I'm jealous. I had only 1 day. But I'll get even. Christmas is coming, and I always take off the week between the holidays. It makes a nice vacation, and I don't have to drive in bad weather. Come to think of it, maybe I'll do the same thing sometime late January, too.

Knitterly, it's a big zero so far today, though I did crochet a few rows on another of those diagonal potholders...They are excellent for using up scraps, which I have lots and lots of--even in the cottons. But they are so easy to make, it's odd that I didn't think of it. Just a chain, then you sc around that chain doing increases in the ends. Once that row is done, you just sc around and around in a spiral, fold, origami-style, and sew up the seam. I usually chain a few after the sides meet in the middle, and my crochet hook is at the peak--I'll do about 15 ch, then join to the body, cut a generous length and sew up with that. I found that crocheting it together left a hard seam, so now I just sew through the back loops. If you want a scrappy one, you just add in new yarn when you have 2 loops on the hook--and crochet on, holding the short ends within the sc row to hide them. You can use up even the shortest leftovers--anything 10" and above--it doesn't have to go all the way around--in fact, I think one that had a different color every 10 stitches or so would look really cool.

I don't know, but it really works for me. I'm getting rid of a lot of scraps, and my scrappy do is getting bigger and bigger. Soon, however, I will need to start something different. One person only needs so many potholders and dishcloths. Maybe I'll make an oven mitt? It's a thought.

Beyond that, not much has been going on. I'm going to check Ravelry and some other knitting sites, and then I think I will go knit or crochet--maybe cook--since hubby just arrived, and said one slice of pizza isn't dinner. Sigh. A woman's work...

OdoBan Saves the Day!

2011-10-09T16:18:00.000-04:00

I climbed into the car this morning with my husband. He was *not* happy. The spoiled milk that apparently sprayed all over the carpet soaked into the nooks and crannies in the car, and so the "stink" of soured milk remained.

So I told my husband about the tip that was given to me on my blog, and he replied quickly,

"Go get it!"

So I did. I just now returned from Sam's Club, having requested a one-day pass, and bought this stuff. It came with a spray bottle full, plus a gallon refiller for $10. I walked straight out to my car and opened the trunk. I tore into the package, took the spray bottle and twisted the cap to spray, and then I gave the trunk the once over, and then the twice over.

You see, I wanted to make sure the "stink" was gone. Gone. GONE.

When I climbed into the car, there was no sour milk smell. I turned off the a/c, and sniffed DEEPLY. No sour milk smell. I stopped at Michael's afterward, went into the store for 20 minutes (because they had a sale on Sugar & Creme 5 for $5 and Vanna's Choice, 2 for $5), came back to the car, expecting the worst, but all that came back was the smell of the OdoBan.

I warn on this count only. I think one spray would have done it. The smell is a little over the top when you use too much, and it gave me a slight headache, but I expect that problem to resolve itself in time. It also slightly burned in my nostrils. I just think I used too much. Otherwise, I'm a believer.

So, when I returned home, I sprayed the carpet with the stuff--LIBERALLY, and left it out to dry. Tomorrow morning, I should be able to put it back in the car.

All in all, not a bad haul. I also scored some sale yarn at JoAnn's. The Sugar & Creme is for potholders and the leftovers will go on the Log Cabin Scrappy Do. The Bright Bernat is for a cowl. The Black Paton's Wool is for gloves for hubby, and the goldenrod Vanna's Choice is for an afghan (multi-colored squares). So all of this is spoken for, already. So now, having scored all this yarn, I need to get busy knitting! TA!

Roasting...

2011-10-08T17:41:00.000-04:00

It is a breezy 83 in Michigan today. That's about 20 degrees HOTTER than normal for this time of year. I understand that Colorado is having a snowstorm, and that it is headed our way.

Well, let it come. I'm not afraid of a little snow.

I am, however, afraid of the guy in the car next to me on the highway--yes, been there, and done it, and we both bought the t-shirt.

But seriously, people. Snow? In October? It's unheard of! Downright blasphemy! Rain, yes. Take down the rest of the leaves so that my hubby and I can knock ourselves out one more time, raking leaves and picking up sticks, and dumping them in the sheep pen for a nice big bonfire sometime this fall--yes, roasting. Marshmallows and hotdogs, mostly.

I finally figured out what to do. I cleaned the kitchen a little bit and then I cleaned and dusted my computer desk. All clean and spiffy now! Of course, the rest of the room is a pit, and I have a stack of papers THIS HIGH to go through and pull out patterns and projects that I'll probably never do. Plus I have to find a special spot for my laptop. So I still have a little bit of cleanup work to do. I also decided to do a load of laundry. It's rinsing now. Soon, I'll make it even warmer in the house.

And it's only 6:00! My, where does the time go?

They Let Me Out Early

2011-10-08T15:42:00.000-04:00

For good behavior, I guess.

I had expected to work until 4pm, but I was getting a little tired of it all, and it sounded like the supervisor wanted to go home, too, so I took off and headed home.

Not that I got a TON done, but it surely felt like it. The paperwork said I did a lot, but when it came right down to brass tacks, I only got 2 boxes prepped for records center. That's not a lot, considering I have 8 more boxes waiting in the wings for review.

And review I will. They're never "done". It's like dishes in the sink...or cat hair on the floor...you never quite get it all done at any given time. You walk about the house, you find a spoon on the living room floor, or a coffee cup in the car. It's like that.

My husband is apparently still helping his friend move, so the animals and I have the house to ourselves. It's a warm one outside, too, which makes me want to get outdoors and spin, but I have not the energy for it. There's nothing on the television on Saturday (except baseball or football, and I'm no sports fan). I could sit down and get some more knitting done on the scrappy do--but I'm sort of bored with that. I could start the swatch for Catkin, but I'm really not much up to knitting at all today.

I SHOULD do the dishes (or at least clean the kitchen). Hubby left something in the sink, and it's gotten quite a stink to it the last few days. My energy meter is in the red, I think....running on fumes.

So I'm blogging. At least that's something. What I could really use is a couple of glasses of red wine, which I can't have, but it would be nice if I could. Maybe I would take a nap. One thing that's got me wondering is why I am gritting my teeth of late. Actually it's more like my whole jaw is clenched up tighter than Scrooge's purse, and it kept me awake half the night last night (which didn't help keep me focused at the office today, that's for sure). My doctor put me on a lightweight anti-depressant to help with the stress, but I seem to be resolving the stress by clenching my jaw. The end result is my whole head hurts a bit, but my teeth are hurting me, too. I've got one here that I would like to pluck right out if it would make my mouth feel better, but I know it's not the problem. Outwardly, I seem pretty much on top of things. Inwardly, I'm just about catatonic. Just one more thing, and I'm going to explode (or implode, depending on your perspective).

At these times, I'm really glad that I have a blog that I can tell my troubles to now and then. I worry sometimes, that my readers will get tired of my grousing and find fodder elsewhere--it really matters not so much to me, since this is more of a journal for me--and if you enjoy it, be my guest. Laugh and cry along with me if you desire. Commiserate and imbibe of the juice from the vine--in my stead, since I can't. It's okay, perhaps I can live vicariously through you and your drought.

It is nice, once in a while, when people comment, or leave a little bit of encouragement now and then. I do appreciate knowing that someone likes what I have to say. Things like "Never EVER a Mormon in the White House", or "OJ did it. You and I both know it." (giggle), or "We're tired of it, and we're just not going to take it anymore!" (I hope that phrase isn't licensed...) But I like my blog. It's good therapy for me.

I hope you like it too.

Since I Am On the Way...

2011-10-07T18:59:00.000-04:00

I'll be heading in to the office Saturday to work some overtime.

Funny how that works out.

Thank you, Talena for the tip about Odo-Ban. I will see about picking some up tomorrow. Since I'll be in town ANYWAY. It won't hurt me to take a little side trip on the way home to get some.

Ideas that I found online were less than desirable...shaving cream and baking soda made for cement...or a cement-like substance that stuck like glue. I used a curry comb to get most of it up, but it's still quite the mess. It still smells in the car, too. I'm thinking that the jug sprayed while it leaked as it jostled in the trunk while I drove down the road. So I'll try the Odo-Ban. Again, thank you for the tip.

I got a goodie bag in the mail today...see???????????
This is Madeline Tosh Light, in the colors for my Catkin. Aren't they so yummy and autumn-y and I can't contain myself--I want to knit with them RIGHT NOW! But as you might guess, life gets into the way, and I will be working overtime tomorrow, so it will be SUNDAY before I can knit my swatch! Boo hoo! So I'm hiding them in this little blue bag (It has little sheeps on it.) And I allowed them a few moments to breathe outside the bag, just long enough to snap a pic, and then RIGHT BACK into the bag they go so that they don't tempt me this evening.

Speaking of tempting, it looks like my husband is going to be very late tonight. I knew he was helping his friend move, but thought he would be home by now. I'll have to check the messages. I'm probably on my own for supper tonight.

And with help from my guru, I found out that my husband's hard drive has died (click, click, click goes the hard drive), and so a new drive is on the docket for my hubby--we'll set the old drive up as a slave and set up the new drive. I'm hoping that Windows will at least allow us to access the drive so that he can get all his files he needs. In the meanwhile, I had to set up a guest account on my machine so that he doesn't accidentally break my machine, too. I can't afford to replace my computer again so soon, and because he's not the computer genius that I am (see? I call my guru when I have problems...that makes me WAY ahead of some other people who shall remain nameless---though certainly not faceless....), I have to set up my computer so that he can't make changes--such as install software and run programs, because it could be a while before HIS guru (different guy and thinks that there's just a bad driver, ya right! Just like my memory stick is good--I'll let you know where you can stick this particular memory stick....) gets around to fixing his computer (which won't work, because the drive is going "click, click, click", and we all know what that means, right?)

So it could be a while.

I'm going to check messages, and then go to dinner. There may be a post tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled.

No Use Crying..

2011-10-06T18:14:00.000-04:00

For the last two days, I've been curious about a very bad, yet very odd smell in my car. It's been really warm the last few days, after a short cold snap, so I thought perhaps a mouse had crawled into the engine, and died there--no such luck.

Yesterday, the smell was SO BAD, that I literally poured half a bottle of lavender oil into the back seat, which did not much more than to cover it over. At this point, I had a VERY BAD SMELL, with a hint of lavender.

Today, I decided to investigate. WHEW! Smell was really strong in the back seat. I moved the floor pads. I removed and tossed what little trash I had, and still, even with the DOORS OPEN, the smell was so strong that my eyes were watering.

I moved the seats forward and back, checked under the floor pads in the front...still nothing.

And then I checked the trunk.

And from within, this rank, malodorous, lethal brew wafted out of the trunk and assaulted my nose. Snapped it a good one! No, not some small decomposing mouse...no, not even animal, vegetable or mineral.

It was a gallon of milk.

A spoiled gallon of milk. In a Meijer bag, no less, and probably missed the time before last time we got groceries, which put it in the trunk about 2 weeks ago, I would guess. I pulled out the bag and tossed it into the trash. I wasn't about to open it and dump it in the field.

And then, because the carton had leaked a bit, I had to pull out the liner AND the little mesh-thing that trunks have these days--and my trunk is now carpet-less.

It looks funny that way.

But I left the carpet on the driveway in hopes of airing it out (fat chance) that perhaps husband will know what to do about it, because I SURELY do not know...outside dusting it with baking soda or washing it (but it's a hard one, so I can't just, you know, stick it in the washing machine). So I'm waiting for him to get home to discuss it with him. It cannot go back in the car in its current state. Not a chance. I also left the trunk open to help it air out. I might just put some lavender back there, not that it would do much good. Perhaps I'll hunt the internet and google for "how to get rid of the smell of spoiled milk in a carpet". I remember once my mother telling me to never spill milk on the carpet because it never comes out, but that was years ago, and I think that by now, someone has come up with a fancy cure.

If nothing else, I could try the pet deodorant. Cows are pets, aren't they?

So off I go to hunt for a cure. No use crying over it. Spilled milk, that is.

Another Long Day...

2011-10-04T17:57:00.000-04:00

I don't know how my husband managed to work at General Motors for 30 years. I've been working for my employer for 22 years, and I've just about HAD it. I am looking for a different position with the company, and I hope that I'm able to find one. It was another long day today, and I've pretty much had enough long days at this place.

I know, I know. At least I *have* a job. And this is true. I just wish that now and then it was FUN. Now I know that work is work, and fun is fun, and usually the two don't mix well, but I'm tired of being promised the moon, and then having the moon and the stars taken away from me, only to find out that I have to sit in HELL for another 8 years.

It just doesn't seem fair.

But I'm home now, and that's a good thing. My knitting group isn't meeting tonight, so I am staying home to knit this week. She's doing inventory (and not much happy about it, either), and we both wish we could have the knit night, but it's okay that we aren't. I'm home, by myself, since hubby is gone helping his sister prep her house for winter, and I get to do as I please while he's gone. THIS IS SO GREAT!

Oh, and did you know that Verizon updated it's Android Phones? I think I like the new platform--although it's really not much different. I think it's a little prettier--not as cluttered, and seems to make a little more sense. Things have been updating on the phone all day, rebooting several times. Each time, something different. I'm sure that will go on for a while.

So I guess I'll leave you now for a visit to Ravelry. Not much going on knitterly, really. Just working more on the Log Cabin Scrappy Do. The more rows I put on it, the wider it gets, and the more stitches on the rows. There are about 120 stitches on each row, and I try to work at least 10 rows a night--sometimes I get 20 rows. Every section gives me another 10 stitches--and at last count, I had 112, so I know it's quite a bit more than that now. That's a lot of stitches. I'd almost like to pick up all the way around now, and start working it in the round, but then it would seem like it never gets done. We all know how I am with big projects that drag on forever...

Nice Day Today

2011-10-02T17:59:00.000-04:00

And I'm stuck doing work in the yard, on the roof, etc. We pulled out the air conditioner and we're sort of sitting back for a bit while we try to get up the ambition to pull out the corn stove to clean it.

Quite a job, that.

I need a drink.

But we've gotten quite a lot of things done that needed doing this weekend. Right now, I'm pretty sore, and think we should leave the corn stove for another weekend, but I'm betting that my hubby is wishing we could get busy on it now so that we don't have to do it during a rain storm or something similar (like a cold front, for instance). Up on the roof during a cold blast can really make you wish you had a little heat in the house.

And it's nearly 6 pm now. If we're going to do it, we best get ON it.

Later!

Five Long Days

2011-09-30T16:46:00.000-04:00

Makes a long, long week, but it's finally over, and the weekend is HERE! YAY!

I haven't much to say, except that I can't wait for my yarn to arrive for Catkin. I ordered it the other day, and I'm expecting it either tomorrow or Monday at the latest. I'll let you know when that arrives.

In the meanwhile, I'm more or less waiting for my husband to get home. He's been playing Spider Solitaire on my computer because he cannot use his own machine (broken). Know why it's broken?

Well, I will tell you why it's broken.

He doesn't know how to weed out spam, he clicks on all sorts of things that he shouldn't because he believes his machine should work faster than it does, and he's always getting some sort of virus or malware because of it. And so his computer breaks down.

Right now, it's in a continuous boot loop--I'll probably call my computer guru and ask him what to do. HIS friend said that it's probably a bad driver. Right.

So I'll get my computer guru over here to check things out and get him up and running, because I can't take the possibility of him putting malware/virus files on MY computer. And he's been all over the internet with my machine, even though I told him NOT to do so. So I have to get my guru over here quick.

So tonight, I knit, and finish up the fingerless gloves for JoAnn's, and then I can knit myself a pair of lavender gloves. I'm rather looking forward to that. I may make some slip stitch mittens instead--they would be really warm. But for now, stay focused.

You see, I wondered why my fingerless gloves turned out so long for the finger part--and come to find out that I totally misread the pattern...it starts from the top and works to the cuff--I was so focused on it being a bottom/to/top thing that I completely missed the fact that it starts at the top, and misread 2" for 4". So it made no sense, and I made them WRONG.

