A Trip

We are getting ready to go back to Georgia for a few days to attend DD1’s graduation, she will be receiving her Master’s Degree and I am very excited and happy for her. She has gone to school every other Saturday for 2 years, while working full time and done an enormous amount of work to graduate. But I hate going back to GA, the humidity is so horrible and I am so allergic to everything there. I have gotten used to opening windows and sitting outside and being able to breathe. I can even sit outside on the patio at a restaurant while in CO, not something I could ever do in GA. In addition, we have to drive so we can take the dogs, Di has to be watched so carefully I cannot leave her in a kennel and she cannot fly. So we rented a minivan and we are going to load in both dogs, all of our traveling junk, and of course some books on tape and knitting and drive all the way back to a state that I hate. I know I will have a good time with my daughter and I am proud of her, so I plan on having fun even if my allergies kick up and I am dripping all day. And my reward is shopping, DD2 and I are going shopping this weekend for cooler clothes, the weather has been so crazy here that I have not put all the winter clothes away and things I can wear in CO in the summertime are not wearable in Atlanta. Good excuse, huh??


Here is a picture of the Wee Tiny Sock I made for Darcy, my swapee. I used Panda Wool by Crystal Palace Yarns and it is so soft and lush, I really am going to have to buy more of it. This is the Red Cinnamon colorway, I hope Darcy likes it.

I am still working on the sweater of many stitches, I figure it will be good for knitting in the car on our trip to GA, and of course the two pairs of socks that I started. I do seem to have startitis right now, cause I am ready to start a baby blanket and a lacy scarf. Oh well, it’s all good, and it keeps me busy.
I hope everyone has a productive day!

Lace Scarf and a Contest

Okay everyone, I am ready to try a lace scarf, though I don't know why i want to punish myself. :-) I am looking for suggestions for something not tooo difficult that can be worn in the summertime to dress up an outfit. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I want to start it this weekend when I have nothing (right. . .) to do.

Darcy is having another contest, she must really like them. Go here to enter and please tell her I sent you. :-)

Have a wonderful day!

Contest

This is my 200th post and I want to celebrate; besides sometimes things get boring in blogger land if there are no contests to keep up the adrenaline. I am not going to ask you to jump through hoops; all you have to do is leave me a comment about what you think about backgrounds with lots of designs for blogs. Are they good or are they a pain? To me they are sometimes distracting, but they seem to have become very popular. For extra entries, you can sign on as a “Follower”; you can comment on other posts (an entry per post) and link this contest to your blog for another entry. In addition, you get an entry for every person you send this way.

Prizes-
The first prize will go to the person who has the most entries and it will be the Knit Kit which is so cute, and a surprise.


Second prize will be some of the Schachenmayr Nomotta Regia Color 4 Ply that I just purchased from Elann and will be selected by the ever wonderful random generator.

The closing date is May 17 at midnight.




BTW- did I tell you I woke up to snow again yesterday? Now I know why they told me not to plant tomatoes until Memorial Day. lololol

Blather and a Hint

Don’t you hate it when you get used to ready people’s blogs and then all of a sudden you go there and they let you down? I really hate it, especially when I am the one doing the letting down. I got home every night, thought about trying to blog, and just was way too tired to put two words together. The animals were lucky to be fed and watered. Remember the conference I told you about? That took place last week and ran until Friday afternoon at 6pm. Those people whipped me, I tell you, and I hate sponsoring conferences, especially when we are really trying to get something done, instead of pretending like we are working. There was no knitting, no reading, and no fun of any kind for me, just the conference. However on the bright side, there were no dramas (catfights or bitch fights) and the work was accomplished, even though they said I was mean (like I care!)

Come Saturday, I was so tired; I got up and fed and medicated all of the animals, let them out and back in (mud and all) and went back to bed. I got up for a while at 3, but was back in bed by 630. And Sunday was not much better; however, I had signed up for the Wee Tiny Sock Swap and knew I had to get my little sockie done. And I did using the most gorgeous Panda yarn, I will post the pix later, when I am back at my own PC. It has gone out in the mail today, I am so proud, I accomplished one two inch sock for the entire week lololol.

Contest news tomorrow, and I plan on having a good one this time! Here is a hint. . .

