BRRRRR!

I am cold! Bone-chilling, numbing cold. I never used to be cold; in fact, I am the one who would turn the thermostat down in December because I was hot, even if everyone else was cold. The tide has turned and I am the cold one now, so tonight on my way home I am buying flannel sheets and a space heater for my bedroom. I hate going to bed cold and waking up cold brrr. I guess it could have something to do with our weather, the high is 18F today and 14F tomorrow with snow. I think it is colder here than it is in Alaska. This picture is the view out my backdoor, gray and cold.

DD2 and I bought our Christmas tree Saturday and it is up, but not decorated, we are soooo lazy, but it is just too cold to get into the garage and dig them out. We were both so curmudgeonly on Friday, I was not sure if we would have a tree. Neither one of us has been feeling the season, it is a problem sometimes, it is awful when we both get in a funk. I know it is too early in the season for it to be a seasonal funk, but there you have it, maybe just being around people helped out. We spent Saturday having a girl’s day, pedicures, massages, and shopping, perhaps that helped a bit.

When we go for massages, I always use them for therapy on shoulders, neck and arms, but the one I had Saturday almost crippled me. The guy found the sore spots and worked them hard, so yesterday when my sink fell apart (garbage disposal had a clog) while I was trying to cook, it was just about the straw that broke the camel’s back. And my hands were also sore from the massage, so I could not knit. I need a holiday from life I think.

I hope you have a warmer day than I am having. :-)

Actual Knitting Picture

I finally took a picture that is knitting related!! Here is the picture of the scarf that my cats like so much, it is the Yarn Harlots one row scarf using Noro Silk Garden, sorry it is so dark, we haven’t had sun for a few days. I like it and hope my daughter will also, though it hasn’t yet gotten really cold in IA/IL so we will see. I am getting ready to start a beret to match, I purchased this yarn intending to make me a sweater, but I am not sure I would want a sweater out of this color. Have you ever purchased yarn intending to use it for a purpose and then a year later couldn’t imagine what you were thinking?? As you can see by the pix below, we received a lot more snow than was predicted, it was originally predicted to be one or two inches. Right now it is 25F (the low tonight will be 15F) and still snowing lightly, I hope it stops soon; I have a lot to do tomorrow

Winter wonderland out my backdoor.

This is a snow cake on my patio table lolol

Aging or Ageless?

Did you ever notice how there is always something or someone around to remind you how old you are? Even when you don’t feel your age, something will hit you in the face and remind you. Age has never been a big thing with me, I have never felt that I was the age the calendar told me I was, I normally feel at least 10 years younger than I am and don’t think about my physical age. That is until I go the doctor. I have been searching for a doctor that I feel is competent and I am comfortable with since we moved to Colorado. I think I have finally found her, but. . . . The new patient paperwork I filled out asked how I was on my immunizations, and I haven’t even had a tetanus shot or anything else except for a flu shot since the 1980’s. I told her that I have a flu shot every year, but have not worried about anything else; therefore, we had this entire discussion regarding the immunizations and that I needed them, then she threw in the pneumonia shot. I asked her why I needed it, I said I had not had pneumonia since I was 15, and (you already know what she said don’t you) she said that since I was over 50 I should have one annually. I was a tad upset about that, because I just do not feel 50, or 50-something, or 53 (my calendar age). Here I am happily swinging through my day and get my toe stamped on with a giant 50 being dropped on it. Lololol It is a good thing I am not sensitive, but arbitrary lines irritate me, not just with age, but also with quotas, or limits of any kind. This was my rant for the day. :-)

I am still knitting, though the shot in the wrist yesterday made me want to rethink that. I have three different scarves going, plus three pairs of socks and a sweater. I have quit knitting for extensive periods of time, and I do the exercises, but I have been working 7 days a week so of course the stupid thing is not improving! DUUHH

I have decided I want a cape for fall and early spring, I have been freezing to death lately and I think a cape would handle that. Does anyone have suggestions about patterns???

BTW, it is supposed to snow here this weekend, tomorrow’s high is forecast at 42F.

Have a good day and be productive.