So now, I'm making them right, and ripping out what I had. With that in mind, I can use the extra yarn for longer cuffs (as I might please) or just make them as written and use the extra yarn for some other thing. Which will make my husband happy.

I also have to reknit his gloves, as they grew a big hole last year. And he really needs his gloves, so I might just knit them back up this weekend. He's not home right now, and I don't know where he is. I'm hoping that he didn't go to the grocery store, but I am completely mystified where he might have gotten to.

(Hush! I know you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition! Bad writer! Bad!)

I think I'm going to go knit now. One fingerless glove is done, and I have to the thumbhole done on the second, so it won't take me but a few hours to finish this last one, and get started on the next project.

In Which I Beat My Head Against The Wall...

2011-09-30T05:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had a doctor appointment.

I didn't have to go for a stress test (didn't want to anyway). But doctor says perhaps an anti-depressant is in order.

Another pill?

What is it about these doctors these days? Since when does an anti-depressant help with stress?

So I'm feeling like I'm beating my head against the wall. Stress is wanting to choke the life out of someone else and not being able (or truly willing) to do so. That's the "beating your head against the wall" part.

So, a friend of mine, who is infinitely more "employable" than *I* apparently am, and who really is a good friend of mine, is looking for a new position. I told him to TAKE ME AWAY (sort of like Calgon bath salts, but really a lot better). So we'll see what happens there. The positions that are open for me are either things where they take advantage of you, or it's all phone, or all typing. Honestly, this job wouldn't be so bad, if there weren't SO much to it. So much to know. So much to remember.

I've already made a mistake and I don't have any idea how to fix it, beyond redoing it, but I'd like to know WHERE THE HECK DID IT GO!!! I mean, it just simply disappeared!

So there's that. The pills will be here in a few days. I'll take them through the fall and winter, and then hopefully, by spring, I can STOP that nonsense. Perhaps she's guessing that I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Gee, you think? It's only been raining for a week!

I Am SO Not Excited

2011-09-29T06:12:00.000-04:00

And it would appear that I just can't hide it either.

I have a doctor's appointment today, and from thence, a stress test.

It's the stress test that my dreams are telling me--

You are NOT looking forward to this. Because if they do to you what they did to you the last time, you are doomed. Doomed, I tell you.

The dream was about talking with personnel, and getting told that if I behave like this again at the office, that I'll be fired. Just like that--no care, no concern--just lots and lots of undeserved stress and freaking out, and then freaking out about losing your job, and then freaking out because you're being followed by some strange man because you have no clothing and you're walking around, hunting for your car, wearing nothing but a tarp over you, scared that this guy is a serial killer or something.

And crying...lots of crying. And now, shaking like a leaf as I write this.

And my chest is just bursting--all because I'm worried about this stress test and I'm not talking about the test where they put you on a treadmill and make you walk uphill for a while to get your heartbeat up to so many beats per minute. The last time I did this test, I couldn't complete it. I got my heart rate up, but not high enough, so they did a chemical test on me.

And THAT'S the stress test I cannot do again. I simply cannot. So I MUST do the treadmill, or I might just die right there on the table.

I am stressed out. I am shaking. Physically shaking. Terrified.

And of course, the work situation doesn't help matters. Yet no one even notices that I REALLY NEED TO RETIRE. I REALLY NEED TO GO ON A MEDICAL RETIREMENT.

My husband thinks I'm acting stupid. My therapist thinks all I need is an anti-depressant. My doctor thinks I need anxiety medicine. I think I need to get away from the stress, and everything will settle back down to normal.

And of course, dwelling on it all is making it worse, but what else could I think about? Oh, gee, let's see. I could think about how my social security isn't so secure anymore. I could think about how my 401K is dropping like a stone and lost more money than I've been able to put in. I could think about my family, and how their situation is. I could think about how Jesus is coming, and I'm not ready. I could think about how the house needs a good vacuuming, and because of the stress, I can't do much by the time I get home except to sit quietly and knit. I could get angry that I didn't put enough milk in my oatmeal this morning, and so it's sticking to the roof of my mouth. I could think about the walk to work in the rain. I could...well, you get the picture. Top to bottom, I am stressed. A big rubber ball on the rocky precipice, just waiting for the next breeze.

Big, deep breath. Another.

Nope. Still not ready to go in to the office. But go I must.

The Cowl

2011-09-25T20:23:00.000-04:00

I know it looks like I can't get it over my head, but it makes a pretty cool hat, don't you think? Every one is different. I made a second one, and the colors are all totally different...just in how they come off the ball. A pretty cool technique that I think I might try on some other items.

Loving Things That Are Bad for You...

2011-09-25T10:23:00.000-04:00

It seems I've spent my entire life, loving things that are bad for you. It sometimes makes me wonder if life is worth living at all--and then something comes along that's really good for you, and well, you just can't get enough of it.

Take oatmeal, for example.

It really is good for you. The real stuff is easy to make in almost any amount, so you can cater to your diet accordingly. It's heart healthy. It tastes pretty good, and if you add some cinnamon, it can taste even better.

And today, because we left the milk at the grocery store yesterday, I had to run in to get said milk this morning before breakfast, because I was literally CRAVING oatmeal.

Sadly, though, oatmeal doesn't stay with me for more than 3 hours, I find. By that 3 hour mark, my tummy is rumbling angry and loud noises. As "stick to your ribs" as oatmeal is, you would think it would last longer--at least to lunchtime! But alas, I am usually munching on something else before lunch, between my meals. Sigh.

Diets Suck.

And so, I knit. My latest:

A pair of these. The pattern calls for 4" of 1x2 ribbing on 38 stitches, but these are pretty snug--next time, I'll cast on 40, repeat for 4" (I did 5") then cast off a 2 stitch buttonhole (I think 3 would have been better), and then cast those 2 back on again, and 1x2 ribbing for another 4 inches (which I did).

The entire thing is an inch too long, and not because I made the 5" change. 4" beyond the buttonhole is TOO LONG for the negative ease to "take up". So my next pair will be only 3" above the buttonhole, which will take me to my first knuckle on my hand. I had to fold these down inside. Then I snapped the picture, not realizing that Mandy decided to get in on the action. So it looks like I'm about to grab her, but really, I am several feet from her. Look how she plays for the camera! (Actually, she doesn't like the flash, so she turns all wary or shies away.)

And then, I began work on a cowl for JoAnn's. This thing is a really simple pattern, but the coloring is what makes it. The pattern is here and the yarn is held double throughout, giving the look of variegated yarn. There are some ends to weave in, but the result is pretty stunning. I made mine on 70 stitches, instead of 64. The pattern is free. The yarn is at JoAnn's and during Coupon Commotion, you can get all 4 skeins for under $12. You can then make one for you and one for your sister, slightly changing the colors around so that the two aren't so much ALIKE--or you can make both the same if you happen to have a twin (I don't, but I do have a sister--a couple of them in fact, and this turned out so pretty, I may decide to make one for every female member in the family!) So I'm off to weave in ends, and then will post a picture. I'm not the most beautiful model in the world, but my husband takes terrible pictures...check out this one:

Too close to the light source, I suppose, and horribly over exposed, but you can see that I folded them over. I might just undo them when I get them back from JoAnn's to make them the proper length. That won't hurt a thing. Or I can just make another pair, as I'm sure there's plenty of yarn left--even so you can make them out of anything. Use almost any "insertion" pattern (say, for instance a cable, or a lace panel), of course, placement is key if you're going to try something like that, and I think I'd make the wrist another inch longer and increase (gusset) near the thumb, but that's just me. I don't like the way these stretch where the buttonhole is. I think the pattern needs modification, but for someone who would like a quick, easy gift, this is the pattern. It took just a few hours to make both. The cowl took me an evening, and it was FUN to watch the colors change in the fabric. I even "liked" it on Facebook. Not many patterns get that kind of attention from me.

So eat your oatmeal and get ready for church. It's that time again. Happy FALL!

I Didn't Think it Could Happen...

2011-09-23T06:14:00.000-04:00

But Friday finally showed up. And it's a short day, too, so I get to leave at 4 and be home at the normal time. I think I might have a rider to ride to work with as welll, and that might even make things a lot better.

But as my brother-in-law put it so succinctly:

A bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work.

True. So True.

Nearly done with the second "glovelet". It will be done this afternoon/evening. They go pretty quick, even though they are ribbing. I knit continental for ribbing, which makes it go all the faster, but I would really like some instruction on how to move the stitches, and control them, because as I near the end of the row, the stitches like to pop off that left hand needle, and I have to fiddle with the yarn and the last of the row to maintain control.

Once done with the glovelets, I have to check the JoAnn's patterns again. I believe there's a cowl to make out of a few skeins of Vanna's, but that should go pretty fast, too.

Then CATKIN! I can hardly wait to bite into this pattern. I'll wait until Saturday to take a really GOOD look, because as I looked at it on Tuesday, I thought "OMG". I'm a little worried that it might be too much to keep track of on this puny little fried brain of mine.

And the ramps are FINALLY done at the corner, so I can shave 15 minutes off my travel time. Still have to be at Speedway at 6:30, but other than that, I'm good to go. I'm seriously excited about having a rider, because she's going to be the person I ask if she'd like to live in our basement. She's good people, and we get along really well. Since she lives alone, and SO far away, she might be willing to move 30 minutes closer. It's an option that she can choose or not, but I think she's the one I'd offer it to, if I offered it to anybody.

Well, she just messaged me a no for today's ride. So I'm going to pop into my car and head out. I hope everyone has a good day, and as Red Green says: "Keep your stick on the ice." It's a hockey reference, but with the colder weather coming, it seemed somewhat appropriate!

It Gets Better...

2011-09-22T19:43:00.000-04:00

I crocheted a hat recently for JoAnn's. Now working on a pair of "Glovelets", which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying "fingerless gloves", because they indeed---have no fingers--not even a thumb! Just a hole.

They are knit flat, and seamed. There's a little 2 stitch buttonhole. But other than a knit 1, purl 2 style rib, there really isn't much to them.

So they're sort of boring.

As soon as I finish this, I have another JoAnn's project to do--perhaps two. Then I can move on to Catkin, which is maybe a little beyond my skill level. If that turns out to be so, I might head into the knitting shop and ask for help, but I think if Yarn Harlot can do it, I can do it.

But for the glovelets, I would...do it that is.

If only not for the overtime, I might actually get some of these things done. Our office has offered 500 hours of overtime to the staff. I'm trying to get in 27 hours by next Friday. So far, I have 5. I'll do a fair number of hours on Saturday, which will cut down my WEEKEND considerably, but since I don't have a class this weekend, it's not a problem.

The only thing I don't like about overtime is that it makes me tired, which makes me ornery, which causes me to get a little "mouthy" with my husband. He doesn't understand how fried my brain gets on STANDARD time, never mind overtime. Sigh. The extra money will be nice--especially for Christmas, but the extra money for Christmas won't be necessary if my husband divorces me because I'm such a shrew for not getting enough rest!

Well, off to knit the other glovelet. Wish me luck. At least I don't have to work overtime on Friday!

As You Can See...

2011-09-20T06:14:00.000-04:00

Unblocked, my shawl looks like so much of a lump of knitting...No form, not enough lace to believe it even *is* lace. Which is sad...

You can click to embiggen. Theer's a little more detail that way, but the lace doesn't show up. Persica is a circular pi shawl, very easy and looke wonderful blocked. The pic shows it folded somewhat in half.

Wait until you see it blocked! I have to find a place to do that, and then PICTURES. Until then, I'm working on a hat for JoAnn's class.

Ho Hum.

It;s Nearly Bedtime...

2011-09-19T22:51:00.000-04:00

But you should know that I was able to finally finish the shawl. Tomorrow, I will soak it and refrigerate it, until I can locate a place to block it.

I will show you a pic of it, pre-blocked, perhaps tomorrow. Right now, I have things I need to do, and since it's almost time for bed, I have to hurry.

Hope you enjoy the pictures to come.

Keep Me Warm Cowl

2011-09-18T16:32:00.000-04:00

Here's a really quick pattern I made up while I was at Joann's today, teaching a 9 year old to knit.

Keep Me Warm Cowl.

Materials:
2 skeins Lion Brand Hometown USA in Cambridge Tweed or any color that suits you.
1 pr straight knitting needles size 11

You can substitute any yarn that has a "6" on the label--this is classified as Super Bulky.

Cast on 23 stitches with the Knitted On Cast On.
Knit every row for 4"
(about 20 rows)

*Purl next row
Knit next row
Purl next row
Knit next row
Purl next row
Knit 3 rows

Repeat from * 6 times, then Knit every row for 4" again. Put right sides together, and bind off as follows:

*Put right hand needle into the first stitch AND ALSO into the first cast on stitch, yarn over and bring through both stitches, and remove the stitch from the left hand needle. Repeat from * once. Now bind off one stitch from your right hand needle. Repeat from * once, and bind off one stitch from your right hand needle. Continue in this manner until all the stitches are bound off.

Weave in your ends.

Just 2 Rows!!!

2011-09-18T06:40:00.000-04:00

I only have 2 rows left to do, and the bind off. I should be done today and ready to block my shawl. The anticipation is just killing me. It's only 6am, and I'm just about ready to head to the kitchen for my breakfast. I want to finish it before I head to JoAnn's for my class today.

Today's class is a little different. Today, I'm teaching children. Well, child, actually. I think there's only one signup. I hope it works, because I'm not really a good baby sitter. A good teacher, yes, but not a good baby sitter, which makes me wonder if I was a good mother at all--I think I was, but I don't think my son thinks so. At least I tried really hard to be a good mother. It was difficult, because I wasn't home most of the time due to work. Being a stay at home mom wasn't my strong suit. And I'm not much good at being close to people or animals.

I suppose I should have opted for "hermit" when they passed around the tests to score you for what you wanted to do when you grew up, instead of "Accountant". But how do you know that you absolutely can't stand being around angry people if you've never been around angry people before?

Which makes it difficult to be in close relationships, because THOSE are the ones who get angry with you (for this or that minor reason), and it's "safe" for them to do so, UNLESS you're me. Because I shut down at a certain point--you know, BEFORE you say something you're going to regret--something that MIGHT get you knocked down--something that MIGHT get back to the supervisor and get you FIRED, something that just ASTOUNDS you to the core and makes you wonder if that person is just a wee bit NUTS.

Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, and THEN WORE IT for a week without washing.

I'm not good in a fight, is what I'm saying. It bears repeating. I'm not a CHICKEN, mind you. If I don't have to worry about my livelihood (divorce, fired, things like that), I'll duke it out. No problemo, seniorita. (Sorry, if I spelled that wrong.) But if it's going to kill me? Well, I will run like the devil was after me, and while you might be holding my bag, I'm gone, chicken feathers flying in the breeze--or I'll just STAND there, mystified as to why you did it--because I'm so darned analytical.

"Why did you DO that?" I'll ask.

Incredible. That kind of behavior just shuts me right down into DENIAL.

"You're supposed to love me!? Why are you treating me so badly?" Then I won't talk to you. In some cases, I won't talk to you EVER again. That doesn't mean that in a group setting (such as at the office), that I will treat you like persona non grata, but you will certainly come away with the idea:

"She doesn't seem to like me."

I can't help it. I'll shove you as far away from me as I can so that you can't hurt me again--either physically (though not usually) or mentally/emotionally/psychically (this is the norm). This isn't a good idea in familial relationships. Close relationships are too close, and are supposed to teach you the most--things like "how to GET OVER IT" and "GET OVER YOURSELF" and forgive, because that person might not be there to help you tomorrow. Bouncing back is more like being pulled back in, kicking and screaming that you don't want to go there again, because it is just too darn scary.

Yes, been thee, done that, bought the t-shirt, wore it for a week without washing it, washed it and hung it on the line to dry.

You might think I'm not good at relationships. I am. In the beginning, I am GREAT at relationships. It's the maintaining them that doesn't come easy for me. Maybe it's the dedication that I'm not so good at--or maybe I am good at it, just the other person isn't as good at it as I am, or maybe they are, but they're just better at being themselves and being "heard", sometimes LOUDLY. This of course, causes me to feel like I'm being YELLED at, which I also don't do well. Perhaps I need to be more dedicated to myself, and not quite so "scaredy-cat"? Which takes me full circle to being a chicken, because if I'm too dedicated to myself, I'll end up a hermit.