Blather, Contests, and Manic Monday

Whooosh, no knitting for me today. Conference planning, conference shopping, and conference set up. Yuck yuck yuck. And then dinner out with a group of the people from out of town. I would much rather sit home with the animals and knit! I think I am becoming a curmudgeon. lolol

CONTESTS

Erin at $5 Dinners is have a Home Depot Giveaway, a $50 gift card, which I could use for my garden. How about you? Go here to enter, very simple.

Sugar Hiccups is also having an easy to enter contest. Just go here and make a comment and you are entered.

I am also feeling a contest coming on, I plan on making it an easy one I prefer them to the ones that make us jump through hoops to enter. Come back in a couple of days and I hope to have it up.


Describe to me your favorite lounging clothes.
I prefer jammies, however because I like to have the drapes open, I normally will wear yoga pants and a plain white t shirt. Very comfy and practical.

If you promised to never lie again in your lifetime, in what area would it be hardest to uphold the promise?
I can’t answer this because then the world would know my secrets. hehehe

Give a one word answer to the question "why is life worth living".
Joy

Snow and Knitting

This is my view from the back deck. It snowed all day Friday and most of Saturday, big wet heavy snow that would have melted fast if it had not frozen over again during the night. Di played slip and slide when I took her out this morning, but she loved it yesterday. We went out for a walk after the snow/ice/rain stopped to get both of us some exercise and the dogs, too. It was wonderful, there was no wind and the sidewalks were relatively dry. Di had a wonderful time sniffing through the snow. Poor loopy Lola was not so happy, she kept try to leap into DD2’s footsteps so she would not have to plow through the snow when we went to the field. It was funny, but pitiful, poor prissy doggy did not want to get her feet wet.

They closed my office Friday morning, which was great, I sat and watched movies and knit all the rest of the day.

I am still working on two different socks, the plain vanilla ones I originally started out of the yarn that was a mess, and the pair from the mystery yarn ball swap (MYBS). Since the plain vanilla ones were already on the #2 dpns, I went and purchased another pair to start the MYBS pair. I did not like them, they are bamboo and only 5 inches long, but I wanted to get started so I got them and cast on. It was amazing, it is so much easier to knit with the shorter dpns, they don’t catch each other and they don’t get in the way. I did not thing that an inch or two in length would make this much of a difference, but I am finding them to be much nicer to work with. Once I finally figure out how magic loop knitting works I will probably prefer that, but for some reason I just cannot get my mind around how it works. I guess this will require a class as I have taken the tutorials I find on the Internet and still don't get it..

What is your favorite length or method for knitting socks?


I am hosting a conference for work this week and I hate it. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of the things I have forgotten or still need to be done. It started as 30 people and has grown to 90; thank God someone is helping me. However there are presentations that she cannot prepare that I am stuck with and I hate that. I hate using PowerPoint, but I am glad I at least know how to use it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend with lots of time for knitting.

Knitting, Friday Fillins,

I hate being so sleepy that I cannot stay awake at my desk, I am just not good at it. I fell asleep while analyzing some procurement data the other day and I am so glad no one caught me. I would have been tremendously embarrassed.

Poor Di just cannot sleep through the night lately, though some nights are worse than others. When she gets up, she wakes me up to get back into bed (or by coughing), either I am getting used to lifting her or she has lost more weight than I thought she had. I have upped her hydrocodone so that we can get through the night, and I don’t fall asleep at work, sadly I am not one of those people who can get through the day on 4 hours of sleep a night.


Remember my post about the Mystery Yarn Ball I received here? Well, I beavered away on knitting it and it turned out to be a washcloth, the cloth has flowers but they did not show up well in my lighting or picture taking, and a bunch of cute little goodies fell out while I was knitting. BUT what do you think I found when I finished the cloth. . .


Another ball of yarn, sock yarn this time. lolol That was so sneaky of Joyce, so I am now working on the pair of socks I had started earlier and the pair from the mystery yarn ball, not to mention the sweater of many stitches and numerous other silly things.


Joyce had everything so well organized, envelopes that were numbered, telling me when to open each one. It was like a treasure hunt and a great deal of fun. Thank you Joyce!




1. Join me in a little tea and chocolate.

2. Put a little knitting and chocolate in your day!

3. Happiness is a warm fire, chocolate and knitting.

4. Sad and confused.

5. I'm waiting for the snow to stop.

6. Fun is hard to resist.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a fire and knitting, tomorrow my plans include cleaning up and knitting and Sunday, I want to depends on the weather, but as it looks now it will be reading and knitting!