Whiskers on Wednesday

Okay, the Devil Cat, aka Onyx, is in deep doo doo. DD2 was in my room talking to me while I got dressed yesterday morning and that meant that the entire zoo was up there too. We looked around and Devil Cat was urinating on my pillow (and through the pillow, the comforter, all the sheets and the mattress pad)! I could not believe what I was seeing. And it wasn’t just a little, I-am-going-to-mark-my-territory type of pee, no, it was I-am-going-to-empty-my-bladder-on-mom’s-bed sort of pee. I am so mad at her I could spit, and she knows it. She is going to the vet to make sure she doesn’t have an UTI and then I am going to string her up by the tail (not literally, just in my dreams). GRRRRR The sad part is she was so cute the night before, she crawled up under the comforter, curled up, and went to sleep. Last night all cats were closed out of my bedroom!

It is still cold here (43F), but no snow last night, which is a good thing, but now they are predicting it for rush hour. Thank goodness, it isn’t cold enough to stick!

Weather

Yeah, the first day of autumn is here.

The weather forecast for tonight is snow.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Blather

It is cold here today, so whether I am ready or not, fall is here. Rainy and cold, 50 degrees at noon. And lucky DD2 has the flu; they told us at the doctor’s office that when they test for flu, they are no longer trying to differentiate between the regular flu and swine flu unless the patient ends up in the hospital. Evidently, the swine flu is so prevalent, they have given up. That is somewhat scary, with all the talk about the pandemic etc.

I finished the blanket, and it is cute, picture tomorrow when it is dry. I am working on a lacy one-row scarf that I started in June; it is lightweight so it doesn’t hurt to hold it and knit.

I have nothing else for now, working 7 days a week is a real drain on my brain (I am a poet who didn’t know it). lolol

Blather

We just had our second hailstorm in less than 24 hours, and it is positively cool (70) outside. I am sitting under the sky light in the loft watching the hail hit the window (glass, plastic, Plexiglas??) wondering how hard the hail has to be before it breaks the window. It feels like we are heading into autumn already, that does not bode well for the winter. Everyone seems to be suffering from the heat right now, but us. I guess I will send you all some of our snow come October. :-)

I listen to recorded books a lot, and I have a subscription to Audible, where I can download books and listen from the computer or I-Pod. I love this as it keeps me entertained when I could possibly be bored with sitting still and I am not stuck watching mind numbing television. I am perturbed that I downloaded “Born in Ice” by Nora Roberts; her books are entertaining and easy to listen to when doing other things. The reader/narrator sucks big time! You cannot tell what character is speaking, as he never changes his voice. I am going to complain; even though it is the first time I have been disappointed with anything from Audible.

I feel like I have become a boring blogger since I cannot knit, it is very irritating. . .

Have a good day (or what's left of it)

Weird Weather

The weather here has been so weird. Last week it was so hot, the AC could not keep up and this week it is so cool and wet that the AC wouldn’t be needed if it weren’t for me freakin’ allergies. It has rained every day since Saturday so the mold is growing (yes in the desert) and allergens are high. Today’s high is supposed to be 68, like I said, weird.

I did get to knit last knit. I was watching TV and not paying attention so I ended up knitting through two TV shows. It was great! And so was the ice I used before I went to bed. lolol

Blather, Knitting and a Contest

You know the pool I told you about, the little one that keeps us cool in the heat of the day? This is a picutre of it without us in it, of course, because it has been cloudy and rainy for most of the weekend. As you can plainly see, once we are in there on the little floaties, there is not much movement unless we knock each other off the floaties. (And I love to do that, as long as all books are out of the way!) The only benefit of all the rain is that I did not have to water the garden, and I was able to get tomato cages on the poor plants that were beat up the other night in the hailstorm.

We went and got massages on Saturday, mine was purely therapeutic, lolol. The masseuse worked on my arm for a good portion of the hour, and then at the end she said it was time to go to the doctor and quit whimping out. I have finally agreed and will make an appointment first think Monday morning (and refuse to change it again). But I have started sleeping in the braces I have had for a zillion years and hate.

And finally, here is a picture of the endless baby blanket. Its not really endless, but working a few rows at a time make it seem that way. Contest
Marissa at Living and Knitting on a Maine Island; Welcome to Frenchboro, is having a wonderful contest. She is working wit a partner and they are giving away wonderful yarn and/or a gift card. Go here to enter and please tell her I sent you.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Blather

Isn’t it a wonderful day?! The sun is shining, everyone here is up and moving (and able to get around with no assistance) and today is my telecommute day. I love it when all the points in the universe come together to make for a wonderful day. It tickles my happy spot!