Yes, vicious cycle there.

So it shouldn't surprise me, that I draw the 3 of pentacles, marked "dedication", and of course, it's reversed. It's telling me that my dedication is going to be tested today in some respect, and I need to be careful, or things will fail. Which is how things usually work out in the end for me, when the dedication meter swings too far in my favor or in yours...the happy medium is what you want, and it doesn't always happen. At least not well, for me...

Yes, been there, done that, yada yada, and now the t-shirt has lots of holes in it from the shots people have taken at me in vengence.

Standing up for yourself is a very thin line that I don't cross often, but when I do, it's a disaster for both parties.

Almost There...

2011-09-17T18:54:00.000-04:00

Progress on the circular shawl, Persica has been slow--mostly because to knit a row, you have to knit two, and that's only 2100 stitches. And once the eyes go, you might as well hang it up.

But today, I managed to get about 5 rows done while waiting for my class to start, and then another row when my class was finished. The student and I sat down and she practiced while I worked one more resting row, and then I headed for home.

Now the problem is that my chair is "stewing".

"Okay," I hear you saying, "what does she mean by 'stewing'."

Well, this morning, I doused both of our chairs with pet deodorizer. I washed the cushion for my chair and doused the cloth cover for the spring set, and doused hubbies chair quite heavily, because it's one of those "poofy" style chairs--so you know that the deodorizer has to go quite far down into the foam rubber, so I put quite a lot (almost the whole bottle) on it.

And so they are still wet, while the deodorizer is working. So 'stewing'.

But we have no place to sit (either of us) in the living room because the chairs are both "stewing". So we are in the bedroom, watching Monk.

And while my chair stews, I can't sit in it to knit. So now you know my problem.

But I'm just about to get the cushion out of the dryer (that is, if it's dry--another "almost there" situation most likely), and then I can sit in my chair to knit and watch television. I hope that hubby's chair is dry tomorrow, but the likelihood is pretty much nil. So I got him a chair to sit in from the kitchen, but he's not fond of that idea, so he decided to crawl into bed.

I'm outta here.

Finally Home

2011-09-16T18:02:00.001-04:00

And finally Friday. Something stinks.

No, really--in my house. I think a mouse died somewhere. I've taken out the trash, cleaned the snake pit and the house still stinks just when you walk into the door. I can't make out exactly where it's coming from, but it's enough to really knock you over.

And the cat urine/ammonia smell coming from my husband's chair is enough to burn my nose! So I have to take care of that tomorrow--VERY SOON--I don't know why they have chosen his chair--because the litter box gets cleaned every time I feed them...It's getting really bad. I wonder if there's something I can put in the chair that will discourage them from jumping into the chair in the first place. At least then I can use some pet urine deoderizer. However, my husband can't sit in it until it dries. It's one of those overstuffed cushion type chairs. When he sits in it for a very long time, I can still smell it on him when he comes to bed.

And that's bad. And he doesn't like it, and neither do I. I'm not sure how he can stand it.

So I got the snake pit cleaned out, and gave the snake a little bath in the tub. She doesn't especially care for it, because I like to pet her in the tub, and she's not really a petting type pet. I like to get her completely wet, it gets her clean, and gives her a chance to swim a little bit. That part she does like. Afterward, to keep her calm, I put her in a pillow case and tie the top while I clean out her pit. Then I add fresh aspen and a new hide for her. Then I untie the pillow case, and coax her out. She didn't want to get out, this time. I think she was feeling pretty safe inside the pillow case.

But she's installed in her pit again, and getting accustomed to the surroundings. I have to get her a new hide, but temporarily, I'm using a box. She should like her new hide when I get it inside the pit. Then, she'll settle down to a nice hibernation.

And I plan to do that myself, a bit earlier than usual tonight, because I am tired. I finally got to a point where I felt like I was ready to start in on some of the work at the office, and then it was time to go home. Go figure.

Another Day at the Salt Mines

2011-09-15T07:04:00.000-04:00

I spent about an hour on Facebook last night. This is not a regular happening for me, but it would appear that one of my co-workers wanted to chat as much as I did--of course, she could also have been checking with her friends while chatting with me, but no matter.

Both of us are pretty weirded out by what's going on at the office. It's REALLY getting to me--not so much to her, though she SAYS it is, I can tell she's not ruffled by much at the office. I can only assume that "attitude" carries over into her home life, which to me, would make a pretty happy home life.

As for me, I'm just shutting down, piece by piece. I am trying to keep up my demeanor, but it's pretty well falling apart. Last night, my husband couldn't hug me enough--and he did hug me most of the night, spooning the way we did to keep warm because there's been a cold snap this week, and it's just played havoc with our ability to stay warm. (And Barb Cooper thinks she's the Queen of Digression!) Even now, I'm thinking to myself--do I really have to go in? Couldn't I just take a couple of days off and stay home, finish my shawl and clean the snake pen?

To add to the mix, Woolgatherer's is meeting tonight. This wouldn't be so bad, except that I have to pretend that things aren't a little "off" with a friend of mine (which really turns out that she's not such a great friend after all, and I SO WISH that I could find somebody to do things with), and basically "play nice with others" which comes so hard for me when someone breaks my heart to bits.

So I'll take my lace tonight to work on, and get at least another 3 or 4 rows done. I think I just finished round 37, so only 13 more to go. Perhaps I shouldn't have spent so much time on Facebook last night, but I really couldn't help it. If I get those 4 rounds done, I'll be on round 41, and less than 10 rounds to go. That would be GREAT.

I have a class on Saturday, and might be called in to work on closed files in the morning. Then Sunday, I'm off to a friend's house to work on his computer. There won't be a lot of time for knitting during all that. But next week for sure, I should be able to start Catkin. And while I'm working on the shawl, I'm also working on a Christmas present for my grand-daughter--and I think she will really like it.

In the meantime, be well everyone. Cherrios!

Yesterday

2011-09-14T06:14:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a terrible day, but I've had a night to sleep and feel much improved, but still quite intrepid about going in to the office today.

It doesn't help that there's a young black guy accosting women on their way home from work (usually), who could decide to change his MO and start going for mornings. It's my idea that he's trying to steal enough money so he can take a bus to the (warmer) southern states, but I could be wrong. It's still pretty scary, because I have to traverse three blocks that are included in his "area of choice". I don't like having to wait for another driver to show up at my lot, for someone to buddy with, and I don't like taking the long way to the office (which is SAFER, and the only reason I would use it to begin with), because I like to use the building back door.

Either way, until the police catch the guy, I'm pretty screwed.

The work will always be there, and it will always be a mess because of the people who came before. I am up to the task, and before long, I will whip this stuff into shape and catch up. It's the time in between that I'm worried about. The "getting there". The person who left the position was behind to begin with, so now, it's very likely that I'll have to deal with people calling about missing payments and such. They don't want to hear "I'll look into it and call you back when I know something." They want to hear "I'll handle it today.", which often is not an option.

Ah, well, such is life.It's not my fault that I'm getting older and slower, and that my brain isn't working quite as well as it used to perform. Getting older sucks big time. For everybody.

Knitting wise, I got another 2 rows done on the shawl last night, and I am now only 15 rounds from the bind off of the shawl, which has a very interesting concept, and may end up my standard bind off. More about that later, as I get to the end of it.

I was able to find a book "Homespun, Handknit" at the East Lansing Library, and I stopped over there, since I don't have a library card for that library, and took a look at it to see if I wanted any other pattern other than the Bouncing Baby Bonnet. I didn't see much of anything there, so I don't have to order it through Melcat, but I did pay VERY close attention to the construction of the bonnet. I don't know why, but I'm hoping to make one someday. I just don't know why.

And there's a smell in my house that smells like something rotting. There are a couple of things I need to do today when I get home to locate it. In the meanwhile, I'll try covering it up with a shot of Febreeze. It might be the snake pen, but I think it more likely the bird seed on the kitchen counter. I'll find out tonight. If it turns out to be snake pen, I'll have some cleaning to do. I'll pick up some Aspen chips on the way home. My snake will love me for it.

One day, I'll take a pic of my snake. She's grown a bit this year because I'm feeding her more now. She is up to 4 mice, without barfing, and that's quite a bit. She's sleeping under her hide at the moment, so I will leave her be, but later, as I clean her cage, I will take a pic and post tomorrow so you can see how big she is. Because she has eaten, she will be slower, and less likely to strike.

Well, must get to the office. I have to buy gas on the way. You know how much I hate being late for work.

Well, It's Official...

2011-09-13T18:50:00.000-04:00

Everyone in the office is disturbed, which is a nice way of saying that everyone is going crazy.

Mostly me...and of course, I mirror the frustrations of the entire unit. When one piece falls apart (that's me), it seems like everyone falls apart. I can't be in 20 different places at once. My time for helping is tremendously limited. Today, I got so frustrated at not being able to just "get off the can and get on the stick" so to speak, that I drove myself into a tearful fit. When I got home, I screamed at no one all the way home, and once home, I got out my bag of potato chips and dip and sat down with my favorite comfort food, and blew my diet out of the water.

I feel like crying. I need a shoulder. Hubby came home from mowing his mother's lawn, and expected dinner, and of course, it's not made--because all I can think about is how badly I've been treated over the last 22 years. How I was supposed to get a promotion, and it was never given to me. How I've been doing so much over the last 22 years, and it's all been parceled out to other people who make more money than I ever have.

And what am I doing? Once again, paying bills and filing and answering a stupid phone, simply because people know that "Tenna knows ALL about it. Call her."

Tenna is so tired. Tenna is pretty much used up. Tenna needs a LOT of recognition in the form of promotion and working out of class for the last 22 years. Tenna needs the entire world to hold her up for a while, because right now, she's having this little bitty pity party, all by herself in her own little room, in her own little chair.

In front of her computer.

Right now is not a happy time. Right now feels like crawling into a dark room and hiding out there for about a week...or forever. Right now, forever sounds pretty good. So does the word "retirement". Any idea how much that word makes me yearn?

I've said that when my retirement date comes, there will be no holds barred. I will be off like a prom dress. And there will be no looking back. I've worked hard for this. I can't let it go, not even one more day. Right now, I'm staring into the face of some pretty bleak times, and truth be told, if Perry gets elected and takes away my social security? Frankly, truth be told, if he tries to mess with people's social security, it won't be me that assassinates him. I won't have to. There will be other baby boomers with far less social inhibitions lining up for the job. And when we vote, he will NOT get my vote. You will NOT mess with my social security. I paid into it, I SHOULD GET IT BACK. It was PROMISED to me. And I cannot--CANNOT--work until I'm 70. I will die at my desk. On purpose, just to spite you.

But right now, all I can think about is how slow everything seems to be going. How certain things are NOT getting done, and when it comes time to migrate information, information will NOT be migrated properly, and there will be one huge mess to deal with. Management thinks they have problems now?

I hate my job.I wish I had a degree so that I could get out of this hole. I wish my parents wouldn't have withdrawn their support of me, because I certainly DESERVED their support to my hopes and goals and dreams. I worked so hard. They really let me down. And I was too scared to go into that much debt when no one could promise me a job when I got out of school. And I couldn't find anything for "just the summer" that would pay well enough to put me through my next year of classes. Instead, my parent's supported my brother, who is handsome and has nice teeth--who can charm the socks off anybody while they are still in their shoes. And even today, he gets better employment, and is in management. And I'm stuck in a dead end job that gives no satisfaction whatsoever. The whole thing makes me want to barf.

The only good thing that has ever been, is that I've always had enough money to cover the bills when they came due. But once, just once, I'd like to take a real vacation--go someplace nice, stay in a nice hotel, see a show and have a ton of fun--and not have to worry whether the electric bill got paid or not because I spent the money at the casino! (Not that I spend money at the casino--I don't gamble, and don't like to gamble, it's just AN EXAMPLE.) Sadly, it seems like every time I get a little bit of money ahead, the car breaks down, or gas goes sky high, or something comes up and I can't keep it in my savings account. Every time I think I'm ahead, some invisible leg with a big, hard shoe comes and kicks me in the butt and knocks me down.

My life has sucked pretty bad, much of the time. It's pretty hard to keep a smile on my face. I know there are people out there who are far worse off than me...I'm not discounting that. It's just that it hurts me so bad when I'm passed over for promotion time after time. It makes me feel like I'm not really so well thought of--that people don't like me. And there is really nothing wrong with me, except that my smile isn't the greatest, and some things make me extremely nervous...

Like angry African Americans...or angry people in general. They scare me. What's worse, is they know it, and behave that way, just to see if it will push my buttons enough that they'll get what they want out of me.

Angry people make me cry. Angry people make me cry. It's going to get worse before it gets better. And I'm sitting here, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It will, too. Like a freaking stone.

The Most Adorable Toy!

2011-09-13T06:17:00.000-04:00

Found here...

The Pattern, on Ravelry, for only $5, here.

Excitement? Yes. The designer, Debbie Birkin, has a large number of dolls and teddies of all sorts and sizes. Some are small enough to fit into a pocket. This gal is the bomb! She even has a Raggedy Ann and Andy that look so much like the sewn one that it's simply incredible. I used to have one of those sewn ones, and I still have the pattern! I'd like to make everything she has, and I think I have one of her rabbits.

So go look, and take a peek at her projects and other designs. I think you'll come away DELIGHTED as I was!

A Short Break

2011-09-12T19:35:00.000-04:00

I needed a little down time from the shawl. It's really hot today, and having that much alpaca on top of me just didn't sound too appealing.

So I stopped at Meijer's, picked up a skein of Sugar N Cream, and crocheted up one of those diagonal potholders.

What fun! A little boring, but a cute little item that went really quickly, and I have a potholder in my drawer for the pain and boring of it.

You start with a crochet chain as long as you want the diagonal to be. Then you start working single crochets in all but the first ch from hook, work 3 singles in the last chain, then working on the opposite side of the chain, put an sc in each ch across, then work 2 sc in the last ch.

Now you just work in rounds and make a bag, of sorts, doing a single crochet in every single crochet. As you get "taller" the top and bottom "points" become evident, and you fold, origami style. Keep crocheting until the rows come together close, then tie off at the end (or close to it). Leave enough yarn to sew the opening shut, AND to chain yourself a little loop to hang it with.

You can crochet it together, but it leave a bump, and pans may not sit flat on it...but I crocheted mine shut. Guess that makes me a rebel.

And here's the finished product for your review:

Pretty cool, huh? I used a variegated yarn, which I think adds a lot of interest. None of the colors match my kitchen colors, but it's a potholder, right? I mean, do we have potholder police?

With that, I blog, check Ravelry, look at Facebook, maybe knit some on my shawl, then to bed with me.

Sleep tight!

How Far...

2011-09-11T21:40:00.000-04:00

I made it through row 31, but I'm not at all sure if I did the round correctly, because I was hot ans sweaty and half asleep. I honestly thought it was a lot later than it is (10pm). I've been knitting pretty much non-stop since I woke up. I have only 19 more rows to go, and already planning my purchases for Catkin.

But right now, the old eyes have had it. I'm going to go to sleep, and hope that I can see in the morning.

Gnite.

Row 25...

2011-09-11T12:32:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke at approximately 9am, watching a little bit of the remembrance show, and knitting my buns off, realizing that I told you I had 3 rows to go before I got to row 25, which is the halfway point on the last chart for the shawl, when in FACT, I was ON row 25 (or more correctly, about to begin row 25) when I put it down last night, too exhausted to go on.

But this morning I finished it and also row 26, so now I am MORE than half way done. So I set it down again to get up and blog about it. And I am just that much closer to Catkin.

Can I get a WOOT?

I Do Swear...

2011-09-10T22:02:00.000-04:00

Yes, indeed I do. Blue steam comes out of my ears, and some people have been known to turn blue if they stand too close.

But under normal circumstance...ah...not so much. I tend to catch myself before I turn people into Smurfs.

Today was not the day.