Whiskers on Wednesday

I have been so sleepy; Di has not been sleeping well, which means that I am not sleeping well (but more on that tomorrow.) Since today is Wednesday, I want to tell you about Jill, our skinny cat, who has a face like Snagglepuss, except she is considered blue (gray) and not pink. She likes to play with the bottle caps from our water bottles, if she sees one sitting on the counter or on an end table, she will get it and carry it in her mouth like a dog to where she wants to play. Jill can bat a single bottle cap around the house for hours without getting bored, she is more likely to knock it somewhere that she can’t get to (under the closet door, under the stove, behind the washer) rather than grow bored. And if one of the other cats wants to get in on the fun, Jill will pick up her cap and carry it away so they can’t. In our last house we pulled the stove out to replace the floor and found hundreds of the darn things sitting there gathering dust. The other day I opened the front closet to get a pair of shoes, found a zillion more bottle caps, that I, like a responsible adult, picked up, and put in the recycling bin. Of course the slug daughter thinks it is terribly funny, so she doesn’t bend over to pick up a single one (or anything else) lololol.

Bottle caps are not Jill’s only fun pastime; she also likes to beat up Lola, our Chihuahua. Lola can be sleeping soundly (normally under the blankets) and Jill will slink over to her and thwap Lola with her paw. She can do a repeat thwap so fast my mouth drops open, it’s almost like watching a cartoon character. I guess she likes the noise it makes, because she will do it continuously until Lola gets up and chases her (they have a love hate relationship, Jill likes to thwap Lola and Lola hates to be thwapped.) Jill does this in the middles of the night to, so whoever is in bed with them gets to wake up to the sound of cat paw against dog head, which is truly hilarious, because I thought it was the dog who was supposed to hate the cats.

I truly love my pets, they get me through the day (thought not so much the night).

Contest-
AllyB is having a 200th post contest, she is giving away some cool Tofutsies and a notions wallet. It is simple t. enter, just go here and please tell her I sent you. Thanks!

Have a great day!

Blather

The thing about pain is that everyone has his or her own tolerance for it; something one person does not feel will make another person feel as though they were dying. Have you ever had a medical procedure done and though the staff and doctor said it would only be uncomfortable and it hurts you a lot? Or they might tell you that ibuprofen might handle the pain, but when the pain hits, and you take the ibuprofen you realize it is not cutting the pain? And then you start screaming for Vicodin? Before I go any further, I admit it, I am a wimp about pain, and I hate it when my hips hurt (not that often) or my legs ache, but normally the Advil will ease the pain for it not to be a problem.

Thursday I had to go to the hospital to have some tests done and of, I took my little knitting with me. Like a moron, I took socks I had just started the 5 needles that I am using to knit the socks, I should have just left them at home. The staff kept me so busy filling out forms and completing information, I never even picked them, which is a good thing since after the first procedure I was so wasted I wouldn’t have known what end was up or which needle to knit with.

When I woke up from the first procedure, I told the nurse my hip hurt a lot, so she pushed some pain meds into the IV. My eyes started spinning in my head, the pain left my hip, and my gums started flapping. I started talking and sleeping at the same time, WOW, better living through chemicals! Lolol I did ask the nurse if it was a truth serum (AKA Harry Potter), because I was talking about things I would never talk about normally; she said it was a side effect of the drug she gave me, I just said, “oh well” and kept on talking. I am glad I did not try to use the 5 dpn’s, as I would have had a huge mess.

After we got home, I realized that the pain meds had worn off and my hip was really hurting again. I took the prescribed Advil, and waited, after an hour I decide the pain was not easing at all; in fact, it was worse. Finally, DD2 found the good stuff and I was able to sleep the sleep of the just.

I know that people have had that particular test while awake, but I don’t know how they stood it unless they were tied down, the after affects were bad enough, I probably would have passed out if I had been awake. I guess this is a good lesson in pain tolerance for me. :-)

Please leave me a comment and tell me about your experiences with pain just so I know how to cope in the future when someone tells me it will be uncomfortable.

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it and I hope everyone's weekend is wonderful!

Mystery Yan Ball and Friday Fillins

I received my Mystery Yarn Ball, doesn't it look fun. It came with a mystery pattern that has to be completed to get to the center of the ball. Guess what I am doing tonight?

