Not dead yet...

I'll do much better at updating in the next few days. I just happened to see something and I had to share. It's hysterical in a shake-your-head-in-disbelief kind of way:

I walked past one of the cubicles in the office and saw a coworker slowly and deliberately tapping away at numbers on her calculator - numbers she was getting off of the Excel spreadsheet open on her desktop.

She was using a calculator...to do simple math...using data from an Excel spreadsheet.

Like I said, I had to just shake my head.

I totally won!

Woohoo! I am a winner! In a yarn raffle!! How awesome is that? There was a really sweet story behind the purpose of the raffle (and someone was raffling off their entire yarn stash) so I was compelled to buy an entry. I'm so glad I did, not only was it a good cause, but I won some neat hand-dyed yarn flats & alpaca sock yarn. Yay!

I also got to learn quite a bit about CSAs, which is Community Supported Agriculture. This CSA in particular sells yarn shares, so you buy a share (from a limited number) to help support caring for the flock. Then when the shearing happens you get a pile of yummy yarn. Brilliant. I want sheep.

I'm nearly done with my latest swap - "Pamper Me". It's a bath set with scrubbers and washcloths, all done in nice soft cotton. I love working with cotton. It feels amazingly soft. I just need to add some finishing touches and get all the bathtime goodies to go along in the basket. It's supposed to ship by the 24th, but I may be able to get it out this week. We'll see. I'll post up pictures when it's done.

I need to start on Thy's Aqua Aloha top this week. I already have the yarn, I was just finishing up my other projects first. Now that all the spa cloths are done I've started working on my son's knit top again at work & in the car. I'm almost done with the front, then the real hard part begins.

Mom really loved her afghan/throw/blanket. I'm so glad. I'm also happy it softened up so much - which pretty much guarantees that Caron one pound will be my go to yarn for future throws. I'm starting to spoil myself with the natural fibers, but honestly, something that needs to be washable like a throw and isn't worn against the skin will be fine in an acrylic.

This Friday is another local meet-up, and I'm looking forward to it. We may have more new people which is so fun. I love going to the local chapter meetings, but this is so nice and informal, and a great way to just blow off steam after a long week.

I also need to figure out what I want to do for my birthday. The booger will be staying the night with Nana and Papa this weekend, so no curfew. Woohoo! Too bad I am getting old and by 10pm I'll want to be in bed so I can enjoy sleeping in really late. There aren't any fun yarn places open that late anyway...

-S

Happy 4th!

And Happy anniversary to my sister & brother-in-law! One whole year without bloodshed or divorce papers -- KIDDING! They are in Vegas and hopefully having an awesome time. Go for the Midas Touch machines!!

Anywho - we had a nice 4th of July here, just the three of us. Our city opened a small "aquatic center" in May, so we took the Booger by for his first real swimming adventure. The park is really nice, it's like a playground set in shallow pools of water, with some deep water swimming & a few slide flumes to entertain the rest of us.

For a holiday, the place was fairly busy but not packed. We arrived 2 hours after it opened and were able to find plenty of deck chairs, just none near any shade. Booger loved playing on the tiny toddler water slide, and he was fearless in the big pool with us. He loves to float and jump into the water. It was a great day to relax.

I finished mom's throw, and washed & dried it. It'll ship out to her sometimes this week. I really want to thread the ribbons through the spaces, but my dear husband said it's "too busy". I may do just one or two and send the rest of the ribbon. Mom can decide how she likes it best when she gets it.

I'm also working hard on Booger's sweater, my traveling scarf beginning bit, and a Bath Linen set for another swap partner. So busy!!

Been slacking

I haven't forgotten the blog!

It's ironic that you typically have more time to write blog posts when there's not a whole lot going on in your life. The busy times? Well, that's usually when the bloggin suffers.

I've been busy.

After the power went the hot water heater went. Cold showers suck.

Work has been hectic.

My parents came for a visit. Mom wound up in the hospital the day after she left and has been there since (hopefully getting out today).

Now my son is sick, but I think we caught it quickly. That poor kid has had more respiratory issues - I am so glad we quit smoking back when we did. I couldn't live with myself if I thought for one second my (former)bad habit was causing all of his distress.

I haven't been too busy to crochet, and I'm most of the way done with a really nice afghan for my mother. She picked the yarn & the stitch while she was here, and I'm on the last panel. I'll put some pictures up soon. I never would have expected her to pick out these colors or even the design, but it's for her so I'll do the best I can manage.