A certain someone made plans to come see me today to retrieve some items that we have been holding for her for SEVERAL months. She said she would be here at 11am. It's now nearly 11pm, and no sign of her. Not even a peep.

I'm pretty angry. Not so much that I will swear a blue streak, but I had wanted to drive in to JoAnn's and demo today, and never got the chance. I had to stay home and wait for somebody who never showed up. Doesn't that just make you mad? Well, it sure makes me mad.

On a good note, I was able to sit all day and get some knitting done. I have 3 more rows and I will be half done with the last chart. It's coming along well. I see light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not an oncoming train.

On another bad note, I didn't eat well today, and I know that my sugar is probably somewhere out in outer space. Nearly bedtime, and I am sweating like it was the middle of the dog days of summer, and I'm wondering if I'm going to swim myself to sleep tonight or drown in my own perspiration. Shew!

But I've taken my night time pills, so I will soon pass out. I hope the dog doesn't wake me too early.

Tomorrow is 9/11. The 10th anniversary. Today was 9/10/11. I didn't see anything bad happen yet today, but it's still early yet. I'm considering looking on cnn.com to see if anything bad has happened, or if there's more report on the chatter from Pakistan...sigh. The whole business is just one big mess. I figure it took them so long to find Osama, because he was pretty much close to dying anyway. Our guys just went in there and did him a favor so that they couldn't sneak him away and say he rose again, or something like that.

So the world turns. So does my stomach. I'm going to get some rest now. Just as soon as I...

Having MisCounted...

2011-09-10T06:40:00.000-04:00

I told you the other day that I had 100 rows of the last chart. Well, I was wrong. There are only 47 rows on the last chart. And even though I'm not scared to put 100 rows on the last chart, I think I will stop at 50, because 50 is a lot of stitches.

Over 50,000, in fact.

I am 18 rows into that 50, so I am nearly half way there, and by the end of the weekend, I ought to be halfway (or more) there.

Which means I am possibly a week away from being done.

This is only bad because I think this weekend is the local fair, and I won't be able to enter it into the fair this year. (Boo Hoo) Perhaps next year.

The changes at the office have been discussed with the clerical staff, and the jobs have been pared down, but things are still pretty hectic and will continue to be--my phone still rings off the wall, because people know that I answer my phone, and barring that, I answer my voice mail.

One of the staff had 87 voice mails on her phone! Well, to be fair, she couldn't access it (broken), and so the voice mail just filled right up! But 87 voice mails! It would have taken HOURS to handle those calls.

And now, even the voice mails on MY phone (including the calls that come in) won't be mine to answer, and I'll be able to put a message on my phone to contact another clerical person, who will likely be the first line phone person. She has no idea what she's in for. She's a little snotty too, so it doesn't bother me a bit.

And I will take over the job for another gal in the office--taking back the job I used to do. It's going to feel a little like coming home. I'll have enough time to get comfortable, and they'll change things again. But I'll be in a position where I can possibly save the State some money. We'll see how that pans out.

In the meanwhile, I'm on my way to make some oatmeal for breakfast. Would you like some, too?

Big Changes

2011-09-10T06:30:00.000-04:00

Well, they are making lots of changes in our office, my current job is being farmed out, as expected when they asked me for a detailed report of how I do my job. Sigh. But there are some positive changes taking place, that I think I might be able to get really excited about. That is, if they last. Changes in programming are coming down the pike, and will likely affect my job in some pretty big ways.

And there's a small niggling concern that someone is going to get the promotion that I would like to have, but that's yet to be seen. For now, I guess I'm happy to have a job. And what will be, will be.

Other, more personal issues exist. My mother is getting older and more frail every day. She's much shorter and quite a lot thinner than I ever remember her being. Her nose seems too big for her face. She complains about not being able to stand at the sink very long to do her dishes, and of course, her home is to her what the ring is to Gollum in Lord of the Rings. Her precious.

She very much wants to live out the rest of her days in peace and quiet. To be able to rest at night without my son in the other room, giggling and talking to himself while he plays all night long on the internet. Quite honestly, she's been hoping for that most of her life, and there have only been a few brief episodes of it. I worry about her being alone. I think that for all that, my son is an active presence most of the time, and at her age, she kind of needs that. If not for the social end of it, then for the "something to give a hoot about" side.

But my son is probably not the best choice for all that she might need in the near future. He has no training in nursing of any sort. It's not that she needs a nurse, but should she have a stroke, he wouldn't know the first thing to do beyond call 911. And a lot can go quite wrong in that first hour. He's been fired from his job, and stays up all night playing on the computer, so he sleeps all day and doesn't hunt for any new employment. She is paying his bills. I don't know how she can afford it. I work full time, and I can't afford to pay his bills. I think she goes without a lot, and he doesn't appreciate it or understand it. I'm really angry with my son. He's really angry at me, although he would never admit it to my face. In fact, he is rarely honest with me, but when he is, it's always with this dramatic, vehement, corrosive, explosive FURY, and I just shut down and let him rant. Apparently, he never learned how to express himself without rage and righteous indignation. Maybe that's my fault. Maybe I shut him down too much when he was little. I suppose I can own some of that. Everyone needs to be heard. I was pretty worried about everyone back then, including myself, and making sure that there was a roof and food and heat in the winter, warm clothing to wear, and I got very little help along the way. When I asked for help, I did get it, but I rarely asked, because I didn't want to impose on people who really didn't own the responsibility.

My son is a very angry person. There are several factors, not the least of which involve a chemical depression that has surfaced and been exacerbated by the use of pot and other illicit drugs. He has basically undone himself this way, because I have NEVER been a pill taker--and never so much as took a drag on a cigarette. The wine of choice was Pepsi cola or Coke, whatever was at hand where ever I might be eating, and detest gambling with the one-armed bandits. I've had friends ask me to go with, and I always turn them down, finding some excuse not to go. The bandits don't interest me. When you only get 79% back on your investment on a good day--that's not doing very well. In other words, you put in $100, you may win $79? Just not my ideal odds. But my son is angry at me. There are a number of reasons why, I'm sure. Not the least of which that he believes that I abandoned him, and that I drove away any male that might have a good impression on him. He is also angry with me over my ex-husband--that I married him in the first place. But to be fair to the man I married, he and I were fine together. It was only when my son came into the mix that things blew up...and all due to my son's anger. My son claims I'm addicted to yarn. Actually, that's only partly true. I'm addicted to anything craft/fiber. However, I am also a prolific creator, and I am always on the go. There's not much that I cannot do, and that which I can do, well, let's just say it's a long list. My son, on the other hand, while he has a fair number of talents, he is greatly limited by his lack of wages--but he is a very excellent writer--in fact he has written many poems. The sad part is that they are all VERY dark and gloomy, and prove the extent of his depression. He is apparently good at playing games on Facebook. I don't do that at all.

His anger has bought him a lot of trouble over the years. I believe his drug use is a scheme to "get even" with me, believing me to be the source of all of his pain and hurt. In fact, I've pointed out to him that it was his choice to go down this or that road, and that's when I get this "talk to the hand" mentality. He is also very impulsive. Well, for that matter, so am I. But there are times, when faced with a fork in the road, I will try to choose the correct one. Sometimes, those choices aren't always the most "choice" of choices. If you know what I mean.

And so, having all this personal CRAP on my mind, my boss tells me that my job is going to change dramatically. Well, what next? A flood? A fire? Why not just burn down the building? I feel anxious and worried and fearful, and woeful and grieving all at the same time. It's not fair that "when it rains, it pours", because I don't mind the occasional sprinkle, but it seems like I end up feet up in the pool sometimes no matter what I do. And so they tell me that I can't share it with anybody...at least not until the dust settles, and the circus becomes a well oiled machine again. The process will be revisited again in the future. I can't post this until the changes go into effect, and I can't talk about it with anybody, except my husband, who really thinks I'm being stupid for worrying so much--I mean, why would I think this supervisor would have my best interests at heart, when all the others have taken advantage of my skills? So I took the issue to my therapist. Who, admittedly, is a very upbeat person. I walked in all gloomy Gus, and walked out feeling more positive, but talked myself right back into gloomy Gus on the way home to the point where I needed a reassuring hug from my practical husband who said "You are fretting about nothing! It sounds like a GREAT opportunity to prove yourself." Well, yes, that is true. But I continue to fret and stew. I knit to forget it for a while. I knit to sort through it all. It grounds me.

And so you won't see this post until the changes take place. At that time, I will likely have WAY more to say--right now, I'm most worried about training and teaching how to do my job to people who may or may not be up to the challenge--because splitting my job between 5 people---can you imagine? I do the work of 5 people? And they say that government needs to cut back. Oh, that's another story for another day. How they can hire full time employees at a higher wage than I've even dreamed of, give them all the same benefits, and let me drift off into obscurity because I'm a union employee? You want to talk about angry feelings. Well, I won't go there. I've got enough on my plate right now that I'm considering taking tomorrow off. Or maybe Friday so I can have another 3 day weekend. Alright. I'm back to anxious again.

Progress...

2011-09-06T23:03:00.000-04:00

Okay, there's not much. I got two rounds done--that's 2100 stitches. I just finished round 7 and started round 8, which is a resting row. I should get two rows done per day now that I'm working again (that 3-day weekend did wonders for my progress on this shawl!). Working days, however, play havoc with my spare time. Then I come home, have to eat dinner, and clean up (usually), which also bites into my time...or just bites, whichever way you'd like to understand it.

But I won't have the shawl done in time for the local fair (next weekend). I cannot possibly get it done, not even if I took the rest of the week off! I knit for 2.5 hours tonight at knit night and only got 2 rounds done. That's a pittance...or maybe I did 3 and just don't remember. 3154 stitches does sound a little better, but when you're talking about over 100,000 stitches, well, it just seems like a drop in the bucket.

Even so, the designer was very nice to get back to me on Ravelry (and also left a comment here, so I am so blessed!!!) as quickly as she did--it helped me to get started and back going. The most unfortunate thing about it all is that now, there are too many stitches around to take it to the office...because I cannot possibly get a round done in an hour, and I have to eat.

Though, truth be known, I almost didn't even get a lunch today due to writing up my procedural manual for the supervisor. She wants it so she can farm it out to her staff. Pretty soon, I won't have a job except for answering the flipping phone and filing, which disgusts me. I'm not sure why the bosses think that I can't handle my job, but it's quite possible that they want me to do something else. It wouldn't be the first time my job has changed. I'm quite resistant to change, I'm finding out. Well, perhaps not CHANGE so much as concern that I might miss something in the training, and that will end up resulting in more mistakes being made. I just cannot tolerate training someone who simply cannot do the job properly. And I am a tough taskmaster.

Well, it's 11pm, so I best turn in. I'd really like to say more, but beyond the fact that I'm a little worried about my mum--she's getting on in years. I worry that one day soon, we'll lose her. She's not as strong as she used to be, and her home has been her whole life. She says it bothers her to stand at the sink and do dishes now.

Yep. Worried about her.

STALL!

2011-09-05T08:17:00.000-04:00

Okay, I finished chart 3, and on to chart 4, only to find out that I'm stalled. The chart/instructions don't seem right to me, so I've written to the designer, and she looked at her notes, and..

This morning I got my reply...

I am RIGHT! I am RIGHT! I couldn't believe it, but I'm not as stupid as I look, and apparently I know a little more about charting lace than I thought.

You DO have to move the marker back one stitch for the last chart to come out right.

I feel so vindicated. My next shawl will be my own design. I can hardly wait.

But first, Catkin. I am really, quite suddenly, in love with the pattern, and I think I'm either going to make it in autumn colors, or sky colors--it's got me SO hooked.

And now that I feel like Super Knitter, I think I can handle it.

Have a nice Labor Day.

Breathing..

2011-09-04T06:28:00.000-04:00

Breathing in the dog days of summer is a fine art. The heat is unbearable--in fact, it's been so hot throughout August that I haven't even seen any "Yellow Jacket" Bees. Our sedum plants want to flower, but I think it's due to the lack of bees that they haven't even turned pink yet. Even the burning bush is slower turning red this year.

But breathing? Yesterday was so hot that I pretty much stayed in my bedroom with the A/C on full blast, in and out of bed mostly because the heat just drove the life right out of me. Who would have guessed that Michigan would be the new Florida. However, I understand that Oklahoma and Texas have not fared well this year, either.

I've often thought of moving to Canada and even Alaska. My fear is that the winters are simply too cold. Bone chilling cold. My husband and I are on opposite sides of the spectrum. If it's hot, and it doesn't matter if it's "dry heat", I may as well be dead. I can warm up the cold, but you really can't sufficiently cool off the heat. My husband is totally opposite--he doesn't mind the heat, and sweats profusely (just ask the laundry). So much so that he can literally sit in a chair and drip puddles. He can even sweat in a snowstorm--and I've seen that happen. Out on the driveway, blowing snow, turning into ice because he's SWEATING. When my husband comes into the house on a cold winter's day, after blowing out the driveway, I have to sit him down in front of the fire to thaw. So if we move anywhere, it has to be somewhere on a beach--or perhaps with a pool--so that he can cool down his body. In the winter, I can still sit him in front of the fire.

But when it's hot like this, I can't even knit. That's a bad thing. I have a chair in my bedroom, but it's tucked away from the A/C, and it's a wooden rocker, so it's not too comfortable for sitting and relaxing. My slider in the living room is meant for that. I can sit there for hours and knit, but not in the heat, because there is no A/C in the living room. We have just a small air conditioner in the bedroom so that we can at least SLEEP during the dog days, and even that has been difficult this year. I also think that the poor little machine has seen it's better days and isn't working as well as it could. Poor thing. I think it might be a candidate for a trip to the dump before snow flies. This means that hubby is going to have to put in the bigger unit in the living room before things get too crazy next year--which will keep us cool in the living room, but I'm concerned that the chill won't make it to the bedroom without a fan. Right now it's just too difficult to consider. All I can think about is the 16 remaining rows that I can't knit because I can't get comfortable in my chair!

Now all of this means nothing to anyone but me. It seems everything gets hotter (and colder) as I age, and I'm feeling too warm now, and the thermometer says it's humid, but only 70 degrees out. I used to pray to God to make it 70 degrees year 'round. Now, I pray for 55. I can walk to work in 55 degrees. But when it hits 70 (unless it's DRY), I can't breathe. I'm a little addicted to breathing. It's a good thing to do now and then, but I do it pretty regularly--it helps keep me alive, I think. But when it's hot like this, I almost don't breathe (deep in, blow out) at all.

My husband, however, can breathe deeply all the time. In fact, he's snoring now.

How he can sleep when I'm not even breathing is amazing to me. And darn it, I want to get back to my knitting!

Wish me luck, because I'm going to try. Right after I tie up my hair and put on the deodorant that will give out on me in the first hour.

Waking Up With Sinus

2011-09-03T06:26:00.000-04:00

There is almost nothing worse than waking up feeling like your entire head is in a vise, with someone turning the set screw, just a little, every time you try to breathe.

That's sort of what having a sinus attack is like, and in this humidity, with all the pollen in the air, it's nearly impossible to escape.

Enter in, Zyrtec. Add Zyrtec and water, go to bed and hope the pressure behind your eyeballs goes back to sleep, even if it's only for a little while.

Beyond that, there's not much you can do. The humidity is so high that my poor snake can't see out of her pen. I'm going to have to take her out today. She looks to be roasting in there--all stretched out, trying to grab the little droplets of water. The other animals in the house are equally hampered, what with all the hair. My husband is in his computer room playing a game, and I don't see how he can STAND it in there. I'm literally glued to the room with air conditioning. I thought it was supposed to be cooler today. I was hoping to get out and get groceries, but it would appear...

I'm hoping to feel better later, and I might get the chance to do just that. In the meanwhile, I think I'm going to lay my poor little head down on the pillow for a little while.

I Find Another Bankie...

2011-09-02T21:04:00.002-04:00

It's right here.

The Day I Decided..

2011-09-02T06:19:00.001-04:00

There comes a day in everybody's life, when they simply have to admit, that while their brain still functions twenty miles per hour faster than their body can work, the body is simply getting older.