I got up on time this morning, put on makeup and went to work, even though my hip was killing me (story tomorrow) and when I got there (only 10 minutes late) the internet was down. 95% of the work I do is related to the internet so that meant that I couldn’t get jack done, even though there was a deadline that had to be met today. I hate to wear makeup and that fact that I actually put it on and ironed the clothes I was wearing just ticked me off, especially since I had to sit around waiting for them to fix the problem (it was not fixed after 2 hours) and then drive home and put on my slug clothes (yoga pants and a t shirt) so I could get my work done. Sometimes work just isn’t fair, if they had told me that the internet wasn’t going to be up, I could have avoided the iron and the makeup and still got my work done. lololol Despite this whining, I am very grateful to have my job.


1. Anonymous...is a crappy way to lodge a complaint, if you have something to say, own it.

2. Knitting is an activity that enhances my calm.

3. Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course. W. Shakespeare lolol

4. The sun is what I look forward to most about Spring.

5. Who needs therapy when there is chocolate and knitting.

6. Reese's Easter Eggs MUST go into the Easter Basket!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to nothing but sitting and knitting, tomorrow my plans include cleaning house and knitting and Sunday, I want to work outside in my garden!

Happy Easter to those that celebrate it!

Manic Monday

Yeah, the sun is out and it is a beautiful day. It was cold and snowy all weekend, which is why the yarn mess finally was resolved. We watched movies all weekend; I got up and moved around (vacuuming, cooking, re-arranging bookcases) while my slug daughter lay on the couch for most of the weekend. lololol I was also able to work on the sweater of many stitches while watching movies, so it wasn’t a total waste. I will probably be a hundred years old before I finish that sweater, now I know why people become so enamored of socks, almost instant gratification.

How was your weekend?


How often do you change your toothbrush?
Every couple of months, I hate it when the bristles get stale.
What is your favorite item of clothing to shop for?
Shoes and lingerie
Do you use social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)? Which do you use most often?
I do have a Facebook account, but it is stupid to me so I stick with my blog.

It's Done!

From this-


To this-


I love the color, tho my pix does not do it justice (of course). I am starting a pair of plain vanilla socks now, and I will be practicing "kwitting" while doing it. :-)

I hope you had a great weekend!

Blather, A Contest, and Friday Fill Ins

This has been an odd/weird/difficult week, but I am knitting on. :-) The sweater of many stitches is slowly growing (unfortunately not as fast as I am lolol) I still work in a row or two on the afghan in the evening, and I am starting a pair of socks. I feel odd when I don’t have more than a gazillion projects going, even if they end up being frogged. My little sister (she is 15 months younger than I am) has been having mini strokes and has become so disabled that she will be having to go into an assisted living community (not the apartments, but the convalescence area). I wish I could be there for her, but I do not know what I could do to help her. She did have day help, but she has evidently become difficult to handle and they either quit or she fires them. Oh, the stages of life suck.

Snow seems to be the biggest thing in my life now, I am so glad that it disappears quickly, otherwise I would feel like I am in an igloo. Wednesday when I left work, it was mini-hailing, snowing, thundering and lightening. Moreover, my ten-minute drive home ended up being about 40 minutes, yuck. We are supposed to have another storm tomorrow, predictions are that it can be anywhere from 6 to 18 inches. It’s a good thing I purchased the snow shovel last week (in March no less). I asked someone when it would be safe to plant a veggies garden and they all keep telling me May (either Memorial Day or Mother’s day). I think I will plant a cool weather garden after the next round of snow; I am itching to dig in the dirt.

I just joined a secret sock yarn club, the Mean Girls Yarn Club, so now I need to learn how to kwitting (from Trek who calls it knitting and walking.) Anybody have any suggestions on how to start learning this fun little talent (or is it a skill)?

Contest-
Darcy is having a fabulous contest for her 2 year blogaversay, she will have 7 winners and the prizes are great! Go here to enter and please tell her I sent you!



And...here we go!

1. Angel or not, I will survive.

2. _??__ any way you want me.

3. As my mother used to say, you're full of s*&t.

4. I am always thirsty after I'm done working out or doing something strenuous.

5. Even in the most crowded of rooms I can find a place to knit.

6. Everyday is a day fraught with peril.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to knitting and reading, tomorrow my plans include another snow storm and knitting and Sunday, I want to clean house and knit!

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