We had a horrible storm here last night, hail, tornado warnings, etc. I was not sure how strong the sky lights in my living room and bathroom are until I woke up to all the hail. We ended up in the basement for a while and the cats were terrified, poor Di couldn’t hear it and couldn’t figure out why we were out of bed. It was funny, in a sad sort of way. I thought that the hail would damage the tomatoes, but they seem to be doing okay, if a little bent this morning, one of them is turning yellow and on its way to red. I can’t wait for a tomato sandwich, with worthless white bread and mayo! We do have a mess in the backyard to clean up, trees limbs and leaves and such, but that will only take a little while since the yard is so tiny.

Remember this repurposed drying rack? It is doing a great job of keeping everything up :-)

I have been working on the baby blanket, I would really like to have it done before the baby is born, but it seems to take forever to go back and forth on it. And of course I am trying to limit the time I work on it, except for Sunday when I didn’t feel like doing anything, so I knit back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. . . It will just give me a reason to go get a massage on my lieu day.

Have a great day!

Rambling and the Weather

Have you noticed how the weather has been weird almost everywhere? It is raining and cooler than normal in places that do not normally get rain at this time of year. We have been under a tornado watch/warning 3 out of the last 5 days. We had hail on Sunday afternoon, and very scary weather, I did not think the tornado was going to miss us that time. Does it make you wonder about global warming or cycles of life? I personally think of the cycles of life when I see such weird weather, I mean the Earth has been through the Ice Age a couple of times right? It is just time for it to change again imho. When people yell global warming I always think of the movie “Ice Age” lol.

We have been in Colorado for a year now, and last year it was so hot I hated it, dry yes, but hot. This year, it is raining almost every day, but fortunately, we still get sun too, so it is not as depressing as it could be. When I leave for work in the morning the sun is out, the day is bright, and the birds are singing, almost like a fairy tale. Gorgeous mornings, this is okay during the week but not so good on the weekends if I do not remember to shut the bedroom doors (skylights in the bathroom). Do you know the freaking sun is out at what I used to call O dark thirty (5am)?!! The day should not start that early, anywhere; unless of course you are a morning person, which I am not. Even on days I decide that I should be late for work, the sun will get me up if I do not shut the darn door, so I try to make sure I do.

I think I have rambled enough and I need to leave for my test soon. Have a great day!

Blather

It is raining today and it is only 53, which is pretty freaking cold for June. I think it has rained almost constantly for 24 hours now, oh well, good for the plants. I am taking Di to the vet this afternoon for her peeling/cracked nose and heart issues (and I think she is way too skinny, we will see what the vet says). After that, I am going to buy Maggie Sefton’s new book, Drop Dead Stitch, get my knitting, and get in bed with Di to hide from the gloomies.

Happy knitting and reading to everyone!

It snowed all night Thursday, my barrels in the front yard looked like soufflés instead of flower pots, and the bench was way too snowy to sit on. The dogs were not happy about going outside; the snow was up over the door frame by almost 5 inches, so they had to plow their way through it. Poor Lola stayed in Di’s footprints so the snow did not swallow her up.By evening the sun had been up and the snow had begun to melt, the poor little daffodils are trying to bravely poke their sunny heads out of the snow, but I am not sure if they will recover this year. There was still enough snow for me to get to shovel (I bought the my first snow shovel) some of the driveway and walkway so that it did not ice over during the night.

My office building was closed and my Internet was down, so no work me, boooohoooo. . . NOT! But the yarn mess is almost ready to be wound into a cake (?) of yarn. :-)


This week, Jeannette took the first sentence in 6 of her favorite books...you fill them in...with the right words or even better, my responses are in bold.

And...here we go!

1. "In a hole in the ground there lived a pretty flower waiting to come to life in the spring."

2. "I am freezing cold, but that ain't no matter."

3. "After dark the rain began to fall again, I closed my self in the house and sat down to knit."

4. "I received a booty of yarn from the hold of the Spanish galleon."

5. "There was a hand in the darkness, and it was holding a lamp to guide me."

6. "Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, so I try to always suspect lolol."

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to knitting, tomorrow my plans include nothing and Sunday, I want to knit!

The Weekend

It is 2.5 freaking degrees right now, the high was 5 today, I have never heard of it being that cold! The windows all have ice and the fire took forever to get going today. It snowed all night and part of the day and it is expected to snow some more on Tuesday. I guess we will have a white Christmas after all, mmmm. . . BTW, I promise not to turn this blog into a weather blog, but I have never lived anywhere that had this kind of weather. I am determined to get used to it though!