Today was that day. I asked my husband to install a stabilizer bar in the tub. I am very unsteady in there on two feet, let alone one (because I scrub my feets there), and I have nothing but a slick wall to steady myself. I'm getting a little arthritic in my back, and have to steady myself to slip my toes into the pants--now, I know that I could sit down on the bed to do that part, and I do, but you can't do that when you're taking a shower. If I should fall, and I do expect that to happen at some point, I would not be able to raise myself up.

I do fear a broken hip may be in my future, and I would like to avoid it if possible.

My husband's answer is a bath matt. Well, for those of us who have cleaned bathmats (and I'm quite sure he's NEVER so much as PEEKED under one), we know that while they might steady the feet, they still don't steady the upper part of the body. And you cannot get those sticky flowers, butterflies and other manner of things people stick to the bottom of tubs to keep you from slipping and falling on your collective, UP and OUT when you no longer want that kind of decoration, or they start to deteriorate, fade and no longer look, well--decorative.

My husband says "no" to stabilizer bar. He doesn't get that there really is a need here. I am no longer 26. Or 30, or even 40, and while I am not 60 or 80, I would feel much safer if I had something to hang onto while I wash my feet. So maybe I will buy something to sit on in the shower, so that at least I can sit down to wash the last of me. Maybe a chair in the shower. His BarquaLounger sounds like a good idea, though I don't think it would fit. My mother has a stainless and plastic stool she keeps in her shower. Of course, it takes up LOTS more room than a stabilizer bar, and maybe that's my answer. Threaten a stool in the shower if he doesn't provide a stabilizer bar. A stool that he would have to take out if he should desire to shower. It's a thought.

In the meanwhile, I sit down to put my pants on. I'll have to work on ~~HIM~~ the shower end of it.

The Kalamazoo Festival

2011-09-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

I spent the entire day doing not much more than spinning, chatting, a little knitting and listening to Bagpipes. All day. It was heaven.

I spun up another bobbin of white Romney. Then started on my knitting. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few...

Early in the morning at the break of day....lalalala.

And then a little bit later...I was trying to catch the fog...but you know how slippery fog is.

This is my Scotty Friend Ray...We do this gig every year. That and the Living History Show and the Alma Highland Festival. Then perhaps we do something else for other seasons. I am his computer guru, and keep his machine from slowing down.

This, as you can see, is one of the "harpists". They were in a tent a few steps behind us under another tent closer to the bathrooms that were, sadly, closed this year. Everyone had to walk all the way across the parking lot to get to the john, and everyone complained about it.

This here, is a cute Sheltie--or miniature Collie. Whatever, she wasn't shy. The owners tell me that she was a rescue, and that she's only just beginning to be more social. That's a good thing, because she was quite adorable.

And then there was this big lug. A Mastiff, I believe. Brindle grey, and really quite attractive, but too much doggie for me.

And yes, they live in the same home.

Cameo shot.

And the big guy demands equal time..can't imagine why. Notice the drool on his lower lip there? Yeah, that's the REAL reason why I wouldn't have this much dog.

But not a single picture of the bands (there were only 3) or any of the pipers or drummers or EVEN the spinners and knitters and weavers! I guess I was just too focused on my own endeavors to allow it to matter much. Indeed, the pictures I did take, were usually when I was on the way to the potty, which seemed a mile away on a hot day--even with the cool breeze.

After the whole affair was over, Ray and I drove to the Galesburg McDonald's and had a bite to eat. And on the way out, my ex and his current wife whooshed by on their motorcycle. Ray wanted to make chase, but I was driving and decided it probably wasn't a good idea. No need for the man to have just cause for suing me for stalking and harassment.

The drive home was pretty uneventful. We were chatting the whole time, but not about any serious thing, and then suddenly, we were back at my place. I'm not sure why--oh, yeah, had to hit the potty again, so I was in a hurry, and so we said hasty "goodbye" and "sayonarah", and Ray headed for his home. I stayed up late and knit myself to sleep in my chair. I put it away and fell into bed, exhausted. I was pretty exhausted the next day too. Something about the sun just drains everything out of me.

The last few days have been a blur since, and this week has gone by quite fast. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and I think that they've decided that I have a little arthritis in my lower back. This would not surprise me. And the big news at the office is that someone was raped in the vehicle parking building two blocks down. We're all a little skittish after hearing about that. Today is payday, and there's nothing on Ravelry that I absolutely must have, so I'm saving money again. Of course, you never know. Something might turn up over the weekend. Most of the better patterns are posted on the weekend. Take this one, for instance, which has sort of caught my eye, but hasn't settled in for nesting...

And it can be found here in lots of different configurations, which makes it pretty interesting.

It Was Monday ALL WEEK!

2011-08-27T06:28:00.000-04:00

A famous "Garfield" saying, but it was true enough for me. I think it is possible that I worked off TWO butts. But Friday finally came, and I was able to walk out the door, still alive, mind you, and get into my car and drive away. Only to return a few hours later looking for mounting hardware for our outdoor antenna and a "booster" from Best Buy. We also ate out at Fire Mountain; however, the food just wasn't very good last night.

On the way to the office, I snapped this pic...

Which was indicative of my foul mood for most of the day. Foggy, foggy day. In places, it was so foggy that coming up to it, the "cloud" was DARK. Sort of weird when you were driving up to it.

When finally I got home, I knit my most difficult row on the shawl, and happened to get up for a glass of water, and looked outside, and in the darkness..was..

THE BOOGIE MAN...well, no, actually not.

But rather, THIS:

And I asked my husband to get up and come look. The neighbors had cut down some of the fir trees on their property and lit the pile on fire last night. Being the shutterbug that I am, I had to get my camera and take a picture. The flames shot up 50 feet into the air. You can see that they go higher than the phone pole in the foreground. The fiery soot blew up another 20 feet higher than the top of the pole. My husband's statement was

"That's impressive!"

So let this be a lesson to you little children. When the fire ranger tells you there's a wildfire coming, you need to get out of there FAST. Pine trees burn fast and hot. This small pile of brush burned down to almost nothing in the seconds it took to get my camera, yet it was still a 50 foot column. It was much larger just seconds before when my hubby finally got ~~off his butt~~ out of his chair to take a look.

So now, it's Saturday, and only 6:10am. I am waiting for my friend Ray to arrive so that we can head to the Kalamazoo Highland Festival. I am taking wheel and Woolie Winder, some fleece, my knitting, and a chair to sit in. The cards weren't on the ball yesterday. My credit card didn't arrive. I contacted the bank, and they said a week to 10 days, so I have a while to wait. Darn. I was hoping to get that card. So all I have is $20 to get me through the day because I had to buy gas last night for all the running around we did. I would have had less, if I hadn't returned pop bottles.

So I asked the cards if "he who must not be named" would be at the festival, and drew the Ace of Cups reversed. Which doesn't make a lot of sense with relation to the question, but perhaps it means he wants to, but cannot. The next card was the Knight of Wands, Adventure. So it looks like he's got other, more interesting plans. So that's cool.

It's too bad that my friend can't make it. She tells me that the father of a close friend of hers died, and she's been asked to attend the funeral. Well, it's hard to believe she'd rather go to a funeral than with me. I guess I make it sound like she doesn't care for me a bit--but she wanted to get out of the house, and I offered to take her to the festival with me. Maybe she decided it would be boring, all day, doing nothing but knitting and listening to bagpipes play, but that's MY KIND OF DAY!

Hard to believe it wouldn't be everyone's, but you can't please everyone, right?

Oh, and last night? Skunk outside my bedroom window! Ew. Stink. Makes you wonder how they reproduce. Makes your eyes water. Makes you wish you had no sense of smell, just for a few hours. It woke me up long enough to look at the clock and turn over and go back to sleep. These animals (and I use that term loosely) come spring and fall to pass through the yard, and some say it's how you know you live in the country. You know what I say? I'd rather smell a dog fart--close up! I mean, BLOW THE FLOOR! (Dating myself there.). I truly ~~dislike~~ hate skunks.

Well, I managed to spend a few moments telling you about my Friday. I'll tell you about my Saturday when I return. Hope for pictures, because I hope to take quite a few. See you later!

To the Nines...

2011-08-25T06:25:00.000-04:00

Because I drew the 9 of Swords today for my daily card. Yesterday, I drew the 5 of wands, and I got my woolie winder and 4 bobbins--meaning 5 pieces of wood. The 9 of swords reversed means an "end to the suffering". I hope that means that my supervisor is going to be too busy to give me more work, and I'll be able to get something accomplished today. I've been working like a dog these last two weeks. The Nines are not quite, but almost completion (10's complete things), so it sounds like I'll get really close, and then she'll hand me another task that I don't have time to do.

At least I have Saturday to look forward to.

It could also mean that the end is nearing for the debacle that was the Michigan Fiber Festival versus my credit card. I got an email from the Vendor chair for the festival telling me that she would pass the issue on to the Festival president, but that was ALL she wrote. Nevermind that we were friends for 8 years and she still sends me chain email and jokes every now and again. I suppose that life is really starting to get her into a sad place. I thought I might run into her at the Fiber Festival, and I did obsess about it a little, but I never saw her. Even though I went through things twice. Ah, well. The absurdity of life sometimes surprises me.

But I think that the nine has to do with my credit card, because the next card I drew, in asking "suffering according to what circumstance", I got the Knight of Swords reversed, titled "Change". Well, the bank is changing my credit card number. Then I have to go all over the internet and change my account information. That could be pretty hairy--because besides places like Paypal, Amazon, Ebay, Barnes and Noble, and other assorted places, I'm not sure WHERE else my old # might be. But whoever perpetrated this fiasco for me can't get any more money because the card is no longer any good. And fraud investigation has returned my cash to me, and I have enough to cover me until I get a new card. So I'm okay for now.

In the meanwhile, it's time to take off for the office, again. I truly hope that my boss gives me a break today. I could surely use one.

I Know It's not Much...

2011-08-24T18:51:00.000-04:00

But it's the best I can get right now. Lace doesn't look like much more than a bunch of yarn in this state. It gets it's best viewing when it's stretched out as far as it will go--called blocking. For this article, it will take some very radical blocking, and I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to do it, but I'm going to need a lot of room to handle it all. It's going to be huge. Right now, it hangs in my lap a lot like my boobs do.

Too much information?

Okay, well, here's the pic.

Good news! My Woolie Winder for my Sonata came today, along with 3 extra bobbins, so I will be able to take it with me to the Kalamazoo Highland Festival to spin. Word has it that we're going to have rain in the morning hours, but that it should clear off by noon and be a really nice day. That would be good, because a highland festival isn't very fun in the rain. Wool smells when it gets wet, and adds to the discomfort. But the Woolie Winder is just the best thing. If you don't know what a Woolie Winder is, well, Google. If you're a spinner, I bet you know. They are so cool, because they wind your yarn onto the bobbin evenly, making it easier to put more yarn on the bobbin. The bobbins are bigger, too, which is even better. I'll be spinning a lot this weekend, but I'm going to save the teal merino combed top for spinning at home. At Festival, I will spin ordinary cream colored Romney (from my Princess). Or I could take some other stuff with some mohair in it for interest--there's a lot of different things I could do now that I have my Woolie Winder.

Tomorrow, I have a knitting class at JoAnn's with two students, and then on Sunday, another class, but have to listen to the voice mail message again to figure out which class I'm teaching. Not sure right at the moment.

For now, I'm thinking "COME ON WEEKEND", while I swelter and melt in my chair. I'm thinking about heading back into the main room to do more knitting on the shawl. Can someone invent a clear powder for your hands? Like Baby Powder, but clear (not white). I think it would sell like hotcakes.

I'm About HOT

2011-08-21T12:04:00.000-04:00

Last night we had a good, hard rain. A low and a cold front came through lickety split, and things cooled right down.

Today, however, is another story.

It is semi-sunny and muggy, but only if you're working, which we have been doing for the last two hours. I'm taking a break because I couldn't take the sweat running into my eyes.

"It burns, It Burns!" says I.

And hubby says "You're quitting already?"

But I just don't feel much like overdoing it today. We were able to clean up the downstairs mess that my step son left us, and we can now see the floor and what needs to be done; however, it's going to be a lesson in futility to get the floor to lie back down. While the dehumidifier is helping some, it's not a permanent fix. We both know that. Once a bow is in the floor, it's either going to bust a seam (which it has now, and that's an impossible fix without tearing up most of the floor) or it will need water and SLIGHT pressure to bow it back. Hubby thought "cement blocks" and I answered "too much weight--a wet towel would be enough if we had some sun in here". And just as soon as hubby fires up the boiler, that bow in the floor is going to get even worse...no matter how much we chop off the ends. My idea to put down ceramic tile was the best idea, but hubby thought "cold floors" and I answered "throw rugs" and he replied with "cat hair magnets". Well, I'm too hot to argue.

So I'm going for a cold drink. I had coffee earlier, and it has dehydrated me. I also need to work on my knitting. I started at breakfast, but it's slow going on this row. VERY slow. I simply cannot see the stitches. It bugs me that the lighting in this house is insufficient for a house this size. We thought by putting in ceiling fans, with lights in the fixture that it would help some, and it has, but what is truly needed is natural "white" light. A sunroof perhaps--which hubby would strongly protest. Time for that drink. A stiff one.

Plum Tuckered Out

2011-08-21T00:08:00.000-04:00

I remember hearing this phrase in the movies, usually associated with children that had played all day long outside, running, kicking, playing ball, chasing, doing chores and just generally being kids.

After my day at the fiber festival, I FELT FINE, but at about 5pm, I was feeling a little nausea, so I went to bed to lie down for a while.

A while turned out to be 7 hours. It's midnight. And my husband TRIED to wake me several times during the evening, telling me that I'd slept long enough, but I guess my body just needed the rest! However, now, I am pretty much wide awake. I ate a tuna sandwich and a cup of milk. I took my evening medications. There's a stray hair pestering the middle of my back in the breeze generated by the ceiling fan. I'll be tired again in a few minutes, but I thought I would jot down the fact that I was just plum tuckered out, and apparently did not know it at the time.

However, now I am upside down in my sleep patterns again.

Don't you just hate when that happens?

Michigan Fiber Festival

2011-08-20T14:44:00.000-04:00

Hubby and I just returned from the Michigan Fiber Festival. As usual, I spent a lot of money, but thanks to the little conversation we had before he left with me, the trip was pleasant, and he didn't say a thing about my purchases. He saw some things he thought were pretty interesting, and I asked him if he could make a triangle loom for me, to which he gave me a "Yes" answer. The fact is that if he does make one for me, it would cost a lot less---in that the ones for sale at the festival were a mere $320, and the easel to hold it up a paltry $189. For that kind of money, I can buy a Hitchhiker wheel!

Which I didn't do, but I could have. There was one there.

There was also a lot of other things there that drew my intrigue, but the man with the Woolee Winder wasn't. So I ordered it online just now. I'm hoping that it will come in a week so that I can take it to the Kalamazoo Festival for spinning.

In the meanwhile, I purchased a cone of chenille to crochet onto a blanket, two skeins of a beautifully dyed cotton/rayon yarn and some teal merino top--

Oh, I see those eyeballs out there, rolling to the sky. Yes. it is my plan to make my sweater again. This time, I'll try to keep it away from my husband and the regular laundry. Perhaps I'll put it in with the hand knit socks when it needs a good soak.

But at the moment, it is storming outside, and the worst of it isn't even here yet. The wind kicked up for a half second as the front roared through, but now things have calmed down. There's been chatter about this one containing hail, but I haven't laid an eyeball on it.

I also bought a set of size 4 dpns for my shawl to correct the error. I think a combination of a dropped stitch and trying to make up for it. I'll find out when I get better light. Right now, with the storm and all, there's no light to get. Things are pretty dark, and it's only 2:38pm! I'm going to need some really good light and a pair of clean glasses to make this repair. But do I look worried? Certainly not.