Aaaannnd - I learned to knit! Wooohooo. I kind of had an idea in my head but it would not translate to my fingers. Last Friday we had our "local" crochet meetup at Starbucks and my crochet buddy Gina walked me through everything. It didn't immediately click but I followed her advice and over the weekend I pulled it all together. YAY. Of course I went a little nuts and bought a magazine and a book with knitted Harry Potter styled things. I'm making a sweater for the booger. Itll hopefully be ready by the fall. He might even fit in it then.

That's all I got for now. Regular updates (and pictures) to be forthcoming!

Light's out!

So last night the Husband and I were relaxing, listening to the wind howl like a banshee outside, and the power goes out. I am not even surprised anymore - I have come to realize that outside of New York City, power outages are pretty much a given if the sky isn't sunny and cloud-free. Usually, the power comes back on in a few hours, so we set alarms on our cell phones (just in case) and went to bed. I was certain that the lights, TV, and A/C would snap on in a few hours and jolt us all out of bed.

No such luck. I woke a few times during the night due to the uncomfortable heat, and Bob spent a stretch out on the patio to cool off, but the power did not return. Our little guy got up around 5am and that pretty much ended the night. I was going to stay home to keep an eye on the dogs & house, but the office was shorthanded today so we boarded the dogs at a groomer and I went to work.

As of right now, the power is still out. Apparently a transformer was badly damaged last night and they don't know how long it'll take to come back online. I have a fridge full of food going to ick and 10lbs of ice that I know is pooling across my kitchen right now. Grrrr.

However, the garage doors are fab - and what timing! Those wooden doors would've been heavier than hell to lift manually this morning.

Garage Door Day

We're getting new garage doors installed today. They're Presidential doors, by which I mean, President Bush bought them for us. Thanks for the check George!! Personally, I would have rather gotten a nice long spa weekend or a pony, but Bob ran to HomeDepot and spent all the monies. Damn.

On the plus side, he'll finally quit griping about the ugly, rotting garage doors we have currently. I've also been led to believe that the insulation on the doors will help keep it slightly more comfortable in there when I'm working out in 70% humidity. Riiight. They're Magical garage doors!

Moving right along, I'm over halfway done on the Henderson State throw I'm making for my co-worker's son. The school colors are red & grey, so I bought some of the prettiest Jiffy yarn and set to work on a basic shell pattern throw. It looks pretty cool, if the yarn wasn't so expensive I'd buy a bunch more to make a throw for the house. As it is this throw is only going to be about 40" X 60", and it's going to take at least 10 skeins. It's going to look so awesome though, I hope he likes it.

Pictures up soon! I'll post up the basic pattern too, it's really easy.

Things that make you go Hmmm...

I had a really weird experience today, similar to a living stream of consciousness exercise (those'll drive you crazy if you think about them too much, fyi). I got into work this morning, took the cereal cup (breakfast) and banana (morning snack) out of my lunch bag and put the rest of my food into the fridge. And as per usual, my poor banana was stamped and branded all over with marks from the containers & other things in my bag.

I really hate bruised bananas. I know there's nothing wrong with them, I just don't like the bruised parts and wind up eating around them. I KNOW! I'm a freak. Anyway. So there I am contemplating my banana and wishing there was a banana container out there that I could safely transport my banana in every day to prevent bruising. I even designed one in my head, plastic, easy to open, sorta bent but long enough to accomodate a range of banana sizes. Then my phone rang and that was that (yes, I did eat most of the banana later on).

The events that follow are TRUE, FACTUAL, and happened as entirely randomly as I describe:

AT lunch I'm checking email and I come across a headline regarding diet no-no foods that really are good for you. Surprisingly Yummy Foods It sounded interesting, so of course I clicked the link.

Low and behold, way down the list is Bananas! I mentally pat myself on the back at what a good, nutritious job I'm doing with myself and absent-mindedly follow a link in the paragraph about phallic fruit. RANDOM!. It brings me to a blog post on another site about - no lie - A BANANA GUARD! Someone invented it! Of course it's ridiculous and hilarious but OMG, there it is! Blog Post.

It wasn't enough for me to just know it existed, so I checked out the manufacturer, which is found obviously enough, at bananaguard.com.

I find it odd, and more than a little disconcerting, that most of the US distributors seem to be bicycle/motorcycle store, but I'll get over it. For 6 bucks, I want one!!