I got so PO’ed (pissed off) at the PO (Post Office) (aren’t I a laugh a minute) the other day. As I said I went to the post office and mailed off all of the packages that had been waiting for me to get off my butt. I used the self-serve kiosk and everything went well, so I thought. The next day I returned home from work and found half of the packages on my front step with a stamp that said they needed more postage. What is with that?? How can a self service kiosk make a mistake? I don’t get it! I went back to the PO and asked them what the deal was and they could not give me an answer except to say that I probably clicked the wrong button when selecting package type. This doesn’t make sense to me since I used the same information for all of the packages and only half were returned. However I am not perfect so maybe I should be PO’ed at myself instead of the PO? Nah, I don’t think so :-)

We purchased our Christmas tree yesterday and put it up last night, but it is so pretty that I hate to put anything on it. It is HUGE, 9 feet tall and wonderful. Guess what we will be doing Monday night.

I unpacked two boxes Saturday and decluttered some more stuff (I find more stuff to get rid of every time I unpack another box).
13 4 perfectly good coats that we
have decided we don’t like or don’t fit, though I don’t know why we did not decide this before we moved.
14. Some yarn that I disliked went to Goodwill along with some more knitting needles.
15. A sweater that none of us remember ever wearing.
16. A dress that my daughter wore when she was in middle school (she is 22 now).
17. Old ornaments that were ugly and too heavy to hang on a tree.
18. an oversized container that was falling apart.
19. 4 bed pillows that were old and stinky.
I also posted 15 books on paperbackswap.com. I love that site; I get rid of old books and get new ones for very little cost. I am determined to get all 50 items out of my house by January 1.

I had to take Di to the vet again this weekend, her cough is much worse. The vet showed me the chest x-rays (yes, we get x-rays every time we go) where I could see that her heart has grown at a tremendous rate. It is now almost twice the size it was in July. The vet increased her pain meds for her arthritis and gave us new capsules for the cough. It is very hard to watch someone you love age.

Di and I spent most of Sunday in bed; it is just too cold to be up and about. We got up in the morning and made a wonderful spinach quiche then went back to bed to read. I finished The Pagan Stone, the third in a trilogy by Nora Roberts, I love her books. This book is definitely a keeper and a book I will probably read again. Between the book and eating, I did get to work on some knitting, but I think it is hard to knit in bed (but I still managed to do it).

Friday Fill-Ins

It has gotten very cold here in Clorado, it snowed all day yesterday and it was 17 degrees at lunch time yesterday. I had soda on the deck left over from Thanksgiving and it exploded all over the windows last night. So I guess I get to clean the deck tomorrow lolol. This is so different from what we are used to it is nice to see such a drastic winter, at least from what we had in Georgia :-).

I have to go knit, many presents to complete before Christmas.




1. Snow is gorgeous the first day but is miserable to drive in.

2. I'm looking forward to my oldest daughter coming to CO for Christmas.

3. __?___ is the best __?___ ever!

4. One of my favorite old tv shows is That Girl.

5. I'm done with cranky and bossy people who think they ar ealways right, despite their lack of knowledge about the issue in question.

6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is the feeling of love and togetherness that permeates the air.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to cooking dinner and knitting, tomorrow my plans include attending a Christmas festival and lots more knitting and Sunday, I want to knit and knit (lots of presents to finish)!

Frugality and An Okay Monday

Have you noticed the proliferation of blogs about being frugal? I know that times are really tough, and people are hanging on by their fingernails, but while I was feeling crappy yesterday I was reading a lot of other blogs and I found so many dealing with frugality, saving, and doing more with less. Today I read on Marissa’s blog about saving a $1000 in a month. She listed all the ways she could save money according to the rules of saving and decided they would not work for her because she is living on an island with nowhere to spend money. Her descriptions were funny and she provides a link to the Save $1000 in a Month Challenge.

I remember a couple of months ago that Toni had her experiment where they went 90 days without spending money and I had wanted to try that, but I think that is going to have to wait until January. I am still purchasing things for the house (I usually get rid of something when I bring something new into the house, due to the size of the house) and winter clothes are going to be a necessity very soon.

Today was very gray day, the high was 47 (but it felt much colder), and it is supposed to snow tonight; but I still went out and cleaned out my front flower beds and planted new bulbs (40 tulips and 40 daffodils) for the spring. This weekend (if there is no snow on the ground) I will be doing the back flower beds. I also made a big crock pot of pasta fagilo for dinner that was great. And I also got to knit for awhile, yeah!

I hope you had a great day!