I had a good time at the festival. I need to purchase some purple dye from JoAnn's for the chenille, and I have to take it out of the cone and into a skein to dye it. I'll need a really good purple dye. Perhaps I'll visit Dharma Trading Co for it. I can probably get any color of the rainbow from there. I'll also need a fixative--Cotton doesn't dye the same as wool either. It was really nice that hubby went and he seemed to have a good time. If he didn't, he didn't mention it, more to his credit than not. You know how hard it can be to be with someone someplace they don't want to be? Well, he wasn't like that at all, and we covered nearly every inch of the festival twice. He deserves a prize, and I have a good idea which one he's shooting for.

In the meanwhile, I believe that I will head over to Ravelry and take a look around. We can't really do much of anything with the rain coming down so hard. So it's mostly an indoor day, I guess. I don't want to begin spinning my merino tonight. I want to wait until I have the woolee winder. If it was just a little bit lighter outside!!!

Oh well. Guess I'll find something else to do.

Moving Right Along

2011-08-19T06:33:00.000-04:00

The Circular Shawl that I've been working on, that is.

Of course, sometime a couple of nights ago, I was tired (admitting that), and I forced myself to work at least two rows.

Never mind that one of those rows was full of yarn overs.
Never mind that I was exhausted due to work at the office.
I was going to do that row as if my life depended on it.
And of course, you know, that I really should have waited until the weekend when I could be rested and fresh, but NO. Not me.

So I did the row, then did another--and I counted to make sure everything was there, and the count "came out".

So how is it that I missed a yarn over?

So I tinked back on the knit row, and looked VERY carefully, found it, and marked it with a pin.

And what did I do then?
I went home from the office, completely exhausted and tried to fix it. Did it work?

I think I made it worse.

How can you make it worse? Well, I think I zigged, when I should have zagged, so I'm leaving it to take with me on Saturday to the Allegan Fiber Festival, and I will sit in a chair and hunt down the error in the yarn over row--which means tinking back ALMOST to the beginning of the row where I made the boo boo.

Now I am not a stupid knitter. I am not so stupid that I can't count to at least 10, and there were only 8 stitches in the repeat, so I figured I was good to go. Therefore, naturally, I did not use a lifeline. I have lots of life left in me (at least I like to THINK so), and I rarely use lifelines, because I can usually drop down with a bamboo needle, even on lace, and fix any boo boos that I make. However, making a yarn over boo boo (or in this case, perhaps an sk2p boo boo) makes a small, small hole, (or a big mess) instead of a medium hole (or a larger one if you happen to work it incorrectly), which is to tight, and the shawl is such a pretty color that I didn't want to ruin things by making this mistake in the first place (hence the constant counting 1-8...over and over, ad infinitum, until my husband finally cries "ENOUGH ALREADY!" Note to self: He is not a knitter, and does not understand these things.)

He is considering going to the fiber festival with me. This might not be a bad thing. I don't think he's ever been to one. I think it would be nice if he shared my love for knitting. But I fear that he's going because he knows I just got my paycheck, and I think he believes I'm going to spend it all on frivolous trash that I (according to him) already have. Last year, I came home with very little--I think I purchased some roving--but that was all. For a while, I thought I might come home with a bunny, but I didn't find the color I wanted. And I thought I might get an Alpaca, but you really have to buy two of those or they get lonely (kind of like sheep, they are herding animals). But since hubby has torn all my fenced area down, I figured that wouldn't do. But anything I can buy there, I can buy on the web. I also saw some brand new baby cashmere goats being born, which I thought was just the coolest thing--but again, I have no place to graze them, either. So I sighed and went back through the yarn and fiber and patterns and tools and people and gathered up the fiber, tossed it into the car and left for the gas station, where I would buy my favorite drink and head for home.

If he goes, and tries to stop me from spending, it will make me angry. I want him to support me. But there's only so much support one man can give. I have an entire room devoted to yarn and fiber and patterns and fabric and books and tools and, and, and...I just don't think he can carry all that, and the fiber festival too.

Whatever was I thinking when I invited him to go with me? The last time he went, he ruined it for me, right from the beginning on the drive down. See? I just remembered it! I did have him go with me one other time. I must have blocked it out because it was such a disaster! When I go to these things, I like to SHOP. He is not a shopper. I like to browse. He is not a browser. I like to touch and feel things. He has carpal tunnel--so "feeling" is not even in the equation. Maybe I can put him back in the sheep competitions, and let him SMELL. The sheep dog exhibition is pretty neat, too. I've watched that a dozen or so times. There's just so much to do and see, that it's hard to do and see everything all at once.

And since I'm already going to have to deal with someone there, I really don't want to have to deal with anything else that's being nasty and mean. So I'm going to talk with him. Not to talk him out of it, but only to let him know that he needs to be on his best behavior and support me and have fun. Otherwise, I might leave him there to walk home.

(really evil grin)

Sore Doesn't Quite Describe It

2011-08-15T08:20:00.000-04:00

After two weekends working in the garages (we have 3), the barn, the yard and inside the house, I am one big, throbbing ache. Even the ends of my hair ache. I should know, I just took a shower, and when I combed my hair it was a new experience in pain. Not only could I not keep my neck in one place, I dropped my comb and had to stoop at the knees (which I must have done 15,000 squats this weekend alone), and then I had to use the vanity to get back up.

Pain? Holy Cow. We just took a quick trip to India.

So I'm going to the Chiropractor today to see if there's anything she can do. I feel a little better after the shower, but I'm exhausted due to lack of sleep....from...you guessed it--even with 4 Advil and a sleeping pill at 9pm, I didn't actually "sleep" until 2am, and even then, every time I MOVED, I thought I was going to fall apart.

There was even a point at 5:30am, when I wondered if I was having a heart attack, but then dismissed it.

And this is going to be a VERY long week. I have about 100 cases to go through at the office today, which I probably won't get to until Tuesday--especially if the Chiropractor puts me on ice the rest of the day--then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I have classes after the office that won't get me home until 9pm or later. Then this weekend is the Allegan Fiber Festival. And you know that I have no intention of missing that.

But Saturday is a long LONG way away. I view it wistfully from my chair in front of my blog. I've been saving for a few months for this trip, and figure I'll be coming back with something that will zero out the savings account, but I'm not entirely sure what that might be. Probably gobs and gobs of laceweight yarn will end up in my bag, and maybe even a charkra--book style. Maybe a woolie winder for my Sonata. Maybe several pounds of fine merino top? There are lots of things that could catch my eye--including the beautiful hand turned wheels that spin like buttah--but I think that would set me back quite a bit more than I am prepared to shell out.

In the meanwhile, I have to put up with this back pain, and get through the week without hurting somebody. Hubby had best stay out of my way, because I am a grumpy old witch when I hurt. He might find himself waking in the frog pond if he's not careful.

Oscar Mayer Weiner....

2011-08-14T15:34:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid (showing my age here), I used to sing that song on the farm while feeding the baby geese. The geese are long gone (and the kid, too--well, almost) and the song still makes me smile a little--even when I feel a little under the weather.

And we've been having a little weather the last couple of days, which has played havoc with cleaning the garage out, but we did manage to get all the shelves put together and stood up. They are "ready" for more disorganization. Mainly because my husband doesn't know how to put tools away. He passed that trait down to his son, by the way. His daughter, however, got her mother's "clean and tidy" gene. Well, at least cleaner and tidier that the gene my husband passed down. It's unusual, though, because he claims that his ex lived out of boxes for a long while after the divorce. I was never introduced until many years later, when Christmas and grandkids came along...another story.

But we got the shelves up, and we're ready to start putting "things" on those shelves so that we can tidy up the garage. That's going to take some doing, and probably another weekend, as this one is nearly over, and I think hubby has given up. He's in the shower at the moment, and I'm going to scrub his back in a few minutes. We have a lot of stuff in the house which will end up on those shelves, in tidy storage, until the chance happenstance that we manage to get a pickup over here to load with trash for the dump. We live in high anticipation around here.

It didn't help that halfway through the building of one of the units, I fell ill--well, not so much fell as stumbled, and I had to take a short nap. After the nap, I rose, still feeling peeked, but managed to take a few things from the upstairs garage to the downstairs great room (table leaves for the table there), and then came back upstairs and immediately got sick again. I'm breathing a little better now, and the feeling of rising bile has subsided, but it's still there in the background, so I'm taking it easy, writing a blog post.

And having done all of those things, I'm thinking that an Oscar Mayer Weiner doesn't sound all that appetizing, if you get my reasoning...but the song still makes me smile. Of course, I can't walk more than the few steps to my chair without feeling like an "erp" is on the way, but I'll try to manage. Perhaps I'll call in sick on Monday so that I can work with hubby out in the garage sifting through the tools and giving them a place to belong. At the moment, the tools can wait while I try to sort out my dining room area. The dining room table is a "catch all" for things that really don't have a place right now, and I need the table to sew together the curtain panels. There's also the matter of a complete Windows XP computer on the floor (my older pc that still has stuff on it that I want), and other things--such as a scanner, a tablet, and printer that likely no longer works.

But right now, I feel the need to slow down and knit. Perhaps I will do just that. I am quite far in my circular shawl, and I think that I will trade out the circular cable I'm using for a larger one, now that the stitches are getting cramped on the 16" cable. There are almost 600 stitches on that needle. Maybe I'm not up to that much counting?

In any case, I feel like sitting down and decompressing for a while. Knitting would be just the thing. Maybe that sock I was working on a few weeks ago? It's at the heel, and just an ordinary sock.

Well, I had hoped to use a pair of needle nose pliers to fix a little wire that hooked my thumb drive to a lanyard and a little hook to my keychain, but the little spring went "sproing" and off into space, and I didn't hear it fall. It's called eyes going, ears going, getting old and decrepit. I neither saw which way it went, nor did I hear it going "ping" on the floor (since it's carpet, I wouldn't expect it to make a LOT of noise--the floor is dirty, but it's not HARD yet). I did, however, find a quarter.

So I have to put the tools away. Guess I'll go read.

Recap on the Weekend

2011-08-08T06:50:00.000-04:00

I managed to get some knitting in during the weekend, but not nearly as much as I'd hoped. The garage took up the lion's share of the entire time--that, and eating and sleeping--which of course requires cooking and taking medications and all the rest of it--just managing daily living.

Today, I'm exhausted, and while in the shower preparing for Monday at the office, I considered staying home, not feeling especially like going to work, and pretty much talked myself into this nauseated feeling that really promised to become a "yes, perhaps I should stay home--call in sick", that sort of thing. Just not on top of my game, sort of feeling.

So it didn't surprise me any, when I pulled the 3 of wands from my tarot deck. The card that indicates home, hearth and family. It's telling me that maybe I should stay home today. God knows, that if I don't, I will be swamped with calls from people wanting their monthly stipend--and I'm just not up to that today. Even so, if I stay home, my husband will put me to work spreading bark--another hot job, and we're still not finished with the garage.

And it's 6:30--time for me to be in my car and headed down the road, and I'm so sticky from humidity that I can't even get my clothing ON, let alone go work. In short, I'm a goner! I don't know how I'm going to get my clothes on! What's worse, is that the air conditioning is on--and I'm still sticky! There's still a towel around my head! I'm going to be late anyway.

I'm trying really hard to talk myself into staying home another day. I'm too old for this crap. Getting up at 5:30 in the morning and getting ready to go to the office and "be happy". In fact, I'm a little worried that first person who calls about their check is going to get a pretty surly remark.

My husband, he's no help at all. He just covers up his head and goes back to sleep. I'm in serious need of a cheerleader, here.

Okay, sticky or not, here I come.

Oh, and I bought these crazy looking socks...maybe they will brighten my day.

Tarot Draw...

2011-08-04T18:40:00.000-04:00

Last night, before going to bed, I drew the following cards...

Page of Pentacles (reversed)
9 of Swords
4 of Cups

I read this to mean that my sugar would spike a bit while I slept, that I would have a nightmare, that would cause me to be unahppy.

Well, I did have a nightmare, just before I woke up to go to work, and in my dream, I was crying. I went and checked my sugar, and while it was a little on the higher side, it wasn't horribly so.

Just now, I drew another set...and it's nearly the same cards..

Page of Pentacles (reversed)
4 of Cups
The High Priest

This says "You are still concerned about your health. Maybe you should contact the doctor." This is something I've been thinking about all week, but really haven't gotten a round to it. I will call on Monday.

But I really need to know about my son, who was recently fired from his job...

Well, I drew

Five of Pentacles (reversed)
Death
3 of Cups

Freedom and Change will Resolve it...Well, he got fired from his job...that gave him all sorts of freedom...but Death as the "change" card doesn't fit. I've long said that my son won't change until my mother dies. But when I ask "when is my mother going to pass?" I get Death reversed--and since it's a major, I figure it's going to be a long while--and it's my hope that should she pass on soon, that she would stick around and do whatever needs to be done to help my son get another job. AND SOON. Not that I want my mother to pass SOON, but I have the notion that even the cards know that this issue more or less revolves around the passing of my mother. But when I draw a couple more cards, the SAME CARDS COME UP, but in different orientation...and thusly meaning something altogether different:

Death reversed
3 of Cups reversed
5 of Pentacles.

Change cannot occur. If things stay the same, the restriction will continue.

Sigh. The end result is the same...stuck in the mud. So I drew on a high school chum...

I drew:

High Priest (reversed)
4 of Cups (reversed)
2 of Pentacles

Well, that's quite interesting...
Looks to me like she isn't dissatisfied with with her job (meaning she's okay with it, but there are things about it she'd like changed), but that things are coming to a boiling point, and she's going to have to juggle some finances to keep things on the level. I do know that she was talking with a realtor at the reunion, and I wonder if the realtor succeeded in making her think about the prospect of buying a home....I did warn her about large outlays of $$ at the party--so I hope that if she decides to buy a home, that she gets a warranty AND has it checked by a professional.

On the matter of another classmate....
Who was in the process of selling her home to move with her boyfriend/fiancee....I drew:

The Sun
The Underworld reversed
The World Tree

Major things going on there! Looks like smooth sailing, even though the underworld is in there, it's reversed, between two VERY BIG POSITIVE CARDS. I think it's all going to go on for my classmate here. Full Steam Ahead. That she has the Bull by the horns as it were, and well equipped to take the World by Storm if necessary. It's funny, because she has no real idea that she's in the cat bird seat right now. And it looks like for her, things are going to go her way for a long while.

So I ask about my ex-husband...

I draw:

4 of Wands Reversed
Initiation (16 major)
The Warrior (reversed)

Not much going on here. Looks like he's trying to get something going, but doesn't have the strength to deal with it...either mentally or physically, but mostly physically. I wonder if he's in his "planning stages" to divorce his wife? So I draw another card...the 8 of Wands. Entitled Action, means he's going to take some steps to Initiate something, but they will perhaps be only half-hearted attempts at getting what he wants. Interesting.

Well, that was my evening. I've been doing quite a bit of knitting on a circular shawl, and I'm past the central motif, and into the (what I call) snow. This is a span of about 6" that is not really "motif", but more "filler". Usually I prefer something exciting to go on with shawls, and I have to repeat this 8 row "all over pattern" 6 times. It's pretty boring right now. That's why I stopped to pull some cards. I was really hoping to draw something good for my son. He could sure use a bit of change for the good in his life. It really is about time something good happened to him. No word about nightmares tonight, so I suppose I am good to go as well.

In the meanwhile, be well.

Celina's Body Found

2011-08-02T07:32:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/02/new.hampshire.missing.girl/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

And yes, deceased. There will be an autopsy. She was found in the Connecticut River. There is a car missing from the home. The father is making statements, and they do not seem "grief stricken". I'm concerned.

The 4 of cups was a water card--obviously, since she was found in the water--but could still mean a faucet on all four sides of the house. I'd like to know if what I saw in the cards is correct.

Time will tell. I'll keep you posted.

Monday, And Home...

2011-08-01T17:46:00.000-04:00

You know, at the the end of every happy weekend is this awful day they call Monday.

Yes, I've been through another Monday.

A friend of mine had some "in-laws" murdered in this little bitty town called Onondaga--my mother-in-law lives just down the street from there, and so I called her to let her know. She's going to turn on the local news so that she can find out all about it, since it could well be someone she knows.

The food in my refrigerator is frozen. I turned up the freezer to make ice, and today, when I came home to make my supper, I found it frozen solid in the pan! I had to go to McD's to get something to eat, which wasn't really something I was looking forward to doing. It's pay week, and I'm a little on the short side financially. I suppose I could have fried the frozen food on the burner, but I really didn't want to cook in the 90 degree heat.

And I've also run across some old friends of mine on Facebook.

And my son's car's brakes have failed. I think it was a brake line. Hubby says those cost quite a bit to replace. It could be the caliper--which would cost even more. We'll see.

Like I said. It's been quite a Monday for lots of people.

It also seems that there is a full moon, as well...my friend is having family difficulties with lots of drama, that she just can't deal with.

Another friend got some good news today. The biopsy came back Negative for her mother. So she has hopped back on her motorcycle and headed for the Carolinas.

And I'm off to Facebook to check out my wall and my messages.

Oh, and the police are dragging a nearby pond. Could that be what the 4 of cups was referring to? I wonder if there's any news on Cnn.com? I'll have to check later. Earlier, there was nothing new. We'll see.

Long Sunday Afternoon

2011-07-31T19:11:00.000-04:00

We have been...

Okay, perhaps I should rephrase that....

My HUSBAND has been working outside our house with a friend, putting in retaining wall, pretty much all the way around the house--his plan is to plant lots of hosta, and I think I've let you know about that before. Today, we decided together that we would clean up the building materials from the basement that have been rotting down on the carport--put some things away, scrape the weeds out of the retaining wall we put in a year or so ago, and just generally clean up.

It was a mess. We kept at it, taking little breaks now and then, and a drink break about halfway through, and I can now say that it is done. It only took us 6 hours to do an hour's worth of work, but it's done. The junk is bagged and in the garage so that it doesn't get wet and nasty, and a couple items are too big to put inside, so we left them outside, clear of the doors so that hubby can contact his friend when he's ready to clean the lower garages.

Oh, I can hardly wait!

But we are tired, and I'm FAMISHED, and I don't know if I can make it to the kitchen to make something for supper. Moving is really over-rated, you know?

I was wondering if there was any word on the missing girl from New Hampshire, so I'm going to go and look, but it would appear that there is no further news. Lots of tips, but none that are leading anywhere. After reviewing the video online, however, I see that the parent's home has--get this--WHITE LATTICE on the porch. But that's as far as I can see anything. Surprising that I wouldn't remember that, but that the cards would pick it up. Now, I know, lots of people have that lattice on their porch--and I'm not saying that the parents are suspect in the case...but the police are putting up crime scene tape. Who knows?

So I'm waiting for more information. In the meantime, I'm hungry. So off to the kitchen I go.

Moving is over-rated. I could easily climb into bed and fall fast asleep, but I won't stay that way, so I will head to the kitchen and get some food made.

New Hampshire Girl-Celine

2011-07-30T16:51:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this girl has been missing since Monday. The FBI is involved. I drew:

9 of Swords reversed
4 of Cups reversed
The High Priest Reversed

My thought is that the girl is dead. The parents are saying that she was on the computer in her room preparing for bed. That alone has me concerned. What parent allows an 11 year old girl on the computer at 9 pm when the pedophiles come out?

My feeling is that it was someone she thought she knew, and it's someone that she thought she could trust. The 9 of swords indicate to me that she can see a wooden lattice, like what people put up under their porches to hide what's under the porch. That's where she's buried. The 4 of cups tells me he's a pedophile and that he took her virginity (rape) before he killed and buried her where ever this lattice is at. It could also indicate there's a water spicket, as all the cups are turned upside down--for the hose you see.

He has been in trouble with the law (2 of swords), and he believes that he was wrongly and falsely accused. He maintains his innocence, even as he's registering for the sex offender registry. She is bound below the earth. Jeez, this is ugly!!! There may be a vine, or a rosebush or just a dead bunch of branches on the lattice. From the 5 of pents, although I see pink and yellow, which may indicate roses...climbing roses.

A young man will find where she is buried. (Page of Discs). It will make him very, very sad, or the young man may know where she is, and not be telling anyone, and be very intimidated...but I strongly feel that there is a young man involved somehow. She can also see flowers like black eyed susans.

I keep asking when will they find her, I keep pulling cards that tell me different things...The 5 of pents might also be the $$ put up by the individual person, as I know there is a reward.

I asked again, when will they find her, and drew the 7 of cups (Delusion) reversed. Tell me this isn't another Caylee Anthony--although the cards are different. Everything reversed. Delusion, with cups that aren't really there. This guy is truly guilty of the crimes he's committed, and truly delusional, but appears rational and normal on the outside. The High Priest reversed might indicate someone from church, who is generally well thought of, and fairly good with children, and easily gains their trust. I understand it's a small community. This is a person who is actually viewed by the community as a person who is god-fearing--but he is nothing of the sort.

She has a middle eastern look to her, and at first, I thought perhaps that she might be adopted...don't ask where that one came from--I don't see it in the cards. It was just something that "came" to me. That she is special somehow.

Anyway, that's all I want to "see" for right now. Saved for future reference to see how this all plays out.

The Red Head Does It Again!

2011-07-27T17:56:00.000-04:00

I went to the office today, and two people commented on my hair color.

"Did you do something with your hair?"

Hmm...maybe I'm a little too much a wallflower?

The day went by pretty much without incident. I came home with my makeup dripping into my eyes--burning, burning. So I washed off all of that. I sort of wish I'd purchased some astringent--to get the excess off that the soap couldn't get to--but maybe tomorrow.

I did buy some new makeup. The stuff I had was pretty old, and they say you should replace your makeup every six months--especially the mascara. Well, I didn't have any mascara to throw away, so I bought some new, and a new blush and a different lipstick, which really doesn't show up on me at all--in fact, it sort of tones down my lips--lightening them, which might be okay. I haven't really had the chance to see what it all looks like "together", and won't until tomorrow. A pic of the "new me" tomorrow morning, if anyone cares to look.

I'm working on a new circular shawl, and I'm into about row 20. It's still not big enough to have on my 24" needles, so I'm thinking about transferring it to some plastic needles tonight to work on it, and then when it's big enough, I'll put it back on the bigger needle. Of course, when it's HUGE, I'll have to move it again.

I'm working it in a magenta alpaca/silk, and the result is quite nice. I figure I'll have lots of that left over to make another shawl of some other type. I was thinking "EvenStar" on Ravelry. Not enough of the shawl to put a pic on here yet. I want to wait until it's a bit bigger.

Well, off I go to prepare myself something to eat, take my evening medication, maybe watch a little bit of television and find some size 4 knitting needles to work on this shawl. I can hardly wait to start!

Okay...A little Better, but...

2011-07-27T06:25:00.000-04:00

Do you think I need a professional makeover?

Down to There, HAIR!

2011-07-26T21:21:00.000-04:00

I don't usually cause men to drop down before me, and I'm no beauty by anyone's standards, especially my own--but I finally decided to do something with my hair.

I thought a long time about what I should do. Hair cut. Perm. Color. Okay, all of that would be good, but the budget is limited, so I opted for one out of three.

Oh, I think I could have done better than that...but I didn't and that's all she wrote about the matter.

It must not have made too much of an impact. No one at the office even noticed that I'd colored my hair--let alone that I wore it slightly differently this morning when I finally arrived. I didn't say a thing to anyone. They didn't even look at me. I was really surprised, because it's such a CHANGE!

It's pretty, um
Red.
Which I was going for auburn, but thought with my dark brown hair, I would have some reddish highlights and that would be it. Instead, the grey must be overpowering my dark brown, because I turned out more...um...did I say it before? Red.

I remind myself of a girl named Mari in High School. And just a little grey left at the temples--perfectly appropriate...except it's...um...Red.

Not that I don't like red. It just makes me look like I've got an army of zits on my entire face. Now I have to wear makeup to even out the skin tones. And my lips--shoot--where did the color in my face go? And look at that chin, would you!? Don't you dare say "which one"?

I think it's a good color, but I have to figure out what to do with it now. It needs body like my body needs LESS body. (Way less--haha--pun!)

I'll have to go to the beauty parlor and find out what to use on my face in this steamy weather so that the makeup doesn't end up all in a puddle around the soles of my shoes to the point where I leave little makeup footprints all over the office. I have what they call "combination skin". This is just another phrase for "get out the plastic honey--you're gonna need it to fix this!"

But my hair is past my shoulders in back, and I think it looks good. Especially when it's clean. I'm hoping to let my hair grow long again, which means regular trimming. And if I want it to all be one color, I'll have to color it regularly. With one box, I can dye it now. Any too much longer, and it might take two boxes. I suppose I could color my hair purple.

Do you think people at the office would notice PURPLE?

How does bright lime green grab you?

It's So Hot...

2011-07-24T18:28:00.000-04:00

The weather is 95 and hazy ..kind of like John McCain.

(he's not Hazy. He's just a little foggy.)

It was so hot today that Dick Cheney waterboarded himself.

(and it was unsuccessful)

Hillary Clinton was so hot, she was wearing her pantsuit without the pants

(Bill wasn't the one who took them off her, either.)

It's so hot that I saw two trees fighting over a dog.

(Why is it that I can really see this happening? Too much Mojito's for me.)

It's so hot, today I saw a chicken lay a fried egg.

(And she left it, right there in the middle of the road--then along came Col. Sanders...)

It's so hot that it makes me want to take off my skin and sit in my bones

(you do that, and I'll go jump in the pool, instead)

It was so hot today Floyd Landis tested positive for Snapple.

(yeah, Snapple and Mojito)

It was so hot my cab driver was wearing an oscillating turban.

(this was like watching the Exorcist...sort of)

It was so hot at "The View” that their new cast member is Ted Williams.

(what? I don't get this one? Is it just because he has a big mouth with a big wind?)

It was so hot out that North Korea test launched a long range Popsicle.

(why is it always North Korea has the great ideas?)

It was so hot today I saw a funeral procession pull into a Dairy Queen.

(They had too...they corpse was thawing.)

It was so hot today I saw an Amish guy buying an air conditioner.

(It was for his Mennonite brother in law, tho)

It was so hot Bill Clinton got a slurpee and then went to 7/11.

(Was that before or after he took off Monica's dress? And Hillary's pants?)

Cows are giving evaporated milk.

(and you were expecting?)

its so hot, the squirrels are handling their nuts with potholders

(among other things....)

It's so hot that I have discovered that asphalt has a liquid state.

(yes, it does. That's why you see furrows in the road at the corner of Grand River Ave and Wright Rd.)

It's so hot that I have found out (the hard way) that my seat belt buckle could be used as a branding iron

(look at the bright side, you can tell people that your nickname used to be beltable betty)

Where'd That Bathing Suit Go?

2011-07-24T17:06:00.000-04:00

Boy-o this week has been a scorcher. Weather man says that we have a cold front coming that will drop temps into the 70's.

But I cannot find my bathing suit...and boy, if I could find that puppy, it would be on my body, and I'd be walking around the house and scaring myself every time I passed a mirror.

I think I have said "Hot" in a previous post, but you know what? It isn't hot. It's RIDICULOUSLY HOT.

Hubby and I drove to the store to get groceries and have some breakfast, and when we got home, our electric was off. No fans, no A/C NOTHING. So we both stripped (look away my friend before your eyes burn out) and went to sleep after calling the electric company to report the outage. Somewhere in the middle of the "afternoon delight" the electric came on, so we slept just a little longer.

I forgot to bring my chairs home from the reunion party, but it's okay. My girlfriend has them, I guess. I'll get them back another day.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to do everything I can to keep cool and dry. Especially after yesterday--just to let you know...when I got home after the party, the outfit I was wearing wouldn't come off--it was literally stuck to my body SO TIGHTLY that it wouldn't be removed.

But I did finally wriggle out and was able to go to sleep without it. Ahhhh...some days it's wonderful, just to get naked. Again, you should prolly not think about me in those images...scar you for LIFE I tell you.

Well, enough for now. Heading back to my web-surfing habit. See you next time.

The Memories Just Keep on Coming!

2011-07-24T10:06:00.000-04:00

People started arriving to the 35th reunion at about 6 last night. I sat in a chair up by the barn, and watched a certain gentleman walk in--pretty sure of himself, and sit at the far end of the property...by himself...facing me, though not really looking at me. We'll leave his name a secret for the moment--and probably for all time

We decided at the planning meeting for the 35th reunion that I would do some Tarot readings for people who wanted one. What can I say? I have good ideas now and then. Everyone there thought it was a great idea. And it's not like I have ever done that sort of thing--reading for lots of people at a party, but I figured I could handle it.

I pegged the guy across the lawn as a confident, single male, probably a womanizer, and never at a loss to have someone, and nearly anyone of his own choosing, in his bed. He appeared to me to be predatory--almost like a hawk, sitting there, watching his prey come to the party.

I waited about an hour before I started reading, and I read until the sun went down, which was about 3 hours later. I was exhausted, and my hands were sticky, which made the cards sticky and difficult to shuffle. There were long readings and short readings. Some people were very surprised at what the cards seemed to tell me. And then the confident fellow came to sit across from me to have his reading.

This surprised me, in the first place, because I can spot this type of man from a million miles away. I pulled

Ace of Swords, Knight of Wands, 4 of pents.

And I just said Hmpf. To which he replied, "I only have 6 months to live, right?" Which made me laugh. I saw a separation (Ace), and a lonely man, who was now very materialistic and on the prowl--not for money--but for flesh...but instead of telling him what the cards said, as I got to "separation", he started in.

"My wife left me for another man, and took my son and moved to Australia."

While it COULD be true, my inital thought was "this dude is lying to me--not only has he no son, he has never been successfully married"...so I lied right back, but kept it to myself.

I said "You know, the children do come back--wait until he's older and wants to know his father, and then send $$ for a ticket to come see you." And that's what I see in the cards. Even though that's not what I saw in the cards, there was no point in telling this guy anything anywhere near the truth, because he was just going to blow it off anyway.

But instead, I saw him, recently separated from a recent conquest, and hunting for another notch on his "gun". Sad, but true. Most people's readings were normal, though. There were some who were laughing, and some who left concerned about what was perhaps coming, or who might be affected for good or ill. Mostly, I did 3 card readings, telling a story with the cards. Sometimes, the cards seemed to want to do past, present future, and and other times, wished to be read in sequence. They gave me lots of practice, and lots of testing--but they only didn't make sense on one reading. One reading was for a woman, happily married, and I definitely saw a rivalry between her and another woman. I let her know that she had the upper hand, and that it most likely wasn't that he was "fooling around" with HER, but quite the opposite, and trying to create a problem--I told her to watch out for that woman, but to remember that her husband loves HER, and not this other person, and that eventually all would be well, but still cautioned that it's a good idea to know who your friends are, and that you have to watch out for the women who intend to do you harm.

Eventually, it got too dark to really read, and I had to depend on the pictures to tell me what the card was--some were recognizable in even semi darkness, others were completely unfamiliar, and we had to use the light from people's cell phones to see what the cards were.

Beyond the reading table, there was merriment and music and chatter.

Then they brought out the picture show on dvd, and all the neat pics of people we grew up and went to school with--there on the screen. Some had already died, but most of them were still around and there to say "Oh my gawd, THERE'S BILL!" or "Who's that?"

The party was a smash hit. Linnette's mojito mix went over really well, and before we knew it, the mix was gone, gone, gone. That's when the party really started to rock, too. The band played for quite a long while, and just before I left, they were playing a twist, and I just had to get into the mix. Before I knew it, one of the men in the circle grabs my hand and pulls me out to dance in the center of the circle, and I blew out all the stops and went a little bit crazy in the barn. It was fun, but it SURELY winded me!

Not used to that level of exertion.

After this, I retrieved my cd's from Linnette's cd player, said my "goodbyes" and "see you in 5 years", and went to my car and packed up and left. It was just a little before midnight, and I thought--"Ah, time to turn into a pumpkin!" as I started the car and left the party grounds.

All in all, a success. Thanks to all the planners and to Linnette for allowing us to use her barn for the party. It was a great time, and everyone was really glad they came. And this being my first ever reunion, I had a lot of fun too. Now, I wish I'd gone to all the parties, but I think of all the parties, from what I heard other people saying, "This was the best one of them all."

I have a hunch that it's going to happen again. I just wish I didn't have to wait for 5 years.

A Week is a LONG Time to Wait

2011-07-21T20:22:00.000-04:00

I'm going to sort of free-wheel on this post, because I'm so hot. And because I'm so hot. Did I say I was HOT? Well, if I didn't...here it comes...wait for it....I'm totally hot. I'm so hot that the air conditioner wolf-whistles at me. I'm so hot, that you don't even have to turn on the stove, you could cook an egg on my forehead.

I'm so hot, that I beat up Satan and took over residence in hell for a while...just to stay cool!

With temps in the 90's nearly all week, and heat indices in the 100's, and humidity at 50% or better, we are ALL sweating between our toes. Goodness gracious alive, Miss Anderson! It's so hot, that Satan decided to vacation in Alaska this year!

I'm stuck in my bedroom with our "one room" air conditioner, smelling the grand hume (liquid fertilizer from the cow farm down the road) that was just laid down in the hot hot hot...(again, did you hear me say hot?) soil. Poor plants are gonna burn up in all that nitrogen.

And as I said in an earlier post, this weekend is my High School 35th Reunion. YAYAYAYAYAY!

Can't wait, and I've been waiting a week...in this hot, hot...(oh, get over it) air. It's so hot that the breeze is just sayin' "No freaking way!" And blowing hot air around is almost funny--that is, if it wasn't so ding dong hot.

Guess I can't say it enough....although I'm sure you wish I would.

I did however, pull a water card this evening from my tarot deck. Which tells me that there will be rain tonight (hope hope hope)...at least SOMEWHERE it will rain tonight. Coming home, there were some promising clouds, but they blew away in this (you guessed right) hot dry air.

Knock knock Oh, I think my husband has come home! Scurry to the door....Yes, I'm right! And you know what? That's right. He's HOT too!

We are all hot. Hotter, with the weather. Hoping for rain. Look for me this weekend at my High School reunion. Why does everyone keep saying I'm old?

35 Years and Counting

2011-07-20T06:32:00.000-04:00

Saturday is my 35 high school reunion.

Keep in mind that I've not been to any of the high school reunions, mostly because I wasn't so close to anyone, except for a select few. Everyone was out to get the best education they could so that they could survive in the jungle "out there". Most of us made it, with few exceptions.

And Saturady is my 35th.

It's surprising, since I'm only 39...the math doesn't quite add up anymore, does it?

Anyway, last night there was a planning committee meeting, and a friend of mine from High School and I decided to go to see what was up about all the hullaballoo. She offered several days of her hands and heart to help with preparations, and I offered up my Saturday and my tarot reading as entertainment.

There will also be a old-timey rock n roll band to play some of our favorites. The whole thing is being held on the Mint farm in St. Johns, and it looks like it will be quite a "do". I had planned to forget about ever going to any of my high school reunions, remembering high school as being very clique driven without a way to become a part of ANY of them, simply because I was "different" than most.

I'm still different, but the others have figured out that the world is a pretty tough place to be--and so they have toned down the "little circle of friends" stuff and reached out to some of us that were initially on the periphery of society.

I call it the jungle--the great equalizer. You find out who has it and who hasn't--the ability to succeed and survive in the wild. High school doesn't prepare you completely, and quite honestly, neither does college, but it does a better job of it than high school.

In any case, I'm going this year, after 35 years of pretty much silence. And I'm going in as a fortune teller--and if things go well tonight, I might just go pro with it, hang out my shingle and let the word out that this gal has a fine link to thing paranormal. Who knew?

And even tho my friend Carol is having some home-sickness and worry about her adopted Indian father's upcoming surgery, I think that she's pretty excited about the prospect as well.

At the end of the meeting, things settled down and I pulled out my office cards and read one of the classmates coming future. There was a real warning and threat in the cards, and I hope that she listened. If not, well...that's her business. But the plan is to dress up and make up like a gypsy and have my crystal ball and candles (must buy those...remember) and to have at least 2 sets of decks--my Celtic Circle and my Psychic Tarot cards. One or the other will speak to me clearly that night. The psychic tarot is pretty HOT the last couple of days. I think it desires to be the one chosen, but I read the Celtic Circle so much better. So I'll take both, and see which works the best for the group.

So you won't hear from me until Sunday and I'll tell you all about it.

Just Home from the Movie...

2011-07-16T17:58:00.000-04:00

Yes, Harry Potter fans, I went to see the last installment to the Harry Potter Saga.

I have to say, it was 100% better than the book, which for me, was a disappointment. Loved all the other books, but wish that the last one had been better--on a scale of 1-10, it was about a 6 in comparison with the rest of the books.

The movie, however, a SOLID thumbs up. My husband didn't care for it, but he's not a HP fan. I really think my son would have loved it, although I'm not sure he's seen any of the other HP films--other than the ones I took him to see, that is.

I guess there's a new Batman movie coming out in a year, and a couple others that I'd like to see, but might wait for the video. In the meanwhile, I think I want to watch out for some spinoffs from the saga--I've been hearing that the whole world is open to people who want to write in continuation of the series--more adventures for the Potter clan--I'd like to see Hermione and Ron developed more--but that's just me.

However, I think that the whole thing will probably have a cap on it--copyright and all that--but we'll see. I think it would be great if Harry's story continued.

What about you?

The Weekend "Plan"...

2011-07-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a weekend "plan" and yet it doesn't quite turn out the way you expect?

This weekend, the "plan" is to work on laundry (started), go see Harry Potter (I'm pushing for today, but it might end up happening tomorrow), and pull the fence out of the grass (this is definitely a tomorrow thing--beginning early in the morning, so that we don't get too hot--the weatherman says it's going to be a scorcher tomorrow.).

I think if we keep it down to those three things, we might actually have the "plan" work out.

Afternoon Delight

2011-07-14T20:33:00.000-04:00

My motto's always been...

Starland Vocal Band's song has been a frequent flyer in my house for the last several days. Just not in the way you might THINK. Get your mind out of the gutter!

I'm talking about an afternoon NAP! I've been taking one nearly everyday this week, being completely EXHAUSTED after the day's work at the office and walking back to my car. I think it has something to do with the intense heat, but whatever is causing it, when I get home, I start falling asleep in my knitting chair, and end up heading for the bedroom for a little snooze--say an hour or even two--getting some much-needed rest, apparently, before I go on with the rest of the day, and either blogging or checking Ravelry--even Facebook gets a little look-see before I turn in for the rest of the night.

Why wait until the middle of a cold, dark night?

I mean REALLY now!? Does sleep have to be done only when it's dark outside? I find that darkness does cause me to feel sleepy. With the bedroom drapes drawn tight, though, I can sleep at ANY time of day. In fact, I just took a two-hour nap, and it's nearly sundown, and the drapes are drawn--and I'm YAWNING!

Of course, Afternoon Delight is a song about knocking your socks off at lunchtime. Trying to keep it a little p.c. here, people. The song came out in 1976/1977, and it was one of the albums that I purchased when I was in college. I played the VINYL RECORD (some of you might not remember those) over and over until the needle on the turntable was worn with use, and EVEN TODAY--some (mumble mumble) years later, I can still remember the entire song, and sing along when I hear it on the retro stations.

Imagine that? Me? Retro? HA!

And of course, at the tender age of (mumble mumble), I didn't really understand that the song was about doing the horizontal mambo. I was just SO naive when I was a youngster. The song was done on the television show GLEE! recently, and it brought back all sorts of good memories. The gang I used to hang out with, the friends I made beyond my core group, and the relationships that came and went. Sigh, that was a good year.

And lest I turn about and spin onto a rant about how my parents decided that they couldn't afford to pay for my subsequent years at college, and how that resulted in my NEVER obtaining even an Associates Degree for myself--ah--oops. It was a difficult time, and I was TERRIFIED of going into debt and not be able to find a job to pay it off. So the issue was dropped. I did TRY to go to school part time, only to find that my likes and dislikes had now become too varied to settle down to one thing that could only bore me to death after a few weeks or months.

For I am only temporarily satisfied doing any one job for any length of time. After a few weeks, I'm ready to move on to something different--bigger, better and pay more more more. And more recognition in the form of promotion. I think in terms of stairs....level out for a while, then climb. Level out for a while, then climb. I'm an upwardly mobile sort. Too long in one thing and I stagnate and become very cranky. So a career probably wasn't a good choice for me anyhow.

My dream was to have a motor home and travel all over the United States, stopping here or there, obtaining some obtuse waitress job--work long enough for a tank of gas, and then head out for parts unknown, taking pictures and making friends all along the way. Of course, the reality is that at 6 miles to the gallon in a motor coach, $20 in gas doesn't get you very far at the price of gas THESE DAYS...but who knew that the price would go so high when it was only $0.50 when I was a youngster? Who knew, indeed.

And so, I'm a stay at home, go to the office, work a day, sleep a night, who has integrated a little "afternoon delight" into my day...just later on...Maybe I need the nap to deal with my feeling of boredom? That could well be. But I get restless when I get bored, and that is not conducive to naps or sleep.

Whatever. I still like a nap when I get home from work. Of course, it does make me restless when I lie down to go to sleep at night...and that's why I take a sleeping pill! Still there's just no way that I can let go of my afternoon nap.

Queen of Swords

2011-07-11T18:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've drawn a random card. How funny and strange that I draw this card so often! I generally call this card my significator, because she is *so* like me. The Queen of Swords is tough as steel, and not easy to get along with. She's forthright and for the most part honest, and doesn't like to take other people's crap. She's a "cut through the mustard" sort, and while she has friends, she trusts herself above all others, and doesn't usually ask for help, even when she might need it. She stands straight and tall, walking quickly through the wildflowers, her sword at the ready should she befall any sort of trouble. She's capable and thinks of herself as youthful (no matter how old she is). Her judgment is swift. Her punishment is true and never misses.

She also stands for imagination. The Queen of Swords is a constant "thinker", always imagining new things. Sometimes, her imagination gets a little ahead, but for the most part, her imaginings are spot on.

And she's thinking about...

I drew the Empress (reversed). So she's not imagining anything about this "other woman", but rather imagining what she stands for--that being...hmm...dunno. I was told recently that a friend of mine, who has a daughter, who has also had a daughter, and wondering what all of that means...so another card...

Lots of people in this draw today...The Knight of Wands. This is the guy full of adventure and fire. No idea what he might stand for, but I could guess he might be the father of the grandbaby. The father of the grandbaby is faithless and only looking out for himself. He cannot be trusted nor can he be depended upon...which means that my friend's daughter was likely abandoned by this man, whoever he might be.

See my imagination working, here?

Next Card is the Lord (Emperor), reversed--and the Emperor doesn't like it when he's reversed. So he's not happy with all the goings on. This might be the girl's father or even a surrogate father--my friend's latest boyfriend/relationship or even my own ex (who is also her ex).

My goodness. It would almost appear to be a soap opera going on, but I doubt it...even so, my imagination runs wild, as you might well guess.

Lastly, I ask if I'll be able to see my friend in August, and I pull the Knight of Cups. This is, I would wager, her boyfriend who will either suggest that we meet, or will stand in the way in an effort to protect my friend's feelings, perhaps? Since cups deal with emotions, I think he'll be all for it--if only to find out what sort of person he's dealing with.

The whole emphasis of this having to do with choices, and not making the right ones. Perhaps it's not a good idea that I meet with my friend; that the Emperor will be even less happy about it. Quite honestly, as the Queen of Swords, I don't care. People have been told that should something questionable happen to me, that my ex is the first person of interest in the case.

So there you have it. Connections between me and a bunch of other people, our lives intertwined with karmic like threads, which are soon to be revealed. We will see what occurs.

Like a Day Without Sunshine

2011-07-11T06:41:00.000-04:00

Yes, I think that's how today is going to pan out. Rain, thunder, lightning--the whole nine yards. Since the weather box on my computer says that it will be cloudy today with a high of 72--I know, sigh of relief from this corner of the globe--but I drew a fire card with arrows today, just a general question about the weather, and lets just say it looks a lot like lightning.

Hard night on a bed that just isn't doing it for me, too. I am so sore. The second I get some food into me, the very next thing will be some Advil. My back is killing me, and husband is just going to have to break down and buy a sleep comfort bed, because I can't take this temperpedic mattress. It's soft and warm and all that, but doesn't give me enough support in my middle back. Pain is just not my strong suit. I didn't sleep well last night--tossing and turning and sticking to the bed because SOMEBODY turned off the air conditioning last night because HE was cold, instead of just turning up the thermostat.

What's really horrible is that I showered this morning, and my hair is still quite wet, and I have no motivation to go and comb it. You should have seen me in the mirror before the shower--I was quite frightening. I think I even let out a little scream on first look--and then realized it was my own reflection in the mirror. At first, in groggy state, I didn't realize who that was staring back at me.

Well, I have a lot of work to do before I can come home and get back to sleep again. I think I will drink a lot of ice water this morning, in case the pain is my kidneys beating me up for only drinking one full glass of water the entire day yesterday. I don't normally drink a lot of water--even in summer--preferring Pepsi, but then I sweat brown stuff, and I don't think it's good for my system.

Again, I have to get going, wish I could stay and relax with you for a little longer, but duty calls. Perhaps something interesting will happen to me at the office today. Wouldn't that be a trip?

Oh, and speaking of trip...I've asked hubby to take me to the Monteray Bay Aquarium. I want so badly to see it. Perhaps he will look into taking a trip and spending some time in California on the beach. The trip will cost a little bit--since we'd also need hotel and food, airfare and the tickets to go to the Aquarium. Plus it might be fun to visit Disneyland out there, too. I'm thinking a nice package where we can get some shows in--it would have to go through a travel agent, but I'm pretty sure it can be done.

Ah, there I go again, rambling off at the mouth when I should be heading for the office. Goodbye for real, this time.

Dinner Time

2011-07-10T18:14:00.000-04:00

I believe...
That it is simply too hot to eat.

Well, perhaps eating isn't what the problem is--but rather "preparation". Who wants to stand over the top of a hot stove in this weather (or even a hot grill)? Certainly not me!

So I am in my air conditioned room, while the oven heats up. I have the fish sticks on the pan ready to go in the second the oven "dings" that it's at 425 degrees (not much more than the weather outdoors) and then I will return to the kitchen to drop the sticks into the oven, then back into the bedroom to breathe again.

My hair is in a little ponytail in the back and my bangs are held off my face with a semi-circular thing made of plastic that I don't remember the name of. It's not a barrette, but a...a..

Do you see what this heat has done to my brain?

Hubby and I took a little ride in the car for no reason at all today, after sweating ourselves silly outside with the "flower garden" he's been saying all spring that he was going to do--but apparently, it took too much "work", and he ended up with a shiny pate (even though he does still have hair there), and dripping sweat. He ran inside for a moment, and when he returned outdoors, I offered a ride in the car, and he went for it in a heartbeat. The connection between car and air conditioned ride to do nothing at all was not lost on him.

And when we returned, we stopped at Quality Dairy and had ice cream cones.

Can you say Yum?

But before long, after the ice cream cone, I fell asleep (in the air conditioned room, of course). And the day passed without me. It's almost 6pm, now, and I've really not done a thing all weekend. Except knit on my socks and feed my animals. After all that, I've been pretty much incognito in the bedroom, asking my husband "Shall we watch tv in the air conditioned room or not?"

We need to bring soil in for the garden--not that anything has been accomplished, mind you, but the hill has to be "somewhat" level to do these retaining wall stacking stone thingies--do they have a real name?? Maybe it's like my plastic "head band" thingie on my head.

A brain is a terrible thing when it's wasted.

Well, I think I'm going to check the weather, check the temp on the oven, turn on the tube and sit down in the air conditioned room and do some more knitting. If I have nothing more strenuous appear on the horizon, I expect that's where you'll find me all evening.

I hope your afternoon/evening is similarly lazy.